A second stab...

December 29, 2006 12:19 PM

How can I get "ripped" in a month?

Okay, here's the deal:



In the last five months or so I've lost between 30 and 40 pounds. This is all well and good, but as of late I have seriously fucked up-- as in not eating well and stopping all exercise. Essentially, I'm writing this to "get back on the horse", so to speak.


I'm a male in my early twenties and I'm 5' 9" (maybe 10, but I don't want to overestimate myself), and weigh about 220 pounds (according to a new scale I received this holiday). I know, I should weigh a lot less than that, but I've struggled with this bullshit for a while. I have no idea why I'm apologizing. Forgive me.



Anyway, I want to get to 200. In a month. Here's the saving grace-- I am free for the month of January by some odd twist of events. As in, I can devote whole days to working out-- aside from some writing projects I have in the works and the occasional good book.



I would like to start my routine as soon as possible, but I'm looking for new workout techniques and dieting tips. I usually run on a treadmill five times a week with light weight training. I'm a bit unsure on the most efficient techniques-- I like to focus on my chest.

My diet usually consists of salad, wraps and sushi. I'm willing to do all these things again, but will this get me to a muscular 200 pounds in a month?



Friends have suggested a low-carb diet, but I'm afraid that this may have ill affects on my health, not to mention upkeep issues (i.e. lifestyle change). Am I wrong about this?



Most importantly, given my girth, I wouldn't mind packing on some muscle. In fact, it would be ideal given a probably higher caloric intake upon my life resuming in February.



So hive mind-- what can I do to get "ripped" in a month?



Many thanks. If you have questions email me: no.freq.uent at gmail



*Why is this posted anonymously? I have colleagues that read MeFi, and I'm sensitive about my body image.

posted by anonymous to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (18 answers total)

You certainly won't get ripped - at 5'9", you'd have to lose quite a bit more than twenty pounds to get your body fat low enough that rippage would occur.

It's certainly possible to lose twenty pounds in a month without amputation or liposuction, but it's usually not healthy. Those twenty pounds won't all be fat. Most of it will be muscle and water.

You will want to balance between four things:
1) Joint work (strengthening those stabilizer muscles so you don't lose control of the weight and hurt yourself)
2) Flexibility (so you don't hurt yourself when you do go a little too far)
3) Cardiovascular (if you're out of breath, you're not going to work out much)
4) The muscles you want. They don't eat up a lot of calories, but if I had to pick some, go with the legs. Leg muscles can get huge and you can use them to work on your cardiovascular exercise.

I'd say devote your month to developing good habits, rather than going towards a specific short-term goal (lose 20lb badly) which will interfere with your long-term goal (ripped). Part of your habits will be doing things according to schedule (that workout you don't want to do, that fat-laden burrito you don't want to pass up), but a lot of it will be learning how to correct when you go off course. It's really easy to skip a workout 'cause you've had a lousy day. Or have a very comforting megaburger and zone out. And the day after that you have a new excuse, and the day after ...

Your real work will come in February, when it is no longer as convenient to maintain your habits. After you have mastered maintaining your habits in adversity, then will come getting ripped.
posted by adipocere at 12:34 PM on December 29, 2006 [1 favorite]

Agree with adipocere. You can't get "ripped" in 1 month, particularly if you weigh 220 and are 5'9", unless you are incredibly muscular -- on a regular frame at 5'9" I think you'd need to be closer to 150 or 160 lbs -- I'm 6"1 and 155lbs and definitely not ripped!

I think by setting yourself unrealistic goals, you risk being disappointed and then going back to the old bad habits.

So use this month to develop truly healthy eating and exercise habits and aim for a more realistic 2 or 3lbs a month loss. Over one year, that's plenty.

If you adopt a regime that you can't keep up with for the rest of your life, the excess weight will simply come back. So pick an eating and workout plan you can do even after this month, or in a few months you'll be right back to where you started.

Best of luck!
posted by modernnomad at 12:47 PM on December 29, 2006

Apply for temporary work in the textbook department of a college bookstore. (Follett stores should still be hiring a few temps right about now for stocking the back-to-school rush.) You will spend your days lifting and opening boxes, unpacking, lifting, shelving and rearranging heavy coursebooks, running around finding books for people, lifting more heavy coursebooks, climbing stepladders, pushing heavy book carts, etc. This will jump-start your metabolism.

I myself (a 5'6" female) lost about 10 pounds—and attained marvelously ripped arms—after about a month of doing that exact job last summer.

(My calves also got fairly ripped—but then, I was also walking two miles (one mile there and one mile back) daily. Bonus points if you also adopt that aspect of the work.)
posted by limeonaire at 12:47 PM on December 29, 2006

Alternately: Work at a Cold Stone Creamery for a month. Work nights. I also did that for about a month last summer, to good effect.

The place always has high turnover rates, so they'll most likely be hiring—and you can most likely start spending six-hour shifts on your feet immediately. Exercise potential here includes standing on your feet for six hours straight, prying cold, hard ice cream out of icy tubs, muscling ice cream into shape on a cold slab as fast as is humanly possible, muscling huge pints and gallons of ice cream into shape to make massive ice cream cakes, washing scads of dishes, dragging tubs of ice cream off shelves and thunking them down under the glass, etc....

(Added bonus: This job will also make you grateful for your normal life when you resume it in February. Oh-so-grateful.)

(And no, I'm really not joking—a job like this can whip you into shape, provided you actually work hard at it.)
posted by limeonaire at 12:54 PM on December 29, 2006

Go slow. You don't want to resume some normal intake pattern in Feb. That defeats the purpose. Change the way you eat and work out over the next month and keep it that way. Otherwise you will always look back to Feb. 2007 as the peak of your fitness.

Plus doing too much can hurt you.
posted by Ironmouth at 1:00 PM on December 29, 2006

Cut your salt and carbs and ride a bike 50-100 mi/wk on top of what you're doing. Running on a treadmill for 30 min/day (200 calories or so) 5X/wk is going to burn, oh, 4000 calories in a month if you're lucky. A 30 mile ride can burn 2000+ depending on how fast you're going (16+ mph) and how much climbing (1-2k+ feet) there is..

But if you want ripped, do lots of low reps and a ton of cardio. Any high-weight training is just going to emphasize the layer of fat by pushing it out evenly, where tone (from low reps and lots of them) will create some definition.
posted by kcm at 1:07 PM on December 29, 2006 [1 favorite]

You certainly won't get ripped - at 5'9", you'd have to lose quite a bit more than twenty pounds to get your body fat low enough that rippage would occur.

$$$$$$$$$$
posted by matteo at 1:11 PM on December 29, 2006

Switch from the treadmill to an elliptical to exercise your upper and lower muscles. Good luck!
posted by tizzie at 1:16 PM on December 29, 2006

Add protein via supplements for maximum muscle building.
posted by grateful at 1:47 PM on December 29, 2006

I think adipocere's 4 pronged approach is a good one, so I'll second that. If I wanted to get fully ripped in a short period of time, here's what I'd do:

1. Cardio: Swim. Or do something else that will make you drip sweat in 10 minutes or less. And then do it for 30, 40, 50, 60 minutes (ramping up as your endurance builds) I find running terribly terribly boring. It's also not that good at burning calories. If you love running or are otherwise wedded to it (it's cheap), then definitely do things like interval sprints (run at 70% and then at 100% for 2 mins, in bursts). Tough games of soccer, ultimate, tennis, racquetball, etc. might be good to to mix in. Just remember, no subbing out!

2. Joint / Flexibiilty / Core: Yoga. Or Pilates maybe (I've never done Pilates). Yoga will get you to pay much better attention to your body, you breathing. Plus it will kick your ass. It's not a "sport" so there's no competition, and you're not even competing with yourself (when you're doing it right). But it will really help you stay flexible and strong in the core of your body (abs, hips, pelvic floor (hey look, muscles you didn't even know you had!), back). Downside for this is: expensive. You should NOT get a yoga DVD and start in. You need instruction and that's not cheap. A "all you can eat" month pass at a good yoga place will probably run you $150-$300. But since you can use it everyday, that's cheap. And besides, it's cool to be able to do the headstands, shoulderstands, and handstands, which is where you could be in a solid month (or two) of work.

3. Rip it up: Food and Weights. Now that you're burning 500 extra calories per day, and strengthening your core, you need to get ripped. I would recommend the 40% 30% 30% diet. This is not extreme, you don't need to buy anything special for it, and you can keep on doing it forever. Based on what you say you eat, it's not even much of a change. But eat somewhat less for the first two weeks (say 1600-1800 calories, which is less but not starving by any means) and see where you are. For weight training, I would stay pretty light for most of the month. After waking up for the yoga class and hitting the pool for 45 minutes, you'll be pretty sore/tired. So I would do light weights and high reps, and also get your heart-rate up while working out on the weights. I would work the big groups and just do reps to failure, without really having a goal in mind of a particular number of reps / weight that must be accomplished.

One thing I see a lot of in the weight room is laziness and coasting. If you're going to go through all that trouble to get to the gym, take your time, breathe, and make each rep of each exercise count. Take your time on the "up". Then breathe at the top of the exercise (one count at least, maybe 2), then take your time on the "down". It's much more effective to do 20 great pushups than 50 shitty, sloppy, hurried ones. And forget bouncing the weight off of your chest or legs to get one more. Just make every one count. If you do take some yoga, you'll find much better control of your breathing that will make it possible to take your time in all things (including but not limited to exercise) more.
posted by zpousman at 2:00 PM on December 29, 2006 [1 favorite]

While I can appreciate the workout employees at Coldstone Creamery get when they're working, I wouldn't suggest working at creamery if you have recently "fallen off the wagon" and are trying to lose weight. Get a job at with UPS, volunteer for Habitat for Humanity, or do something else where you won't be surrounded by the sight and smell of high-fat, high-calorie foods.
posted by HotPatatta at 2:34 PM on December 29, 2006

Do not, I repeat, do not undertake a low-carb diet. It is the worst thing you could do, especially if you have muscles already. It will eat it all your muscles up before it starts burning fat.

I know it is not considered 'manly' bu I would recommend pilates. Especially if you have great muscle memory already. You will be 'ripped' beyond belief.
posted by mycapaciousbottega at 3:41 PM on December 29, 2006

Ah, yeah—see, that was never a problem for me with Cold Stone, 'cause after working there all day to a point where I smelled like waffles all the time, I never wanted to eat anything there, not even the ice cream.

I reiterate the suggestion to pick up part-time employment at a college bookstore, then.
posted by limeonaire at 3:43 PM on December 29, 2006

Whatever you do, be careful about ramping up to intensive exercise very quickly. Make sure to let your body rest in between sessions -- this may mean not working out every day, or making sure to alternate muscle groups if you do. Otherwise, you run the serious risk of getting injured, and there go all your hopes of getting into good shape fast. With that caveat, I can't imagine anything better than serious Pilates for your stomach muscles (many classes are lightweight, find a really hard one or buy one of the classic Pilates series DVDs), and power yoga for just about every other part of your body. If you haven't already, just give it a try. Good luck and enjoy!
posted by walla at 4:35 PM on December 29, 2006

PS - A lot of yoga places also offer good Pilates classes, so an "all-you-can-eat" card at the right studio can get you both. Also, depending on where you are (major cities are probably better bets), some gyms offer first-rate yoga and Pilates instruction, with the same instructors as local studios. A gym like that is a great find if you want to combine these classes with other forms of cardio and weight-lifting.
posted by walla at 5:04 PM on December 29, 2006

Do not, I repeat, do not undertake a low-carb diet. It is the worst thing you could do, especially if you have muscles already. It will eat it all your muscles up before it starts burning fat.

I'm sorry, but that is just completely wrong. Low-carb/high protein is MUCH more sparing of muscle than low fat/low calorie high carb. References here and here and here.
posted by bink at 6:23 PM on December 29, 2006

Sorry, blink, but Dr. Hoffman and Protein Power don't count as references.

Low-carb, high-protein shouldn't be avoided for THAT reason, rather for the potential kidney damage.
posted by LGCNo6 at 11:21 PM on December 29, 2006

I'm finding this a bit of a hard question to answer, for a few reasons. First, you're not giving too much in terms of what your goal is; 5'9" and 200 lbs as a goal is a pretty big, thick frame, and people's definition of ripped varies. Are we talking about 6-pack shredded, see some definition in the arms shredded, or just having a flat stomach...what, to you, constitutes ripped? And also, it's a bit unclear from your original post what kind of shape you're in now. I'm kind of reading from your statement "I know, I should weigh a lot less than that, but I've struggled with this bullshit for a while" that perhaps you're not in the best of shape now, and if you're not, a month is probably not going to get you to being a strong, ripped-looking 200lbs when you're under 6 feet. For comparison, I'm really close to your height (5' 9 and 3/4"-round up to 5'10"), I'm serious about fitness and athletics, and while I'm fit, you can only see my six pack when I flex. And I only weigh 170.

So I'm going to answer this question two ways, depending on the shape you are in.

If you are currently in good shape, and fairly athletic, I think this is doable, and here's how I would do it: good diet, lots of rest, and work out twice daily. If you're going to be working out twice a day, you need to be getting plenty of sleep and good nutrition. Of course it will depend on your individual needs, but I would aim for at least 8 hours nightly. If you want to build muscle, that means lots of protein. Your diet, in brief, should be: lots of lean protein, lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and not too many refined sugars. Here's how I'd do the workouts; I'd do one cardio workout and one strength workout every day. One in the morning, one in the evening/afternoon, whichever you find works best. The cardio workouts should vary, and they should not be the 'light jogging for a half hour' type of workout. They should leave you breathless and maybe wanting to puke. They should be short and intense interval type workouts. Your strength workouts should be based low rep high weight work. Only use multi-muscle, compound movement type lifts: squats, deadlifts, bench, overhead press, chins, dips, cleans, etc etc. Use free-weights, not machines. Work hard. None of the half assed stuff most people do in the gym, with endless ab work and tons of small movements for small muscles.

If most of the (jargon filled) stuff I said in the above paragraph doesn't make sense to you, you may not be in good enough shape now to get big and ripped in a month, and are probably better served by a different course of action. If you're not already working from a pretty solid athletic base, don't jump into doing two workouts a day. The same advice about diet and rest I gave above still apply. But instead of doing two workouts a day, I'd consider the following-get a good personal trainer, and have them teach you the proper technique to use on the basic freeweight lifts, and I'd even include a few explosive, olympic weightlifting movements, if you can. I'd also consider getting a nutritionist and really figuring out a good diet for yourself. Basically, if you're not in shape to work out twice a day now, I'd work on learning as much as you can about fitness and nutrition this month, and apply it for the rest of your life. :) Learn about why a good diet is good, and how to cook easy healthy meals. Learn how to design lifting/cardio programs, and work up to doing some intense stuff, such that when you return to having a normal schedule in February, your body will be able to handle workouts that are short (less than an hour of gym time) but brutally intense and effective.

That's what I'd do if I were you. E-mail is in the profile if you have more questions.
posted by HighTechUnderpants at 1:10 PM on December 31, 2006