Need to lose weight and gain muscle--advice?

[Anonymous]

I need to be able to pass a physical fitness test by September. I'm currently at 195 pounds. I don't necessarily have a target weight but I figure around 130-140 should be fine for my height (5'4"). I really just need to gain more muscle and the weight should theoretically shed as I go along.

Anyone have any tips on how to begin? What gym equipment I should be using? I'm planning on working out for an hour six times a week.

[TheManHimself]

OMG, you are reall fat for 5'4' you should be no more than 133. My sister is 5'4 and she is 123 and doesn't even look skinny at all, she looks slim to normal.

You really need to be worry about this, I mean really take this serious, this is no joke, your quality of life is probably crap. Specially if you are a girl.

This is more important than a stupid test, this is our life, what are you doing to yourself is unnacceptable. Forget about all those sayings that what matters is what is inside. It's all bush*t.

What is inside only matters because it is a lot of fat storaged, is this greasy yellow liquid that makes you look all flacid, completely unattractive and unhealthy. This is something you really need to address right now.

I don't know what kind of depression are you going through, but no girl with that much weight can be other thing than deppresed, I mean even if you try to hide it, the weight shows it for everone to see. Everone knows you are suffering severe emotional pain, and that should be embarrasing enough to make you take immediate action, and massive.

Let me give you a few pointers, first of all, forget that exercise is going to make you lose weight. You can do cardio everyday and still be gaining more weight. Plus making your muscles even more flacid than they already are.

The only solution is your diet. Sugar is your worse enemy. If you can eliminate all sort of sugars completely from your diet, and yes I mean completely, then you will be fine in no time.

That means you will have to get your calories by increasing your protein intake, which means you are finally going to feed your muscles.

The most common sugars that are bad for you are found in:

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Any kind of brown sugar or refined sugar

Any product made by flour, like bread, pasta, or tortillas

If you can completely eliminate those foods and beverages, you will become healthy the fastest way, there is no other healthier of fastest way to do it. This is the fastest and healthiest. Absolutely no cheating whatsover.

You can start simply by elimating completely any beverage other than water, don't drink coffee, or tea, or anything like that that can mess with your metabolism.

Don't even drink natural juice, because most people would add sugar to it, just forget about it, just drink water, and of course obviously no sodas.

Think of bread, tortillas, cake, cookies, pasta, etc, as butter, imagine the size of a slice of bread. Would you possibly grab with your hand that much butter and eat it? No, that would be disgusting.

Well, that's exactly what people do when they eat a slice of bread, it translates into sugar than then becomes storaged as fat.

Do not eat these things because the are completely unhealthy, if you ever feel that your body need some kind of starch, then eat a baked potatoe or a cup of rice or beans, and that's eat, no more.

Also forget completely about fried foods, if you are going to use oil use olive oil only. Do it girl, for you.

[Jaden69]

LOL quality of life is bad specially since she's a girl? It's not like she's going to die or needs to go into depression because she's at that weight, sometimes you can't control it. Anything is possible if you try. Clean diets and exercise is a good start.

[TheManHimself]

I'm just being honest, sometimes we all need a little bit of honesty around.

[Lentilsbrah]

u are one cheeky c@#t mate

[TheManHimself]

Disrespect is to lie to her.

[Asker]

Thanks for the advice, but I don't need a therapist. I am not depressed and I don't care what you say because I know I'm not. If anything, it's all the stress and lack of sleep caused by years of post-secondary education that's caused a sixty pound increase since high school. You try balancing teaching, research, writing a dissertation, employment, and trying to maintain a social life--and then we'll talk.

Anyway, thank you for your comments.

[TheManHimself]

I'm not trying to give you therapy, and you can call it whatever deppression, sadness, desperation, stress and anxiet, or a mix of everything, your body shows it and the worse is that you may not be aware of it. But it's great that you finall made up your mind to change, that is very important for your life quality, everything will change positively, make this a priority, yourself is more important than anything else. If friends tell you to eat pizza, a hamburger or any nasty stuff, just say no.

[rocksongwriter]

Your ideal weight should be between 108-145 pounds given to your height according to the Body Mass Index, so your 130-140 range seems appropriate.

Two questions:

-What is the physical fitness test for? (I'm curious.)

-Do you belong to a gym? I'm curious as to what equipment you have access to.

Try to do an hour of cardio at least three times a week. That will help take the weight off.

Here my tips on how to ensure that cardio does not suck (at least not more than it has to):

1. Use no-impact equipment. Instead of running on a treadmill or sidewalk, where your joints take pounding every time your foot hits the running surface, use an elliptical machine or bicycle. There's no impact, so your body will feel much better the next day.

2. Take breaks. When I do cardio for an hour, I do it in 15 minute sections. After each 15 minute interval, I step off the machine and grab a drink of water. My breaks last less than 30 seconds each, and then I'm back on the machine. Doing only 15 minutes at a time makes it easier to get through (in my opinion).

3. Monitior your heart rate! Heart rate is key. A lot of cardio equipment nowadays can measure your heart rate as you exercise. But if you're not using such equipment, invest in a heart rate monitor. Start out by trying to keep your heart rate between 55%-75% of your 'maximum target heart rate'. Your maximum target heart rate is 226 (220 for men) minus your age. So for me, it's 220-32=188 beats per minute. My '55%-75%' range is therefore 103-141. When you hit the upper limit of your range, slowv down a bit to bring your heart rate down. This will help prevent you from feeling like you're going to die after 5 minutes into your workout. After a few weeks at exercising at that interval, up it to 75% to 85% of your maximum target heart rate.

4. Watch sports. When I'm at the gym, I find it easier to exercise when I see other people working at least as hard as I am (must be a psychological thing). So I'll watch football or basketball when I'm on the elliptical machine. Watching sitcoms doesn't really do it for me in that situation. But everyone's different so you may prefer to watch something else.

I could go on and on (I didn't even mention weight training). Go to the library and look the book "Body by God" by Dr. Ben Lerner. It should help.

[Asker]

1.) I'm starting to test for different law enforcement agencies. I'll be done with my PhD next May, so I'm planning to begin testing in the fall.

2.) Yes, I do have access to a gym. I'm a student, so the university's recreational facilities are available free of cost. The issue has always been finding the time to go. My workload has gotten a little lighter now, so I'll be able to spare an hour a day.

[rocksongwriter]

What are you going to do in law enforcement? And what is your Ph.D. in?

[Asker]

The goal is to go into federal law enforcement, but most federal agencies require a certain number of years of professional experience prior to applying. My PhD is in criminology with a concentration in the spatial analysis of crime.

[rocksongwriter]

Sweet. Another good book I should mention is "The New Rules Of Lifting Supercharged" by Lou Schuler & Alwyn Cosgrove.

[287687has]

I am a training instructor at my fire department and I am in charge departmental health and wellness. Ill tell you some of the things that I use to get my guys healthy and in shape. First off you need to know the importance of getting healthy. Target specific diet plan are not just "diets". Its a specific diet based on your activity level, calorie intake, and even research as to which foods effect your body in different ways. Some of this can be as specific to blood type. Second is a fact that people never think to consider, your stress level. Reducing stress and dieting alone can shred pounds in weeks. Then, obviously the workout. Believe it or not this is the least important of the three. This sounds odd but it is true. The reason is, when you conquer the first two aspects of fitness, the third could be little more than walking or running. You can feel free to do other things obviously, my department uses Insanity and cross-fit. Some of the females in my department has found success in kick boxing or Zumba classes. The simple fact is, it doesn't matter what you do to get fit. All you have to do is burn more calories than you take in. Now, as for muscle gain, that's a whole other ball park. Your talking core trainings, muscle group targeting systems, protein's vs. Calories. You can write a book on it (alot of people have ha ha). Like I said before, focus on your Specific target dieting structure and cutting any stresses in your life. Then find a workout schedule that fits you best. By the way, I did the paleolithic diet. You can you tube most of the videos about it.

[Dionysos]

Look up your basal metabolic rate. It's a number of calories. Eat lean and green foods (meat and salads) up to that number each day. Spend at least two hours each day engaged in some sort of vigorous physical activity, but shake it up so you don't hit the same muscle groups each time. Stretch out a lot. Drink sh*tloads of water. If you can hit a gym, focus on cardio machines at fat burning heart rates. Don't go for cardio. LONG fast walks on the eliptical are my favorite. Clean the house. Cut the lawn with a push mower. Mop, wax, paint, roof, whatever. Just keep moving all the time. By September you'll be in great shape.

[beastman88]

simple, diet and exercise. don't over exert yourself especially if you're out of shape, start slow. the best thing to do is to lead a healthy lifestyle so you don't have to rush to lose any weight especially if its for career purposes. I've lost about 55 pds last yr. from changing my diet and walking, and some calisthenics. if you're joining the army id recommend pushups and lots of them, crunches and sit ups, leg lifts, lunges, squats with or without weight no matter what you do you'll get results, planks, side planks. and 1hr brisk walk every day or 30 min if you're out of shape.

[titoloco]

ZUMBA.

https://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=1twCqA8DFZs&feature=player_detailpage#t=66s

You got great advise below. But the question I ask you Can you COMMIT to IT.

With Zumba you'll lose weight, get a sexy core and learn to dance.

[Asker]

Yes

[martyfellow]

You have enough te. Planyour workouts, and vary them so you doj't get bored.

But most importanttly, you won't just shed the weight automatically. Most likelyy your weight will increase to the extent your appetite increases with the workouts.

So you willalso have to carefully manage your diet these next nine months. I'd suggest siging up with Weight Watchers or another professional plan that will manage your diet for you and give you good tasting but appropriate things to eat.

[wallawalla]

start with cardio, treadmill stairs bike and so on Once you get you lungs and heart in shape Then the weight will poor off if you stay active. And go for 20 - 30min 3-4 times a week at first. You really want to loose weight and have a good physical don't worry about strength just focus on cardio I am guessing you can already lift fifty pounds and that is the most you should have to lift. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

There are 3 core exercises you should focus on.

Squats (4 sets 8 reps), lunges(4 sets 8 reps), and deadlifts(4 sets 8 reps).

Finish off the workout with 15-20 minutes of cardio.

Make sure to eat protein and drink water. WHEY protein powder is the most convenient source.

Never eat a meal that's bigger than your fist, and avoid fats and sugars. You'll see results.

[anny1234]

Losing weight is only possible by doing a lot of aerobics and cardio exercises. It is also important to apply a check on your daily diet and to cut a certain amount of fat or oily products. For gaining muscle it is important to lose fat from the muscle and a regular base of exercise i.e. weight training is required with a balanced diet.

[gaggleii]

To lose fat, you should count your calories and do aerobic exercises e.g. treadmill.

To gain muscle, you should do weights.

[temptationfalls]

Healthier diet, cardio, machines with low weight and high repetitions.

DIET IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.

[6Paul11]

Eat less, exercise more.

[Lentilsbrah]

short, simple,effective

wait lol wot