Making an Exercise Plan

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.

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)

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.