just asking for some advice

[mjh]

Hi all, new here, just wanted to ask for some advice as ive been getting a lot of conflicting info

ok so i wanna lose weight, i got back from uni about 4 or 5 months ago and i was 13 stones and 12lbs (194lbs) (i'm 5'10 btw) and through cardio (mostly an excersize bike) and some light weights (i only have dumbells) ive managed to get down to 13 stones (182lbs) exactly, and ive put a bit of muslce on.

I use to do an hour a day on the bike, which, acording to the bike burnt about 750 cals a day, and ive started eating pretty well (not as well as the stuff here recomends, but much better than before) i also did 20 mins or so of weights 5 times a week, this worked, just it took ages, and i also read that doing an hour on a bike is more likely to burn muscle, and not fat, so, like a week ago i started doing 20 or 30 mins of intense work on the bike a day, and more weights, as apparently that will burn more fat than muscle. Since i switched to the less work but more intense plan, ive put on 2lbs (which i think/hope is down to doing more weights)

anyway, i wanna get down to about 12 stones (168lbs) idealy, i dont wanna become a beast or chase stats or anything, just wanna get down to a heathy size, plus i can tell if i shift this last stone ill have a good base to build on if i want to, so yeah i just wanna ask you kind people which way (if any) is best, and what else can i be doing, as ive spoken to a good few people who each seem to understand this diffrenty, anyway, any help will be awesome

cheers

[itsbruce]

Controlling your diet is the best way to lose the weight. Exercise and strength training can help you keep the weight off, partly because they help create a disciplined routine and that feeds back to eating habits, partly because they provide incentives and rewards for persistence (which again helps with the diet). But what you eat is the most important thing; an overweight individual can lose dozens of pounds with diet alone and no exercise but they won't achieve a thing by exercising with no change to diet.

If the weight loss is your primary goal, then SL5x5 may well not be for you, unless you have found that you can't reduce your weight any more by what you have tried so far, in which case it may provide a structure that works for you. But weight loss is not what SL5x5 is designed for; most people who lose weight via SL5x5 do so because they were significantly overweight and the diet changes and discipline necessary for the program, together with the incentives it gives via clear progress, helped them observe a discipline which they couldn't manage without that structure.

You are not significantly overweight, so any weight loss through SL5x5 is likely require some patience, unless you also go on a calorie deficit diet which risks undercutting the program (and reducing its incentives and rewards). If that's OK with you, go for the program - it'll make you feel so good about yourself, you will actually care much less about the last few pounds.

[onilink]

cheers for the info

yeah i know the reading on the scales doesn't mean much considering weight changes over the day, but i can tell that if i lose this last bit of fat ill look pretty good, so its just getting on with it, i posted mainly cos i was concerned if i was doing the type of cardio that burns muscle and not fat, as ive found a few sources that say this happens by doing cardio for long periods of time, which is why i switched to intense cardio in bursts. I think 5 months is quite slow to lose a stone, so i was just asking for any tips really, though your info was very informative, and im gonna try and improve my diet even more.