etothepii's journal

[etothepii]

Had my body fat measured today. By machine, it was 13.8%, and calipers was 13.9%.
Weight: 156 lbs
Height: 5’7”

My current workout:
Sun, Tues, Thurs:
Back (choose one)
...Bent over rows
...Pull-ups
...Seated dumbbell rows
Chest (choose one)
...Push ups (weighted backpack)
...Dumbbell bench press
...Incline dumbbell press
Shoulders (choose one)
...Dumbbell shoulder press
...Clean and press
...Upright rows
Legs (choose one)
...Squats
...Dead Lifts
...Lunges
Biceps (choose one)
...Standing barbell curls
...Alternate dumbbell curls
...Hammer curls
Triceps (choose one)
...Parallel bar dips
...Various barbell extensions
...Bench dips
Calves
...Standing calf raises

I mix up the routine, making different choices each day. I usually do 3 sets of 10 to 12. I may do a day of 5 by 5’s once in a while. This full body workout takes around 45 minutes. I may throw in a “bonus” exercise. Something a little unorthodox like planks or wall sits, or extra un-weighted pushups, or forearm curls, etc.

Mon, Wed, Fri:
Abs (all of the following)
...Hanging leg raises
...Regular or decline bench sit-ups
...Crunches
...Russian twists
Cardio (30 Minutes)
...Stair climber

[abarlament]

What do you lift for?

[etothepii]

Originally Posted by abarlament

What do you lift for?

I just want a decent, athletic looking build, and I want to keep my metabolism at a good rate, as I tend to gain fat easily, and I want to establish healthy habits (like exercise) to last for life!

[etothepii]

Maybe I should post some background stuff:

When my wife became pregnant with our first son (5 yrs old now), I gained sympathy weight, and never took it off. I was 200 pounds for a few years. I cut out soda pop a couple years back, and lost 5 pounds, but my 195 pound weight seemed set in stone.

Prodded by a kidney stone in June '05, I started loosing weight by counting calories and doing aerobic type exercise almost every day. So now, I'm at 156. I look and feel better than I have in a long time. I just want to establish beneficial habits for both health and appearence.

I think resistance training is an important part of that. I really wish I had been doing it all along, but it wasn't until January of this year that I started.

[abarlament]

Oh ok, then I think your routine is great.

[etothepii]

I think I've finally clarified plan to get to looking the way I want.
I'm maintaining this workout plan and eating a small calorie deficit until I get to 10% body fat. Then I'll switch to calorie surplus (probably add protein shakes at that point) and change the workout to a mass building plan. -- I'll be asking for help when I get there. I'm guessing that will involve going from a full body workout to a split plan, and decreasing cardio from 30 min per session to 20 minutes at a higher intensity?

I'll stick with it until I'm up to 12% body fat (is that enough time?), then switch again. I'll prolly keep this up until I really like what I see in the mirror, then come up with some kind of maintenance plan.

I just need to figure out my caloric need. I've stuck to around 2100 calories per day for the past two weeks, and my weight has stayed about the same. This seems pretty low for the amount of exercise I do!?!? Maybe my metabolism has adapted to too few calories for too long...

When I went through the drastic weight loss over the summer, I was eating 1500 to 1700 calories per week. I'm thinking about 1700 to 1900 for fat loss now.

My diet over the past few weeks has been composed of about 25% protein, 25% fat, and 50% carbs. I'm using fitday to monitor this. By the way, fitday says that 2450 calories should be my maintenance amount. I'm stable at 2100 per day. Just shows you how thoae calculators are just aproximations.

[tim_mcf]

I have recently been suggesting that people read up on The Zone Diet. The basic premise of the book is that what makes you fat is having too much insulin, and too much insulin is caused by too much carbohydrates. This is all backed up quite well by science. A macronutrient balance of 30% p, 40% c, 30% f might work better for you. I have been eating this way for a few weeks now and already am noticing improvements in my performance.

You can probably find a copy of "Enter The Zone" at your local library.

[abarlament]

Originally Posted by etothepii

I think I've finally clarified plan to get to looking the way I want.
I'm maintaining this workout plan and eating a small calorie deficit until I get to 10% body fat. Then I'll switch to calorie surplus (probably add protein shakes at that point) and change the workout to a mass building plan. -- I'll be asking for help when I get there. I'm guessing that will involve going from a full body workout to a split plan, and decreasing cardio from 30 min per session to 20 minutes at a higher intensity?

No. You can stay with your routine that you have now. It looks fairly similar to what I do now. You should look at HST (www.hypertrophy-specific.com) if you haven't already. Very good program, especially if you are wanting to gain some mass.

I'll stick with it until I'm up to 12% body fat (is that enough time?), then switch again. I'll prolly keep this up until I really like what I see in the mirror, then come up with some kind of maintenance plan.

Enough time for what?

I just need to figure out my caloric need. I've stuck to around 2100 calories per day for the past two weeks, and my weight has stayed about the same. This seems pretty low for the amount of exercise I do!?!? Maybe my metabolism has adapted to too few calories for too long...

When I went through the drastic weight loss over the summer, I was eating 1500 to 1700 calories per week. I'm thinking about 1700 to 1900 for fat loss now.

If you honestly stuck to 2100 calories and saw no weight change then that is maintnence calorie level, anything below that will result in weight loss, and if you keep your protein high and keep up the lifting that will be all/mostly fat.

My diet over the past few weeks has been composed of about 25% protein, 25% fat, and 50% carbs. I'm using fitday to monitor this. By the way, fitday says that 2450 calories should be my maintenance amount. I'm stable at 2100 per day. Just shows you how thoae calculators are just aproximations.

Don't worry about ratios, as long as you are getting enough protein (generally, 1g/lb bodyweight), EFAs (6g fish oil, maybe some flax), then you can get the rest of your calories from whatever makes you happy. For example, lots of carbs, or a ketogenic diet.

[etothepii]

Thanks to another Ohioan, abarlament!

The "enough time question... if and when I decide to add some mass, will watching for a 2% fat increase be an adequate amount of time to spend in a bulking phase?

Off the subject, but important journal entry: my whole life, I've been 5' 6.75" tall. I round off and say 5'7" Well I am now 5'6" exactly!! I was measured three times, by different people/tapes to make sure. Must be because of age? Disks compressing? Bone density loss?

Kind of makes me sad.

[etothepii]

I found an article in abarlament's link that has two calorie calculators in it, and both came up with a maintenance amount of what?










2100 calories!! (Give or take a few) can you believe that!?!?!

All right. I'm keeping up resistance three days, cardio three days, rest one day, eat around 1700 (my BMR) per day, lots of protein, stay off the scale and get body fat checked regularly.

Then, at 10% (or until mentally, I need a change) I'll switch to adding mass.

[.V.]

13.8% - not a bad starting place. You get your calories and exercise just right and you'll reach your 10% goal in no time.

[abarlament]

If you actually want to get BIG, you'd give yourself more leeway in terms of BF%.

[etothepii]

Originally Posted by abarlament

If you actually want to get BIG, you'd give yourself more leeway in terms of BF%.

That's what I was wondering. Big is relative. I definately want to be bigger. I'm kind of curious about what I'm capable of. Definately not BIG now, that's for sure!

Maybe, when I start to gain, I'll just use the mirror as my guide, like I've read that other people around here do. Gain as much muscle as possible, but when I start to look "doughy" cut back...

I'll have to learn as I go.

Thanks again to everyone offering tips and advice.

[etothepii]

OK. So I have been reading up on HIIT for cardio. I've integrated some intervals into my stair climbinr cardio workout for some time now, knowing that it is good for you, just not the specifics. I was kind of backward though, doing intervals over the last 5 -10 minutes of my workout. Now, I know why and how to tweek my cardio. So here's what I'm thinking:

Two of my three cardio sessions will be HIIT. I will do about 4 - 5 minutes warm-up, then intervals for 8 - 10 minutes followed by cool down for 5 - 10 minutes. This should be, what, 17 - 25 minutes? Sounds good, especially since I will be doing ab work prior to cardio.

The third cardio session each week will be a straight 30 minute. Diversity in exercise always seems to be beneficial.

My stair machine has a "mountain," an "interval," and a "random" setting. I'll play around with those, particularly the interval setting to what works. If I don't like what I get out of it, I'll adjust the intervals manually.

I look forward to seeing what, if any, results I get!

[etothepii]

Originally Posted by a_welch503

13.8% - not a bad starting place. You get your calories and exercise just right and you'll reach your 10% goal in no time.

Boy, my "real" starting point was 9 months ago when I weighed near 200 lbs. I wish I knew my body fat back then!