Glad to hear. Remember, weight loss is a function of energy balance. I don't want to scare you off by thinking you MUST count calories. Many would turn and run in the opposite direction. But if you think you can handle it, make it a habit, and live with it happily, you will be a lot better off in terms of adherance and goal accomplishments.

As for the gym, a couple of things, if I can remember your original post about what you are doing.

Start doing your cardio AFTER your weight training. Also, stop it with the high rep, isolation exercises. Do you know what I mean by this?

Ehh I don't know anything about high rep, isolation exercises.

Didn't you say you were doing like, 15 reps of curls and extensions?

Yeah...? So you mean that I should do weight training and then cardio. Then stop to use isolation equipment?

No, I am saying if you are going to do weight training and cardio in the same session, always do weight training before cardio.

And your weight training should be comprised of heavy (relative to your strength) compound lifts. The "heavy" will dictate a lower rep range, that being somewhere in the vacinity of 4-6. A few sets per exercise.

And very little, if any isolation work should be done. You can't build muscle while in a calorie deficit.

Oh okay I see. What would isolation work include?

Curls, tricep extensions, etc. Namely, exercises that involve one muscle group or joint.

Instead focus on compound exercises sush as bench press, rows, squats, deadlifts, OH presses, pullups/rows

Oh okay, thanks.

Steve that is some useful information...

Sorry to thread jack..

I am 27 started @ 272 and now 255. I workout M-S..30 min on the eliptical. Weight train 30-40 min, usually all the exercises you suggested, then a 30 min cool down on the bike. My question. I have been doing 8-10 reps a set. What are the advantages of more weight and less reps.. I thought I read that is a way to bulk up but not maintain lean muscle mass?? I have always been a bulkier stockier guy with big chest and shoulders, I want to be big but also maintain...what do you suggest??

I will answer this over in my journal, so we are not hijacking.

As I typed it, I figured shadow could use this as well, so here is the post I did in my journal:

If you are eating in a hypercaloric state, meaning above maintenance, this means you have excess energy. If things are set up properly, this excess energy can be utilized to facilitate muscle growth. The key to remember is, you need this excess energy. While dieting you don't have it. Rather, you have a diminished pool of energy.

In the hypercaloric state, you can afford to train intensely across the various rep ranges, which all btw, serve a specific function. Pure strength training (1-2) reps serves to facilitate CNS efficiency and improve motor unit recruitment and rate coding which simply means, you get stronger without hypertrophy (muscle growth). Than there is intensive training (4-6 reps) which serves to stimulate hypertrophy of the contractile components of your muscle. This is where you actually experience hypertrophy of your muscle fibers, giving you the solid look. Then there is extensive training (8-15 reps) which facilitates hypertrophy of the other components of the muscle (non-contractile components) such as sacroplasm, glycogen, etc.

You can break this down even further, but you get the idea. You can lift really heavy shit and get strong due to neural adaptations. You can lift mildly heavy shit and get strong and make your muscle grow. And you can lift relatively light shit and still trigger some growth, but this is minute.

While energy intake is high, I believe all of these forms of training serve an important function, and should be utilized.

While in a caloric deficit though, you need to be very wise with your choices. Remember, you are running on a low tank of fuel. Would you drive 30 miles out of the way if your "low fuel" light was on in your car? Probably not.

Same goes for training. The idea is to get in the gym, train briefly and efficiently using heavy weights. Reason being: You are not going to be building any new muscle due to the lack of calories. So weight lifting serves the function of muscle maintenance. The only thing you need to use if for is to ward off catabolism (muscle breakdown). By training heavy and efficiently, you send all the right biochemical signals to aid in muscle maintenance. If you were to go beyond this, and train like you were for anabolism (hypertrophy) without the right amount of fuel to aid this process, you would be doing more harm than good.

Lengthy, but I was due for an informational post. Follow me?

good luck with the gym! wish i had your motivation :P

That is such a good post -- it should be a stickie or something.

Thanks everyone.