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

[elison]

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

What's the reasoning behind this (besides the obvious)? Usually I only drink water, diet sodas, ice tea with Splenda, or anything else thats sugar free/calorie free.

@azkarin: What kind of time frame would I be looking at? For example, heavy cardio for 1-2 months, then mix in med-heavy ab workouts?

@storm: I like to be stationary because I seem to get a better workout when doing so. Being up and around trying to do cardio, I never enjoyed it.

[Brien]

an hour of cardio everyday should do the trick. Just get used to running everyday and within weeks it will be like nothing just like brushing the teeth. At least thats what i do.

[Aeromyth]

Eat more often.

Eat your weight (lbs) in protein (g) each day, throughout the day.

Cottage Cheese right before bed. (the largest release of HGH in a given day is about 1 hour into REM sleep)

A clean protein meal, or supplement within 30 mins of any workout. (2nd largest release of HGH in the day & The period at which your body will most demand and utilize protein)

Several gallons of water throughout the day, and enough fiber in your diet. (don't go atkins on that shit, some carbs are necessary)

Besides the cottage cheese or time-release protein supplement before bed, no food within 4 hours of bed.

Steadily reduce the amount of carbs you eat as the day progresses (most in the morning, and fewest in the evening)

A lot of fruit is full of sugar, most of the time you don't need the calories. Avoid fruit juices.

Take a good multi-vitamin (little Iron if you eat a lot of red meat) If you are deficient in any area here you could suffer serious adverse health problems. (if you've lost that much weight recently [50lbs/6months] your doctor has probably already told you to take a calcium supplement)

Fats are necessary, and there are even some which promote liposis. Fish and Flax seed are the richest sources of Essential Fatty Acids easily available. If you are lacking EFA in your diet your body may attempt to preserve excess fat in stores throughout your body. If you are getting enough of these it will use the excess fat you eat as energy, or simply not retain it.
Conjugated Linolic Acid (CLA) is a Trans Fat that was recently discovered to promote rapid liposis of stored fat (particularly visceral fat, and in men the stomach area). It's found in most cooked red meat, but is only usefully abundant in Kangaroo meat, so you'll need to supplement it if you're planning to take advantage of it.

You cannot burn fat from a specific part of your body with any exercise, so doing endless sit-ups wont help get you ripped, it will just make your abs stronger.

Recovery is extremely important in the repair of muscle. Leave about 40 hours (commonly accepted time-frame) after you work a certain part of your body before working them again. If you work them too soon after, like the next day, your abs wont become any more defined.

Catabolism is your body's way of producing energy by breaking down its own muscle tissue for fuel. Since muscle burns more energy than fat preventing catabolism is a key part of fat (not weight) loss. The most anti-catabolic thing you can do during aerobic and anaerobic exercise is drink lots of water.

When your body runs low on Glycogen (your muscle's primary source of energy) in active muscle cells, it both begins to burn additional fat -and- enters a more catabolic state. To avoid eating your own muscle and ultimately losing all that hard work you did trying to build ab muscle, refrain from preforming aerobic exercise past "The Wall" (that point where your muscle runs really low on glycogen). This usually means limiting your cardio to 20 mins or less. This means it will take longer to lose the weight, but you will get that more "cut" look. (this is why joggers and endurance athletes tend to be far more "twiggy")

High impact exercise (ie. squash, running) causes more tissue damage than low impact exercise (ie. elliptical). where you may burn the same number of calories during exercise on a low impact machine, the energy used to repair damage caused in high intensity exercise will cause you to burn far more fat afterwards. (this is often known as "Afterburn")

As your heart rate increases during exercise (typically) so does the amount of glycogen being used. Its often approximated that when your heart-rate is in the "Fat burning zone" it is using 80% fat&carb energy, and 20% glycogen energy. In the "Cardio training zone" (80% max HR) it is estimated you burn 20% fat&carb energy, and 80% Glycogen. You will however burn more total calories in the cardio zone, so use your judgment to determine which will end up burning more total fat.

Doing cardio exercise before your first meal in the morning can shift the ratio of glycogen/fat that is being burned (you burn a much higher ratio of fat in cardio exercise. Your body has been starved for so so many hours that its glycogen levels are diminished just enough for your "Wall" to be slightly sooner than it would be otherwise). As a result the same amount of exercise done in the morning will burn more fat than the same exercise done later int he day.

Go online and determine your Basal Metabolic Rate, and the total number of calories you will need to consume to preform all of your daily exercise. Do not consume less than that of a 500 calorie deficit each day (any more than -500/day and you risk entering starvation mode, where your body will try and preserve fat, and start to shutdown unneeded processes). Every few weeks (or days) alternate to a 500 calorie surplus. This will provide your body with enough energy to produce new muscle, and burn off excess fat.

Alternate workout routine (what you do to work out a given muscle group) at least every 4 weeks.

Alternate which day of the week you work a given muscle group.

Allow a whole day of rest at least once a week (you are not an Olympian).

Above all else:
For the first 3 months of a lifestyle change you are prone to the greatest change. Fucking capitalize on this! Get a trainer at least for this long, your body will undergo the biggest change, almost regardless of what you do to it, so do it right and maximize this.
So many people start to see results in this time frame because their body is so prone to this effect that they will think they don't need a trainer, and get overconfident. After that time period is up they get discouraged because they stop seeing results (usually because they are making huge and simple mistakes). The mean life of all gym memberships is less than 6 months (see why this might be?). So hire a trainer early, and get the best results, and ensure that you continue to get results even after this "spike."



My old boss was a financial adviser. He used to ask his clients why they would hire an adviser who wasn't a multi-millionaire, when that was their goal. "Don't take advice from someone who hasn't done it" was kind of his motto.
I've lost 93lbs of fat in the last 6 months, while simultaneously gaining 13lbs of muscle. The result o this change looks so natural that most of the people I know wouldn't even notice if it wasn't for wearing clothes that don't fit. It wasn't until I was walking around with my shirt off that my immediate family even noticed (one of those, why wait, "aren't you supposed to be fat? WTF?!?" moments).
I'm sharing with you what I have learned. I did not know all of this when I started, so you are far better off than me.
Train hard, and expect to look your best.

[Lordwafik]

How bad are drinks like Coke / Pepsi etc on your body? Is it true about a few posts above, they slow down the metabolism? I've been eating somewhat healthy recently, but don't care about fixing my drinks since I didnt realize it was much of an impact, but if that's the case I guess it's time to go shopping again.

[Aeromyth]

simple sugars like coke and redbull are great for that quick energy. unfortunately because you have so much energy available to you because you drank them your body will be far more tempted to store all of the additional energy you eat over the next few hours (as glycogen, then fat).

They don't slow down your metabolism, caffeine actually increases it. Caffeine is actually one of the most common legally available ergogenic chemicals available. Theres just so much sugar that it does a lot more harm than good.

[Seditedi]

High-Fructose Corn Syrup can be pretty bad for you, it's the most common sweetener in soft drinks in the United States, but I'm not sure if that is the sweetener of choice in Australia. Few studies have shown HFCS to increase the level of total cholesterol in your body up to around 10%, and the level of the bad cholesterol (LDL) up to 11%.

I pretty much eliminated all types of soda from my diet simply because it's just too much unneeded calories added to your diet. I usually just drink water most of the time, other times it'll be juice or iced tea (preferably white tea).

[Quixotic]

High fructose corn syrup (which happens to be used in USA coke and lots of other stuff) is not that great for your body, so avoid stuff with that if you can.

[Rags]

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

What's the reasoning behind this (besides the obvious)? Usually I only drink water, diet sodas, ice tea with Splenda, or anything else thats sugar free/calorie free.

@azkarin: What kind of time frame would I be looking at? For example, heavy cardio for 1-2 months, then mix in med-heavy ab workouts?

@storm: I like to be stationary because I seem to get a better workout when doing so. Being up and around trying to do cardio, I never enjoyed it.

Drinking ice tea is good for you. It is suppose to give the sensation of you being fuller. Not to mention it has some caffine which helps the metabolism. Drinks with sugar such as spenda is an iffy subject. Some believe that it will lead to food/sweet cravings. While others say its won't. What I like to do is take crystal light and mix it with a gallon of water. The directions say only half a gallon. But I find its better to dilute it.

Once you fine tune your supplements wit a healthy eating habit. How long it takes is up to your genetics. If your doing cardio for 2-4 days a week for 30-60 minutes after a heavy workout session where you only give your self 30-45 seconds rest per exercise your fat loss and body weight should drop fast. Also when you first wake up you should considering going for a nice short job before breakfest. This will up the metabolism throughout the day. An then I would come back to cardio after your workout.

Stationary work is fine as long as you can stay motivated. For the first couple of weeks I would slowly increase the volume of cardio. Gradually increasing the time from session to session. Once you been at your cardio for lets say a month. It will be time to switch it up. I would say do 2 days of fat loss cardio and then do 2 days of H.I.T cardio.

[Lordwafik]

I just came back from the shop which I normally go to for lunch, they have hardly anything healthy, most of the isles were donuts and junky crap, the healthiest thing they had were SAKATA (dunno if you have them in USA, but they are tasty rice crackers), picked them up, also went past the drink section and skimmed past all the drinks/juices/etc and went for the Water.

Walking down those food isles made me realize how much rubbish goes in my body when I'm not thinking enough I usually just buy whatever my tongue likes tasting and don't think twice, although I think now I've had enough of that.

Unfortunately I do not have time for the Gym (thanks to my job , bleh) so I'll stick to the dietary side to this.

[Aeromyth]

Drinking cold water over warm water causes you to burn calories to maintain your body's temperature (this is called thermogenics).

Unfortunately the result of drinking all of your daily water at temperatures close to 0 degrees Celsius (freezing point in the rest of the world) only results in a total energy expenditure of about 70 Calories.

[sexxxytaru]

Drinking cold water over warm water causes you to burn calories to maintain your body's temperature (this is called thermogenics).

Unfortunately the result of drinking all of your daily water at temperatures close to 0 degrees Celsius (freezing point in the rest of the world) only results in a total energy expenditure of about 70 Calories.

No offense, but that's a bunch of bologna. You would need to expose your ENTIRE body to extremely cold water to mobilize adipose tissue, which in turn generates heat.. and even then, that's so little it's not even worth doing. Just exercise.

[Aeromyth]

Drinking cold water over warm water causes you to burn calories to maintain your body's temperature (this is called thermogenics).

Unfortunately the result of drinking all of your daily water at temperatures close to 0 degrees Celsius (freezing point in the rest of the world) only results in a total energy expenditure of about 70 Calories.

No offense, but that's a bunch of bologna. You would need to expose your ENTIRE body to extremely cold water to mobilize adipose tissue, which in turn generates heat.. and even then, that's so little it's not even worth doing. Just exercise.

If you're not already doing it, its a really basic long-term means of loosing a pound or two, and realistically, most people already drink most of their water cold anyway. I agree though, the change is insignificant for most, and its no substitute for exercise.

[gandorf]

Since I have taken a break from school and most other things and only been playing XI and drinking a lot, I have put on a lot of weight I used to be in great shape but I have developed what almost looks like manboobs Q.Q how do you get rid of these fuckers before its too late?

[Lordwafik]

Since I have taken a break from school and most other things and only been playing XI and drinking a lot, I have put on a lot of weight I used to be in great shape but I have developed what almost looks like manboobs Q.Q how do you get rid of these fuckers before its too late?

http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/9...50chriscp6.jpg

[gandorf]

I don't get it? no red meat ?

[Altanass]

wafik, you must be able to find some time in your day to exercise even if theres no gym nearby.

Watch TV much? Buy an exercise-rower - you can do exercise and watch tv at the same time, and you wont be grabbing the popcorn/chocoloate/biscuits/coke if your rowing

Play Campaign much? play with a wireless joypad while jogging on the spot (open the windows though for some fresh air >_>), or buy a stationary bike and play while riding.

Really just think like your ingame, you have levelled to 10 and got this new ability "press up". When used, puts you into press-up stance, lasts for 15minutes (merits can extend this). Recast time is once during sunlight and once during nighttime. At level 25, you get a new job trait "flat chest" =) :nikkei:

Besides Wafik, its Lent now, you could forego sugary foods for the sake of Jesus =o

[Lordwafik]

wafik, you must be able to find some time in your day to exercise even if theres no gym nearby.

Watch TV much? Buy an exercise-rower - you can do exercise and watch tv at the same time, and you wont be grabbing the popcorn/chocoloate/biscuits/coke if your rowing

Play Campaign much? play with a wireless joypad while jogging on the spot (open the windows though for some fresh air >_>), or buy a stationary bike and play while riding.

Really just think like your ingame, you have levelled to 10 and got this new ability "press up". When used, puts you into press-up stance, lasts for 15minutes (merits can extend this). Recast time is once during sunlight and once during nighttime. At level 25, you get a new job trait "flat chest" =) :nikkei:

Those are good suggestions. lol @ last paragraph. I need something to help me do safer sit ups though, since I never excersize , I'm not flexible enough to do those

Besides Wafik, its Lent now, you could forego sugary foods for the sake of Jesus =o

I'm from the other religion that blows people up.

[BerenTebogo]

Quit FFXI

[Aeromyth]

I don't get it? no red meat ?

Red meat is typically more fatty than the lean meats like fish and chicken, so people dieting tend to avoid them. Also, some people have stigmas with red meat, like vegetarians. You don't need to avoid eating a nice lean steak by any means.

Those nutrition labels they put on the side of boxes are based on a 2000 calorie diet, and realistically most men (the bigger you are the higher your BMR) need to eat more than that.

Gynecomastia (man boobs) is a real problem, because our body has no natural way to destroy the breast tissue cells created. Men still create estrogen, and if they make too much of it, they grow boobs (seriously). The chemical messenger (DHT) your body uses to make all kinds of important hormones, will trick your body and one of two things can happen:
1. You can produce too much DHT, and just produce too much of all those hormones.
or
2. You don't properly utilize DHT and make the wrong mixture of hormones from it.
What that means is, if your body is making too many hormones (ie. Steroids, certain foods) you could at the same time be increasing your estrogen levels along with testosterone, which usually wont be enough, unless you experience the second case. Following the use of steroids your body begins to shut down its testosterone producing mechanisms (its fucking tired), and DHT which is still being produced in large quantities, is used to create more of all the other hormones. Your body wants to have a balance, but cant adjust nearly as quickly as you can change or stop medication.
If you are fat, and have man boobs, its likely just fat, but if you are lean and still have a big squishy chest, you may have gyno (go to a doctor to find out, not the interweb). If you haven't taken steroids though, that squishiness is more than likely caused by your genetics.
The shit can only really be fixed with surgery.

[Lordwafik]

I don't get it? no red meat ?

it was actually a hint that you can use a carving knife to slice off your manboob.