Hi there!
My name's Terry, I'm 1 28 year old guy from England and this is my diary!
I've decided to start this as I believe it'll help motivate me, perhaps inspire others and, the more people who read it and comment, the more feedback and advice I'll both get and be able to give!
OK, now for the nitty gritty!

Start Date- 1st January 2007
Start Weight- 235lbs
Start Bodyfat- 28.6% (67.2lbs)
Lean Body Mass- 167.8lbs

As you can see, I'm quite a fan of statistics! Anyway, here are my goals-
BY FEBRUARY 12th 2007 (6 WEEKS)

-To reduce my bf% to 22%
- To lose 20lbs of fat

I've set myself a pretty ambitious target but I'm sure it'll help motivate me!
To do this I'm following a calorie controlled diet and exercise regime. The diet basically consists of 2 weeks eating 1600 kcals a day followed by 2 weeks of 1500kcals then finally a fortnight of 1400kcals. This is because, as I lose weight then my diet will constantly be adjusting so that I can continue to unload my belly!
My exercise routine is a wights workout every other day at the gym. I won't be doing cardio as I don't believe it'll help me. I've read the pros and cons plus, from personal experience I just don't believe in it! Anyone who wants details of my exercise routine, just ask and I'll be happy to post it up in another post as I reckon this one's long enough!
Thanks for reading and good luck to us all!

Hiya, welcome to the forum. Sounds like you have a great plan

Hi I am 28 as well, althought last tiem I checked I am not male, LOL...anyway, you sound ambitious and have st your goals...I wish you good luck getitng there and if I can help let me know...

Thanks guys! I'm in day 3 now and so far so good!
Something I forgot to mention, I'm drinking a lot of water! 4 litres a day! I think there's a post outlining the benefits of drinking a lot but just in case you can't find it, here's mine:
-It acts as a coolant by regulating body temperature and helping remove heat through sweat,
-It helps lubricate joints and internal organs,
-It helps keep skin healthy and clear,
-It aids digestion,
-It helps flush waste materials out of the body (which you will produce a lot of when trying to burn fat),
-It helps the kidneys function correctly which means they don't have to rely on the liver for back up. The liver can then do a much more efficient job of breaking down fat,
-There's some evidence that drinking ice cold water can help burn calories as the body loses heat by warming it up so that it can be used which it then must generate to keep us warm.
-It helps cut back on water retention. Because you're constantly taking water in your body doesn't need to retain any as there's a steady supply. This can help with bloating as well.

Well, a few good reasons for pretending to be a fish there! The only bad one is that you'll be spending a lot of time in the bathroom! My way around this is to wear a 'man nappy'. You can find these on the internet relatively cheaply and are easy to use.
Only kidding!" (I had you going though!) The toilet trips become a little less frequent after the first week as your body becomes used to it and has gotten rid of most of it's retained water.
So, there's another one of my weapons in the war on fat! If anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

Oh, you got me with the man nappy!! LOL

Good to see your diary. Lots of luck.

Is that Icarus in your signature?

LOL. I was thinking, no way he just admitted to wearing a diaper!! LOL.

Your well on your way it is all alearning process and everyday is a new day...keep on going

Thanks for the comments! I've not had much time to devote to this diary but hopefully will be able to add to it tomorrow.
Felici, it's not Icarus I'm afraid! It's my football team (soccer if you're American!), Liverpool hoisting the European Cup in 2005! It helps inspire me!

LOL! Easy to see once you know! Great idea for inspiration too.

Thanks!
OK, here's a little more about my plan. I'll be doing 3 workouts a week. These are weights based as they'll help me build a little muscle as well as elevate my metabolic rate the whole day as my muscles recover. Also, that little bit extra muscle I'll have will use up more calories in normal day to day activities.
The exercises I'll be doing are:
Leg Press,
Dumbell Bench Press,
Reverse Crunch,
Lat Pulldown,
Military Press,
Twisting Ab Crunch,
Dumbell Curl,
Back Extension,
Tricep Pushdown,
Ab Crunch.
Then after 2 weeks I'll add a Leg Curl then, another 2 weeks later I'll be doing Seated Rows as well.

For each exercise I'll be doing just one set but will be doing it slowly, I'll take 5 seconds to lift the weight and 5 seconds to lower it. The weight I use will be one I can lift 8-12 times.
The reason I'm doing the exercises slowly is because then the muscle I'm working will be under stress for longer thus worked harder. Doing this means that my workouts will be more effective.
I'm only doing one set because there's really no evidence out there that suggests that doing more than one set brings any more benefits. It seems to be one of those myths that stubbornly won't go away! Also, because I know I only get one shot at each exercise I put more effort into it. If I let myself down I can't just redo it. I find that helps motivate me.
Well, I've done two workouts this week and, whilst the first one was a struggle to make it out of the gym alive, the second was a little easier as my body had become a little more used to it. When I can lift a weight 12 times, I bump it up to keep stressing my muscles. If I spend longer than a fortnight lifting a weight and still can't do 12 reps, I'll bump the weight up. As long as I do at least 8 reps I'm ok.
That's me then!

It sounds like you've done this sort of thing before. It's great to return to exercising isn't it?

It certainly is! I did this programme once before starting back in October and in 5 weeks lost 15lbs of fat! Needless to say I was pretty chuffed! Unfortunately though I started to suffer asthma attacks (I am asthmatic but hadn't had an attack in over 3 years) so had to stop.
At first I thought they'd just pass but eventually it got so bad I had to go to hospital where I found out I had a lung infection. By this time I'd lost a lot of my motivation without the buzz exercise gave me and weight had begun to creep back on and then Christmas came!
I ended up thinking it'd be better to start afresh in the New Year and that's where I am now!

It's so important to get yourself going again after those sort of setbacks. Congratulations on your new start!

Thanks! Gonna post my weight and bf% one week in tomorrow!

It's what we do, day by day that matters, but those results days are something to look forward to aren't they!