when I was 30, I weighed 255 pounds (I'm 5'10") and at that point really never lifted a weight in my life ... in other words I was a fat ***. Started hitting the gym and watching my diet and went all the way down to 175. I hated myself at 175 almost as much as I did at 255. Spent a couple of years slowly building up to my personal ideal weight of 200 with body fat below 10%. I helped a couple of friends lose a lot of weight too. My personal philosophy is pretty simple
The absolute best routine is the one that you will actually do, especially when starting out.
Replace all cardio with high intensity interval training ... no offense to you runners out there, but long steady cardio bores me to tears and just doesn't provide the body type I was looking for. Also, the law of diminishing returns applies to cardio.
Start with easy things on the diet front. For instance, first thing I did was drop all non diet sodas. That alone saved me over 500 worthless calories a day. I also cut out fast food for the most part. If I still stopped at a drive through for convenience sake, I would get a grilled chicken sandwich from Wendy's or Chick-Fil-A and either tossed out the whole bun or at least half the bun. Never got french fries. For breakfast, when you make scrambled eggs or make an omelette replace half the eggs with just egg whites. Instead of scrambling 3 whole eggs, I would scramble 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites. Same great taste, less fat and cholesterol. Be cautious of fat free items from the grocery store. It's better to eat something low in fat and natural ingredients than something fat free full of crap like high fructose corn syrup that manufacturers through in to "help" the flavor.
Want a real eye opener ... use a service like fitday and track what you eat for a week. I believe that tracking your calorie and nutrient breakdown will encourage you to change your ways. It's a lot harder to eat a donut when you have committed yourself to marking it down.
Squats and dead lifts are a must. That's not to say you don't do other things, obviously you do. Personally I like all the exercises identified as mass builders by Flesheater. I just find that too many people are afraid of squats and deads and avoid them So I like to remind people to do them. My personal opinion is that you will have far greater success getting those biceps you want by doing compound exercises than you ever will doing isolation exercises.
For god sakes eat. When I worked out in the afternoon, I ate breakfast at the office, oatmeal. I at again a 10 at the office, typically grilled chicken or a protein shake. Lunch at noon, typically grilled chicken and vegetables of some sort. Ate again at the office at 3. Usually a protein shake or some hard boiled eggs or chicken. After the gym, I downed a combination of whey protein and powdered Gatorade for recovery. For dinner, lean meat and veggies. At night, some fat free cottage cheese. You would be amazed at how much you have to eat when you eat healthy to keep your calories at an optimal level.
Set goals. My first was to get to the weight on my driver's license (c'mon you all know you lied at the dmv)
It is far easier to exercise restraint at the grocery store than at home. Keep your cupboards and fridge full of good stuff.
Obviously, there is more, but I've got to stop rambling before I get to the Paul Harvey-esque "rest of the story"
Unfortunately, it went back to crap starting with a broken hand that required surgery and steel rods. That put me out of action for awhile. I followed that up with a nagging shoulder injury that frankly could have been easily worked around but provided me a hell of an excuse to fall back. Also, I married a woman who is 1. a great cook and 2. can eat whatever the hell she wants and never gain a pound. I swear she made dessert with every meal. I've always been one who can really only control myself at the grocery store. If it's in the house, chances are I'll eat it. Anyway, all those wonderful excuses combined to lard me back up to 246. Although this 246 is nowhere near as fat as my previous 255 because of the muscle, it's still fat (curse you guys and gals with genetics like my wife).
That said, last month, I started back again and got my wife involved too. Back to eating right and working out. In just a shade less than a month I'm back down to 226 as of this morning. My first goal was 20 pounds before the beach and I reached it. Next goal is 215 before the end of summer. Ultimate goal is 205.
