fullmeasure
New member
Hi Everyone. I'm a newbie and need some advice.
I started this journey to self-improvement on December 4, 2010 when I gave up cigarettes cold-turkey. At this time I also began a moderate decrease in my daily calories and started half-heartedly anyway watching my diet, with a plan to begin working out when my lungs began to heal a little bit. I started working out February 4, at which time I weighed 300 lbs. on the dot. I'm 6'4.
February 4 - March 7 I focused mainly on getting the routine of 5x weekly visits to the gym down, and started on the excercise bike. I started out barely being able to do 15 minutes and got up to doing 40 minutes at a "Level 6" intensity. I was in fairly good shape at age 21-22 by doing regular cardio on the elliptical so once I had the ability to go slightly higher intensity I ditched the bike and began the elliptical through much of March, starting at about 25 minutes and working my way up to doing 33-35 daily. This whole time I have done 2x weekly sessions on the total gym as well doing 4-6 sets each of cable crossovers, pulldowns, etc. I have increased my weight on each by about 20lbs. since I started.
My diet has also been very consistent. From February 4 - today I've only had fast food once, soda a couple of times and have generally stuck to a "clean" diet cooking at home. Lots of chicken, eggs, protein shakes, salads. I have also been taking daily vitamins- a multi-vitamin, vitamin C and a garlic tablet.
I began reading about HIIT a few weeks ago but knew I needed to improve my physical condition before I began this. I weighed in March 25 at 288 lbs, a loss of about 12 pounds since the end of January... or about 2 months time. I was happy with this loss but not satisfied. This past week, I began changing up my routine on the elliptical slightly in hopes I can 'work up' to HIIT. Previously I would get on the machine, do however long I could stand at about a level six intensity, working my way up each day an extra minute or two. Last Friday I decided to implement the 'style' of HIIT if not the full intensity, and I began a warmup of about 2 minutes at level 2 or 3, averaging around 174 strides per minute. Then, I began increments of about 2 minutes of level 10 intensity at about 190 spm, and 2 minutes of 'cooling off' at about level 4 at about 174-178. I repeated this for 42 minutes on my last workout and did six intervals of the higher intensity. I have lost six pounds since changing this up - so a little less than a week and now weigh in at 282. I also feel 'the burn' more than I did previously. I'm wondering if this is all in my head or did my tweak really improve my results? It sure feels like it has. I couldn't really find another question like mine. Any advice on that and what my future plans from here should be - would be appreciated!
JOSH
I started this journey to self-improvement on December 4, 2010 when I gave up cigarettes cold-turkey. At this time I also began a moderate decrease in my daily calories and started half-heartedly anyway watching my diet, with a plan to begin working out when my lungs began to heal a little bit. I started working out February 4, at which time I weighed 300 lbs. on the dot. I'm 6'4.
February 4 - March 7 I focused mainly on getting the routine of 5x weekly visits to the gym down, and started on the excercise bike. I started out barely being able to do 15 minutes and got up to doing 40 minutes at a "Level 6" intensity. I was in fairly good shape at age 21-22 by doing regular cardio on the elliptical so once I had the ability to go slightly higher intensity I ditched the bike and began the elliptical through much of March, starting at about 25 minutes and working my way up to doing 33-35 daily. This whole time I have done 2x weekly sessions on the total gym as well doing 4-6 sets each of cable crossovers, pulldowns, etc. I have increased my weight on each by about 20lbs. since I started.
My diet has also been very consistent. From February 4 - today I've only had fast food once, soda a couple of times and have generally stuck to a "clean" diet cooking at home. Lots of chicken, eggs, protein shakes, salads. I have also been taking daily vitamins- a multi-vitamin, vitamin C and a garlic tablet.
I began reading about HIIT a few weeks ago but knew I needed to improve my physical condition before I began this. I weighed in March 25 at 288 lbs, a loss of about 12 pounds since the end of January... or about 2 months time. I was happy with this loss but not satisfied. This past week, I began changing up my routine on the elliptical slightly in hopes I can 'work up' to HIIT. Previously I would get on the machine, do however long I could stand at about a level six intensity, working my way up each day an extra minute or two. Last Friday I decided to implement the 'style' of HIIT if not the full intensity, and I began a warmup of about 2 minutes at level 2 or 3, averaging around 174 strides per minute. Then, I began increments of about 2 minutes of level 10 intensity at about 190 spm, and 2 minutes of 'cooling off' at about level 4 at about 174-178. I repeated this for 42 minutes on my last workout and did six intervals of the higher intensity. I have lost six pounds since changing this up - so a little less than a week and now weigh in at 282. I also feel 'the burn' more than I did previously. I'm wondering if this is all in my head or did my tweak really improve my results? It sure feels like it has. I couldn't really find another question like mine. Any advice on that and what my future plans from here should be - would be appreciated!
JOSH