[quote name='Dkellar']Well, pure cardio is eat away fat and muscle. It would be best to do a combination of cardio and light weightlifting.
For cardio, there are basically two types: Low intensity and high intensity. Low intensity is say walking at a constant pace for an extended period of time while high intensity is sprinting x distance (ex: 100 yards) or x amount of time (ex: 1-2 minutes), taking a few minute break, then repeat several times. Both have pros and cons. High intensity taxes your system more but would hinder muscle recovery if you lifted weights that day or the day prior if you diet is not right. I would recommending doing low cardio stuff in the beginning then work into a routine to do low on certain days, high on others, and maybe a combo on other days so you won't get bored.
Now, lifting is also important in becoming healthy. You don't need to go all out and do isolated lifts daily, but stick with a three day lifting routine. Focus on the three big main lifts: dead lift, squat, and bench press. Throw in the pull ups/chin ups in there and you should be good to go. You can do three sets of 6-8 reps of each exercise. That should take you no longer than an hour after some practice with form. Good form is important for all the lifts, especially dead lift and squats as you can really hurt yourself if not performed right. Your roommate should help you with this.
Nutrition is vital. You can do as many sets and reps as you want and still see no gains unless you fuel your system. The three macronutrients are fat (9 calories per gram), carbs (4 calories per gram), and protein (4 calories per gram). First, simple carbs are bad. Processed box food is pretty much simple carbs. Stay away from processed sugar. You want complex carbs from fruits and vegetables. There are formulas over at bodybuilding forums that can help you calculate what your maintenance intake is and what you would need to say, gain muscle with minimal fat. The basic calculations usually have 1-1.5 grams of protein per lean body mass, then 50-90g of fat, then the rest of the calories come from carbs. In your case, aim for maybe .7-1 gram of protein per lean body mass. Fat is essential for muscle recovery and injury prevention. A good way to get 'healthy' fats would be to cook with olive oil and eat peanut butter. For carbs, brown rice and plain oatmeal are good options along with vegetables and fruit.
For a basic workout schedule, you can try something like this:
Monday: Squats, bench, pull ups. Maybe some very light cardio at the end.
Tuesday: light cardio
Wednesday: Squats, pull ups, very light cardio
Thursday: light to medium cardio, maybe high intensity stuff if depending on how your legs feel.
Friday: dead lifts, quats, bench, pull ups.
Saturday: rest
Sunday: high intensity cardio, or you do could do light, depending on how your legs feel.
For some meal options, chicken breast is, in my experience, the most cost-effective/healthiest option. Fat free cottage cheese is also good, eggs (eat the damn yolks), greek yogurt, oatmeal, brown rice, quinoa is good (I have never had any), any fruit especially berries(raspberry, blue, black, strawberries etc etc), green vegetables seem to have a lot more fiber than others but any veggie would be good, spinach(cooked and raw) and sweet potatoes are my favorites, plain beans are also good. Of course red meat and fish are also decent choices, but fish in my area is expensive and red meat is usually fatty (pork is fatty as well).
One thing I have been doing recently if cutting up a package of chicken breast and marinating it in a container and pretty much stir frying it with onions, garlic, etc, a little bit at a time. This way I have stuff prepared for an easy meal that is healthy and not super time consuming. Just spend time cutting up the onions, garlic, whatever after you go shopping and put them in containers so during the week fixing a meal won't be a chore.[/QUOTE]
Duly noted and saved for a later date. I appreciate the write-up and I'll be looking into all of this when I'm a little more coherent, as I'm tired as all hell right now. I will definitely take your workout and meal suggestions and utilize them. Thanks, man. I really appreciate it, because I am serious about fixing myself up.
[quote name='Dkellar']Having more muscle only burns a handful of extra calories. I read some stuff that it is maybe 20 calories more. Meal timing and size is irrelevant as long as you don't go over your set macros, at least this is one theory. Everybody is different and certain things work for certain people.
Never do cardio on a fasted state. Drink a simple protein shake or else your body will most likely cannibalize your muscle. You don't burn fat during your workout but afterwords.
Also, the most important meal of the day is the one right after your workout.[/QUOTE]
As for the cardio on fasted state, that's really good to know. Not to sound whiny, but sometimes I kind of get into states where I get a little down and eat very little for a day and then I think that,
it, to take my mind off of things I'll run a mile. I presume that this is actually detrimental.
As for the second two sentences, I've always thought that protein shakes were for people who are bodybuilding (two of my roommates are working on muscle building, one is just a bodybuilder-light and one has Crohn's and is trying to build up muscle to stop being so scrawny) so I've always assumed as a somewhat overweight fellow that protein shakes are not for me. That's a misconception?
