another weight loss thread.. my goals

[Pattayafuntime]

Another weight loss thread...

Im gonna use this spot as my own personal blog listing what im doing, any feedback will be welcome.. so here it goes

 

Last year I took on a bit of a weight loss challenge with a friend... the goal was to get from 120kg to 100... when i got to 110 my friend got worried, and downed the stakes and said I needed to get to 105... got to 108.. then for some reason or another I got lazy... and then, met pattaya.. 

After getting back from Pattaya, it felt like all motivation was gone...  Unlike back home where you need to work hard and diet right and take care of your body... in pattaya the only thing girls cared about was my charm (Thai Baht), and not my appearance...  So it was hard getting back into it...

So, here I am finding myself at 115kg again.. So its time to get back to the gym.. Christmas is over .. the excuse to eat all that christmas junk and stuff myself silly is done...

 

My goal again is 100kg.. and a good friend has offered me a nice treat on my first night in Pat's if I hit my goal, which is an added bonus.. but not the main motivation..

 

Heres how I plan on doing it.. 

2 weights sessions a week

4 cardio sessions (possibly 3 some weeks, as a rest day may be required)

1 cardio/back workout per week..

 

So the goal is to be active 7 days a week with the odd cardio day off here and there...

 

Breakdown of the sessions are. for first 3 weeks (1 - 3)

Day one, chest/back

day two, 20 minute intense spin. abs

day three, bicep,triceps,shoulders (The glamour muscles )

day four, 20 minute intense spin, abs

day five, 40 minute fat burning spin, back workout

day six/seven, a form of cardio, probably jog one day, spin the next.

 

for weeks 4 - 6, cardio the same, however hopefully at a higher intensity/longer duration

day one, chest, shoulders, triceps

day three, back and biceps

day five, spin + back workout

 

7 - 9, same as 1 - 3

 

10 - 11, same as 4 - 5

 

My first weigh in was December 26, first workout was Dec 27th., and I am using a Fitbit scale to weigh myself.  I dont at all trust the body fat %, but its nice having the scales readings sent to my phone for viewing.

even though I set it as 115 guessed weight, my first weigh in was 114.1kg.. and as of today, 4:55am Jan 1, 2015, I am at 111.6kg..

 

The diet is going to be 80% of it.. so I really need to focus on that...

Breakfast: 2 serves of veggies, a piece of meat (chicken, kangaroo steak etc) and sometimes some eggs... with an ice coffee (Ice, coffee, dash of almond milk)

Morning tea: Coffee with full cream milk 

Lunch: a small serve of brown rice, a small serve of some sort of meat. usually chicken

Afternoon snack: apple and a glass of water

2 hours later, a piece of multigrain toast with vegemite before workout

After workout, some yohgurt..

 

Sounds like a lot when I think about it... I sometimes also have a coffee after lunch aswell

 

I am not the best at working out how many calories I consume per day.. but im pretty sure I go over my target every day :S

 

 

A few of the major concerns I have over the next few months, are the things that will ruin me...

The cheat day... Last time I did it I got into the mentality of .. .its ok once a week to have a cheat meal.. next thing im eating frozen pizza and have ice cream for dessert.. might as well get some cheese and crackers with it... make a day of it

 

The "You look great" or "Have you lost weight?!" comments.. I dont know how others feel about this, but when I hear it.. somewhere in my mind I hear a voice say.. hey buddy, good work.. time for a cheat meal since your doing so well..

 

My Birthday..  I am turning the big 30 this year and already have friends bugging me for a big night out... and its not 1 friend either.. its 3 friends, from 3 different groups of friends...   Alcohol is a huge weight loss killer... nothing beats getting out on the piss, and then stopping at the kebab shop on the way home for some good nasty food.

 

..

My thoughts so far.
Ive just completed my 4th workout session..and am feeling pretty good.. I had some champagne at work (2 glasses) to celebrate the New Year and then the drunkness got the best of me (im a lightweight when it comes to champagne) and I ate 3 choc chip cookies one of the ladies at work baked for everyone... I almost skipped the session because I thought the booze was still in my system, however forced myself to go as the streets were filled with people and the gym was empty.. so it was a logical choice..

Im not really sure about my 2.5kg drop in 5 days, but im happy about it anyway...  However ive experienced these types of drops before, only to then weigh myself the next day or a few days later to see I have raised above whatever it was I dropped.. so its still too early to tell..

I also realise my eating is still probably considered over eating.. however.. I feel like im eating better quality food...
Instead of pizza's and ice cream its steak and veggies.  There is no more soft drink, just water..  I want to cut out the piece of toast before the workout and the yohgurt when I get home.. i use the yoghurt as a post workout excuse which is dumb.. But I am sooo hungry by the end of the day...

Good news is spending the time to type this post out has distracted me from the temptation of food

 

Thanks for reading.  More to come

[tl6237]

Good luck mate. Try not to just do gym work. Do stuff which also gets you out and about like cycling

 

Whats your height btw?

[Pattayafuntime]

180cm

edit: Also the out and about part.. Is going to be the jogging part..
I live in a city environment, riding on the footpath is frowned upon, and on the road is out of my comfort level...  However there are some nice jogging tracks by the water which I plan on taking advantage of

[tonilss]

Hello mr Pattayafuntime!

 

Here are some comments on your post, I hope they are helpful for you and others in your situation.

 

Food:

Don't worry too much about the cheat meals, drinks, choc chip cookies etc as long as you only have them on occation and you eat healthy on a regular basis. Give your method some time before you evaluate the results. Remember that slow and steady wins the race. Also, try to plan your meals so that you get enough energy after the workout. Your body needs the nutrition to recover.

 

Gym:

Looks like your workout split does not include legs. I am very disappointed ; ) Your legs are the body's largest muscle group. By working them out your metabolism will increase. The level of muscle growth hormones in your body will also increase, which will affect other muscles in your body than the legs (e.g. glamour muscles) in a positive way. Heavy squats are a great exercise for weight loss.

 

Cardio:

Don't know much about cardio actually, I never do it...

 

Rest:

When you are woking out you are beaking down the body, when you are resting the body recovers. So I recommend that you take at least one day off per week from any type of workout. Working out every day will not be a problem in the short run, but after a while your body will be in a constant state of breakdown and you are more likely to get injured. Also make sure that you get enough sleep.

 

Good luck with your program!

[Lhasa]

Hello Pattayafuntime,

 

I've lost 50KG myself in the past and it was the single best thing have ever done in my life.

I hope you will reach your goals and keep us up to date.

I will follow this thread with interest. Dont lose weight to fast, i learned not to do that the hard way.

 

Good luck and salutes to you.

[taylor1975]

so either 6 or 7 workouts a week. Thats quite a lot .....how old are you?

 

Not too impressed with your food plan - there is nothing there! Eating just a yoghurt after a workout and nothing until breakfast? not sustainable IMO.

 

Have you tried to add up your daily calories? I think you should throw in a few whey protein shakes throughout the day. 

 

I'd be doing far less cardio and much more weight training. You want to become a calorie-burning machine, but you need muscle.

 

Following with interest.......and of course good luck

[rollingstonedan]

How's the breakfast going? Good work if you can keep it up. I can't face veggies and chicken for brekkie.

 

After your workout you need to be getting some protein too. A shake is good straight after, but a meal with plenty on protein is ideal ( what you have for breakfast would do ).

 

That's quite a lot of exercise with out rest if you don't normally train. High intensity interval training is great for fat burning. But it has to be done as the name suggests, it's max effort.

 

And train those legs! Get the flutes working. They'll help support the back lower back.

 

The main thing is it has to be realistic. Sounds like you've made some big lifestyle changes. You have to do this for yourself also, not just for the ladies or for a bonus at the end.

 

Good luck pal.

[Mongster]

Personally I think you need to eat more food and definitely more quality protein. Shoot for roughly 200g per day your weight and your calories should be roughly you body weight x 10 per day. This gives you a baseline and you can adjust up or down from there based on your results. You are banging out a shit load of cardio and the last thing you want is to lose lean muscle and end up skinny-fat. Also, you want to have energy to workout and keep your metabolism revved.

 

After a couple of weeks if you are doing things right you should really only be dropping 1-2 lbs per week. If you are dropping at higher rate then that eat some more quality calories.

 

Good luck and stay with it.

[Leon25]

It's always very difficult to work out what people really want when you look at their plans for getting fit, but if it's simply weight loss (i.e body fat) there's really only 3 things you need to do -

 

* High intensity interval training, or slow constant state cardio, HIIT is more effective, SCSC is a bit easier on your joints.

* Calorific deficit.

* Drink plenty of water.

 

If you want to build muscle then there are other things to include obviously, but if you want to lose a beer gut, these 3 simple things will do it. Ideally you don't want to lose more than 1-2lbs per week. It's not good for you and it just goes back on as soon as you eat anything with carbs or saturated fat in it. If someone tells you how they lost 10lbs in a week, it's more than likely because of water retention, and they'll put it straight back on. 

 

Keep it simple and you'll get results.

[Pattayafuntime]

Thanks for the support

Week one went well, but at the end of it I was feeling absolutely wrecked.

Week two had its setbacks, I changed to a new shift which means I start and finish work around peak gym times, so I need to figure out a new time to go to the gym.
Also I got sick (always the way....) so its been a few days off

so either 6 or 7 workouts a week. Thats quite a lot .....how old are you?

 

 

im 30
Ive decided to cut out atleast one workout a week, and change another cardio one to legs

 

How's the breakfast going? Good work if you can keep it up. I can't face veggies and chicken for brekkie.
 

breakfast is fine
I actually enjoy chicken/steak and veggies, bit of a pain to cook but I always look forward to my first meal of the day

[6853395]

Kudos to you for mapping out a plan.

 

The diet is going to be 80% of it.. so I really need to focus on that...

 

You hit the nail precisely on the head with your statement above.  Losing weight, and generally staying fit and healthy, is at least 80% and it has been argued, and perhaps shown in my case, that nearly all of the goals can be obtained on diet alone.

 

In fact, it really doesn't matter if you have the greatest workout routine in the world;  if you're diet is crap, you're wasting your time.

 

About one year ago, I switched to real food/natural diet, pretty much summarized as follows:

 

Things that I keep within my diet:

 

• Fruits (Granny Smith Apples, bananas, other *Low-Glycemic* (below 55).  Whole-fruits, not juice, sometimes blueberries when available)
• Vegetables (various, raw, spinach, good carbs, etc.)
• Fish (and other seafood)
• Chicken (skinless white meat preferred)
• Whole Grains (brown rice, black barley, red rice)
• Raw nuts (almonds, sometimes raw nuts variety)
• Eggs
• High fiber cereal with non-fat milk
• Green Tea
• Soda water, club soda, sparkling water (often with a full lime squeeze, including the fibers)

Things I avoid:

• Flour, baked goods, etc.
• Sugar, HFCS, sodas, sweetened drinks, etc.
• Bad Carbs - Anything with flour including dough, doughnuts, pizza, white rice, white bread, etc.
• Processed foods
• Red meat and pork (to a great extent; prefer seafood and poultry)
• Candy, cookies, cakes, junk food, etc.  All bad carbs.

Pretty much, want to avoid salt, sugar (keep my blood-sugar level low).  I'm neither diabetic nor pre-diabetic at the moment, but I do get it checked regularly once a year and want to keep it as much below 5.6 as possible.

 

For the most part, healthy eating is becoming a high priority.  When eating cooked foods, I prefer it be me who's cooking it so I know exactly what's in it.  Pretty much, I cook with just the minimum amount of extra-virgin olive oil, maybe some cilantro leaves.

 

It's pretty much fruits, vegetables, fish, chicken, whole grains, and low carbs, while avoiding red meat, pork, and all the other junk that should be avoided.

 

Lately, I prefer to do my own cooking.  The advantages are that I know what's in it, but more importantly, what's not in it.

 

Here's a couple of photo albums of the meals I enjoy cooking at home:

• Chicken Lime Curry
• Fish Lime Curry, with artichokes

I currently weigh between 59 and 60 kg, I'm very active, walk everywhere, swim, etc. and in my case, I've been able to achieve over 90% my goals by diet alone.

[6853395]

Healthy Eating in Thailand

 

Since there have been many discussions and news articles posted on this forum pertaining to low-carbohydrate diets, it's probably of no surprise the milled white rice is high in carbs and I made a couple of recent posts pertaining to brown rice in Thailand here and here.

 

Diabetes is becoming a growing epidemic among Thais as their diet is very high in sugar and sweetened beverages, a lot of white rice, and a lot of noodles.

 

A recent article in NPR:

 

Being Thin Doesn't Spare Asian-Americans From Diabetes Risk

 

In addition, I recently had a discussion with a 64-year-old retiree, and active Muay Thai kick boxer, pertaining to the challenges of healthy eating in this area of Thailand.

 

I mentioned above the my diet is basically fruits, vegetables, fish, chicken, whole grains, raw nuts, etc.

 

However, here in Thailand, many of the fruits and vegatables are laced with large amounts of pesticides and/or irrigated with contaminated water.

 

Fish caught and conveyed from far away is put into formaldehyde as an alternative to freezer trucks, ships, etc.

 

Chickens are injected with growth hormones, etc.

 

The grease and oil they use to cook with is high in trans fat and very low-quality.  Extra-virgin olive oil here is very expensive for Thais.  We can afford it at about 400-baht per bottle, but Thai vendors and restaurants are not going to pay that price and will use cheaper hydrogenated alternatives.

 

For those who live here, or spend a fair amount of time here, healthy eating is a challenge.

 

For fish, and other seafood, it's probably best to go to places that have live fish swimming that's killed before it's cooked, and steamed instead of deep fried.

 

I've opted for boiled eggs instead of fried, as I don't trust the oil they use.

[rollingstonedan]

Great post ruay.

 

I completely agree that it is hard to eat healthy whilst here. I struggle to eat good food when out.

 

At home I use coconut oil to cook with which isn't cheap but worth it.

 

In regards to meat and veg it's hard to trust anything from the supermarkets. I've seen some organic stuff but it's so expensive.

 

In the future I'm hoping to have enough land so I can grow my own veg and have a few chickens etc.

[Jack Frost]

Good thread & all the very best.

 

I will follow this.

[kikielee]

I agree with the other posters comments- you need more protein...hope it goes as you planned...Keep us posted !

[Cph]

just to

give my 0,02.

 

Making really detailed plans is perhaps a good idea, but why not just start and see where it takes you?

 

With regard to the training why not stick to things like squats and deadlifts? Maybe do some yoga as well to develop your body in other ways?

 

Maybe find some sport you enjoy like BJJ or thaiboxing? Would also give you an excuse to go to LOS.

 

BR

 

Jens

[expatdude]

The post that said almost everything is about diet is just flat out wrong and doesn't make any sense at all.

 

Cyclists on the Tour de France take in "at least 6000 calories a day." Why, because weight is a balance between energy in (food mostly) and energy out (through exercise and just living your life).

 

The clear implication is you can decrease the amount of food you take in or increase the amount of energy you burn, or any combination, to decrease weight. It's just common sense.

 

In my case, the balance I have found is two fold. I run once or twice a week for 45 minutes. This really helped me lose weight. I also limit my food intake by rewarding myself with good food. I don't eat very often, but when I do eat, it's something I really want. Between meals I'm usually hungry, but I just focus on what I will eat next to get through that time of hunger--looking forward to my next excellent meal. I also try to eat whole foods as much as possible.

 

My weight has been pretty steady for many years using this system. You must find something that is sustainable--focusing on getting the weight down is problematic if you have no long-term strategy to keep it off.

 

Edit: I would also add that a totally sedentary lifestyle is not good. Some exercise is necessary for just general well being.

[nixonsbest]

Hello Pattayafuntime,

 

I've lost 50KG myself in the past and it was the single best thing have ever done in my life.

I hope you will reach your goals and keep us up to date.

I will follow this thread with interest. Dont lose weight to fast, i learned not to do that the hard way.

 

Good luck and salutes to you.

Well done!  What is your formula?

[FranklyMrShankly]

I've lost more than 30 kg twice in my life now. The lesson learnt is that you cannot out train a lousy diet. That and booze will pack the pounds on. I've recently moved to strength training and am making amazing gains even in my 40s. Use interval training and HIIT then start lifting heavy. Its a simple equation, more lean muscle mass equals higher metabolism. I eat sensibly now, but eat a lot and enjoy it.