General Question

mweckler

I am 5'9" and weigh in at 224 lbs. I am currently eating about 1700 calories a day and working out 3 times a week. Doing 45 minutes of cardio on an elliptical machine, then doing squats and weights. My breakfast is a meal replacement shake with whey protein added to it. Lunch is a salad and dinner is what ever I make keeping it under my calorie goal. What adjustments should I make to this routine or is the gym 3 times a week good enough?

Expatmommy79

Are you loosing weight? If yes - keep doing what you are doing...

malibu927

If you're satisfied with what you're doing, don't change a thing. Log accurately and you'll succeed.

cityruss

I'd personally be making use of all the wonderful foods out there and using them instead of meal replacements.

But if it's working, you're happy, are able to adhere to it, then you're golden.

pondee629

I'd suggest adding an upper body work out routine to keep muscle there.

mweckler

I have been doing some upper body stuff trying to rebuild muscle while trying to get rid of the old gut.

nordlead2005

What are your goals?

I'm 5'11", was 220lb and ate 1760 + exercise calories and lost 2lb/week. However, I had a goal to be strong and ripped following the easiest plan possible, and to accomplish that I started Strong Lifts 5x5. I've added some pull ups and do the occasional cardio and adjusted calorie intake, but I'm getting the results I expect and want so far. What you've described sounds like it is good enough to me for overall general health, but not if it doesn't match your goals.

The only thing you should directly keep an eye on is weight loss. With more cardio than I was doing you may need to eat more so as not too lose weight too fast. Keep weight loss under 1% of your total body weight per week. Also, if you are doing the make it up special for resistance training you may want to find a good beginner program to get more efficient results.

mweckler

I have put on 65 pounds the last couple years that I really want to get rid of. Most of my weight is carried in my midsection. I would like to slim that down and start to put on muscle to my upper body.

dhimaan

No one knows, only time will tell.

nordlead2005

If your goal is building muscle in your upper body, then definitely get on a structured lifting program (new rules of lifting, starting strength, Strong Lifts, Ice Cream Fitness, etc...). Basically, you are really close, but you should be prioritizing the lifting, not the cardio (cardio on non-lifting days or possibly after lifting) and get 0.64-0.82g/lb of protein every day. (make sure you adjust calorie requirements if you change your exercise routine)

Note that to really build muscle you'll have to get to a low enough BF% and then either recomp or do a bulk, but you want to lift now to practice form and get any gains that you can while losing weight. Later on you may have to go to a 4x/week program instead of a 3x/week program or other tweaks, but what you are doing now should be sufficient for a beginner lifter.