Help me save my body...
 

Ok all,

I am calling upon the TFP for help. I have recently joined an upper scale gym, and I would like to change my body. I know it won't be a fast process, but I would like to get some help.

My current stats:

6'1"
190 lbs
36" waist
medium gut and slight man titties

I would mostly like to get rid of the gut and chest fat, but also coem down a few sizes.

Can anyone give me a starting workout plan (I have access to almost any machine), including machines, cardio, and diet?

Oh, and I would also like to gain more muscle as well. If you need any more info, let me know.

Thanks!

well for burning the fat... cardio...
do some intense cardio atleast 3 times a week for 30 minutes... more will get you results faster...

try not to eat over 3000 calories. i slimmed down by staying under 3000 (my orig diet was 4600, hell im growing) and now im 6' 2'' 190 :)


cardio 3 times a week and basic gym excersizes 3 times a week should do the trick.

my advice:

1) do the cardio like the good people have said

2) start doing medium weight, medium reps exercises on the machines. at least that will tone up your muscles, so you can think about hitting them harder (more weight) later on. don't worry too much about what exercises to do, as long as you work the major muscle groups. experiment.

3) find a fun exercise that works the whole body at once, e.g. running, swimming, squash maybe. do it once a week.

How exactly does one find out the exact amount of calories in the everything he eats/drinks?

well, personally i don't bother :) just change what you eat so it's healthy. for example, it would be a lot harder to get fat on mostly vegetables than on mostly burgers.

all packing in UK has calories on it, so you could work it out from the packaging with some elementary maths

or use google, there's probably a million example recipes with listed calories on the web these days

Definitely do cardio, watch that you don't eat the junk food, and try to find more hobbies (so you don't think about eating a lot).

You don't sound too big or anything, but it's good to be concerned about your health.

www.fitday.com has most of it

If you can afford it, I highly recommend hiring a personal trainer who can give you a personal evaluation and fitness program. Most high-end gyms have people on staff that do this.

I did this a few years ago and was very happy with the results. My program consisted of three days of weight training per week: one hour of three different zones. One day was legs, the next was back and chest, the third was arms, shoulders and lower back. I did abs every workout. After weights, I did 45 minutes of cardio on an elliptical trainer. I got in shape very quickly this way.

The past couple years have been a sucker punch to my life - and I back slid. I have recently restarted my workouts. Having the knowlege from the trainer has been a big help.

Good luck!

I second the recommendations for www.fitday.com and a personal trainer, however, if you can't afford a personal trainer, there's a pretty good workout program called Homegrown Muscle over on www.menshealth.com that doesn't take much time to do, and is pretty damned effective. I'd recommend taking a look for it. It's multi-stage (each stage lasts a few weeks, the entire thing lasts one year). The first stage is the Iron Manual, I believe it's 8 weeks long, and it provides a lot of good general exercises focused on toning and building a good foundation for the later, more specific phases.

not to try to siteplug or anything but I always recommend reading these sites:

(not in any order)
<a href="http://stumptuous.com/weights.html">Krista Smash</a>
<a href="http://www.johnstonefitness.com">John Stone's site</a> *** really interesting
<a href="http://www.exrx.net/Lists/Directory.html">The gif directory of exrx.net</a> AWESOME info

There are lists, but calorie counts are misleading. They figure them by literally _burning_ the food. A calorie is a measure of heat energy, after all. Your body doesn't work that way, and all calories aren't equal. An apple, for example, has something like 70 calories, but a lot of it is tied up in fibers that your body can't actually digest. So you don't take in all 70 calories when you eat an apple. Same for any food that's kind of fibrous or woody -- it doesn't all get digested before it passes through. Processed stuff that's laden with sugar or fat, on the other hand -- you better believe that your body absorbs pretty much all of the calories, because the food's kind of been pre-broken-down for you by the food processors -- the sugars, especially, are likely to be simple sugars that don't even _need_ to be digested.

At any rate, I knew a guy who went on a serious diet supervised by nutritionists, and they told him that he could eat all the apples and steamed or raw veggies that he wanted and not bother to include them in his calorie counts. He lost a lot of weight.

church, I personally had an almost identical build to what you are describing about 8 months ago. I had a 36" waist that was approaching 38"s and had slight man boobs, and a gut that was starting to encroach on my belt just a little (mostly cause my pants were too tight. I was near 200 lbs, and I'm 6'2".

I can tell you what I've done.

3 days a week in the gym.

Start your workout with a 15-20 min. bike ride, or 10 min. jog on the treadmill. Something to get your system going.

Stretch, do some crunches

Go do your workout for the day (ie. Chest, Back, Legs, Arms, Shoulders, Core, etc.)

The machines in the gym usually show you what muscle groups they work. Figure out a good plan for you and do maybe 2-3 different machines per area. Do a different area each day you are in there. It's also not necessary to fit workouts for your entire body into 1 week. Just pick up and go onto the next exercise the next week.



Secondly, work on the diet. Try to cut out the calories and fat were you can. Your body needs fat, but it gets it in almost everything we eat. To try and not chew into that new muscle you are gaining, keep up your protein and carb levels (yes, I said carbs). A good source of protein is the shake powders you can find. I'd recommend one of these post-workout, for starters. The reason I mentioned carbs is because immediately following your workout, your body is starved for energy, and you want to give it that energy, and at the same time feed it the nutrients and protein it needs to rebuild those muscles.

There are tons of articles on this kind of stuff on the net. DO read them. DON'T take one website or article as the end-all reference though. They often have their own agendas (like to sell you something) and can be skewed in their view on a matter.

Bottom line: work on the muscle, it burns more fat. Do the cardio, it burns more fat. Eat leaner, if possible.

3 cardio and 3 days of lifting a week should do it. But ease into it slowly, especially the weight training. If you're going to do lots of cardio, ie. running, eat bananas. Lots of them. No cramps, plus they're tasty as mess. Good luck with the routine

John Stone's site is excellent.....thanks!