can i get a little help here?

[wamado]

I have to get into shape. My older brother just told me I'm going to be the best man in his wedding this year at the end of August.

Here are my stats:

26yrs old, 5'8", 265 lbs.

Daily activities M-F Up at 7:45am at work by 8:30am I am a satellite technician, spending most of the time on the phone or fixing/testing satellite/wireless equipment. Out at 5:00pm. Second job starts at 6:00pm. I work at UPS every night M-F, picking boxes off of the belt, loading trailers and moving package cars off of the building. Get out about 10:00pm every night.

Saturday and Sunday... no work...just a lot of unnecessary partying.

Eating habitsI usually skip breakfast or I will grab a biscuit at the gas station with some type of energy drink. Lunch always varies, sometimes it's healthy like grilled chicken and salads then sometimes it's fast food. I usually eat a sandwich between jobs. Then dinner is just like lunch. I drink a lot of green tea and water throughout the day and maybe 2 cans of soda a week.

Exercise
Besides the nonstop moving at UPS I have no consistent workout schedule. I do have a gym membership.

Drugs
Alcohol. Ok I drink a lot, when the weekend hits...there is hardly a sober moment. I have already stopped (new years resolution) in efforts to reach my goal.

My Goal
I want to loose 55-65 lbs before the wedding.

I am open to any and all suggestions. I am looking for nutritional and workout advice.

Please help me people! When I get enough information I will start a diet and exercise regiment and post all of my improvements.

Thanks in advance!

 

[drew345]

Crystal meth? lol not for real. I would run or walk a mile a day my buddy was real overwieght and it worked wonders for him. Im not sure if youll have time for that you got a crazy schedule. Try cutting out the fast food eat fruit for breakfast Energy drinks have a shit load of sugar so I would cut that out as well. Witht that and exercise you will lose wieght 60 pounds? I dunno but 20 easily

 

['medicine cabinet']

it sound slike you have a really busy schedule, but you can still squeeze a solid work out in as long as you maximize your time at the gym.

most gyms will offer some kind of deal on personal training sessions if you buy a few. even if you just do 1 or 2 sessions with a trainer he or she can give you advice on nutrition, what exercises to do, the frequency and intensity of your work outs and so on.

what i would recomend is to start lifting weights. fuck cardio lol...nah, you do have to do some cardio tho, its essential. you start lifting and it will stimulate muscle growth and that muscle tissue will start destroying the fat.

and if you cant get to the gym, push ups are great. you get your chest, arms, abs, lats. also pull ups and chin ups are good too. you can take a chair and do dips to work your triceps.

Eating habitsI usually skip breakfast or I will grab a biscuit at the gas station with some type of energy drink. Lunch always varies, sometimes it's healthy like grilled chicken and salads then sometimes it's fast food. I usually eat a sandwich between jobs. Then dinner is just like lunch. I drink a lot of green tea and water throughout the day and maybe 2 cans of soda a week.


nutrition you want to go good carbs and proteins. you want to avoid processed sugars, well pretty much all sugar really. trans fats, things like partially hydrogenated vegtable oils, IE margarin (sp) and pretty much every single snack cake, chip or crisp made in the USA.

also soda, its just empty calories avoid it. stay away from fast foods and energy drinks. the energy drinks are pure sugar and caffeine, and the fast food is all transfat, saturated fat, sodium and lots of other stuff you dont want in your body.

breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. another way to help stimulate your metabolism is to eat 5-6 smaller meals a day rather than 2 or 3 really big ones. also, water. drink a lot of water. you already drink green tea, thats good. it is high in antioxidants and it refeshing just try and get a brand that is low in sugar. preferibly one with out high fructose corn syrup which is pretty much diabetes in liquid form..once again, its in almost everything processed. best way to do it is to make your own green tea. make a big batch and keep it in the fridge.

in the morning do something like a bowl of oatmeal, z orange juice, 12oz milk. then have a small meal in between that and lunch, like a sandwich or something. then at lunch have a grilled boneless skinless chicken breast in a tortilla wrap with some low fat mayo or even better a little bit of bbq sauce. few hours later maybe have some fresh veggies or a salad or something with some type of protein in it. then at dinner you can go for fish. hallibut, flounder. do it with steamed veggies and rice. have a midnight snack, PBJ or something.

sorry i just kinda rambled all that off. i work in a gym so i hear the same stuff all day. good luck to you tho, if you really work at it, you can do it. its completely possible.

 

[Mehm]

cut down your calories...to at least 2000 per day or lower. count on being hungry until august!

try to break a sweat often. the longer the better.

pushups and very slow squats without weights are good muscle builders that are easy.

 

[melarsoprol]

Hey,

End of august gives you about 7 months.
say you want to lose 60 lbs

thats about 8.5lbs a month. Its not an easy goal. Here are some advices.

Two very important things. Eating and exercising. If you follow some of my advices i can bet you my life youll be shedding weight.

1. One thing we must create is a robust metabolism, with 265lbs at 5'8 im guessing you have quite a lot of visceral/body fat or you are incredibly buff. However, the latter seems unlikely as 265 lbs man with that much muscle on a 5'8 is i guess a body builder sorta thing. Anyways, to achieve a robust metabolism you MUST first EAT your BREAKFAST. the breakfast is your body's metabolisms fuel for the rest of the day. Like logs in a fireplace. Start with none, and youll have a shitty fire.
2. Meals. Try to eat 5 small meals. Small meaning 1-2 portions of carbs (less the better) (2-3 vegi/fruits) (and meats, preferably grilled, boiled, lean, white. only 1-2 times a meal.) Stay away from dressing, simple sugars, candy, syrup, cake, soda. Basically nothing sweet. If you are craving, they have diet sodas, but these are also unhealthy.
3. cutting down meals and eating habits are very hard so dont cold turkey, youll likely succumb to your old habits. Its a slow but effective. Trust me, if you lose weight fast, youll gain it faster.
4. Exercizing is vital in increasing your metabolism. More muscles in your body will increase your basal metabolism (the metabolism you need just when you are living, breathing, blinking, sleeping etc.) More muscles mean you can eat more, and burn more. Weight training is ideal for this.
5. the best fat burner is cardio. Its a bitch, i hate it, but its the only way. Increase your heartrate and get going. The myth of, i wanna lose my abs so ill do a 10000 crunches day is stupid because thats not how our body works. However, keep in mind, overdoing it will not help. Slow and steady really wins the day here.

Lastly, alcohol is the worst think for a dieter. They are blank, empty calories, bascially calories that add on, with no nutrients at all. Also, usually consumed at night, when our metabolism is the slowest, causing your body to turn most of it into excess calories, aka fat.
Alcohol also is known to increase lipids and fat build ups in your stomach when food is present.

there are some basic tips, i hope it helps, and if it was harsh, im not trying to give you a hard time, but losing weight is a hard deal.

 

[bingalpaws]

<<<apologize for rushing and not individually quoting people>>>


My Goal
I want to loose 55-65 lbs before the wedding.

Firstly, with the amount of time you have, a very serious cut should be able to get you (at least damn close) to what you're aiming at. Break down your goals to months, maybe even to weeks, and keep in mind that weight will come off easier in the beginning. Also when weighing in, weigh in properly (ie after waking up, before breakfast, after bathroom, same scale, same clothes/no clothes as normal).

It's all a calorie equation, you don't even necessarily have to workout, you need a proper calorie deficit (which can be created by less food in, more energy expenditure, or a combination of both. Keep track with easy, free programs like fitday. I cannot explain how important fitday is if you're serious about your goal here).


I would run or walk a mile a day my buddy was real overwieght and it worked wonders for him. Im not sure if youll have time for that you got a crazy schedule. Try cutting out the fast food eat fruit for breakfast Energy drinks have a shit load of sugar so I would cut that out as well.

Those kinds of things will work ok, maybe, but it's not necessary to even be 'healthier' to lose the weight - like I said before, it's a calorie game. You can get skinny w/o working out, eating only mcdonald's. It ain't healthy, but will do the trick, so long as the proper calorie deficit is maintained.


nah, you do have to do some cardio tho, its essential.

no it's not.


you start lifting and it will stimulate muscle growth and that muscle tissue will start destroying the fat.

Not really how it goes, cannot gain any appreciable muscle while losing a ton of weight - I do agree strength/weight training is important though, however the reason is primarily for preservation of current muscle, not aiming for any significant growth while cutting fat.
((and the personal trainer recommendation, that really is a mixed bag. More often than not they're clueless))


another way to help stimulate your metabolism is to eat 5-6 smaller meals a day rather than 2 or 3 really big ones.

common misconception mentioned several times in this thread. Generally speaking, in terms of results that are actually relevant, the number of meals does not matter, nor does their placement within the day. Yes, more small meals will keep your metabolism at a more constant rate - they will NOT boost total metabolism. Metabolism is a direct result of caloric intake, it will match the food eaten, regardless of how it's split up.


pushups and very slow squats without weights are good muscle builders that are easy.

not really, and also he isn't going to be able to put on much, if any, muscle with the caloric deficit he needs to run to hit that fat loss goal.



the best fat burner is cardio.

nope, it's eating less food.


Lastly, alcohol is the worst think for a dieter. They are blank, empty calories, bascially calories that add on, with no nutrients at all. Also, usually consumed at night, when our metabolism is the slowest, causing your body to turn most of it into excess calories, aka fat.

alcohol is bad and should be cut down as much as is convenient for you to hit your goals - your 'convenient' level may be too high and hinder you lol, so be reasonable here.

Metabolism is not necessarily the slowest at nighttime.

About the 'alcohol stored as fat', that's just not true, the body does NOT store ethanol and gives priority to ethanol calories, your body processes it first to move it out.

 

[wamado]

First off I want to thank all of you for the advice! One of my biggest problems is energy. With my schedule I need something to kick me in the ass every now and then...any suggestions?

 

[bingalpaws]

in no particular order:
caffeine (legal/OTC)
ephedrine hcl (legal/otc, usually mixed with gaufenesin <sp?>)
amphetamines (illegal w/o rx)

(lol, I guess they kinda fell in the order of potency levels haha).

Oh, when getting stuff for stimulants/energy boost/etc, do NOT be suckered into a diet pill formulation. Diet pill formulas, as a rule, are generally glorified caffeine pills. And their effectiveness is barely, if at all, better than pure caffeine. Let me know if you want to order caffeine because I know where to get it for like $4 for hundreds and hundreds of serving (bulk caffeine annhydrous powder). The ephedrine is @ any gas station, and the amphetamines (namely adderall, desoxyn, etc, are prescription only, typically for add/adhd, or are just outright <illegal> powdered amphetamine. If you have trouble controlling your drinking I cannot caution you strongly enough from amphetamines lol). Check your pm's by the way.

 

[Mostslepton]

Haven't read many of the other responses yet, but you could add Yerba Mate to your fat-burning arsenal.

It can suppress appetite, increase metabolic rate, and it is a lesser-known but well-established fact that it has wonderful thermogenic properties.

This is pretty much on par with bingalpaws' suggestions, as Yerba Mate contains the stimulant caffeign. It is actually being used as an ingredient in many weight loss supplements, as I've recently began to notice. They are also putting green tea extract in a lot of different products, ranging from soaps and shampoos to diet pills.

Which brings up another point, green tea. In addition to Yerba Mate, drinking a cup of green tea 1-3 times a day would be helpful as well.

Consider obtaining a mate gourd and bombilla straw. In my experience, drinking Yerba Mate tea by itself doesn't seem as effective. I've sat there going at it with a Mate gourd for long enough periods to where not only was my mental state considerably altered (buzzed the shit out of me), but I had to drop science almost immediately after. Which basically supports the claims that it not only regulates appetite (if I have enough I can literally lose all interest in food for HOURS) but also can be used as a digestive aid. I've also found that my bowel movements tend to come out smoother and be larger and healthier after imbibing mate. As stupid as it sounds there is a sense of relief afterward, as if I expelled the appropriate amount of waste.

But, enough about mate and poop lol. It basically does come down to burning more calories than you take in at the end of the day. Eating 4-6 smaller meals at 3-4 hour intervals can prove beneficial, but I'm sure somebody already mentioned this and besides, YMWV.

Further, there is no magical exercise. But there are some exercises which burn up waaay more calories than others. Consider not just cardio combined with resistance workouts, but dynamic, explosive anearobic movements as well e.g. wind sprints, jumps, any gymnastic-type training exercises/movements, etc.

I dropped 50 pounds on my own a few years ago. It's not easy but it isn't impossible either. I basically just swam A LOT in the beggining, but later just getting into nutrition and fitness helped immensely.

I also joined a boxing gym and did gymnastics and a bit of MMA training, so that's something to consider as well. Maybe by getting socially involved in some type of physical training/sports club it will help, as people tend to train less intensely when they're pushing themselves. It worked for me.

 

[bingalpaws]

Haven't read many of the other responses yet, but you could add Yerba Mate to your fat-burning arsenal.

Could, yeah - but OP, keep in mind that these products (yerba mate, for all intents and purposes here, =caffeine) are only a tiny, I mean like 1%, part of the game. I'm serious as cancer on that. Don't waste cash on a 'diet pill formulation', and don't expect you're gonna be surprised by the results. If you have any expectations about them, you will be disappointed lol.

It can suppress appetite, increase metabolic rate, and it is a lesser-known but well-established fact that it has wonderful thermogenic properties.

Wonderful is a stretch, and also the thermogenic boost of a diet pill isn't highly translated to raw fat loss anyways.

This is pretty much on par with bingalpaws' suggestions, as Yerba Mate contains the stimulant caffeign. It is actually being used as an ingredient in many weight loss supplements, as I've recently began to notice. They are also putting green tea extract in a lot of different products, ranging from soaps and shampoos to diet pills.

Let me rephrase in case I wasn't clear on caffeine (or amph, ephedrine, etc). These are cool for a couple reasons. Primarily for the way they allow you to live *during* your cut.

Think of it like this - the caffeine/ephedrine/etc pills you have, they're not there to help you lose fat. You lose fat by having a strong calorie deficit each day during your cut, think of the pills as a weak 'support' system. The stimulants will help you to have more energy while you're hungry, and will also mask your hunger a bit. That's what they do best, provide support to a hard cut, not 'boost' a cut's efficiency.
(stim recommendations again would be only pure tablets of some aforementioned stims, the diet pills are the same stuff only 100X more expensive. You will become tolerant to stims if you choose to use them, I've personally found, as have many others, that 5 days/week is a solid schedule to avoid burnout from stims - the point where you can take like 5 pills and fall asleep - you need to get off for a few days. It's the beauty of caffeine/xanthine compounds, tolerance builds pretty quickly, but leaves pretty quickly.

Which brings up another point, green tea. In addition to Yerba Mate, drinking a cup of green tea 1-3 times a day would be helpful as well.

I wouldn't recommend this unless, of course, he likes green tea. His addition of a few cups of green tea will make *zero* difference for his actual goals here.

Consider obtaining a mate gourd and bombilla straw. In my experience, drinking Yerba Mate tea by itself doesn't seem as effective.

Again, overdoing it by a lot imo. The active compounds he'd care about in yerba mate are very easily extracted and available in any normal yerba mate preparation (although I'd still suggest caffeine over it as, in the end, they're pretty much identical, and caffeine's far cheaper). The gourd is definitely keeping it real , but unnecessary to him/anyone looking to lose weight (you saw the kid's schedule, I'd hate to see him sacrifice 1 crucial gym visit to go obtain yerba mate gourd or something lol).

But, enough about mate and poop lol. It basically does come down to burning more calories than you take in at the end of the day.

Exactly! That's all there is to it, calorie surplus is needed for muscle growth (as is muscle damage from training), calorie surplus is needed for fat accumulation, and calorie deficit is needed for fat loss. We don't defy physics with our digestive systems lol, you just need to increase the *deficit* of calories until you're losing a good rate, say 2lbs/week (remember what I said earlier, fat will come off faster in the beginning, so you may wanna stack your weekly goals considering that). That's why you need a program like fitday, to know precisely your calorie intake. If you train 3X week (in which case I'd only recommend compound movements, ask for more info if desired), and work similar hours weekly, then your expenditure will be similar. Keep track of your food intake, and keep an eye on the scale. If week 1 goes by and you only lost a pound, drop maybe 300-500 calories / day (easy if using fitday, and no you don't have to be weighing out food and all that, it's easy to use even if all you eat is store bought stuff) for week 2, and so on, til you're at your proper calorie goal for the day that gets you your losses for the week. Also keep in mind your first week's losses will be skewed by some water weight loss. (oh on the note of water weight, don't try cutting water weight lol, I see some people think they found an easy way, just lose water weight - not a good idea on a cut like this lol).

Eating 4-6 smaller meals at 3-4 hour intervals can prove beneficial, but I'm sure somebody already mentioned this and besides, YMWV.

Alright I'm gonna tackle this subject a bit more in depth this time.

Eating a meal will cause a metabolic spike relative to the size of the meal. Eating a given amount of food in a day will create a specified metabolic increase - this is almost 100% independent of when the meals are eaten, and how many separate meals you split the food into.

*However*, I'm not saying that eating more frequent, smaller meals is a bad idea. It's not a bad idea, but the positive things it has going for it do not include a better fat-loss efficiency. The positive attributes of this approach are that your blood sugar stays more uniform (which is very nice when you're on restricted calories), and if your willpower sucks (which would likely ruin your results somewhere somehow anyways), the fact that you eat more small meals makes it less likely you'll be soo hungry and then eat far more than you should have.

But, if your schedule accomodates 3 meals, that's fine - you're not screwing yourself or hindering progress by eating 3 as opposed to 6, it's the calories of the meals, not the number of meals.

Further, there is no magical exercise. But there are some exercises which burn up waaay more calories than others. Consider not just cardio combined with resistance workouts, but dynamic, explosive anearobic movements as well e.g. wind sprints, jumps, any gymnastic-type training exercises/movements, etc.

No magical exercises, definitely. Although, when considering dumbell curls, all of a sudden squats seem magical .

Although no exercises are magical, some are extremely inefficient and wouldn't be of much use to the OP who has limited training time and a hard regimen in front of him for these months.

Examples of what I'd call very inefficient for him:
situps
curls
tricep extensions
dumbbell flyes
leg extensions/curls
calf raises
wrist curls

Examples of what I'd want to see him doing, efficient stuff:
squats (front squats as well)
deadlifts and variations thereof
bench press
pull ups
etc

, but later just getting into nutrition and fitness helped immensely.

Yeah it does! Nutrition is sooooo important it's not even funny, and so commonly neglected. (note that I'm not referring to nutrition in terms of health, but rather nutrition in terms of specific calorie counts).

I also joined a boxing gym and did gymnastics and a bit of MMA training, so that's something to consider as well.

In general, definitely. For him right now? No way. He'd have to learn to become more efficient there, and his time learning, while not a waste, won't be as efficient as other, more simple approaches. Also, I'd recommend against that, if recommended solely for weight loss, on safety grounds. It's leaving you open to injury and, if not interested in mma, why take the risk? Same reason I won't recommend olympic lifts to someone trying to gain size, there's just too much to learn and a heightened injury risk. If you want to gain size and be an olympic lifter, then go for it. If you want to lose fat and fight, then go for it. But if you're just trying to gain muscle/lose fat, then olympic lifts/mma are not your most efficient approaches. (****one note on that - if you're already CURRENTLY an mma fighter/trainer, or an olympic lifter, then it's different as you wouldn't need to learn, and your injury risk would be lower).

Maybe by getting socially involved in some type of physical training/sports club it will help, as people tend to train less intensely when they're pushing themselves. It worked for me.

Agreed, it does help a lot of people, but many times those that need the help of others to stay focused on their goal, don't last looooong term. I dunno, it just always seems that if someone needs to go with a group, needs others to keep them on point with this kind of stuff, that there ends up a time where they're not around others who are keeping them motivated, and their motivation drops or is completely killed.

I'm not saying partners/etc aren't useful, or won't make you work more efficiently, but be careful of using it as a crutch for motivation/intensity.

 

[Mostslepton]

First of all, these were all only suggestions. No need to advise against them and assume he's entirely too busy to at least consider some of them as options.

When I said:

I also joined a boxing gym and did gymnastics and a bit of MMA training, so that's something to consider as well.

I actually meant:

Maybe by getting socially involved in some type of physical training/sports club it will help

I didn't mean he should do boxing or gymnastics specifically, and I certainly didn't mean to imply that he should begin to mma train, as most people not only have no personal interest in this but are also too out of shape to even consider it.

But the boxing gym thing is actually a good idea. I've seen people of all ages and with all kinds of different schedules who also have lives and priorities to tend to outside the boxing classes. Further, many boxing gyms are also pretty well equipped with both free weights and exercise machines, as well as some cardio equipment. But the boxing classes themselves have provided me with some of the toughest workouts I've ever seen. The thing to understand here is that most American boxing gyms are actually geared toward fitness and not actual fighting. Sure, you can pay for private lessons or focus on bag word, sparring, etc, if you want to. In other words, it can be an excellent tool for weight loss.

And a typical class is about 45 minutes. Add to that the cool down period, the time it takes to shower and get changed (which some people do at home anyway), and factor in the time it takes to drive there and back, and you're still only looking at 2 hours at the most. I'm sure very few people are actually so busy that they couldn't make different use of one or two hours of their time 2-3 times a week, come on.

Again, only a suggestion though. Ultimately I think the OP is going to do what he wants, even if it does involve incorporating a few of the things some of us have recommended in this thread.

Don't waste cash on a 'diet pill formulation', and don't expect you're gonna be surprised by the results.

I never once explicitly stated anything about the OP using any "diet pill formulations", and I certainly wouldn't recommend their use. The only time I did mention the diet pill is when I pointed out that a lot of diet supplements do contain yerba mate extract as one of the ingredients.

I was refering to yerba mate, which is not a diet pill, lol.

I wouldn't recommend this unless, of course, he likes green tea

Naturally. But how would he know if he didn't try it? Besides, lots of people enjoy green tea. And no drinking 3 cups of green tea a day in itself certainly will not be of much use in terms of dieting, but the little amount of caffeine that it will add to his daily cup/serving of coffee/mate/ephedrine/whatever stimulants he *may* be taking, certainly should not be discounted.

Also, everybody is different and a lot of the factors which determine the rate at which an individual will see results are countless.

Well, not literally, I am exaggerating a bit.

Agreed, it does help a lot of people, but many times those that need the help of others to stay focused on their goal, don't last looooong term.

Who cares? If his current goal is to get in shape for a wedding, it matters not that a lot of the benefits reaped from assistance such as training partners, personal trainers, being trained/training at local gyms may only be temporary. Additionally, many gym memberships offer shorter contracts e.g. six month memberships, etc. Nothing wrong with enlisting a little help in order to look your best for a certain social event, if this is indeed something you deem necessary .

Also, being trained by/with others should not imply that you do this exclusively. When I trained by myself, I would use my gym memberships to supplement my own training, and vice versa.

Once again, it's only advice.

 

[Mostslepton]

you saw the kid's schedule,

Yes, I did.

Saturday and Sunday... no work...just a lot of unnecessary partying.

Edit: Oh, and calorie counting is very effective, but keep in mind that few people actually commit to this or to low-calorie dieting in general for very long.

 

[bingalpaws]

haha damn dude you got hostility just oozing don't you? I wasn't trying to criticize or anything, just pointing stuff out - your advice, in general, was good stuff.

I'm sure very few people are actually so busy that they couldn't make different use of one or two hours of their time 2-3 times a week, come on.

Agreed, but he listed his schedule and it seemed pretty damn restrictive. Besides, my recommendations against certain activities were not based on time availability, but rather based on efficiency. I explained it earlier, but in essence, boxing training would have potential for injury if he's new to it. This alone is enough for me to not recommend it to someone who has a limited amount of months to make a serious goal - if he hurts his knee on the first boxing practice he can very likely kiss that goal goodbye.

Again, boxing is great, but it's just not what I'd recommend in this particular scenario *IF* he needs to learn boxing. If he's already a boxer, then by all means it'd make sense to incorporate it.

I never once explicitly stated anything about the OP using any "diet pill formulations", and I certainly wouldn't recommend their use.

I know .

Naturally. But how would he know if he didn't try it? Besides, lots of people enjoy green tea.

Very true, he may like green tea - I was pointing out that it's useless in the context of what he's trying to do, which is the context in which I presumed you were recommending it. If he likes green tea, or hot water, or kool-aid, that's just fine.

Who cares? If his current goal is to get in shape for a wedding, it matters not that a lot of the benefits reaped from assistance such as training partners, personal trainers, being trained/training at local gyms may only be temporary.

Who cares? Anyone offering advice who hopes their advice will yield results that last for a little while ?

You're right - he can still just lose weight now and put it all back on later, I didn't say not to use partners as a crutch, rather I just illustrated a very common, potential pitfall of doing so.

 

[Mostslepton]

haha damn dude you got hostility just oozing don't you?

Funny how easily things are misconscrued via text. Nope, no hostility on this end.

Who cares? Anyone offering advice who hopes their advice will yield results that last for a little while

Right, but his goal to

I want to loose 55-65 lbs before the wedding.

is what my advice was geared toward. He mentioned having a gym membership already, so he can obviously continue to fulfill his contractual obligtions with that gym after this cutting/weight loss faze is over.

And sure, why not continue to be physically active and stay in shape after the fact? I for one would highly encourage that. But this isn't his goal, at least not at the moment.

 

[bingalpaws]

I never ever implied that using others as a crutch would be detrimental to his current goal, the one I'm trying to help him with. Unless I'm missing something anyways - I just re-read it, seems to be worded as I meant it - using others as a crutch would be fine for short term, bad idea for long term. I don't see any point where I expressed it'd be bad for his goals, the way I wrote it, and the way I'm still reading it, is as we both agree on - long term it's not a great idea. That's all lol

 

[Mostslepton]

I never ever implied that using others as a crutch would be detrimental to his current goal, the one I'm trying to help him with. Unless I'm missing something anyways - I just re-read it, seems to be worded as I meant it - using others as a crutch would be fine for short term, bad idea for long term. I don't see any point where I expressed it'd be bad for his goals, the way I wrote it, and the way I'm still reading it, is as we both agree on - long term it's not a great idea. That's all lol

Right, but you specifically said -

looooong term.

I wouldn't consider a few months to be long term at all. I'm giving him advice I feel would benefit him the most if he wants to lose some serious poundage in as short a time as possible (between now and the wedding).

The main point of emphasis I was trying to convey was this:

people tend to train less intensely when they're pushing themselves.

Nothing more. Certainly, this bit of information is useful to know because even just a few extra-tough workouts squeezed in between now and then really could go a long way toward acheiving his goal of losing what he feels is excess weight. Or, whatever it takes to fit into a tux.

Beyond that, it's all maintenance afterwards. Keeping the weight off, and surely this is the *hard* part but you no longer need others to push you to maintain a healthy weight. Simple things like watching food intake and working out on your own will suffice. It doesn't need to be his total undoing if he once trained in a group setting and all of a sudden he's training on his own.

I dunno, it just always seems that if someone needs to go with a group, needs others to keep them on point with this kind of stuff, that there ends up a time where they're not around others who are keeping them motivated, and their motivation drops or is completely killed.

I guess what I meant was, you're right about that, but because the OP wants to drop some weight to look good for a wedding, this is pretty much irrelevant. If he does decide to continue working out after, it is of his own concern. I never even said that he'd have to be pushed by training partners/whatever else forever. In fact.... nevermind. lol.

 

[bingalpaws]

we're going back and forth on something that it still seems we're in agreement on dude.

And about
" useful to know because even just a few extra-tough workouts squeezed in between now and then really could go a long way toward acheiving his goal of losing what he feels is excess weight. Or, whatever it takes to fit into a tux. "
That's really kinda missing the point a bit. Here's the thing - he *can't* train with the kind of intensity I think you're picturing him with. He will be overtraining so fast it won't even be funny (remember, he's *not* currently training right now).

He needs to have a daily calorie deficit of "x" calories. He needs to figure out what x is for the equation, over the given time period, to result in the net loss of <goal> pounds. This deficit is going to be mostly calorie restriction. Cardio/boxing/running is not really the greatest of approaches here - a far better approach is a strong cut in the diet (to hit the deficit), and a decent strength training program (to retain as much muscle as possible during the cut, and for an ok push towards the daily deficit).

Keep in mind, he could do this ENTIRE cut without even breaking a sweat - it's far easier to cut back calorie intake than it is to ramp up cardio to overcome it. However, some exercise should still be thrown in, imo, and that's strength training for preservation of lean muscle mass. Overtraining on a cut is very common and easy to succumb to, and cardio isn't nearly as effective at fat loss as diet restrictions (in terms of ease, of course a calorie is a calorie, but it's easier to drop 1000 calories from your daily intake than to burn an extra 1k daily).

Ideally, I'd like to see him train maybe 3 or 4 days a week, depending on how his recovery was going, split something like:
squat
bench
deadlift
pullups
(**of course you'd add some extra moves in to round things out, but that'd be my best recommendation on a simple, efficient, compound movement program)

Aside from that, he needs to:
- sign up for a fitday account asap to know what his calorie intake is
- monitor his weight religiously, and adjust calorie intake accordingly based upon the timeline we're dealing with
- exercise enough to reduce muscle loss, but not enough to overtrain

Those 3 simple steps assure that he can monitor his weight and know exactly how to alter his diet, the exercise will help to retain as much muscle as possible on a relatively fast cutting phase.

We can get into the finer points, nutrient partitioning, macronutrient breakdowns, supplemental benefits, more specialized training protocols, but it's 99% irrelevant. Following those 3 steps I mentioned a second ago is all that he needs, if followed precisely, to accomplish his goal on time.
(oh, I should add something else. I would aim to hit my goal BEFORE the wedding, and maintain it til the wedding. I say this based on what I see with people aiming on timelines - most do not hit their goal. What tends to happen, to lots of people, is they try ramping everything up in the last month / few weeks. This leads to many dumb choices, like fasting, trying diuretics, etc, and generally leaves the person hating life when the 'special day' comes.)

 

[Mostslepton]

Aside from that, he needs to:
- sign up for a fitday account asap to know what his calorie intake is

That's actually pretty cool, I didn't know about Fitday.

But I wouldn't say he "needs" to. Sure, it's helpful, and why not do it if its free - but - he doesn't absolutely need to do this in order to know what his caloric intake is. Virtually every kind of food you buy has the basic nutritional information somewhere on it or at least the calories (except for fruits and vegetables).

 

[bingalpaws]

That's actually pretty cool, I didn't know about Fitday.

But I wouldn't say he "needs" to. Sure, it's helpful, and why not do it if its free - but - he doesn't absolutely need to do this in order to know what his caloric intake is. Virtually every kind of food you buy has the basic nutritional information somewhere on it or at least the calories (except for fruits and vegetables).

haha DAMN YOU MOSTSLEPTON!! you keep saying stuff I'm 90% with but then I gotta elaborate .


Fitday is required for most serious goals to be done in any efficient fashion. Fitday does NOT need to be a long term program, depending how quick you 'get the feel' for your food intake, you won't need it for more than maybe a month or two. After that, just check back in periodically with a week's worth of entries to make sure you're on par.

Here's the thing, even amongst people who are very hardcore, when they use fitday, they are surprised. The average hardcore dieter/bodybuilder that tries fitday finds they were eating more/less calories, protein, etc than they had thought, it happens to most (myself included).

However, even if you wouldn't say he "needs" it, I'd say that's nitpicking. I can't honestly say he NEEDS it, as surely he can get a food scale, weigh everything, and keep a paper log, tabulate his daily macros/calories, and draw his own charts out to see how he did each day for the past week, past month, etc. So sure, he doesn't NEED the program. But, given his situation, can we agree that he NEEDS to be sure of, at the absolute minimum, his daily caloric intake? And wouldn't you agree that it'd be really useful as well to know his macronutrient (carb/fat/protein) breakdown as well, if only to make sure protein/fats are high enough for him? Sure, he doesn't NEED fitday, but if he wants to hit his goals I'd say he really needs to be logging calories to make sure he's on point every week, and I've just never seen anything that can touch the free version of fitday.


((Fitday's a great all around program. It's free and you don't have to use the whole thing. I just enter values based upon total calories, and carb/fat/protein. The program does all your calculations for you, so you can see a pie chart breakdown for any time period (day, week, month, whatever). The best part - it only takes a few days before it's easy as hell. Most find they eat a lot of the same stuff after they enter 5 days' worth of food. So it's not like I weigh my lunch, I merely enter into fitday "0.33 ham sandwich" if I had a 1/3 of a ham sandwich. Couldn't recommend this program more, not only for how easy/well it works for doing its job, but for the fact that w/o it, people are generally a bit ignorant about their intake, and calorie intake is so goddamn crucial to both gaining muscle and losing fat that it's not even funny.))

 

[aanallein]

Honestly the best way to lose weight is to simply stop eating Carbohydrates altogether.

Meat, Eggs, Cheese, and small amounts of Leafy vegetables for a few months and you'll drop weight like crazy.

The only problem is that its very hard to actually pull this off because you are limiting your food choices drastically, you get a mental fog and carb cravings for a few weeks at the beginning, and you get bored of eating the same shit everyday very quickly.

It really does work though. Whenever I want to drop some weight I simply stop eating carbs and I can drop a few lbs a week no problem and no cardio required (I never do cardio).