Reddit mentions of Body by Jake Tower 200 Complete Door Gym Full Body Workouts Fitness Exercise

Hey there. Guy here. Started the year at 240, currently at 206, GW is 180 (might change to 170, still deciding). I have some thoughts. I broke it into three groups below. This is purely what's working for me, but maybe he can take something from this. Sorry in advance for the wall of text.

Diet

So, I'm basically doing CICO. I say basically, because I really have no clue how many calories I should be eating in a day, nor do I have any clue how many I do eat. I estimate everything. I started out a lot stricter, but found it to just be a pain. There's a key component I'll get into with that in the next section that really makes this whole thing work, but basically it comes down to estimating, and adjusting every meal based on what I think my last meal consisted of or my next meal is going to consist of.

I try to eat 5 or 6 small meals a day (sometimes even 7). I only eat when I'm hungry. I eat protein at every single meal, and try to combine that with either a fruit or a veggie (more veggies than fruits, reason why in next paragraph). I also make all of my food the night before (except dinner. My wife and I make dinner together, usually make extra with leftovers, and as I'm packing up the leftovers I'll make my food for the next day) and I use small containers. Lots of little tupperware and mason jars. My thought, just make everything look like a good-sized snack. Worst possible case, I'm still hungry an hour after eating that snack, in which case, I just go an eat another one. Lunches are a lot of green salads with a protein, like the protein from last night's dinner, snacks are a fruit with cottage cheese or peanut butter, I do edemame, etc. I try to make very different things every day so I don't get bored.

Now, I should say that I really don't eat a lot of carbs. Practically none, except for fruit once or twice a day (no more than twice, because they really do have a lot of sugar, which translates to carbs) and veggies. I have nothing against carbs, I'm not trying to live a carb free life or go on a carb free diet. But when I was counting calories, I basically saw that carbs just have WAY too many calories for it to be worth it. I was looking at the nutrition once on a cheeseburger at Carl's Jr. It was 500 calories. But if you doubled the meat and the cheese, it became 700 calories. Think about that, double the burger, double the cheese, and it only went up 200 calories? That means that 300 of the original 500, 60% of the damn calories, came from the bun! Holy hell, that just didn't seem worth it. So I've all but cut them out, unless I really want something with carbs, in which case I eat it, but adjust the size/portions of all my meals the rest of the day to compensate (which is another reason I like making all my food the night before, I can literally see all of my food/calories and adjust them accordingly).

Final thought on diet. Cheat meals. I'm a firm believer in cheat meals. Note I'm saying cheat meals, not cheat days. I think you should be able to eat literally anything you want. No food should be off the menu. BUT, if I'm going to eat something that I estimate to have a high number of calories, that means the rest of my day needs to adjust for that. I mentioned in another thread this example, but basically my wife and I love sushi. Sushi is no good for my calorie intake. I get everything with rice and cream cheese and holy hell does it add up fast. So if I'm having sushi for dinner tonight, my breakfast is going to probably consist of a little protein powder in water, my snack will be a small scoop of peanut butter, my lunch will be a small green salad with a little cheese for protein, etc. I'm still shooting for the same total intake for the day, and if 80% of that is coming from one (cheat) meal, then the rest of the day gets that 20%. And yes, I might go over a bit, and yes, I'll see it on the scale, but it's not nearly as bad as if I hadn't adjusted, and I can also keep adjusting the next day a bit to make up for it.

Weigh Ins

Like I said, I'm estimating everything food wise, and we all have a tendency for under estimate calories. The main thing that keeps me on track, even though I'm not actually counting calories, is my weigh ins. I weigh myself every day, and I have two types of weighs ins: official weigh ins and unofficial weigh ins. Official weigh ins occur on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, every week. I weigh myself every single day, always at the exact same time (first thing in the morning right after my workout).

Here's the plan: whatever I weigh on Monday, my goal is to weigh half a pound less than that on Wednesday. So if I'm at 210 on Monday, Wednesday's goal is 209.5. Now the most important part: I write 209.5 Wednesday everywhere. I put it on a sticky note on my desk, another on the back of my phone, and another in my medicine cabinet. I look at it and obsess over it, all day.

On Tuesday, I'll weigh myself again, but this is an unofficial weigh in. What I'm seeing is if I'm on track or not. I'm trying to hit 209.5 by tomorrow. Maybe I'm at 209.6. Cool, easy day, just cruise on through and lose .1 by tomorrow. Maybe I'm at 209.5, or even lower. Excellent, should be an easy day, even if I'm over shooting I just need to be at 209.5 or under by tomorrow. Or, maybe I'm at 209.9. Or even worse, 210.2 (yup, I went up). Still good, today isn't official. But, maybe I don't need that extra piece of fruit with breakfast. Maybe I'd rather skip a meal and sub it for a protein powder/water combo instead. Maybe I'm going to push even harder in the gym tomorrow morning. Whatever the case, I am not on track right now, but I have a goal and dammit I'm going to hit it.

Final step: whatever I weigh on Wednesday, be it 209.5 (the goal), 209.0 (ya!!! totally overshot today!) or even 209.7 (dammit, I didn't hit my goal), Friday's goal is now .5 less than what I actually weigh on Wednesday.

Thus, the cycle continues. Note that I actually have 2 days in between Friday and Monday official weigh ins. That's mainly because if I am going to cheat, it's 99% of the time going to be on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Like I said, cheats are fine, and this gives me one extra day to hit Monday's goal.

What I actually find is I usually overshoot my goals, but not always. Monday I completely missed my goal this week, I was 2 lbs over (friggin' sushi on Saturday). But I've kept it super clean since, and this morning I actually hit my original Monday goal, mainly because I was obsessed with it for the past two days. It totally works.

Working Out

Final thought on this wall of text. You mentioned your boyfriend likes lifting weights. I'm currently doing mostly cardio, but I have lifted at home in the past with great results (used to be in a much better body about four years ago) and also know what I'm going to be doing once I hit the GW. I'm a firm believer in the Beachbody programs. P90X, Insanity (no weights), Body Beast (ALL WEIGHTS), etc. I do Insanity and P90X (actually Insanity: Max 30 and P90X3, because both are only 30 minutes a day), but I'll be switching to Body Beast come June hopefully. If your boyfriend wants to lift weights, I recommend getting some home resistance stuff and following either P90X or Body Beast. the former is going to be more total body fitness, and the latter is going to be like going to the gym with a really buff friend who wants you to keep up. I like them because they keep me on pace. I never wonder if I went hard enough or long enough, it's all programmed for me. Especially since I work out early in the morning, being able to let my brain shut off and still get in a workout is great.

As for weights, I've found great success with these adjustable dumbbells and this door gym. Combine this with an in-door pullup bar and there really isn't any exercise I can't do. And you can also get away with P90X just doing bands too. Lots of options.

If Beachbody isn't your thing, there's also literally thousands of free workout videos on YouTube. My wife does a lot of Zumba and Yoga, and the best overall fitness guy I've found is Millionaire Hoy. You could get in amazing shape just following along with this guy every day for a year. It's amazing. But no matter what, I really love the workout video plan. It keeps you on track, you never have to question your workout quality, and they're all designed to do from home.

Alright, that's my ridiculous wall of text. I'm seriously wishing your boyfriend a ton of luck!

If you are going with home equipment I would get something like The Tower200 and a doorway pull-up bar.

$100 won't get you much as far as actual weights go though, you'd be better off just joining a gym. We have a few in my town that will let you join month to month so you aren't stuck in a long-term contract.