"Doing more exercise with less intensity,"
Arthur Jones believes, "has all but
destroyed the actual great value
of weight training. Something
must be done . . . and quickly."
The New Bodybuilding for
Old-School Results supplies
MUCH of that "something."
This is one of 93 photos of Andy McCutcheon that are used in The New High-Intensity Training to illustrate the recommended exercises.
To find out more about McCutcheon and his training, click here.
Professor Chaos wrote:
Comparing your photos and measurements to last February, you are significantly fatter with only a slight gain in muscle... What happened?!
Easy answer...for various reasons, I stopped training and started eating junk food.
This thread is going to become an example of what happens when you fail, but don't let that get you down, and you try again. You can all be witnesses to my second attempt.
Weight: 84.3kg (185.5lbs.), down 0.9kg (2.0lbs.) from day 1
Body fat: 25.5%, down 0.5% from day 1
Time in bed last night: 9 hrs
Water drunk: about 4L (1.1 US gal)
Exercise yesterday: A workout a half hour walk at an easy pace.
I need to work on drinking a bit more water, I didn't quite get to the target yesterday.
I know there's lots of wisdom out there about not weighing yourself every day, but I like to get frequent feedback, and I'll try not to put too much importance on a particular day's measurements, and look at the overall trend instead.
Height: 183cm (6')
Age: 32
Weight: 85.2kg (187.4 lbs.)
% Fat: 26.0% (according to my scales)
Well you have been a naughty boy, as you was going to go full into a bodybuilding program and hunk up, but seems like you missed, and went for a year of sex drugs and rock and roll, only teasing there.
Good news,
However, you must have done something right, as you have gained 5 pounds of muscle in one year ??? Did you train ??? was it the eating more, if it was the eating more, it reinforces what I and many over at Tnation and BB.com say, you need to eat big to get big, otherwise its going to be a very long 40 year or more slow up hill battle.
Bad news,
You gained 16 pounds of fat.
Middle news,
Something very fishy, as your height has stayed exactly the same ???
I would say that the stand in BF monitor will be having you at about 5 pounds BF over, compared to a handheld. So at this I would not bother with any kind of big diet, as you do not look overweight in the photos, or sould I say you do not look to overweight.
Just cut down slightly on the carp, and carry on eating basically the same amount, but eat clean, and with the below exersices you will be able to transform yourself in about two months.
BUT you HAVE to stick to the clean eating and do not miss training.
I would recommend to add muscle, one of Ellingtons first books High Intensity Bodybuilding, and do the 20 exersices three times per week, and before you say that is far to much, please do all reps at 1/2, this way you will FAR more enjoy your workouts, and want to stick to them, and you might even want to do a few more exersices at this speed.
Find on all exersices, a weight that you can do relatively easy for the desired number of reps, and only add one pounds to upper body, and 2 pounds to legs each week, this will make progress far more steady and long lasting, do not do what lots do and add more weight, you will burn out and most properly stop the program.
Adding small amounts and you will constantly get the set number of reps on each and every workout, this in itself is great for progress, and great for the moral.
There are two main reasons for the 20 sets three times per week.
1,
Burning the calories more.
2,
Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, as well as myofibrillar hypertrophy. With arcoplasmic hypertrophy the volume of sarcoplasmic fluid in the muscle cell increases with not as much accompanying increase in muscular strength, as you get with hypertrophy.
All eyes are on you again AJFan, and good luck whatever you do.
Well done on posting your photo's and your honest answers. As far as diet goes take a page out of Rick's book and take it one day at a time. I will also add that as far as building muscle goes take it one workout at a time. I look forward to following your progress over the coming year.
Personally, I don't worry too much about my weights and measures. I do jump on the scale each Sunday just to see if I'm on track with my general goals but that's all. I do plan to take some fresh measurements at the end of this month; however, it will have been 60 days since my last set was taken.
Weight: 83.7kg (184.1lbs.), down 1.5kg (3.3lbs.) from day 1
Body fat: 24.9%, down 1.1% from day 1
Time in bed last night: 9 hrs, although it's summer here, so going to bed early seems a bit pointless because it's so hot and still bright outside, so sleeping is not easy.
Water drunk: about 3.2L ( 0.8US gal) I still need to work on consuming more, but my stomach felt a bit strange yesterday.
Exercise yesterday: Cycling to work.
Thanks for all your support. It wasn't easy for me post my new "before" info that was worse than a year before, although I suppose I should be grateful for where I am because that has given me the reason to get better. Rick, thanks for popping up here again, you've been a brilliant example.
Waynes wrote:
Well you have been a naughty boy, as you was going to go full into a bodybuilding program and hunk up, but seems like you missed, and went for a year of sex drugs and rock and roll
LOL!
I have done some gym work in the last year, but it hasn't been regular. I had forgotten to notice that I have probably gained some muscle too, along with the fat, thanks for reminding me, that's the silver lining.
"just for today" are indeed words to live by.... I find it useful to write down everything I eat and actually track protein, fat, carb grams.... is it a pain? yes.
I read, I can have pleasant results, or pleasant methods... the choice is mine...
Looks like you are moving in the right direction again. Definitely take it one day at a time and before you know it, you will be approaching your goals. I commend you for starting this thread, and look forward to watching your transformation.
Well done on getting back into it. Stick to the ASAP plan with no deviations, and stick to your diet consistently, and I think you'll be very pleased with your progress.
Weight: 83.7kg (184.1lbs.), down 1.5kg (3.3lbs.) from day 1
Body fat: 25.1%, down 0.9% from day 1
Time in bed last night: 9 hrs, I resorted to putting a sheet of wood across part of my window to make my bedroom darker to get more sleep. My curtains let through a lot of light in these long summer evenings. It seemed to work, I slept better yesterday.
Water drunk: about 4.2L (1.1US gal)
Exercise yesterday: A workout, and cycling to work.
I did just about everything right yesterday and my numbers didn't go down. I guess that's just one of those "daily fluctuations", although I did notice that I didn't have the same level of hunger yesterday. I'll just keep to the program and see what tomorrow brings.
I've been trying to follow the ASAP program as closely as possible, but I did a calorie count of the actual foods that I am using and it turns out that I'm closer to 1500cals than the recommended 1300cals, so I'm cutting back slightly. I'm also finding that my nose is feeling blocked up. This might be because I don't usually consume much dairy, and the ASAP eating plan has a significant amount of it. I'm thinking about modifying it next week to eliminate the dairy, but keep the same total calories and macronutrient ratios.
Thanks for the votes of confidence, it really does help.
Weight: 83.4kg (183.5lbs.), down 1.8kg (4.0lbs.) from day 1
Body fat: 24.8%, down 1.2% from day 1
Time in bed last night: 9 hrs
Water drunk: about 4.8L (1.25US gal)
Exercise yesterday: Cycling to work.
I had a bit of a "bump" in my progress the day before yesterday. I went out straight after getting home from work and ended up food shopping 2 hours after my usual eating time. With being so hungry and not mentally committed enough, I made some poor food choices, and my figures went significantly in the wrong direction. As a consequence, I was super-strict yesterday and it seems to have paid off, making up for my transgression.
I'm really glad that the ASAP plan is working really well, and that I can depend on it to keep me heading the in the right direction. I'm getting impatient, though, I can't wait to start my bulking phase. I realise that I have to do the necessary first, I'm giving myself an intermediate goal of getting down below 20% body fat by the end of next week.
In the Grazing vs. Gorging thread, coachjeff wrote about a buff 47yr old woman at his gym that eats clean ALL the time, and that is a good example for me to follow.
SpencerG wrote:
In comparing the pictures from last year to this year I noticed one big difference... where did the kitty cat go?
:-)
Well, obviously, that's an easy way to drop 5kg (11 lbs.), just lose the cat. ;-)
Not to worry, though, she's still around, just too busy sleeping to make it into the shot this time. She's also a good example of HIT: eat, rest a lot, and exercise hard out for a short period of time.
Weight: 83.4kg (183.5lbs.), down 1.8kg (4.0lbs.) from day 1
Body fat: 24.8%, down 1.2% from day 1
Time in bed last night: 9hrs
Water drunk: about 4.95L (1.3US gal)
Exercise yesterday: A workout, and a brief easy walk after dinner.
It seems that on days when I workout, I don't lose anything. This may be because I have a post-workout drink, which may up my calories too much. I have also been having my evening snack shortly after my workout in the morning instead, because I didn't want to starve myself after my workout. Next time I think I'll keep the post workout drink, but leave the evening snack where it is and see what happens. I'll also take a another look at my daily calories and check that I've got the right amount.
Weight: 83.0kg (182.6lbs.), down 2.2kg (4.8lbs.) from day 1
Body fat: 24.6%, down 1.4% from day 1
Time in bed last night: 9hrs
Water drunk: about 4.8L ( 1.3US gal)
Exercise yesterday: An easy half hour walk.
Well, I made sure I was on a strict 1300cal diet today, except for dinner when I went to my parent's house. By then I was feeling tired with very little energy. I preceded dinner with crackers smothered in high-fat pesto, and a healthy meal of fish + veges was followed by dessert of a chocolate log with ice cream.
My numbers still went a bit in the right direction, and with how tired I was feeling, maybe a strict 1300cal is not really enough for me? I'll see how things go with just 1300cal in the next few days.
s153015 wrote:
never went as low as 1300 calories...
I wouldn't ordinarily have gone that low either. I decided this year that I would leave behind a lot of my beliefs and just follow a few programs on a trial basis to see what happened. The ASAP plan says 1300, so I'll do exactly what it says for a while, unless it starts to look like things aren't working out. Thanks for letting me know what worked for you, though.
Weight: 82.6kg (181.7lbs.), down 2.6kg (5.7lbs.) from day 1
Body fat: 24.4%, down 1.6% from day 1
Time in bed last night: 9hrs
Water drunk: about 4.8L (1.3US gal)
Exercise yesterday: A workout, and an easy half hour walk after dinner.
In the past few days, I seem to be losing weight faster than bodyfat, I hope that's just the inaccuracy of the scale, and that in actual fact I'm losing predominantly fat.
