Trying to lose weight..

[BigAndy69]

You are absolutely right about the cafeteria food. Terrible stuff. Lard is very cheap is you get my drift. There are a few basic things that you need to know. Liquids with meals tend to make you fatter, and late night carb-loaded snacks. You should try to stay away from processed foods as much as possible. Snacks are worse for you than a full high protein meal. These processed foods are one of the reasons people are so fat nowadays.

You will be eating more calories, but you will be losing fat and gaining muscle by eating egg whites, tuna, lean fish, lean chicken breasts, whey protein, cottage cheese, and lean red meat.

Do (or can) you eat breakfest at 8 am?

 

[BillyATO]

I can eat breakfast at 8am at my desk before my daily department meeting, many people here do (I have never been big on breakfast though, in general), what would be a good breakfast? fruit? cereal?
btw, how do you tell a good gym from a bad one? I am looking at a few different ones with monthly fees ranging from $15-60 month (price seems to reflect the size of the facilities here) and most offer the first month or so free..

 

[BigAndy69]

Some gyms have very fancy machines. One expensive gym next to my home offered loads of air pressure machines, but only a couple of bench presses.

These machines are worthless and are meant for people who like to have what I call "pretend" workouts. These gyms are more like social clubs than anything else. You seem serious about getting in shape, so you are better off going to a hardcore gym. Look at the numbers of bench presses, and look to see if they have two pairs of each dumbbell, and ask what are the heaviest dumbbells (150lbs is a nice weight). If they have a universal gym, many exercise stations in one, get out of there! Look to see if they have seperate exercise stations for chin-ups, lat pulldowns, leg presses, hack squats, squats, deadlifts, t-bar rows... Some gyms might have pictures of people who compete in bodybuilding shows on their walls. Oh, and for your purposes make sure they have a few treadmills, and ask if they are often busy.

The only downfall to this type of gym is that it could be intimidating for someone just starting out. Other than that, a good gym should not be very crowded.

You cannot skip breakfest: A good breakfest is egg whites, and oatmeal.

Btw, you should really limit your dairy and sugar intake.

 

[BillyATO]

**Update

I have been doing the workout for 2 weeks now and each muscle group remains sore for 2-4 days after I work it out, particularly chest, tris, and calves.. I was wondering if anybody has some ideas on how to minimize the soreness and some stretches I could do beforehand. Thanks

 

[BillyATO]

by the way I'm down to 236lbs

 

[goodie]

Also, just for the record, I work in a hospital so we have a cafeteria with salad/sandwich bars, milk/juice/water/tea, hot meals (never healthy ones though). For breakfast there is cereal and oatmeal (and a lot of unhealthy stuff like doughnuts, biscuits and gravy, sausage, scambled eggs, etc.. let me know if I'm mistaken about the unhealthy part for any of these)
If any of these things would work for my meals it would add convenience. thanks

You can also talk to the head Dietitian there and specify what type of meal you would like (cals from fat, pro, carbs). They do this type of stuff for many of their patients and if you make up and excuse like your family physican reccommended it, they'll bite.

 

[BillyATO]

Good idea, I didn't think about that. What is the best ratio for losing weight but still giving me enough energy to do my high intensity workout? Currently my cals are divided up pretty evenly between carb, fat, and protein on a 2000 cal diet (you can see my diet here.. http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=billyato )

Thanks

 

[Rockaho]

Congrats, your off to a great start.
I too have recently started working out. I am supplementing with L-glutamine. I am told that it helps with muscle recovery.

 

[Rockaho]

here is a site on streching.

http://www.nih.gov/nia/health/pubs/nasa-exercise/chapter4_stretching.htm

you can find many others by going to a search engine and search for "strecthing exercises"

 

[BillyATO]

Good idea, I didn't think about that. What is the best ratio for losing weight but still giving me enough energy to do my high intensity workout? Currently my cals are divided up pretty evenly between carb, fat, and protein on a 2000 cal diet (you can see my diet here.. http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=billyato )

Thanks

Anybody have any suggestions/comments about my diet?