Losing weight with a gym membership?

So, I just got a gym membership today with a buddy of mine.. Basically, I have no idea what to do. I'm on a weight loss competition thing so for the next month I need to lose as much weight as possible overall, so I'm pretty much ruling out the weight lifting section for now. That leaves the ellipticals, treadmills, and stair climbers, plus the misc. weights for lunges or whatever. I would like advice on what I should spend my time doing. If stats matter, I'm 6'2'' and 252lbs, yet somewhat athletic. Basically, I look more like 220 lbs and have a fair amount of strength and endurance for the typical 250-pound fat guy. Should I just hop on a treadmill the whole time and start slow and work up, then slowly ease back down? Should I even touch the free weights? What piece of equipment should I focus on? Any and all advice welcome! I'm going to bed now, but I'll be back in five hours before starting the workout. Thanks.

 

Why do you want to lose weight? Are you talking about losing fat? Do you just want to weight less?

Well if you are looking to lose fat you ABSOLUTELY should hit the weights as the body can use the materials in your fat to build muscle and you won't really have to gain any weight.

If you want to weigh less its simply significantly more efficient to eat less. If you find out what your metabolism is simply eat about 400 calories less a day than your metabolism and your body will start burning your fat reserves.

 

Treadmill, bike, crosstrainer, etc. Simple.

 

To be honest gym memberships are really pointless, i understand it is good to be around other people trying to better themselves but in the end it is just better to save your money and workout at home.
If you want to lose weight (burn fat) in all honesty you can run all day long and keep gaining muscle but lose no weight.
If you want to lose weight you MUST change your eating habits.
Dieting is an amazing tip but you can't get caught up on the idea that you must always diet and you can't eat what you want.

If you are like me and love doing research you should research "Keto Diet"
It works amazingly (coming from personally experience)

Also it never hurts to lift weights, to become lean and not bulk.

 

Try to do as much cardio as possible. It gets really boring after some time so move on to the weights and workout there for a while. Come back to do cardio once you feel like its time. Working the weights still has you lose calories as you probably already know so it's better going to the weights than home.

Diet is also very important. Eat 5 SMALL meals a day and eat healthy. Try not eating fatty food and if you do, eat once in a long while. Diet is as important as working out. Stay strong and don't just give up!

 

Glad to hear about your goals!

If you want to LOSE weight, just be overall lighter, cut the calories.
10-20 lbs can be taken off in 3-4 months by eliminated SODA at lunch. THIS INCLUDES DIET. Diet is NOT better than regular, its the same sh*t, its all bad sugars
20+ lbs will require cutting the calories and some walking/jogging/running.
TO the gentleman ahead of me ^^, cardio will only work the heart. 1 mile is a mile is a mile, approx. 150 calories are burned/mile. You can either walk or run, its the same.
So if you have 1 hr extra/day, you can burn 450 calories, if you cut 300-400, thats over 800 less calories, your metabolism will begin to burn fat reserves, then you can supplement these calories will protein shakes (after you've lost some weight) and then weight lift and gain some solid muscle mass.

 

OP Here. The dieting side of things is absolutely fine. Y'know how people say it takes dieting AND exercising to lose weigh? Well I've lost 40lbs in the past four months or so just dieting, I've just decided to add the working out now.

So someone said that working with weights would help me burn calories, but I'd gain muscle mass as well, and end up breaking even. I played sports one year and must've lost 30lbs of fat, but ended up seeing no weightloss at the scale, I just looked way skinnier. I'm looking to weigh as little as possible by August.

Also, the gym membership was on sale, otherwise I wouldn't have dropped $30 on it per month. It ended up being $99 for a 15 month membership. Not a bad deal.

Lastly, once the weigh in date comes a little closer, I was considering losing water weight just to get a little lighter, just in case. The gym has a sauna, would that be an effective way of losing water weight? Or should I just try diuretics? Thanks.

 

Get on the treadmill to lose weight & lift weights to gain muscle.

 

Interval training and a good diet will cut you down like nothing. Since you don't want to burn muscle I'd also suggest doing about 45 minutes of muscle region-specific lifts (the big 3 are always good, chest - deadlift - bench press) to keep up some muscle and maybe give you a bit of lean weight. If you notice that you're gaining too much muscle mass then slow it down, lessen the weight and start maintaining instead of bulking.

As for interval training, it's when you go fast and slow, fast and slow, fast and slow while track running (best way) or just on the treadmill. Typically when I do interval on the treadmill I go for 1 minute at speed 9 (which might be fast for you, it's even fast for me in terms of interval) then 1 minute at 3.5 then repeat for ~20 minutes. By the end you'll really feel the effects. Just find two speeds that you can work with, and do them for 20-30 minutes. This has to be done daily for the best effect.

Now, as for diet, it's not that hard to make one on your own. What you want is to pump up the protein and the complex carbs (NOT simple sugars like candy, but things like whole grain bread, who grain rice, avocado, etc.) after a workout. The carbs speed up your metabolism so you can properly break down and use the nutritional elements from your other foods.

You need to remember to have at least 3 meals a day. For bulking, a lot of fitness trainers recommend around 6 small meals, but if you keep your complex carb intake regular then you don't need to do that.

Good foods
- Fruits, yoghurt, eggs, peanut butter (if you use bread use whole grain), almonds
- Chicken breast, lean beef, turkey breast, whole grain rice (pretty much whole grain anything), vegetables, 2% milk, chick peas

There are plenty more, just do a bit of a search. Good sites for finding exercises and good form for your workout are youtube, and the bodybuilding forums (www.bodybuilding.com). When I was learning about all this both sites were very helpful. Good luck!