My routine -- any suggestions?

[lfcmichael]

Hello, everyone.

I've been reading around the subject of weight loss and fitness training, and found a lot of useful information on these forums, and so I decided to join up.

I've been training and adapting my eating habits since the end of April. The gym where I'm a member has a machine that measures body composition and I was analysed on that prior to starting out.

At that point, I weighed 75.5kg (height 173cm) and my PBF was (a very high!) 28.2%. In my first month, I lost 4.7kg of body fat and gained about 200g of muscle mass; I guess that 'gain' might well be within the margin of error of the machine, but at least I hadn't lost any lean mass.

After the second month, I had lost another 1.6kg of fat and am down to a PBF of 22.2% and a weight of 67.4kg; however, I'd unfortunately also lost 1.6kg of muscle mass. That was the point when I found this forum and other sites, which all advised upping protein intake and pointed out the necessity of strength training to maintain existing muscle.

I'll discover at the end of the month, when my next readings are due, how introducing strength work has impacted on my progress. But I wondered if anyone might have any pointers or thoughts about my current programme. Bear in mind that my muscles are currently quite weak and I am new to weight work, so I am lifting as much as I can actually manage right now!

WEIGHTS: All for 12 reps, with 3 sets (except ab crunch, which is 4 sets). These are machines at the gym.

Shoulder press, 7.5kg
Chest press, 12.5kg
Bicep curl, 12.5kg
Tricep extension, 22.5kg
Ab crunch, 22.5kg
Leg press, 60kg
Low row, 35kg
Vertical traction, 30kg

CARDIO: 10 minutes running at 11 - 12km/h, 10 minutes cycling at about 75spm, 10 minutes of cross trainer, 10 minutes of stepping (mostly at 70 - 80spm), 10 minutes of 'top cross trainer' (a kind of bike for the hands)


I go five days per week, doing weights on Day 1, Day 3 and Day 5; cardio on Day 1, Day 2 and Day 4 (Day 1 is Sunday, so I have time for both workouts).

Diet-wise, I eat around 1400-1500 calories per day. A typical breakfast is porridge or two slices of wholemeal toast (with low-fat spread), and a banana; lunch is usually a sandwich of two slices of wholemeal bread filled with skinless chicken breast/small amount of cheese, and various salad items, then an apple and a low-fat yogurt; evening meal is something like more chicken, or veggie sausages, or salmon, with lots of fresh veggies, and oven chips or pasta or rice or couscous (about 100g of any of these).

Apologies for the long post, but I'd be interested and grateful if anyone with experience of getting down to the 10% - 15% PBF bracket had any thoughts on this.

Cheers.

 

[HyungJun]

It seems like you are having too much carbs and not enough protein. Work out your macros and add the food you have consumed on sites like calorieking.com. I am almost certain you are over eating on carbs.

Was never a huge fan of counting calories. I mean someone can keep within their calorie limit but what if 80-90% of foods they may have been eating consisted mainly of carbs.

 

[lfcmichael]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply. In fact, there are lots of studies that demonstrate that eating carbs (eating ANYTHING, in fact) will not inhibit fat loss, so long as you are in a caloric deficit. Of course, it is MUCH better for your overall health if the nutrients are coming from good sources, not bad, and much better for your muscle tissue if you get a good dose of protein per day.

I've actually been trying out a protein shake directly after strength workouts, so that will hopefully have a beneficial effect.

 

[HyungJun]

Hi there
in my opinion you should avoid the analytic exercises such as the bicep curls. It's more important to do the more complete ones like squads, push ups, etc... With very lite weight and lots of reps (15-20). This way your body will demand more energy to keep going.

It is important to do first the weights like 45 minutes and after that some cardio for at least 40 minutes because starting with the weights you burn the glycogen inside the muscles, so when you start with the cardio you have low glycogen in your system and force the body to obtain energy from the fat. Usually, less than 45 minutes is no time to burn your glycogen and start with the fats.

For the fat burning It's is decisive, to do low intensive cardio but during long time. Do not eat to many bananas because they have lot's of calories, it's better to eat fruits with c vitamin like oranges or kiwis, every single day. It inhibit serotonin, so makes you feel less tired.

Hope I helped you. Best

Don't listen to this person.