Making a specific diet/workout.

[Amnrobinson6228]

Hey all, I used to be on this website back in about 2007 and you guys helped me establish a diet that helped me lose 100 pounds by 2008. Now, I am looking for some help once again. I am very picky in the diet I am trying to make so related posts will help but I always feel more comfortable being told exactly what to do, in my line of work being told what to do is the surest way to be safe.

This is what I currently look like(see below, the skinnier picture), my goal right now is to get rid of the man boobs, and the stomach fat. I am also trying to build upper body strength to help myself be able to do more push ups. This is my usual workout and diet.

I start with 60 minutes of cardio on an elliptical. I burn about 1000 calories and travel about 6 and a half miles(probably not relevant). I have a bad ankle right now so the ellip is just better for my joints all around. 3 days of the week I do my upper body and arms lifting, I lift dumb bells and just lift them one at a time with each of my arms and do 3-4 reps of 10-12. Then I lay flat and bring them parallel with my body and lift them over my head. After that I use a machine that has me inclined and i push a bar upwards and I do a good few sets there. That is all I am doing for upper body, the other 2 days of the week I spend on my core. I do planks, and some other stuff. My main thing is push ups push ups push ups, and getting rid of that midsection and man boobs.

My diet in the morning is usually an apple, a banana, a ham and cheese omelet, or nothing at all.

For lunch and dinner I try to eat chicken/turkey/pork/steak, a wheat bread sandwich with ham/turkey/bacon cheese and lettuce. Maybe some rice, and I usually try to eat carrots, peas, corn, cauliflower, or some other vegetables. I dont eat much junk food other than maybe some cheddar crackers. I never use any condiments and all I drink is g2 gatorade, powerade and water.

My main thing here is am I eating incorrectly to reach my goal? I hate fish and i hate most vegetables and my selection of food is very limited. So I can provide more information if needed, and I am welcoming all help. This is the most important thing in my life right now because getting into much better shape is going to make or break my career.

PS. The diet I am on now is basically the diet I was on when I lost 100 pounds. I also workout a lot more.

I will post my before and after pics so you guys can see how far I have come. =)


BEFORE(February 2007)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/Fatness/2-10-084.jpg

AFTER(July 2011)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v325/Fatness/0714102033.jpg

[tom183]

3 days of the week I do my upper body and arms lifting, I lift dumb bells and just lift them one at a time with each of my arms and do 3-4 reps of 10-12. Then I lay flat and bring them parallel with my body and lift them over my head. After that I use a machine that has me inclined and i push a bar upwards and I do a good few sets there. That is all I am doing for upper body, the other 2 days of the week I spend on my core. I do planks, and some other stuff.

No lower body work at all?


My main thing here is am I eating incorrectly to reach my goal?

It's hard to say without knowing exact calories and macros but the food selections sound fine. Are you counting calories?

[Amnrobinson6228]

I know everyone says if u do no lower body work then u get big and have a small lower body. However I am not looking to get big, I am looking to do more pushups right now and lose body fat. I figure I get enough of a lower body workout on the elliptical since most of the time I dont use the arm things I just use my legs.

I dont specifically count calories as I have no idea the calories on what I am eating everyday. However when I go to eat something that has like 250+ calories I usually tell myself to put it down because I am very determined to not gain anymore fat right now, or ever.

[ten_ton]

After pic is July 2011!!! How did you travel into the future?
But no, you kinda have the same body compostition I do. I kinda have natural man-boobs and need to get really lean to look normal. How often are you doing the hour on the elliptical? Cause that is alot of cardio and if you are doing it several times a week you should be ripped! If you are eating healthy that is.

[Amnrobinson6228]

I do the elliptical for an hour every weekday of the week and take saturday and sunday off. I feel like I am eating pretty healthy. I stay away from junk food and try to eat vegetables and then its usually just ham or pork chops or steak or chicken. Thats as healthy as i can eat.

[Codeguru]

Nice weight loss, but why do people always have tattoos in the after photo? Heh, anyway I suggest not worrying about what types of food you eat for the moment and looking at labels. It doesn't take a lot of work to keep track and stick to a 2000 calorie diet full of protein. And also you'll get better results as always if you eat more than 3 times a day and break those calories up more. The worst part for me was getting used to not being "full". Train yourself to recognize you are satiated and do not need to eat because you know you just did. Drinking tons of ice water helps fill up your stomach too.

If you want to get rid of man boobs, do chest exercises. Bench press, incline/decline, and butterfly presses with free weights. What works best for me is straight bench press and butterfly. And getting back to the weight, if you have the time do whatever freewight exercises you can with the same low reps but keep going up in weight when you can. I'm just regurgitating advice here but it's advice that has worked for me, when you can do 10 reps of something, add more weight until you can only do 8 reps, then just repeat. If you keep adding on muscle wherever you can it will eat calories for you, constantly. All day, every day.

Just keep eating all that protein, watch the calorie intake, build muscles, and it should start to come together. Oh yeah, find time to work the abs, that was a great motivator for me to keep up everything. When you an see a great set of abs poking out under all that fat the progress feels even more worth it and obviously visible...

Codeguru

PS- Nature's Own 100% whole grain bread was what I switched to, and that was about my only concession for weight loss, and it seemed to help, plus the whole grain thing. But it works great using deli-slices and mustard and such I can make a 200 calorie sandwich with 18g of protein. But that's just one idea.