Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

[Jonesy]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Awesome progress so far CD. 25 lbs down has got to make life easier. I'm pretty much the same size as you 210-215lbs depending on water weight. Just curious what your final 'goal' weight is?

You mentioned sleep which has been a big thing for me. I used to get stressed with work (i manage a company in a very competitive health related field) and was having a hard time getting to sleep at night. So even though i was getting 7-9 hours most nights i still felt half asleep in the mornings but now i only get 5-7 hours per night and feel fresh and alive when i wake up. It's weird how the body works, you would think more sleep = more energy but it doesn't really seem to work like that for me as i'm getting older.

I still have 1 or 2 low carb beers on a friday night but i've pretty much cut out beer as well. All those useless carbs late a night + the bloating etc wasn't doing me any favors. I drink scotch or bourbon and diet coke now. Like you said all the benefits without so much of the negatives.

I've actually just entered a 3 month weight / fat loss contest on bodybuilding.com. It's nothing serious with any great prize or anything but i thought posting there daily plus the weekly group weigh in's (there's 175 people already registered for the contest) should help keep me on track. The contest runs from the 1st of September to the 1st of December. Just in time for summer here in Australia which means lots of shirtless time by the pool.

[Chef Matt]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Awesome progress so far CD. 25 lbs down has got to make life easier. I'm pretty much the same size as you 210-215lbs depending on water weight. Just curious what your final 'goal' weight is?

My ultimate goal is 190 but my goal I set for the year is 200.

You mentioned sleep which has been a big thing for me. I used to get stressed with work (i manage a company in a very competitive health related field) and was having a hard time getting to sleep at night. So even though i was getting 7-9 hours most nights i still felt half asleep in the mornings but now i only get 5-7 hours per night and feel fresh and alive when i wake up. It's weird how the body works, you would think more sleep = more energy but it doesn't really seem to work like that for me as i'm getting older.

Your right, I sleep more soundly and about 5-6 hours a night and feel great but I do admit by the end of the week I have a "crash night" and fall asleep early and get 8-9 and kinda "reset" so to speak.

I've actually just entered a 3 month weight / fat loss contest on bodybuilding.com. It's nothing serious with any great prize or anything but i thought posting there daily plus the weekly group weigh in's (there's 175 people already registered for the contest) should help keep me on track. The contest runs from the 1st of September to the 1st of December. Just in time for summer here in Australia which means lots of shirtless time by the pool.

Good luck with that! We did a biggest loser contest here at work in the beginning of the year and I took 4th. Missed out on any money/winnings.

[Jonesy]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Up at 5am this morning, chugged the sugar free V and into the gym. Back day today:

Dead lifts x 4
DB rows x 4
Lat pulldown x 4
Rest times kept to a minute or less, really got the sweat pouring and the heart pumping.

followed by 40 mins cardio.

I have been listening to Bill Simmons and Ricky Gervais podcasts while i do my cardio. People must think i'm a weirdo running down the road at 5.30am laughing my head off. Ah well it makes the time fly by so who cares.

Food is the same as yesterday but with skinless chicken breast and salad for dinner. I marinated the chicken breast's in red win and garlic marinade and left them in the fridge wrapped up for 24 hours. Should be nice!

I've also added a multi vitamin and some fish oil as well for general health.

[12]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Current stats:

6'5"
255 pounds

Goal weight is 230, then work back up to the 240 range.

I'll keep you all posted on my progress. This is an awesome thread...

[12]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

That cantina taco line sucks. Maybe it was just the one I had, but it tasted awful, and the texture of the tortilla was terrifying.

I actually like them. Sometimes they do taste kind of bland but for the most part I think they're pretty good and three will fill me up. That's only 480 calories. To each their own...

[Jonesy]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Welcome to the thread Apostle! GL with you goal's.

Up at 5am today, chugged my V and onto the treadmill for 10 mins warmup then into the gym.

Today was shoulders:

Front Lateral Raise x 4
Overhead DB press x 4
Side Lateral raise x 4

4 x 50 crunches

Followed by 40 mins cardio.

Food today is the same as the rest of the week (oatmeal +protein b'fast, chicken, veges and brown rice for lunch, protein shake + bannana in the afternoon) except dinner was a home made Caesar salad: Low fat dressing, 1 medium chicken breast, Cos lettuce, tomato, some light grated cheese. Delicious! Friday night tonight here in Australia so i'm going to have a few glasses of wine or a few low carb beers with my wife to relax and watch a movie or two.

My new dumbbells arrived yesterday which will make my workouts easier as i don't have to switch weights on the crappy adjustable ones i have. I got a set of 10kg, 12.5kg, 15kg, 20kg, 25kg.

My ultimate goal is about recomping my body with more muscle but less fat. I don't really care what the scale says, i care what my body fat % is, how my clothes fit, how i look in the mirror and how i look to my wife. This is a permanent lifestyle change for me and a not a diet or crash weightloss program. I plan of getting the fat off and keeping it off while slowly adding muscle with minimum fat gains over a long period (aka the rest of my life).

Motivation is good, kicking *** and hitting new PR's every day just about!

[Jonesy]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Wow this thread is dead.....

Another update: I'm travelling with work at the moment and just finished a killer workout in my hotel room. I took 2 x 15kg (33lb's) dumbbells with me and did a great hour long workout using the weights and anything else i could find in the room. I kept the rest periods very low (30-60 seconds) and was drenched in sweat when i was finished.

I also forgot to pack my protein for my post workout shake so i stopped in at a newsagency today and bought the latest muscle and fitness magazine which had 2 free samples of protein on the cover. I mixed that with some of those tiny milk's they have in the mini bar for coffee and some water and chugged it down post workout.

No excuses, whatever it takes!

[duffman]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Figured i'd jump in here with my story/progress so far to keep the thread going since it's definitely served to give me some motivation reading about your stories. I bought my first house and finally moved out of my parents house (i'm 26 btw) back in mid-May. Since then i dropped from 196 lbs to 169. I'm only 5'7 and was diagnosed with high blood pressure last summer and put on medication, I recently went back to the doctor and was put on a much lower dosage of the meds and i might be able to get off of them completely next time i go back which is in about a month or two.

I should probably note that my mom is italian, so i'm sure some of you guys can relate to what that means (big dinners, lots of pasta/melted cheese/bread/etc., overall just awesome food all the time when i lived at home). Nowadays breakfast is turkey bacon/egg whites or oatmeal, lunch is a wrap with turkey/lettuce/tomato/onion/jalepenos/fat free ranch or horseradish sauce, dinner is chicken/fish/turkey burgers and vegetables and i pretty much cut out pizza/fast food/takeout in general. I eat about 3 servings of fruit during the day as snacks, a post workout protein shake and a pre workout protein bar. I try to stick to that as much as possible, but I definitely have cheat meals more often than i would like and i'm still prone to knocking down waaaaay too many beers every weekend, but all in all i gotta say i'm real happy with my progress so far. Been trying to switch over to drinking vodka with some sugar free low cal juice, but with football season coming up its not gonna be easy haha.

Exercise-wise i tried doing p90, but with all that's going on with getting my first house trying to find 90+ minutes a day to workout just got to be way too hard. So instead about 4 weeks ago i decided to go with a modified p90 workout, basically just cutting their resistance workouts in half (instead of doing an exercise twice, i just max out on each one) and jogging a mile or two on cardio days. Seems to be working real good, i started this plan about 3 weeks ago and in that time i dropped my last 3 pounds (from 172 to 169) and i'm setting personal records every time. I want to get down to about 155 when its all said and done, hopefully by the end of the year but we'll see.

Oh and if anyones looking for a way to prepare canned tuna, i've found that as weird as it sounds, if you throw tuna in a frying pan with ketchup, chopped onions, hot sauce and some seasoning (like garlic powder) and cook it up it comes out great. Almost like a pulled pork type deal which you can throw in a wrap.

[Jonesy]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Great post Duffman and awesome progress so far!

That tuna recipe actually sounds weird but good. I've never tried doing that but i imagine it would taste pretty good and for some weird reason just because it would be hot makes it seem like a more filling / satisfying meal than cold tuna. At least now you have dropped the majority of the weight you can enjoy the occasional cheat + some beers and as long as you keep up the workouts and generally eat healthier you should be able to maintain or even continue to slowly loose weight.

I just got back from a 45 minute cardio session. I'm still travelling with work today so i went out and climbed this large hill / small mountain near the motel. Got the heart rate right up and worked up a nice sweat. All my exercise and healthy eating has rubbed off on my co-worker who is a kinda overweight lady a fair bit older than me (i'm 30 she is a 42 y.o. mother of 4) who joined me on the cardio is trying to eat healthier etc.

[USF11]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Great post Duffman and awesome progress so far!

That tuna recipe actually sounds weird but good. I've never tried doing that but i imagine it would taste pretty good and for some weird reason just because it would be hot makes it seem like a more filling / satisfying meal than cold tuna. At least now you have dropped the majority of the weight you can enjoy the occasional cheat + some beers and as long as you keep up the workouts and generally eat healthier you should be able to maintain or even continue to slowly loose weight.

I just got back from a 45 minute cardio session. I'm still travelling with work today so i went out and climbed this large hill / small mountain near the motel. Got the heart rate right up and worked up a nice sweat. All my exercise and healthy eating has rubbed off on my co-worker who is a kinda overweight lady a fair bit older than me (i'm 30 she is a 42 y.o. mother of 4) who joined me on the cardio is trying to eat healthier etc.

Shes gonna start crushing on you......abort!

[The GIGGAS]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

I'm just going to officially place my losing weight goals in a cryogenic freezer until I get back from Australia next month. Hopefully then, I'll have myself in a better place and one I can use to get into shape.

[mattsb84]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

I'm just going to officially place my losing weight goals in a cryogenic freezer until I get back from Australia next month. Hopefully then, I'll have myself in a better place and one I can use to get into shape.

Work on your diet in the meantime. That's where your gains will be made/lost.

[jeremym480]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Well, I'm back on the weight-loss track starting today. I currently weight around 225 and I would like to get down to 185-190. I'm using an app called calorie tracker on my phone to help me track my progress.

This morning, I woke up an hour early and walked for two miles then had an egg with 3 slices of turkey bacon for breakfast (.40 carbs, 197 calories). About two and a half hours later I had a banana for a snack (26.95 carbs and 105 calories). Then for lunch I went to a Greek and Lebanese restaurant and ordered the Beef Kabobs with a side salad. It came with rice, pita bread and hummus. I passed on the rice but, couldn't resist the bread and hummus. All and all I believe my lunch had about 64 carbs and 831 calories giving me a total of 90.52 carbs and 1133 Calories for the day.

I plan on going to the gym this afternoon after work and will probably have some tilapia with brussels sprouts tonight for dinner. So, I should be around 100 carbs and 1500-1600 calories. I'm not sure if that's good or not so, I plan on going at it pretty hard on the treadmill later.

[duffman]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Thanks Jonesy, how are the early morning workouts treating you so far? I recently started trying to get into doing those as well cause it seems like its the only way to make sure the workouts get done. Still getting used to it myself, some mornings i wake up ready to go and others not so much. I'm actually considering resorting to putting a loud alarm clock out in my living room where i exercise and setting that every morning to make sure i get out of bed. I figure even if i sleep through it, my girlfriend won't and she'll yell at me to get up and turn it off, so either way i'll be out of bed.

[Jonesy]

Re: Weight Loss - Tips & Daily Check-in

Shes gonna start crushing on you......abort!

Lol no thanks! DO NOT WANT.

Thanks Jonesy, how are the early morning workouts treating you so far? I recently started trying to get into doing those as well cause it seems like its the only way to make sure the workouts get done. Still getting used to it myself, some mornings i wake up ready to go and others not so much. I'm actually considering resorting to putting a loud alarm clock out in my living room where i exercise and setting that every morning to make sure i get out of bed. I figure even if i sleep through it, my girlfriend won't and she'll yell at me to get up and turn it off, so either way i'll be out of bed.

The morning workout's have been great. It just gives me a great start to the day and i'm much more likely to stay on track for the rest of the day because i don't want undo the good work i did in the morning. It's getting much easier now I've been doing it for a while and now i find myself waking up earlier without an alarm clock which makes it easier still. The first two weeks are murder though!

That idea about the alarm is a good one. I do something similar and have my mobile (that's cell to you guys ) sitting on the other side of my bedroom so i have to get out of bed to turn it off. I like using my phone because it goes with me everywhere i travel and will still go off if the power goes out etc. No excuses!!!

Like i said in one of my earlier posts i also chug a sugar free energy drink as soon as i get up (i just nail it straight down at room temperature) so there is no way i could go back to sleep even if i wanted to. I also think if your main goal is burn fat working out in a fasted state is the best way to burn directly into your fat stores which is what i'm going for. I want to cut down to 10-12% bodyfat then do a very slow bulk at maintenance or just above to keep adding muscle with minimum fat gain. I'm in no rush and it's a long term approach but i think that's much better and much more sustainable than the yo-yo dieting etc i used to do.

Jeremy good to see you back in the thread! Don't drop those cals to low buddy. Your a big guy and if you go crazy and stick with 1000-1500 cals per day sure you'll lose weight in a hurry (i don't really believe all that 'starvation mode' nonsense etc) but it'll be damn hard to maintain and you'll end up falling off the wagon again. Just my .02.

GL guys!