Hi guys. After some advice please.
I'm 37 years old, 5' 11", 92kg. I broke my leg quite badly a year and a half ago and ever since I've allowed the belly fat to get the better of me to what I consider approaching dangerous levels. So I want to do something about it now that my bone has finally knitted back together.
I have a rowing machine at home and a gym with some basic free weights facilities and a Smith machine at work, so no excuses.
My main goals are to improve health and body composition. I don't care about being able to cycle or run for miles and miles.
My left leg is still quite weak so I'm a little nervous about squats and deads, though I know I need to do these.
My plan was to go hard at the diet for an initial 6 month period, eliminating all alcohol, snacks, etc., before stabilising with something sustainable in the long term.
Exercise wise, I'll walk straight over to the weights each time I go to the gym, for warm up too. No cardio apart from the rower at home when I've missed the gym at work.
To start with I'll do deads, squats, then chest press, 3 sets of 10 of each exercise every time I visit the gym (5 days a week when possible). Might chuck in some upper back and tri stuff too.
Diet wise, black coffee and 3 egg scrambled eggs for breakfast, or porridge with water / skimmed milk.
Chicken and broccoli / long grain rice for lunch.
Chicken or fish and veg for dinner.
Only water allowed apart from the morning coffee and possibly protein shakes, as I know I'll struggle to eat enough of the above to build muscle.
Any thoughts are gratefully received. I'm basically fed up with looking like jelly and my gut popping my shirt out at work. Need my clothes to fit me and look good again!
Don't change too many things at once, from experience it doesn't work long term. I'd recommend changing your approach to almost the exact opposite of what you are planning to do i.e. get your diet and muscle imbalances sorted over the next 6 months then 'go hard' after that. If I was in the same position, as a brief example I would:
First month - concentrate on cutting out the crap in your diet as this alone will likely make you start losing weight. While doing this, start with some very basic single leg exercises (start with bodyweight). You'll want to get both legs to similar strength levels before starting squats/deadlifts as big imbalances will only lead to further injury.
Second month - calculate your TDEE (the amount of calories your body burns) and try and eat 500 calories below this. Start slowly increasing the lower body weights.
.
Fourth month - start squatting just the bar
etc
A few things to note. Don't deadlift, squat and chest press for 3x10 5 days per week. You'll need to split your workouts into appropriate bodypart splits i.e. back and biceps (deads), legs and shoulders (squats) and chest and triceps or 3 full body workouts per week i.e. stronglifts.
Good luck with whatever approach you take, just remember it's a marathon and not a sprint
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