Teenage Weight Loss

Morba said:
To gain mass you need to have a calorie excess diet. he wants to lose fat, the best way for this is a caloric deficit.

What you suggest is similar to what i would normally say myself, however, on this occasion i think the bes thing would be to get losing the fat and seeing the results. The OP suffers from a lack of motivation, gaining mass and dropping bf% that way will take longer and will be less visable, compared to a decent diet and plenty of cardio.
Click to expand...

i know what you're saying; can't build muscle on a calorie defecit and all that but it's not that simple. If he hit the weights hard he would probably make some newbie gains in the muscle department while the diet helped him dropped fat. Granted he won't bulid much muscle but if he goes down the cardio only route he'll lose muscle and fat.

I've known former fatties that have lost fat and built muscle. Granted the amount of muscle doesn't compare to what you'd build if in calorie surplus.

If motivation is an issue I personally think weights would be more fun; I can't think of anything worse that doing an hour of steady state cardio! Just my opinion.

Maybe a more balanced aproach would be a mix of cardio and weights.
 
yes weights would be more fun and im sure that any half decent gym trainer will have you doing both cardio and weights.
it takes a lot longer to start seeing the gains from building muscle, where as losing fat is visably quicker and much more motivating.
6 - 8 weeks of a standard gym routine will have him in better shape and a better frame of mind, he could then move onto a decent weights routine with some cardio to go along side.
 
I did the same as you last summer due to being annoyed at my weight (about 13 and a half). Did 1h cardio and 40mins swimming every day for most of the summer and lost about a stone and a half. Am starting again now as I've still got a belly and want to get a bit more muscley. Will be doing cardio for a couple of weeks to get my fitness back and lose the last few lbs before moving onto a more weights focused session.

The change in your fitness over just a couple of weeks is amazing. Going from barely being able to do a tredmill for 10 mins to doing it for 20 mins solid is a wonderful feeling!

It's great fun and well worth it. Makes me feel SO much better. Really looking foward to starting again tommorrow and keeping it up. I was burning about 550kcal according to the machines (innaccurate I know, but it was a benchmark) but didn't dramatically alter my diet. I did remove sugary drinks and now drink water mainly, which I very, very strongly reccomend.
 
Yeh, I know.. pretty terrible about the calories.. I kinda missed breakfast as I was running late for college.

I can always do weights here, my brother is buff on that stuff.. he's actually training to be a personal trainer (quite novice at the moment), he's gonna design me a fitness plan.. so it's coming together nicely.. plus, we've got a gold's weights bench up in the loft, one of those all-in-one things and some free weights..
 
I'm not trying to wind anyone up with this no cardio thing. I know a couple of fitness professionals who say CV work is only good for CV fitness and that weights and diet is the way to go for fatloss, (both work with overweight clients) but that is just their opinion and other fitness professionals will have a different opinion.

Which ever method you choose, you need to enjoy it and it needs to be sustainable. If you get bored of the routine or injured after 5 weeks you'll make little progress. And a healthy diet doesn't have to be a boring diet.

I've pulled this from a book I've got regarding calories burned (very approximate) so you can make wise exercies choices

520 - Aerobics (high intensity)
400 - Aerobics (low intensity)
370 - Badminton
865 - Boxing (sparring)
385 - Cycling (10 mph)
250 - Cycling (5.5 mph)
760 - Judo
445 - Rowing machine
1000 - Running (6 mins/mile)
750 - Running (9 min/mile)
615 - Squash
630 - Swimming (fast)
415 - Tennis
270-450 - Weight training

Good luck with the new healthy lifestyle.
 
Hxc said:
Tuna Pasta Bake always went down well before gym sessions for me...
Click to expand...

I wouldn't eat anything heavy unless its at least an hour before, maybe have some soup or something then something later. And the above guideline does seem a bit dubious, it really depends on your heart rate. Do cardio you enjoy and maintain a high heart rate n you should do well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom