My introduction and confessions.

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Paladin - 18 Jul 2004 22:24 GMT

First I want to be honest, I have been reading these boards for the
last few years (not everyday, but at least once every two weeks). I
myself am considered "obese". As of today July 18th, 2004 I weight 297
pounds, I did weight 352 pounds when I decided I wanted to change back
on February 20, 2004. I have lost 54 pounds in four and a half months.
It feels good that many who have not seen me since Christmas say I
look much different and can tell that I lost some weight, which means
progress :). I have been big most of my life yet in high school there
was a time when I was really fit and had little fat, I played football
and ran track, after high school is when I put on the weight slowly
over the period of eight years, I have gained 165 pounds. I really
want to be in better shape then I was in high school just to prove to
myself that I can achieve such a goal. Here is another weird thing
about me, I just graduated this May of 2004 with a BS degree in
Kinesiology, and when I tell many people about what I majored in they
look at me as if I'm suppose to have a body that goes along with the
degree. I did learn about myself and how the body works during the
period of 5 years that it took me to get that degree, but at the same
time I didn't put any of the knowledge I gained in college about
fitness, muscles and the human body to use until I was about to
graduate.

First I did a self evaluation, I went over to the Kinesiology lab
where I worked as a tech for two years, and had my roommate mate do a
full analysis. Everything from the Bruce Treadmill test, to the under
water body fat test. We looked at my flexibility, my body fat
percentage, my muscle endurance and muscle strength. We then did an
EKG to see if I had any heart abnormality and proceeded to do a Bruce
treadmill test. We also took measurements from my calves, thighs,
hips, waist, chest, arms, wrist, neck, fingers, and head.
Weighting in at 352 I had 52 percent body fat, weak muscular strength
and endurance, my lung capacity was horrible. Now that I knew where I
stood I needed a plan. Here is where my knowledge shines, I have done
so many case studies on how to develop a program from anyone who wants
to lose weight, gain muscle, and have done athletic profiles on how to
increase performance in certain sports or events. Now I'm the subject.

I had to ask myself, what do I really want. What I want is to be less
then 10% body fat, and have the cardiovascular endurance to run 5
miles in 50 minutes, and have the muscular strength to bench 150% of
my goal weight of 185-195, and squat 200% of my goal weight. I
developed a program for myself that would work in stages, Stage 1-8,
and each stage would last six weeks. I knew everything on how to plan
such a program, but I didn't have the in depth knowledge of nutrition,
so I went to a friend who was majoring in Nutrition (a type of Health
Degree). I personally took a few classes in Health such as health
management, and Nutrition, but two classes was not going to give me
expert knowledge on how to do it right. I sat down with her and
explained what my goal was and asked her if she could come up with a
menu that helps me through each stage, of my program. The fat loss
stages 1-4, endurance stage 5 & 6, and the muscle phase 7 & 8, and a
broad suggestion for the maintence phase with minor goals of
improvements that will go on for the rest of my life.

Two weeks later I had a beautiful report that was organized and binded
from Kinko's. It was 250 pages in length and had all my pre program
evaluation data in it, even my blood test results from my doctor that
showed my lipid count, cholesterol, glucose level and so on. It also
contained pictures from all angles (front, back, both sides, legs, and
face). In the front was a six page story about myself and how I felt,
what my dreams are, and how being unhealthy has robbed me of enjoying
a life that God gave me. Right now I'm in my third stage of my
program. And I'm really surprised at the results I have made with my
program, I can honestly say I have yet to cheat or miss a day, I have
had little injury and almost no sick days since I started the program
four months ago.

When I started I was 183 pounds of fat, and had 163
muscle/bones/fluid.
Yesterday I did another evaluation at the Kinesiology lab and the
results are phenomenal, even my Biomechanics teacher was surprised
with the results.

Before: 352 with 52% body fat/ 183 pounds of fat/ 163
muscle/bones/fluid.
After: 297 with 34% body fat/ 101 pounds of fat/ 196
muscle/bones/fluid.
Difference: Lost 82 pounds of pure fat, and have gained 33 in
muscle/bones/fluid. I asked my former Exercise physiology processor
that the lean gain seemed high, he explained that with exercise your
bone density grows, and if you have a large frame, and are above
average height, it can add pounds to your weight.

I wish I could post all my data here, and programs here, but Google
doesn't allow such large posts. Maybe I could host it on a web site or
something when I get some extra money. But for a quick glance, my
stage three looks like this.

Monday:

Weights (I do 10 exercises 3 sets at ten reps, each set remains at the
same weight during the body part exercise, its 60% of my one rep max)

Bench: 3x10, Squat: 3x10, Military Press: 3x10, Preacher Curls: 3x10,
Triceps Pull Downs: 3x10, Leg Curls: 3x10, Leg Extensions: 3x10, Lat
Pull Downs: 3x10, Shoulder Shrugs: 3x10. Abs: Crunches 2x till
failure, Reverse Crunches 2x till failure.

Cardio:
60 minutes (I do a different cardio machine each day, never doing the
same cardio machine the day after. Example: Monday Stair climber,
Tuesday Treadmill, Wednesday Elliptical machine, Thursday bike, I
chose a different one each day.)

Tuesday:

Interval Training: I go to my school track and do two miles; I sprint
the straight away and walk the curves. I put my complete effort in
sprinting.

Cardio: 60 minutes on a cardio machine (I pick a different one from
Monday)

Wednesday: Weights: (same as Monday) Cardio: 60 minutes

Thursday: Interval Training: On Thursday its different from Tuesday,
there is a steep hill near where I live at about a 45 degree angle at
about 50 meters in distance. I sprint up the hill, and walk back down.
Cardio: 60 minutes

Friday: Weights (same as Monday & Wednesday) Cardio: 60 minutes

Saturday: Cardio 60 minutes

Sunday: Rest day and free food day with limits. I personally like to
spend this day walking at sunset with my girl friend.

The Diet portion of this stage is also different, compared to other
two stages; I get to eat a slightly higher percentage of carbs to
allow glycogen to replenish in my muscles for the endurance and
interval training that I do.

I wish I had more space on google to type but this is about the end.
If anyone has any questions that require more detail I would be glad
to answer, and I will post my progress from here on out. I thank many
of you for the support and I'm glad to support everyone as well. This
journey to being fit is probably one of the most difficult in ones
life. It's almost spiritual if you ask me :)

Reply to this Message

Patricia Heil - 19 Jul 2004 01:48 GMT

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!! It's so tough to get going. What great results!!!!!

> First I want to be honest, I have been reading these boards for the
> last few years (not everyday, but at least once every two weeks). I
[quoted text clipped - 134 lines]
> journey to being fit is probably one of the most difficult in ones
> life. It's almost spiritual if you ask me :)

Reply to this Message

Dally - 19 Jul 2004 02:09 GMT

> I really
> want to be in better shape then I was in high school just to prove to
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> fitness, muscles and the human body to use until I was about to
> graduate.

> I had to ask myself, what do I really want.

It's not necessarily the knowledge that sets you apart, it's the
clearness with which you decided to do this. Your kinko-bound report
isn't why you're succeeding, it's that you have a plan (of any sort) and
you're implementing it because you're choosing to do this. Congratulations!

Having said that, I want to make a few cautionary comments.

First off, you're having a great "newbie gains" run. That's where
eating a catabolic diet will allow you to add muscle while you lose fat.
It definitely occurs... but only for a while. My guess is that you
have another two or three months of this honeymoon period and then
you're stuck in the land of struggling to keep lean body mass while on a
catabolic diet. My advice is to milk those newbie gains for all you
can, and that leads me to the next point:

No matter how sound your weight routine is, you're going to have to
change it. You clearly seem to understand the principles of
cross-training with regard to your cardio routines, but you're going to
have to do it with your weight-lifting, too. The two programs I like
the best are the Body for Life split-body half-pyramid routines and
Bryon Haycock's Hypertrophy Specific Training. (Google for either of
those and you'll find them.)

My advice is to take a planned week or two off from the gym (to prevent
over-training, get glycogen stores refilled, mend any over-use injuries
and keep the newbie gains going) and then jump back in with a new routine.

I like almost everything else about your plan. A free day teaches you
how to STOP having free days once a week. Planned layoffs from the gym
also make you practice RESTARTING back at the gym, which is a skill
you're sure to need in your life, what with injuries and funerals and
vacations, etc... make sure you know how to climb quickly back on the
wagon. Practice makes perfect.

And that leads to my last comment. Don't get too caught up in plans.
I've seen too many people get pissed off and quit when things don't go
according to plan. Weight loss is best measured in retrospect. I've
lost nearly 70 pounds in the past two years, going from 42% fat to 26%
fat (I'm female) and I doubt I would have stuck with it if I'd known
that I'd be losing at a rate of 1 pound a month (which I am, these days.)

It's a life-long journey, and adventures happen along the way. Just be
careful that your well-thought-out timeline doesn't work against you
along the way.

Great job. Keep it up. :-)

Dally
244/175.5/169 (down exactly 0 pounds after working out 7 days this week)

Reply to this Message

Paladin - 19 Jul 2004 17:05 GMT

Thanks Dally for the great advice. You are right in saying that most
of my gains are newbie gains. I'm loving my honeymoon, but I know its
comming to a quick end. I love the fact that people can be real and
positive at the same time. The stages I have are all different from
the last and each has a specfic purpose in what I want to achieve. The
weight program that I do is not really made for strength gains but
more or less used to keep my heart rate up and at the same time try to
keep me from losing to much muscle mass while I do major cardio for
the next eight weeks. When calories are limited and expenditure is
high through activity, the weights will help trick your body into
useing fat for fuel instead of muscle because the muscles are being
challenged and need to be rebuilt, and with the 1.5 grams of protien
per pound of lean body weight, it will help keep the muscle loss
minimal during the fat loss phase. Now during my muscle gain stage the
main focus will turn from cardio to weights, where I will use many
different machines and free weights to challenge and trick my muscles
into growing. And if I find that I still want to keep losing more fat
I will either extend the stage another eight weeks or come up with
another form of training to help shed the pounds before I start
packing muscle, because I will gain some fat back during the muscle
stages of my program. And when I end the muscle stage I go to
endurance training, I know I will lose some muscle mass during that
stage, but hopefully the loss will be minimal and with the extra
muscle from the muscle stage and with the majority of fat gone during
the fat triming stages, the endurance stage will help polish my body
to where I need it to be. I'm very flexiable when it comes to time, if
I have to stretch the stages for any length of time I'm prepared to do
so.

I failed to mention an important part of the weights that I do for
stage three of fat loss. I have a list of 30 exercises that I can do
for weights and I try to chose different ones for each body part from
the previous weights day.

Example:
Monday for chest: Flat Bench: 3x10 Butterfly with dumbells 3x10
Wednesday for chest: Incline Bench: 3x10, Cable Crosovers: 3x10

Monday Legs: Squats: 3x10 Leg Curls: 3x10 Leg Extensions: 3x10
Wednesday Legs: Leg Press 3x10, Calf raises: 3x20, Leg Curls: 3x10

I also like to switch it up too, I chose from these exercises for abs.

Vertical Crunch, Reverse Crunch, Bicycle kicks, Hanging Leg raises,
Side Bridges, and sometimes the exercise ball crunch if one is not
being used at the gym (always someone on the one ball we have lol).

I guess a quick weight in before I go the gym, I weight 296 this
morning :)

Reply to this Message

Ignoramus20716 - 19 Jul 2004 02:28 GMT

> I had to ask myself, what do I really want. What I want is to be less
> then 10% body fat, and have the cardiovascular endurance to run 5
> miles in 50 minutes, and have the muscular strength to bench 150% of
> my goal weight of 185-195, and squat 200% of my goal weight. I

Paladin, it is great that you want to be so ambitious, but you would
be better off with less ambitious goals, like having BF% less than 20
percent. Your goals are attainable, but so ambitious that you could
give up or find yourself unable to maintain.

How about this goal: get to normal weight and get to be able to run 5K
in 35 minutes, and being able to do 30 pushups. Goals that are
decidedly achievable. Once you get there, try to figure out where do
you want to go.

> developed a program for myself that would work in stages, Stage 1-8,
> and each stage would last six weeks. I knew everything on how to plan
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> broad suggestion for the maintence phase with minor goals of
> improvements that will go on for the rest of my life.

Is she suggesting that you lose fat first, and plan on weightlifting
after you lose fat? Did I understand you right?

> Two weeks later I had a beautiful report that was organized and binded
> from Kinko's. It was 250 pages in length and had all my pre program
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> had little injury and almost no sick days since I started the program
> four months ago.

This is a very good sign, that you have "follow thru" and know that
all plans and beautiful dreams need to be followed up by actual
discipline.

> When I started I was 183 pounds of fat, and had 163
> muscle/bones/fluid.
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
> bone density grows, and if you have a large frame, and are above
> average height, it can add pounds to your weight.

Sounds hardly believable, but if you have seen their actual systems
work measuring you and give you the numbers, then of course that's
what the reality is.

> I wish I could post all my data here, and programs here, but Google
> doesn't allow such large posts. Maybe I could host it on a web site or
> something when I get some extra money. But for a quick glance, my
> stage three looks like this.

There is plenty of free sites that allow you to post webpages. All
suck, but for the price, you get a good deal.

> Monday:
>
[quoted text clipped - 46 lines]
> journey to being fit is probably one of the most difficult in ones
> life. It's almost spiritual if you ask me :)

So far you are doing great and it seems that your work is commensurate
with your expectations.

Let me ask you a hypothetical question.

Suppose that you experience some sort of a setback, let's say eat 18
krispy kreme donuts in one sitting, or get sick and unable to exercise
for a monmth, etc, or stop losing weight for some inexplicable reason,
what would your reaction be.

Congratulations, great job so far.

i

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