[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by keenan87

BUMP (sorry for bring up an old thread)

I was looking for some advice and after reading through this thread, I came up with questions for myself and what might be beneficial for me.

Currently, I am 5'7 and weigh about 170 pounds and a lot of it is fat. I have a relatively active lifestyle as I try to play squash 3-4 times a week but the factor for me is the proper diet. My ideal weight is 145 pounds as I want to get rid of a lot of excess fat and build muscle as well.

First of all, I am not sure if I am over-doing the amount of exercise that I should be doing as my daily routine for the past week has been:

8:00 AM GYM - Before my classes
30 minutes on the bike, Hill+ (kind of like HIIT, with 1:1 minute ratio)
Weights for about another 20 minutes
Then, before bed I do 75 sit-ups and 3 sets of bicep curls (light 25 pound ones)

I have done this routine for 6 out of the past 7 days (Mon-Sat) and feel a little tired but something that I can handle. Is this too much, too little or am I doing it right? I also play soccer on my rest day for about 1 hour, but that is mostly because I love playing the game.

Secondly, I love fruits (something I will eat a lot) and know if I really focus I can take care of my diet but for building muscle, how important are protein shakes etc? I see a lot of people with shakes in their hands after a work-out and I am not really sure if it is necessary. I have decided on No fast food, pop or candy/chips, even though candy is going to be the toughest one for me.

Thirdly, I have always gotten mixed answers for this but is it necessary to pick different muscle groups everyday or can you just work them all everyday. Obviously, one muscle group won't be getting more attention than any others and I have been told that it is okay to just do everything when starting up.

I plan on losing 25 pounds in the next 3 months and I hope i can pull it off. Also, is there stuff that that has motivated other people as I know that results do not come in a day and that I need to keep working at it (I also heard that many people get discouraged for this reason and give up).

I'm just gonna comment on the bike portion of your workout.
If you're trying to lose weight/burn fat, doing HIIT may not be the best way to go about doing it, especially if you eat before hand.

If you're doing really high intensity, you'll definitely be in an anaerobic state, and when you're in that state, you're body will burn carbs first becasue it can't use fat fast enough to meet the energy demands.

If you want to try something a little different, you could try not eating until after your workout, and when you're on the bike try to stay in your aerobic zone. Good rule of thumb is that you should still be able to carry on a converstion (make it a good effort though).