Wooderson's Training Log: Fat to Fit

[Barry06GT]

I second that, Herf is wise. Concentrate on the weights. Eat as healthy as possible. Barry says (to himself) it is ok to have a burger with cheese, chicken sandwich, or subway now and then, it won't set you back or kill you, lol; all in moderation. You are not a monk or professional bodybuilder (yet). My trick is to peel away most of the mushy white bread or bun (carbos), and eat the meat and cheese (protein) - skip the fries (ok, eat some, they won't kill you). My other tip is to bring good stuff with you so you don't get hungry and attack the snack machine. Instant oatmeal, bananas, nuts, 90 calorie Quaker bars, and lots of water.

The trick is you can't starve yourself. Your body is way smarter than you, and will quickly do what it takes to preserve. Just eat as healthy as you can. The weight will slowly go up, you will get stronger. Bigger muscle requires more energy. You will even burn more calories when sleeping.

[Wooderson]

Today is an off day, so today's gym time was all cardio: 45 minutes on the elliptical @ roughly 143BPM, 5.71 miles. I was hoping to crush 6 miles, but in due time.

• breakfast: 2oz strawberries, 2oz blueberries, 4oz lowfat Borden cottage cheese, 1oz Archer Farms Protein Start cereal
• snack: 4oz lowfat CC, 2TBSP Naturally More PB, 4oz carrots, 12 almonds
• lunch: i can tuna in water, 1 TBSP olive oil, 3.5oz lump crab, 85g baby spinach, 1 TBSP balsamic, 1oz fresh mozzerella
• afternoon snack: 2 scoops Body Fortress whey protein, 1 scoop Body Fortress creatine, 4g benefiber
• dinner: 4oz chicken breast, 4oz shrimp, 1 TBSP olive oil, 1 cup green beans, onion, garlic, herbs to taste, 1/2 cup brown rice
• pre-bed: 1 scoops Body Fortress whey protein, 1 scoop Muscle Milk

Macros

• Calories: 2,2,74
• Fat: 79g (32%)
• Carbs: 132g (24%)
• Protein: 251g (45%)

[herf]

You are going to lose tons of fat eating like that. I would really suggest when the weights start to get heavier to add about 250 calories a day. Not eating enough calories will make your body burn muscle + fat instead of just fat/calories. Burning muscle when losing weight may look good on the scales, but in the long run you will lose your metabolism and feel lethargic quite a bit. You are definitely on the right track! Maybe the first time you plateau to add those calories or when you think you are close to stalling. Not exactly sure on how you were eating before you started all this, but any diet is rough and hope you keep up the good work!

[Wooderson]

5x5 Workout #7

• Squat: 5x5 x 75
• Bench: 5x5 x 70
• Inv. Row: 3xF 5/6/4
• Push Up: 3xF x 12/10/10
• Rev. Crunch 3x12
• Elliptical: 20m, 2.61 miles

Food

• breakfast: 1 whole egg , 2 egg whites , 3 Jimmy Dean turkey sausage, onion, red pepper, japeleno
• snack: 4oz lowfat CC, 2TBSP Naturally More PB, 4oz carrots
• lunch: i can tuna in water, 1 TBSP olive oil, 3.5oz lump crab, 85g baby spinach, 1 TBSP balsamic, 1oz fresh mozzerella
• post-workout: 2 scoops Body Fortress whey protein, 1 scoop Body Fortress creatine, 4g benefiber
• dinner: Chipotle' bowl: steak, black beans, onions, tomato salsa, corn salsa, 1oz fresh mozzarella cheese
• pre-bed: 1 scoop Body Fortress whey protein, 1 scoop Muscle Milk

Macros

• Calories: 2,092
• Fat: 88g (38%)
• Carbs: 123g (23%)
• Protein: 206g (39%)

About today: I can tell the squat is getting heavier. I look forward to getting into real weights... all in due time. My inverted rows count went down since prior, but I realized I was doing them wrong. I have not been pulling myself all the way up to the bar until my chest touches, so that extra little bit dropped my count from 20 to 15. Pushups went up by 1 overall since last time.

The tough part was cardio on the elliptical. I cna tell my legs are getting a good workout because it takes them 10 minutes on the elliptical before they are really into it. I'm sure that will get easier and then get harder again as weights go up.

[Wooderson]

No workout today. I was an off day, but I was at the office 6:30am to 7:15pm, so it was essentially straight home for dinner. Well, actually it was to Chipotle to get a steak bowl for me and a veggie for my wife, but whateva...

Going forward I am going to simply link to my DailyPlate.com food profile rather than detail it here. That's just one attempt to reduce the time it takes to go through this. The link is: http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate ... ccampbell/

Tomorrow is workout #8, and on top of that I am going to do a ton of heavy gardening: dig about 3 cubic yards of dirt (1.5ft deep x 10 ft x 5ft), shovel about 2000 lbs of mulch twice (into my truck from the city's free mulch center, then out of my truck into the yard), plant 5 shrubs. Then I'm going to go eat some serious El Salvadoran food, get righteously liquored up and do some salsa dancing.

[Wooderson]

Workout #8

• Squat: 5x5 x 80
• OHP: 5x5 x 80
• Deadlift: 1x5 x 80
• Barbell Row: 3x5 x 80
• Rev. Crunch: 3xf
• Elliptical: 20m, 1.51 miles

I was on schedule to do a ton - a TON - of yardword today. See my previous post for details. Unfortunately when I woke up it was raining like crazy, so there went that plan. Well, next weekend the weather may be kinder.

Squats - no prob. Crush'd 'em.
OHP - I can tell it's getting tough. My left shoulder and upper arm is definitely worked out.
Deadlifts - Well, I finally hit the weight I was actually supposed to start out with on the Deadlifts. E-Z-P-Z
Barbell Row - Swapping these out for pull ups per something I read either in a post of Mehdi's or in the 5x5 eBook. Since I can't do a pull up I want to make sure those same muscles get worked. I was going to do jump/hangs on the pull up bar, but having done that a few times, it feels useless.
Elliptical - Wow, I my legs must be getting worked b/c I went from doing almost 2.7 miles in 20minutes to barely doing 1.5 miles.

As always, food diary @ http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate ... ccampbell/ - unfortunately it is only half the day as I am about to head out to a birthday party. Gonna watch what I eat. May not watch what I drink.

[Wooderson]

Weekly Update

Vitals
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 255.9 lbs
Body Fat: 32.1%

Since starting StrongLifts 5x5:
Fat lost: 2.7 lbs
Muscle gain: 1.6 lbs

Measurements
Neck:18.25", down .25"
Chest: 47.25", down 1"
Waist: 49.00", down 1"
Hips: 48", down .25"
Bi/Tri: 14.25", up .5"
Forearm: 12", no change
Thigh: 26.50", up .25"
Calf: 17.25", no change

StrongLifts 5x5 Beginner:
Squat 80lbs
Bench 70lbs
OHP 80lbs
Inv.Row 11
Push Ups 32
Deadlift 1x5x80 lbs
Barbell Rows3x5x80 lbs

[Wooderson]

• Squat: 5x5 x 85
• Bench: 5x5 x 80
• Inv. Row: 3xF 5/6/4
• Push Up: 3xF x 12/10/10
• Rev. Crunch 3x12
• Elliptical: none

No cardio today. I'm too pooped from the yard work I did on Sunday.

[Wooderson]

• Squat: 5x5 x 90
• OHP: 5x5 x 90
• Deadlift: 1x5 x 90
• Barbell Row: 3x5 x 90
• Rev. Crunch: 3x12
• Elliptical: 10m, 1.36 miles

Also today I did an HIIT routine between the weighs and the elliptical that consisted of me doing a jumpsquat and tossing a 12lb medicine ball up onto a wall, catching it and going down into the jump squat, repeat. I did this in 10 times in the first cycle, then 8, then 6, 4, 2 with a 10 second rest in between each cycle.

The OHP is getting tough. I won't be surprised if I stall on it in the next week or two. The Deadlift is easy, but I started that at 45 rather than 80 when I began the routine, so no surprise there. The barbell row is fairly easy as well right now.

[Wooderson]

Workout #11 from 5/22/09

• Squat: 5x5 x 95
• Bench: 5x5 x 90
• Inv. Row: 3xF 6/5/4
• Push Up: 3xF x 14/11/10
• Rev. Crunch 3x12
• Elliptical: 20m - 2.58 miles

Yesterday was a good workout. Looking forward to hitting 100 lbs in the next workout which will be tomorrow.
The bench is not all that challenging, and also looking forward to hitting 100 lbs in the next one.
The inverted BW rows are a killer if you truly get your chest up to touch the bar. The last couple of reps my chest is probably 1" or 2" away from the bar, but when I first started I wasn't even trying to touch the bar with my chest, so I think I'm making good progress.
Push ups were a good day. Second day at 35 total, which is +3 vs. last week (I was only at 32 then).

[nburge]

Great progress dude - sounds like the diet is working wonders... the weights rise rapidly - I used to be the weido in the gym who was squatting with a bar and two 1.25kg plates, now everyone moves out of the squat rack when I turn up as i'm the only one who squats in it!

[Wooderson]

Weekly Update

Vitals
[b]Height: 5'11"
Weight: 257.6 lbs, up .6 lbs
Body Fat: 32.3%, down .7%
Lean Mass: 174.4 lbs, up 2.2 lbs

Measurements
Neck:18.25", down .25"
Chest: 47.50", down 1.25"
Waist: 48.50", down 1.50"
Hips: 47.50", down .75"
Bi/Tri: 14.50", up .75"
Forearm: 12", no change
Thigh: 27.00", up .75"
Calf: 17.25", no change

5x5:
Squat 95 lbs
Bench 90 lbs
OHP 90 lbs
Inv.Row 15
Push Ups 35
Deadlift 1x5x90 lbs
Barbell Rows 3x5x90 lbs

Thanks for the visit nburge. We're moving along. I am sabotaging myself in the fat loss department though by having too much beer on the weekends. Starting June 1st that will change though. A few of us in our office are doing a Biggest Loser type fat loss challenge. I'm going to keep doing StrongLifts 5x5, but i'll be adding in some intense yoga on my off days and change my diet to a variation of the Velocity diet for the first four weeks.

[Wooderson]

Workout #12

• Squat: 5x5 x 100
• OHP: 5x5 x 100
• Deadlift: 1x5 x 100
• Barbell Row: 3x5 x 100
• Prone Bridge: 3x30s
• Elliptical: 25m, 3.06 miles

I'm starting to feel the squats more. Not close to having to step back, but I can tell that there is weight on the barbell now.
The OHP was tough. Capital T tough. I made it through, but I wonder how many more workouts until I need to step back a bit.

[Wooderson]

Workout #13

• Squat: 5x5 x 105
• Bench: 5x5 x 100
• Inv. Row: 3xF 5/6/4
• Push Up: 3xF x 10/12/10
• Rev. Crunch 3x12
• Elliptical: 25m, 3.29 miles

[pagangoddess]

I'm not 100% sure why no one else has brought this up but I guess I'll be the bad "guy". Do you realize that you're eating the amount of calories required for my maintenance? And I'm only 5' tall and 140 lbs.

If I take your weight and multiply by 16 (maintenance) I end up with 4000 calories. I know you want to lose fat but don't starve yourself. Eventually eating that far below maintenance is going to catch up to you. Remember what Barry said.

The trick is you can't starve yourself. Your body is way smarter than you, and will quickly do what it takes to preserve. Just eat as healthy as you can. The weight will slowly go up, you will get stronger. Bigger muscle requires more energy. You will even burn more calories when sleeping.

Now that I've been the bad guy I wanted to say welcome to the forum and good luck with acheiving your goals.