Librarygorilla - Burning Fat Through The Big Three - Oh

[Librarygorilla]

Hello, second post.

Why I'm here:

I'm rolling up to my thirtieth birthday and I'm annoyed that I'm doing it fat. Since my birthday is February 20, I've missed the boat for not being fat when it happens. But I'm not going any further into my thirties while overweight.

Part of this is vanity. I've been fit (in a perfomance sense) before, but I've never had what could be considered a good body outside of a sumo stable. I'd really like to have an impressive body.

More of it is health. I have type two diabetes, high cholestrol, and my joints are starting to get a little dodgy. While I generally feel fine, I don't like taking a handful of drugs twice a day and I'd kind of like to live to, say, forty.

Background:

I've been fat for most of my life. Well, sort of. Before puberty, I was just a damn big kid, but pictures show that I was simple big, with fairly average levels of fat for a kid.

When I hit thirteen or so, I blimped up to 230 at a height of 5'8 or so. In the next year I hit my adult height of 6'1, and my weight increased up to 300 pounds or so. Which is where it has remained ever since with some forays to lower realms.

I can, in fact, still wear my high school pants. This is not a good thing.

The lowest I've weighed as an adult was 275, when I was a member of track and field at school and then again in college, although I'm not sure how I did it in college. Alcohol would be a guess.

I've lifted weights off and on since I was teenager, and currently I've been off for the last seven months or so. Not good.

I have the advantage of being strongish and fitish in spite of myself. No problems going up multiple flights of stairs or going for a hike. This has made it pretty ease to kid myself about the toll of weighing as much as I do.

Like most, I've tried and failed to lose weight in the past, without much success. Consistency is my problem. Do good for a while and then quit is the usual pattern.

The Food Plan:

I'm going to something akin to a PSMF. I'd had good results (for a while) with similar in the past, and I tend to better with bigger changes rather than small ones. I've been in prep for the few days, adjusting my meals and keeping on schedule.

This more mental than anything - my body seems to tolerate virtually any kind of eating schedule fairly well in terms of energy and what not.

I'm planning on doing this through my birthday.

The Training Plan:

I'm using a variant of the Rippetoe Program.

Basically

Monday

Squat - 3 * 5

Bench - 3 * 5

Deadlift - 2 * 5

Seated Press - 3 * 5

Curls - 3 * 5

Plus work for my rotator cuff and other bits that need the maintenance

Tuesday

An hour or so of walking and cardio, not particularly intense.

Thursday

Squat - 3 * 5

Bench - 3 * 5

Power Cleans - 5 * 3

Seated Press - 3 * 5

Curls - 3 * 5

Plus work for my rotator cuff and other bits that need the maintenance

Friday

An hour or so of walking and cardio, not particularly intense.

On Wednesdays I'm going to get some kind of exercise around the house: walk, punching bag, chop some wood.

(I'm off work on Wednesdays, so for now I'm going to gym four days a week. I reserve the right to expand it to five if I get on a good roll.)

I'm aiming for twelve weeks, but if progress slows or I keep feeling good about it, I might go shorter or longer. There are a bunch of routines and methods that seem like they might be fun, but I want to have my base built back up first, and I'm going to keep it simple for six months or so.

The Goal:

I'm in the winter fat loss challenge, which last six months, so I'm aiming to get to 210. After that, we'll see. I seem to get a general consensus of 40% bf from various methods, so 210, in theory, should be fairly lean.

In theory, but I'm not counting on it. Since I've never been in shape I have don't have weight to look back to, so it's all speculative.

Wow, that was long.

Short version: My name is Justin, I'm fat and I'm doing something about it.

[Librarygorilla]

Some stats and goals:

Height: 6'1

Weight: 302

Chest: 54

Arms: 18

Forearms: 13.5

Waist: 52

Hips: 45

Thighs: 28

Calves: 17

12 Week Strength Goals

(For 5)

Squat: 275

Bench: 225

Deadlifts: 315

Press: 185

Cleans: 205 (for 3)

Curls: 135

Generally, these are challenging but within what I've done before. The one that's iffy is the squat; I've never been good at squats, but I'm gonna give it a go.

We'll see if I can hit this while losing weight. I'm hoping muscle memory will be my friend here.

I'd like to lose forty pounds in the same twelve week time frame, which is...ambitious.

[zcsmith]

Dude, nice start! Good job at setting up your goals. You're on our team, so I'm taking special interest in your journal

Good luck!

[chrischap01]

good luck!

[Librarygorilla]

Thanks, guys.

I'm itching to go to the gym, which is closed. Arrgh.

Happy New Years!

[Librarygorilla]

Pics

1/1/08 302lbs





Appropriately enough, watching Biggest Loser as I type this.

[Rsquared]

Good Luck Bro.Think i may start me up a blog hmmmm

[Librarygorilla]

Originally Posted by Rsquared

Good Luck Bro.Think i may start me up a blog hmmmm

Thanks dude.

The blog is a good way to stay accountable, especially if people are actually reading it.

[cawiau]

Originally Posted by Librarygorilla

Appropriately enough, watching Biggest Loser as I type this.

HAHA same here
Good job on getting this started


*subscribed*

[Librarygorilla]

The Diet:

For next eight weeks or so, I'm going to do a Protein Sparing Modified Fast (of sorts)

Basically, I'm trying to get around 200 grams of protein, which should give me at least a gram per pound of lean bodyweight. All the fat and carbs are going to be what they're going to be, but I'll be trying to keep the carbs as low as possible.

I've got loads of fat, so I'm anticipating muscle loss to be minimal to nonexistant (since I'm rebuilding strength, it's possible it might even go up slightly).

Sample of the diet:

Breakfast: A piece of fruit

Post Workout: Recovery Drink (Surge or homebrewed, with bcaas and creatine)

Snack: Casein Protein Drink, string cheese

Lunch: Salad, cheese, casein protein drink

Snack: Casein Protein Drink, string cheese

Dinner: Chicken or beef, non starchy veggies, possibly some nuts.

Variations:

On non workout days, I'll have a piece of fruit and a whey/berries shake for breakfast, and no pw shake (obv).

I may throw some cottage cheese in there in place of the strong cheese.

I'm going to have one restrained cheat meal every week. Restrained, because I can put away a LOT of food. You'd have never guessed from my sleek physique, but there you go.

[Librarygorilla]

Originally Posted by cawiau

HAHA same here
Good job on getting this started


*subscribed*

To say nothing of the bedridden fat people on TLC, which may have permanently stripped me of my appetite.

[Librarygorilla]

1/2/08

A note from my ego: The weights I'm going to post for my workout are not heavy, and my male ego wants to note that weight wise, these are not challenging weights, even after a six month lay off.

There are a couple of reasons for the light weight:

1. Form - I'm making sure my form on these is perfect, especially squats, which are the bane of existence. I'm pausing while maintaining tension on the bench, and resetting and exploding on the deads. The plan is that by the time the weights are challenging, it'll be ingrained.

2. I'm keeping the rest periods at a minute to a minute and a half, for a bit of metabolic and muscular conditioning. By the time I got done with the deads, I was puffing pretty good.

3. I have a tendency to push too hard and burn out, so I'm using this to build discipline. I'm going to increase the weight by 20 (for deads), 10 (for squats) or 5 (everything else) each workout and not start pilining on the weight too soon.

Anyhoo, first workout of the year.

Walked a half mile on the indoor track to loosen up.

Squats

BW - 5

45 - 5

65 - 5,5,5

Yeah, yeah, I know.

Bench

65 - 5

95 - 5

135 - 5,5,5

Deadlifts

No warmup

135 - 5,5,5,

Seated Press

45 - 5

95 - 5,5,5

Curls

45 - 5,5,5

L Laterals 10 - 12,12

External Rot. Cable 10 - 10,10

Shoulder stretch with broomstick - 10

(I have problems with my right rotator cuff, but exercise keeps it feeling fine. The shoulder stretches are something Dante of DC Training recommends, so I figure I'd give them a shot. )

No abs or lowerback - felt worked okay by squats and deads.

[zcsmith]

Good start, GOOD START! I like your strategy of easing into your workouts. You should be throwing around some pretty decent weight in no time!

Is your diet something that you can stick with, for the long haul? Hey, don't be afraid to have a little bit more for breakfast, arguably the most important meal of the day. Throw in some cottage cheese maybe, something like that?

Just a thought - good luck!

[cawiau]

Originally Posted by zcsmith

Good start, GOOD START! I like your strategy of easing into your workouts. You should be throwing around some pretty decent weight in no time!

Is your diet something that you can stick with, for the long haul? Hey, don't be afraid to have a little bit more for breakfast, arguably the most important meal of the day. Throw in some cottage cheese maybe, something like that?

Just a thought - good luck!

X 2!!!

Keep up the good work!

[Cluber]

Good start, keep it up. As far as the lifting weigth goes. It's all good bro, especially with rotator cuff problems, I started lifting again on 1-17-07 and my dumbass blew out my shoulder within a couple of weeks. Basically made me waste half the year on lifting, still did it but with some lite ass weigth. Did make me concentrate on cardio though. we are almost the same age, I was 325lbs when I started to lift, Was heavier before,

I Wanna say i was easily past 340 at one point.I had got down to 245lbs before i did a mini bulk /recomp the last 2 months and the holidays lol I am up to 255 now but I know I will drop those 10 pounds fast. Mostly water me thinks.

Good luck!

[Librarygorilla]

Originally Posted by zcsmith

Good start, GOOD START! I like your strategy of easing into your workouts. You should be throwing around some pretty decent weight in no time!

Is your diet something that you can stick with, for the long haul? Hey, don't be afraid to have a little bit more for breakfast, arguably the most important meal of the day. Throw in some cottage cheese maybe, something like that?

Just a thought - good luck!

Thanks!

The workout was great today. The short rest periods made it a real workout despite the weights, and I have that 'ah' feeling of a good workout.

The diet is temporary by design - eight weeks at the outside. I was thinking about having cottage cheese with breakfast, so great minds and all.

Today it was challenging eating enough. Physically, I weather low calories pretty well. Mentally, I have to fight the urge to eat until I'm busting a gut, which is the problem. But the cheat meal and, more importantly, the finite duration should help.

Hopefully.

After this I'm going to transition into a more moderate diet. The aim is to get away from old habits on this phase, and move to the decent eating style.

Speaking of which, how today went:

Protein Drink: 150 Calories

String Cheese: 80 Calories

Protein Drink: 150 Calories

String Cheese: 80 Calories

Protein Drink: 150 Calories

String Cheese: 80 Calories

Recovery Drink: 400 Calories

Ground Beef: 400 Calories

Cheese: 200 Calories

Nuts: 100 Calories

1790 for calories, right around 200 grams of protein.

Ah, there was spinach and a wee bit o' onions consumed, but I didn't figure the stuff for them.

Not too bad.

[Librarygorilla]

Originally Posted by Cluber

Good start, keep it up. As far as the lifting weigth goes. It's all good bro, especially with rotator cuff problems, I started lifting again on 1-17-07 and my dumbass blew out my shoulder within a couple of weeks. Basically made me waste half the year on lifting, still did it but with some lite ass weigth. Did make me concentrate on cardio though. we are almost the same age, I was 325lbs when I started to lift, Was heavier before,

I Wanna say i was easily past 340 at one point.I had got down to 245lbs before i did a mini bulk /recomp the last 2 months and the holidays lol I am up to 255 now but I know I will drop those 10 pounds fast. Mostly water me thinks.

Good luck!

Thanks!

It's interesting about the cuff - if I don't do the exercises (which I cribbed from a t-nation article by either Mike Robertson or Eric Cressey) then my shoulder starts to ache even when I don't do a damn thing.

I'm thinking by the time I get to challenging upper body weight (probably 4-6 weeks) my rotator will be up to snuff.

Good work on your weight loss!

[Librarygorilla]

Originally Posted by cawiau

X 2!!!

Keep up the good work!

Thanks, you too!

[tman196]

Good luck bro!

[Librarygorilla]

A minor rant.

There was a middle age guy with what I think was his son in the gym today. The son is somewhere in his mid teens, around six foot and maybe 130 pounds.

You read that right. Upper arms like my wrist.

Nothing wrong with that, everybody has to start somewhere. But the Dad had this kid working with weights that were clearly way out of his league. The kid was lifting his butt as far off the bench as it could go, and was swinging his curls up.

The thing that bugged me is that the Dad was doing the same exercises in good clean form, and didn't try to help the kid out. Even worse, they were there the last time I went to the gym, and the kid hasn't gained an ounce of muscle or, as far as I can tell, strength.

I don't get it.

The kid looked enthusiastic, so I don't think his Dad was forcing him to be there and he was just going through the (spastic) motions. Honestly, if the kid had been there alone, I'd have helped him learn the form.

Like I said, I don't get it.

[Librarygorilla]

Originally Posted by tman196

Good luck bro!

Thanks, man!

[cawiau]

Originally Posted by Librarygorilla

A minor rant.

There was a middle age guy with what I think was his son in the gym today. The son is somewhere in his mid teens, around six foot and maybe 130 pounds.

You read that right. Upper arms like my wrist.

Nothing wrong with that, everybody has to start somewhere. But the Dad had this kid working with weights that were clearly way out of his league. The kid was lifting his butt as far off the bench as it could go, and was swinging his curls up.

The thing that bugged me is that the Dad was doing the same exercises in good clean form, and didn't try to help the kid out. Even worse, they were there the last time I went to the gym, and the kid hasn't gained an ounce of muscle or, as far as I can tell, strength.

I don't get it.

The kid looked enthusiastic, so I don't think his Dad was forcing him to be there and he was just going through the (spastic) motions. Honestly, if the kid had been there alone, I'd have helped him learn the form.

Like I said, I don't get it.

HAHAHA!!!!
In my gym is something else. This father started bringing his son to the gym, and not once since I was here...did they ever work legs!

Their workout schedule is as follow
Monday -> Biceps / Chest
Tuesday -> Triceps / Back
Wednesday -> Biceps /Chest
Thursday -> Triceps / Back
Friday -> Biceps / Chest
Saturday -> Triceps / Back
.
.
.
For 6 months same thing.
His upper body is huge...but the skinniest chicken legs I ever seen!

[Librarygorilla]

Originally Posted by cawiau

HAHAHA!!!!
In my gym is something else. This father started bringing his son to the gym, and not once since I was here...did they ever work legs!

Their workout schedule is as follow
Monday -> Biceps / Chest
Tuesday -> Triceps / Back
Wednesday -> Biceps /Chest
Thursday -> Triceps / Back
Friday -> Biceps / Chest
Saturday -> Triceps / Back
.
.
.
For 6 months same thing.
His upper body is huge...but the skinniest chicken legs I ever seen!

Hey, they copied my highschool routine!

Except they took Sundays off, the sissies.



True fact: I got arms up to twenty inches my senior year. Fatceps rather than biceps, alas.

[smc]

Looks good man, dont ever get discouraged by your weight, as it can be very decieving. Remember we are mostly water.

I found using lighter weights like you do, with EXPLOSIVE movement gave me awesome results.. Although, for the most part, I stick in the lower rep-ranges with the heaviest weights I can deal with. We're all different. Rep #'s and Weight #'s don't mean **** in the end, it's the results you get.

Keep up the good work.

-Steve

ps... are you using creatine or any BCAA? I suggest both.

[Librarygorilla]

Originally Posted by smc

ps... are you using creatine or any BCAA? I suggest both.

Yep, both. In the morning and pre and post workout. I've had good results with them previously.

[zcsmith]

Originally Posted by smc

We're all different. Rep #'s and Weight #'s don't mean **** in the end, it's the results you get.

Spoken for truth there. Heck, you can do a housework for an hour to break a good sweat as long as you are reaching the goals you set.

[Rsquared]

Lookin good bro keep up the GOOD work.You'll be hitin those goals in no time.

[phoenixr2]

good luck and good job on deciding to make a change. Keep with it man, and you know TEAM D has got your back!

[Librarygorilla]

Thanks, dude. Team D is going to rock and RULE!

[Librarygorilla]

Morning comes, and I am feeling faintly sore, which isn't too bad after a long layoff. Could really sleep last night, so I've been getting some work done and posting like a fiend.

Getting ready to head off to the gym in a bit. Just cardio today.