The Home Stretch of Fat loss

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Hi everyone I’m a LONG time Lurker. I’ve learned so much from this site, and its been a great asset on my body transformation journey.

I’m entering the final stretch of my body fat loss, and i’m pretty much in uncharted territory. I don’t recall ever being this light. and I’m VERY excited to keep moving forward!

I’m looking for feedback on what I’m doing, insight from anyone who’s done it before, and of course pointers :slight_smile:

Quick Stats

Start Date 03/05/07
Start Weight 304 lbs
Start Bodyfat %: unknown
Height 5’6"

Current Weight: 185.2lbs (4/28/08)

I jumped right into it full bore. I’m the type of person that can stick to anything I’m interested in and ride it out. I purchased Fitday to track my food intake, as well as a digital scale.
I track everything possible that goes into my body.

To also help calculate energy balance i bought a polar heart rate monitor so i can have a better idea of calories burnt during exercise.
I’m pretty much on track, I rarely have splurge days and most are planned, and my continuing learning has helped me make better decisions when i do.

Current Training Regimen (started 2-11-08)

Sunday: Strength Training
Monday: Cardio
Tuesday: Strength Training
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Strength Training
Friday & Saturday - Option

I’m on an alternating kind of upper lower split.

Day 1: “upper”
Wide Grip Pulldowns 5x5
Narrow grip pulldowns (palm in) 3x5
Compound Rows 5x5
DB Flat Press 5x5
Standing DB Milt. Press 5x5

Day 2: “Lower”
Full Back Squat 5x5
Deadlift 5x5
Leg curl 5x5
Calve Raises 3x10

http://members.cox.net/geezuzjuice/training%20log.xls">Training log Spreadsheet in progress… not complete

Cardio - 3 20 min sessions on stair climber, elliptical, crosswalk.
Abs on Cardio Day

On alternating weeks either upper or lower gets hit twice

Current Nutrition:
I do a pretty good job at maintaining a 600-1000 calorie deficit
200 grams of protein a day at least
90 grams of fat a day at least
under 100 grams carbs

Supplements:
Whey Protein
Fish Oil
Beta Alanine
Creatine

Current areas of development:
Fat in chest area (man boobs), inner thighs, and abdomen

Thanks in advance for anyone taking me under their wing, or pointers and or criticism.

2

You sir, are my hero.

3

I havent read much of your post, because im in ahurry.

1st well done! I too have lost over 100 pounds

if i were you i would do the following:

calculate my bmr, multiply by activity level for calorie needs.

then take the maintenenace figure and work your way up to it gradually.

let your body sit and be happy at that weight for a month+

let your metabolism repair.

Your are entering dangerous waters at this point, you have probably lost quite a bit of muscle, but it gets much worse if you keep going leaner using the same methods.

employ as many muscle retaining measures as possible, let fat loss slow down and take a semi back seat to a healthy functional body.

4

Well, as long as your strength is staying the same or increasing, I doubt you’ve lost to much muscle. However, chutec does make a good point about giving yourself a month or so at maintainance intake to get your metabolism back up to full blast. Then you can run at a 250-500 calorie deficit for a while, and drop lower for short periods if you need to.

That being said, it really looks like you have your ducks in order and have made phenominal progress, so use your own judgement. It’s your body, and you appear to pretty well know what you’re doing. Congratulations again on your progress so far.

5

ill re iterate to error on the side of caution.

I cant tell you how many people get down to where you want to be and realise they feel small, imaciated and weak.

It may not seem like it, but muscle gain is alot harder to achieve than fat loss, so save yourself a year or muscle regrowth by getting it right with a slow final stretch.

6

Dude, I remember when I was in your shoes. 6th grade, 200 lbs, and couldn’t even LIFT a ten pound dumbbell. No joke man. By the middle of 7th I was 135. Going into it full bore, I hear you on that big dog. I think that the very best thing to motivate you is to calculate your body fat percentage and watch it go down. Just remember, don’t always focus on losing weight, focus on losing just pure fat, this is a site that might help if you are looking to see how far you have truely come in your training.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/

You can calculate quite a bit just on that one site. dude keep it up and never let down.

Like Bruce Lee said �??To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.�??

7

[quote]Otep wrote:
You sir, are my hero.[/quote]

no sir…you are mine

8

in regards to the Metabolism slowing down… I dont really think it has… Ive been careful to have some cheat weekends where i have a good surplus every month. and i just came back from a 7 day cruise in february where i ate pretty good too. In the last month I’ve averaged a 1.72 lb loss per week. and i really havent hit a plateau at all…

at this rate of loss am i still subject to muscle loss? I’ve been steady increasing my weights every week on my lifts… no plateau there either. At this point im really not concerned. I’ll post my progression on my lifts and some pics tomorrow so that everyone can get a better idea where im at.

9

Food Log summary for the day:
2310 Calories Eaten
3349 Calories Burned
1039 Calorie deficit

Primary meals

400 grams of Chicken Thighs through out the day
4 oz pepper jack cheese
2 Protein shakes with Omega 3 Peanut Butter
7 grams fish oil
Freezer bag of broccoli and carrots (i dont really weigh these since its negligible

Cardio Log for day
am work
20 mins am cardio

pm work
20 mins stair climber
7 mins rowing
20 mins crosswalk
20 mins Stair Climber

Trained abs but forgot my notebook to write down stats.

weighted torso twists
Ab crunch on machine
Knee raises

I’ll Probably have a scoop or two of Omega peanut butter before bed since i have some wiggle room in my calories

10

A spread sheet I been toying around with showing my lifts… not everything has been input yet. But it does have my deadlift info.

http://members.cox.net/geezuzjuice/training%20log.xls

11

Some pics from this morning… pardon the over flowing trash can… heh




12

Yeah, based on your last couple of posts, I don’t think you’re really in danger of losing muscle, especially since you’ve included planned cheat meals, and you’ve created your caloric deficit through extra work, not super low intake. Good work.
To everyone else, this is what it looks like when someone does it right.

13

That’s alot of weight loss, congrats! You must feel heaps better. Do you have any before pics from when you were 304lbs? I think these things are really good motivators to others treading the same path, real world before and afters let people see what can be acheived.

14


One of my befores… actually before i got serious and started tracking everything might be higher than 304

15

Unreal mate, i hope i get results like this at the end of my mission!

With the man boobs thing ive read that zinc tabelts can help with that just Google zinc and man boobs or something like that and a list of articles will come up

16

04/29/08
Weight: 185.0

Food Log summary for the day:
2448 Calories Eaten
3611 Calories Burned
1163 Calorie deficit

264 grams protein
101 grams carbs
102 grams fat

Primary meals

2 scrambled eggs
1 packet lower sugar oatmeal
321 grams of Chicken Thighs through out the day
160 grams Chicken Breast Tenders
4 oz pepper jack cheese
2 Protein shakes with Omega 3 Peanut Butter
9 grams fish oil
no veggies today… i ran out

Cardio Log for day
am work
34 mins am cardio session 1
24 mins am cardio session 2

pm work
Strength Training: Lower
(Weights for plates only)
Back Squats: 90x5 110x5 140x5 150x5 160x5
Deadlifts: 90x5 180x5 210x5 220x5 230x5
Calve Raises: 90x10 140x6 150x5 160x5 140x6
Leg Curls: 105x5 115x5 120x5 115x5

Finished up with
11 mins light cardio on elliptical
had the big spoon of peanut butter last night before bed… will probably do the same tonight.

My training partner was still sick today so i lifted on my own. Thats the way i started so i don’t mind. Sometimes I actually like it better, i can keep my rest times shorter.

17

Thanks everyone for the encouragement, and kind words.

18

[quote]zarrs wrote:
Unreal mate, i hope i get results like this at the end of my mission!

With the man boobs thing ive read that zinc tabelts can help with that just Google zinc and man boobs or something like that and a list of articles will come up[/quote]

Thanks… I’ve seen some decrease so far… I think its just gonna be one of the last spots to go. Fortunately theres not too many places for it to come off of except those areas.

I’m pretty optimistic they’ll fade soon enough

19

[quote]Brucelee69 wrote:
Dude, I remember when I was in your shoes. 6th grade, 200 lbs, and couldn’t even LIFT a ten pound dumbbell. No joke man. By the middle of 7th I was 135. Going into it full bore, I hear you on that big dog. I think that the very best thing to motivate you is to calculate your body fat percentage and watch it go down. Just remember, don’t always focus on losing weight, focus on losing just pure fat, this is a site that might help if you are looking to see how far you have truely come in your training.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/

You can calculate quite a bit just on that one site. dude keep it up and never let down.

Like Bruce Lee said �??To hell with circumstances; I create opportunities.�??[/quote]

That site is useless man lol “You have a Body Fat Percentage of 2.17%” .
Way to go though your another Bruce fan :smiley:

20

Wow. That’s an amazing change! Quite inspiring. Thanks for sharing the before/after pics with us.

Good luck on the home stretch! I have no doubt you’ll reach your goals.