Thread: Angel's Fat Loss Diary & Exercise Regime

Okay so I started this fitness thing at the beginning of the month [as stated in the introductions section].

I first started off doing 40 mins brisk walking, then changed this to 2 sets, so 40 mins in the morning and then 40 mins in the evening or so. I used to do weights like everyday but just for upper body really and I did crunches and all that after. I then realised that I had to do something about my legs too because I'm scared of having loose skin everywhere. On saturday [that just went past], after the brisk walking session for 40 mins, I decided I needed to have a proper 30 min weight session in order to tone up as well as lose fat and build muscle. Previously, these were quick ones and took no longer than say 10-15 mins. Anyway, I started doing my usual weight regime of bicep curls, shoulder press and some other one which I don't know the name of. I did 12 reps of each, 3 sets each. [In case you don't know what that means, rep is basically one time, so 12 reps would mean I'd do it 12 times which would be 1 set, then I'd do 2 more]. I also did various other stuff which I've completely forgotten and/or just don't the name of. Anyway, I decided to do lower body too, so did lunges with weights, again 12 reps on each leg, 3 sets each. At the end, it just killed and the following day my muslces ached and I'm not even lying when I say this, but I could not walk or sit down properly or go down the stairs properly, basically couldn't do anything that required the use of my leg muscles. Fortunately for me, sunday was a rest day anyway so didn't mind so much. On monday, it was still aching, so I searched the internet and found that it was due to something that is known as DOMS, and basically means your muscles are redeveloping and growing, so would make them stronger. This made me happy. Anyway I still couldn't walk properly or even sleep properly or do anything really but I thought to myself 'I might aswell do this since it is an exercise day and who knows, maybe it's a way to get it better'. So I did a lousy 40 mins of brisk walking and upper body weights for a few mins. Would have done more but didn't know if it would do more harm than good. Anyway, it was weird at first. [I always do the walking on the treadmill]. It was quite painful the first few mins, but then I got adapted to it. After I came off, the pain was still there, but I was proud I brisk walked through it. The pain was there this morning too, but it wasn't as bad. DOMS is only supposed to last 24/48 hours minimum. I did 1hr 30 mins brisk walking today. And in terms of food, I had fruit for breakfast, cod with 2 pieces of brown bread for lunch, and then I cooked a mixture of chopped tomatoes, kidney beans, tuna and sweetcorn with 2 pieces of brown bread for dinner. Yeah I know, quite a mixture, but I had to add in the calories as I didn't want to enter starvation mode. Also had about 1.8 litres of water. Need to really increase my water intake.
I'm now remembering to do stretches too

I know with the way I'm going, I'm bound to be fit at the end of my weight/fat loss journey, I just hope I don't lose motivation. I'm hoping that when I get to my first milestone of losing 1stone, I'll then incorporate some HIIT [interval training] into my cardio workout too as apparantly it's more effective than steady state cardio. Will then hope to start running soon after that. Slowly building up.

Anyway, will post again tomorrow with tomorrow's session. I may not necessarily post everyday as I may be too busy etc. but will post on days that I'm not as busy.

Okay so, I didn't manage to do any cardio today, been cleaning my room for more than 2 hrs and was sweating loads so must have burned some calories that way. Didn't eat breakfast nor lunch because I literally started cleaning my room after like an hour from when I woke up, so didn't get a chance. [Must have been cleaning for about 5 hrs then] :S Anyway did some weights after. Upper body and lower body. Bicep curls, shoulder press and again a few unknown-named upper body ones. This time I did 10 reps, 3 sets because of how tired I was. Also did crunches and some leg thing where you raise your legs up 90 degrees from the floor with your arms at the side, supposed to tone up the lower abs (and trust me it's bloody painful). Anyway did 120 reps consisting of both, and then did lunges with weights 10 reps, 3 sets, and also squats 10 reps, 3 sets for lower body. So rather pleased with myself Only thing now is I gotta eat since the only thing I've done is drank loads of water. Bye for now diary.

Okay even though I said I was gonna eat straight after, I couldn't because my sister and sister-in-law were cleaning downstairs. Just ate a while ago and I had wholemeal bread slice and 4 pieces of small cod, which totals to about 880 calories altogether. [Only had one slice of bread, because it was the last one so need to get some more tomorrow, and because it was the last one, I had to make up the other calories from the cod, otherwise would have only had 2-3 cods]. Anyway this is really unhealthy I know, not food wise, because I've cut out all the junk, but in terms of the fact that I did not have breakfast or lunch so had to have a big calorie dinner in order to get the protein needed [from the cod] for the muscle workout that I did today, and in order to get my days calorie requirements. Still quite low on calories for today, but really full up obviously, so won't have anymore food.

Will try to make sure that this never happens again.

Heya, back again. My back totally ached so didn't do no exercise today. My calorie intake is quite low too, but I'm feeling quite sick [because of the monthly evils, yeh those ones :P]. But don't really mind. I hate it when I'm on my reds [as I'll now refer to the periods], because it just puts me off sometimes as I hate exercising whilst on. But oh wells, need to stop complaining and start exercising again tomorrow. It's also muscle workout day tomorrow too so should be a great day.

Another great news is that I'm going to be getting Jillian Michael's workout DVD's from Amazon, as everyone is getting results from them. I'll be getting her '30 day shred' and 'Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism'. She's absolutely great [check her out on youtube] and good for toning up, so will use her routine for the toning. Cannot wait till I receive it. It's supposed to be a killer yet so effective. Not recommended for the faint hearted.

Sounds like you have yourself sorted out and you know what results you want to achieve by it.

I do loads of exercise too, and I miss it now if I don't do it. Mind you I don't like exercising when I'm on the "reds" too!! get hotter a lot quicker and it wears me out more.

I love it now I'm noticably more fitter.

Originally Posted by Lind

Sounds like you have yourself sorted out and you know what results you want to achieve by it.

I do loads of exercise too, and I miss it now if I don't do it. Mind you I don't like exercising when I'm on the "reds" too!! get hotter a lot quicker and it wears me out more.

I love it now I'm noticably more fitter.

Yeah I really can't wait for the day when I start running. I was watching Biggest Loser today on youtube [Australia's first season] and I saw them giving it their all on the cross trainer, and I just thought 'wow, even at their biggest they weren't even lazing about but gave it 200%'. Really motivated me to get my fitness up so I can start running without getting out of breath too easily and just push myself to the limit.

Ha tell me about it. It's just so yucky and icky lol. I read around some other forum that people's periods stopped for a few months, one case a girl's period stopped for 3 years, because of the weight loss and fitness regime so I was so hoping that I wouldn't start but as soon as I got cramps today I just thought 'oh no!'. And yeah ditto about the exercise. I'm so used to it, I feel like a failure when I don't exercise. It's almost like second nature now.

On another note, finally managed to increase my calorie intake to ~1200. It's probably a bit less than that by about 100/200, but still.

P.S. Massive well done on your weight loss so far by the way. Hope you have more success with the last few pounds.

The last bit isbeing the hardest to shift. When I first started the weight fell off me. but it took a while to see any kind of difference. Now though I have only lost 2lb since Easter but my body has changed so much. Pictures of me from Easter to now look like a different person. I think that is down to the exercise and toning. I went from a tight size 14 to a nearly comfortable 12 with only loosing 2 lb so I am now learning that prehaps the weight loss isn't as important at this stage and what is, is getting fit and healthy for life.

Originally Posted by Lind

The last bit isbeing the hardest to shift. When I first started the weight fell off me. but it took a while to see any kind of difference. Now though I have only lost 2lb since Easter but my body has changed so much. Pictures of me from Easter to now look like a different person. I think that is down to the exercise and toning. I went from a tight size 14 to a nearly comfortable 12 with only loosing 2 lb so I am now learning that prehaps the weight loss isn't as important at this stage and what is, is getting fit and healthy for life.

Yeah I guess it would be difficult. When did you start exercising? I think that's what people tend to forget: It's not the weight loss that matters, it's how comfortable you are with the result in terms of the outcome of your body. For instance, you may get to your goal weight but could be still unhappy with your body. Also, people tend to forget that it's not all about what the scales say. If you gain a pound, but lose an inch, losing that inch is more important because it means you're shrinking. But people don't tend to measure themselves in terms of inches lost, but rather weight loss. But weight includes muscle and fat, so you may have gained a pound of muscle, which is much much better for you because it gives you that toned lean look. Therefore, you would have lost an inch and gained a pound of muscle. I would be over the moon with this, but everyone is different I guess. Obviously you want to lose fat too, but people need to remember that if the scales say you lost 3lbs or something, it doesn't necessarily mean you've lost 3lbs from your fat store, but could include muscle loss aswell, which isn't that good as it gives you a 'skinny-fat' look.

Personally, I'm aiming for 145lbs or size 12. I say 145lbs because that's the weight I was a few years ago when I was a size 12, but if I'm 150lbs and a size 12, then I'd be more than happy. I really don't want to be a size 10 or 8 lol.

Btw, what exercise do you do?

Anyway, went shopping today. Bought some clothes which are a bit small so that they motivate me to exercise. I actually truly believe I can do this.

Gonna go exercise in a bit yay. All I've eaten today is a kiwi fruit for brekky and nothing for lunch because been out all day. Drank some milk too but the whole milk one, because we didn't have any skimmed ones in the house. I actually thought someone poured sugar in it because it tasted so sweet. I think I'm getting used to this healthy business and would love for it to continue. I can't wait to be a size 12 again.

Update on yesterday, had some cod for dinner and fishcake too. Cannot remember my exact daily calorie intake, but know that it was below 1200. Drank like 1.2 litres in one go. :O Obviously drank more than that throughout the day. When it came to exercise, I was really proud of myself. Told myself I was going to exercise for only 40 mins, but when it got to 40 mins, I thought to myself 'why not for 20 mins more to make it the 1hr minimum that you said you'd do?' so I done it to 1hr. Then did about 20 mins worth of weights for upper body and lower body. I cannot see much difference to my body, although other people are saying that I have changed abit, but I know that I do feel a lot healthier and better. Weigh in day tomorrow. I'm in two minds right now whether I should do things fortnightly or weekly.

Today: Had about 360 calories so far. Full up. Dranks a bit of water, don't know how much though. Will exercise a bit later hopefully. Hoping to do about 1hr 30 mins today since it's not weight training today.

Did 40 mins brisk walking today after cleaning the toilets.

Had dinner: Mixture of sweetcorn, red pepper, kidney beans, tomatoes with 4 wholemeal bread slices. Low on calories but oh wells. Snacked on kiwi fruit after.

Decided that healthy eating needs to change a bit. Gonna reduce greatly the intake of things like cod, fish fingers, fish cakes, because although technically they're made of fish, they're still quite high in carbohydrates and fat which I don't want. Thank god my aunt came today to remind me. And I already knew it and was going to quit eating them, but just thankful for the reminder really. So going to increase intake of chicken (skinless and boneless) and tuna, salmon, proper fish really that are very high in protein and really great for my muscle workouts. Really can't wait to get Jillian Michael's workout DVDs now. Should be a killer but oh so fat burning. Bring on tomorrow. Decided that I'll be cancelling the weigh in day and will do it next week instead because of the fact that I'm on my 'reds' and so this will obviously impact on my weight loss.

Update on yesterday, forgot what I ate, but I remember being quite low on cals. :S Didn't exercise yesterday, had rest day. Was supposed to have rest day on saturday, but I decided to exercise instead.

Today: 1hr exercise, gonna do weights later. Food-wise: Kiwi fruit for brekky, no lunch, had chicken, sweetcorn and salad for dinner, & tuna. Total cals for today is less than 1000 I think. But oh wells.

Exercise regime is changing now: Gonna do Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism & 30 Day Shred mondays to fridays. Will do 20mins brisk walking and 10 mins HIIT before each session monday to friday. Saturdays and Sundays will be my rest days. Hopefully I will stick to this. Gonna get a job soon too, so will need to change my timings a bit, e.g. wake up very early to do the exercises. Hopefully I wont get a job thats too active.

Okay a few updates, not so good ones and good ones:

On tuesday, was having a bit of a bad day exercise wise but finally got up my bum and did a bit of Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism. However, I didn't do all of it as my mum and brother were in the room with me and I don't know how many of you can relate but personally I hate doing workout videos whilst others are there. Anyway so that was a lousy day exercise wise. On wednesday, I did the 30 day shred workout. It wasn't as hard as I expected to be honest [level 1 I mean] but that's most probably because it wasn't my first time exercising in ages and those that haven't exercised in ages will probably find it harder, but still it got me a bit sweaty and I'll still continue doing level one for at least a week if not more, until I can do all exercises properly [without modification]. It's really good as it increases your endurance and strength and also aids in you having a nice toned body.
Anyway, I ended up not exercising yesterday because I was pretty lazy. And also, I ended up eating a bit of stuff that I shouldn't have eaten. [Not much I must admit, as in it didn't make my total calorie intake go over 1200, but I wasn't proud of myself and hoping that it's a one off] Anyway I decided that I really need to get a heart monitor to calculate how many cals I'm burning with the workouts.

Good news: Well I'm sure alot of you would relate to this at least that when you know you've done something you shouldn't have, you start to worry and hope it hasn't hindered anything. And when you know you should have exercised but haven't then you also start to worry. So I was worrying alot, and decided that I really needed to weigh myself to get it off my chest. [I haven't weighed myself for 2 weeks now].

Drum roll: So in 2 weeks I've lost 5LBS. I'm a bit sad though, because I really hope its not muscle loss and also because it seems a bit unhealthy and I'm pretty sure that I've been getting in enough calories and not exercising too much. But still, 5lbs loss in 2 weeks. Well chuffed.

Roll on today: Today I'm going to be doing the No More Troubles Zone workout and 30 day shred to make up for yesterdays lack of exercise.

Anyway I still couldn't walk properly or even sleep properly or do anything really but I thought to myself 'I might aswell do this since it is an exercise day and who knows, maybe it's a way to get it better'. So I did a lousy 40 mins of brisk walking and upper body weights for a few mins. Would have done more but didn't know if it would do more harm than good.

You made the right call. Active recovery is great for getting rid of your DOMS. Also a high protein intake will help alleviate it.

I get to my first milestone of losing 1stone, I'll then incorporate some HIIT [interval training] into my cardio workout too as apparantly it's more effective than steady state cardio. Will then hope to start running soon after that. Slowly building up.

You're right again, although you've now started HIIT, I'd still like to make a point to other readers:

You don't always need to reach a certain milestone or level of fitness before using interval training. If you are quite unconditioned you can still use Low-Intensity interval Training (LIIT). This simply means rather than jogging into running like you do in HIIT, you can walk and go into a slight jog, or even just a more brisk walk. Even doing this will be more effective than the steady state cardio that doesn't challenge you.

It's not the weight loss that matters, it's how comfortable you are with the result in terms of the outcome of your body

YES! If only more people thought this way. Remember guys, the numbers during your workout (I.e - the number of KG weights you use, the number of minutes you exericse, the number of reps you do etc) are FAR more important than the numbers on the scales. Worry about increasing your fitness levels every time and numbers on the scales will take care of themselves believe me.

Obviously you want to lose fat too, but people need to remember that if the scales say you lost 3lbs or something, it doesn't necessarily mean you've lost 3lbs from your fat store, but could include muscle loss aswell, which isn't that good as it gives you a 'skinny-fat' look.

Another important bit of info that bares repeating.

Bought some clothes which are a bit small so that they motivate me to exercise. I actually truly believe I can do this.

Excellent! I love this! This shows that you are so determined, you have goals, and you are not afraid of proving to yourself that you will reach them. I do a similar thing at my gym with my clients, called the 'Skinny Jeans Challenge'.

At the start, they bring in a pair of jeans that are too tight for them, and commit themselves to my 3 month exercise program. I keep the jeans, and at the end they get them back. Relating to your above point, I cannot tell you how many times women are complaining that the weight hasn't come down very much, but then they realise their clothes are fitting much better! This is a more REAL result for them. If you chase the numbers on the scales then you may never be satisfied, but when it comes to getting into a pair of size 12 jeans you didn't think you would, its a big realisation moment for many. I hope more people reading this take up the same method you've outlined above.

I cannot see much difference to my body, although other people are saying that I have changed abit, but I know that I do feel a lot healthier and better.

I also experience this regularly. As a trainer who sees the client a few times a week, I can usually see the difference. When its you, you look in the mirror and see yourself every day, so the change is often too gradual to notice.

Perhaps taking a few photos of yourself at the start of each month and comparing them a few months down the line will help you really see the difference that Im sure your making.



Keep it going Angel, you sound like you're doing great. If you get a bit stuck with your exercises have read of acouple of my posts, they may help you .


Justin

Thanks Justin, that made me smile. I did some LIIT as you put it yesterday for 10 mins [jogging for 30 secs and walking for 1 min] and then brisk walking for 10 mins. It was far too easy though, as in I know i could have done more, but i didn't because I wanted to have as much strength as possible for the workout. Didn't do the 30 day shred, but did the no more trouble zones workout and boy did it kill. Way way worse than the 30 day shred. In fact the 30 day shred seemed like nothing at all lol. Both got my heart rate up, but this was more effective. It worked out every single muscle in my body. I wouldn't say I'm experiencing severe DOMS though like the first time, but all my muscles ache, just not as much as it did before. [I read somewhere that the DOMS you experience should reduce in their painfulness and severity the more you do resistance training and all that so I'm guessing this is the case]. Anyway, have been consuming tuna and chicken ever since the start of this week really. Not as much as I'd like to, but enough.

Update on today: On about ~600cals, 600 to go for dinner. I should exercise, but instead will do so tomorrow. According to my routine table, tomorrow is 30 day shred and HIIT/LIIT day so we'll see how it goes.