My plan - please help me fill in the blanks

[suzzer99]

Ok, I've read a lot of the stuff in the FAQ. There's a lot to process in there. Great forum btw kyleb, very thorough. Here's my current regimen and the plan for ramping it up. Any little tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated.

By far my #1 goal is to lose body fat. I'm 6'0.5 253 lbs. atm. I pack it in fairly well, but am probably 30-40 lbs. overweight. I have been trying very hard for most of my life, have lost 20+ lbs. at least 3 times. I'm 38. So my body right now is very reluctant to let anything go. Whatever normally works, I would guess needs to be at least doubled with me. But that's ok, I'm really getting addicted to exercise and I feel like I am ready to do whatever it takes to see get to where I want to go.



I've been going to this boot camp thing on the beach, MWF 6am-7am for about 4 months now. It's pretty brutal when they get going, but there's some ramp up time for the new people and a week off between sessions. The sessions last 6 weeks. In any case I generally get a good aerobic workout during those days and they focus on your core a lot. I really enjoy the bootcamp and I think it's a nice base to try to work from towards my goal.

The plan, which I've started doing a little, and really think the motivation is finally there for, is to work out my upper body on Tue/Thu/Sat or Sun. Then try to go for a nice long walk or something one the weekend day that I don't workout. We do a lot of running on the sand, up stairs, dragging tires etc. in the bootcamp, so I really don't think I can do much involving my legs on the off days. And like I said they really blast your abs and core. So I'm thinking if I just focus on building up my shoulders, arms and back, that the extra muscle mass will help me lose fat. If I could manage to add some mild aerobics, like a stationary bike, would that really add towards my goal of losing body fat?

The third and toughest prong of this plan for me, is some kind of diet. I was getting this zone diet thing delivered. Very expensive and I never quite stuck to it perfectly. I really thought when I started the bootcamp and the diet, that I couldnt' help but lose weight. Wrong. Also I don't like that they seem to give you a pretty big breakfast with the most carbs you get all day. I tend to feel a little bogged down and get really really hungry a few hours later. I've had diets where the typical breakfast was something like some frittata and a small piece of fruit, and I felt sooo much more energized. So I really don't know if I should go back on that thing or try to do my own thing.

My biggest problem with dieting is if I really stick to it, I tend to get really irritable and/or obsessive about stuff. Like to the point of getting into it with my coworkers or friends or anyone who comes at me with something that rubs me the wrong way. It really sucks. Basically I either have to eat, or go out and party (generally = coke). Then I feel guilty afterwards, but at least the irritability seems to be all drained. Is there something I'm doing wrong for this phenomenon to occur? Any better solutions?

As far as supplements, I have some real ephedrine (old school) that I ordered from the back of a Penthouse in the 90s. I take one of those with a big triple espresso on the weekends when I want some energy and as an appetite suppressant. And I take a half with some espresso before my bootcamp (my instructor would kill me if he knew). I tried some ZMA but I seem to have very vivid stressful dreams. And I never remember my dreams usually. So I'm not real nuts about waking up all stressed out. Anyone else experienced this? If so does it pass? I take a multivitamin too.

Ok well there's probably a lot more little details I could get into, but I think that was long winded enough. I would greatly appreciate hearing any little tricks or hints or general advice to some of my issues.

thanks,
matt

[thirddan]

read the whole thing and the one thign that stuck out at me was your desire/willingness to really cut cals...while this seems very intuitive if you want to lose weight, it will probably hinder your goals, given your history of yo-yo dieting and irritability on diets...while most recommend around a 500 cal deficit/day, you might want to go to 250 rather than 1k...doing a slightly easier diet will allow you to stick to the plan better and hopefully make it a lifestyle rather than "a diet", it will also help you with the irritability because you are not too far from baseline...

oh, and do at least some resistance training for your legs, even if its light single leg work...it doesn't have to be super heavy squats...

[Tristessa]

Yikes! It sounds to me like you're on the right track, but ephedrine?? From the the 90s? Isn't that REALLY dangerous?

[suzzer99]

[ QUOTE ]
Yikes! It sounds to me like you're on the right track, but ephedrine?? From the the 90s? Isn't that REALLY dangerous?

[/ QUOTE ]

Right now it's .5 3 days a week, then 0-3 on the weekends, depending on what I'm up to. From what I've heard that's not a big deal.

It's only illegal because it's very easy to make meth out of.

[dethgrind]

Have you considered a more structured system for EC like described here?
http://terracotta2.googlepages.com/ecstack

Do you count calories and macronutrients using something like www.fitday.com? That helps a lot to keep yourself accountable and on track.

I'd also recommend looking into fish oil. I was pretty surprised when I researched it and discovered how it's universally accepted as being awesome.

[mattnxtc]

You should be cycling the EC to allow for recovery...do a 5 days on 2 days off approach. And dont use extra caffeine with it. That can be extremely harmful

And add in fish oil. It will help in fat loss as well as help your heart deal with the affects of the EC.

[suzzer99]

[ QUOTE ]
Have you considered a more structured system for EC like described here?
http://terracotta2.googlepages.com/ecstack


[/ QUOTE ]
This looks pretty hardcore. I really need my brain as a computer programmer and I need to be able to sit still and concentrate for many hours at a stretch. I tried a half ephedrine and some caffeine one day in the afternoon when I was feeling tired. I woke up but had a real hard time focusing and was pretty unproductive.


[ QUOTE ]

Do you count calories and macronutrients using something like www.fitday.com? That helps a lot to keep yourself accountable and on track.


[/ QUOTE ]
Until now I've been on a couple different structured diets where they basically give you everything you are supposed to eat (one the zone thing, another by a neighbor who cooked all the food). So I really haven't thought too much about calories. I know when I really stuck to the neighbor's thing I lost some weight. I never have lost weight with the zone thing, but also I haven't ever stuck with it for more than a few days at a time. The neighbor gets back from her trip in a week or so, but I don't know if she's going to be in the mood to cook. I am trying to decide if I want to go back on the zone thing and really try to stick with it.


[ QUOTE ]

I'd also recommend looking into fish oil. I was pretty surprised when I researched it and discovered how it's universally accepted as being awesome.

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm researching the benefits, and the only thing that looks fun is the higher intelligence thing. What are the reasons you guys take fish oil?

[shemp]

The broad strokes: I don't take fish oil (I do eat a lot of fish). Fish is good for you, and fish oil apparently successfully transfers some of the key benefits without the mercury risks of eating fish. I've also gathered (perhaps correctly!) that these benefits are particularly important given the fat content most commercially grown beef.

http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?t...e&dbid=104

About fish:
(I just picked salmon for no reason-- but as long as I'm there, don't eat farmed salmon, btw.)

[suzzer99]

Ok, I've been playing around with fitday.com. It looks like my BMR is something like 2300 calories, my lifestyle calories are like 1000, and I burn 400 or so on the bootcamp days, maybe 200 if I just workout on the other days. Now, I know if I eat 3800 calories a day I will be big as a house in no time. So I adjusted to tell it that I'm bedridden, which I think may offset for my sucky metabolism.

So given that I get about 3000-3300 calories/day as my maintenance figure, depending on how active I am that day. Assuming this is somewhere in the ballpark, how many calories should I shoot for in a day to lose weight? What seems right for someone like me who has a tough time losing weight? 2500? Oh yeah a couple different body fat testers have told me I'm at 30-31%.

[TimM]

Try this thing:

http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html

If you can, use a bodyfat % rather than height, it gave a more realistic number for me.

Once you use fitday for a while, you can compare a long term average calorie consumption to your weight change over that period to get a better idea of where you should be.