JaredGMS

OK, here's the deal...
I gotta lose some weight. I am in good "health", as is evident from my last physical, but I am in danger of hypertension soon (bad family history). I am 6'0", 295.....I do have a large muscle mass, but not THAT much

So, here's what I want. I need to lose weight without losing muscle. My goal is 225-235....My diet is already completed (wife is a dietician..) and has me on a 2100 calorie diet.

My question here is this - I need to know the best calorie burning workouts available. I DO NOT need to build strength, but any strength building that comes secondary to the weight loss is fine.

Any ideas??


<---what I need to do
<---what I need to stop

teg_to_bike

I'm a fan of the eliptical machine. According to the display I burn about 700 calories an hour, although I think its lieing to me.

virtualbong

I'm not a trainer or anything but I'm a huge fan of the elliptical. Gets your entire body working but not abusive to the knees like running so you can go for a long time.

phipark

Lots of repititions with less weight and cardio.

FastAcura

Losing fat while keeping muscle is almost impossible.

I would concentrate on getting rid of the weight without worrying about losing muscle first. First thing I'd do is get your diet in check. When you get your weight down to a reasonable level, worry about gaining the muscle back.

astro

ride a bike, go swimming, just be active!

JaredGMS

Unfortunetely, much easier said than done while in Law school...they take your $$ and your health..


YOU BASTARDS!!!


I know what I have to do, I just need alot of people to grind it into me....

thanks guys!!

anothercls

You could always look at it like you're able to perform better in the bedroom, have more energy to study for law school and if/when you have kids you'll be ready to take care of them. Whiskers thread was a good inspirational piece on how to be healthy for you and your family. I'm sure that his vacation he is on right now is better since he can walk around all day and be as active as his son.

JaredGMS

Truthfully, my weight has never been an obstacle for me in having an active life with my family. Recently when I was in Europe of five weeks, there was nowhere everyone else went that I didn't tag along (for five weeks across 7 countries)...I was able to walk and keep up with everyone in my party anywhere we went (although the 2 mile hill to Prague castle was tough for all of us)...

This is not for my current health or activity(which is actually surprisingly good)...this is thinking about the future.

Doc.Booty

Why do people keep posting this? That's only a good way for him to waste his time.

As I've said in the stickies, lifting weights plays a large part in maintaining muscle mass. Contrary to popular belief, it is also an excellent way to burn calories.

2100 calories is a good daily intake to shoot for. Hit the weights and make sure you get a lot of protein and you'll do very well.

FastAcura

If I'm trying to lose weight, I'd much rather do lots of reps instead of doing heavy lifting. Lifting 6-8 reps will probably take 10 seconds. Doing high reps (like 24*145) will keep the heartrate up longer. Like he said, he's not trying to gain muscle mass, but lose weight and keep what he has.

To me lifting more reps is like high intesity cardio. Sprinting for 30-45 seconds and taking a break for 1 minute and then sprinting again (etc.) is a great way to lose weight.

Please tell me why lifting weights for 10 seconds is better than lifting weights for 45 seconds when I'm trying to lose weight? Seriously, I wanna learn.

Doc.Booty

In simple terms, it's not all about time. I can walk down the hall with a paper cup in my hand, or with a cinder block in each hand. Just because it takes me the same amount of time to move, doesn't mean i do the same amount of work and expend the same amount of energy. Sure you can rep 24 times and take twice as long as my 8 reps, but that's no gurantee that you're doing more work.

If you were to calculate it so that the amount of calories burned on a set is exactly the same, higher reps would still do less for you for two reasons. The first is t hat heavier weights cause hormonal changes in your body that encourage fat loss. You don't get nice these hormonal releases from cardio (you are moving very close to the cardio side of the spectrum with a high rep set).

The second reason, and the more important one, is that heavy lifting has a large effect on the calories your body burns far after your workout stops. After plain cardio your metabolism will be back to its normal calorie consumption level in about 30 minutes. After heavy lifting for an hour your body will continue to burn significantly more calories than normal for 24-48 hours. I had a link to a really good article with some good research on this but i can't find it.

In addition, keeping muscle mass while in a caloric deficit can be hard. Heavy weights send the biggest "I NEED MY MUSCLE" message to your body possible.

The third myth on this link has some more info about it: http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Myths.html

FastAcura

Ok thanks, I didn't know that.

Whiskers

Just do it....

Teh Jatt

Pug

I'm 6'2" and since May '05 have gone from 239# to 205#. I did this on a 2800 calorie/day diet (which I typically cheated on weekends) and about 3 hours cardio and 2-3 hours of weights each week.

As your wife probably explained, the larger you are, the more calories you need to just maintain your current mass (because someone who's 295# burns more calories just doing every day stuff than someone who is 195#, for example).

I kept track of my food intake using a diet diary. It was a nuisance sometimes, but helped keep me honest. On those weeks where I kept my average calories below 2400/day, I dropped about 1.5#/week. Based on your current weight, and only taking in 2100 calories - you should be able to do this easily.

1# of fat = 3500 calories. So you need to either decrease your caloric input by this amount (sounds like your diet should more than cover this), or increase what you're burning.

I've also found that the ellipse quotes calories burned that seems high, e.g. 600/hour. As such, I use my polar hr monitor to track this.

My experience is that running outside is far and away the best way to blow torch the fat. For me running does more than any other machine (although I enjoy doing the ellipse). I've also found that running on a treadmill does not give quite the same effect as just doing some roadwork.

Finally, once you start working out - your appetite will probably increase. For instance, on days when I run 4-5 miles I find myself starving later on the day. That in turn makes it harder to keep to my daily calorie limit.

Good luck - if you can stick to a plan you'll definitely see results within 1 month!

You can do it ! ! ! !

dallison

actually is a good snack, less the butter and salt

TXXXX

Why not.
Weight lifting. Turn those fat into muscle.

FastAcura

It's not that easy. Fat doesn't just "turn" into muscle. But, the more muscle you have the more fat you will lose because you will burn more calories.

EDIT: Also, to get big, you need to eat a lot. That's why some people take time to bulk up (which means gaining weight) and later try to cut the consumption of carbs as much as possible.

Whiskers

My advice is to get to your goal weight, then build muscle.

ric

My advice is to be patient, whatever course you take on, Jared. Weight loss that results in more than a few pounds a week can place significant stress on the cardiovascular system, and that then countermands the core intent of what you are trying to do.

I'd read the stickies on this thread very carefully to see what "works for you", have a few PM's with ABreece and Beetroot to create an individualized program for you that is "organic" - meaning it has a beginning, changes pace on a regular base, reassesses your goals periodically and benchmarks your progress periodically. There will be no one "perfect" program that will work ad infinitum...... you will need to change and adjust over time. You clearly have the dietary issues under control with the support of your wife.

The other thing I would urge is patience, and that is another reason for developing a rational carefully paced program. I am now achieving fitness goals that I set two years ago..... have had two years of ramped up physical activity with incremental gain and no workout related injuries. My issues are different; I'm 6'2" and weight 160, so my challenge is muscle bulk and tone, but the issue of persistance and patience are pretty universal concepts, I think.

Doc.Booty

Depending on how fat you are and how much muscle mass you have AND how long you've been working out, it is very likely that you will lose some muscle when losing fat.

If you're at 40% bodyfat and have never been in the gym before you will actually gain muscle and lose fat when you start lifting. But that will not last long.

If you're at 10% bodyfat and have been working out for several years you are much more likely lose muscle when trying to burn fat off.

You cannot convert fat into m uscle. It doesn't work that way.

Doc.Booty

This is typically the preferred way to do it when you're very overweight.

All good advice.

Newplay1

+eliptical machine, but the kind that has swinging arms, keep it up and don't cheat on your wife (diet plans) and soon enough you'll loose one backstreet boy (115lbs).

Whiskers

JaredGMS

Nah...I'll never be under 200lbs....I'm naturally a BIG guy....plus, that would have me at like 3% body fat....

My goal is 230 - puts me at good BMI and fat %'s

Mizouse

its ok im fat as well, i was talking to these girls at a party i went to. and yea.. lets just say that sparked me to go back to the gym to get into shape