New to site: My Story

Hello all,
I'm brand new to this webpage I've been reading around and liking what I see. It seems like everyone has an abundance of knowledge. I’m most here for support, I feel like I have ran out of ideas and help doing it all on my own, or at least with people who aren’t there for my best interests; this is nothing against them. Anyways, currently I’m 5’ 8” and about 208lb. I’ve been working out at the gym for a solid year + now and my weight has gone up and down, some where between 190-213. My body fat, last I checked was about 19%. I spent a bit of time trying to get stronger, and right now my numbers, well I don’t know them that well, last I tried I did 285 on bench and free weight mill press I got 75’s 8 times. That’s probably my only significant numbers. Right now I’m trying to get my weight down and my bf around 10% by the end of May. I’ve been doing a routine of 4 sets of 12 of mediocre weight for each workout. Then I do a half hour of cardio at the end of the day. My diet has been basically simple. Keeping it around 2000 calories a day. I’ m basically hoping that after making a post like this I signing my own contact to make sure I succeed. It’s now in writing that I have this goal that I need to meet. If anyone has any advice or anything that at all please feel free, thank you very much! And everyone, please have a great day and great workout.
Steve

2o8 at 5 8 seems big to me

4 set 12 reps seems like alot for strength drop the reps and use higher weight rep ranges say 5-8 it worked well for me strength wise and toning up is a matter of diet low carbs so your body uses fat as a energy source instead of carbs

I'm not denying I'm big, however, I am a 34" in pants. I've been described as 'stern'. Good or bad I'm not sure. I really am only looking for weight loss right now, with minimal loss in strength. This is why I have been sticking with the 4 sets of 12 reps.

doing 4x12 is not going to encourage weight loss imo diet will and some sort of cardio 

I've basically been doing cardio every day 30 minutes or so of running outside, as well as dieting. On top of this, I goto the gym. Gym work consists of doing multiple different workouts for each muscle group, such as chest back bis tris abs sholders legs; the works. An example of this would be , 4 sets of flat bench, 4 sets incline 4 sets decline 4 sets flys 4 sets dips 4 sets pushups even. It's always a bit different. I do this stuff before I go running. The way I have always learned it is that doing this stuff will help to keep my strength, at least more so than if I was not doing it. Please correct me if I am wrong about this.

If your interested in dropping fat and maintaining or increasing strength, I suggest you pick up The New Rules of Lifting
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104-5658336-9107936?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+new+rules+of+lifting&x=0&y=0

The Fat Loss routines (well all the routines), are excellent, for your goals.

Many members here have enjoyed great success with that program.

It is well worth the read.

Thanks a lot! I'm going to look into it

Search in the training forum and you will find a number af threads dedicated to those programs.

It is going to be different than what your used to doing.