I need a good exercise/diet routine. Any advice?

[elison]

So recently I decided that I wanted to start working out, getting off my lazy ass and instead of playing games (althought I still am a semi-heavy gamer) and going to work, I want to get into the best shape of my life. I'm not fat, or overweight, but I do have some "pudge" on my belly unfortunately. I'm just in search of some advice regarding what kind of routine I should undertake to achieve my goal. You can call this my new years resolution I suppose.


Now, when I said I wasn't fat, it's pretty true. I'm 5'9, weighing at 173lbs. About 3 years ago I used to be very overweight, around 285lbs, but thankfully I stopped being lazy and worked it off. Now I want to extend what I have and make it better. Basically, I want to get "cut", meaning I want a much slimmer stomach area, abs, etc. I don't have very much fat on me, but I need to tone what I do have.

I'm looking for some helpful tips regarding diet, exercise, and what kind of daily routine I need to undertake. At the moment, my daily routine is as follows:

Diet - Morning; 2 eggs and wheat pita bread (fuk yea pita bread <3)

Afternoon; Subway or a salad

Night; depends really, but I tend to not overeat and I also don't eat after dinner, unless it's a something small which I don't eat as soon as I'm ready for bed. Raisin Bran, for example.

Exercise; One day I'll do cardio for 30 minutes, the next I'll do 400 pushups, 400 crunches, 300 leg lifts, and I'll alternate the days. I'll usually take 1-2 days off during the week, usually during the weekends, if I get lazy (not a good idea).


I do, however, have a weight machine that me and my dad invested in 3 years back when we were overweight. I plan on using it, but only until I can find a good routine I can use.


So BG, what do you think?

[Maguspk]

Tons of these threads pop up all the time on BG these days. I'm sure you'll get some good responses soon enough, I'm not expert but it looks like you've got a nice schedule going at the moment. I suggest more cardio though, pushups and crunches x400 sound intense but I think Cardio might do more for your body as a whole, say running or something for a long while.

[Norelco]

Start here: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16

[elison]

Tons of these threads pop up all the time on BG these days. I'm sure you'll get some good responses soon enough, I'm not expert but it looks like you've got a nice schedule going at the moment. I suggest more cardio though, pushups and crunches x400 sound intense but I think Cardio might do more for your body as a whole, say running or something for a long while.

Yeah all the crunches and shit tend to wear me out very quickly and I get tired for the next day. I'm thinking about slowing down on it, which I'll probably do.


As for cardio, what do you suggest? I use a bike at home for about 45 minutes every other day. Should I increase my time on it? Also, when would I be able to start seeing results? I want my V ;(

Edit: thanks Norelco, I'll take a look.

[Groovebox]

I couple years ago I lost 80 lbs in 4 months by telling myself "fat makes you fat"... so I did nothing but count fat grams. When I first started, I set a limit at 20g, I didn't calorie count, but I didn't pig out on non-fat meals either. Once I got used to it, I realized how little it took for me to feel full. I worked out 5 days a week, I used the treadmill for an hour per day... which wasn't hard for me because the treadmill was in front of the TV >.>

I ate a lot of fresh fruit and non-fat yogurt, and turkey/chicken/veggie sandwiches with no cheese, and took some multi-vitamins. It took me about 3 weeks to really get into my routine, but I never looked back... and I've probably only had fast food about 10 times in the past 2 years There are a lot of low-fat/non-fat options available nowadays in the grocery store, if you are willing to eat at Subway™ you'll be fine... just remember, no cheese and no mayo/dressing >o

[Ryko]

Been talking to friends from the football team who have taken to losing weight themselves and I'm going based off of their suggestions. At the moment I do 45 minutes of cardio daily, 30 on the elliptical and 15 on a bike. Then I do crunches and obliques (started light my first day back at it, really really light, doubled it since then, probably gonna add another 50 today, the soreness has died down a lot) and one day do chest lifts (light weight, a lot of quick reps and sets) then the next day do leg lifts and back. In the morning I have 2 eggs, been making sure to eat breakfast, for lunch I tend to have a chicken salad with non fat dressing if any at all, and for dinner I tend to go light now, all with water or if I really want something different, about 75 cals worth of vitamin water. One day a week I cheat and have rice with dinner, usually sunday. Wheat bread obviously, stay away from enriched flour.

It's not been as bad as I had imagined getting back to weight loss would be, the soreness kicked me in all over the place and probably will continue to do so for weeks but w/e an aleve every other day will do until I'm accustomed to it. The site norelco mentioned is great, as is men's health for meal suggestions so it doesnt get stale. I only started about a a week and a half - 2 weeks ago but I'm losing about exactly what my friend mentioned I would (a little more actually), 7 lbs lighter already.

[Norelco]

just remember, no cheese and no mayo/dressing

What about their red wine vinnegrette? I believe it's fat free, or it used to be.

[Blarg]

You can probably cut down on the crunches and pushups by changing your technique for doing them, situps in particular. I can do situps all day if I don't care about technique but can get the same burn from far less by doing them properly. Pushups I cut down on number by doing them with my feet on a chair or something, makes them harder so you can get them over with quicker. I don't do these for fat loss, moreso for upkeep since I don't do as much sports as I used to, so it may work differently for you.

[Groovebox]

just remember, no cheese and no mayo/dressing

What about their red wine vinnegrette? I believe it's fat free, or it used to be.

That sounds fat-free... I just got the honey mustard every time I went there. I'm mainly talking about the chipotle ranch, dill mayo, fat person topping #376, etc...

[elison]

Alright, so I need to start bumping up my cardio to a daily basis; no problem.


Another question I have is as follows: As I mentioned above, I want to tone and lose the fat in my abdominal area, as well as gain a smexy pac. Do I need to focus on cardio as well as abdominal workouts, or should I focus most of my attention towards cardio at the moment?

[Ryko]

Do both, I'm not taking this as the bible but from what I gathered due to the lack of bone to cover the abdominal area, they actually heal at a faster rate than most of our other muscles do. Separate them by day, for me lowers about make me want to die so I only do those half as much atm until they tone up a bit and I can tolerate them more.

[dritero]

Way too many crunches and pushups. You cannot spot reduce fat by targeting a specific body area. If you want to lose the little bit of fat around your belly, diet is key. No soda, junk food, sugar, etc. Stick to whole grain breads and pastas, lots of protein, tons of veggies etc. You should also do a full body workout routine, 3 days a week. You should really get a gym pass if you want optimal results. If you're going to do cardio I would suggest high intensity interval training (HIIT). It works better than steady pace cardio.

I would suggest one of the following workouts:

1.) TNT diet by Men's Health - http://www.menshealth.com/transform
(the diet is low carb, you may not want to get that extreme. The workout routine is good.)

2.) NROL - New Rules of Lifting

3.) Abs Diet - Haven't looked at it, but a lot of people like it.

These are all full body workouts, and you can find info on all of them at http://www.menshealth.com/forums

There are many more diet and workout plans out there, you just have to look around.

"Abs are made in the kitchen, not the gym"

[elison]

Do both, I'm not taking this as the bible but from what I gathered due to the lack of bone to cover the abdominal area, they actually heal at a faster rate than most of our other muscles do. You can separate them by day if you want but it wouldnt hurt to hit them all, for me lowers about make me want to die so I only do those half as much atm until they tone up a bit and I can tolerate them more.

Sounds good. Would your reccomend doing cardio and abdominal workouts on the same day, or possibly splitting them up? Maybe 3-4 abdominal workouts a week, alongside 5-6 cardio for 30-40mins a day. Sorry for all the questions lol, I'm just completely lost.


@dritero: I'd get a gym pass, but as I stated above, I have my own lifting machine. Has 70+ possible workouts you can do, ranging from arms, to legs, to back, etc. As for my diet, I'll need to work on it a tad bit more, but I think so far I'm doing decent. I don't want abs that are fucking godly huge, just some abs that are there and are visible, ya'know?

[Remyo]

get a heavy bag hang it up do 30 mins of kickboxing twice a day, best cardio available.

[kisada]

there's tons of routines all over the internet, so you'd just have to pick one that works for you in terms of time and what you have available.

however, the easiest thing you can do right away without worrying about exercise is to just not eat/drink sugar. most people don't realize just how much sugar they consume, but if you'd be surprised how fast the grams add up.

the worst things you have to deal with are sodas, so if you just cut that out alone your body's metabolism will begin to speed up naturally. personally i'd suggest just ditching all sodas and candies, and also trying to keep below 100 grams of carbs per day. learn to limit these and you'll be much, much better off than you were before.

[Correction]

I need a good exercise/diet routine. Any advice?

Talk to a personal trainer instead of trial-and-erroring amateur advice with your physical shape?

[elison]

there's tons of routines all over the internet, so you'd just have to pick one that works for you in terms of time and what you have available.

however, the easiest thing you can do right away without worrying about exercise is to just not eat/drink sugar. most people don't realize just how much sugar they consume, but if you'd be surprised how fast the grams add up.

the worst things you have to deal with are sodas, so if you just cut that out alone your body's metabolism will begin to speed up naturally. personally i'd suggest just ditching all sodas and candies, and also trying to keep below 100 grams of carbs per day. learn to limit these and you'll be much, much better off than you were before.

Thankfully I've already started this, and I refuse to drink anything that isn't diet. I haven't had a non-diet soda in over 2 years, not even a sip. My biggest problem back then was the 9 cans of Pepsi a day, as well as 8 hours of FFXI afterwards.

But I have since then lost 120lbs+, and now I just need to tone my body. Thanks for the input, I'll try and find something that works for myself. I just wanted advice on what I could expect to see rapid results from, even though I shouldn't expect rapid results from exercise and dieting. It's a slow process, but it is 150% worth the effort.

@correction: Like I said throughout this thread, I know what I need and/or want. I'm in no way at all fat, I just have some chub I'd like to get rid of, and I'd like to stack some muscle on myself.

Why pay some meathead to give me advice that BG has already given me lol?

[Azkarin]

If you have a pudgy stomach and want to get cut abs then the first thing I'd focus on is diet and cardio (but as stated before this is all amateur advice). You can just go nuts on crunches and expect to get definition. Fat lays on top of the muscle so you may be cut but you'll never see it. See I'd go with a healthy mixture of cardio and weight training with more cardio in the beginning and once I lost some of the pudginess I'd begin to shift more time to abs. Besides that there is a lot of good advice from all the posts above. Its really a combination of cardio, weight training, and diet.

[ertyu]

Whatever you end up doing, just make sure you drink shitloads of water. Don't drink anything else, just water.

[Stromgarde]

Personally for cardio I prefer running, I just can't seem to push myself while remaining stationary. Your mileage may vary, however.