Hello all. I have played football for a great deal of my life as an offensive lineman. For those unfamiliar with the sport O-linemen are typically the most massive, strongest players on the field.

I finished my playing career about a year and a half ago and have decided that I want to lean up... A lot. At my playing career prime I was 6'5", 320 lbs. at 17% body fat. I know am at about 325-330 lbs. and know that my muscle mass has decreased and my fat level has increased. It's hard to go from being able to consume basically whatever I wanted to really having to put myself into check.

Basically my goals are to really lean up and lose some weight. I know I no longer need to carry as much muscle mass as I have in the past, but don't want to lose all of my muscle. I would love to get into the 270 lb. range or so and get lean (for me) for the first time in a long time.

I know that I no longer need to be training as hard as I have in the past in the weight room, but what kind of cardio should I be looking into for some real weight loss? I've read that a mile walked loses you the same calories as a mile run, but it obviously takes longer to walk it... Is this true? I currently walk about 3 miles per day but have enough time to take that up to about 5 or so. What other activities would be beneficial for me to do?

As far as a diet goes, how many calories should I be looking at eating on a daily basis? What kind of foods should I be eating more of and which should I be eating less of?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

who did you play for? how about some pics?

can you pick your walk up to a jog, or are you still only good for 20 powerful heavy bone crushing steps at speed?

I am around a few bucs players each week, and they are just dang huge. One is retired for years, and he has arms like my legs, and I've got some serious legs for my body.

Let's see whatcha got, and ............ SWEAT DAILY!

an easy one goal- Ironman 09.

FF

Your wrong. You need to be training just has hard and even harder in the weight room.
Even without pics, i am quite confident you have lots of muscle mass under your frame. All you need is a slight calorie deficit + heavy weight lifting + regular scheduled cardio and patience and you will turn into a shredded beast.

Read around the stickies in the weight lifting + nutrition section and then come back with some more specific questions.
Figure out your maintenance calories, etc.

This is me just before my senior season at The University of Arizona (on the right).



And me in my junior season at The University of Arizona in our game vs. USC.



Adam

Read my above post. You definetly have muscle mass under there, you want to keep weight training and keep the weights heavy to retain all muscle possible while losing fat.

As for the diet, calculate your BMR and subtract 500 from that, and thats how many calories you could be eating to lose 1lb or more a week. stay away from processed foods, junk food, soda, and since your a football player..and from that picture i'd say you guys are heavy party drinkers LOL, so better minimize the alcohol.

Just keep your diet clean. Whole foods. Eggs, meat, veggies, fruits, whole wheat breads.
Check out the nutritional stickies for more information on foods and crap.

I just did the BMR thing and subtracted 20% as it suggested... came up with about 3500 calories daily. Also checked out LV's shopping list. Definitely cleared some things up for me. At what point during my weight loss should I re-evaluate my BMR?

Once weight loss stops, you can try taking off another 200or so, and/or increasing the exercise. But that shouldn't be for a while.

Wow man, University of Arizona. D1 football college. Good job

How much did you bench/squat/40 yard dash in your prime?

My best 40 was a 4.9 as a soph. in college. Best bench was 425. My best squat was in the 550 range.

How has the diet been going?