Dumbell workout?

[Bucket]

I would say so.

To be fair, if you can get additional weights for those funny Maximuscle fitness things in Argos, then it's not as bad as it could be, but if it's only going to do you for a few months, what's the worst that could happen?

Excellent, ill have a search when home.

I imagine that increasing the reps and sets with a lighter weight will only get me to a certain point too, but it may at least get me to a position where I've lost some mass and in a better place to see what I need for my needs.

 

[mrthingyx]

If you're looking for fatloss, then sets of 12-16 is the way to go.

If you're looking for strength/size, stick to 8 or below.

 

[Bucket]

If you're looking for fatloss, then sets of 12-16 is the way to go.

If you're looking for strength/size, stick to 8 or below.

Excellent, with the routine you posted on the previous page yep?

Just a quick thing on my diet; when I was initially starting out, I used the myfitnesspal app and it calculated that to lose (purely through diet) 2lbs per week, I'd be having to intake around 1500-1700 calories, this is when I was leading a totally inactive lifestyle nearly.

I'd imagine that now with doing this too and further exercise, I should possibly be consuming more calories than that as I'll be burning more but unsure as to what I should up the intake to roughly, any ideas or am I making no sense ?

Sorry, as you can tell I'm a total ninny to this stuff!

 

[mrthingyx]

I would say you can use te same routine posted for the OP, or you could make it more about strength and muscle by reducing the rep range to 6-8, with bigger weights.

Calorie-wise, what are you eating now? How is your weightloss at that level? How do you recover from exercise on it?

How much do you weigh at the moment, and what are your current stats?

If you want, start a log thread in the subforum and we can get busy with some real specifics.

 

[Bucket]

I would say you can use te same routine posted for the OP, or you could make it more about strength and muscle by reducing the rep range to 6-8, with bigger weights.

Calorie-wise, what are you eating now? How is your weightloss at that level? How do you recover from exercise on it?

How much do you weigh at the moment, and what are your current stats?

If you want, start a log thread in the subforum and we can get busy with some real specifics.

Calorie wise over the past month or so I'd say Ive been a bit lax as I've not been living alone and in charge of what's in cupboards etc so have found it more difficult, so more up at the 2000-2500 mark. I'm back to my home again next week.

During this time, I've put on a few pounds again, so it's upped my weight slowly rather than maintained it.

I was up at over 18stone roughly, I got this down to under 16 in about roughly 2 months just through diet, I'm up nearer 16st and a half now due to my own lapse, really, which I know.

By stats do you just mean height? If so, I'm 5ft 10.5 last time out at the doctors (a year or so ago, but stopped growing mainly now). Sorry, what others would help?

A log thread might be a good idea, if a bit daunting at the moment but might be helpful to get input and help from others too. I'll be looking to buy equipment next week so I can get going on it all.

Sorry once again OP, totally hijacked this

 

[mrthingyx]

That's pretty much all needed to get an idea of where you're at, currently.

I gather, then, you're going to try and cut some more weight and accelerate your current rate of loss through more activity, whilst keeping some muscle for when you're as trim as you want to be?

If so, you may want to stick to the same routine as the OP and alternate it with your cardio.

Diet-wise, I would peg yourself at somewhere around 1700-2000, depending on how hard you're working. You will be able to tell quite easily if you're eating too much (no weight loss) or too little (feel lexhausted no matter what you do.

You will notice a couple of things with the weights: your weight will stabilise initially as your body starts to flood the muscles being worked with extra blood and vasculature as they get used more. However, this is a good thing and will lead to faster weight loss overall.

What I would suggest is try the routine with a diet of around 2000kcal/day and see how that goes. If you're not losing as fast as you want, drop the calories by around 100kcal a week over three weeks and see how it goes (to around 1700kcal).

What sort of food are you eating at the moment? Are you simply calorie restricting (i.e. 1700kcal of whatever you want?) or are you actually doing it properly (i.e. balanced diet that fits your needs)?

 

[Bucket]

That's pretty much all needed to get an idea of where you're at, currently.

I gather, then, you're going to try and cut some more weight and accelerate your current rate of loss through more activity, whilst keeping some muscle for when you're as trim as you want to be?

If so, you may want to stick to the same routine as the OP and alternate it with your cardio.

Diet-wise, I would peg yourself at somewhere around 1700-2000, depending on how hard you're working. You will be able to tell quite easily if you're eating too much (no weight loss) or too little (feel lexhausted no matter what you do.

You will notice a couple of things with the weights: your weight will stabilise initially as your body starts to flood the muscles being worked with extra blood and vasculature as they get used more. However, this is a good thing and will lead to faster weight loss overall.

What I would suggest is try the routine with a diet of around 2000kcal/day and see how that goes. If you're not losing as fast as you want, drop the calories by around 100kcal a week over three weeks and see how it goes (to around 1700kcal).

What sort of food are you eating at the moment? Are you simply calorie restricting (i.e. 1700kcal of whatever you want?) or are you actually doing it properly (i.e. balanced diet that fits your needs)?

Yeah, the main goal is the weight loss and to increase fitness, really.

I thought that slight increase calorie wise would be about right, when I was just running or doing cardio before I was feeling OK on the 1500 or so, sometimes a slight lack of energy but generally OK.

With regards to the cardio alongside the weights, would it be OK to combine the two and use the cardio as a sort of warm up for the weights and split it that way?

Thanks for the advice on dropping per week, that seems a good idea to find the right balance. What would be considered 'too much' weight loss per week, if there is such a thing? (I imagine there's an unhealthy level of weightloss?)

With regards to what I'm eating generally I try and eat things that I consider better for me, ie. I don't eat bread as I feel that along with cheese are two of my big pile on things. I generally eat a lot of fruit and veg, Im not a huge meat eater, for example I eat Quorn mince instead of beef mince, I do however eat chicken.

I'm now in the habit of eating breakfast everyday, usually cereal or a sachet of porridge and a yogurt along with a piece of fruit.

Lunch is where I struggle sometimes, generally it will consist of salad + some rice cakes and perhaps some egg or tuna on varying days. I do find it difficult though and occasionally ill have a tortilla wrap with some salad/bits in.

Dinner quite often will have pasta/rice/potato in plus a meat and some veg, I do keep the pasta/rice to brown/wholemeal.

Sorry that its a bit vague, is there any sort of thing you'd suggest diet wise that would be handy? It's not the best diet, but I generally keep away from things that I know don't do me any good and it has been OK so far.

 

[mrthingyx]

Regarding routine, I my personal preference is for weights, but hey.

If you want to hit yourself like a train, do the weights first and then go nuts with the cardio.

As to foods, try to avoid alcohol and simple carbs (google glycemic index), and learn to love nuts.

 

[Bucket]

Regarding routine, I my personal preference is for weights, but hey.

If you want to hit yourself like a train, do the weights first and then go nuts with the cardio.

As to foods, try to avoid alcohol and simple carbs (google glycemic index), and learn to love nuts.

Cool thanks, ill start off with just the weights and see how that's doing me before adding in the cardio after right away .

Yep - rarely drink alcohol so that's ok, I have briefly read about simple carbs in the thread on here, ill give them a more in depth read now on the train on the way home and put something together and post it up .

 

[Drake5]

With the routine, on the off days, is it possible that I could throw in some arm exercises aswell? If so, which ones should I do?

Cheers

 

[mrthingyx]

You could, but there won't be any point, assuming you want to lose weight because the muscles involved are comparatively small and don't burn through many calories of energy.

Secondly, to lose weight you should be on a cut (i.e. calorie deficit), which means your body should not have enough fuel for statistically significant growth anyway, therefore the objective of getting bigger biceps/triceps/shoulders through anything other than increased vascular perfusion will be missed completely.

Are you disappointed you're not doing biceps curlz, tricep kick-backs/skull crushers and lateral raises?

 

[Drake5]

You could, but there won't be any point, assuming you want to lose weight because the muscles involved are comparatively small and don't burn through many calories of energy.

Secondly, to lose weight you should be on a cut (i.e. calorie deficit), which means your body should not have enough fuel for statistically significant growth anyway, therefore the objective of getting bigger biceps/triceps/shoulders through anything other than increased vascular perfusion will be missed completely.

Are you disappointed you're not doing biceps curlz, tricep kick-backs/skull crushers and lateral raises?

Makes sense, thanks.

In relation to your last question, I guess so, because I've done them before and I did actually enjoy doing them, but if it isn't going to be beneficial then I suppose their isn't a point.

Cheers

 

[mrthingyx]

Put it this way...

Do enough chin/pullups, overhead/chest pressing and dumbell rowing and you will get more in terms of strength and fatloss and - when time comes to up your calories - plenty of growth.

Big biceps are only that: big biceps.

For them to be of any functional use, a person needs big shoulders, a big back, a strong core and strong legs. The same applies to the rest of the arm muscles.

However, if you enjoy them, I'm not going to suggest you be miserable without them. However, just remember that your time would be better spent doing other exercises of with the other half.