Afternoon all, I'm looking to lose a fair amount of weight and get fitter at the same time. I'm 44, 5' 11" tall, weigh 16 stone 7 pounds and my frame is probably best described as 'medium'.

What I'm trying to achieve is a stable weight of around 11 to 11 1/2 stones. My legs, arms and shoulders are pretty good, but it's the usual story of all the bits in the middle that have gone south I'm afraid!

I deliver food cages to convenience stores for a living which involves driving to the store, unloading about 70 heavy cages a day, and loading the empty ones before returning to the depot. I'm burning a limited amount of calories but don't have much cardio-vascular activity.

I'm buying a racing bike and I'm joining a gym that's about a mile and a half away. What I want to achieve is the 11 odd stone weight, as flat a stomach as possible and conversion of man boobs to at least some chest muscle.

I'm mainly looking at cycling and swimming at the gym with a little weight work as well, and I'm going to try to go every other day.

What I really need is some idea what sort of daily calorie intake I should be aiming for, and how much cycling/swimming/weights exercise I need to do in each session to make a difference and achieve the outlined aims?

I don't have any medical conditions, so I can go for it to a degree. Any idea's please? Thanks in advance.......

Great forum, thanks for all the suggestions......

Hm ... I'm not sure why your post got overlooked. One thing about this forum is that the "unread posts" tends to reset when you hit refresh ... so sometimes new posts get lost. Also the volume on the board is pretty high, so sometimes things get missed. I know I check the board here 5 or 6 times a day and even so, I never saw this post originally.

Don't go away or be angry .. just bump the thread if you don't get a response.

First of all, I'd say at your current weight, you could probably lose safely and healthily at around 2500 calories. That would be my suggestion for a starting point and then you can tweak from there. Make sure that your diet is balanced between complex carbs, lean proteins, and healthy fats. Most people use a 40/30/30 split or something in that range - meaning that 40% of their calories come from carbs (grains, veggies, fruits), 30% of their calories come from lean proteins, and 30% of their calories come from healthy fats (olive oil, nuts and seeds, avocado, etc.).

An easy way to track your diet is to sign up with one of the free sites like thedailyplate.com or fitday.com. You can enter what you eat and it'll help you track calories and percentages.

As for exercise, I'm not an expert in that field - there are people here far more knowledgeable than I, but I'd say that you should probably work on doing some kind of weight lifting or body resistance training 2x to 3x a week and some form of cardio 2x or 3x a week. When you lift weights or do body weight training you want to give your body at least 24 hours of recovery time between workouts - better even 48 hours. What I do is alternate days ... a weight program on Monday and Thursday, and running or HIIT cardio on the off days.

Right now I'm using this program: StrongLifts 5×5 Beginner Strength Training Program | StrongLifts.com

And I'm also training to run a 5k using the Couch to 5K program: Cool Running :: The Couch-to-5K Running Plan

If you follow the link to my journal in my signature, you'll see that I've just started posting my meals, calories, and workouts on a regular basis. Starting a journal here, if you're so inclined can keep you accountable and give people a place to follow along with you and offer suggestions and advice.

Good luck.

I take it all back! Many thanks, I'll give it a go and report back.......

Hi there. I think it all boils down to your determination to lose all those excessive fats or extra pounds there in your belly if there is any lols.

As for me walking 10,000 steps daily what makes me keep going Then eating the right kind of food if there is such. Nonetheless, I must say I just avoid drinking sodas, cold drinks, beer, alcoholic beverages, and smoking. Through these I am losing quite few extra pounds as well with the aid of a *LINK REMOVED*also. Viola! I am in better shape now than ever.

As for yourself, you are the one who knows your body very well and what are your capable of.