Simple goal of lossing fat around the waist.

[MontrealMarek]

Hi I am new to body building. I have been running on a treadmill at the gym during my lunchtimes to get back into shape. I posted to the natural bodybuilding section because I think this appeals the most to me.

Basically I want to look and feel better but I figure I have two major problems to over come.
1. Get the routine of going to the gym regularly.
2. Adapting my diet.

I got the routine part down. I go to the gym during my lunch break at work for 1 hour. This I think was the easy part. Getting out of the office to work out is really easy.

Adapting my diet. Well I was able to loose about 25 lbs in the last year just doing that.

I am 6' tall and wiegh 185 lbs. I want to loose the fat around my abdomen.

So far the only thing I am doing well is 25 minutes of cardio on the tread mill. I figured if I could keep that up for a month I would add something else. What exercise should I do next. What should my diet look like.

If I am way off track any comments are appreciated.

[spiderman3]

I might not be the greatest to give diet advice as for exercises such as core and abdominal exercises. For example planks, side planks (try starting at 30 secs than working up to a minute plus) also jackknifes and super crunches are just a few. You also should keep up the jogging adding speed and incline. Dont ever keep same pace for 25 minutes. Switch it up even if it means running faster for a minute and than moving down a little lower than usually for 2 - 3 minutes, you will eventually get your pace up. Should try keeping a log of your progress and even try keeping nutrition log. Fitday.com works really good. Post any alternative questions

[GYMBRAT]

good 4 you! lots of diet info on the board if ya look....also switching thing up, say weights 4 sure, treadmill 10mins, then elliptical 10mins, stationary bike 10mins etc., and hone in on diet and you should be on your way

[marino]

First welcome aboard, and second once you start dialing in the diet a bit look into incorporating a weightlifting routine on top of the cardio. Could be something simple like upper body / lower body days. This will accelerate your fat burning. Good luck.

[RagingRandy]

Welcome. Lets first clear up the misconception that you can "spot" lose weight. When you lose fat there is no way to target the fat loss. To make sure you are not losing as much muscle as you are fat I would recommend that you start resistance training now. This will help maintain your muscle mass. This is critical because it is easier to maintain a healthy weight as your muscle will burn calories naturally. Make sure you have a high protein content in your diet and eliminate simple sugars\carbs.

Good luck

[snowman]

Great job Marek! I've lost 25 pounds this past year as well with 20 of them coming off in the last 4 months. I've still got that bit of belly going on that I've been targeting with interval training. Interval training has been proven to target belly fat first. I'm not a doctor/nutritionist/trainer so I'm not really 100% sure how but I've done a lot of reading on this topic and have seen the topic pop up a lot. I figured I'd give it a shot...I don't buy into a lot of the hype out there with certain routines but this one kind of caught my eye. Since starting interval training on a tread mill I've definitely noticed a difference in my midsection. Definitely listen to the others' posts as well though. Resistance training is a must to keep your muscle mass in check...the more muscle on your body, the faster you'll burn calories and the quicker your midsection will start to lean out.

[MontrealMarek]

I might not be the greatest to give diet advice as for exercises such as core and abdominal exercises. For example planks, side planks (try starting at 30 secs than working up to a minute plus) also jackknifes and super crunches are just a few. You also should keep up the jogging adding speed and incline. Dont ever keep same pace for 25 minutes. Switch it up even if it means running faster for a minute and than moving down a little lower than usually for 2 - 3 minutes, you will eventually get your pace up. Should try keeping a log of your progress and even try keeping nutrition log. Fitday.com works really good. Post any alternative questions

I am not sure what planks are, I'll look that up same goes for jackknifes and super crunches.

I jog on the treadmill for 25 minutes. It is pretty slow like 7 km/hr but the incline automatically adjusts according to your heart rate. The machine tries to keep the heart rate at 156 bpm.

Why wouldn't you want to keep the same pace for a long time? I would like my heart to be in shape too.

The exercise log and nutrition stuff is a good idea. I tend to write down what I did for exercise but not as careful with writting down the food I eat. It is really a chore for me.

Thanks for the advice I will look up those exercises you mentioned.

[MontrealMarek]

good 4 you! lots of diet info on the board if ya look....also switching thing up, say weights 4 sure, treadmill 10mins, then elliptical 10mins, stationary bike 10mins etc., and hone in on diet and you should be on your way

I'll look around more for the diet stuff. Dietting is a new idea for me. I have been spending the last few years teaching myself how to cook better. I need to spend more time finding a way to eat and not feeling so hungry.

I am looking to do about 3 or 4 exercises per a day after the treadmill. Not sure how I will feel after that but that is my general idea.

I'll pass on the stationary bike and elliptical machines though. Not too crazy about those.

[MontrealMarek]

First welcome aboard, and second once you start dialing in the diet a bit look into incorporating a weightlifting routine on top of the cardio. Could be something simple like upper body / lower body days. This will accelerate your fat burning. Good luck.

How much wieghts do you think I should add to start? How many exercises per a day?

[MontrealMarek]

Welcome. Lets first clear up the misconception that you can "spot" lose weight. When you lose fat there is no way to target the fat loss. To make sure you are not losing as much muscle as you are fat I would recommend that you start resistance training now. This will help maintain your muscle mass. This is critical because it is easier to maintain a healthy weight as your muscle will burn calories naturally. Make sure you have a high protein content in your diet and eliminate simple sugars\carbs.

Good luck

Thanks,

I am not sure how much wieght training I should start with. With my diet right now I have been able to maintain the weight I have and increased my jogging on the treadmill.

I feel pretty good each day. There is little muscle fatigue as the week goes on. I find the only thing that gets my moral down or makes my treadmill jogging seem long is when there are a bunch of commercial on the radio at the gym.

Maybe I am ready to work harder?

[MontrealMarek]

First off, make sure you dont start your calories off TOO low and make sure you dont start off cardio too LONG... you want to gradually work your way into things... you need room to be able to tweak things as you go along or as your body adapts..

I'd suggest 20mins of cardio(3X a week of High Intensity and resistance training IS A MUST...if you just do cardio you will lose muscle mass ... keep your protein intake high and make sure you feed yourself enough EFAs..they help flush the bad fat out..keeps your energy high!!!

Keep a journal!!! include foods you eat, time, moods, when you train what you do for training....!!! best of luck hope this helps...

Hmm A couple of good things in your message.

I have no idea how many calories I eat per a day. I make most of my own food from scratch so I think I need one of those scales that dug dealers have to calculate how much calories are in each thing. On a side note I was surprised to read that one of those big tortillas has 200 calories. What I do know is that I think I am eating just the right amount for now. I am keeping the same weight 84 kg.

Resistance training seems to be a global consensus. I get the idea about tweeking things. What I would like is about 3 - 4 exercises that I can do after my treadmill. What is a EFA?

I need to keep a better journal. It would probably be a good idea I start to figure out what is in the food I make.

[MontrealMarek]

Great job Marek! I've lost 25 pounds this past year as well with 20 of them coming off in the last 4 months. I've still got that bit of belly going on that I've been targeting with interval training. Interval training has been proven to target belly fat first. I'm not a doctor/nutritionist/trainer so I'm not really 100% sure how but I've done a lot of reading on this topic and have seen the topic pop up a lot. I figured I'd give it a shot...I don't buy into a lot of the hype out there with certain routines but this one kind of caught my eye. Since starting interval training on a tread mill I've definitely noticed a difference in my midsection. Definitely listen to the others' posts as well though. Resistance training is a must to keep your muscle mass in check...the more muscle on your body, the faster you'll burn calories and the quicker your midsection will start to lean out.

Your post is very interesting. I wonder why the interval training makes you loose fat around the mid section. I know that running at different intensities allows you to run a lot farther. I need to get more information about interval training type of exercise versus targetting a specific heart rate.

Yeah I think I gotta hits some weights. Thanks for the comment.

[519Muscle]

you should start using weights about 3-5 times a week but it all starts with the diet good luck.

[spiderman3]

Changing the pace will keep your heart in shape but your body gets use the same pace so changing it puts its in a so to speak shock what keeps results coming instead of a plateau increasing your speed for a short time will allow you to work harder burning more calories while getting endurance up so for example you run 7km/hr try running that five minutes than move it up to 9-10km/hr for a minute or two than down to 5km/hr for a minute than back to 7km/hr etc to keep your body guessing and changing pace

[melanie tan]

I think I'm not a good adviser when it comes to diet. All I can advise to you is to do exercise routinely and eat healthy foods. Balancing it can lose you some weight and can help you with your lifestyle. I hope this simple message can help you to maintain your healthy lifestyle.

[MontrealMarek]

Thank you Melanie,
DietingI think is the hardest part. I am hungry most of the day. :-(

I need to do stuff to keep my mind off food.

My exercise is going pretty good. I do about 25 minutes of treadmill 4 times a week and I already see my cardio improving. It takes more intensity to get my heart rate up to 156 bpm. Either I got physically better or I am not eating enough to give my body energy. LOL

[treebuilder]

use fitday.com for a week get an idea of intake.. it takes the guesswork out of it... it will give u an idea of your BMR .Using this tool will generate a lot more questions, most of the folks here are really good and are willing to help out.

[Buckandahalf]

lower carb intake like if you lift 4 times a week and cardio 3 switch it too 3 lifts and more cardio intake more protein lower milk intake and friuts good for you yes but carry sugar sorry to say cut back beers afterwork and more on bike

good luck