Whats working for me...weightloss wise. (long)

[Fat4Now]

Hey bro's. There are a ton of posts asking how to lose body fat so I thought I would tell my story and what’s working for me. If it helps, great. If it doesn't, oh well it was worth bringing up.

First I'll give a short time line telling how I got to where I am today.

Life prior to July 2001: I played sports all my life (Jr. High, HS and college) and had tons of coaches, trainers and friends who all knew something about working out. I spent the majority of all of those years overweight. Not to the point that I was bed ridden, but never slim or cut. Right after college I was on my own and had a crappy job that paid worse. I had little to eat and took up jogging. I actually lost 65 lbs that summer, but I was still flabby. Two years later I had found those 65 lbs again. Which brings us to.

July 2001: (wt = 275, bf = 32%, ht = 6-0, age 32) I was the heaviest I had ever been in my life. I was depressed most of the time, had low energy levels and a bad attitude. One day while killing time at a Barnes and Noble bookstore I came across a book called Body For Life. I couldn't stop looking at the before and after pictures. They were nothing short of amazing. I saw guy after guy that was in the same "before" shape as I was. I bought the book and read it in three days. A week later I began my BFL journey. The book taught me things, which I had never heard of before. Like eating 6 times a day, protein and carbs and how they work for you and against you. How to plan out the day for working out and eating. I sunk my entire life into living the body for life way. I lived that way for four months, no cheating and only one missed workout in 16 weeks!!

Nov. 2001: (wt = 255, bf = 25%) I had lost 20 lbs and 7% bf but did not come close to the pictures in the BFL book. I was a little upset to say the least. How could I have failed where so many others had succeeded? It was all right there in the book w/ pictures of people who had done it! Damn it, why had I failed? So, in sticking with my past, I stopped working out. This lasted for about four months. I worked out a few times here and there, but I couldn't seem to get the ball rolling again. Plus, my line of thought was.."well if BFL didn't work what the hell am I supposed to do now?"

April 2002: (wt = 262) A friend of mine dragged me to a bodybuilding show. Once again, I saw tons of guys who were in the shape that I wanted to be in. I walked around and talked to a few of the guys, a few of the vendors and my buddy. The spark had been renewed. What I learned at the show was that I already had the groundwork figured out. 6 meals p/day, high protein, low carb (complex). Every person I spoke to said I just had to dial in my diet and workouts and it would all fall into place. I had my doubts.

But, being the know-it-all that I am, I decided that if these guys worked out 4 days a week, I was going to work out 7. On top of that, I was going to do cardio twice a day for 30-45 min each time. I still ate 6 times per day, but had the proteins around 250 and the carbs around 200. For two and a half weeks I busted my ass. I was constantly tired from working out all the time and after that time frame I hadn’t lost a single pound. Talk about depressed. All that work and NOTHING to show for it. I decided that there had to be a better way so I started searching the web. After a few days I stumbled across a message board called Anabolic Review. On this same day, another buddy of mine said he wanted to start working out together, but that he thought I was working out too much. Of course I thought he was full of crap so I thought I would do some research on the AR board. Low and behold he was right. Everyone here said the same thing he did, I was working out too much and my diet still needed to be tweaked.

Since I started working out with a partner and reading AR daily I have made some fantastic steps.

Today: (wt = 243, bf% under 23%, age 33) I now workout 5 days a week (3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off) and do cardio 3x a week. I eat 6 meals a day still, but my carbs are now under 100 a day and none after 4pm. My protein is around 325 avg. and I get it from shakes, eggs, salmon, tuna and fat free cottage cheese. I take a thermo (animal cuts) a multi vitamin, glucosamine & glutamine. I was taking creatine but found that it was doing nothing for me. My shakes are EAS Myoplex’s and with an added scoop of protein from EAS Protein Plus or Optimum Nutrition’s Pro Complex. This puts my shakes at 62g of protein per serving. My first meal of the day is usually 7 egg whites on a low carb burrito wrap or low carb toast. After that it goes…shake, shake, shake, non-fat cottage cheese and finally 7 egg whites. The shakes are a constant but I change around the cheese and eggs for salmon or tuna. Sort of bland at the end of the day, but I’m willing to put up with that considering my results. I’ve been losing about 3 lbs a week for the last three weeks. Another thing I learned on AR was to count my calories to the “T”. I kept track for about two days w/o changing anything. I found that my old diet had me around 2700 calories a day. I have slowly cut that back to about 1900 a day, and again, no carbs after 4pm. I go to bed around 9pm and get up at 6am. I also cut out the “free day” which I picked up from BFL. I had a very bad habit of going way way way over board on my free days. Beer, pizza, doughnuts, pistachios and chocolate were a mainstay. On the new workout program there are no free days. I figured if I am going to reach my goal for once in my life, I have to get serious. I have gone out to dinner (wife’s b-day) once since I started. But I ordered half a portion and only had two beers.

My cardio has also been totally revamped. I found several articles, which talked about high intensity interval training (HIIT). I know do this type of cardio 3x a week. On the street in front of my house I jog for about 5-10 minutes to warm up. Then once I feel good and loose I start my sprints. I sprint as hard and fast as I can for 30 seconds, then I walk or job for 90 seconds. I repeat this until I can hardly breath, walk or even think. This usually means about 5-7 sprints followed by 5 minutes of cool down. The whole workout takes 15-18 minutes mostly depending on how long I take to warm up. I know that 5-7 sprints doesn’t sound like much, but don’t knock it till you try it. It will kick your ass! This type of cardio has been shown to rev up your metabolism for 48 hours. Where as LSD cardio (long slow distance) only burns fat during the actual time of activity, HIIT burns fat well after you have stopped. I liken it to that of spinning a top…spin it nice and slow and for a long time it will spin, but when you stop spinning it, it falls over. If you give it one really really hard spin, it spins for a long time on its own power.

I plan on sticking with this program for as long as I can. If my results start to slow, I’m going to drop the calories a little lower and maybe add another cardio. I have also spoken with my lifting partner and discussed changing the workouts a bit. Not quantity, just changing things around…i.e. days on off, lifts etc etc.

To this point in my life I have never done a cycle of AS. However, I believe that I would like to once I get my bf% down around 12 or so. Wait and see on that.

DISCLAIMER: I am by no means and expert on any of this. It took me a long time to figure out what works for me. I’m still not 100% sure that my recent success will hold out for the long haul. This is just my story thus far. If it sounds like your story, or you have suggestions/questions then by all means let me hear them. PM me or post and I will be happy to talk.

I can’t speak enough about this msg board. I have learned so much in the last few weeks just reading the posts in all the forums. On top of that, I have yet to see anyone get flamed for asking a question or replying to someone else’s question. Every one of the bro’s and sisters on this board has something valuable to add or ask.

Hang in there if your having trouble. If you’re already there, then keep us all informed, it serves as a motivator. At least it does for me. Thanks.

[devland2]

bumb, thanks for sharing

[dern180]

fat4now ...I too know what it is to be over weight and know what you went through. I went from 410 to 180. I wanted to e-mail u but you have it blocked. Congrats on the weight lose.

[JohnnyB]

Good luck bro

[CatGrabber]

good thread....best of luck

[DiMensionX]

Good job man. Sounds similar to myself, what threw me is that I hit a platue on loosing weight, come to find out I was not eating near enough. Go figure. Keep at it and you WILL reach those goals.

DMX

[Fat4Now]

Thanks guys. I mainly posted my story just to share not to search for compliments and encouragement. But, it's always nice to hear.

[metzger66]

One of the most inspiring threads I've read yet!!!

metz