Advice on losing weight

.Lethal

.Lethal

.Lethal

Soldato
Joined
8 Jun 2005
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United Kingdom
I don't visit this section a lot to be honest but I think now is a good time to visit and ask for some opinions and advice for loosing weight.

I expect to be slated a little since this is OcUK but lets get on with it..

I'm about 14.8 stone and I am looking to go back down to 12 stone.

A little background that I feel I should mention, I have always been fit/healthy up until the end of 2005 when (here we go) I got into World of Warcraft. I also had settled down with a GF (Now my wife).

From about 2000-2005 I had been going on and off to the gym and during the end of 2004 to the end of 2005 I did martial arts 5 days a week for a good couple of hours while living in Toronto Canada (I was trained by Jong Soo Park, I loved it!).

The deal is I need to loose about 2 and a half stone by the beginning of September, I had previously lost 1 stone about 5 years ago in 12 days when I was about 13 stone however I'm not expecting the same results, I was a lot fitter then.

The ides I have in my head is run for up to an hour 5 days a week in the morning before work and in the evening do situps, pushups and use a few weights for my upper body as I believe I will need to use weights to prevent having excess fat.

What I would like is some pointers, I also need to buy a small weight set and if someone has a suggestion on a good set for me that would be appreciated. I'm only interested in working on my upper body with the weights as my legs are still very strong from playing football most of my life and doing the martial arts thing (It was mostly kicking).

Thanks for reading.

If interested I can post a weekly update on how many pounds I loose each week. I will be starting on Monday once I clear out whats in the fridge now.
 
To lose weight, all you need to do is consume fewer calories than you are burning off.

Running is a good idea, as it burns off calories, and gets your metabolism going, it also helps to increase fitness.

Doing weights etc may be a bit of a waste of time, as it's very difficult to gain muscle whilst losing fat.

The first and most important thing that you need to sort out is your diet.
 
Weights are definitely not a waste of time.
Extra muscle will consume more calories even at rest. so you will be burning more fat whilst doing nothing than you normally would.

You may gain muscle mass so the scales may tell you haven't dropped too much in weight, but you'll definitely be slimmer and have lost fat.

As for just doing upper body, don't. Do a whole body workout. So what if you're legs are strong, make them even stronger. Very important to do a whole body workout rather than concentrating on specific parts.

And don't go by your weight. go by waist diameter. As i said you may even put on weight if you're doing weights, but still losing fat.
 
I'm aware that consuming fewer calories and running will loose weight. My concern is with loosing so much weight in just over 2 months is if I don't use any weights my appearance will look rather concerning. Call it a fear, I really don't know this was my main reason for posting.

I have no intention to build muscle while loosing weight, thats pretty much impossible the weight theory is that by keeping some routine with the weights while burning so many calories will keep my body into proportion.. again, my theory which is why I am here.

As for the diet I totally, agree. The first step is cutting the junk food and snacks (as per usual when I use to use the gym) but I think I may need to put some effort into it this time rather than just eating my main meals a day.

Thanks
 
sswats said:
As for just doing upper body, don't. Do a whole body workout. So what if you're legs are strong, make them even stronger. Very important to do a whole body workout rather than concentrating on specific parts.
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The thing is I'm not looking to build muscle, just to keep it into proportion while loosing weight. If I did gain some muscle then that will only be a good thing.

I thought by running up to an hour a day that would be enough workout with my legs since I feel most of my problems are with my upper body.

In a perfect scenario I would like to be 12 stone and toned really nicely. For now I am only setting the goal of reaching around 12 stone by September and then I will be looking at building more muscle and loosing the fat (which may raise my weight slightly but again thats something further down the line).

Thanks for pointing out the extra muscle/calorie thing, I never knew that!
 
Damonic said:
The thing is I'm not looking to build muscle, just to keep it into proportion while loosing weight. If I did gain some muscle then that will only be a good thing.

I thought by running up to an hour a day that would be enough workout with my legs since I feel most of my problems are with my upper body.

In a perfect scenario I would like to be 12 stone and toned really nicely. For now I am only setting the goal of reaching around 12 stone by September and then I will be looking at building more muscle and loosing the fat (which may raise my weight slightly but again thats something further down the line).

Thanks for pointing out the extra muscle/calorie thing, I never knew that!
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The Devil's word!!


To be honest, the running will be good, I wouldn't worry about the weights if your not looking to gain lean mass.

I would throw in some HIIT sessions, maybe two per week, or even one would be good. They will burn more fat than the equivalent time spent performing solid state cardio, obviously you can't do them for up to an hour though, 20 minutes to half an hour max is plenty.;)

On the diet front, try switching most of your carb intake to low GI foods (these tend to be the brown/wholegrain varieties)

Try and eat 5 or 6 times a day at regular intervals, this will help to keep your metabolism up and ensure your body is never without vital nutrients.

I think it goes without saying that you should try and cut down on saturated fats, but don't forget the importance of some good fats in your diet (mono-unsaturated especially).

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks Jonny,

In regards to the weights, I feel I need to in order to keep my body in proportion.

Example: I have slight man boobs, now if I loose 2/3 stone by september and I don't do any weights - will they still be there?

I feel I need to keep doing press ups, sit ups and some weights to keep everything in order.

To be honest loosing the weight will be easy, I have lost weight many times before. The problem is how will I look having gained so much in recent years and burning off more than ever in a relative short space of time. I really wonder what I will look like by September if I don't do this properly.
 
I also advise the use of a decent weight training regime. Not only does it stimulate your metabolism, it makes you feel better and can accelerate fat loss. Furthermore, there's no point in losing weight if you have nothing to show underneath it all ;)
 
Freefaller said:
Snip
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A decent weight training regime sounds like a practical thing to do, any ideas or directions you could send me too? Would this help loosing weight? Or is this a balance between building muscle and loosing weight? For now just loosing the weight is my main goal, I feel setting to many targets at the beginning will put me off quickly. Apoligies for so many questions there ;)

The main reason for this at the moment is to purely lose weight. Once I achieve that improving on it will be my next goal :) I have seem the gym rats thread and for now I will be staying away until I'm around the weight I want ;)
 
I Highly recommend HIIT sessions, I started doing them a few weeks ago and they seem to be working wonders. At the moment I'm just doing them (with a revamped diet) so I'll be watching this thread to see how else I can proceed :)
 
Basically what you should be doing:

Hitting the gym 3-4 times a week and lifting heavy weights (don't skip legs!).
Changing your diet to include more protein & good fats and less carbohydrates. Also eat more frequently.
If you really want to do cardio on top although it's not necessary then add in some HIIT sessions as mentioned above.

One last thing is to remember that scales lie. It's better to use a mirror or, even better, photos to observe progress.
 
fluffmct said:
Basically what you should be doing:

Hitting the gym 3-4 times a week and lifting heavy weights (don't skip legs!).
Changing your diet to include more protein & good fats and less carbohydrates. Also eat more frequently.
If you really want to do cardio on top although it's not necessary then add in some HIIT sessions as mentioned above.

One last thing is to remember that scales lie. It's better to use a mirror or, even better, photos to observe progress.
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He wants to lose nearly 3 stone and you're telling him to do lots of lifting and not much cardio?

Right...
 
lifting is verry benificial to loosing weight but cardio is key. aso loosing that much may be dangerouse. make sure you eat well. but yeah running in the morning burns off the most fat but the most muscle too i dont know if that matteres to you at all. but i think it might be better to do cardio after lifting as well. so maybe 40 mins in morning, 20 mins after lifting. good luck
 
Ben M said:
He wants to lose nearly 3 stone and you're telling him to do lots of lifting and not much cardio?

Right...
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I've just went from the weight he's at now to 12 stone in the last couple of months with zero cardio. My eldest brother has went from 14% bodyfat to 7% in the last few months also - he did HIIT but has recently dropped it and is continuing to lose fat and it's obviously harder now than it would have been at 14%. So yyyeeessss.....

Not trying to be a smartass but I think you're significantly underestimating diet.
 
fluffmct said:
Not trying to be a smartass but I think you're significantly underestimating diet.
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Ben M said:
The first and most important thing that you need to sort out is your diet.
Click to expand...


Cardio burns off a lot of calories, so it is really useful when it comes to losing weight.

if you eat say 2300kcal a day and burn off 2500kcal on a normal day, you'll lose some weight. If you did 200kcal worth of cardio on that day, you'd lose more weight...
 
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Ben M said:
Cardio burns off a lot of calories, so it is really useful when it comes to losing weight.

if you eat say 2300kcal a day and burn off 2500kcal on a normal day, you'll lose some weight. If you did 200kcal worth of cardio on that day, you'd lose more weight...
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Yes cardio burns off calories at the time but weight training (and also HIIT which is why I mentioned it) continue to burn calories after the event. Google Excess Post-Exercise Consumption (EPOC).

It's not about "wow I burnt 300 calories in the last hour! I'll have a mars bar which negates all of that as a reward." With weight training the metabolism increase is the most important factor that makes you a fuel burning machine 24/7
 
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