Post: #1

I'm somewhere between overweight and obese

On a tight budget and can't buy weights or a gym membership.

I do manual labor on a daily basis (minus weekends).

Looking for a simple way to work out in the morning or after I get home from work. Body weight training mostly. Right now I figure if I just do as many pushups and sit ups as I can + a brisk walk + my labor during the day and eating healthy it should be fine.

Don't bother posting huge comments breaking down nutrients to the nth degree and suggesting 7 billion different supplements.

Post: #2

Eat less.

Post: #3

^^^ Was just going to post the same thing.

Post: #4

Got that. I was thinking for my workout though... is that sufficient?

Post: #5

...

Post: #6

If you're borderline obese then it won't take much to lose weight. You already do manual labor, so just eating caloric deficit and cutting out sugars will show you progress quickly. Being active when you get home certainly wouldn't hurt. Push-ups, sit-ups, and walking is perfectly sufficient if you're that overweight.

Drink only water/sparkling water. Cutting out sugars and cutting back on carbs will be a big help.

Post: #7

(03-20-2016 11:15 PM)General Stalin Wrote:  If you're borderline obese then it won't take much to lose weight. You already do manual labor, so just eating caloric deficit and cutting out sugars will show you progress quickly. Being active when you get home certainly wouldn't hurt. Push-ups, sit-ups, and walking is perfectly sufficient if you're that overweight.

Drink only water/sparkling water. Cutting out sugars and cutting back on carbs will be a big help.

The General is right. I was 317 last June and now 225. I have been walking alot more, IF, drinking water/no sugars, and since the new year working out.

Here's where you can find beginner, intermediate, and advanced workout plans:
http://scoobysworkshop.com/beginning-workout-plan/

GOOD LUCK!

Post: #8

Almost 100 lbs in 9 months way to go!

Post: #9

Good advice here... If you're already doing manual labor, just eating right will reap great rewards. Focus on diet first. Pre-cook meals and stick to it. If you are serious you will see dramatic results. Remember, it took years to get to where you are now, so it will take years to get to where you want to be. Be patient, find what foods you like that are healthy. No quick fix here.

Post: #10

This is where I got "Eat less" from by the way, worth reposting as I think it's a classic...

Post: #11

Cut out a meal. Start walking.

I'm going to go against the party line and tell you not to start running just yet. If you're nearly obese then running will fuck up your knees. Go for long walks and things like that.

Do push ups, squats and lunges in your apartment if you can't afford the gym.

Last but not least, get some money and buy a gym membership.

Post: #12

Yeah, honestly, eat less is really end of story on this. You might think you need the calories for breakfast, but you might be surprised how much energy you have on an empty stomach in the morning after a bit of adjusting.

That and cutting out beer if you drink it often.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #13

What everybody else said. Weight loss is 90% diet. Eat low glycemic foods. Educate yourself on how insulin works to store fat on your body and use that knowledge to lose weight.

Post: #14

I lost a lot of weight without any exercise at all.
The best and easiest method is intermittent fasting.
Eat normally one day and no food the next.
Really simple and really effective.

Always make sure you are well hydrated though.
However, pay close attention to what you drink.
Cut out any artificial juices, sodas, all alcohol or anything with calories in it.
If you need some sugar, go press some oranges or put fruit in a blender and drink that.

You are allowed to cheat and eat and drink whatever you want once a week....but for the other 6 days, try to eat every other day.

The weight will go down quite quickly with this method and no exercise at all is required.

Post: #15

Buy a mirror.

Look at yourself every morning.

Do you like what you see?

A mirror helped myself a lot with motivation and dedication.

Post: #16

First of all, welcome to the forum. You came to the right place.

The most important thing is that you have realized what your problem is, and you are working on it. That is the most important thing, which many people (men and women) refuse to accept.

Now, to answer your question.



Many of the previous posters gave you answers, and I agree with them.

I just want to expand a little bit.

Start eating less and less, but make that transition GRADUALLY.

I will tell you from my own experience how it goes.

In the Army, I basically ran on energy drink and coffee. If I didn't drink at least a few cups/cans a day, I would feel shitty.

I drank so much that my heart started to suffer (I had chest pains). Noting serious, but still...annoying.

I recognized what my problem was - too much coffeine. So...I have decided to gradually drop my coffeine intake.

First week...4 a day - down from five.

Very good.

Second week...3 a day.

Very good.

Third...2.

Fourth...one (which is acceptable).

At that time, one would do the trick for me. My performances did not suffer, and neither did my mental will nor psychical health. All thanks to gradual change. If I did the same overnight, God knows what would have happened.


Drop you food intake GRADUALLY, so that your body feels comfortable with LESS FOOD!

Keep working out, keep expanding your mind, and you will prosper

May this guy be an inspiration for you





Peace!

Post: #17

One more thing... once you start losing weight, you're might hit a plateau for 2 or 3 weeks (maybe a month) without results. It could be you're slacking or just simply stuck. After losing weight at a rapid pace, I was stuck at 270, then again at 245-250, and now I've been at 225-230 for a bit. At 270, my excuse was the holidays. But 240, who knows why I got stuck. Just stay active and you'll get results.

In the beginning, I was still eating regular (greasy/high calorie) foods (a burger, pizza, etc) here and there and kept dropping weight by walking. I have gradually changed my diet to more veggies and fruits. I've been getting solid diet info from this forum and other resources and its helped. The only thing I stopped cold turkey from the start was the sweets (candy/soda/snacks). While I was eating high calorie food, I just ate less. Instead of 2 slices of pizza, I ate one. I would split half a big meal and eat it over 2

Post: #18

How much do you weigh? How tall are you?

Without knowing your situation, I'll take a stab. Eat 2000 to 2200 calories per day. You probably won't even notice the difference and you'll probably drop a couple pounds per week. It's easy to lose weight when your fat, but it gets tough to lose those last 10 pounds.

Post: #19

How is your sleep quality? I went from 328 to 242 over a year+ and then I got stuck for awhile around that number. I got back up to about 250 over the holidays and then couldn't get back in the low 240s until I found this thread: /thread-39799.html

I had awful sleeping patterns for more than half my life and when I started maintaining a regular sleep schedule, it kick started my weight loss again. I have lost about 2.5 pounds a week since I started sleeping better while maintaining my usual routine of yoga 5 days a week and sticking to my diet.

Post: #20

(03-21-2016 08:49 AM)Chowder Head Wrote:  One more thing... once you start losing weight, you're might hit a plateau for 2 or 3 weeks (maybe a month) without results. It could be you're slacking or just simply stuck. After losing weight at a rapid pace, I was stuck at 270, then again at 245-250, and now I've been at 225-230 for a bit. At 270, my excuse was the holidays. But 240, who knows why I got stuck. Just stay active and you'll get results.

In the beginning, I was still eating regular (greasy/high calorie) foods (a burger, pizza, etc) here and there and kept dropping weight by walking. I have gradually changed my diet to more veggies and fruits. I've been getting solid diet info from this forum and other resources and its helped. The only thing I stopped cold turkey from the start was the sweets (candy/soda/snacks). While I was eating high calorie food, I just ate less. Instead of 2 slices of pizza, I ate one. I would split half a big meal and eat it over 2

As the fatty acids leave your fat cells your fat cells won't just deflate. The fat cells will replace some of the lost volume of fatty acids by a small volume of water. As long as you continue the diet this will keep happening and since water is denser than fat your weight will stay the same.

During this period, your fat will feel less like a solid mass and feel more like small marbles suspended in a gel and an electrical impedance fat sensor will give a lower number. Once the sodium-water disequilibrium is high enough you'll have a large water loss. Lyle MacDonald has spoken about this and this is why weight loss is non-linear and happens in steps.

Post: #21

Cheapest, easiest dieting and lifting protocol.

Diet
1) Intermittent fasting once or twice a week for at least 16 hours at a time, if not 24 hours.

This will allow you to lose weight the most uncomfortable way possible. Drink coffee and chew gum to stave off the gnawing feelings of hunger.

You also will not have to count calories. Counting calories is a giant pain in the ass if you have other things you could be doing. Fasting will regulate the hormones that control hunger, causing you to eat less when you are not fasting. It does a bunch of other interesting things, you only need to know that it is effective and the cheapest and most mindless way of dieting.

Exercise
Focus on bodyweight movements. I have no idea what your strength level is so I recommend keeping it simple.

Pick a push, pull and leg exercise and hammer on them two or three times a week. Try to build up to at least 10-15 reps for the upper body exercise and 20 for the lower.

If you don't know where to start for sets, do 2 sets to failure of each exercise with 60-120 seconds rest in between sets. Easy enough.

Some form of cardio would not be bad, either (like hillsprints or even a bike ride). Set a stop watch for five or ten minutes and find a hill to sprint up (walk down the hill in between sprints as a form of cool down). Over time you should be sprinting more during that period of time. Hill sprinting is easier on the knees and pretty nontechnical as far as conditioning is concerned.

Example of a simple progression.

Push
knee pushups
regular pushups
diamond pushups
dips
handstand pushups

Pull
bodyweight rows (these are their own progression that you can get plenty of mileage out of, alter the resistance by decreasing the incline)
bodyweight chinups
bodyweight pullups
From here, you can try to focus on asymmetric training (one arm does more work) or add weight

Legs
Bodyweight squats (I'd build up to at least 50 of these in a row, if not 100)
Slightly weighted bodyweight squats

One legged squat progression
1)Open a door and have the edge facing you so you can grab the knobs. Lower yourself down on one leg, keeping the other leg off the ground. Use assistance to pull yourself back up. Work up to at least 5 reps per side

2)Give yourself some space and lower yourself on one leg, keeping balance. Once you've lowered yourself all the way down, tuck the other leg under you and raise yourself up on two. Work up to at least 5 reps per side.

3) After a couple weeks/months of step 2, you should be able to do at least one pistol squat. Once you can do one, work your way up to 10-15 reps per leg (I wouldn't bother going over 20). Holding weight in your hands is an easy way to add resistance, the weight is also doubled.

As far as a program, you could just keep is flexible. Do an upper split one day and a lower one another day.

A) Push/pull

B) Legs
whatever ab exercise you feel like doing

A sample week could look like this

Sunday : A
Monday : B
Tuesday : Hard day at work, rest day
Wednesday : A
Thursday : B
Friday : Go out for drinks, rest day
Saturday : A
Sunday : B

Good luck and godspeed.

Post: #22

Also, a good intermediate leg exercise between regular bodyweight squats and pistols would be the cossack squat.



Since you're limited to purely bodyweight, this is the best intermediate difficulty between the two exercises you're going to get.

If you want more ideas for some variety, check out this giant ass chart.

It is a compendium of all the convict conditioning exercises (the book designs itself as a bodyweight exercise progression program).

Here is the link to the picture.

http://4hourlife.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-con...-Chart.jpg

Here is the picture in full.

Post: #23

(03-21-2016 10:26 AM)Bear Hands Wrote:  How is your sleep quality? I went from 328 to 242 over a year+ and then I got stuck for awhile around that number. I got back up to about 250 over the holidays and then couldn't get back in the low 240s until I found this thread: /thread-39799.html

I had awful sleeping patterns for more than half my life and when I started maintaining a regular sleep schedule, it kick started my weight loss again. I have lost about 2.5 pounds a week since I started sleeping better while maintaining my usual routine of yoga 5 days a week and sticking to my diet.

I think this question is for me. I've never had sleep issues when I was a fatty or while losing weight. All the walking I do gets me pooped. I love naps.

Post: #24

(03-21-2016 02:32 PM)Chowder Head Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 10:26 AM)Bear Hands Wrote:  How is your sleep quality? I went from 328 to 242 over a year+ and then I got stuck for awhile around that number. I got back up to about 250 over the holidays and then couldn't get back in the low 240s until I found this thread: /thread-39799.html

I had awful sleeping patterns for more than half my life and when I started maintaining a regular sleep schedule, it kick started my weight loss again. I have lost about 2.5 pounds a week since I started sleeping better while maintaining my usual routine of yoga 5 days a week and sticking to my diet.

I think this question is for me. I've never had sleep issues when I was a fatty or while losing weight. All the walking I do gets me pooped. I love naps.

It was for the OP but I would highly suggest you try out the thread I linked anyway. I would take naps as a sign you aren't sleeping as well as you think.

Post: #25

Lost 20kg over 6 months by just replacing 1-2 meals with low calorie shakes. I lost a Kg per week, was pretty encouraged. The only problem I had was my body catabolising my muscles. Most of the muscles in my leg were atrophied and I had serious knee problems after. After a couple months of leg work at the gym I was alright.

Now I don't use meal replacements I'm just mindful of caloric intake and go to the gym 4x per week. Calorie cutting is a good starting point, where you are overweight everything is hard. Im 5'9.5" and was 95kg and back then doing pull ups was difficult at my weight. I had to use the assisted pull ups and slowly work my way up. I went to the gym only twice a week back then.