Need Help With 30 Lb Reduction

[The Message Boy]

Okay well, let me back into this. I can post pics or better yet PM them to any of you guys if need be.

#1.) Goal:

I think I need to drop 30 lbs so that I get to about 170 lbs so that I can get to the goals I want to get to.



#2.) Introduction


I'm:

> 26 years old
> 5'10
> 200 lbs.
> Currently leaned and toned

When I take my shirt off right now everybody pretty much agrees that I am toned up and look very good. I have what appears to be solid muscle and it's appearing pretty good, looks nice.

However, the bottom portion of my abs are not as good as I want them despite the fact that I feel I would be ok to walk around the beach without a shirt on. The bottom portion of my abs still jiggle.

Plus while I look okay right now, I want to be really, really, defined do you know what I'm talking about?

#3.) The way I current Eat:

I eat very good, here's an example of an average day:

Meal One: Body Fortress Protein shake, motts apple juice, 1 apple

Meal Two: 2 pieces of baked chicken legs, a can of green beans, two toasted wheat, 2 16 oz. bottles of water, supplements of Vitamin World Ultra Vitamin-Omega 3-Green Tea Extract

Meal Three: 1 piece of steak, a can of corn, two toasted wheat, 2 16 oz. bottles of water, supplements of Vitamin World Ultra Vitamin-Omega 3-Green Tea Extract

Meal Four: Body Fortress Protein shake, motts apple juice, 1 apple

Meal Five: 1 piece of thigh, a can of corn, two toasted wheat, 2 16 oz. bottles of water

I spread the meals out every 3-5 hours. I sleep when I fell asleep basically but on average I get about 6-7 hours.


#4.) The way I exercise

Because I've become very busy with work and school and social stuff, I workout now on Fridays and Sundays. Here's what I've been doing:

> Friday afternoon:

Stairmaster for 1 hour straight, no breaks. I use the Interval Training on the Stairmaster where basically it goes fast then slows then goes fast again. My average speed for the entire hour averages around 55 to 60 mph which is really good for someone going one hour straight on the Stairmaster. I would burn about a total of 1,000 calories throughout that hour.

Next I'll go into our gym's Steam Room and do about 3 sessions of 15 minutes each so I'll sit in there a total of 45 minutes with 3 breaks.

Next I'll go into our gym's Sauna and do about 2 sessions of 10 minutes each so I'll sit in there a total of 20 minutes with 2 breaks.


> Sunday afternoon:

I will do Pushups with resistance bands on my back and I'll do about 10 sets.
Then I will do 10 sets of Dips.
Then I will do 3 different Ab Exercises in a SuperSet for 10 sets total.


So I think I"m eating right and exercising good. But I want to be really, really, defined and I think the only way to get there is to keep eating and exercising the way I am but I need a WAY to get from 200lbs to 170lbs without really dropping muscle you know what I mean??

Can someone please offer any type of suggestions because I have absolutely no idea what to do to get 30lbs off.

I tried Tonalin CLA and it didn't do hardly anything for me.

 

[KontrollerX]

http://tinyurl.com/naug62

Thats a good book that will help.

As well John Berardi has a great website.

http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/7habits.htm

Also here is Throttle's best post on weight loss.

http://www.sosuave.net/forum/showthread.php?t=160509

 

[blinkwatt101]

First off if you want to lose weight,protein isn't the way way to go.

Body Fortress protein is trash. Get something like ISOPURE or Labadra RTD drinks. No b.s. ingredients.

 

[The Message Boy]

Kontroller, yes John B. is great he also kind of has the mindset of Dave Zinczenko who's also at Men's Health.

My issue is that I already do what they say to do in the "metabolism" kick up tips. If you look at the way I eat and exercise now all of that is already included.

That post from Throttle is more in line with the Atkins diet and is not really substainable. The only bread I eat now is the wheat bread which is great for fat loss.

blinkwatt here's the supplement information on the protein shake I take, why shouldn't I use this? It has a lot of great things in there for muscle building:
http://www.bodyfortress.com/images/supplementfacts/044320.pdf

I think I'm doing good on "fat loss" but what I think my problem is that I weigh too much. Now, I think I've got a good amount of lean muscle on me but if I kept everything the same but just SHED OFF 30 LBS I think I would be really, really, good.

That's where I want to go to and I WILL get there. I'll find the answer if it kills me.

 

[blinkwatt101]

Hmm looks like they cleaned up their product some since I bought my gallon of it a year ago. Mine had sugar as an ingredient in it.

 

[The Message Boy]

Bump. Anybody?

Lol, come on guys have my entire diet posted on here.

 

[Teflon_Mcgee]

I would definately dump the apple juice. You can probably lose 0.5-1 pound a week from that alone.

Then replace the sauna/steam room with actual excersice. Unless you really need it to relax or something. If not, since you are only working out twice a week, do another hour of either lifting or cardio (or mixed.) This will effectivley double your workouts.

Good Luck!

 

[The Message Boy]

I would definately dump the apple juice. You can probably lose 0.5-1 pound a week from that alone.

Teflon well let me ask you, here's the apple juice I use:

http://www.motts.com/Products/AdultHealthyAndEnhanced/MottsPlusLightJuice.aspx

Click on the Nutritional facts link and you will see this isn't some of those crappy fruit juices, it's real apple juice.

Do you guys think I should do more cardio? Or should I find a pill to pop lol?

 

[Wynston]

Right....

Your diet looks pretty good, its pretty clean and has got you the shape you have now which according to everyone is pretty good, but you arent happy ok..... Have you tried Carb cycling??

Man, 30lb is a lot of weight, if you currently look toned you will be absolutely ripped to hell, and you will lose some muscle so forget numbers man, just look in the mirror..

Carb cycling is the usual way to break a plateau (a wall) what you need to do is carb deplete for the week days, look to get around 30g of carbs early on in the day, say a bowl of porridge for brekkie, but get your protein in aswell, every meal (you should be havin about 5-6 meals) you should be having around 30g of protein. Do this Monday to friday..

breakfast will be your only carb rich meal, no more all day!..(by this I mean any other carbs than fibrous[mixed veg is fine, leafies and things like that, not potatoes]) just protein after 6pm also(except fibrous carbs)... You;ll be surprised at what you can eat (cheese, steak, --- your week days are more or less Atkins..like, but its not atkins)

Weekends, you carb up, eat as much carbs as you like dont cal count too much, but obviously dont go overboard, if you want a pizza have it early on dont eat it at like 11pm saturday night, please!!!!! But just enjoy carbs, and then repeat...

You will be tired for about 2 weeks until your body switches the burn from sugar to fat and you will see results quickly due to the depletion of water a carbohydrate gives you (on ave carbs are 70% water) the weekend binge will refuel and kick start your metabolism and you will look great on sunday night when you muscles are full and you will look vascular after carbs... try it man, I've employed this diet with a few clients and it has worked a treat.. Keep the protein up also to stop you losing any muscle..

some supplements that might interest you:-
HMB - will help you keep muscle on a cutting period
Hyperdrol - awesome supplement, shoots testosterone thru the roof naturally by blockin estrogen (a cause of that lower belly fat)
BCAA - branch chain amino acids will help you keep all the muscle you can
A fat burner - nothing too fancy, you could have a strong coffee before training it will increase fat metabolism and use it for energy quicker..

Training tips:
Still train heavy to keep all the size you have if you dont hit the weight you will lose size, use a drop set at the end of the sets so that you hit both sets of fibres (fast and slow) doin this makes sure all the muscle is stim'd giving you a fuller look and burning extra cals. (I have also read that drop sets and high rep sets pull fat into the muscle, but I need to cite it).

Cardio - Swimming worked awesomely for me after training and I use a steam room to sweat out any cr^p left in me.. What you do for cardio is fine tho, dont overdo it tho, you could risk using your muscle for fuel which is not the way, and you'll look like a marathon runner, try sprinting...ever see a skinny sprinter!!!!

All the best man!!!
Mike - PT

 

[The Message Boy]

Wynston,

Hold stay right there I got some questions

Man, 30lb is a lot of weight, if you currently look toned you will be absolutely ripped to hell, and you will lose some muscle so forget numbers man, just look in the mirror..

Yeah that makes sense. That's how I've been doing it anyway. I'm about 198 to 200 lbs right now and I figured that getting down to between 170-180 would really hit the goal. So overall, about 20-30 more lbs.

Carb cycling is the usual way to break a plateau (a wall) what you need to do is carb deplete for the week days, look to get around 30g of carbs early on in the day.

breakfast will be your only carb rich meal, no more all day!..(by this I mean any other carbs than fibrous[mixed veg is fine, leafies and things like that, not potatoes}

Okay question. The majority of the carbs I'm eating now come from apples, the apple juice, the corn/greenbeas, and the Wheat breat I eat. Now, they are WAY more than 30g but I can tell you ONE APPLE is about 30 gs. So in this case I would need to really cut out all of these carbs and just eat the chicken and protein shake then? Like similar to the Atkins? Are you sure this is what I should do? Because see here's the thing, I would see if the carbs were bad carbs like potates and pizza and stuff like that, but the carbs I got going on are actually the good ones, but yes I consume way more than 30 gs.

Hyperdrol - awesome supplement, shoots testosterone thru the roof naturally by blockin estrogen (a cause of that lower belly fat)

Can you go over more information on this? Are you saying this supplement can spot reduce and specifically target the lower abs?

 

[servo1234567]

Cut the corn and the juice out. Every meal now has protein and a green vegetable. Drop as many carbs as you can. Switch to whole wheat tortillas for your sandwiches. Get as much as you can from natural food sources rather than the protein shakes.


Start doing a full body routine three times a week that includes 4 compound exercises for shoulders(military press, overhead dumbbell press), chest (incline, decline, or flat dumbbell or barbell bench press), back (bent over row or pull up) and a posterior chain exercise (deadlift or squat). Lateral raises supersetted with shrugs for 4 sets.
Finally, do 3-4 supersets of arm exercises like a tricep extension (skullcrusher, etc) and a curl (dumbbell or barbell curl) to end it.

Alternate between low reps (4-6) and high weight, mid reps (8-12) and mid weight, and high reps (15-22) with low weight during the week. As little rest as you can possibly stand.

On alternating days, do interval running. All out for 30-45 seconds with an active rest period (brisk walk or jog) of 1 minute to get recovered for 20 minutes.

This plan took me from 245 to 200 lbs and I'm still losing.

 

[The Message Boy]

servo1234567 says,

Cut the corn and the juice out. Every meal now has protein and a green vegetable. Drop as many carbs as you can.

This is the second time I've read this in this thread. My question to you guys is, what's wrong with the carbs that I'm consuming?

My carbs are Whole Wheat Bread, Corn, Green Beas, Apples, and Apple Juice.

I would see if I was eating bad carbs but what's wrong with these carbs? What I don't want to do is turn this into some sort of Atkins diet where I can't SUSTAIN the new eating lifestyle for a good time period.

I still don't understand.

 

[Wynston]

Hey man, no worries

The carbs you are already eating, lets take a look at them

Apples and apple juice - on the surface and as far as getting vitamins is concerned apples, apple juice, oranges, etc are great.. But they contain fructose.. which is (as far as your body recognises it) sugar, sugar spikes insulin levels, insulin spikes store fat... For this diet to work you have keep control of those insulin spikes on weekdays, you do this by having around 30g of Low GI carbs in the morning Low GI being Glycemic Index, being slow release energy such as wholewheats, yams, brown rice etc you can google for a list.

I would cut out apples and apple juice mate just for a while to see if they make a difference. Green beans are fine, anything green is usually fine, corn is hmmm i dunno really cut it out see what happens..

A sample diet for myself in the week would be

Breakfast:
Porridge with Manuka Honey mixed in with
30g Whey Protein

10 am
Protein shake

12.30pm
Chicken salad with light chilli sauce and lots of lettuce, tomatoes, beetroot, cucumber, some sweetcorn and some cheese

3pm
protein shake

5.30pm
few slices of sliced turkey from a deli
GYM
7pm
Tuna and steamed veg/protein shake

10pm pre bed
something high in protein again, I was taking slow release bedtime protein but i need to buy more, so usually a few slices of turkey again..

Weekends
What the hell I like, but being so used to low carb I find if I binge too hard my guts will be wrecked, so I mindfully carb up..

Hyperdrol is a supplement that naturally raises test. by blocking estrogen, it worked a treat for me, I think I put about 4lb of muscle on while losing fat, changed the shape of my body, google it man!! Bu t this said nothing is better than the hard work and dedication of sticking to a diet and exercise routine..

You wanna google the glycemic index and choose low GI foods for your carbs.. Also us the bodybuilding.com website, I learned about 20% of my info from PT courses the rest is from here and trial and error..

 

[servo1234567]

Why do you assume that all these things are good? Juice is sugar without the fiber of fruit. Apples aren't terrible but they have sugar in them. Any green vegetable is fine with me. There's no point to eating corn. You know how you make a cow gain weight? You stop it from grazing and you start feeding it corn. Whole wheat bread is better than the white stuff but it's still a lot of carbs and really not a lot of fiber.

There are three macronutrients: carbohydrates, protein and fat. There are essential fatty acids(essential meaning you can't make them). There are essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein). Essential carbohydrates? No. Essential sugars? No. You'll feel like crap for a week or two and then you'll feel pretty darn good. Your body can make all the glucose you need if you'll let it. Meanwhile, the new burden of doing so plus the lowered caloric intake will get you lean pretty darn quick.

 

[romangod]

Hyperdrol is a supplement that naturally raises test. by blocking estrogen, it worked a treat for me, I think I put about 4lb of muscle on while losing fat, changed the shape of my body, google it man!!

Hyperdrol...................... I find that very interesting. What's the best site to get more info? TIA


Cheers!

 

[The Message Boy]

Wynston says:

For this diet to work you have keep control of those insulin spikes on weekdays. You wanna google the glycemic index and choose low GI foods for your carbs.

Wynston, this is why I'm still confused. I googled the GI which I had already previously researched. You basically want carbs with a GI of 55 or less.

Well, take a look at this taken from www.glycemicindex.com:

Classification GI range Examples

Low GI 55 or less- most fruit and vegetables (except potatoes), wholegrains, basmati rice, pasta

Medium GI 56 - 69 - sucrose, candy bar, croissant, some brown rices

High GI 70 or more- corn flakes, baked potato, some white rices (e.g. jasmine), white bread


So according to the GI, the apples and the corn has a low GI which goes right in line with what your advice was, so I'm already doing what you advised.

I had to research further because I'm sitting here like what in the world are these guys talking about. Yes, there's sugar in apples and apple juice but to even go with what Wynston said, the carbs have a Low GI which means they are GOOD carbs.

I'm still trying to find an answer. The ONLY answer I've found to seem to be working so far is that I have increased my cardio days. I'm doing 3 days a week now instead of 1 day, still doing the one hour interval training and burning about 900-1,000 carbs a session.

What's happening is that the weight is dropping and I can see the definition coming in a little better already. The diet and my weight training with the pushups, etc., are still the same. Maybe I've already found the answer I was looking for?

 

[ssj4halo]

some of these guys are spot on with good advice

Here is my contribution:

Stay away from simple carbs later in the day. Limit your simple carbs as much as possible. That means away with the apple and juice. Its all a load of simple carbs...not good. It will go directly into your glycogen stores. Its just too many simple carbs. The apple can be fine earlier in the day, but as your 2nd last meal...I dunno. The reason why juices suck is because there is no fiber in them. You pretty much stripped one of the biggest factors for fruits. Fruit juices in general, are garbage. If you take a good multivitamin you will get most of those vitamins. Even when I mass, I tend to eat my bananas and apples earlier in the day.

Instead for carbs later in the day...switch to veges! They are calorie dense foods. That means they have NO calories but a LOT of fiber. They take a longer time to digest(good goal for fat loss). Also veges have a TON of antioxidants.

 

[The Message Boy]

Okay guys, I'll try the losing the apple and apple juice thing.

I posted this thread about a week ago, since I have increased my cardio days from one day to three days and I notice that it IS working to shave me down more while maintaining my lean muscle mass.

I'll post pics in a minute.

While you guys are here, I believe that's there 's no such thing as spot reduction, so basically you just need to get your body fat percentage down to see tonality.

My next question is, besides what I'm already doing, is there any other type of thing out there that helps to lower body fat percentage or something that actually works.

I also need to do a little more research on the supplements you guys listed here already, I haven't done that yet.

 

[EFFORT]

Search Shelby Starnes. Look at his stuff. He has some ebooks out on carb cycling, answers questions on it constantly on elitefts and he also has another big question answer thread about it on another site, you'll find it if you do a google search.

 

[servo1234567]

What about weightlifting? You do pushups, dips and ab exercises. What about some back and leg lifting?