General Fitness/Weight Help

GeorgeWaite16
GeorgeWaite16 Posts: 9
edited November 11 in Fitness and Exercise
Hi,

I'm George and I'm a part time student, I went to the gym regularly throughout summer but stopped when school came back. I've recently been going back. However I need help on what to do. I'm 220 pounds, 5'11 and overweight I want to cut the fat and either tone or gain muscle. Personally think it would be better to tone then build but want a second opinion. My main question is what type of things do I need to do at the gym, like what workouts should I be doing. For example should I do one muscle a day or should I so splits (3/4 muscles a day) and what would be good to eat whilst at school and pre/post-workout. I also had protein shakes during summer and they helped recovery a lot but I would prefer not to have them. I just generally would like to have a better body image and not be conscious when I am out. If any extra details are needed I am happy to share.

All help is appreciated

Thanks George

Replies

  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    I’d consider the following:
    Monday - 5x5 (compound movements)
    Tuesday - 45 minutes light cardio (walking, easy biking, or play)
    Wednesday - 5x5 (compound movements)
    Thursday - 45 minutes light cardio (walking, easy biking, or play)
    Friday - 5x5 (compound movements)
    Saturday - High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) with a 1 - 3 or 1 - 4 work to recovery cycle for 5 - 8 cycles based on your recovery.
    Sunday - Rest (can be active rest with some mobility work or very light yoga).

    If you eat to a slight deficit, keeping your carbs at low to moderate and get sufficient protein, you should be able to shed some fat while adding muscle (particularly since you’re a young man). You’ll also see better strength gains if you push for heavier weights.

    Once you’re seeing the strength come on, if you’re not getting the mass you want, you can consider moving to a higher rep scheme to work on hypertrophy vs strength.
  • GeorgeWaite16
    GeorgeWaite16 Posts: 9
    AllanMisner wrote: »
    I’d consider the following:
    Monday - 5x5 (compound movements)
    Tuesday - 45 minutes light cardio (walking, easy biking, or play)
    Wednesday - 5x5 (compound movements)
    Thursday - 45 minutes light cardio (walking, easy biking, or play)
    Friday - 5x5 (compound movements)
    Saturday - High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) with a 1 - 3 or 1 - 4 work to recovery cycle for 5 - 8 cycles based on your recovery.
    Sunday - Rest (can be active rest with some mobility work or very light yoga).

    If you eat to a slight deficit, keeping your carbs at low to moderate and get sufficient protein, you should be able to shed some fat while adding muscle (particularly since you’re a young man). You’ll also see better strength gains if you push for heavier weights.

    Once you’re seeing the strength come on, if you’re not getting the mass you want, you can consider moving to a higher rep scheme to work on hypertrophy vs strength.

    Okay Thanks,

    Just one other thing however, I find that when I feel hungry I tend to straight away go for carbs (Bagels) is there something I can supplement it with?
  • Kevvboy
    Kevvboy Posts: 81 Member
    George, I'd get rid of all bread. Personally it triggers me into being hungrier. But that's just me. If instead you had a snack of lean protein - turkey breast or chicken or fish or shrimp - and maybe couple it with some leafy greens like baby spinach I think you'll find your hunger is a lot less. Or try a lowfat yogurt and a handful of nuts. For some reason the combination of protein-healthy carb is more satisfying to me than just eating one thing or the other. Good luck.
  • merv243
    merv243 Posts: 19 Member
    Don't do HIIT while cutting carbs. You will be at serious risk for injury (true HIIT is brutal). That said, HIIT is amazing for burning fat. But you need the carbs to perform well and recover afterwards.

    You can get stronger while burning fat if you don't have much lifting experience, but this is different from muscle growth. Generally speaking, you can either burn fat (this is generally what people mean when they say "tone"), or burn muscle, based on what you eat.

    If you are doing 5x5 (which means 5 sets of 5 reps), that means you're doing a fairly heavy weight (by definition - if you could do more than 5x5, then the weight is not "heavy"). Form is critical - I don't personally believe that you should just jump into 5x5, but if you want to, make sure you watch a LOT of form videos, especially on anything involving the legs/back, and practice with really light weights.
  • GeorgeWaite16
    GeorgeWaite16 Posts: 9
    Currently, I am doing something called a Push/Pull Split. Which is where I exercise several muscles a day at high reps. However before in summer I did different body parts different days, keeping the same amount of reps and sets but upping the weight when I felt I could lift more. I play Football/Soccer 3 times a week which I would say is high intensity. However including this, I haven't changed diet and I still feel like I eat unhealthily which is a problem being a teenager because my parents still do the majority of the food shopping.

    Thought I would add some extra details so that maybe you guys could give me some more specific advice seeing as I didn't really detail my first post. All the advice given so far has been great just wanted to see if this would help.
  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    GeorgeWaite16 wrote: »

    Okay Thanks,

    Just one other thing however, I find that when I feel hungry I tend to straight away go for carbs (Bagels) is there something I can supplement it with?

    A bagel is the worst thing you can eat for fat loss. I keep things with me such as nuts, grass fed beef jerky, cans of sardines, boiled eggs, etc. Fat is going to satiate you much better and longer than carbs.

    That said, it is worth taking time to ween yourself off of carbs. Quitting cold turkey can be quite difficult.
  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    GeorgeWaite16 wrote: »
    Currently, I am doing something called a Push/Pull Split. Which is where I exercise several muscles a day at high reps. However before in summer I did different body parts different days, keeping the same amount of reps and sets but upping the weight when I felt I could lift more. I play Football/Soccer 3 times a week which I would say is high intensity. However including this, I haven't changed diet and I still feel like I eat unhealthily which is a problem being a teenager because my parents still do the majority of the food shopping.

    Thought I would add some extra details so that maybe you guys could give me some more specific advice seeing as I didn't really detail my first post. All the advice given so far has been great just wanted to see if this would help.

    I always advocate for full body, compound movements. A five by five for me typically involves, deadlift, squat, bench press, bar row or pull ups, and overhead press (strict). I might mix that up from time to time to keep from getting stale (e.g., do dumbbells or kettle bells instead of barbell).

    And by low carb, I meant low enough to where you are replacing glycogen stores but not enough that you’re causing spikes in blood sugar. You don’t have to be in ketosis to lose fat, but you do have to keep your blood sugar relatively stable. I’ve found that 50 - 75 grams of carbs per day (on a 2000 calorie eating plan) is plenty to keep my glycogen stores intact and fully capable of hard HIIT sessions.
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