I am 40lbs overweight. I have been exercising regularly past 2 years. However my waist is still big. I am planning to start a low calorie diet like the Velocity Diet. Can anyone suggest a good fat loss program that you have find successful in your own weight loss endeavor?
T-Dawg 2 for the diet anbd any solid training program that you will stick with. Incorporating reststance excersizes and some cardio.
I know very general but it will work. Main thing will be your diet followed by lifting to preserve/gain LBM, and then cardio to shed a few lbs.
Come on back with more direct stuff and we can try and help,
Phill
I have done German Volume Training and Total Body Training and have achieved great results. There are other programs on out there, but those two did wonders for me in getting leaner. Just remember, that diet has much to do with BF loss. A good phrase to remember is “If you eat like shit, you’ll get shitty results”. Good Luck!
Meltdown Training, Fat to Fire, Triple Total Training.
The Velocity diet may be overkill for the bodyfat level you are starting at.
[quote]Saintromeo wrote:
I am 40lbs overweight. I have been exercising regularly past 2 years. However my waist is still big. I am planning to start a low calorie diet like the Velocity Diet. Can anyone suggest a good fat loss program that you have find successful in your own weight loss endeavor?[/quote]
First off, what the heck does 40 pounds over-weight mean??!! A lot of us on here are “over-weight” by the typical government standard, yet we carry quite a bit less BF % compared to the average American and actually eat right and exercise! The average American male is about 190 with 22% fat. My LBM alone (fat free weight) is over 190lbs and I carry about a 1/3 of that BF. I’m also about 40 pounds “over-weight” yet I have a 33" waist! Same goes for a lot of us “recreational” lifters.
The key is to worry about your body fat % and not your scale weight. Do what has already been recommended to you - the T-Dawg 2.0 Diet and ANY program on T-Nation. It doesn’t sound like you have enough experience to attempt the Velocity Diet. Not to mention, I personally feel you have to be able to afford to lose some LBM when on an extremely low-cal ketogenic diet. As far as programs go, I think the GVT or other high-volume program is a recipe for losing muscle/over-training while cutting, but that’s just me. I think Quattro Dynamo is an excellent choice while cutting, but try several and see what works for you.
The point of my post is to remind you that the sooner you drop the ideal of “over-weight” and adopt the ideal that your bodyfat and health should determine your scale weight you’ll be better off and healthier. After all, you can easily lose 20 pounds of fat and 20 pounds of muscle and fit into that box that Uncle Sam has made for you (sounds like you have been working on that for 2 years now, unfortunately) but you would be worse off.
We are here to help you - keep asking questions.
TS
Thanks all for advise. I think I’ll start on the T-Dawg 2 diet and use Triple Total Training for starters. I’ll keep you all posted on my results.
Good luck, keep us posted and if you have any more questions dont hesitate.
Phill
After a disasterous bulking cycle where I went from 240 to 275 (and subsequently lost most of the muscle, but kept all the fat), I needed to turn to my old standby. . .
Cheater’s Diet / EDT
This was a popular program on T-mag when HOT-ROX came out, and it still kicks ass when I need to drop a lot of weight FAST. It requires that you do cardio twice a day for two days, then cardio in the morning and lift in the evening on the third.
You eat pretty strict on the diet days, but are required to overeat all the foods you are taught not to. In fact, it works best if you throw away the food log for the day and a half following the lift session. And eat A LOT.
I started on February first, using the andro guidelines but only taking HOT-ROX.
My initial stats were 252 20% BF
This morning, I was 247 14.5% BF
The man tits jokes stopped in less than two weeks.
The program is posted on
And my favorite coach, Coach Staley, wrote the exercise program for it.
I successfully used this program three times before this. As Shugart said with his velocity diet, he will use it once or twice a year to get back to where he wants to be. Same thing here. If you are strict with this program, you will be blown away at how easy it will be to watch the weight fall off.
Like an old T-Nation poster, chardawg, said. . . If you cant diet for two and a half days, you deserve to be fat.
I can throw you some basic rules…
- Weight loss occurs when you expend more calories than you consume! You can control this delta by decreasing calories, increasing workload, increasing metabolism.
- I find a mix of 50% protein, 30% carbs, and 20% fat is good for losing fat and sparing muscle. The mix is different for everyone. But don’t cut fat out entirely, you need to consume fat to burn bat.
- do cardio first thing in the mornign before eating or right after lifting weights. I like intense cardio for 20 to 30 minutes…the timing I am mentioning is important because you’ll burn more fat on a completely empty stomach and w/ glycogen stores depleted.
4)Eat a minimum of 6 small meals a day, with protein at each meal. - Weigh yourself once per week, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. This will mark your progress. If you lose weight to quickly add 250 calories, if you aren’t losing weight quickly enough subtract 250 calories.
- Check your bodyfat once or twice a month…your gym might be able to a relatively accurate test for you.
7)At your weight aim for weight loss of 3 Lbs a week for weeks 1 through 6, 2 Lbs a week for weeks 7 through 10, 1.5 lbs a week thereafter. This is because your bodyfat is decreasing and your body will become more stingy with the weight loss after a couple of months. This should help you maintain whatever muscle you have. In fact over a twelve week period it isn’t unreasonable to expect to los 30 LBs of fat and gain 5 LBs of muscle. - Have a cheat day once every 7 to 10 days. It will help keep you motivated, but also reset your metabolism to keep it moving. If your body gets excess calories every now and again it will know that it can burn through fat without worrying about famine.
Cheating means eat a sandwich with mayo or a pint of ice cream or have whole pie of pizza. It does not mean to binge like a pig at the carnival. - If you drink, drink red wine. Limit yourself to 1 glass a day. On your cheat day feel free to drink to get drunk, but know that you are setting yourself back by doing this. I like to drink alot from time to time. But I try to limit it.
Follow these guidelines and you’ll find they work for you. I guarantee it!
Also they can be followed for gaining weight. Just add more calories and make sure to up the carbs and keep protein at 1.25 Grams for pound of target body weight.
[quote]Saintromeo wrote:
I am 40lbs overweight. I have been exercising regularly past 2 years. However my waist is still big. I am planning to start a low calorie diet like the Velocity Diet. Can anyone suggest a good fat loss program that you have find successful in your own weight loss endeavor?[/quote]
[quote]mdamon wrote:
I can throw you some basic rules…
- Have a cheat day once every 7 to 10 days. It will help keep you motivated, but also reset your metabolism to keep it moving. If your body gets excess calories every now and again it will know that it can burn through fat without worrying about famine.
[/quote]
I believe that Berardi said that the whole “metabolic reset” effect that a cheat meal is said to have is a bunch of bunk. If im wrong correct me
[quote]jakewnet44 wrote:
mdamon wrote:
I can throw you some basic rules…
- Have a cheat day once every 7 to 10 days. It will help keep you motivated, but also reset your metabolism to keep it moving. If your body gets excess calories every now and again it will know that it can burn through fat without worrying about famine.
I believe that Berardi said that the whole “metabolic reset” effect that a cheat meal is said to have is a bunch of bunk. If im wrong correct me[/quote]
I will not correct you because your statement is not incorrect. JB is of the opinion that the cheat meal reset is more myth than merit. But he doesn’t discount it entirely. I believe it is worthy of employing for a few reasons. Let me state them here:
-
for someone trying to lose weight over a long period and not a competitive bodybuilder trying to shred up for a competition, the cheat meal won’t hurt and might help. That is- an extra 500 calories might set you back a day (i.e. it would be a wash with another day) but there is still a net 5 days of minus 500 calories or so…thus 2500 calories a week. Just about enough to lose a pound. The motivation of knowing you can cheat once every 7 to 10 days helps mere mortals be good on non-cheat days.
-
lack of scientific data is not a way to discount the theory. It is a known fact that the body when deprived of calories will become more efficient at burning them (not good for weight loss). If you are running a permanent deficit of calories (i.e. more than six straight weeks) the body will surely attempt to become more fuel efficient and weight loss will grind to a halt. This is the primary reason that when people go off diets they gain weight back so quickly. Now anecdotal evidence suggests that people cheating will send messages to the body that calories are not at a permanent deficit, and thus the body need not lower its metabolic rate. Sounds reasonable to me, and at the worst it is a low risk thing to do to keep your diet moving along.
-
However the body is not purely stupid and can’t be fooled forever. So in theory the cheat days would need to get closer and closer over time. That is to say eventually the body will figure it out. If I were to develop a diet plan for a person seeking to lose fat and keep it off i would do it as such. The numbers are arbitrary:
Normal Calories 2200
Days 1 through 30= 1700
Day 31= 2400
Day 32-41= 1700
Day 42= 2400
Days 43-51=1700
Day 52= 2400
Days 53-60=1700
Day 61=2400
Days 62-68=1750
Day 69=2300
Days 70-75=1800
Days 76-77=2200
Days 78-81=1900
Days 82-84=2000
Days 85 and beyond 2100
As you notice the time between cheat days and the number of cheats changes gradually until you reach maintenance levels. I believe, just my opinion, that this diet will keep your metabolism moving and help make fat loss gradual and workable.
Now if you are trying to get ripped…totally different story. Because a shredding phase for a bodybulider is designed to get you down to a very low level of body fat for a period of less than one week. This is not the norm, and not what this poster was looking for. In this case cheat days are unneeded setbacks. If you don’t have steroids to support your weight loss in the bodybuilder shredding method, you’ll likely lose muscle.
[quote]mdamon wrote:
jakewnet44 wrote:
mdamon wrote:
I can throw you some basic rules…
- Have a cheat day once every 7 to 10 days. It will help keep you motivated, but also reset your metabolism to keep it moving. If your body gets excess calories every now and again it will know that it can burn through fat without worrying about famine.
I believe that Berardi said that the whole “metabolic reset” effect that a cheat meal is said to have is a bunch of bunk. If im wrong correct me
I will not correct you because your statement is not incorrect. JB is of the opinion that the cheat meal reset is more myth than merit. But he doesn’t discount it entirely. I believe it is worthy of employing for a few reasons. Let me state them here:
-
for someone trying to lose weight over a long period and not a competitive bodybuilder trying to shred up for a competition, the cheat meal won’t hurt and might help. That is- an extra 500 calories might set you back a day (i.e. it would be a wash with another day) but there is still a net 5 days of minus 500 calories or so…thus 2500 calories a week. Just about enough to lose a pound. The motivation of knowing you can cheat once every 7 to 10 days helps mere mortals be good on non-cheat days.
-
lack of scientific data is not a way to discount the theory. It is a known fact that the body when deprived of calories will become more efficient at burning them (not good for weight loss). If you are running a permanent deficit of calories (i.e. more than six straight weeks) the body will surely attempt to become more fuel efficient and weight loss will grind to a halt. This is the primary reason that when people go off diets they gain weight back so quickly. Now anecdotal evidence suggests that people cheating will send messages to the body that calories are not at a permanent deficit, and thus the body need not lower its metabolic rate. Sounds reasonable to me, and at the worst it is a low risk thing to do to keep your diet moving along.
-
However the body is not purely stupid and can’t be fooled forever. So in theory the cheat days would need to get closer and closer over time. That is to say eventually the body will figure it out. If I were to develop a diet plan for a person seeking to lose fat and keep it off i would do it as such. The numbers are arbitrary:
Normal Calories 2200
Days 1 through 30= 1700
Day 31= 2400
Day 32-41= 1700
Day 42= 2400
Days 43-51=1700
Day 52= 2400
Days 53-60=1700
Day 61=2400
Days 62-68=1750
Day 69=2300
Days 70-75=1800
Days 76-77=2200
Days 78-81=1900
Days 82-84=2000
Days 85 and beyond 2100
As you notice the time between cheat days and the number of cheats changes gradually until you reach maintenance levels. I believe, just my opinion, that this diet will keep your metabolism moving and help make fat loss gradual and workable.
Now if you are trying to get ripped…totally different story. Because a shredding phase for a bodybulider is designed to get you down to a very low level of body fat for a period of less than one week. This is not the norm, and not what this poster was looking for. In this case cheat days are unneeded setbacks. If you don’t have steroids to support your weight loss in the bodybuilder shredding method, you’ll likely lose muscle.
[/quote]
Thanks for clearing that up. Now i won’t feel so bad when i knock out a pint of ice cream…j/k