Hi guys!

I'm just looking for some help with how to optimise weight loss. I'm currently about 148 lbs, and I'm looking to be about 127 - 135lbs. I'm 18yrs and 9 mnths olds, and am 5"4 tall.

At the moment I am going to the gym 6 days out of 7, and I have been doing this for about a fortnight. Generally, for 4 or 5 of those days, I am spending an hour and a half in the gym, doing 40 minutes on cardio, and the rest on weight machines, doing 3 or 4 sets of 15 on each. I am using reletively light weights, but they are heavy enough for me to want to stop after these reps. I am increasing the weight as I find each level easier. On the other days I play 40 minutes of squash.

I don't have a lot of extra time to increase my time, however, I could if it was needed.

Food wise, I haven't done a lot to change my diet. I have cut energy drinks out (I used to drink 3 or 4 large cans every day). I have also drastically reduced my alcohol intake, now drinking only 5ish units once a week, and a couple of units another day (sometimes). I eat either fruit or a small portion of cereal for breakfast, a salad or sandwich for lunch and a balanced meal for dinner. If I want a snack, I normally have a dried fruit and nut mix or fruit.

I mainly drink tea and water, though I will rarely (about once a week, or less) have a coffee.

Already, I can see some change in my shape, but I don't know how much I have lost, as I did not initially weight myself

So, here are my main questions:

What can I do to my excercise regime to optimise weight loss and toning?
What can I do with my diet to aid my excercise?
How often should I weigh myself?

Cheers guys!

Can anyone help?

Weight loss and toning are two entirely different things. If what you are worried about is the number of pounds you weigh then you need to eat healthy and do cardio to burn fat and this will get you down the weight. If you want to 'tone' on the other hand, you actually need to build muscle as if you lose heaps of weight but have no muscle to show you will just become a skeleton.

Keeping this in mind there are many useful stickies on the website depending which path you choose to go down.

i gotta say thank you for giving so much detail into your body and how you live. we can help you alot better with this information. for losing overall bodyfat and toning muscles, circuit training and cardio is probably your best bet. with circuit training, your entire body gets worked in a short amount of time with a high intensity. this keeps the heart rate up and allows you to burn more calories. i dont know your exact training methods as of right now but if you are already doing circuit training, schedule 2 days out of the week for strickly upper body and strictly lower body training.

when your focusing on training with weights, the muscles will be more active and more likely to form better shape and definition. focusing on circuit training will help burn overall bodyfat and overall development. its usually a good place to start. but after a while, you'll need to focus on body parts individually.

the best thing to do is to keep the muscles guessing. if you train with the same weight, same exercises, same reps, the body will get used to it and your gains will stop. so dont forget to do a few heavy days over the course of a month, just to keep the muscles on their toes.

if you check out my site in my signature, i have a few training programs for males and females already designed and an exercises page with nothing but exercises and how to do them. plenty of articles on everything too. i hope it'll help you if you liked my reply.

Hello Surly,
your post is great, meaning it's full of detailed information, so I presume you'd soon get assistence and tips from the specialists in this forum.
Here are some tips from me, as I have already beaten succesfully my overweight, and now almost a year later, I haven't put on a single weight.

About the gym workout - yours seems perfect. Just one advice here - every couple of months you should change your routine, so that you don't reach the so called plateu(the level at which your body gets used to workout and does not burn fat so intense anymore). Make sure your cardio is from type high intensity training - you have to get really sweaty and tired in the gym, that is your main goal. I would recommend cardio after weight lifting. This way you burn fat from the very beginning of the cardio training, otherwise, you start burning fat after the 7-10th minute.

About the diet - your diet seems ok. Make sure, you are careful with the fresh fruits. Although they are necessary for the organism, they contain certain amount of sugars, and it's better when their quantity is limited. Just as well, make sure, you don;t eat them in the evenings and late afternoons.
It is better if you are able to weigh yourself every day, that is how you check how your weight changes.
I hope this helps for the moment.
Good luck, and keep up the good work - you're on the right road to weight loss!