Embarrassed to post but...

From everything I've read, you won't notice change for several more weeks. I've been going since November, and honestly I don't see much if a difference. However, I've gotten many comments about how much weight I've lost. When we look at ourselves every day, it's hard to notice sometimes. But all we can do is keep going.

 

You're on your way! Congratulations.

Tell us about your training and diet. We all know that food makes the man.

 

I can see some good improvements. This is from personal experience, but you will start to see more of a change after the fourth week and 5th week. Keep it up! There is no reason for anybody to laugh at you now because a lot of us are going through the same thing; there will be no reason for you to be laughed at in maybe a few months!

 

Hi Davey, i'll just throw in my 2 cents in relation to your workouts
if i were you, i'd change a couple of things:
firstly, i would reduce the frequency of your ab workouts. Although they do tend to recover quicker than most muscle groups, i would still not work them more than twice or at most three times per week. Try to give them a really tough workout to promote the maximum growth (it's perfectly possible for your abs to grow during a fat-loss program despite calorie restrictions. Mine do, lol).
As an example, i'd do 6 sets of approx 30 crunches, and when i say crunch, i mean CRUNCH, lol remember that the abdominals work like an accordian, no a hinge, so take the crunches nice and slow and squeeze your abs as tight as possible. I'd say if you can do more than 30 crunches in a set then ur not squeezing hard enough, lol.

In terms of your other weights workouts, the only thing that i would loosely reccommend is a little re-organisation of when certain muscle groups are worked.
I use a 3 day split as you do, but i split as follows:

Chest/Delt/Tri
Back/Bi/Traps
Legs (dont forget those legs! lol I dont know where i'd be without the glorious squat, lol))

I split like this mainly because the muscles in each group are all closely related. For example: when you do bench press for chest, you also work the Delts and triceps. When you work military press for delts, you also work triceps.
The same goes for the second split, exercises for the back like deadlift and pull-ups also work the biceps. The traps also come into play with back exercises like deadlift.

So what your effectively doing is working related muscle groups as hard as possible in a single workout, and then you're giving them a full week to repair. The last thing a muscle wants is to be worked when it's still trying to repair itself (no, i dont talk to my muscles! lol.... They talk to me but i just ignore them, lolol.)

As always, this is just my own opinion that i've gained from my own training. I'll have a look at your nurition in a while and see if i can make any reccomendations.
Keep up the good work, this game is all about consistant dedication. Stick with it and you'll reach your goals in no time!

Greeno

EDIT: i'm afraid i cant make any comments on you HIIT, i havent done any research into the method yet, but am planning to implement it in a few weeks.

 

Damn your fast John, lol, I was just about to recommend droppin the special K for oatmeal, lol.
Cant beat Johns advice in terms of nutrition. I would just add, that if you're having trouble gettin your fat intake up to your plan, then try supplementing with an unsaturated fat, possible sources are:
- Flax seed oil(if you're in the UK, this is very expensive)
- Safflower oil
- High Strength Cod Liver Oil (my favourite! admitadly, it tastes like licking out an old sardine can lol, but it's much cheaper than flax oil in the UK)
- Olive oil (can be used in some of your cooking)

just be careful with the servings

Greeno

 

Hey davey,
if you check out the ingredients and nutritional information you can see that your special K contains added sugar (must likely added to the cereal and the berries). Pure sugar like this is termed a 'simple carbohydrate'. This is beecause it's very simple and quick for your body to digest and send into the blood stream as glucose, and hence will give you a quick boost of energy. This is not ideal, as one of the main foundations of fat-loss is to maintain a constant metabolism, this is why you try to eat more than the normal 3 meals throughout the day. Our bodies dont like too many 'spikes' while they're trying to loose fat.
Oatmeal on the other hand contains no added sugar (depending on brand). I dont eat oatmeal myself so i'm not sure what form the cardohydrates are in. But i'm pretty sure they they're in a more 'complex' form. I'm sure you've heard talk about 'complex carbohydrates' this basically means that it takes your body longer to digest and thus longer to extract the sugar (glucose into the bloodstream). This helps your body to maintain a more constant metabolism.

In terms of your garden burger bun, complex carbs come into play again. White bread is digested quite quickly (and often has added sugar and too much salt among other things). try to go for a wholemeal bun, like granary. Organic breads are also preferable as they tend to have fewer undesirable addatives.

In terms of fat, I havent looked to closely into why 20% is often recommended. But i know that just a teaspoon of my fat supplement (cod liver oil in my case) really takes a chunk out of my appetite for a while, lol. If you feel you need more justification, then a site like bodybuilding.com will have lots of info about our bodies fat requirement.

good luck

Greeno

 

You need fat in your diet because "good" fats can actually prevent heart disease and help you lose weight. Good fats can be found in olive and canola oil, most fish, avocados, and certain nuts (like peanuts). Good fats are polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fats. You still have to limit how much to take, though. But go to low and you can be depriving your body of fat it needs for biological processes.

You do have to make sure to avoid "bad" fats, which are usually the manufactured fats you find in cookies and cakes.

Oatmeal is probably better than something like Special K because it has a lower glycemic index (the regular kind, not the instant one). Since it's less processed, it will take longer to digest and won't spike your insulin.

You can actually find Kashi in Ontario. You have to go to the health food section of the store -- it's not with the regular cereals. I get mine at Fortino's

Hope this helps.