*Please don't flame me or this thread, it's a serious inquiry.

Hello all. I'm 6'3'', and I was around 266lbs. when I decided to join a gym a month and a half ago. After the first two weeks I dropped 12lbs., and put on some muscle. Since then, I'll goto the gym anywhere from 2-4 days out of the week. Each time I'll go, I'll walk or jog anywhere from 1 mile to 4, and lift weights for about an hour. I've picked up a lot of muscle doing this. My arms and legs are much more defined, and they are both pretty solid. The only problem is, I'm still at 254lbs. My goal is to get down to around 220-230lbs., but with all that I'm doing, I can't lose anymore weight.

I've given up eating in between meals, and eating junk in general since I started at the gym. I'll eat probably two times a day. The first meal is always cereal since that's what I will eat when I get up, and then I'll eat a normal dinner, usually pretty small. I realize that putting on muscle will make losing weight a tad harder, since the muscle weighs more then the fat that I am losing. But I don't understand how I just completely stopped losing weight altogether when I haven't changed a thing. My arms and legs look good, but my mid section is still beer belly like, when I don't even drink.

So what do you think? For those of you that work out, what is best to lose the weight from the stomach area? I'll do maybe 20-30 crunches, with 50lbs. worth of weight holding me down, and that doesn't seem to be doing a thing. I'm pretty much lost.

Thanks,
Matt.

 

speed up your metabolism

 

Good find. However in the thread they say to excercise, build muscle, eat smaller portions of food, and eat healthier food. All of which I have been doing. And at the age of 18, I really hope my metabolism isn't that bad already?

 

I weighed 212 and wanted to get under 200 lbs, Heres what I did:

- Stopped drinking soda
- Cardio 20 mins a day, 4 days a week (exercise bike)
- Eat fruit for breakfast, bananas and apples
- Ate a light lunch 2-3 days a week (south beach diet wraps are pretty good)


- It an easier formula, eat less fat and sugars, do more cardio.

 

That is a good method. I've probably had two can's of soda since I started this. I do drink a lot of iced tea though. And by a lot, I mean, that is all I drink. It's homemade, not too much sugar. I haven't tried cardio, and usually I'll put a banana in my cereal that I eat for breakfast. I'll drink water as well, usually 3 glasses a day, plus another one or two when I work out.

 

Crunches will not make you lose weight around your mid section. Spot reduction is a myth unfortunately.

You need to go onto something like fitday.com and track your calories. As you lose weight your body needs less calories to maintain and becomes accustomed to the caloric intake so you need to drop it further.

Building muscle while you're losing fat isn't difficult, its impossible. You would have made "noob" gains at the start despite the caloric deficit but without steroids you wont keep that up.

Also by smaller portions of food they're not just referring to your daily intake but your individual meals. If you calculate that you need to be on 2000cals/day you should split that up something like 500cals for breakfast and then 5 x 300cal meals spread out through the rest of the day with no simple sugars and plenty of protein.

Keep doing weights the more LBM the better your metabolism.

Good luck

 

if your calorie intake is <2000 you will loose weight.

2000 calories dosnt allow for much abuse:
-no beer, no typical restaurant food, no candy, limit bread
-home made salads with no mayonnaise based dressing, try balsamic venegar
-no sugar laced whey protein, get the stuff that tasts bad
-milk is 4children, get the regular soy stuff
-diet soda, Crystal Lite powder
-tea w/o sugar(Celestial Seasonings), some import tea the rolled leaf suff.

its just the serving size of the normal n american diet would have to be soooo small to keep in the calorie limit. it seems now everything must be a taste sensation.

exercise dosnt burn off as much calories as you would think. you might consider reducing the intensity of the workout. keep in mind two separate targets as weight reduction and or body strength. most of the time the two dont mix well.

 

My weight DROPS about 8 pounds when I stop lifting. And I am only 150-160 depending......You will carry more water if you are lifting.


If just losing weight is the goal, I would just run 3 miles four times a week. Cutting out soda or switching to diet is was a good suggestion too. Cut out all fried food. And also very important, DO NOT EAT ANY FOOD AFTER DINNER. NO MATTER HOW HUNGRY YOU FEEL AND JUST WANT TO HAVE A FEW CHIPS OR SOMETHING, DO NOT DO IT.

Anything you eat after about 7 pm just gets stored to replace anything you burned during the day. Forget about eating at night and while you sleep your body will replentish hungry cells with energy from your spare tire.

 

If you are wanting to put some real effort in, which it sounds like you do, check out these forums:
http://forums.menshealth.com/eve/for...rm/f/855109121

Go to the essential reading and read it. You may be stagnating because you are starving yourself. Less than 2000 calories for a guy your size you is lifting means your body may me starting to slow your metabolism. As weird as it seems, you may need to eat more to lose more. Provided you eat healthy. And I don't mean "low-fat". For instance, just having normal cereal for breakfast won't do it. I used to do that and I was skinny-fat. Now, I'd guess I eat about 2500 calories a day, maybe more, and I weigh about 175. And I didn't use to have a fast metabolism. I might now.

"DO NOT EAT ANY FOOD AFTER DINNER. NO MATTER HOW HUNGRY YOU FEEL AND JUST WANT TO HAVE A FEW CHIPS OR SOMETHING, DO NOT DO IT."
This is bad advice. If you eat dinner at 7 and don't eat again until 7 am, your body will get used to that and will cease to burn anything over night. What's more, if you are lifting in the evening, you're body needs recovery food in order to gain muscle. But eat something good for you.

"Building muscle while you're losing fat isn't difficult, its impossible. You would have made "noob" gains at the start despite the caloric deficit but without steroids you wont keep that up."
But he is likely still in noob mode, so he should still be able to do both.

 

Lot's of good advice and I thank you. I never work out at night, it's always in the Morning, or afternoon. I don't know exactly how many calories I consume in a given day, but I'd guess it's a bit under 2,000 calories. I don't think I'm "starving" myself. I eat when I want too, but typically I'm just not that hungry. I also don't eat a pile of "low fat foods." Cheerio's, a turkey sandwhich, homemade salad with vinegar, etc. Just normal foods, but I try not to over do it.

I'm definatly still in noob mode, but I guess it'd be best to lay off the weights for a bit then.