Yikes, I Weigh 320lbs

Training Over 35 Lifter
1

Hey there…

I’ve been here on T-Nation before several years ago when I first started to lift at 45 years of age, and at a body weight of 360 lbs. I’m '5 11" so you can imagine my body image wasn’t what you’d call stellar.

Had never lifted before checking into T-Nation which I found while looking for training information. Once I got up the fucking nerve to tell myself I was a fat son-of-a-mother-load I started a workout routine I found here in in T-Nation.

The thing is even though I worked hard (read below) I never bought into making my workouts and diet a part of my life as opposed to something to transform my life. Well a lot has happened since then and I’m here to transform my life, not just my body.

My first experience lifting free weights was basically at 45 years of age and I didn’t really know much about lifting except for watching my son lift during his high school football day’s and while training to play D-I football.

My beginning weight was…drum role please…a paltry 75 lbs. I basically started there and ended up benching 185 lbs before I went on workout hiatus. My squats were, if I remember correctly, around 235 lbs, and deadlifts were getting to 335 lbs.

Sometime during this 18 months of lifting I incorporated some kettlebells into the routine with an 18 lb and 24 lb kettlebells.

That’s my history of lifting. So now two years later I’m 48 years old quickly moving towards 49 and and my weight is now at a plump 320 lbs which I’ve maintained for the last two years. I need to, and I want to, lose weight, and lift to build a strong muscle base while losing body fat. I’m not really that concerned about weight per se (aside from it being a metric for analysis) and would gladly like to add pounds of muscle (unsure about this though) to help with fat loss, but also because it feels great to lift and the muscle mass is proof something very cool is happening after weeks and months of training.

My immediate goal is to figure out what dietary program to get going on that will allow provide the delicate mix between calorie deficit and enough protein to keep muscle and perhaps add some as well. This is were I could use some help.

I’m looking for a weight and exercise routine (no fufu pansy stuff though) to follow and could use some input into routines I should be reviewing. Weight, cardio, and more weight!

I’ll end this intro buy saying that I’m relatively healthy, considering my weight, with no health problems (other than platar fiitsitis which is uncomfortable feet (a pain in the arse). I’ve maintained an active lifestyle through snowboarding, golf, and coaching baseball and football. My routine rite now is just lifting with no real routine on the bench, squats, deadlifts, and kettlebells.

Thanks for touching in, and any advice is greatly appreciated. Peace!

2

Welcome, and congrats on your decision. My suggestion is make the next 6 to 9 months a fat loss war before worrying about strength gains. That said, a basic powerlifting routine coupled with some fat-loss conditioning like pushing a prowler or barbell complexes, coupled with walking 45-60 mins. every day, is a good way to tell your body it needs to burn fat and not muscle while you are cutting. But the biggest thing is what does or doesn’t go into your mouth.

Check out the last six months or so of Collin’s log and the results he got with fat loss and strength training for ideas and information. Fischer also really knows his stuff so I’d peak in his log as well. Google John Berardi and the Dave Tate Project for ideas as well.

Good luck.

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Hi and welcome, good to hear that you’ve got the bug!

As a beginner myself I’m not in the position to give advice, but I would like to point you to the Velocity Diet thread in the forums list. Check that out if you haven’t already and stay motivated.

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Welcome and good luck.
I’d recommend Wendler’s 5/3/1 and get the book. For $20 it was one of the best things I’ve spent money on recently. Buy a jump rope and jump a little every day. Walk a lot. Find some folks to play football with. Have fun.
Keep a log (Hey look you’ve got a great start already). Write down your goals and tell people about them. Stick to a program for a while.

For diet, read “Why you are Fat and What to Do About It” by Gary Taubes. Avoid added sugar, highly processed carbohydrates (white bread frozen dinners etc) and things which have High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Personally I follow a ketogenic type diet (kinda between Atkins and Paleo).

Co tenBroek

5

Thanks for the encouraging words. I look forward to getting to know people here. The Velocity diet isn’t something for me, at least not know, but thanks for the recommendation. Anyone know of any nutrition (diet) articles in the articles history that I should look up?

I’ll have a look at Wender’s 5/3/1. Before my Hiatus from lifting I was following a 5X5 or 4X4 routine that was pretty good, but I don’t remember the name. I’m going to dig through the threads and articles over the next couple of days/weeks to reacquaint myself with routines. If you have any recommendations they would be welcomed.

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Welcome aboard.

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Welcome, Urbanman. (Wow, sounds like a superhero.) What does your doctor say - any specific conditions or concerns? What exactly are you eating now?

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First, today I need to shout out a hallelujah and God is great message. One of the things that happened during my hiatus these last two years was my son (then 22 yrs) was diagnoses with Testicular cancer (that’s a very small fucking “c”) and today is the first anniversary of him being declared cancer free! As a joke just before his first surgery he presented a framed picture of my avitar to his urologist.

@Cavalier - No medical conditions. My diet right now is comprised of clean eating. For the time being I’ve cut out essentially all non vegetable carbs and primary meals consist of eggs, chicken, and salads with raw almonds and fruits consisting of the smaller meals. I’m eating 5-6 small meals a day six days a week. Sunday’s I allow myself one big dinner meal. I’m supplementing with 3 or 4 (23) gram protein shakes a day.

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Diet sounds good. Have you started losing weight? It sounds like you should see the scale going down.

Mistake number one: keeping meals too small. It won’t do any good starving yourself. You’re a big boy, keep your energy up. Make sure you’re eating 2 - 3 pounds of meat every day, additional protein shakes wouldn’t hurt. Keep your water intake steady.

For drastic weight loss, I recommend the Paleo diet. Theory: it’s the types of food, not the amount you eat, that determines bodyfat. The link on everything you could ever hope to want to know about Paleo and then some, try http://paleodiet.com.

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Cavalier - I’ve been following the eating plan I’m on now for about three weeks and have seen a weight loss of 10 lbs. The protein intake is good. I usually eat six extra large eggs and half a chicken a day spread out through two or three salads or just alone.

My goal for the first month was to get my eating very clean which I’ve done. Since my carb intake now is essentially zero (not including veggies) I’ve notice I’m really sluggish all day. So starting next week I’m going to start following Tim Henriques “The Simple Diet” http://www.T-Nation.com/portal_includes/articles/2012/12-723-05.html

This eating plan (its not really a diet) is simple. If it is followed using common sense and there is a restriction of daily caloric intake it should allow me to see good results. I wont’t be eating 5,000 calories of good clean food a day and wondering why the scale needle hasn’t moved. What I like is the eating plan is so wide it will allow my wife (and me too) to cook the foods in the plan while just adding some additional food items for her and our kids. It’ll help our shopping, and make life easy and stress free for all. No torture, no starvation, and no wining!

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I like the simple diet, my wife is looking into it as an option, because she doesn’t do very well on super low carbs. Me, I can take super low carbs and still do pretty well energy wise, but I also drink a lot of caffeine and I think this makes up for some of the loss of carb energy. I notice, though, that weight loss stalls if I don’t get a blow-out meal every seven to ten days, and then I eat a stack of pancakes as big as a house dripping with syrup and butter. Then I go back to strict and pretty low cal and the weight seems to drop again.

I think the lesson is you got to find something that works for you and then work your plan and stick with it, leaving room for adjustments along the way.

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Welcome and as a guy who went from 305 to 175 and now at 225 I know what you will struggle with.

You want to know the BIG secret.

DO NOT FUCKING QUIT

Period.

Ever.

Till you die.

Good luck Brother

1 Like
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jjackrash thanks for stopping in. I agree with your coffee assessment. If it weren’t for pots of coffee these last several weeks I’d have swept all the floors around the house with my arse.

Derek542 good on you man. That’s impressive! That’s great advice. A quitter I’m not. My personal life is goal driven. My professional life is even more goal driven. I’ve built five businesses in my lifetime and I can assure you had I given into the temptation to quit, even just once, I would have been toast. Quit is not in my bag of tricks.

I’m curious how’d you gain the 50lbs? Was it incremental lifestyle gains or as a result of muscle gains?

Now with the diet issue settled I’ll spend time looking for a workout routine that’ll help me burn fat, but still allow me to lift.

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Ten pounds in 3 weeks is really good. Keep up the program.

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I was 305 when I was about 23 years old, lost down to 175 by the time I was 25. Over the last 13 years built it back up in more muscle gains, I did do a recent “bulk” and will never do that again. To many issues with myself to ever do that.

I love 5/3/1 as a base program, you do that 3 days a week and do a couple of days of “cardio” of choice along with diet should give you a good steady result.

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Derek looked like Skeletor at 175. Much healthier now.

Good luck to you, man. Eyes on the prize.

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Lol your wife made up that name. Yea way to light for me. I think 210 is about perfect.

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Hey Doogie thanks for stopping by.

I had a look at the Wendler 5/3/1 program. It looks very interesting, and will get serious consideration. I’m also looking to review some high fat burning weight routines to run several months. If anyone has any thoughts and can lead me in the right direction I’d be grateful to hear about them.

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[quote]urbanman wrote:
Hey Doogie thanks for stopping by.

I had a look at the Wendler 5/3/1 program. It looks very interesting, and will get serious consideration. I’m also looking to review some high fat burning weight routines to run several months. If anyone has any thoughts and can lead me in the right direction I’d be grateful to hear about them.[/quote]

Barbell complexes. Look up the name Steve Javorek.

Edit: here ya go

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I had a coworker get ready for his wedding doing this and it worked wonders for him. Takes up a lot of room in the gym and lots of volume, though: