OK OK, I’ve had it!!! I’m fat and tired of being fat.
I have posted on here before, a year or more ago and was trying to lift and diet.
I failed miserably. Now I just want something that works for me and works for my lifestyle.
My stats: 39 yrs old, male, 5’10" tall, 252lbs.
I’ve never been an athlete. I work usually somewhere near 55 hours per week and have a wife and three kids.
I don’t have two hours a day to spend at the gym. I don’t have three hours a day to think about/plan out what I’m eating.
I tried PN last year and just did not get into the whole planning to eat, eating, and then reviewing what I ate all the time. I’ve done several of Chad Waterbury’s workouts and liked them but in the end just didn’t stay motivated.
Anyway, I know that to some of you this sounds like a lot of whining.
I’m genuinely asking for help. I joined a gym again, it’s not a big gym, its a “Anytime Fitness” place. They’ve got machines, a Smith machine, and some dumbbells, that’s it. I am going to have to make it work. I am also starting again on PN, I’m going to just work the program as laid out and not try to over think it.
Here’s my goals:
Be in the best shape of my life within 1 year, by the time I turn 40.
To me, that means, less than 15% body fat, I’m not overly concerned about what the scale says although I would like to reduce my waist size from where it’s at now (42") to a reasonable 34" or 36".
Finally kick the junk food habit. For me, burgers, wings, and beer are regular staples. I need to reset what I like or find other healthy alternatives that I like.
Bring my Triglycerides and Cholesterol into control. Last time I had them measured it was way way way bad. I’m afraid that at the rate i’m going I’ll die of a heart attack or develop diabetes.
OK so that’s it. My guts are spilled. I know there are others out there that have been where I am, at my age, and with significant time restraints. I would like to hear from you.
For my part, I pledge to post this thread regularly with updates and photos of my challenges and victories.
I’ve never been an athlete. I work usually somewhere near 55 hours per week and have a wife and three kids.
I don’t have two hours a day to spend at the gym. I don’t have three hours a day to think about/plan out what I’m eating.
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Most of us who are over 35, and are married with children, have a work schedule like yours. Some people work 70 hours a week and are able to fit everything in with ease, because they have made diet and exercise a lifestyle, not a hobby.
If you cannot MAKE the time to plan, prepare and cook your meals, and get all your workouts in, you’re going to fail again.
You have enough knowledge, and you already know the basics. Take some time up front to execute a plan with your exact, specific goals in mind, not just “I want to workout and loose weight”. Then you won’t need to spend two hours a day at the gym and three hours with your meals.
I can entirely relate to your circumstances as I approach 40 in March. My suggestions:
In large fonts print out a paper with the following: I will be 40 year old in ____ days." Then laminate this paper and fill in the blank each day to maintain focus of your deadline and post this somewhere where you see it daily.
Improve one area of your life at a time. Focus on the lifting one month, then add in the improved diet, then some form of HIIT. This way you don’t overwhelm yourself and give up. You create a new habit each month.
For lack of time learn complexes and just stick with them. Don’t overwhelm yourself with a new routine every week.
Choose realistic goals to reach every four weeks. Assess where you want to go from there.
Thanks to all so far for the suggestions. The sign giving my deadline each day is a great idea.
I know I have to get motivated and find a way to stick wit it. Hopefully this thread will help.
OK…so a fat middleage guy walks into a gym…
Here’s what my workout was like today.
I got there and decided to warm up by jumping rope. For those of you who’ve never seen a fat guy jump rope, let me tell you it’s quite a sight.
I tried jumping rope for 15 minutes and ended up stopping after 12. Of course that wasn’t continuous jumping. I’d jump until I couldn’t quite breathe anymore, stop to catch my breath and start over. After 12 minutes of that you could say I was pretty much warmed up.
Next came push-ups. My gym has a couple of those handle bar things for doing push-ups. I did a set of 10, then followed that up with 10 medicine ball wood choppers (without the jump at the end…I’d already done my jumping I figured). Anyway that was one set. I did three sets of those with a short break between each set (maybe 30 seconds or so).
Next I did a rotation of assisted pull-ups (10 per set) followed by assisted dips (10 per set) and then 10 knee supported knee raises (I tried but could not get the pike position to work). The assistance on the dips and pull-ups was 125 lbs. I did three sets on this rotation (well almost. The last rotation basically sucked for me.)I took another short break between each set like before.
Finally, I did a dumbell rotation.
Alternating Front Raise: 10lb x 10 each arm.
Alternating Hammer Curl: 15lb x 10 each arm
Front Dumbell Squat (on a 30 degree incline): 20lb in each hand x 10.
I did 2 rotations.
A cooled down on the recumbent bike for 8 minutes.
Total time in the gym = 1 hour start to finish.
I know I’ll get a lot of critiques on this workout. Let me know what I did right and what to improve on. Right now I’m basically wiped out so I think I probably did OK.
Oh, by the way I’ll post pictures of me (ladies you may not want to see these)soon hopefully.
Most of us who are over 35, and are married with children, have a work schedule like yours. Some people work 70 hours a week and are able to fit everything in with ease, because they have made diet and exercise a lifestyle, not a hobby.
If you cannot MAKE the time to plan, prepare and cook your meals, and get all your workouts in, you’re going to fail again.
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Thank you for your honesty. I appreciate it and need it. Let’s say I’m going to make a life change but it looks darn difficult from where I’m sitting right now.
Losing fat is MUCH easier than gaining muscle, keep that in mind.
Read labels, count calories, eliminate white flour products, no sweets of any kind, no booze, whole grains-stay away from"enriched" stuff, lots of vegetables, fish, chicken, keep hydrated, shy away from anything made to eat that is in a box. Research this site.
As far as the time issue: to hell with the yuppie gyms. 200 bucks gets you a bench with barbell and dumbells. Another 200 gets you a chinup-dip station. It will all fit in a small area.
Train at home for about 45 min whenever you can. As far as training…again, research this site.
If you really want it, it can be done.
It doesn’t just look hard IT IS HARD. All human beings are creatures of habit and changing habits isn’t just hard, it’s actually impossible for most people.
I went from 375 lbs of pure flab to 185 lbs at 12% bodyfat so no one knows more about how freaking hard it is than me. I can tell you right now that you have no chance unless you understand that what you want to do isn’t about anything except commitment.
Here is the inescapable truth: Your body composition is the result of your lifestyle and the ONLY WAY you can change your body composition is to change your lifestyle. There is simply no way around that so either make a commitment to changing your lifestyle or be happy with how you look and feel now. There’s no magic here. The magic is in you. Either you get your shit together or you don’t. If you’re looking for answers anywhere except within yourself, then you’re lost.
Changing your lifestyle is the hardest thing you can possibly do. There is no easy way to do it. It takes total commitment and most people simply don’t have it in them to make that sort of commitment. Do you? Until you can answer that question, all other questions are meaningless.
My advice is, that don’t try to change everything at once. Nutrition is the most important part for you at the moment. I don’t think it is so important how you plan your workouts. The only important thing is that you do them regularly. Make them enjoyable and satisfying, you should feel invigorated, not depleted after the session. Prefer walking over other means of transportation always when you can.
What you do have time to do is cook in bulk on Sunday and prepare food for the next several days. You don’t need 2 hrs a day to train. You can do fine and make great changes on 1. You have time to do that.
I’m so busy this summer that I often leave my house at 9:00 a.m. and don’t get home until 2:00 a.m. The only time I can get a workout in is in the morning. So I wake up earlier and that’s what I do. Not ideal. But it gets the job done. Wake up an hour earlier if you need to. But you probably have an hour of tv at least than you can swap for working out. Most people do.
[quote]happydog48 wrote:
I went from 375 lbs of pure flab to 185 lbs at 12% bodyfat so no one knows more about how freaking hard it is than me.
Absolutely Incredible. You lost 200 pounds!!! WOW!!!
I’m not being a smart alec here, I’m pretty much floored right now.
Here is the inescapable truth: Your body composition is the result of your lifestyle and the ONLY WAY you can change your body composition is to change your lifestyle. There is simply no way around that so either make a commitment to changing your lifestyle or be happy with how you look and feel now. There’s no magic here. The magic is in you. Either you get your shit together or you don’t.
While I totally 100% agree with you, I also know that there are folks out there, like you, who have been down this path before and can offer sage advice. I’m listening, and doing. I’m not looking for a shortcut and I realize this will take commtiment, perseverance, and patience. Whether or not I have it in me has yet to be determined. Like an alcoholic trying to kick the bottle, I am looking at this as a “one day at a time” endeavor. If I can wake up each day and commit to do my best for that day, I think I’ll be fine.
I appreciate you taking the time to respond to my post. Thank you.
The biggest key to success in these matters is to realize that what you ultimately need are Permanent Lifestyle Changes.
Permanent - this isn’t something you do for a few months before giving it up and going back to old habits. If you lose a bunch of weight and then let your nutrition slide, your weight will skyrocket back up. Same thing with exercise. You’re going to have to keep at it permanently. Once you get where you want to be you’ll have to keep fighting to maintain that level of fitness. It’s not going to get easier - ever.
Lifestyle - you need to alter your whole way of life. Exercise, nutrition, and planning need to be an integral part of your life. You need to eat right - you’re not just dieting for a few weeks, you’re changing your eating habits altogether. You need to plan ahead for meals to ensure something healthy and not worthless fast food. Don’t have enough time in your day to plan it all out? Make time.
Get your wife to help you. The two of you should sit down together and plan a week’s meals out in advance, do the grocery shopping to make sure you’ll have what you need. Split up the cooking/cleanup responsibilities, divide and conquer.
Changes - whatever you’ve been doing up to this point hasn’t worked. You need change. Change in your eating habits, change in your exercise habits. Change in hobbies. Get the whole family to jog together or bike together. When it comes to all these changes, you don’t have to go overboard all at once. From the movie “What About Bob” - my favorite quote “Baby steps Bob, baby steps”.
Just make small changes on a daily basis. Little by little. It’s a lot easier that way. After a period of time, you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come. But you’ve got to make an effort each day to improve something.
Lastly, if you’ve got a family, use them for motivation. If you start cooking and eating healthy, so will they. Use yourself as an example for your wife kids to stay active and healthy. Healthy living can be contagious.
You’ve definitely got your work cut out for you. This kind of change is never easy. A lot of people have given you great advice above as well.
[quote]Mad Thad wrote:
Here’s what my workout was like today.
jumping rope
push-ups
wood choppers
pull-ups
assisted dips
knee raises
Alternating Front Raise
Alternating Hammer Curl
Front Dumbell Squat
A cooled down on the recumbent bike for 8 minutes.
Total time in the gym = 1 hour start to finish.
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Total time of 1 hour is perfect. Jumping rope is excellent. The fact that you had to stop and catch your breath is fine. Try going for the full 15 minutes next time. Always push yourself to go just a little longer before catching your breath. Great exercise.
With the rest of your routine, it looks good given what you’ve got to work with at your gym. I’d ditch the bicep curls. Don’t waste your time with small muscle groups, you want to hit bigger muscle groups to burn big calories. Try throwing in some dumbbell shoulder presses every so often.
Add in a bit more legwork every other workout or so. Use dumbbells and do lunges. Try some goblet squats. Hold a dumbbell or medicine ball in front against your chest and squat down. Great exercise.
Because I feel for you, I’m going to share my secret weapon for physical fitness…(cut and paste link in your browser to download clip from crossfit.com)
Good for you for posting your pics. This is going to motivate you and give you something to look back on once you’ve reached your goal.
Make changes but start with small and doable. BE CONSISTENT. The more you make something a part of your life the easier it is to keep doing it. Schedule your work outs and meals and just do it, just get them done.
I have the utmost respect those that have a fitness challenge ahead of them and stick with the program and don’t give up.
My one tip is that consistency is critical. If your schedule doesn’t allow you to make it to the gym (it will happen) have a routine of bodyweight, or dumbbell if you have them, exercises that you can do at home. Squat variations, walking lunges, pushup variations (incline, decline, wide, narrow), etc. Do sets of each exercise one after the other, rest and repeat. Set a time limit (10,15,20 mins) and see how many times you can get through the cycle. or, count maximum reps.
Another tip (couldn’t resist), when you are at the gym, in the interest of efficiency, don’t bother with isolation movements like dumbbell curls, lateral raises, etc. At this stage, do only compound movements (squat, deadlift variations, pressing including bench and overhead, etc.). You need to rev up your metabolism to burn fat and isolation won’t do it. These exercises don’t need to be done at gut-busting, powerlifting weights. Start at comfortable weights in order to learn the movements and progress from there. And, keep your rest intervals short for fat burning.
Training strategies can become a complicated topic so focus on simplicity, big movements and consistency.
One more thing, learn to consider that slightly hungry, but not a starving and lightheaded feeling, as your friend. Consider it a sign of fat-burning progress.
I feel completely blown away by the positive comments I have received. I will be incorporating as many of the comments as I can into my lifestyle.
Here’s today’s workout:
12 minutes jumping rope again. I’m going to learn to jumprope if it kills me. I think it’s pretty cool to see those fighters going through their warm-ups jumping rope. I’m looking for some goo reference to teach me technique. Any help with that would be much appreciated. I did better today jumping rope than yesterday. Not quite so wiped out at the end of my 12 minutes. I think I’ll stick with 12 until next week and then try to go up to 15.
I tried a Smith Machine Bench Press. MAN SMITH MACHINES SUCK!!!
I did two reps and thought my back was going to go out. I bagged the machine and picked up the dumbells. From there my workout looked like this. I’ve been trying to figure out the workout notations you guys use and I think I’ve got it figured out. Anyway here goes.
A1) Dumbell Benchpress : 20 x 12
B1) Front Dumbell Squat (with my feet on a slight incline) : 25 x 12
I did three sets without a break. Then rested a little bit (maybe a minute while I set-up for the next set)
A2) Dumbell Military Press : 15 x 12
B2) Alternating Dumbell Curls ( I didn’t get the advice to dump them until just now) : 15 x 12
Again three sets without a break. Then a short rest to set-up for the next sets.
A3) Dual Pulley Row : 30 x 12
B3) Seated Leg Press : 130 x 12 (I think this was a little light for me)
Same rest scheme as the first two.
At this point my legs were shaking and my upperbody feeling pretty spent. I was only 40 minutes into the workout however so I decided to get on the eliptical machine. I did a hill training workout for 15 minutes on level 3 (that’s level 3 out of a total of 25 so it’s pretty weak). The machine has a heartrate meter and I noted my heart rate when I got on was reading 159. It stayed pretty much there until the end of the workout, varying slightly between 157 and 162.
Total time in the gym was 1 hour. I got home and made myself a Berry Blast Super Shake from Dr. Berardi’s Gourmet Nutrition book. YUMMMMY!!! I did cheat a little on it however, I used fat free berry flavored yogurt instead of plain (yuck!!!) and put a little light vanilla flavored soy milk to make it blendable. Hopefully I didn’t screw it up too bad.
