If there’s one thing I’ve had cemented into my daily regime lately it’s that if I’m not eating enough, it’s a really bad thing for my dieting.
Since sitting down with Julian from Titanium Fitness almost 2 months ago now we discussed how me not eating enough actual food and supplementing a lot of my intake was a bad thing. After increasing my intake I’m now back down to the same weight I was when I started this weight / fat loss process and I’m taking in double the amount of calories.
We achieved this by starting the whole process with finding my maintenance calorie intake. This means keeping your current (target) weight reasonably constant. This can be achieved when the number of calories (kilojoules) that you eat is equal to the number of calories (kilojoules) your body uses.
Energy In (Food) = Energy Out => body weight remains stable.
However, for many people, weight maintenance means weighing within 1 to 2 kg of their current (target) weight. The weight on the scale can fluctuate even when you have reached your target weight and there are a number of reasons for this:
Normal body fluctuations related to eating and elimination
Consuming a high salt (sodium) diet
Temporary weight gain due to fluid retention for women near the time of menstruation
Decrease in physical activity
Once you know your actual maintenance level you then have a stage to start from for either adding weight on or taking it off when you get your diet right.
There are many fantastic calculators available on line including this one: CALORIE CALCULATOR
How’s your diet going so far? What are you looking to achieve at the moment from your diet and exercise?
SUMMER BODY – WEEK 3, FRONT FACINGSUMMER BODY – WEEK 3, SIDE FACING
Week number 3 of my brand new diet and attempt at the summer body side of things, and it’s going pretty good I’d say. I was given a brand new way of eating just over a month ago by Julian at Titanium Fitness and since that day I’ve gone through a process of increasing my calorie intake to a sensible maintenance level.
This week has been a little easier on the reduction of carbs by 50g. Most of last week and the first few days of this week I have found myself training well and hard, BUT, feeling exceptionally tired an hour or so after sessions. To the point that on Monday & Tuesday I actually had a quick power nap to catch myself up a little bit.
However, forgetting the fact I’ve felt tired this weeks training has gone exceptionally well. On Monday I completed my shoulder session with yet another personal best on the hammer strength shoulder press of 65kg per side plus the weight of the arm itself, meaning I lifted almost 70kg per shoulder which is a massive improvement from where I was. I also did my usual inclined, treadmill walk at lunch for some steady state cardio work.
Tuesday was a chest day, I’ve not been lifting very heavy with my chest for a while now, and have instead been doing quite high rep work. However, I wanted to try actually testing myself a little again so have began working my way back up the weight tree. This week on Inclined & Flat bench I worked on the dumbbells lifting the 40kg bells for reps of 8 on both exercises. I then concluded the session on the cable flyes & dip machine with some high rep work to keep the burn going. Tuesday lunch was my biceps session, this is one of my weakest body parts so it’s all about trying to lift heavier weights and with the EZ bar I’ve currently built up to 40kg plus the bar itself making the entire weight about 52kg.
Wednesday was something new…ish for me. As an ex decathlete and specifically pole vaulter, my core strength use to be what I’d consider very good. However, I’m the first to admit I don’t do enough core work. Every session I do ends with me doing 15 / 20 minutes of core work but it’s not enough and I skip a lot of the exercises i should really be doing. So this week I dedicated an entire session to this body part. OH MY GOD, it was by far the hardest session of the week for me. I went through multiple routines I’ve learnt over the years 50 double crunches, 40 twisting crunches, 30 crunches, 20 doorbell raises, 10 v sits is just one example of what I did. The lunch time session was my usual cardio work out.
Thursday was a strange day and actually ended up being a rest day. I didn’t sleep well at all and had an exceptionally busy day, I was in basingstoke with my business at a convention and then visited my old pole vault coach for the evening, before getting home at 11pm.
Friday was my usual Thursday session of legs in the morning. The gym I go to (anytime fitness, newbury) has recently extended the club in size and so we’ve some new kit to be working on. For my leg session I took advantage of the hack squat machine. Blimey, it’s amazing how weak a body part can be if you work it in a new way. I found this machine exceptionally hard and made sure I used it most of the session along with leg press, calf raises and quad extensions. Brilliant session, and I felt great afterwards….although I was walking like Bambi on ice.
I still did a lunch session Friday, and another of the new machines was a stair master / power mill. I’ve not done cardio like this, in a very, very long time. I started the machine far too quickly and after about 7 minutes, I knew, if I kept at this pace, there was no way I’d finish my 30 minute work out. I slowed it down just a little and powered through the session. I hurt A LOT, but, it was a great work out, I got a real sweat on, and as far as steady state cardio goes, this really hit the spot.
So that’s been my week. I started it weighing in just over 92kg and I’ve ended it weighing in at 91.8kg so the weight is still coming off which is excellent, and means the diet stays the same for yet another week.
Speaking of my diet, I promised I’d give you a small break down of a day so you could see what I’m eating to hit my macros of 350g Protein, 212.5kg carbs, 115g fat. So here you go:
Protein Bar (cnp professional)
30
20
4.9
Protein Shake (omni core)
50
80
3.9
Bacon x 2
16
0.4
12.6
Eggs X 2
12
1.4
18
Tuna 120g
36
0
7.2
Meatballs
24
14
11
Protein Bar (cnp professional)
30
20
4.9
Minced Beef
46
0
36
Pasta
11
24
2
Protein Shake (diet shake – sci mx)
52
32.2
3.6
Minced Beef (small portion)
40
0
32
Rice 50g
2.1
22
0.2
As you can see from the table, I don’t really take in any snacks, although I do like to class the protein bar as a sort of snack. The main reason for this was the following: As Julian put together my plan I asked about good things to snack on between meals etc. His very excellent point was this…..”if you need to snack, you’re not eating enough”. This really struck a chord with me and since that point I’ve eaten no chocolate bars, no crisps, no fizzy drinks etc etc.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t easy, but, this far into the diet and seeing the results so far, well, I certainly don’t crave things as much as I have done in the past.
So there we go, another week down, and we roll into the next weeks worth of training and dieting. It’s been fantastic fun so far, all be it very hard work.
So, how is your diet going, are you working hard still on your summer body, what is it you’re finding hard to do at the moment?
Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to follow me on instagram, twitter and youtube, for daily updates etc.
So, I’ve been writing my training plans in blog form for a little while now on and off. However, like lots of people I’ve felt things just weren’t quite going my way. My body shape wasn’t changing to how I’d like it and my weight was steady fluctuating by about 500g up and down.
I know I’m not going to look like Steve Cooke anytime soon, but, I wanted to start to make a difference to my body shape and size. I was chatting to a business friend of mine (Titanium Training) I did some filming for a little while ago. He’s a former powerlifter and I filmed a competition for him.
Anyway, he has studied for years and works as a trainer but also helps people with nutrition etc. He kindly offered to sit down with me and discuss my current diet and improve on.
Oh boy, did we improve on it.
I kind of knew it myself, but, he pointed out a lot of my diet was supplement based and there certainly wasn’t enough actual food involved in it at all. We worked out my actual maintenance level of calories which went from around 1600 calories to 3500. Your bodies metabolism alters to suit the calories we take in, and mine had moved to such a low level that for me to drop any weight or mainly lose fat I’d be taking so few calories in my body wouldn’t function or be able to train.
We broke down the calorie intake to my macros which we went for 350g protein, 262.5g Carbohydrates & 115g Fat. My start weight two weeks ago was 91.1kg
So, for the last 2 weeks I’ve been eating more which is been interesting diet wise and I’ve put on weight. Today is the end of my 2 week process of building my metabolism again and have gained weight to 93.4kg.
So from today I’ll be slowly cutting down my calorie intake. We’re starting by removing 200 calories from my carbohydrate intake (My protein level always stays at 350g to keep muscle size). Once my body settles into the new calorie intake and I stop losing weight I’ll then drop another 200 calories and so on and so forth until I get to an ideal body weight for my fat content that I’d like (10%) which is 85kg.
So here we go, this is me now and I’ll keep you updated each week as to my progress with photos and the food I’ve been eating and training I’ve been doing, or you can follow me on instagram (stopjabbaingon) and see daily pictures.
WEEK 1 – SIDE 93.4KGWEEK 1 – FACING 93.4KG
I hope you enjoy my journey, and I’d love to hear your stories about changes you’ve made to make a difference.
STOPJABBAINGON 