OT: Tony Horton Workouts

[joober jones]

In the interest of extending my life and improving myself, I'm going to have to make some rather drastic changes, both in diet and exercise. I've purchased P90X as well as some other Tony Horton workout programs and diet guides. I've managed to stick to the routine so far, but it's kicking my ass.

Does anyone have any experience with these and think this is worthwhile or would you suggest a different workout program?

 

[scotty0330]

I commend you. I did T25 but recently have not been as good as i was. Like you it kicked me in the behind pretty good. Got get back into it...best of luck joober keep it up

 

[Strummer]

Here is my best dieting tip. My daughter just had her wedding on the beach. I had 4 months heads up. I lifted like a fiend for the first 2 months. The last 2.5 months I dieted like a fiend. I'd keep it to under about 800 calories a day and I stayed busy with work (tiling, cutting wood, working in the yard, and so on). I did not do any heavy exercise. The way I see it, most of the ladies who I know who live to 85 never exercised a day in their lives. And it's much easier to not eat the calories to begin with than to burn them off. Exercise is, in my opinion, way overrated for losing weight or for longevity.

I lost about 28 pounds in 2.5 months (229 to 200ish)

What was the main secret - keep majorly stocked on low cal foods, by which I mean lettuce, green beans carrots, celery, green peppers, mixed veggies, and so on. 2nd tier would be apples and other fruits. During the day, pound the low cal foods, snack on the 2nd tier foods. For dinner, have 1/2 of what you usually would have of meat, and double the veggie serving. Have a small scoop of carbs (corn, pasta, rice, et cetera).

The only time you should feel hungry with this approach is first thing in the morning. Eat an apple to start the day, and start pounding the veggies and you should not have hunger pangs.

Lots of sex with wife helps too.

Set markers - every 10 pound drop, go out and eat at a restaurant, no restrictions.

Good luck. The most important thing to do to lose weight and keep it off is to change your habits - stock different food, eat smaller portions, and avoid large doses of carbs, as carbs are the quickest way, in my world, to pack it back on. Cereal, pasta, pizza are the big 3 where I have to limit my portion size.

Most importantly - gotta change your mindset. Gotta decide you are going to wake up and be a different man and you have to decide that you are never going back.

 

[Hoophound]

1500 calories is about minimum for a man. If you want a dramatic weight loss, cut out sodium at every turn, go to about 1500 cals per day and get exercise every day, even if it is just a brisk walk. It is easiest to count calories by using protein bars and shakes rather than typical food. You simply read the labels and do the math.

 

[david]

Here is my best dieting tip. My daughter just had her wedding on the beach. I had 4 months heads up. I lifted like a fiend for the first 2 months. The last 2.5 months I dieted like a fiend. I'd keep it to under about 800 calories a day and I stayed busy with work (tiling, cutting wood, working in the yard, and so on). I did not do any heavy exercise. The way I see it, most of the ladies who I know who live to 85 never exercised a day in their lives. And it's much easier to not eat the calories to begin with than to burn them off. Exercise is, in my opinion, way overrated for losing weight or for longevity.

I lost about 28 pounds in 2.5 months (229 to 200ish)

What was the main secret - keep majorly stocked on low cal foods, by which I mean lettuce, green beans carrots, celery, green peppers, mixed veggies, and so on. 2nd tier would be apples and other fruits. During the day, pound the low cal foods, snack on the 2nd tier foods. For dinner, have 1/2 of what you usually would have of meat, and double the veggie serving. Have a small scoop of carbs (corn, pasta, rice, et cetera).

The only time you should feel hungry with this approach is first thing in the morning. Eat an apple to start the day, and start pounding the veggies and you should not have hunger pangs.

Lots of s e x with wife helps too.

Set markers - every 10 pound drop, go out and eat at a restaurant, no restrictions.

Good luck. The most important thing to do to lose weight and keep it off is to change your habits - stock different food, eat smaller portions, and avoid large doses of carbs, as carbs are the quickest way, in my world, to pack it back on. Cereal, pasta, pizza are the big 3 where I have to limit my portion size.

Most importantly - gotta change your mindset. Gotta decide you are going to wake up and be a different man and you have to decide that you are never going back.

Quoting you because I had a very similar weight loss in 2011. After the championship I lost 36 pounds (235 to 199) from April to mid July. I cut out beer (had maybe 1 or 2 once or twice a week) and exercised the entire time. I started off doing hill workouts where I'd run up a very steep hill that was about 450 yards long. Then I'd walk down and I'd do that 5 or 6 times. I'd also do about 100 pushups and 100 situps daily. After I got into better shape (about 1 month in) I started going to the gym and doing an hour on the elliptical (burning 900-1000 calories an hour if you set the resistance high enough) or I'd go for 3-4 mile runs. I did that maybe 4-5 times a week. Once the weight starts coming off, you feel more motivated and it comes off easier.

But that's besides the point. P90x is actually really awesome. I sweat my balls off doing it, but it's so hard that I had a hard time sticking with it. If you do, I'm sure you'll end up losing a ton of weight.

 

[CTBasketball]

You can do a lot and see a lot of results with doing pushups, pullups, and abs. And of course eating well.

 

[mauconnfan]

Here is my best dieting tip. My daughter just had her wedding on the beach. I had 4 months heads up. I lifted like a fiend for the first 2 months. The last 2.5 months I dieted like a fiend. I'd keep it to under about 800 calories a day and I stayed busy with work (tiling, cutting wood, working in the yard, and so on). I did not do any heavy exercise. The way I see it, most of the ladies who I know who live to 85 never exercised a day in their lives. And it's much easier to not eat the calories to begin with than to burn them off. Exercise is, in my opinion, way overrated for losing weight or for longevity.

I lost about 28 pounds in 2.5 months (229 to 200ish)

What was the main secret - keep majorly stocked on low cal foods, by which I mean lettuce, green beans carrots, celery, green peppers, mixed veggies, and so on. 2nd tier would be apples and other fruits. During the day, pound the low cal foods, snack on the 2nd tier foods. For dinner, have 1/2 of what you usually would have of meat, and double the veggie serving. Have a small scoop of carbs (corn, pasta, rice, et cetera).

The only time you should feel hungry with this approach is first thing in the morning. Eat an apple to start the day, and start pounding the veggies and you should not have hunger pangs.

Lots of s e x with wife helps too.

Set markers - every 10 pound drop, go out and eat at a restaurant, no restrictions.

Good luck. The most important thing to do to lose weight and keep it off is to change your habits - stock different food, eat smaller portions, and avoid large doses of carbs, as carbs are the quickest way, in my world, to pack it back on. Cereal, pasta, pizza are the big 3 where I have to limit my portion size.

Most importantly - gotta change your mindset. Gotta decide you are going to wake up and be a different man and you have to decide that you are never going back.

That sounds good Strum……….any chance I can borrow your wife so I can wake up and be a different man?

 

[tdrink]

6 years ago I dropped 45 pounds after taking up mountain biking. 230 to 185. I was down to 175 at one point but added back some muscle. It is a total body workout and has lots of HIIT built in with the hill climbs. Riding over obstacles forces you to constantly correct and works all kinds of micromuscles.( good for the brain as well.)

I didnt really cut my caloric intake but i started avoiding sugar and after awhile didnt miss it at all. Beer is my big indulgence and almonds are the staple of my diet.

I'm 48 and feel better than i ever did in my 30’s. I was worried about my back when i started biking but full suspension bikes take the shock out and now that my core is strong my back troubles are the furthest thing from my mind. One 2-3 hour ride a week maintains my shape. Two 2-3 hour rides a week and i have to increase my food intake to keep from losing too much weight.

 

[Strummer]

1500 calories is about minimum for a man.

I'd just qualify this by saying that 1500 calories is about minimum if you want to feel normal while dieting. No doubt that the 800 calorie a day diet left me feeling quite awful on many days. A few headaches. A few days where motivation to do anything was 0. But if you are going to go 1500 calories a day, then you really need to stay on top of what you're eating, because a few hundred calories more and you barely are losing weight.

I think much depends on how quickly you want to lose the weight. I had a deadline, and I had the will. It sure would make much more sense to have a 1500-2000 calorie a day diet and lose the weight over a year or so. But my daughter refused to move the wedding date, so I was stuck.

That said, IF you are motivated, you can easily stick to a 1,000 calorie a day diet, and, with multivitamins and making sure you are eating a good variety in your 1,000, I haven't read anything that suggest that organ or connective tissue degradation will occur.

Oh yeah. Here's another good tip if you're going to diet hard. Buy a digital scale. I was able to track 1/2 pound drops over the course of a day or two. Pretty darn cool to diet hard for a few days, get back on the scale (usually after micturating in the morning), and you can see a 1 pound weight loss.

 

[8893]

• Exercise a minimum of 40 minutes a day, five or more days per week for as long as you are in losing mode; three to four days per week for maintenance mode. Something is better than nothing; mix it up to keep you interested enough to keep doing it.
• Watch sugars, including fruit and booze. Eat fruit in the morning and on an empty stomach. Drink less than 15 alcoholic drinks per week.
• Lean protein and green veggies (especially raw) to your heart's content.
• Healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, coconut oil, nuts and nut butters as much as you like.
• Eliminate or at least greatly reduce processed foods. Paleo will do this; so will gluten-free.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Honestly the content between programs isn't what matters. IMO the main benefit of these is development of a habit of exercise and good diet, and not giving in to yourself saying "ahh, duck it." We are addicted to the routines we put ourselves in.

 

[Gurleyman]

I went with the Tim Horton's workout, which is substantially less successful. Turns out that a box of donuts doesn't really weigh enough for a good workout, especially since it weighs less as you eat more of the donuts.

 

[Chuck]

Expend more energy than you take in. How you get there is something you must determine. I'm an impatient person. I can't lose 5 lbs per month. I also work well with deadlines. They don't even have to be as real as Strummers.

I'm down 20 lbs in almost 6 weeks. Goal is 35 lbs by mid September. I'm running 4 days per week, lifting 1 and some push-ups and sit-ups mixed in. I eat about 1100 to 1400 calories per day. Exercise is what helps me push through my plateaus, but there is no doubt that diet is the more important factor.

I'm using the following motivational triggers: i) did a 4 week 4% diet bet online. ii) Biggest Loser type bet at work. iii) family beach vacation at end of August. iv) high school reunion in September. v) half marathon in November. vi) maintenance bet at work ($500 loss if you gain more than 2% after our diet bet ends). I'm hoping the maintenance bet and half marathon will help with maintaining which is where I struggle.

Good luck!

 

[joober jones]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. After losing my brother last year and having a bit of a health scare this past week (fortunately it turned out to be nothing serious) I came to the realization that my family and my brother's family have to come before bacon and beer. My goal is to get down to around 185 which isn't all that much for my height, but I have one of those Deandre Daniels style builds where I don't add a whole ton of muscle, just lots of fat. If you're reading this Deandre, stay away from triple baconators.

 

[Northbound]

I've done p90 did it for the threes the religiously and did 1500 calories a day and lost about 25-30 lbs. it's a pretty good program. The thing I didn't like about it was I never got stronger. I'm traditionally a weight lifter heavy weights for strength and size, but after being asked one too many times if I was randy cross I looked at my wife and said wtf am I doing. So now I'm on a size reduction program, but need to find a way to maintain strength. P90 for sure help with the reduction. I'd recommend it.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

I have been working with a dietitian with the initial goal of lowering cholesterol by diet, but the weight loss has been a great byproduct. It's free with my insurance and have seen her about every 3 weeks. Have lost 35 pounds and have increased exercise, but the way I eat has been the big change. A very big key for me has been to ask my wife to come to the meetings with the dietitian. She does the shopping and having her on board has made a big difference. Having the meetings helps me to stay on track and I have been losing weight gradually and without a huge amount of self-denial that will often backfire long-term. I would strongly encourage you to see such a person to help structure the plan and keep it reasonable and sustainable. One interesting thing has been that she has me eating more for breakfast and added a snack late afternoon to reduce nighttime overeating. I also keep track of how I'm doing with exercise, drinking lots of water every day, and a couple of other things. It has made a big change in how I look and now how I feel. Best of luck!

 

[Edward Sargent]

In the interest of extending my life and improving myself, I'm going to have to make some rather drastic changes, both in diet and exercise. I've purchased P90X as well as some other Tony Horton workout programs and diet guides. I've managed to stick to the routine so far, but it's kicking my ass.

Does anyone have any experience with these and think this is worthwhile or would you suggest a different workout program?

Low carb diets work. Reduce carbs to 15 grams/meal and drink 60-80 oz of water a day and you will lose weight. Don't worry about fat or protein content or even calories. Read labels because there are surprisingly a lot of hidden carbs.

 

[ScottBonz]

I've done P90x and Insanity. They are both good work outs simply because you exercise 6 days a week. There isn't a huge secret to them. Insanity is a b itch, its really tough but it works. I currently do a few T25 work outs a week because they are easy to fit in before work.

Worry about calories but don't. Its the type of calorie that counts. Its all about Carbs and Trans Fat. Don't worry about anything else. Anyone who tells you that Fat in food creates fat in your body just doesn't know science. Whole grains...duck em. All carbs turn to sugar in your body. It doesn't matter if its bread, cereal (awful for you), whole wheat (except high fiber content), or just eating a spoonful of sugar. Its all about the glycemic index (conversion of carbs to glucose) and cereal has a higher glycemic index than sugar. Carbohydrates are the ONLY thing that promotes your body to store fat. Increases in Insulin promote storage of fat. The fat content and cholesterol on the nutrition facts are garbage and have been used my food companies to throw more artificial sugars in as substitutes. Transfats are all that matter (organic chemistry says your body doesn't have the ability to break them down with out creating free radicals). Your cholesterol count at the doctors office, that's a bunch of crap too. Not one drug ever (except for Statins) that lowers cholesterol has ever been found to decrease your risk for a cardac event. The true power of statins doesn't come from there cholesterol lower affects. And those number that you see at the office aren't your cholesterol just the numbers of different cholesterol transporters floating around in your body. If you have NetFlix, watch the documentary FatHead. Great intro to the true science. Sorry for the rant (Pharmacists hate prescription drugs).

I've "found" all the files for P90x, Insanity, and T25 so if any one wants them let me know. I can FTP them over.

 

[tykurez]

P90X is good. P90X3 is even better. Tony talks less so the workouts he trimmed down to about 35 minutes and let me tell you they are brutal. Would definitely recommend that one if you're thinking about doing any of them and you don't need to do the first two beforehand.

 

[TheRealKBuks]

In the interest of extending my life and improving myself, I'm going to have to make some rather drastic changes, both in diet and exercise. I've purchased P90X as well as some other Tony Horton workout programs and diet guides. I've managed to stick to the routine so far, but it's kicking my ass. Does anyone have any experience with these and think this is worthwhile or would you suggest a different workout program?

I absolutely loved p90x, if you can commit to doing a full 90 days (which is not easy by any means) it will absolutely change your life and that's not an exaggeration.

I bought p90x 4 years ago. When I first started I was in terrible shape, depressed and felt stuck in a rut, I decided to finally do something about it so I bought p90x. At the beginning I weighed about 220 lbs (I'm 5'8 so I was pretty fat) and could only do 1 1/2 pull ups. At the end I could do over 15 pull ups and weighed 188 lbs. That was a few years ago and I've stayed in great shape since, because it completely turned my life around. I just did the spartan sprint at Mohegan sun and finished in just over an hour and in the top 6% of participants. That's something I never could have imagined years ago.

The one thing I really dislike about it, is the way they shamelessly plug supplements. I personally don't agree with taking supplements of any kind because 1) they're not regulated and 2) you can get everything you need from a diet. The only exception I have for supplements are power bars/ clif bars because when I your busy it can be tough to get a healthy snack in. Best of luck with it, you'll never regret making this kind of investment in yourself.

 

[NJHusky]

Everything ScottBonz said x 2.

I'll put in .o2 also...You are not dieting...you are making a lifestyle change...diets are temporary

Cut out ALL wheat based foods, sugar, potatoes (higher glycemic index than sugar or a snickers bar)...

if you want to be scared straight...read Wheat Belly and Grain Brain...the former is written by a cardiologist and talks about the negative impact of wheat on blood chemistry and weight. The latter is written by a neurologist and talks abount the equally negative impact of wheat on the brain. Basically...it's terrible for both.

I would add some weight training too. Men loose muscle mass after 30 or so...only way to fight that is weight training....increased muscle mass burns more calories and you look better

So, do any cardio (bike, run, p90x etx) do some weight training and eat protein, vegetables and healthy fats and you will be good to go.

Good luck!!

 

[joober jones]

I just want to say, if any of you want to lose weight and get in shape, this is the best program you could ever want. I'm down 25 lbs in a month's time and am a third of the way to my goal weight. It's nice when your wife has bigger breasts that you do.

 

[uconNYC]

@joober jones - great to see it's working for you. I bought the DVDs too but as I live in an apartment its hard to follow the routine without disturbing the neighbors downstairs. Instead I've been running, doing light weights and yoga and things are working out so far.

My advice to anyone looking to get into shape is to start by adjusting your diet. You can workout till the cows come home but if you continue to eat crap you'll just easily refill whatever you've burned away. That was my biggest issue for the longest time. So even before starting to workout, just make some easily achievable adjustments to your diet like not drinking soda or forgoing dessert. That alone will make a big impact. Every few weeks fine-tune your eating habits a bit more, like not eating after 7PM, using low-fat products...

 

[joober jones]

@joober jones - great to see it's working for you. I bought the DVDs too but as I live in an apartment its hard to follow the routine without disturbing the neighbors downstairs. Instead I've been running, doing light weights and yoga and things are working out so far.

My advice to anyone looking to get into shape is to start by adjusting your diet. You can workout till the cows come home but if you continue to eat crap you'll just easily refill whatever you've burned away. That was my biggest issue for the longest time. So even before starting to workout, just make some easily achievable adjustments to your diet like not drinking soda or forgoing dessert. That alone will make a big impact. Every few weeks fine-tune your eating habits a bit more, like not eating after 7PM, using low-fat products...

The diet is very important. It's actually even harder for me to do that than it is to do the workouts. I've cut out alcohol entirely, am only eating lean meats (and in small quantities) etc. The trouble for me is that food has always been my first drug of choice so driving by all the fast food joints and not stopping has been quite a challenge. Knowing my family needs me and knowing I need to be around for them for as long as possible is the best motivation I could have. Without that I probably would've fallen off the wagon within the first week.

 

[RichZ]

Being an old geezer, I can't go too crazy with workouts (well I did during the tourney for the sake of the mojo) but since I had to have a quad bypass almost 2 years ago before they would OK an operation to circumvent my peripheral artery disease and get some blood flowing to my lower legs, I've had no trouble maintaining a decent workout regimen. I lost 70 plus pounds within the 1st year, and have maintained it despite having the workout routine interrupted numerous times over the past 11 months following a bunch of retina surgeries. Obviously, I'm eating a much healthier diet, but still have some issues with portion control.

3 days a week I do a mile on the treadmill. That's more for my peripheral artery disease, and is a routine that alternates between 7 minute fast walks and 5 minute very slow walks (PAD results in a lot of lactic acid buildup in the affected muscles, and the slow periods allow it to dissipate without stopping completely). The other 4 days, I ride a stationary bike instead (better cardio, not as helpful for the PAD, because there's not as much calf muscle usage). I do a minimum of 5 miles on the bike, but usually shoot for 7, and occasionally 10. Then I do 5 to 10 different resistance machines, doing enough reps of enough weight to move a ton on each of them. I might so 40 reps of 50# on the bench curl, and 10 reps of 200 pounds on the back extension machine, etc. Basically, the heaviest weight I can do without straining or holding my breath.

I'd like to lose another 20 ponds, but I know that's going to require me conquering those portion size demons.