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Old 07-08-2012, 02:24 PM
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johnnymac46 johnnymac46 is offline
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I'm 24, 6' 225LBS and in the military (currently overseas). My command goes to great lengths to keep us in shape, we have Nutritionists, Personal trainers, and a great gym. This of course is when I am home.

Anyone who has been or is in the military knows that fitness is peaks and valleys. When you are home and can eat right..You don't, when you are deployed and cant eat right...you wish you could.

As a few guys have said eating small meals throughout the day helps big time. Eating breakfast is one of the best things you can do for yourself, and a lot of people skip it because they "don't have time". The biggest thing is it gets your metabolism going, which makes you burn fat. You have to eat fat(good fat) to burn fat. When I'm home I eat 4-5 Meals a day. I am also Extremely active and put down about 4000-6000 calories a day to maintain my weight. I'm not a body builder but a 215 pound man in full body armor weighs at least 270lbs. I refuse to be the guy who cant get my buddy out of trouble.

Some misconceptions about working out are that more time in the gym is better, not the case. After 35-50 minutes your body is getting close to maxed out. I never run more than 5 miles (unless I'm told to). High intensity workouts are the way to go for general fitness. I have tried a lot of programs, from old school Arnold workouts, Big Beyond Belief, Crossfit, GymJones. I will say that I was in the best shape of my life when I was doing crossfit 3-4 times a week. You can do Crossfit in your garage, the workout of the day is posted on their website every morning. If you don't know the exercise you can Youtube it. Working out your large muscle groups (legs), also helps to release hormones that increase overall strength and fitness (I'm not talking about squatting 405 a million times either).

Working out with just your body weight is on of the best ways to get in great all around shape.

Remember when you are tracking your weight Loss/gain to weigh yourself at a similar time everyday, and your body will naturally flux 2-5lbs depending on the person.

As Todd said in the beginning write it down. I write everything down, Food intake, workouts, weight. It does pay off, and when you lose motivation you can flip back 2 months in your notebook and realize you have lost 10lbs and put 50lbs on your bench press.

I'll dig through some of the stuff I have and post up some good links for different "diets".

At the end of the day Diets don't work. Changing the way you eat/grocery shop helps. Next time you go to the grocery stay out of the Isles(where the processed food is) and stay on the outside where the coolers are(fresh food). Just doing that will make you drop some pounds.
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