Obesity Discussion Forums

[ttu]

So I'm 22, in my 5th year in college, I've gained quite a bit from highschool. Its not anywhere but my gut, a good way to describe it would be a beer gut LOL

I know part of my problem is just that, beer. I'm prepared to stop going out and drinking heavily so damn much, its getting tired after 4+ years....but my diet also pretty much sucks and consists of 80%+ fast food, and I hardly exercise (unless you consider golf exercise)

I need to get on the right track with a diet that consists of meals that are not difficult to prepare and preferably cost effective, and can be prepared quickly. I work MWF from 8:30-6 and go to school Tu Th from 9:30-7 (with a 3 hour break in the afternoon) where do I find the time for exercise?

I just weighed myself, sitting at 181 at 5'5" - would like to get to 150. I know about BMI but honestly with my frame I would be pretty damn small at 150.

so thats 31 pounds to lose - where do i start??

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by ttu98ss

So I'm 22, in my 5th year in college, I've gained quite a bit from highschool. Its not anywhere but my gut, a good way to describe it would be a beer gut LOL

I know part of my problem is just that, beer. I'm prepared to stop going out and drinking heavily so damn much, its getting tired after 4+ years....but my diet also pretty much sucks and consists of 80%+ fast food, and I hardly exercise (unless you consider golf exercise)

I need to get on the right track with a diet that consists of meals that are not difficult to prepare and preferably cost effective, and can be prepared quickly. I work MWF from 8:30-6 and go to school Tu Th from 9:30-7 (with a 3 hour break in the afternoon) where do I find the time for exercise?

I just weighed myself, sitting at 181 at 5'5" - would like to get to 150. I know about BMI but honestly with my frame I would be pretty damn small at 150.

so thats 31 pounds to lose - where do i start??

Ah the ol' college days! Surprisingly I had my biggest beer gut when I drank the least, and my smallest gut when I drank the most. Go figure. For me it was a function of how often I exercised and what I was eating, and even though I drank a lot in college, I worked out so heavily that I still was burning more calories than I was consuming, and was able to stay very lean. That at the end of the day is what you need to figure out, is how to get yourself in a position where you are consuming fewer calories than you are expending. Dropping alcohol will help a ton.

Do you have a timeframe that you want to lose the weight in? Also, what's your physical activity like? I can tell you about how many calories a day you should be eating to lose that 30lbs in whatever timeframe you want.

Just need age, height, weight (which I have), and activity level (exercise, walking, etc)

[ttu]

Originally Posted by Obesity Discussion

Do you have a timeframe that you want to lose the weight in? Also, what's your physical activity like? I can tell you about how many calories a day you should be eating to lose that 30lbs in whatever timeframe you want.

Just need age, height, weight (which I have), and activity level (exercise, walking, etc)

I'm prepared to take my drinking down to only one day a week MAX, and drink something besides beer which I think will help.

22, 5'5", 181... only physical activity i get is walking to and from the school parking lot which is about a half mile, twice a day two days a week. I've gotten into this habit of going to work/school and then coming home and just chillin out. I am prepared to add some physical activity in though, I would REALLY prefer not to get up earlier than i do and do it, I would rather do it later, but if it will help more to get up early I will do what I have to.

I don't really want to join a gym and go in there to work out, I'd rather find something I can do at my own place.

As far as time frame goes, a few months would be nice, but obviously fastest results are going to make me the most happy and help the confidence level boost up quicker. 150-155 By christmas would be awesome! I don't mind dropping a little coin on some supplements if they are going to help....

[ttu]

another thing just cuz I know this will come up...

i will have to sub something for cottage cheese, i cant eat that crap

also I love redbull... is the sugarfree half decent, or does it have to go? I love the regular but im sure its bad for ya

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by ttu

I'm prepared to take my drinking down to only one day a week MAX, and drink something besides beer which I think will help

What were you thinking besides beer? Dropping alcohol will help a ton. Most beer is between 100 and 140 calories or so per beer. Roughly 30 or so beers you drink is the equivalent of one pound of fat.

Originally Posted by ttu

22, 5'5", 181... only physical activity i get is walking to and from the school parking lot which is about a half mile, twice a day two days a week. I've gotten into this habit of going to work/school and then coming home and just chillin out. I am prepared to add some physical activity in though, I would REALLY prefer not to get up earlier than i do and do it, I would rather do it later, but if it will help more to get up early I will do what I have to.

I don't really want to join a gym and go in there to work out, I'd rather find something I can do at my own place.

There's not much from a cardiovascular standpoint you can do at your place unless you have an elliptical machine/treadmill/stairmaster etc. at your disposal. There's always the option of running which is free as can be. Exercise will help a lot towards your weight loss goals. Does your school have a gym that's free?

Originally Posted by ttu

As far as time frame goes, a few months would be nice, but obviously fastest results are going to make me the most happy and help the confidence level boost up quicker. 150-155 By christmas would be awesome! I don't mind ....dropping a little coin on some supplements if they are going to help

First we're going to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate, which tells us how many calories a day your body burns before factoring in your activity level. For men its:

BMR = 66 + (13.7 X wt in kg) + (5 X ht in cm) - (6.8 X age)

Your states added in get us:
BMR = 66 + (13.7 X 82.1) + (5 X 165.1 ) - (6.8 X 22)=


BMR = 66 + 1124.77 + 825.5 - 149.6= 1866 calories a day your body burns before factoring in your activity levels.



Now, at your current activity level, you use a multiplier of 1.2 to figure out the amount of calories your body truly burns a day.
1866*1.2= 2239.2

or

Now, if you were to start working out 1-3 days a week, over the course of a week, your body on average would now burn about 325 calories more per day:
1866*1.375= 2565.75

If you are sedentary (little or no exercise) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.2
If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375.

From right now, you have about 3.5 months till Xmas, or about 15 weeks. If you're looking to drop about 30lbs by then, you're going to need to lose 2 lbs a week.

Since one lb. of fat =3500 calories, and you want to lose 2lbs a week, you're going to need to create a calorie deficit of 7000 calories each week. On a day to day basis, that means you need a 1000 calorie deficit each day.

What does this mean? Well, lets take the amount of calories your body burns each day right now with your current lifestyle, or 2239 calories a day. Since you need a 1000 calorie a day deficit for you to reach your goals, then you will need to eat about 1239 calories a day to get there. Not a lot, is it?

Here's where exercise comes into play. If you work out hard 1-3 times a week, then you will be able to eat more each day while still achieving your weight loss goals. With 1-3 days a week of solid exercise, your body will burn about 2566 calories a day. Since we need to create a 1000 calorie deficit to reach your weight loss goals, you can now eat 1566 calories a day on average to reach your goals.

Make sense? If you're willing to step up your exercise to 3-5 times a week of good exercise, you can afford to eat 1892 calories a day on average and still achieve your goals.

Now, we can get more techinical, and show you roughly how many grams of carbs, protein and fat you should eat each day to optimize your muscle growth and fat loss. Let me know if you want to go that far.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by ttu

another thing just cuz I know this will come up...

i will have to sub something for cottage cheese, i cant eat that crap

also I love redbull... is the sugarfree half decent, or does it have to go? I love the regular but im sure its bad for ya

The regular is crap. Loaded with sugar. You need to get all the sugar ladened food/drinks out of your system, because they really hinder your ability to lose weight.

And cottage cheese = to me.

There are plenty of other alternatives.

[ttu]

thanks for all the info man!!

I do have a gym at school, but at that point I'd rather just go pay for a membership somewhere better, that place is packed all the time...

i would definitely be ok with adding exercise into my DAILY routine... how does 1/2 hr cardio + a few weight training exercises sound? I could swing that...

my biggest problem is this.. what do I eat?? I've gotten so used to eating fast food crap I don't even know where to begin on a healthy diet.


btw where do I get one of those cool things in my sig

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by ttu

thanks for all the info man!!

I do have a gym at school, but at that point I'd rather just go pay for a membership somewhere better, that place is packed all the time...

i would definitely be ok with adding exercise into my DAILY routine... how does 1/2 hr cardio + a few weight training exercises sound? I could swing that...

my biggest problem is this.. what do I eat?? I've gotten so used to eating fast food crap I don't even know where to begin on a healthy diet.


btw where do I get one of those cool things in my sig

The weight loss ticker is in your user profile.

When you say daily I assume you mean no more than 5 days a week. If that's the case, and you commit to that (30minutes of cardio + lifting would be great), then you should shoot for the 1892 calorie a day diet. We'll round it down to 1890 calories for this purpose, but on weeks you don't hit the gym daily, you'll want to drop your calorie intake a bit.

Flat out you're going to want to count calories, fat, protein, and carbs to optimize your results.

Since you're going to be lifting while trying to lose weight, we need to chalk you full of protein.

Remember, 1g fat=9 calories, 1g carb=4 calories, 1g protein=4 calories

For starters, each day I would shoot for roughly:


170g protein=680 calories
95g fats=855 calories
90g carbs=360 calories


This comes down to 1895 calories day, roughly where you need to be. You're going to want to get some low calorie low carb protein shakes, have one in the morning and one after the gym, and that should help you with your high protein consumption goals. You're going to have to play around with the foods you eat, toppings you add, drinks, etc to figure out what you can eat to hit your goals. It's important to log all this so you can keep track as you go through the day to prevent yourself from overeating each day, but also so you can compensate for days where maybe you don't hit your calorie goal.

If you eat 2095 calories one day, you may want to follow up a 1695 calorie day sometime later in the week to average it out to 1895 calories.

[William Wallace]

Originally Posted by ttu

thanks for all the info man!!

I do have a gym at school, but at that point I'd rather just go pay for a membership somewhere better, that place is packed all the time...

i would definitely be ok with adding exercise into my DAILY routine... how does 1/2 hr cardio + a few weight training exercises sound? I could swing that...

my biggest problem is this.. what do I eat?? I've gotten so used to eating fast food crap I don't even know where to begin on a healthy diet.


btw where do I get one of those cool things in my sig

OD knows his stuff!

For starters drink a ton of water. Shoot for a gallon a day if you can.

Lots of healthy meats- turkey and chicken breast, lean ham, lean ground beef, etc.

No fried foods, ditch the sweets/junk food.

Whole wheat bread instead of whites.

No transfats....those are some of the basics.

Ideally eat some smaller meals instead of 2 big ones like a lot of people do.

Consider chewing your food slower/taking longer to eat. Prevents you from overeating.

[ttu]

so what about the exercise part....

how does this sound - tuesdays and thursdays 1hr in between my classes (break from 2-5:30) and monday wednesday friday after work 1hr (after 6pm)

30 minutes of cardio is a no brainer, but when it comes to weight training im useless... what sorts of basic exercises should i do?

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by ttu

so what about the exercise part....

how does this sound - tuesdays and thursdays 1hr in between my classes (break from 2-5:30) and monday wednesday friday after work 1hr (after 6pm)

30 minutes of cardio is a no brainer, but when it comes to weight training im useless... what sorts of basic exercises should i do?

Well, since you haven't lifted in a while, you are going to want to start light with high reps to get your body started. You could try circuit training the first few times lifting weights, but in general you're going to want to take it easy at first.

Eventually after a few times you're going to want to start to lift heavier weights. Because you're creating a calorie deficit and looking to lose weight, what's most important is maintaining the muscle you do have. More or less lower reps and heavier weight is recommended. I would focus more on your core lifts, like squats, deadlifts, leg press, bench presses, shoulder presses, heavy back lifts, etc. You can do some heavy bicep tricep work as well, some prefer to do that, some don't because they do get worked a bit while doing other big exercises.

Since you're on such a tight time schedule and only have 30 minutes, I would do core upper body lifts say Monday, core lower body lifts say Tuesday, maybe weighted abdomen exercises (weighted situps, etc) on Wed, then upper Thurs, lower Fri.

[ttu]

well the first day went pretty good

now that i actually counted calories, i realized how bad i normally am - i'd say on average i was eating about 3k cals a day - 80% of that being fast food

i had right around 1800 cals yesterday, planning on going to the nearby gym this weekend and signing up i will let you all know how it goes!

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by ttu

well the first day went pretty good

now that i actually counted calories, i realized how bad i normally am - i'd say on average i was eating about 3k cals a day - 80% of that being fast food

i had right around 1800 cals yesterday, planning on going to the nearby gym this weekend and signing up i will let you all know how it goes!

Good news about the gym, that will help a lot. 3000 calories, most of which was fast food? No wonder! At that rate with 0 activity you'd put on about a pound a week. :eek4:

It's amazing how many more calories people find out they really eat compared to what they think they'd eat.

How did you feel with 1800 calories?

[ttu]

Originally Posted by Obesity Discussion

How did you feel with 1800 calories?

Hungry.

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by ttu

Hungry.

I don't blame ya one bit. It'll get easier as time goes on.

[ttu]

Weighed on the same scale this morning, with just boxers on like before. Down to 174. Probably something to do with it being morning and I haven't eaten yet, but I'm still pretty happy about seeing a lower number

[Obesity Discussion]

Originally Posted by ttu

Weighed on the same scale this morning, with just boxers on like before. Down to 174. Probably something to do with it being morning and I haven't eaten yet, but I'm still pretty happy about seeing a lower number

Try to weigh yourself in the mornings before you eat for consistency. It's nice to the see that number go down so quick!

[dugan51]

It looks like most everything has been pretty well covered as far as diet and weight training which I highly, highly recommend. I've lifted for a long long time. But, cardio is necessary to get rid of fat that's accumulated. I think there is no substitute for running, nothing else in my opinion works faster to carve off that fat. I think you should go every day for a while if possible and shoot for something like 3 or more miles (you're young so this should be no problem). As you get more conditioned, start changing up the routine - find a route with hills, try to periodically sprint a few hundred yards every so often, etc. No loafing allowed, work yourself hard. You should be drenched in sweat at the end of each session. I usually weigh 2 pounds less after running. Admitedly, that's water weight, but it tells me I did what I had to.

I lost about 30 pounds this summer by doing this and just eating better and eating less. I didn't even concern myself with counting calories, the scale told me if I was doing the right thing. Bottom line is you got to burn more than you put in. Afterwhile you won't even want to indulge on the junk food and hopefully the beer.

Good Luck.