over weight lifter

[babylon]

sup guys, i been an on / off weight lifter for past 2 years, i went about a good 9 months 5 days a week then i fell off after getting a fulltime job, im now ready to workout, pyched up and shit, ready to tear it up .

im about 230 pounds 5'7, my goal is to work fat into muscle somehow, whats the best way to get started,
diet + cario + heavy weights
or light weights to cut up faster

what would any of u suggest if you were at about 40 pounds over your ideal weight.

thanks,

[YellowJacket]

Hello...

First of all, lets get some terminology established. Being 40lbs over your ideal bodyweight is comical in out sport. I went to get health insurance from a new company last year and was turned down. Come to find out, I am morbidly obese. 5'9 220lbs is considered morbidly obese by this group of insurance providers. My body fat? A little less than 10%. Am I really morbidly obese? Far from it. Ideal body weight means nothing to us. In our sport, youre not overweight, youre overfat (not you in particular, but anyone with excessive body fat).

What Im getting at is, who cares about your ideal body weight. My ideal body weight is 175lbs, who wants to be 175lbs???

Your question is rather complex.... as you must consider diet first, weight training second, cardio lastly and ancillary items such as supplements.

The best way to get started is get in the gym. Unfortunately, by no physiologial mechanism can we turn adipose fat cells into amino acids or protein (muscle) but we can take the long way around.

First, lets focus on your diet, this is the most important part of bodybuilding. To lose weight, regardless of who you are, you must burn more calories than you take in (calories in vs. calories out). So to know how many youre burning as opposed to taking in, begin by calculating your basal metabolic rate, which can be found in this thread:
Basal Metabolic Rate for Gaining/Losing Weight

With this, you know exactly how many calories it takes your body to survive each day, theres more nutritional hints and tricks in that thread as well. Cut out the fats in excess and replace them with healthy fats, ie. flax or preferably fish oil. Cut out excessive carbs, no pure sugars late in the day, or at all for that matter. Vegetables, brown rice, etc. are ideal. Consume at least one gram of protein per pound of bodyweight, dont neglect post workout protein.

This is a very breif overview of nutrition, its far more complex.

Weight training should be done 3-4 days a week (some prefer 5 but, 4 is adequate for me) and focus on complex lifts. Higher reps doesnt always mean you'll 'get cut'. Even when cutting, I prefer to go heavy.

Cardio should be done in the AM, before a major meal. This means, dont have your breakfast then go do your cardio. This is for metabolic reasons, if you want to know, I can break it down for you. Have a 100% whey shake and go run. Running sprints, instead of distance has proven to be more effective for fat burning.

Sorry this is so brief, but youre in luck, theres a myriad of info. around these boards, dont hesistate to ask questions and best of luck to you,



YJ

[pierced one]

great job Yj you hit it on the head

[babylon]

thanks man , the link and info you gave me is great -

[escapist]

I've been told in the past that lower impact, extended duration cardio is more effective for fat burning than sprints. Isn't that the conventional wisdom?

I'm training for my first marathon right now. I'll be doing a 26 miles practice run this weekend. I've wondered why I haven't lost more weight during training... perhaps it's because our training pace is so slow?

[keeny]

nah, interval training is much more effective for burning fat in my opnion. but get fit first, you cant do sprints if you are unfit and your body cant handle it. So start with long duration walking,jogging to build fitness and to improve heartrate, then when you think your ready strat sprinting with the intervals. Mix it up with normal jogging for good results.

[BBAddict]

I recently ran a marathon but have sworn that off cause I couldn't grow worth anything when running that much. Anyway, your body primarily uses the stored glycogen for energy for the first 45 minutes. After that you start burning much more fat for energy. Fat is a great source of energy (2X the amount of energy/gm compared to carbs) but you have to train your body to use it efficiently. I guess if you do it first thing in the AM without eating first, your glycogen stores have already been depleted overnight, so then sprints would probably be better than distance. I have found intervals (Yasso 800s) or hill training to be very effective in terms of cutting. It's also much more efficient timewise to burn calories using this type of running compared to long distance. I think sprints will also tend to cause less muscular loss and can even be a decent leg workout, especially if you do it on hills.

[BENCH355ANIMAL]

Treadmill at ar about 3.5 mph @ 10 degree incline for about 45 minutes in the mornings. This is my opinion which I'm sure YJ will disagree with.

[meat12]

Originally posted by pierced one
great job Yj you hit it on the head

definately bro...great post

[BodyJBbuild]

very smart guy, yj