After 5 years of working out on and off, eating clean on and off, and making progerss on and off I've decided it's time to get serious. I start my new job on October 29th which I've been training for for well over 4 years and I've decided that it will be a new chapter in my life.

I was skinny all the way up until I was 20, and then for some reason I descovered that I actually liked food. I've never been particularly obese (my highest ever weight was 201 lbs and I'm 6ft 4) but I've been over 20% body fat for pretty much my entire 20's (I'm 26) and I'm now up to over 30%. Here are my stats as of last monday, September 28th:

Age: 26
Weight: 196
Waist: 40.25
Chest: 40.5
Arms: 14
Thigh: 23.75

I've had a good week this week, and am looking forward to seeing some progress on the scale and with the measuring tape tomorrow. One of the reasons I decided to start this journal is that I finally feel I am in a place where I can make serious and consistant progress. For the first time since I decided to start training and learnt about proper nutrition, I actually have a meal plan. It's SO much easier not to cheat when you know what you are eating and when you are eating it. I wish I had planned my meals years ago.

I've just got back from the gym. I did shoulders today, but I feel that my aerobic fitness was holding me back, especially on my military presses. Getting my fitness up to a reasonable level is another goal of mine, as I have never been fit as such. My overall goal in this cut is to get down to 12% bodyfat without being horifically thin. I had enough of that in my teens, and don't wish to go back.

I'll post tomorrow with my diet and training and also how my cardio went tonight, am planning on hitting it really hard. If anyone ever has any comments on what I am doing wrong/right or anything please feel free. Would probably help me if I know people are following this, as I would feel more responsible to stick with my plan

Just weighed in and took my measurements, and am really rather happy :tucool:

My weight is down by 5lbs to 191lbs, which is pretty mjuch ideal as about 3lbs of that is water weight, and I will be trying to lose around 2 lbs a week. I dont know what end weight I will want to be, but hopefully I can reach 12-14% at around 170, which I will be happy with. Still a long way to go though.

Measurements as of October 5th:
Waist - 39.5" (Down .75)
Chest - 39" (Down a whopping 1.5")
Arms - 13.75 (Down .25" which is unfortunate, but not unexpected)

My cardio was dissapointing last night, I'm obviously nowhere as fit as I hoped I was. I barely managed 10 minutes interval training (that's interval training btw, not hiit). It's clear to be now that I am going to have to focus on cardio a lot more, as it wasnt particularly hard training either, just go fast until I was out of breath and then slow down until I had it back.

I also need to fiddle around with my diet. I'm having trouble getting enough healthy fats. I tried peanut butter for the first time last night and hated it. Eating that tablespoon of it was really unpleasant. I've always prided myself on being able to eat anything, and have taken the attitude that if other people can like it, its obviously something I can grow to like though. 3 Exceptions I have found to this; Tomatoes, Egg Yolk and now Peanut butter. There's is nothing I can do to make eating any of those anything other than an ordeal. Anyway, I have fish caps coming today, and will make the rest of todays fats (50g) in olive oil and incidental fat from steak etc.

Its back day today! Need to eat breakfast and start my day., I will also throw in a grueling cardio session later on to start me on my long road to recovery of actually being able to run more than 100 yards without having to stop :)

Here are my stats as of last monday, September 28th:

Age: 26
Weight: 196
Waist: 40.25
Chest: 40.5
Arms: 14
Thigh: 3.75



Ok I am hoping the thigh measurement is a typo :eek:, looks like you missed a 2 :D

All the best in your endeavors :tu:

Cheers Pheonix. Corrected :tu:.

I think I'm going to ive measureing my thighs a miss until I'm nearing down towards lower body fat levels. There's a few reasons for this, one being I'm not really expecting much of a change, the other being I always tend to measure in a slightly different place (be it an inch high or lower) and that affects my thigh reading by half an inch at least. I will keep an eye on it though every now and then, and certainly when I'm down to the low teens in bodyfat.

I had a great back workout today, and have tomorrow off from training. My current split is:

Sunday - Shoulders
Monday - Back
Wednesday - Chest
Friday - Legs

I'll be doing fasted liss on my off days, but will be doing some interval training everyday for a week or so until my fitness improves somewhat. Legday will be rather unproductive if I have to stop leg pressing because I'm out of breath, instead because my legs are giving up.

I'm still on a high from earlier's tape measurements. I just feel so much better knowing that I'm leaner today than I was yesterday, and tomorrow I will be leaner still.

Weighed in at 1/2 a pound heavier than I was 2 days ago, which I am putting down to creatine bloat. Decided to do 30 miutes LISS this morning, but ended up watching the snooker instead :mad: . Will make it up tonight in Hiit.

Have got my Chest workout in a couple of hours, and when I get home I am going to revise my diet. I'm eating too much steak overall and not enough carbs on my non-training days, so I am going to have a slight re-think and draw up something lsightly better.

I finally solved my fat problem. Dry roasted peanuts to the rescue! I can quite happily get the 10 or so grams I am short from them, and also get a little protein boost on the side. They will form a decent part of my revised diet. I will post it on here either tonight or tomorrow whe I've finished it.

On a side note, I'm glad I've stopped weighing myself everyday, as you can get obsessed with the reading. No matter what you do, your weight will fluctuate when you are cutting. Even knowing this though, was still peturbed by seeing the scale higher than it was 2 days ago. Something I'll get used to I guess.

Hey bud.. Was going to throw you some pointers but looks like you solved the efa & weighting problems all yourself..

subbed

Sorted out my diet today. Will be sticking with this one until I start to plateu.

Training day:

Breakfast:
100g Brown Rice
150g Chicken Breast
1 Tbls Olive oil

Pre Workout:
160g Brown Rice
150g Chicken Breast

Post Workout:
40g Protein Powder
35g Waxy Maize Starch

Dinner:
4 Egg Whites
170g Cod
170g Sweet Potato
25g Dry Roasted Peanuts

Supper:
160g Rump Steak
1/2 cup Broccoli
1 tbls Olive oil
25g Peanuts

Carbs 130
Protein 200
Fat 50
Total Calories 1780


NON TRAINING

Breakfast:
160g Brown Rice
150g Chicken Breast
1 tbls Olive oil

Brunch:
60g Wholemeal Penne Pasta
160g Chicken Breast

Lunch:
150g Brown Rice
160g Chicken Breast
1 tbls Olive oil

Dinner:
170g Sweet potato
170g Cod
4 egg whites (cooked in olive oil)

Supper:
120g Steak
25g Dry Roasted Peanuts

Carbs 140
Protein 180
Fat 47
Total Calories 1700

Weighed in at 190.4lbs today, which is over a lb less than yesterday. Obsession with the scale is a thing that most people have at the start, but as hours turns into days and then weeks the scale becomes much more incidental. The real results are on Mondays when I get the measuring tape out.

Looking back at my diet, there isn't much variation in it. This doesn't bother me in the slightest at the moment, but as I get further in and have gone 3 or 4 weeks with only eating the same 3 or 4 things I may well get bored. By then I will need to revise my diet anyway to stop any potential plateu, but I will keep my eye open for any interesting recipes. Johns Chicken Satay from today looked delicious.

Speaking of John, looking back on his food logs from when he first started his transformation I was shocked to see that quite often he was eating 1100 calories a day, and only 70 grams of carbs even on weightlifting days. It's astonishing he managed to get the results he did only consuming that amount of food. Just goes to show that determination, if even only by itself, is capable of achieving amazing things.

I've got my first Leg workout of my cut tomorrow. I HATE working my legs. I don't like leaving the gym until I have felt I have really given whatever body part I am working a decent seeing to. This leaves me close to passing out on a lot of my leg days. I will eat either something sugary or even just sugar itself before I leave for the gym tomorrow

looks like chicken breast will be the 4th on your "hate list" very soon :D

keep up!

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGGGHHGH.......

After 10 days of eating clean, not missing a workout etc. etc. I had a pretty poor weekend. It wasn't a complete disaster, but I won't make excuses. I don't expect to have put any actual fat on, but my body will be holding a fair bit more water than it should, so I am going to delay this weeks weighing and measurements to Thursday.

I woke up Friday morning and had a couple of things to do straight away before breakfast. When I finished that I was already late for breakfast and found myself really not wanting to force chicken and rice down my throat. I decided to combine my first 2 meals into 1 cheat meal (which I've allowed myself btw. I don't really agree with scheduled cheat meals, but if I fancy going off my diet once every 1/2 weeks I will).

This in itself wasn't a problem, but then I "had" (didn't really have to) go out that night and ended up drinking and eating in a pizza restaurant (deliberately didn't finish it though). it was the drinking that done it though, ate a load of crap when I got in and then the next morning as well when I was a little the worse for wear. Even on Sunday my diet wasn't bang on, although it was much better. Total estimated damage was:

3000 Calories Friday
2500 Calories Saturday
2000 Calories Sunday
1 Missed Leg workout
1 Missed Carido session

I've worked out roughly that I burn 2500-2750 calories a day, so it's no been a complete disaster. One VERY important thing I have learned from all this is that it's really not worth going off the rails of the diet for me at the moment, because despite eating some nice food, having a drink and going out I was actually miserable because I knew my body was no longer burning fat. The feeling of my body burning fat ALL the time (like it is at the moment, typing this) is something I actually get a kick out of.

I'm not a complete "all or nothing" guy like Mr. Stone, but I will not go off this diet again even slightly until I am MUCH closer to my goals. I have my back workout in about an hour. I don't think I've ever wanted to rip apart my muscle fibres more, especiall after last night poor shoulder workout.

I weighed in at 191.5lbs this morning. That's a pound heavier than I was 4 days ago. My weekend indiscressions are haunting me still.


On the upside I had a great back workout yesterday and am now fully back into the swing of things. Had some terrible cravings last night which led to me having to throw away the food I was craving. It would have got eaten otherwise.

Cravings seem to be much less of a problem once you have been strict for a while and have some momentum behind you. Hopefully last night will be the last time I actually REALLY want to cheat for a while. That being said, once you have cheated it can take quite a bit of effort to get back into your routine.

I've got my chest workout tomorrow and I think I will start adding some direct arm work back into my workout. Apart from the very occasional pull-down lat exercise I haven't incorporated any iso excersises into my workouts at all. I think I am going to add 2 excercises of 3 sets each onto both my Shoulder day (tri's) and Chest day (bi's).

Am looking forward to my measuring on Thursday and hope I have made some progress. It's somewhat jarring knowing that I weigh the same as I did a week ago. Hopefully the tape will tell me progress has been made.

Been a while since my last update. Have been doing ok over the last 8 days. Had a couple of bad meals and missed workouts, but still made some progress. Never really got fully back on my plan after I fell off on the 9th. I am back on it now with a vengence.

Measurements as of this morning (bear in mind the previous comparison measurements are from 2 weeks ago:

Weight - 188.8 (down 2.2)
Waist - 39" (down 2.5)
Chest - 38" (down 1)
Arms - 13.75" (same)

Not bad. Haven't really been weighing or measuring myself with any real consistency over the last few weeks (something I will improve on), but it still nice to see some steady progress. Had a decent chest workout today, really got into the groove. Also, I am thinking of reducing my calories on my off days. I don't think I need 1700 when I'm not working out.

hey dude, thanks for your message in my journal.
One thing I think you should know: the link for your journal, in your signature, is broken.

c ya

Cheers mate, sorted now.

Weighed in at 189.2 today. I expected it to jump up a bit as it had fallen quite a lot quite quickly to get down to 188.8 yesterday. The rise was not as bad as I feared.

Got my leg workout in a couple of hours and am genuinely afraid :). I've never been happy with my legs, or the intesity in which I work them, so I am going to put my all into this workout. Hopefully my next post on here will be telling you all how much pain I am in :tu:

It's now 74 1/2 hours since I went back to sticking exactly to my diet. Feels nice to be trucking along again, and am looking forward to taking some new photos (probably next wednesday, maybe the weekend after) to see what progress I have made. Also looking forward to be able to count the time spent sticking rigidly to my diet in days, and then weeks. Being able to say 74.5 hours is just sad :whistle:

I'm also going to start weighing myself EVERY morning, and in a few days will stick up a graph (stolen from Zero's blog (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=46875&page=15)) that shows my progress. It's always nice to keep track of how your doing and a graphs have a way of showing overall trends that numbers don't

Weighed in at 188 today. What's going on? My diet has been perfect over the last 2 days. Frustrating, but what can you do? I know I've eaten 1000 calories below my maintenance for the last 2 days so I know I haven't put on any actual fat, it's just my water levels fluctuating.

My legs are killing my today. My squats went excellently, as did the leg extentions. The leg press had to be cut a bit short but only because my vision started to go a little blurry. Actually almost enjoyed that workout :cool:

Would like to do some LISS right now while I have an empty stomach been even walking over to the bike would be a chore. Need to cook another batch of Brown rice this morning as well. I quite like cooking but loathe making tubs of rice to put in the fridge for some reason.

Long day today, got a lot of work to do and in 12 hours I get to watch Millwall destroy Leeds at the Den, better get started.

Hey,

I weight 120kg (264 pounds), I'm 1,88 m tall (about 6'2''). 21 y/o.
My exercise level is above regular and daily. So I used the 1,55 multiplier for my BMR.
My body fat percentage is estimated by 23%.

Have I done anything wrong?
Again, I'm using the formula on Marcus' sticky.

Thank you

I'd already planned to have a few beers and a couple of cheat meals ahead of the football on Saturday and I did exactly that. Maybe went over slightly what I had planned (drunk a bit more than I would like, and had to eat something big when I woke up to get myself going) but it wasn't a disaster. The real danger when your planned "free day" turns into a weekend, and then a week etc.

My legs have been killing me, and all my mates at football must have thought there was something wrong with me the way I ws walking yesterday. I hae genuinely never had DOMS as bad as this before, or at least not in my legs. Going up or down stairs is an ordeal, and requires seious planning in advance.

Had a great day yesterday (Millwall won 2-1) and I start my new job this coming Thursday. I still have a lot of revising to do before I take the test, and in truth I am a little behind due to not doing anywhere near as much over these last 6 weeks as I should have done. Oh well, all it means is that these next 4 days will just have no real free time in them.

Got my shoulder workout later today. Havent been happy with most of my shoulder workouts so far this cut, so will make sure this will be a good one. If my legs allow me to get to the gym of course