My goals

[Mike]

I weighed around 225-230 two months ago and have gradually gotten down to my current weight of 208. I have completely cut out soda, fast food, fried food, etc. and have been eating lots of chicken, steak, tuna, etc. along with vegetables and fruit and a lot of water.

I have really only been working out/running for the past 3 weeks though and have done cardio everyday with mixed lifting. My cardio lasts about 45 minutes and is a mix of treadmill/elliptical and somedays the bike.

I also have been lifting everyday other day for the past 3 weeks mixing between chest/arms/shoulders and lower body/back. My routine from now is on going to be lifting 3 days a week with cardio everyday. Does it matter if I do my cardio/lifting at night or in the morning. I have been working out later lately(12am-1) and was wondering if this would make it easier or harder to burn off fat, even if it is 5-6 hours after I have had dinner.

For chest/arms/shoulders I am doing: bench press, incline/decline press, dumb bell bench, dumb bell incline, bicep curls, military press, triceps

For lower body I am doing: leg press, hamstring curls, quad workouts and calf raisers along with working out my back on the machines.

My main goal is to lose weight and change my appearance more then just being happy with what the scale says and after I reach my target weight of around 175-180 I want to start lifting heavier to put on more muscle. Although I feel healthier and can see a slight difference in the way I look it is not as big as change as I was expecting despite losing around 20 or so pounds the past few months.

Any help/comments on my routine is welcome.

[cabezon]

so you've lost 17+ lbs in two months? awesome. not seeing changes in the mirror, how about the pants? I noticed that a lot of my spare tire was behind me and was hard to see changes at first. But I am in pants today that I haven't worn in years. I am still at 202 lbs. so that means I've added some muscle to my body while losing fat behind me.

I think if you keep up the good work, you are going to be excited about the person that you are going to be showing off.

I'm a runner, so of course I'm going to plug running, and say add some longer, easier cardio to your mix. As far as I know the only thing I'd worry about doing cardio at midnight, is trying to get to sleep. But Soup is more expert than I for the weight loss.

Keep it up!

[Sportsmedjosh]

Congrats at such a good acheivement. You did it at a great rate also 2#/week. It really is amazing at what simple diet changes can do.

The next thing I would suggest doing is looking at your nutrition again. With that sort of weight loss things are going to change and to really get the best bang for your buck you can now fine tune your nutrition.

[Mike]

I can definitely feel a change in my pants/clothes...I tried on a bunch of old shirts from 2 years ago that used to not fit me and now they are actually big on me, I just hope I can start to see a bigger change within the next month and not just in my clothes.

I usually hate running but doing it makes me feel good afterwards so I prefer doing the treadmill over elliptical/bike and am trying to up my time on it every week or so.

As for my change in my diet, I can't even think about going back to how I used to eat (Jack in the box/fast food a couple times a week, tons of soda, etc.) and I feel like I'll be able to stick with this food change from now on.

Like i said I ultimately want to lose fat and get down to my target weight and then hopefully start building up more muscle.

[bellavus]

Defintely keep a photo diary, as it will be the best indicator of change in weight. Post up a little more about your diet, and we can suggest things to add/subtract in order to achieve your goals.

[Mike]

I'll post up what I normally eat every day:

Breakfast is usually eggs, sometimes just egg whites other times a fried egg sandwich on wheat toast and also Canadian bacon. Any suggestions for other low-fat/nutritious breakfast meals?

Snack I'll have a low-fat mozzarella cheese stick or a few almonds or some cashews

Lunch, sometimes I'll have two fat-free beef franks, sometimes tuna or a turkey sandwich.

Afternoon snack is usually yogurt or some type of fruit like apples or peaches

Dinner is usually chicken breasts, sometimes salmon or low-fat steaks mixed with vegetables like zuchinnis, onions, peppers, etc.

I am also drinking around 5-6 bottles of water a day and fat-free milk. Any suggestions are appreciated, thanks.

I will also try and start to keep a photo diary.

[Mike]

Down to 203 now even after taking a 2 week vacation. Tried my best to stick to my diet, but I didn't have any time/place to exercise, oh well. Back to my routine now and will hopefully be under 200 by the start of August.

[Sportsmedjosh]

Welcome back mike did you have a good trip where did you go?

[Mike]

Thought it was time to update this thread. I weigh around 195 right now...down from 240 about a year ago and down from 230 from around April. I'm gone from a size 38-40 to a 34 and trying to lose an extra 10 pounds or so right now.

I'm doing cardio about 5 days a week, 60 minutes on elliptical with bike sometimes and lifting 3 times a week.

[bellavus]

Sorry I didn't respond earlier to your diet needs. I would defintely add some leafy greens to your diet, any other veggies and whole grains. Breakfast looks great; you may want to change it up with PB on whole wheat toast.

[Rakshas]

Great job dude, I definitely agree that running is a pain, but it works as you already know!

[Joefitnesstails]

Good work man. keep it up!

Did your energy levels rise too?

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Joefitnesstails

Good work man. keep it up!

Did your energy levels rise too?

Thanks, and yeah I definitely have a lot more energy. Can't stand sitting around like I used to.

A bit of an update: I'm between 191-192. I had to go buy basically all new clothes cause none of my old pants/shorts fit. I'm at about a size 32-34 waist right now, I used to be around 38-40. I've started lifting 5 days a week with cardio everyday also. Still dieting in a sense, just not as strict as before, no fast food/junk food still.

[E36Guy]

Wow.. congratulations. Sounds like you are doing great.

[Joefitnesstails]

the food part of dieting is always the hard part LOL