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Hey everyone, I'm new here so I thought I would give this a shot. I'm 6' 3" currently at 285 pounds, 21 year old male. I recently fell off the vegan bandwagon(I know I know) but over the last month have come back and I'm starting to feel great again. Unfortunately in the period that I wasn't vegan I put on quite a few pounds and I'm struggling to get it back off. Here's my back story.

 

In November of 2005 I decided that I wanted to go vegan mainly for my health. Until this point my diet was absolutely horrid I knew that the only way for me to make a change was to go cold turkey on the unhealthy food so to speak. At that time I was roughly 295 pounds and felt pretty terrible.

 

I didn't work out at all from November until mid January yet I lost about 20 pounds. I made sure that I got enough of nutrients, proteins, fats etc... I definitely wasn't starving myself. Once I decided to hit the gym I was doing 35 minutes of cardio about 5-6 times a week. I wasn't lifting weights at all just strictly cardio and the pounds came flying off. I would say that from January-April I got down to 240, so I lost about 35 pounds in that timeframe.

 

From April till August I stayed very active but was not in the gym. My diet stayed the same and I didn't lose or gain any weight. I went to the doctor for a check up and he said that my health was drastically improved. However when I get my first deskjob and unfortunately starting eating dairy again the weight just piled back on. So here I sit at 285 pounds.

 

I really want to get back to the gym but I'm curious as to what my workout schedule should be. I'm concerned that doing strictly cardio was not a good choice and that I was losing muscle instead of fat and not producing any long term benefits, or am I way off on this assumption? Should I be doing some weight lifting in addition to cardio or is doing more cardio then weight lifting acceptable given my current weight and height?

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Brett,

 

I wouldn't worry too much about doing the bodybuilding straight off. And I wouldn't worry about you burning too much muscle off doing cardio, either. Sounds like what you did worked well for you, too. I'd say focus on the cardio as it primarily burns fat, unless you go at a very high intensity, in which case you wouldn't be doing it for too long anyway. I'd say go at a comfortable, moderate intensity, but the most important thing is to have fun with it. If you don't have fun, you won't stick with it.

 

Doing weight training will help, as it will build muscle and burn even more fat where muscle increases. But on a general level, my suggestion would be to get your metabolism going first, and that means cardio work. This can be walking, biking, running, hiking, etc. Usually muscle mass doesn't come off too much unless you eat almost no protein and you have nothing left on your body to replace it. So I wouldn't worry there. I'd go 30-60 minutes 5-6 days a week, but be sure to listen to your body. If you are feeling tired and need extra sleep or are having trouble waking up as you normally would, take a day off and see if that helps. Workout, listen to your body and adjust. Everyone's a little different and in different levels of fitness, so see what you can handle.

 

I've also been on and off the bandwagon, so join the club. Your story sounds very similar to mine as well (I'm in a desk job). I'm vegan again, but I don't think there's any shame in admitting that you haven't been. You don't owe your decisions in these matters to anyone but yourself. Anyway, don't worry about talking about that, because it sounds like your intentions are certainly in the right place.

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lost

 

First off get rid of that word LOST. When you "lose" someting you want to find it again. And weight is not what we want to find when we work so hard to "GET RID OF IT" "GAVE IT TO MY WORST ENEMY" anything but lost. Coming from one x size 22 @ 300 #'s to size 7 @192 #'s. This was the first time in my life I haven't yo-yo'ed. And all the other girls @ work are always getting on the scale and complain about their 135 #'s I always tell them "I weigh more than you" ... tell them my weight and they always make me prove it. Now they wonder how I can weigh more than them but be 4-5 sizes smaller? MUSCLE WEIGHS MORE THAN FAT.

So the real ??? is are you flabbier or tighter?

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I agree with Dorothy. Don'y rely on weighing yourself. I go by looking at my body instead as you can get skinnier but gain muscle and weigh the same. But if you did get bigger, the website i put before is working for me, and i got my brother to start exercising with that website. Good luck.

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