Progress after 4 weeks.

N00b2fitness

Hi all, I posted my plan up here a while back and got some good feedback. Just posting up how I've progressed versus the plan I had in the event that someone can suggest alterations and improvements. It's a lot of text, so you obviously don't need to read if you don't want to . Biggest problem I think is my diet, I've tended to let it slide a bit too much at weekends.

I'm 5'10 and 33 years old. At the outset I was fat and unfit, I'm still perhaps a little overweight but I'm starting to get some upper body definition, my love handles have shrunk but far from gone . My upper body definition has improved massively, can see actual shape of muscle and some definition when I flex now, whereas before I was podgy all over with no definition. Definitely lost a good bit of fat anyway. I'm not very strong as you may gather from the programme but it does feel that I'm pushing myself with the weights I am trying to lift.

Weight has not dropped much, I've gone from from 14st 4lbs to 13st 8lbs.
I've lost a couple of notches on my belt, my arms and shoulders are now more defined, can be seen now even when wearing tight fitting clothes.

Here is what I've done exercise wise over the past 4 weeks:

Week 1:

Actual Tuesday
Squats - 30kg 3 x 5
Deadlift - 50kg 3 x 5
Dips - 3 x 5 (could hardly do these)
Sit Ups & Stretches

Actual Wednesday
20m stepper fat burn L10
Bike 20m Level 6 70 - 80rpm
Treadmill 10 minute walk (brisk)
Sit Ups & stretches

Actual Friday
Incline Bench 15kg 3x5
Bent Over Row 15kg 6x5
Bicep Curl 10kg 4x5
Barbel bicep 15kg 3x5
Tricp Pshdwn 9plates 10x3
Situps & stretches

Week 2

Actual Monday
5k run 27 mins
20m stepper fat burn L8 239kcal
Sit Ups & stretches

Actual Wednesday
Squats - 30kg 3 x 5
Good Mornings - 50kg 3 x 5
Bench (machine) 4plates 3 x 5
Tricp Pshdwn 9plates 10x3
Bar Bicep 10kg 4 x 8

Actual Thursday
20m stepper fat burn L10
Bike 20m Level 6 70 - 80rpm
Treadmill 10 minute walk (brisk)
Sit Ups & stretches

Week 3:

Actual Monday
Squats (ball no weight)
Deadlift - 45kg 3 x 5
Trcp pshdn 10 plts 3 x 8
Chest Press 25kg 4 x 7
Bicep bbell 10kg 3 x 7
Rower 12-15 5k

Actual Tuesday
Treadmill 15mins
Bike 5k
Stepper L10 20 mins
Stretches

Actual Wednesday
Treadmill 50mins, 8k
Trcp pshdwn, 10plts 3x6
Lat pldwn 7plts 3x8
Bcp curl 7plts 3x8
Stretches

Week 4:

Actual Monday
80kg Deadlift 4 x 7
10kg each hnd bicep bar curl 4x7
15kg each hnd chest prs 2x5
Tricep pshdwn 8plts 3 x 10
40kg front squats 3x5
15kg Bent over bicep pullup 3x7
15kg bent over row 3x7
Dips 3x5


Actual Tuesday (morning)
10.5k (speed) treadmill 30mins - 5k
rower 10mins L8 ~30RPM
Stepper L8 ft brn 20mins
Situps and stretches

Actual Wednesday
10.5k (speed) treadmill 30mins - 5k
Stepper L8 ft brn 20mins
Situps stretches

Actual Thursday
Incln bbell chst prs 30k 4x7
Front squats 30kg 4x5
bbell pullups 30kg 4x5
deadlft 80kg 3x5
bbell bcp curl 20kg 3x7
Trcp pshdn 10plts 3x7
Dips 3x5 - failure

Actual Friday
10.5k (speed) treadmill 30mins - 5k
Rower, 2k 10 mins ~32rpm

Here has been a log of my diet for 1 particular week... the order is breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, milk is always skim and portions would be medium to large size I'm guessing. You can see it all went to pot one weekend after a feed of Guinness...

12/11/2007 - Weetabix Special K - Soup, Salad - Chicken Breast beans - Fruit
13/11/2007 - None - Soup Salad egg - Chicken Breast wholegrain bread x Apple, Orange, Dry Roasted Peanuts Half pack
14/11/2007 - None - Fish mash + veg - Chicken Breast McCambrdg x2 - Apple Mandarin - Dry Roasted Peanuts Half pack
15/11/2007 - None - Soup chicken lettuce egg - Can Minestr. soup, McCambridge - Apple Mandarin yoghurt
16/11/2007 - Porridge milk honey - Soup egg lett, pot. Sld, chkn - Chkn Madrs brwn rce veg - None
17/11/2007 - Porridge water/ milk honey - Chkn Madrs brwn rce veg - 3 pizza slices - mandarin x2 banana
18/11/2007 - Porridge water/ milk honey - 3 sausages 2 brown bread - Grilled fresh fish 3 potat, turnip, cabbge - mandarin x2 banana - Yoghurt
19/11/2007 - Porridge water/ milk honey - Soup chicken lettuce egg - Dngl ctch x2, waffle, beans - Pear, banana, apple
20/11/2007 - Porridge water/ milk honey - Soup chicken lettuce egg - 2 chkn brsts, tuna, soup ½ can - Apple, Yoghurt
21/11/2007 - Porridge water/ milk honey - Soup chicken lettuce egg 2 chkn olives, piece roast chkn + skin, beans, Banana, apple, 2 mandarins Orange
22/11/2007 - Porridge milk honey - Soup chicken lettuce egg
23/11/2007 - Porridge water/ milk honey - Scrambled eggs - whiting + veg - loads of Chocolate 7 pints guinness
24/11/2007 - 2 sausages, pudding, 2 bacon, 3 slices toast real butter - Meal out, Filet steak, potato, mussels - 3 glasses wine
25/11/2007 - 2 rashers, pudding, poched egg 2 slices bread real butter - chicken caesar salad - plum, banana, yoghurt
26/11/2007 - Porridge water/ milk honey - baguette, salami, mayo salad - baguette, ham, salad - Yoghurt, banana, apple, plum - 3 squares chocolate

So there it is - any feedback on how to get better results from the diet or exercise would be welcome.

Cheeky_gal

Jeez fair play. I'm not gonna give advice, wouldn't really be able to so we'll leave that to the experts!

But jeez just wanted to say FAIR PLAY! Thats inspiring! Ha, 7 pints of guinness....:D

N00b2fitness

Cheeky_gal wrote: »

Ha, 7 pints of guinness....:D

They were lovely.

N00b2fitness

I've been seeing a lot of threads discussing Creatine and Protein supplements. For the novice gym go-er like myself would anyone recommend either or suggest I just keep on going as I am without them?

My goal is primarily to keep losing fat but I would also like to build some muscle and tone up while doing so. Is it a bit early for me to bother with either of these or is it the case that they (in conjunction with hard graft and heavier lifting) would boost results regardless?

Sorry if it's a dumb question.

WHIP IT!

I'm in no position to be offering advice, but I would suggest that ten pounds is very good going weightloss-wise...

Reyman

I'd get rid of all that soup. I presume you're buying packet or cans - the stuff is full of salt, fat and probably MSGs. Disaster area food

Do you not eat vegetables at all ? Remember - a few pieces of lettuce is not vegetables

N00b2fitness

Reyman wrote: »

I'd get rid of all that soup. I presume you're buying packet or cans - the stuff is full of salt, fat and probably MSGs. Disaster area food

Do you not eat vegetables at all ? Remember - a few pieces of lettuce is not vegetables

The soup is not canned or from a packet. It's canteen soup so I'm assuming it's made in the kitchem. It's very salty though. I drink plenty of water so hopefully that counterbalances that. If I was to ditch the soup, I'm not sure what I could replace it with. The salad on its own would be a bit light I think...

You're right re: vegtables. Not getting enough of those in - it's easier to just fire in a few chicken breasts into the grill and have them with beans or something than to go steaming/cooking veg at night. I'll consider it tho - thanks for the advice.

brianthebard

Sorry but chances are the canteen soup is packet or big cans, I very much doubt it was made from scratch and the fact that its very salty suggests that there is msg in it.

N00b2fitness

Interesting - and here was I thinking I was having an ultra healthy lunch. Thanks, I might just check with the kitchen staff about how it's made. I'm only having a small bowl (like 150ml or so) so hopefully not too damaging.