Fitness advice

just getting back into the gym, and need some advice

Little bit about me:
6’0
185lbs
Moderately activate lifestyle (I work at a marina)

My biggest issue right now is that I have a little bit of belly fat (some would call a beer belly but I hardly ever drink beer). I know that a lot of this is diet, how do you guys go about making a diet plan/workout plan?

Thanks in advance, matt

 

Super easy. You just have to want to do it. If you find yourself having trouble following this, then you have to ask yourself: do you really want to slim down? If you do, push through. Meal by meal, day by day, count each time as a victory.

I like to do 2 week increments, but if you want to shorten them or lengthen them go for it. The key is BABY STEPS. Don’t rush into a full 1,000 calorie keto diet from day 1. You can’t sustain that and you’ll just become demotivated. The goal isn’t to diet, lose the weight, go off the diet, go back to your normal eating habits, and put the weight back on. The goal is to move to healthier eating that you enjoy and you can sustain.

Week 1 & 2 - Record what you eat and your weight. Don’t bother changing a thing. Just record what you naturally eat and find the breakdown of calories. Weight yourself each morning and see if you’re maintaining your weight, gaining weight or losing weight based on your current eating habits.

Week 3 & 4 - Start making some steps to a healthier diet. Try to cook a few meals each week including some healthier options. Maybe you make some chicken, frozen fries with some broccoli. The key here isn’t sweeping changes, it’s substitute a couple healthier foods in here and there as you progress. You know what’s healthy vs what’s not. Just start making the changes slowly so that you ease yourself and your taste buds into the switch.

Week 5 & 6 & beyond - Keep implementing new healthier foods, start cooking more, and start meal prepping. Living and active lifestyle while working makes it incredibly tough to regularly cook for yourself. The solution? Meal prep your breakfasts and dinners for the week on a Sunday so that you only have to pop it open and eat in the morning and when you’re home from work. This is a great way to control portions and free up some time. Now, as with everything, BABY STEPS! Start with making too much for a meal here and there. Maybe just make leftovers for the next day to start. After several weeks of progressively making more, maybe try making just breakfast on a Sunday and make a few extra days worth to get the idea of it there.

The key to making these changes is slowly and over time. Make it fun and exciting. Try to cook new foods, use new spices! I never made a quiche before I fixed my nutrition, now I know they’re super easy to make, really easy to heat up in the morning and I love them. You’ll find what you like and next thing you know, you’ll be losing weight, looking good and loving meal prepping

 

Losing weight is a simple science. More calories burned than consumed. If you eat 2000 calories, make sure you burn more than 2000 calories a day. Your body naturally burns calories throughout the day. Things such as breathing, going to the bathroom to pee, sleeping, and sitting among other things, burn calories. However, this isn't enough if you're gonna eat (which all of us do).

DO NOT overdo cardio. You might see the number of calories burned on the treadmill keep increasing, but you should be focusing on strength training. Lean yourself out with strength training and do some cardio afterwards. Around 15-30 mins of light jogging.

You can't outwork a poor diet. You don't have to eat lettuce and tomatoes everyday, but you should be tracking your calories with myfitnesspal and weighing your food to get more accurate calorie counts.

In summary, burn more than you eat, and don't focus on just cardio.

 

I was there. Used to be 6'3 180 with a little belly and 2.5 years later I'm 200 and really happy with my body. Basically it's hard to figure out what to do with your diet at first because you don't know whether you should focus on putting on muscle before you try to chisel down, or lose weight first and then slowly bulk up from there. Honestly it takes time and my best suggestion to you would be to start getting into lifting and worry less about the diet for now. I say this because you're not overweight. Obviously if your diet is trash and has a lot of sugar you should look into changing that, and obviously make sure you have enough protein. Get into a routine, and it'll come to you before you know it.

Also, reddit has some good skinny fat posts on leangains. I'd look into it for better advice.

 

@Dunworry Thank you for the advice, I do need to take it slow and just learn as I go

@Wilough Yeah my diet is trash that is the first thing I need to get a hold of and start tracking.


@sypherz thanks, its nice to know someone else is in my position, first thing im going to tackle is my diet and really start watching it.

Thanks to all of you, appreciate all of the advice, I want this so going to be putting it all into perspective and start working at it.

 

Measure it to get more accurate counts. Try to measure ingredients one by one. For example, if you’re having a chicken salad sandwich, don’t search up chicken salad sandwich. Search up chicken, then mayo, then the bread, etc etc

 

The key thing is diet, diet, diet. Even if you go to the gym 5 days a week and you go with a poor diet, you will never lose that little pouch of yours. Try having a cheat day once a week but 6 days of the week, you have to stick to a strict diet of vegetables and protein. In continuation with your diet, you also have to go to the gym and exercise. Try using more weights in your exercises. They certainly help. Try going with a buddy and doing all of these activities with him/her. This would definitely help you get to your goal and its just more fun doing these mundane things with a buddy at hand.