I am heading to Rehoboth Beach for annual family vacation on June 24th. I do not want to endure the embarrassment of one more summer looking like a bowling pin wearing swim trunks. I am currently 32 years old, 5’10" and approximately 230 lbs. My arms and legs look like those of someone at normal weight, but my belly, sides, and ahem mammaries need some serious trimming.
I don’t need to go out there looking like Arnie, or anything – just looking less bulbous is good enough for me. Anyone know a diet-and-exercise plan that can let me accomplish this by June 24th? I own a bicycle, a bench, and weights.
Any diet or exercise plan that promised you can “get in shape” in 40 days would probably not be healthy to pursue. You also won’t get the results you’re hoping for, and you’ll be stressed out the whole time.
Getting in shape is a slow, long-term endeavor that involves permanent changes in your lifestyle. It is achieved by eating better, eating less, and practicing a regular exercise routine. It won’t get you in 100% shape in 40 days, but you’ll see some small (but positive) results by then. If you stay on the diet and exercise program for the next 11 months (and hopefully forever), you’ll look *much *better for next year’s vacation.
Looks like the best thing you can do to prep for this year’s vacation is tan before you go!
If you’re going to be bulbous, you might as well be tan and bulbous. Fish-belly and bulbous or bright pink and bulbous are both probably not recommended.
And check it out, I don’t think I’ve very actually typed the word ‘bulbous’, and how I have 5 times in one post!
There may be some noticeable improvements. But who cares? My advice is to look to the long-term, not the short-term. Begin today by making permanent changes to your lifestyle in terms of what you eat, how much you eat, and exercising. Changes to your body will occur slowly. If the changes you make are truly permanent, you will look slightly better during this year’s vacation, significantly better during next year’s vacation, and a *lot *better two years from now.
Two miles!? You’re going to have to run a lot farther than that. Runners’ World suggests that per mile running you will burn [.75 x (your body weight)] calories. The good news is that at your weight you’ll burn ~170 cal/mile.
The bad news is that you have to burn 3500 calories to lose a pound, over 20 miles in your case. 30 lbs? That’s over 600 miles if you don’t start eating more.
The good news again is that it can be done! I was almost up to your weight at your age when I began running, and over about 18 months I lost 50 lbs (I went from 220 to 170). I could only run about 10-15 minutes at a stretch when I started. I’d increase my runs incrementally until, after 18 months, I staggered across a marathon finish line. Yay!
But I think you’ll be disappointed if you expect to get into top shape in less than two months. Make a long-term commitment, take it step-by-step, don’t give up and look forward to being in whatever shape you want by next June.
I think you can discourage yourself if you focus too much on the results. Focus on doing it everyday regardless, and after a very short time of trying to get into running you’ll start to get high from it, sleep better, be in a good mood all the time, generally feel good and you won’t have any trouble keeping it up whether you lose weight or not. Hard to believe, but you’ll start to like it for its own sake.
Sure, you’ll lose weight. You can lose between 5-10 pounds depending on your diet. You won’t be gaining any muscle. You’ll probably end up burning what little you have now, actually. Like Crafter_Man said, fitness is something that takes a long time. If you’re absolutely dedicated, perform well at the gym each and every day, eat flawlessly, and get enough rest between your routines, it’s still going to take you between 8-9 months before you have what most people would identify as a “good” body.
You have a body mass index of 33. Say you want to be at the edge of being overweight, 25BMI, that means 174 pounds. This represents a loss of 56 pounds or 196 000 calories. No healthy diet and exercise will get you there in 40 or 90 days.
Never mind the coming vacations, you can start losing weight now for future vacations. Losing weight will also be beneficial for non-vacation purposes.
First thing to do is cut refined sugar, especially drinks with refined sugar. Soda is the worst. Don’t have them around, they’re tempting. Personally, I use cough drops as a sort the carb equivalent of a Nicotine patch.
If you’re serious about Weight Watchers you lose about two pounds a week. Six weeks is almost twenty pounds. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but 20 pounds is around the threshold where people start to notice your weight loss in my experience.
Yeah, everyone is always focused on “how long will it take me to get to my goal weight?” but in my experience you start seeing benefits - both in how you look and how you feel - relatively quickly with any major diet/fitness effort, even if you’re nowhere near goal.
I appreciate all the comments so far, but maybe I could’ve been clearer in my OP.
I’m not looking to get in tip-top shape in 40 days. I’m looking to look better in 40 days. I could care less right now about strength, endurance, etc. This is a cosmetic thing more than anything else. I don’t need to look like a weightlifter. I’m only looking to not have my gut hang over my swim trunks.
If you Run 2 Miles a day like you said, do crunches, and consume 1500 well balanced calories a day, you will likely lose about 3 pounds per week, and look a little, but probably noticeably, trimmer by june 24th.
I agree with the advice above, that you should commit to long term lifestyle change. This short term goal could help kickstart bigger changes, I say go for it.
Stick to cardio workouts, long and slow. If you try to lift weights to get rid of your manboobs, you’ll end up bulking the muscle under the fat, making them look bigger.
Look up the South Beach diet. It focuses on good carbs and good fats and sharply limits processed food. The first phase gets you off to a quick start, and the next puts you on a more sustainable track that should show steady, noticeable results.
I would never recommend a fad diet, but I found the South Beach diet easy to stick to and I never felt shaky on it. In fact, I felt stronger than I had in years.
I will point out that your rate of actual weight loss may be somewhat slowed by increasing your physical activity if the activity is building muscle. I discovered this when I started running. THAT SAID, your goal is to look better, not to lose weight per se. So I would definitely do the physical activity, as that will help you look more toned and healthy, even if the scale doesn’t move as quickly.
