I am not a pretty man. Help me best use my 6 weeks off to improve my health & fitness.

July 2, 2006 1:47 PM

With my holiday and time off from work this summer, I’d like to utilise this time to whip myself into a good health regime. I’m not looking for a crash diet, or to lose weight before a certain point in time, just a method to get myself disciplined. Exercise-wise, I’m looking to tone my chest and stomach (flabby & lumpy) and arms as well as strengthening my back. Quitting smoking isn’t a problem as my habit is primarily work-related.

I don’t regularly exercise, don’t eat well and smoke. I’m about 6 foot 3 inches, weigh around 260lbs. My only exercise comes from my occasional 9 mile cycle to work and back when the weather is good. I lost a load of weight years ago from regular roller-blading, but that was ideal for where I lived at the time.

So. What kind of food should I be eating – salads? What kind of foods should I cut out? When is the best time to exercise – after breakfast? Before? How often? Going to the gym is out of the question. I’m determined that I can adopt a healthy regime without having to pay for it! Please give me layman’s terms if you can, and no advice for supplements or special foods. if it can be helped.

posted by jim.christian to health & fitness (15 comments total)

Honestly, the best thing you can do is just to exercise somehow every day (4-7 days a week) .. and do different things to keep interest. You know what foods are good for you and what are bad, so eat less and eat better. You'll lose a few pounds immediately, then plateau, and this is the hard time to keep going. That's the trick you ask of.

An example would be cardio for 30 min four times a week, and weights three times a week. Eat less calories than you burn, and you can estimate your Basal rate here.

Until you're in triathalon shape, and really until you're even in the habit of exercising regularly, there's no point in optimizing workout times and diet supplements. As you know from smoking, it's hard to start a habit and it's harder to stop, so get going. Then we'll worry about the details.

Basically, at this point, the best time to work out is the time you manage to do it. :) It will also get you to quit smoking as you become invested in the effort you're putting in.

Also, all the tone in the world doesn't matter until you lose a lot of that weight. You can have abs of steel under 40 lbs of stomach fat, and no spot exercising or regimen will change that look.
posted by kcm at 1:53 PM on July 2, 2006

I kind of said it implicitly, but I'll also say it explicitly.. I don't believe a lot of diet routines or tricks, since cutting all fat from your diet makes you hungrier and lots of people will eat more nonfat food. Fat fills you up, chemically. Eat what you want, in moderation, and get in the habit of keeping a list in your head of what you've had to that point each day. Avoiding snacking and late night binges is my key to keeping weight off - yours might be different. It's not the 800 calories meals or 3000 calories days that get you, since your body can handle a hiccup each week. It's the constant 100 calories here and there you think "won't matter". Really. Think about how you manage your money and apply that. :)
posted by kcm at 1:57 PM on July 2, 2006

Check out Spark People. I've found it to be really helpful in getting a good, balanced approach to changing my lifestyle to be healthier.

I think that trying to jumpstart yourself on your time off is a good idea, particularly in the not smoking arena, but you'll definitely want to be sure to do something you'll be able to stick to when you get back to your normal routine.

I read somewhere that you need 2 weeks for just about anything to become a habit. I don't know if that's actually true, but I found that dropping things into my routine with a goal to just do something for two weeks, particularly if it was unpleasant (i.e. going to the gym every morning), made it much easier to stick with it.

I've also found success with working new things into my routine, instead of promising myself not to do something for 2 weeks. So "eat a big salad before dinner every day" or "bring my lunch every day" for 2 weeks (with a mind to do it FOREVER!) is much easier than, say, telling myself "absolutely no ice cream at all." The thought of no ice cream just makes me want to eat all the ice cream I can find. :)
posted by pazazygeek at 2:01 PM on July 2, 2006

Actually, eating a series of small meals or snacks all throughout the day increases your metabolism. Just eat healthy stuff.

Personally, I've found that I lose the most weight when exercising first thing in the morning, before breakfast.
posted by bingo at 2:05 PM on July 2, 2006

Look into some of the Everyday Systems content, especially the No S Diet, ShovelGlove, and the Urban Ranger bits. Reinhard's approach to diet and exercise are pretty down-to-earth.
posted by majick at 2:11 PM on July 2, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Here's a simple rule. A pound of fat is about 3000-3500 calories. Do you drink soda with sugar? If you have one a day, and cut that out entirely, you could lose 20-30 lbs/year.

Figure out at night what you're going to do for exercise the next day, even if it's just a walk. Get the items together (clothes, equipment, etc.) that you need for it then.

Someone mentioned above that small meals increase your metabolic rate, and this is true, as is the fact that muscle burns more calories than fat (although it weighs more).

One trick people use is to take a picture of themselves each week to track progress. Weight alone is a terrble indicator, and since gradual weight loss isn't very apparent to the user, it's discouraging sometimes when you don't see the numbers changing. By looking at an old picture or noticing how your clothes fit (or don't!), you remind yourself how much progress you really have made.

The hardest part of weight loss is faith, really. There are no immediate results most of the time. You have to have faith in the feeling you have after working out and eating right that you are on track. Good luck!
posted by kcm at 2:14 PM on July 2, 2006

Cut back on serving size. If you take your time eating, and get your mind out of the mindset that makes you pile food high on your plate, you will be amazed at how much less you can eat.

If it is hot out, go cycling early in the morning. It is cooler, no chance of sunburn, a lot less pollution in the air and fewer cars on the road. You can time it to hit the local exercise crowd, or avoid them, as you see fit. Also, protect your knees by spinning instead of pushing, and expect lots of bicycle repairs.
posted by Chuckles at 2:20 PM on July 2, 2006

I started using peertrainer.com to help me get through a plateau a few weeks ago, and I really like it. You join teams or groups and log your food and exercise, and everyone can see it. It gives me extra accountability that I need. It will only work if you're committed to using it and use it honestly, though. It feels a little cheesy, and it's not my normal thing, but anything that can keep me from putting off working out or eating an extra a giant muffin is ok in my book.
posted by amarynth at 2:25 PM on July 2, 2006

You could go the Travis Bickle route (maybe stop a bit short of the guns..). Fifty pushups every morning will get you pretty far. Cycle as long as you can every day - if you find a partner, even better. Cycling is one of those things that unless you're in very good shape and serious about training, I find it hard to overdo on. You'll know when you're done for the day.

The biggest thing I've found with eating is to not be at home and around the kitchen. When I'm at home, I'll walk through the kitchen, and every time I walk through the kitchen I'll get something to eat. If I'm not home during the day, I won't eat. I don't really like to eat out, & I hardly ever carry anything out of the house. It really just never crosses my mind to eat when I'm not at home.
posted by devilsbrigade at 2:27 PM on July 2, 2006

I’m determined that I can adopt a healthy regime without having to pay for it!

This is going to sound vastly counterintuitive, but I suggest you hire a personal trainer.

Not so counterintuitive on closer inspection: obviously you don't want to waste money. Therefore, if you book (and pay for) personal trainer sessions, you will be highly motivated to carry through on them. (Yes, I realize I'm describing a sunk cost, but sometimes irrational thinking can be a good motivator.)

Six weeks of working with a trainer twice a week (and training on your own 2-3 more times a week) can produce some pretty amazing results. And those results will provide strong motivation to continue training on your own.

Twelve sessions with a trainer plus (say) 12 day passes at the local Y will cost you $500 or less, depending on your location.
posted by La Cieca at 2:34 PM on July 2, 2006

Everybody's different: you need to find what works for you.

First, I suggest keeping a food diary. Start right now, just eat and drink what you normally do, but write it all down. Then, find out where the excess calories are coming from: it might be beer, it might be soda, it might be snacks, it might be fries, it might be large meals. Nutritiondata.com can be handy to find out what you're eating.

Then when you start your health programme, try to eat 500 to 1000 kcalories less than you burn. An average guy burns 2,500 per day: you're a bit bigger than average so you might burn more.

Exercise: if you can, find some kind of exercise you enjoy. If you can't enjoy any of it, find something you hate the least. I do the 5BX exercises, but they're not very intensive. Dumb-bells are a good way to build upper-body muscle: they're pretty cheap and can be done at home, but don't burn many calories. It's important to use them properly (with "good form") though. I found the book The Complete Idiot's Guide to Weight Training and the DVD Robert Marting's Great Form Equals Great Results pretty useful.

Also, bear in mind that six weeks isn't long. You can make a good start and get yourself into the right mindset, but don't expect too much. It took me 29 weeks to lose 39 pounds as part of my own Operation Become Less Fat. In general, the slower and steadier you lose weight the better: you're setting the habits in over a longer period of time, and you're less likely to yo-yo back up in weight later.

Finally, don't get discouraged if things don't seem to be happening at first. For instance, when you start a programme like this your body goes through various changes: you can be gaining muscle-weight simultaneously with losing fat-weight; so your weight can fluctuate wildly at first. Just stay calm and stick with it. Best of luck!
posted by TheophileEscargot at 2:39 PM on July 2, 2006

i recommend a few things:

1: eat a high-protein, high fiber diet. dont worry about carbs. if youre eating good amounts of protein and fiber, you wont have too much room left for lots of carbs, and if youre going to exercise, carbs are fine anyway. lots of veggies and lean meats are good. eat 5 small meals a day instead of 2-3 bigger ones, to keep insulin and metabolism levels level.

2: walk walk walk. walking is very good for losing fat. and it is pretty easy to do, and pleasant as well.

3: cycling is a great way to burn a shitload of calories in a short period of time. biking 15 miles per hour for an hour and a half will burn 800-1000 calories at your weight. 15 MPH is really not as bad as you think, its pretty easy after just a couple weeks of cycling. do that 3-4 times a week and you'll lose a pound or two a week from cycling alone.

4: weight training. if you dont want to buy weights and stuff, and you already said you wont buy a gym membership, you can use books or whatever you have in your apartment/house, and do like pushups and stuff. build some muscle and that muscle will help metabolize some of that fat all by itself.

the important thing is to just keep it up, worry less about how you look and more about how youre going to feel when youre healthy. it will take awhile to really look good from all that exercise, but only a few weeks before you start to feel much healthier.

keep at it!
posted by kneelconqueso at 2:47 PM on July 2, 2006

In the morning:

Alternate between

a) as many crunches as you can handle plus a couple more
b) as many chinups as you can handle plus one more
c) as many pushups as you can handle plys a coupel more
d) as many chestups as you can handle plus one more

Eat a healthy and complete breakfast. Light lunch. Medium/light dinner.
posted by porpoise at 4:42 PM on July 2, 2006

Some random tips:

Omega-3 fatty acids are your friends. I started eating lots of salmon to ward off depression. The depression went away and, lo and behold, my parts started sagging off my waist! I know I lost a few pounds just by eating more fish. (Walnuts are another good source of omega-3s, btw.)

Fruits and vegetables are your friends. They make awfully good snacks too!

Try to eat breakfast every day but be careful; most traditional North American (I'm assuming you're in N. America) breakfast food is really, really bad for you. Oatmeal may not be the sexiest food out there but it's worked well for me. You can spice it up a little bit by adding fruit, nuts, cinnamon, etc.

Lunch can trip you up too. You might want to get into the habit of brown-bagging a healthy lunch every day because most restaurant food -- particularly the cheap, quick stuff -- is just not going to be your ally in this fight.

Try to eat a variety of foods but until you're in a better place, you might want to write off a whole bunch of them. When I was dieting, I designated pizza, fried foods, doughnuts/breakfast cake and alcohol as the Four Horsemen of The Fatassalypse and acted accordingly.

Exercise helps too. Not just for the obvious reasons but I found that after a few weeks of a serious exercise regimen, I couldn't even look at most crap food. Exercise conditions you to look for the good stuff. (And if you're exercising, be sure to get lots of water.)

All right. That's my two cents. Now go out there and kick some ass!
posted by jason's_planet at 4:53 PM on July 2, 2006

First and foremost, focus on making incremental improvements from your current status quo that you can stick with. Six weeks is an ideal period to get into some good new habits that you can maintain when you go back to work. Do as many of the following as you can, but not so many that you get overwhelmed and give up:

- As others have said, increase fiber and protein in your diet. In fact, increase fat as well as long as it's unsaturated (like olive oil & canola oil).

- Reduce plain white carbs: simple sugar, white bread, potatoes, white rice. Drop soda if you can; try switching to diet soda or sparkling water if those make it easier. When you must have plain white carbs, put some protein/fiber/fat along with them in your meal or snack.

- Increase whole grains and legumes (beans).

- Exercise: light exercise is better than none, but try to be active for at least 20-30 minutes at a time when you do it. Also, more frequently; 4+ times a week.

- Weight training is good because not only is it exercise, but also increasing your muscle mass will help you burn calories more quickly. You don't have to go nuts about it; if you're dedicated to not joining a gym, at least go to a sporting goods store and pick up some dumbbells of various weights and do a few different lifts every day.

- It wasn't clear from your post if you thought this, but "toning" your stomach will not help flatten your stomach -- building muscles on a certain part of your body makes that part bigger, period. Have to drop fat to get the stomach in shape.

It's really critical to view this as an opportunity to get started towards being healthy long-term, and not just cramming some healthiness into your time off. So take it one step at a time, be consistent with whatever you do, and build slowly. Good luck.
posted by rkent at 12:19 AM on July 3, 2006