took 3 days off @ the gym, worked out thanksgiving morning though, I’m up a pound, but I bet if I pushed harder this morning, it woulda came out. Felt kinda weak at the gym, nothing serious, but just wasn’t into it. I cycled a bottle of Oxyelite Pro from USP labs and I’m fighting the caffeine headaches coming off it, I’m cycling off of Jack3d as well for pre-workout jam and going to just take the Gold Standard whey isolate from Optimum Nutrition that’s pretty stacked with BCAA’s and EAA’s. Going to switch to Nutrabolics and cycle onto their stuff and see what happens. I really like Isopure Zero Carb but my wallet doesn’t… We’ll see how the Egg based Nutrabolics protein likes my insides.
i dont use sugar. i barly use any creamer either.
Thanks for the ideas thus far.
173lbs Today, been controlling portions, basically didn’t enjoy and devour Thanksgiving at one sitting but enjoyed throughout the weekend…that and double sessions the week prior (long story but its good to kick your own ass once in awhile) and stepped up the runs. Did over indulge in the pie department though.
Also have tweaked my work out schedule a bit now, if I want to be ready by August its one thing, but I could fill and open slot should one arise that interests me anytime after February (90 day “holding pattern” for GED service-members). New contract would have to be signed but so be it. Showing that I’m continually improving will certainly coax more doors open.
I think I’m going to run for a minimum of 30 minutes no matter how I feel, was exhausted today after work but once I was running and cussing a little, it was all good. Just have to vary the pace passed on what I did for the day. If I was moving concrete in wheel barrels for an afternoon might run less than a day where I had to do some sort of trim work.
This has been my “plan”, revised plan is after the “/”, if there is such a thing as to much time at the GYM…yeah I’m doing it, but its a lifestyle I’m going to have to get you used to, uggh.
Sun-Chest-Run / No change
Mon-Long Run / usually a case of the Mondays sits in though and nothing happens so this now going to be “back” day so chest day isn’t as effected, going to work in legs a bit more with back.
Tue-Arms-Run / Will soon be ABS(Core) as the “group” is switching to a new night for arms.
Wed-Abs- Run /Arms Run This one I have to get back on track, spotty attendance lately.
Thursday- Shoulders / No Change
Friday- Booooz / None till New Years, and heck maybe not till my Birthday on the 19th of January.
Saturday-Back / Will probably start working a few hours on Saturdays, but my plan is to make this the long run day (ie mileage gain day)
Thoughts?
I probably ‘just don’t get it’ since I happen to be far from overweight… However, why is it that nobody ever simply eats LESS?
Really looks like a proven way to loose weight if you ask me. I don’t have any real problems stopping eating before I simply can not eat any more.
What is it i’m missing here?
I work chest and back the same day, been doing supersets a lot and seeing big gains, I work core almost every other day, I avoid chest after shoulders… try to give a day after shoulders before I work chest so I don’t hurt one. I work legs in the evening twice a week, usually with abs. So an average week will be M-chest back, T-shoulders/abs, W-arms, TH-legs/abs or chest/back (depends on afternoon schedule) F-shoulders or arms/abs. and continue through the weekend, i usually don’t have to schedule a day off, my schedule will screw a morning up before I take one off. I’ll go two-three weeks w/o a day off sometimes if I’m lucky, 2-3 evening workouts in a 7 day week, usually blast abs and do a reasonably light leg workout. I try to be easy on legs as my hip has been bothersome and trying to get it to stay in line. I turn into a squat junkie if I work legs too hard and my quads and hams get huge quick which turns into a pita trying to get into jeans. I haven’t been doing much cardio lately, I need to change that… taken two weeks off of running, I was doing one or two days of HIIT running for ~20-30 minutes depending on my schedule that day.
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you can eat as much broccoli as you want, you can eat it ALL day if you want. it’s a matter of WHAT goes in… you can eat enough chicken breast and vegetables to fill you up and not do any harm. Eat a huge baked potato and a bowl of pasta for dinner and you’ll end up packing it on.
My 2 cents is people spend way too much time doing cardio. It only gives a temporary boost to the metabolism. Build the muscle and heat up your fat burning furnace! 
As for why don’t people “just eat less”…once you’ve packed a layer of fat on and your muscle cells have shrunk your metabolism is working against you. It’s crucial to build muscle and for that you need protein.
People eat less, often silly low calories and wonder why they can’t lose any fat…it’s because you’re starving the muscle. And on top of that they spend an hour or 2 on the cardio kick which further sacrifices their muscle base.
It’s not rocket science…but it is science. Create a caloric deficit from activities not starving yourself but feed the muscle and IT will burn the fat for you.
I guess my weight loss was fairly simple. I cut out unnecessary carbs (tons of bread, beer, candy, etc…) Eat 5-6 small meals per day, eat breakfast. I was 242 lbs in Aug. 2009 now I’m between 188 and 195 lbs. And… count calories, I stay between 1200-1500/day.
If you weren’t going into the armed forces and just needed to lose weight/body fat i would just say completely cut out cardio. but since you are, and you’re going to need some sort of stamina obv keep it in lol. Although you’re going to see the most positive gains by just weight training.
i had almost a 6 pack during a good part of the summer by just lifting. I cant run because i smoke(kind of) (fml) but even when i was running for like a half hour-45 minutes a day it barely helped at all and was just wasted effort. I was doing HIIT and it fucking killed
And i ate eggs w/ water for breakfast, tacos with low carb shells w/ water for lunch, and small portions of food for dinner for about 6months as well lol. i didnt drink alcohol, i didnt drink pop, anything with sugar, barely any fruit, not much veggies… if i did it was only with dinner. all this is which prob helped the most with weight loss.
hopefully i can get to 200lbs by june, i was about 182ish last year
edit: same diet just adding in another meal of chicken
HOLY SHIT that’s wildly low for that bodyweight. Are you still losing weight or maintaining at that caloric intake? Everybody is different but I’d be amazed if you could sustain at that level.
i havent been eating many calories lately.
i probabaly take in less than that. its hard to get high calories from fish and veggies, or chicken and veggies.
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but im also 80lbs over weight, so my body needs to eat itself.
---------- Post added at 01:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:23 AM ----------
but im also 80lbs over weight, so my body needs to eat itself.
I would say that is one way to do it. But combo that with working out and cardo and it can come off quicker.
I am limiting my intake to around 1,800 calories, but then also burning 800 - 1,000 calories during cardo and then some lifting on top of that.
I have enough muscle mass that my body should be a fat burning machine, it is just turning it back on.
I’m maintaining around 190-195 lbs with 1500ish calories, sometimes i’ll splurge and creep near 2000 calories. I have a pretty non-active lifestyle lol.
i do more of a circut training type workout everytime i go. zero cardio.
i tend to change some of my excersizes after like 6-8 weeks. ive been having good luck thus far.
im sure its not the best thing but i usually go mon, tues, thurs, fri.
it usually consists of 3 sets of each
flat bench
incline or decline bench (i alternate them each time i go)
calf raises
overhead tricept extentions
tricept pulldowns
chest flys
lat pull downs
preacher curls
concentrated curls
roman chair
seated crunches (with extra weight from the pulldown machine)
ab ball crunches
hamstring extentions
quad leg lifts
after going for about a year i went from around 230lbs to 185lbs now
i take no supplements or anything and of course ive also changed the way i eat all together.
im open to constructive criticism.
I get the point of your body needing to “eat itself” but I’m just saying you need to be sure you’re not too low on calories (especially protein) which would sacrifice muscle not fat, and it would hinder fat burning because of muscle scavenging. My 2 cents…calculate your LBM weight and feed that…feed the muscle. If you’re eating under the amount needed to feed your LBM you’re hindering fat burning.
If on the keto diet make sure you’re taking in at least 1gm protein per LB of LBM. Then make up the difference in calories needed via fat.
3,500 calories is = to 1lb of fat (roughly). 2lb per week is the max you can lose in a “healthy” manner. Therefore you need to create a 7,000 calorie deficit per week to lose 2lb per week.
You can create this deficit via exercise and/or eating fewer calories. I’ll argue that you’re better off eating more and upping the activity level so you can still eat enough so as not to starve the muscle. Plus starving yourself is a surefire way to drain your energy and ruin your workouts.
Say you have 150lb LBM, you will need about 2000 calories per day (14,000 per week) to maintain that muscle. (obviously varies depending on your personal basal metabolism)
You need 150gm protein which at 4 calories per = 600 protein calories a day (4,200 per week) to feed the muscle.
If you don’t use activity to burn the 7,000 calories that only leaves you 2,800 weekly calories for fat and carbs. NOT realistic! In fact this is why uber low calorie diets fail…you starve.
The short story is eat more (especially protein) and workout hard including cardio to create your caloric deficits. It will yield better, faster results and you won’t burn yourself out.
Added—
BTW
Fat is 9 calories per gram
Carbs are 4 calories per gram
Protein as mentioned is also 4 calories per gram
So on a keto diet where about 60% of your calories should come from fat you’ll be packing 9 calories per gram of food for the most part. It’s a calorie dense diet requiring HARDCORE dedication to burning off the excess calories with activity.
Some people have a higher metabolism than others. Typically, if you are over weight, you are mostly fat which your body is used to storing food that it takes in since it doesn’t have a high activity level and doesn’t need to convert food into energy. If you cut your general intake, its usually not enough to cause any significant weight loss since your body never likes to burn off its own storage and goes into a freak out phase which is why most dieters alone don’t work unless you go extreme and only eat cabbage for 2 weeks and then usually put more weight on that you lost after a month.
Losing weight for people who have already screwed up their metabolism and bodies is a lot more complex than just eating less even tho it is a good start.
Lots of knowledge in the thread. Good stuff.
I forgot to point out in my last ramble that people should focus on changing their BODY COMPOSITION rather than how many lb’s they think they need to lose.
As you add muscle you at times may even gain weight…but it’s good weight. Muscle weighs more than fat. Muscle burns calories, fat doesn’t. Make sure you are FEEDING that muscle!
To focus on losing lb’s without an understanding of body composition is why many fail IMO. Successful weight loss is less about lost lb’s and all about changing your body composition.
Feed and build the muscle tissue, the rest will take care of itself.
It’s so rewarding when keto finally shifts your metabolism and you can just feel the muscle at work. You feel like a power plant or something. It well outweighs the few days of carb depletion/fog you go through! 
Ive been reading more and more about keto. I am not too sure how I will react to the intense few days of eating less than 30 carbs a day esp since I like to drink but its really interesting and sounds like a really good way to kick start a “sleeping” (for 2 years) metabolism. Been looking for some good sites with food choices and meals to make so I know what to shop for since I raided all my cupboards and cleaned house after the holiday.
Keto is intense, you’ll definitely feel like shit the first week or two. I do the CKD version of keto diet, which is the 6 days on keto, 1 day off keto, diet with specific lifting intervals. I usually do more like 48 hours on my carb-ups though. It’s REALLY hard to do keto when your going out to restaurants and stuff, but I still lose weight, so I don’t sweat it. Come wednesday night, I am REALLY looking forward to my carb ups. Last few weeks have been a bumpy road, but I was surprised when I weighed in last night and was still around the same weight as before thanksgiving.
My strength has gone up SOOO much in the past 3 months, but I am still super weak. I really was (and still am) pathetically weak for my size. I definitely believe in the “muscle dictates metabolism” after seeing my body maintain the way it has this past week. It really helps me feel confident that I don’t have to worry about falling off the wagon during vacations and holidays. I really want to break through that and get to a point where I feel like I am “respectably strong”. No need to be jacked with a 6 pack, but just be at a point where I’m not embarrassed by my lack of strength at the gym.
Out of curiosity, whats in your pantry and fridge typically for those 6 days? On the carb up day, do you usually go out or have set meals then too?
low-carb wraps (6 net carbs per wrap)
sausage, chicken, beef, frozen chicken wings
plenty of lettuce for salads
taco seasoning
hot sauce
eggs
cheese (hard cheeses like romano have less carbs than soft ones)
pepperoni (great snack)
string cheese (great snack)
Creamy Ceasar salad dressing (Ken’s brand has 0 carbs)
turkey bacon
onions
edit:
no-sugar added Tomato Sauce (Ragu I think…or make your own pasta sauce and use splenda instead of sugar)…Just be careful, Tomatos have natural sugar in em, so you can only use 1/4 to 1/3 cup in 1 sitting.
Ragu light Alfredo Sauce (Or make your own) is super low-carb, like 2g per 1/4 cup or something.
As an italian, it pains me to eat store bought sauces, but they go great on chicken, meatballs, etc… Grill some chicken or cook up some meatballs, then toss a little sauce on and top with cheese. great meal idea.
Some of the common stuff I make:
Turkey Meatballs
Grilled chicken (stuffed with pesto or cheese)
chicken caesar salad
taco salad
burrito with low carb wrap
low carb wrap pizza
burgers (no bun), piled with cheese, turkey bacon, grilled onions
sausage, all kinds, but mostly chicken