New Starter requires Advice

BarryFly

Ok I've committed myself to changing my life and require any help you can give.
Current Stats:
Weight - 15st 10lbs
Height - 5ft 11in

I'm in the early stages of planning how to shed the fat and build the muscle tone, basically trying to figure the right ;

1) Training equipment - will be located in the garage. I'm thinking of a Multi Gym with the addition of Dumbells, Treadmill, Stepper and standard Bike.
Q. -Am I missing anything (mix of building kit and cardio)?
Q. -Any recommendation for the multigym (budget 500)?

2) Food Suppliments - This is, frankly, a mind bendingly complex area from what I have discovered so far. Basically I'm after a suppliment to aid in muscle building and repair whilst not pileing on weight.
Q. -Which suppliment(s) are best to aid in fat loss, muscle gain\repair but not going to break the bank?

Any suggestions\recommendations would be appreciated

garethxxx

Hey there Barry and welcome to the forums first of all.

Its great to hear that you want to change your lifestyle, I went through this last year. I weighed in at 18stone 10lbs in March 2003. I am now 13stone and 6lbs. I will be honest, its hard work, but its worth it in the long run.

Lets start with the basics:

High protein, low carbohydrate diet. 1 hour to 1 exercise on 2 day on day off work out routine.

The basic aspect of losing weight is to do so at a very slow pace. At competition level, athletes tend to almost starve themselves on a 600 calorie a day diet. The human body NEEDS approximately 2,000 calories a day in order to survive. The best way to lose weight is to take your time and be sure you are comfortable with what you are doing.

This is very important.

What may happen along the way is that you may not lose any weight for a little while. This is normal as your body adapts to workouts and your diet. I have experienced this myself, it is important that you are comfortable with the diet you are on.

Cardio is a must for burning off fat. Start by walking the dog, or taking jogs in the morning, or buy yourself a cross trainer (Recommended!!)

One of the big things is that you can shrink if you do too much cardio, so weights need to be used! Start off nice and easy and let your body get used to the new regime. You are basically shocking your body, stimulating it to lose weight.

garethxxx

In order to lose 2lbs a week, you need to lower you calorie intake by about 500 a day, this should not be a problem since you will be doing CV work.

Drink some water! It is essential to re-hydrate yourself. Drink little during your workout, but lots during the day. When you are done with the first part of the CV, do some weight training. If you stick with Cardio, you will just shrink. For weight loss, pick medium weights and lift as many times as you can. This also acts as a Detox, and therefore will help strip out the rubbish in your gut!

Diets can be awful! Try to understand that you have to eat at least 4 times a day! Food can take up to 12 hours just to digest! YES, this does include the horrible takeaways, McDonalds, etcSo what you want to do is Detox your system. We are going to feed your body every 3 hours! This is easy to do!

Cut out the drinks, and treat yourself every once in a while. Do NOT use the Atkins diet, this will hurt your body.

Stick with a high protein diet, as it will help build muscle and aid in retaining what you burn during cardio. Try to have all of your carbs before Midday, this will supply you with enough for the day. Try to cut out fatty products, bread and sugar.

Cut down to Skimmed milk instead of full. Don't use butter, use no more than 5g of oil if you are frying or replace it with a little water.

Eat as much fruit as you want, even though this is a carb, they are mostly water and will go right through you!!

For meals, stick with Chicken, Turkey, White Fish, Tuna and other non-carb food. Eat plenty of lettuce as it helps flush out the stomach.

Loads of water!! This will keep the muscles full. Get yourself some multi-vitamins and finally a good protein shake, I would recommend Weider's Muscle Builder.

All of this is a basis to loosing weight. Remember to start off slow and then gradually work harder. For the weights, use them as 1 day = 2 body parts!

This way your body will heal quicker and the next time you come to training it you should find some gains.

Best of luck, and keep us posted! We are here to help so feel free to ask ok.

Anonymous

welcome to the musclechat board barryfly

welldone for deciding to change your life,it will be well worth it.

u can get some good multigym equpiment here

http://www.bodypower.co.uk

they also offer free delivery.

a olympic set of weights and a bench press is another good thing to invest in,me and my mate trained in his garage for about a couple of years,made tremendous gains.

the best place to get standard plates from is argos,about 20 kg for 14.99
bargain.

like gareth said a high protein diet is a must,there are loads of different makes of protein powders about,so your spoilt for choice.
this will come very handy for when u cannot eat anymore.

a good fatburning supplement should contain ephedra,

ephedra based supplements ,preserve muscle while burning fat

they are going to banned soon in the us.

hope this helps mate

steve

Anonymous

Thanks for the welcome guys.

The info you provided is much appreciated and will definately be put to good use (been to Holland and Barrets already for the Weider stuff - good price there). Over the last few days I've been sorting out my training regime and have gathered loads of recipes. I've got together what I hope should be enough cardio kit
Treadmill - not powered but friction based - been in the garage for ages
Cross Trainer - Cross country Ski simulator
Road bike
This afternoon I'm out at gym showroom - the internet is great for price and ideas but I need to get a feel for the kit first before I buy. I'm tending towards a Smith device especially after your advice re bench and free weights.
My concern now is with the heart - I'm approaching 37 so the wife is concerned . I've read somewhere that you should target heart rate to get maximum gain from your workouts. I've identified a monitor - Polar A1 (Basic but I don't want bells and whistles). This is leading me to my question.
Q. - Do you know how to calculate the target, max and Idle heart rates that I should aim for?

Q. - Also regarding the Ephedra - why is it being banded in the US - health concerns or unfair advantage in sports?

Thanks again for your help guys.

Anonymous

hello mate

i dont no how to calculate the target heartrate,if someone else does then please let us no.

what i tend to do when i train with the weights is keep the rest time down to about 2 minutes between sets.this also speeds up the workout,and i believe it gives me more stamina.

i think there banning ephedra in the us cos of the health concerns,which is crazy,as there aint many that have actually died from taking it.maybe im wrong,i aint read that much on it.

.the stuff is good,gives u more intensity towards your training.
ive stocked up well.

the smith machines are ideal,u dont need to worry about a spotter.

keep us posted on how u get on

steve

BarryFly

Firstly, an apology for not signing in on my last post = blame it on message board ignorance. Lesson learned.

Thanks for the reply. I bought the weight kit, not a smith, too big for the garage.
Think I'll read up on the Ephedra before trying though. I'll keep looking out for heart monitoring and post back to this when I find.

philipo

Hi BarryFly
You should find the hart rate's you require on the Polar Web site or what I have been working to is 220 minus your age to find your MAX hart rate then you work to percentages depending if you wish to just stay fit or train like an athlete, I have trained like this my self from 1999 at age 34 and it does help I started off at near 19 Stone and in seven months I was down to 11st 8 that was also with good weight training but my body weight got too low so trained back up to keep it between 80 to 85 KGs and feel good and trying to achieve the Atlas look ( But I can dream) SO you will not go wrong with the advice the Guys are giving you and it is good to see a sight like this to help because when I started out it was plunge in and see what happens. But Steve and the Guys will see you right!

Philip

Anonymous

welcome to the musclechat board philipo

its good to see new members posting

garethxxx

Philipo, welcome to the board bud. Always good to have new people on the board and especially weight loss guys!!

One thing you mate find Barryfly is that your heart rate might get into the Cardio zone. This is where you train your body and heart to beat at that level, believe it or not, you still burn off the calories but not as much fat as you would in the fat burning zone.

So as a just in case, it might be worth you investing in a fat burner. Also try some KLB6 from Holland & Barrett. That will help get rid of any excess body fluids.

In a workout with weights, remember anyone can lift weights, but keeping it intense will garauntee good results.

Best of luck and let us know how you get on!