2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

[cjonesfan921]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Yeah, yesterday I wasn't expecting a good workout after 6-7 hours of shoveling the day before...however, I had a phenomenal workout. It was definitely intense and max reps.

[War Eagle!]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Hit my goal of making 12 workouts for the month yesterday. I'll probably be back in the gym today.

Not losing much weight but my body is definitely tightening up. Looking forward to my results at the end of February.

[Feared]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Hit my goal of making 12 workouts for the month yesterday. I'll probably be back in the gym today.

Not losing much weight but my body is definitely tightening up. Looking forward to my results at the end of February.

Usually when you first start a work out regimen you maintain or even go up a few pounds, just because you're body is priming the muscles by filling them up with water, and glycogen so sometimes you go up a few pounds, before the weight starts dropping.

Keep going though and you'll see the weight go down.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

I've been maintaining my routine of lifting sessions 3-4 times a week for a year now (with incremental improvements over that time obviously), and putting in about 40K/week running with the occasional distance run replaced by sprinting. I'm toughing it out through some cold days where I get back from a run and the beard is iced up.

Lost 45 lbs with the routine and a calorie deficit tracked with myfitnesspal. between March and July. I've maintained the weight loss, and am now working to get back up about 5lbs. I'm pretty settled into the routine and I take a week off here and there when my body tells me it needs a break or if I get a cold.

It's amazing how much better I look and feel—although on the opposite end it's amazing how terrible I feel if I don't get the right quantity and quality of nourishment. That's one of the odd things about getting quite fit at 30 versus when I played sports as a younger person. The body was pretty autonomous and impervious to under-nourishment or over-nourishment back then, but now I really need to work to maintain lean mass with the amount of cardio I do. I like the overall physique the program produces though so I'm willing to eat for it.

[Matt10]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

^You rock, man - that's awesome. Congrats on the consistency and reaching that point!

As for me, well I'm staying on point with the high carb/low carb switch each day, and it's super easy. My weakness has been sugar lately, in particular Peanut M&M's, but I have to accept the progress that exploits my weakness, and not get down on myself for it. Fear of failure turns into apathy for me, and then I just go crazy stupid.

All that said, I am very excited on starting the DDPYogaNow (DDP Yoga stream subscription version) program. Did my first workout tonight and loved it. I think this is more validation for me, and will allow me to keep on track as the workouts are intense, but not in the way of jogging/sprinting or lifting weights. I did all that when I was younger, but now it's about getting more limber and lean as I'll be 31 this year. Looking forward to this!

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

1 month down. How is everybody faring?

I think I've plateaued as far as weight goes without a drastic change to my workout routine or making major changes in my diet. I eat essentially what I want to eat, but still try to be health conscious especially since I'm nearing 30 and its harder to get that stomach flab off. Still during these winter months I can't complain too much as it seems like Summer months leads to better meals and leftovers.

My toning is coming along better, however. Clothes fit comfortably and loosely in some instances.

Some days motivation isn't there, but I try to power through anyway. Sometimes its nice to have a rest day and get back to it hard the next day. We'll see how tax season unfolds as its still early, but I'm hoping I can continue to keep my routine up. Last year I pretty much abandoned it for 2-3 months.

I've been contemplating that once warm weather rolls back in to try and mix things up by doing P90x after a round of Insanity. Just for something different and new to keep my body from getting too conditioned to the Insanity workouts.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

1 month down. How is everybody faring?

I think I've plateaued as far as weight goes without a drastic change to my workout routine or making major changes in my diet. I eat essentially what I want to eat, but still try to be health conscious especially since I'm nearing 30 and its harder to get that stomach flab off. Still during these winter months I can't complain too much as it seems like Summer months leads to better meals and leftovers.

My toning is coming along better, however. Clothes fit comfortably and loosely in some instances.

Some days motivation isn't there, but I try to power through anyway. Sometimes its nice to have a rest day and get back to it hard the next day. We'll see how tax season unfolds as its still early, but I'm hoping I can continue to keep my routine up. Last year I pretty much abandoned it for 2-3 months.

I've been contemplating that once warm weather rolls back in to try and mix things up by doing P90x after a round of Insanity. Just for something different and new to keep my body from getting too conditioned to the Insanity workouts.

So far I've only skipped 1 day of doing P90X2 which I made up a couple days later during the "rest week". I started phase 2 yesterday and my chest and back and noticeably stronger. First day of it all I could barely do a couple "medicine ball push ups". Yesterday I pumped out 8 while my feet were elevated on a chair.

The one thing I've been horrible about was my pledge to get up and stretch every hour. Working towards doing a 20 minute yoga routine each morning also. In addition to going on a mile mid-day walk every day. Failing on most of those.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Isolates are fine if you want to switch to a more "pure" Protein meaning subtract a lot of the extra Fats, and Carbs most traditional Whey Powders have.

The only thing is I find they get even pricier so I just stick with Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey.

Stuck with what I use, and it even went on sale for what came out to be about $25 a bucket last week!

[Fresh Tendrils]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

So far I've only skipped 1 day of doing P90X2 which I made up a couple days later during the "rest week". I started phase 2 yesterday and my chest and back and noticeably stronger. First day of it all I could barely do a couple "medicine ball push ups". Yesterday I pumped out 8 while my feet were elevated on a chair.

The one thing I've been horrible about was my pledge to get up and stretch every hour. Working towards doing a 20 minute yoga routine each morning also. In addition to going on a mile mid-day walk every day. Failing on most of those.

I need a find a way to be more active during the work day, too.

[DJ]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

20 inches of snow in Colorado Springs since Sunday. I've shoveled 5 times, averaging 45 minutes per session. I got in a couple of rides on my indoor trainer afterwards, since I was already a sweaty mess.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

^You rock, man - that's awesome. Congrats on the consistency and reaching that point!

As for me, well I'm staying on point with the high carb/low carb switch each day, and it's super easy. My weakness has been sugar lately, in particular Peanut M&M's, but I have to accept the progress that exploits my weakness, and not get down on myself for it. Fear of failure turns into apathy for me, and then I just go crazy stupid.

All that said, I am very excited on starting the DDPYogaNow (DDP Yoga stream subscription version) program. Did my first workout tonight and loved it. I think this is more validation for me, and will allow me to keep on track as the workouts are intense, but not in the way of jogging/sprinting or lifting weights. I did all that when I was younger, but now it's about getting more limber and lean as I'll be 31 this year. Looking forward to this!

The hardest thing about getting into really good shape for me is the hunger now. It's a different hunger than when I was in a sedentary lifestyle, and the threshold for absolutely destroying all the food is a lot higher. Like you, my weakness is sugar now. Which is weird, as I was never a sweet-toothed person. My fear of failure was altered away from the past pattern of apathy when I actually stuck with it and my body started looking amazing. Then the fear of failure becomes an anxiety over losing how good you look. It's kind of maddening too.

My appetite is constant, and my ability to put away an enormous amount of food has increased substantially since this process started. So yeah, managing that is my greatest challenge. Never would have thought the actual working out would be the least difficult to keep consistent with.

I should really incorporate a yoga program. I stretch, but my body gets pretty stiff and beaten up. Big difference in recovery doing all this at 30 than when I played sports and worked out when I was younger. There are definitely mornings late in a strong workout week where I feel like mush slapped on a skeleton.

[NYJets]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Started a cut last week, I'd like to get my bf% back into single digits. Trying to do it slowly and keep as much muscle as possible, goal is to lose .5-1 pound per week. Weighed in this morning and I lost 1 pound so hopefully that means I'm on track calorie wise.

Lost 2.5 pounds in week 2, and 1.5 pounds in week 3 which is faster than I'd like. Could just be water weight, but I'm going to add a couple hundred calories per day this week and see what happens. Started my cut way before the summer to give me plenty of time to do it right. Last time I did a cut I thought I lost way too much muscle.

[pimpinpidgeon8]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

Lost 2.5 pounds in week 2, and 1.5 pounds in week 3 which is faster than I'd like. Could just be water weight, but I'm going to add a couple hundred calories per day this week and see what happens. Started my cut way before the summer to give me plenty of time to do it right. Last time I did a cut I thought I lost way too much muscle.

I'm far from a lifting guru, but I currently weigh 160 lbs and am 5'5. How exactly should I determine my calorie intake to lose weight? I'm actually rather scrawny other than my beer belly. I want to cut down my beer belly and tone up... Appreciate any advice and a possible starting point. Thanks in advance.

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

I'm far from a lifting guru, but I currently weigh 160 lbs and am 5'5. How exactly should I determine my calorie intake to lose weight? I'm actually rather scrawny other than my beer belly. I want to cut down my beer belly and tone up... Appreciate any advice and a possible starting point. Thanks in advance.

Get the myfitnesspal app, and a food scale if you can, and log your exercise, and food religiously and honestly. You'd probably do fine on around 1500-1700 net calories/day to start (closer to 1500 net the better). You'll lose muscle as well, but it's easiest to get lean if you cut first while maintaining some sort of workout regimen.

[NDAlum]

Re: 2016 FITNESS CHALLENGE

So this seems like the right spot to share...

After a workout at my office I'm in the locker room and two younger guys come in after they lift. I don't think they saw me and were talking about physiques.

One guy throws my name out there and how I'm bigger or whatnot and the other one is like "well he's good from the chest up but he has too much fat around his waist".

LOL

That's a 100% accurate statement so I'm not even mad. I got down to 222 for my wedding and I'm now up around 240. There's a decent mix of muscle/fat gained so not all of it was horrible weight that I put on. If I cut until the end of March I'm sure I can be in the 220-225 zone and I'll tell that kid how he motivated me to lose the fat in that area.