# Started at the gym today...



## tacotiklah (Mar 27, 2012)

So part of my transition plan is to get my tubby butt back to the gym. I just did cardio and a small amount of weight lifting on the lat bar. Nothing really extreme, but enough to where I feel good that I'm moving in the right direction.

I'm interested in toning way down, so any and all tips on how to do so would be awesome!


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## TRENCHLORD (Mar 27, 2012)

Congrats, it's a lot better to make the commitment when young and not too far gone instead of waiting until old, fat, and worn out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXhKpUfITV0&feature=related


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## Trypios (Mar 27, 2012)

Learn about nutrition and sleep well. 
1000+ Workout Routines For Muscle Building, Fat Loss, Abs & More | Muscle & Strength


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## Trypios (Mar 27, 2012)

Are you more interested in losing weight or building muscle too?


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## tacotiklah (Mar 27, 2012)

I'm TG, so obviously I'm interested in losing weight and gaining a girlish figure. As it stands, I'm the size of a goddamn linebacker and I hate it. My target weight is roughly half of what I weigh now; ie from ~340 down to about 170.


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## Trypios (Mar 27, 2012)

So diet & nutrition is much more important than the gym. However, you can avoid cardio exercises. It's more convenient to use anaerobic exercises which burn fat with less effort. Walking on a treadmill "burning fat" along with weight lifting would be more efficient than jogging or cycling fast. 
Whenever you feel like eating, unnecessarily you can consume green tea which is healthy, supposedly boost the metabolism and it's fat free.
Avoid alcohol at all cost!! Drink plenty of water everyday. Try low fat dairy products and bananas (even though they have more fat than other fruit). And more breakfast/less dinner


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## tacotiklah (Mar 27, 2012)

Trypios said:


> So diet & nutrition is much more important than the gym. However, you can avoid cardio exercises. It's more convenient to use anaerobic exercises which burn fat with less effort. Walking on a treadmill "burning fat" along with weight lifting would be more efficient than jogging or cycling fast.
> Whenever you feel like eating, unnecessarily you can consume green tea which is healthy, supposedly boost the metabolism and it's fat free.
> Avoid alcohol at all cost!! Drink plenty of water everyday. Try low fat dairy products and bananas (even though they have more fat than other fruit). And more breakfast/less dinner



Awesome, thank you! 

Any specific routine while at the gym that I should follow?


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## Greatoliver (Mar 27, 2012)

If you're trying to lose weight, as Trypios said, it's about diet. You want to be eating a calorie negative diet (i.e fewer calories in than you burn), and a good way to do this is to eat really healthily. Low GI carbs are great here, so stuff like brown bread, will keep you feeling fuller for longer. Vegetables are great, and cutting down on fatty stuff, so eating more white meat will help reduce the calories. But keep the calories negative, and you will lose weight.

As some general advice, have patience - losing weight quickly isn't healthy, and people bounce back. It is a lot better to lose it steadily but more slowly, which is usually from paying attention to your diet, rather than starving yourself - every little helps. Also, try not to compensate for workouts: it is easy to eat a load after exercising, but try not to eat more because you've been exercising. While it does burn calories, it doesn't burn a _huge_ amount (your body is surprising efficient!) and if you eat a lot more, you may not end up being calorie negative any more.

As to work outs, as a TG you probably don't want to be getting into massive weight lifting, i.e. putting on lots of muscle. Try a lower weight, but more repetitions - this will cause less muscle growth, but will still burn calories. So it'll help burn fat, but not get you ripped (which I think is your aim).

One thing you could look into is HIIT, which is high intensity interval training. This supposedly helps burn fat even though the exercise is over a short time period, which is interesting. If that doesn't cut it for you, you could try cardio, as well as weights. To get into the stage of burning fat, you need to work through the sugar stores your body has first, so longer times are better (which is why HIIT is odd). Weights will help as they will raise your metabolism, which means a higher daily calorie level.

Hope that helped, take it all with a pinch of salt as I am not a professional! Others here may disagree, and if so, listen to them 

EDIT: Oh and good luck! Stay strong and you will achieve your goal


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## Trypios (Mar 27, 2012)

You might even consider trying an intense martial art.
I was always a scrawny guy, 1.80m started at 62kg when I was 23 years old, now after 5 years I'm 81kg. I'm trying hard to gain weight. 2-3 years ago I started Kung-Fu lessons (wushu to be specific). Believe it or not, it was so intense that even if I ate everything that was in front of me, I lost 3kg in 2 weeks. But I have to say, it's very very painful. Muay Thai, kick boxing would also be great for fast results


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## tacotiklah (Mar 27, 2012)

Thanks for the advice guys. Yeah lately I've been eating fast food burgers and shit, and today I've switched to subway, and cut my portions WAY down. At the gym I did more reps of less weight working on both my arms, legs, shoulders and gluts, a decent amount of crunches, 20 minute bike ride (roughly 6 miles), and a 30 minute walk/jog/walk/jog on the treadmill. I like that work out since it covers all my bases and I get this weird feeling of euphoria after I finish the whole workout. Feels damn good actually....


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## Winspear (Mar 27, 2012)

^ Sounds good! As long as you are in a caloric defecit I really don't think you can go wrong until the final stages of weight loss - those final pounds can be very hard. 
At the moment I'd say just get used to everything and enjoy yourself, whilst watching your calories  
A workout like that sounds great and is definitely what I'd suggest for serious weight loss though!


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## AngstRiddenDreams (Mar 29, 2012)

I've never seen a 340 linebacker, that'd be scary as shit.  But good for you!! I always like to hear of people getting into the gym.


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## Explorer (Mar 30, 2012)

EtherealEntity said:


> *caloric deficit*



This FTW. Burn more than you consume.


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## TRENCHLORD (Mar 30, 2012)

Also, lay off the Bacardi lol.


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## tacotiklah (Mar 31, 2012)

Believe me Trench, it will be a LONG time before I'm suckin' down any more 151 shots.


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## avenger (Apr 4, 2012)

I lost about 40 pounds this last year and I can say the biggest thing is eating clean. Cut out the pop,junk food, general shit food and eat clean healthy foods and lots of veggies (carrot celery, cucumber, peppers) to satisfy those munchies and it becomes hard to actually consume a large number of calories i found.

I can stuff my face full of healthy food and not feel like a pig XD


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## Infamous Impact (Apr 4, 2012)

Also, don't slack if you lose a ton of weight (on the scale) in the first 2 months, it's mostly water weight that's gone due to being healthier.


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## Captain Shoggoth (Apr 5, 2012)

I think the key thing is even if you're TG, don't be afraid of weight training. It's fantastic and tried-and-true for getting fitter and losing fat.


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## texshred777 (Apr 6, 2012)

Congrats on making the decision to make a change! That's awesome. 

Agreed with the nutrition aspect being more important than anything when trying to lean out. Cardio isn't necessary despite what many may say, you can lose a pound or two of fat a week just by eating at a caloric deficit and lifting weights to maintain your muscle mass 

Getting into a cardio intensive program will certainly help you lose weight, but not necessarily fat. I tend to think of cardio as a more 'convenience' thing-ie, you can eat a little more and stay in a good deficit by adding cardio. It goes without saying that I'm specifically talking about losing fat, not cardiovascular health. Cardio is good for your overall heart health, just don't fall into the hamster wheel routine so many do-and go no where. 

What does your nutrition look like? I'd recommend keeping a log of everything you put in your mouth(including drinks). It helps to really see what you're eating/drinking so it's easier to make adjustments if need be. Eat clean. Eat clean. Eat clean. 

I'd also recommend not getting too invested in things like supplements-a large part of that is hype. I used the classic C/A/E (caffeine, aspirin, ephedrin) stack back in the day, but unless I'm really trying to get shredded and see veins on my abs it's not necessary. 

Despite bro science(muscle magazine science)-the timing of your meals does not play a huge role in fat loss. Eating 5-6 smaller meals a day does not have a metabolic effect(ie, keeping your metabolism elevated through constant digestion)-it just makes it easier to avoid overeating by not having fasted periods. Same thing with working out before breakfast. The logic is that cardio in a fasted state would burn more calories from fat instead of glycogen, but you burn calories 24 hours a day, the daily total of calories in/out is what really matters. Point being, if 5-6 smaller meals a day works better for you, great. If not, don't worry about it.


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## Captain Shoggoth (Apr 9, 2012)

^yeah, I eat 3 big, clean meals a day and it does me fine. Don't worry about timing.
Holy shit, veins on your abs?


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## Labrie (Apr 11, 2012)

Diet is key but don't get too hung up on the whole "more carbs less fat" thing that the food guide leads you to believe. 

People might gawk at me for this but do yourself a favour and read this article. It might sound crazy but there is a lot of truth in it. 

Why Fat, Not Carbs, Are the Preferred Fuel for the Human Body | Mark's Daily Apple


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## Stealthdjentstic (Apr 11, 2012)

Run an ACE stack

Aspirin
Caffeine
Ephederin


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## Metal_Webb (Apr 11, 2012)

I recently decided to shift a bit of weight as well, seeing 95kg on the scales was a bit of a shock! As the other guys have said, diet is key. I've cut out all soft drinks (pop) and fried foods, and after a week of that I was already feeling much more energetic. I've just started upping my water intake per day (at least 3 litres or 1 US gallon) and drinking only water, black coffee or green tea. That makes a difference, plus the detox helps massively for feeling much better.

Another thing to consider is upping your protein intake. Not so much eat 50 steaks a day, but have a couple of protein shakes at breakfast and lunch. Use a good quality whey protein for the shakes and you should find that your appetite will be reduced and you'll feel fuller for much longer, making it easier to control snacking and keeping your calorie intake down. Some people also use the energy from protein and fats (good fats though mind!) better than that from carbs. I know in my situation carbs just = flab whereas upping protein helps me not get so chubby.

Good luck with the weight loss!


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## tacotiklah (Apr 11, 2012)

Thanks! And while protein is good, I'm not looking to bulk up, but rather slim and tone way down. 

Here's what some of you seem to be thinking I"m going after:







Here's what I'm actually trying to get down to and look like:






Doesn't seem the MOST attractive at first glance, but is so much better and healthier than I am right now. Plus I see it as more realistic. 200lbs would be a far cry better than the 350+ I currently weigh. Besides, despite whatever guys may tell you, they all love a girl with some cushion for pushin'


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## Metal_Webb (Apr 11, 2012)

Oh, I got that you didn't want to bulk up and look like the next Arnie. Just a bit extra protein in your diet stops you from getting the munchies as easy rather than bulk up. Well, as long as you don't go and hit the shit out of weights at the gym


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## TRENCHLORD (Apr 11, 2012)

This girl (kimmy) stripped away most of this muscle (to make the transition to fitness compitition instead of bodybuilding) WITH high rep weight training and plenty of cardio.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfL3aPILJP0&feature=relmfu


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## tacotiklah (Apr 11, 2012)

^That's been more or less what my exercise plan has been like. Back when I was trying to bulk up for football, I was hitting the weights as much as I could, with as much weight as I could and doing roughly 3 sets of about 10-15 reps for each muscle. I did manage to get down from 220 to 170 in a hurry and even still to this day my calves are enormous and solid as a rock. (Doing 4 sets of 50 reps of calf extensions at over 700lbs will do that to you in a hurry.  )

My plan these days consists of doing several sets of 20-30 reps of a fraction of what I used to lift. No more than about 100lbs for arms and no more than 150lbs for legs. Just continuous reps all the time. I always hit the weights first and make sure that I work my biceps, triceps, shoulders, abs, gluts, legs and calves. (I take it easy on that last one because they are still in amazing shape even after neglecting them for so long)
Then I hit the bike for about 10 minutes. Afterwards I finish by hitting the treadmill for about 30-60 minutes. I mix up the time and level of incline randomly for each day so as not to plateau.


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## TRENCHLORD (Apr 11, 2012)

Doing all that you are sure to get results.
I'm sure you already know alot about lean foods, so nothing new here,
but one thing I used to do when going into a leaning phase was to empty 3cans at a time of water-packed tuna into a big storage type bowl
and add a couple spoons of miracle whip light.
I'd just about live off these tuna salad with tons of lettuce on whole wheat sandwiches with skim milk to drink for about two weeks at a time. 
Losing 15-20lbs in 2 weeks is very normal doing this.
Many tastier ways of coarse, but I'm a lazy SOB when it comes to kitchen work lol.


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## tacotiklah (Apr 11, 2012)

While I hate mayo/miracle whip, I absolutely love tuna-fish sammiches. I will try this actually and see how it goes. And that article on eating more fats and less carbs sounds intriguing. I'd wanna look at more resources for that before I attempt something like that though because the carb counting thing kinda struck me as a bad fad.


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## Labrie (Apr 11, 2012)

Grains are really the culprit here. We are told to eat way to many of them. Fruits and veggies are really the only source of carbs that you need. Excess sugar causes diabetes and heart disease which, besides cancer, are the two biggest killers out there. 

Back in the day our ancestors never ate wheat because it was poisonous in its raw form. Think about the Inuit. All they ate was meat and blubber and they did just fine. It wasn't until us white men started introducing refined flour (which is sugar) into our diets that we started having all these health problems (along with all the trans fat fast food which is horrible as well). 

I am by no means on or all for this "Precambrian" diet thing but I definitely see some merit in it and I know people that are on it strictly and they now swear by it. One guy I know has suffered from asthma all his life and after 8 months on that diet he is now puffer free. 

Anyways, just some food for thought.


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## fassaction (Apr 11, 2012)

ghstofperdition said:


> I'm TG, so obviously I'm interested in losing weight and gaining a girlish figure. As it stands, I'm the size of a goddamn linebacker and I hate it. My target weight is roughly half of what I weigh now; ie from ~340 down to about 170.



Congrats on taking the steps to get where you want to be. The first few, are always the toughest. I cant stress to you enough about how important your diet is. There are tons of different views about how to lose weight, how to build muscle. I have personally tried many of them, but only 1 had the weight falling off of me.

Ive never been huge by any means, but I was tubby in the middle. My mother once told me I was built like Humpty Dumpty, so I knew something had to change. Last year I weighed 195 lbs. I now weigh 155 lbs. I started working out, then I quit smoking, I lost a little bit of weight, but never dipped below 185. 

My girlfriend wanted me to try a program for a month. No junk, no bread, no pasta, no wheat, no processed foods....and the hardest thing for me, No beer!! and i love beer....

In 1 month I lost 20 lbs....by month 3 I was at the weight I was in high school, and I felt fantastic. I still eat bread here and there, but only occasionally.

Also, working out has to become part of your lifestyle. Which is hard for some people to make that change. Working out can be drag....being sore is no fun...and sometimes you just dont wanna go to the gym. Another good rule of thumb for working out is to keep changing the workouts every 3-4 weeks. Never let your body get accustomed to a certain routine, and when it starts to feel like its getting easier, change it up!

Currently I do 3 days of weights, I mix up with cardio and a crossfit type workout.

If you are super serious about getting into good shape, some of the at home workouts are really awesome. I would recommend P90x to just about anybody looking to lose weight and get in shape, and if you are looking to really cut some of the fat, give Insanity a shot. (Insanity is exactly just that.....its insane, and its fucking hard...but if you stick to it, you will watch the weight fall off)


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## TRENCHLORD (Apr 12, 2012)

Labrie said:


> Grains are really the culprit here.


 
Jarod Subway might disagree here .





No, really there's some definite truth to what you're saying,
but it can be done either way.

It all boils down to calories in vs calories out+ body function/maintainence requirements, reguardless of the macro-nutrient type composition.

There is certainly a huge dough eating problem in america especially .


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## Uncreative123 (Apr 12, 2012)

TRENCHLORD said:


> Jarod Subway might disagree here .
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Macros don't matter if your goal is losing WEIGHT. Macros matter infinitely if your goal is losing FAT.


Losing weight is easy. Losing fat and retaining muscle is hard.


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## TRENCHLORD (Apr 12, 2012)

Uncreative123 said:


> Macros don't matter if your goal is losing WEIGHT. Macros matter infinitely if your goal is losing FAT.
> 
> 
> Losing weight is easy. Losing fat and retaining muscle is hard.


 
Well OP is mainly trying to thin out.
Yeah though, you're right about losing fat while retaining muscle.
And losing glycogen stores from the muscles results in less fullness even before any muscle is burned away.

I just love carbs too much to ever go atkins style. Not to even mention my boston lagars .


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## Tiger (Apr 14, 2012)

Regular cardio and a balanced meal plan.

Me personally, Ive been on leangains.com style diet for the past two years and I'm physical for a living, I tend to recommend it to everyone but there are many ways to skin a cat.


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## Greatoliver (Apr 14, 2012)

Tiger said:


> *Text*



Tiger!


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## Nick1 (Apr 18, 2012)

I suggest creating a realistic workout/dieting routine thats not too hard and not too easy. If its too hard youll make up excuses to not finish or to skip a day or just burn yourself out. If its too easy you wont really get anywhere. If your determined to get in shape you can do it. 


I started a pretty hard core diet back in 2008. Since then Ive lost 125lbs.

Just to quickly tell the story. I weighed around 260 (being 5 foot 10) back in 2008 due to eating fast food 3x a day and not working out at all. I decided 260 was enough. So I changed my diet to little to no carbs and low fat only. I also only ate 1 time a day as an early dinner. A big help was that I drank about a gallon of water a day and no sugar red bull and coffee which was a HUGE help. The first few weeks sucked. After about a month I started dropping weight pretty quickly. On average abour 5-10 lbs a week.


Fast forward to 2010, I then weighed about 150 so thats 110LBS I lost on almost only dieting. I started eating 2 times a day kept the exercising to about 15 min a day. Mostly just light weight lifting and some crunches. By this time my body stayed right abour 150lbs ish. Then I started doing alittle bit of cardio just to help tighten things up. Not alot just about 10 min of light jogging on my treadmil. After a month of the jogging I started to see positive results. So I increased the cardio just a little. Maybe 20 min max and still continued the weights. After quite a while I dropped a bit more weight, right around 135-145lbs which Ive stayed at since. So after months of this my treadmil up and died. So I joined a Lifetime gym which is 24 hours. So for the past 6 months or so at the gym, which Ive gone to almost every day, I really like the results I was seeing. Now I do an hour or so of cardio a day.(usually on either a treadmil/stairmaster or eliptical). Then an hour or more of weights.
I used to hate cardio now I actually enjoy it (somewhat). 

So like I said Id suggest starting with something realistic and slowly increase the difficulty every week or so. Also change it up! Your body gets used to your workout routine pretty quickly. So for example work upper body Mon,Wed and Fri, then Tues,Thurs and Sun work lower body. 
Also record your progress. Such as weight lost, rep counts, max weight lift, distance ran.


After a quick search I found the thread I made when I started dieting. Heres the link
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/li...od/106988-anyone-any-kind-long-term-diet.html


Good luck!


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## Captain Shoggoth (Apr 20, 2012)

Uncreative123 said:


> Losing weight is easy. Losing fat and retaining muscle is hard.



preach brotha

Doing the latter at the moment (awww yeaah summer), shit's ridiculous


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## edrod (Apr 24, 2012)

ghstofperdition said:


> Awesome, thank you!
> 
> Any specific routine while at the gym that I should follow?



Trypios provided some awesome advice. As far a workout routine I may be able to help you. It would help if you provided more details as a current weight, weight goal, physical abilities, etc. 

There's many workout plans out there but results vary on the The person


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## TRENCHLORD (Apr 24, 2012)

Here is something that I used back in the late 90s when getting back into working out and a semi-healthy lifestyle.
Went from 5'8" 160lbs to 220lbs in 2 1/2 yrs without gaining any noticable fat.
Instead of the 2wks bulking followed by 2wks cutting, I went 3wks bulking and 10 days cutting.
I was always more receptive to the cutting (key word WAS).
Basically it's a two steps forward one step back thing (which is an anabolic reset so to speak).
This isn't for anyone wanting sustained weight loss, rather the opposite.
Especially effective for teens and younger adults wanting to gain muscle mass and who don't put on excess fat very easily.

The Anabolic Burst Diet | LIVESTRONG.COM


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