Hello All,

After some PM's Champien Speller and I have decided to do a 10% Body Fat challenge for Feb 1st 2005 (better put the year here!!) :D

Both of us seem to have the same goal and same amount of lard to lose (meaning BodyFat is very similar).

The rules are :-

Both of us to do a mini-BIO in next thread so any readers (including ourselves) know where we're coming from.

To update this thread once per week with weight update.

To update this thread on Feb 1st with BF%

To motivate one another in order to BOTH win on Feb 1st.


Look for more updates.

Mark

Hello All,

I'm from South of England an IT Geek. Yes, boring I know.

I am currently 5ft 11in, and as of yesterday in the Gym (this is post Xmas bloat remember) I was 187lbs. I am normally around 185lbs, so hope to be back there soon.

Three years ago I was 283lbs, so as you can imagine my body shape has changed quite a bit.

I am also a cardio freak that likes to run (can do a 10Km in 35mins) and indoor rowing. I had a thread recently about my exploits in the 2004 UK Indoor Rowing Championship.

My goal is to get to 10% body fat, which I estimate to be 10lbs of lard loss (from 185lbs). I had myself body calipered by someone (12 points) and was 13.6% BF about 4 weeks ago.

The idea is 10% will give me a six pack but I am not sure if that will be the result as I don't know if my skin has contracted enough from when I was really big.

Here's this month's workout regime

Monday: Heavy weights session for Legs with Personal Trainer
Tuesday: Low Intensity Cardio for 90 mins
Wednesday:Heavy Weights for Chest and Arms
Thursday: Low Intensity Cardio for 90 mins and 15 mins Ab routine
Friday: Day of rest
Saturday: Heavy Weights Shoulders and Back
Sunday: HIT session with rower and treadmill cycling 3 min competitive speed and 2 min slow for 15 min on each discipline. This means 18 mins of near 95% MHR effort. Also 15 min Ab routine.

My diet is 2000Kcals per day, although I am partial to a latte, so sometimes it is 2200Kcals per day :o

Good Luck to all trying to lose weight.

Hello people,

I am from Australia and I’m a full time student at the moment as well as doing an internship in a hospital.

I have been lifting weights for about 2 years on and off. I’ve never want to get very big (which I have achieved marvelously).

I have not been able to lift also for about 7 months until 2 month ago due to health problems and 2 operations.

Now I want to cut down to 10% BF and hopeful not loose too much muscle (what I have left anyway) or even put on a little. This will be a first for me as I have never been below about 12% BF.

The only thing remarkable about my physical ability is that I have a low resting heart rate of 35 beats. This freaked my nurses out a few times when I was having my operations.

I want to lose about 2 pounds per week so will set my diet at 2200 calories

I will be doing a morning workout that will be expanding 700 calories per day over seven day on my training. I hope this meets the criteria for heavy training.

I'm going to skip the evening cardio so my program will look like this

Monday chest 40mins + 20 eliptical at 75% of HRM
Tuesday run at 70-75% of HRM for 50mins
Wednesday back 40mins + 20 eliptical at 75% of HRM
Thursday Shoulders 40 mins + 20 eliptical at 75% of HRM
Friday run at 70-75% HRM for 50 mins
Sat arms 40 + 20 mins elliptical at 75% of HRM
Sunday legs 50 mins

my stats
age-31
height - 6'
weight 184
body fat 13.5%
lean body mass 160 (hopefully this will go up not down)
projected weight at 10% body fat = 176

Good luck with the cutting all. :tu:

Good luck to both of you. Marked-Congratulations on all that weight loss and a 35 minute 10K is amazing given that you weighed 280 a few years ago. I weigh about 205 and I'm struggling to run a six minute mile.

Speller-You mentioned that you used to be big. How much did you weigh at your peak? 35 beats/minute is about the lowest pulse I've ever heard of. Are you sure you don't have heart problems?

Do either of you have photos? I'm trying to get remotivated to get on a proper diet myself.

Wow- 35.

I googled this and found an article that claimed Bjorn Borg's RHR was 35 too. I felt good about 60. :whistle:

Wow- 35.

I googled this and found an article that claimed Bjorn Borg's RHR was 35 too. I felt good about 60. :whistle:

Yeah Borg is the only man I've ever heard of who's resting pulse was under 40. Even most superendurance athletes are in the 50's. Mine is like 74-really bad.

I know, i was freaked out a bit too, especially when i told my doctor and he gave me a referal to a cardiologist.

My resting heart rate is only at 35 when i am just about to full asleep (i know this as when i was in hospital the heart rate alarm was set for 36 and it keep on going of and waking me up just as i was felling asleep, it was kind of cool for a couple of times until it start to piss me off when it jolted me out of my sleep after my surgery one too many times) or when i lie down for about 5 minutes and concentrate or meditate on getting very relaxed, the same thing happens. although if i just sit down for 5 minutes or more its likely to be around 40-42.

i have heard of some tour de france cyclists and some cross country skier have a resting heart rate of sub 30, lowest was 28 if i recall. as fit as borg was, cross country skier and cyclist take the prize when it come to cardiovascular fitness (look up their lactate threshold tests, they are beasts. also john stone said in one of his posts that the same thing happen to him in hospital as he has a sub 40 Hr.

I'm not into much of a hurry to go and see the doc as if i did have something wrong with my heart, i would have felt it by now.

oh and what i meant to say that although i have been lifting for about two years, i have never been very big (my goal was to have the kind of body you see guys have that sell underwear, not become a bodybuilder.) i got to about 210 pounds at 15% fat. that was about right for my liking except my goal is not to get to 200pounds at about 8-10 body fat this year.

I'm also taking photos but dont know if i will post them yet as i havent worked out how to hide my face .

thanks guys for the encouragement

Hi All,

Working today (groan) and got my days mixed a bit due to holiday season.

Yesterday I did a low intensity cardio session (minus ab routine since I did that the day before) and then had my last social dinner engagement which I was "fairly" good at. No starter and one piece of pannetone for dessert. So I think yesterday was probably around neutral energy day (fingers crossed). I did weigh myself prior to the social dinner, and was the weight I was at Xmas eve (185lbs) so I have now lost my Xmas bloat. Excellent! Pretty Amazing since I ate for England on Xmas Day and Boxing Day (26th).

I will be doing a heavy weights day with my personal trainer today and it will be chest and shoulders. This I hate as I am such a wimp at bench press etc. Including the bar I can only lift 70Kg. It is something I need to work on as my seated row is soooo good in comparison (140Kg). Unfortunately it has always been like that, my back better than my chest, but never mind. I'll get the two sorted to some form of equilibrium eventually.

So I see DOMs coming in my direction for the next 4 days or so.

Friday will be low intensity cardio, Saturday will be day of rest (Gym is shut!) and Sunday will be High Intensity Cardio. Then I fall back to my normal routine published in my mini BIO.

Looking forward to shedding these lbs.

Good Luck to all, and Happy New Year.

I'll talk to my personal trainer about getting re-calipered for a BF test in the New Year.

Hi guys,

went for a run today, 50 minutes at about 135-160. this is a little over my "fat burning zone" but i like to shack out the cobwebs around the old arteries abit and get that blood pumping.

It was a beautiful 30 degrees day and the run is on the cliff side over looking the beach so it was alot of fun. only problem is i didnt use sun screen so my head got a bit burnt :mad: . the australia sun is brutal!

i managed to burn 837 calories on that run so I will take it easy on my rest day and go for a walk intead. i plan to take this on sat, as I now i will have a few drinks on new years and i dont wont to workout the next day after ingesting the 'people poison'.

i am pretty hungry when it comes to meal times so i think i may have to rejig my calories next week but well wait and see on weight date which is going to be wednesday next week.

tomorrow is leg day for me. i used to love legs when i was doing it with my training partner. now i dont really like it as i can't really smash them like i used to with squats as i have no one to spot me :( . anyway i do manage to get a 2 day doms but there was something quite nice about a 7day doms.

happy training all.

Hello All,

My name is Joe Biron and I am a professional software engineer (http://www.bironsoftwaresolutions.com). I am also happily married and the father of 2 beautiful kids. I play guitar, hunt, bicycle, and I have been lifting casually for 2 years. I'm ready to turn up the heat!

I am currently 199lbs, 15.3% BF. My measurements are:

35" waist
11.5" forearm
7" wrist
15" upper arm (frustrating. I'm very strong but arms are very long. nevertheless, no excuses - 16" or bust!)
25.25" Thighs

My goal is to be 10% bodyfat for April 16, 2005, which is the first day of my Carribean cruise! I want to be walking around that ship and islands totally buffed and shredded!

I've already lost 6 pounds in the last 2 weeks. If that seems high, keep in mind that I was probably carrying lots of water from my late-night binging habits (which are gone!).

For the purposes of this challenge, I'll sign on for a loss of 3.5% BF. My calipers tell me I'm 15.3 now, so that brings me to 11.8% for 2/1/2005. That means a weight of 191lbs, without any muscle loss.

Here's my current regimen:

Mon: 40min 70% cardio. MAX-OT Legs
Tue: 40min 70% cardio. MAX-OT Arms & Abs
Wed:: 40min 70% cardio. MAX-OT Delts
Thu: 40min 70% cardio. MAX-OT Back
Tuesday: 40min 70% cardio. MAX-OT Chest
Saturday: Freestyle cardio. Hiking, biking, etc.
Sunday: Rest

I'll post my weekly updates here.
Good luck to you all!

Joe you'll end up in damn good condition if you stick to that regimine for the 15 weeks or so until 4/16. My goals are based on the same day since I'm a tax accountant-it's a good finishing point.

Are you planning to submit pics? Or just post written updates?

Joe you'll end up in damn good condition if you stick to that regimine for the 15 weeks or so until 4/16. My goals are based on the same day since I'm a tax accountant-it's a good finishing point.

Are you planning to submit pics? Or just post written updates?

Oh man you just reminded me about taxes. Gotta get my corporate taxes in line (gonna be sick... ) :rolleyes:

I haven't done pics at all up to this point, but I think it's probably about time to swallow my pride and do it. I'm terribly non-photogenic and self conscious. I'll fiddle with the tripod and digicam today.

Looks like you have some great performance-oriented goals there. Its good to remind ourselves that these machines aren't just supposed to look good, they gotta PERFORM TOO!

Yeah the performance goals are a new thing for me-In the past I was just focused on muscle mass and bodyfat but I'm quantatative by nature so fixed achievements like pullups are a better goal for me.

It looks like we're about the same size-I'm 6'2" and 205 and I'm trying to get to about 10-11 percent bodyfat.

I hated the photos too until I started seeing improvement. Here's the thread I used to submit to early in the year in preparation for my wedding/honeymoon in June 2004:

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=1532

I think I've improved a bit from the last pic's on there which are probably from about April 2004, but I'm ghostly white.

I hope nobody thinks I'm trying to jack this thread, I just want to be part of this challenge.

no problem nico, the more the merrier.

happy news to all.

Just tried to change Thread Title but it didn't work.

A warm welcome to Joe and Nico.

So Joe, a fellow software engineer. I feel sorry for your 2 kids - never seeing you due to coding deadlines :p

Does anyone know how to change a thread title to reflect the new challengers in the main forum page?

Just so I don't forget. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL. I hope it brings all your dreams and goals to fruition.

Take Care

Mark

marked -

You are so right. I was coding last night, and still have to wrap some things up this morning so I don't have to work over the weekend. I do contract work from my home office and work with people scattered across time zones so its like I'm never not working. :(

Anyway, it feels great to be part of a community while doing this. Keeps you honest. I'm 198 on the scale this morning and looking pretty defined in the mirror. I decided I will start posting pics on Jan 1.

BTW, maybe we could hack vBulletin's database to change the title eh? Couple of code-slingers should have no trouble....

Just kidding John, if you are reading... :)

Off to the gym!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE

I intended a healthy day on New Year's Day, but it wasn't.

I calculate that I had 3800 calories that day. Opps :o

Consequently on Sunday's weigh day I was back to 187lbs.

On reflection last week wasn't the best week since I had Xmas, Social Dinners and New Year's dinner to contend with, but it wasn't bad either, since today I feel I'm back to normal (185lbs). I only weigh myself once a week though - so that is next Sunday. I do it at the Gym on the type of scales you slide the weights across on, so it is accurate to 0.1Kg (or 0.2 lbs). I then convert it out to lb's from that.

On a positive note Sunday was executed perfectly. I had 2050 calories, and my HIT training went really well (probably due to the extra Glycogen from Saturday :) )

And I broke my PB on Squats today - only by 5Kg, but what the hell it still breaks it. Today was a legs weight day.

I'll check back in later this week. I'm hoping to lose 4lbs this week (2 of which is New Year's Eve bloat). So I hope next Monday to report 183lbs.

Good Luck to all

Mark

I ran into the problem of trying to change the thread title last year. John had to change the title himself. I PM'd him asking him to change the title to

"10% BF Challenge of Champien Speller, Marked, Joe Biron, and Nico"

Yes pretty boring I know, and no hacking of vBulletin involved. Any of you software guys have much experience with server side scripting? I'm teaching myself PHP/MySQL right now :read: and just wondered what real programmers and/or software engineers thought about it.



I see PHP syntax in the url right now and so I'm figuring that vBulletin is just one big PHP script. Does vBulletin use MySQL as a database?


It's probably like asking Barry Bonds if he prefers TeeBall or Whiffleball but some of you guys fool around with scripts.

My question to those who might know is this:

If I'm focused on form handling and dynamic web pages, is there any reason to learn Perl/CGI or is PHP capable of just about anything in this department?

PHP seems much easier to learn and deploy, but maybe I'd be missing a key element by not learning Perl/CGI. Every HTML tutorial I see covering forms seems to say "If you want to know how to process that users input, you'll need to learn CGI". They never mention PHP, but maybe these are outdated tutorials.

Thanks to anyone who may be interested. If someone is interested we can start a different thread to discuss server-side programming and/or Dynamic web pages.

As for fitness, 2005 has started off great with a workout on Saturday and Sunday and I'm off to the gym in a half hour today. :bb: :db:

Thanks to anyone who may be interested. If someone is interested we can start a different thread to discuss server-side programming and/or Dynamic web pages.

:db:

Starting new thread in Off-Topic Discussions....

here http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?p=104469#post104469

hi guys,

I am sort of glad I am not the only one that went a bit off thier diet of the new years break. I drunk way to much on two evenings (about 6-8 drinks each night). i was careful i didnt eat the wrong things in that time so i dont think it will be so bad. but i also skipped workouts for 3days due to the 2day drinking hangovers, not good at all :(

anyway I had a great workout yesterday, arms and today, back, to make up for it so i hope when i weigh and measure myself this week, i wont be two far off.

it seems like my diet is right though know as i am not overly hungry and i have alot of energy for lifting.

:flex:

I won't have time to work out today. I hate that. But the next 5 days look wide open for intense pain.

I only weigh myself on Sundays at the Gym on some very accurate scales, but this week so far has been exemplary both on eating and workouts.

So far no bad day or missed worked out. Admittedly I am working out in the morning this week (to avoid all the New Year's Resolutioners in the Gym, since it is quite small) and I'm not a morning workout person. That said as it is fairly low intensity from a cardio perspective I feel fine, and still energised for the day.

So, let's hope Sunday's weigh in goes well, but right now I'm really happy with the way the week is going.

I have organised my personal trainer to do the body fat caliper test on Monday, so I'll post after that.

Good Luck All! Hope you are all doing well with your pledge!

Mark

Tomorrow is my weight-in, tape, and calipers.

I can't wait!

Regardless of what the scale reads, I can see definate progress based on the mirror! I'm sure the caliper and tape readings will tell the tale.

hi guys,

my date with the calipers is set for sat or sun, i just have to go into the bodybuilding supply shop and get it done.

after my binge drinking effort on new years eve and day (about 8+ drinks each day) I think i should be back to about the 13.5% Bf level again.

I have been really good this week too, 3 great workouts (900cal expanded on each) and a long 8k jog (900 cals again). I think i will be at about the same level of body fat as last week though as my stomach measurements are about the same. I know I should have overdone it on new years, but i had a friend out from england who loves to get on the sauce, so i guess it had to be done. I usually dont drink at all so i was really feeling the effects of those drinks the following days. anyway it should be out of my system now and it will be staying there for good.

If i dont get any body fat movement over the following week, i think i will be looking at upping my calories. but i hope that is not necessary just yet.

look forward to your weight ins

Weight: 197lbs
Waist: 35"
BF%: 14.7%

Deltas from last week
Weight: -2lbs
Waist: -0.5"
BF%: -0.6%

Right on schedule. I love it when a plan comes together.

awesome joe, that is bang on target. you must be pleased.

I have been feeling very hungry and a little week over the last couple of days. i might be time to bump up my calories, say from 2200 to 2500.

awesome joe, that is bang on target. you must be pleased.

I have been feeling very hungry and a little week over the last couple of days. i might be time to bump up my calories, say from 2200 to 2500.

Thanks. Although I need to adjust my weight logs because I bought a new scale today. My old scale was a SUPER crappy Wal-mart special - the spring-loaded ones with the analog dial. You know, you get on the thing and the need swings up and gets stuck at 230, then you bounce on it a little bit till is jiggles back to around where you know it should be.

Blah! Had enough of that so I picked up another wal-mart special :o It's a Taylor digital scale with BIA BF measurement. I think its the one John uses. Anyway I've been putting it through tests all day and it seems very consistent in terms of weight. Its also very easy to read, which is important because at 72 inches from the ground, in the dim morning light with constricted pupils, it is hard for a myopic man to read those little analog dials.

Problem is, it's 8 lbs heavier than my old scale! This actually is more in line with the digital scale at the gym, whereas my analog scale matches the analog scale at the gym. Hmmm. Analog seems to consistently read lower.

Anyway, I dont care what I weigh in absolute terms. Its the relative progress I care about. so I'm adding 8 lbs to all of my logs. The BF% sort of jives with my tape and caliper calculations, when I have it in athlete mode. Whatever. As long as it's something that can give me relative progress.

I wonder, could you solve your hunger problems by rearranging your meal schedule rather than bumping up the calories? Is there a long period in your day without food? More than 3 hours? Are your meals all properly balanced? If you have a high carb snack you'll spike then plunge your blood sugar and get hungrier.

I'm steady at 2000, and I think I'll stay here until I see a reduction in strength. So far my weight training performance has not suffered at all, in fact I've added a few pounds to certain exercises.

Scales-Don't get me started.

My scale in the bathroom is what I consider to be accurate. Yesterday morning I weighed 208 buck naked, then went to my friend's house where I got a nice fat readout of 219 (with clothes & shoes).

I've resigned to doing what I've always told everyone to do and just focus on the mirror and athletic achievements in and out of the gym. A guy at work who has to weigh in for jiu jitsu tournaments says his water weight can vary by 15 pounds and he only weighs about 150.

From my experience with Bodyfat testing scales, they have given me different results depending on time of day, hydration, whether I'm full, whether I've shat, and the position of the moon.

But don't let me discourage you from tracking relative progress-If you find it's consistent than by all means trust the data. Just don't try the biopsy idea :eat:

hi Joe,

yes i think i was a bit off with my diet yesterday and that is why i think my workout suffered. i had a more than 3hour break in my prework out meal and that is why it really sucked. its amazing how easy it is to tell what happens when you dont stick to your timing.

as for scales, i have the body fat scales to and they are on as you goes in the states say "on crack" they go up on down depending on if i have lied down for 30 minutes, level of hydration, taking a dump/piss etc. i find they are best as a relative indicator either on waking up or going to sleep. personally i find going to sleep best as you tend to be dehydrate in the morning.

weight day tomorrow and i cant wait. :jumping:

my stats from 30 dec
age-31
height - 6'
weight 184
body fat 13.5%
lean body mass 160 (hopefully this will go up not down)
projected weight at 10% body fat = 176

my stats today
age still-31
weight-187
body fat 13%
lean body mass=162.7
projected weight at 10% body fat=179

Okay so am losing weight and gaining muscle which is good :nod: . but i am not losing bodyfat fast enough. I can either decrease calories more (I am not really keen on this as I pretty hungry most of time) or I can wait and see what happens next week.

what do you guys think?

champ:

0.5% in 10 days doesn't sound slow to me at all. If you continue to lose 0.5% every week, then you'll be at 10% in six weeks. Also, I recall that you are using a BIA BF scale (right?) - with once a week weigh-ins its very likely that you catch yourself on an upswing. I've been weighing every day (same time, after voiding) and the graph of my weight is nowhere near a smooth curve.

Another thing is those lean mass calculations. If you plug a series of numbers with those body composition formulas into a spreadsheet, you'll see how easy it is to make it look like you gained 5 lbs lean mass just by losing a few pounds of fat. We all know if ain't that easy to build lean mass, and it probably isn't gonna happen on a cutting diet. Just take those calculations with a grain of salt.

Personally, my strength goal is to simply maintain until I get to 10%. The way I guage that is simple: if I can lift what I lifted last week - and I do try to lift MORE than last week - then I'm satisfied.

I think you're making terrific progress. What are your calories at? 2000?

Champ Speller-I wouldn't go below 2,000 calories given your size and workout schedule. I believe any reduction in calories would have the long-term effect of conditioning your body to survive on those calories.

A calorie reduction would probably result in a short-term loss of weight, which would possibly convince you that it's working. I would maybe look more closely at exactly when you eat your calories. Are you eating at least 5 times a day and getting adequate calories after your workout? You may have already posted the timing of your meals so I'll wait for a response.

It's very hard to maintain mass while losing fat unless you've got the timing of your food intake down really well. I wish I cared enough to do that but I'm not as intent on near-term results as most people.

OK weight in on Sunday, and Calipered today.

So weighed in at 182lbs, or 5 lbs weight loss. I really believe that 2 of those are water weight from eating a bit too much on New Year's Day, so I'd say 3lb really. I think I should not lose as much as that, but will see what this week does - I have so much on workwise I may have to skimp an exercise day or so.

Calipered for Body Fat, and I came out at 12.4%. I was last calipered on 25th October and was 13.6%. My Personal Trainer worked out I lost 2Kg of fat and 1Kg of LBM, so about a 33% muscle loss. Not sure if that is good, bad or indifferent - I am going for indifferent.

So plan this week is to lose 2lbs. We'll see.

Also, I'm a bit disheartened, because my lardy bits down at the bottom of my abs are still very visible. Remember, I used to be 286lbs three years ago, so it could be excess skin and I won't lose it. And NO, I will not get a tummy tuck. It either goes naturally, or not at all.

Good Luck to my competitors, and whoever else reads this thread with their weight loss goals.

I'll update in a few days.

OK weight in on Sunday, and Calipered today.

So weighed in at 182lbs, or 5 lbs weight loss. I really believe that 2 of those are water weight from eating a bit too much on New Year's Day, so I'd say 3lb really. I think I should not lose as much as that, but will see what this week does - I have so much on workwise I may have to skimp an exercise day or so.

Calipered for Body Fat, and I came out at 12.4%. Remember, I used to be 286lbs three years ago, so it could be excess skin and I won't lose it.

You're almost down to 180 from 286 which is an incredible achievement in itself. Hopefully the skin will tighten over time-John Stone had a thread about a product he was using to deal with some fatty tissue on his low abs. You may want to search it out and see how that worked for him.

Hi Nico,

I remember John's thread on that, as I was interested in the results. He had to cut short due to his hernia, but he basically said it's a waist (excuse the pun) of time!

Even though I'm disheartened by still having quite a bit of jiggly bits there, I know to make 10% I need to lose another 7lb, so I'll see what it is like then and make further decisions. After all some people don't get a sixpack until 8%. I hope I'm not one of them - that would be hard!!

Mark



QUOTE=Nico]You're almost down to 180 from 286 which is an incredible achievement in itself. Hopefully the skin will tighten over time-John Stone had a thread about a product he was using to deal with some fatty tissue on his low abs. You may want to search it out and see how that worked for him.[/QUOTE]

[CODE]0.5% in 10 days doesn't sound slow to me at all. If you continue to lose 0.5% every week, then you'll be at 10% in six weeks. Also, I recall that you are using a BIA BF scale (right?)


I've been getting calipered at the body building supply store. The guy who does it is very good, so i'm pretty confident in the reading. I guess i was a little disheartened as I won't to make the 10% by feb. I know I am gaing muscle as I am lifting heavier weights and my measurements are holding or slightly improving.

I am on 2200 calories at the moment and I am trying to structure my macros around my training time. like pre and post workout nutrition ex and have fats and protein with so low carb veg at other times.

I will stay on the 2200 for another week and see what happens.

Marked, that is an incredible amount of weight loss, awesome in fact. dont let that bit of lagging fat discourage you. I had a friend who was slightly bigger than you and his skin came back nicely so I think yours will too.

keep up the good work

Weight: 201lbs
Waist: 34.75"
BF%: 13.5%

Deltas from last week
Weight: -3lbs
Waist: -0.25"
BF%: -01.2%

Got a new scale last week so my old weight numbers were adjusted by the difference I noticed between the two scales. That's why my weight actually looks higher than my post last week would indicate.

3 lbs - should I slow down? Up my calories? Strength is steady, don't think I'm losing muscle...

Hi Joe,

I had the same thoughts about losing too much too quickly too (lots of too's here!), and was content with the fact I'm not due to the fact I'm not losing strength.

However, I did have another thought that other elements of LBM are cardio fitness, and I really do believe I've lost a little (as I do very little intense cardio at the moment as I don't want my body canibalising my muscles due to lack of calories).

However, I think you're doing fine, and as long as you don't lose strength, you're OK. As soon as you start losing strength, up the cals and protein percent mix :tu:

Well Done!

Thanks marked:

The strength situation is interesting. I've actually gotten stronger in some muscle groups, like lats, but remain pretty level in most others. I attribute this to my relatively high protein intake (200g, about 40%), good PWO meals, and MAX-OT. I'm really looking forward to starting a bulking cycle now, but one goal at a time. :) Also, in regards to the lats gains, I think I was short-changing my back workouts in the past - following a well rounded program like MAX-OT has kept me honest there.

Keep up the good work gents!

I weighed in at 201.5 this morning. I'm trying to just weigh once a week-Fridays first thing in the morning.

I may have a bad scale like you had Joe because at my buddy's house I've been known to weigh 216.

I weighed in at 201.5 this morning. I'm trying to just weigh once a week-Fridays first thing in the morning.

I may have a bad scale like you had Joe because at my buddy's house I've been known to weigh 216.

The scale I have now is pretty accurate. My wife is a nurse and weighs herself at home and at the office, and our new scale agrees with the professional grade balance-beam scale. I brought out my old scale just for kicks and it reads 195 - a six pound difference.

Weighed myself yesterday and I've lost another 2lbs of weight. That is what I hoped to lose, and after last week's 5lb loss I'm actually very pleased with it. I am now at 180lbs - this is the lightest I've been since I was about 18, so pretty good.

Only problem is I may need to invest in some more trousers and a belt :o

So plan of attack for this week is to lose another 2lbs.

Only just over 2 weeks to go until Feb 1st 10% deadline. I highly doubt I will make it, but will carry on. In theory I only need to lose another 5lbs, but my lardy bits are still, well, quite lardy. I will get calipered again on Jan 31st.

My guess is I probably STILL need to lose another 10lbs, but let's see what the next 5 lbs holds for me. I'd love to lost all 5 in by Feb 1st, but that will be difficult.

Nice to see everyone else in this challenge is also making headway on the BF loss. I remember reading a Mens Health fitness mag where they showed 10lbs of lipo'd lard from someone. It looked disgusting. I wish I could find the picture, I'd laminate it and attach it to the fridge :lol:

Good Luck All

marked - if you don't make it for Feb 1st, then I'm sure it will only be a week or two after that. You are so close.

I'm in the same boat with the pants issue. I just don't want to go out and buy all new pants just yet because once I hit 10% I'm going to start a bulk, and I don't know what that's going to do to my leg size. Of course my goal is to keep my waist trim and BF < 12%, but I expect to be putting on more muscle than ever, so I might want a little wiggle room.

Awesome job staying on target this week. Don't you feel like you have complete control? Its just a matter of time, but we know we're gonna get there.

hi guys,

well i didnt go so well this week, i injured my back and had to take 3 days off. now i am back into it again.

my update from monday

weight- was 187 now 185
body fat still 13%
lean body mass=162.7
projected weight at 10% body fat=179

that means i still have five pounds or about to go to. about the same situation as marked.

i think that the guy who callipered me was a little off as all my measurements were down except my back which might have throw it out of wack. i'd say im in the upper 12 region now. still sticking with it though even though it might take a little longer than 1feb

i also might seperate my cardio and lifting on lifting days too. I also was supposed to go for a run today but my legs and general energy levels are wasted so i think i might do the smart thing and go for a long walk instead at about 65% of MHR.

I had my last alcohol drink last week when my english mate went back home so now i am going to stay on the wagon and hopefully this will help things too.
h

Everybody seems to be on track. February is too short term for me-I'm planning for where I want to be in about 90 days. I decided to drop weight loss as a goal. I figured that if I can't manage to get stronger and faster, my weight and fat loss will take care of itself. This will eliminate the distraction of paying attention to my scale which isn't even accurate. The faster I make myself run the lighter I will have to become-it's just Darwinism. Oh and I guess I have to eat clean and at the right time too-but it feels good to be free of concern over the lbs.

You guys are definately helping me.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I was explaining this to the Barista whilst ordering a double espresso.

She was so kind she offered me a free muffin. I would have liked to have taken it, but peer pressure from you guys made me say no. Today it feels like the right decision, so thank you for your help.

Group Therapy :p

Take Care, and keep up the good work.

Mark

Well Happy Birthday Mark! I started my recent fitness quest on my birthday, almost 2 months ago. It's funny because I didnt actually do it because of my birthday. My decision just sort of coincided.

Its tough when people offer you a treat and you have to turn it down. Its not because it's difficult to resist so much as you kind of feel like a d!*k turning it down. I usually say something like "Thank you, but I can't eat that."

"Huh? you're so skinny! Of course you can eat it"

"Yes I am trim but I'm not RIPPED! I can't eat that!!! PLEASE STOP TEMPTING ME WOMAN!!! IF I WERE SAMPSON YOU'D CHOP OFF MY HAIR! DAMN YOU!!!!" :eek:

Or something like that. It took a couple of weeks before my wife stopped pouting when I didn't eat my usual second or third helping of her meals. I've got her recording her diet now so she's more understanding. It was tough for a while there though...

Hi guys,

Happy birthday marked, its gonna be a good year for you as you are going to be buffed at sub 10.

I am looking like im going to be about 2 or so weeks over the deadline or feb. thats fine with me as i dont want to lose more than 2pouns a week.

Funny you should say about the muffin and the group therapy. I have noticed that not giving into the easy food choices is alot easier too now i have this challenge. i think to myself, "come-on what is a piece of pizza, muffin, biscut etc going to hurt". then i think, no I am sticking to this challenge, as i want to post some good numbers or at least if they are not good, be accurate about why they arent.

i've been very good so far this week, even felt okay to take a day of yesterday and just did a good power walk instead of my usual run. feel rearing to go now and looking forward to monday.

Hi Champien Speller,

I don't think Feb 1st is on for me either. I think more like March 1st, but hey, for us Northern Hemisphere guys (especially in Britain!) I won't be taking my shirt off until May (at the earliest, you know the Brit weather!). You on the other hand are now coming into Autumn, so you'll be putting your shirt on :lol:

Anyway, I don't really care about Feb 1st. Goal is to lose weight every week, preferably 1 or 2 lbs, and see where I get to - but a minimum of 10%. I did some calculations on if I lose 66% Fat and 34% LBM to get to 10% I'll need to go down to 175lbs, but I really don't think my lardy bits will be gone by then. I think that is going to have to be 8% which is 169lbs using the same formula. Hmm, that is 10 or 11lbs away. However, I am determined, since I am an old man now, to get this damn six pack for this year. BTW, if John is reading he'd have some sympathy with my age - he is the same age as me :lol:

Take Care Guys

Mark

hi marked, and all

actually i'm coming to blighty for your summer so i will get to take my shirt of with pride after all.

Im feeling the lardy bits still on me too. so I will keep on going down to 8% too. I am heading over to spend a year on exchange in europe for uni in june-july so i dont think i will have anytime for a bulk and will just try and maintain between 8-10% bodyfat for may and june, and will be sporting a great six pack in july when i head over which will probably be immediately wipped out with copious pints that my english mates will no doubt make me drink. I tried to tell them once when i was on holiday with them in asia, that i was not interesting in chasing girls (had girlfriend at the time) or drinking. they looked at me with a bemusent and said "if your not drinking and not on the pull, why are you on holiday!!!"

marked, where did you get those calculations from, i think i might run my numbers through them and see what i come up with too.

and guys, do you schedule in a rest day in your program? i gave myself one today. i didnt mean to but i had alot on. im planning to work extra hard tomorrow to make up for it though. I notice John doesnt have a rest day so i'm just curious to see if you dont either.

speak to you later

hi marked, and all

actually i'm coming to blighty for your summer so i will get to take my shirt of with pride after all.

Im feeling the lardy bits still on me too. so I will keep on going down to 8% too. I am heading over to spend a year on exchange in europe for uni in june-july so i dont think i will have anytime for a bulk and will just try and maintain between 8-10% bodyfat for may and june, and will be sporting a great six pack in july when i head over which will probably be immediately wipped out with copious pints that my english mates will no doubt make me drink. I tried to tell them once when i was on holiday with them in asia, that i was not interesting in chasing girls (had girlfriend at the time) or drinking. they looked at me with a bemusent and said "if your not drinking and not on the pull, why are you on holiday!!!"

marked, where did you get those calculations from, i think i might run my numbers through them and see what i come up with too.

and guys, do you schedule in a rest day in your program? i gave myself one today. i didnt mean to but i had alot on. im planning to work extra hard tomorrow to make up for it though. I notice John doesnt have a rest day so i'm just curious to see if you dont either.

speak to you later

champ:

I threw in a rest day (definition: no weights, no cardio, but still strict nutrition) last week unintentionally as well. We had a snowstorm here in the northeast of the U.S. and I spent my morning shoveling out instead of working out. I had intended on making up the cardio on my treadmill later in the day but I... forgot. :(

But last week I posted better than average fat loss, so it didnt seem to hurt - unless the effect is delayed. I doubt it though.

Today I'm 199, which is a 2lb loss from last week. I couldn't find my calipers though (my wife has been secretly using them) so I went ahead and workout out already. I don't want to measure now because I'm all heated up. I'll do the bf measurement tomorrow instead.

I do take one day a week to do something alternate, rather than pounding away on the gym treadmill or elip every day. I chopped wood a couple of weeks ago, walked the dog for a marathon walk one week. Going skiing week after next.. stuff like that. It's not rest exactly, but not exactly rigorous either.

Very excited to report that my caliper bodyfat reading today is 12.7%. That's based on an average of three readings.

Just 0.9% away from my challenge target of 11.8%!

I'm noticing some loose skin when I pinch my stomach fat for the caliper reading, but nothing that anyone would notice. I'm sure it will go away soon. I'll take loose skin over blubber anyday!

Oh and my waist is measuring at 33.5". Last week was 34.25". On 12/17/04 it was 37.25"! Yikes! No wonder my pants don't fit anymore.

Nice work Joe. As the Champien Speller would say, your lardy bits seem to be disappearing.

Hi guys,

just got callipered today, so without further ado-

last week
weight- was 187 now 185
body fat still 13%
lean body mass=160.7
projected weight at 10% body fat=176

this week
weight- still 185
body fat still 12.5%
lean body mass=161.7
projected weight at 10% body fat=177

so i'm losing fat and holding weight which is good. Im not going to try and rush it as i think im pleased with 0.5% body fat loss per week. although this means i will be at 10% until another four weeks.

today someone told me i should'nt lose anymore weight as i will look to skinny (plays with my mind). I thought about it for a while and said to my self "sod that, i want to see my abs for the first time in my life" if i keep it sensible I think I can maybe keep on putting on a tiny bit of muscle each week. then i will try and maintain as im going to the uk in july, so i wont have time for a bulk.

i got a gym membership close to my house now so im going to try and split up the cardio and weights and see what happens to my body over the next week. shoud be interesting.

also im going to take your advice about the rest day and not feel to bad about having one. i actually had two last week and still lost weight. I cant weight to get down to 10% and get a tan. not a real one as the sun here is brutal. just a spray on one that comes free with my gym membership.

look forward to reading the updates.
happy lipolisis
the champ

One thing I've noticed is over the last month my clothes are sort of hanging off of me, which is understandable since Ive lost 12 pounds. But partially because of that, when I catch my reflection fully clothed (I don't bother looking at myself clothed anymore, I'm much more interested in seeing skin), I look really slim. I can see how someone would think I'm too thin. In fact, its just that my clothes are too big, and when you have low bodyfat you need form fitting clothes to show the hints of your true muscular girth. I remind myself how much I can squat, bench, and curl, and prove to myself that I'm not a skinny weakling, but I'm actually on my way to being a ripped strongman!

I think we are all doing great. Its when you hear comments like that (too skinny, etc) that you have to remind yourself of the goals you have made and the reasons why you made those goals. Now is the time when most quitters rationalize themselves out of their goals.

"Well, I look good enough now..."

"I'll freeze to death without more fat to pad me"

"I can finish this cut anytime I want... I don't need to go all the way right now..."

All cop-outs. All lame excuses that I myself have thought of, and fought right out of my head.

Final thought - don't put any credence into the opinions of the "person on the street" in regards to desirable body composition and nutrition. Just from visiting these forums, we are in the top 5% in terms of fitness knowledge, and are far better equipped to make these judgements for ourselves.

I've found that when my clothes are too big they can actually make me look fatter because of the excess material around the waist.

It's true that the general public has no idea what is involved in having a good physique.

Update for me:
Strength is improving-recently started using 205 for bench press up from 185 a month ago, 425 for leg press up from 365, and I'm up to 8 pullups from just 4 . My weight appears to be holding steady and my running times are slightly better. I recently climbed a 5.8 route and almost made the 5.9(which is an April 15th goal) but I think they graded the routes too easily so I'm aiming for a 5.10a at my gym's wall.

I can only guess my bodyfat but I think it's around 13-14%.

I recently cleaned out our garage and I'm planning to set up a home gym. I have a bench that I got from a friend at work and it included an olympic bar (45 lbs) and some 'international' weights which are in KG but seem to have the normal olympic sized holes. Combined with the dumbells I already have it should become a pretty decent home gym. I need to pick up some rubber flooring for the bench to sit on since the concrete is pretty uneven in there-I'll take some photo's when it's done.

Anybody know a cheap way to simulate gym flooring-like some Home Depot cheap rubber mats?

Nico:

Nice work on those leg presses. Just think of how much muscle mass you have gained in your quads to be able to make a gain like that! If your weight has held steady then certainly you've dropped some fat! :tu: One tidbit - you've read this before I'm sure but I'll reiterate - there is no substitute for squats. If you are avoiding them for some reason, you are jipping yourself from some serious gains. Start light and safe, work your way up.

By the way, whats you caloric intake at?

I've been doing research on flooring for my basement, not just for a gym but for 900 sqft of living space. I plan to put down a laminate flooring material like Pergo, and then place these gym mat tiles on top of that for the gym area.

http://www.zebramats.com/

Their site uses frames ( :d_mad: ) so you'll have to navigate to "Products" then "Puzzle Tiles" to see the product I have in mind.

Those puzzlemats look to be ideal for what I'm trying to do. I think if I buy about 6 of those it would cover the area-I'll have to take measurements.

Nico:

Nice work on those leg presses. Just think of how much muscle mass you have gained in your quads to be able to make a gain like that! If your weight has held steady then certainly you've dropped some fat! :tu: One tidbit - you've read this before I'm sure but I'll reiterate - there is no substitute for squats. If you are avoiding them for some reason, you are jipping yourself from some serious gains. Start light and safe, work your way up.

By the way, whats you caloric intake at? Thanks-yes I plan to get back into squats my problem has always been a lack of flexibility in the hips. I'm going to start light (135) and build it up using the Smith machine, then I'll try to get back into regular squats once my form is perfect.

As for calories, I would estimate that I'm taking in about 2,200 a day. I don't track my diet to a tee, but I have a set of rules I try to eat by which includes eating breakfast everyday, taking in at least 25 mg of protein in each meal, eating at least 4 times a day and never eating more than 800 calories at one sitting. Also, I don't drink during the week and have almost eliminated all desserts. I don't have the discipline to truly diet, so I do what I can to follow these rules.


I've been doing research on flooring for my basement, not just for a gym but for 900 sqft of living space. I plan to put down a laminate flooring material like Pergo, and then place these gym mat tiles on top of that for the gym area.

http://www.zebramats.com/

Their site uses frames ( :d_mad: ) so you'll have to navigate to "Products" then "Puzzle Tiles" to see the product I have in mind.

Hi Guys,

Sorry I didn't post this yesterday, but couldn't get near the Internet (a refreshing change).

Well I lost a further 2lbs, and I am now 178lbs. The good thing about this is being 5ft 11inch, this now means I am in the "Normal" column for BMI with a BMI of 24.87. Yes, I know BMI is load of rubbish, but I can't remember the last time I was in the normal band - probably when I was 17 or 18.

Interestingly enough I went out and bought some 501's and they are size 32". I tried a number of pairs of trousers in that size since my 34" are dropping off me. It's good to have incentives :tu:

I'm hoping to lose a further 2lbs or icing on the cake 3lbs this week which will put me at target, and perhaps around 10.5%. I say target in the loosest sense of the word, since I actually wanted a six pack at 175lbs, but I'm not going to have it. I need to persevere further, but hey, there are 3 months until it gets remotely warm in Britain, so I have time :-) I'm actually looking to extend this challenge to 1st March and get down to 170lbs, and hopefully a six pack.

I get calipered on Jan 31st. Fingers are crossed that I make my target.

Nice to see everyone else doing extremely well too. Fantastic news.

Take Care all, and GOOD LUCK

Mark

Hi All,

I posted yesterday whilst skim reading the responses, and didn't digest them. It was my first time back to the site for 5 days, so a fair few responses.

I can't believe how well everybody is doing.

Joe, regarding your "skinniness", I had a laugh with my mother in November when I went to the UK Rowing Champs. I was on the second row (seeded in the top 40) and my mother commented afterwards that I looked like a "weed" compared to the other guys! Great eh? You can always count on your mum (or in American - mom) to give you wonderful words of encouragement! I must admit I was a bit intimidated in the showers afterwards since it looked like a Men's Health cover model shoot! Well the good news was I could beat most of them at rowing, so I must've been doing something right.

Champien, you're coming over to Blighty eh? If you're near south London, then look me up and we can have a "diet" beer together!

Next week will be hard for me. Feb 1st I travel on business for 3 days and won't be able to work out (and need to be careful on my nutrition). I really need to make target by then, so I can use the next 3 or 4 days to give the body a rest. I've been doing 6 days per week of training and still hitting personal bests with some of the weights for quite sometime, so some form of rest should be beneficial. I recently hit 100Kg on free weight squats. That's a milestone. The amusing thing with that was my personal trainer (who is 5 or 6 inches taller than me) normally cleans the barbell and passes it to me as he doesn't have a squat rack. This time he had to clean to 90Kg then add 5kg either side. It seems I'm now getting to his limits too. Kind of nice! He said it will give him an incentive to get stronger too!

Take Care Everyone

Metrics day!

Weight loss slowed this week with just a 1.5lb loss, which is ok because I cut back on cardio just a bit this week. Fat loss right on track though! I took 5 readings this morning with the calipers just to make sure I wasn't screwing up, but they had a nice tight mean of 11.7%. Skin is showing some looseness. When I'm doubled over I can see some wrinkly loose skin hanging from my belly. When I stand straight it is not noticeable so I'm not concerned. Surely it will tighten up over time.

I think this means I hit the challenge because my target was 11.8%, not 10%. I guess I have 2 more days to get flabby again, so I shouldn't celebrate just yet. ;)

Waist was 33.25". Things seem to be pretty much as expected. I can't wait to hit my 10% target now so I can begin a bulk!

By the way, my pants are REALLY too big now, but I'm hesitant to buy new jeans because I will most likely start a bulk within a month or so. I just don't know if I'll be able to maintain my < 34" waist size during the bulk. Keeping my bodyfat between 10-12% will be a rigid constraint, but my thighs may very well explode given that my genetics predispose me to strong legs.

What do you guys think about running out for new threads? BTW I haven't been in size 34 jeans since high school! My inseam is going to be a higher number than my waist.

hi guys,

looks like everyone did well this week again. I although didnt and i am still at the same weight and fat percentage as last week. oh well, i'll just take it on the chin and try and redouble my efforts this week. :(

hi guys,

looks like everyone did well this week again. I although didnt and i am still at the same weight and fat percentage as last week. oh well, i'll just take it on the chin and try and redouble my efforts this week. :(
Your overall improvement has been good-it's the overall attitude that's most important and it sounds like you still have that.

When you haven't posted a message on the board for 3 months then you'll know you may have fallen off the wagon.

I had a good week of workouts-reached some intermediate lifting goals and hit the gym 5 times last week with some cardio each day. Running is getting slightly easier as I feel like my mass is made up of more muscle and less fat. The fat seems to bounce more than muscle even though it's less dense so I'd rather weigh 200 at 12% bodyfat than the same weight but at 16%. Whether I get down to 190 is up to whether I commit seriously to eating properly. Right now i can't make the commitment-we ate pizza last night and went out for a huge steak/fish meal the night before. :drool: Lifting and running make me hungry-just gotta limit the portion sizes to 'bout half of what I'm eating now.

Hi Guys,

Well this past week wasn't so good. I didn't lose any weight whatsoever, and I was body fat calipered today.

Since I'm 178lbs I was hoping to be around the 11.0% mark, but unfortunately I was 11.7% BF.

So I still have 1.7% to go. I will continue updating this thread until I get to that 10.0% goal, if not beyond.

When I get to 10.0% I will post a picture even if my lardy bits are STILL, well, lardy :mad:

As of tomorrow I am taking a 5 day rest from training, and my eating will be less strict, culminating in a big meal on Saturday. This is because I am on business travel for the remainder of the week, and Saturday I take my parents out for a meal since my Mother goes for an operation the next week and will need 4 - 6 months convalesence afterwards. So, no more thinking about training until Sunday. This means I do not expect to lose any weight this week, but I hope not to put any on -we'll see.

Take Care Everyone, :tucool:

Mark

Your overall improvement has been good-it's the overall attitude that's most important and it sounds like you still have that.

When you haven't posted a message on the board for 3 months then you'll know you may have fallen off the wagon.

thanks, i felt a bit down because of it for about half an hour which was sort of hightened by it being the end of the month and our deadline.

then i said, its cold be a number of things such as the hot weather making my skin sweat and giving false reading, or maybe i need to fine tune my training more. i still havent split up my cardio and weights so when i finally get my arse into gear that should help to improve my weight loss.

also will be very busy this month and will be working in two hospitals for 4 days a week so it will really test my resolve to get my split cardio and weights in. but i'm determined to at least try, and if i cant then the worst case will be to do cardio and weights together.

looks like everyone except joe had an ordinary week this week. congrats to joe and the rest of us will have to stick at it. i took a look at my self in the mirror after being pumped up after a chest workout (which i dont usually do as im busy doing cardio) and was sort of startled by the improvement over the last 3 months. so that made me a bit happier. now if i can just get to 10%, i want it so bad i can almost taste it :drool:

so from now im just going to extend the challenge till i get down to 10% like marked, hopefully it will be by end of feb. i've got a party to go to then and me a single guy, its going to be one hell of a party.

the not so plump champ

ps the edit button is a life saver, i just read my post and it had 10 spelling mistakes. i'll have to change my name to the chapien editor. :D

My motivation has been low for the last week-work has been killing me. Haven't had time to do my usual lunchtime workout so I have to do it late at night after a 12 hour workday.

Sometimes I wonder whether all the effort and time results in enough improvement to make it worth doing. I may change my routine so I hit each muscle group only once per week-right now I try to hit everything every 5 days.

Keep your eyes on the prize, dudes. The goal is long term health and vitality right? Well ok we also want to look awesome at the beach. :D

We all know what we are supposed to be doing. Unlike the general public, we are very informed, educated, and motivated. That's 90% of the battle. The other 10% is scheduling our lives to make it happen. It's tough, and it may mean that short term goals are difficult to meet in compressed timelines (like this challenge was), but weekly set backs are temporary. Next week is always a new week. Keep pushin!

And Nico, the scale lies. it lies lies lies. Tuesday I was 196. Today I'm 197.2. Thats bull! And I know why - my mother-in-law brought pizza here the other day (without asking :mad: ). I would have felt like an ass to refuse it and have a tuna packet over salad greens instead, so I ate 2 pieces. BTW 2 lousy pieces of Dominos total to 600 calories! It's just not worth it! For the fat and calories, you just dont get that much enjoyment. Anyway when I had pizza a few weeks ago I noticed that the scale bumped up by 1-2 pounds for a couple of days. Must be water?

Anyway, my point is, I knew what the pizza would do to me. And it came true. But I also know it is temporary, and it was controlled. I didnt say "Oh hell I'm having pizza so lets eat until I burst". I knew what one slice would do and I made the decision to have 2 slices.

I view this as an engineering project. I've got this machine with pretty well known parameters, and my regimen is a system developed through research and fine-tuned through empirical methods. The environment which my machine and regimen interact is dynamic and presents obstacles which the engineer (me) must account for and make adjustments - sometimes temporary, sometimes more fundamental. As with any engineered system, a big challenge is to avoid entropy. In out case entropy would be letting a week slide by without posting on these forums, tracking calories, or thinking about our goals. A good engineer has tools and techniques to mitigate the effects of temporary setbacks. He keeps his eyes on the prize...

good post joe,

although my machine is a little broken at the moment. I've got the flu as i wasnt able to sleep more than 6hours over 2 days due to new job and changed sleeping patterns. as a result i'll be taking 3-4 days off exercise to fully recover.

I wont be resting though as my mind is planning to shake up my program as i measured myself yesterday and i have no changes this week i am still

bf- 12.5
wieght 187pounds

so this is my plan, cardio is for 45mins at 65-75 on fasted or 5+ hours no carbs ie prot/fat meals

monday work 7-11 cardio 11-12pm weights 7-8pm shoulders

tuesday work 7-11 cardio 11-12 weight 7-8 back

wednesaday cardio 6-7 weights 4-5pm chest

thursday work 7-11 cardio 11-12 day off weights

friday work 7-11 legs 3pm

sat cardio 7-8 weights arms

sun cardio 12-1

what do you guys think? I'll still have my intake at 2200-2300, and macros at 40-20-20.

what do you guys think? I'll still have my intake at 2200-2300, and macros at 40-20-20.


whats the other 20%? :D

good job guys. Im unofficially in this challenge. 3 weeks ago I was at 24% BF....now im in the 17-18 range....shooting for 9-10 by may

what do you guys think? I'll still have my intake at 2200-2300, and macros at 40-20-20.

champ:

What's your activity level like at work? I ask so that I get an idea of what 2300 calories means for you. I sit at a desk, weigh 196, and take in between 2000-2300 (I vary it from day to day now). Judging by the rate of my loss - 1.5 to 2 lbs per week - I'd say any more than that and I wouldn't be losing (whether I'd be actually gaining muscle instead is something I'll find out when I start my bulk). Its a delicate balance. Don't be afraid to tweak it every week if you have to, no matter what the "calculations" tell you.

whats the other 20%? :D
hmmm... alchohol maybe? ;)


good job guys. Im unofficially in this challenge. 3 weeks ago I was at 24% BF....now im in the 17-18 range....shooting for 9-10 by may
Holy cow dude. 24% to 18%! Not bad. What method are you using to check your BF?

whats the other 20%?

LOL i should do more proof reading. :o

macro should be 40 30 30

I sit on my arse most of the day, mixed with a little walking and driving. Ill see how i go with the extra cardio this week, and see if i can loose a few pounds before i decrease my calorie intake.

i worked out with my old schedule i was burning about (polar heart rate monitor numbers) - 600 calories per day training which equals 600*6 = 3600 calories

new schedule i will be burning 700 calories per cardio session 6*700 + 5 days weights 500 *5 = 6700

that should mean about a 1 pound body fat loss per week at least.
now all i have to do is stick to it :db:

good job guys. Im unofficially in this challenge. 3 weeks ago I was at 24% BF....now im in the 17-18 range....shooting for 9-10 by may

thats awesome mate, keep up the good work.

hmmm... alchohol maybe? ;)


Holy cow dude. 24% to 18%! Not bad. What method are you using to check your BF?

digital calipers, mybodycomp.com, and the electronic scale

the scale is sort of way off,but i avg the calipers and mybodycomp like john did during his transformation

I started at 24%...but it may have been closer to 22-23% because I was holding in a lot of water from a month of fast food eating and what not over my winter break

Before I got to this point...I was 225 30-35% BF and couldnt put up 135 on the bench if my life depended on it

6/2003-225
11/2003-185 (still not much muscle)
9/2004-195 (added all muscle pretty much)
12/2004-203 (got lazy)

Now im at 190 again, really serious with my diet and want get down to 170.

Im doign cardio 4-5 times a week and have 3 lift days. Not really counting calories at all, I just shoot for roughly 300-400 calories a meal 6 meals a day

My lifts are still going great as well....225 for reps on the bench, 275 for reps squating, etc etc

I cant wait to see my newself in may

Last week I was away on business, and lots of meals out. Nothing I could do about that.

I weighed myself on Sunday night and was 182lbs. This was after a lot of alcohol cumulatively on Friday and Saturday :o So hoping that will come off quite quickly.

Back to clean eating and working out as of Sunday. Did a cardio day on Sunday, and a weights day with PT yesterday. Today is cardio again.

This week will be a challenge to get all 6 cardio days in since my mother is about to have surgery, and I will obviously prioritise visiting hospital over working out. Of course I will keep eating well!

I'm hoping to get back to 178lbs or lower in the next two weeks.

I just read Joe's motivational comments. Excellent Post Joe, and pizza does that to me too. I have no idea why, but you are right to limit it. I love pizza, and when I was 286lbs I would eat large pizza hut pizza to myself. Now I have a low calorie one and add veges to it myself. It is about 500 cals for whole pizza and I look at it as my cheat meal per week.

Good Luck everyone.

Mark

Speaking of alcohol, I know that John Stone has commented about the negative effects he has experienced, even after just a couple of drinks a week. After reading his post about that I cut out my Friday afternoon beers and didnt have a single drink for a month (friends thought I was in AA or something). Well Sunday I had 2 beers and one "grape-crush" mixed drink. All I can say is John was right. My bench slipped today from last week. Social gatherings are just gonna have to take the back seat from now on, because this is unacceptable.

That's tough for a New Englander to give up on alcohol during the middle of winter. But I agree it seems to drain the system when you're training a lot. I noticed that after drinking a beer at night last week all my lifts dropped and my focus as well. I'm trying to limit myself to 3 drinks on the weekend for the next 10 weeks-that's the best I can do.

Marked: That weight will be down to 180 real quick.

I broke under 200 pounds two days in a row on my scale-which is probably wrong. But it gives me confidence. I've weighed around 210 for several years now. Today I'm going in to work chest in about an hour and I'm going for 205*6 on bench press, something I haven't accomplished in about 10 years. I got five reps a few weeks ago but last week I had to drop it down to 195 and it still felt heavy.

It's tough to keep adding weight while you're also running most days and working 12 hours a day including Saturday. At least I get paid for the o/t.

Ok I hate take pictures. I'm just not photogenic at all. But today I swallowed my pride, acted rationally, and took some photos. I wish I had done it a month ago so I'd have something to compare with. Alas, these photos today will have to be my baseline.

I look half asleep or stoned, but thats not important :)

by joe joe, you are looking very fit, all you need is a tan and you'll be right to go for the cruise. you can tell you are getting really close to 10% as your abs from side on are very taught looking.

i have had a slight drop in body fat from last week but i am still at the same weight even with upping my cardio and spliting it.

so now i am going to drop my calories for 2200-2300 down to 1900-2000 per day. the funny thing is that i am not really frustrated to much with not meeting my goal of 10% as i know i will get there. i just have to get my calorie level right.

Joe what calorie intake are you on at the moment?

im should post my picture too. ive just got to work out how do upload my image.

Thanks champ: the frustrating thing about photography is lighting, and the flash on my camera seems to wash out the definition, because when I look in the mirror with my bathroom lighting I see all sorts of cuts that the pictures dont show... oh well, I guess I need to get some pro lighting and bounces to do the job right, lol.

Tan - yeah, I'm going to make a few tanning visits before the cruise. Even when I was flabby I recall a tan doing wonders for appearance and self esteem. The other thing is that since I'm so fair skinned I've got this network of purplish veins running throughout my upper body - just below the skin but they are clearly visible. If you look at the photo on the left you can see them running up through my arm and shoulder. I'm all for looking vascular but the green/purple color is a bit unsettling. :d_eek:

I'm going between 2300 and 2000 calories a day now. My rationale for the range is that on lifting days, especially leg days, I feel like I need more food. On nonlifting days I keep it at 2000. Make sense? At 2000 every day I was starting to see some slippage in strength. Looks like this week I'm losing just 1 pound, which is exactly what I wanted - to slow down the loss and taper it off gradually, then gradually come back up to a bulking phase. I still have to digest John Stone's bulking regimen to develop a model for my own. Maybe that'll start in another month or so.

Joe you don't have that far to go-I would guess you're already at 10%. So much of the overall look is dependent on skin tone and the lighting of the photo. If you feel like experimenting, find some overhead light and see how the photo's turn out differently. It's hard to get a tan in Massachusetts in February so all you can really work with is the photography.

What about the back/legs?

Joe you don't have that far to go-I would guess you're already at 10%. So much of the overall look is dependent on skin tone and the lighting of the photo. If you feel like experimenting, find some overhead light and see how the photo's turn out differently. It's hard to get a tan in Massachusetts in February so all you can really work with is the photography.

What about the back/legs?
By the way I posted this before reading joe's response about lighting, tan, etc. so sorry if it's all redundant now. :D

Hi All,

First of all Joe, I really don't believe you're 11.4% BF, you're almost there. They're a fantastic set of pictures - very inspirational. If I had that body I'd be taking my shirt off all the time!

From my perspective I changed my workout last week to increase the cardio intensity, and go to 3 * 15 reps on the weights. This is more to create a change. Unfortunately I didn't get to the Gym last night. Something about a boiler not producing hot water and me trying to fix it - which I did eventually.

So Sunday is official weigh day but as I didn't get down the gym I couldn't weigh myself :mad:

However, I know it is not going to be good since I wasn't good last week. Too many days eating positive intake of calories.

On the plus side my allthewhey turned up after 5 weeks (did the economy option on shipping it to the UK as shipping costs so much). So that good.

I will also be visiting my mother in hospital a number of times this week, so my gym sessions may suffer again :-( Anyway off to see my personal trainer now.

Good Luck everyone!

Mark

Hi All,

First of all Joe, I really don't believe you're 11.4% BF, you're almost there.


Do you mean you think my reading is too low, i.e. my calipers are lying, or do you mean you can't believe how fast my progress has been? This textual medium leaves out a lot of expression power - I can't tell what you mean. :) I have myself doubted the caliper readings, but I figure as long as my technique is consistant then I'll get good relative progress, even if the numbers in absolute terms are not 100% accurate.

Thanks for the compliment though - you know the picture taking seems to be motivational for a number of reasons, but one that I hadnt thought of before is that it sort of puts a bookend on your progress. I mean, I think I'm less likely to slip back to a higher BF because now I have these pictures to look at to remind me of where I was, and I never want to go backwards. Dont know if that makes sense... You know how if you look at a old picture of yourself and you go "damn, I didnt think I looked this good back then! My ass is not as big as I thought, and my old acne wasn't really that bad". That kind of motivates you in some way...

It sure is tough to schedule these workouts in with a "real life", but it sounds like you are pushing hard. Keep it up.

I really really think you're < 10.5%, if not at 10.0% already. You look fantastic, and have an excellent abs outline. WELL DONE :tucool:

Yes, the old life getting in the way of workouts is hampering me. Tomorrow will have to be my day off as I have meetings all day and evening, but that's scary having a day off this early in the week. I normally wait until Thursday or Friday. Never mind I've just got to push through and hope I can get 6 workouts out of 7, as well as improve my eating habits. I've been going back to 2500 calories on a good day last week. I need to get that back down to 2000 strict. Today I didn't quite make it - I made 2300 calories, but getting better. I wish I had John's ability to just cut cals like that and shrug it off. With me though, I find it hard keeping to 2000 calories, but that's what I've got to do.

Good Luck Everyone,

Mark



[QUOTE=JoeBiron]Do you mean you think my reading is too low, i.e. my calipers are lying, or do you mean you can't believe how fast my progress has been? This textual medium leaves out a lot of expression power - I can't tell what you mean. :)

Mark -

I'd like to help you explore why you are falling off your plan. I totally understand the clash of professional life and fitness programs - this is why I shlep my tired ass out of bed at 5am to go workout. Not optimal, and I dont get as much sleep as I really need, but I dont have much choice.

As far as the nutritional targets, whats hurting you there? Is it the lack of clean foods available while you are working? Do you spend a lot of time having meals with clients? Recently I had lunch with a potential client and I ended up not finding anything on the menu that was acceptable at this Italian place. I asked the waiter to have the cook just broil me a peice of chicken breast and throw in on a plate with some broccoli and rice. He happily complied, and I ended up have a short discussion with my lunchmates about nutrition and fitness. It was a great ice breaker - the challenge is to keep it short and concise, and not to lecture (which my wife accuses me of - can you believe that? :D )

So whats the deal? Should you be making yourself turkey sandwiches on whole wheat bread to take with you? A PDA to keep track of calories while away from a desk? Lets solve this problem.

awesome joe, 10.1% bf. i think we should round that one down to 10%!

so what are your plans now, are you going to go down to 8% then bulk or are you going to maintain until your vacation with a minimal bulk?

I just change my cals to between 1800-2100 and i'm stating to see a little movement in my weight. only problem is that it is going up not down. :mad: i feel though that this is only water and that it will go down soon as i feel a little leaner if that makes any sense.

the champ

awesome joe, 10.1% bf. i think we should round that one down to 10%!


Thanks champ. It feels good. 10.1 -> ha! It's the empiricist in me not wanted to round down. The 10.1 was an average of 3 measurements. "Just reporting the findings" :nod:

Plans - well thats something I could use a littel guidance with. I've got about 8 weeks to the cruise, and I want to be 10% for that. Also, I feel that my body needs a rest week, which MAX-OT call for anyway. That would be next week. My thoughts now are that 7 weeks isnot enough time to do a full-on bulk then cut back, so I'm thinking of ratcheting up my calories by 100-200 each week, while of course monitoring fat %. That gives me the extra calories I need to perhaps add some lean mass, but shouldn't cause fat storage. I'll also cut back on cardio to 3-4 times per week. I have a supply of creatine here thats just beggin me to take it, so I'll start that as well, cutting it out 2 weeks before the cruise to shed any water weight.

I'm assuming that your 1800-2100 calories are spread out over 6 meals, right? Also, whats your macro ratios? I always aim for 200g protein, and of course that will increase proportional to my calories. Without that, and without intense weight training, I think you are in danger of losing muscle, which will lower your metabolic rate, and downward spiral.

Also, the weight fluctuates wildly sometimes. See attached chart of my weight over 8 weeks.

Joe

hi joe,

my macros are 40 30 30 at the moment although sometimes they might flactuate a bit on either the protein or the fats side. I also have been seperating carbs and fats with the protein over six to seven meals.

i had a bit of a breakthrough today or maybe i should say a dumpthrough! i did the mother of all dumps today and i swear i weight 3 kilos lighter than two days ago. I have heard about retaining water and sodium, but its the first time i have disovered that taking a good dump can achieve such a great "metric makeover" :D . abs aren't just made in the kitchen if you know what i mean :o

anway im off the porcelin throne and back on the wagon. i reckon im about low 12% now and i hope to be down to 10 by the start of next month (where have i heard that before).

I think you got the right idea about taking a week of and then up your cals slowly to go to maintance before the cruise. you should be able to put alittle bit of muscle on anway and you wont be worried about having to take of any added flab.

the champ

I have exactly the same experiences all the time. On days when I am inexplicably heavier, I usually end up finding out why later in the day. ;) Little things like my wedding band getting looser after a good BM lend credence to the notion that water gets retained somehow.

Ah, what a joy it is to truly know the behavior of your body's systems. :D

Joe that weight loss chart looks great. I just broke under 200 for the third day in a row this morning (on my suspect scale :confused: ) but that's pretty encouraging.

The problem is that even though I'm hitting the weights consistently, my strength is diminishing. Maybe I've gotten too concerned about how much I'm lifting but I've always felt that as long as the form is perfect it's important to always try to break through limits.

I've been stuck benching 205*5 for a month and it's actually starting to feel heavier in my hands when I take it off the rack.

I continually mix things up so I don't think my routine has gotten stagnant, I guess it's just a side effect of losing some fat.

I suppose i shouldn't be complaining but part of me wants to just go to a bare minimum weight training routine and focus on functional training and cardio in the gym plus endurance training outside the gym(running + swimming + climbing) so I can get my b/f % down while improving my performance.

This would mean reducing my time lifting from about 5 hours a week down to about 2 hours a week. I would end up just hitting each bodypart once a week instead of every 5 days and spending much more time on cardio.

What do you guys think?

And speller, good job on the dump. 3 kg is a healthy sample. :claphigh:

Well not good but not bad. I weighed in at 182lbs which is no different from 2 weeks ago. My body looks no different, and the tale of the tape isn't showing any increase in my lardy bits so that's good.

However, workouts have been eratic this past two weeks as I've taken time out to visit my mother in hospital. Fortunately she is now out of hospital (as of yesterday) so I can probably visit twice per week (convalescing with take 4 to 6 months) so I can try and visit on my weights days.

I was also comfort eating a bit, so all told no weight addition is good.

Anyway now time to get back on the wagon. I can now have structure to my evenings for this week, and no invites out so can just get on with it. Plan is to lose 2lbs this week, lets hope I can. I really need to get down to 178lbs, and start looking at sub 175lbs to get near 10%.

Wow, Joe, 10.1%, told you you were less than 11.4. Well done. That's fantastic. Get ready for taking your shirt off as the weather improves :claplow:

Hey, Champien, Joe is our inspiration, WE CAN DO IT. Keep the vision of shirt off in the summer in your mind (that's if the weather is decent when you come over to Blighty).

Good Luck Everyone

Mark

Joe, thanks for the inspiration.

Nico:

It sounds like your catabolic. Are you eating 6 equal meals? Getting 200g of protein? If you are losing fat and are starting to lose muscle, maybe you should try tweaking the calories (esp. protein) up a bit.

Maybe you should also try a week off from weights. I'm doing that this week (as per MAX-OT). I really feel that some muscles are creaky and need a full week recovery. Often-used muscles like my forearms have been continuously in DOMS for 2 weeks.

Anyway now time to get back on the wagon. I can now have structure to my evenings for this week, and no invites out so can just get on with it. Plan is to lose 2lbs this week, lets hope I can. I really need to get down to 178lbs, and start looking at sub 175lbs to get near 10%.

The structure is critical. As week after week go by and you string along day after day of "good" days, you get some real momentum in your physiology and psychology.

Heck, even 0.5 lbs per week is good progress. It's not like you guys need to lose a lot of weight. You can track your progress in terms of ounces. :)

Joe, thanks for the inspiration.
Wow. I don't think I've ever been anyone's inspiration. I'm honored. I'll feel more inspiring if I can put on 10 pounds of muscle without going over 11%. I've got John as my inspiration.

yes, count me in on joe as my inspiration too.

well I way about 2.2 pounds less this week but there is no change in body fat %. I dont know whether the kilo is just water loss. I hope not as i weight myself ever day and the trend is going down, even though it jumps around. anyway i hope the callipers are wrong and not the scales.

I bump my calories down to 1900cal per day. I see how it goes this week, if I start to get to weak on lifting days i might bump it up a bit on those days.

I had my first cheat meal in a while on friday and I think it help me lose a few pounds, as i didnt put anyweight on and took 2pounds off as mentioned. my previous cheats were alcohol of new years and since then i have not cheated at all. I think from now on I will try and cheat once a week on clean carbs and protein.

Joe did you include cheats in your nutrution and how much of a cheat in approx cals were they?

champ

champ:

the water fluctuations were buggin me too, so I ended up weighing in every day. That way I reduced the risk of my weigh-in day being subject to a water anamoly. And now I have this fabulous daily data
which clearly shows the impact of alcohol and high sodium foods on next-day weight.

As for cheating, I only had a pre-meditated cheat day a couple of times - New Years, Superbowl sunday, and my wife's birthday dinner. On those occasions I had beer or wine, and ate a reasonable meal without nitpicking ingredients or portions. I still tracked those meals though, and I ended up coming in around 2500 calories on those days, while my target for that phase was 2000.

I also had some days when I felt like I had an especially intense workout, or "real-life" activity caused me to be especially active (like shoveling snow for 5 hours a few weeks ago) when my body just cried out for more food. I answered the call, and ended up eating an additional 300-500 clean calories. It just felt right.

Oh one other thing - I had gotten a box of Godiva truffles for Christmas, so what I did was I used one truffle per day as my insulin spike before my PWO meal. That single truffle tasted DAMN GOOD after an intense weight training session - you let it just melt in your mouth and savor every gram of delicious cocao oil - and it was virtually "free" due to the timing of intake. You learn how to squeeze the most out of the system. ;)

man, i love godiva chocolates! you cant buy them in oz so my friends dont know what they and I am missing out on. you can buy boutique chocolates but they are just not the same.

well i have definitely lost that 1kilo as my weight is tracking at that level and i say will go down also this week. if i can loose 2.2 pounds a day for another 3 -4 week, then i will be at 10. strangely enough that will be my birthday so it will be quite a celebration- a six pack will be a gift that money just cant buy after a four month largely disciplined diet.

i just read my previous post and you guys must think i choose my log on name well. it reads like english is my second language :D .



champien speller

Well I've had a good week so far (and hope to continue into the weekend).

I did have a challenge. My family was visiting my mother (she's just come out of hospital so there was a family get together). Even though my father is an excellent cook (much better than my mother) he got Domino's Pizza, Garlic Bread, Onion Ring, etc, delivered.

I on the other hand, had 2/3 of a very thin organic Pizza I brought at the supermarket which cost me 500 calories (approx).

This may not sound amazing to some, but when I was at my heaviest (286 lbs) I could eat a Pizza Hut Deep Pan Large Pepporoni feast all to myself. That type of Pizza is still my favourite, but I only treat myself to it once per year (a small one now I may add :o )

Anyway, it meant I participated in the event, but still ate fairly clean (I chopped and added my own peppers and chillis to it to make it more interesting).

So, since Sunday so far absolutely no let up. I am refusing to get onto the scales until Sunday though, since weighing all the time disheartens me due to the natural meandering weight does, so I promised myself early on that I would only weigh myself once per week.

Good Luck everyone else.

I'm not sure I will ever get a six pack due to the possibility of excessive skin, but I'm going to try my hardest - 9 or 10% is where I want to be on April 3rd (if no six pack at 10 I'll go down to 9).

Nice work Marked, I know how hard it is to resist pizza-I used to deliver for Pizza Hut back in the day. They gave us a free personal pizza for every 4 hour shift we worked so you can imagine I packed on some pounds during that time. I think a personal pan pizza is about 900 calories, so a large deep dish must be like 2,000!!

The hardest part of eating(and drinking) clean is when family and friends are enjoying themselves all around you. that was a good idea to go with pizza because then you're at least eating the same type of food as everybody else. What's hard for me is when I'm around guys who are drinking 10 beers apiece and I'm sipping on water. :lol:

Pizza is just not worth the calories. I like it and all, but is the enjoyment of eating it really worth 300 calories per (small) slice? I'd have to eat at least 900 calories worth to feel like I really had a meal. Pizza binging is a thing of the past for me.

Mark, the six pack will come dude. I'll bet what you think are "lardy bits" (not sure if that's your phrase or champ's) aren't really that noticeable. Six packs are often a kinetic phenomenon - you see them most while in action. So in real life walking around the beach you might look far more impressive than in your bathroom with wash-out lighting, or in a flash photo.

OK, after being good on Thursday not eating devouringly lovely but nasty Pizza I had a little relapse on Saturday.

My father cooked Sunday roast on Saturday night as my family was leaving to go back home. Well it was meant to be healthy but I feel that I didn't do myself justice in terms of the amount of food I ate :o

I think Saturday was 4000 calories, which meant weigh day on Sunday was slightly off. I lost 1 lb overall, but feel over the course of this week it will show to be more that that, since I think I was holding water weight from Saturday night (at least I hope). The week was flawless apart from that so as a cheat day it wasn't too bad, and the positive is I did it on my leg workout day, so good for building muscles.

Anyway back to good execution on Sunday and Monday. Sunday I hit 2200 calories (I had a latte in town whilst shopping) and today around 1900 calories.

So I've set myself what I feel is a realistic target for 10% or less body fat. I'm going for Monday April 4th (and will have BF measured on that day)

So, for the record I'm 181lbs this Sunday just gone and targetting 2lbs weight loss for 179lbs. I think it's going to take 170lbs to get my abs out (if they come).

The if is a big question, since I was 286lbs once and had a huge waist, which is where my lardy bits are which means excess skin. Anyway, let's try.

Good Luck Everyone

Mark

Mark, sounds like you're doing a good job despite temptations. 6 days in a week of good eating will get the job done. Has the skin tightened up around your waist or is it in the same state as several months ago?

marked,

the skin might not be an issue for long - but holy crap you've lost a lot of weight! When were you 286? Yikes! Do you have pictures from then?

one thing about abs that might help bring them out - try training your abs with weight. So instead of doing 100 crunches, do 10 with a 45lb plate on your chest. I do leg lifts with a 10lbs dumbbell squeezed between my feet - that is wicked hard! Then I move to the cable machine and do cable crunches with as much weight as I can handle. I kneel on the floor with my tailbone pressed against the cable machine for mechanical advantage so I can put on a lot of weight without getting lifted off the floor. It's a killer ab workout and takes 1/10 the time of these marathon 400 rep, 20 exercise extravaganzas.

Just because Joe is there with his six pack gleaming and now starting a bulk (I'm jealous) doesn't mean the rest of us have to stop. I still want to get to that 10.0% Nirvana.

Anyway, the Good News was I lost a further lb, and officially now weigh 180lbs.

The bad news is I got BF measured on Monday and I was 13.7% :o body fat. Readers of this thread may recall I was 11.7% at 178lbs about 5 weeks ago. Well, excuses aside, I am actually rather happy with that! Why? Well I think my previous reading was wrong, I felt I had more lard hanging off me than the reading suggested, so I'm more happy with 13.7% - it just feels like a more realistic measurement. I will get my BF remeasured on April 10th.

So, I'm on a quest this week to lose a further lb. I had a little obstacle in the way last night called a "Beef Wellington" which is a fantastic dish. Actually it was more the crispy Lyonnaise potatoes that were bad (and puff pastry and pate I suppose) , but I actually did really well. It's my favourite dish, but I took a petite slice, and an average amount of potatoes, plus was good earlier in the day, so I think I only went a little over maintenance calories yesterday (plus I weight trained my shoulders and back) so wasn't so bad.

So my new target for sometime in April is 170lbs, with this Sunday's target being 178 or 179 lbs.

Good Luck to all.

Champ, Nico, what's your stats now?

Take Care

Mark

I've been sick and not working out but my weight is consistently coming out at 201, down from 210 when we started this. (based on adjusting my incorrect scale upwards by 3 pounds)

My timeline had to shift out because I get really busy at work. :mad:

Well guys in a few weeks my mini-bulk will be over and I'll be back on the cutting bandwagon, so save my spot in this thread. ;)

Here are some comments about losing fat:

1) it's easier to lose fat than to build muscle
2) you know those skinny ectomorphs that complain that they can't gain weight? They have it worse off than you. It really is harder for them to gain weight.

It seems as though I have cranked my metabolism way way up, to the point where after 10 days on a 3000 calorie diet and zero aerobics, I haven't gained any weight to speak of. I can see that this goal of building lean mass without fat is going to be much more challenging than losing the fat was.

It may be that I've always have had a naturally "fast" metabolism but just had poor eating habits. Perhaps that speaks to my cutting success, and the relative slowness in gaining now. Of course, it's barely been two weeks on this bulk, so I shouldnt jump to any conclusions.

Lastly, my advice is to bring your calories back to maintenance levels every few weeks, even if you havent yet reached your cutting goals. Prolonged caloric deficit with regular "falling-off-the-wagon" sounds a lot like yo-yo dieting, and you know what that brings... Heck, maybe even a push for strength gain for a little while will stoke the fires. You know how when your car gets stuck in the mud or snow, you can try to rock it back and forth until you break out of the rut... who knows?

Hi Joe,

I think you are correct, that building muscle is harder than losing fat, but I have to say losing fat is hard if you try to do it with minimal lean body mass loss too.

I've already stated that last month's BF caliper session I'm a little bit suspect on, but if I take the difference between that one and the one before it was almost a 50% loss in Fat as well as a 50% lost in LBM. Not that good really.

I am sincerely hoping that it turns out to be more list 66% to 33% ratio for the future. How was it with you? And does the LBM percentage loss increase the closer you get to 10% Nirvana?

Anyway, good luck with the bulk. I look forward to seeing how much you put on. It seems John went to 3800 calories per day to bulk in the end (and is now down in the low 2K range for cutting).

Take Care

Mark

Hi Joe,
I've already stated that last month's BF caliper session I'm a little bit suspect on, but if I take the difference between that one and the one before it was almost a 50% loss in Fat as well as a 50% lost in LBM. Not that good really.

Not sure I'm clear on this. a 50% loss in LBM? That seems impossible. Or do you mean that 50% of the weight lost was LBM? So if you lost 10 pounds in total then you lost 5 lbs of LBM?

Well according to my calculations in terms of weight and bodyfat %, I lost a total of 21 pounds, and 17.5lbs of it was fat, leaving 3.5 pounds of muscle loss. I can also validate that by my strength, which did not diminish overall (leg stregth diminished slightly, upper-body stregnth increased).

Also, if you have more LBM then it should be theoretically easier to lose fat when you are ready to cut, since you have more fat-burning muscle to help you.

Opps, been a bit lax, I've not posted here for two weeks.

Anyway, over past two weeks I've lost 1 measly pound. However, the training hasn't been going well. I've had a cardio push and my erg rowing on a concept 2 is back to my PB times (Pb when I did a 16 week program for UK nationals) even though doing a rounded cardio routine.

This was just to mix it up. Problem is this past week has been like classic overtraining, whereby cardio has a been a real struggle (but strength not diminished) due to the lack of sleep and work pressure (been working to 02:00am a fair few nights).

So this next week I'm off to France on business for a few days, and I must try to keep weight off, then come back to two weeks of more late nights :p

So even though focus is a lot of work, still doing training and if I just tread water or lose a lb over next two weeks I'll be happy. Then it's back to 100% concentration on getting this damned six pack!

Will post next week.

Mark

Weight is now 179lbs

I've been lax too about posting but I have stuck to my program since I got over the flu a week ago.

My weight is at 200 down from 210 when this started-and I think my legs look bigger so I may have lost 10 pounds of fat. Unfortunately my upper body lifts have dropped slightly.

Good luck to everyone in continued cutting and Joe in your bulking endeavour. :tu:

You guys are close - just a pound or two a week is all it takes.

Marked, I just reviewed the beginning of this thread where you were 187. That's an 8 pound drop and nothing to sneeze at. Slow and steady wins the race.

Nico, I saw my strength start to drop off towards the end, and that is the reason why I decided to stop the cut and start a bulk, even though I didn't have the ripped midsection look that I ultimately want. It is a lot harder to build lean mass than to lose fat, so any strength decreases were not acceptable. The extended duration of your cut may be starting to take a toll.

You fellas might want to think about cycling onto a short bulk to confuse your body and take advantage of the body's tendancy to overcompensate due to new programs. For instance, what do you think would happen it next week you upped your calories to maintenance level and did not exercise at all. Just recover for a week. Then the next week, hit the weights like a machine and eat a 500 calorie surplus. You'll throw your metabolism into high gear. I guarantee you'll feel better and more motivated because you'll be giving your body a surplus of nutrients as opposed to the deficit you've been saddling it with for so many weeks. The cut may also be decreasing your testosterone levels.

Do that for just a few weeks and then slam back into a cut. See what happens, shake things up.

I've been eating 3000-3400 calories a day and I havent gained any fat, but I've gained 6 pounds. After a couple of weeks doing this my metab is revving so high that I get actual hunger pangs just 2 hours after eating. I'm eating all friggin day! I'm going to keep this up for another couple of weeks then cut for the last 2 weeks before my cruise. I think this is more effective than trying to cut all the way down to the "ripped" levels in the very first try. (its kinda fun too).

Think about it. :confused:

Joe, The logic sounds good-I think with all this caloric restriction my metabolism has slowed down and all the cardio is contributing to muscle loss.

The challenge for me is when I eat a lot I have to eat the right foods. The incremental increase tends to be junk if you're not careful. I think most people consuming 2,000 calories have an easier time making sure that a high percentage of those calories are 'clean', but when they try to bump it up to 3,500 calories they add crap.

What's the secret? :confused: I guess it's all about preparation-I need to bring food to work which is where I spend 12 hours every day.

Hi All,

Well last two weeks have been manic. I've been to France for 3 days, and last week I was working to 3am everyday to get a code checkin on Friday April 1st (not a joke!).

So with the pressure my workouts have been not as intense, but I've still been doing them.

Weight however has crept up to 184lbs. However, I think that is because I got sh?tfaced on Friday night in celebration of completing my deadline. I'm probably around the same 182 lbs ish from 2 weeks ago and will write up again next week.

This weekend was a warm on in England so I was annoyed with myself for not having a six pack or being at 10% BF. It has renewed my vigour to achieve now my work pressures are out of the way.

My workouts changed as of Monday too, with me doing strength weight work (1 warm up set followed by 4 set of 6 reps). This is in conjunction with a step up in cardio 3 times a week to 165BPM (80%MHR ish).

All this is in preparation for my 26 week training plan that starts May 20th for the Indoor rowing champs to be held at end of November. So gaining muscle may be a problem but I don't really care if I lean down and show some abs, but still get the strength. I'm pumping 2 lots of Whey (ATW) down me per day too.

Workout regime now looks like:-

Monday: Legs
Tuesday: Cardio and Abs
Wednesday: Chest and Arms
Thursday: Day of Rest
Friday: Cardio and Abs
Saturday: Shoulders and back
Sunday: Cardio and Abs

So, let's see where I get on next Sunday's weigh day.

Mark

OK, had a blinding week last week. Thursday was cheat day, which was only 300 cals about equilibrium so good.

Weigh in today was 179lbs, or 5 lbs weight loss. Now, that said I was probably carrying 2 or 3 lbs water last Sunday, but still there's a couple of lbs lost in lard too, so excellent. Another lb or two and I'm at the lightest I've ever been (for at least 2 decades) so this week has got to be executed extremely well. I hope to lose a lb this week. Please keep in mind that I &quo