Weight Loss Thread

DOMS (super soreness for new lifters that is debilitating)

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Looking up on this, what is recommended to do if I get this? Just do cardio for a day or two untill the soreness goes away or keep to the weights?

34.2 BMI -- you're either eating far too much super healthy food or eating/drinking a bunch of dickhead "food". Only you know the answer to that.

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Looking at what I eat, I gather that I eat more carbs than I should. That will likely be the major change I need to make - cutting carbs and increasing veggies.
But to go a bit further, here's a breakdown of what a typical work day is:

Breakfast: Bowl of cereal and a bottle of water (Right now I'm eating Frosted Mini Wheats, sometimes I'll go for Cheerios or something else, or maybe oatmeal. But I don't drink the milk after)
Morning at work: a small cup of coffee (which I sometimes don't get due to being busy) and another 1-2 bottles of water.
Lunch: I used to bring in leftovers, but now I've switched to mainly salads (American blend mostly, with some dressing, maybe some croutons and maybe a protein like egg whites or cooked diced chicken breasts)
Afternoon: Another 1-2 bottles of water (Tying to make sure I drink alot mroe water than I used to)
Dinner: I like to cook a big meal on my days off, then warm up leftovers throughout the week for dinner. For example, this week I made chicken with gravy over rice, with some frozen veggies mixed in. Simple stuff like that, maybe a pasta dish one week, something different the next week.
Evening: I often have a snack of some type, this is where I could see myself saving calories. Trying to find healthier snacks will be key for me, a lot more fruit and healthier snacks.

I don't necessarily eat a lot of fast food on a weekly basis. I may pickup half a sub sandwich for dinner one night on the way home to break up the week long left overs, or maybe pickup a burrito at Chipolte. I may have something like Chick-Fila or Subway once a week at lunch, if that.

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On a side note, looking at when to exercise, I think I will likely be exercising after work, since trying to get up early enough in the morning to do it won't work (Just not an early morning person )
Would it be better to get home, exercise then eat dinner? Or can I get home, eat dinner, then exercise? And how soon after dinner can I without it causing issues?

Also, did go over to the gym after dinner. Did 20 min on the treadmill, got myself up to a very brisk walk, not quite jogging speed which got me going and sweating just a little bit.

Then did 5x5 sets of Chest Press with 50 pds, which was just about right to start, at least for me.
Then did 3x5 set of Leg Curls? with 50 pds. Wanted to do a full 5 x5 but by the end of 3rd set my legs were getting a bit sore so I didn't want to push it.

May not seem like much but at least to me its a start and a way to at least get a baseline for myself. Next step will be splitting things into cardio and weight days and start working my way up.

One of the biggest things that people don't realize is how many calories they're drinking. Whether that be in coffee (milk/sugar), pop, beer/booze, or what have you. Even a single can of pop a day is 15-20 pounds a year, all else being equal. I'd ditch the cereal. Cereal is not "part of a balanced breakfast." There's next to no nutritional value in cereal other than the calories. Personally I love eggs and make myself omelettes most mornings with spinach and some cheese. Another alternative would be (low/no fat) yogurt with nuts/fruit. Or a smoothie/protein shake.

As far as exercise goes, as people have said 80-90% of your weight loss is going to come down to your diet. Don't get too tripped up by the details of your exercise program. Most important is just doing something on a regular basis and getting in to a routine. A lot of people end up putting off starting a program because they're looking for the perfect one, when just about any sort of exercise that gets you sweating is going to be beneficial. Once you've got your diet locked in and are in a routine for working out, then you can start worrying about min/maxing it. As far as time of day, before/after meals, etc etc, the answer is "whatever makes you the most likely to do it consistently." Some people can work out extremely hard right after a meal with no issues, some people can't. Whatever works for you.

Re: DOMS and what to do

Sack up and deal with it, sadly =/ I would say do some hardcore yoga, but at your height/weight, that might be out of the question. On the bright side, it will drop off pretty quickly if you spend quality time in the gym in subsequent sessions. You'll keep getting that super soreness for like a month probably, to varying degrees. And then you will be sore for a day or so at worst afterwards, and definitely not to the same level.

I'd highly recommend stretching immediately before and after your workouts when you're new to it. My personal experience is that it helps, and can keep the more absurd effects down. Ie, issues such as problems wiping or washing your hair, etc. But you're just going to have to deal with it if you aren't doing a slow ramp up in intensity. Ambi linked a study a few pages back that sort of shows that you don't -need- to deal with DOMS if you have no immediate goals with health. You can start with lighter weights and less reps/etc to warm yourself up to it. But you are going to get the same results eventually regardless, so the time-frame is really the major dependent variable. If you want to dodge the DOMS, I'd say use lower weights and just focus on getting your form right, and don't lift until you are tired when you do go to the gym. This is inefficient in a time-sense, but your goals sound more long term anyway, so it may be the ideal setup. Follow my slapped together plan above but with weights that you can move more easily and 8 isn't your max on reps with the weight. If you get crazy sore 2 days later, maybe dial back the intensity to reduce that if it's a determining issue for you. Personally, I'd much rather deal with DOMS for a couple of weeks than spend 3x as long to get up to speed, but your mileage may vary on that one.

Eomer_sl said:

One of the biggest things that people don't realize is how many calories they're drinking. Whether that be in coffee (milk/sugar), pop, beer/booze, or what have you. Even a single can of pop a day is 15-20 pounds a year, all else being equal. I'd ditch the cereal. Cereal is not "part of a balanced breakfast." There's next to no nutritional value in cereal other than the calories. Personally I love eggs and make myself omelettes most mornings with spinach and some cheese. Another alternative would be (low/no fat) yogurt with nuts/fruit. Or a smoothie/protein shake

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An apple and a banana makes a great breakfast on the go too, cereal is just garbage calories.

Another +1 for stretching to kill DOMS or even better, a foam roller.

Outside of veggies my main carb source has been 1 banana in the morning and a sweet potato at dinner. Typically after a work out depending on when I go. I always eat the banana in the morning tho since I use to make a healthy pancake.. Anyway, dude at the nutrition store told me that's too much carbs for the day. JFC!

"Dude at the nutrition store". Sounds like an expert to me.

Guys, enough with the white rice crusade. Stop believing everything you fucking hear, eating white rice every day is absolutely fine.

If you wanna cut carbs and you're eating pasta try spaghetti squash or if you have a kitchen aid stand mixer get the spiralizer attachment and spiralize vegetable noodles. I enjoy me some zucchini noodles. If you don't have a stand mixer I'd recommend looking into it, we love ours and it gets used all the time. Just got the spiralizer attachment over the holidays and love it, its really helped us cut carbs. Don't bother trying one of those handheld spiralizers, in our experience we tried one, and it wasn't the cheapest one, and it sucked dick.

Last year we tried limiting ourselves to one pasta dish a week, of course still all whole wheat, but this year we haven't had the need with the spiralizer.

Trying to turn one food into another with lousy results. The fool's guide to failure at weight loss.

"I JUST CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT FETTUCINI!!!! WHAT IF I MAKE ZUCCHICINI?!?!?!?! IT PROBABLY TASTES EXACTLY THE SAME!!!"

You might as well just go vegan and eat fake meat.

Its worked for me. Not saying it tastes the same, not at all. But you should be open to expanding your palette when trying to change your life style. The first time I ate spaghetti squash I found it just ok, now I really enjoy it. Lots of things I eat now and enjoy that I never would have dreamed of eating a couple years ago.

Khane_sl said:

Trying to turn one food into another with lousy results. The fool's guide to failure at weight loss.

"I JUST CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT FETTUCINI!!!! WHAT IF I MAKE ZUCCHICINI?!?!?!?! IT PROBABLY TASTES EXACTLY THE SAME!!!"

You might as well just go vegan and eat fake meat.

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Not sure your issue other than it sounds like roid rage. It is a valid way of eating for those who are wanting similar textures but without the large amount of carbs.

fifey_sl said:

An apple and a banana makes a great breakfast on the go too, cereal is just garbage calories.

Another +1 for stretching to kill DOMS or even better, a foam roller.

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Apples are actually pretty garbage calories as well but its better than most things

Kuriin_sl said:

Not sure your issue other than it sounds like roid rage. It is a valid way of eating for those who are wanting similar textures but without the large amount of carbs.

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Because it tastes like crap and the texture isn't even close. There are many ways to take zucchini and make it taste great, trying to turn it into pasta is not one of those ways.

Maybe you just need to come over one day and let me serve you zucchini noodles khanebro. Enjoying zucchini, but not enjoying zucchini noodles just doesn't make sense, its still zucchini.

But yeah, my post shouldn't be taken as vegetable noodles are an exact replacement of pasta. They are very different animals and have completely different tastes and textures, its just a healthier alternative; one that I personally enjoy, and I wouldn't have thought I would have before I gave it a try.

Cad_sl said:

I like apples because they take a little while to eat and aren't very high calorie. For me, I feel sometimes like I need to munch on something. If I spend 10 minutes munching on an apple I only got what, 60-80 calories. I spend 10 minutes munching on chips...

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Yep there is a strong psychological coefficient that is difficult to measure. Even if apples offer very little in the way of nutrition if it prevents you from making other poor choices you can't really say they're bad for you.