Need advice on my current workout activities

[trigun81]

Sorry for the long post, and thank you to those who read this.

When I was going through puberty, I became quite the chub, and its only in the last 3 years that I really started going to the gym to fix it. 3 years later, I go to the gym twice a week and have changed my eating habits substantially. I've gone down 3 pant sizes (I'm now a 31/32 waist, 175 lbs and 6'1).

For all intents and purposes, I'm pretty slim, and was lanky for a while but the muscles finally started to grow in. My problem is that I still have one last remnant of my chub days. My abs. Its not dramatic, but I have ever so slight love handles near my lower back and a tiny bit of fat on my lower abs (enough so tah there's not a straight line from my chest to my groin).

As I've remained this way for months, even though I go to the gym twice a week, I've come to the conclusion that I need to workout more on my own time at home every night. So for the last week, I've set an hour aside to do a variety of exercises (and so far have kept to it, which is a first seeing as I've tried before so I'm already happy about that):

-50 push ups (not ab related but I figure I needed the work)
-50 crunches
-100 Bicycle crunches
-60 leg lifts
-30 left lift circles (dont know what to call this, I raise my legs as if doing leg lifts, but then trace circles in the air, clockwise and counter clockwise)
-20 side crunches on each side

After a week of this, I can definitely feel more muscles underneath the layer of fat, so I know I am building muscle, I'm just curious if I'm doing the right thing to also burn the little fat I have left (seeing as I wont see a six pack until I get rid of the fat). I've also been given and have been taking Muscle Milk Light after these night time work out sessions. I've pretty much eliminated snacking from my diet in the last 3 years, as well as sodas. I try to avoid Fried food as much as possible (I have the occasional MacDonalds once every month or so), and I have a pretty decent protein intake from various meats. One bad thing I've been doing for years is not having breakfast and not sleeping enough, but otherwise I've cut down on my portions at lunch, have a reasonable sized dinner and I drink water and Iced Tea Exclusively.

Any thoughts?

 

[atlas23]

sounds like u r doing a great job. just wait to see what happens. BTW, congrats on losing weight... it is really har to accomplish that and keep it!

 

[trigun81]

Thanks Atlas It definitely took a lot of dedication and determination. All I have left is that stupid, stubborn little bit of lower ab fat >.<

 

[closetfreak]

Cardio, cardio, cardio

also, calories in versus calories out. If you're taking in more than you're using....

 

[Indelicate]

A few of the things that has helped me drop nearly 50 pounds in the past eight months in addition to the extra workout time is:

(1) eat SOMETHING for breakfast (usually a low carb protein bar). I never ate breakfast since college, but what I found is that my metabolism got going at a higher rate earlier in the day when I did this,

(2) no less than a gallon of water intake per day

(3) eliminate all refined sugar from my diet (fruit is OK in limited quantities)

(4) consume all calories during meal time. Eating ANYTHING between meals causes insulin levels in the body to spike, in turn causing the body to prevent fat from being utilized at a normal rate.

(5) Minimal "white" foods: potatoes, breads, pasta, rice, starches and no food after 8 pm. All the non carbonated beverages I want as long as I drink the minimum gallon of water. Conservative on alcohol, but enjoy it regularly.

Hope there is something here that helps. I still have about 30 pounds to go to hit my target.

 

[D_Anton_Pavlovich_Jerkhov]

As for slimming purposes, here is something that might work for some people.

I will be talking in terms of kilos, because that is easier for me, but of course it also applies to pounds, etc.

Say, your target weight is 70.0kg. Then, according to this plan, you will have to eat, more or less, every day, 1/100 of your goal. In other words, your daily food must weight about 70.0kg/100 = 0.70kg = 700g.

Now all you have to do is put that weight (700g) into three daily meals, for example:

Breakfast - 150g
Lunch - 250g
Supper/dinner - 300g

You can eat anything (that is the best part of the diet), but of course you will want to eat a balanced diet, which includes animal protein, healthy carbs and fats, and some raw stuff.

In the first days, you may need a kitchen scale, but over time you will do without it. You will just need your eyes.

Don't cheat.

 

[Darkriff]

Maybe one of these days I'll post my own thread on my progress. I'm going full throttle with a healthy diet and workout routine of my own. I have a few pounds I wanna lose, about 10-15, and start toning and getting cut. I already have some supplements that I had leftover from when I was working out in Iraq.

 

[D_Ernest Porknine]

You can do all the ab exercises you want and you won't reduce the size of your waist... if anything, it'll make it bigger if you're adding muscle size to the area by working your ab muscles hard. It all comes down to a calorie deficet either by eating less or burning more calories via cardio or other activiity or a combination of both. Diet will be 75% of your success for adding muscle or losing body fat. It requires a change of lifestyle if you want to lose it and keep it off. If you lose it and don't change the way you normally eat it could just come back... or more.

If it was easy EVERYONE would be walking around buff.