Rorschach Posted October 4, 2010 Posted October 4, 2010 So my weight in the beginning of august is pretty much the same as my weight is now, that makes 2 months without any good progress on the scale. Admittedly I did start working out and thats when I stopped seeing progress (same thing happened back in march, must be a metabolism thing), and I keep having to tighten my belt so I know even if I'm not losing weight I'm losing tummy fat. Still frustrates the bejeezum out of me though. Worse than that is this is the busy season for security work in my town, last 2 weeks of september and all of october are CRAZY. I literally haven't had a day off in over 2 weeks, I work from the minute I get up until 6-7 at night (it gets dark here at 6:30) only to go to bed at 10-11 (going to bed right after I post this even) because I'm just so damn tired. I can barely keep my eyes open at work, and I haven't been able to go work out more than say 3-4 times in the past few weeks (I have a couple days this week where I can get a work out in, since work starts in the evening and goes into the night allowing me to get my work out in before work). My diet has been suffering too, get this. I don't keep 'quick' food around, because if I can make it in under 30-45 minutes, I eat it when I'm not hungry. Due to this I don't have any 'portable' food to bring with me to work, I usually just bring a couple pieces of fruit/veggies for lunch (which isn't really enough). On top of that I work at a port where cruise ships come in, so all day long we end up confiscating food from people. Stuff people eat on vacation, donuts, pastries, cakes, cookies, fudge, candy, horrible horrible junk food. Which sits in the back room for any security guard to eat if we want, and I'm standing there with an apple knowing that I can't go home and get a real meal for another 6 hours and its TAUNTING ME. Gosh, I've been doing pretty good avoiding that damn room but it's not easy when they schedule you for 23 days in a row! Bottom line, less working out, more cheating on my diet, haven't gained any weight but I haven't lost any either (even my bad diet days only hit 2000 calories, so in truth it's "bad" for my diet, but not that bad overall). I don't want to just throw my hands up and start looking at november but one thing is for sure, when november comes (and I get a regular 40 hour work week that stays the same from week to week) I'm going to be able to do alot better job at regulating my body. See how much I can lose between then and christmas. Lordy i feel squishy....
tman666 Posted October 4, 2010 Posted October 4, 2010 Some people make the mistake of thinking that to keep losing weight, they have to keep lowering their caloric intake. In reality, your body eventually adapts to the lowered caloric intake, your metabolism slows down, you lose muscle tone, and your body will be more likely to store fat. Since you have a job with long hours and constant temptation, you need to do some planning ahead. Your two major pitfalls are going to be 1) eating crappy food and 2) not working out hard enough to have any significant training effect. You can get around eating that crappy food by ensuring that you're not hungry. If you're hungry, your willpower to resist getting into the pastries and fudge is going to be in the toilet. You need to figure out some way to carry a source of clean, protein laden food that doesn't require preparation with you. Beef jerky is great for this. You could also look up some homemade protein cookie recipes and bring a big bag to work. Make them small enough where you can pop a couple of them every couple hours and still be full. If you have access to refrigeration then your possibilities grow even further. The bottom line is that you have to plan ahead. With your training, you're not going to have the time or energy with a job like yours to train real long. However, if you buckle down and "attack" your workout sessions, you can get a lot done in only a half hour or so. These "money" exercises include sprints, squats, deadlifts, bench, and rows. By keeping your loads moderately heavy and your rest periods short, you'll be able to minimize the time you need for warm up or ramping, while getting a great GPP type workout it. Crossfit is an example of this (not that I'm advocating it or anything ). You do have options to still make forward progress. The times like you're going through are what "separate the men from the boys", so to speak. You have to be intense and have the mental fortitude to get in the gym and hit it hard. Your saving grace will be the short time frame. After that, you can go home and sleep or watch TV or whatever, but make your training a priority chore.
Author Rorschach Posted October 4, 2010 Author Posted October 4, 2010 I hit the gym today even though I had to go after work, just couldn't stand NOT going for another day. I like your advice about a more difficult 30 minutes work out, I don't know what exactly I'll do but you're right, working out needs to be a priority chore. Even though I enjoy working out on days when it easily fits into the schedule I can't forget that it is a chore that has to be done even when I don't want to go. I'm lucky I enjoy going to the gym at all, most days it doesn't feel like a chore, guess I should focus more on the days when it does. As far as my body adjusting to caloric intake, has my body adjusted to the 1600 calories a day I've been feeding it? What should I do then, just keep eating only 1600, or eat more for a few weeks only to turn it back down later? I don't know.
tman666 Posted October 5, 2010 Posted October 5, 2010 I think you need to eat more along the lines of 2300 to 2600 cal/day, with perhaps a 40/30/30 Protein/Carb/Fat ratio. It's not an exact science, but I think that would be a good starting point. In addition to the increase in calories, I think you need to start training in a way that keeps you in the gym for only around 30 minutes (or less) but allows you to leave it all on the floor, so to speak. An example of this would be one day doing RDL and overhead presses, back to back for maybe 8 sets of 8 reps. The trick to keeping your speed up will be using moderate weight only. For example, if I can RDL 405 3 times, I might use 225 for the RDLs. If I can overhead press 165, I might use 95-115 lbs for overhead press. They will be easy at first, but if you keep your rest periods only as short as they need to be for you to be able to attack the next set. This kind of format can be useful because it's very simple and quick, but effective for fat loss and possibly even increasing muscle mass if done correctly. It won't make you some sort of huge beast of man either in size or strength, but you'll have a decent level of fitness and look good. I would structure it like this: Monday: A1) RDL 8x8 A2) Overhead Press 8x8 Tuesday: Sprints Wednesday: A1) Front Squat 8x8 A2) Pull Ups 8x8 (or lat pulldown if you're not yet pullup proficient) Thursday: A1) Bench Press or Push Ups 8x8 A2) Close Grip Bent Over Row 8x8 Friday: Direct Arm Work (ya know, for da ladies ) and 15-20 minute brisk walk Saturday: Sprints Sun: Off I dunno man, this stuff isn't exactly rocket science. You'll just have to play with it and find your groove according to what you like to do, what you have the time and energy for, and what is giving you the results you want. Hope this all helps and isn't just a bunch of stuff you already know or don't care about.
Els Posted October 5, 2010 Posted October 5, 2010 Don't have any advice, just wanna salute you for actually being able to work out 3-4 times a week despite working >12 hours/day 7 days a week! What are you, superman? The only days I can ever muster energy to work out are days when I don't need to work/study full time. Big kudos to you.
Author Rorschach Posted October 5, 2010 Author Posted October 5, 2010 I like the idea on the workouts, I'll try it for a couple weeks making sure to go every day just for a change of pace. I don't know about the diet advice only because it sounds like alot of calories to me, on top of that having to go out of my way to get a 40/30/30 intake sounds like it could take more time/effort than I have alotted to my diet right now. Right now my diet is very simple, don't eat much. I certainly can do a diet like that but I'd like to start it after work has settled down a bit, the work out I can handle.
tman666 Posted October 5, 2010 Posted October 5, 2010 I like the idea on the workouts, I'll try it for a couple weeks making sure to go every day just for a change of pace. You won't see much results in only a couple of weeks. One mistake that people make (aside from hanging on to a particular training program too long) is not giving it enough time to work. I'm not saying that trying it for a couple weeks to see how you like it is a bad idea, but don't expect any miracles in such short time frame. Let me know how it goes if you do give it a shot though...
Author Rorschach Posted October 5, 2010 Author Posted October 5, 2010 You won't see much results in only a couple of weeks. One mistake that people make (aside from hanging on to a particular training program too long) is not giving it enough time to work. I'm not saying that trying it for a couple weeks to see how you like it is a bad idea, but don't expect any miracles in such short time frame. Let me know how it goes if you do give it a shot though... Indeed. I intend to do SOME form of workout for as long as humanly possible, years and years. But I mean to say is that I want to try this shorter more intense workout for the next few weeks to see if it's something I can maintain with the current workload. I want to get, and stay, fit and healthy and exercise and weight lifting is all part of that, so I'm not really expecting miracle results, just a work out I can manage to do even if I work a 12 hour day. Oh and I went sprinting this morning. Also I was thinking about the diet and I was going to design 10-15 meal plans for a day. So that I could schedule out something that both fit the new diet and was relatively inexpensive. That way I would have to do a bit of homework once, and after that I could just pick any of 15 different day plans and follow it.
tman666 Posted October 5, 2010 Posted October 5, 2010 Also I was thinking about the diet and I was going to design 10-15 meal plans for a day. So that I could schedule out something that both fit the new diet and was relatively inexpensive. That way I would have to do a bit of homework once, and after that I could just pick any of 15 different day plans and follow it. I like this idea. This way you get variety without having to think too hard about it (or at least you're doing the thinking up front, instead of trying to do it when you have work breathing down your neck). Nice job on the sprints! As you know, I'm a big fan..
Author Rorschach Posted October 6, 2010 Author Posted October 6, 2010 Do I have to alternate the exercises or can I do all 8 sets of one then all 8 sets of the other, I only ask because today it proved problematic doing squats and then pull ups as the two stations were not close to each other and at one point somebody started using the squat station while I was doing my pull ups. There are a decent number of people in the gym and it's kinda difficult to 'claim' equipment from across the room.
tman666 Posted October 6, 2010 Posted October 6, 2010 (edited) It is preferable to alternate the exercises for the following reason: you'll be able to get more power out of each respective set, which in turn leads to a potentially greater training effect. This is because while you're doing your pull ups, your legs are getting a chance to recover, which will allow you to get more power out of them in the next set. Straight sets are great too, especially for fat loss purposes, but you will definitely feel the burn more and faster. In short, there is no problem with doing these workouts as straight sets as long as you're able to keep up the intensity on each set and keep your rest periods as short as they would be alternating sets. Alternating the sets is just a way of managing fatigue. Edited October 6, 2010 by tman666
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