Need help, wanting to lose weight but have no idea how.

Hey Sythe, i hardly post on here but i am in desperate need. I currently weigh around 305. I am not all completely fat, i do have some muscle but not as much as i would like. I have dropped around 15 lbs in the last month or so by just not eating junk food and soda anymore. I really dont work out, i work at a sports and outdoors store and walk around a lot and do lots of heavy lifting and that is my excersize for the day i guess. I recently got a membership to planet fitness and have started going to work out. The obvious thing is to run, but i want to actually shed fat and start gaining muscle. Is there any advice yall can give me or someone give me a plan to follow? I used to do 2 days of weight lifting and 2 cardio days in football but never really lost weight. Just gained speed and got stronger. My main goal is to be around 280 within a couple of months and longterm goal is to be 250ish but muscular. I know it will take hard work and dedication and im willing to do it, i just need someone to help me get started, show me the ropes of what to eat and excersise. The hardest part for me is the eating part, i dont know what to eat half of the time, or there is nothing healthy to eat at home so i just end up eating whatever there is made, ex. Tortillas, rice, beans, potatoes.

Please and thank you.

 

First of all, what is your height?
Even if you are 6'4, 305 lb is extremely overweight. Don't try to lie to yourself that a portion of that weight is muscle. The first step that you need to take is to determine what is your BMI and the calories you need to consume to be at maintenance. For example, your maintenance is 2800 calories. If you were to eat 2200 calories each day you would lose around 1 lb every week. You can modify this by eating even less than 2200 if you want to speed up your weight loss.

You say that you want to lose fat and weight while gaining muscle. This is extremely hard to do unless you are a new weight lifter. To gain muscle, one has to be at a calorie surplus, and that is something that you definitely don't want to do simply because you are already overweight, there is no point in eating more and getting fatter.

Cut your calories and be on a calorie deficit, do cardio 4-5 days a week and do a couple of weight lifting exercises like bench press and squats. Your main focus right now should be to lose weight and fat. This goal can easily be obtained by limtiting your calorie intake and having a good nutrition while also doing cardio (Ex. treadmill). Good luck OP

 

i am 6'1 and i know i am extremely overweight. Im just saying i know im not like majority of fat slobs in the US that waddle everywhere and sound like a whale everytime they are out of breath. (yes i live in the US so i can say that ) well in that case i just want to focus on losing weight, if that means focusing on gaining muscle later on so be it, for now i just want to lose weight and be down in the 200s, at 299 ill be happy. Any advice on what i should do for cardio? just run 1-3 miles a day or what and how many calories should i eat a day? i hardly eat breakfast, and when i do its usually 2 eggs beans and potatoes, and dont eat till dinnertime and that varies a lot. i just need a general idea on how to get started thats all i really ask for, but thank you for your input, it means a lot.

 

Well, I did a quick check and your maintenance should be at around 2900 calories. That means that you should be eating around 2200 if you want to lose weight. 2,200 calories is STILL a lot of food that can fill you up if you are smart about what you eat. I used to only eat 1,200 calories while cutting my weight and I didn't feel hungry. Those 2,200 calories can come from any food really, but I would recommend a clean diet. Chicken,meat,eggs,rice,beans,fish,bread,pasta.

Cut the candy, cut the mcdonalds, cut the soda. Your family is mexican so you have an advantage, ask your mom or whoever cooks in your house to make tacos or grilled chicken. I know that limiting what you eat and knowing when to stop is difficult. That is why I am recommending you to count your calories. Read the labels of what you eat. Write in a little notebook for example:
Lunch - Ate 3 eggs with potatoes - 700 calories
Dinner - Ate grille chicken with 2 slices of bread and beans/ 800 calories


You don't even need to do cardio if you eat less than what your body needs, but I would still recommend you to do cardio just to be safe and get your body moving.
If you do choose to perform cardio, 25-30 mins should be enough. So yes, 2-3 miles a day would help you tremendously.

Also, check your weight every week after waking up, get on a scale and I guarantee you that every week you will get skinnier and you will feel even more motivated when you start seeing weight loss results. You can also keep in the same notebook that I mentioned earlier information about your weight and your weight loss.

 

find maintenance > eat below maintenance > lose weight

use myfitnesspal or another site to track your food it will help keep you on track

 

Thanks Trust, ill definetly start that today. Im about to head off to work and all im eating before that is glass of water and maybe a apple. I just never really thought counting calories actually worked so i never bothered.

Kronix, are those apps or actual websites?

 

Both, www.myfitnesspal.com, and there is also a mobile app

 

I think the best way is to do more exercise. If you just eat less, then less will be energy supplies. Just do sports, there will be no food to digest fat. Aspects of food you can eat more fruits and vegetables.

 

hey mate,

First of all it's better to move more and eat more than otherwise.Try to be as active as possible, take a walk instead of driving, choose stairs instead of lift.In the gym find good coach and ask him to teach technique of main lifts (deadlift, squat, bench press, rows).Its very crucial to get form down in the begining.As for programing, i would start with 5x5 program.Its really great for beginers.you can read more here
http://stronglifts.com/5x5/

I will stress this once more, please get down and learn correct form of lifts.ITs very very important.

As for fat loss,all you have to do is stay under maintainance calories.You might be able to lose fat and build some muscle at first, thats called noob gains, but when you get more experienced you will only be able to either lose fat or build muscle.

Food.Its really important to get highly nutrient foods into your body.Needless to say, you have to cut all junk food.Sugar, soda, wheat.Try to eat as much vegetables as possible I will name a few sources of each macronutrient

Protein​

lean meat
red meat
eggs
fish
beans

Carbs​

Brown rice
vegetables
Oats
Buckwheat
Fruits

Fat​

Fish oil
Fish
Nuts
Olive oil
Cocanut oil​

IF you have any other questions, feel free to ask

 

I haven't had the chance to read through everyone's post above, but make sure you do, as some of them looked quite helpful and detailed out. I'm going to provide more of some other advice as to progressing.

Make sure you don't go all out right away. Baby steps. Start with running once a week or going to the gym once a week. Have a couple days where you eat better than you normally do. Then as that starts to become normal and natural, amp it up a bit. Start going 2-3 times a week. Start trying to incorporate a healthy meal or two in your diet every day. I think you understand what I'm driving at. Make sure you start slowly.

Another thing is PATIENCE! You will not see results until a good couple months out, and even then it'll likely be marginal. Keep working at it for several months and you'll start to take off the pounds. Slow and steady wins the race.

 

Words of wisdom.You really should approach the whole process as a marathon, not a sprint, i hope it makes sense.However i have to disagree with one statement.Usually people can see changes within a week, if they go right ontrack.Ofcourse it is a minor changes, but still something going on in a mirror.

 

Everyone has already addressed the meal and exercise part, so I will address another dynamic entirely that most people skip or don't realize even exists.

Nutrient intake is one of the most important parts of losing weight. There's a reason why you can have someone that is overweight be malnourished, and a Kenyan runner who is skin and bones be one of the most healthy people you will meet. The best way to achieve this dynamic of the weight loss goal is flipflopping what you've already been doing. So far, it seems as though your diet has consisted of a high caloric intake and a low nutrient intake. The human body cares about one thing and one thing only, its immediate survival. Storing body fat is one of the ways the human body protects itself, in the case of starvation, this is a normal stress response (in relation to your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems).

If you want to give your body the best chance of shedding weight easily, begin a diet that is high in nutrients. Fast foods are not nutrient dense foods. Why do you think generally vegetarians/vegans/raw foodists are some of the most thin (less so vegetarians sometimes) people? Yet they are more times than not malnourished (a popular myth propagated against those groups).

Depending on the soil your food was grown in will determine how nutrient deficient the food itself is. Supplementing can aid you immensely in this case. As the body meets its nutrient requirements, it will become easier to lose body fat. "Disengaging" your body's defense mechanism to store fat because of a low-level stress response to nutrient lacking foods will greatly aid you.

Best of luck.

 

Soem may, some may not. After discussing multiple times with my personal trainer, he sees people leave after a month time and time again because they couldn't start an extensive 4 day a week, superb diet routine right off the bat. If they did, they often burned themselves out and quit. Those who started small didn't see the results they hoped quick enough, and quit within a month.

Although some people do have the capacity go all in right away and maintain it for awhile, it's unlikely. Just trying to provide a more likely method that OP will see results.

And as for the results, I really don't think the results you'll see in a week will be very noticeable. When I say results, I mean quite noticeable, to the point that other people will begin pointing out your physical changes