Making Progress But Need Help

wittyusermane · May 27, 2008, 10:52am

First, greetings everyone.I have been very impressed by the knowledge, commitment and determination by the folks on this site. I need to admit that I have been lurking for the past several months and now its time for me to come out of the woodwork and post-up I will try to be concise but thorough. I seemed to have stalled a bit and need everyones help. Background:

Starting point: 1 January 2008
Weight: 316
Height: 5ft 9in
BMI: 46.8 (ugh!)

Program:
January: Exercise began walking 1 hr daily. Diet: Dropped all alcohol, began to eat more fruits & vegetables, reduce consumption. Began lurking and reading TMAGNUM Forums.
February: Continued walking every other day, alternating days 45 minutes random weight lifting. Weight on 1 March: 298
March: After much reading began serious program. Diet: Eating clean: 6 meals daily, 40% protein, 40% Carbs, 20% Fat as target. Total daily calories: 2200 to 2300. Exercise: Began structured weight lifting & cardio workouts: Day 1: 45 minutes hard walking; Day2: 45 minutes upper body work out; Day 3: 45 minutes hard walking, Day 4: 45 minutes Lower body workout; Day 5: walking , repeat cycle.

Upper body routine:

Dumbbell bench press: 3 X 10
Dumbbell bench row: 3 X 10
Dumbbell upright row: 3 X 10
Dumbbell preacher curls: 3 X 10
Cable bent-over triceps extension: 3 X 10
Cable upright center pushdowns: 3 X 10
Lever chest press: 3 X 10

Lower Body routine:

Dumbbell straight leg dead lift: 3 X 10
Dumbbell squats: 3 X 10
Dumbbell lunges: 3 X 10
Dumbbell side bends: 3 X 10
Inclined sit-ups: 3 X 20
Plain Crunches: 3 X 20
Cable lying leg curl: 3 X 10

April: Continued March workout & diet program; began taking supplements: chromium picolate, omega3 oil, and glucosamine and chondroitin (for knee joints)
Weight on 30 April: 288

May: Same routine as April
Today: Weight: 268
BMI: 39.7

Thats it. So I have been making some pretty good progress (if you ask me!) but feel its time to start some serious tweaking especially with my exercise routines. I follow this website regularly and have information overload. Should I switch to HIIT? Ripptoes Starting Strength? Chad Waterburys 10 X 3? Etc, etc?

Please give me some advice. My main objective is continued fat loss. All of my exercise and diet programming should be aimed at maximizing weight & fat loss.

Thanks in advance I appreciate observations from everyone!

Otep · May 27, 2008, 2:00pm

You’ve dropped 50 lbs in six months. Very nice work.

At your weight, keep up the walking. 268 of mostly fat is too much to do HIIT, IMHO.

I’d do Rippetoes. It’s easy to follow and effective at developing strength. Your goal is fat-loss, and while strength won’t necessarily aid you in this directly, it’ll better condition you for fat loss activity.

Specifically, squats increase the amount of muscle crossing your knees, which makes HIIT safer. Which can be an issue for heavy guys.

That, and your diet will be the prime factor as to whether or not you lose weight, so it doesn’t matter TOO much what routine you choose.

wittyusermane · May 27, 2008, 7:05pm

Thanks Otep - I hear you. Basically you are saying that maintaining my diet (eating clean; achieving a daily calorie deficit of 1000 cals/day; eating 40/40/20, etc) is the main thing. At my current weight the exact wieghtlifting/cardio routine is less important - so long as I continue to do something every other day or so. Is that about it?

Ahuae · May 27, 2008, 9:10pm

Man you could add a nitric oxide and creatin mix to your daily diet, thermogenics if you have no liver problem and remain sober for example.

I’m not sure if I’m allowed to suggest anything here… anyone ?

theuofh · May 28, 2008, 2:22am

I think you’re golden as long as you keep doing something every day. It sounds like your diet has cleaned up and you’re in a pretty good groove. You could find another low impact cardio workout if you get sick of walking, maybe swimming or riding a bike.

Good job by the way.

wittyusermane · May 28, 2008, 2:23am

What means this? Nitric oxide? How about HOT-ROX?

BTW - I am 52 if that makes a big difference. I am thinking about switching to Ripptoes Starting Strength program for a change of pace.

[quote]Ahuae wrote:
Man you could add a nitric oxide and creatin mix to your daily diet, thermogenics if you have no liver problem and remain sober for example.

I’m not sure if I’m allowed to suggest anything here… anyone ?[/quote]

wittyusermane · May 28, 2008, 2:28am

Thanks for the response. You are right - I think cleaning up my diet was/is the key. Trying to take full advantage of that and optimise my cardio/weightlifting routine. What I am hearing is that at this stage in my weightloss program is that just maintaining some type - any type - of cardio/weght program on a steady basis (at least 5X week) is the key.

BTW - I really don’t mind walking. Maybe I should bump it up to 2 - 45 minute sessions/day? Is daily cardio too much?

[quote]theuofh wrote:
I think you’re golden as long as you keep doing something every day. It sounds like your diet has cleaned up and you’re in a pretty good groove. You could find another low impact cardio workout if you get sick of walking, maybe swimming or riding a bike.

Good job by the way. [/quote]

Ahuae · May 28, 2008, 2:33am

Thats your thermogenics.

Now stack on top of that :

One bottle of Alpha-Male available here.
One bottle of REZ-V also available here.

And find a nitric oxide releaser, a good whey protein, and recovery mix.

That will break your plateau like a pair of breasts breaks a nightmare

Namase !

zephead4747 · May 28, 2008, 2:57am

Nitric oxide is a scam.

I could dig up the evidence, but all in all it’s a waste of cash. Fish oil/whey/creatine are pretty much the only essentials.

I also dig ripps program.

Otep · May 28, 2008, 2:59am

Ignore Ahuae, or at least scrutinize his advice to you. He’s a troll. And sometimes he doesn’t even make sense.

Yes, the key is a clean diet and good effort in the gym. Everything on top of that is icing on the cake.

I can’t think of anything WRONG with doing two 45 min. walks in a day, but I’d bump the walking time to an hour, and then add in walks on your workout days as well before I went to two-a-days.

The main thing is that you keep progressing, adding in more activity as you need it. The idea is to prolong the stage where you drop 2lbs/week indefinitely (or until you get pretty close to your goals), because if you get too far in front of that, it’s possible your metabolism will go into shock and you won’t lose any fat.

You’re nowhere near that though, so don’t worry. Just be aware of the principle.

mr_popular · May 28, 2008, 3:24am

[quote]wittyusermane wrote:
First, greetings everyone.I have been very impressed by the knowledge, commitment and determination by the folks on this site. I need to admit that I have been lurking for the past several months and now its time for me to come out of the woodwork and post-up I will try to be concise but thorough.
[/quote]

Why do so many people feel the need to write this? I see it a thousand times and I never understand why…

T-Nation isn’t really the pleasant community everyone seems to think it is… and there really isn’t very much “knowledge, commitment, OR determination” on this site compared to any other bodybuilding site.

And there certainly aren’t any god damn “folks” here.

So you’ve been lurking. So you are going to ‘try’ to be concise. Who the hell cares!?

GUESS WHAT you just FAILED at being concise by dedicating an entire paragraph to some shitty little introduction statement that is supposed to appease T-Nation and garner positive attention from a forum full of teenagers and washed up middle aged guys.

Ugh. Good luck with whatever it is you’re doing.

wittyusermane · May 28, 2008, 4:06am

My, my…aren’t you a most pleasant person. Have a nice day.

[quote]mr popular wrote:
wittyusermane wrote:
First, greetings everyone.I have been very impressed by the knowledge, commitment and determination by the folks on this site. I need to admit that I have been lurking for the past several months and now its time for me to come out of the woodwork and post-up I will try to be concise but thorough.

Why do so many people feel the need to write this? I see it a thousand times and I never understand why…

T-Nation isn’t really the pleasant community everyone seems to think it is… and there really isn’t very much “knowledge, commitment, OR determination” on this site compared to any other bodybuilding site.

And there certainly aren’t any god damn “folks” here.

So you’ve been lurking. So you are going to ‘try’ to be concise. Who the hell cares!?

GUESS WHAT you just FAILED at being concise by dedicating an entire paragraph to some shitty little introduction statement that is supposed to appease T-Nation and garner positive attention from a forum full of teenagers and washed up middle aged guys.

Ugh. Good luck with whatever it is you’re doing.[/quote]

Ahuae · May 28, 2008, 4:39am

So funny… every time I jump on a thread all my pet haters come by and drop a line about how everything I say is a scam…

Thats a good hint for you to go do a little research on Nitric Oxide and the products I suggested.

Nitric oxide is one of the most essential fuctions of our body and yet its a scam, riiight. Want researches again ? Yeh I do all the work, people just tell me I’m wrong, they do nothing.

Essentials, how funny, I think they’re right here is a laughter therapy board !

Yet lots of intelligent people read my posts, is that you guys on the pictures ?

Well thats wise Otep about the body going into shock, thats something I studied also and is all about gene expression, your own advice is something you don’t agree with me on the other post.

Fine my english is terible, no need to repeat yourselves !

Namase !

meanest · May 28, 2008, 10:12am

[quote]wittyusermane wrote:
My, my…aren’t you a most pleasant person. Have a nice day.
[/quote]

One thing you can’t fault him for is being honest. Maybe he just spends every waking moment on T-Nation reading all the introductions and he’s just finally snapped?

eeu743 · May 28, 2008, 8:59pm

This is concise.

dharmabum31 · May 28, 2008, 11:11pm

Great job on the dedication - THAT is the the most important thing.

And I’d like to also recommend rippetoe’s program. Make your diet damned near perfect. Don’t cheat. Follow Berardi’s articles. Take fish oil.

And Otep and zephead are very knowledgeable and consistently offer great advice. Listen to them.

mchron · May 29, 2008, 12:21am

Just as another option you might look into Chad Waterbury’s stuff, particularly the ideas of Rest progressions. The core idea is that you keep your workouts the same and try do progressively decrease your rest periods between sets. This will increase the metabolic demand and aide fat loss.

Can’t say I have tried it myself but most people trust CW’s stuff and the logic is sound.

zephead4747 · May 29, 2008, 12:45am

[quote]Ahuae wrote:
So funny… every time I jump on a thread all my pet haters come by and drop a line about how everything I say is a scam…