Official Dids Gym Thread

[Dids]

Hey "The Gym".

This is my workout/weight loss tracking/suggestion/accountability thread.

As you may know, last March I was at 331 lbs. That's likely down from more like 345 (I had moved in Feb and was walking about 3 mile or so a day for the past 3 months).

Since then I've dropped about 70 lbs to my current total of 260. This was mostly just from more walking, much better eating, and the workout plan that I'll outline below (I'd been in the gym a few days a week in Nov and December, and got really dedicated and about 4-5 days a week from Jan on. (I got a car, and I'm not walking to the bus stop anymore, although my plan is to walk on days off from the gym).

My goals are mostly to drop weight. However, one of the things that happened in the period between March and Jan is that I lost a lot of muscle, so I'd like to get that back again.

Here's my current work out plan. I've been more or less sticking with this for a while.

Working out Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday.

I start with 20 minutes of cardio on crossramp at the 16 setting (which works the gluts and calves) keeping up a rate of about 155-165 strides per minute and a heat rate between 130-145 (this really varies by how much energy I have), and then another 10 on the bike or the treadmill that’s typically less vigorous than the crossramp.

Then it's lifting. I was alternating "arms and chest" and "legs and back" days, but I just changed that to a rotation of "arms and chest", "legs" and "back and stomach".

Here's the various machines I'm using and the current weights I'm at. When I'm lifting, my goal is always 3 sets of 10.

Arms and Chest:

Chest Press: 85
Biceps Curl: 75
Triceps Extension: 75
Shoulder Press: 40
Lat Raise: 70
Fly: 110

Legs:

Leg Sled: 360
Calf Press: 280
Leg Extension: 120
Leg Curl: 120
Adductor: 100

Back and Stomach:

Row: 100
La Pull: 100
Back Extension: 260 (max on the machine, I do 3 sets of 15 for this)
Ab Crunch: 140
Torso Rotation: 135
Pullover: 110
Rear Fly: 110

Diet/Schedule:

I wake up about 5:30, on the bus and at work by about 7, that’s when I eat breakfast.

Breakfast is typically: Two pieces of whole wheat toast with lowfat, no sugar peanut butter and either low sugar jam or honey, a light yogurt and a bowl of some kinda whole grain non-sugar cereal with 2% milk.

Lunch/Dinner: Typically leftovers for lunch, you can see what I’m cooking for dinner on my blog. Typically it’s going to be some kinda lowish fat meat and two veggies.
I’ve been having a protein shake made with Whey Protein, one banana, and frozen fruit after dinner. This is in part to quench my sweet tooth.

Questions and comments:

1- What jumps off the page at me is that my upper body is horrible, especially chest press, but my lower body is almost maxing out some of the machines. I assume that's called "carrying around a fatass for a long time", but I'm not sure.

2- I've been told by a few people that I should be doing the lifting first before cardio. My reasoning for not doing this in the past has been that it’s the lifting I really enjoy, so by forcing myself through the cardio, the lifting is a reward. How much of an impact is this, and is it mos def something I should change? Should I still have like a 10 minute warm-up if I do that?

3- People are going to suggest squats, I hate squats. In high school I was doing them bad and ended up emptying both sides of the bar on the floor and it freaked me out. I’m not very comfortable doing them, so I like to avoid. Also, I strongly prefer to stick with machines over free weights.

4- So what do we think of my plan? Is anything painfully misplaced? What should I add, what should I drop? My gym is pretty damn nice (LA Fitness) so if there's something you suggest, they've probably got it.

5- Judge the diet. Is breakfast good? Is the shake a good/bad idea ?

My intent with this thread is to update it weekly with how often I’ve worked out, values for what I’m lifting, weight loss, and pictures (yes, topless Dids pictures!!).

Pictures for the purpose of progress tracking:






Thanks in advance for the help guys. I think this forum is going to rule if we can all work together to keep on track.

[ImsaKidd]

I'm not a workout expert or anything, reading posts like this (assuming you stay on) will be interesting.

The pics of food you posted in EDF look awesome, you can still eat well on a diet LDO.

[einbert]

Dids,
Congratulations on losing so much weight!

[SmileyEH]

Dids why don't you like free weights? If the only way you will move weights is if they are attached to a machine thats fine, but you will make much bigger gains in every respect by leaving them behind you.

For your diet, have you looked into the Zone diet? It looks like you are getting too much carbs (especially for breakfast) and not enough fat.

Also, if I were you I would try to start eating much closer to my caloric needs. Dropping 70lbs in a year means you were probably on average burning around 700 calories a day more than you were eating. I wouldn't try and maintain anywhere near that pace-maybe aim for something like losing a pound every 2 weeks which will also allow you to actually make some strength gains.

Either way congrats on some awesome progress so far!

[kerowo]

Congrats and keep it up! I started off at Christmas at where you are now. Since then I've averaged about 2 lbs a week of steady loss by doing around 4 to 5 hours a week of cardio. Started with 45 minutes on my road bike on a trainer or between 1 and 2 hour Dance Dance Revolution sessions and getting rid of a lot of junk in my diet. I bought a heart rate monitor in Jan and have been seeing the calories per workout go up as I've dropped weight, which is nice, means my intensity is getting better, I'm now averaging around 700 calories an hour of cardio, more with the cycling less with the DDR.

My typical meals look like this:
breakfast: During the week a packet of instant oatmeal and some coffee.
snacks at work: This is what killed me before, too much crap. I now bring a yogart and yogart smoothie to work for snacking. They are organic and don't have HFCS.
Lunch: Can of the Healthy Chunky soup. A couple times a month I'll go out for lunch, but this is down from several times a week.
Dinner: It's usually been ground chicken based for the last couple weeks. Sometimes some pasta or a healthy Choice frozen dinner.
After work snack: Usually a yogart smoothy or maybe a cheese casedea.
On the weekends I usually just have more coffee for breakfast then do the cardio then have something for lunch, usually something from above, and something small for dinner, I don't eat much on the weekends.

My goal is 230 by my 40th b-day in June (which I'm about 2 weeks ahead of) then 200 by the end of the year. Sometime after June I'll worry about doing something besides the bike riding for muscle. At the moment I want to be smaller and am not worried about being stronger.

[Thremp]

Smiley,

Fat loss rate is fine for someone morbidly obese. 3-5lbs per week is fine and std when you're carrying that much fat.

[Dids]

[ QUOTE ]
Congrats and keep it up! I started off at Christmas at where you are now. Since then I've averaged about 2 lbs a week of steady loss by doing around 4 to 5 hours a week of cardio. Started with 45 minutes on my road bike on a trainer or between 1 and 2 hour Dance Dance Revolution sessions and getting rid of a lot of junk in my diet. I bought a heart rate monitor in Jan and have been seeing the calories per workout go up as I've dropped weight, which is nice, means my intensity is getting better, I'm now averaging around 700 calories an hour of cardio, more with the cycling less with the DDR.

My typical meals look like this:
breakfast: During the week a packet of instant oatmeal and some coffee.
snacks at work: This is what killed me before, too much crap. I now bring a yogart and yogart smoothie to work for snacking. They are organic and don't have HFCS.
Lunch: Can of the Healthy Chunky soup. A couple times a month I'll go out for lunch, but this is down from several times a week.
Dinner: It's usually been ground chicken based for the last couple weeks. Sometimes some pasta or a healthy Choice frozen dinner.
After work snack: Usually a yogart smoothy or maybe a cheese casedea.
On the weekends I usually just have more coffee for breakfast then do the cardio then have something for lunch, usually something from above, and something small for dinner, I don't eat much on the weekends.

My goal is 230 by my 40th b-day in June (which I'm about 2 weeks ahead of) then 200 by the end of the year. Sometime after June I'll worry about doing something besides the bike riding for muscle. At the moment I want to be smaller and am not worried about being stronger.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unless kyle suggests other, I'd think this woudl be better served in your own thread.

[kerowo]

Not trying to hijack just showing another way down.

[SmileyEH]

[ QUOTE ]
Smiley,

Fat loss rate is fine for someone morbidly obese. 3-5lbs per week is fine and std when you're carrying that much fat.

[/ QUOTE ]

3-5 wow. Do you think that is still maintainable for Dids? I just feel like a slower and steadier approach is better because it is easier to maintain, but I'm not an expert on dieting.

[kidcolin]

Dids,

Cool thread. Look forward to some of the responses.

What about working in a couple days of something along the lines of high intensity interval training (maybe at the expense of less of the cardio you're currently doing)? I'm not sure how feasible that is at your weight, but something like some wind sprints could be beneficial.