Making an Exercise Plan

Godzirra

Hey guys,

My diary is open and I know that I often eat crap that's "bad for me" but I usually stay underneath my carbs, fat and calories and exceed my protein. I'm unfortunately not losing any weight at all though.

I exercise regularly, training for a 5k on Monday and Friday (Couch to 5k, skipping the middle day to do soccer) and play soccer for 1.5-2.5 hours on Wednesday. That being said, I still weigh ~295lbs at 6'4". My first goal is 275 and I've pretty much made no progress towards it for months.

So my two questions (one I consider a useful question and one probably not so useful)...

1: How do you go about forming an exercise plan for weight loss?

2: Wtf am I doing wrong to not be losing weight when I've ramped up my exercise? (I've made sure to eat my exercise calories which I wasn't doing a month ago).

Thanks guys!

TavistockToad

your diary isnt open?

based on what you have said, firstly, make sure you are only set to lose 1/2 or 1lb per week, as you only have 20lbs to lose now, and make sure you are eating a fair proportion of your exercise cals back.

add strength training to your routine... NOW!

try and keep the 'bad' things to a minimum, get your 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, and make sure you are getting WAY over 100g of protein a day.

dani_1977

your diary isnt open?

based on what you have said, firstly, make sure you are only set to lose 1/2 or 1lb per week, as you only have 20lbs to lose now, and make sure you are eating a fair proportion of your exercise cals back.

add strength training to your routine... NOW!

try and keep the 'bad' things to a minimum, get your 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, and make sure you are getting WAY over 100g of protein a day.

^^^^^ Adding strength training will help lots atleast to start 2-3 days a week. And I also agree with the weight loss setting to 1 lb per week. And you may want to add another cardio day

Also are you tracking everything?????? every little bite, lick, taste. Butter, the creamer added to your coffee<< these are just vague questions, I dont even know if you drink coffee. LOL

**** also when entering calories burned MFP is extremly over board with giving out calories burned*** I use a heart rate monitor... its alway less then what MFP says and for that matter what the cardio machine says. For instance last night I did 35 minutes on elliptcal - hills plus on level 5 , I burned 355 cals - the machine had me at 385, mfp had burning 370 cals.


**** also are eating back you calories burned?? There are so many different opions out there. Some eat back all the calores burned, some eat back some, Some eat back none. If you are consistently doing one of these I suggest you switch. If you eat back allllll of your calories burned, try only eatting back some. :-)

Hope some of this helps. feel free to message me if it doesnt make sense. LOL I tend to babble.

dsjohndrow

Weight loss is having a calorie deficit. You eat less than you need and you lose weight. Probably 85%-90% is what you eat, or don't eat.

A beginner's cardio plan is 30 minutes 3 times a week plus strength training. If you are lifting a lot, you can gain up to 10 pounds as your muscles adjust to the new routine. Be sure to take measurements in addition to weighing in.

Plan on spending at least 45 minutes 3 times a week, but be sure to get the food under control. Get a food scale, and skip the fast food. You can do it.

Hmrjmr1

I would suggest you get the Book "New Rules of Lifting" it has some great programs if you don't have any serious phys limitations. If you do then I would Suggest New Rules of Lifting for Life. As others have stated above Drop most the fast food for a while at least. If you want some good food plans and the theory behind them look at The Flat Belly Diet for Men. Great iunfo on difference between complex and simple carbs and Mono unsaturated Fatty acids (MUFA). Beyond the cals how they are delivered does have an effect. (probably not as much as some contend) but I am living proof they do have an effect. IF you try these and need additional help feel free to friend me and send me an email.

Godzirra

your diary isnt open?

based on what you have said, firstly, make sure you are only set to lose 1/2 or 1lb per week, as you only have 20lbs to lose now, and make sure you are eating a fair proportion of your exercise cals back.

add strength training to your routine... NOW!

try and keep the 'bad' things to a minimum, get your 5 portions of fruit and veg a day, and make sure you are getting WAY over 100g of protein a day.

So I'm answering almost all the posts in this one post...

Okay. I'm getting roughly 100g a day so Ill definitely bump up my protein. I -think- I have my diary open now. If not can you tell me how to mark it as open?

Also, 275 is not my goal weight, its my FIRST goal. My final goal is closer to 240.

I'm definitely eating back all of my calories that I burn exercising, since I assumed MFP decremented the calories I need per day so I was already eating under my calories to lose weight... Is this not correct?

And for measuring calories burned since I'm doing almost all things that involve walking and running, I'm using a fitbit. I'm not sure how accurate those are compared to a heart rate monitor. Does anyone have any feedback? I'm not sure how to link to my fitbit page.

I am definitely tracking EVERYTHING. If I pick up 10 peanuts, I track them. I don't drink coffee or drink soda so no creamer, and if I have toast with butter, I track both the bread and butter. I'm fairly good about tracking my food, so that's one of the problems I don't worry about too much.

I definitely will add strength training to my work out... but again, how do you develop a training program? I can go to the gym and just use weight machines or do body weight exercises, but in general I have no idea what I should be doing?

mrsshields

My suggestion is not to eat back your calories burned because I see is you are burning calories to loose weight, not to burn them and eat it back, ya know?

Keep logging and counting every calorie you eat but what do you have set as your calorie goal?

And I personally think that all the running/walking you do is great as long as you are consistant with it. I would like the other people said add some strength training in there somewhere...one day do arms, another day do legs, then another full body including abs.

californiagirl2012

Hey guys,

My diary is open and I know that I often eat crap that's "bad for me" but I usually stay underneath my carbs, fat and calories and exceed my protein. I'm unfortunately not losing any weight at all though.

I exercise regularly, training for a 5k on Monday and Friday (Couch to 5k, skipping the middle day to do soccer) and play soccer for 1.5-2.5 hours on Wednesday. That being said, I still weigh ~295lbs at 6'4". My first goal is 275 and I've pretty much made no progress towards it for months.

So my two questions (one I consider a useful question and one probably not so useful)...

1: How do you go about forming an exercise plan for weight loss?

2: Wtf am I doing wrong to not be losing weight when I've ramped up my exercise? (I've made sure to eat my exercise calories which I wasn't doing a month ago).

Thanks guys!

The only thing that causes weight loss is a calorie deficit.

You can not out exercise too many calories. I learned this the hard way most of my life and it did not seem like I ate a lot, I was never a binge eater or someone who stuffed myself, it didn't seem right. --> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/740340-i-lost-60-lbs-at-age-51-anyone-can-any-workout

Exercise is to develop and shape your lean body mass only. Lifting weights will give you the most bang for your buck. Once I learned to put it first and cardio in 2nd place it improved my shape. I'm still a runner, you don't have to give up cardio.

If I could encourage everyone to lift. I recently had my DXA scan done and at 51.5 years of age I have the bone density of a super athletic 30 year old. That is a direct result of lifiting for over 30 years. Now if that is not scientific proof that lifting weights keeps you younger I don't know what is! I believe it is also what causes people to think I look much younger than I really am.

I have some pretty exciting stuff going on in my life now because of my success. I am in the queue to have my story published in Oxygen Magazine and I will be giving fitness talks at sports events all next year (still all volunteer at this point) --> http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/752246-i-m-afraid-to-try-an-new-weight-lifting-program-now

Your body loses weight in chunks, not linear. I have found that you can do everything right and your weight loss seems to plateau but if you are patient and keep exercising and eating at a deficit (however slight) you will lose it, it will suddenly "whoosh". There are so many variables for the scale; water retention, digestion, hormones, allergies, sodium, carbs, water intake, DOMS, inflammation, the list goes on. People mistakenly think they lose or gain weight when they eat more or less because of these fluctuations.

Losing weight requires tremendous patience. You will not lose it when you want it or where you want it. The body does its thing. Some apparent plateaus can last a month or so. You cannot make it happen faster. You must focus on two things; calories and exercise. Nothing else matters. Scales and metrics don't matter. The day in and day out grind of exercise and calories are all that matters. It is not very exciting until things fall into place. You get your victories and you ride one victory to the next.

The scale is a trend tool. The scale is good but put it away and only check once a week and only use it as a trend tool. It will fluctuate, it does not matter. Take front side and back progress pictures at least once a month. You will see differences that the metrics won't tell you and it's that little bit of NSV that will keep you going until the next victory.

What is the exact number of calories for you?

We’ve been trying to figure out an exact NUMBER of calories that everyone should be eating, without recognizing that everyone is slightly different. In truth, the calories aren’t the end game. Your body is. So the EXACT amount of Calories that are right for you is the EXACT amount that will allow you to maintain your ideal bodyweight no matter what some calculator or chart says.

In other words, an online calculator might tell you that you need to eat 2,500 calories
per day to maintain your ideal bodyweight. But the only way to know for sure if this is
the right amount for you is to test it out. If you gain weight or can’t lose weight eating
that much, then you know you need to eat less to lose weight no matter how many
calculators and text books say otherwise.

This doesn’t mean your metabolism is broken, it just means the estimate of your needs
was just a bit off.

-John Barban (The Body Centric Calorie Guide from the Venus Index and Adonis Index Manuals)

Godzirra

My current calorie goal is 2200 per day. That was what MFP suggested for me when I first started. On soccer days especially, MFP tells me to eat another 800-1200 calories because of all the running around I do to burn. I assume the 2200 per day that MFP suggests includes the 1 pound per week loss I have as my goal in my profile....

Another post I read told me to eat back my exercise calories so that your body doesn't go into preservation mode everytime you exercise. Is this not true?

I'm trying to cut out all the fast food and up the protein as much as possible. I know everyone uses this as an excuse (not having enough time) but what are some things that you can eat out that aren't horrible, as I'm often running around in the evenings doing stuff.

To the last post, I realize that sometimes you plateau, but I've weighted 295 +/- 5 pounds for a few years now. It doesn't really seem to change much whether I'm exercising or not or changing my food habits, which sucks. I don't base everything on the scale and occasionally I'll do measurements, but my measurements have also not changed for a few years, so I don't think that its that I'm losing fat and gaining muscle.

alpine1994

For what it's worth, MFP isn't inside your body calculating exactly how many calories you need to lose X lbs per week. It's an estimate based on your height, activity level, etc. You kinda have to play around with it to figure out what works for you. The only thing that works for me is to set my cals at 1400 per day and NOT eat back my exercise cals during the week but doing so on the weekends is fine (or a couple days a week). I lose an average of 1lb per week steadily doing this. What MPF recommended for me was completely different, and it took me months to figure it out.

Maybe start by eating back half of your exercise calories daily and see if anything happens? Exercise another day or two during the week? Play around with it until something happens.

Godzirra

Thanks, I'll try that. I'm going to try adding strength training where I can on the non-cardio days and I'll try eating back half of the exercise ones and see how well that works.

But still, my original question is how to figure out an exercise plan. I.e. I know you should not do the same muscle group every day in a row and switch it up, but other than that, does it really matter WHICH exercises you're doing as long as you're mixing it up?