Progress Report
I thought I would give a little update as well.
Things are not going anything like I had hoped. Basically I am not going anywhere. Close to 10 weeks of workouts (8 weeks of the more intense ones per discussions in other threads) and I don't think I have dropped an inch anywhere. The diet was a bit spotty for the first 3 (mostly not eating enough probably, but weekends early on were hard due to some family/social commitments), but I have been extremely hardcore about things for the last 5 weeks (at least I think I have) No soda of any kind, water only except for the milk, etc with cereal or in the protein shakes. Carbohydrates are very low, other than some fruit.
I have gone from eating 3 times a day to eating 5 times a day and upping the total calories a bit (I think I was not eating enough to get my metabolism going) I am in the 1300 to 1500 range now, but in the last 3 days, I have seen the scale go up, not down
The workout is pretty much all on the treadmill with some weights 3 times a week (shoulder is limiting what I can do weight wise, just won't heal) I have 2 different "courses" I use on the treadmill. 1 is an interval style workout with me running 6 times during a 20 minute period, total time is 26 min with warm up/cool down. The second workout is low speed with only 3 x 1 min "runs" in it but the walking is all done with high incline (7% grade). The low speed workout actually nets more total calories burnt (275 for the high speed and 320 for the low speed, according to the treadmill).
Heart rate in both workouts reaches a peak of about 165 and I would say I average about 134 -140 over a 24 minute period.
My max heart rate is 185, with 120 to 158 being the "target" of 65 - 85% of my max.
Another question about the diet, where does fruit fit into a weight loss plan...is it a total no no?
I do not mean fruit with added sugar either. I either buy Fresh or canned in its own juice, not the "heavy" or "light" syrup varieties.
Thanks
Things are not going anything like I had hoped. Basically I am not going anywhere. Close to 10 weeks of workouts (8 weeks of the more intense ones per discussions in other threads) and I don't think I have dropped an inch anywhere. The diet was a bit spotty for the first 3 (mostly not eating enough probably, but weekends early on were hard due to some family/social commitments), but I have been extremely hardcore about things for the last 5 weeks (at least I think I have) No soda of any kind, water only except for the milk, etc with cereal or in the protein shakes. Carbohydrates are very low, other than some fruit.
I have gone from eating 3 times a day to eating 5 times a day and upping the total calories a bit (I think I was not eating enough to get my metabolism going) I am in the 1300 to 1500 range now, but in the last 3 days, I have seen the scale go up, not down
The workout is pretty much all on the treadmill with some weights 3 times a week (shoulder is limiting what I can do weight wise, just won't heal) I have 2 different "courses" I use on the treadmill. 1 is an interval style workout with me running 6 times during a 20 minute period, total time is 26 min with warm up/cool down. The second workout is low speed with only 3 x 1 min "runs" in it but the walking is all done with high incline (7% grade). The low speed workout actually nets more total calories burnt (275 for the high speed and 320 for the low speed, according to the treadmill).
Heart rate in both workouts reaches a peak of about 165 and I would say I average about 134 -140 over a 24 minute period.
My max heart rate is 185, with 120 to 158 being the "target" of 65 - 85% of my max.
Another question about the diet, where does fruit fit into a weight loss plan...is it a total no no?
I do not mean fruit with added sugar either. I either buy Fresh or canned in its own juice, not the "heavy" or "light" syrup varieties.
Thanks
0
Comments
I haven't been in your other threads or at least I haven't been paying attention =) I take it you're trying to drop some weight? What do you weigh now and what is your target weight?
Define spotty? What were you trying to do diet wise?
1300-1500 calories is really pretty low. Stall your metabolism and plunge your body into starvation mode low. I'm not saying you can't make it work, but it doesn't look like you have the exercise level to support your metabolism and preserve your muscle with such a restricted calorie intake.
Where are the calories coming from? How much protein are you taking in per day in grams, same for carbohydrates and fat?
Cardio is a good weight loss additive but its not really a means to make weight loss happen by itself. The first and foremost ingredient is having sufficient metabolic tissue to make the weight loss happen. Muscle is your body's primary metabolic tissue, the more of it you have, the more calories you can burn. Its not as simple as calories in versus calories out because your body has safeguards built in over thousands of years of evolution that slow down your metabolism when your dietary intake becomes restricted. Its a safeguard against starvation.
If you're going to restrict your calorie intake, especially to the level you are describing here, your body is going to want to slow your metabolism because historically that drop in caloric intake means you were a starving caveman in search of food. If your metabolism didn't slow, your body would burn itself off and you would starve in no time. Keeping that in mind you have to take additional steps yourself to counteract some of those evolutionary safeguards. Your activity level has to be pretty hardcore in order to keep your calorie expenditure up. You also have to eat extremely carefully, namely taking in massive amounts of protein, in order to preserve the muscle mass that you have. Your body will start to burn your muscle for energy in the absence of suitable fuel it doesn't have now.
165 is pretty low in my opinion. There are some that think interval training should be done at set percentages of your MHR. I subscribe to the school of thought that says for the sprinting portion of the interval you should be going balls to the wall. Run as hard as you can for that portion of the interval and if you aren't sucking air hard at the end of it you didn't run as hard as you could have...then you recover...then you do it again.
Fruit is a healthier source of sugar and carbohydrates than say candy or chips and junkfood. However, its still pretty carb and sugar laden. Its not a no no but I think people focus too much on their sources of carbohydrates and not enough on their sources of protein.
I seriously do not care about weight, but it is a function of mass, so yea, I want to decrease my mass. My only goal is body fat reduction. Current weight is 215, goal would be around 195 or less if I have to put a number on it, but seriously, I don't care if its 210 if the spare tire and love handles are gone.
Spotty for the first 3 weeks, meaning I wasn't as strict as I could have been, too many simple carbs (no candy, chocolate, etc. but not enough lean proteins) I started adding a protein shake once to three times a day about 2 weeks ago.
Calories are mostly from protein, I am up to between 230 - 270 grams of protein a day. I have not kept track of exact numbers of fat/carbs, but I do watch them. I should be under 50G of carbs and 30G of fat (if I stay away from the peanuts) most days.
Breakfast is either a bowl of Cheerios with Fat Free milk or protein shake with 500 - 600 calories and 120G of Protein, depending on how I make it.
Workout is normally between 11 and noon, somedays later if I can't get out of the house.
Lunch is a shake (if I had cereal) or baked chicken (boneless/skinless) with veggies (green beans, carrots, or broccoli) and maybe some cottage cheese with pineapple.
Dinner will be chicken or fish (baked), sometimes just that or some more cottage cheese.
165 low? 38 years of no condition exercise per say and that is low? Damn and here I thought I was at least doing decent in that area.
Most of the problem probably comes from me working behind this PC all day. No other activity other than usual household crap (which certainly isn't exercise, but does keep things moving faster than sitting in a chair) I need to maybe start taking a walk later in the day just for more activity.
If you're eating like you describe every day you're going to stall your metabolism. Thats why I adovcate that carb cycling plan. It combines strict low calorie, high protein, eating which will cut down your bodyfat but the high carb days let you eat like a human being and its basically like having a cheat day once a week. So you can actually stick to it.
That diet sounds good just make sure you balance it or its going to murder your metabolism. As far as 165 for your heart rate, yeah I think thats low, but I'm not watching what you're doing that gets you there either. Compartively when I do interval sprints with a HR monitor or at the gym on a treadmill during bad weather mine shoots up to 200 at times during the sprint portion of the interval. I'm also running my ass off.
When you say a carb day, continue to stay away from sugars and junk food, but eat more whole wheat bread, pita, pasta, things like that, right?
BTW... Happy Birthday
My HRmax is about 10 BPM below yours according to most formula's I found, but I get your point. I have tended to be on the cautious side of things, I don't want to do any damage since I really have never been "fit" in my life.
I do think that my diet choices are affecting most of this, I just need to get something together that works. Varying the workout probably wouldn't hurt. I need to talk to Kwitko about this boxing he is doing, I have room for a heavy bag, I think
EDIT: I do not know my body fat percentage (not sure I want to know that number, I can bet it's too high
Your caloric intake is too low for for your weight. Your body is definately in stavation mode. If you have a metallic (copper) taste in your mouth, or really strong breath, I can pretty much guaranty your body has switched into the starvation mode MM stated above.
How tall are you? I need your weight and height to get your daily caloric intake to maintain your current weight. Then we subtract around 700 - 900 calories from this baseline to see where you need to be to lose 1 to 2 lbs per week. Throw in a few good workouts and we can boost this 1 to 2 pounds to 2 to 5 pounds per week. Most calorie calculators say 500 calories are good for about 1 pound a week weight loss, I find this is a bit conservative.
A simple way to figure out your daily caloric intake for maintenance is to multiply your weight by 17. This is not as accurate as the way I described above, but will help you get a baseline.
By this method:
215 lbs X 17 = 3655 calories (for maintenance) - 900 = 2755 calories. I would round this up to an even 1000. This is an average, and not wrtten in stone.
Here's what I'd like you to try:
For the next two weeks I'd like to to shoot for 2400 to 2900 calories a day, (we can modify this one we get your HT/WT caloric ave.) to get your body out of starvation mode.
After two weeks, we can start tricking your body into using more calories aka burning fat....
Monday - 2400-2900 cals
Tuesday - 2400-2900 cals
Wednesday - 1900-2200 cals
Thursday - 2400-2900 cals
Friday - 2400-2900 cals
Saturday - 1900-2200 cals
Sunday - Weigh in as you get up, then OFF DAY! Have fun!!
Your body will quickly get used to having 2400-2900 cals to work with on a daily basis. By dropping your calories on Wed & Sat your body will continue to burn calories as if you were taking in 2400-2900 cals, but will use more fat to make up for the difference. You have to use it sparingly though or your body will quicly switch into starvation mode. Even two days in a row at 1900-2200 could be enough to switch you back into starvation mode, if you are excercising, or working hard.
I laways leave myself a 1 day a week where I can eat what I want. My day is Sunday, but your can be any day you chose.
Your protein choices are excellent!
Let me know if this helps!
Now that you mention it....I do have that taste in my mouth from time to time, wondered what was going on.
I work behind this computer 10+ hours a day, always been afraid of eating too much because of the sedentary lifestyle.
It just seems like when I have a high calorie day (like this past Sunday, had a family function, didn't overdue it by any means, but it was probably 1000+ calories and definitely not lean protein)...the weight goes right back on, although I probably ought to stay off the scale every day
Keebs is right,
You should really only weigh yourself once a week. Your weight can flux as much as 5 lbs per day depending on diet, water, or salt intake....
Not sure I can eat that much, LOL
A) Fitday.com, fill it out for a week and report back how much you're actually eating for sure, and what your percentage values are (It will calculate it for you)
B) Eat more.
I weigh about 160 (As far as I know, I haven't used a scale in about a month) right now eating 3,000 calories and struggling to gain weight. I don't necessarily believe in the whole 'stalling' theory, but I do believe you have to give your body enough of what it needs to be productive. Your weight also fluctuates as said, at night I weigh about five pounds more than usual. My suggestions is have your morning dump and the weigh yourself. Do it on one day a week, and do it at the same time.
I would weigh yourself once a week at the same time of day. Preferably like saturday morning before you eat or something. That way you can control most of the values that will make your weight fluctuate. Fluctuate it will, between low and high carb days my weight would fluctuate anywhere from about 2-10 pounds. You have to understand thats not your actual bodyfat percentage though. It has more to do with your hydration levels than anything else so you're essentially just seing differences in water weight from day to day and those can be significant.
You need to eat what you want and eat like a regular person for probably a good month and get your body out of starvation mode. Then you can try cycling your carbohydrate intake. You can tweak it so you have a setup that works best for you. Maybe you'll have better results with 2 low carb days followed by a high carb day. Who knows, a lot of this has to be tweaked for each individual person. I found 3 low days followed by 1 high worked the best for me.
By the book the calorie calculators say you need 4019 calories a day (this is with a moderate amount of activity/exercise). Not sure I could eat this much a day myself. Not the correct food that is. Add a couple 1/4lbers with cheese, then maybe! rofl!
I think you will see some great results if you shoot for 1800 - 2100 calories a day.
Journal started: http://www.fitday.com/WebFit/PublicJournals.html?Owner=RyderOCZ
Yes, that is a Wendy's double (no mayo
Question: I mix the protein shake with Fat Free milk...is that a no no? I see just in milk today I have 54g of Carbs, should I be using water? What about Soy Milk? (yes I know it has just as many or a few more carbs)
I guess a better question: Is using milk, of some sort, fine for now since I am just trying to get my metabolism started back up? On the days that I am "cutting" should I be using water to avoid the carbs?
That's all for now, Thank you for your input guys
I would be more concerned about staying out of wendys then to use skim milk or not
I go half 2% milk half water on my shakes, this is only because they get too thick for me if I use all milk.
It has been shown that the calcium in milk has a positive effect on those trying to lose weight.
Milk is made up of mainly 2 types of protein, Whey, and Casein.
Whey proteins are quickly broken down into amino acids for immediate use. Whey protein is great for use right after a workout, when your body needs these amino acids to replace what it used during the workout.
Casein proteins are absorbed more slowly over a longer time period, helping with the rebuild of muscle tissue damaged during a workout.