How I lost 50lbs in 5 months. A "Do it Yourself" guide

[pintoca]

First of all, "Please allow me to introduce myself..."

Back in Sept 2004, I was 264lbs and 40% BF; not a nice place to be, if you ask me. As of this writing (20 Jun 2005) , I am 197lbs and 21% BF (according to the same BF scale...however, some nice people around here suggest I might be actually lower than that). If you do the math, that is 67.3lbs lost and only 4.8lbs of those were Lean Body Mass (muscle, water, etc). 93% of my weight loss was fat, not muscle (the first rule of cutting, minimize the amount of muscle you drop). There is a difference between losing weight and losing fat.

Why am I writing this? Basically because there is a lot of people out there who seems to believe it's impossible to do this, or at least very close to impossible. Some of you might have a very good idea of nutrition, some of you may have none, so I will try to lay the basics here too.

DISCLAIMER: This is my program, does not mean it is "THE" Program, or the "BEST", or the "FASTEST" and definitely it is not the "EASIEST"... I am pretty sure, though, it's one of the "CHEAPEST" around and I am sure it is also very effective. I'm not writing this for you to bash the program (which is in constant evolution), but for the people out there to have a single place to look searching for a "no bullshit" account of how to reach your goals.

Before we start, a word on Supps:

The only supps I will recommend to you are simple and legal, one will go to your most important muscle: Your brain, the others will go to your gut.

1. I get no money out of this, but if there is a book I can recommend, it's "Burn the Fat, feed the muscle" by Tom Venuto. Everything you need to know is there. So if you know nothing, get it. if you know everything, shame on you, we can always learn new tricks. DO NOT SKIP THE FIRST CHAPTER!!! Goal setting is mandatory in this game, only if you know WHERE you want to go, you will be able to steer yourself in the right direction (my monthly goals are taped to my monitor, so I see them ALL DAY).

MONITOR your progress, only what can be measured can be managed, right??? Here is a spreadsheet you can use to monitor your weekly progress, simply change your start date and each week type your weight in lbs and your BF%. The spreadsheet will calculate your gains/loses and will draw a graph. http://www.ccfiles.de/ef/Weekly_LBM_Tracking.xls

2. Flax oil and grounded flax seeds

3. A simple Whey Isolate (with flavor, without, whatever, just make sure it is cheap enough for your budget)

4. Dextrose and/or Maltodextrin

OK, here we go. 3 things compose any successful cutting program: Diet, Weight Training and Cardio

** DIET: **

If there is something you need to understand right, is that diet is responsible for most of your results. What you put in your mouth has a direct relationship with the results you will see each week/month.

There are number of diets out there, however, you will quickly notice that your diet is as personal as the way you walk. Just keep it simple and enjoyable (otherwise you will be fed up in no time)

What to eat??? staples for your diet should include:

chicken breast
tuna
green veggies
some type of high quality whole wheat bread
brown rice
yams
flax
nuts

The other question is how much to it?, back in the day I wrote a calculator to help you on this, you can find it here:

Pintoca Cutting Calculator:
http://elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=374938

find out your numbers, and then fill the gap with foods in the list above. If you have still no clue, then look here for an example diet (NOT TO FOLLOW BLINDLY!!! CUSTOMIZE YOUR OWN)

I follow a cyclic approach to dieting (It is a known fact that Leptin levels decrease when you keep long enough on reduced-cals diets, so the way to avoid this is by having up and downs days... to trick your body and keep it guessing what is going on, so to speak). Adaptation is your enemy, so learn how to defeat it.

Sample Diet and Training Program:
http://elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=381640

One last word of advice on diet: You need all 3 macronutrients: Fat, Carbs and Proteins... so try and keep a balanced diet. It will be easier to keep on the long run.

Here are 3 excellent Diet/training articles:
http://elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=389874

by the way, if you are looking to bulk, take a look here instead:
Pintoca Bulking Calculator:
http://elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=388839

One thing you definitely need to know when designing your diet is your Post Work Out nutrition, for that, look no further than:

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/magazine03/dextrose.htm

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/magazine/windowofopportunity.htm


** TRAINING: **

Biggest myth with training is that you can get away with light training while dieting. Some people say, "I will wait till I get rid of the fat before trying to put on the muscle". People, the fact of the matter is that you NEED your muscles to burn fat, so keeping them is essential.

While on diet, your body will do EVERYTHING it can to burn muscle, why? simply because muscle burns calories and your body wants to keep the precious little calories you are giving. So, the only way to keep your muscle is by training HARD AND HEAVY, also when cutting. How hard and heavy, only your body will tell, but as a minimum you should strive to keep your working weights stable (and never go down)

There are endless variations to training, so I won't get there here, there is a sample program in the link above.

Make sure you understand how your muscles work when designing your training program:

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/musclefibers.php
http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/musclefiberspart2.php
http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/musclefiberspart3.php

The entire library of Anatomy-related articles in this website is VERY informative (the 3 I just linked are mandatory reading). You can find all their articles here:

http://www.abcbodybuilding.com/frontanatomy.php?id=18&subId=46


** CARDIO: **

For me, probably the cornerstone of my program...after diet that is as I said before, this is what I did, not saying it is what YOU should do.

A simple rule, the more calories you burn the faster you will drop weight, provided you are not eating them back all the time!!!

I go for the daily cardio approach, yes, it can be a pain, it takes time and you first need to build up your stamina. However, there is no denying it works. I started with 5 days a week, 30-45 mins (until I was dead) and at about 70% of my heart capacity... nowadays I am at 6 days/week, 45 mins at 75-85% (avg is 80%) of my HR capacity. I don't like HIIT, so I go with steady state cardio. What type? Doesn't matter, but I prefer Elliptical (no joint impact).

Again, you can start by doing this 3 times/week (what I consider absolute minimum) and enjoy your fat loss nirvana till you plateau... then add another day or increase intensity or increase duration...

Here is a log of my results so far:

3 Months Results (my first post ever in Elite, 2 months after joining... I basically read the entire Diet board before posting)
http://elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=367540

Changing Routine, due to time constraints:
http://elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=378315

5 Months Results:
http://elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=375450

6 Months Results:
http://elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=382752

7 Months Results:
http://elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=391043

My first Plateau... and how I moved past it:
http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=394298

9 Months results:
http://elitefitness.com/forum/showthread.php?t=403548


Remember you have to constantly keep researching and reading, I eventually outgrew the Venuto book with the addition of topics like Post Work Out nutrition and Muscle Fiber considerations when designing my lifting schedule

Finally, this is an example of how all this looks when you put it together in a single coherent approach:

http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4483843&postcount=21

Hope this helps somebody out there and feel free to add info that complements this.

Cheers

 

[habitualhealth]

What a great post Pintoca!!

 

[pintoca]

Thanks HH, I just want to be able to point people in a generally good direction when they first come here. I was looking at our stickies and they are all outdated or too biased (only CKD???, Peanut butter diet???), so something needed to be done for those of us who are into less agressive methods (but not less efficient)

 

[ChefWide]

Great thread, STUCK!


you have helped out a lot of great folks around this board: me included! Great info!

 

[Dial_tone]

Great writeup, Pintos 'n cheese. That should save a lot of people a lot of searching.

 

[IvanOffelitch]

If I may be succinct;

Pintoca, you rock.

 

[jenscats5]

If I may be succinct;

Pintoca, you rock.

For emphasis!!

 

[Karmic Pendulum]

Now THAT is someone with a lot of time on his hands.

 

[xshepx]

I made my first posts on these boards recently and I wanted to leave my mark here to point something out to new people like myself.

I am just starting the process of changing my lifestyle for the better. Like most people I have been nervous in asking questions, etc. After reading through Pintoca's personal story and seeing how closely it mirrored my own I sent him a private message and he e-mailed me quickly with questions to my answers and suggestions. I am sure many people accoss these boards would be more than willing to do the same.

So in summary. If you don't know... ask. People wouldn't be posting their personal experiences and responding to threads all day if they weren't around to help. To me, that's phase one.

 

[coeus]

nice post....

damn, I must spread some karma around before giving it to pintoca...