what's this?

[INspECtoR-71]

forcing myself to the gym now through the shit weather outside.

gotta shift those turkey pounds!

on a serious note, what's the best excercise for shifting love handles and toning lower stomach.

[INspECtoR-71]

glad i went now, feel good.

[c0rr0d3dm0nk33]

I always heard that sit ups are good for the lower body?

I could do with sorting out my stomach actually, my upper body is not bad now lol.

[=RAGE=]

do boxercise and step circuit. should shift all the extra you've gained over xmas. forget the weights m8 big waste of time unless you planning to build as well.

[INspECtoR-71]

the weights are just on the upper body to stop me wasting away. The majority is cardiovascular

[=RAGE=]

The majority is cardiovascular
yea boxercise is very good for that. i do recommend the step circuit aswell, if you can find an instructor who isn't scared to push you then you will appreciate it more.

[storm^phat]

sit-ups do jack! well thats not strictly true. If you imagine what you do when you train any other muscle the muscle repairs and gets bigger. So doing sit-ups - will make your abdominals bigger (great) :/

The most important thing before even looking at a gym would be your diet. Some good advice to follow. Stay clear of sugar and saturated fats. Eat plenty of vegatables, meat and fish. Keep carbs low - and I personally dont eat carbs after 3pm (as the body stores them as fat when u rest) Most people aren't active in the evening, so if u do gym after work I would say have a banana or piece of fruit at about 3pm then some protein pre and post workout.

I personally don't eat much bread as it takes along time to digest and is on the whole full of crap. Eat between 4-6 small meals a day, instead of 3 large ones (espec a large evening meal)

Once you have diet sorted out (i'm still tweaking mine now after about 3 months) i would get a decent fitness routine sorted out. i personally do 2 CV sessions a week lasting between 45mins and 1hour. Dont bother with situps! There is many exercises which will strengthen and tone the core muscles (abs included) Good ones to look out for are ones using the stability balls. Infact most of my free weights work out revolves around the core muscles. Instead of heading straight to the bench press - do a little bit of reading first, and think about what u want to acheive :]

so think about what ur eating first. if u put crap into ur body u will get crap results. Last 3 months i have acheived results i couldnt do before just by using a sensible diet. I dont even like to call it a diet think of it as starting to eat healthy!

abs are made in the kitchen NOT in the gym :]

good luck xx

[Dillinger-]

sounds like bollocks to me ph1l??

[storm^phat]

thats why ur a f4t c un7 r0y :]

[Dilbert]

Agree with a lot of what Phat says but yah have to be careful cutting your carbs back if your activity levels are high.

If your looking for minimum effort to maximum body shape then low carbs will get yah there but if your also looking to improve your fitness say by doing quite a bit of cv (running, xtrainer, rowing etc) then your likely to need more carbs otherwise your gonna start to feel lethargic and not be able to push yah self when you do workout.

Ive bought/read quite a few books over the last year and also trawled the internet in the search for good quality information and the 2 best books I have bought/read are Anita Bean's - Fitness on a Plate and Matt Roberts - Fitness for Life..... both of these are great resources for anyone who is looking to lose weight, get fit, improve their physique etc.

[InkZ]

Phat is pretty much spot on, but the carbs are related to your exercise routine. Carbs late at night = bad.

I still like toast and potatoes, but I've stopped eating bread with meals.

Steer away from saturated fats, they are no use to your body at all, they just go on as fat. Learn the diff between healthy fats (like in milk) and saturated fats (like in fast food).

You will never have a six pack unless you are under 10% body fat. Training your stomach muscles can actually make you look fatter because if your muscle grows, it pushes the layer of fat out, so personally, unless you're going to sort out a strict diet, don't bother is my advice.

Muscle burns calories throughout the day. The more muscle you have, the more fat you will burn without doing anything. If you have a good weight training program, it's actually a good way to loose fat. Get yourself a set of calipers to measure your progress as well, with no indication of progress you may as well give up now.

Also you can't loose more than 2lb a week of fat, anything more is just water.

Try to do your cardio on seperate days from your weights. I have a routine like this: monday - kickboxing, tues - weights, wed - kickboxing, thurs - weights then I do a final day of weights on whichever day I can be assed.

Would be nice to get some more options for weight routines as well, I'm a bit bored of my 3 day split, I've been doing it for about 3 month now.

Get some whey protein supplement as well, and just take one within 30mins of your workout as this is the time you will best absorb the protein to repair the muscle you damaged in training.

Try to get the rest of your protien from meat and fish rather than overdosing on supplements.

[storm^phat]

nice advice inkz

[{{INX}}]

Some good advise here, i have joined a few gyms over the last 10 years, concerntrated on free weights for a while which was great for the legs,arms and upper body but did nothing for the old gut :( started doing alot of cardio work while ago which did help but as others said its down to the diet. I have no problems with cutting crap out of my diet but i need guidance with what to eat, cos i have been given loads of times, lists with healthy eating guides for one week, but because i not good with coming up with food ideas i cant eat the same menu every week. Does anyone have say a healthy eating menu for one month to give me more of an idea? my main problem i know is like many others my life is hectic with busy work schedule and 2 nutty kids the easy solution at work in the morning and lunchtime is to grab a sarnie which i want to avoid cos bread is not good on the digestive system as it turns into a sticky paste inside you and over time parts of this paste sticks to your insides giving you a slow digestive system (same as cereal does).

Would be great if some peeps could post some menu ideas here to help others.

[[KIA]Rapt0r]

Steer away from saturated fats, they are no use to your body at all, they just go on as fat. Learn the diff between healthy fats (like in milk) and saturated fats (like in fast food).




apparently, 1890 was the year that they started recording cardiovascular disease, they concluded that it was saturated fats are what cause heart disease and clogged arteries, diets since then have become based more on trans fats and refined sugars (which were not known in the time that saturated fats were blamed)

this incorrect conclusion has, over the years, increased the chance of getting cardiovascular disease by 13700%

Saturated fats on a moderate level are good for health because they increase testosterone (the healthy hormone (main hormone for protein synthesis)) which is why they said on the news that chocolate is good for the heart

apparently

/edit: i had other facts on this but cnat remember, prolly sounds pretty incomplete

[INspECtoR-71]

Ordered the Anita Bean, will see how it goes.

[[KIA]Rapt0r]

and also remember, you cant spot reduce fat... your fat is like your bodies climate, it changes on a whole