low fat cottage cheese tastes about the same as full fat, so could be worth considering.

Hey guys,

Thanks again for all the advice and support. Wanted to give another weekly update.

Still sticking with the same routine: 5x5 MWF with some light swimming and HIIT + intense swimming TTS (usually take a day or two of swimming off a week between MWF and TTS). Off Sunday, although I have been trying to do some sort of physical activity Sunday, like throwing around a softball or light jogging. But nothing intense at all.

I'm still logging my carbs, protein and fat, but I'm trying to stop worrying about calories. I was really stressing big time about eating "enough" calories, but now I am just eating when I am hungry until I am not hungry anymore (eating slow to avoid overeating, of course).

Still eating pretty clean, allowing myself 2-3 cheat items (not meals, but individual foods) during the week. IE a steak with some butter on top (the butter being the cheat item), crab cakes, or maybe on slice of pizza. I do indulge in whole grain rolls (for sandwiches and burgers) every once in a while, but I keep them within my daily carb count, and I stay far away from white "useless" breads.

I am down to 236 lbs on my scale. I started at 242.5 two Mondays ago, and I was at 245 5 days before that. So I am losing around 2.5-3 lbs/week. I feel like this is a pretty good rate, although I obviously wish I could lose it faster.

Any comments/tips, as always, would be appreciated.

Thanks again.

Also: what's the deal with training twice a day? Some days I have the time to go to the gym twice a day, but I'm not sure how great of an idea this is. IE lift in the morning and swim at night, or HIIT in the morning and swim at night. Poked around the FAQ for this, but didn't see anything too specific.

You're not going to keep up that pace of weight loss for very long. Also, I'm 6'3 and have a huge build and I think 190-200 is an ideal weight for me. It's very easy to have a really distorted view of normal weight when you get really heavy. I used to think 250 was my ideal weight... I'm not trying to discourage, just realize that it really is a long road, and it's going to take more than a year of dedication to get where you really want.

I think you should train as hard as you can without having horrible muscle or joint pains. Muscle pain you can deal with, but if your knees start hurting you need to back off.

For food just eat lots of chicken fish fruits and veggies and a glass or two of milk after your workouts.

Man I'm gonna be impressed if you keep it up with 6 workouts a week, that's pretty sick. Well done so far.

Yeah. 200-205 is my goal weight for right now. I'll feel and look good at that weight, but will DEFINITELY have 10-20 more to lose after that to really look my best. I have been at 200 before and while I was still absolutely overweight, it was a much, much better place to be than where I am now.

My goal is to lose down to 200-205 by the end of Septemberish, and then I will set another goal then for 190. I don't want to be scrawny, and I want to settle in at around 190-200 with good muscle when all is said and done.

I really enjoy my workouts, which makes it much easier. It's amazing the progress I have made in just 2 short weeks. I started doing HIIT for 4 minutes only and was wheezing and breathing hard 2 weeks ago, just barely completing the 4 minutes. I did 7 minutes the other day and finished very strong with no wheezing. The extra work in the pool, especially when I push myself hard, is definitely helping.

I am going to try to train 2x on cardio days once a week or so, just to get an extra workout in. If I feel like this is tiring me out too much or affecting my lifts, I'll back off, but it's worth an experiment. I'm really very dedicated to this right now and want to feel and look my best come September.

As always, I appreciate the kind words and encouragement guys. I hope to be able to make a big celebration post about my success and continuing goals the end of this year!!!

Frustrating week.

I weighed in at 235.5, down exactly 1/2 a pound from the week prior. What is especially frustrating is I weighed in at 234 at mid-week, then gained back up to 235.5 for the end of the week. I can't scale watch, though, it's like watching your bankroll fluctuate up and down while playing poker.

I am, however, feeling "thinner." I also saw ridiculous gains in my lifts this week. Maybe that extra weight is muscle? I do eat a lot of protein! :-)

Still keeping up with my 6 workouts a week. I actually am doing two "two-a-days" in each week, where I either lift in the morning and swim at night or swim in the morning and swim again at night.

I've been sticking to my diet with very few deviations, aside from one night of drinking with friends where I took extra caution to only have diet mixers and not eat anything after I drank.

Not much else to report really. Just got back from my early day workout, and I am exhausted.

Interesting week!

I missed my first workout this week and not by choice. I was out of town for the weekend at an event which was catered, and none of the catered foods really allowed me to eat healthily. I had to suck it up and eat some bad carbs. Yuck. I chalked it up to a cheat meal, but I definitely felt like **** afterwards. Whether that was mental or physical (or both), I'm not sure.

I also could not get to the gym for my Friday 5x5 and did not have time on Saturday for HIIT (well I did, but it just would not have been convenient with the events of the day to get all sweaty and go out and work out). I just did the Saturday workout on my usual rest day, Sunday.

I ate out on Saturday night and, yet again, was faced with an unhealthy meal. I ordered a chicken entre with vegetables that looked nice, but when it came out it was deep fat fried and even the broccoli on the side was deep fat fried. I took off as much of the "frying" as I could, but it was inevitable that I had to eat it. Again, cue feeling like ****. Follow that up with a solid night of drinking (beer too), and I really felt like I had failed hard this weekend.

I stepped on the scale today in anticipation of horror and it read... 232. A 3.5 lb drop from last week. WOW! I sure was surprised. I can't imagine how good it would have been had I not consumed beverages and food like a king on the weekend.

Back to my usual workouts this week, and I sure do need them. I have a lot of stress going on in my life right now, and my workouts are usually my release. I found that over the weekend when I was missing workouts, the stress boiled over on me. As soon as I hit the gym Sunday, I immediately felt better. Again, is this a mental or physical thing? I'm not sure, but it definitely does help.

Thanks again for all the help guys and here's to hoping I break 230 soon (for the first time in years).

You're not fit. Don't attempt cardio HIIT. Waste of time.

Buy a pedometer. Walk 10,000 steps a day. Don't start with 10,000. You need to build up to that amount gradually. Walk everyday. No rest days.

While I appreciate the advice, HIIT has seemed to work really well for me. I was up to 9 minutes the other day, and I did the full workout and finished strong. I estimate the "sprint" portion of my HIIT is around 85 % of my max speed, which seems right to me. It's not like I'm barely jogging, then walking and then barely jogging again. I'm legitimately sprinting and jogging while doing the program. When I first started was it bad? Yeah, but it's amazingly better now. My workout partners have commented on how they can't believe how quick I move even in my last sprint of the workout.

I've seen the impact of HIIT elsewhere in my life too. In playing active sports with friends (basketball, softball, even golf) I've been able to move faster and longer without "sucking wind" or wheezing.

Plus, like I said earlier in the thread, I feel like I get a lot of my "stress burn" out of my HIIT. I don't know if it's just the power of suggestion or the endorphins I always read about, but it's strangely addicting. I couldn't imagine not doing it anymore.

I don't know, 200 pounds or less at 6'3" seem quite slim to me. Not skinny, but considering I looked pretty twerpy at 175 at less than 6'2", I can't see how an extra 15 or 25 pounds is going to look like, well, all that much on you. Maybe you look better with what weight you carry, though; I've got really thin bird bones and muscle seems to just disappear on me. I've regularly had people underestimate my weight by 20 pounds when in decent shape.

srsly wtf this is awful.

Weighed in at 229 this week! Holy crap! Broke 230 for the first time in a long time. Since 5/10/09 I am down 16 lbs.

Not much else to report. Still sticking with my same routine. Thinking about taking some of the "spinning" classes at the gym in lieu of swimming on some days... just to mix it up. It's high intensity interval stuff on bikes, but I am sure you all knew that already.

I weighed in at 225.5 this week. Wow. A 3.5 lb week. That's a total loss of 19.5 lbs since 5/10/09. Excellent results!

I'm still preparing myself mentally for the inevitable slowdown/plateau, but it has not happened yet. I've considered adding a thermogenic (hot rox?) if that does happen to plow through it. Any thoughts on this? Just kind of a mental backup plan for when I start to slow.

Still hitting my workouts 6 days a week. I'm going to take it a little easy on the double day workouts (lifting and then swimming on the same day) this week, because I feel like my body is telling me it needs a rest.

I've also seen some amazing gains in my lifts even though I'm cutting.

Very pleased so far. 20 pounds until I meet my September 1st goal, and then I can set a new goal!

dont waste money on brand name thermogenics, just get some ephedrine (bronkaid, primatene - NOT pseudoephedrine) and caffeine and you will experience appetite suppression and a mild thermogenesis along with probably a nice training effect.

I think I may try this.

Update for the week:

Pretty awful week. Can you say plateau? Lost no weight on my weigh-in day (Tuesday) and actually gained 0.5 lb as of today.

I didn't eat or do anything different last week, other than maybe taking it a little easier in my post-lifting cardio workouts as I had work to do outside that was pretty labor intensive and wanted to save some energy.

Is this just variance? Or do you think I tweaked something in my diet without knowing it? Do I need to consciously lower my daily calorie intake (which is seriously pretty low at 1500-2000 calories a day now) as I lose weight? I might food log this week to see what's up.

I saw some pretty huge gains on my lifts this week, if that makes any difference.

I'm hoping this is just variance, especially seeing as I had a huge week last week.

I FEEL thinner, but I have no way of measuring that.

Or is it just time to start an EC stack?

Also can a mod change the title of my thread to: "Workinout's lifestyle change and weight loss log"

Thanks.

if you are seeing huge gains on your lifts, you are probably gaining some muscle mass whilst dropping bf%. you don't always have to lose lbs to have a successful week. can you see a difference in the mirror? thats what really matters imo

If you're starting to plateau a bit, then back off the weekly weighings imo. You said you "feel thinner" and "saw some pretty huge gains on your lifts". Those are both great things, and it sounds like you're still on the right track. Don't be like the majority of the people in the gym who are obsessed with total body weight. And definitely don't call it an awful week just because of that.

It might be better not to measure things week by week for the most part. Like your most recent post shows, it can lead to unnecessary worry and discouragement.

Improvement sometimes comes in a straight line, but plateaus or short setbacks are common and not a sign of anything bad necessarily. You can make them bad, though, by using them as a signal to keep changing from one "unsuccessful" routine to another, trying to find the perfect diet or work-out or whatever that doesn't really exist.

Thanks for the advice guys. I think you were all right.

I stopped weighing myself so frequently and just weighed in today (after a non-training somewhat high carb day too) at 219 lbs.

That's a total loss of 27 lbs since May 10th or 11 % of my total body weight.

Feeling really good about myself and my weight loss. My lifts have all stalled a bit, but I think that's because I was increasing them in too large of increments. I am going to hold off on the EC stack for now. If I do do it, it will be in my final month of summer (mid-july to mid-August). I don't really want to be losing more than 3-3.5 lbs a week (as I am apt to do now). I'm gunna wait until I stall for a couple weeks in a row.

Thanks again for all your help. I couldn't do it without this forum.

Just to restate my "weight goals":

205 by September 1st (easily attainable I think)

195 by Christmas

180 by March of 2010.

I think they are all doable goals.

Great job. Keep it up.

Why is this? I've been watching calories but I'm eating a lot of fruit. Most of my meals between meals (snacks) are pieces of fruit and sometimes breakfast and lunch are as well. Should I not eat this much fruit?

are you a body builder preparing for an upcoming contest? If not, then don't worry about it.

Fruit has so many good nutrients in it that it's better than most things it displaces. You should try to get a little protein in at every meal, though, even if it's just a small piece of chicken or a scoop of tuna salad.

well your going great !! keep it up and stay focussed keep your mindset right bud

Sorry for the lack of an early week update this week!

To those of you offering your support and congratulations on this thread: thank you! You have no idea how much that means to me. It's great for me to share this with you guys too.

As of today, I weigh 214.5 lbs. That's a total weight loss of 31.5 lbs since May 10 or 12.8 % of my total body weight.

Feeling great. I have been checking out my resting heartrate too, and it is in the mid-60s. I remember it being in the 80s and 90s before. Sweet!

I obviously completed the progression to 15 minutes of HIIT. What I did is then restarted the program, but replacing the 30 seconds of jogging with 20 seconds of walking and 10 seconds of jogging and increasing the sprint rate from 80 % of my max sprint to 90-95 % of my max sprint speed. I am still seeing great results.