I am an old fat guy who's decided to train in MA -- what do you think about my plan?

[Badhabits]

"The fighters body" by Loren Christensen and Wim Demeere might be worth a read for the OP. There's a lot of good nutrition information in it. It's an easy to understand read and the authors put some good humor in it as well. It helped me lose some added weight awhile back without having to friggin starve myself. Some of the basic advice was to make your meals like 75/12/12 carbs/fat/protein and adjust the ratio from there. Such a high ratio of carbs sounded a** backwards to me but they did a really good job of explaining the why and how of it all so I gave it a shot and had really good results without making myself miserable not eating. Just wanted to throw the recommendation out there

 

[saavedra]

Hope that helps.

Well, yes! Where do I send the consultant's fee?!

I was leaning toward boxing with the same rationale - get started and get in better shape for more demanding (from a falling perspective) work. So thanks for adding to that side of the scale!

--saav

 

[saavedra]

"The fighters body" by Loren Christensen and Wim Demeere might be worth a read for the OP. There's a lot of good nutrition information in it. It's an easy to understand read and the authors put some good humor in it as well. It helped me lose some added weight awhile back without having to friggin starve myself. Some of the basic advice was to make your meals like 75/12/12 carbs/fat/protein and adjust the ratio from there. Such a high ratio of carbs sounded a** backwards to me but they did a really good job of explaining the why and how of it all so I gave it a shot and had really good results without making myself miserable not eating. Just wanted to throw the recommendation out there

Thanks Bad,

I went on and on about the "why" - why do I remain fat, despite numerous efforts at trying to change, and one thing I never did was reduce calories.

• Years ago I lost a ton on an Atkins/Keto approach, and gained it back. Calories were high, carbs were low - nonetheless, I went back to where I was because I started eating awful stuff to feel better.
• Most recently, I lost a lot through calorie counting, then went back up again, but nowhere near as much as I had lost. Again, I started eating awful stuff to feel better; stopped counting and exercising. But this time, I just watched myself. Tried not to beat myself up about it, and started again counting and reducing. The results have been gratifying and relatively quick.

The theme here is "eating awful stuff to feel better". I've found a non-diet, non-MA way to deal with that, and so my weight-loss efforts are based on how I'm trying to change my mentality.

This doesn't mean (shout out to Leviathan too) that I won't be paying attention to type of calories or other factors. Really, I'm at the start of a multi-stage journey which I conceived like this:

• Stage 0: I'm eating way too much stuff, and the stuff is garbage. I'm indulging a good deal of external and internal negativity about my weight and habits that are also unhealthy and self perpetuating.
• Stage 1: I'll do a rough calculation of my daily calorie out put and get my intake under that, but not drastically. I can eat what I want without shitting on myself as long as I meet the count. Started light exercise and weights. This kicked off weight loss.
• Stage 2: I start replacing "bad" calories with good while maintaining the highest calorie count that will still let me lose weight. This is where I'm at now, and recently the weight loss has picked up pace. Adding in more plants, taking out the worse meats and proteins, and so on. I'll check out the books/ideas people recommend here and IRL as part of these habit changes. Nothing's off the table if it helps. I'm also upping the exercise.

What Hanshi said above:

Never try and do it all at once. To lose 100 lbs count on a year at least. Emphasize diet, then workouts. Do this like you have forever to get where you want.

...has been my basic guiding idea, although I didn't put it as well or succinctly.

The basic premise, though, is that no diet or workout regimen will work for me, even a "perfect" one, if depression motivates me to abandon the effort altogether. That's been my problem, and the careful calibration of nutrition has to follow second.

Perhaps the introduction of MA training of some sort will inaugurate a new stage. I'm not sure, just trying to move forward by changing habits gradually.

--saav

 

[gyoja]

@saavedra, did you decide on something?

 

[drop bear]

Thanks Bad,

I went on and on about the "why" - why do I remain fat, despite numerous efforts at trying to change, and one thing I never did was reduce calories.

• Years ago I lost a ton on an Atkins/Keto approach, and gained it back. Calories were high, carbs were low - nonetheless, I went back to where I was because I started eating awful stuff to feel better.
• Most recently, I lost a lot through calorie counting, then went back up again, but nowhere near as much as I had lost. Again, I started eating awful stuff to feel better; stopped counting and exercising. But this time, I just watched myself. Tried not to beat myself up about it, and started again counting and reducing. The results have been gratifying and relatively quick.

The theme here is "eating awful stuff to feel better". I've found a non-diet, non-MA way to deal with that, and so my weight-loss efforts are based on how I'm trying to change my mentality.

This doesn't mean (shout out to Leviathan too) that I won't be paying attention to type of calories or other factors. Really, I'm at the start of a multi-stage journey which I conceived like this:

• Stage 0: I'm eating way too much stuff, and the stuff is garbage. I'm indulging a good deal of external and internal negativity about my weight and habits that are also unhealthy and self perpetuating.
• Stage 1: I'll do a rough calculation of my daily calorie out put and get my intake under that, but not drastically. I can eat what I want without shitting on myself as long as I meet the count. Started light exercise and weights. This kicked off weight loss.
• Stage 2: I start replacing "bad" calories with good while maintaining the highest calorie count that will still let me lose weight. This is where I'm at now, and recently the weight loss has picked up pace. Adding in more plants, taking out the worse meats and proteins, and so on. I'll check out the books/ideas people recommend here and IRL as part of these habit changes. Nothing's off the table if it helps. I'm also upping the exercise.

What Hanshi said above:

...has been my basic guiding idea, although I didn't put it as well or succinctly.

The basic premise, though, is that no diet or workout regimen will work for me, even a "perfect" one, if depression motivates me to abandon the effort altogether. That's been my problem, and the careful calibration of nutrition has to follow second.

Perhaps the introduction of MA training of some sort will inaugurate a new stage. I'm not sure, just trying to move forward by changing habits gradually.

--saav

Commit yourself to one thing. Go do the martial arts. Do one or two classes regardless.

 

[saavedra]

@saavedra, did you decide on something?

Yes! Will start a separate post