I want to reset my body. Advice + Ideas?

[Jackw72]

Hi all,

I currently weigh around 15 stone or 92-5kgs and I have always been on the thicker side. My body type has always been Endomorphic but would not class myself as "fat" by a long stretch as I can lift 140k DL, 130 SQ with a few weeks training.

I have been training for 1.5 months now on a 3 day lifting plan with no cardio on an IF diet. It has been relatively successful and I at one stage had dropped down to 14.8 stone (from my original 15.5 stone). That was my first plateau and I had planned that I would simply add the cardio in to get past that cardio.

HOWEVER...

I have always found it easy to put on weight (muscular and otherwise) and it would seem more effective to simply drop weight regardless of what it is (muscle/fat).

So if I wanted to simply drop weight not worry about keeping muscle etc I would like to work out a plan for such a thing with your input.

I am thinking classes like boxercise and circuit training are going to be more effective for weight loss than staying with the lifts, at least it feels that way for me personally. Also, to do a tonne of cardio.

Can I stay with an IF diet? I am currently eating to around 1900-2000 cals and weight isn't really dropping off me, even with a pretty intense lift workout. My standard meal is 5 rashers of bacon, 4 egg scrambled egg + 1 other meat source i.e. beef/chicken which varies from 800-1000 cals with a tonne of protein and very little carbs with high fat. It isn't the leanest diet but it is one I enjoy and have been keeping consistent for a while now.

I am thinking once I drop down to about 12-11 stone and look like a bag of bones, I can retrain my body from there and I imagine it would be easier to shape myself. Easier to see the results etc.

Forgive me if I am being naive and please any advice is welcome and almost necessary. Would be nice to hear from the big dogs on the forum about this one too as this is a very serious change.

[Robert2006]

Originally Posted by Jackw72

My body type has always been Endomorphic but would not class myself as "fat" by a long stretch as I can lift 140k DL, 130 SQ with a few weeks training.

I
I am thinking classes like boxercise and circuit training are going to be more effective for weight loss than staying with the lifts, at least it feels that way for me personally. Also, to do a tonne of cardio.

Fat doesn't mean weak. Fat means excess body fat. But deadlifting 1.5X BW isn't a very high standards.

Losing weight is mainly about your diet. Weightlifting is about keeping your muscle mass. If you want there are ways to make your weightlifting more intense. Rest pause sets will hammer you.

[CharlesDance]

Uhhhh... Why would you EVER want to "Not worry about keeping muscle"... Muscle takes more time to earn/build than anything else, and is the key component in making you look the way you WANT to look. Losing muscle is ALWAYS a bad thing, always. Your primary objective whether it be cutting fat or putting on size, should always be to either build or maintain the muscle you currently have.

[Jackw72]

See I knew people would take this sort of opinion on this thought. Truth is I wouldn't mind losing muscle, I wouldn't mind at all. Call it odd if you wish but I have always weighed more than most and being on the opposite side of the scale wouldn't be such a bad thing for my sports and hobbies.

Even hypothetically a little help would be useful as no one has actually bothered answering any of the questions that I posted just given their wonderful judgemental opinions on how I should live my life?!

Most people I know and have worked out with have all had less than 1.5x bw lifts so to my knowledge it is good for a starting point.

Now anyone who wants to put an argument towards why this could not work and/or advise on how to do it most efficiently would be useful.

[Jaer]

Actually, Charles did answer you in a way: it would not be easier to drop lean and fat mass to reset your body and then build from there. If you "reset" to a low weight and try to bulk back up, there is a good chance you'll add the fat back as well.

You asked for advice, and you got it.

You didn't care for his, so here is mine, but please note, I'm not one of the big dogs around here, so how good the advice is is up for debate.

What you are thinking is not impossible, but I wouldn't think it optimal, either. Nor the easiest way to go about it.

I appreciate where you are coming from, though. I, too, have an easy time adding muscle mass and increasing my lifts. My problem is that I have a hard time doing so without gaining unwanted weight.

As such, I can understand a certain lack of care about losing some muscle mass, but a complete disregard as to the type of mass you are losing seems...reckless. And yes, there are cases in which losing muscle mass is desired, but it doesn't sound like you have that sort of goal in mind.

In my opinion, an IF diet is not going to break down your muscle mass (this from someone who has had some success on both Eat-Stop-Eat and Leangains style IF). You say you have a 1900-2000 cal daily intake, which makes me think you are leangains or warrior diet style. If not, best to look a weekly average since E-S-E will vary your dailies.

You cal intake is not super low. Having experimented on myself, I tend to not lose much if I'm not under 2000 cals as well, but it doesn't sound like you want to drop this to an extreme, like sub 1000 a day.

Doing a form of weighted cardio--which it sounds like is what you want to do--is likely a good option, and I doubt you'll lose a lot of muscle mass doing so. You will likely lose strength, but that's not the same.

It sounds like you are also adding a lot of low intensity cardio--but you didn't mention type. A "ton of cardio" isn't very descriptive.

If you are spending a hour or more doing straight low-intensity cardio every couple days, you should really keep to some heavier lifts for more muscle retention (but not necessarily growth). Keep it intense and heavy--very short rest intervals, compound lift: deadlifts, squats, pull-ups, and bench presses. Maybe keep it to a full body routine 2 days a week. If you are doing very short rests (30-60 seconds), you won't be hitting 1.5x BW deadlifts, I don't think.

The cardio can burn a lot of calories, but the low intensity keeps it a kind of "easy day" to recoup a little.

If you are spending time doing high intensity cardio for short periods (google High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT, and check out weighted complexes), you might want to keep the weights lower and make them faster pace as well. A boxercise or circuit plan would be fine.

In this set up, push the HIIT or complexes really hard, and have the circuit training or boxercise be the "easy day."

Note that you should incorporate one day in which you don't do too much of effort and really get some rest. Also make sure you are getting enough sleep. This sort of intensity could leave you drained, sick, and just feeling like crap, especially if you keep the cals low.

Diet is like 95% of dropping pounds, though; my big, big advise is weigh and track everything you eat and keep adjusting the amounts so that you stay in a good zone for you. Noting how you feel eat day, even what you are craving to eat, can be useful and important information to keep you on track!

Jaer
will reinterate that this might not be optimal, nor is he the best person for advice-giving.

[jmike]

you might need to drop another 100 calories as well as sprinkle in some high intensity interval training - or some type of sport the requires explosive movements.

racquetball is fun and can have you sprinting every 10-15 seconds

basketball is the same way

add something like that and see if you are still progressing -- if you aren't progressing, you might consider cardio as another tool in your arsenal for weight loss.

you should also look at nutrition for weight loss to help you decided which foods in what proportion will help you lose weight.


http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/s...ad.php?t=45975
- My guide to nutrition for weight loss (by marcus)

[Jackw72]

Thanks for your replies. These are more what I am looking for some constructive advice.

I spend my weekends playing Football and American Football both of which (in the positions I play at least) are quite stop and start more sprinting than jogging things. The HIIT I have been adding in the week is 20 mins of cycling on my turbo trainer. Squash /RB is a great sport that I enjoy playing I however have been unfortunate in the fact that I work evenings and everyone else I know works in the day so joining clubs is not applicable until April (when I switch to days, which I imagine will help no end).

I enjoy lifting heavy but it isn't my primary concern, I would much rather be a faster sprinter, to cycle further and to generally be able to handle myself with less effort as you may well understand.

As you mention it does sound extreme and it will be interesting to see how it goes. I am also aware that putting on fat is going to happen and I am hoping I am going to be able to get up to the point where I am a stone off where I am now and stabilise myself there.

Oh man, the day I class circuit training as an easy day is the one where I will be a happy man.

Thanks for your advice! I will keep this change in my journal and hopefully post some interesting and great results in the future!

[CharlesDance]

Sorry if you didn't like my opinion, I just don't really think weight loss with zero discretion will really help you out.

I could be wrong, but I don't see how loss of muscle will improve your athletic ability or making you able to achieve better running times or cycling endurance.

Most all athletes do weight training to aid themselves in their athletics, usually with the intent of building or preserving muscle, whether it be for endurance, or power.

I'm not saying you should train and eat to be some superstar ripped stud, but if you're going to take the time to count your calories, might as well do so in a fashion that will target that weight loss from fat, rather than just trying to lose weight regardless of what it is that's going away. I don't think it will negatively affect what you hope to accomplish at all, and will probably most certainly benefit it. The more lean mass you have, the more calories your body will burn at rest, which goes hand in hand with losing weight/keeping weight off.

I'm not trying to sound like an asshole or anything, it's just my opinion. Do what you like, no one is saying you HAVE to do anything.

[wwwolf]

Doing what you want to do doesn't need to be complicated. Just do a real running workout in addition to what you are doing now.
It doesn't have to be typical internet jog a 5k training, it can be soccer pre-season running, sprint running, whatever. But you need to do it seriously for at least an hour per day, five-six days per week. This is how all footballers, track and field athletes, boxers, wrestlers, etc, build endurance and drop weight. If you are into cycling, check out what John Stone himself has been doing. He's got similar goals.