Overweight and ready for a change! Please help

[Sc0rned]

I am a 32 year old prior military that morphed into working in IT.. I used to be a DOD firefighter and was in pretty good shape..

Currently, I weigh 252.5 lbs and am 5'9. I have a pretty big frame with broad shoulders.

I obviously want to lose weight and have limited my daily calorie intake to 1900 calories per day.

I am not trying to achieve pure mass but more of a toned look and need to know how to start. I joined a gym today and started doing basic bench sets at 5 sets of 15 then working my pecs (fly machine?) and also biceps.

Am I on the right track? I desperately desire to change the way I live and also look. Any advice would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks,

[Jorge Sanchez]

1900 calories is probably a bit low for you. Track your diet at www.fitday.com for a week and monitor your weight. If you drop between 1-2lbs/week, you're probably on the right track. If you lose more than that, you might want to increase your calories a bit. If you aren't losing, you'll need to cut back your calories some more. Remember to keep your protein and healthy fats up.

As far as workout routines go, look into Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength. It's a good routine and an even better book.

[Gable]

fitday is awesome, and free.. use it.. takes some time to find all the foods you normally eat.. but its a great tool once you get used to it.

Read Built's posts on this site.. she has TONS of great info on her blog too, I read all of it before I got started and it helped me TREMENDOUSLY.

http://builtblog.wikidbody.com/

1900 cals is too few, IMO.

Good luck!

[Unreal]

As Jorge said, get a real routine. Bench, flies then curls is not even close to a routine.