Fitness/Healthy living Advice?

Let me start this off by saying that for the first 12 years of my life I was the strongest kid. When we where 12 we all where thrown into the weight room for our sports. As a 12 year old I was doing 2 sets of 10's benching 115 (bar is 45pounds and there where 35's on each side.) Then that summer I just lost all my muscle mass for some strange reason and couldn't eat. Went to the doctor and he was saying all this and that but wasn't sure. Then the dumb ass told my parents it was a mental thing wrong with me and I should see a shrink..... Anyway life goes on, I drop out of basketball and football still stick to lacrosse. End up getting a job at a buffet where every night I would eat fried food and all sorts of high calorie foods, and ice cream. I gained 5 pounds over the coarse of 4 months in the summer time working 5 days a week (sometimes I would eat double when i worked 8 hours a day.) Then the following winter I was at school and didn't feel good. Went to the office basically told her I was going to leave (she thought i was faking) Go home and throwing up black stuff all over. Ended up going to the ER where they had told me I ruptured my small intestine in two spots and to say good bye before surgery (later I was told that there was no way I should have survived). Turns out I have Crohns, but not just any version. I have a advanced unseen version where side effects don't show up and when it becomes activated it inflames so much in that matter of 30 minutes it explodes, where most people know a week ahead of time if surgery is needed. So I spent 2 months recovering in hospital and another month at my home. Summer time comes around and feeling great. Get back on my grind kinda lost contact with half my friends. Excited for the new school year maybe get back in touch with them right? Well the third day of my senior year (september 6th last year.) Same shit happened again. This time wasn't as bad but still took a month and half recovery time total. Now I'm on a medication that completely stabilizes my body and I've been doing fine. I've been using mass gainer and to my surprise it worked. I'm currently 187 pounds and i'm 6'1 (by far the most I've ever weighed). Now with college and everything coming up I need to get back into beast mode like the 12 year old stud I once was. I've done research and supplement investigating and have come up with a list of what I will be taking. I don't fully understand everything though and I don't know what my routine can be yet. I'm very VERY out of shape. During the surgery's they cut down the middle of your abs (like 7 inches) and I haven't ran or anything in over a year now. So I'm wondering if there are any fitness knowledge worthy people out there and If anyone can help me with supplements and such.

Ok now your through the story and got an idea of what I'm working with im honestly getting chubby. the 187 isn't really a healthy 187. So as I'm going through the workout process I want to shed the extra 10 or more pounds off my chest. I'm looking for an overall cut appearance (don't have to look like a juice head. Just something that looks normal but well defined). From my research the products I'm going to be taking are as follow

MRM CLA 1250
L-Carnitine
Opti-Men
Green Tea extact
Optimum Gold Standard Whey

Have no idea on what workouts I should do but i'm dedicating myself over my summer to the gym atleast 5 times a week. I will be starting with a mile run and ending with one. As far as what the in between I just don't know. I would like to see the formation of pecs maybe abs {fingers crossed } by the end of it. The college i'm committed to has honestly one of the best gym's i've ever seen. Has the whole 9 yards plus some (rockcliming, olympic sized pool, and other things) and I will continue this while i'm there. So I will not just stop once my 3 months is done.

As for supplements If you know anything one fat burners and protein whey's and if there's better products out there then the ones that I've mentioned please let me know. If you think I'm taking the wrong direction with this please express what you would do instead. Also would like idea's for diets I could possibly do. With crohn's I can't always eat exact diets but I can stick to them for the most part.

Thankyou for reading this whole thing I know it's kind of long.

 

Anyone out there?

 

Start off with just working out and take whey protein. Leave the rest out for now. Work out for a month or so with just whey and casein protein and then add other supplements. Youll put on muscle quick the first month or so which people call noob gains. If you plan on going 5 times a week, split your routine so like Monday would be chest and triceps, etc. For the exercises, search them up. There are really good ones out there. Keep your workout about an hour long with intensity. As for diets, eat whole foods, none of that processed crap. Make sure you eat alot of good carbs, fat and protein. Goodluck.

 

Man, you've been through a lot, Sorry to hear that you've had to go through all of that stuff. You don't really need to take supplements, as long as you work out a lot and don't eat junk food. I suggest drinking tons of water, working out tons, and eating vegetables/fruits. If that doesn't get you in shape after a while, I'd try a few supplements, but they aren't really needed. I hope you get back in shape, Let us know how it goes!

 

I would say go for long runs in the morning or whenever u have free time and cut down on your diet. Eat more vegetables and fruits and cut down on the sugar

 

Here's where the crohn's comes in to play. the whole foods are not the best for me. They actually irritate my stomach. Example is whole wheat bread. Can't eat that at ALL, so I stick to wonder bread. I can obviously cut out the bad things for myself but I'm not able to fully commit to a "whole foods" diet. That's another area I'm kind of having trouble figuring out. You seem to have knowledge on the topic. What type of whole foods do you eat?

I will be letting the community know about this, it's a hard thing to overcome and I truly believe it can help motivate others down on their luck. Supplements WILL be needed due to the fact of along with crohn's (mines in my small intestine) My small intestine absorbs my nutrients, but with the crohn's it doesn't always absorb fully (mines at about 80% of normal absorbing rate) So i mean I could eat more but in the interest of $$$ it's smarter just to take the whey (what the doc told me).

 

You looking to bulk/cut currently?

Also in regards to the supplements, I'd flag all of them except for the whey protein and perhaps the carnitine. Creatine seems to be more popular over carnitine though.

 

He is looking to cut as stated in OP

Anyways, I would suggest cardio based workouts. Higher reps with less weight. Will be much more intensive rather than the high weight low reps which is what you would if you wanted to bulk up.

You will have to have a lean diet consisting of no red meat and meats like chicken and fish. Include veggies and fruits and try to stay away from the carbs except for maybe one meal per day of carbs.

As for supplements, you should look at a thing called Advocare. They have a nice 24 Day Challenge Guide that will help you out with a diet and will also give you supplements. I think it costs around 100$.

For workouts, you should try the program insanity. You can do it at your house or wherever and is great toning program. I really recommend it!

If you have any questions, feel free to get ahold of me

Good luck, and I'm sorry to hear about everything.

 

pfft @ some comments on this thread.
Listen bud, To cut down you have to be in Caloric Deficit, you gotta calc how many cal's you're getting daily, If your body needs 5000 cals to maintain your current weight, you will need to be eating less than 5000 cals to lose fat, simple as that. I can help you with what you gotta do to calculate that.

No such thing as whey protein shakes advices because it's only used to replace a meal you can't attend at the moment you need so a whey protein shake will be good because it's fast absorption and you can use it after your work out for example.

You can drink TONS of green tean, cafein etc it will not make you lose fat, what will make you lose fat is being in caloric deficit but you can use Green Tea / Cafein if you wish.

I would only advice you a Multi ( Opti Men can be ) and Fish Oil and focus on your diet, eat less red meat BUT DONT STOP IT, read meat is actually important aswell, just pick fat less parts of it. Eat more lean meat, try to eat 2/3 in 2/3 hours and have it calculated on calories.

Do Cardio if you want to lose fat, train full body, i can help you out if you want with a good work out, ( you will need to find your own work out later on because only you know how your body reacts. )

 

I'm on a diet right now and I've lost over 20 lbs since the beginning of the year.

Cut out starches and sugars from your diet, focus more on high protein meats such as fish. Carbohydrates are the devil if your looking to lose weight.

 

He mentions wanting to cut but also wanting to get stronger. You can't get stronger on a cut.

Also there is no evidence to support the high rep/low weight theory.

In reality you don't need to stay away from red meat or any of that chit as long as you maintain a caloric deficit as stated below.

 

Wow, what have you been doing to drop 4lb/week? that's 2k calorie deficit each day, unless you've just completely cut out carbs and dropped 15lb of water, or you were extremely overweight to begin with.

 

Looking to cut the fat off my stomach as it's important to my health, but also looking to bulk up my arms and eventually when the fat is gone off my stomach, bulk up abs and chest because being cut open twice makes my abs more vulnerable to ripping open so the abs act as a protector. That's why I got a tricky situations and want some help from people on here, because I know for a fact there are a handful of die hard fitness people on this forum.

Would like you to help me out with the calorie calc weather that's on thread (preferred so i don't accidentally delete) or via PM. I'm normal looking now, but with the high protein i'm hoping to recover faster and build muscles while i'm losing fat better. The other things I choose are just to maybe push me over to the next step because I'm not strong atm or anywhere near it. Green tea extracts are not going simply because they help your digestive system soooooo much and with my issues with it, im not giving it up. A good workout to train full body to shed weight off would be highly appreciated also.

I'm not so sure about this. I'm almost positive I need to stay away from sugars to keep the fat burning.

 

If you're looking normal you can't lose fat on stomach and bulk on arms lol Buddy to lose fat you lose it on the whole body, not just on stomach and don't expect to get bigger if you're cutting. I would just advice to get bigger and bulk away, then cut it overall.

To recover faster resting is the most important, make sure to sleep enought every day.

If you're not "strong" you should start with a specific workout of hypertrophy to strength training.

I can help you out later and i can send you a simple work out that will work well for you.

Keep the motivation and eat clean, don't eat junk food.

 

Lol, I really don't think you guys are getting a clean picture. I mean my arms and legs have close to no fat, my veins pop out all over the place. But my stomach carries honestly 15 pounds of fat. it looks abnormal and I can take pictures If I need too. It's just such a situation that I don't know how to approach.

 

I know what you mean but to lose fat it gotta be losing it from the whole body, not just one part, that happens because you have some fat on that part which is being harder to get out. It will go all away if you do what we told you.

 

Well obviously it's generally advised to stay away from sugars as they contain a lot of calories but (hypothetical situation since it's pretty retarded), you could eat cake and coke if you wanted, it would just end up accounting for a lot of your calories that day so you'd have to fore-go eating other meals.

This, you lose fat from all over. It might not look like there is much fat elsewhere since your stomach may be the most noticeable but trust me, there is.

 

Ohh wow, a very shitty hand dealt bro! I'm really sorry to hear all of that happened you...I'm glad you're feeling well enough to kick it into gear and get back at it!

Well first thing to losing fat is obviously diet. And I say fat instead of weight because in my mind they are two different things! You don't have to jump on the super strict super complex super time intensive meal prep band wagon. Honestly just keep it as clean as your lifestyle will allow you to. Stay away from fast foods is number one! Try and eat things high in protein. Here's kinda how I eat on a daily basis to give you an idea

Breakfast - Oatmeal, Eggs usually 2 or 3...but more if I'm feeling hungry, toast, and an egg white protein shake. That whole meal literally takes like 15 minutes to make its too easy!
Snack - Protein shake and something else...that something else isn't something healthy. Usually a poptart or something along those lines haha
Lunch - Grilled chicken and brown rice
Snack - Nothing really specific, I do tend to gravitate towards beef jerky though lol.
Dinner - Usually steak or some form of red meat, a vegetable and rice

I change it up so I don't get bored, Sometimes I'll make teriyaki, bbq, differently seasoned chicken. And the red meat is easy to not get bored of. Ribs, burgers, steak, brisket. . .etc.
Also feel free to supplement fish in place of red meats etc. . .red meat isn't the best for losing weight!

EDIT: There is definitely some give in that diet personally for me...sometimes my schedule just won't allow it, so don't think I'm a robot or don't work a full time schedule lol.

Working out I could probably talk forever about but I'll keep it short with little variation.

To be perfectly honest...I'm not sold on the whole running thing is best for losing fat! My reasoning for this is because when I was in the Army I was station at Fort Campbell (101st Airborne) and boy do they love to run. Literally every Monday was a guaranteed 5 mile run, and because the lack of creativity and the mandatory 1.5hrs of PT we ran at least 2 or 3 miles every day to fill up some time. I was somewhat skinny and nowhere near what I'm at now and I run maybe 2 miles a week lol?

My workout scheme you may want to look at for ideas

Monday - Chest/tri:
Incline barbell 8-10 reps (3 sets)
Skull crushers 8-10 reps (4 sets)
Flat Dumbbell 8-10 reps (3 sets)
Cable pushdowns 8-10 reps (4 sets)
Decline barbell - 8-10 reps (3 sets)
Dips - Till failure (3 sets)

Tuesday - Back/bi:
Pull ups usually 15 or so (4 sets)
Barbell curls 10-12 reps (4 sets)
Bent over barbell rows 10-12 reps (4 sets)
Incline dumbbell curls (10-12 reps) 4 sets)
Cable rows (10-12 reps) (3sets)
Hammer curls (10-12 reps) 3 sets)
Romanian Dead lifts (8-10 reps) (3 sets)

Wednesday - Shoulders/legs
Squats 10-12 reps (3 sets)
Arnold press 10-12 reps (3 sets)
Front Squats 10-12 reps (3 sets)
Front raises - 10-12 reps (3 sets)
Calf raises 10-12 (usually more than 4 sets lol)
lateral raisers 10-12 reps (3 sets)

Thursday - Off day from lifting. I usually go for a jog around the block...sometimes I'll hit the gym and do body weight exercises like dips, pull ups, abs if Im feeling froggy, pushups etc. . .

Friday - Repeat above with a different variation of workouts, same structure though.
Also my breaks in between the sets are usually no longer than 15-20 seconds, I don't sit there for a couple of minutes...because of it my workouts usually don't last longer than an hour and my stamina has greatly improved.

Figure out what works best for you though man, as long as your consistent and somewhat dedicated you'll get there for sure. More dedication you have the quicker you'll get there!

Been working out constantly for almost 4 years now.
Currently 5'11'' and weigh about 190lbs of twisted steel =p


EDIT: Supplements I take as a reference

- Optimum Nutrition egg white protein
- Join supplement
- Amino acids

 

Here im going to give you my best advice. I train probably 16 hours every day 5 days a week as a full time navy seal and firefighter. Its rough but my health knowledge is amazing.

My best advice is.

dont listen to other advice about lifting, eating ect.

Start from the bottom and over a year or so+ make your way to the top.

First thing I want you to ask is.

How bad do you want it?

2nd thing I need to ask of you is.

cut all your meals in half, drop breads completely from your life, remove all white foods (this wont really mean shit to your weight but as you age your life will be longer)
Pickup eating beans. LOTS OF CARDIO.

dont worry about lifting man, its about living. (still lift though lol jacked muscles = gg on the girls)

Beans are amazing, every source your body needs they fulfill.

Drop every drink I dont care what it is, and only drink water. Its all your body needs, you will feel so good after a week.

dont eat carbs for 7 days straight, you might throw up on the 6-7th day, that is your body changing, on the 7th day begin eating Brown rice, Oatmeal carbs ONLY.


Special K is rigged.

Protein shakes are Not good. Dont drink them please.

Believe in yourself.

Man its all you dude, nothing else You just gotta fucking look at the stars and you gotta fucking dream.

When I became a seal man that shit was so easy dude and I will tell you why, because the hardest journey I made was getting in shape for the seals.

and the best advice i can give is

Believe.
in
YOU


anyways once you get where you want

bang bitches
drink beer
party
play runescape
fuck some more bitches
go to college get a degree in Process OPerationrs
Join the military (special forces only fuck it if you cant)
make 60k+ a year doing easy missions
Rare deaths in the rangers, Seals ect. We only had some major deaths because of bs but you know.

its fun as fuck
Benefits are fucking amazing especially from the VA.

Basically just that.


Damn I almost forgot.

I cant do it but, the best health source you can probably intake in your life is Marijuana.

trust me, Smoke that shit, its amazing for you. Dont belieVE ANYTHING anyone says about it being bad for you i have sources these dumbfucks wish they were as smart as.

 

First time I have ever said "I call bullshit" to myself and actually felt compelled to convey it on this forum.