How to keep in shape?

[OcR Savage]

Well, ever since I've been a little kid (about 9 or 10 years old) I've been well, big. However, recently since I've gotten my new job (Feb. '07) I've lost nearly 30 lbs with no exercise and barely any dieting involved. I've tried numerous times to start exercising and dieting properly throughout the past 6 years but I've never had the patience to stick with it. So this is what I want to know.

1. If you ever were big how did you lose the weight?
2. What types of home exercises do you do to keep you fit?
3. What are some good ways to keep you toned and have a great set of abs (I know it will take a while but I might as well ask instead of later with a new thread)?
4. What is the best way to tone out your calf muscles (running, jump roping, etc)?
5. Any videos, websites, or any other sources to help you lose and keep off the weight?

Any help is appreciated.

This is what I currently look like and when I do lose more weight I'll post a new pic on here. Plus this is for everyone that wanted to know what I look like. I hope no one goes blind after seeing my pic.:happy: :D ^_^

http://www.myspace.com/mtp87

SavageSix

[OcR Lemmi]

Sorry Savage can't help you out much here, but I can say that running is the one thing that I always notice a difference in, whenever I start running a lot I suddenly have much more energy. And don't worry your not very big at all.

[i AwoN i]

you look big like you could be work out big but not fat big dude. i knew a kid from baseball that was mega fat ass big, ppl wuold make fun of him cause when he threw the ball his fat would pop out of his shirt. he ran so much i havent seen him in a year then i saw him again and he looked waaay thinner.

As far as i know running to burn calories you want to do hiit. iuno what the acronym is but its just like a light jog on a treadmill for 1 minute, intense running for as long as you can, light jog to recover, run as fast and as long as you can, light jog and so forth, never stop moving until you're done though. Remember the more you sweat the better, wear as much wool as you can, mittens really make you sweat a lot too.

[TheTrojanBunny]

Just work out and eat right. If you live near a Blitz gym, so much the better. I went there for a while, and I'm going to start again over the summer. Very good place to go to get in shape.

[OcR Slitsa X]

Just do something consistent. I mean ive always been active in sports but when I stopped I had to do something so I just made up a routine. Just do pushups, situps, get a curling bar to work out your arms, and try and run or swim for cardio.

Doesn't take much to get in shape, just set aside 30 minutes a day to run for 15 and do a quick workout.

[OcR Delta]

im in the same position, im way out of shape than what i want to be. best thing i can say is work allot of your big muscles( like legs and chest) when you work out, legs verry important. when you get those working not only do they burn more caliories to rest that also increases motabilosm, which means caliories get burned faster for less. secondly eat well. thers no reason to starve yourself in fact thats bad, if you do its usually the muscle that goes first. so actually take eating seriousuly. try and shoot for 4-6 small meals a day, instead of 2-3. what happens is when you eat, esp breakfast. you actually burn caliories digesting the food. also think of it like, from a meal, you can only work off a certian number of calories, and when its not used, it turns bad. so eat small meals often.

running is good, recently in mens health i read an article that sprinting actually is more effective in loosing weight than just jogging. not that jogging is bad, but running effectively is a better less time consuming choice.

a balance between streingthening, cardio, and eating right usually does it.

[OcR BigD]

You just need to motivate yourself. I had the same problem. I was overweight and I never wanted to work out, but you just need to make yourself. Lift weights 3x a week and go running the other days. Muscles burn a lot of fat when lifting. Also, eating right is crucial. No fatty foods.

[OcR Savage]

Thanks for the help guys but a few more questions. How long should my exercising be. Before when I tried to exercise it would take up about 2 hrs of my day. 30 mins on this ab vid, 30 mins for lifting weights/Jump roping, 10 mins. of running, 20 mins. of other things (superman, squats (no weights), push-ups, sit-ups (legs crossed, legs in the air, etc),crab push-ups, and several others). I try to work all of my body parts (legs, arms, and torso) everyday. I know that you should work legs one day and then arms the other but I like to work everything to give me a feeling of a good work-out. Is their a way to do this?

P.S. Bigd, what are some fatty foods that you are talking about? I read/hear everything/everywhere and some people say that some foods are fatty and some say that they are not.

SavageSix

[OcR Asians]

The mental set on all workouts and gyms is that the longer I stay, the more work I'll be doing, and that's wrong, for the most part. It isn't the quantity of your workout, it is the quality that you are doing. Savage, do you have Comcast? Cause if you do, I'll be able to show you some stuff that would help.

Just short on time at the moment =P.

[OcR Delta]

hmmn, about foods, look at the back label. i think i heard that about 35 percent protein, 55 percent carbs, and 10 percent fat. is good.Protien is what helps build muscle, white meant is packed with protine. like chicken turkey and fish.

i know it sounds gay, but http://www.menshealth.com/cda/channelpage.do?site=MensHealth&channel=weight.loss&cm_re=HP-_-Channels-_-WeightLoss

ya know the magizin, they have a hell of a lot of stuff. whod a thunk it.

[i AwoN i]

Noo dont work out every muscle everyday im not an expert but my understanding is you do triceps and chest, back (first) than biceps, legs and abs, then whatever else you want to work out the rest of the week. Theres really a ton of info on the internet.

If you're really serious join a gym. I did just because I cant play real baseball this year so I wanted to lift, I can feel a better workout everytime and bet I'll have better results in a couple months than I did in 4 years lifting unsupervised in highschool. Its a big difference when you're around people that really know their stuff.

[OcR Asians]

You could bust a decent workout in 30 minutes or less. Try getting specific days for one part of your body and alternate. On Monday do upper body/chest/arms, while on Tuesday your upper body could rest and you could focus on your lower body etc.

[Hunter501]

I don't think I can sit still, so I go outside and run, practice pushups, and eat right. The best thing is to eat right.

[OcR Ronin]

You don't have to work out every muscle every day. Focus on Upper body one day, Lower body the next.

[OcR GamePlayer]

I've lost 6 pounds in 1 month by shortining my portions and dont eat as much fast food.

[p0tat0 5alad]

I'm in the same boat as you Savage. I've been big as well but not fat, bulky. I'm really strong but since I'm already bigger you wouldn't be able to tell if I'm fat or muscular. Since school is out I plan on going to the gym on the days I don't work(only work 3 days a week) and working on everything. I'm going start with my legs and work up and end with either a 10-mile bike ride or 5-mile jog. I hope to get down to around 200 lbs before summer ends. I am also watching what I eat(sorry mom^_^ ) and eat smaller portions. Good luck losing weight

[OcR cha0s]

If you want to lose a lot of weight really fast, just get really fucking sick. I had a virus called Salwak's Virus back in April that I caught in Mexico in the beginning of April. I lost 15 pounds in two weeks. Most of that was muscle because I could barely get out of bed. I'm 6 foot and only weigh 135 lbs. I seriously need to bulk up this summer, but it's hard because most of my workout consists of running since I'm a sprinter.

A good ab workout is called the "plank." You put two feet on the ground and get in a push up position, but instead of putting your palms on the ground, prop your entire body up on your elbows and feet. Raise your whole body off the ground except for your feet and elbows and hold it there as long as possible. If you do this for a minute or two a day, you'll have really really good abs in two months.

[Letthe]

I'm about the same Savage, I weigh 152 lb. But you couldn't tell I weighed that much just by looking at me. During the summer I plan to workout and tone either by home exercises, bike rides, the gym. Have you ever thought about cutting weight? Just cut it then turn it to muscle, but I don't think cutting is exactly healthy for you.

[OcR Delta]

seriously, get on kaza and try some tieboe.i did crunchfitness and advanced tieboe workout and it kicked the crap out of me. i played soccer and football throughout highschool so im not a chump. but it seriously made me sore in places in my abs i never knew i had.

[Hunter501]

You could throw up a couple times, but let's just stick with eatting right.

[OcR CixelsyD]

A good ab workout is called the "plank." You put two feet on the ground and get in a push up position, but instead of putting your palms on the ground, prop your entire body up on your elbows and feet. Raise your whole body off the ground except for your feet and elbows and hold it there as long as possible. If you do this for a minute or two a day, you'll have really really good abs in two months.

Yeah, I second this workout. My track coach introduced it to me, it works if you don't slack with it. Other than that, running with garbage bags on will at least help you lose water weight, but if you overdo that you're pretty screwed. Cardio, push-ups, sit-ups, keep it simple.

As far as dieting goes, I can't say much, I need some help there. Vegetables and Protein?

[Letthe]

Honestly, I sure everyone one knows what food to keep away from. You know it kills you.

[OcR Delta]

well basically to eat right you gota think about what you eat. that means fast food will kill you. actually read the side of the box with all the crap on the side..... calories.... if you dont know what it is, its kinda like a measurement of energy cells. it keeps you moving. 1 pound of body fat i beleive is roughly 500 calories. and running or walking a mile will loose you about 100 calories, take the weight you want to be say 150 and then multiply it by a "daily health evaluation" basically rate yourself on how active you are every day, just at work or school wherever you spend the most time on a scale from 13 if you do nothing, to 18 i beleive. so if i want to weigh 150 and i do nothing all day to keep that weight at 150 i multiply by 13 and that gives me 1950... that means to average that weight on any given day ill probably be exerting 1950 calories during whatever i do. so use that to gauge your meals.

also stay away from trans and saturated fat,,,, its bad. anything fried has basically gota go if you wana start seeing results sooner. its not nessicarily portion controll. i calculated a chicken sandwitch combo at chic-fil-a was 950 calories! compared to about 200 in a turkey sandwithc on wheat.

white meat is your friend. its uaully low in fat and calories and has mad amounts of protien.... protien is basically what muscles are made out of.



also stay away from carbs....you can think of carbs like super charged calories. thele give you some mad energy but if you dont use it, it turns bad.

[kilaMOMjaro]

I was very big...200 pounds, and you saw my current pic in the intro forum, so you see that Im NOT 200 lbs anymore. :) It took about a year total to lose but I did it by cutting out "white food" like potatoes, rice, pasta, breads...and by portion control. It took about 2 weeks to get used to smaller portions and If I got hungry I drank tea or ate something like yogurt.

Switching to whole wheat bread made a big difference. Also any additional activity will work. When you plateau, add more.

Good luck!

[OcR Rampage]

umm savage listen, don't run alot, ur system uses ur muscle tissue as energy and u lose muscle. u should do more weight training because that takes more calories and energy to do than running and not only does it making u burn calories and lose weight faster, but u get stronger

[OcR Delta]

lol running is the easiest way to loose fat. doing intreval training like short sprinting with small rest in between will seriously zap fat. all a calorie is is a function of wight and distance. therefore running kicks the crap out of em. about 100 per mile. paried with streingth trainign is best. but running does not use mussle tissue as energy, it uses calories....thats what a calorie is for. i dont know what you mean by "uses" but whenever you do anything your body uses calories as energy. you may be thinking that poor eating habbits and runningis bad, that is true. butsame with lifting. whenever you dont get enough calories your body turns muscle into energy first as survival mechansm. because they require more energy it makes sense to toss em first. our bodies are still in prehistoric times when it comes to survival tactics.


cardio is awesome for burning fat, yes even gaining muscle, and keeping your heart healthy. but remember after lifting your body needs time to recover so it would not be proactive to say,,, after a lower body workout go running, becaues it takes away from the time and energy needed to repair and improve you muscles.

a good mix of cardio and streingth training will always yeild results. right now i suggest doing workouts MWF and doing hard runs or walkign every other day.

[OcR Savage]

Thing is Rampage I'm not trying to get huge muscles. I want to be lean and tight. Yes I do want to be cut but I'm not trying to become some type of body builder. The more I lift weights the bigger I'll get and I'm not trying to get bigger (I'm trying to get smaller.) Anyway, is it best to eat before or after exercising. I've heard that if you exercise then eat it automatically burns calories because your body just got done from exercising but that doesn't sound right, right?

SavageSix

[OcR Delta]

no its true, resting and rebuilding muscle requires calories. just as it does while your lifting. its probably best to eat about an hour or so before you lift depenign on your schedual, youl burn the calories off from the meal form the lift and continue todo so afterwards, althought the first 30 min or so after a workout the body is verry accepting of nutrition espically things like .... protien. which will make your muscles blow up.


lifting is a great way to boost motabliosimand loose weight, just in a diffrent way, and remember the more muscle the more calories you burn all the time, even resting. whenever you sleep you burn calories, so therefore if you have allot more muscles the calorie burn is directly impacted.




being cut can make you look like you have bigger muscles