Newbie would appreciate some help

[lifesabeach]

Hi everyone,

Firstly I have spent hours reading through different areas of the forum and it has been a real education so from a newbie's point of view thanks to you all.

I am now in my mid thirties and havent trained for about fifteen years basically I have let myself go and now am committed to getting back in shape. I started training approx 2 months ago. My problem is that there is such a massive amount of theories and training regimes. Also there seems to be a lot of contradiction.

I realise that it will take a very long time to educate myself about diet/training and I am looking forward to doing this whilst training, I just dont want to find out in a few months time that what I am currently doing has been a waste of time!

Obviously to help you guys need some info so here goes....

My aim is to reduce my BF to an extent that I feel confident during the summer for example. My original aim was to just "lose weight" but from what I have learnt already the key seems to be % bf rather than a set weight for a person? Once I have lost the fat then I can decide on the next phase. from my research on the forum so far the answer seems to be Cardio / Cardio/ oh yeah and more cardio!

Stats -

Height 5'11
Weight 207lbs (was 224 at start)
BF 20% (but not sure)
Injury free
Never done a cycle.
Have a fairly physical job.
Have been taking multi vitamins/Trib/Glucosamine

Diet -

I am still trying to learn enough to put together a detailed diet.At the moment I have cut out all fast food / high sugar foods / beer. I also avoid as much high fat and fried foods. I have started eating less more regularly and more fruit and veg. On average I think I am ending up with about 800kcal a day deficit. I used to be a very heavy drinker but am now virtually teetotal

Training -

I started at the gym 2 months ago and go 5-6 days a weeks. I have a heart rate monitor and always aim to burn at least 1000 calories which takes about 1 hr 20 mins. I normally use the bike, treadmill and cross-trainer.

What I need advice on -

Can I do cardio 7 days a week or do I need to rest?
Is the heart rate monitor likely to be accurate for calories burnt?
Am I better off exercising at 65-75% of max heartrate as some say to maximise fat loss or 70-85%?

Having read as much as I can on the forum the main thing for someone like me seems to be the cardio is there anything I am missing.

I know this is gonna be a long haul just need to know if I am on roughly the right track.

Thanks for any advice guys.

[Geoffcj88]

Glad to see your dedicated to getting back into shape. As for advice on those bottom 3 questions. You are going to hear most people telling you that you should not do cardio 7 days a week. Your body, no matter how you feel, needs to rest every once and a while. On the one or two days off during the week, the best thing is to just stretch, no weight lifting or cardio. I'm going to venture a guess and say that the heart rate monitor is simply going to do a math equation for you dealing with your age and weight, it should be decently close, but it's probably not going to be exact. As for the final question, HIIT training is the best for weight loss. Start off by warming up, then go high intensity running for a minute, then take two minutes of a little slower jogging to get your heart rate back down, and then continue doing that until your desired time or calories burnt. Good luck with everything man.

[Ronnie Rowland]

Do 3 days of weight training and moderate intensity cardio on off days.

[lifesabeach]

Thanks for the responses guys, I have spent some time reading up on the HIIT approach and have started tonight. According to my HR monitor I hit the same amount of calories (1000) but it took 16 mins less overall exercise time. I also felt like I had worked a helluva lot harder!

Will give it a few Weeks and se what results I can achieve.

It feels good to be doing something positive again and the exercise is definately a good stress buster.

If there is anything else I can do please let me know.

Thanks again.

[Ajc330]

exerice is a great stress reliever, it's basically my outlet from life

[lifesabeach]

Is there any benefit to be had from regular doses of caffeine through the day and / or prior to the cardio sessions - any help or advice appreciated!