Originally Posted by burnin_vernon
I can only speak on personal experience and what works for me. I am constantly reading health articles and with so many new studies and changing trend in diet and fitness, it makes my head spin. What's great today, seems not to be tomorrow.
I think if you have an endomorphic build and tend to carry the extra bodyfat, you have to do cardio every day, for at least 30 minutes. Don't do more than 30 minutes if you're doing high intensity intervals, and don't do intervals every day. Switch it up with some steady state. Otherwise, you will burn yourself out.
For resistance training, rest is equally important as the work. If you are training every body part with one exercise each in one day, take a day off before you do it again. As you advance, you will change this routine and maybe move up to 2-3 exercises per body part.
I prefer a 45/35/20 (carbs, protein,fat) diet for best results. Everyone will have a different strategy on this. I think you know what kinds of food you should be eating but if you have trouble tracking the macros, I recommend fitday.com It's a free site that tracks your diet and activity, and allows you to add custom food and exercises. Counting calories isn't for everybody, but I don't think you have to do it forever. Try tracking for the first month or so. You may be surprised the caloric content of some foods.
As for shakes, they are the easiest way to get protein. If you're trying to build some muscle (which is great for losing fat as well), you'll probably be shooting for about 1 gram of protein per pound of mass. That's a whole lot of chicken breasts to eat in one day so supplements are convenient.
You're clearly on the right track but you have to keep the dedication up. Listen to your body. If you're too tired all the time, you could be overdoing it, or not eating properly/enough. All you have to do is get to the gym. That's the hardest part. Once you're in, your body will take over and do all the work.
Don't undervalue water intake, sleep, and stretching. They seem insignificant but they make a massive difference in your performance and mental strength. I knew about water benefits for a long time, but only recently have tried to get more sleep and I've added yoga. Wish I would have done that years ago.
As for discouragement, don't look at the scale every day. Check it weekly or less because it can be deceiving. Even better, take body measurements instead. A smaller waistline is much more telling than what you see on the scale.
Now, go watch Pumping Iron and work on those poses!
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