By august 1st post ur pictures 1 flexed one not flexed of each (front/side/back)

Post starting weight and bf%
Challenge ends december 20th

-Phil

Count me in folks.

Wow well I am getting smashed tonite and eating whatever I want tommorow because monday I will being starting this challenge. Just wanted to say good luck I should have my pictures up tommorow after I get back from work.

-Phil

I'm still at the inlaws today. I might have my pics up tonight but most likely will not until after work tomorrow.

Hey guys, I'm back from my trip and I'm ready to get started tomorrow. I'll try to post pictures tomorrow night. I'll get my BF measured on Wednesday as well.

Good luck to all!

Ok, here goes:

Start Weight: 230.0
Start BF%*: 30.9
Height: 5'10"

Pics are attached.

After cropping the pics and posting them, I can't believe how bad of shape I am in. I cannot fathom how awful I looked Dec. 31st and 18 lbs. heavier. Well, now that I'm rehabbed, I hope to pick up where I left off.

Start weight:208
Height: 5'8
BF:22-24%

Wow I'm fat. I gotta alot of weight to loose.
-Phil

My flexed poses lol

Age: 27
BF%: ? probably 1/2 :D
Weight: 237 (starting)
Height: 5'7"
Goal: Get below 200lbs and in better shape. :tu:

You guys look in better shape than me, I'll give you that. I think that I'm the human equivalent to a butter-ball turkey. :eat:

http://www.piercove.com/jsf/2004_08_02_A.jpg http://www.piercove.com/jsf/2004_08_02_B.jpg http://www.piercove.com/jsf/2004_08_02_D.jpg

I definitely have a ways to go, but hopefully I can make it all happen!!!

Thanks to everyone doing this challenge, and the forum!

Anyways, Good luck to all! :bb:

You guys have a long time to make improvements-so set up your training programs so that you avoid burnout. Put in some short term goals with rewards. Allow yourselves a little bit of slack to avoid losing interest. I've seen lots of people show extreme dedication over a short period but stop improving not because it's too hard but because they lack the motivation to stay focused over the longer term.

The key won't be whether you stick to your workouts, diet and cardio 100% vs 90% for any given week or day, the key will be whether you keep the goals in mind throughout the four and half months versus falling off the wagon completely. Don't let a few days from the gym turn into three weeks off.

Between the four of you I think you guys could lose cumulatively over 100 pounds of fat during this contest.

You should each post a brief summary of your strategies for diet, weight training, and cardio.

The most important piece of advice I can give, not that anyone has asked, is to pay close attention to your hunger levels, the timing of your meals, and your portion sizes. Don't let yourself get too hungry-that slows down your metabolism. Don't eat a huge meal on an empty stomach, and learn how to eat until you're not hungry, not until you're 'full'. Don't eat a lot of food in the last few hours before going to sleep. Your body is trained over thousands of years to crave food that makes you fat-you'll have to learn to use brains to defeat this natural desire for consumption.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing who makes the biggest improvements and you never know-there could be a John Stone among you.

Great ideas, Nico. I'll try to include some of that information, along with my pictures, later tonight.

Thanks for the suggestions Nico. It will definitely come in handy. I have finally gotten myself off of the "Coke" diet, after other helpful suggestions from AWD_ENVY. Now, water is my best friend. :cool:

I'm going for consistency in my workout sessions, using my elliptical in the morning (20min) and in the evening (at least 30min) during the week. On the weekends, I'll do at least the 20min in the morning. It used to be hard to keep motivated on that machine because in part, it was boring. So, I moved it into the bedroom, much to my wife's rolling eyes. This way, I have to stare at it, and then use it. Also, this way, I can watch the tv while I use it.

On top of that, I will occasionally lift weights before I run on the elliptical. The weight bench has also moved into our bedroom as well. :tu: My best motivation will be my wife because she's threatening to sell the equipment if I don't use it. lol :p

Anyways, good luck to all!

Thanks for the suggestions Nico. It will definitely come in handy. I have finally gotten myself off of the "Coke" diet, after other helpful suggestions from AWD_ENVY. Now, water is my best friend. :cool:

I'm going for consistency in my workout sessions, using my elliptical in the morning (20min) and in the evening (at least 30min) during the week. On the weekends, I'll do at least the 20min in the morning. It used to be hard to keep motivated on that machine because in part, it was boring. So, I moved it into the bedroom, much to my wife's rolling eyes. This way, I have to stare at it, and then use it. Also, this way, I can watch the tv while I use it.

On top of that, I will occasionally lift weights before I run on the elliptical. The weight bench has also moved into our bedroom as well. :tu: My best motivation will be my wife because she's threatening to sell the equipment if I don't use it. lol :p

Anyways, good luck to all!
Carbonated beverages are very detrimental to weight loss. If you drink 12-20 large glasses of water you'll stay hydrated and feel less hungry because your stomach is nearly always full. Plus all those trips to the bathroom keep you on your feet throughout the day. I think it's impossible to overdose on water.

It sounds like you're focused mainly on cardio-that's good given your current condition. But don't underestimate the benefits of weight training for body sculpting and increasing your metabolism. If you build some muscle it will boost your caloric requirements and help to 'tighten up' your body. If I were you I would spend about 70% of my time doing cardio and about 30% working with weights. If you just have some dumbells and a bench you can effectively work biceps, triceps, shoulders, back, chest, and even legs(lunges).

Having the TV available is great for donig cardio. I like to work out late at night sometimes and I'll just get on a machine that's right in front of the TV and zone out on Sportscenter for 30 minutes without even noticing the pain I'm in.

When you do cardio, do you pay attention to your intensity? Have you learned about HIT on these boards yet? If you're doing two cardio workouts a day, I would do one workout using HIT and the other at a steady pace.

good luck

My current plan is as follows for this week get used to my 1800 calorie diet and focus on tweaking it to alot of food in 1800 calories.

After this week is over I plan to start a cardio/pt regime. Im wierd but I like pushups/situps/pullups more then weights.
So i plan on 30 mins of cardio when i get to work and before i leave work.
And i plan to do a pt workout in the mornings m/w/f upperbody and abs
t/th/sat lowerbody and abs.

My first workouts will probably be
m/w/f
4x20 pushups
4x20 situps
4x10 close pushup
4x20 leg levers
4x4 pullups
4x20 atomic situps

t/th/sat
4x20 squats
4x20 l/r situp
4x20 lunges (10 each leg)
4x20 flutter kicks
4x20 calf raises
4x20 decline situps

The reason I am so heavy into pt is i practically live on my Navy ship so its hard to do weights.

I plan to do 30 mins 2x day on the elipitcal and work up to 60 x2 day.
My problem is should i do it on the cardio or fatburn session its a delimna to me if i just wanna burn calories or burn less calories and focus on fat....

Well thats my ultra long plan.

Ive got a hard week of me i go on vaction next week and I know my guinea familys gonna try to feed me to death...

Anywaz
Phil out

BTW, i think you CAN OD on water - ever hear of people who take ecstacy dying from drinking too much water and *flooding* their cells or some crap like that?

Well to start off I will be eating 2000 calories at the 40/30/30 ratio.
1 gram of protein per lb of body weight. Equal amount of carbs, and the remainder to be fats(good one I hope). I have free weights at home, so that is where I lift. My best friends "Big" little brother is my lifting partner. He is a former star fullback for his HS and college teams, so he will push me further than I have ever been before. Today will be our final lifting day for the week (week 3 for us). We lift 3 days a week. Our lifting routine is such that we only do the same workout once a month. On the day I am not lifting I will be doing 30-45 min of HIIT, or golfing. I was taking creatine for the past 3 weeks, but I feel it is having a negative effect on my motivation. This is because I saw a quick weight gain, and my weight has been stead for the past 3 weeks. So I dropped it in the hopes that I will drop a quick few lbs and get back on track. I think I will be posting Pics every other week, as doing it every week won't yield much difference.

When you do cardio, do you pay attention to your intensity? Have you learned about HIT on these boards yet? If you're doing two cardio workouts a day, I would do one workout using HIT and the other at a steady pace.

On my elliptical, I only run with the programs it has on there (4 of them). All of them have the "hills" and "valleys" in them. On top of that, my machine starts out in the middle with resistance. So, because it changes the resistance throughout the workout, is this considered HIT?

:confused:

Well here we go... My first post using this account, and starting a challenge. Here are some photos:

http://www.mtsbranded.com/frontweek1a.JPG
http://www.mtsbranded.com/backweek1a.JPG
http://www.mtsbranded.com/tenseweek1a.JPG

:o

Weight: 211
Height: 6'0"
Age: 18

I updated my site (see my sig for link) to remove the old stuff and start fresh. I will eventually get back into the charting and food plans but I am tight up against work deadlines.

My long term goal: drop 50 lbs. of fat (don't care what the scale says) but I need to get a REAL BMR and body fat measurement before I start quoting BF% numbers. I know I have at least that much on my body right now... if not more. :(

My goal for this challenge: drop approximately 38 lbs. That translates into 2 lbs. per week. My typical cutting phase starts with 4 lbs. per week for the first few weeks then tapers off to 2 and then eventually I'm lucky to get more than a lb. after the second month. This time I'm planning on more cardio so I can get in shape to do a triathlon with my bro-in-law. He is a machine and a good source of inspiration. His light work out days is to run 10 miles and bike for 20. (Of course he is 150 lbs. soaking wet with full body sponge suit on.) But that is my goal and as a result I expect to loose more weight than my last 18 lbs. loss earlier this year and perhaps I can beat my plateau I caught last time.

My interim goals:

1. Get back on a structured measurable diet. I guess at a lot, I don't plan a whole lot, and as a result my diet is hodge-podge good and pseudo-good. I'm going to cut out the cheat meals this time until Christmas too.. that is to be a reward for dropping nearly 40 lbs.

2. Get to the point where my aerobic capacity is good enough to not only finish the triathlon but not finish last. I haven't planned out when the next available event will be, but I'm hoping for it to be this year. If I have to wait until next season, I will be slightly disappointed.

3. Loose 20 lbs. by Nov. 1st. If I meet this goal I am pretty close to be on track for the final goal.

Pictures are below. Wow. It was tough to post those. :d_redface Really puts into perspective how far I have to go.

I'm currently 6'1", 240 pounds. I've been dieting for a couple of months now. I was on for 7 weeks, lost 10 pounds and then hit a plateau. I took a week off to break it, and I'm hoping that temporary weight goes away quickly. My plan is to start out around 2300 calories. I may cut that down to anywhere from 1800-2000 if my progress is still slower than I'd like. My long-term goal is to get down to about 185 by my wedding on 6/25 of next year.

For this challenge, I'm aiming to lose 35 pounds. That would put me about 205 by Christmas and give me enough time to finish up the last 20 pounds.

As far as workout, I'm going to do 6-7 days of cardio for 45-60 minutes. That seems to work much better for me than HIIT. For the next few weeks I'm going to have to do it in the afternoon, but I hope to get back to doing it in the mornings before breakfast. My current lifting routine is similar to John Stone's initial plan, but I plan to work in some Max-OT when I plateau again.

I'm pretty good about getting a 40/40/20 split with my diet and keeping the calories in check. I track everything with fitday. I'm trying to refine the diet further by removing some fruits and other items and replacing them with cottage cheese and foods that are a bit more conducive to my goals.

For this challenge, we should also set a goal to lose a combined amount of weight in addition to our personal goals. How about 125 or 150 pounds lost between us by Dec. 20? Shooting for that goal could help us motivate each other because none of us can lose that much on our own. Just a thought.

Good luck everybody!

I second the motion for a group weight loss goal. My vote is for 100lbs for the 5 of us. 125 including "Almost"

I second the motion for a group weight loss goal. My vote is for 100lbs for the 5 of us. 125 including "Almost"

Sounds good to me, I plan on providing at least 25lbs of that, if not 50lbs! :db:

Mon. Aug. 9th: 1 Week

Start Weight: 230.0
Today's Weight: 225.2

I took a couple sets of measurements and plugged them into mybodycomp. The average was 23% BF. The Tanita is coming back with 29% now so I haven't decided which one to track... I'm leaning towards the measurements.

This week the focus is on getting the diet dialed in. We finally got a chance to do some grocery shopping and there is decent food once again in my fridge. That was half the battle.

Start Weight: 236
Current Weight: 231

I missed just 1 workout session (friday evening) because I was on the road to Michigan for the weekend. I did my best to avoid the food that isn't good for me, but you have to eat sometime. Glad to be back in my controlled enviorment. :cool:

This week, I plan on hitting all my goals, and have a solid workout week. I plan on adding an additional 5 minutes to my evening run on the elliptical so that will make my routine: 20 minutes elliptical HIT (morning) / 25 minutes elliptical HIT (evening). M/W/F before I run, I lift weights for about 15 minutes or so (depends on what I'm actually doing). :bb: :db:

later,

JC

Starting weight: 214
Today's Weight: 216
Yesterday's Weight: 213.6

Not really happy with my eating thus far. :o
Lifting 3 days per week for about an hour to an hour & a half.
Cardio- I want to do Early morning running, and evening running. So far last week I got in 3 or 4 cardio sessions. I want to get this up to at least 7-10 sessions.
I think I am not showing any progress because I am eating my last meal WAY TOO LATE. This I must stop. Using the software DietPower, I think I have a very slow Metabolism :mad: . I must be very careful not to make it go any slower. Two week till my best-friend (bar buddy) gets back from Rehab (Alcoholism :gl: ). So I have two weeks to decide if I am going Dry. I am a construction estimator, and one of my subcontractors died Sat night of a heartattack. He was 40 years old. He was a large man. Even though I am only 26 it still hits close to home.

Starting weight : 242
Current weight : 238

I did pretty well this week, overall. I was around 2300 calories every day, excluding Saturday when I had my cheat meal.

The gym at my housing complex is closed indefinitely, so that's messing with my plans. I have a membership to another gym, but I liked to go to the closer gym to do morning cardio, because my weighlifting gym is much closer to work than home. I have been doing afternoon cardio along with the lifting, but I know that is not ideal. I'm going to have to adjust my schedule if I want to get back to morning cardio.

Lifting went just OK this week. I was a little down in most exercises, but I was also dead tired for some reason. Maybe I was missing the energy boost from the morning cardio, but I was dragging in the afternoons. That will also need some adjustment.

Happy with the 4 pound drop this week, although most of that was temporary weight gained during my off week. Hopefully it will help me break through the 237 plateau that spurred the off-week, though.

Great work so far by everybody.

Grrrrrrr. Started the week off well, but had some minor tooth pain on Monday afternoon. Took an advil and went to bed, didn't think much of it. I woke up at 4am with excruciating pain in my mouth and couldn't sleep anymore. I went to the dentist, and it's what I suspected - wisdom tooth needs to come out. I had it yanked out today, but the doc said 3-5 days of no solid foods.


This is going to be a difficult week, because my diet is going to be more inflexible than usual. I'm trying to focus more on sugar free jello and puddings to keep the calories down, but I've decided that making sure this heals right is more important than rushing back to solid foods to get back to the diet. Who knows, I could even drop a few pounds because eating is so painful and frustrating. I'm also going to try to keep some exercise going this week, but some of the painkillers I'm taking knock me out, so I'll just have to play that by ear as well.

Hope everybody else is having a better week than me. :tucool:

BTW, i think you CAN OD on water - ever hear of people who take ecstacy dying from drinking too much water and *flooding* their cells or some crap like that?
You certainly can OD water. If you drink too much, your blood stream will contain a higher concentration of water (well, your blood is mainly water anyway, but higher still), which will (due to osmosis) push more water into your cells, and cause minerals to be pushed out. This is in no way healthy for you.

I must say that I'm looking forward to seeing the results of this challenge.

Start Weight: 230.0
Today's Weight: 228.4

There are some extenuating circumstances for the weight gain: I partied way too hard this weekend. I am bloated to hell and I need some quality time with my throne here at work. I'm certain after a day or two more, my weight will quickly drop back to my pre-weekend level. I was hoping to be the same weight but it wasn't to be... bummer. :D

Starting weight: 214.0
Last week Weight: 216.0
Today's Weight: 216.2
Total change: +2.2

This week will be a killer. Last week was a week off due to a friend being back from California, just before he goes off to Iraq.

Starting Weight: 236
Current Weight: 231.5

I seem to be floating around this mark. Since I have been stuck around ~231, I have stepped up my workouts on the elliptical to 30 min a piece. 1 morning / 1 evening. Before the evening WO I also lift weights for about 20 mins. I'm hoping that I can shake this weight plateu early. I am already seeing slight signs of change in my body. My huge gut is smaller, arms are starting to thin away, legs are showing more definition, etc. The biggest notice that I've seen so far is that I can fit into pants that are over two years old for me, which is 1 pants size smaller than what I was wearing. :tu:

So, I'm siked! :db:

Starting weight : 242
Last week's weight : 238
This week's weight : 237
Total change : -4

As I mentioned earlier, I had a wisdom tooth out this past week and had to put the workout and diet on hold for the most part. I think I did a good job of keeping the calories in check, and the weight more or less seems to bear that out. I'm looking forward to getting back into my workouts this week, though.

I'm still really tired, and I think it has something to do with the antibiotics. I think I should be ready to push myself this week, though. I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't at my best with the lifting, but I should be able to tough out 45 minutes of cardio each day.

I'm back to the dreaded 237 pound mark, where I was stuck for 2 weeks previously. Let's see if I can break the plateau this time.

I hate to sound lack an ass, but in my opinion you guys are weighing yourselves way too often. Perhaps it's a motivational tool for you, but if you rely on day to day weight changes to tell you about your progress then I think you're going to be misled. Water weight can fluctuate as much as 10 lbs (more for the bigger guys).

Weighing yourself everyday is fine provided you don't put too much stock in it. It's cool to see the gradual trend in the data over several months. But you should be evaluating how much you work out and how well you eat rather than what your apparent 'results' are. Focus on the processes rather than the perceived outcomes. If you took a week off from working out and ate like a pig but saw that you had lost 5 pounds, would you feel like it was a successful week? If so you're misdirecting your focus.

It can be very frustrating to do 1 hour of cardio every day for a week and then weigh yourself only to find you gained 3 pounds. This happens to me all the time so I've just learned to only weigh myself once a month.

A better daily activity would be the photos, like what John Stone did. He may have weighed himself daily as well, but I'm sure he didn't obsess about daily changes in weight as much as the photos. They are the best indicator of change because they are a real representation of our physical characteristics rather than 'MASS' which could contain or lack numerous fluids and digestive biproducts irrelevant to our lean muscle mass.

Nico, I agree, focusing solely on the weight number is a bad thing. It fluctuates wildly for reasons that are impossible to understand.

As you suggested, I weigh myself everyday to track trends, using 3-5 day rolling averages and trendlines. The only reason I post the "this week" number is because others do so. The number that matters to me is my weekly average, and that's the only one that I actually care about.

As long as the trend is going in the right direction and I'm satisfied that I'm doing the right things to get results, I'm happy. If I wake up one day and I'm +3, I really don't give it much thought. I did at first, but I've learned not to put much stock in that.

Nico, I agree, focusing solely on the weight number is a bad thing. It fluctuates wildly for reasons that are impossible to understand.

As you suggested, I weigh myself everyday to track trends, using 3-5 day rolling averages and trendlines. The only reason I post the "this week" number is because others do so. The number that matters to me is my weekly average, and that's the only one that I actually care about.

As long as the trend is going in the right direction and I'm satisfied that I'm doing the right things to get results, I'm happy. If I wake up one day and I'm +3, I really don't give it much thought. I did at first, but I've learned not to put much stock in that.

You've got the right attitude. What is concerning is when people put in work, see that they didn't lose weight or [gasp!] gained weight, and then get discouraged and skip the workout. "Screw this exercising, it doesn't do anything, I'll try just starving myself". This leads to a few days of eating nothing then they resume pigging out and laying around all day. Obesity is generally made more difficult to overdcome because it can be the result of some sort of cycle of behavior where the attempts to lose weight actually backfire and cause more weight gain.

The question to all of us is: What will motivate us to change our habits over the months and years to follow? This challenge should provide a good motivation to all of you for the next several months.

I weigh myself everyday and I trend it. I also watch my diet (not to the Nth degree) but I am still feeling out how closely I need to stick to the calculated intakes. I'm not overly upset or discouraged by my recent drinking binge which delayed my progress. I can see my progress in the mirror and in my pants and that to me is the more important measure of success.

From my prespective, your opinion is noted but ignored. I don't post here to report my daily weight or my weekly photos (which I AM taking). I am just posting my weight weekly as a "Hey, I'm still here, this is where I am at and I hope you're all still plugging away."

I agree with Chris_Otto. We only post our weight weekly. I myself weigh-in every morning and log it into DietPower & a speadsheet of my own. DietPower for the metabolism calculations on goals. My spreadsheet for the weekly ave for treading. As for the daily pics I think they are a waste. Even weekly their won't be much change, so I do Bi-weekly.

Well ,
I just got back from my one week vacation in houston and have started to turn on the diet and exercise. I do not really count calories as much as i eliminate certian things I used to eat. This has worked really well for me in the past and is working well now. So far as my pt goes I have a 5.5 mile ride to work and 5.5 mile ride home. While at work I lift heavy ammo all day long and then either at 0430 I pt/run or at 1700+ i pt/run.
So far all is good and I am still at my 213 lbs area that I began with.

-Phil

Starting weight : 242
Last week's weight : 237
This week's weight : 234
Total change : -8

Good week for me in both the execution of my plan and the scale results. Good trend in weight this whole week, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I have finally broken the 237 plateau for good.

I upped my cardio from 45 to 60 minutes and I think it has definitely helped. Combined with some extremely strenous basketball last week, I probably burned more calories last week than at any point in the diet. I also stuck to my diet plan very well.


Only downside was that for the second consecutive week, my lifting was a little mediocre. I'm suspecting it has something to do with the fact that I'm still not doing morning cardio again (fix the weightroom already! :mad: ). That makes me tend to rush a bit because afternoon lifting combined with increased cardio makes me get home later than I'd like.

Overall, a very good week. I want to try to work even harder this week to make sure 237 is behind me for good.

Starting: 230.0
Today: 223.4

A decent week. The schedule is working against me leading up to Labor Day weekend (many projects to wrap up to have visitors) so I don't think I'll get a workout in everyday as I have in the past. The change so far is noticable and my overall aerobic capacity seems like it has doubled (probably not but it seems like it).

Starting weight : 242
Last week's weight : 234
This week's weight : 234
Total change : -8

Mediocre effort, mediocre result this week. I missed my Tuesday workout because I left my clothes at home. Wanted to play some basketball to make up for it but got caught up in other things and ended up doing nothing. Also missed Friday due to something else that came up. Wednesday basketball was partially rained out and not nearly the workout I'm used to.

Not surprising then that the scale didn't move much. I was at 233 most of the week, though.

I will be more consistent this week. If the scale continues to stall, I'm going to have to readjust my schedule to move my cardio back to the morning.

How's everybody else doing?

Scale hasn't moved at all. I did a bf% check and it says I am down to 20% which would be a fat loss of 6 lbs and a mass gain of 6 lbs. I don't know. Either way I will update the photos for the 1 month post.

I'm sorta hosed on getting workouts last week and this week due to a ton of family coming to visit this weekend. (800000 projects to finish in a short amount of time -- at least they're getting done though :D )

I'm down to 221 from 230. Lowest was 220.4 which I haven't seen since I graduated from college 6 years ago. The diet is doing the work for me this week as I've managed to fit in two maybe three workouts.... I look forward to two weeks from now when life is back to normal.

Hope everybody else is doing well. Everybody still onboard?

Sadly, I had a very weak couple of weeks. I live in south Florida, so I've been dodging hurricanes nonstop. I lost power for a couple of days, then the grocery store had almost nothing in-stock due to the outages. My gym was closed because there was no power, and when it was open I was busy helping people with shutters.

But I finally was able to buy what I need from the grocery store last night and I'm off and running again. My weight didn't go up as much as I feared (up to 234), but it was a wasted opportunity to drop further. I need to be really strict for these next few weeks to get back on track.

Hope to have good results to report next time.

Im down to 200 lbs but ive been underway so I cant post pics cause im away from home. Ive been running 13-15 miles a week. Tons of calenstenichs and lots of bike/elipitical! Nothing but time floatin in the ocean :). Im sticking To a STRICT 1800 calorie diet. I love the feel from running I can actually feel my body burning fat during day its awesome. Anywaz back to work.
-Phil