Im 5ft 8 and around 85kg now. In the start of July, I weighed around 90kg, and I decided to sign up for a gym membership, I went almost everyday, to do a variety of cardio/weight lifting exercises, and by the start of September I had lost 6kg, making me 84kg. I felt this was an achievement, even though I didnt see much change myself, although many people said I has lost weight Now that college has started, I have to study hard since its my final year before I go University. However, this means I cannot go to the gym everyday, only on Sat+Sun mornings. Since then, I have put on 1kg, and my stretch marks on my belly are starting to appear, but only ever so slightly.

My question is, what can I do to make up not going to the gym on weekdays? At the moment I do 20 situps and 15 pushups every morning (only started last week), and i'm going to buy 20kg dumbells over the weekend (2x 10kg dumbells). Will this be enough to build/shape my muscles and burn the fat? My main goal is to have low body fat and shaped muscles..

I've read that your dietary habits make up around 80% of the equation of losing weight...but I feel that my diet is still poor, for example.

Breakfast
2 slices of toast with "cholesterol reducing" butter
Glass of plain semi skimmed milk
Chocolate cereal thing
Biscuit
Water

Lunch
Apple
Water
Biscuits

Dinner
Tropicana Orange Juice
Whatever mum makes eg today I had a Pizza :|
Water

At the moment im 17, and live at home so I cant go buying all these different foods and protein shakes etc for the house...but in University, I plan to go gymming everyday, and follow a recommend diet plan, which is healthy and balanced, in order to lose weight

You don't need a gym to exercise and get fit. There are a ton of good bodyweight exercises you can do ... and having the set of dumbells will help a lot. Try things like this:

squats
lunges
pushups
dips
stepups
presses

Also a set of resistance bands will add dozens of things that you can do as well and you can get them fairly cheaply at most department stores.

As far as your eating goes, it looks to me like you're not getting nearly enough food and very little of it is actually healthy. At your weight you could be eating around 1600-1800 calories a day and losing weight quite nicely.

Here are some suggestions.

Breakfast: 2 slices of toast is too much. 1 slice - preferably whole grain. The milk is good. Ditch the cereal - if you look at the ingredients you'll see it's pure sugar. Have a boiled egg or some yogurt instead. Or even have peanut butter or almond butter on your toast. You need more protein with your breakfast.

Lunch: An apple and water is just not enough - that's a snack, not a meal! You need to make sure you're getting protein with every meal. A salad with chicken or tuna or salmon is a great lunch.

Dinner: Fruit juice is wasted calories, IMO. It's solid sugar - even if it's fruit sugars. You're better off eating an orange than drinking a glass of orange juice. Realizing that you're at the mercy of what your mom makes, you can still make some suggestions or requests and ask her to work with you to make healthier meals. Pizza can be healthy - I make it at home all the time. But you have to make sure you can control your portions as well - 2 slices of pizza aren't so much a problem, but half a pizza is!

Read the sticky posts about eating and nutrition. There's a lot of good info there and you'll start to see how eating the right *kind* of food is as important as eating the right amount of food.

I agree with Kara, bodyweight exercises and a few dumbbells or kettlebells is all you need for a great workout. I still use my jump rope at home to fit in a quick cardio when I cannot go to the gym.

Eating more often can also help to increase caloric intake. I try to get 5 meals a day, each around 40/30/30 for carbs/protein/fat and 300 to 400 calories in total.

Hey, thanks Kara, you're so helpful on this forum! Ok, ive brought my dumbell, and have started working on biceps, shoulders and triceps! Also doing situps, pressups and crunches!

Right, about the diet;
Breakfast;
. 1 slice of toast w/ butter
. 1 omelette (made with egg, milk, salt)
. Glass of hot plain semi-skimmed milk

Lunch;
. Apple
. Water
. Cucumber, lettuce and cheese sandwich (homemade)

Dinner;
. Anything mum makes
. Water

*I cut out the savoury buscuits, because I read the back and they had a massive amount of calories and sugar...I was eating too much, and now I feel quite fat and wide(er) :|

Much better - although you still need some protein in with your lunch. Add some cheese or something like that to your sandwich, if you don't want to add meat.

For the exercises, the bicep/tricep exercises should be secondary to more complex movements.

Do things with your dumbbells like squats, lunges, presses, and rows. Those will work your biceps/triceps as part of a larger collection of mucles. After you've done those, if you still want to do curls or whatever, then go for it. But you need to get the compound exercises out of the way first. They're the most important.

Alright, I shall do so! Since I have no time for the gym due to studies, will doing squats, lunges etc help with reducing the beer belly and man boobs? Well, just reduce body fat in general?

Also another thing, shall I do high weight, low reps or high reps low weight... At the moment im doing 3 sets of 15 reps of 5kg

Thanks!

Body fat in general ... again you cannot spot lose.

To make it extremely simple:
low weight / high reps = cardio/muscle endurance
high weight / low reps = strength training and muscle maintenance

Which you do depends on what results you want.

ARGH! I did 30 dumbell squats w/ 4kg each arm! My thighs are killing me :| This makes lunges even harder

So what do you reccomend for burning body fat? Low rep/High weight or High rep/Low weight?

Right now im doing
25 dumbell squats 1x25 w/ 4kg dumbells on each arm
100 bicep curls 4x25 w/ 4kg dumbell on each arm
100 tricep arm extensions 4x25 w/ 4kg
40 shoulder lateral thingy 2x20 w/ 4kg
40 rows 2x20 w/ 4kg

Read the sticky post titled "The Conceptual Side of Weight Lifting". It'll answer most of the questions you have.

Your routine is extremely unbalanced. You really don't need 100 of anything, much less 100 bicep curls. If you can do 100 reps, then you're not stressing the muscle enough to maintain or build any mass or strength.

Thanks, I read it, and decided to go 15 reps, and 3 sets of 6.5kg, I can now feel that "worked out" feeling when I use my dumbells. Is there a proper way to do squats, are my thighs and calf muscles meant to hurt? Also, Lunges - I dont know how to do that properly and I keep losing balance

A week ago, I also started walking to and from college, in the morning, to college I have to walk up 2 steep inclines which does really get my heart pumping. After college, I walk down the hill. To and back from college takes 90 minutes (45mins each). Is that a big help in weight loss?

There is a proper way to do squats, there are links around this site I think, you can also google or youtube it to find people doing examples of squats. Same with lunges.
Your thighs and calf muscles will realistically hurt if you are new to doing it, and it may take a little time for them to get used to it..but after that your recovery time will be much faster and the pain will be less (as long as you are doing it right). A lot of times your muscles won't start hurting until a day or so after you work out..but that doesn't mean if your muscles don't hurt you aren't doing something right.
And yes your walking will help in burning calories which will help in weight loss if you are maintaining healthy eating patterns. I think I lost like 15-20 pounds when I first got into college just because of the terrain, and I wasn't even overweight back then. Didn't have a car and never took the bus..

Ok, ive tried my best to control my diet, and walk to/from college nearly everyday, and then do press-ups, crunches, lunges, squats, triceps, bicep curls in the evening etc... According to my weighing scale, im 80kg now, wheras I was 90kg in June... However, I look in the mirror, and I still have my extremely huge beer belly, breasts and love handles. I look fatter than before for some odd reason :|

Hi r3negade,

Just wanted to emphasize what others on this forum have said about doing cardio. It's important to do about 30 minutes of cardio (running, jogging, very brisk walking, skipping, swimming, etc.) at least every other day. This is how I have found I am losing the most weight, rather than lifting weights alone.

Btw, well done with the weight loss you have achieved so far. I am the same height as you but I weighed 101 kg when I started and am trying to get down to 75 kg. I have 22 kgs to go.

Take care

Its funny how weight loss affects an individuals perception of themself. I'va had the same feelings as you, where I dropped close to 30 pounds, but didn't see a change in the mirror. You need to understand that you see yourself daily, and the changes are going to be nearly as noticable as you think. There are a few recommendations to help you feel more positive about your achievement.

You can always start with an ol' fashion measuring tape and measure key areas (bust, weight, arms, neck, thighs, calves. As you lose weight, you will see these areas lean down, even though you won't see it in the mirrior.

Another option is to keep a photo journal with updates every 5-10 pounds. This is what I do, and I can ABSOLUTLY see the change in my face and chest.