Please read this if you are willing to help, I will appreciate it greatly!

Ok guys here's the deal...I am 5'10, about 230. My target weight is to be 170 pounds. I was never much of a math student, but i guess I'd want to lose a total of 60 pounds. Damn that really seems like a lot now that i think of it. My lifestyle is generally busy, busy...not necessarily active though. I do have a part time job where I am basically walking around for 8 hours (I believe that I burn a lot of calories at work). I DJ at a nightclub on Saturday nights and because of that I end up drinking a lot (10+ rum and cokes). I consume 2200-2500 calories a day roughly, and on some website the calculator thing said I'd need about 2800-3000ish calories a day. BUT my meals aren't healthy usually (usually junk food) and my meals are not spread out properly, I usually have 2 big meals in a day. My friends are all in fair to good shape and they love eating out, and I do too. We eat out very late a lot, and I understand that this must stop now.

I have a really weird sleeping pattern due to work..sometimes I work at 7am, other times I may work until 7am. I decided to purchase an elliptical and it should be arriving in 2 weeks. I thought if I just run on that for 4-5 days a week and eat a balanced diet I should be on my way to reaching my goal.

Here is where I need YOU! What are your thoughts on the elliptical? Is it a good machine? What kind of diet should I be doing. I try to drink alot of water...but how much should i be drinking? Do i have to do any weight training? Your advice would be greatly appreciated guys!

Alcohol is...good haha. But it's a waste of calories. So you're probably getting more calories than you realize from it...plus the soda with it. And fast food is horrible for you when you're trying to lose weight.

I know people who swear by the elliptical. I guess whatever gets you moving, gets you burning calories, and will help you lose weight. So go for it. You should take a look at what you eat and cut out the junk. Eat at home more, or bring things with you from home so you'll be less likely to eat fast food. Drink water like you would usually drink soda or something...when you're thirsty. More when you're exercising more. And weight training...yes. It helps so much.

At least you know what you're doing now and that you have to stop to be able to lose weight. You'll get there.

There are two things that really jumped out at me in your post:

The first is this:
(I believe that I burn a lot of calories at work)
A lot of people say this, but truthfully, walking around for 8 hours just doesn't burn that many calories over your regular base calories. Now if you're talking about walking briskly for the full 8 hours, and maybe carrying things around, you might be boosting your burn rate by 15% or so, but just standing and walking ... unfortunately, no. I'm a wedding photographer which is a really active, non-stop day on Saturdays, but after a year of tracking my calorie burn with a heart rate monitor and a body bugg, I can tell you that even at my busiest, longest weddings I only burn about 20% more than I do in an average day at the office sitting at a computer.

The other thing was this:
. I DJ at a nightclub on Saturday nights and because of that I end up drinking a lot (10+ rum and cokes). I consume 2200-2500 calories a day roughly
10+ rum and cokes = 4500 calories. That's assuming you're talking about a regular pour of rum and about 8-10 oz of Coke - if your bartender friend is making you larger or stronger drinks, then you can add even more calories. So if you're drinking this every week, you're adding over a pound of fat a week just in rum and Cokes.

At 230 lbs, you can lose weight on 2000 calories a day, but not if you're throwing on an additional 4000 calories or more a week in alcohol and soda.

The truth is that while exercise is important, diet is probably 80% of the battle in losing weight. And I don't mean "diet" as in "go on a". I mean "diet" in the more holistic definition of "what you eat". What you eat is CRUCIAL to losing weight. You can run on the elliptical for 2 hours a day, but as long as you are eating too much and eating unhealthily, you won't lose weight.

You need to really work on getting your calories down to around 1800 or 2000 a day and make sure you're getting a healthy mix of veggies, lean proteins, complex carbs (whole grains), and healthy fats.

I'm not saying you can't have a drink now and then - I love my red wine and I usually have a vodka rocks or a martini a couple of times a week. But I also know how many calories are in what I drink and I make sure that it fits into my plan. And I don't mix my alcohol with sweet juices or sodas ... those are just wasted calories.

thanks guys, i appreciate your advice. What if i cut down to like 5-6 rum and cokes mixed with diet? Or like vodka and waters.. Today i ate 2 eggs no toast, and a bowl of slow cooking oatmeal for breakfast. A little cup of yogurt, then a 6 inch sub on wheal wheat with turkey and mustard. What do you guys think of subway? Bad choice?

Your meals today look good. I don't have a problem with Subway in general - they definitely have more healthy choices than any other fast food type place.

I have to say I am ... I guess concerned, as much as I can be since I don't really know you ... that you seem to HAVE to drink as much as you do. 5-6 drinks in one night is really excessive. Realizing that you're working in a bar and all that, but even when I was a bartender, I didn't drink that much.

Regardless, it's not my place to discuss your drinking habits really, except as it pertains to your questions about diet, so the most I'll say here is that you have to remember that 1 oz of alcohol contains about 70 calories. Some a little more, and some a little less, but that's about the same. And a regular pour at most bars = 1 shot = about 1.5 ounces. So if you want to consume 600+ calories in liquor once a week, that's totally your choice ... but those calories have to come from somewhere and I don't recommend ditching 1/3 or more of your daily calories of nutrition for alcohol, myself.

I'd say you're better off drinking water or club soda with lime first, then diet soda, and then maybe having one or two drinks at some point.

Again, I want to be clear that I am not against drinking. As I mentioned, I love red wine and have a glass with dinner at least a few nights a week. I also probably have a vodka rocks at least 2x a week, and I'm not adverse to going out now and then and having fun with friends. I just don't think regularly drinking the equivalent of 1/3 of a liter of liquor (6 or 7 shots) is a really great, healthy idea.

Yeah watch out for subway's they contain a lot of salt.

a good tip i always say is to drink at least 4-8 cups of water per day to fill your stomach up.

it does work.

Graham

alright guys so i've been having a solid diet 2 days strong and no drinking haha...i have been weight training...two muscles a day. For example let's say i'm going biceps, i'll do 3 different bicep exercises and 3 sets of 12-14 each exercise. It makes me sweat. I am gonna start cardio tomorrow. Go for as long as I possibly can, and increase it over and over. I absolutely HATE the sight of fatty foods, and in the past few days when I see people eating fatty foods i get disguisted..i hope this is a good sign haha. I have been having the whole 6 small meals a day, and eating my whole wheat bread in the morning. My diet is good, my dinner consists of a lean protein and some veggies. Today my dinner is a chicken breast with a cup of frozen peas/carrots/corn mixed with half a cup of chick peas and lemon on top. I can't wait to lose weight.

Your dinner sounds yummy.

A couple of suggestions:

Rather than just working "one muscle" ... focus on those exercises that work groups of muscles. Full body or at least group muscle exercises are much more effective and you don't have to do 20 sets of exercises to get through your workout. Also be sure to give recovery time between your weight lifting workouts. It's not the activity that builds the muscle .. it's the recovery time when the muscle heals. So make sure you're giving at least 24 hours for the various muscles to heal before you exert them again.

Also going as long as you can *might* be counter productive. I don't know what your relative level of fitness is, but you don't want to wear yourself out and burn out. I'd say aim for about 20 mins of cardio (if you can only do 5, that's great, just do a little more each day) and work up to about 30 mins of interval cardio. There's no need to do hours at a time (or even an hour at a time) if you do it efficiently.

You are doing great i must give you that. Keep it up.

Remember focus and consistence is the key to the castle.

I advise taking a picture of yourself now. We can't seem to tell the difference in our own appearance. A picture will let you know your initial and final points.

It might take a while though. Effective weight loss does not happen in a flash.

Once again, be consistent and focused. Your efforts will definitely be rewarded.

All the best.

honestly guys thanks i truly appreciate it. Thanks Samuelpinn, and a special thanks to you karacooks...you're so upfront and a straight shooter, i like that haha. Another question is, is 6 small meals a day a must..i have been doing that, although a few people I've spoken to at work and such who have lost weight told me they didn't really do that..they just had 3-4 meals which were healthy. Another question I have is, I heard one can treat their daily calories as a bank...for instance consume 1800 calories of whatever you want (I don't really know if thats good)...but don't go over your set amount of calories. Can one lose weight by just watching what they eat? I love chickpeas, are they ok? Whole wheat pasta? Sorry if the questions are a bit excessive..i just want some good advice .

Don't worry about asking too many questions. That's how you learn. Although I would suggest reading some of the sticky threads since a lot of these issues have been discussed there.

Eating 6 times a day is not required. I do it because I find that eating regularly every couple of hours keeps me from getting hungry - but you don't have to do the whole 6x a day thing. That said, you should make sure to eat breakfast (w/in about an hour of getting up if possible)

Well ... yes and no. Ultimately if you eat less than you burn, you will lose weight. But ... at some point if you don't provide the right amount of nutrition for your body, you can stall your weight loss or you can even reverse it even though you're eating under 1800 calories (or whatever your amount is). You will eventually begin losing again, but w/out the proper nutrition, you'll lose lean muscle and you'll become what a lot of people refer to as "skinny fat" - that is, you'll weigh what you want to weigh, but be flabby and unhealthy. So it's better for all kinds of reasons to eat healthy calories.

Many people can and have lost weight just by watching what they eat - but I think in general those are people who already have a handle on what they eat and how much. Most people (myself included) get to be overweight because they don't have a good handle on what a portion is and how much they eat - they tend to eat mindlessly or out of habit. They also tend to eat things that are more fattening.

The truth is, "ok" is relative. Are chickpeas ok? A serving of chickpeas (1/2 cup) has 100 calories, 20g of carbs, and 7g of protein. In my diet that's ok to eat, as long as I limite myself to one or two servings.

Pasta is kinda the same thing. A serving of pasta (2 oz dry) is 200 calories, 38g carbs, and 10g protein. Again, for me, it's ok in moderation. The problem for most people is that they use pasta as the basis of a meal and wind up eating 6 or more oz at a time - a huge bowl of pasta topped with tomato sauce - and then don't realize that they're consuming 1200+ calories just in pasta.

Really, my philosophy is that *any* food is ok - some just needs to be eaten in moderation more than others. Even ice cream is ok. I Ben & Jerry's ice cream yesterday, in fact. 1/2 cup of Ben & Jerry's Black & Tan ice cream is 230 calories, 23g carbs, and 4g protein. It's a lot of calories, so I only eat it maybe once every other week or so as a treat. But it's still "ok" ... as long as I'm reasonable about it.

And I think that's a hard concept for a lot of people who are "dieting" to wrap their heads around sometimes. People think that there are "good" foods and "bad" foods and that they have to deprive themselves to lose weight or be healthy. I don't think either of those are true. Food is food. We make good choices or bad choices about what to eat ... but food itself is not inherently good or bad. And you don't have to suffer to be healthy ... you just have to be reasonable.

thanks again kara, i do limit myself to 1/2 a cup of chickpeas, which is a serving I believe. How is coffee? I drink my coffee black, with a sweetener...i heard coffee is actually pretty good. Sweetener I know is supposed to make people grow horns, and turn their skin into metal and whatever...but I don't care I need some flavour in my coffee. I must confess last night at work I made a big mistake...I was starrrrrving and I had those little bags of Sunchips..frig..I figured those were the best chips in the vending machine though. They are multi-grain...and had 220 calories in the bag. I don't feel horrible. Should I? haha

I have a cup of coffee every morning! There are so many different theories about coffee - some say it's good, some say it's bad, but again, I'm all about moderation. I like my coffee black, so sweetener or cream isn't an issue for me, but then again, I'll say I drink a Diet Coke a couple of times a week, so I guess you can see I'm not a big anti-sweetener person either.

Ya know, if a cup of coffee with some Splenda or something gets you through the day, I'm not gonna say ditch it. There are far worse things you could be eating or drinking, IMO.

Sunchips - yeah those are misleading sometimes. You gotta watch those items that claim to be "healthy". Sunchips, granola, all those things are usually loaded with calories. A bag of baked Doritos is actually fewer calories and less fat than a bag of Sunchips, believe it or not.

That'll depend on the person doing it, and how long they've been doing it. If I suddenly went from an almost sedentary lifestyle to being on my feet eight hours a day, it would burn a lot more calories than if I had been doing the exact same job for an extended period of time.

Mmm ... I don't think so. The amount of calories you burn is ultimately based on how high your heart rate gets, and how much you currently weigh. It's true that your body adapts, but the difference is not going to be a huge amount.

Ultimately, I think my point still stands ... most people think they burn more calories than they actually do in their daily activities.