Hi everyone!

Let me introduce myself. My name is Jason. I am a 27 year old male college student. I am 5' 6" and weigh around 165-170 lbs. I am looking to lose around 10-20 lbs to get into a healthy BMI.

Let me give you a little of my history. In high school I only weighed 145 lbs and was 2% body fat. I looked really good for my height. Then I got work where I was around unhealthy food a lot and gained around 40 lbs. Then I started college and quit working for a while and at my heaviest was 200lbs!

Last year I made up a diet which I guess was close to the Jared diet from Subway.

I ate twice a day:
1 sammich with lettuce, tomato, and lunch meat
1 serving of fruit (apples or pears)
1 serving of vegetable (carrots with ranch)
1 yogurt
multiple servings of hot or iced tea

Last year I lost 40 lbs, but have gained 10lbs back with that 10lbs coming and going randomly. I was exercising for 20-30 minutes each day via bike ride.

Here is my current diet:
lots of fruit (nectarine and a pear with each meal)
lots of veggies (raw spinach and lettuce[with honey mustard] and 3 potatoes[with salt])
1 yogurt
some cheese
nuts (almonds)
shrimp cocktail (with sauce)


I'm cutting out meat and bread completely. I work out each day for 60 minutes on my bike, and I sweat a lot. I have been going to the bathroom a lot - been on this diet a week. lol I feel really good though and have a lot more energy. My trouble area is my stomach. My weakness is water. It may sound weird, but I have an aversion to it and can't stand drinking it straight. I try to drink hot tea, but it's so hot in the summer. I try not to eat late at night, but I stay up really late a lot. (craving cheese stick now)

I am pretty muscular, so I'm worried about getting too beefy by weight lifting.

If you're cutting out meat completely then you need to make sure you're getting enough protein from other sources.

How many calories are you eating each day, do you track at all?

I wouldn't worry about getting too "beefy" from weight lifting. If you are eating in a calorie deficit, which from your menu seems to be the case, you will not build muscle. You need to weight lift while dieting so that you do not lose the muscle that you already have.

Just out of curiosity, why are you cutting out meat? I would add some why protein shakes, cottage cheese, egg whites and other protein to compensate.

I don't keep track of calories yet. I was eating 2 meals a day pretty much for the past year, which seemed to be all by body wanted based on how active I was, but now I find myself eating 3 times or more because fruits and vegetables do not feel as filling or stay with me as long, so I eat more of them.

What are some good sources of protein?

Others have suggested:
legumes
nuts
shrimp
cheese

What is a good exercise that will tone my arms but not make them get bigger?

I feel like red meat is not good for me, especially ground beef, although I love to have steak. I may decide to have steak like once a month after a few months of this diet.

Thanks for your replies by the way.

none. You can grow a muscle, or shrink it, or maintain it. this "what exercise tones it best" is a complete and utter myth. So decide what exactly you want to have happen to the muscles in your body. If you want them to look a little bigger in areas, like your arms, then you're going to have to up the calories well into excess and start pumping the iron with big heavy weights. no way around this.

"toning" is really the byproduct of one things. losing body fat, so the existing muscle becomes more defined. Meaning on some level, you need to have enough existing muscle mass there. Otherwise losing body fat will mostly just result in skinny unmuscled looking arms.

Cheese is mostly fat from what I understand. I would stick to lean meats. Turkey, some pork products, chicken breasts, you can get lean ground beef.. I've seen it in the store at only 5% fat. And what you said about eating 2 or even just 3 times a day.. I would start eating 5-6 times a day and make your meals smaller.. It'll help to stabalize your metabolism and make it so that your body is more efficient when you work out.

I'll give my diet as an example:
breakfast is 1cup 1%fat cottage cheese, 1/2 cup pineapple chunks
snack: fruit or luna bar cookie
lunch: (left over from dinner) usually 3oz of chicken and 1-2 cups veggies
snack: luna bar (or meal replacement bar)
dinner: 3-4 oz ham steak with veggies and a slice of bread
dessert: yogurt cup

Other non-meat sources of protein:

Cottage cheese
Yogurt (especially the strained Greek kind which has 17+ grams per serving)
Oats (usually 8+ grams per serving)
Eggs (the whole egg - there's no need to throw away the yolk - it's a waste of nutrition if you do)
Fish and shellfish of all kinds
Tofu and soy (I eat edamame as snacks all the time - great protein source)
Almonds, peanuts, and peanut butter (but you have to watch the fat quantities here - it's healthy fat, but you still don't want to eat too much)