Imp's fat loss log...because why not?

[Imp81318]

I had a really good weekend - I went slightly over my calories both days, but I stayed well under maintenance so other than water weight from the extra carbs, no harm done to my progress. Overall, my weight loss has remained steady at 1.4-1.6 lb/week. I feel great heading into this week - work stress has calmed down considerably, and things are looking up. I had a great weekend at home with the family, got to enjoy some beautiful weather, play outside, do some general work around the house, etc. Looking forward, I can see that the next 2 weekends are not going to be kind to me at all.

This coming weekend we'll be traveling to visit the in-laws and I just won't feel right about eating the types of food that have become my new 'normal' on this cut - for example, I think it'd raise a few eyebrows if I asked for 4 scrambled eggs for breakfast. I'm going to have to try really hard to strike some kind of balance between the 'acceptable' family interactions and socializing and sticking to my goals for weight loss. I anticipate going off the rails a bit, but all in all I should be able to keep it in check to some degree - I think the most likely outcome will be that I won't hit my macros but my total calories may not be too bad...

The following weekend is going to kill my weight loss in every way imaginable. I'll be going out with some friends for dinner in Philadelphia Friday night, followed by a whiskey bar, then brunch out on Saturday followed by attending a hockey game. I see way too many carbs, fats, deliciousness, and booze in store. But it going to be a TON of fun!

[PeteDenmark]

Solid progress man. Congrats.

[Imp81318]

Thanks. Feels good, that's for sure!

[Imp81318]

Week in Review:

Protein/Fat/Total Cals
Goal: 152 / 79 / 2,030
Sat: 129 / 96 / 2,152
Sun: 165 / 90 / 2,108
Mon: 158 / 80 / 2,062
Tue: 142 / 85 / 2,050
Wed: 144 / 74 / 2,083
Thu: 182 / 86 / 2,124
Fri: 166 / 82 / 2,698

Weekly Avg: 155 / 85 / 2,182

__________________________________________________ _____________________________________________

My workouts were good this week - I hit all three of my planned workouts hard and with high energy. I have been noticing that my lower body workouts really aren't pushing my muscles at all anymore with the amount of weight that I have available for use at home. I'm not sure what to do about this problem, except to maybe try to add more dynamic movements to work the muscles explosively since I am unable to simply load up more weight - things like swapping out my work sets of squats for jumping squats. I'll have to do a little bit of research to find other ways to increase the load/work on the muscles using exercises that rely primarily on body weight. I've also noticed in general that when I do my 'at-home' workouts I have been finishing the workout with more energy and feeling like I could keep going this week. I guess it is time to change things up a little bit/increase weights/resistance to make sure that I continue to push myself at home. I find it much easier to keep pushing myself in the class environment when there is someone else suggesting I try the next harder version of an exercise rather than relying on myself to do it.

My nutrition was pretty good all week, until last night. And I actually did pretty well yesterday, even with fitting my macros around eating on the road, right up until we decided to hang out with some friends last night and I broke down and ate a serving of potato chips and had a glass (ok, three) of wine. I was glad that I was able to limit myself to a single serving of chips rather than repeatedly going back for more like I normally would have in the past. And for as much as I enjoyed the chips while I was eating them, when I entered the info into my phone at the end of the night I found myself wishing I hadn't done it. For me, at least, that is a huge sign to myself that I really am starting to change the way that I approach food and think about eating.

After a carb-heavy breakfast consisting of bagels, lox, and cream cheese I am positioned to stay within my calorie goal for the day in theory. In reality, I am sure that I'll eat some rice or potatoes with dinner that I haven't accounted for, in addition to veggies (also not accounted for at this point) and there is a good chance that more wine will be consumed tonight. So, I anticipate going over my calorie goal pretty badly again today, but I should be able to keep it manageable and within reason, even while enjoying myself and socializing with family so I'll call it a glowing win for the first weekend out of town since I've started to change my eating ways.

[lukepeter]

Those are some mighty fine macro's there... Wish I could say I was as diligent in my adherence this week

You are getting such great momentum now man, keep on keeping on!

[PeteDenmark]

Your macros and overall energy looks spot on, so no worries.

Regarding leg training, lunges are really easy to make progressively harder, without owning a lot of weight equipment. If you put your one foot up on a chair/bench behind your in the "rear foot elevated lunge", you will feel the burn, especially if you have a couple of dumbbells in your hands.
Overhead barbell walking lunges (or just do overhead lunges in place) are also a great option, and will kill the core at the same time, and improve your mobility. But focus on form, not weight. Don't sweat it, if you have to do 20-30 reps before you hit failure - high reps are fine for us natties.

http://www.howtobeast.com/train-lowe...ats-deadlifts/

[Imp81318]

Those are some mighty fine macro's there... Wish I could say I was as diligent in my adherence this week

You are getting such great momentum now man, keep on keeping on!

Thanks! I got the idea to start posting the weekly macro updates from reading your log and PeteDenmark's and I really like the chance to look back on my week. Up until now, I've been allowing myself to go over my total calories occasionally but I'd always make it up the next day. It wasn't until I read back over my last post that I realized that I went over my calorie goal every day this week. I'm still seeing the results on the scale and in the mirror, but I think this is a good warning that I might be starting to relax a bit, which could lead to problems down the road if I'm not careful.

Your macros and overall energy looks spot on, so no worries.

Regarding leg training, lunges are really easy to make progressively harder, without owning a lot of weight equipment. If you put your one foot up on a chair/bench behind your in the "rear foot elevated lunge", you will feel the burn, especially if you have a couple of dumbbells in your hands.
Overhead barbell walking lunges (or just do overhead lunges in place) are also a great option, and will kill the core at the same time, and improve your mobility. But focus on form, not weight. Don't sweat it, if you have to do 20-30 reps before you hit failure - high reps are fine for us natties.

http://www.howtobeast.com/train-lowe...ats-deadlifts/

Thanks for the link! I've been doing dumbbell squats holding my two largest dumbbells at my shoulders in a kind of modified goblet squat and lunges holding the heaviest weights I have. I can start to feel 'failure' at the end of my lunges just in terms of reduced stability and balance, it doesn't really feel all that difficult for my glutes at this point. My squats are really just feeling easy at this point. I'm going to start trying out some elevated lunges and single leg box squats this week.

[Imp81318]

I had a great weekend spending time with family and relaxing, but it was horrible for my personal fitness/body goals. In three days (Friday - Sunday) I averaged 533 calories over my goal, which means that I averaged right around maintenance. Actually not quite as bad as I thought. I ended up skipping my normal Sunday workout, and for personal/professional reasons I do not expect to make it up this week. I'll do my best to squeeze in my three regular workouts, but don't expect to do anything 'extra', which I'm finding is my norm no matter how badly I want to be able to fit more in.

Despite this past weekend, I noticed just the other day that my belt seemed to have stretched out quite a bit. Upon looking at how tight I had pulled it (I always put it on by when it feels tight, not targeting a specific hole) I noticed that I am about 3 holes smaller than where I used to wear it! I was absolutely shocked at that realization. It was also nice to see that despite eating significantly more calories than my current normal over the weekend, including much more carbs than I've been eating lately, my weight was not up at all this morning - in fact I weighed exactly the same as I did last Thursday morning. I really expected to be carrying a few pounds of extra water weight to start the week off.

[Imp81318]

Week in Review:

Protein/Fat/Total Cals
Goal: 152 / 79 / 2,030
Sat: 174 / 102 / 2,295
Sun: 145 / 124/ 2,692
Mon: 187 / 94 / 1,978
Tue: 141 / 74 / 1,896
Wed: 123 / 79 / 1,830
Thu: 190 / 81 / 2,067
Fri: -- / -- / --

Weekly Avg: 160 / 92 / 2,126 (Sunday through Thursday)

__________________________________________________ _____________________________________________

My nutrition was spot on this week, except for last Saturday-Sunday which I already covered in an earlier post. Unfortunately, working long days when I went to work, coupled with taking care of my sick daughter all week meant that I had no time for exercise this week. Yesterday was just one of those days where I hardly found the time to eat at all throughout the day. Nutrition was actually generally on track until I met up with friends for dinner and drinks. We had a great time, and I had no regrets with the extra calories I was taking in. Unfortunately, we had a little bit too much fun and at the end of the night all of those extra calories came right back out.

Today my calories look good, but I am tracking to come up short on protein. Hoping to start the new week off with a good workout tomorrow.

[Imp81318]

I had a good workout on Sunday, but I can feel my determination waning a bit... In the beginning of this journey, working out was a priority for me. Now, as life has gotten busy these past several weeks, I can feel that it is one of the first things to get nixed from my weekly schedule to clear some time. I still enjoy my workouts when I do them, but I am finding it easier and easier to brush them aside. I'm not sure what I can do about this at the moment, but I KNOW that I have to make some kind of change. I WANT exercising/working out to be a part of my normal routine and not something that I have to find a way to 'fit in'. Perhaps the key will be to force myself to do it after putting the kids down at night when I'm mentally tired from the day and really just want to relax for a few minutes before falling asleep. I thought that I would start getting up early to work out in the morning, but so far that hasn't happened.

I did switch up a few of the exercises in my workout on Sunday and for the first time in a while I felt some soreness in my glutes yesterday and today... I'm definitely liking the lunges with one leg elevated and single leg box squats. Thanks for the tips, Peter!

[lukepeter]

I wish there was a silver bullet that got me up and into the gym without fail, alas, it doesn't work that way... I have trained in three different time slots over the last 9 months, sometimes in the mornings before work (requires significant night before prep so kids can be fed, dressed etc. before I leave at 6:15), sometimes at night (requires sacrifice of husband-wife quality time as kids are asleep), now mostly during the work day in my lunch break(requires higher intensity to get routine complete in 30 mins - this is hard to do on a deficit).

Essentially, each option is a trade off - I imagine you will be in a similar situation... Good luck finding the sweet spot, but ultimately there will be a sacrifice to be made - what remains is to judge if the price remains reasonable when compared with your goals.

[Imp81318]

Yeah, I know there is no magic secret for fitting exercise into my daily routine, I just have to find something that works for me consistently I think. For the first month or so it was working really well for me to leave work after exactly 8 hours and rush home to work out before dinner. And that worked really well for me since I didn't have any deadlines or anything to interrupt my ability to leave promptly a few days each week. Fast forward to now when it seems like every project I'm working on is time-critical and I'm constantly under the gun and I can't get out of work early enough to have time to work out before dinner. Which means that each one of my workouts gets delayed until "tomorrow", and "tomorrow" never comes. Earlier this morning, having already decided to write off my ability to work out after work tonight, I decided that I'd force myself to get up early and hit it hard tomorrow morning. But now I'm thinking that I'm going to need to get up early to do some professional work in the morning tomorrow rather than exercising. I guess I'll just have to resort to working out after the kids go to bed and give up that little bit of quiet quality time with my wife...

[lukepeter]

I can certainly appreciate that work can be a huge stumbling block, but you need to take care of yourself also. an 8 hour shift coupled with a further 6 hours of work at home has got to be soul destroying - even if you just take a 15 minute break every now and then to take a walk it will be better than submerging yourself in work grind night after night. I tried sticking to my guns during my recent plant shut (12-16 hours of pretty grueling work a day) and managed to get into the gym, sometimes only for 20 mins, but enough to allay my conscience, and give me a little bit of a emotional recharge.

By de-prioritizing your workouts you are setting a precedent for relapse - I have noticed that the better I get with time management the more work I seem to accumulate, but at some point, you need to say no and care for your personal interests also. an hour here and there to get your workout in should not have enough of an effect on the project so as to derail it, but the effect of consistently missing training in favor of work will have a big effect on your progress here, and on your general health and happiness

It really is a conundrum, especially when training eats into husband wife time, perhaps invest in a few db's that you can use to train at home while watching a movie with the missus, or in short work breaks - some lifting is certainly better than no lifting

[Imp81318]

I hear everything you are saying, but as you are well aware it is easier said than done. The past few weeks have been really unusual for me with getting large assignments handed to me with near (best-case scenario) impossible deadlines - tasks requiring minimum of 2-3 days given to me at 3:00PM and asked to have it done by the end of the day. I'm not faulting my company or supervisors for this either - we just had a crazy time with client demands and huge proposal efforts that all came to a head at once - but it did make it very difficult to fit in time for myself. This week has been more of the same - not being overly busy with work, but busy personal life coupled with the normal consistent pressure from work. Add onto that finding out a very dear friend of ours is heading to a divorce last night and I prioritized talking about that situation with my wife over working out. Tonight we have dinner with friends planned for after work - I woke up early and did a bit of work before the kids woke up this morning so that hopefully I'll feel comfortable leaving the office with enough time to squeeze in my workout before dinner.

I realize that all I am doing is justifying and rationalizing my lack of attention and dedication to my workout program. I'm fully aware of that fact. And I hate that part of my personality - all too often I find excuses not to do things that I truly enjoy out of laziness. For the first time in my life I have found a workout routine/program that I am enjoying and I actually look forward to doing, I feel great, I'm eating better, I look better, and I'm getting EXACTLY the results that I am trying for and yet out of sheer laziness I can't fit it into my regular routine consistently. How in the world do I seriously think that this is going to become part of my 'regular' lifestyle and something I will keep up with long-term (and that is absolutely my plan and intention as I start on this journey?

Thanks for the reply, and for reading LUke. Please, don't ever think that your input and insights are not appreciated - they are greatly appreciated, even if only as reaffirmation of my own thoughts. I'm just getting frustrated with myself right now, that's all.

[lukepeter]

You are not alone. I think the ability to justify our inactivity is a huge part of what got everyone going through the same thing we are into the mess in the first place. Noted, reading my posts above I do come off a little preachy - this being the internet I tend to share whats on my mind with minimal thought to subtlety or compassion so if I am overbearing just tell me to back off

I am sure work will normalize and you will get your usual routine back on the go, I will continue to post about it from time to time here (as I hope you will do if you sense I am slipping on my side) as I see it as a core function of the forum, strength through common purpose. Its a repeating cycle - be consistent to stay consistent, stay consistent to be consistent... maddening

[Imp81318]

Trust me, I greatly appreciate your posts and efforts to keep not just me, but EVERYONE with a log on-track. You're doing yeoman work in this subforum. I was hoping that my post wasn't coming off as resisting your input... I greatly VALUE your input and absolutely do not want you to back off in giving it. Keep the sage advice coming, my friend!

[Imp81318]

Luke, thanks in part to your posts today I decided to leave the office a little early (i.e. Only put in 30 minutes of overtime this evening rather than the hour I was planning on) today so I could squeeze in a workout before our dinner plans. Since I was short on time, I decided to cut almost all of the cardio portions of my workout and focus strictly on the strength/resistance stuff. I really have to say that I enjoy the workouts that I've been doing, but today felt especially good, both during and now as I sit here post-workout. I think I am going to re-evaluate my how I'm approaching my workouts a bit and focus more on strength training with maybe 1 or 2 quick bouts of cardio mixed in at the end rather than doing cardio mixed in throughout the session like I have been. Keeping with the HIIT/timed work/rest interval approach should still keep my heart rate up throughout the workout so I'll get some cardiovascular benefit from my workouts, while having more energy and 'breath' to attack the strength/resistance exercises harder.

[Imp81318]

I had good workouts on Wednesday and Friday last week, but unfortunately I wasn't able to stay disciplined and work out Sunday while traveling and spending time with family. Despite the time away, I believe I was able to hit my macros really well all weekend, so I don't think any damage was done to my progress despite the holiday dinner yesterday (only caveat is that I didn't have a scale with me so I had to estimate all my portions, but I feel pretty good in general about what I ate). I'll post my weekly macro update later when I have a bit more time, but for now here's my updated side-by-side comparison of where I started to this morning (Feb 16 on the left/top, April 17 on the right/bottom):


Font:





Side:



I am significantly more bloated than I was at the end of last week and my weight is up a little over a pound. I am assuming/guessing that I'm holding water right now, which seems to be par for the course for me - drop weight throughout the week to a new low by Thursday/Friday, and then immediately start retaining water and jump back up to where I was the previous week. It all averages out in the end, and I know that I'm really losing weight, but it gets a bit frustrating to be happy with how I look toward the end of the week just to see myself swell back up like this every week. Stupid water is stupid.

[Imp81318]

Last Week's Calorie Review:

Protein/Fat/Total Cals
Goal: 152 / 79 / 2,030
Sat: 114 / 91 / 1,693
Sun: 154 / 51 / 1,881
Mon: 154 / 73 / 2,238
Tue: 174 / 85 / 1,982
Wed: 152 / 81 / 2,239
Thu: 157 / 81 / 1,780
Fri: 155 / 84 / 1,841

Weekly Avg: 151 / 78 / 1,950

__________________________________________________ _____________________________________________

Feeling good heading into the new week, and looking forward to hitting my workout hard tonight after work!

[Imp81318]

My wife decided to order pizza and cheesesteaks for dinner last night to break Passover. Based on some online articles, I estimate the typical cheesesteak has around 900 calories. Much to my surprise, I actually fit this into my macros quite well - ended the day a bit shy on my protein but everything else, including total calories, was right in line. I never would have guessed that it would work out that way, but I'll take it. I fully expected to be carrying some extra water weight this morning after the carb-heavy dinner last night, but I was actually DOWN from where I weighed in yesterday morning.

I skipped the workout last night after working late and having a nice dinner with the family, but today is my regular workout day anyway. I don't foresee any reason not to hit my workout tonight.

[lukepeter]

You are being very consistent Imp. Its inspiring - keep it up.

[Imp81318]

Thanks Luke. As I know you can relate, it is so easy for us to see the positives in everyone else's journey while it is much easier to focus on the negatives or set-backs in our own. For me, this is every skipped workout day, every late workout, every failure to fit in an "extra workout" that isn't really part of my normal routine anyway, etc. I try to making up for it by being incredibly meticulous with my nutrition, and I have found that tracking everything so closely has made it much easier for me to avoid the little deviations that lead to big relapses. Your chocolate is my potato chip - one is too many and one bag is never enough. My plan for when I hit my initial goal is actually to buy a bag of my favorite brand of potato chips as a reward to myself. I'm sure at the end of the day/week when the bag is gone I'll regret it, but that will just be further confirmation that this journey is for real this time.


Last night when I didn't exercise right after work like I had planned to. I decided to make dinner so my wife could exercise since she didn't get to on her normal exercise day Monday. Unlike every other time this has happened, though, I was able to force myself to work out after the kids went to bed, about 4 hours later than I normally do it. Much to my surprise, I had a really great workout. I increased my resistance/difficulty on nearly all of my exercises compared to last week. Since I'm following my own routine, I don't have a clearly built-in progression system so I have to constantly remember to remain more vigilant about constantly challenging myself. Here is my basic routine:

In general, I'm doing timed sets, not a set number of reps. I generally start to increase resistance when I notice that I'm either doing more reps in the last set or two, or when I notice that I'm working through the last set without reaching failure. Each set is a 30 second work period followed by 15 seconds of rest unless noted below. I do not take any additional rests between exercises unless I need to re-configure equipment:

Warmup:
Squats - Bodyweight + 50lbs (larges weights I have right now) - 2 sets
Chest Press - 2 sets
Straight arm dumbbell raises - 2 sets
Lunges + 20 lbs - 2 sets

Work Sets:
Push-ups - 3 sets
Lat Pulls - 3 sets
Overhead Press - 3 sets
Ab Rollouts - 3 sets
Single Leg Box Squats - 2 sets ea. Leg (need to find a lower box and/or to add weight at current box level)
Lunge w/ rear leg elevated - 2 sets ea. Leg (need to add weight next time, body weight only last night)
Jump Rope - 4 sets

Cool down:
Planks - 3 sets, one ea. Side, one standard
Stretching

[PeteDenmark]

Your training looks great. Many of the exercises you do taxes the core, which is the basis for progression in all other areas strengths wise. If you keep this up, you will see results very fast. Progression pics?

Great job man.

[Imp81318]

Your training looks great. Many of the exercises you do taxes the core, which is the basis for progression in all other areas strengths wise. If you keep this up, you will see results very fast. Progression pics?

Great job man.

Thanks. I wish I had enough weight to make squats and deadlifts challenging, but for now I'm just working with what I have available and I've tried to put together a routine that works my entire body with that equipment. You're certainly much more experienced with working out than I am, so please let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement.

And I did just post a side-by-side comparison of where I started and where I was as of April 17th a couple of days ago. Not a drastic transformation yet, but there are visible differences and my clothes are absolutely fitting differently.

[PeteDenmark]

Thanks. I wish I had enough weight to make squats and deadlifts challenging, but for now I'm just working with what I have available and I've tried to put together a routine that works my entire body with that equipment. You're certainly much more experienced with working out than I am, so please let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement.

And I did just post a side-by-side comparison of where I started and where I was as of April 17th a couple of days ago. Not a drastic transformation yet, but there are visible differences and my clothes are absolutely fitting differently.

Oh - sorry. I don't know how those got by me. Yeah - the difference is very noticeable.
I truly think your programme looks very rounded, so no real reason to change anything up. And seriously - don't sweat that you don't enough weights for now - just do more reps. If you have to do 30 before you hit failure, then do that. The 8-12 rep range isn't the holy grail. If you did 50 push ups a day, believe me - your chest would develop.

[Imp81318]

I know that I whine about bloating every time it is time for progress pictures, but it is real. Here is the difference that 3 days has made for me:

April 16:


April 19:

[Imp81318]

Oh - sorry. I don't know how those got by me. Yeah - the difference is very noticeable.
I truly think your programme looks very rounded, so no real reason to change anything up. And seriously - don't sweat that you don't enough weights for now - just do more reps. If you have to do 30 before you hit failure, then do that. The 8-12 rep range isn't the holy grail. If you did 50 push ups a day, believe me - your chest would develop.

Thanks, man. I can't help but laugh at 50 pushups at this point.... I just added that particular exercise because my chest wasn't progressing so I figured I should work it a bit more. Right now, I'm maxing out at 12, 6, and 4 reps on my 3 sets and then holding a plank for the remaining time.

[Imp81318]

Last Week's Calorie Review:

Protein/Fat/Total Cals
Goal: 152 / 79 / 2,030
Sat: 153 / 136 / 2,063
Sun: 146 / 124 / 2,086
Mon: 149 / 92 / 2,038
Tue: 185 / 96 / 2,062
Wed: 154 / 69 / 2,101
Thu: 124 / 117 / 1,976
Fri: 100 / 55 / 1,557 (Projected)

Weekly Avg: 144 / 98 / 1,983

__________________________________________________ _____________________________________________

I've been much more tired this week in general in the evenings. I'm not sure if it is somehow related to my nutrition, or waking up two to three times every night with my daughter the last few nights (unfortunately, this is not uncommon for me). Workouts have been good, and I'm ready to hit it hard tonight after work. Tipped the scales at a new low this morning of 182.6 lbs, 2.6 lbs above my target weight. My 7-day average weight is 183.5lbs, just 3.5 lbs away from my goal. I can already tell that I'm not going to be happy at my goal, so I'm starting to think about how low I am really going to want to take my weight - unlike other attempts to lose weight I'm actually enjoying the process this time and I do not foresee myself stopping any time soon - stopping with weight loss, or exercising/working out as part of my regular routine.

I'm going to a spring scrimmage football game with friends tomorrow so I'll be drinking too much beer, and eating foods that do not fit into my macros (hot dogs, bratwurst, hamburgers, chips, etc). I plan to track things as closely as I can estimate my portions, but I'm going to relax and enjoy myself and the food and time with friends tomorrow. My thinking right now is that days like this will happen even after I hit my target and have transitioned to long-term maintenance so I might as well start figuring out the real impact of cutting loose for a day and see how I respond to it in the days following. I keep telling myself that I'm going to relax and not worry about macros/calories tomorrow, but in the next breath I told my wife not to count on me for any rolls/bread because I really don't need the carbs. We'll see how it goes...haha...

[Imp81318]

Today was by far my worst day. I ended up close to 1,500 kcal over my gpal which means around 1,000 kcal over maintenance for the day.

[lukepeter]

The "cheat day" is always going to be a duel edged sword, it's right there in the name, no man feels good after cheating, be it in a sports game, in a video game, or in life, it cheapens the reward associated... The truth is, it wasn't a cheat day, you were eating in line with the goals you set yourself (one of those was not to be so restrictive that it effected your normal existence negatively as I recall). I am a firm believer in a moderate over maintenance day from time to time in this process, it's like putting fresh tyres on your car, it gives you the mental stamina to continue on the journey safely and reduces the chances of an uncontrolled binge.

Well done for tracking it, and for keeping it reasonable. Don't beat yourself up, move on move up, a nessesary evil.