Leaning weight out
 

Hey guys,

So I have had a stubborn stomach, but I have gained a little bit of weight in the last few years. I used to work out a lot, and since my fitness has left me, my stomach and appetite remained.

I'm about 6'5, 230 lbs. Pants are a size 36, Im still very slim and I got some bulk. I'm hoping to reduce my body fat. I have always been concerned with gaining mass and bulking up and it has been my goal since I have started working out (5+ years).

I am no longer pursuing this goal. I want to get lean. I won't be too concerned with eating tons of proteins/carbs, and I wont be lifting weights to bulk up, but rather to burn off fat and gain endurance.

If any of you guys have any tips, let me know. Im going to start with the following:

1 - Quit smoking, again....
2 - I've been eating lots of raw fruits/veggies, avoiding pop/beer/sugars
3 - I drink a lot of coffee, with a lot of sugar, I will be trying to stop this
4 - Start exercising again. 20km/day on the bike is what I used to do
5 - Instead of sets of 8 (during weightlifting), I heard doing sets of 12-16 will help me lean?
6 - Make good choices, brown instead of white, rice instead of pasta, juice instead of 7up, etc.
7 - Taking the stairs, not wasting 20 minutes looking for a close parking spot, etc (inconveniencing myself to be more active)

Any other tips appreciated! :D


The reason I'm going this way, is because I feel big, creaky, and just sore all the time. I'd like to leave the 'brute strength' area and enter the 'lean and versatile' area. For those of you who play dota, I want to go from a Strength hero to an Agility hero, basically.

:D

Smoking part doesn't really matter. Fruits and veggies, yes a must. Try to take your coffee black its not that bad, or lessen your sugar intake significantly since you drink more than one cup a day from the sounds of it.
Ok the exercise part, some people like to do cardio before their workout, but honestly you're not gunna build muscle at all while you are trying to lose weight so there is no point in even lifting, it'll just be a waste of you're time. I would say just stick to cardio for now until you slim down more.
As for the lifting part, do 12-16 REPS per set not 12-16 sets, you'll kill yourself haha. Do around 3-4 exercises and keep them at 3 sets per excerises with 12-16 reps. The reason you want to do more reps is because you are burning more fat in the process but really, you cant slim down very much from just lifting and increasing reps, its cardio and mostly all about the diet.
As for the diet, you are right, eat all the healthy variables its not that hard. If you want, you can have a "cheat day" every once a week, but dont overdo it.
Just remember, cut down on you're carbs significantly (rice, pasta bread), this is the part where you will significantly lose the most weight. People always think cardio will help them lose the most weight, its not exactly true. Diet is a bigger part of it.
Low carbs during breakfast, low carbs during lunch, and ABSOLUTELY no carbs at all during dinner.

This worked for me it should for you too man! Not exactly rocket science, just plain and simple

^ Actually he can slim down a lot from lifting and keeping track of his diet (Calorie deficit). Cardio is good for your health, and it will help burn more calories. Some people enjoy doing cardio, while others do not. Like you said diet is the most important, but cardio isn't absolutely necessary to lose weight.

OP:

Since you are riding a bicycle (or assuming you are) give this workout a shot:

Weight Loss: Chris Carmichael Bike Workouts | Bicycling Magazine *Edit*: Browse around the website and read the food & nutrition section on dieting tips!

I'm into my first month of this bicycle regimen and it has helped me significantly. While the numbers are slowly dropping, I am feeling a lot better than before and I'm able to put on clothes with ease from 5 years ago. I used to have a bad back which made some physical activity difficult.

I share the same sentiments as yellowpower and as a generic rule of thumb, weight loss is attributed by 80% diet and 20% workout. The percentile in reality may seem skewed and almost unrealistic but you will ultimately have to play with what works for you. In addition to your original post, you're correct about being realistic about your goals. This comes with time. I didn't expect overnight results from the workout I posted but did not expect such drastic changes in a month's time. Good luck! :)

Edit: Figure out your daily caloric intake using this calculator to help with your dieting goals: http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm

Lots of leafy greens, fresh fruits and vegetables. Lay off the juice, too much sugar. Get enough sleep and drink lots of water a day.

TRUE. However, with his diet he will be losing weight instead of gaining any muscle mass so the workout will only help burn calories instead of building muscle, which means one side of the benefits of lifting are already gone.

In addition, you need an intense workout, and im talking VERY intense, to actually see a change on the scale.

Im not saying dont lift later on down the road, just dont lift now.

OP mentioned in his first post that he has been bulking up since he has been working out for 5 years, and now he wants to cut and get leaner. Calorie deficit is the most important thing to see a change on the scale.

I don't know why you are telling OP to not lift..... If anything, he should be lifting and keeping track of his diet (shouldn't ignore protein intake) to maintain his gains/muscle from all that bulking. Also, he shouldn't switch to high-reps, but do heavy weights and low-reps. Since he is cutting down on carbs/lower calories, the amount of weights he will be able to lift should be lower (compared to while he was on a bulk), so listen to your body and adjust.

For OP, if you don't care about all of the gains/muscle you put on from 5+years of bulking, then go ahead and quit lifting and do cardio

Why are you suggesting OP to ignore diet? Could you elaborate on this, please?

:fulloffuck:

This is kind of controversial, but for me, doing cardio first thing in the morning on empty stomach seemed to burn fat the fastest. Without any carbs in my system, my body had no choice but to burn excess fat for fuel. For cardio, I mixed running, rowing, and cycling, with mixed intensity between mid-high. I ate brunch after exercise but suppressed the urge to munch out (hungry as hell at this time).

I worked out in the afternoon everyday though in fear that I would also lose all my muscles

I'm not suggesting him to do that, but I guess I worded it wrong. He should pay even more attention to his diet if he wants to get lean (should be concerned with the amount of protein/carbs he will be taking in)

did he just say "switch to heavy weights but low reps"..?? that is bulking :heckno:

edit: OP WANTS TO GET LEAN

obviously you want muscle when getting lean LOLOLOL :lawl:

Wow, that's pretty intense. So if I understand you correctly, you are doing cardio in the morning and then again in the afternoon. You must be burning some serious calories!

Do you find that it works well? And are the results positive? I tried doing interval training on the bike on an empty stomach - I bonked after 30 minutes and couldn't continue anymore to the point of diminishing returns.

The workout in the afternoon was only weight-training.
As for the efficacy, I burned fat extremely fast, but it was extremely hard to do everyday.
I totally understand when you say you couldn't last more than 30 mins on empty stomach. There were mornings when I felt like puking halfway through the workouts.
It was more of a mental endurance type of thing. I just kept repeating to myself, "no pain, no gain!"

Again, I don't think this is the best workout. Just sharing a past experience that gave me the quick fat shredding that I wanted last summer. Also, I am not a heavy-weight (was about 75kg at that time).

I tried it a few times early in the mornings and consistently, I felt like puking and bonked out after 30 minutes. The longest I could last was 45 and after that I felt like laying on the floor due to exhaustion. I know some hardcore bi/triathletes swear by this but it seems like its not for everybody.

Would you mind sharing your weight training plan? I fear that I will start gaining muscle mass the more I do weight training. I also do my interval training on the bike 3 or 4 times a week as recommended. I tried doing it 6 days a week but it wasn't very helpful as it didn't allow my body to recover. Would be awesome if you could share your diet plan as well! :)

During a cut, some will continue to do same amount of weights/reps they were doing while bulking, and in OP's case (heavy weights and low-reps, or whatever works best for OP). I'm just suggesting heavy weights and low-reps(help stimulates muscles) to maintain/keep as much of his muscle mass as possible (5yr bulk). I'm not telling him to go build more muscle. Switching to low weights high-reps doesn't necessary make you toned/lean/burn more fat. To each of their own, weights/reps isn't the most important in getting lean, it is proper diet.

Check out: High Reps & Low Weights – Good For Cutting?

Totally agree here. One of the biggest myths in weight-training is that high-rep low-int is for tone/lean/burn, while low-rep high-int is for bulking. While this may be true to some extent for pro bodybuilders, amateurs should give their hardest every single workout regardless of which phase of workout you are in.

@bcrdukes,

Sure, I can tell you everything I did, but there was really nothing special. Because of the morning cardio, I found it really hard to workout more than 1 bodypart per day (for example, combining back + arms on a single day). Hence, I did Mon-Chest, Tues-Back, Weds-Shoulders, Thurs-Bi/Tri ceps and Fri-legs. Sat and Sun were always complete rest. For each workout sessions, I usually did 2 Compound, 2 Isolation and 1-2 Auxiliary exercises. After 4-5 weeks, I paused weight-training for 1 week to restore any fatigue that could've built up in my muscles.

For diet, I never employed drastic measures that I wouldn't be able to maintain for a long time. My family only eats multi-grain rice with crap ton of beans because of father's health issues. Always went easy on sauces and never went to fast-food. I never starved myself though as I found the workouts stressful enough already. If I had to drink on the weekend, I tried to avoid beers, pop chasers (replaced with water), and junk-appetizers like chips.

Unless you're pushing your body to its limits each workout i don't see why you need to "Rest", if you're doing hypertrophy training your cns recovers whole lot faster than strength training

While I don't disagree, it was quite simple why I took rests on the weekend. In the first month, I was over-motivated and did not want to rest a single day in fear that my body was becoming weaker (sign of becoming a gym-junkie). But as days progressed, my strengths declined and my workouts started to feel counter-productive.

How about long distance running?

OP diet is most important. If you don't wanna go on a diet per say but want to live a healthier life style, go buy a water bottle. Do not drink any calories, drink water. Fill up the water bottle as many times as you can a day, drain it, refill it. Love the water bottle. Name the water bottle. Talk to the water bottle. Most importantly, drink from the water bottle. Without the water bottle, you are nothing.


All kidding aside, keep training with the same intensity you trained with before. Simplest thing is probably to wake up an hour early, go for a run around your area/on a treadmill. Then eat breakfast/go to work. Lift weights at night.

Also, black coffee can be good for you as a diuretic (you'll probably need it if your diets lacking in fiber lol) plus the caffeine in it can help curb hunger a bit. Try to make your coffee with milk and brown sugar for a few days, then milk and splenda, then eventually just a dash of milk/black. Ease yourself off it, it'll make it easier.

Don't cheat. It's really easy to forget what bad food tastes like, but once you taste it man will you want a lot of it. Also always keep a pack of gum on you ... I don't know about you, but sometimes you just want something to eat/chew on (no homo) even though you're not hungry ... sugar free gum is usually a good bet .. plus gum + water = freshest feeling ever :sweetjesus:

I did that too for awhile. .but it seemed more of a crash diet/workout type of thing... Eventually i stopped working out in the mornings....

Regardless of what you see and read, my best advice is this, skip breakfast, everyday. Maybe it doesn't work for everyone but it sure as hell works for me.

^
The scientific argument against doing that is that it slows down your metabolism.

Nonsense. Short term fasting increases your metabolism.

Enhanced thermogenic response to epinephrine af... [Am J Physiol. 1990] - PubMed - NCBI
Resting energy expenditure in short-term star... [Am J Clin Nutr. 2000] - PubMed - NCBI