Just Started Going to the Gym and Have a Few Questions

I recently joined the local Gold's Gym since they were running the $9.99/month and $1 to join promo. So far, I've only been once, but I will be making my second trip tomorrow. I'm looking at weight loss and muscle toning. I'm 5' 9.5" and about 207 lbs. When I finished my associates degree in Dec. 99, I only weighed about 125 lbs. Over the years I've went up in weight and went from wearing 32 regulars to 36 relaxed in jeans.

The first time I went to the gym I did an hour on an elipcial machine. I don't know just how accurate the machine's heart rate monitor is, but it was shopping 168 about 30 minutes into my time on it. I'm mainly wondering if this is normal, or too high or what? Also, is there a target heart rate I should work my pace around to achieve?

Also, lately I've been having off and on issues with my lower back. Nothing bad enough to prevent me from going to work or functioning around the house, but enough to keep me uncomfortable. Someone suggested that I need to "target my core muscle" and that this would help lessen my issues. Is there any validity to this, and if so, what exercises should I focus on for this?

Read these threads I linked to below. Long story short, fix your diet and do big compound lifts and whatever "cardio" you prefer- row, run, bike, crossfit, etc. Ellipticals are right next to useless IMO.

I recommend Paleo or Primal as far as diet goes.


Primal diet + crossfit + starting strength is pretty tough to beat for general fitness and health.

Yes, there is one that you should work your pace around. It is different based on AGE...which is something you don't mention, as well as sex. There are also different "zones".

The machine is generally off when I compare my time/calories expended on their readout versus on my Heart Rate Monitor. You can get on Google and find "Target Heart Rate" and decide where you want and need to be (zone). I also cannot recommend a Heart Rate Monitor enough if you're really wanting to keep track of calories expended.

This is what you typed.
When I finished my associates degree in Dec. 99, I only weighed about 125 lbs.

This is what I read.
When I finished my associates degree in Dec. 09, I only weighed about 125 lbs.
My first thought was "Damn, you don't half ass anything, do you?" Then I realized it took you way more than 3 years to gain 80 pounds. I really have nothing intelligent to add except read the above posted links.

Look at your contract I bet there is a couple of maintenance fees throughout the year! They hide that shit in the contract!!

Most of this stuff is a waste of time. H46Driver or SmithC will hopefully come along and explain it all better than I could.

Basically you don't need to worry about calories expended or a heart rate monitor.

Google "Karvonen".

And it's not the funeral home.

Use the calories expended just as a way to track what you've done. I don't enter weight or anything into the counter, just use the number to keep track. Your back could very well be having issues because you are hauling a bunch of extra weight around. Start learning to do squats, they will help you drop weight AND strengthen your core. Your back will thank you immensely. The elliptical makes a nice warmup for squats if you bump the resistance up a ways.

If you are looking, to lose weight and get healthy, do it nice and slow, the same way the weight went on....
But often overlooked and most important is breathing and stretching... Heres the plan I gave my father and it worked well...

First give your body 6 months to get into your new lifestyle...
Start with eating, follow these guidelines....
Drink ONLY water with lemon {I havent had a sip of soda in years} and tea...
Dont eat after 5pm...
Eat 5 meals a day and 1 snack {if needed}
High protein, high fiber, low fat, medium carbs {no more than 120g no less than 60g}, calories depend on age, weight sex, and takes some trial and error... Your 5'9" and want to be 135 or so? I owuld eat $1800 cals a day..
NO RED MEATS

Then for activities I would start with a month of just yoga, stretching and breathing, mixed with a medium paced walk in the morning and at night...
After a month of that replace the PM walk with a run, jog, or fast eliptical and replace the am walk with some light kettle bell workouts... Also start am and pm situps... Still do stretching but its going to be pre and post am and pm activities... My father fell in love with how the yoga made him feel and how much better he moved around so its part of his life for as long as he can do it now...
Ater that month you will be 2 months in and probably already shed 25lbs, the rest of the weight is going to come off slow...
But now you can keep a strong kettlebell am workout and start doing some weight training {core and legs}, and alternate days-cardio/weight training...
Last is when you are ready, going to be muscle specific weight training, bi's/tri's, back/chest ect... You will be a pro by the 4th month...

Your diet may feel hard to figure out, but its not, Fiber one cereal with almond or so milk in the am, then a yogurt a little while later {something with active live cultures, not yoplait trix flavored}, then a salad with a light dressing for lunch {raz. vinaigrette}, then a turkey sandwich {use wheat bread good turkey swiss lf chz, lil mustard or hot sauce}, then for dinnerr eat a peice of pork with some fresh veggies... All small enough portions to stay around the cals you need... Obviously when you start working out and not just doing yoga you eat more...

Also take some suppliments, a good mens daily {time release gnc has a good one}, with some omega 3's maybe even some coQ10 if you can afford it, Then you can even take some apple pectin and grapeseed extract before every meal....

Anyway, its not as hard as it sounds, if you just jump into working out, and getting your heart rate screaming, not only is it bad for you and dangerous you are not going to stick with it, you will feel hunry and not feel good, the best thing to keep you on a plan is to make you feel better every day, not worse.... I can promise you if you stick to this, you will feel better every day....

I abused my body for years, with boxing, steroids, and loose women , and Im a big guy 6' 5" 270, and I have been around gyms a lot, I see people come and go, and the people that last start out slow, stretching and breathing, getting that old frame ready for the change... I find it easy to get back in the gym and smash plates for 3 hours because Ive done it, and Im used to my body, I've pulled and tore when I was younger so I know how it feels... I ripped a bicep off at the shoulder when I was younger, 21" arms and it was ll hanging on the bottom like a cartoon!!!, 2 surgeries later its stronger than ever, but if I did that now, I would never heal, luckily it was when I was young and dumb, curling 220lbs until something popped...

No reason to eat 5 meals a day. Contrary to popular belief this has zero effect on metabolism. Some people may find it easier to control hunger this way- and that's totally fine. Others will never be completely satisfied on 5 meals a day (this is me).

High protein. Good.
High fiber. Sure, veggies have fiber and are important.
Low fat. You're losing me here dude, your body NEEDS fat. Low fat diets are for suckers
Medium carbs. This can vary with activity levels, but I'd generally agree this is pretty good for most people. Carb source is important.
No red meat. Totally lost me here. No reason to avoid red meats whatsoever.



This is all ok, yoga can be a real ass kicker. He still needs to be squatting, benching and deadlifting though.




Now you've lost me completely. Cereal is empty calories. There is no fat and hardly any protein in that. It's no way to start the day and will result in the inevitable hunger pangs about an hour later. Skip the cereal- eggs are the perfect breakfast food.
Bread is empty calories as well. I prefer to avoid grains for other reasons too, but mainly they just don't do anything good for you. They will spike insulin levels though...




Agreed, very important. You can either get them from grass fed meats, fish, (herring is great) or pills.

Its like $30 a year for annual fees broken up into 2 payments of $15.


Since I forgot to list my age in my original post, I'm 33.

Yeah, that's true. I usually just use distance, but sometimes I do use the calorie tracker on my rower when certain workouts call for it.


I just don't want anyone to think those things are actually accurate.

My diet is definitely something I have been working on fixing. I used to drink way too much soda. I haven't went cold turkey, but I have set myself a limit of no more that 1 12oz. can of Coke a day. I've switched my breakfasts from 2 packs of those little Jimmy Dean sausage biscuits to a cup of Chobani greek yogurt (right now the pomegranate and the blackberry are my favorites). I also dropped the white bread for Honey Wheat bread when making sandwiches.

As far as the Omega-3s, I take an Omega3 fish oil pill every morning. I ruptured a disc in my neck around 7 or 8 years ago and was told to take naproxen daily by a doctor. I didn't like some of the long term effects I had read about. I got to reading up about fish oil since both of my parents were told to take it for their cholesterol. While reading about it for them, I noticed it was listed as a natural anit-inflammatory, so I dropped the naproxen and switched to fish oil.


Looking at my schedule, I've found that I can hit the gym after work on Mondays and Wednesday and in the mornings on Saturdays and Sundays without having to find a babysitter. Besides the gym, I'm looking to start taking walks around the neighborhood in the evenings. I'll have to stick to walks for know since I'll be pulling my 2yr old along in her little red wagon. I am also getting back into my push ups and sit ups before bed. I'm up to 20 push ups and sit ups. Before the disc, I used to do 100 push ups and 50 sit ups every night.

If you could do an hour at some HR, then no, it's not too high. HR is a dependent variable affected by a lot of things, but it's used as a proxy for and is somewhat correlated with work rate.

How hard should you be training/working? Depends on your goals and workout schedule. If you're going to go to the gym 3 days/week, you should be going about as hard as you can for the duration of your workout, but be able to recover in time for your next workout. It will take some trial and error. Also, your max and sustainable HRs will vary with exercise mode depending on how fit you are at that particular activity, the muscle mass involved with the movement, gravity, and work rate - most people can sustain a higher workload/HR running than they can swimming. Rowing is up for debate until RoG mans up and gives us a multi-mode test

ETA - unless you're taking a mega-concentrate, one Omega-3 pill probably isn't enough. What's the recommendation on the bottle? Better yet, make herring, sardines, and salmon a regular part of your diet.

FML

Ok, I have a C2 and a tri bike with a computer, what do you want me to do? I'll do it...just can't be TOO much because I'm doing 2 a days right now.

If your Crossfit gym ever closes, the lifeguards are gonna be busy

I thought you'd turn it around on me.
When did you get a tri bike?
You don't have a power meter, right? If not, it'll be a tough comparison. That might leave it to me, but I've done about 5 rowing session in the last 3 or 4 years.

Hey, I'm good enough to not drown. In fact that's what I call it. "Not drowning". It's not good enough to be called swimming. I'll use it in a sentence:

"honey, I'm going to go not drown in the pool...have the life preserver handy"




I'd choose bike actually, never cared much for running, rowing is brutal, but biking is kinda fun...maybe 'cause you're moving fast even when you're not pushing too hard.

OK, Im going to try to quote your quote of me.. and add My ideas..



Im just giving the advice I know, what ever anyone else has is fine, I know what I know, even though I used steroids when I was younger and hit heart breaking plateaus like an idiot, I know how to stay healthy and get healthy.. I lived with a personal trainer {it was her life, seriously, she dragged me to europe twice for conventions"... So I heard it all, but I knows what I knows , and maybe it works for the op...

Had it for a while, just finally got it set up. Been busy. No power meter, just distance and speed I think...I could probably jump on a spin bike for a comparison though.

You have some serious misconceptions about diet. Dietary fat or cholesterol DOES NOT equal blood cholesterol. Obviously 1,800 calories of fat isn't good, but low fat isn't good either. Like I said, your body needs fat to function properly and fat keeps you full. This includes red meat and eggs. I've been eating 4-6 eggs every morning for the last 4 years and high cholesterol runs in my family. Guess what- my levels are normal because I exercise and don't eat processed food. Eggs are good for you- period.

Your body doesn't work like time release. Seriously, it may help with appetite for some people and that's ok, but it won't help metabolism or anything like that.

Competing has nothing to do with it. People were meant to squat and deadlift. Perhaps his back problems are because he has a weak back...let's strengthen those muscles, tendons and ligaments. I'm not saying that he should be squatting 300#, but going through the motions and slowly building strength is ABSOLUTELY the best way to go.
Most doctors will tell everyone not to squat. Means nothing to me.


What is in whole grain bread that's so good for you? Not a thing. I'm not saying it will kill you, but it certainly isn't doing anything good for you.

Look at your cereal:
INGREDIENTS: Corn Bran, Whole Grain Wheat, Wheat Bran, Corn Starch, Calcium Carbonate, Guar Gum, Color Added, Cellulose Gum, Salt, Baking Soda, Corn Oil, Aspartame, and Vitamin E (Mixed Tocopherols) Added to Preserve Freshness.

I don't care to eat that, but you can.

Here's the nutritional facts. 2g of protein. Nothing here good for you, and it certainly IS empty calories.



http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/nutrition-calories/food/fiber-one/cereal/

I really hate this don't squat and deadlift bullshit. I was even told in a college level course that deadlifts are contraindicated in general fitness populations. If you can't hinge at the hips with a loaded and neutral spine you greatly increase the chance of a back injury. If someone can deadlift PROPERLY they reduce their chance of hurting their back in everyday lifting of everyday items. If they take their deadlift from 135 to 275 lifting a 50 pound akward object will very likely be easier for them. I swear some people hear deadlift and automatically think of some powerlifter straining to pull a one rep max and think "I have no reason to be doing that." A deadlift in its simplest form is picking something up. If this isn't an integral part of being a human you are either disabled or rich enouh to pay someone to pick things up for you.

The greek yogart isn't completely fat free, its 2%. I've been considering adding 2 hard boiled eggs to my breakfast. They would be easy to prep the night before. Also, Monday thru Friday, I eat my breakfast at work during our morning rack up meeting.

Exactly.

Ok, my main concern was added sugar...not sure if there is or not.

People who avoid red meat are very likely to have other lifestyle habbits that contribute to a lesser chance of colon cancer also, so while the relationship is there it is no proof that one causes the other. And I beleive maybe two years ago someone did a huge research review and found that a lot of the red meat is bad studies did not control for processed meats versus unprocessed or minimally processed meats.

Yes, and IIRC there was also the issue of vegetarians...and like I said, lots of greens helps with the whole colon issue.

The green veggies I figure I've got covered. I almost always have a bag of spring mix in the fridge since my 2 yr old loves it with a little bit of ranch. I used to be primarily a ranch person with salads til I found out about vinegrettes.

That's good. Try them in a scramble too, really tasty.

Here's what I recommend. (I think Roland has already covered this, though)

1) Change your diet to Primal/Paleo, preferably without the dairy. Dairy is for growing mammals and unless you want to grow, you should avoid it.

2) Start lifting weights. Stick to the basics. Squat, deadlift, overhead press, bench press, power clean, and chins/pullups. No machines.

3) After about 3 months of lifting and getting stronger, start doing Crossfit.

Green is a good start, but other colors are good too...

You're right of course, I usually just say "green" because it's the last color people want to add...you tell them to eat more veggies and they eat a bag of baby carrots lol.

All I am saying is, if this was my father, I wouldnt be telling him to squat or deadlift for at least 6 months.... Hinging at the hips is fine for me, but if I had a 50lb basketball on my waste and a bad back would it be? He needs to get in shape and then he can get more into weight training... I am speaking from experience, I just got my father from 270 to 196 in less than a year, hes healthy now and had tried things before that never panned out....
Im not saying you will never eat an egg again, and Im not saying NO FAT, just low fat... And when you go grocery shopping and start reading labels, you will see to get enough food and stay around 1800 cals, you will be buying all lower fat items, and red meat and eggs wont be on the menu...

I know some people just need to disagree and find it impossible to open their mind to someone elses ideas {especially on ARFCOM}, but its just my ideas, the op can follow them or not, I was just offering my advice, of what I had my father do, and it worked well.. His primary doctor was floored when he walked in for his yearly 70lbs lighter... He started having trouble tieing his shoes, the other day we went for a jog together and he copied me when I was doing my stretches, he put his foot to his ass and held it there for just as long as me...

And I know its hard for people to admit red meat is bad for you, you can say "no people are eating it wrong" or whatever else, but all these doctors arent wrong, if you want to eat it, thats fine, I agree it tastes good sometimes, but the truth of the matter is theres a lot better meats out there for you... So when giving someone advice about diet, I wouldnt say eat red meat, its just a 6 month plan to get healthy, once you meet your goals, you can choose your diet and activities, but until then you have to make sure what you put in your body has all positive effects... Personally red meat makes me tired and heavy...

Im not saying its got 50g or protein but it does have a ton of fiber, it keeps me full until mid day, I have tried everything, and this is the stuff.... I know you have something against whole grains, but I like how it makes me feel, the cereal gives me energy and fills my stomach, with non fat milk or almond milk you get some protein out of it, and it tastes good... My entire family eats it, and its one of the best selling cereals made, so I have to think they did something rite....
I know the ingredients sound scary, but read a bottle of soda, or a package of chicken fingers, the cereal is good... You can have your 4-6 eggs every morning {thats around 3 dozen a week, I find that hard to believe, I would have to see a pic of 3 flats of eggs in your fridge to believe that, and if someone told you thats good for you, they must be your life insurance exec}...

I eat cereal every morning, its fast cheap, and filling, then I throw a granola bar in my packet for when I feel like eating it, my lunch is a salad with grilled chicken and a yogurt, my dinner is maybe a baked chicken with rice, or pork with whole grain pasta, ect... My Blood psi, cholest. ekg's, ect are all excellent, rite now Im not working out because of a shoulder injury {old training injury recent surgery}.


For the OP, he needs to do what he needs to do, whatever works for him and he can stick to, I personally think the most important thing is to stop drinking soda all together...... good luck..

If you would like to investigate something interesting in regards to dietary cholesterol and health look up the Masai tribe of Africa. Their diet consists of mainly milk, red meat, honey and tree bark and sometimes blood from their animals and have very heathly cardiovascular markers. It was theorized they have genetically adapted to this diet, yet when members move away from the tribe and eat a more modern diet their health markers tend to go down. To be fair moving away from the traditional lifestyle brings more variables than just diet.

And half a dozen eggs a day is far from extreme. 6 eggs a day everyday for me.

I'm speaking from experience as well. Our bodies were meant to squat. No question. If you fail to make your bodies do the things it was meant to do then you atrophy.

If I was trying to get only 1800cals a day, you would bet it would be high fat items to keep me fueled and full.

It's not hard to admit red meat is bad- it's just incorrect. I like it a lot, but my attachment is sweets. You know what though? I gave it up. If there was convincing evidence and properly done studies showing red meat was bad for you I'd give it up too.

Yeah, it is about 3 dozen a week. I actually buy 6-8 dozen a week because the wife eats 3 a day and I eat 4-6. The kids eat 'em too. Find it hard to believe all you want, I'd be happy to provide a pic when I get home, I think there's 3-4 dozen in there now. Thankfully the commissary is on the way home from work. I understand that it seems like eating a lot of eggs is bad...read the studies showing that dietary cholesterol =/= blood cholesterol though....try to understand that your body needs fat, and eggs are a great natural source of that. If they are so bad, my blood work would have told that story...but it hasn't.

Best selling = good for you? I bet twinkies outsell broccoli. Care to revise that statement? Yeah, ingredients in chicken fingers and soda is shit too. That's why I don't eat it either.

Look man, I know it's hard to admit that cereal isn't good for and that you have a special attachment to it, but the fact is that it's primarily carbs with little protein or fat.

There are 4 dozen eggs in my fridge at the moment. I eat 3-5 a day. I am 30 years old, weigh approx 225 my cholesterol is fine.

It was stated that if the OP was your dad you wouldn't recommend deadlifts and squats to him. FYI the OP is 33 years old. I've lost 100lbs over the past few years by mixing diet with exercise. I try to avoid carbs and absolutely eat processed food as a last resort.

I find it someone funny at one point you are talking about the protein make up of red meat vs. chicken but they go on to talk about how cereal is a good source of morning protein

To the OP. There is a lot of good advice here, some of it contradictory, take the parts you like an make them work for you. Anytime I started a work out program and cleaned up my diet it a little bit I would drop 15-20lbs really easy. At that point I would usually stall out and lose no more weight. After a while it became clear to me, that you CAN NOT exercise yourself skin. That is the bottom line, you can get in better shape, get stronger, "tone up" but weight loss is a function of Calories Out > Calories In. If you have a smart phone, I would recommend something like MyFitnessPal to help track calories and give you generalized goals.

This is so ridiculous I just can't let it go.


Please, read this stuff before you go spouting off about the evils of eggs. Feel free to ignore these studies if you want...also remember that studies showing high fat diets are bad very often also include trans fats, huge imbalance of O3 and O6, and a high intake of processed foods.


http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v32/n10/abs/ijo2008130a.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9343498

http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/272/17/1335.abstract?ijkey=d2fe4b0874ba7917e2bdf0103d415eb503b1cd8d

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/fats-full-story/

A quote from the above article and a quick explanation:



I would argue that you don't need to cut back on saturated fats and replace with unsaturated- rather you need to get more O3 fatty acids to balance it out.

And here is why: (also why grassfed beef which is high in O3 is good, along with fish and free range EGGS.
http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/omega-3-000316.htm




Haven't read all this, but what I did read is pretty interesting:
http://www.thincs.org/WAPF2003.htm


Also, here's why I avoid most grains:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/diabetes/



LOL...

Thanks for the tip about the app. I just got a smartphone last week (Samsung Galaxy S2) and will have to look that app up later this evening.

Bottom line? Don't listen to turb06le240.

Comparing the pictures, I bet Breedy gets more pussy than you.

Well with the cat food in there I would hope so...

LOL!

Beaver?!?! I didn't see any of that Kashi cereal with little twigs and soy in your fridge.

So what, no apology for insinuating that I'm a liar?

Check out this site, and see if it makes sense to you.

http://www.leangains.com/

It seems to cut through a lot of the bullshit I see from others.

I have never seen so much disinformation crammed into one post.

LOL, I love this:





ETA- Intermittent Fasting is not a bad option, I used to do it pretty regularly and still do sometimes.

I've been trying the whole adding lemon juice to my water thing. That seems to be working for dinner. I drink plain old water through the day at work, but I always find myself wanting something with flavor to go with meals. So, lemon juice seems to be the right way to go. Also, when I go the grocery today, I'm looking to buy some carbonated water to try with the lemon juice. After hearing it from mulitple sources, I want to see if my hang up on soda really is just about the carbonation. If I can get away from the Cokes by spiking carbonated waters with some sort of juice, that should help.

Saturday, I did an hour on an eliptical at the gym. When I finished, I felt fine, but my legs felt a little jelly like for a minute or two. I missed going to the gym Monday due to some work issues. Yesterday, I only managed 45 minutes before feeling like I was going to fall of the machine. I tend to think this was because, unlike Saturday morning, I had put in an 8 hr day at work before going to the gym. Also, I've been avoiding the golf carts at the plant and trying to walk to most places, unless I need my tools.

I'm still looking into some basic items to workout at home on the days I am unable to go to the gym. So far, I've bought one of the pull up bars that goes on the door frame. My biggest complaint about the bar (I think it is the Iron Gym or something like that) is that you are extremely limited in how far you can grip the bar due to the door frame. I may look into building a pull up bar in the back yard. I can either built it completely with 1" pipe and 2 90 degree fittings, or I could go with one piece of pipe, 2 floor flanges, and a pair of 4x4 posts. I'll have to check Lowes and Home Depot to see which route will be more cost effective.

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