I am fine with machines for a while, just until you get your body adapted to moving around resistance. After that though, I would suggest getting away from them, at least for the bulk of your exercises. I am a not a fan of MOST machines, since they lock you into a single plane of motion. Our bodies move in multiple planes of motion. By locking yourself into a single plane, you can easily cause microtraumas and chronic injuries.

Don't fret, this will not happen overnight. Just realize that things are going to have to change. There is absolutely nothing that matches the effectiveness of free weight exercises.

I would prefer you to move over to free weight exercises and stick with 1-3 sets of each at relatively high reps 10-20 for a few weeks so that you can work on form and learn the movements.

From here, we can move more into strength training.

How often are you going to the gym? I would recommend 2-3 sessions of full body workouts. Remember, the function of resistance training while dieting is simply to maintain the muscles that you have. That said, you don't have to do anything crazy in the gym in terms of volume, it is just to give your body a reason to hold onto it lean body mass.

It looked like you were not doing legs? How come?

And the drive home point here is this. Your nutrition is going to dictate how successful you are in terms of reaching your weight loss goals. The gym is just a small factor when compared to your nutritional set up.

oh i do legs too, i just feel like i know a little bit more of what to do with legs than arms, i am eating relatively well other than a couple minor slip ups lol, and i am going to the gym at least 5 times a week and do 35~45 min of cardio "eliptical with no arm movements or treadmill or bike" and 15~20 min strength training.

Well, I probably wouldn't recommend any direct arm work at this stage of the game. I would focus more on horizontal pressing movements, such as bench press for your chest; horizontal pulling movements, such as cable rows for your back; veritcal pressing movements, such as overhead presses for your shoulders; and vertical pulling movements, such as cable pulldowns for your lats.

HIIT may be difficult for you, I am unsure how much stamina you have developed with your current training protocal. However, if you are able, I would recommend fitting 1-2 sessions of HIIT in there. This can be done on the stationary bike.

Lastly, define "eating relatively well." All of this that I have told you so far means nothing unless you calories match your goals.

Well, Mr. Advice, I was just wondering how YOU are doing???

I have a Body By Jake weight bench with all the weights and bar, and everthing that goes with it.

I am doing quite well today. Countdown to first workout since my break in T minus 50 minutes. Can't wait!!

It is tough to train legs properly using the big, compound lifts at home without a rack. Do you have dumbbells?

What do you think about adding some HIIT into the program?

Thanks steve for your help, also i sent you a personal message and explained my "diet" your diary should be about your goals not mine!

I replied to your PM. Really, I keep a journal on another forum. It is a forum that is geared more toward body building. If I posted everything I do here, you guys would be like, "what the heck?" So I have no problem with people coming in to ask questions. That is pretty much what it has turned into, and I am OK with this. Go through the pages, you will see very little personal stuff posted about me.

Yes I have dumbbells and I'm ready to try what will work.

You slacker........

How'd your workout go Steve? Everytime I come off a little break my intensity increases my first day back.

I will try and post some vids of exercises I recommend tomorrow.

Workout went ok, could have been better. I am having some knee pain. However, I am always stronger after a break or a detraining cycle. That is the beauty of the supercompensation curve.

What forum would that be?