From Fluff to Buff

[janivl]

This is something new for me, but a log like this might help me make sense of it all.

Starting Stats
Age: 28
Height: 6'3, 1m91
Weight: 313lbs, 142kg.
Body Fat%: not measured.

During my youth I've always been an athletic guy: I did competitive football, karate and swimming. I trained hard and loved it, until I went to university. There I dropped all sports and just ate and drank my way to where I am right now.
The last year I picked up running and improved my fitness quite a bit, but I hardly adapted my eating habits, which consist of a lot of snacking (cookies, candy) and the occasional fast food.

I'm sick of the half-assed attempts at changing my lifestyle, approaching 30: it's time to flip the switch for real before the magic number 3 arrives.

Goal
Priorities:
1. Weight loss to around 220 lbs, 100kg.
2. Build lean muscle and continuously improve myself.

Why?
I want to live a healthy life, be active, be fit, participate in sports again and just generally feel good about myself.

Program
I've fully bought into the Athlean-X philosophy of Jeff Cavaliere. I started out with the Inferno Max Shred program last week. A 12 week program with a strong focus on high intensity cardio in the form of bodyweight exercises, gradually adding more weight lifting in the mix.
I'm going to repeat week 1 a few times until I'm comfortable with the basic exercises (mainly the burst workouts and jump rope routines) before moving to week 2.

After Shred, if the results are there and I'm enjoying the program, I'll probably repeat the 12 week plan at a higher alarm level (the program is fully scalable, of course I'm starting at the lowest level and likely won't move to level 2 in the firstr 12 weeks) before moving on to Inferno Max Size.

Food
I'm sticking to 2150 calories right now at a 40/35/25 protein/carbs/fats split. It's a high deficit, but considering my copious reserves of fat, I think I can take it. I will listen to my body and how I feel in the gym to evaluate this.
My focus is on clean eating, getting as much of my macronutrients from whole food sources as I can. This will mean a lot of chicken, eggs, brown rice, tuna, broc****, milk and oats.

Supplements
---Morning---
1 Fish oil pill (Optimum Nutrition, ON)
1 Multivitamin pill (ON)
1 Scoop of whey in my breakfast shake (ON)
---Lunch---
1 Fish oil pill (Optimum Nutrition, ON)
1 Multivitamin pill (ON)
1 Green Tea Extract pill (Now Foods)
---Pre-Workout---
1 Scoop C4 Extreme (Cellucor)
---Post-Workout---
1 Scoop of whey (ON)
---Dinner---
1 Fish oil pill (Optimum Nutrition, ON)
1 Multivitamin pill (ON)
---Bedtime---
1 Scoop of Casein (ON)
1 Scoop of Creatine (ON)

A lot of supplements, likely not all necessary, but I like how they make it easier for me to get enough protein per day and I also like the psychological effect. I know they are no magic formula, but the way I see it the (Nutrition + Training + Supplementation = Results) equation is the right one.








All of this is my starting position. I'll post updates every few days on how I feel, what my thoughts are and how things are going in general. This is mostly a lonely journey, so I hope I can get a bit of support from all of you

From Fluff to Buff starts here!

[janivl]

Changed up my nutrition a bit thanks to the help I received from this forum. Bumped my intake to 2400 kcal per day, with 200g protein, 80g fat and the rest filled with carbs.
Keeping track of it all via MyFitnessPal and my own Google Spreadsheet (where I include other variables). Going to stick with this for a month and see how my weight and measurements evolve, and whether I need to up my intake or not.

Exercise felt really good the last 2 days. Monday I had a mobilization circuit in the gym that drained me after I was done with the 5 rounds, about 20 minutes total. There's this one exercise that kills me near the end: lay down on the ground and put your heels on a bench, lift your butt in the air and walk in a controlled manner, squeezing your glutes and lower back. Doing the walking motion controlled without dropping your pelvis is intense, but also feels really good.
I tend to end my workout with about 15-20 minutes of "hiking" on the treadmill at about 3.5 mph at an incline.

Yesterday I went for a run, managed to do 4 miles in 45 minutes. Normally I have an intense burst workout in my program with a lot of jump rope and burpees etc, but when I tried that last week I was disabled for 2 days . So I'm slowly building up by repeating week 1 of the program until the end of May before diving into it completely.

Nutrition is going well. I've always had trouble eating breakfast, usually I wake up at 7, shower and I'm out the door by 7.30 on my way to work. I tried to always have some granola and greek yoghurt ready in the past, and tried overnight oats recipes the last 2 weeks, but I really cannot stomach oats. The consistency is simply disgusting.
I turned to a morning protein shake now with chia seeds, oats, a banana, peanut butter and whole milk (skim milk is horrible and whole milk fits perfectly in my macros). With the protein powder in it, it combines to 683kcal, 72g carbs, 25g fats and 45g protein, also fitting in 10g of fiber. I don't get hunger pangs before I have my noon lunch, it's quick and easy to make and tasted pretty good actually.
While I know it's better to eat real food instead of downing them in the form of a shake, it's a way I think I can keep on having a filling and nutritious breakfast and be consistent with it.

I'm still looking for some inspiration on this forum as to different recipes and what I can eat. A lot of ingredients are hard to come by in Belgium, but I'm looking at what I can find in online shops as well.
I'm a pretty good cook and have a solid handle on the basics so it's actually fun to approach meals more analytically.

Feeling good so far! I'm not hungry during the day, hit my macros easily and have plenty of energy to workout. Only note to self: no C4 pre-workout at 7pm.

[JSim83]

Hello janivl, I have question for you: What is the purpose of taking multivitamin pill three times a day? Aren't those usually supposed to be taken once a day? Anyways, Good luck to your journey!

[janivl]

Hello janivl, I have question for you: What is the purpose of taking multivitamin pill three times a day? Aren't those usually supposed to be taken once a day? Anyways, Good luck to your journey!

I'm following the recommendation on the bottle. This is the multi that I bought: .bodyenfitshop.nl/vitamines/vitamines-en-mineralen/optimum-nutrition/opti-men/

It's in Dutch though and I can't post links yet.

[janivl]

Don't want to get into the habit of doing daily updates, but I just made some really good chocolate protein peanut butter cookies: 174kcal, 2g carbs, 13g fats and 9g of protein a piece.

2 Large eggs
2 Scoops of Extreme Milk Chocolate Whey (ON)
1 Cup of 100% peanut butter
1/3 Cup of dark chocolate cocoa nibs
1/3 Cup of Stevia (not pure obviously)
5g Baking powder
Pinch of salt

More suited for bulking than cutting I reckon, because of how calorie dense these are for their size, but still an awesome snack to incorporate into my daily goals.

That's a big challenge for me: fight the old snacking habit and replace it by healthy options.

[janivl]

Almost a full week in, feeling good. I'm doing the same exercises as last week and felt considerably better yesterday already. I've got enough energy throughout the day, only have a bit of cravings in the evening but I can handle it and assume it will go away once my body gets used to not having something to snack on every evening.

Sleep has been a bit of an issue. I'm usually a pretty solid sleeper, but i've had some trouble getting my 7 hours in due to how busy things are at work. Even after busting my ass off in the gym I often still have to prepare things for work so I'm going to bed a bit more stressed out than I normally would. My piano practice has suffered as well, going to sit down and see how I can plan my evenings better and cut out wasted time.

Hitting my macro goals has been easy so far, and I'm eating things I like. My breakfast shake works wonders: I've always been an incredibly moody guy before 11am and now I think it's just because I did not eat in the morning. Getting up 15 minutes earlier to prepare my shake not only has a profound effect on my mood (or maybe it's the exercise), but it also really keeps me satiated until noon. Gone are the hunger pangs at 11am and running down to get a waffle from the vending machine.
I'm still spending a lot of time looking for alternatives to what I currently eat, in order to be flexible when I want to. The only thing that needs more attention from my end is fruit consumption: I have a banana in my breakfast shake and try to include an apple as one of my snack options.

Of course weight fluctuations over the course of 4 days is not going to mean much, but things have been going well. This is the spreadsheet I use to monitor my progress, just need to add body measurements to complete it (once I have a decent measuring tape to curl around my gutt). It's a mix of Dutch and English as I'm prone to do .

i.imgur.com/kcqkge1.png (can't post links yet)

I'll also put aside the shyness and take a "Before" picture, seeing progress through side-by-side comparisons of selfies is going to be a big motivator.

[janivl]

First week is as good as done, happy about how it went overall. Next week I am going to increase the training intensity by filling in 2 of my 3 rest days with cardio, before starting with the program in its full intensity as of May 1st. This week felt particularly good, I haven't suffered from crippling soreness like I did last week.

I have 1 more week with the same exercises I've done the last 2 weeks to focus on form. I'm excited and looking forward to it.

These are the final stats of the week:

Week 1

Starting Weight: 142,2 kg or 313,5 lbs
Final Weight: 140,5 kg or 309,7 lbs
Loss: 1,7 kg or 3,7 lbs
Average Calories per Day: 2333 (2.7% below my goal, but I'm happy with that considering it's more likely to underestimate intake)
Average Protein per Day: 199,2g
Average Fats: 83,6g
Average Carbs: 194,9g

Good week, goals reached, onto the next! I'm not going to worry too much if the weight loss is water weight or actual weight, I've seen a steady decline each day of the week and we'll see where we stand in another 3 weeks before re-evaluating, if necessary.

[Unseptium]

Dayum, this dedication is inspiring. Keep it up buddy!

[timbau]

Insane Keep it up!

[janivl]

Going to make it a thing to post an update on my 2 rest days of the week.

I'm starting to lose weight at a fairly rapid rate now. I ended Sunday at 140.3kg and the scale showed 138.9 this morning. Unless it levels out for the week, at this rate I'm going to lose close to 7-8lbs in 1 week.
I know that a lot of people advise against daily weigh-ins, but I'm still going to continue doing so in order to have a larger quantity of data points and see how weight fluctuates based on different variables.

Food has been a bit tough this week. I haven't been undereating, since it's easy to compensate with nuts/greek yoghurt/milk at the end of the day, but there were some long days at work which threw me off my eating schedule a bit. When I get home at around 10pm I'm not really in the mood to eat again, since I have about an hour before I need to go to bed.
I'll look for alternatives, especially on Monday when I have 3 hours of music class before hitting the gym at 9.30pm and on Thursday when I have 3 hours of Swedish language lessons. I'm usually home by 10.45pm then and all I can stomach are liquid calories that close to bedtime.

It's just going to take a bit of prep, which is all good.

Exercise was great the first 2 days. My Monday routine in the gym felt real good and my 50min run yesterday was great. My legs were not nearly as tired as last week and I managed to keep up the tempo and run about 5.5 miles in 51 minutes, which is a great pace for me. It was cold (only about 4°C) and rainy outside and I was in a really foul mood, but I got it done which made me proud.

I'm starting to bookmark a few motivational videos and such to get my spirit up when I'm not feeling it. Yesterday I was really dreading to go out and run and I was already on the couch about to give up. A simple video from a guy named Brix on YouTube, who managed a spectacular transformation, got me up and running (literally).

[JSim83]

I know that a lot of people advise against daily weigh-ins, but I'm still going to continue doing so in order to have a larger quantity of data points and see how weight fluctuates based on different variables.

I've been doing the same thing and at least for me it has worked well so far. I think it depends on how you react to the number you see on the scale, whether the daily weigh in is good or not. We are all individuals so of course there is no right or wrong here. I also like having as much data as possible to gauge my progression, therefore I do the daily weigh ins, take the progress pictures and measure my body with measure tape once a week.

It seems that your weight loss journey has started great. Keep going mate!

[janivl]

I've been doing the same thing and at least for me it has worked well so far. I think it depends on how you react to the number you see on the scale, whether the daily weigh in is good or not. We are all individuals so of course there is no right or wrong here. I also like having as much data as possible to gauge my progression, therefore I do the daily weigh ins, take the progress pictures and measure my body with measure tape once a week.

It seems that your weight loss journey has started great. Keep going mate!

Thanks man!

[janivl]

Bit of an unplanned update: tomorrow is the last soccer game of the season, going out with a few mates. I'm going to try not to worry too much and just enjoy it, but I will make at least a few plans to make sure I'm satiated before arriving at all the bratwurst and burger stalls. I'm not going to avoid the beer though, but I'll try to keep it contained.
It's kind of throwing me off a bit, as I've got this nagging feeling in the back of my head that I don't want to screw up this good thing I have going now. Then again, if I don't let off steam and have fun I'm not going to succeed most likely.

On Saturday we have another event planned and we are going to grab lunch together. I managed to convince everyone to go to the Argentinan steak house in the city, so I'll at least have some control over what I eat. One hard rule though: if I'm going to have beers on Friday, no alcohol on Saturday. I don't want 2 days in a row off my path.

It sounds stupid, but this is my first real test. Check back in on Sunday to see if I can withstand my old habits, I'm not going to lie here.

[JulieC26]

I hope you are doing well with your weightless journey! I really like how you are motivated and that you try to log regularly to post your stats!
And I do the same. I, too, have heard that checking weight on the scale on a daily basis is a bad habit, but I still do to track and record my status. It helps motivate me, whether it be up or down. Any who, good luck and I will follow up with you later to see how you're doing!

[janivl]

Week 2 is done! Roundup for the week, not counting Friday and Saturday since I did not count calories/macros. I definitely went above my goal on Friday with the beers and the longdrinks at the end of the night (always a bad idea but at least I took diet coke with them), but I don't think I went above my deficit. Yesterday I was pretty hungover and didn't eat too much. Had the best steak of my life at noon and created a "uitsmijter" (ham, cheese, eggs sunny side up on toast) to get some fats in (always helps with queasiness the next day). No alcohol yesterday though, so I'm proud .
Basically spent all day in bed after I got home in the afternoon, so I'm energized to go at it again today. No rest day, want to go for a long run since it's the last day of decent weather for the next 2 weeks.

Week 2

Starting Weight: 140,5 kg or 309,7 lbs
Final Weight: 138,6 kg or 305,5 lbs
Weekly Loss: 1,9 kg or 4,2 lbs
Cumulative Loss: 3,6 kg or 7,9 lbs
Average Calories per Day: 2413
Average Protein per Day: 201,8g
Average Fats: 95,25g (19% higher than my minimum, but not an issue. I thought 80g of fat would be hard to reach every day, now I find that it's harder to actually stay closer to 80 than 100. I'm going to keep on drinking whole milk though, the taste is simply far superior to skim milk).
Average Carbs: 178,5g

[lukepeter]

In for progress Jani.

Your starting stats are almost identical to what mine were, and we are similarly built - you have made great progress in short time, I am looking forward to vicariously living your transformation through your efforts

Strength and discipline.

Luke

PS: I just read that you ran 6.5km in 45 mins? Thats pretty darned respectable considering your current weight - being averse to cardio in general I would likely die if I attempted that

[janivl]

Thanks for the kind words Luke. Looking at your weekly progress on Bodyspace is impressive and motivates me to keep on pushing as well.

And yeah, I'm more athletic than a lot of people think. I've actually always exercised except from my 18th til 25th (my time at university basically) which is what made me get to 313 pounds in the first place. During my teens I was a good competitive swimmer and before that I played soccer and my dad brought me and my twin brother to karate practice every friday (he's a black belt). I was an extremely active kid but I was always a voracious eater as well. The high amount of exercise kept me somewhat lean, but I did not change my eating habits when I stopped training altogether, on the contrary I met this wonderful array of Belgian beers. My student life was filled with fast food and I grabbed a beer (or 5+) almost every night with my student buddies and on weekends with my mates back home.
I have to get around to posting pictures, but I know there's still a layer of muscle hidden beneath the fat and I don't really look like I'm 313 lbs. Still, can't escape reality and it needs to melt off before I can take up semi-competitive sports again. I'm happy I have this history of sports because it gave me a mental fortitude to hit the gym hard and I don't give up easily...

...but that's not where the challenge lies. Nutrition is my personal battle, giving up all the bad habits I accumulated over the years. The snacking, the binging, the fast food, candy, alcohol. I didn't approach my nutrition consciously and just acted on the impulses of my body. This is my biggest challenge: control those impulses and substitute the bad stuff for good stuff

I have a twin brother who is as lean as a door panel (and eats even worse than I do) and another brother who is a certified Crossfit trainer. All my siblings are basically either healthy & lean or simply ripped. I can't blame it on genetics

There are only 2 things I'm scared of:
- Loose skin (but that's infinitely better than not losing weight at all)
- Losing mass. Now of course I want to lose mass, but I'm a big guy and would like to remain a big guy. Simply a big guy with a lot less fat.

[janivl]

Short update:

Last few days have been solid: hitting my macros nicely and logging accurately. Exercise is getting better as well, did interval sprints yesterday.

The only thing that is bugging me is my weight, last 4 days look like this:
-Sunday: 138,6
-Monday: 139,3
-Tuesday: 138,3
-Wednesday: 138,6

Of course an incredibly small sample size but I've seen steady declines the rest of the 3 weeks, and now I'm stalling over these 4.

It pisses me off a bit, but I'm going to keep on keeping on. Target for the week is 137,6 on Sunday. Doesn't look like I'll make it.

[lukepeter]

Weight loss is not a linear graph in any sample size - It may show a decent linear trend after a year, but the ups and down are still painfully evident

Your very rapid first couple of weeks loss is indicative of some shedding of carb water retention, is your 200g carb macro target significantly less than you were eating before?

Really, don't sweat a slow week, there are so many ways your body can hold onto weight, while still losing fat - it stresses the importance of having other performance metrics for yourself (measurements, progress photos etc.). It is also why I advocate only weighing once a week, it removes some of the emotional rollercoastering associated with seeing a daily rise in weight and does something to smooth the data trend in the long run.

Trust in the science, if your macros are on point, you will be losing fat at a predictable rate.

[janivl]

The amount of carbs I'm consuming now is significantly lower than what I would've consumed regularly. I think I easily consume double that amount if left to my own devices.

I did have to move my belt one notch further today and my jacket is less tight than last time I wore it (it's freezing here, early May for crying out loud).

Rest day today, going to enjoy the extra time I have and practice piano and not worry too much about the opinion of the fickle scale

[lukepeter]

Had another look through your first post - your training philosophy is very different to mine and I am very keen to see how you respond to what is essentially a completely different paradigm.

Any particular reason you are taking so many multivitamins every day? you would be astonished to see what the actual vitamin content of your normal food is, and mutivitamins typically just make for expensive urine

Yup, if you halved your carb intake you would see drastic first weeks losses - try for a kg a week (it seems like that is your target anyway) as it can be sustained.

[janivl]

Had another look through your first post - your training philosophy is very different to mine and I am very keen to see how you respond to what is essentially a completely different paradigm.

Any particular reason you are taking so many multivitamins every day? you would be astonished to see what the actual vitamin content of your normal food is, and mutivitamins typically just make for expensive urine

Yup, if you halved your carb intake you would see drastic first weeks losses - try for a kg a week (it seems like that is your target anyway) as it can be sustained.

I'm taking the recommended dosage on the bottle of my multi. It's not too expensive, and I've seen some effects when it comes to the dark circles under my eyes at least. I've always had this dungeon tan under my eyes which gradually disappeared once I started taking a multivitamin about 2 years ago, even when still eating like a pig. I'm going to keep at it for now, it costs me €10 per month, which is fine.
It might not do much, but I doubt it really hurts as well. It's hard to properly estimate whether you actually get use out of one, but I'm a believer until I can be proven wrong

I'm not going to talk too much about my training program, as I don't want people to think this is an advertisement. I'm a believer of what Jeff Cavaliere preaches on his AthleanX youtube channel, a lot of it fits with how I was I coached in my teens and what my own brother learned at uni.
The program is a 12-week, 3 phase training plan that starts out with cardio/mobility body weight exercises (mostly high intensity, workouts last about 20-25 minutes). The first 3 weeks contained a lot of body weight squats, push-ups, seated shrugs, hip exercises, burpees and jump rope/sprinting training. Week 4 starts adding basic lifts such as DB bench press, DB overhead press, BB squats/deadlifts, DB straight bar curls, etc.
The 2nd and 3rd phase gradually shifts things around by phasing out the body weight exercises and ramping up the lifts, so you can adapt to proper form and get used to the movements. Every phase of the program contains a burst workout once/week, which is essentially designed to push up your heart rate, overload your body and wear you out fast.

I believe in the philosophy behind it and the structured approach, with a lot of support in the form of very helpful videos, is what I need. I paid for the program, but if it works (and I'll find out in about 3 months), it's worth it. There's also a big and very active community behind it (not that it doesn't exist here, but it's more convenient to discuss the program I'm on with a lot of others on the same program).
Could I get results with a basic free program on these forums? Absolutely. But I feel like this one is an all-round plan that also focuses on athleticism, which is important for me as I'll still be running for a good cause about once per month, I'll still play football/soccer with my mates (indoor during Fall/Winter months and full 11 vs. 11 in Spring/Summer).

[janivl]

My parents descended from their perch up north (they live in Sweden) and are visiting for 2 weeks. That's going to throw me off for a day or 2. On Sunday we have the family get-together, which is made all the more special by their only grandchild so far, and is being celebrated with the bane of my existence: pizza.
Now I could just meal prep at home and make sure I've already had lunch before visiting, but some part of me wants that pizza as well . Another test of willpower, they seem to pass every weekend.

Speaking of which, next week me and my brothers and sisters (big family) are going to an amusement park together. For this I absolutely refuse to prepare meals or pack protein bars. I'm just going to have a good time, try to make at least sensible food choices, but there will be no logging in MyFitnessPal. I absolutely love theme parks. I haven't been to "De Efteling" in well over 20 years.

Check in on Sunday to see if my mind is stronger than my gut

[janivl]

Week 3, done!

I survived the onslaught today and prepared in advance with a great meal that I prefer over any pizza. Steak, baked sweet potato fries (godlike, never preparing it any other way) and salsify (direct translation, never heard of that word in English, it's "schorseneren" in Dutch), a root vegetable I really love. Not really in season, but frozen vegetables are a godsent at times. I haven't got a freezer yet, but getting one next week (moved a few months ago, not having a freezer forces me to buy fresh foods) and going to stock up on vegetables that I wouldn't normally eat if it was not frozen (like endive).

The real test of willpower came when my mom baked 3 different cakes/pies (big family). Don't know the English words per se, but this is what they look like on google (and they looked better IRL, trust me):

http://www.taartmaken.com/eenvoudige-rijsttaart.jpg
https://patisserie-eclair.be/sites/d...t%2022cm_1.jpg
https://koken.vtm.be/sites/koken.vtm...silienne_0.jpg

Nevertheless, I did not touch them nor craved them. My parents brought me 3 treats from Sweden (and only 1 can be classified as a treat, a snack): traditional crisp bread, polar bread and cinnamon/vanilla cakes (vaniljbullar)

https://cmgtcontent.ahold.com.kpnis....395340_708.jpg
http://www.polarbrod.com/wp-content/...n-1680x969.jpg
http://www.matplatsen.net/wp-content...10/vbulle3.jpg

The last one is my guilty pleasure, 1 of them is about 125 calories.

But enough daydreaming, final stats for the week:

Week 3

Starting Weight: 138,6 kg or 305,5 lbs
Final Weight: 137,5 kg or 303,1 lbs
Weekly Loss: 1,1 kg or 2,4 lbs
Cumulative Loss: 4,7 kg or 10,4 lbs
Average Calories per Day: 2379,9
Average Protein per Day: 201,6g
Average Fats: 89,6g
Average Carbs: 184g

By all metrics a perfect week. Weight loss in the range that I'm aiming for (1kg per week), hit my macros exactly how I want to and I inserted a lot of variety in what I ate this week and killed 1 protein shake from my plan to substitute with whole food sources (still have 1 post workout shake and 1 bedtime casein shake, so roughly 48g of protein from shakes out of 200, I'll take that).

Workouts felt good overall. My upper body exercises felt better than any of the previous weeks: I was stronger on the pushups and especially today stronger on the inverted pull ups. The gym was almost empty today, so I took the time to read some machine labels, check how the squat rack works, how I can adjust benches, etc. Basic stuff, but stuff that is a bit more difficult when the gym is like a zoo.

Only 1 downside is that I'm suffering from groin soreness that is impacting my range of motion on squats. Not worried as I already feel a lot better today than yesterday (foam rolling does wonders).
During swimming yesterday I had considerable trouble maintaining my regular pace, even on freestyle (if you do the leg movement correct, namely kicking from hip rotation instead of through your knees, you impact the hip flexor a lot more), breaststroke was out of the question: the explosive outward kicking motion was too much for me.

Next day of squats is only on Thursday, so I am expecting a full recovery by then.

On to week 4 after which I will recalibrate my caloric goals and look back to see where adjustments are necessary.

[lukepeter]

Its one thing to talk about delicious home made desserts, but to post pictures of them in a fat loss thread is just a hair short of torture... I thought we were bro's?

If your hip flexors are hurting during a normal flutter kick then I would recommend a bit of rest... What sort of pool routine are you doing? Lots of speed work or more distance stuff? The foam roller is a gift from the gods, but only when it stops I still have the occasional nightmare about rolling my ITB...

I found that significant amounts of running and high impact explosive movements (rugby training) caused significant overuse injuries in my hip connective tissue, especially at the high weight I was (140kg). Putting the stress of squats on top of that pretty much cost me an entire season of rest. There is no rush, rest when your body asks politely, or it will become more insistent (you seem like an educated chap though, you probably came to this conclusion all by yourself).

Weight loss looks solid, progress is great so far. Keep on doing what you are doing.

[janivl]

Thanks Luke.

My right hip is still sore today, so I'm taking another rest day instead of trying to substitute for upper body workouts. I could probably go on the stationary bike without too much pain, but I believe the reckoning will come the next day.
There's no rush either way. I'm not training for a competition and I'm not on a schedule. I'd rather take 2 extra days off than be sidelined for weeks .

My swimming routine isn't anything elaborate now, since I haven't consistently logged enough hours in the pool. On Wednesday, one of my rest days, I do an endurance session. It helps with my recovery and I'm not overloading myself. It's mostly 800m of warm up (50m freestyle, 50m breaststroke, repeat) and then:

200 moderate pace
2x100 timed
400 moderate pace
4x100 timed
600 moderate pace
6x100 timed

That's usually about 1h20-1h30min at my current fitness level. With more hours in the pool that should be doable within the hour.

On Saturday I work more on sprints, shorter workout with less rest and keeping my heart rate elevated. Usually looks something like this:

400 warm up (same routine as above)
25-50-75-100-125-125-100-75-50-25 freestyle, not sprinting but pushing the tempo. Minimal rest (5-10sec max)
25-50-75-100-125-125-100-75-50-25 breaststroke, same.
10 sets of 50 sprint (all out), 50 slow, freestyle. The slow part is my rest time.

My warm ups are pretty long since I'm not as fit as I used to be. It works better for me if I can slowly warm my muscles and joints and get into a rhythm.
My cooldown is mostly just swimming laps under water. It calms me down

[lukepeter]

Thanks Luke.


400 warm up (same routine as above)
25-50-75-100-125-125-100-75-50-25 freestyle, not sprinting but pushing the tempo. Minimal rest (5-10sec max)
25-50-75-100-125-125-100-75-50-25 breaststroke, same.
10 sets of 50 sprint (all out), 50 slow, freestyle. The slow part is my rest time.

Are you still swimming competitively, or working towards it? there is no way I would subject myself to a pyramid like this "for the fun of it" and the 600 after 4x100 (moderate I assume starting every 1:45 to 2:00) must be somewhat brutal...

[janivl]

I want to get back into competitive swimming as of January 1st next year. Nothing serious, amateur league, but competitive nonetheless. I used to swim at professional level in my teens, but I wasn't good enough to make the next step. I trained with 3 guys who went to the Olympics to represent Belgium, which was pretty cool.

I think the schedule will be 4 training days (mon, tue, wed and sat) with 1 competition every other week on Sunday. With what I know now, I wonder how far I can progress. I know a lot more about the science behind swimming now than I did 15 years ago.

Even if I wouldn't, I absolutely love swimming. There's no place I feel more at home than in the pool. Might sound stupid, especially for an obese guy, but I feel at ease there. Like it's my environment .
My local pool also opens at 6am and has a pricing policy that would be considered cheap in the early 1900s.

There's no swimming in my training program, but I try to fit it in as much as I can.

[BlueBob]

Hey mate,

I am new to the forums and the whole 'look after your body' theme; so I didn't even know these type of post existed.

You are a great inspiration and I will now follow yours and lukepeter updates with bated breathe!

I too have only just begun my journey to weight loss - although I can see that I need to step up my game.

I am a big fan of Jeff and his videos are very instructive and helpful. I wish you both the best in your transformation and look forward to more inspiration!

[janivl]

Cheers Bob! (if that's your name )

My best advice is to have a look at the stickies in the Nutrition and Losing Fat forums, they gave me enough info to have a rough idea where to start. I asked for feedback in a post on the Nutrition forum and set up my plan thanks to the feedback of the guys (and girls) here who generally know what they are talking about.

This topic for me is a great way to write down my thoughts and comments that I wouldn't be able to do anywhere else (except for a blog, but I'm not that vain) and above all it's a portal for others (like Luke and you) to support me, but also challenge me. I don't post in a lot of topics, but I read most of them and there are so many kindred spirits here. It's encouraging, to say the least.

In terms of tools that help me:
- I log religiously in MyFitnessPal. There's a pathetic Belgian database, so I have logged a lot of foods myself. In the end it's for the better.
- I keep a spreadsheet online where I keep track of the following things: