30 minutes of cardio is garbage... old school. Train with high intensity interval training or HIIT. After warming up with a mild jog outdoors or on a cardio machine, increase your speed or incline or whatever other work enhancing options you might have. Start at an exertion level of about 6 then up it a notch. Back down to 6, then up even higher, back and forth until you're hitting a 9. Do this for 15 minutes a day and the fat will melt right off of you.
As far as intake, feed your body what it needs and nothing else. This means good quality protein (as in lean meats not quality powders), good fats, and good carbohydrates. Whats good you might ask? Unprocessed. That means refined sugars, hydrogenated oils and processed meats. A good rule would be, if you can find it in nature, its good enough for your body. That will eliminate 95% of the junk out of your diet, most likely bringing your calories into a deficit. Carefull as too large of a deficit will eat muscle. 500 is a good number. If you find it too difficult to figure this out, dont bother. Dont let anything stop you from working out or eating healthier. Go to the nutrition section and use the expenditure calculator to help you out. Divide that number by 5 or 6 and thats how many cals per meal you should be eating. Consume most of your carbos in the first half of the day and cut them completely out about 5 hours before your bedtime. Your body doesnt need this short term energy supply after this time.
Lastly, do not forget to workout using heavy weight training. A combination of aerobic and anaerobic excersise will yeild the greatest results. They estimate a good weight lifting session will cause metabolism boosting effects that stretch for over 2 days. Dont miss out on this because you're too focused on cardio.
Lastly, do some research. Everything I've said here can be found on these forums. If you want more in depth reading go to
www.bodybuilding.com. Bodybuilding isnt about working your ass off in the gym and being lazy in the rest of your life. I'm not trying to discourage you from asking questions, but make them as specific as you can and try to provoke a little thought.
< Message edited by MikeOO17 -- 3/1/2004 12:29:37 AM >