Sanity Check...

N

nanook2k3

0
I've been working a routine for about 6 weeks now and I just wanted to see what you think I might be doing wrong or where there may be areas of improvement. I'm deployed to Iraq right now, so my access to gym equipment is fine, but supplements are limited. I'll try to give as much detail as I can, and any opinions/advice are welcome!

Background:
30 years old
5'6" tall
165 lbs
BMI is around 26.6
around 13.5% body fat (using one of those hand held impedance measurers)

Goal:
Get BMI below 25 and % body fat into single digits (getting my weight down to 150 lbs is one way of accomplishing this, but I'm not fixated on that)

Diet:
Breakfast is a Liter of water and one mixed berry Xience bar (270 calories, 25g protein, 33g carbs, and 7g fat)

Lunch usually consists of a large salad with one can of tuna, a cup of cheddar cheese, and a serving of fat free salad dressing (150 calories), one grilled chicken breast, one liter of water and a small box of grape juice

Afternoon snack is one liter of water and a Nitro-Tech protein bar (270 calories, 30g protein, 31g carb, 6g fat)

Dinner is same as above (water and protien bar, and sometimes I'll have a handfull of beef jerky as a late night snack)

Exercise Routine:
40-45min cardio EVERY morning before breakfast (on elliptical machine, avg heart rate around 135 - calories vary though, usually from 500-700 depending on the machine)

weight lifting 4x per week (chest/tri one day, back/biceps, shoulders/abs, and legs) - this usually takes about 45 min to complete and here's the breakdown (all exercises are 3 sets of 10 reps, where the final reps of the 3rd set require a spotter to get them - I've slowly began to increase the weight I'm capable of lifting, but the overall philosophy is to perform a controlled explosive movement up in one second, and then slowly return taking 2 seconds):

Chest/Tri's - Flat bench using 60lb dumbells, cable crossovers at 40lbs, incline bench using 40lbs, tricep pushdowns at 70lbs, tricep arm extensions, and finally braincrushers

Back/Bi's - Hammer strength row machine (about 135lb on each arm), lat pulldowns (about 100-110lbs), close handed seated row (90lbs), incline bench bicep curls (25lbs), bicep curls using 1/2 of the cable crossover machine (80lbs), triple 7's using 45lb bench press bar

Shoulders/abs - straight arm lifts (25-30lb dumbells), military presses (30lb dumbells), shrugs (60lb dumbells), and for abs I do 3 sets of 15 rep situps on the declining bench while holding a 25lb weight and twisting to each side at the bottom of each rep

Legs - free weight squats (225lbs), free weight Romanian deadlifts (135lbs), leg extensions (90lbs), hamstring pulls (90lbs)

I also get another late round of cardio that is either the same as what I did before breakfast, or I run on the treadmill for 3-5 miles at a pace of around 8 min/mile, usually 3 times a week.

So that's pretty much everything. I certainly feel stronger and I know my cardio is progressing nicely. However, I don't see any gains towards my goal of reducing my BMI to below 25 or reducing my %body fat below 10. Am I exercising too much, or not eating enough? My weight has pretty much remained constant over the last 6 weeks (165lbs), but I have noticed a reduction of my waist (although I don't have a tape measure, just my belt). I've checked out the calorie calculator websites and they say I should require around 2500 calories per day to maintain my weight, and 2000 per day to begin fat loss (1500 per day for "extreme" fat loss). As far as I can tell, I should be somewhere below 2000 (about 800 total for the 3 bars, and between 800-1000 for the lunch, right?) By those numbers alone I should see some fat loss, correct? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
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Is there any way to eliminate the bars and put in fresh fruit and/or veggies? I realize they may be hard to get where you are, but they'd be a whole lot better for you than the bars.
 
It is possible.....all the dining facilities here offer fresh fruit and veggies....I can't make it to most of the chow times though, and the convenience of tossing a couple of proteins in my pack is the way to go out here.

After looking at some of the other forum posts, I've found a couple areas where I think I can improve:

- I've added a cup of steamed broccoli to my lunch salad, and stopped drinking the grape juice
- instead of that afternoon protein bar, I've substituted a tuna meal that we can get at our PX (200 calories per pouch, 32.5g protein, 2g carbs, and 3g of fat) - and I really love the taste!

I'm going to give this a try for this week and see how it turns out.

I also forgot to mention that I take two Lipo-6 pills in the morning (mainly for the caffeine since I loathe coffee), as well as a century multivitamin. Water intake shouldn't be an issue either, since I drink at least 1 gallon per day (usually one gallon plus another liter)
 
If you have access to it - try some hot sauce with the tuna to spice things up a bit. While fruit probably doesn't stay fresh long, maybe something like carrots or some other veggie would keep so you could take some along with you for a snack.
 
So you think it's the lack of fruits/veggies that's stalling my progress? What do you think about freeze-dried fruit? I can pack that fairly easy, but I was told to be careful with it because it can end up being just like candy (all that fructose, and I can easily tear through 4 or 5 bags without even thinking about it)
 
I couldn't say if it was stalling your progress, but I do know that in order for your diet to be considered a healthy one, you need to have fruits and veggies in it. Freeze dried fruit sounds ok, provided there's not a lot of preservatives in it. As I see it, where possible you want whole, natural foods as these are the most efficient at providing the nutrition you need. And yes, like most carbohydrate sources, it's really easy to take in a lot of calories very quickly, so monitoring how much of them you eat is a really, really good idea.
 
Notice

Here is my opinion on some things i would change.....

Cardio should been HIIT (on the treadmill i know elliptical is still cardio but running will always produce better results) for at least four days of the week for 20 minutes per session, seeing as your bf% is already pretty low. This will keep your metabolism sky rocketed especially with your weight training. Also cut out that late cardio crap, your really not giving your body any time to recover, and thats just as bad as not exercising, take two days off as a minimum. If you really just like to run, then split your days up and do 3 HIIT and 2 Moderate intensity workouts.

as for your weight training i would change from doing 3 sets of the same weight always pushing that last set to the limit. This will keep your muscles confused and you'll notice you'll be going up in weight each time, gaining alot more strength. Also i'm not sure how long your resting between sets, but keep that between 20-45 seconds the lower the better. Make every second count when your in the gym. you might notice a much more difficult routine if your taking the usual minute or a minute and half breaks between sets.

Your diet needs some shaping up.......drop the bars too many carbs, and fat which is what you don't want right??.......you need to get high quality protein either from the boiled eggs, or the tuna in the chow halls, the chicken breast is crap because they come baisted in grease and the solvent that they use to lube up the grill is no better for you. So stick to turkey, tuna, eggs! I eat alot of tuna where i'm at!! Also drop the cheese and salad dressing especially fat free that stuff is bad news (look up the ingredients on google from your fat free dressing) vinegar is actually a good substitute. Beef jerky is very lean and very high in protein so eat more of it not just for your night time snack. I occaisonaly have a protein shake when neccessary. i mentioned the carbs from the bars but you need to watch your carbs period try getting a baked potatoe plain (no salt) oats ( i know our chow hall serves it and they are all the same out here, look for the packets too then get a coffee machine and voila instant oatmeal fast and easy) any kind of whole wheat anything. Also according to your schedule the less carbs you have after your 3rd meal the better, don't want those damn things going unused and turning to fat. I know it might be hard if your "out" all the time but quick meal replacement bars and protein bars are not good for fat burning or weight loss at all, there are just too many poor ingredients. For fat loss you want low fat intake low carb and high protein to gain that muscle. Your metabolism gets a good boost for up to 24 hours after your weight training. Also the more muscle you gain the more calories you burn. Well hope this helped, Main thing is keep up the work and don't let up, progress takes time.
 
Thanks for the advice! I've noticed IMMEDIATE results from the few changes I've implemented so far (I know it's not very conclusive, but I'm down 3lbs in 3 days - which helps with the motivation). I've started doing HIIT on the elliptical (5 min warmup on a resistance setting of 12, then bump it up to 19 for 30 seconds every 5 min, for a total of 45 min......every morning). I feel like I've gotten twice the workout that I was doing before. I think the introduction of the Tuna has helped out a great deal as well.

Just need to see about fitting in a little more fruit/veggies into my pre/post lunch snacks, and I'll try the weight lifting suggestion you mentioned....I'll keep you apprised to my progress....thanks again :)
 
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