Hi everybody, I'm new here, and I was hoping you could help me out with some weight loss/exercise questions I have, and maybe guide me on my quest to drop fat and, ultimately, have a fit, healthy body!

Here's my story. First off, I'm a guy. When I first decided I needed to lose weight, I was 290 pounds (I'm 6'1" tall). That was a little over four months ago. Now, I weigh about 253. My target, which I'm hoping to reach by (or before) New Year's Day 2009, is 220. At that point, I'll step back and decide my next course of action.

I started going to the gym on April 1, 2008 (which means that quite a few people thought it was just an April Fool's joke...). I typically go 5-6 days a week, for at least an hour a day, usually a bit more. I usually do about 50 minutes of cardio, then do 3 sets of 15 reps at a challenging, but not impossible, weight on four different weight machines--of course, varying the body part(s) I target each day. As for the cardio, to keep things interesting, I do 12-13 minutes each on the treadmill, upright bike, treadmill (again), then recumbent bike. My heart rate is usually around 130-140 or so for most of this time, occasionally peaking at about 155-160 during the most strenuous times. I set the machines to the "Alpine Pass" program which varies the workout between fairly strenuous and relatively "easy" intervals. I also try to stay well-hydrated, especially when I work out.

When I started going to the gym, I also started watching my diet. I've been keeping a diet journal and counting calories, aiming to limit myself to 2,000 calories per day. I do admit I'm not taking in as many vegetables as I should, but generally, my diet is pretty balanced, includes a lot of whole grains, fish, poultry, fruit, low-fat dairy, a decent dose of healthy fats, and very few of the high-fat and high-sugar foods I used to love to gorge myself on.

Now, onto the real meat of this post...Though the weight loss was going well for about four months, I've suddenly found myself stuck at 253 for about a week and a half now. I've hit plateaus before, but this is the most challenging one I've faced. So, I decided to start looking around online to see what I could do to sort of shock myself back into losing weight. I thought, cut back on cardio and increase weight training? Conversely, cut weight training altogether and just do cardio? Do other, different types of cardio? Switch to free weights? Suffice to say, I'm more confused now than when I went looking for help. I'm really hoping I can get some advice on what might work best for me to get me back on the track to reaching my target weight!

A week and a half isn't a plateau. Keep on keeping on.

A week and a half isn't quite a plateau but it may be time to change up your exercise routine if you have been doing the same thing since April, and I would suggest less cardio and more weights if you make the change.

I know a week and a half is just pocket change, but if my routine is for any reason becoming less effective, I want to change things up before I find myself stuck at the same weight for a month. I'm just not sure how to change things up. Now, formerfatkid suggests less cardio and more weights, which is certainly a path I have considered taking--I have also read, however, that you should focus on either losing fat, or gaining muscle; not try to do both at once. My knowledge on this subject is fairly limited, though; can anyone shed a little light on that for me? Is more weights, less cardio really the key to losing fat?

More weights and less cardio will likely preserve your lean mass better, even if you lose weight more slowly due to smaller caloric deficit.

You can lose fat and gain muscle simultaneously.

The key is to create synergy with your food intake with a quality exercise training program.

I suggest getting a free account at Fit Day. Fit day dot com. This is a free online food journal that will allow you to monitor your food intake and your calorie consumption. For someone starting out with monitoring food intake I would suggest a macronutrient distribution of 40% carbs, 40% protein, 20% fat for the day. Plus you must also cause a calorie deficit and I suggest a range of 2200 to 2400 to start.

Regarding exercise, I suggest taking some time off from the time consuming cardio and turn to interval training- alternating high intensity periods with low intensity recovery. If you have never done this before start with a 5 minute warm up then perform 30 seconds at a fast pace, then recover for 90 seconds and do 3-5 rounds of this until you get more accustomed to the stress.

With weight training, perhaps trying some different moves with heavier weight will help you out. You said you were performing 3 sets of 15 reps. How about trying a circuit of 4 sets of 8-10 reps. A circuit like this will be pretty metabolically demanding:

Squats
Incline Dumbbell Press
Dumbbell Step ups
Seated Rows

Perform one set of 8-10 reps then move to the next exercise without a scheduled rest. Once completed all four exercises, rest for 60-90 seconds. This will give you the rest you need provided the reps are performed in a controlled manner (not racing through them). This is just one suggestion of many that I'm sure you will get, but this worked wonders for me and losing body fat, and it has worked wonders for my clients as well.

Very nice, thanks for all that info.

The focusing on losing weight or gaining muscle has solely to do with lowering your calorie intake to lose weight or upping it with a combo of weight training to gain muscle.

Basically you can't buff up like arnold while at the same time trying to drop 60 pounds.

You switch up the exercises your doing, that helps your body from adapting to it easily (so I've read I'm admittingly no expert.) Maybe try switching up the intensity?

I would try those things before dropping calories seeing where you are at.

Are you sure about that?

Losing Fat = Calorie Defecit
Gaining Muscle Mass = Calorie Surplus

So how can you do them simultaneously?

Steve Turano gives the best explanation of how you can lose body fat while gaining muscle...I can't post a link because I don't have 15 posts to my name here yet, but if you search for 202 Gain Muscle Lose Fat on Youtube you can watch his video explaining it.

Anyway, thanks for all the help and info, everyone; I'm keeping my calorie intake at 2,000 per day, and I've changed up my workout to incorporate more weight training and higher-intensity cardio. So far I haven't dropped any more poundage, but I feel like I'm getting a better workout and I would guess that my body fat percentage will be dropping even if my weight doesn't. We'll see how it goes!

Jeffisbig might be onto something - maybe it's not so much a change in your routine (since you are already doing a little of everything) but a change in the intensity of your routine. Maye you've just come to a point, after working out 5 days a week for almost 5 months, that your body is becoming more accustomed to your workout and your stamina has improved. Try increasing the speed on the treadmill or the resistance on the eliptical, etc.

Best of luck to you!