inweightlifter's road to abs

[inweightlifter]

Ok, after being on the site for over a year now, I am finally going to start a log of my progress.

First a little background, if you check out my main page, you will see that I have been lifting for several years now. Only in the last 1 1/2 have I gotten dedicated enough to hit the gym five days a week. This is due to the fact that my training partner has been one of the most dedicated I have ever had. I will start posting my workouts next week and hopefully some of the gurus on here can help me in my quest to abs.

One of the things I would like to do with this journal is hold myself accountable in my diet. Therefore, I will be writing down my daily diet as much as possible so that others can comment when they see mistakes and help me get it more focused.

Anyway, thanks everyone for taking the time to read this, hope you will take some time to comment.

John

[inweightlifter]

Thought I had better put some info on my diet.
Yesterday, the eating went like this:

Breakfast

3 eggs scrambled with 1/4 c cottage cheese
2 pieces of wheat toast
2 tbl cherry preserves (yeah, i know probably should cut out)
6 oz of Orange juice

Mid morning, one detour protein bar

Lunch
1 chicken breast
3/4 c brown rice
1/2 c broccoli
1/4 c cottage cheese

Afterworkout
Whey protein shake

Supper
6 inch subway roasted chicken with tomato, lettuce and ranch dressing and pepper jack cheese

Snack Atkins protein bar


All the amounts were aproximate. I didn't measure them exactly.
Trying to cut all starchy carbs out, especially late in the day.

Ok, what do you think?

[orca]

Welcome! I'm looking forward to following your workouts.

[inweightlifter]

Originally Posted by orca

Welcome! I'm looking forward to following your workouts.

Thanks for reading all that bro, hoping to get my chops busted when I don't stick to the diet and get some tips on how to improve everything. So feel free to jump in and let me know what you think.

[inweightlifter]

Monday
Breakfast
Bowl of Granola
skim milk

Lunch
Chicken breast
Brown rice
Cottage Cheese
Broccoli

after workout

Whey protein shake


supper
6 inch Sub, (grilled chicken, pepperjack cheese, lettuce tomato and ranch)


Late night

Homemade power bar


Workout: Chest

Dumbell flat
70x10, 80x8, 90x6
Decline fly
70x 10 x 10 x10
Incline press
60x 10, 70x8 70x8
Cross cable
50x12, 62.5x10, 62.5x10

[inweightlifter]

Well, its been awhile since I could post here. Workouts have been going pretty good, inspite of the snow. Had to miss Wednesday's workout but did manage to make it up on Saturday.

Here is some of the data from workouts:

Tuesday;
Legs
Squats
135X10, 185x10x10
Leg press
6 plates x12, 8 plates x 10, 10 plates x 8
Leg ext (one leg on machine)
60 x 10, 72 x 12, 84. x 12
ham curls
30 x 15, 35 x 15, 40 x 15
calf raises
5 sets of 30 on steps
finished off with abs


Wed
Back
(missed)

Thursday,
Shoulders
Press 45 x 10, 50 10, 55x 8
front raise
20x 10, 20x10, 20 x 10
side raise
25 x 10, 30 x 10, 30 x 10
rear delt
25 x 10, 30 x 10, 30 x 10

shrugs
225x17, 275 x 14, 275 x 12

Friday
Arms
preacher curls
65 x10, 70 x 9, 75x 8
Lying tri ext single arm
35 x 10, 35 x 10 35 x 10
cable arm curl
50 x 10 x 10 x 10
tri press down
150 x 12, 175 x 12 x 10
conc curls
30 x 12, 35 x 8, 35 x 9
super set 1 arm extension and kickback
20x 10, 25 x10
20 x 10 25 x 10
weight at 206

[inweightlifter]

Yesterday was legs, Oh how I hate doing squats!
Don't have the specific numbers in front of me here, but did some regular squats then moved the feet in for some close in squats. After squats it was leg extensions, leg curls and calves.

Finished off with some ab crunches and leg lifts.

Weight 204.

Diet was pretty good for the last couple of days, with breakfast being a weak point. I need to find a better breakfast.

Yesterday and today it was granola cereal with skim milk. I need to figure on more protein in morning.

[inweightlifter]

Workouts the rest of the week:

Wednesday was Back
started with pullups 3 sets, 8, 8, and 7
Lat pulldowns
low cable pulls
Good mornings
Followed by standing cable pressdowns
abs

Thursday was shoulders

Presses
Front raises
side raises
rear delt on pec deck
Shrugs

abs

Friday was arms

Tri ext lying
preacher curl single arm
tri pressdowns on cable
single arm cable curls
single overhead ext
conc curls


Wt, 203

[inweightlifter]

Been a bit busy in the gym these last few days. Here is the update.
Weight about 202 today

Abs, not quite ...but starting to feel like I could have em. LOL

Diet has been real good.

Added protein to my morning granola.

Lunch is chicken breast, baked potato and mixed vegetables

Between meal snack (before workout), rice cake with peanut butter

After workout will be a 6 inch roasted chicken sub from Subway with spinach, tomato and yellow peppers.

Supper will be Vegetable soup with Beef.

Any suggestions on improvements?

[Man_O]

Hey, John. Here are a few of my diet tips.

I'd stay away from the granola, Subway sandwiches, and any of the quick-energy protein energy bars.

Granola has a lot of added sugar and sodium.

I won't comment on the Subway sandwiches, except that Jarod's not a good role model for aspiring competitive bodybuilders (bustin your chops there, John ha ha).

Instead of granola, try 70 g plain oatmeal cooked with water, 25 g brown sugar, sprinkled with cinnamon.

The quick energy bars aren't much better in nutrition than a candy bar, so be careful with those (I use protein bars sparingly as they're calorie-dense).

Get a good food scale (I got one from Bed Bath and Beyond for $50). Weigh out your food, and begin tracking your calorie intake (try the online Fitday, it's free and easy). When you begin weighing out your food, you get a good feel for how much you eat when out at a restaurant. You can correlate the amount you usually eat with your feeling of "fullness" to train your appetite to decrease.

Consistent weight training, high intensity interval cardio, and monitoring calories burned vs consumed are the only effective ways to lower body fat levels and keep them low. Running your metabolism at 500 calories/day deficit will result in a 1-lb/week fat loss. That's how I lost 77 lbs. It was agonizingly slow, but I've managed to keep it off, and admire my abs (ha ha).

Thanks for your support, and best of luck in your quest for abs. It can be done--I'm living proof having come down from 25% fat to a maintainable 8% fat (<9% fat is low enough to show abdominal details).

[inweightlifter]

Originally Posted by Man_O

Hey, John. Here are a few of my diet tips.

I'd stay away from the granola, Subway sandwiches, and any of the quick-energy protein energy bars.

Granola has a lot of added sugar and sodium.



I won't comment on the Subway sandwiches, except that Jarod's not a good role model for aspiring competitive bodybuilders (bustin your chops there, John ha ha).

Instead of granola, try 70 g plain oatmeal cooked with water, 25 g brown sugar, sprinkled with cinnamon.

The quick energy bars aren't much better in nutrition than a candy bar, so be careful with those (I use protein bars sparingly as they're calorie-dense).

Get a good food scale (I got one from Bed Bath and Beyond for $50). Weigh out your food, and begin tracking your calorie intake (try the online Fitday, it's free and easy). When you begin weighing out your food, you get a good feel for how much you eat when out at a restaurant. You can correlate the amount you usually eat with your feeling of "fullness" to train your appetite to decrease.

Consistent weight training, high intensity interval cardio, and monitoring calories burned vs consumed are the only effective ways to lower body fat levels and keep them low. Running your metabolism at 500 calories/day deficit will result in a 1-lb/week fat loss. That's how I lost 77 lbs. It was agonizingly slow, but I've managed to keep it off, and admire my abs (ha ha).

Thanks for your support, and best of luck in your quest for abs. It can be done--I'm living proof having come down from 25% fat to a maintainable 8% fat (<9% fat is low enough to show abdominal details).

Hey bro, thanks for taking the time to respond to this.
You will be glad to know that I have cut out the granola for breakfast, and at your urging, the subway will be a thing of the past too.
Tanner, my work out partner has been busting my chops about my eating, and from seeing him and his work ethic in the gym and his diet discipline I have made some changes already.
For breakfast it is now some old fashioned oats, with stevia for sweetner and cinnamon.
I also usually scramble 4 eggs with some cottage cheese thrown in for extra protein.
The other meals are:
grilled steak, or grilled chicken, green veggies, sometimes cooked sometime just raw.
brown rice and some salads thrown in.

Trying real hard to get the bodyfat down here.
With guys like you and Tanner around to inspire me, its been a lot easier.
Thanks again for the information.

john