A Fitness Thread

So hating on my current physique as I usually do around this time of year I have decided to start doing the whole using your body for something other than food storage.

I have joined a gym with a personal training session once a week.
Started logging all my food again (Love the MyFitnessPal application for this btw, probably the best out there - available on the web and has mobile apps too).
Also I have started a blog (kept private at this stage) with progress shots for my body so I can see the changes, will post it up if I get good results including a my food diaries.

Admittedly I have started a lot earlier, i've already lost 8kg just through diet changes... I started at 89.5kg - the heaviest I have ever been in my life.

I am currently at 81.4Kg and 20.9% body fat.

My goal weight is 75kg and my goal body fat is somewhere under 14%.
My other goal is to complete the Colville Connection (http://www.colvilleconnection.co.nz/) next year.



Anyone else doing stuff to get in shape, that can share experiences and tips with me ? Yaksha ?

I have just entered my first bodybuilding contest, and am seeing re-gearing for the next one from next Tuesday.

Although I have had to do the weight loss thing before, I was 115kg 3 years ago, and lost 37kgs for my wedding.

One thing I would say, is in the gym, lift heavy (but safe and with good form), you don't want to lose muscle as well as fat because this will lower your metabolic rate and will make keeping the weight off harder.

Depends what sort of body you want though doesnt it Peroxide? Doesnt doing heavy weights mean you build big bulky muscles and lighter/more reps mean definition?

^^ Genuine questions since I havent stepped foot in a gym for 20 years and have no intention of doing so as I dont want or see thne need for building muscle. Ive gone from 84kgs to 74 in a year or so by pretty much giving up drinking,. diet changes and swimming 5 days a week. Id much much rather have a swimminers build than a body builders one, but thats just me

Was going to mention this to you Yak, if you have easy access to fresh fruit where you are you should invest in a juicer. I got one for about $250 and it is awesome, I make a vegetable/fruit drink every morning. 1000% times better for you than an energy drink

For every pound of muscle you can eat an extra so many calories iirc !

Not necessarily the growth would be spurred on more by the calorie intake, and if you are dieting then you are not going to be putting on much muscle at all.



I wouldn't recommend this for someone looking to lose weight to be honest. Delicious, full of vitamins, but the energy intake is huge, you are getting all of the sugars from the fruit and little of the fibre. Plus the amount of fruit it takes to make the drink, what 5-6 pieces at least? Would you eat 5-6 pieces of fruit in one sitting as easy as you drink this drink?

I lift heavier weights than all of the body builders in my gym. I'm half their size. It's all about the food, as Peroxide pointed out.

resist, general weight loss is very simple - your calorie burn should be greater of that of intake. Reduce meal sizes, increase amount of activities and you will see the results.

Now, a fitness goal needs a different approach. So if you're looking at doing that event you stated in op, then you must concentrate on getting strong in those particular areas - bike and run. Aim to start running as soon as possible (gradual progression) and riding the bike. Do some weights that would improve your strength in legs and arms, concentrate on core strength and keeping flexible. So maybe think about going to yoga or/and pilates classes to achieve that.

I'm bloody 99Kg at the moment.. want to get back well under 90. Started doing proper cycling now, got the Taupo 160K in two weeks then Telstra Clear Cycle Challenge 110K on Dec 11th. Will probably enter the Taranaki 148K race and SRAM Tour De Ranges in Jan to keep things ticking over. Need to focus on what i put in my body though far too much unhealthy food!

get into things gradually, don't overdo it to begin with - especially on aerobic fitness side of things.

How you know you are in the wrong thread: "5-6 pieces at least" was instantly translated in my head to include "of KFC"

Great advice Wipeout.



So true, I love this stuff, training for strength, plyometric power, size; different goals all taking different approaches.

Can feel a little silly when you are at the end of a hard workout and curling a smallish dumbbell to failure, and there is some 80kg 5ft tall Rugby back benching near double his body weight next to you.

Thanks for the tips man...

I started my first run today, fuck it was brutal (using the couch to 25k as a guide and it seems to be great).

I am already up to 34km on my bike pretty comfortably. I am increasing the ride distance by 6-8km a week for my main ride and adding 10% onto my small training rides (of which I do 2 a week).

So I am currently running 3 days, cycling 3 days and hitting the gym 3 days, with a rest day, however, if I am sore I am taking a second rest day as I don't want to push myself too hard.

My schedule looks like this atm:

Day 1 -> Run 30mins (am), training ride (pm)
Day 2 -> Gym w/ low intensity cardio for fat burning.
Day 3-> Run 30mins (am)
Day 4-> Training Ride (am), Gym (PM)
Day 5-> Rest
Day 6-> Main Ride (alternating depending on weather between am and pm)
Day 7-> Run 30mins (am), Gym (PM)

If I need a rest day for any reason I just push my schedule back by 1 day.

So I've got my first day of bootcamp tomorrow.

Somehow being a supportive boyfriend turned into me going to bootcamp with my GF... not entirely sure how it happended, but it's really gonna cut into my traditional tuesday night and thursday night plans of eating burgers.

If you want to get fit fast you should buy one of those zumba DVD sets. Job done.

Resist...

Since you're up north and must be fairly close to water (still can't believe I haven't been to the McCarthy bach!), have you considered adding swimming to the mix and maybe aiming for a triathlon next year? Aside from the obvious benefits of additional training, the caloric deficit in cold water is huge - you'll smash through the calories.

Also, don't forget with your eating to allow yourself to cheat with your favourites, but make sure they're scheduled. Important for hormones, insulin and your mental health.



gc.

yeah man I have 1 meal a week where I cane it...

hrm, I should start swimming again... haven't in ages !

Down to 79.1 kg ( 2.3kg lost in 3 weeks )
Body Fat % = 18.3

I look about 500000x better as well. IMO

Good stuff mate!

I'm tinkering around dropping below 70kg. Hah!



gc.

That's awesome Resist, keep it up.

I've just started doing Cardio in the mornings before work rather than after the weights session in the afternoon.

So far it's been great, getting up only a little bit earlier, straight out the house, miss most of the traffic and feel more lively for the rest of the day

So I have started work doing manual labour as well.

Brutal, run a massive calorie deficit most days, need to eat crap in the evenings just to have enough energy to stay awake past 6pm

Don't eat the crap mate! Resist!



gc.

heh, running a negative calorie intake if I dont... start losing muscle mass = not good

If you're trying to maintain muscle mass it's certainly not just about calories - there's no reason to eat bad food, especially if you're wanting to improve your body.



gc.

To give you an idea, I burn around 4800 calories a day doing my work (according to my personal trainer) atm anyway as I am basically lifting, carrying and digging fenceposts in.

I do eat high protein... But I also don't want to eat a whole chicken

Eating shit food is such a trap for people in physical work though, you think you burn it all off, but the reality is that when you eat lots of shit food you'll never have the body you want - no matter how many calories you burn.



gc.

Heh, when I say some crap dude, I mean I eat a small amount of lollies (we are talking 8-12 fruit jube style things) I just don't feel guilty about it

Also I am sticking pretty close to my RNC diet from a year or 2 ago

Can't find the link for it but about 6 months ago I read about a decade long study where they were trying to work out the ratio on your overall wellness of food vs exercise.

Their conclusion was it's about 2/3 food and 1/3 lifestyle meaning as far as they can tell you can't out-exercise poor eating habits.

just want to say .. good job brother.... Thanks for sharing it.

free web templates
http://webtemplatesfree.org/

Online Calculator
http://onlinecalculator.biz/

Nice work resist

80% Food/20% Exercise (usually referred to as the 80/20 rule)

My food habits are the only reason I don't have buns of steel and abs you could slice cheese on.

Damn you Cadbury!

Not to be too pedantic, but that is not an instance of "the" 80/20 rule.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle



gc.

Weak K, weak...

Knew there would be someone who would call me out on this pedantically !

Not really that pedantic on reflection. It's a flagrant misuse of the term mate!



gc.

I find it interesting that food and exercise go hand in hand (and maybe warm weather). What I mean by that is that crap food becomes really unappealing when you start exercising. To me anyway. Which makes life easier.

I was quoting my fitness trainer and my nutritionist who called it the 80/20 rule of fitness (not specifically the 80/20 rule you homo)

It's ok, Santa is getting me abs for Christmas I could see them 3 weeks ago ffs.

Going from competition to 4 weeks with no eating plan or anyone to report to hurt me. Can still still a bit of them - when tensed - in the right light...

FML.

Need them back by January. Had a week of hour long cardio sessions in the morning which will hopefully be helping.

PS: Can Santa bring me some too?

I can't go on enough about how much food makes a difference. As soon as I started on my nutrition plan the results really started. Have been exercising a lot, and for a while, so my strength and fitness is good but just wasn't really dropping the weight. When I actually started focusing on food, I started dropping about a kilo a week. Just have to stay strict coming into the excessive eating & drinking season :/

Hahahahahahaha



gc.

I'm down to 77.6kg now and 17.5% BF !

Only 2.6kg and 3.5% bf to go ! :>

Congrats mate - you must have lost lots even since the last time I saw you not so long ago??



gc.

pics plz

I am not sure the machine I am using to work out my body fat is correct. Either that or I carry it all in one place

Also might go to 70ish kg, which is where I was post-crohn's op 2 years ago

Tragic will post at the end when I am reasonably happy with where I am :>

Sweet
I have been taking progress pics but so far I haven't put any up.

I get to find out what my bodyfat % is today for the first time in about a year. I'm hoping it's no higher than 15% because I've decided to try working on building muscle over just losing fat. That mostly means some more calories because my workout kind of works for either scenario I think......

Been an interesting 3 weeks or so for me with exercise and nutrition. After returning from holiday I was pretty unhealthy and out of shape, without being overweight (I figure I had just lost muscle mass and replaced it with delightful fat). Feeling slightly unmotivated for the gym I decided to adopt a nutrition plan known as the 'slow carb diet', straight out of the Timothy Ferris book "The Four Hour Body".

The diet is very simple in principle, but obviously with any healthy living, the social pressures can be hard.

- NO white carbs or anything that can be white of any kind... No grain products (incl rice), and no potatoes
- no dairy... get used to drinking black coffee
- loads and loads and loads of fresh vegetables
- have a portion of legumes with every meal to bolster calorie and carbohydrate intake (lentils, beans etc... canned is totally fine)
- MUST eat protein with every meal... get used to eating a lot of eggs, especially at breakfast time
- I eat about 4 proper sized meals a day. No need for snacking, and no need for '6 meals a day' bullshit
- no supplemental protein or any supplements at all, I just eat real food******
- no fruit!! Fruit is really good for you in terms of vitamins etc, but they're still high in sugar and kill insulin regulation (and thus weight loss)
- Do not skip breakfast - you must eat within an hour of getting up

THE GOOD
You get to have 1 binge day a week where you can eat all of the bad things you've been wanting all week. The binge day is super important, so don't skip it. It allows hormone regulation and prevents your body from going into a kind of 'shut down' mode where it holds onto excess fat. If you strategically feed yourself some delicious sugar, fat and alcohol (yeeha!) one day a week, your body will be ready to lose weight again for the next 6 days... The only caveat to the binge day is that you should still eat a healthy breakfast (remember no grains), and make sure you get some exercise on this day. I tend to binge from lunch time onwards so usually get a good couple of meals in, and have some sugary snacks as well as a few drinks.

There is a lot more information that he provides in the book about little tips and tricks to accelerate weight loss, which I have mostly deemed to be a little OCD and too much micro management for my own purposes. Especially as it stands the results have already been quite dramatic... I have dropped from 73kg to about 68.5kg (ridiculous) and am now at a point where I have had to alter my lifelong gym habits and have begun a weights routine based around heavy weights, low reps and gaining mass. Usually when I weigh about 72kg-75kg I am not too fussed about 'getting bigger', because I know I'm fairly short and have no desire to look like a chunky, insecure douche... But at 68.5 and still with fat to lose I fear I'll end up around 65kg which is just stupid!

********Also the last thing is that I have added a big post-workout shake on the gym days, based on a similar thing that he also has in the book. Protein, organic peanut butter, whole organic milk, a raw egg and half a banana (that I keep cut up and frozen). This is to help boost my calories and protein as I clearly don't need to shed weight at the rate I have been.

Results have been quite crazy really - starting to see legitimate signs of abs since I was about 22. And that's still with having a boozey session once a week, eating chocolate biscuits, KFC, McDonalds, cheese, pies, cupcakes etc... (all on binge day of course). I have also learnt that this is a fairly manageable lifestyle for me and will be something I stick to as much as possible. It also helps that it is a lot cheaper than buying shitty food all the time.

Assuming I can put on 3-5kg of muscle in the coming months, I will EASILY be in the best shape of my life.



gc.

hows that regime going smf?

Oh - I have sworn off all health things over Xmas and NYE. I could never be that obsessed.

I'll be back in training and eating well from the 9th. Doing Cure Kids Charity Adventure Race in April, as well as a half marathon so will be mixing things up. Struggle to see how I will keep any weight on, but not too fussed about that.



gc.

How did this go resist?

http://www.biggie.co.nz/discussion/taking_bets_against_me

I got to 48 days before I ruined my lateral ligament. Having a wedding in the middle sucked too

you have the worst luck resist.

Bump :>

Well I did one of the biggest training days I've done in a while today, least since I got concussed 2 years ago. 4km in pool this morning, then breakfast, then 3 hours on the bike (was really struggling at the end on the hills after a longish hard run yesterday), then a 30 min run tonight. Once I start cracking 5 hours in one day I will know I am back on track.

I've run for an hour each day this week since Saturday.. .. that's about it. My thighs are already getting rugby player bulky again.. but oh well..

Psychological mate, your legs cannot build muscle from running a few days they're probably just a bit tight from the change.

legs will not get bigger from running...one hour of running each day is quite a bit! well done.

Haven't trained for maybe 4 months. Still doing an occasional run and a yoga class every 1-2 weeks .... really, it's not enough to even maintain fitness. Rocking under 65kg still ... lost heaps of muscle, so physique is OK but lost a lot of shape/tone ... kinda not too bothered as it's winter

I'm so over girls thinking they look 'bulky' or 'muscley'.

I've seen hardcore Crossfit and Ludus Magnus girls that can smash 50+ squats and 50+ assisted chins in one session and still don't look bulky. RUNNING is about the least likely exercise you could possibly do to look bulky. Even a lot of these fitness model type women do not look 'bulky' in their day to day life... sure, they look cut to pieces up on stage but that's after careful dehydration, tanning and all manner of craziness to get comp-ready and it is not a 'normal' shape even for them.

And the worst is this other line "everyone is different" - no they are not. Sure, in the 5-10 percentile there are marked differences in shape and genetic makeup, but overwhelmingly the principles are the same for every person. You can't build muscle without resistance & protein. You can't lose fat without an appropriate change in food intake. These things do not change, ever. Regardless of gender, race or state of mind.

Yay!



gc.

Best advice I always give is just get in and give it a shot.
Experimentation is key to find what works, as every persons body responds differently to food and exercise.
Take everything anyone ever says with a grain of salt, and don't always rely on your scales. Your mirror is all you need (and a set of callipers if you are so inclined)
Variation too, and rest.
I can not stress enough the rest part. this is when most people see their best gains.
This doesnt mean you cant train every day, just be smart about how you train, and what you train, as different muscles have different recovery times.
Also, check the combinations of your exercises to ensure you arent stressing supporting muscles on a rest day!
I went on holiday, took 2 weeks off from all exercise, drank a lot of booze, ate rubbish food, and lost 5.7kgs! I think most of his was chest and arm muscle disappearing tho.

PS: take all of this with a grain of salt!

2 key components to cutting up, loosing (or putting on) weight and generaly getting fit are exercise and nutrition in combination. To loose weight/cut up just get the cardio going, cut down on your portion sizes and try avoid food high in sugar/starch/fat in your evening meal. It's amazing how much of a difference a good balanced diet and just running (or swimming) for 30 min 3 days a week will do .... don't even need to hit a gym ... if you're busting that out you'll get results and have a decent platform to then work from.