burned out, how to keep losing weight?

[DHSStud]

Four and a half months ago, for the first time in my life, I seriously committed myself to losing the weight that has been troubling me for years. When I started around the first of October, give or take a few days, I was 6'2" and weighed somewhere between 265-270 lbs. I didn't check to see exactly what I weighed back then. So I start massive amounts of working out. We're talking at least a couple hours a day, 4 times a week. Cardio for the most part, elliptical machines, bikes, anything that counted calories. I started eating salads every day, and taking stacker 3s. In the last month since spring semester started, I've upped it to 5 times a week. Today I weigh 214 lbs, however I still hope to get around 180-185 lbs by the time the semester ends in mid-May.

My problem is this: every week I start off strong with a big workout on monday, but then I've gotten tired, and I can't seem to do nearly as much any day the rest of the week. I'm afraid that if I slow down, the weight will start creeping back on me. A few people (friends and even strangers at the rec center) have commented on how I'm improving, even though I don't see a big difference in how I'm looking, despite having lost 50+ lbs. I still have fat on my lower abs, and thighs.

Here's my question: What do I need to change in order to get closer to, and eventually, under that 200lb mark? Is there a workout that I should do which is shorter and will continue to drop the weight, without me feeling burned out and bad about myself?

PS: sorry about the long message, but this is my first post after lurking around for a long time.

 

[Soshyopathe]

It sounds like you have hit a wall in your weight loss. You will only lose so much by starving and burning it off. Now what you need to do is set a diet that still has a negative calorie intake, but you eat more often. You also need to concentrate more on building muscle than cardio. These two things will speed up your metabolism, and make it melt off like butter.

Many say it's impossible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. They can all kiss my ass, because I've seen it happen. You'll lose total weight, but you can put on muscle under there. It's all about the timing of your meals. Have a medium breakfast, small snack, small lunch, small snack, lift, then take in half your daily calories. Have a dairy product before bed, rinse repeat.

You need your diet to be high protein if you hope to put on muscle will still cutting. It's hard enough to do while bulking. Have a couple eggs and toast and milk for breakfast, half can tuna snack, some chicken and fruit for lunch, half can tuna snack, a pre-workout snack (whey if you will), then a normal dinner, and a milk and whey shake before bed. Drink green tea throughout the day. This will all give your metabolism one hell of a boost.

Just make sure you don't take in more than (12 x bodyweight) calories per day, and start lifting, and take in a lot of protein. This change will put your body into a more healthy cycle instead of starvation.

 

[JohnnyVegas]

I personally think part of your problem is your lack of muscle workouts. Metabolism runs off of a few things. More muscle means a faster metabolism. Eating every 2-3 hours (half meals, more or less) also means a faster metabolism. The main thing with keeping your metabolism going is that you have to prevent it from burning your muscle off. To do this you need protein! Soshyopathe is right on the money about protein.

My suggestion is three or four days a week of muscle groups, and one or two days a week of cardio. Your muscle workouts should be intense. I'm sweating by the end of mine, every single time.

 

[DJ Girevik]

As my weightlifting coach says, "Train hard and heavy or go home to mommy!!" Train hard and build the muscle to decrease bodyfat%.

 

[DHSStud]

Thanks for the replies so far, guys. Now are there any muscles I should put more emphasis on when lifting, and should I do high reps/low weight or low reps/high weight? I was planning on just doing cardio until I was happy with what I weighed, and then concentrate on lifting this summer, or in other words, basically trying to start from scratch. But if building muscle will help take off the fat in my lower stomach and thighs, then I'll start working on that.

 

[BuddhaSMASH]

Well it depends. Are you looking for the lean, cut look? If so then U need to do high reps/low weight. But if you want the bulked up, muscular build (which would be ideal, cause more muscle equals higher metabolism) then you need to do high weight/low reps. If you don't already have large legs, get them. Leg muscles are extremely large muscles. If you can get them big enough then they turn into fat burning powerhouses. Also, you have to use all of your body to support a squat bar, so doing squats will build leg muscles and provide a bit of a cardio workout all at one time! Good luck man and keep us posted on your progress

 

[DHSStud]

Is there a certain type protein mix that you guys would recommend for me? Will the number of carbs have an effect on my progress? I went to GNC, and there are different mixes with anywhere from 0-7 carbs in a serving. Just that fact that I should start taking in more calories again has me worried that they'll add up and I'll start putting on weight. I was hoping that the past few months was the hard part to getting to my goal weight. All this, keeping in mind that I'm NOT trying to go for the bulked up look, but a lean and cut look.

 

[STR8UP]

Originally posted by Soshyopathe
Many say it's impossible to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. They can all kiss my ass, because I've seen it happen. You'll lose total weight, but you can put on muscle under there. It's all about the timing of your meals. Have a medium breakfast, small snack, small lunch, small snack, lift, then take in half your daily calories. Have a dairy product before bed, rinse repeat.

You know, i was going to post something on this subject. I was afraid I would be flogged so I didn't.

A couple of years ago I slammed the protein shakes left and right, hit the weights hard (no cardio) and seemed to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. I started to look real good after a couple of months. The "can't burn fat and gain muscle at the same time" theory kept me from believing what I was seeing.

After a year out of the gym a few months ago I spent a couple of months bulking and put on some good mass. It was time to lose the fat, so I dropped the calories and hit the cardio and weights. I'm not making NEARLY the progress that I did before.

I suppose everyone's body is different.

 

[DIESEL]

Originally posted by STR8UP
You know, i was going to post something on this subject. I was afraid I would be flogged so I didn't.

A couple of years ago I slammed the protein shakes left and right, hit the weights hard (no cardio) and seemed to gain muscle and lose fat at the same time. I started to look real good after a couple of months. The "can't burn fat and gain muscle at the same time" theory kept me from believing what I was seeing.

After a year out of the gym a few months ago I spent a couple of months bulking and put on some good mass. It was time to lose the fat, so I dropped the calories and hit the cardio and weights. I'm not making NEARLY the progress that I did before.

I suppose everyone's body is different.

You probably dropped the calories too much too soon.. calorie reduction in a cutting diet has to be gradual.

Also losing fat and gaining muscle is pretty much impossible after you have a solid year of training under your belt. (By solid year, I mean 52 consecutive weeks of training, with only scheduled breaks, none of this take 4 months off garbage... for all intents and purposes you are a newbie again.)

In newbies the shock of weightlifting stimuli will spur some muscle growth in spite of fat loss. But in reality you're not gaining that much mass, rather you are being suckered in by the optical illusion of being leaner. The leaner you are, the bigger you'll look.

D

 

[Soshyopathe]

No, really D, my boy actually went by measurements. Although he was a newby.... Damnit, I will prove it!

Anyway, DHSStud, you really shouldn't focus too much on one thing or you'll end up leaving something out. Work everything the same, and if you hit anything harder than the others, it should be with your legs. Squats, Deadlifts, Hack Squats will make muscle-gaining easy as hell. If you notice a bodypart lagging (calves, bis usually) start giving them pritority or work them differently.

If you're new to it, it'll be easy to put on 10 pounds of lean muscle fast, and that'll really boost the metabolism. Cardio cuts weight in the short term, but if you do some planning, you'll see that weights will help you more in the end. Plus, you don't want to be scrawny when you lose that weight, you want to have a strong bone structure under there. Don't worry about how hard it is, or about getting "too bulky." Just hit it hard. Start out in the 8-12 rep range as a newby, and as you progress, it should go down.

Happy Lifting.

 

[Solomon]

bUMP thoughts on this years later?

 

[sexysuave]

If you want the BEST fat burner currently on the market, go to www.supps4us.com and order your self the "OxyELITE Pro". This sh*t is pretty amazing, and the first few nights, you'll probably have a little bit of trouble falling asleep due to the side effect of much increased engergy! After the first couple of night, I was falling asleep just fine. If you take this, and work out, and also take your proteins after your workout, you should gain muscle while at the same time DEFINITELY burning FAT!

You definitely can build muscle and burn fat at the same time. And as some posters have mentioned already, you need your weightlifting probably more so than the cardio. I can't even tell you how many people I see that are slightly or grossly overweight and ALL they do is just cardio, they just go jog on a treadmill thinking that’s the holy grail. WOW it amazes me. If they would only substitute 3 days of that cardio and actually do weightlifting, their results would be staggering!

You have to have a solid meal plan as well. Your breakfast should be sort of like your dinner for most people, in other words, your breakfast should be your BIGGEST meal, you’ve got the entire day to work this off, so you can get away eating just about anything as soon as you wake up. From then on, it’s every 2-3 hours, a combination of healthy foods such as: white skinless chicken breast, baked potatoes (with NO stuffing, and no salt lol JUST the baked potato), brown rice (once again, very little if any extras added), egg whites (or the entire eggs if it’s in the morning), oatmeal, fruits, vegetables, LOTS of water, protein shake, and also you can take a protein shake before going to sleep also, (you definitely don’t want a heavy meal before sleep and some people advise no meal at all, but to retain some of your muscle a good protein shake before sleep is helpful). This combination of actually WEIGHTLIFTING, EATING every 2 to 3 hours, GETTING YOUR SLEEP ( 7 or 8 hours a night) and also some cardio is what will actually really boost your metabolism and also build muscle and “magically” burn fat at the same time!

Oh, and you DO NOT want to work out more than 4 or 5 days a week. Take the entire weekend off from working out. If you overdo it you will just put too much pressure on your muscles and not give them enough rest so your muscle growth will be greadly reduced. Right now I’m working out on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Fridays.

Combine all that with your “OxyELITE Pro” and you’re golden!! Make sure you write back and tell us about the results. If you have any questions you can always hit me up on the PM.

 

[Adriann]

Most people do a lot of exercise and diet for losing weight but they adopt it for short term goal.
You should make it your lifestyle to keep losing weight and never regain your weight.