Wheres a good place for an out of shape former athlete to start? Current weight is 319lbs at 27%bf. I know my diet is horrible my body lives off of pop, candy and McD’s. So outside of the obvious dietary changes, what kind of training program should I start? Right now I dont go to the gym at all and occassionally roll around in bjj practice with my friends but thats about it.
Fix the diet #1
#2 get in the gym plain and simple get consistant do something dont waste time looking for the perfect program.
That said three full body w/o’s a week an hour or so focued on three big lifts a push a pull and a legs would IMO be a great place to start. Then add a few isolation exercises if needed. and something for your abs.
Look at something like TBT by Chad Waterbury. Articles by Alwynn Cosgrove. Full body EDT wouldnt be bad either. Just do something.
Start tomorrow find a great program as you read up
Phill
[quote]FatBoy28 wrote:
Wheres a good place for an out of shape former athlete to start? Current weight is 319lbs at 27%bf. I know my diet is horrible my body lives off of pop, candy and McD’s. So outside of the obvious dietary changes, what kind of training program should I start? Right now I dont go to the gym at all and occassionally roll around in bjj practice with my friends but thats about it.[/quote]
From what I read above making a transformation shouldn’t be that difficult as:
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There a world of difference between the calories needed to maintain 319lbs bodyweight and to maintain 233lbs LBM (what you have by my calculations) so I can’t see why you wouldn’t be able to achieve the holy grail of simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain by consuming something in between the two.
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You state that you are a former athlete, I’ll assume that you were in good shape during this time so you should be able to take advantage of muscle memory.
As for exercise routines, I’ve never been one to follow cookie cutter programs as I feel they limit you to the parameters of said program. I try to develop an understanding of WHY certain things work (and vice versa) and implement that knowledge in a way which is unique to my body.
The downside compared to say using one of the many programs coaches have made for this site (and I’m sure they are all fantastic) is that you can spend months trying to find out what works for you and potentially waste this time (not a waste in my opinion but you know what I mean). But when you do find out what works for you the training becomes organic, you don’t need instruction because your body tells you what to do and who knows your body better than you do?
Just my opinion for what it’s worth.
Good Luck
Well, cutting out the pop should be the easy part. Start drinking Coke zero or Fresca instead.
Eat 6 small-medium sized meals a day.
Have breakfast be your biggest meal of the day.
Try to have most of your carbs in the morning or after training, try not eating them before bedtime. Get your carbs from fruits, veggies, 100% whole wheat pasta/noodles, brown rice, but remember… moderation, be sensible of how much food you are taking in.
Have at least 20g of protein in each meal. Eggs (in the mornings), SKIM milk, all kinds of meats, etc.
For fat intake, try having NATURAL peanut butter, unsalted mixed nuts, egg yolk…
Try and eat every 3 hours or so, don’t go beyond 4 hours though without eating anything. You don’t want to burn any muscle…
I’ve just listed the very basics of what should be your diet. Most of all, be SMART of what you are taking in. Don’t eat bread just because it says Whole grain bread… it’s still practically white bread and unnecessary for you, but it just has added grains. WHOLE WHEAT…
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
Well, cutting out the pop should be the easy part. Start drinking Coke zero or Fresca instead.
Eat 6 small-medium sized meals a day.
Have breakfast be your biggest meal of the day.
Try to have most of your carbs in the morning or after training, try not eating them before bedtime. Get your carbs from fruits, veggies, 100% whole wheat pasta/noodles, brown rice, but remember… moderation, be sensible of how much food you are taking in.
Have at least 20g of protein in each meal. Eggs (in the mornings), SKIM milk, all kinds of meats, etc.
For fat intake, try having NATURAL peanut butter, unsalted mixed nuts, egg yolk…
Try and eat every 3 hours or so, don’t go beyond 4 hours though without eating anything. You don’t want to burn any muscle…
I’ve just listed the very basics of what should be your diet. Most of all, be SMART of what you are taking in. Don’t eat bread just because it says Whole grain bread… it’s still practically white bread and unnecessary for you, but it just has added grains. WHOLE WHEAT…
[/quote]
This is sound advice though I would have thought a minimum of 120g protein a day is too low. I weigh nearly half of the OP and wouldn’t dream of eating that little protein. I could be wrong on this but isn’t wholemeal bread to white bread what wholemeal pasta is to ‘normal’ pasta? I would have thought that if you avoid wholemeal bread you would avoid wholemeal pasta on the same grounds.
[quote]Phill wrote:
Fix the diet #1
#2 get in the gym plain and simple get consistant do something dont waste time looking for the perfect program.
That said three full body w/o’s a week an hour or so focued on three big lifts a push a pull and a legs would IMO be a great place to start. Then add a few isolation exercises if needed. and something for your abs.
Look at something like TBT by Chad Waterbury. Articles by Alwynn Cosgrove. Full body EDT wouldnt be bad either. Just do something.
Start tomorrow find a great program as you read up
Phill[/quote]
I agree with Phill
It is infinitely better to start a bad program and improve upon it in time than to create a program in your mind, which you execute in your mind, leading to results which only exist in your mind.
This is of course an extreme example (if you were to chose one of the programs on this site it wouldn’t be a bad one) to illustrate my point but there are many people who like to talk about doing something but never actually do it, don’t be one of them.