Health & Fitness New Years Resolution?

@deardrops Great to hear you're taking the challenge! I've been in the fitness game for 6+ years and I have some advice that could probably save you a lot of time and money. 90% of your progress is going to come from your diet, 5% from your training and 5% from rest. All you need to know about diet: -Meet your daily calorie intake (you DO NOT have to eat 8 small meals a day, that's bogus. Personally, I intermittent fast. -Eat .7 grams of protein per pound of body weight -DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON PROTEIN SHAKES (unless it is literally impossible for you to eat your daily protein requirement which shouldn't be difficult) -Eat a lot of leafy green vegetables (kale, broccoli, spinach, etc.) -Get some good carbs (beans, potatoes, oatmeal, etc.) -DRINK ALOT OF WATER. All day, everyday. As for training, I do splits. My sets per exercise are usually 3-4 sets and for my reps I'll run between 6-15 reps. My schedule looks like this: Monday (legs): Back squats or front squats, leg press, barbell lunges, leg extension, leg curl, calf raises. Tuesday ( back, biceps, abs): Pull ups, lat pulldowns, back extension, single arm preacher bicep curl, cable bicep curls, reverse cable fly, decline weighted sit ups. Wednesday (chest, shoulder, tricep): Barbell or dumbbell bench press, incline dumbbell or barbell bench press, dumbbell shoulder press, decline chest fly, tricep skull crushers, tricep dips, tricep cable extensions. I repeat this schedule through thursday, friday and saturday then rest on sunday. You are going to want to make sure you are getting 7 to 8 hours a sleep every night so your body has plenty of time to build muscle! I have spent thousands of dollars on supplements and guess what? All of it is a scam. No fitness supplement is evaluated for safety or effectiveness by the FDA. They could literally take powdered sugar and put it in a bottle and tell you it will make you ripped out of your mind. If I were to recommend anything it would be creatine and a pre workout because the creatine has actually been thoroughly researched and I can actually tell a difference when I take it. And the pre workout helps give me a boost in the gym when I am mentally drained after I get off work which is when I workout. Don't waste your money on BCCA's, glutamine, protein powders, multivitamins or anything else unless a doctor tells you that you have a deficiency and require supplementation from a multivitamin. And don't be afraid to switch up your routines so you keep your body guessing and you don't get bored. Hope this helps :D

@wingeater DUDE YES THANK YOU VERY MUCH Damn man. Definitely going to try and work around that! Really do appreciate your input on it all - very detailed n' truly, just what I needed. Has what I needed on diet, exercise AND time management ^^ Got you on the supplements. Looking forward to the progress that I'll make in about a year :) I'll keep at it. This is exciting - in the long term, accomplishing this is going to feel great.

I recommend anyone starting out bodybuilding to look into Rippletoe's Starting strength. It's pretty much the entryway into lifting for guys (and gals) who've never done it before. It's a program for beginners that's very effective in building muscle. You just have to be willing to eat. Alternatively if general fitness is your goal, and you don't want to go to the gym, try P90X and other programs by beachbody. I used to weigh 280+ and did P90X and a few other programs from that company and lost over 100lbs and built a good fitness baseline. From there I started going to the gym and really lifting. There's nothing "magical" about the programs, but they do encourage consistency and make things easy; and really ease of use and consistency are the major deterrents to most people when trying to lose weight/gain muscle from their exercise program.

@wingeater Useful info, man. I'm trying to make the final push for a six pack this year, but have really been struggling with the diet half. Ugh, vegetables. Always hated them. For me, I use that good-tasting banana flavored muscle milk protein powder to make smoothies with vegetables so I can mask their crap flavor when I drink them. I don't use protein powder every day, just on days where I know I'm going to be behind on protein. For smoothies, I suggest using dates, mixed fruit, Greek yogurt, some almonds and walnuts, and whatever vegetable you want to mask. For me, the best vegetable is the one I can't taste, so I always go for the smoothie if I can.

@wingeater Most of that stuff is filler. It has the minimal amount of suppliments, but most of it is empty carbs. But it's a good way for anyone to get rich quick.... heh. Only one that got FDA tested was Alli but I think you really are required to bring a change of pants if you do it. Obvious reasons.

Anyway, another good tip for anyone exercising is to eat the right foods that focus on a specific part of your body. Think of it as actual stats for a game, like lean red meats will help you build muscle up top but being top heavy you aren't built to run fast. Something like chicken or fish would be something good for a run, while nuts are a good non-meat source of protien. Little packets of those salads in the supermarket are only like a dollar each so (romaine, not iceburg) that's a good few servings of veggies right there. Just don't pile on too much extras like dressing, cheese, bacon, croutons, etc... My running meal usually consists of a baked or seared salmon drizzled in olive oil with some garlic, salt/pepper, and lemon with some avacado slices on top with a side of boiled sweet potatoes. Something that simple got me through my sports/health cooking lab class. And if you really need soda in your life, invest in a soda stream and limit what you drink. Those have about 100 less calories than the canned stuff, plus you can control how much flavoring goes in it to watch sugar intake. But you really should be drinking (not from concentrate) juice anyway...