GazzyB123's Log

[GazzyB]

Hi all,

Been reading through the keto logs section and most of them are fantastic, so I have decided to start my own for a place to track my diet, exercies and most importantly... my success!

A bit of background info... I'm a 22 year old male, 6 ft 4and 104kg (16.3 stone / 229 pounds). I haven't had my bf% measured yet but I'm guessing it'll be about 23% or so.

I have tried keto a few times over the past 2 years but I never had the mentality to see it through. I always seemed to fall apart after I knew fine well it was working. This will definitely be different though, as I have accepted that this needs to be a lifestyle change as opposed to a quick fix. The whole point in me doing a keto diet is to get down to about 8 - 10% bodyfat so I can play a decent level of football (soccer to you non Europeans) whilst I'm still young.

For the first few weeks I'm not going to count my macros strictly. I will keep a rough calorie count so that I am eating at a deficit and after 4 weeks or so I will get really strict with it.

As for exercise, I will be doing at least 3 cardio sessions a week (one 90 minute game of soccer and either two low intensity jogs or one low intensity jog and some HIIT). I'll also be doing a weight routine at least twice a week (I'd love to stretch it out over 4 sessions a week but I just don't have the time).

Nutrition wise I'll be eating pretty much the same thing every day...

Breakfast - 3 egg omelette with 2 slices of bacon & 1 slice of cheese

Lunch - 1 chicken breast, 2 slices of bacon, iceberg lettuce & mayonnaise (it's meant to be a chicken & bacon salad!)

*** I need to add a snack in here as I find myself starving at around 4pm)

Dinner - 4 beefburger pattys with cheese, 2 fried eggs & 2 slices bacon.

This is the second day of the above diet, so far so good! 3.30pm UK time though so getting a bit peckish. Exercise so far has been a bit mish mash, I'll start a set routine properly this coming Monday but between now and then I'll do what I can.

[GazzyB]

Yesterday went well. Only the second day and the stix went purple!

I went down to join the local athletics club yesterday evening in the hope they'd do long distance running but it seems they focus on 100m and javelin etc, so decided it's not for me and did 40 mins of cardio in the gym instead. Had another omelette before I went out and destroyed a couple of burgers when I got in.

Going to do an all over upper body workout tonight (I'd do legs as well, but I've got an important soccer match tomorrow so will leave them until the weekend). Not liking how unorganised my exercise is at the moment but I'll have a lot more free time as of next week so I'll hopefully have a set routine that I can stick to.

Losing a bit of water weight already... I'm on the right track!

[GazzyB]

Oh my days... really feeling the burn after last night's efforts! My gym basically refused to give me a body fat measurement because it's old equipment and not accurate so really struggling to think where I'd get that done.

Strict diet today, football tonight, day off tomorrow, legs on Saturday, cardio on Sunday & a set routine starting Monday! Bring ittt.

[GazzyB]

So the football game tonight was an absolute shambles. I've never been the fittest guy in the world but tonight I was doubled over wheezing like a b1tch after about 20 minutes. They actually had to substitute me after 60 minutes it was that bad. I'm desperate to get my fitness levels up so I'm thinking of seriously upping the cardio. If anyone's got any recommendations on how to be able to run for longer periods of time I'd love some advice!

Really down after the game tonight, I bought myself a pepsi max to cheer myself up, 'twas glorious. Also got a whole uncooked chicken for £2.25 that's in the oven just now. About to destroy it along with my dog. Will also do my 'before' pics tonight.

More motivated than ever...

[Cowmustard]

Oh my days... really feeling the burn after last night's efforts! My gym basically refused to give me a body fat measurement because it's old equipment and not accurate so really struggling to think where I'd get that done.

Strict diet today, football tonight, day off tomorrow, legs on Saturday, cardio on Sunday & a set routine starting Monday! Bring ittt.

For bf, I got a pinch tester from this website, comes free if you buy so much.

[GazzyB]

Just remembered I've actually got a set of body fat measurement scales in the house somewhere, they won't be 100% accurate but they'll hopefully give me something to go by!

My biceps are in agony after Wednesday night's upper body workout, really feeling the burn, hopefully it's gone by Monday. Tonight I'm going to run a slow and steady jog for 20 minutes then stop, turn back and bust a gut to get back as quickly as possible. I live at the top of a big hill, though, so it could get a bit intense towards the end! Legs tomorrow too, still 100% motivated to succeed!

[yabbyshmabby]

Don't forget to take progress pics. For me, it's the best way to measure my progress.

[GazzyB]

Yeah, pics definitely need to be taken. I'm a bit annoyed at myself for not taking them when I started as now I've lost a fair bit of water retention, there's still a lot of fat to go though so I'm sure in a couple of months there will still be a difference to be seen.

I didn't get home until 6.30 last night and had to leave the house again at 7.30 so I didn't have time for any cardio unfortunately. Resisted alcohol & food all last night, the first time I've been tempted and had to actually use a bit of self control. I went to the gym today and did a leg/back workout, was awesome. Really intense & sore but I feel that aching/proud satisfaction that we all know and love.

The initial weigh-in of 104kg appears to be incorrect, and it should have infact been 107.5kg (236.5lbs), weighed in today at a pleasing 103.9kg (228.6lbs), so 8 pounds down in 6 days! Of course mainly water weight but I can see a difference already.

Also just fried some mince, then some bacon, boiled some broccoli and cut the broc & bacon up into tiny pieces and made a mince, bacon, broccoli & cheese melt (pics to follow). It's frightening how good it tasted!

Still motivated, still going strong!

[GazzyB]

Yesterday was my 6th day, I did a leg and back work out and managed to do 40 minutes of cardio at 10pm last night! 20 minutes out, gotta get back as quickly as possible (half of it on the way back is uphill), made it back on 38.16! BOOM!

Was working today so no exercise, eaten loads today but all keto (apart from a bottle of coke zero). Got another football game tomorrow night so will take it easy tomorrow and then hit the weights on Tuesday.

I'm going to switch from CKD to TKD on days that I have football games. Just 30g of carbs about an hour before the game, hopefully that'll help me get through the games. Also not going to bother carbing up for at least another 3 weeks, there's just no need to.

Still going strong, still gonna do this!

[GazzyB]

Today has been a pivotal day on the road to success. Day off work so I woke up at around 10am. 2 burgers with cheese & bacon for breakfast (the breakfast of champions!), chicken breast with bacon, broccoli & mayonnaise for lunch, and then off to football I went. Changed, stripped and ready to go... and the other team doesn't show up!

Went back home to see an absolute feast of lasagna sitting on the dinner table. I was starving at the time as well. I don't even know how I managed it but I fired a steak in the oven and went out to do some HIIT. Came back, devoured the steak, stared at the leftover lasagne for another few minutes and managed to resist it. I really struggled to, but I got through it, the cravings are really bad at the moment. The pleasing thing is that I think I've mastered the art of self control.

As for the HIIT, I sprinted from one streetlight to another, then jogged back to the original one. The sprint was uphill and they were 121 yards away from each other. About 10/15 minutes or so, but I was near death at the end of the 6th one!

Struggled today, but proud of myself for resisting temptation! Gym tomorrow for chest/tricep and 'official' 1 week weigh-in.

[GazzyB]

Another successful day, cravings were non existant. I had a cheese omelette for breakfast, home-made beef burgers with cheese, 2 eggs & 2 bacon for lunch & chicken, bacon & mayo salad for dinner. I also had a bottle of coke zero, one every few days won't knock me out of ketosis and it'll keep me on the right track as well.

As for the exercise, this is where I would like some advice. Today was meant to be chest & triceps, but I left the gym with my triceps a bit sore, no feeling in my chest and my shoulders absolutely burning with pain. I did seated 1 dumbell skullcrusher, butterfly curls, tricep pull down & incline chest press. All 3 sets & 10 reps. Does anyone have any idea as to why that is? I'm thinking as of next week to change the muscle groups to chest/shoulder and then bicep/tricep another day. Really confused as to why my chest isn't feeling anything, and why my shoulders are. Is there any point doing shoulders when I go to do my biceps later this week?

Weighed in today at 103.4kg, which means I've lost about 4.1kg in 9 days! Mostly water I know, and it'll slow down now, but still a great way to start off.

Think I'll take a rest day tomorrow (Wednesday) and then do bicep (and maybe shoulder (or should I do chest again)) on Thursday, before football on Friday night. Leg & back on Saturday, sleep all day Sunday!

Hoo rah!!

[GazzyB]

Decided to man up and do 40 minutes of LISS today, was bloody difficult but I got through it. As for yesterday, my shoulders feel fine, my triceps are killing me and the pain is creeping in in the chest. Relieved that I'm feeling it in my chest, weird that my shoulders were burning like mad yesterday and feel fine today.

I took my 'before' pics a few days ago but keep forgetting to upload them, will do it after work tonight.

So far so good!

[GazzyB]

About 11pm last night a few friends showed up at work and asked me to come out with them (I work in a bar), fortunately my aunt is my boss and she let me off early. Went out for a while and managed to stick to vodka and diet coke. No idea how, but I managed it. I also have no idea how I didn't go to a food outlet at 3am and buy carby goodness and drunkenly blame it on being drunk.

Was a bit worried about knocking myself out of ketosis after last night but the stick was a deep shade of purple this morning. Fasting for a while (not out of choice, think I'd spew if I ate right now), bicep & shoulders at the gym today and then relax all night.

Pics uploaded, they are terrible but we all gotta start somewhere. Would appreciate a bf% estimation, I'd say about 24ish.

Today is the 11th day. I estimate another 101 or so to go!

[GazzyB]

Quick update, it's been a very busy weekend with a lot of work and a bit too much play. Somehow managed to eat clean all weekend, although no gym work. Football tomorrow night, so back at it on Tuesday! Can't weight for another "official" weigh in to see what the progress is.

[GazzyB]

Hello all, been almost 2 months since I last updated, I'm sure you can guess what happened. I'll give a quick update...

Good news and bad news. The bad news being, obviously, that I fell away big time. I tried to "get back on the horse" so to speak but with a holiday coming up etc I didn't have the motivation. Disappointed in myself!

The good news, however, is that I quite liked keeping this blog, and I didn't want to start doing it again at square one. I have been on keto for 13 days now and my weight has dropped to a whopping 101.0kg (the aim was to be better than my lowest weight last time round before I started updating the log again)! I originally started at over 107kg, my lowest point last time round was 103kg, I weighed in 13 days ago at 105.5kg and now I'm down to 101kg. So I'm ready to start updating again!

The first 10 days or so were fine, but I've noticed that over the past couple of days I haven't been able to resist the cravings for fizzy juice. I'm having a can of Coke Zero or Diet Irn Bru (a tremendous Scottish fizzy drink) pretty much every day. I know it's not exactly good for me, but the sticks are staying purple, so I'm not sure if there's any harm in it? Perhaps somebody could advise.

Anyway, good to be back, and hopefully can get some real results over the next month or two! Progress pics up soon

[GazzyB]

Face up.jpg
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Progress pics! Can anyone see a difference?

Ok so I personally see a big difference, and I'm delighted with the progress so far. Over the past 2 days my weight has gone from 101kg to 102.4kg and back down now to 101.5kg. I think I'm one of the lucky ones who put on a bit of muscle during the early phase of keto whilst burning fat, however I know that won't last forever.

Did a beasting leg day today and I'm starting to feel really tired/weak at the gym, time for a carb up. Gonna be a 2 day one and will be dirty, but I'll be right back at it on Monday morning!

[GazzyB]

Monday night UK time, and I'm delighted to say that I had absolutely no issues getting back on Keto today. I ate a lot of junk over the weekend, and I drank a LOT of coca cola & cider, far too much, and that's something I need to address. I normally struggle to start back up after a carb up but I've eaten clean all day, and my lifts were excellent at the gym tonight! I did chest & triceps, and every lift was with a slightly heavier weight for at least one set! I felt fantastic in the gym tonight. On Friday I weighed in at 101.6kg and this morning I weighed in at 103.5kg and by the time I got to the gym tonight I was weighing in at 104.5kg. I normally weigh myself every day but I'm going to stop and only weigh myself again in 7 days, should make for a nice suprise after a week of hard work.

I've also decided that I'm going to stop focusing on my long term goal and create short term goals instead to keep me motivated. The first one is to eat clean for 3 weeks, then I'll give myself a day off again. Day one down and feeling good!

[GazzyB]

Well my willpower has let me down again! I couldn't resist.... the scales! Stepped on em this morning to see I'm at 100.9kg, absolutely delighted with that. Things are going well, still going to the gym regularly and running as much as I can. I cut off a whopping 5 minutes off of my regular route; I normally do it in 37 mins but last night I did it in 32 mins, easily.

Getting there!

[GazzyB]

Ate clean all weekend, played football for the first time in months today (played awful but fitness levels were suprisingly not too bad) and down to 100.3kg, can't wait to hit 99.9! Gonna work hard all week at the gym and reward myself next weekend.

[GazzyB]

Weighed in at 99.7kg today! So happy with that.

I'm a little bit worried that I'm not eating enough though; the last thing I want to be doing is losing muscle. Going to eat a bit more (still not counting cals though) just to be safe.

[k3n12ock]

Congrats! It's nice to see results isn't it!

[GazzyB]

Cheers buddy! Yeah it certainly is. I'm not being naive though; I still have a long long way to go!

[GazzyB]

I crumbled a bit last night and had a large pizza (could only manage half, stomach is shrinking it'd seem). Was a bit worried I'd lose the motivation to get back on the horse between now and Saturday (got a big drinking day on Saturday) but I managed to go to the gym and do biceps, shoulders & deadlift today, followed by bacon & mince. I also did 40 mins of HIIT on the treadmill after to try and make up for last night's blip. Scales showed me as 100.8kg today.

I'll work as hard as I can between now and Saturday, and I'll be back on it on Sunday!

[GazzyB]

Sunday night UK time. I've had an excellent weekend; ate what I wanted and drank enough to kill a small animal. Stepped on the scales quickly in the afternoon today and was pleased to see I was only 100.7kg. A couple of days and I'll be back under 100kg again.

My buddies are saying that they can see a difference in me, very encouraging to hear when if I'm honest I was a bit disheartened about just how long this is going to take...

[GazzyB]

Weight was 99.5kg yesterday morning, but 100.1kg today. Getting a little frustrated at how it yo-yo's up and down all the time. I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing until next Saturday (10 days) and if I'm still hovering around the 100kg mark then then I'll re-evaluate and change a few things. It's strange though because my weight isn't going down much, yet I think I'm looking thinner and my clothes feel looser. I know it's very very unlikely, but perhaps I'm putting a little bit of muscle on whilst burning fat?

I've actually logged my weight on my iPhone every single time I've been to the gym, I'll post 'em below...

21 Aug - 107.4kg
22 Aug - 105.8kg
25 Aug - 103.9kg
28 Aug - 103.4kg
30 Aug - 102.6kg

*** Fell to pieces ***

21 Oct - 102.8kg
25 Oct - 103.2kg
26 Oct - 103.1kg
29 Oct - 101.9kg
1 Nov - 102.3kg
2 Nov - 101.6kg

*** Weekend off ***

5 Nov - 104.5kg (wtf???)
8 Nov - 101.2kg
9 Nov - 101kg
12 Nov - 99.8kg
13 Nov - Dominos pizza
15 Nov - 100.4kg

*** Weekend off ***

20 Nov - 99.6kg
21 Nov - 100.2kg

When it's in order like that and not a jumble on my phone it doesn't look too bad I suppose.

Anyway, spent a long time at the gym today. Did abs, shoulders & biceps, and my chest and triceps are still sore from yesterday. Also managed to do 40 minutes of HIIT after the weights today. Feeling good and will work hard for 10 solid days before the next weekend off (these weekends off every 2 weeks are keeping me sane)!

[GazzyB]

Oh dear. Worked my a$$ off on Friday at the gym, then ate dirty Friday night, all day Saturday & all day Sunday. I weighed in this morning at 100.8kg, which was nowhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. I had weighed in at 98.3kg at the gym on Friday, so about 2.5kg of water weight isn't too bad. Back on it today, and delighted to be. Nothing but bacon, eggs & chicken for a couple of days, and back to the gym tomorrow. I've got my girlfriend's 21st coming up in 10 days, the aim is to stay keto with no cheat meals until then, and have a night off to celebrate her birthday. If I keep cheating and carbing up when I don't need to I'm only going to severely hinder my progress...

[GazzyB]

23rd Nov - 99.5kg
Carb up
27 Nov - 99.3kg
28 Nov - 98.7kg

I believe today is my lowest 'official' weigh in (every morning in my underwear is the 'unofficial' one). Happy with that! Will do fresh progress pics on Friday I think.

[GazzyB]

New progress pictures taken five minutes ago...

Whatcha think?

[k3n12ock]

Good work bro! Keep it up!

[GazzyB]

Guess who's back......

Hello, hope all keto-ers had a great Xmas and New Year period. As you can see I've not updated in a while, I basically gave up and didn't have the motivation to get back at it. Kept telling myself "after Christmas...." then "after New Year..." then "after my birthday..." and so on and so forth. I managed to stop the rot though and I've been back at the gym and eating properly for a few days now. Gotta say it feels great!

Weight wise, when I stepped on the scales a few days ago I absolutely feared the worst. It wasn't too bad though, 100.8kg. I weighed in today at 99.1kg; my lowest point previously was about 98kg so there's not been toooooo much damage done. Gonna work hard all week, enjoy my birthday weekend this weekend, then back on it on Sunday/Monday!

Good to be back