Need Some Advice...

[Pugsley6485]

I need some help with a problem I'm having. I am about 5'10" and I weight about 210lbs. I know I'm overweight, but I'm not in that horrible of shape. I can run without getting winded and so on and so forth.

My question is this: How can I stop putting on weight and actually loose without stopping my workouts. I workout 4-5 days a week and I run a circuit of 30 minutes cardio, and then I do group of muscle each day. I break it up between upper body one day, and then I do lower body the next. I normally do 2 days of workouts then with 1 day of rest, and I repeat this throughout the week.

Know, as for my eating patterns, I eat very healthy compared to others and I try to eat a reduced calorie intake of about 1800cal/day. I do not eat fast food, when I eat pasta or bread its mostly whole wheat, I don't eat anything after dinner, and I just drink water all day with 1 soda a day. I do snack during the day, but its normally a granola bar, a low fat cheese stick(the small string cheese things), or a piece of fruit. If I do snack its normally before lunch, and before dinner but I workout between lunch and dinner and normally eat a snack after my workout.

I would like to drop some weight as I am on the list of fire departments and would like to get in shape for the Recruit classes they run. Is there anything I could change here, or should I speak to my Dr. about a more rigid diet. I'm just totally stumped here. I don't want to loose that much weight, but I would like to loose about 20lbs or so to get down around 190lbs. If I do loose some weight its normally only about 2-5lbs but it stays off for about a week and comes back. Is it coming back in the form of muscle? Any info here is much appreciated.

[kingofdahill]

I need some help with a problem I'm having. I am about 5'10" and I weight about 210lbs. I know I'm overweight, but I'm not in that horrible of shape. I can run without getting winded and so on and so forth.

My question is this: How can I stop putting on weight and actually loose without stopping my workouts. I workout 4-5 days a week and I run a circuit of 30 minutes cardio, and then I do group of muscle each day. I break it up between upper body one day, and then I do lower body the next. I normally do 2 days of workouts then with 1 day of rest, and I repeat this throughout the week.

Know, as for my eating patterns, I eat very healthy compared to others and I try to eat a reduced calorie intake of about 1800cal/day. I do not eat fast food, when I eat pasta or bread its mostly whole wheat, I don't eat anything after dinner, and I just drink water all day with 1 soda a day. I do snack during the day, but its normally a granola bar, a low fat cheese stick(the small string cheese things), or a piece of fruit. If I do snack its normally before lunch, and before dinner but I workout between lunch and dinner and normally eat a snack after my workout.

I would like to drop some weight as I am on the list of fire departments and would like to get in shape for the Recruit classes they run. Is there anything I could change here, or should I speak to my Dr. about a more rigid diet. I'm just totally stumped here. I don't want to loose that much weight, but I would like to loose about 20lbs or so to get down around 190lbs. If I do loose some weight its normally only about 2-5lbs but it stays off for about a week and comes back. Is it coming back in the form of muscle? Any info here is much appreciated.

Don't know how much this will help but I am down 27 pounds from january 1st. LOTS and LOTS of cardio. running 3 miles at a time. sometimes 2 times a day. Stairmaster for 15 minutes with a 40lb. vest everyday then 10 more minutes without a vest. My food intake consits of mostly cheerios with 1% milk (screw that slim milk stuff) for breakfast, lunch and sometimes even dinner. Lots of fruit for snacking. Most days I try to have a good dinner though. cut out soda even diet soda. I'm not telling you to do this but it worked for me. Although right now I would kill for some pizza. No doubt the general mills stocks picked up the past two months.

[Pugsley6485]

My cardio when I'm done doing the my 30 minutes comes out to be about 2.5miles. This is the 2nd time I have heard of the cheerio thing as a meal substitute. I'll have to give it a try, and maybe increase my cardio to about 1 hour a day.

[YaDude]

You should probably stop drinking those sodas for one, maybe once a week if you want to reward yourself. Also try getting a trainer at the gym. They can really help if your doing something wrong in your workout.
I'm going to the gym three times a week and eating good and i'm losing about two pounds a week. I just need to get down about a total of 15 pounds.
What I eat is a protein bar for breakfast, a whole wheat chicken sandwich for lunch, and for dinner I will have either grilled chicken (with bbq sauce), tuna (mayo), turkey burger patties (with cheese, ketchup, mustard), or cottage cheese (with salsa), or egg whites with salsa and cheese.
Also after workouts I have protein shakes.

[johnsolberg]

Cut out the carbs

Try to do your 30 minutes of cardio right after your workout or first thing in the morning. Also, try to manipulate your carb intake and cut out the milk. Start with a 50/50 percent carb to protein ratio, you should get good results without sacrificing too much muscle. I follw this must of the time and through in a high carb day every so often to keep my body from getting used to it. Throwing in a cheat meal (not a cheat day) once a week will keep your body in check.

[agavegrove]

Try to do your 30 minutes of cardio right after your workout or first thing in the morning.

I've heard about doing cardio with other workouts and in the a.m. before. Is that more beneficial than, say, in the middle of the day?

[hotshot151]

Run..run like rocky,man,first thing in the morning.. started at 1 mile and now up to 7..ran 12mi 2 days ago..never felt better or had more energy,,running first thing in the morning will burn more fat because you glycogen stores are depleted, it burned fat like a blow torch

[Drjmilus]

Training

You don't say what kind of exercises you do when you do weights. When I am trying to speed up my metabolism, I try to lift more weight MORE OFTEN.

Eliminate small muscle group training (biceps, triceps and calves), and do only major muscle groups work. I would chose leg press, weighted lunges and squats in the rack and eliminate leg extenstions and leg curls. Fill up the time you would be doing calves with more of these big exercises.

Then, I would also drop bicep curls and tricep extensions in any form. I would do bigger exercises: pull ups, lat pulls, seated cable rows, pec flies and arnie presses. Fill up the time you would do arms and shoulders, and do more bigger exercises.

During these workouts when you would normally be resting between sets, do 50 bicycle abs (correctly- leg must be all the way straight on the side you turn away from, and shoulder blades need to BOTH lift off the ground each rep.) Then increase your weight on the exercise you are doing, and get back on it. Always work up in weight and down in reps each set. Go heavy near the end.

I would do upper one day then lower the other for 5 days, each day follow with 30 minutes of cardio. Jumping rope is the most effective for me. Take a day off, then do a day of cardio only and start again on the whichever comes next- upper or lower. You'll trim down.

The advice about protein I agree with. I eat protein with every meal- a fist sized portion. AND- I eat 2 hard boiled egg whites every hour on the hour for 4 hours after training... start with your first 2 right when you are done.

Be advised that your weight is not all that our of line for your height. The stronger you are, the more muscle mass you have, and the more you weigh. Let go of that part. You could be needlessly beating yourself up. Function, not form, remember?

Dr. Jen

https://www.fireagility.com

[Fitguy51]

I have to agree with Dr Jen about you not really being out of whack HT/WT wise. If you are looking at some HT/WT chart I find them to want you underweight. You might try getting your % bodyfat measured, cause if you are under 15% bodyfat at 210 you are just right. Body builders would be over wieght on the charts but they are all muscle and have single digit bodyfat. Then again what arre you comfortable with.

[Pugsley6485]

You don't say what kind of exercises you do when you do weights. When I am trying to speed up my metabolism, I try to lift more weight MORE OFTEN.

For my upperbody days I normally do Lat Pulldowns 12 X 3 Sets, I do Bicep Curls 12 X 3 Sets, DB Shrug 12 X 3 Sets, Benchpress 12 x 3 Sets, DB Shoulder Raise 12 x 3 Sets, Pushups 25, and Situps 25.

For my lowerbody days I'll do Leg Curls 12x3 Sets, Leg Ext 12 x 3 Sets, Squats 12 x 3 Sets, Pushups and Situps also.

Dr. Jen, I'll diffently look into doing some different excerise to work on my bigger muscle groups. I'll also have to start looking into eating more protein after my workouts.

Also, the only reason I am beating myself up over my BMI is some departments in my area look at the BMI and it can be an eliminating factor for some people. They would like your BMI to be between 20%-30%, and last time I had my BMI read I was about 28% but that was a couple of months ago before I started working out like I am now.

[Drjmilus]

Weight training

Okay, it sounds like you are not training hard enough or long enough when you lift. 3 sets will do you no good. I will tell you my last leg workout, which I super setted with abs. This is only to illustrate how I think strength is built. You should not start out here. The basis is, I start out light and hi rep, then reduce reps and increase weight each set of decline leg press (but it could be anything- lat pulls, pec flies, leg extensions) until I am spend. The next time, I try to go higher- which would mean adding weight and doing less reps. Magically, the weight where I start with 20 will increase, and thus the end sets will have higher weights and the same reps. There is not rest between, but you might need to do that. The weights go pretty heavy, and it might take you time to get to this. Please be careful, know your limits.

I super setted this decline leg press workout with bicycle abs. There's a picture of what they look like on this other web site of mine, click here: http://www.girlslax.org/circuit_training_boys.html

Super Set 1:
Decline leg press, 1 45lb. plate on each side, 20 reps
50 bicycle abs

Super Set 2:
Decline leg press, 2 45lb. plates on each side, 18 reps
50 bicycle abs

Super Set 3:
Decline leg press, 3 45lb. plates on each side, 16 reps
50 bicycle abs

Super Set 4:
Decline leg press, 4 45lb. plates on each side, 14 reps
50 bicycle abs

Super Set 5:
Decline leg press, 5 45lb. plates on each side, 12 reps
50 bicycle abs

Super Set 6:
Decline leg press, 6 45lb. plates on each side, 10 reps
50 bicycle abs

Super Set 7:
Decline leg press, 7 45lb. plates on each side, 8 reps
50 bicycle abs

Super Set 8:
Decline leg press, 8 45lb. plates on each side, 6 reps
50 bicycle abs

Super Set 9: I was spent, and could not increase by alot, so I did this
Decline leg press, 8 45lb. plates on each side, plus a 25 lb. plate on each side, 4 reps (also failure- ugggh!)
50 bicycle abs

Super Set 10: Now I go really light!
Decline leg press, 1 45lb. plate on each side, 20 reps
These I do really slow- like a 10 second count down and a 10 second count up.
50 bicycle abs


This a quick and dirty leg and ab workout, and I am out of there in 45 minutes. If I keep moving the whole time, my heart rate stays up the entire time. I burn fat and increase strenght! Wahoo!

Your additions might have to be less. Adding a 45 each set is just quick, that's why I do it. With some people, I add a 25 (to each side) one set, the remove that, and add a 45 the next time. Then to that, I add a 25 (each side) the next time, and remove those 25's the next set, and add a 45 to each side. This way you are going up in smaller increments and don't go as high. OR: to be simple, you could do this whole thing with 25 lb plates instead of 45's! That would be easy!

I am not suggesting that you start with this much weight, or do this many sets. This is what I do on a heavy leg day. On that day, I do nothing else physical with my lower body AT ALL. These weights and reps took me years to work up to. I have been training with weights for 28 years consistantly.

My point is- work harder. 3 sets won't do you any good. 6 sets will. When you can work up to it, 8 sets will do you better, and 10 after that.

You could do this same type of workout with lat pulls and bicycle abs. Start with 60 lbs and 20 reps. Go up by 10 and down by 2. Super set with the abs. Go to failure or 4 reps. Start higher next month.

Are there light days between these heavy days? You bet.
Do I get sore? You bet.
Do the exercises change alot? Yup.
How often do I do this? no more than once a week.
I might go heavy like this on upper body once a week also.


I hope this will give you some ideas. Again, it took me years, plus some good genetics to get to these weights. Not everybody can even get there, and very few can get there fast. No offense, but the smaller you are, the harder it is. Women and small men need to work harder. Small women even harder.

Be careful and Be safe!

Dr. Jen
www.fireagility.com