diet, excerise and weight loss...

[deltron3030]

Ok, I'm sure this topic has been covered on this site at least a dozen times, but after searching through a few threads I really couldn't find the answers I was looking for.

Here are the facts...
I'm 27 years old, 6'2" 220 lbs (and its not muscle)

I'm trying to shape up and get down to about 180 or so, by losing weight and putting on some more muscle. I'm currently training MA (MT and BJJ) about 4-6 hours a week.

I'm looking to ramp up my conditioning and combining a diet to help with the weight loss.

My first question is, what excise routines do you guys suggest? Do you take any suppliments? is there a better time to workout, eg in the morning or at night? How often do you workout, or condition and what exactly is your routine? I'm currently leaning towards buying a bike this week and try riding in the mornings... but I also have a home gym with all the fixin's

My next question is about diet, and this is where I really get confused... What diet works best for you guys? Atkin's low carb diets are really popular and seem to work, but are they good for athletes, will my energy levels drop during training... I hear that low carb diets aren't very good for maintaining muscle... should I try another approach...

Thank you for all your input, and advice.

D

[Python]

Deltron,

Well, I would be happy to help you out, but you probably ought to contact me on my main email, as the answer could get lengthy. But let me give an overview now if I can. First off, whether you intend to lose weight or gain weight, doesn't matter, you need a balanced combination of excercise and nutrition. Notice the word nutrition....diet is kind of a bad word. To transform your body you need proper nutrition. If you can't get that then you need to supplement. You need to eat 6 times a day, each meal consisting of a portion of protein and carbs, with 2-3 of those 6 including a green. 8-16 oz. of water with each meal as well. Some people cannot find time to eat that often, so supplementing with shakes and/or bars is a quick replacement. I can go indepth with this in an email.

Your exeercise routines need to be varied to keep your body shocked, the combination you have of MT and BJJ and now biking is good, as long as in the MT you are getting plenty of HARD intense rounds on the bags and pads. Next, you need proper weight routines too. Again, more detail later.

As far as the Atkins diet....personally I think it SUCKS!! Now i know some will come on here and argue, and I have heard success stories with this diet, but everyone i have heard positive, i have heard 10 negative. My cousin lost 70 lbs. and also a bunch of her hair. Not a good exchange if you ask me. Athletes absolutely have to have carbs...just have to maintain the intake properly and effectively. I did the Body for Life routine several years ago and had great success. Since then I have had many students do the same plan and also see huge results. Check out our website: www.progressiveselfdefense.com and click on success stories at the top left. There you will see recent pics of one of my students and how he did, along with others. We currently have several on the plan right now getting great results who are not on the website yet. My email is pete@progressiveselfdefense.com if you want to know more.

Good luck man! Your goals are definitely reachable!

[sslinky]

It's true that you will lose weight on the Atkins diet, because it simply reduces your calorific intake by removing the main source of calories, carbohydrates. However you can also achieve exactly the same effect by eating a balanced diet, but just eating slightly less. This is much more preferable because the Atkins diet also removes a large amount of nutrients from your diet due to it's limited range or food. The main source of energy in the Atkins diet is fat, and some protein conversion, but using fat for energy is ineffecient for the body, and therefore you will feel tired and have low energy output on this diet.
IMO you should eat a balanced diet consisting of carbs, protein, fruit, veg etc. You might want to take a multi-vitamin supplement as well, as it's difficult to eat a large enough range of food to get all the vitamins you need.
If you eat less calories than you use on a regular basis, you are *guarenteed* to lose weight, it's impossible not to. The only question is, what type of food you get your calories from. You should choose food that also provides other benefits such as vitamins, fibre etc.
Long periods of low intensity exercise is generally recommended as the best way to burn off fat (such as running/jogging/cycling etc). At the other end of the spectrum is higher intensity exercise such as weight lifting, but because of the intensity it can only be sustained for short periods, and the total calorific usage is less than that of lower intensity exercises.
As for timing of workouts, I find that it is simply best to do them at the most convenient time for you - that way you are more likely to sustain your workouts over a long period of time, ie. if you're not a morning person, you're not going to manage many 6.30 am runs before you get bored!
My other advice is to start off with realistic goals. That way you won't wear yourself out or get dissapointed about not achieving them. Start off slow, and you can easliy increase the intensity as you get fitter. If you're doing things right you should feel more energetic - if you're doing too much you will feel tired all the time. Give it a few months and you should notice a significant improvement.

[Boxiados]

I totally agree with python and Sslinky, and you should follow what they say I was going to try to help you but they already told you what I would have said, anyways main points as they pointed out:

-The key word is nutrition, not diet, because diet is something you do for a period of time, hence the problem with diets is that they work for a short period of time and then one regain the weight that's been lost if not even more.
While a well balanced nutrition system must become a lyfestyle, never exeeding too much the amount of calories needed per day. one day a week you can be free to go a little wild!

-Also training must vary, your body must not get used to the same exersise, so more you change the more your body reacts and adapts itself to the new exercises continuesly, hence it improves metabolism and muscle shape.
The best ways to burn of fat is, yes, low intensity exercises carried out for a long period of time (an hour/ an hour and half) but the intensity must change at times, like if jogging or cycling, every four or five minutes increase the intensity for a minute and a half so that the heart beat goes up and then down, changing the pace of your heart beat this way is proved to help burning more fat.

-supplements are also very important, I'd say essential in these kind of programs.

My advise is, the key for this working is that you have to really stick to the nutrition system and to exercise, don't expect immediate results, but on a long run the results will be verlasting!

Good luck, and let us know how is it going in few months!