Ok folks, how does this sound for a fat loss
workout: lift on Mon & Thurs, in a 3x5 or
5x5 type workout, stuff like deads, squats,
bench, etc. Sun/Wed/Fri do interval sprints,
Tuesdays do light cardio 20-30 min. Diet
issues aside (I know, I know!) how does this
sound?
What you experienced was extreme over training. I see guys in the gym every day, who do tons of sets, tons of cardio, and guess what, they never change. They never get ripped, and they never increase their strength. I wold go to lifting 3 days a week (Keep up the intensity, weights high and the reps low, do compoud lifts) and only 2 days of cardio (20-30 min max), try it for a week or two. From what you have said, you have nothing to lose, especially if you have tried everything diet wise.
I see you’re no English major. (Neither was I, but you write very difficult to read msg’s).
Cafeteria foods are CRAP! I was in college last year, and my cafeteria provided nutritional info (very basic), and everything they served had something like 300 cal per serving. I remember a chicken breast they served, which had 350 kcal per serving (it was a VERY TINY chicken breast) cuz they added some oil and crap like that to the perfectly fine chicken breast! Now if you just assume that it's just a 3 oz chicken breast, then your calc will be WAY off, cuz you'll not only eat the chicken breast, but you'll probably eat veggies, some kind of carb, fat, etc., etc.
When I was trying to drop weight in college (which wasn't always consistent or successful since it was a half-assed effort), I ate nothing but salad with no dressing, some grilled chicken breast or fish, and a tiny piece of fruit. And I did a lot of cardio, but then I was a typical girl who thought weightlifting = hulk he-woman.
Anyhow, if you're not dropping weight, something's not right with what you're doing or eating, so that's where you need to look at first. Also there's more to calories to dropping weight. You have to eat the right KIND of food. JB emphasized this numerous times in his article WINNING FORMULA.
5 days a week for both cardio and weights? That’s way too much. Ever hear the expression KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid. You are, without any question, overtraining. You don’t feel tired and worn out because you are intaking a godawful amount of carbs. I know plenty of people who lose loads of weight with no excercise. You, my friend, are doing way too much. Here’s what I’d do. I’m in college too, so I know its plausible. Cut way back on your training. 2 maybe 3 days in the weightroom. 2 maybe 3 days other than the weight days doing aerobics of some variety. No more than 15-20 minutes, and keep the heartrate relatively low. .65(220-your age) No fats before 6pm, no carbs after 6pm. As for the calories needed, it has been said here before, Berardi’s numbers are just a guide. Did he mean 16* body weight in kilos-500? That’d be exceptionally low, but it was just what you need to live. Use what he wrote as an estimate. Then keep everything else constant while slowly reducing the calorie intake. Decresase by 100 cal a week. Get scientific here. Once you start losing weight, and its inevitable, you’ve found your daily caloric need. Then dance around that number for your reults.
yeh our school does that with some of the chicken breast, but i dont eat those, my diet is very clean, first meal: wheat tortilla,lettuce,tomatoe, and tons of other veggies, turkey breat lunch meat, 98-99% FF, and fat free ranch+ glass of crystal light+veggies and turkey breast stir fryed by mysel in just soy sauce, prolly about 3-4 cups veggies i use+black coffee
meal 2: Can of chunk light tuna with pepper+crystal light
meal three:same as meal one
meal four: During and after workout Surge or just 60 grams of protein postworkout with water
meal five:3 scoops of grow in water
meal six:same as meal 2
so to me tha seems very healthy
UNCG is very nutritionally focused with their food as to except people dieting cause we have a huge health and human performance program here, which i am majoring in fitness leadership to become a strength coach hopefully…but alot of our food is healthy and is labeled
also ko, mufasa, etc what was ur opinion on what i stated about taking surge before i lift, and then doing cardio after wards, do u think that could also be a factor in me not losing weight read a couple posts above by me where i explain my reasoning…
thanks alot all
pugs
hey slm,
you need to post ur qeustion on another thread preferably a new one, first of all you question isnt gonna get noticed or answered in here, and its irrelevant to the topic on this thread, so ur not gonna get too many answers on this thread, ud have alot better luck making a new thread if u want ur qeustion answered
just my 2 cents
pugs
bump for my second to last question, and one more qeustion for ko, if i am overtraining would my body be that stubborn trying to lose bodyfat as to lose none at all because i was overtraining, even when i have such a big deficit, dont u think i would have at least lost a little bit over the period of a month…?
HA! I thought KISS was dead… I love that term. And I must concur, you are more likely than not overtraining something horribl, pugs my man. Your body is freakin six ways to Sunday, and holding onto everything it can. I know you are most likely reluctant to draw back and train less, but just hear me out. What do you have to lose at this point? The current amount is not working, and you have become very frustrated. That frustration isnt helping matters any, either, but I TOTALLY understand. So, you have 2 options in the training dept, more or less. More would likely kill you- you may become sick due to a lowered immune fxn from such overtraining even, so less is the only sound conclusion. Just take a step back for a moment and reasses your situation. You are training 5 times a week w/ wts and cardio. Juiced bodybuilders can barely keep that up, and you dont have the added advantage of pharmeceutical enhancement. You are just a normal guy. You are most likely taxing your system far too much. Here is my suggestion, but it may be a little extreme. Drop your training back to 3X a week. give your body some time to recuperate. it is vital to your wellbeing, health and success. If after 2 weeks you havent seen any difference, up it to 4 times a week. But dont do marathon wt training AND cardio all on the same day. If you read this, let me know what ya think. It will happen, pugs. it just takes time, thought and patience.
My suggestion would be to take sure after the workout when trying to lose fat. I’m doing this now and my fat loss is not affected.
yeh fellas im gonna cut back on my workload its gonna be hard for me to do that but i will and see what happens and keep u all updated
YES. One more thing though, Are you trying to lose weight or bodyfat? I am thinking its the latter, so your weight is not really all that important. Unless you are trying to make weight for an athletic event, then you bf% is more important than the scale. You could very well be exchanging body fat for muscle, therefore not seeing a change on the scale. It might be a good idea to start checking your body fat% weekly. I would invest in some calipers or one of those scales, that or use the mirror. Make sense? I recently gained 5 lbs, and lost body fat. You could just be equalizing. Just a thought.
yeh im trying to lose bodyfat, i dont have the money for calipers right now, but i have been using my measurements as a judge of whether or not the fat was being replaced by muscle, i dont know if thats a good judge, im getting my bodyfat tested tommorow at my department at school with those 300 dollars calipers, but i dont know what my starting % was so it wont doo me any good, at least at this current time, but i doubted it was being replaced by muscle because one, i didnt see much of a diff in the mirror,and 2 im only consuming 1 ghram of protein per pound of BW this protocol doesnt really lend itself to much muscle increase especially with little calories, do u think my calories are on track in terms of not consuming too much, i dont think im consuming too many at all but i need some other opinions…
thanx
pugs
What I meant was to take the surge after the workout and cardio when dieting not take the “sure”. I think even if you were overtraining, you should still lose fat. I was definitely overtraining and eating only about 1400 cals. and I lost fat real quick(didn’t know much about nutrition). When I started I was losing 2.5 pounds a week and lost 50 pounds in 6 months. Also how tall are you? It’s important because 265 at 5’7 is a lot different than 265 at 6’2. When I started I was a fat boy at 243 and 5’7.
im 6’0 265, i have alot of muscle, i started my lifting in powerlifting so im really big and strong and i have quite alot of muscle but id look nice and cut at 215-220, i have a prety big frame and big muscles just alot of BF over it…
You are getting great advice here. I just started the fourth week of my diet and am down 10.5 pounds. I use a cheap caliper I got from a local sports store. Accu-Measure. Cost me less then $10.
You would be surprised at the number of things that could affect fat loss. Right now I am taking a 5 day layoff and will start 5x5 training three times a week. The only cardio I will do right now is about 10 min as a warm up before stretching. A low calorie diet can make it easier to over train. I don’t use a food log myself, though I do see the value in one. But I decide my diet ahead of time and follow it.
One problem you could have as a student is lack of sleep. I read in a recent article about when people don’t get enough sleep that the body releases a chemical telling it to store fat. Dehydration can also effect fat loss. I drink 1 gallon of ice water a day. You have to piss a lot, but it takes calories to warm the water to body temp. The estimate I read was 128 extra calories a day. The advice given earlier about dropping 100 daily calories each week is good advice. I was planning on doing that myself if my fat loss drops below 2 pounds a week. I also won’t diet longer then 12 weeks without at least a month off to get the metabolism moving again.