Questions for GAF:
What should I do in the gym?
Nutrition tips? How many calories should I be consuming?
I'm interested in potentially swimming for cardio.. thoughts on that?
Any and all tips are welcome
I'm hitting the gym starting Monday morning. Looking forward to hearing from you guys before then!
As someone who went from 320 lbs to 185-190 i think i could helpyou out a bit.
What should I do in the gym?
Do the Workout in the OP or stronglifts 5x5. Lifting heavy weights is the most important for body recomposition. The body responds very well to heavy poundages and there is not better way to tax the body than with compound lifts.
I found through personal experience that doing heavy compound lifts in the 4-6 rep range really changes the body and helped me a lot with lose skin which usually happens when you start to lose a ton of weight. You can pretty much fix lose skin issues by going down in body fat percentage and adding mass to your frame.
It seems that you already have a background to lifting heavy for football which should help you out tremendously since you probably already have the form locked down.
Nutrition tips? How many calories should I be consuming?
Typically set a calorie goal based around your body weight goal. Typically when you are heavier you can go on a more aggressive cut because the body will use the excess fat storage as energy expenditure and you will not got as hungry.
Best tip I can give you is to start using myfitnesspal and buy a a food scale. When you really dial in your macros you will start to see changes extremely fast especially when you are new to weight lifting as well.
You can still cheat once a week and what not but in order to hit your macros you will probably have to eat clean 80-90% of the time.
I'm interested in potentially swimming for cardio.. thoughts on that?
I think that is a really good idea but you have to have good form in the water though. Typically when you are bigger you should be swimming or using an elliptical machine. Something that will not put too much pressure on your joints which can be hurt do to the excess weight. As you start lowering your bodyfat you can add different forms of cardio.
Biggest takeaway is that diet is everything. it is probably 90% of how you look. You should still train hard but diet is key.
Get food Scale and use my fitness pal
Do heavy compounds lifts 3x a week.
Congratulations on your first step to your new goal in life. We are here to help you if you have any more questions.