Can I get some basic tips on cutting weight?

[Just Another Guy....]

Over the last 8 months, I've went from 263 to 208. I've EXTREMELY satisfied with all the weight I've lost, and I do eventually plan on starting a regular lifting workout. I do lift once or twice a week, and I work a physical job lifting heavy boxes, pallets.... etc.... So I am not a weak person.

As of now, I'm not interested in getting huge muscles, having a 6 pack, and all that. I want those things in the future, but I have a goal of cutting my weight. I'm looking to get down to around 180 pounds.


What I've done......

-I swim every night, 60 laps in a local outdoor pool, which is now closed.
-I walk where I'm going if it is in my town. The town I live in is so small, the longest walk I take is like 30 minutes.
-I don't eat while I watch TV, surf the net or play video games.
-I eat a large breakfast, a medium sized lunch, and a small dinner (I do eat a salad though) Is this a good routine to continue? It's worked well so far, but should I continue it?
-I engage in some sort of very physical activity at LEAST once a day. Volleyball in the sand, (you'd be suprised the workout you get from that) basketball, running a mile or three, racketball..... etc.
-I do small excercies around the house. When I watch college football, I do 20 push ups at each commercial break, and I do x amount of push ups for each point scored during the game. Sometimes, I do sit ups, or a combination of the two.
-I park in the far reaches of parking lots. The longer the walk into the grocery store/Meijers..... whatever, the more excercise I get.

I'm looking for more intense workout routines, but I have limited time. I do have the resources. I attend a university with a recreation center, with an olympic sized pool, weight rooms.... etc.....


The only thing I haven't done is changed the food I eat. I eat less, I drink more water, I cut sugar from my coffee and cereal. I don't eat bacon at breakfast. I open each meal with a salad, or some soup, or crackers, or some sort of bread.....

What else can I do? I'm not looking to count every single calorie, ever step I take, make sure I do exactly 38.56 minutes of excercise. I'm just looking for some more tips I can do to help cut some more weight off.

 

[typical]

I'll bump this so one of the other health guru's can help ya out

But the only thing that annoys me is the eating less part, eat more not less, but the right foods, I doubled my eating and got down to 4 % bf in 3 months try it and see what happens.

 

[Just Another Guy....]

Well, my eating habits were terrible before. I'd eat entire packages of Oreos and Doritoes. I don't know if it was possible to eat more than I was. I cut down on the bad stuff. I didn't stop eating dinner and stuff.... lol

 

[Charm&Style]

JAG i love the determination you have.

props bro, keep up the slim fest :box:

 

[Throttle]

lots of stuff to work with here...

Over the last 8 months, I've went from 263 to 208. I've EXTREMELY satisfied with all the weight I've lost

first, congrats, that's nothing to sneeze at. also your activity level is commendable, and you're on the right track there.

and I do eventually plan on starting a regular lifting workout. I do lift once or twice a week

my advice is either get together a plan for lifting now & start now, or drop it entirely. haphazard lifting set me back for years, and most of that time & effort are wasted if your diet, form, warm ups, and consistency aren't dialed in properly.

As of now, I'm not interested in getting huge muscles, having a 6 pack, and all that. I want those things in the future, but I have a goal of cutting my weight. I'm looking to get down to around 180 pounds.

reconsider this. from my own experience, taking off those last 30 pounds of bodyfat will suck (and quite possibly never vanish) unless you start adding significant muscle mass, particularly to your back & legs. given your description of your job, though, this may require some creativity... we need to know more about how much/often you lift heavy objects at work.

-I eat a large breakfast, a medium sized lunch, and a small dinner (I do eat a salad though) Is this a good routine to continue? It's worked well so far, but should I continue it?

sounds like your diet needs some work, if you want to keep losing bodyfat. ideally your diet should be focused on fibrous veggies, protein sources, fibrous fruits, and whole grains, in approximately that order. more specific suggestions below.

ideally you should be eating every 3 hours or so. the more fat & fiber you can eat, the better. fats should be appx. balanced (sat, poly omega 3 & 6, and mono) which will probably require fish/flax oil.

-I engage in some sort of very physical activity at LEAST once a day. Volleyball in the sand, (you'd be suprised the workout you get from that) basketball, running a mile or three, racketball..... etc.

any significant carbs should be as fibrous/whole grain as possible and taken in within a couple hours before these activities.

I'm looking for more intense workout routines, but I have limited time. I do have the resources. I attend a university with a recreation center, with an olympic sized pool, weight rooms.... etc.....

you can do a lot of lifting in a uni gym, esp. if you avoid the gym rat hours. there's lots of helpful advice on starting a solid routine here, check out the sticky.

The only thing I haven't done is changed the food I eat. I eat less, I drink more water, I cut sugar from my coffee and cereal. I don't eat bacon at breakfast. I open each meal with a salad, or some soup, or crackers, or some sort of bread.....

okay, this almost all has to change. drinking water is great, but if you can switch from coffee to unsweetened green tea you should get fewer caffeine swings & a mild metabolic boost from the tea itself. cereal, crackers & bread are all high-GI carbs (creating a huge insulin response). unless you go out and do your active stuff within an hour or two afterwards, you're working against your goals here.

a salad is great before a meal, and adding fibrous veggies (green beans, etc.) to every meal possible is also a good idea.

What else can I do? I'm not looking to count every single calorie, ever step I take, make sure I do exactly 38.56 minutes of excercise.

good. also, forget the bodyweight thing. what you want to do is throw out the scale (you can always check at the gym some day if you're really curious -- AFTER you're cut) and get a tape measure AND only use that once every 2-4 weeks to gauge progress.

what's magic about 180 pounds? nothing. pick a waist size you'd like and move constantly towards it with a combination of all your current activity + better diet + a solid lifting program.

 

[Just Another Guy....]

Thank's so much Throttle, I'm gonna print your post off and come up with a plan, and post it here tomorrow. Again, thank you much, so much helpful information.

Anyway, one thing about my job, I work at a grocery store stocking the freezers. You think "WHAT THE HECK THIS GUY DOESNT LIFT ANYTHING."

You'd be suprised. I generally lift 400-500 boxes a night. I don't do reps, I don't lift over my head or anything, but I carry around tons of boxes.





One question, what's a good lifting program to start with? I hardly can bench the bar.... lol.... I'll post up a schedule of my classes tomorrow as well so you can see my free time, hopefully someone can help me out some more.....

Thanks for all the advice right now. I'm gonna come up with a plan.

 

[blinkwatt]

Dude congrats on the success.

I will keep it short and sweet for you.

Eat small snacks through out the day,peanuts,fruits & veggies are smart choices.

Eating small snacks keeps your stomach in the 'on' position so it's constantly going through food,not letting you get fat.

Again congrats on the weight loss.

 

[Throttle]

for a lifting routine, flip through the "vault" sticky, do some reading, and look for any 2 or 3 day split that focuses on squats, deadlifts, and bench (in roughly that order)

 

[Just Another Guy....]

Unsalted peanuts, I assume?

I've also been eating a lot of salads on campus. My mom and dad are going grocery shopping tonight, and I told them to get some unsweetened fruit juices and some fruit. We'll see what they come home with. Even if it's pretty gross to me, I'm still gonna get through it. I can wash some juice down with water or something...

 

[blinkwatt]

Unsalted peanuts, I assume?

Yes sir.

 

[Kidfabulous]

Congrats man! I've been running this summer and worked my way down from 275 to around 243. My goal is to get down to the 190-200 range by next summer. I'm 6'3" so to me, that's my ideal weight.
Definitely great to see others working hard and achieving their goals. I've personally cut down on **** food, being lazy, and making sure I run regularly.

 

[mintxx]

insane amounts of information if you do some clever searching

 

[Jaxon]

Good work man, keep it up. I believe some of the guys on this board will have good advice for you as far as fitness and nutrition are concerned, but at the same time I would say to you if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Sounds like you are doing an awesome job cutting weight with what you're doing, so why would you want to change it? Once you've reached your desired weight maybe then start to focus on a consistent workout.

My experience in 11+ years of working out and playing sports (high school & college) is that consistency is the #1 most important thing to have when working out, dropping weight, etc.

 

[Just Another Guy....]

Thanks everyone again. I've devised a small workout routine, but it works very well.

On Monday Wednesday Friday, I run for about 20 minutes between one of my classes, and then I walk around campus for about 40 on my next break between classes. Even though it's not a lot of distance, it's still a physical workout, and I'm getting good exercise. For lunch, I either bring a granola bar with me, or I get a salad.

On Tuesday and Thursday, I'm going to start a swimming workout in my schools giant pool. I figure a low impact workout would be nice a few days of the week. I haven't decided what to do on Saturday and Sunday, but this is because those are the only days I am available to work at my job, and they will work me as I am one of the better employees.

I'm now wondering what else I can eat for breakfast/lunch? Today for breakfast was a glass of Mixed Berry Juice (unsweetened, of course) Believe me or not, I've never had any sort of juice in my life, so man was it a change lol. I washed it down with some water though, and it really wasn't THAT bad. Would anyone recommend any other kinds of juices? Food wise, I ate cereal today (I'm gonna eat what's left and then stop eating it) but I but some banana on it. It was pretty decent.

I thew a Nutri-Grain bar in my workout bag for today....... Sound Okay?


One of my friends encouraged me to check out some protein shakes or something. Anyone have any suggestions about them? I would love to start a shake or something if it might help.... just looking for some thoughts about the subject.....


Umm...... I think that's it for now, please keep up the advice and support, I really appreciate it.

 

[wolf116]

Don't worry about juice, it is full of natural sugar. just eat the fruit and drink lots of water. 1 piece of fruit has little sugar compared to a cup of juice and you need the fiber.

Nutri-grain bars aren't the best. lots of sugar. Try natural beef jerky and nuts as snaks.

You do not need shakes until you're doing gym. Joining a powerlifting gym is a great place to learn to lift correctly. They may have one on campus.

Eggs and bacon are a great breakfast, you can add tomato, mushroom, avocado whatever. Also Rolled Oats are a great alternative to cereal, throw, banana, rasins, berries, whatever ontop.

Also carry a waterbottle with you at school.

 

[Just Another Guy....]

My mom picked up some Quaker Granola bars.... they're amazing! Anyway, thanks for the tops wolf116, are there any sort of shakes I could drink if I'm not lifting?

 

[mrRuckus]

EVENTUALLY plan on starting a regular lifting workout?

No, do it now. It will only help the fat loss. A lot. And preserve muscle if not increase it if you do it right.

You really don't need a body weight goal. It doesn't mean crap really. Starting lifting now and dropping down to 180 is going to look a hell of a lot different than skipping the lifting and getting down to 180.

I've gone from a big gut to a six pack with only about 10 lbs difference in body weight.

 

[Charm&Style]

imo, nutritionally wise leave the granola bars out, they contain huge ratios of hydrogenated oils which build up like butter in ones buddy.

If you do want some sort of bars, hit up an organic food store, trader joes, mothers, or what ever that is around you and read the back just to make sure.

little steps end up in huge results