NEW YEARS RESOLUTION WEIGHT LOSS THREAD

[Bonnie]

Workouts yesterday and today:

(circuit)

3x

DB Split squat: 3x25 lbs. 12,10,8 reps
Incline Dumbell Press: 3x25 lbs. 12,10,8 reps
Kettle Bell Goblet Squat: 40,40,40 lbs. 20,15,10 reps
Dumbell side raise: 3x 12.5 lbs 10reps each
Leg extentions:90,100,110 lbs. 20,15,10 reps
Ball Crunches: 3x30 12 lbs. each
Cable Tricep Extention Rope: 3x45 lbs. 12,10,8 reps
Vertical Leg raise: 3x15
Seated calf raise: 3x45lbs. 15,12,10 reps
Paramont Calf Raise: 3x140 lbs 15,12,10 reps

cardio: treadmill, fastpace walk....20 min.



(Circuit)

3x

Cable pulls: 60 lbs 3x15
DB front lunge: 20,20,25lbs 12,10,8 reps
Bi-lateral Pull Down: 70,75,80 lbs. 12,10,8 reps
Hyper Extentions: 3x10lbs. 15,12,10 reps
Cable Low Row 80,80,85 lbs. 12,10,8 reps
Stiff/Romanian Dead Lift: 3x25 lbs 15,12,10 reps
Hammer Curls: 3x17.5 lbs. 15,12,10 reps
Lying leg raise: 3x45 lbs. 15,12,10 reps
Knee to elbow: 3x10 reps
Wipers: 3x10 reps

Cardio: 35 min. Stair climber

Meals

1/2 cup Oatmeal and eggwhites
Chicken, 5 oz. wheat noodles 1/2 cup and broccoli, seasoned with cajun spice
Sweet potatoe, sprinkled with stevia and cinnamin
5 oz. serlion steak, ceaser salad (lite)
Protien shake and munched on a little salad.
lots of water and a big cup of diet coke, and coffee
thats it today


Just keeping focused and staying busy at work, all is good!

[PQ]

Originally Posted by Bonnie

1/2 cup Oatmeal and eggwhites
Chicken, 5 oz. wheat noodles 1/2 cup and broccoli, seasoned with cajun spice
Sweet potatoe, sprinkled with stevia and cinnamin
5 oz. serlion steak, ceaser salad (lite)
Protien shake and munched on a little salad.
lots of water and a big cup of diet coke, and coffee

2 out of 6 ain't bad.

[Sterling]

I weighed in for the week earlier today and I'm down a total of 19 lbs now. I feel so much better already, but I still have a long way to go...

[Bonnie]

Originally Posted by PQ

2 out of 6 ain't bad.

<THIS!!!!!

Originally Posted by sterlingnotes

I weighed in for the week earlier today and I'm down a total of 19 lbs now. I feel so much better already, but I still have a long way to go...

GREAT JOB!!!!!!!!! WooooHoooo!

[Speedy1975]

Originally Posted by CFD

If you've been training like this for a while have you ever tried a 4 day split, you would loose some of your exercises as some seem a bit repetative and not that important and perhaps not as many isolation sets, more compound exercises, 2 days strength, 2 days hypertrophy, this may help with size. Your diet doesn't seem bad but I would think more carbs on workout days and less on non days and why no post workout nutrition, getting hi gi carbs and protein post workout is very beneficial. We have two members here, hrpii and metalicide who are pretty big boys that may see this and can probabbly help with a more balanced routine

I've considered a 4 day split, or even a 5 day solid routine hitting one body part per day with may be two on Friday. My problem is I drive about 40 minutes to get to the gym every morning, shower at the gym, etc. Three days a week of that is about my limit, but I may try it this summer just to see how I can do.

Originally Posted by CFD

Something else I noticed, I also work out without a spotter(power rack) but limit machine use on the exercises I can, barbells and especially dumbells are much more beneficial than machines, they require more muscle stimulation to stabilize the weight, you probably will use less weight than with machines(better for your joints) but will net more gains.

I used to do dumb bells and think those may have contributed to my joint issues so I switched to the hammer strength and had less problems.

My next workout change (due in about 30 days) I'll try swapping back to some free weights and see how they do. Getting a 4" needle stuck in my shoulder isn't something I look forward too again.

In the winter I have a protein shake after the gym, but in cutting phase I eliminated that to cut the calories. Think I need to add that back and cut the calories from the afternoon snack or something in place?

Tonight for dinner I had:
Chicken breast lightly coated in olive oil and baked
2 cup Spinach salad
1 cup brown rice
1 cup brocolli

I'll be hitting legs and triceps tomorrow morning bright and early.

My other thing is I hardly EVER get sore anymore. I can feel that I worked out...like the muscles feel fatigued when leaving the gym, but the next day I'm not really sore just barely tender on the muscle worked. Am I hitting it hard enough or is that to be expected over time?

On the 5x5 workout I'm on now, I do 5 sets of 5 reps. If I get all 5 reps of each set this week, I add weight the next week (keeping a log) until I can't get all 5 on the last set. Then I work on that amount of weight until I get 5x5 again then add more weight the next week. If I get all 5 sets with medium difficulty for some reason on one particular exercise I add 30 seconds of static reps at the end to burn it out. Sometimes things are easier than others...I guess due to better sleep or a better meal the night before dunno.

[CFD]

Originally Posted by Speedy1975

I've considered a 4 day split, or even a 5 day solid routine hitting one body part per day with may be two on Friday. My problem is I drive about 40 minutes to get to the gym every morning, shower at the gym, etc. Three days a week of that is about my limit, but I may try it this summer just to see how I can do.



I used to do dumb bells and think those may have contributed to my joint issues so I switched to the hammer strength and had less problems.

My next workout change (due in about 30 days) I'll try swapping back to some free weights and see how they do. Getting a 4" needle stuck in my shoulder isn't something I look forward too again.

In the winter I have a protein shake after the gym, but in cutting phase I eliminated that to cut the calories. Think I need to add that back and cut the calories from the afternoon snack or something in place?

Tonight for dinner I had:
Chicken breast lightly coated in olive oil and baked
2 cup Spinach salad
1 cup brown rice
1 cup brocolli

I'll be hitting legs and triceps tomorrow morning bright and early.

My other thing is I hardly EVER get sore anymore. I can feel that I worked out...like the muscles feel fatigued when leaving the gym, but the next day I'm not really sore just barely tender on the muscle worked. Am I hitting it hard enough or is that to be expected over time?

On the 5x5 workout I'm on now, I do 5 sets of 5 reps. If I get all 5 reps of each set this week, I add weight the next week (keeping a log) until I can't get all 5 on the last set. Then I work on that amount of weight until I get 5x5 again then add more weight the next week. If I get all 5 sets with medium difficulty for some reason on one particular exercise I add 30 seconds of static reps at the end to burn it out. Sometimes things are easier than others...I guess due to better sleep or a better meal the night before dunno.

I would definately keep post workout nutrition, reduce cals somewhere else, your body adapts to your workouts so perhaps you should try different exercises for the same muscle groups, add more compund lifts, deadlifts squats etc. try dropping a couple of the isolation sets and try 3x12, same theory when you reach 12 up the weight, a few more reps may help with size

[rtcat600man]

Friday check in.......down a total of 15 since Jan. 1

[Ironheadspearo]

Originally Posted by dma05

Most people think you have to eat less to lose weight.. I don't understand where they get this concept from. You need to eat healthier to lose weight. If you're working out as well, you then need to have enough fuel for your workout... so that means you need to eat MORE

When I get people on the right program and they realize how much they can eat, they get excited cause they thought they would have to go on a "diet"... the only people that do get scared are usually the women (sorry women, don't mean to single you out )... but they soon realize that fuel is what they need...

This thread is awesome... I hope many of you are achieving your goals and making yourself happy

Allen

the one thing people need to realize is that when you starve yourself your body goes into starvation mode which it will then store calories longer. what i like to say is that your body wants to be fat and when you try to lose weight it is a vitual war going on. every bit of this is hard for the most part. and as soon as you stop working out and eating right watch how fast your body will go back to how it used to look like before you started. that is why this is a lifestyle lifelong committment if you want success. it is real easy to go back to the old habits which made you fat in the first place.

[dma05]

Originally Posted by sterlingnotes

I weighed in for the week earlier today and I'm down a total of 19 lbs now. I feel so much better already, but I still have a long way to go...

Originally Posted by rtcat600man

Friday check in.......down a total of 15 since Jan. 1

Great Job peeps
Keep it going and don't look back....

It's very motivating seeing everyone in here work so hard

Allen

[Speedy1975]

Originally Posted by CFD

I would definately keep post workout nutrition, reduce cals somewhere else, your body adapts to your workouts so perhaps you should try different exercises for the same muscle groups, add more compund lifts, deadlifts squats etc. try dropping a couple of the isolation sets and try 3x12, same theory when you reach 12 up the weight, a few more reps may help with size

I do eat the protein bar right after my work out. Today's was a "Pure Protein" brand (hey they're $1 at the grocery right now). 18G or protein 19G of carbs but only 2G of sugar.

I'll check back with you at the end of the month when I'm changing my workout again. I change it up every 90 days and March 1 will be a new one.

Today's workout:
HS Hack Squat 265 @ 5x5 notes - too easy go to 275 next week
HS Leg Press 585 @ 5x5
HS Leg Extension 150 @ 5x5
HS Leg Curl 135 @ 5x5
Seated Calve Raise 90 @ 8/4 (20 second negatives on each rep)
Super Nose Breaker 90 @ 5x5
Reverse Grip Bench Press 155 @ 5x5
Cable Rope Tricep Extensions 100 @ 5x5
30 minutes light intensity treadmill cardio

Meals today will be:
Pre Workout 1 scoop ON Whey 6:30am

Post Workout Pure Protein Bar / 2 cups coffee no sugar 9:30am

Lunch
Baked chicken breast
2 cups brocolli 1 tbsp ICBINB
1 cup brown rice
1 small bag sun chips

Afternoon Snack
Some kind of orange thing can't remember what it's called but not an orange
Carb Master Yogurt

Dinner
TBD

I agree on the starving ones self being a bad idea. I try not to lose more than 1-2 pounds per week. More than that and you risk eating in to the muscle. I gradually drop calories until I level out to the 1-2 lbs per week lost and track my strength at the gym and body fat with a OMRON body fat monitor. Works decent.

I can definitely feel the reduced calories, but as long as I do ok at the gym I stick with it. If my strength starts to wain at the gym, I add 200 cals/day and go from there.

I do eat two cheat meals a week. One on Sunday and the other on Wednesday but don't go too crazy.

[CFD]

Originally Posted by Speedy1975

I do eat the protein bar right after my work out. Today's was a "Pure Protein" brand (hey they're $1 at the grocery right now). 18G or protein 19G of carbs but only 2G of sugar.

I'll check back with you at the end of the month when I'm changing my workout again. I change it up every 90 days and March 1 will be a new one.

Today's workout:
HS Hack Squat 265 @ 5x5 notes - too easy go to 275 next week
HS Leg Press 585 @ 5x5
HS Leg Extension 150 @ 5x5
HS Leg Curl 135 @ 5x5
Seated Calve Raise 90 @ 8/4 (20 second negatives on each rep)
Super Nose Breaker 90 @ 5x5
Reverse Grip Bench Press 155 @ 5x5
Cable Rope Tricep Extensions 100 @ 5x5
30 minutes light intensity treadmill cardio

Meals today will be:
Pre Workout 1 scoop ON Whey 6:30am

Post Workout Pure Protein Bar / 2 cups coffee no sugar 9:30am

Lunch
Baked chicken breast
2 cups brocolli 1 tbsp ICBINB
1 cup brown rice
1 small bag sun chips

Afternoon Snack
Some kind of orange thing can't remember what it's called but not an orange
Carb Master Yogurt

Dinner
TBD

I agree on the starving ones self being a bad idea. I try not to lose more than 1-2 pounds per week. More than that and you risk eating in to the muscle. I gradually drop calories until I level out to the 1-2 lbs per week lost and track my strength at the gym and body fat with a OMRON body fat monitor. Works decent.

I can definitely feel the reduced calories, but as long as I do ok at the gym I stick with it. If my strength starts to wain at the gym, I add 200 cals/day and go from there.

I do eat two cheat meals a week. One on Sunday and the other on Wednesday but don't go too crazy.

I hate to break the news to you but your protein bar is a glorified candy bar, read the ingredients, you will see.

If you want a simple effective post work out drink get gatorade in powdered packets,or a product like carbo gain, add one scoop or packet to two scoops of your ON and nothing else in it. Within 20 min. of your work out is the most important time to get protein, the gatorade (sucrose and dextrose) or carbo gain (maltidextrose) is hi GI and will raise your insulin levels fast ( this is the only time that's desireable) insulin is needed for muscle to absorb protein and acts as a transport system to get it to your muscles when they need it. Other ingredients like complex carbs and fats slow down the absorbtion.

The other thing I'm noticing about your food intake is that you are not eating balanced and only eating 2 meals a day, you should be eating 5-6 meals a day more balanced and more carbs earlier in the day when you burn them and your protein levels are much to low. Even if your cutting you should still eat more balanced and more often, you can cut cals by cutting carbs slightly but you need the protein. You also have no fat in your diet (poly's and mono's) the only fat I see (and I'll bet it's saturated) is what's in your "protein bar".

One other question, how long have you been training like this and how long are you spending in the gym, from your workout it seems like you are spending to much time on your workouts or flying through them, you may be overtraining.

[Speedy1975]

Originally Posted by CFD

I hate to break the news to you but your protein bar is a glorified candy bar, read the ingredients, you will see.

If you want a simple effective post work out drink get gatorade in powdered packets,or a product like carbo gain, add one scoop or packet to two scoops of your ON and nothing else in it. Within 20 min. of your work out is the most important time to get protein, the gatorade (sucrose and dextrose) or carbo gain (maltidextrose) is hi GI and will raise your insulin levels fast ( this is the only time that's desireable) insulin is needed for muscle to absorb protein and acts as a transport system to get it to your muscles when they need it. Other ingredients like complex carbs and fats slow down the absorbtion.

The other thing I'm noticing about your food intake is that you are not eating balanced and only eating 2 meals a day, you should be eating 5-6 meals a day more balanced and more carbs earlier in the day when you burn them and your protein levels are much to low. Even if your cutting you should still eat more balanced and more often, you can cut cals by cutting carbs slightly but you need the protein. You also have no fat in your diet (poly's and mono's) the only fat I see (and I'll bet it's saturated) is what's in your "protein bar".

One other question, how long have you been training like this and how long are you spending in the gym, from your workout it seems like you are spending to much time on your workouts or flying through them, you may be overtraining.

Interesting. I'll drop the bars, didn't like them much anyway. I've always avoided Gatorade like the plague due to it's sugar content. I'll look in to some options there. I was using an Ultramet Packet by Champion Nutrition after working out over the winter. They offer a "lite" version I can check in to.

It takes me about an hour to finish weight lifting. I don't stretch and I don't warm up (I know I know) and just get right to it. If I start getting in to heavier weights I will warm up my shoulders since I've had problems there but other than that none. I'll do a set and try to only rest 30 seconds between the 5 rep sets. When I switch workouts to a more standard 3 sets of 8-10 reps I rest about 2 minutes between sets, but that's on down the road.

I then hit the cardio for 30 minutes, so total time in the gym is about 1.5 hours 3x a week. If the weather's not bad I may do another 30-45 minutes of cardio (brisk walk) on Saturdays just to get a bit extra.

I was having another scoop of the ON Whey and 2tbsp of peanut butter at 6pm when I got home from work, but eliminated that as well to cut down.

I'm trying to stay around 1800 cals / day. I have a desk job so I'm sitting on my butt all day.

I forgot to add in the flaxseed 2gr/day, red yeast rice 1.2gr/day and the multivitamin.

[CFD]

Originally Posted by Speedy1975

Interesting. I'll drop the bars, didn't like them much anyway. I've always avoided Gatorade like the plague due to it's sugar content. I'll look in to some options there. I was using an Ultramet Packet by Champion Nutrition after working out over the winter. They offer a "lite" version I can check in to.

It takes me about an hour to finish weight lifting. I don't stretch and I don't warm up (I know I know) and just get right to it. If I start getting in to heavier weights I will warm up my shoulders since I've had problems there but other than that none. I'll do a set and try to only rest 30 seconds between the 5 rep sets. When I switch workouts to a more standard 3 sets of 8-10 reps I rest about 2 minutes between sets, but that's on down the road.

I then hit the cardio for 30 minutes, so total time in the gym is about 1.5 hours 3x a week. If the weather's not bad I may do another 30-45 minutes of cardio (brisk walk) on Saturdays just to get a bit extra.

I was having another scoop of the ON Whey and 2tbsp of peanut butter at 6pm when I got home from work, but eliminated that as well to cut down.

I'm trying to stay around 1800 cals / day. I have a desk job so I'm sitting on my butt all day.

I forgot to add in the flaxseed 2gr/day, red yeast rice 1.2gr/day and the multivitamin.

If you want to stay away from the gatorade try getting some carbo gain or any similar product, it is maltidextrose yes it's high GI but post workout it is good.

Even with the scoop of protein powder you eliminated your protein intake is much to low and macro-nutrients are way off. Look at the basics, you should be consuming at least 1 gram of protein for every lb of body weight, so in your case roughly 175 grams at a minimum, if you're training hard which it looks like you are levels should be higher. Your lucky to be eating half of that. Your working out in the morning, you have been fasting for about 8 hrs (sleep time) and then working out, what are you burning for fuel, this may be desireable for fat loss but not muscle building, I know you said you're cutting but your trying to do two things at once and you cannot. Have you ever acuratelly figured out what you cal requirement actually is, do you know your BMR. A few pages back I posted a formular to figure this out accurately. If you can find it try it, if your not sure of the math you can post your stats here, I will calculate it for you, then I can give you a break down of your carbs, proteins and fat for each meal, it can then be adjusted for cutting or bulking. I think that from what I see here better nutrition will be advantageous. Just for fun scroll back and look at what some of us that work out regularily are eating for cals (even while cutting)and the food combinations and you will see that yours are out of whack.

[sugar'n'spice]

This weight loss, has it's benefits !!

Bought 2 bikinis, many tops, a dress, white jeans, the nicest shorts...that's right folks...all for the vacation !!! Woohoo!!!

So proud of me !!