Thanks..only problem is I'm at college, on a meal plan system. Off the top of my head, the only healthy cafeteria foods are: Cottage Cheese, Skim Milk, Turkey, Raw vegetables, lettuce, fruits, cheerios, and that's pretty much it. I don't trust anything off the line, as it's probably processed or filled with grease from the grill.

my wife just told me (i had to call her) it was about a year before I started running around town without my shirt.

she also told me i should try and wear it more often.

Just wait man!! one day you will park at the grociery store, or 7-11, and get out of the car, walk in, stand in line, and walk out, WITHOUT A SHIRT!!!

Can you imagine?? I couldn't. Today I rarely put a shirt on when I can get away withour one.

It has been 6 years since I lost that first 50 lbs of fat. then I put on some muscle.

I am checking my self, and even the purple stretch marks are all gone. the ones in between my thighs took the longest I think.

have you seen me without a shirt sweetheart? any dang place I want- that's where. :-p


Tampa Bay.

LOL...um, I'll pass on shirtless grocery store visits...but beaches would be nice. The year you mentioned gave me some confidence since I started my higher intensity workout only at the end of August.

At my college you buy a meal plan, so each week I get 19 meals. Every-time I go into the cafeteria I swipe my card, and a meal gets deducted. It's already paid for, so skipping out on eating at the cafeteria would be wasting money. Unless I try these smaller meals, and have food ready in my dorm which I can eat also. After checking the stickied thread, I'm thinking almonds and tuna would be good to have around. How often should I eat, and at what point in the day should I stop eating and just drink water.

I also take Whey Protein right after my lifting days, but now I'm thinking of taking it on the cardio days too (mixed with a tablespoon of creatine).

The only way to take some home is to ask for a to-go container from the beginning. Having food in my dorm throughout the day is not a problem, I don't mind spending money on healthy foods.

How often should these meals be, and whats an example of a good meal?

Would something like...lettuce, cottage cheese, and a side of raw veggies be too small or just right for lunch?

Orange yo are very skinny now. It's time to get big again, only with a different composition. Start deadlifting, squatting, good morning...ing, and reverse hypering.

I'm sure this has already been said, but if you fill yourself out again, it'll be cheaper and more rewarding than getting plastic surgery. The only drawback is it takes hard work and time. Lots of it.

There is not much you can do with diet and stuff to make your skin more elastic. Skin elasticity is more or less genetically predetermined, although some believe eating the tendons and grissles of animals will help promote fibroblast/clast/whatever activity. Either way, it's not going to be much help at this stage.

When/if you get into weight lifting, which you should, don't get caught up in doing sit ups and endless upperbody/ab work. Hit the exercises I listed hard and frequent. They will build you a thicker core fast.

Ok, so when I go to the gym, I usually do an hour of core training, and an hour of lifting. Should I cut down the hour of core training into a half hour, and replace the rest of the time with those 3 exercises?

Oh and another question. I did the math, and it seems I burn about 2700 calories a day. To tone up and tighten my skin, should I shoot for less calories then that, more, or what?

I don't think you can tighten your skin but you can build muscle to fill yourself out a little more. If you want to bulk up then you need to eat above your maintenence level

Ok now I'm just very confused on what I should be doing. Should I be bulking? Toning? I'm trying to check the stikied thread in the new area, but it all seems overwhelming on what I should do.

What confuses you? I've read through the thread and I think everyone has told you to gain muscle mass to fill out the skin because there's nothing you can do to tighten skin

Congratualations on your weight loss, my friend. The sheer hard work to get the point you have gotten to, shows that you have the will and desire to progress further to meet and then exceed your goal.


Listen up....Orange.........


People with all sorts of problems and complications have adapted and overcome, when "other" people said it "couldnt" be done----and did in fact get it done......just because others doubt....doesnt mean it cant happen, my brotha.........SHUT THEM ALL OUT----that DOUBT.........

ITS OUT........with the DOUBT..........

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YOU CAN......and YOU WILL.........Tighten this skin.......It CAN be done.....

If you doubt or believe you wont.....it will be just that: You cant and you won't...........

Stand up, put your heart in it......and believe.....and you will make it happen.

Do NOT listen to anything to the contrary........Block these out like you would a disease.

More suprising and impressive things have happened with persons who believe they COULD..............

Nothing can stop you my friend, you are what you create within your own mind, filter IN what will be a positive effect on the goals your earnestly seek.

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I believe you have to improve your UPPER body mass to improve your condition--this has been my point all along.

Primarily the UPPER and LOWER BACK witth some focus on the OBLIQUES.

1. I believe you combat your problem with a FLEX diet or a Zig-Zag diet plan. The contents of the diet is to be of sound nutritional base. The calories of the plan are to consist of certain number of days over your MT line and a certain number of days slightly under your MT Line---in a 7 day week span. In other words a surplus v. deficit ratio during the week.

2. Your training you currently perform needs modified to include the 3 exercises I suggested earlier (Deadlift, Squat, and Bent Over Row). This base, with a good diet, WILL strengthen and provide stimulation for muscle growth to your torso core and expand your skin.

Add these three exercises into a 3X per week full body workout. I want you to include cardio. However, I would perfer if your cardio was "jogging" or on a Tread Mill (something where you have to support your full body weight while performing the cardio)

Abs exercises will NOT add the benefit in the skin you seek: While ab muscles do "slightly" grow, and do in fact strengthen with exercise, they DO NOT grow like other muscles of the body.

There is a slight exception, the obliques (or the sides of the torso). This can thicken pretty good with proper weight and diet, and I want you to INCLUDE oblique exercises. For example the Dumbell Side Bend.

However, I do want you to include some abs/torso exercises to keep some balance happenen.


I am providing some information on how to configure your caloric needs.

The following is geared toward a surplus diet (or bulking). This is to give you an idea.

I will work with you on understanding the Zig-Zag diet....and the purpose of this sort of diet after you read the information.

What I plan to do is to give you all the tools you need to make a diet and training program to assist in tightening your skin and strengthening your overall body.......but it will be YOU that puts it together:

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The road to potentially bulking:


The road to your goal, is gaining knowledge of calories and nutrition within a diet proportioned to your age, wgt, hgt, and gender, which includes associated activities.

Then developing a scheduled training plan per week (which allows recuperation time) that compliments---a clean diet. When both are developed, then the key is consistency and then watching, looking, and being very mindful, of your bodily responses to your diet and training stimulus.





Some Basic information that can lead you to weight tissue gain

Calorie calculation is an approximation science, remember this. Through your journey WATCH, LOOK, and LISTEN, to your body..........it will TELL YOU if your doing the correct things or combination of things!


○ Change your eating habits (below are some suggestion examples)

○ Substitute an artificial sweetener of your choice in the replace of refined white sugar (Refrain from Refined Sugar like you would a disease)

○ Try eating 5 to 6 smaller meals during the day

○ Balance your meals out during the day so in one day you have a mix of protein, carbohydrate and good fats

○ Drink lots of water during the day and before, during and after exercise

○ Simple Carb Examples: Grapefruit, Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Strawberries, Oranges, Apples, Pineapple, etc

○ Complex Carb Examples: Whole Wheat Pita Bread, Oatmeal, Long Grain Brown Rice, Brown Pasta, Malto-Meal (Plain, whole wheat),etc

○ Good Protein Examples: White or Dark Tuna, Chicken Breast, Lean Turkey, Lean Ham, Very lean Beef, Quality Whey Protein Powder,, etc

○ Good Fats Examples: Natural Peanut Butter, Various Nuts, Flax Seed, Fish Oils.

This is what you need to do:

This an approximation science, but you can narrow it down very close, if your meticulous in your vision when looking at the data.

Tweak your desire and passion by educating yourself on the basic requirements of losing fat tissue. With your age, sex, height, and weight, in mind, find your approximated base calorie needs (this is organ function, breathing, or bodily function needs). One can use the Benedict Formula.

Calculate your BMR:

The Harris Benedict equation determines calorie needs for men or woman as follows:

• It calculates your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) calorie requirements, based on your height, weight, age and gender.

• It increases your BMR calorie needs by taking into account the number of calories you burn through activities such as exercise.

This gives you your total calorie requirement or approximated Maintenance Line (I call it the MT Line).

Step One : Calculate your BMR with the following formula:

•Women: BMR = 655 + (4.35 x weight in pounds) + (4.7 x height in inches) - (4.7 x age in years)
•Men: BMR = 66 + (6.23 x weight in pounds) + (12.7 x height in inches) - (6.8 x age in years)

Step Two : In order to incorporate activity into your daily caloric needs, do the following calculation:

•If you are sedentary : BMR x 1.2
•If you are lightly active: BMR x 1.375
•If you are moderately active (You exercise most days a week.): BMR x 1.55
•If you are very active (You exercise daily.): BMR x 1.725
•If you are extra active (You do hard labor or are in athletic training.): BMR x 1.9



The calorie surplus margin is just an example:

Apply this knowledge by going over the approximated MT Line (approximated Maintenance line), say for example, a +500c per day, for about 1 week.

Before the week begins, weigh yourself in the AM when you FIRST get up (do not eat yet) (remember your clothing, preferably with just underwear and t-shirt or like clothes).

Note the time, and the approximated wgt.

Each day spread your caloric content out throughout the day (keep the body fed, with calories in the 300 to 500c approximated calories each meal), or a like division which mirrors your end caloric deficit limit (meaning MT +500c).

This way you have your entire day and body encircled with nutrition (I assume you already know to eat clean), which if your eating right, will give an approximated good energy.

At the end of the week, on the same day, the same time, with the same like clothes, weigh yourself again. Note whether you lost or gained tissue (or weight I mean).


If this didn't happen, this means you need to make finer adjustments, and the MT line is not accurate, and you need to adjust this on your own.

Based upon the FEEDBACK your body is giving you, ask yourself how faithful you were on the diet, AND how faithful in training (whether you kept the training schedule (if you didn't, this would effect the caloric equation, no?!), AND how accurate you figured in your activities caloric wise.........but, you have the base information to begin making adjustments.
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The Nutrients are an essential factor in the diet; however, the law of energy balance within the DIET, is the ultimate KING while the Nutrients can play in some decisions made within the body.

Do yourself a favor, figure out your MT line, adjust off of this, eat well balanced spaced out meals (DONT EVER starve YOURSELF), AND listen to your body for the results.

While you are trying to figure out your body, IT WILL PAY YOU BACK, I promise. You have to learn to MASTER yourself to become the master of weight loss for YOURSELF.
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"Let your inner vision cultivate your ultimate exterior expression" —Chillen

"The strongest inner feeling that prevails will result in the exterior expression" –Chillen

"Your cultivation and manifestation of thought accumulated within your reasoning will determine your outcome"----Chillen
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The most effective beginning is to look at your diet, and make a diet journal in my opinion, THEN work in a training program around this diet.

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Have controlled obsession (and obsession to a---Point, is necessary), but some lose this obsession once they learn the amount of work it requires. There eyes then widen and then the obsession then pops right out. Dont let this happen to you: Raise your Want-o-Meter to a new higher level.

Best Regards,


Chillen

I think you're being misleading here Chillen, his skin isn't going to tighten no matter how much he believes it will, that's a simple fact. He can become bigger to fill out the skin or he could have the spare skin removed through surgery but no amount of positive thinking will increase the elastisity of skin

Currently, my friend, until he fires himself up and tries, I dont share your opinion. You may be surprised in how a younger skin (in this present condition) will bounce back......mine did.....

Im not misleading.......he needs to fire himself up and try.....many things happen..with this occurs....and I humbly disagree with you.


EDIT: The purpose is to get him fired up, and give him the tools he needs to get the job done. Lets not turn this into.....he can.....he cant....sort of thing..........let THE YOUNG MAN PROVE IT---one way or the other. He should give diet and training a shot FIRST.