February 22 – 159.8 lbs

10 mins dynamic stretching and joint mobility stuffs.

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and abs.
Pushups target– 14/19/14/14/19+ (repeating week 3 day 2)
Pushups done – 14/19/14/14/19

Last rep was pretty shaky. I am going to move on to week 4 of the program despite not making it all the way through week 3 but will drop down to the 1st column geared for having done 16-20 pushups on the exhaustion test at the end of week 2. This will be slightly more of a reset compared to just repeating week 3.

Squats target – 31/38/31/31/45+
Squats done – 31/38/31/31/45

Will do AMRAP over the next couple days and see what happens. 51-60 keeps me in middle column going into week 5 and 41-50 will drop me to 1st column. Last ten reps were dicey, was surprised to make all of them.

Pullups target – 6/10/8/8/10 (jump to top and do 3 second controlled descend)
Pullups done – 6/10/8/8/10 (no problem with descending for 3 seconds until the last set now)

One more week of negatives and then I do a stress test. I am supposed to be able to get 6-8 pullups before moving on to the real deal. 5 or less and I should still be working on just controlled descending.

Ab stuff – 50 sec plank/32 bicycle crunches/20 hypers/45 sec plank/35 supermans

Starting to find these difficult too as every other exercise I am doing is also hitting my core to some extent. Mainly gives me something to do while resting between sets of pullups but is probably extending the rest period somewhat.

1805 cal/170 carb/59 fat/164 protein/36 fibre

February 23 - 161.2 lbs

Minimal stretching.

Cardio - 5 min warmup walk then 8 cycles of 60 seconds jogging/90 seconds walking. Covered about 2.66km during the 20mins of jogging/walking. Less icy patches to deal with tonight.

1714 cal/158 carb/43 fat/173 protein/17 fibre

sorry, but that made me laugh a lot! Won't ask about the orgy circle further up!

Did you feed your info and weight loss target into MFP yet? Would be interested what allowance it calculates for you! There was some discussion in my log about adding exercise to the allowance and after some explanation I stopped doing it. So maybe a steady 1900 - 2000 would do the trick for you?

Burpees kick my butt. Just about everything kicks my butt still. Slowly improving! It is all for the orgy circle.

I haven't done anything with MFP yet but have plugged the info into sparkpeople which is supposed to be pretty similar. It spits out 1500 to 1850 cals which strikes me as pretty low at the lower end of the range. I was seemingly at maintenance at 2250 cals over three weeks with virtually no change in weight. The target cals change as I enter exercise and usually end up around 1700 to 2050, which goes against the advice in your log. 1800 represents a 20% deficit over what I believe my maintenance to be, so I am targeting that as a weekly average for now but I am not being very strict at all. Will try to stay between 1600 and 2000 and average out somewhere around 1800 for the next few weeks and see what happens. I think that 1900 or 2000 would probably work fine too and would probably be even better if I want to keep progressing at the more strength oriented body weight stuff.

February 24 – 160.4 lbs

~12 minutes of stretching and joint mobility stuff.

AMRAP - 17 pushups and 49 squats – completely pussed out

1787 cal/198 carb/ 41 fat/170 protein/39 fibre

February 25 – 161.2 lbs

~12 mins dynamic stretching and joint mobility.

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and abs.
Pushups target– 12/14/11/10/16+ (reset - week 4 day 1 column 1)
Pushups done – 12/14/11/10/16

Squats target – 23/27/21/21/47+ (reset – week 5 day 1 column 1)
Squats done – 23/27/21/21/47

Pullups target – 6/11/8/8/11 (still jumping to top and doing 3 second controlled descent)
Pullups done – 6/11/8/8/11

Ab stuff – 50 sec plank/28 bicycle crunches/19 hypers/50 sec plank/35 supermans

1779 cal/161 carb/58 fat/163 protein/29 fibre

February 26 – 160.8 lbs

No exercise. Amazon brought me Starting Strength, Becoming a Supple Leopard and some Paleo Cookbook.

1876 cal/178 carb/73 fat/128 protein/43 fibre

February 27 – 159.8 lbs

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and abs.
Pushups target– 14/16/12/12/18+
Pushups done – 14/16/12/12/18

Squats target – 13/13/18/18/13/13/13/34+
Squats done – 13/13/18/18/13/13/13/40

Pullups target – 7/12/10/10/12 (still jumping to top and doing 3 second controlled descent)
Pullups done – 7/12/10/10/12

Ab stuff – 45 sec plank/30 bicycle crunches/20 hypers/45 sec plank/35 supermans

Close to end of the month morning pics:



No diff to my eye. Morning wood seems to have lost power in the last month and I should probably change those underwear sometime. Per measurements a little has come off the belly and waist but most recent measurements were taken first thing in the morning versus prior measurements at night, so who knows.

1764 cal/165 carb/53 fat/168 protein/29 fibre

February 28 - 160.6 lbs

Cardio (morning for a change!) - Elliptical - 4min warmup, 10 x 20s hard/40s light, 4min cooldown

1739 cal/153 carb/49 fat/164 protein/27 fibre

February 29 – 159.8 lbs

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and abs.
Pushups target– 16/18/13/13/20+
Pushups done – 16/18/13/13/20

Squats target – 16/16/20/20/16/16/13/40+
Squats done – 16/16/20/20/16/16/13/40

Pullups target – 8/14/11/11/14 (still jumping to top and doing 3 second controlled descent)
Pullups done – 8/14/11/11/14

Ab stuff – 50 sec plank/32 bicycle crunches/22 hypers/40 sec plank/40 supermans

Last reps of pushups, pullups and squats were rough. Couple days off now and AMRAP tests to determine where to go next.

1731 cal/181 carb/46 fat/163 protein/21 fibre

Hey man, congrats on starting something like this and sticking to it.

If you're sticking to a solid defecit I don't really understand why you haven't seen much change in weight yet. Are you sure you're logging everything correctly? Got your numbers set up right for your weight/activity level etc?

Umm.... what?

Imo the best way of sticking at your training and diet is to get involved with a sport or activity that you love (or grow to love). It's so much more interesting to be involved with an activity that you can really get stuck into than just training for the sake of it.

Thanks! Starting something/anything was the hardest part. Making the time to keep at it will now become the big issue but so far so good.

I was eating at maintenance right up until the time I made that post and have been eating at about a ~20% deficit since. It looks like I am dropping about a pound a week since then but still a bit early to tell for sure. I know I did make some mistakes with the logging that has been fixed for the most part but there are likely some other undetected mistakes in there as well. I haven't gone to the extent of weighing food but have been trying to estimate on the high side and am making sure that entire package weights are captured over the course of multiple servings.

Extremely small circle. And imaginary.

I don't doubt it but it is borderline impossible for me these days. Not literally of course, but I'm probably just not willing to prioritize it high enough to actually make it happen. Too much on the work commitment front and too much Dadding with two little kids. This time of year I am not getting home from work until after 8pm and am barely starting to think about dinner until around 9:30 after squeezing in some form of exercise. Shifting exercise to morning might help with that a bit if I could make that happen. Any organized sport would have to take place so late that it would get in the way of adequate sleep. We had a backyard pool put in late last year that hopefully will combine some exercise with family fun for part of the year.


March 1 - 160.4 lbs

Cardio - Elliptical - 4 min warmup, 10 x 20s hard/40s light, 4 min cooldown

1546 cal/106 carb/39 fat/185 protein/36 fibre

March 2 - 160.0 lbs

Cardio - Elliptical - 4 min warmup, 10 x 20s hard/40s light, 4 min cooldown - done in morning again - trying to make a habit of shifting this stuff to morning but having trouble.

AMRAP
pushups - 23
pullups - 5 (used chin grip)

For pushups I am going to repeat week 4 but will move on to the 2nd column.
For pullups I am supposed to keep on doing controlled descents until I can do 6 - 8 pullups but I am going to move ahead anyway and see how it goes.
For squats I am going to move on to week 6 and will stay in the 1st column.

1808 cal/135 carb/66 fat/175 protein/35 fibre

March 3 – 158.8 lbs

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and abs.

Pushups target– 18/22/16/16/25+ (week 4 column 2)
Pushups done – 18/22/16/13/15 (FAIL)

Struggled on first three sets and then failed the last two. Will repeat this day next time around and will reset back to week 4 column 1 next week.

Squats target – 34/40/27/20/54+ (week 6 column 1)
Squats done – 34/40/27/20/54

Pullups target – 2/3/2/2/3+
Pullups done – 2/3/2/2/4 (switched grips between sets - pullup/chin/neutral)

Ab stuff – 50 sec plank/34 bicycle crunches/23 hypers/40 sec plank/35 supermans

1819 cal/179 carb/49 fat/172 protein/24 fibre
Have a kitchen scale now so things should be a bit more accurate.

March 4 - 159.8 lbs

Cardio - Elliptical 45 mins

1887 cal/151 carb/69 fat/174 protein/35 fibre

March 5 – 159.0 lbs

Alternated between pullups and abs and then did pushups in the morning. Learned that pushups in the morning before eating don’t seem to work so well for me.

Pullups target – 2/3/2/2/4+
Pullups done – 2/3/2/2/4 (used a different grip for each set - pullup/chin/neutral)

Ab stuff – 50 sec plank/40 bicycle crunches/25 hypers/50 sec plank/40 bicycle crunches
Ab stuff was notably easier when pushups and squats aren’t done first.

Pushups target– 18/22/16/16/25+ (repeat of week 4 column 2 day 1)
Revised Pushups target – 14/16/12/12/18+ (rolled back to week 4 column 1 day 2 after failing 2nd set)
Pushups done – 18/16/12/12/18 (FAIL)
Will have to decide whether to reset to week 3 or repeat week 4 easy column again after this week.

Did the squats on their own at night.
Squats target – 19/19/21/21/19/19/13/13/59+
Squats done – 19/19/21/21/19/19/13/13/59
Last 10 or so were pretty sketchy.

2159 cal/167 carb/72 fat/195 protein/27 fibre – included in there were 430 cals and a bunch of carbs and fats complements of Zesty Cheese Doritos and damn they were good

March 6 – 158.8 lbs

Cardio – Elliptical – 4min warmup, 10 cycles of 20sec hard/40sec med, 4min med, 5min cooldown

1823 cal/151 carb/58 fat/178 protein/29 fibre

March 7 - 158.8 lbs

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and abs.

Pushups target - 14/16/12/12/18+ (repeated week 4 day 1 col 1)
Pushups done - 14/16/12/12/20

Squats target - 18/18/23/23/22/22/19/19/67+
Squats done - 18/18/23/23/22/22/20/19/67

Pullups target - 3/4/2/2/4+
Pullups done - 3/4/2/2/5 (alternated grips each set)

Abs - 50 sec plank/40 bicycle crunches/25 hypers/55 sec plank/40 bicycle crunches

1873 cal/146 carb/61 fat/195 protein/27 fibre

March 8 – 159.4 lbs

Didn't get home until after 10pm but still managed to squeeze in some mobility work and a small dose of cardio.

Cardio – Elliptical – 4min warmup, 10 cycles of 20sec hard/40sec light, 4min cooldown

1771 cal/171 carb/65 fat/139 protein/34 fibre - ate out for both lunch and dinner and estimated as well as I could, but actual cals could be +/-500. Sadly small goat cheese salad at lunch and salad + trout with side of penne at dinner.

March 9 – 158.2 lbs

Half-hearted attempt at some stretching and mobility work was it for the day.

1633cal/131 carb/55 fat/160 protein/13 fibre

March 10 – 157.8 lbs

12 mins or so of stretching/mobility work in morning and then again at night before the other stuffs.

Did pushups on their own, then alternated between pullups and abs and finished with the squats on their own at the end.

Pushups target– 12/14/11/10/16+ (rolled back to week 4 column 1)
Pushups done – 12/14/11/10/18

Tougher than I was expecting given the reset and thought I would get far more than 18 on the last set. Was getting extra rest when coupling them with squats which makes a difference.

Pullups target – 3/4/3/3/4+
Pullups done – 3/4/3/3/5 (used a different grip for each set, pullup/chin/neutral)

Ab stuff – 50 sec plank/40 bicycle crunches/25 hypers/50 sec plank/40 supermans

Squats target – 54/67/34/31/67+
Squats done – 20!
Goblet Squats done (20lb kettlebell) – 15/15/15/15/15

After doing 20 bodyweight squats I decided that I would like to finish this little bout of exercise sometime before dawn and decided to do goblet squats with a kettlebell instead. I managed to find a 20lb one kicking around the house, so now I am lifting as much as BasicBitch. Go me. Managed to finish up by 10:30pm, way before dawn.

Did a bunch of KB swings and single leg rdl’s afterwards.

1878 cal/167 carb/61 fat/167 protein/12 fibre

March 11 – 157.4 lbs

8 mins or so of stretching and mobility work.

Cardio – Elliptical – 4min warmup, 10 cycles of 20sec hard/40sec light, 4min cooldown

1738 cal/117 carb/46 fat/175 protein/30 fibre

March 12 – 156.6 lbs

12 mins or so of stretching and mobility work.

Alternated between pushups and squats and then alternated between pullups and kettlebell stuff.
Pushups target– 14/16/12/12/18+
Pushups done – 14/16/12/12/18

Goblet Squats (20lb KB) – 16/16/15/15/15

Pullups target – 3/5/3/3/5+
Pullups done – 3/5/3/3/5 (used a different grip for each set, pullup/chin/neutral)

Kettlebell stuff (20lb) – 5 rdl’s each leg/15 swings/15 swings/5x2rdl’s/15 swings/5x2rdl’s

1876 cal/162 carb/57 fat/177 protein/30 fibre

A trainer sounds like a great idea of you can find one you trust to teach you correct technique. Posting form check videos is also very helpful, at least in my case it was.

Posting form check videos seems to garner a lot of quality feedback around here so that is probably a good route to go regardless of whether I find a trainer or not. I have a big beautiful spa like hot yoga/spin bike/treadmill/elliptical/daycare-with-video-channeled-to-the-cardio-machine-of-your-choice-super-gym very close to me but I don't imagine I will find any help there. There is also a fairly hardcore body builders gym quite nearby as well but again I don't expect much help there either as it is basically all machines.

This place isn't nearly as convenient but at least offers powerlifting training for the big three lifts, so I may give them a try.

Important update: Turns out the kettlebell I have been using is actually 12kg, so although I am still not a man I am ever so slightly closer than I thought. This also means that the kettlebell that I know we have somewhere but have not been able to find must be 16kg and according to Pavel Tsatsouline if I use that one instead I can consider myself to be a soft beginner man child.

March 13 – 158.2 lbs

10-12 mins of stretching and mobility stuff.

Cardio – 5 minute brisk walk to warmup and then 8 cycles of 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking, 5 min cool down.

1785 cal/134 carb/63 fat/169 protein/27 fibre


March 14 – 157.6 lbs

12 mins of stretching and mobility work.

Pushups target– 16/18/13/13/20+
Pushups done – 16/18/13/13/20
Last few reps were really tough. Don’t see how I can progress to the next column or the next week of the program so I will likely just do a repeat and work on getting some extra reps on the AMRAP sets.

Goblet Squats (12kg KB) – 16/16/16/16/16

Pullups target – 4/5/4/4/6+
Pullups done – 4/5/4/4/6 (used a different grip for each set, pullup/chin/neutral)
Last rep of each of the last 2 sets were barely completed.

Kettlebell stuff (12kg) – alternated between 4 sets of each of 16 swings and 5 rdl’s each leg (sort of each leg – I fall off balance on my left foot quite often still)

Left knee is super sore today just below the knee from that little run last night. Both knees hurt for quite a while after the last couple runs and had finally stopped aching sometime fairly recently. I assume it is just from heel strike pounding that my body isn’t used to. Didn’t really impact much tonight other than a little tweak on the 2nd last set of squats.

This salmon recipe (http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2...ts-recipe.html) posted by Mihkel05 in Wildebeest's thread keeps popping up and looks awesome so I tried it out myself with salmon steaks. Presentation was terrible but it tasted pretty damned good. Undercooked for wife's liking but she tends to like meat and fish triple-cooked.

1803 cal/128 carb/65 fat/177 protein/24 fibre

March 15 – 158.4 lbs

12 mins of stretching and mobility work.

Cardio – did something I found called Brutal kettlebell HIIT Cardio Tabata Workout
Three 20 second sets of each of the following with 10 seconds of rest after each set:

KB Halo
Mountain Climbers
KB Snatch Right Arm
Squat Jacks
KB Snatch Left Arm
Burps
KB Swing
Bicycle Crunches
KB Goblet Squat
High Knees
KB Crush Curl
Jumping Lunges

Used 12kg kettlebell for the KB work and swapped out push ups for bicycle crunches both of which made things less brutal. I still nearly died. I really have no business doing **** like this. For several sets I only worked for closer to 15 seconds.

1822 cal/157 carb/60 fat/179 protein/26 fibre

Great to see the pounds dropping, keep it up!

I found that one too (FitnessBlender?), but I watched it from the safe space that is my sofa, tea in one hand, protein bar in the other! Kudos to you, I would probably smash my skull when attempting to do the halo with my 12kg KB.

Thanks!

Yeah, that was FitnessBlender. Kudos to you for using a 12kg KB! I would likely have opted to stick with that one even I could find the 16kg KB, but it is a good excuse for now. The non-KB exercises were the worst of it for me though smashing my own skull did go through my mind when I did the first couple snatches.

March 16 - 158.0 lbs

Was going to do nothing at all today but did 33 mins on the elliptical at just walking/super slow jog speed instead.

1761 cal/145 carb/60 fat/157 protein/10 fibre

Recap: 45 year old, zero lifting experience, want to look better, be stronger and more fit. Currently weak skinny-fat, 158lbs or so at 5’10”, small frame. In the process of building some sort of fitness base with mostly bodyweight exercise/kettlebells/cardio (cardio made up of mostly elliptical intervals, some bike trainer, walk/jog intervals, circuit stuff).

I plan to start a strength program sometime in the next few months (mid-May at earliest) and based on reading through multiple logs here there seems to be borderline consensus that a good progression for a beginner is SS > GSLP > TM > TM or 5/3/1. I am not certain but expect that is mainly for strength and could be tweaked for aesthetics past the GSLP point.

Assuming that SS > GSLP is an appropriate start, that tides me over for quite a while. I see a lot of comments in logs here that if people could do it all over again they would start out eating at closer to maintenance rather than the high surplus that SS recommends. I have no interest in getter fat(ter) but if the most efficient route to a better looking, stronger, more fit body is to pack on as many pounds at the beginning as possible why buck the system.

I estimate my maintenance to be 2250 or so, so the 3k cal+ recommendation in SS is a pretty significant surplus for an older guy strapped to a desk all day.

Cliffs:
1) Best diet plan once starting SS?
2) Confirm SS>GSLP>TM>TM or 5/3/1 progression noted is not way off?

will cross post in beginner thread