ebd10 is salvaging what's left!

[ebd10]

Hey all. I am gingerly tip toeing into the world of weightlifting. I have it in my head to lose 80 pounds in a year. My stats?

44 y/o, 302 pounds, 36% bf (yikes!), Type II diabetic, desk job, father of 2 boys (4 and 19 months). Here's my workout:
M-W-F:
Bent-leg Leg Raises - 2 X 15-20 Reps
Leg Presses - 3 X 12-15 Reps 320
Leg Curls - 3 X 12-15 Reps 100
Incline Bench Presses - 3 X 10-12 Reps 115
Lat Pulldowns - 3 X 10-12 Reps 80
Front Military Presses - 3 X 12-15 Reps 70
Lying Triceps Extensions - 3 X 10-12 Reps 50
Standing Dumbbell Curls - 3 X 10-12 Reps 30
Standing Calf Raises - 3 X 15-20 Reps body weight

T-Th: elliptical machine for 20-30 minutes.

The diet thing is what's killing me.
Meal 1: 2 hardboiled eggs & coffee
Meal 2: handful of almonds
Meal 3: broiled chicken or ground beef patty
Meal 4: More almonds
Meal 5: usually chicken or beef with some vegetables.

I know it's kind of general but it's hard to get a handle on what and when to eat. I think I need more protein, so I bought some whey protein isolate (note to self: just because it's chocolate flavored does not mean that mixing it in coffee is a good idea). I'm thinking that on the days that I lift, I'll eat that mixed into a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast after my workout.

I'm hoping to transform my body by next year.

[jtroster]

Welcome to the joys of journaling.

First thing is to enter what you eat every day for a week into fitday.com. It will give you a good idea of how balanced your diet is. Also, listen to everything dbflgirl posts. She is our nutrition guru.

[joed]

Welcome, you may want to read the sticky "Are you new here?", and go to the Nutrition forum to read the stickies there too. Look forward to following your progress.

[ebd10]

OK, I've got a little bit of a rant here; WTF is the deal with these bozos that form the "Bench Press Social Club?" I'm trying to workout and this idiot decides he needs to monopolize the incline bench while duscussing soy futures or footbal scores, or whatever. It's bad enough that this guy takes ten minutes between sets, but then he has to guard the bench like a mother bird guarding her nest. I work out at a small gym and these oxygen thieves make it difficult. I may be looking for a new gym soon.

[ChocoChick]

Hi ebd, welcome to the forum. It looks to me like you are seriously undereating, although it's hard to tell for sure without seeing the quantities.

jtroster is right -- get yourself a fitday.com account (it's free) and track what you are eating -- everything! -- for at least a week. The total may surprise you.

Are you doing a keto diet? There's an entire forum devoted to keto-type diets that you may want to check out if so. Otherwise, I'll be back ;)

[dbx]

Welcome ebd10!

[ebd10]

dbglgrl:
UNDEREATING??? I eat so much every day I feel like a balloon! I started my fitday log though. I'm not sure what kind of diet to get on. I have always had a hard time dropping weight, but I don't want to do anything unhealthy. Also, I've decided to switch to the local Gold's gym. The aforementioned problem of overcrowding has convinced me to move on. If I can figure out how, I will post my entire week's food log here.

[ebd10]

Boy I blew it today. My son had his birthday party this weekend and I, of course, ate cake and ice cream. Then I had some more today. Oh well, no sense beating myself up over it. Back on the horse tomorrow.

On the plus side, I started a split routine at my new gym. It feels like it's going to work well. I'm still working out the details, but I can already tell that it's a better routine than my last schedule.

[JustLost]

Boy I blew it today. My son had his birthday party this weekend and I, of course, ate cake and ice cream. Then I had some more today. Oh well, no sense beating myself up over it. Back on the horse tomorrow.



Nah, you didn't blow it -- you just ate cake and ice cream.

Blowing it would be more like saying "Oh, well, I messed up my diet so I might as well give up."

I'll echo the folks who think you're undereating. But I assume you're reading all the nutrition stuff and will be getting a handle on that. Prove me right, please. ;)

Good luck with the new gym -- hopefully there won't be any bench-homesteaers there.

[JustLost]

Hey all. I am gingerly tip toeing into the world of weightlifting. I have it in my head to lose 80 pounds in a year. My stats?

44 y/o, 302 pounds, 36% bf (yikes!), Type II diabetic, desk job, father of 2 boys (4 and 19 months). Here's my workout:



I was about to shut off the computer when I realised I hadn't mentioned something we have in common. In January 2005, I weighed about 300 pounds, and had some warning signs of type II diabetes. Tonight after supper I weighed 214. My weight loss got sidetracked by me taking intentional breaks to work on strength, and by Hurricane Katrina -- eating at maintenance and above seems like a good plan when I was doing recovery work, and they didn't have any diet MREs anyway. ;)

So, 80 pounds in a year is doable, if ambitious.

[ebd10]

OK, I was on a 3-day a week workout schedule and I felt like I should be doing more. Soooo, I went to a 4 day split routine designed by the trainer at the gym. It is as follows:
Monday:
Incline Bench
Hammer strength chest press
Flat Bench DB presses
Nautilus pec deck

Tuesday:
Hammer strength rows
Military press
Lat pull downs
Lateral raises


Wednesday:
off

Thursday:
Leg presses
Smith Machine squats
Leg extensions
Leg curls
Seated calf raises

Friday:
EZ bar curls
Cable tricep extensions
concentration curls
Skull crushers
Preacher curls

Every workout day starts with a 5 minute cardio warmup and ends with a 20 minute cardio session.

Saturday and Sunday: something out of the house.

I have also begun a new meal plan.
Today as an example:
Meal 1: 1/2 cup oatmeal with 2 scoops whey protein mixed in
Meal 2: 2 hardboiled eggs
Meal 3: 1 chicken breast with peppers and onions
Meal 4: 1 bowl (approx. 16 oz) Italian Sausage stew
Meal 5: 2 roasted chicken legs.

Meals 1 & 2 will probably remain the same every day, Meals 3-5 will change as the mood strikes me. Nonetheless, they will remain low fat and high protein. Any comments, suggestions?

[JustLost]

I have also begun a new meal plan.
Today as an example:
Meal 1: 1/2 cup oatmeal with 2 scoops whey protein mixed in
Meal 2: 2 hardboiled eggs
Meal 3: 1 chicken breast with peppers and onions
Meal 4: 1 bowl (approx. 16 oz) Italian Sausage stew
Meal 5: 2 roasted chicken legs.

Meals 1 & 2 will probably remain the same every day, Meals 3-5 will change as the mood strikes me. Nonetheless, they will remain low fat and high protein. Any comments, suggestions?


Workout looks reasonable; I'll leave the detailed comments to someone who's more into split routines than I am.

Now, on to the food!


Two things pop right out at me:

I don't see any vegetables

and

I don't see any numbers. Have you taken jtroster's suggestion about using fitday? It really is a spectacular tool not just for tracking your diet, but for analyzing it. have you figured what your daily calories and macronutrients should be? Posting all those numbers will make it easier (and therefore more likely) for anyone to give you feedback.



First thing is to enter what you eat every day for a week into fitday.com. It will give you a good idea of how balanced your diet is. Also, listen to everything dbflgirl posts. She is our nutrition guru.


I plugged the food you posted into fitday; had to make some simplfying assumptions, like "leg" meaning "leg quarter", not "drumstick".

It comes out to:

calories: 1702
fat: 88
carb 36
fiber 6
protein 181


These numbers are probably way off, but I felt like calculating something. ;) This is really more of an example than anything.

Most people would say that's too much if a caloric deficit. I'd probably agree, but there are some variables that might make it work for you. Protein and fat are okayish; I'd like to see you getting a bit more protein.
Carbs... there were probably carbs in that stew, but it's still low, unless you're trying to do a keto diet.

Fiber is super low, but there may be some hidden in the stew.

All this shows why you should be tracking this stuff. With the information given, nobody can really tell how good your diet is.

So, in summary:

1. Use fitday.
2. Unless that stew is pretty awesome, your diet needs a little work.
3. Use fitday.

[ebd10]

I am using fitday. Vegetables are in the stew, but there definitely needs to be an overall increase. I also have to work on the carb thing. The problem is that I'm just not hungry. 2000 calories makes me feel like a balloon. I will say that this is the first time I have undertaken to monitor my food and watch what I eat. I'm also trying to stay away from refined flour and sugar as much as possible, and front load my carbs early in the day. I'm not on a keto diet intentionally, but I have been diagnosed as a Type II diabetic, so I'm wary of carbs. My goal is to get my HgA1c down to normal levels, and never have to go on the needle.

[JustLost]

Sounds like lowcarb is the way to go for now. Your insulin sensitivity will almost certainly improve as a a result of working out and losing weight.

I'd add some green veggies for fiber if I were you, just to keep things running properly.

[ebd10]

Good workout today! Today was back & shoulders. I had a rough start because the weather here is so humid that I woke up with a headache. None the less, I kicked myself out of bed and went to the gym. My strength is growing by leaps and bounds. I've taken to having a 6th meal of whey proteing in a glass of milk to up my protein intake.

I haven't checked the scale lately cuz I don't need to be depressed, but I feel fantastic.

[ebd10]

I've been following the same routine for about a month and I feel great!!! I can't believe how much my strength has improved in one month! For instance, I started doing leg presses at 180, Thursday I did 380!!!! My weak point is my lower back. I've been taking it easy on squats and straight leg deadlifts because I've already done the "flat on your back for 3 months" thing when I blew out a disc in '94. So I am taking it slooooooowww and careful with anything for that. I've also added a new wrinkle to my cardio workout; BOXING! It turns out that the gym that I go to has a boxing club. I do 4 rounds shadow boxing, 4 rounds heavy bag, 4 rounds on the double end bag, and then a couple more shadow boxing to cool down. I tell you, by the time I'm done, I look like I've been swimming in my clothes!

My biggest problem now is finding an accurate scale. I tried one that said I weigh 295, I tried another and it said 311. I'll figure something out. I've also noticed that the 6 meals a day are having a profound effect on me. I'm never hungry, but I always have energy. My wife has noticed the difference, too. Anyhow, I figured I'd check in and say 'hello'.

[45BIG]

Sounds like you are having some success. As for the scale, I would pick one and just use it. I find myself cursing scales all the time. If you pick one and stick with it, you will at least have consistent measure for your progress.

Good Luck

[ebd10]

CRAP!!

Pulled a hamstring the other day. I haven't been able to train my legs for a week. Anyone have any suggestions as to how to get back online?