Hi all!

well I just joined up as I started training officially yesterday (half heartedly before that...)

I'm getting married in October and I want to get back in shape. The honeymoon is my prime motivator: I'm 32 5'6" @200lbs (14 st 6 for the fellow brits) large beer gut, love handles and moobs...
The thing is I don't have a target weight. My objective is to lose the belly and the moobs so the people sharing the deck of the cruise ship won't lose thier lunch if my t-shirt comes off......

I've put in a target of 160 (or 40 lbs to lose) but I'm not sure if this is realistic or not either from a time perspective or if the weight implies what i'm looking for.

my frame is reasonably large for my height, so even if i achieve the belly etc, i'll probably still be quite stocky.

what do you guys think?

BTW, I have a progress blog to chart where i am so far

Thanks!
Al

40 pounds might be a bit much, but I'm sure you can make great strides between now and October. You have to be extremely strict with your diet and be sure to have a consistent workout regiment going. You should see some significant results by the time your cruise rolls around. Keep us updated on your progress and good luck!

I'm not entirely sure if 160 lbs is a correct target weight period. (that's really what my Q was, what *should* I be aiming for a) overall and b) for October.)
Is the realistic average still 2lbs a week? if so that's 17 weeks (ish) @ 2lbs per wk is just over 30 lbs (allowing for off days/weeks)

so maybe 170-175 or 25-30lb loss.

in real terms, is that still realistic for losing a (not in-substantial) paunch?

Cheers!

Hi Alistair,
40 pounds is actually a perfect goal for you. Your adjusted ideal body weight (a more realistic goal) is 160.5#. You're right - 2#/week is a more realistic goal for October but don't let it stop there! Keep active on your honeymoon and it will keep coming off. Cruise ships are great - they have gyms and lots of opportunity to get in a good workout. I know its your honeymoon, but a quick am workout before your day starts is perfect. And i'm sure you'll be doing a lot of walking when touring the ports you visit. Cruises definitely have a reputation for having tons of food - but they have tons of good food too, lots of salad, veggies, and fruit that you can fill up on instead of the junk.
Good Luck and congrats on the wedding!

Ok, I just checked an ideal weight calculator thingy, and my range is 124-156 lbs so i was quite close with my guestimate of 160 lbs, just not for the time scale.

so my new goal is: 175 for the honeymoon, and 160 by new year (That's going to be difficult! the honeymoon cruise and birthday in between is going to seriously cause me problems! LOL)

Lol! crossed posts there Elicia. thanks!
I certainly don't intend to stop now i've started. I've been sat on my @55 for far too long and yesterdays run felt really great.

I'm hoping to make use of a staff discount on a gym soon (the person i have to see is away for a while...) but i want to be sure i'll get my moneys worth before signing up to that - i.e. I have a minimal level of fitness to make good use of it.

I hadn't discounted the availability of sports facilities on cruise ships, and the one we're taking is HUGE and quite new, so i'm sure i won't be disappointed

First of all, this doesn't make any sense. It's up to you to get your money's worth at the gym, and it does not depend at all on your fitness level. If you go in there 3-5 days a week and push yourself HARD every time, then you're making the most out of your membership investment no matter your level of fitness. Physical exertion and exhaustion are completely relative since no one has the exact same fitness level and/or physical abilities.

Second of all, what EXACTLY are your goals? You say that you want to lose XX amount of weight, but do you want to put on some muscle mass? If so, you should throw in some weight training in the mix. However, this would preclude you from attaining your weight goal because adding muscle will increase your body weight. Or do you simply want to stick to aerobic and/or very light and highly repetitious weight training activities and shed as many lbs as possible with little-to-no muscle gain?

Thirdly, what about your diet? How is that going to change?

Lastly, weight loss is not linear. I guarantee that, no matter what you do, you're not going to lose 2lbs/week every week until you hit your goal. At some point your body will plateau and your progress will become stagnant or very slow. To avoid this (although there's no guarantee that you always can), you have to constantly change up the type of exercises you do in order to keep your body in constant flux.

Diet = #1 Thing to control and help lose weight.

Exersize = #2 Thing to help speed up weight loss, but also helps with toning and muscle building.

Staying at it = Success!

Write down everything you eat for a week. Journal it then look at what your really consuming. From there shoot for 2000 calories a day of GOOD (and i mean good), healthy, food. Vegi's, fruits, protein, fiber.

The only gym membership that wasn't worth it is the one that you pay for and never use.

@JK
what i mean about the gym cost/benefit comment is more that initially, if I can get more benefit/cost from initial stages of say a running plan then forking out £40 p/m on membership fees that's what i'll do. as it is, I'm investigating the gyms in the area to see what they offer for thier monthly cost. i checked out one last night which was fantastic, nearby but V.expensive. I'm looking to join in about a week or 2 (that's set in my calendar, not a floating week ;) )

ok, the traget weight isn't exact - my target is really as stated in my first post - lose flab
so that kind of excludes going for large muscle mass. although that may become a secondary goal later on... the only reason i've mentioned target weight is because that's how traineo is set up.

diet is already changing.
I just changed jobs - my last job had me doing a lot of commuting (4 hrs a day) and my diet pretty much sucked - large lunches and convenience food in the eve.
my new job means i can keep much more control of what i eat.
I did a count of what i had yesterday (and fairly similar the day before) and it lines up like this:
porrige OR muesli OR bran flakes OR cereal bar (dependant on how rushed I am)
sandwich for lunch (anywhere from small to medium baguette)
evening meal of meat/fish + veg etc.
(i did calc it more accurately than that, this is just an overview) and as best as i can get from nutritional info available (packaging and web) last night came in at around 1900 cals for the whole day, including snacks etc.
it's the main evening meal that's the biggest swing factor, but since both me and my fiancee are pushing to be much more healthy (over last several months) this is getting easier.

thanks for the heads up on the plateau. seen it mentioned but not been sure what it was about.

@shawn
the 2000 cals target - is that on all days, or just training/just recovery?
and yes, that's the other thin, i wan to be sure i'll use it before i start (potentially) wasting money on it

Cheers for the words of wisdom
Al

edit:
yes, diet is always going to be a tricky one, as i am typically a foodie, but i try to keep the really bad (but utterly tasty!) stuff to a minimum. visits to family are going to become very tricky!