goYankees69@hotmail.com writes:
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Okay, I thought I knew what I was doing, but apparently not....
BACKGROUND INFO:
Male
29 years old
5'10"
29% body fat
204 lbs
Unless you had your body fat measured by a professional it's probably
wrong. The good news is that you haven't let yourself go as much as
most people do before deciding to clean up their act.
-snip story-
The story was useful. In fact, it's such a familiar refrain that
there is little point in repeating it.
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MY PROBLEM:
I started eating about ~1300(90g of p, 150g of c, 30g of fat)
calories 6 days a week and gave myself 1 cheat day. I dont have much
time, so my workout is limited. I dont do any cardio. I am trying to
squeeze in 1 hour of weight lifting 4 days a week. I have done this
for about 2 weeks and I feel like im getting stronger each time I go
back to the gym. Unfortunatly( or fortunaty ), I have noticed that I
just gained 2lbs in the past 2 weeks.
I would not recommend starting your new "fitness" lifestyle on a
severely reduced calorie diet. I especially wouldn't recommend a
reduced calorie diet combined with a "cheat day." That's quite
possibly the worst combination possible.
I would instead simply concentrate on making exercise a part of your
life again. It doesn't take four hours a week either.
The mistake most people make when getting back into fitness is that
they want immediate results. So they decide to live off of nothing
but watercress and spinach while mixing in hours of exercise. Three
weeks later they are holed up in a Krispy Kreme donut shop blowing
their child's college fund on glazed donuts.
It's taken you several years to put on the extra weight, and it is
going to take a while to take the weight back off. The key is to
slowly build the healthy habits that will last a lifetime.
Personally, if I were you, I would first concentrate on making
exercise a regular part of your life again. Joining a gym is nice,
but fitting in an hour to go to the gym can be difficult. To help
guarantee that you can get in a good workout even if you don't have
time to go to the gym get yourself some toys that you can play with at
home. A jumprope is good, and you can pick up an Olympic weight set
with 300lbs for less than $150 (my set cost $120).
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Is this normal? Do I have any chance to lose fat this way? As long
as I create a calorie deficit I should right? What kind of progress
can I expect from this?
Unfortunately, your experience is pretty normal. Water retention is a
big part of body weight, and starting a new strength training regimen
is basically the perfect way to guarantee that your body retains more
water.
Your severely low calorie diet combined with an entire "cheat day"
probably only guarantees that most of your time is spent being
miserable.
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Thanks for any recommendations/comments!!
-kp
Spend the next 5 weeks or so creating the good habit of regular
exercise. Don't worry about your diet until you exercise has become a
routine. Keep track of what you eat, if it makes you feel better, and
try and eat plenty of protein and unprocessed foods, but don't starve
yourself. If after 5 weeks you aren't progressing as quickly as you
want to then you can play with your diet. There are all kinds of
different tactics that you can employ.
One thing at a time friend.
Jason
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