your diet sounds awful fwiw. why dont you try and keep a proper log? sign up to fit day/daily plate try and eat a bit cleaner, actual count the calories. this is reading like a tony p log atm.

got a scale today that should be more accurate than my old non digital one. I'm gonna make sure my starting weight was accurate and see what I've done so far.

i find being a lazy poker player it is much easier to cook say 4-6 chicken breasts in a george foremen and then put them in the fridge and eat when convenient, i cook a lot of food in bulk because I never want to cook before I go to work, or before I start a session. having ready to go high protein foods is a good way to not let your diet go to ****.

eta, I cook up bacon and drain it and store it, quick measure, reheat, make a couple eggs bammmmmmmmmmmm. 3 minute meal.

Well on my old scale I've lost somewhere between 5 and 10 pounds so far(its hard to tell; I'm just eyeballing since the lines only go to 300). The problem is my old scale is significantly off compared to the new one on which I weigh 323 now. So I'm going to call my starting weight 330.

I know most of it is just switching to low carb but it at least Im on the right track

+1. I just picked up seventeen pounds of fresh chicken breasts when they went on sale. Add some seasoning and a little time in the oven and I've got a huge percentage of my meals for the week already taken care of.

Monday 11/8

joined a gym and started lifting today! Guy took the easiest sale ever and made it kinda awkward though. Am I wrong for not wanting the free personal trainer stuff? Anybody have a good lithmus test for a personal trainer?

Weight 322.8

1PM-wakeup

4PM- Subway 6" roasted chicken breat double meat wheat bread w pickles banana peppers and low fat honey mustard- I got a lot of hate in previous logs for Subway but it seems like a good meal

7PM-gym

Bench Press 2x5x155, 1x4x155

didnt try last rep cause I wasnt sure but I think I could have had it. This isnt a bad starting point for me at least I built up some muscle with all that eating

Elliptical 16 minutes level 5 3 minutes cooldown burned ~300 calories

8PM- chicken wrap with veggies cheese and italian dressing

8:30PM-4:15AM-poker

11PM- 2 bananas

5AM-burger with onions ketchup mustard no bun

Tuesday weight: 324.6

I was hoping this would be less swingy than poker...

You mentioned Starting Strength earlier in the thread; what made you decide not to go that route, and what's your plan going forward? I ask because a lot of people (myself included) wasted a lot of time in gyms just kind of flailing around without a sensible overall plan.

I did the bench press part of SS. I am eventually going to do it I just feel too fat to do the lower body stuff where my weight will hinder too much. I have 2 reconstructed knees plus all the weight so I dont want to squat or deadlift till I break 300 on the scale. Plus partly an ego thing as at one point in HS I was repping 375 weighing 195 and I dont want to see how far I've regressed

I agree with Majour that you should start tracking cals...arbitrarily limiting your carb intake seems kind of pointless until you are sure that your overall cals are where they should be. Congrats on getting started though don't give up!

I definitely understand where you're coming from, but a couple of things:

On the first day, "the bench press part of SS" would involve a light weight, determined through a specific process, so that you definitely wouldn't miss a rep with on the first day. SS isn't just the 3X5 structure, it's about achieving linear progress on a lift each time out (three times every two weeks.) It seems unlikely you'll be able to add five pounds per workout for the next couple of months if you didn't get the first day's 3X5. I started bench at 135 or so, fwiw (though I'm also lol weak.)

Second, the lifts you are not doing are the far more important ones. I wasn't sure I'd be able to squat, as Ive got multiple knee injuries myself. My knees have only gotten better as a result of the squatting/DL'ing I've been doing. It's obv important to use proper form in order to avoid hurting yourself, which is why starting with the right weight is so important (see above.)

It might be true that you can't do those exercises until you get below a certain weight, but I know for me the block was mental, not physical. The best way to get better at squatting is to squat, even if it's not perfect at first. I was able to do something approaching a squat at around 330 pounds.

/my two cents. I'm trying to give you a sense of my experience and what's worked for me.

I agree with what redmen points out, and I also wan to add on to it from some personal experience.

"waiting until you get to 300lbs, till you start doing all the lifts." sounds like you are self conscious about the whole gym thing, fat dude squatting lolz. I thought the same way and still only go to the gym around midnight to limit the number of people there. People really don't care though. They are there putting in there time and they are leaving.

Its like being massively in debt and not wanting to look at your bank statements. You've put this off for far too long.

Go to the squat/power rack and do 3x5 w/ just the bar, as a big dude I know this gets the legs burning and you will probably have some bad DOMS in the next day, go again that week and then rest for a couple days, go twice a week while biking or walking something that is low impact that won't hurt you recovery.

I'm the same way though man, I didn't squat at all last month because it didn't fit into my schedule, but I feel like I am not progressing as quickly as I could.

Our vitals are pretty much the same, i'm a couple inches taller, right around the same weight.

---

I'd be interested in doing some friendly bet where we have to complete 12 SS workouts before the end of the yar.

That is 2x a week, with no workouts for the last two weeks of the year.

We could alternate Squat/Bench/DL & Squat/Press/DL for 12 sessions.

I need a swift kick in my ass also, and lately I've gotten a lot of my motivation back. Let me know if you would be interested.

-DWD

I am not ignoring calories. I am trying to avoid foods like Chinese food where its tough to tell. and I'm trying to keep a deficit in the 500-1500 calorie range. Meticulously measuring and logging exact counts just will never be for me and I'm trying to stay realistic.

My weekend wasn't great calorie wise but I don't think I've had any disasterous days so far did I miss something huge?

I'm rereading Starting Strength and planning to start it properly tomorrow. It does seem a lot better to do 3/4 squats than none at all. Got my chalk in the mail today

I would do this if it were something like $50-100 per workout missed. Anything less prob won't push me over the edge on a lazy day but can't rly bet any more than 100

Squatting will be hard but if you make a foam roller your friend and roll each day, and do some dynamic stretching you will notice a huge difference. I went from doing half squats to getting ~parallel after 2 workouts. You will be surprised how quickly your body will respond.

I only have ~300 total online so 50-100 each missed workout wouldn't be ideal for me (I don't plan on missing any workouts but still). I wish you luck and hope to see you keep posting, it would be awesome if 12 months from now we could have 5+ guys who transformed their bodies.

I found this on Rippetoe's forum

http://startingstrength.com/resource...ead.php?t=9874

Tues 11/9

Tues weight 324.6

no exercise or poker, did a lot of good H&F reading though

2:30pm-wakeup

4pm-Subway 6" roasted chicken breat on wheat double meat w honey mustard, pickles, banana peppers

9PM 2 chicken breasts w some kind of baja marinade and green beans

3AM 4 hard boiled eggs

Wed weight 323.0

Food choices look pretty good, though I'd bet your calories are too low (!)

try this :
choose for yourself an "evolution period",
in number of days,
I suggest it be a one week, but it's your call,
my period is 30 days, because its not for diet, its for general evol. purposes
(but good diet and exercise became my every day rituals through only a few
generations of my "evolution")

for that week just throw out pizza, and everything else leave as before,
next evol. per. add one more restriction, or as I call it "ritual"
for example : cut out hamburgers,
also you can add something, 15 min of stretching when you awake,
or walk in the park for a 30 min,
but all those "rituals", must be done every day, no skipping,

never introduce too many new rituals for a new period, just one or two, keep it easy , simple, fun...

also, another complementary idea would be to correlate something with odd and even calendar dates,
for example, on odd dates, never drink sodas and such stuff, only water, tea...

and just watch your self evolve from week to week, it's interesting and fun...

don't give rice to brother, eat it
you need carbs , else you will be having problems with liquids in your body
and get feelings similar to headaches

just lower carbs share in meals as day passes:
in the "morning" u can eat almost anything,
but in the "evening" eat something like low fat cheese with garlic, or just tuna with yogurt, u get the point

p.s.
maybe this one ritual would seem too hard to introduce, but try it later, aligator , works fine for me:
60 min rowing, shower, and green tea as reward...
every day and i'm not doing it for weight loss

evolve

Hey bobo- i'll be following this thread wish you the best.

This is a 9 min video that you need to watch in regards to diet soda.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpoAtwVyzZI

also bobo for the love of god cut out all taco bell. Just go on their site and look at the nutritional info.

Another key that you should start looking at, and keeping track of is your sodium intake. I see it looks like you've been eating some subway and such, but even their subs have a ton of sodium. With your weight you need to be focusing on cutting down on your saturated fats + sodium asap.

Also you need to cut out all meals within 4 hours of bed time. If you're feeling hungry drink a bunch of water, do not drink soda/gatorade/anything with sugar. All these late night meals do for your body is store all of it as fat.

I've bolded the only correct statement in this entire post.

Agree completely

i wanted to go thermp so bad on those last poasts, instead i'll just say, diet myths ITT

Fat loss threads seem to bring them out of the woodwork. The sentiment is good, I guess.

WF,

afaik sodium and eating before bed instead of at other times will only affect very short term weight loss and Taco Bell isn't great but within a desperate late night food category, the only time I plan to eat it, it's one of the better options.

dava,

since I'm starting weights I will likely up my carbs to the 75-150g range. The idea of focusing one new thing would be viable if I were close to optimal with my lifestyle but I simply have too many things to fix.

good luck man.

I like the hard boiled eggs part..
if you can, eat them after the SS; or get some whey protein.
eat 5 or 6 even,, just only eat one or 2 egg yolks
you dont need that cholestrol.

1 Egg with yolk 90 calories..
egg white only.. 17 calories.

keep it up.

oh.. and any 6" sub is better than any order of
chinese takeout.
your talking 300-400 calories vs 800-900
I am impressed that you order 6" and not a 12"
good for you. If I do order a 12"..
I eat half for lunch and the other as dinner,
especially if I am working late.