Fine-tuning my workout

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Xab

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Hey everyone, I haven't posted in a while, but I thought I'd say hello and visit again!

I've been on a constant workout regime for the past four months, and I'm really noticing things. I've been able to lift more, run farther and longer, and have more stamina for everyday activities. Since improving my diet (dropping all sodas, sweets, and fast food) I've felt a lot better! However, I don't feel like I look any better. It seems to me that, although I've probably gotten much healthier, I feel like I look the same as I did a few months ago.

Of course, I don't expect anything to come easily, but I had hoped I'd look a little better than I do now. Currently, my exercise consists of heavy lifting three days a week (doing full body workouts) and an average of 45 minutes of cardio a day - usually running or DDR songs on Heavy or Challenge (the hardest settings).

Does anyone have any advise for me? "Keep at it" is a bit dissuading right now, but that doesn't mean I'll stop. Hearing anything would really help right now =)
 
first, goals. Do you want to loose weight? bulk up and gain some muscle? what?

If you want more results, you will most likley have to turn to you're diet.

What exersices, sets and reps are in you're FBW routine?

cardio every day might be a bit tough, what kind of cardio are you doing? steady state or intervals?
 
you dont say if your cardio is after or before your weights,if it is then 45mins is to much,
how long does your weight routine last if your doing 90mins weights+45mins cardio then you could be using up muscle.
 
Agree with Karky. There are 3 'need to knows':

1. What are your goals (slim down, bulk up, etc.)
2. What's your routine
3. What's your diet like

Diet is a prime suspect and, to state the obvious, even with a great routine can bolster or hinder whether you gain muscle, lose muscle, gain fat, lose fat, etc.
 
Gotcha.

1) My goals - I don't care at all what the scale says - I just want to get down to a 3-5% body fat.
2) My current routine is doing three lifting sessions per week. I use mostly freeweights, so lots of individual muscle groups at first, followed by major muscle workouts. With stretching, it takes me about an hour to do everything, and I basically work every muscle out until they're all too tired to do any more. As for cardio, I either run for an hour, in which I alternate between jogging (about 4-5mph) and sprinting (8mph), with a few short areas of walking (about 3mph) just to catch a quick breath, but keep everything going at the same time. When I play DDR, that's usually 90 to 120 seconds of very intense activity, followed by a few seconds of standing rest, just to pick another song. I usually do DDR for a few hours at a time since it takes me a little longer to wear out doing that then running.

Normally, I go to the gym Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and do cardio every day but Saturday and sometimes Wednesday.

3) My diet is, as DEF pointed out, somewhat suspect. I haven't had a soda in well over three months, and sweets such as cookies are rare. My usual meal setup goes like this:
8am - Breakfast cereal + Skim milk and coffee with nothing added.
10:30 - Breakfast bar or peice of fruit
12:30 - Lunch, which is either sushi, a sandwich, or a couple slices of pizza and water. I don't order anything that's greasy - with the sushi, I only eat stuff like California rolls, which is all veggies, or stuff with smoked salmon. As for sandwiches, I don't ever get any mayo, and use lowfat cheese.
2:30 - Snack, which will usually consist of pretzels, fruit, yogurt, or a small sandwich.
6:00 - another snack, which is the same as above.
8:00 - dinner, which is the same type of thing I have for lunch.

If I work out that day, I'll have a gatorade after I'm done.

One of the hard things with my diet is that I'm a full time student and I work 20-30 hours a week, so I don't always have all the flexibility I need.

My primary concern here is loosing fat, and as such, I'm a little wary of drinking protein shakes. I'd rather hinder my muscle development a bit in order to loose fat. Is this a good idea?

Thanks everyone for the help!
 
Theirs a number of things here and there im sure the other Regs here will point out. I just wanted to add real quick, you do NOT want to be down to 3-5% body fat, this would be unhealthy. 10% is a good level and 8% at the very least.

Secondly, get rid of the colored soda, screw Gatorade and go with Water.

Anyway like i said theirs a few more things in there im sure other people will comment on.
 
(Silent) said:
Theirs a number of things here and there im sure the other Regs here will point out. I just wanted to add real quick, you do NOT want to be down to 3-5% body fat, this would be unhealthy. 10% is a good level and 8% at the very least.

Secondly, get rid of the colored soda, screw Gatorade and go with Water.

Anyway like i said theirs a few more things in there im sure other people will comment on.
Click to expand...

Soda's been out of the picture for a while, but if gatorade needs to go too, it sounds like I will do so.

Also, I didn't know that amount of body fat would be so unhealthy. Thanks for the tip!
 
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