Almost hit the fat man club

[Sniper 2]

Hi all, been watching these forums for a while.

On the 7th January this year I tipped the scales at 99.7kg. I am 180cm tall and 34 years old. When I saw the almost 100kg stature of my ever widening girth something had to be done.

My diet consisted of junk food and plenty of soft drink, hardly exercised and sat in front of the computer most of the day. With the almost 100kg loomed, and not wanting to hit the fat man club action was required.

I immediately cut out all junk food, replacing hot chips with my meal with salad, replacing pepsi with water and cutting down the sugar I had in my cups of tea from 3 to 1.

I also hopped onto http://www.defencejobs.gov.au/lifestyle ... week1.aspx website and followed the fitness regime to the letter. 8 weeks later I had dropped 9.7kg but then I hit the 90kg wall. It appeared no matter what I did I could not break through to sub 90kg weight. Being disheartened I delved back into hot chips and soft drink and relaxed on the excercise. Over the last 6 months my weight has been fluctuating between 90.6kg to 92.6kg depending on any binge sessions I have over the weekends.

I have finally got back on track with my weight, being determined to lose more weight and get fit. A week ago I weighed 91.1 kg and as of this morning I am the lightest I have been in many years tipping the scales at 88.9kg. I go for walks every day ranging from 45 minutes on the treadmill or 60 minutes to the shops instead of driving. I take every opportunity to be active and I rarely use my car anymore.

I am amazed at how much cutting out soft drink effects my weight, with only drinking 2 cans a day. Also reducing my sugar in my cups of tea has seen a dramatic difference. I usually have 4 cups a day so that was 12 tea spoons of sugar plus soft drink per day. Now I have 4 tea spoons and that is it.

My current fitness workout consists of : (2 out of 3 days)

45 min treadmill ( run at 9km'hr as long as I can then walk at 6km/hr until I recover)
100 lunges with a 10kg weight (50 on each leg)
40 sit ups
10 push ups
bit of yoga stretching and cool down.

Guess I would like encouragement to keep me on track and reach my goal. I would like to weigh what I was when I was in my mid 20's which was 77kg.

[Auld]

Hey Mate,

Firstly, good work, lifestyle changes are always difficult.

I hit the gym 4 days a week at the moment and the best motivation I've found is www.fitocracy.com. I'm a gamer and love the idea of treating fitness as a game, let me know if you are interested and I can send you an invite. Counting calories and eating less than you burn is a good way to drop weight fast, there are plenty of great sites for this if you want to try it out www.dailyburn.com

IIRC a single can of coke has 100% of you RDI of sugar, so not including other foods 2 cans is already 100% more than recommended.

Lastly if you want to read up on diet/exercise related "stuff" I've found these sites helpful;

http://suppversity.blogspot.com/
www.leangains.com
www.simplyshredded.com


Heaps of other people on here will have helpful tips too.

[Drakand]

congrats mate on the changes you've made! I'm beginning that process now as already in the fat man's club and wanting to improve before my wedding in August next year!

[Mekon]

Guess I would like encouragement to keep me on track and reach my goal. I would like to weigh what I was when I was in my mid 20's which was 77kg.

Stick with it.

When I started training, I was around the 93kg mark (about the same height as you), dropped fairly quickly to 85kg, but was stuck there for almost a year. Mind you I hadn't really changed my diet much... when I did I lost about 10kg. Currently sitting at 75kg or so (and significantly fitter/stronger/slimmer than I was).

Takes a while to build up enough muscle to raise your energy consumption enough to burn off the extra fat.

[Auld]

oh weight training helps a lot, not just cardio.

[=beast=]

fair effort on the weight loss. well done! obviously it was all the sugar!

anyway, your work out seems pretty good already. my recommendation would be to do more work on your chest and back

eg. do alot more push-ups and add in chin ups (if u cant do chin ups, hop on a lat-pull down, or bent over rows, or just google some back exercises)

you will burn more energy working your back then you will just doing sit ups. and if u want to target your abs more (i assume you do? cos of ur addition of situps) you could try increasing the weight you use for lunges, or add a small twist on each lunge

when youre looking for a change, id also recommend a weights split routine

[Disco LT]

congrats mate on the changes you've made! I'm beginning that process now as already in the fat man's club and wanting to improve before my wedding in August next year!

I've got the same motivation mate.. amongst other things. Weighed myself the other night after a long time of avoiding it and checked in at 142.8KG. Which would be fine, if I was 9ft tall instead of 5'7

My partner and I have already started on our way to slimness, but it wont be easy.

[extremedavo]

Grats on the effort.
The military training programme is the best about. It's all about endurance and core strength which is what you need to lose massive amounts of weight without the need to be a gym junky. Most of the activities are outside which makes it more interesting and motivational.

When I was in the Army I followed the programme each day (a little more advanced than the website) and I was able to run marathons with fully loaded gear (183 cm, 75kg). I am a little heavier today but I know I could get super fit and lose a tonne of weight in just a few weeks on that start programme.

[Sniper 2]

you will burn more energy working your back then you will just doing sit ups. and if u want to target your abs more (i assume you do? cos of ur addition of situps) you could try increasing the weight you use for lunges, or add a small twist on each lunge

The only weights at home I have are :

25kg
10kg
7.5kg
5kg

I really need to buy a 15kg weight as I have become used to the added 10kg.

My lunge's do have a twist in them. I start with both feet even and the weight at arms length in front of my chest. Then when I place my right foot forward and lunge I move the weight to my right next to my right hip. Then when I step with my left foor the weight goes back to chest height and back down the the left hip. The action is similar to rowing a boat with a paddle.

In relation to more chest excercises I dont have access to a lat pull down machine, I do however have a weight bench and about 110kg of weights in total.

Will bench presses be enough to work the chest as you suggest ?

Just finished today's workout and I'm 400grams lighter. I do wear a sweat jacket while I'm on the treadmill. I found that without it I could do 20 minutes until I started to break into a sweat. With the jacket it takes 5 minutes.

When I was in the Army I followed the programme each day (a little more advanced than the website) and I was able to run marathons with fully loaded gear (183 cm, 75kg). I am a little heavier today but I know I could get super fit and lose a tonne of weight in just a few weeks on that start programme.

Wow, I can't even imagine running a marathon. I'm lucky if I can manage 1.5km in one stint atm.

[=beast=]

you could try doing a set of lunges with the 25kgs db's, hold the weights by your sides n focus on keeping stable. if you can only do a few lunges, thats ok. this is just a good way to shock your body. then you can go back to the 10's.

alternativly you could use your barbell. load up some weight, put it on your shoulders, do lunges.

as for the bench. yes it will be better as you can increase the weight. but dont ditch the push ups. add the bench in, do a few heavy sets + some push ups. you could also try some incline decline pushups to target the upper and lower parts of your chest. basically just put your feet up on the bench n do your push ups

i assume this means you have a barbell. google bent over rows, this will be a good exercise you can do with both a barbell and dumbbells, that targets your back

if you decide to do dumbbell rows, id do them BEFORE your sit ups. you'll find out why. always do situps last anyway. its good to preserve the power you get from your core for pushing harder with your lunges or bench press

[Sniper 2]

Work out today nearly killed me.

I increased the weight of my lunges from a 10kg weight to a 25kg weight. I only managed 6 * 10 lunges before I had to call it. I did feel good while doing as I could feel the endorphans being released. I wonder what my neighbours thought about the noise coming from my back yard.

I'n not strong enough to hold the 25kg weight out to my side while doing my lunges. I found that I could swing it in front and then control it enough to place it on the opposite hip. I think my shoulders will be a little sore tommorow but that is all good.

Yesterday I lost 500gram which put me at 88.4kg. Since last Saturday that's a total of 2.0 kg and I have one more day left of the week.

[=beast=]

lol sorry i meant just let the dumbells hang by your sides...not actaully hold them up. dont swing them though, could damage your shoulder if your too focused on lunging

I could feel the endorphans being released

another good reason to use heavier weights!

stop looking at the scales! 500grams could be anything. check the scales once a week

keep it up!

[Sniper 2]

I'll set up some dumbells tommorow and see how that goes. Not too sure that I could do 25kg in each hand but I'll give it a shot. I may surprise myself.

I've plotted my weight every day since January 31 this year in a spreadsheet with binge days, when I excercise, when I hit the grog too much which helps me to see if I'm indulging too much. I find it a very useful tool and I have seen my weight fluctuating day to day even with or without workouts. I've also seen periods of time where I have indulged for weeks on end not thinking what I was doing, how long I was doing it for at the time.

The main thing I have noticed this past week is when I reduce my sugar intake my weight plummets fast.

I'm also used to seeing my weight move around by as much as 600grams both up and down in the past, usually up after a hard saturday night.

I can see a problem with weighing in every day, the fact that you may be disheartened if you work out only to see your weight increase. Been through that before and now it doesnt bother me. It does however make for a nice graph.

[Auld]

Anywhere up to 2kgs can be water retention/loss.

[=beast=]

It does however make for a nice graph.

it sure would! well if it helps you then thats great! would be interested to see this graph when your all finished