I’ll make a long story short. The goal is to lose quite a bit of weight and build muscle. He is 5’ 9", 235 lbs. heavy boned. He was 245 lbs a couple of weeks ago but lost the weight after changing his horrible diet to a sensible one, good protein, good carbs in moderate amounts, veggies etc. He has been using the eliptical machine daily.
He started burning 475 calories according to the machine and now does around 650 calories in 45 minutes. He wants to start lifting. I was thinking about the fat burning article by Cosgrove and Waterbury: http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1589833
I would imagine this would be too difficult for someone who hasn’t lifted though.
Where should he begin? I was thinking he should do cardio for a while until he gets down to 200 lbs and then start lifting but he really wants to start lifting now. I have read lots of beginner articles but I still get confused with the whole fat loss/ muscle gain thing. Can someone point me to some articles or give me your expert opinion on how he should proceed?
Thanks.
Amanda
He is absolutely right to start lifting in the meantime. He’ll maintain or maybe even add a bit of muscle that way and prevent a drop in metabolic rate. Dieting without lifting is one of the worst things a person can do. Any program would work. I think Waterbury’s 10x3 for fat loss would be good.
My only concern is that it would be too intense for a beginner who might be better served by higher rep work intially if they have NO lifting experience. But I think he’d probably still be ok with it.
Great Workout split…even has a 3 day split…all easy movements, plus it includes all the major compound movements. I’m by no means a beginner, and have had great results off of it. I’m sure a beginner would have great results using it also, considering nothing about it is difficult.
There is little to no return on investment with cardio. You run for X time burn X calories. That’s it. Weight Training has a longer after burn, and will change body mass for the long term which then burns more calories by doing nothing.
The only big/overweight people I have EVER seen cardio work for have taken it to extremes, heavy thermos, running for hours, and eating salads. Yuck, not my kinda life style. Once they stop though they regain.
[quote]yasser wrote:
There is little to no return on investment with cardio. You run for X time burn X calories. That’s it. Weight Training has a longer after burn, and will change body mass for the long term which then burns more calories by doing nothing.
The only big/overweight people I have EVER seen cardio work for have taken it to extremes, heavy thermos, running for hours, and eating salads. Yuck, not my kinda life style. Once they stop though they regain.
[/quote]
Ya but doing cardio 3x a week for 30-45 mins, say, at a walking pace but an elevated heart rate will assist in more fat burn and faster muscle recovery. Cardio is not the devil, it has it’s place and is actually a huge key in overall health and fitness. No, that’s not blasphemy either.
The only big/overweight people I have EVER seen cardio work for have taken it to extremes, heavy thermos, running for hours, and eating salads.
[/quote]
That’s like saying the only big guys I see in the gym are loaded on massive amounts of steroids, and once they go off, they deflate like a balloon. Second, most people that are truly overweight, cannot run for hours or goto those types of extremes you talk about. They wouldn’t be able to handle it on the Cardiovascular level, or their joints would tell them to go Fuck off.
[quote]AmandaSC wrote:
I’ll make a long story short. The goal is to lose quite a bit of weight and build muscle. He is 5’ 9", 235 lbs. heavy boned. He was 245 lbs a couple of weeks ago but lost the weight after changing his horrible diet to a sensible one, good protein, good carbs in moderate amounts, veggies etc. He has been using the eliptical machine daily.
He started burning 475 calories according to the machine and now does around 650 calories in 45 minutes. He wants to start lifting. I was thinking about the fat burning article by Cosgrove and Waterbury: http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=1589833
I would imagine this would be too difficult for someone who hasn’t lifted though.
Where should he begin? I was thinking he should do cardio for a while until he gets down to 200 lbs and then start lifting but he really wants to start lifting now. I have read lots of beginner articles but I still get confused with the whole fat loss/ muscle gain thing. Can someone point me to some articles or give me your expert opinion on how he should proceed?
Thanks.
Amanda[/quote]
I think thats a decent workout to start with, just make sure your friend stays positive and knows that as long as he goes forward and does something there will be a better day each and everyday. It’s a straight line going somewhere besides here and to work on technique and muscle stimulation and feeling the exercise more then moving heavy things.
The more comfortable he gets with his body the more advanced, complicated, and/or savage he can get its his choice.
Then once he is comfortable make his own plan.[/quote]
This is an excellent program. Good frequency so he learns how to do the exercises properly and with 5 days of cardio should be good for him to see nice bodyfat gains.
Only thing that I would alter in his case is to lower the rest periods a little bit in order for him to get more stimulation for his cardio after the training session…Yes he would lift less weight but at this time his major concern should be the fat loss until he learns how to perform safely the exercises. When one looses fat the joint angle changes and could lead to injury if the goes crazy with the poundages.
I think he would also benefit from spinning. You mentioned his eating habits are sensible, what is his typical food intake? I’m sure we can help in that area also.
Thanks for all the input. He started the beginner program from Stronglifts.com and also found some good nutrition articles from that site. Believe it or not he was not eating enough.
What is spinning?
Spinning is classroom aerobics with a bunch of specialized cycling machines. It can be fairly high intensity but it’s basically just another cardio option.