birch

I've been running for the past 7 weeks and have been keeping a journal on a gaming forum. Only just discovered this forum and thought it would be a good idea to post my progress here as well.

birch

1/03/10

Meals

9:00AM - 2 fried eggs. Shake with 1/3 cup oats, 1 banana, 50g whey protein & 350ml milk
12:00PM - 125g tuna slices in springwater, cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber & pepper sandwich on mixed grain bread
2:30PM - Whey protein PWO shake
3:00PM - Apple
6:00PM - 200g pan fried chicken breast in el paso simmer sauce & mixed vegetables

Exercise

10km run with incline (57 mins @ 10kmph + 5 mins @ 12kmph)


Day off work so breakfast was later. Was a bit hungover from last night but felt alot better after running.

birch

2/03/10

Meals

6:30AM - 2 fried eggs. Shake with 1/3 cup oats, 1 banana, 40g whey protein & 350ml milk
9:30AM - Apple
12:00PM - 125g tuna slices in springwater, cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber & pepper sandwich on mixed grain bread
3:00PM - 200g pan fried chicken breast in el paso simmer sauce & mixed vegetables
3:30PM - Banana (pre-workout)
6:30PM - Steak & veges

Exercise

8km run with incline (51 mins @ 10kmph)


Was constantly hungry today which was weird. Also felt it in my calves early on when running, probably because I didn't stretch after yesterday's run.

Kyle Aaron

Welcome, mate, well done on your consistent training and efforts so far. Where are you in this wide brown land of ours?

You told us your weight, but not your height or frame size. I mean, there's a difference between being a 72.2kg 1.50m guy about as wide as a bar stool, and a 72.2kg 1.90m guy wide as a bookcase.

And then there's measurements, too. A 72.2kg guy might have a 100cm chest and 100cm waist, or a 95cm chest and a 80cm waist, the first guy definitely has some fat to lose for his health's sake, the second guy maybe shouldn't worry too much.

I would suggest that for your cardio efforts, if you can you should be out on the street or in a park rather than in a gym. With a treadmill you're not really running, it's more like skipping, you can end up with some funky muscle imbalances.

If the impact of pavement on your joints concerns you, and there are no parks where you are, then swim.

Of course, if you find the gym motivational, no worries, keep doing that. The best workout is the one you stick to, if you'll stick to a treadmill but not the outdoors, then the treadmill is good. But if you're happy and can be consistent with either, the outdoors is better for you.
I'd say two things to that.

The first is that your body fat is much more about your diet than about your exercise. That's because the energy you expend in an hour in the gym you could eat in less than a minute. An hour of jogging is around 300kcal - two stubbies of VB. If you really thrash yourself it might be 500kcal - large fries at McDs. Realistically no-one can out-exercise a poor diet. Have a sixpack of VB, you need three hours of cardio to burn that off.

If you get your diet on track, then the body fat will come off whether you're doing cardio, weights, or playing playstation all day. And the diet you've written up seems okay, though I'm in favour of more fruit, vegies, and some nuts, too.

But if you're drinking to a level where you're hungover that undoes all the rest. You want to keep the drinking down to not more than 6 standard drinks a week, and not more than 2 in any one day. Preferably no drinking at all, but most people aren't going to do that. So 6 and 2. Says on the bottle or can how many "standard drinks" it has.

Too much booze has other bad effects on the body, but the main two are that it has a lot of energy with not much nutrition in it, and if you're hungover you won't be able to work out very hard.

So much for diet. The thing about exercise is that if all you want to do is burn energy, weight training's as good for that as cardio. It's often better, but of course it depends on the intensity - nobody will burn off much with a few bicep curls and bench presses, just like those people reading magazines on the stationary bicycle aren't doing much, either.

So if what you want is to burn fat, why not get stronger at the same time? If you want to get fitter, too - okay then let's go for cardio. But if your ultimate aim is to have a strong, muscular, low-fat body - go for the resistance training.

Go hard on the weights and it burns as much energy in the hour as the treadmill would during that hour... but weight training burns energy afterwards, too, since your body has to burn energy to repair those muscles you just thrashed.

You are making consistent efforts, and consistent effort over time gets results. I just want to be clear on what your goals are, and we can think about how you can best and most quickly achieve them. I have no doubt you'll achieve your goals.

__________________
Recent clients' best results: BW +10kg/-27kg ... BF-11% ... ♀/♂1RM/kg SQ65/145 OHP30/65 DL75/170
"fitness and lifting is just an interest I have. Plain and simple. Some people like music, others like shopping, I like deadlifts." - a client[/SIZE]

birch

Oops sorry I knew I forgot something. I'll try get all my measurements after work, but all I know is my height is 178cm. I'm in Sydney as well.

Anyway, thanks for the big write up. I've already planned out what I'm going to do when I get into weights and I was planning on starting in a week or two. If you want to see what I have planned then let me know and I'll post it up.

As for diet, it's usually the same everyday. I usually work from 7AM-3PM and take a sandwich, banana, apple and nuts to work with me to eat during the day. I only recently changed my breakfast from weet bix to what I'm eating atm, and it feels a lot better.

I'll take some pictures and post them up tonight/tomorrow to show you where my body is at.

birch

3/03/10

Meals

9:00AM - 3 fried eggs. Shake with 1/3 cup oats, 1 banana, 50g whey protein & 350ml milk
12:00PM - 125g tuna slices in springwater, cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber & pepper sandwich on mixed grain bread
3:00PM - Apple & handful of almonds
5:00PM - PWO shake
6:00PM - 200g pan fried chicken breast in el paso simmer sauce & mixed vegetables
8:00PM - Banana

Exercise

6.25km run (40 mins @ 10kmph with incline)


I don't know why, but my calves are really feeling it this week. Usually I don't feel anything until towards the end but within 5-10 mins I do.

aedan_man

My advice would be eat another lean meat meal in your day with a complex carb source(your diet on 2/03/10 looks better). Also definitely start hit the weights up along with your do cardio. Get the best of both worlds. The worst you can do is burn some of the muscle that you're building which you are already doing without building any muscle. Stop the drinking, it lowers your testosterone levels so your muscle building and fat burning levels will be dropped along with it. You can drink, but in light moderation. It will also make you feel better in general, and your fitness will go up so you can run for longer (more weightloss).

birch

Cheers for the advice mate. The reason I had the chicken in the arvo on Tuesday was because I wasn't working that day and I was home and able to make it. Usually I'm working 7AM-3PM and just take my sandwich, fruit and nuts.

Once I start doing weights I'm going to change that and replace the sandwich with a tuna salad and replace the afternoon fruit/nuts with chicken/vegetables and have the nuts in the morning instead.

Also with drinking, I'm going to cut down after this weekend. Me and mates are going to QLD on Friday and we are staying in jupiter's casino. So it's just gonna be a big drink up and gamble fest. I'm committed to cutting down the drinking afterwards and will only drink on special occasions (birthdays etc), which will be in moderation of course.

Kyle Aaron

There'll always be another special occasion, mate. So you'll keep knocking 'em back if you rationalise it that way. I speak from experience, spent $5-6,000 annually on drink in the Army, and most of it was drunk by me

__________________
Recent clients' best results: BW +10kg/-27kg ... BF-11% ... ♀/♂1RM/kg SQ65/145 OHP30/65 DL75/170
"fitness and lifting is just an interest I have. Plain and simple. Some people like music, others like shopping, I like deadlifts." - a client[/SIZE]

birch

Yeah I understand but this weekend is something that I can't really miss. It's been planned for a while now and I've spent a lot of money on it If you don't believe me when I say I will cut back, then I will just have to prove it to you won't I?

Also, just had a banana because I was a bit hungry after dinner. Is that a good or bad idea? I won't be sleeping for another 3-4 hours so should it be alright? I'm always a bit conscious about eating before bed so dinner at 6-7pm is usually my last meal.