my workout plan! plz help

[fakebun]

hi all

finally starting today i'm going to 24hr fitness and start working out to lose weight. Shamefully I am around 235lbs. Here is my plan for working out...

1. 30mins of cardio program on this machine that has two pedals and during the course of action it looks like i'm walking briskly

2. machines that imitate pushups, bench press, and watever else.

3. dumbbells

4. jog for however long i can.

I plan on going there after dinner because I go with my sister. I dont think i can do any real bench presses or squats cuz i dont think my sister is capable of spotting me.

Breakfast: fiber one cereal, soymilk, fruit, peanut and whole grain bread, yogurt

lunch: no idea yet...

dinner: veggies, lean meat.

does that look....feasible?

I haven't exercised for like EVER....and first time starting out tomorrow.

Please let me know if there is anything that should be changed or added to help me lose weight (ideally 30 lbs) within a decent amount of time (hopefully won't take more than 3 months)

thank you!

 

[GenHoth]

Remember that losing weight is all about your caloric intake! Good luck!

 

[FDF12389]

Originally posted by: fakebun
hi all

finally starting today i'm going to 24hr fitness and start working out to lose weight. Shamefully I am around 235lbs. Here is my plan for working out...

1. 30mins of cardio program on this machine that has two pedals and during the course of action it looks like i'm walking briskly

2. machines that imitate pushups, bench press, and watever else.

I'm not a big fan of these, just leave one collar off the bar and dump the weight if you get in trouble.

3. dumbbells

What kind of exercises?

4. jog for however long i can.

I plan on going there after dinner because I go with my sister. I dont think i can do any real bench presses or squats cuz i dont think my sister is capable of spotting me.

Breakfast: fiber one cereal, soymilk, fruit, peanut and whole grain bread, yogurt

lunch: no idea yet...

dinner: veggies, lean meat.

does that look....feasible?

I haven't exercised for like EVER....and first time starting out tomorrow.

Please let me know if there is anything that should be changed or added to help me lose weight (ideally 30 lbs) within a decent amount of time (hopefully won't take more than 3 months)

thank you!

Overall I would split your exercises up, running one day, lifting another, etc. And I would definitely recommend squats, its a great workout and you should be able to do them without a partner.

Other than that you need to plan out how much of those foods you will eat, the foods look good but its all about the right quantity.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Read the fat loss sticky. It's there for this purpose. What you're doing is sub-optimal and because you haven't exercised much, you don't quite know what's best (no offense). Check it out. It explains quite a bit and will give you an idea of what you should do.

 

[chalmers]

To be honest that looks like the plan out of some overweight housewife magazine to be honest. But you're new to the game..like SC said read the fat loss sticky and remember a few rules.

Track your caloric intake on fitday.com or another similar site.
Eliminate all shitty foods (soda, sweets, fast food, etc) out of your diet. Refeed (overeat a bit) every 14ish days if you have to.
For weight loss purposes, cardio doesn't do much more than increase your caloric deficit. Lift weights 3 times a week.
Don't overtrain.

Good luck!

 

[fakebun]

but is working out after dinner (not exactly right after dinner) ok?

chalmers said cardio doesnt do much more than increases your caloric deficit...does that mean i shouldn't do it? or should i just liftweight more often than cardio?

 

[gramboh]

You are doing a mishmash of stuff which will probably lead to mediocere results. As said, read the stickies.

Try not to make huge changes all at once (e.g. going to the gym is a time committment, will have to scale back other things in your life plus changing your diet at the same time). The problem is, while this is a noble goal, if you miss a day or two it will be frustrating and demotivating. Make the changes gradually.

As said, for exericse, just lift weights 3 times a week on a structured program. Most (myself included) will recommend Starting Strength or Stronglifts.com 5x5. You don't need a spotter for squats, do them in a power rack with safety bars, same for bench press. For things like push-ups, just do them, why use a machine to immitate a natural human movement?

Starting Strength will take about an hour for each workout, 3 times a week, that's managable for someone new to the gym. Add in cardio on rest days if you want to increase your stamina, I recommend rowing (on C2 rowing machines) and running (just start with very small distances to get your legs used to it).

Good luck!

 

[chalmers]

Originally posted by: fakebun
but is working out after dinner (not exactly right after dinner) ok?

chalmers said cardio doesnt do much more than increases your caloric deficit...does that mean i shouldn't do it? or should i just liftweight more often than cardio?

Working out after dinner is fine. Don't worry about too many details like that right now. Just getting started is the most important part.

For pure weight loss reasons, yes cardio only increases your caloric deficit. This allows you to eat a bit more and lose the same amount of week per weight, or will allow you to lose a bit more weight each week on the same diet. It is very beneficial for other obvious reasons, improved stamina, cardiovascular health, etc.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: fakebun
but is working out after dinner (not exactly right after dinner) ok?

chalmers said cardio doesnt do much more than increases your caloric deficit...does that mean i shouldn't do it? or should i just liftweight more often than cardio?

Work out whenever you want to work out. Don't worry about timing or any crap like that.

Fakebun, here's the best thing we could possibly say. With that sort of program, you're changing your diet, adding a resistance program, and training cardio. If you go from nothing to all that... you're gonna burn out.

You can very easily hone your caloric deficit via using a calorie tracker and utilizing some self control. Therefore, for weightloss, cardio is nonessential (although it is for overall cardiovascular health in the long run).

Lifting weights will allow your body to maintain your current muscle while losing weight. This is essential because if you weren't on a weightlifting program, your body would burn both fat and muscle since you didn't create a priority on which to keep. Stressing your muscles with weights puts them on a higher maintenance priority in the body.

You really need to read the sticky because everything you're asking right now is explained there in detail. Don't reply to this thread until after you read it. It will honestly save both you and all of us a great deal of time.

PS: Don't do your own lifting program. Read the sticky and pick on of those. They are drawn up by professionals who have years upon years of experience. They know best.

 

[angminas]

There are a couple of really important things for a newbie to remember. One is to be careful. Your body isn't going to be used to what you're doing, so you need to make sure you use proper form, warm up, stretch regularly while warm, etc. Don't go balls to the wall right at the beginning if you don't have a history of exercise. An injury could keep you out of the gym for weeks, and you might get discouraged and not pick it up again for years. Remember to work your core- it takes specific exercises, not situps.

The other thing is, don't forget to have fun. A fun suboptimal workout is far better than a boring or agonizing routine that you hate, because you'll quit and not get any benefits at all. If you can mentally handle an intense shred routine, do it- you'll love the results, and you'll kick yourself for not doing it years ago. Give working hard a real try with a solid can-do attitude. But if you give it an honest go for a few months (yes, months, not weeks) and find that you're really not very interested in exercise and want to keep it casual, that's okay too, as long as you do enough to stay healthy. If you hate jogging, use a bike or stairmaster or rowing machine or whatever keeps you engaged. If you hate weights, find interesting new body weight exercises. You might look into something like P90X if you have the cash- it looks like a lot of fun. Different exercises and diets have different results, and you can't fool your body, but don't let elitist health nutsies boss you around. (Not aimed at the folks in this thread.)

Whatever you decide to do, DON'T QUIT. Don't fall off the wagon and go back to what brought you to 235 and unhappy. Do SOMETHING.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Originally posted by: angminas
There are a couple of really important things for a newbie to remember. One is to be careful. Your body isn't going to be used to what you're doing, so you need to make sure you use proper form, warm up, stretch regularly while warm, etc. Don't go balls to the wall right at the beginning if you don't have a history of exercise. An injury could keep you out of the gym for weeks, and you might get discouraged and not pick it up again for years. Remember to work your core- it takes specific exercises, not situps.

The other thing is, don't forget to have fun. A fun suboptimal workout is far better than a boring or agonizing routine that you hate, because you'll quit and not get any benefits at all. If you can mentally handle an intense shred routine, do it- you'll love the results, and you'll kick yourself for not doing it years ago. Give working hard a real try with a solid can-do attitude. But if you give it an honest go for a few months (yes, months, not weeks) and find that you're really not very interested in exercise and want to keep it casual, that's okay too, as long as you do enough to stay healthy. If you hate jogging, use a bike or stairmaster or rowing machine or whatever keeps you engaged. If you hate weights, find interesting new body weight exercises. You might look into something like P90X if you have the cash- it looks like a lot of fun. Different exercises and diets have different results, and you can't fool your body, but don't let elitist health nutsies boss you around. (Not aimed at the folks in this thread.)

Whatever you decide to do, DON'T QUIT. Don't fall off the wagon and go back to what brought you to 235 and unhappy. Do SOMETHING.

I just wanted to expand on the bolded part. Dynamic stretches are the only types of stretches you should do before a workout. Static stretches have shown to decrease the ability to generate power and therefore promote injury if done BEFORE a workout. Dynamic stretches are active movements rather than the passive movements of static stretching. If you get into a workout plan, look dynamic stretches up and find a warmup you like.

 

[spamsk8r]

Nobody has really commented on *what* to eat yet, so I'll throw my hat into the ring.

The food list you laid out is pretty vague and definitely suboptimal. You should focus on eating unprocessed foods if you want maximum benefits. This means drink real milk instead of soy milk (if your body can tolerate it), eggs instead of cereal, try to reduce or eliminate bread, and eat lots of protein and vegetables. I would avoid eating anything that comes from a box, in general, as it's usually processed crap that comes into our homes in that kind of container. Here's a sample day:

Breakfast: 3 eggs, 3 pieces bacon, piece of fruit
Lunch: 4-6 oz. shredded pork shoulder with cheese and salsa (carnitas style)
Snack: Handful of nuts
Dinner: 6 oz. salmon with toasted almonds, lots of broccoli or spinach

That should keep you from being hungry (due to the satiety that fat and protein provides), keep your blood sugar from spiking and causing hunger cravings, and keep calories low enough to allow you to lose weight. You can prepare large quantities of food once a week and have that for lunches (pork shoulder, beef chili, teriyaki chicken, etc.). Try to avoid caloric drinks since they can contain a lot of calories with no fullness to accompany them. Definitely avoid anything with sugar (including fruit juices), but don't be afraid of good fats. Just keep your calories low enough to facilitate weight loss. For your weight you should probably be eating between 2200 and 2500 calories a day to lose weight (assuming you are in the gym 3-4 times a week). If you still find yourself hungry, increase your vegetable intake, as they provide lots of vitamins, lots of volume, and very low calories. Hope this helps!

 

[zebano]

From your original post, it sounds like you are training for general health purposes and in this case the fat loss sticky is idea. If you have any other goals such as sports you played in high school and would like to take up again or even are interested in now, you will probably want to customize your workout towards those. This also provides extra training motivation if you can put a date on the calendar and say I'm running a half marathon on September 20th or I'm playing in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament with my buddies July 22nd. As many times as you've probably heard it working out with a buddy is also 10x better than working out by yourself. I don't know about you but I can easily blow off a workout but when I have to explain to my friend where I was I only skip when I'm really sick.

Edit: I for one am a big fan of doing some cardio work because every sport I play (tennis, basketball, ultimate frisbee, road cycling) all rely on it to some extent (in reality, for all buy cycling, intervals are better than LSD but that's not really important until you have a base of fitness to work with).

 

[RKS]

Originally posted by: zebano
..
Edit: I for one am a big fan of doing some cardio work because every sport I play (tennis, basketball, ultimate frisbee, road cycling) all rely on it to some extent (in reality, for all buy cycling, intervals are better than LSD but that's not really important until you have a base of fitness to work with).

I'm not sure about that. Maybe LDR but certainly not LSD. :laugh:

 

[zebano]

Originally posted by: RKS

Originally posted by: zebano
..
Edit: I for one am a big fan of doing some cardio work because every sport I play (tennis, basketball, ultimate frisbee, road cycling) all rely on it to some extent (in reality, for all buy cycling, intervals are better than LSD but that's not really important until you have a base of fitness to work with).

I'm not sure about that. Maybe LDR but certainly not LSD. :laugh:

sorry my x-country coach always called it LSD = long, slow distance. That said some LSD might just be more fun than all of the above.