Losing fat for noobs

[get big or die mirin]

I'll try and keep this as simple as possible

To lose weight, you can't escape the simple law of thermodynamics. You aren't a special snowflake. You don't have a slow metabolism. You don't have an issue with your thyroid and if you did, you'd get it treated by your doctor.

Throughout the day, our body burns energy, in the form of calories. It's impossible to work out how much calories you burn exactly each day, but there are calculators online that can give you a rough estimate.
There are several factors at play that determine how much calories our body burns. They are;
Weight
Height
Gender
Activity level
Muscle mass

If someone is heavy, their body has to burn more energy to move all that weight around, correct?

The taller someone is, they genetically have to fill out more space, which in turn makes them naturally heavier. This is a reason you often see tall lanky people and short fat people. Shorter people take up less space, making their body burn less energy.

Gender - males genetically carry around more muscle mass than females do. Males in most cases are going to burn more energy than a female.

Activity level - someone who has a physical job is going to burn more energy than someone who has a desk job

Muscle mass - the more muscle mass you have on your body, the more energy your body burns. A 6'2" 200lb guy @ 10% body fat would burn more energy than a 6'2" guy @ 30% body fat.

Now, you've worked out your maintenance levels, or Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE) using an online calculator. What next?
Well, you eat. It's my firm belief that diet will consist of 80% of your desired results. The rest coming from exercise.
What do you eat? Truth be told, you can eat whatever you want, providing you eat less than your TDEE.
This means you're going to have to count calories(!). This seems arduous and mind-numbing at first, but the more you do it, the more of a habit it will become. There are sites online where you can track what you've eaten, there are apps on your phone, too. Hell, I kick it old school and still use a pad and pencil.
One of the most important things you can buy is a digital food scale. You can pick up a decent one for $10. Weigh out all your food. Read the nutritional tables on the back of food packets CORRECTLY. Don't eat the whole bag of chips when it says they're 450 calories. That 450 calories is probably a 50g SERVING when the whole packet is probably 200g, which is going to total 1800 calories. So read correctly and measure correctly!
Now, when I say, eat whatever you want, theoretically, it's true, but be smart about food choices. Sure, you can put gas in the car and it'll run, but 10 years down the road the engines gonna be shit. You put premium in, it's gonna be good. Just ... be smart about food choices

Now - the QUALITY of your weight loss is going to be determined by your MACRONUTRIENT intake and your workout regime.
There are 3 macronutrients that make up the total amount of calories in foods. They are;
Fat
Protein
Carbohydrates

1g of fat is equal to 9 calories
1g of protein and carbs is equal to 4 calories
Try it yourself. This 500mL can of Mother energy drink has 228 calories. It's an energy drink, there's going to be no fat or protein in it. Sure enough, on the back it says one serve 500mL - 57g of sugar. 57x4 = 228 calories

Now, fat and protein are ESSENTIAL macronutrients - the lack of either of them in your diet causes negative effects on your body.
Lack of fat causes poor hormone production which could make you feeling irritable, angry, short tempered, even depressed
Lack of protein in your diet can cause muscle loss
Carbohydrates are non-essential. Our body can survive just fine without them.

Now how much protein and fat should we be consuming? Honestly, there are a lot of formulas out there to follow, some of them blowing things out of proportion. I feel, protein consumption should be between 0.8g - 1.5g per pound of lean body mass (how much you'd weigh if you didn't have any fat on you. 160lb guy at 10% body fat would have 144lb of LBM)
Fat consumption should be around .45g per pound of bodyweight.
Now for someone who is 5'10", 220lb male @ 30% body fat with a moderate activity level, their maintenance levels could be around 3000 calories a day.
They'd have 154lb of LBM. They should be consuming anywhere from 123g to 231g of protein a day. Their fat consumption should be around 99g
If they had 150g of protein a day and 100g of fat a day, their total calorie consumption would bring them to 1500 calories. That's a calorie deficit of 1500 calories. How big a deficit you choose is up to you, as long as you're hitting your MINIMUM FAT and PROTEIN requirements and stimulating your muscles, you will RETAIN AS MUCH MUSCLE AS POSSIBLE. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT LOSING MUSCLE. This is the number one problem a lot of people say when they restrict calories too much. If you are sure you lost muscle on your diet then you either didn't consume enough protein, didn't stimulate your muscles, or a combination of both, OR, you didn't have as much muscle to begin with in the first place.

Now, diet has been covered.
Your body has to have a reason to hold onto it's muscle, right? Feeding it protein is a good start, however, if you're not stimulating your muscles, then your going to find that your body is going to be chewing away at your muscles for energy, and that's not good, right?
If you're reading this, it's a good chance you haven't been in a gym before or done anything with weight training. Bicep curls do not count as weight training.
You're a beginner, your best bet is to hop on a 3 day a week full-body routine. No, I don't mean hitting 2 or 3 muscle groups a day, working your way around the body for the rest of the week. I mean, you're doing movements, compound movements to be precise, that work a lot of muscles, to help build your STRENGTH.
It is entirely possible to gain muscle and lose fat as a beginner - these are noob gains - they don't last long. However, it is entirely possible to gain STRENGTH while on a diet. Strength is your Central Nervous System (CNS) recruiting muscles to move the weight. The heavier the weight, the more CNS recruitment is happening to move the weight.
This is why an advanced lifter, who can squat 400lb raw, can probably do it only once a week. It taxes their CNS to the extreme. A beginner, maybe starting off with an empty bar, could potentially get away with doing it every day of the week. But for simplistic sake, we'll stick to a program like Starting Strength that goes for 3 days a week, on non-consecutive days.
Now, the lifts in the program are the squat, deadlift, bench, overhead press and press clean*
*I highly recommend swapping these out for a row. Press cleans to a beginner are a highly technical lift and the tradition SS program is negligent of the upper back.
His rep ranges are only 5 per set. 3 working sets.
Now before you go, "Oh, no weight lifting, I don't wanna get big and gross like arnie" ...
Uh, please! It takes years ... decades even, before you get a physique like Arnie.
Weight lifting is the fountain of youth.

The SS program is workout A - squat, bench, deadlift
Workout B - squat, OHP, row
This is the original template - I would recommend adding pullups, assisted or non-assisted at the end of workout B, alternating between overhand and underhand.

Sorry I wrote this in a rush, and if anyone decides to read it and ask questions I'll try and get round to answering them all. Peace out.

[Spazzer]

This might become an interesting thread and I also would love to answer any questions in regards to working out and eating healthy. My experience involves personal trainer and competing in semi-professional bodybuilding competitions.

OP: Please fix your godawful formatting otherwise ./threadimpodedness

Feel free to PM for any questions relating to fitness, health and eating healthy.

~Spazzer

[igniter]

The SS program is workout A - squat, bench, deadlift
Workout B - squat, OHP, row

This is essentially SL 5x5 with deadlift and rows switched.

[Woceip]

Nice post. Amen to the bit about the digital scale. Best purchase I ever made. Measuring what I ate helped me lose like 20lbs without adding excercise at all.

I'd have to get a gym membership to do weights, and I'm not super keen on that after the last one. I do have access to an eliptical, excercise bike, and heavy bag at home though. Any recommendations there as to most bang for buck?

I enjoy the heavy bag workout when I can make myself do it. It's mostly the lengthy wrap-up that keeps me from bothering. That, and if I eff up the wrap I'm almost guaranteed to have scraped up my knuckles pretty bad.

[mmokri]

Your title is for me, I have super-fast metabolism.

[fakaroonie]

I've got 99 problems but fat ain't one.

Well, not really. I've been lifting for 2 years now, and since I started lifting I cut completely on sodas, all junk food, and all fast food, and I gotta say, that belly fat hasn't gone anywhere. I admit I eat sweets, my grandma makes sweets allday, and I also admit I skip cardio hard. Once I ran 15km on the treadmill, once 10.. but since then not much. Maybe 2-3 km once a month or something.
On the bright side, I'm Shtrong. 170kg deadlift, 100 bench, 150 squat (1 full rep). But yea, I can't keep a diet, and I rarely cardio. Now I just started a program in which I do cardio 4 times a week for 20 mins, and this is the second day... so far so good ( knees kinda hurt). But next month I need to do 30 mins, and 5 times a week...
Open for suggestions, on how to get my abs to shine until summer comes. :P

[get big or die mirin]

This is essentially SL 5x5 with deadlift and rows switched.

SS was around before SL - the original 5x5 template I'm fairly sure wasn't meant for 5 working sets, they were meant as ramp-up sets. But having said that, doing SL is fine, aswell.

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Nice post. Amen to the bit about the digital scale. Best purchase I ever made. Measuring what I ate helped me lose like 20lbs without adding excercise at all.

I'd have to get a gym membership to do weights, and I'm not super keen on that after the last one. I do have access to an eliptical, excercise bike, and heavy bag at home though. Any recommendations there as to most bang for buck?

I enjoy the heavy bag workout when I can make myself do it. It's mostly the lengthy wrap-up that keeps me from bothering. That, and if I eff up the wrap I'm almost guaranteed to have scraped up my knuckles pretty bad.

It's hard to say what would be the best bang for your buck ...
Joining a gym is one of the better options. The only thing that would really make you want to have a home-gym is due to lack of equipment at a gym and/or travel time. At least at home you don't have to wait for someone to finish a set or travel that far.
You can even build your own squat rack. Google up some ghetto methods lol
Ellipticals, exercise bikes and boxing bags are gonna be great for your cardiovascular endurance, but as far as resistant training, they're not going to do much ... Unless you squat the bag lol

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I've got 99 problems but fat ain't one.

Well, not really. I've been lifting for 2 years now, and since I started lifting I cut completely on sodas, all junk food, and all fast food, and I gotta say, that belly fat hasn't gone anywhere. I admit I eat sweets, my grandma makes sweets allday, and I also admit I skip cardio hard. Once I ran 15km on the treadmill, once 10.. but since then not much. Maybe 2-3 km once a month or something.
On the bright side, I'm Shtrong. 170kg deadlift, 100 bench, 150 squat (1 full rep). But yea, I can't keep a diet, and I rarely cardio. Now I just started a program in which I do cardio 4 times a week for 20 mins, and this is the second day... so far so good ( knees kinda hurt). But next month I need to do 30 mins, and 5 times a week...
Open for suggestions, on how to get my abs to shine until summer comes. :P

Good luck on your progress - those lifts are pretty solid. If you're going to indulge on sweets then make sure you're keeping it at moderation and counting them (if you can) into your daily calorie allowance.
As far as getting your abs to show, just stay in your deficit and hit your protein intake and stimulate your muscles to preserve as much as possible.
Oh ... and make sure you have abs :P
So many ppl on other internet forums at like 6 foot 150lb wondering how much more they gotta cut in order for abs to show ... If someone at 6 foot doesn't have abs @ 150 then they don't have abs at all. Build more muscle! Which in turn, follows the same principles as losing fat, only you're going to be eating at a surplus.
Slight surplus means you're gonna be putting on muscle with minimal fat gains.
A big surplus is gonna net you more strength and muscle gains but the fat gains that come with it is enough to make people want to have a slight surplus.

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Your title is for me, I have super-fast metabolism.

The slow/fast metabolism argument isn't valid. Yes, everyone has different maintenance levels, but the difference between someone of equal height and weight having a slow metabolism and the other one having a fast metabolism is negligible.
The ironic thing is for overweight people who say they're fat due to a slow metabolism - they actually have a quicker metabolism than their leaner counterparts.

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This might become an interesting thread and I also would love to answer any questions in regards to working out and eating healthy. My experience involves personal trainer and competing in semi-professional bodybuilding competitions.

OP: Please fix your godawful formatting otherwise ./threadimpodedness

Feel free to PM for any questions relating to fitness, health and eating healthy.

~Spazzer

My grammar and thread formatting is horrible lol deal with it :P
Eating healthy is overrated. I just finished my bulk and doing my cut now.
Still losing eating chips and KFC every day.

[The Stormbringer]

I'm fairly certain there are other ways to work out and exercise your body without weight lifting. Some people really -can't- afford or work gym memberships into their budget or schedule anyway. What are your feelings towards walking, jogging, stair exercises, bike riding, swimming, or cardio?

[PapaBoss]

Alright men,

I have to do a cooper's test in a few months for soccer tryouts and I need to start training and dieting. I have a plan and would love critique or tips to the plan.

Diet:
Breakfast: 2 slices of whole grain toast with organic peanut butter or 2 slice of whole grain organic toast with guacamole and an egg

Lunch: PBJ on whole grain bread. Some sort of fruit. Some little treat (Hershey kiss, fun size candy bar, etc.)

Dinner: What ever is being served

Drinks: Water or coconut water if I want to be fancy.

Workout:
Days 1,5: Run a coopers test minus a minute as my goal.

Days 2,6: Some sort of lifting or anaerobic exercise

Days 3,7: Run some stairs, track improvement

Day 4: Rest

All the tips/critique is appreciated.

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

I would like to get back in good shape and lose 10 pounds and like you said, work on my core strength. I DON'T want to hit a gym or use many weights. Have any type of routine I could do at home with few, if no weight at all?

[teebo]

I would like to get back in good shape and lose 10 pounds and like you said, work on my core strength. I DON'T want to hit a gym or use many weights. Have any type of routine I could do at home with few, if no weight at all?

p90x or insanity

[Self Inflicted Wounds]

p90x or insanity

Always been interested. DO they have programs without weights?

[Airwaves]

Why the essay?

"Eat Less and exercise more"

THAT IS IT. That is all it takes to lose weight. People make it seem like such a big deal when it isn't.

[get big or die mirin]

I'm fairly certain there are other ways to work out and exercise your body without weight lifting. Some people really -can't- afford or work gym memberships into their budget or schedule anyway. What are your feelings towards walking, jogging, stair exercises, bike riding, swimming, or cardio?

If people are serious about trying to look better, they make time to fit SOME sort of weight training into their lifestyle. It's only 3 days a week, mind you. I work 6am-6pm for two weeks, mon-fri, then 6pm-6am for 2 weeks, mon-fri. If I can find time, everyone can
Walking, jogging, stair exercises, bike riding, swimming are all forms of cardio. Great for overall fitness levels and boosting your cardiovascular endurance, BUT strictly speaking from a 'losing fat' point of view, they are not NEEDED. Is it recommended that you do cardio? Absolutely, whether you want to lose weight or gain weight, but it isn't a necessity to lose weight.
Forgive my ignorance, there probably are many other different ways of resistant training without weights. Pullups and dips are great exercises ... Um, physical jobs where a lot of lifting is involved can possibly help, too.

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Why the essay?

"Eat Less and exercise more"

THAT IS IT. That is all it takes to lose weight. People make it seem like such a big deal when it isn't.

I agree - it is a simple solution to put into practice. However, it can be quite scary just how misinformed people are when it comes to the topic of weight loss and weight gain.
They over-analyze things.
What time should I eat?
What supplements do I have to take?
Can I have carbs after 5pm?
Do I have to do cardio on an empty stomach?

All these questions do not need to be addressed. They're irrelevant.
Eat when you want.
Supplements are just that - supplements. Take them when you're missing out on something in your diet.
I know a guy at my gym who does intermittent fasting, giving him a 4 hour window a day to eat. He eats all his daily calorie needs within a few hours before bed time.
You can do cardio on a full or empty stomach, but if you're eating more than what your body burns, you're gonna gain weight. Period.

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Also, somatypes don't exist ... to an extent.
My friend at his heaviest was your classic 'endomorph'.
After crash dieting, dropping 150lb in a short amount of time, he looked like your classic 'ectomorph'.
Taller people are going to have harder times to fill their body out with muscle. A lot of underweight tall people are going to fall into an 'ectomorph' category. The reality of it is, they just aren't eating enough. No ways around it.
Similar situations with shorter people. They're going to 'fill out' more easier than a taller person, which is why shorter overweight people fall into an 'endomorph' category. The reality of it again, is they're eating too much. No ways around it.

[Spectral]

Alright men,

I have to do a cooper's test in a few months for soccer tryouts and I need to start training and dieting. I have a plan and would love critique or tips to the plan.

Diet:
Breakfast: 2 slices of whole grain toast with organic peanut butter or 2 slice of whole grain organic toast with guacamole and an egg

Lunch: PBJ on whole grain bread. Some sort of fruit. Some little treat (Hershey kiss, fun size candy bar, etc.)

Dinner: What ever is being served

Drinks: Water or coconut water if I want to be fancy.

Workout:
Days 1,5: Run a coopers test minus a minute as my goal.

Days 2,6: Some sort of lifting or anaerobic exercise

Days 3,7: Run some stairs, track improvement

Day 4: Rest

All the tips/critique is appreciated.

If your primary fitness goal is running a good ~3-4K race (which is what Cooper's will be for most people), doing a lot more aerobic work than this would be helpful. It really depends how much you give a crap about maxing that out, but you should definitely think about putting in a lot more mileage at a lot lower effort.

[get big or die mirin]

Just wanna update with some fat-loss myths ("Broscience") that you don't have to worry about. Feel free to add some more

1: When you eat has zero impact on your body composition - don't panic if you eat carbs before bed. You won't die lol
2: Eating smaller meals every few hours, amounting to 6+ meals a day won't make you burn fat quicker. Your metabolism won't be higher.
3: Eating fat doesn't make you fat. Eating too much calories does
4: Cardio doesn't kill gains
5: Training a muscle group more than once a week isn't overtraining
6: Overtraining doesn't exist
7: If you stall with weight loss for a month, your metabolism isn't damaged, do not refeed to 'kickstart' your metabolism. You've simply found your new maintenance levels, which is to be expected when you lose weight.
8: Lifting weights won't make you big.
9: There is no anabolic window
10: You will not enter a catabolic state if you don't eat every 30 minutes
11: There is no such thing as eating 'clean'. If you want to eat clean, grab some soap or bleach and wash your food with it. Your body will still process a gram of protein as a gram of protein whether it came from a whey isolate, or a piece of fish, or a piece of beef, or a piece of salami, or a piece of kangaroo. This doesn't give you a green light to eat highly processed food, be smart with your food choices, but know it's not the end of the world if you have chips or ice cream every day.






In regards to points 1 and 2, meal timing has no effect on body composition, correct, but use meal timing as a means to help you stick within a calorie controlled diet.
Eating smaller meals throughout the day can help people take their mind off food, have a constant source of energy which in turn doesn't leave them tired and therefore not craving any instant energy.
On the other hand, people do Intermittent Fasting. This is where you designate an eating window in your day, ranging from ... well, however small or big you want. When I did IF, I personally did a 20/4 format. 20 hours fasting, 4 hour eating window. This DOES NOT make you lose fat any quicker/gain muscle any quicker, for SOME PEOPLE, this makes it EASIER for them to stick within the confines of a calorie controlled diet.

[Darkrulerxxx]

If people are serious about trying to look better, they make time to fit SOME sort of weight training into their lifestyle. It's only 3 days a week, mind you. I work 6am-6pm for two weeks, mon-fri, then 6pm-6am for 2 weeks, mon-fri. If I can find time, everyone can
Walking, jogging, stair exercises, bike riding, swimming are all forms of cardio. Great for overall fitness levels and boosting your cardiovascular endurance, BUT strictly speaking from a 'losing fat' point of view, they are not NEEDED. Is it recommended that you do cardio? Absolutely, whether you want to lose weight or gain weight, but it isn't a necessity to lose weight.
Forgive my ignorance, there probably are many other different ways of resistant training without weights. Pullups and dips are great exercises ... Um, physical jobs where a lot of lifting is involved can possibly help, too.

i feel like i gotta disagree on this, but on many different articles and personal advice i've had before...cardio is the way to go if you want to lose fat....strength training is obviously for muscle gain and lean body mass with weight loss and fat loss as well...there's always going to be a good synergy between having both cardio and strength training but for losing fat cardio is the way to go.

been at it for almost 4 months and have lost more than 30 pounds

[Omega10]

Weight lifting is one of many ways to keep your body fit and trim. Karate, yoga, bicycling, aerobics, and basically any exercise schedule that you can actually stick to will do. The first step is to find something that you will stick with. After that, add in specific pieces to gain specific results.

For me, I am at a good weight. Well maybe I could knock off another 5 pounds or so. But maintaining this desirable weight is almost as hard as when I was losing weight. It's like my body knows I am no longer overweight, and works to prevent me from losing more. The good news, though, is that I am no longer "dieting", but instead am "eating different sets of foods". Probably this mean exactly the same from a legalese point of view, but from a psychological standpoint they are vastly different. And I don't miss the foods I no longer eat or drink, even when these foods and drinks are right in front of me.

Health maintenance is a never ending battle. However, it is probably one of the ones most worth fighting.

[Ghazan Julio]

Carbohydrates are essential for healthy brain function.

[get big or die mirin]

Carbohydrates are essential for healthy brain function.

Not sure if serious.

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i feel like i gotta disagree on this, but on many different articles and personal advice i've had before...cardio is the way to go if you want to lose fat....strength training is obviously for muscle gain and lean body mass with weight loss and fat loss as well...there's always going to be a good synergy between having both cardio and strength training but for losing fat cardio is the way to go.

been at it for almost 4 months and have lost more than 30 pounds

Cardio for sure, is the most effective way to put yourself in a calorie deficit, which in turn, will determine your rate of fat loss. Take it as you see fit, I myself hate cardio so I'd much rather eat less.