Fat Loss Log

Training Logs
1

Hello, T-Nation! I’m a 25-year-old male who’s been lurking around here since about the beginning of '09, and have been reading the articles for much longer than that. I’ve been somewhat out of shape most of my life, having discovered the joy of exercise in college and not before, and am currently sitting in a body that’s over 20% fat and just shy of 100 kilos (218lbs at the start of this process).

It’s going to be an interesting summer for me. Up until last week I’d been working at a menial job that paid enough for my needs and I’d gotten complacent about it - other jobs had been available in the area, but I’d passed them over because of the hassle involved. Now that I’ve lost my job (due to my own foolishness and lack of respect for it), I realize what a mistake that was, but that’s not really the purpose of this log.

Right before I was forced to resign by my behavior, I purchased several Biotest supplements - L-Leucine, Surge, Metabolic Drive, Flameout, BCAA’s, and some HOT-ROX. Now that I have the time and the compunction to do so, I’ve been structuring a workout around making sure that buying those supplements was money well-spent.

Since I’m without a gym at the moment (my membership was contingent on my employment) I’m using the equipment I’ve accrued over the years - mostly my two 24kg Kettlebells, my pullup bar, and my 40lb loadable X-Vest.

The purpose of this log is primarily to put my plan out there for accountability’s sake, but suggestions or comments are of course welcome and appreciated.

2

5/17 - Day 0: Measurements, Initial Weigh-In and Program Layout
I started the day beginning to realize that my unemployment was something of a blessing as far as my body composition goals were concerned. I tested my HOT-ROX tolerance as recommended, and tasted the Low Carb Metabolic Drive and Surge flavors I’d purchased - I was pleasantly surprised.

After looking over my supplement pile, I settled on a regimen for the next 28 days:
Morning - 2 HOT-ROX, 3 Flameout Caps, 1 serving Greens+, Multivitamin and Fiber Tablets
Afternoon - 5 BCAA’s, 3 Flameout Caps (whenever I’m hungry)
Post-Workout - Surge with L-Leucine and Superfood
Evening - Metabolic Drive with L-Leucine
Today is day 4 of this setup, and it’s been working well for me - I’ve been adding Leucine to three meals a day, and adding superfood to a protein shake (Just Protein and one cup milk, as much water as the shaker bottle affords) on non-workout days.

For diet, I decided to try out carb cycling. I’m working with about a 1000 calorie deficit on medium days, with slightly less on high days and slightly more on low days - more on the calorie breakdowns as I get to the actual days themselves.

My workouts are basically frankenprograms - I’ve taken pieces of HFT, V-Diet NEPA, and Metabolic pairings, as well as some of the pullup progressions from the recent article. I’ve designed a two workouts alternating setup - here’s how they go:

Workout One
1a. Double Kettlebell Thruster - 5reps
1b. Burpee - 10reps
75 seconds between sets - 5 sets
2. Pullup - 10 sets 3: penultimate set was 2, last set was 3 chins
10 minutes, 10 sets
3a. Weighted Wheel Rollouts (+18lbs) - 4 sets 5
3b. Double Swings - 4 sets 10
75 seconds between sets

Workout Two
(Farmer’s Walk KB’s Outside)
1a. 2KB Walking Lunge - 10reps
1b. Split Squat Jumps - 20reps
75 seconds between sets - 5 sets
(Farmer’s Walk KB’s Inside)
2. Weighted Chinup (+18lbs) - 8 sets 1, last two sets 3
10 minutes, 10 sets
3a. Weighted Pushup (+18lbs) - 4 sets 10
3b. TGU - 4 sets 1/1
75 seconds between sets

In addition to the workouts, I’ll be doing HFT for the first three weeks with double kettlebell presses, chinups and band pulls - I have a Chest Expander set from LifelineUSA and I’m doing downward pulls with it. For NEPA, I plan to walk for an hour a day, and on non-cardio days I’ll include some practice on the rowing machine I own while being strict about the split times.

That’s the basic breakdown - once I’ve laid out a few days of it it should make a bit more sense. Here are my starting measurements:
Neck: 15.5"
Arms: 14" (unflexed)
Chest: 40"
Upper Abs: 37.5"
Waist: 39"
Hips: 40"
Thighs: 27"
Calves: 17"
Weight: 218.4
%BF: 25 (taken on a Tanita scale)

3

Day 1
Had a good day today. Getting all of my exercise stuff done wasn’t as tough as I was used to - while I was working and lifting it always seemed really tough to do much else during the day, but thanks to my free time I have finally been getting my apartment looking nice for the first time since I moved into it. Anyway, here’s how the day went:

5/18
Aerobic Interval Training 1:
2min fast pace, 1min slow pace x7 - fast pace ~1:52
1 minute warmup, 5250 meters in 22 minutes, 331 calories.
This was done about an hour after I got up - I’ll be following an eight week program I found online while this whole experiment is in progress. I neglected to mention that yesterday’s work included a brief time trial - that’s where my goal split came from.
Here’s where I found the program: http://www.powerfultrainingsecrets.com/trial-membership/16-8-week-cardio-program.htm

HFT:
10 Double Kettlebell Presses
8 Chinups
12 Overhead Downward Pulls (130lbs)

Workout One
1a. Double Kettlebell Thruster - 5reps
1b. Burpee - 10reps
75 seconds between sets - 5 sets
2. Pullup - 10 sets 3: penultimate set was 2, last set was 3 chins
10 minutes, 10 sets
3a. Weighted Wheel Rollouts (+18lbs) - 4 sets 5
3b. Double Swings - 4 sets 10
75 seconds between sets
Time: 32.54
Metabolic pairings are incredibly difficult, if you didn’t know. After the first set of burpees I could barely break the ground, but I kept at it and I’m glad I did. Goals for the next iteration of this workout are sets of six with the thrusters, more pullup volume, sets of 12 in the swing and better form during the rollouts.

NEPA:
1 hour moderate walking

Calorie Intake for the day:
2130 Calories (64g fat, 164g carbs, 239g protein) - generated with fitday

4

Day 2
Mostly a rest day - here are the details:

HFT:
11 Double Kettlebell Presses
9 Chinups
12 Overhead Downward Pulls (130lbs)

NEPA:
15 minutes rowing skill work - 160 calories
1 hour moderate walking
Foam Roller: Calves, Ab(ad)ductor, Thigh, Lower Back, Abs, Lats, Glutes

Calorie Intake for the day:
1785 Calories (82g fat, 60g carbs, 208g protein) generated with fitday

5

Day 3
My abs were actually still sore from Monday’s workout by today - I was glad I wasn’t planning on doing direct ab work every workout. After the low-carb zanyness of yesterday, today was a high carb day just in case - not as high as recommended by the recent carb cycling article but a lot closer than the last few.

After today my apartment is almost entirely cleaned - I just have to work on the dreadful bathtub and toilet area and vacuum a bit more.

Aerobic Interval Training 2:
2min fast pace, 1min slow pace x7 - fast pace ~1:52
1 minute warmup, 5200 meters in 22 minutes, 326 calories.

HFT:
12 Double Kettlebell Presses
10 Chinups
14 Overhead Downward Pulls (130lbs)

Workout Two
(Farmer’s Walk KB’s Outside)
1a. 2KB Walking Lunge - 10reps
1b. Split Squat Jumps - 20reps
75 seconds between sets - 5 sets
(Farmer’s Walk KB’s Inside)
2. Weighted Chinup (+18lbs) - 8 sets 1, last two sets 3
10 minutes, 10 sets
3a. Weighted Pushup (+18lbs) - 4 sets 10
3b. TGU - 4 sets 1/1
75 seconds between sets
Time: 37.00
A good workout; I had a moment of realization about chinups and pullups - basically, I’ve previously been shortchanging the movement by not pulling my elbows past my torso (I was thinking, for some reason, that my arms should be perpendicular to the floor; don’t ask me, I don’t know).

Anyway, because of all that, I turn out to be a lot stronger in weighted chins than I’d thought - I might even try for sets of three next time instead of going with my intended progression.
I hadn’t realized how much shoulder stress I would be getting with that last superset, but I think I’ll keep it anyway. I was originally going to go for sets of four each side for the Turkish Get-Up, but I think that’s more a goal for the end of the four weeks.

Goals for next time: 12rep sets of lunges, shuffling running instead of split jumps, sets of 3 on weighted chins, and sets of 4 alternating reps for TGU.

NEPA:
1 hour intense walking
I started this NEPA session walking at my previous pace, but I soon found that I got bored at that rate and ended up going a lot faster. If I keep this up I may want to check my distance, just for grins.

Weight Today:
214.8lbs (before I’d had much water, so probably less loss than that?)

Calorie Intake for the day:
2634 Calories (60g fat, 301g carbs, 260g protein) generated with fitday

6

Day 4
Very sore from the lunges still - probably just first week muscle jitters, as it were. Today was fairly ho-hum; I think my calorie deficit is starting to get to me. I almost took a nap! I never take naps.

HFT:
13 Double Kettlebell Presses
10 Chinups
13 Overhead Downward Pulls (130lbs)

NEPA:
20 minutes rowing skill work - 216 calories
1 hour moderate walking
Foam Roller: Ab(ad)ductors, Hamstrings, Thighs, Lats, Glutes

Calorie Intake for the day:
2210 Calories (85g fat, 136g carbs, 230g protein) generated with fitday

7

Day 5
Energy levels were pretty low today, but I stuck to my guns. I woke up a little late, and ended up doing my cardio a bit after breakfast instead of before - still felt fine, though. Looking forward to the weekend.

1.5 min fast pace, 1 min slow pace x9 - fast pace ~1:50
2 minute warmup, 5850 meters in 24:30, 364 calories
I was fairly apprehensive about being able to maintain my pace for 9 intervals, but I stuck to it and I had a little in the tank at the end. Quite satisfying.

HFT:
13 Double Kettlebell Presses
10 Chinups
13 Overhead Downward Pulls

Workout One #2
1a. Double Kettlebell Thruster - 6reps
1b. Burpee - 10reps
75 seconds between sets - 5 sets
2. Pullup - 10 sets - 5 sets 3, 4 sets 2, 1 set 3
1 minute between sets
3a. Weighted Wheel Rollouts (+18lbs) - 4 sets 5
3b. Double Swings - 4 sets 12
75 seconds between sets
Time: 33.25
This workout was brutal, but it was for the same reasons as the first one - the burpees and the swings. I think my progress plan is still good, it’s just going to hurt quite a bit to keep going so hard. I’m more and more in agreement with Dan John about fat loss - I don’t think I could possibly do this for two consecutive 4 week periods. I increased the rest intervals for the pullups so that I could get more reps, so my time is really better than the last workout, despite the extra volume. I’ll include the lengths of rest in my next version, since it seems like a good thing to keep track of. Total rest this time was 22 minutes, 30 seconds (2 minutes 30 seconds between 1 and 2 & 2 and 3). Goals for next time: 7 rep sets on thrusters, pullups for 10 sets of 4, wheel rollouts with 20 pounds, and 14 rep sets for the swings.

NEPA:
1 hour moderate walking
A little tough to fit this in today, but it’s done.

Calorie Intake for the day:
2189 Calories (84g fat, 177g carbs, 206g protein) generated with fitday

8

Day 6
Made a couple of mistakes today. I was shopping for stuff to host a friend for the next few days and I stepped too close to the free cake samples - I ended up eating two pieces :frowning: Also ended up at a hookah bar with some friends; hopefully that won’t affect my cardio capacity too much :confused: Anyway, here are the details of the day:

HFT:
12 Double Kettlebell Presses
8 Chinups
10 Overhead Downward Pulls
(Planned Deload - forcused on form)

NEPA:
10 minutes rowing skill work - 112 calories
30 minutes moderate walking
30 minutes yard work

Calorie Intake for the day:
2560 Calories (92g fat, 183g carbs, 274g protein) generated with fitday
73 of the carb grams were that damn cake!

9

Good Luck to you! I’ll be watching this thread.

10

Day 7 (Assuming I eat according to plan I won’t need to correct this later)
Today was redemptive - no cake, and plenty of NEPA to compensate some for yesterday. My father and I dug post holes for a fence for a vegetable garden - I took care of the holes, and he made sure they were level. There were 11 posts in all, so I’d say the speed of the process was pretty good. I thought about doing the V-Burn when I got home, but eventually decided to get some basic kettlebell work in instead.

Measurements:
Neck: 15.5"
Arms: 14" (unflexed)
Chest: 41"
Upper Abs: 36.5"
Waist: 38.25"
Hips: 40"
Thighs: 26.5"
Calves: 17"
Weight: 211
%BF: 19.4 (taken on a Tanita scale)
This is pretty good news, but I think I may try to be more specific about how many carbs I eat next week anyway - maybe over 100 on workout days and under 75 on non. Only one more week until my first cheat day! We’ll be celebrating my sister’s birthday, so I’m sure there’ll be cake involved then too. So far no real cravings, incidentally - I blame the HOT-ROX.

HFT:
12 Double Kettlebell Presses
8 Chinups
12 Overhead Downward Pulls

Kettlebell Work:
200 Swings - 5 sets 20/20 l/r alternating
I was originally going to do High Pulls (Snatches without the flip), but I decided this was enough for a day off. 1 minute break after first 3 sets, 2 minutes after fourth.
Total Time: 11:15

NEPA:
10 minutes rowing skill work - 114 calories
3 hours yard work
1 hour moderate walking

Calorie Intake for the day:
2143 Calories (106g fat, 107g carbs, 196g protein)

11

I ended up having quite a lot of carbs today, mainly because I underestimated the carb content of one of my favorite summer deserts - strawberry pretzel salad. The pretzels packed a wallop! I also flubbed my main workout a little by doing the last exercise from the other workout instead the one for today, but I guess I’ll just make that up by doing TGU’s for the next two exercise days instead of alternating. It was a predictable mistake, though, since I like doing double swings a lot more than I like TGU’s - which is, of course, why it’s so necessary to make sure I make up for the error. Here are today’s figures:

HFT:
12 Double Kettlebell Presses
8.5 Chinups (last one wasn’t very good)
14 Overhead Downward Pulls (130lbs)

Cardio:
1.5 min fast pace, 1 min slow pace x9 - fast pace ~1:50
2 minute warmup, 5814 meters in 24.30, 364 calories
I lost my split goal for a couple of the final intervals, but then it turned out that I had a lot in the tank for the last set when I closed my eyes and just pulled. I didn’t do the cardio in the morning today, and I think that was why my energy was a little lower than last time.

Workout Two #2
(Farmer’s Walk KB’s Outside)
1a. 2KB Walking Lunge - 12reps
1b. Shuffle Run - 45sec
75 seconds between sets - 5 sets
(Farmer’s Walk KB’s Inside)
2. Weighted Chinup (+20lbs) - 10 sets 2
1 minute between sets
3a. Weighted Pushup (+20lbs) - 4 sets 10
3b. Double Swings - 4 sets 14
75 seconds between sets
Total Time: 38.30 (Total Work Time: 17.15)

Calorie Intake for the day:
2615 Calories (125g fat, 173g carbs, 207g protein)
No weight today since I weighed myself on Sunday.

12

Post was doubled on account of lag. This will be day 9 sometime soon.

13

Well, I might as well fess up - I got through the second week but then I crashed and burned. I’m not sure if the program itself was really the issue, but I’m going to try to get the rest of my life in better order before I try anything like this again. When I do, I’ll let you know, though.