Seriously dude, you need to get in the habit of doing things right. High or not.
I used to be 337lbs.. In the last 10 months, I've lost over 70 pounds and have gained a shit ton of muscle. I now body build.
I can't tell you what you need to do, but I can tell you what I did, and I can tell you what works universally for everyone in the world.
First what I did:
Stopped eating junk. Simply said, hard to do. Most the junk we eat has way more calories than healthy foods. For example, one slice of pizza is around 300 calories or maybe even more. That's insane, you're just forcing yourself to eat more than you need..
Started planning my meals. Usually we eat junk because we haven't eaten for a while, and when we want something to eat, we opt for something quick and easy. Usually it's junk, chips, pizza, mcdonalds etc...
By planning your meals out and the times you eat them, you break the habbit of just grabbing some junk quick to hold you over. You can better control the amount of calories you intake in a day. You can pay more attention to the QUALITY of the food you're eating..
Eat more, Smaller meals. Just like it says, Eat more meals, that are smaller. I eat 5 - 6 times a day, but much smaller meals than you would eat if it was 3 times a day.. In fact, I'm eating a small bowl of oatmeal right now.
Eat lots of protein! I eat an ass load of protein, protein breaks down in your body to amino acids, the building blocks of growth. A high protein diet helps build muscle, while burning fat at an accelerated rate.
I keep active, I go to the gym 5 days a week, but even just 3 times a week will give you good results. I personally go to the gym 5 days a week 2 hours a day. I don't do much cardio because I am weight training. Ususally a 5 min warm up and a 5 - 10 min cool down on the treadmill.
Supplementation, I take supplements. It's hard to get a good amount of good protein in your diet without going over you caloric intake limit and/or getting a bunch of other crap with it. A good high quality whey isolate protein powder is recommended. The one I take is 30 grams of protein for just 120 calories. And it tastes great! I also take a pre workout supplement 25 - 20 mins before I go to the gym. This gives me a shit ton of energy and provides my body with a bunch of beneficial supplements to help maximize my workout.
Now, what will work for EVERYONE:
Watch what you eat. Calories must be counted, even loosely. Use an online Caloric intake calculator, it will ask you your age, weight and height. Then will tell you what your daily caloric intake should be. The amount it gives you will be the amount you eat in a day. If you eat this number exactly, you will stay the exact same weight. In order to loose weight, you need to stay under this number, if you exercise you will burn calories, thus dropping your daily intake number, the lower you can get your daily caloric intake, the faster you will loose weight. But don't go overboard, Starving yourself is not healthy, I run a 300 - 500 calorie deficit. I eat 300 - 500 calories less than the recommended amount. Then I work out for 2 hours at the gym, burning a ton more calories. You could loose weight without going to the gym, just by staying under your daily recommended intake but you will loose weight much faster if you both run a calorie intake deficit and go to the gym and burn some off.
Eat the right food, Stay away from excessive carbs, some carbs is ok, and even required. But don't get it from crap sources.. I know it sucks, but the crap foods are always the best tasting ones. The rule is almost true, if it tastes good, spit it out! But there are exceptions.. Some food that is good for you does taste good too.. You want to eat foods that are more high in protein, and low in fats, carbs and sugars.
Here is a list of good foods:
Chicken
Turkey
Fish
Eggs
All vegetables
All fruits
Cottage cheese (low fat or dry curd)
Tofu
Nuts (in moderate amounts)
whole grains
There are many more, these are just a few of my favorites, of course all your spices and herbs are ok too.
Some foods you shouldn't be eating:
Bread
Sugar
Prepackaged junk foods (chips, candy bars etc..)
Potatoes
McDonalds (wendys, Sonic, Taco bell, KFC etc..)
Beef
Pork
Noodles
Again, there are a lot more to this list, but these are some of the main ones we eat regularly.
Basically stay away from anything that's high in sugar, fat or carbs. and of course anything high in calories.
Drink LOTS of water.. A good rule of thumb is Half your body weight in pounds, in ounces of water. For Example:
You weigh 200 lbs, half your weight is 100lbs. Drink 100 ounces of water a day.
Drink a full glass of water before you eat a meal. Drink another full glass after you eat.
This will both keep your brain from thinking your hungry, and get your metabolism working faster, helping you burn off your calories faster.
Eat many small meals. 5 - 6 meals a day.. This will keep you full and keep your metabolism kicking.. It doesn't matter how many calories you eat in what meals, but the total has to equal of come under your target caloric intake per day.. If the calculator you use tells you your daily caloric intake should be 2500 calories per day, and you want to run a 400 calorie deficit to loose weight faster, that equals 2100 calories per day. The way I usually do it is, I eat 5 meals a day. 2100 / 5 = 420 calories per meal. Adjust the calories and meals per day as you need to.
Eat lots of protein, for reasons stated above, proteins should make up a majority of your caloric intake.. This is why most people that are working out and loosing weight use a protein supplement. It is hard to get the amount of protein you need just by eating chicken fish and eggs all day
A good rule of thumb is Half your body weight in pounds, in grams of protein. For example:
You weight 200 pounds, half of that is 100 pounds, that is 100 grams of protein per day. For instance, a hard boiled egg has 80 calories, and 6 grams of protein. So you see, it can be hard to get the amount of protein you need just from you food alone. So supplements are great, the protein shakes I take are 27 grams of protein for 110 calories, And they taste great!
Workout Regularly. A workout doesn't have to be like mine (lifting super heavy weights for hours a day) It can be as simple as a 30 min walk every night. Or a nice bike ride. Or a brisk walk on a treadmill.. Obviously the more intense your workout, the more calories you burn.. When I first started at 337 pounds, I couldn't jog, I couldn't bike very far or fast, I couldn't lift much weight. I started with fast walks, 25 - 30 mins a night while listening to audio books and podcasts.. After a month, I was jogging is spurts, jog for 30 secs, walk for 2 mins, repeat.. Slowly I upped the time spent jogging till I could jog for a min straight then rest for 2 mins and repeat till the half hour was up. Then I got a gym pass. I started lifting weights with a friend, Low weights low reps, I was weak.. After a few months the weight I could lift was doubled! Now it's tripled. Start off slow and light, no matter what you choose to do to burn your calories. Then work up to a higher amount..
Work out with a friend, It is much better if you can find a friend to go for walks, jogs, bike rides or to the gym with. You can motivate each other, and push each other specially on those days when one of you just doesn't want to go. And if one of you does punk out a day, you can hold it over his head and point out how you didn't wimp out and how your dedication is better than his. It will make you feel better about yourself and make him want to do better than you, a little friendly competition is healthy! But don't let it get out of hand, the point is to be there for each other. You don't want it to get to him vrs you.
At the Gym, don't be afraid to talk to people, mix it up. Generally people in the gym are nice and helpful they have no problems giving you pointers and advice. It's quite nice to go to the gym, knowing you have a bunch of friends there that you see all the time. I look forward to going to the gym every day, I get to see some of my friends, share stories and we all get to compliment each other on out progress. The gym has very much become a part of my life. I don't know what I would do if I didn't go..
Weight yourself regularly and take pictures. Every 3 or 4 days weight yourself, and keep a journal. I use bodybuilding.com. They have a great forum and "bodyspace" journal for you to track your progress. Every month, take a picture of yourself, with your shirt off, in the mirror. You see yourself every day. You don't notice the changes in yourself. Looking at a journal with your weight dropping like NASDAQ in the stock market is fucking awesome! It's gratification at it's best! Also looking at pictures of what you used to look like vrs what you look like now. Is Awesome..
Stay positive. It's hard at first to keep with the program, results are never come as fast as you want them to, and you are going to fuck up. Don't let it get to you, learn from your mistakes and keep your vision. You have a goal and you have to maintain it. Once you're in far enough, it's a life style and there is nothing you can do to fuck it up.. Once a month or 2 passes and you look at your journals and before and after pictures, you'll be in to deep. You'll be hooked.
And the hardest thing of all for most people. Weed and beer.. Weed is great, I mean it's fucking awesome. But it kills your motivation, and it gives you the munchies.. For the first month, just as a kick start, don't smoke any weed till you're done your workout. After, smoke, but not a shit ton, and follow your plan! do not deviate from your meal plans. Drink Lots of water, munch on celery and apples and carrots.. Not Chips and pop and chocolate bars.. And finally Beer, beer is the worst of them all.. It's full of carbs, the alcohol inhibits muscle growth and kills your metabolism.. It screws up your will power and fucks your decision making ability. Carbs turn to sugar and fat in your system, drinking a beer is the same as drinking a can of coke. That's why people get "beer belly". If you have to drink, drink wine or hard alcohol with sugar free mix. And only drink one or two, even one or two is bad for you, but not as bad as getting drunk. I personally stopped smoking weed and drinking all together, I don't even smoke weed now, But soon I'll get back to smoking it, in a vaporizer, onec and a while, after a workout, before bed. And that's it. But that's just me..
Do what you want, try all of these and work your own system out. Different things work differently for different people. Some need to drink more water, some need more protein, some work beer in to a meal plan, some smoke pot just before they get to the gym (I don't know how the stay motivated). No one way is the right way for everyone. But these guidelines will work for everyone, you may just have to tweak things here and there to make it right for you. Start off slow, don't jump in over your head right off that bad, this is the best way to fail. If you get in over your head, you'll just give up and never do it again. Start off easy and work up to it..
Hope this helps man, and anyone else interested.. If you have any questions or want advice/help. Give me a PM. I would love to hear from you.
-Tym
Edit: Added some pictures..
View attachment 1320716View attachment 1320717View attachment 1320718
