Week #4 - Work Begins!

*yawns*

Good Morning/Afternoon.

First things first, let's see how I look like on week #4.

Alright I suppose...

Anyways, I hit the 66kg mark this week! Well, 66.5kg actually. But nevertheless, I managed to shed off a lot of the partying weight I picked up last week! Another kilogram or two and I'll finally hit my first goal! It'll be tough though. Why?

I have just started working.

Full-time.

As a Jr. Video Editor.

That means 12-16 hour workdays, 5-6 days a week. How the hell am I gonna get the time to work out?

So far, I've been managing to cram in my strength training as outlined in my most recent post. There is a nice strain I experience every time I do the routines though. I suppose pushing my body when it's mentally and physically tired is sort of good, results wise that is. But there is one thing that sort of bums me out though.

I can't go for my walks anymore. It's just not possible at 10pm at night, well it sort of is, but nobody is crazy enough to join me. I'm pretty sure somebody will tell me to do it early in the morning before I head off to the office but here's how it'll end up, time wise.

5:00am (wake up and go for my walk) -> 7:30am (return from my walk) -> 9:00am (head to work) -> 10:00pm (return from work) -> 11:00pm (hit the weights) -> 12:30am (sleep)
4 hours and 30 minutes of sleep!

Here's the schedule I wish I could do but nobody wants to join me in doing:-

8:30am (wake up) -> 9:00am (head to work) -> 10:00pm (return from work) -> 10:30pm (go for walk + hit the weights) -> 1:00am (Sleep)
7 hours and 30 minutes of sleep!

Makes sense to me to cram it all at night. I could cut down the amount of time I go out for my walk as well. But there is a really big difference in the amount of sleep I get. But for now, I'll just do my weights. Ah yes, I stopped working out on weekends as I think I'd have the best opportunity to recover my battered mind and aching body.

Well, that's that. Let's hope I'll still be able to lose weight and gain some muscle despite working like a crazy.

Week #3 - Awesome Week, Bad Progress.

Ugh. I begin this post today by saying, Alcohol and Cigarettes = slow recovery and general tiredness. So here's this week's picture:-

Hat from last night's party and still wearing the same pajamas...

So yeah, stepping on the scale, I sadly regressed instead of progressing. I'm back at 68kgs and while i do feel that my body fat percentage is lower than last week, due to the lack of exercising and excessive partying, I'm not getting muscle definition. Damn. So I'm not very pleased this week and with the signs of another fever coming up, I hope to feel better next week and punish myself with 6 days worth of exercise!

Next week's plan will be the same as this week as I didn't get to really stick to it but with me being broke. I'm pretty sure there'll be no partying. :D

Intermission

Haro Haro.

I'm down with a slight fever on my birthday. Great. Anyways, I forgot to add some details on my Basal Metabolic Rate. What is BMR? Well, it's basically how many calories your body would burn in a day if you didn't do anything but lay in bed the whole day.

Here's the formula:-

MEN

67 + (13.728 x weight in kg) + (508 x height in metres) - (6.9 x age) = BMR

WOMEN

661 + (9.636 x weight in kg) + (175.2 x height in metres) - (4.7 x age) = BMR

So yeah, that's how it work for your BMR. Then you have your multipliers, which you add on to see how much calories you burn in a day doing what you usually do. They are:-

Sloth-like : 1.15 multiplier
No exercise but normal everyday activities : 1.2 multiplier
2-3 exercise sessions a week : 1.4 multiplier
4-5 exercise sessions a week : 1.6 multiplier
6-7 exercise sessions a week : 1.8 multiplier

So mine adds up as:-

67 + (13.728 x 67) + (508 x 1.67) - (6.9 x 22) = 1616.336 calories a day.

with multiplier

1616.336 x 1.6 = 2586.13 calories a day

Every 500 calories you cut from your diet amounts to 1 pound of weight lost per week more or less. So I suppose that's why I'm losing pretty decent weight now. Well, that's that.

Peace

Week #2

Yeah, I'm back for another update. I forgot to mention that I'll only be updating my blog on Sundays; it's easier for me to look back and see if I've made any progress. Well then, on to the update.

Here's how I look now.

Well, I just woke up...

Not much progress this week I have to admit, seeing that I slacked off a little bit. But surprisingly, after keeping a closer watch on my food intake, I've managed to shave off about 2kgs. So now I'm 67kgs. I've got 2 more kilograms to go to hit my first target. It's tough watching my diet, especially since I'm an uber-foodie. If I botch up my nutrition, I'm gonna end up to bulky for my own good.

I've also switched my routine slightly. Why? Well, I hurt my hamstring earlier this week during my HIIT session and now I can't sprint as fast as I could and so for the next 3 weeks, no HIIT for me. Nonetheless, I decided to balance it up by doing three new routines; Squats, Lunges and Inverted Rows.

So here's the current program I'll be doing while my hamstring recovers.

Oh My Hamstring Hurts! Program

Monday, Wednesday, Friday

• hundredpushups.com routine
• 4x15 ab workouts
• 25-30 chin-ups/pull-ups

Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays

• 1 1/2 hour brisk walk to the TTDI Park
• 3x7 Squats
• 3x12 Lunges
• 3x12 Inverted Rows

That's that for now. If anybody has any ideas on how many calories Malaysian food has, please do tell me. It's hard to just guess my way through. I'm supposed to be only taking in 2300 calories a day to lose about a 1kg or so a week so I'm gonna need more accurate ways of measuring.

I'll leave a few links at the end of this post for those who want to do more research on their own and come up with their own routines.

The Starting Strength Wiki - This is the introduction page for those about to start working out. Keep in mind that most programs online are more towards bulking up first and then cutting muscle bulk so read up before going head first into a program.

Nutrition & Supplement Guide - From the same Wiki but for counting your Basal Metabolic Rate and all that jazz.

Stronglifts 5x5 Beginner Program - Good for beginners and people of average fitness. Helped a lot with my core training. They have a few good articles on this site as well so have look.

These three links are pretty much it but if possible, do some googling or browsing at either Borders or Kinokuniya for further info. Men's Health has a book out called the Home Workout Bible, if you can find it, it's pretty good for all you home rrragers.

That's it. See you next week.

First post, but not first day of "The Plan"

Greetings, Before I begin into what "The Plan" is, here's some info on where I stand now.

• 23 years old.
• 157 cm / 5' 5"
• 69 kgs / 152 lbs
• A pack a day smoker and casual drinker.

Now that's out of the way, here's how I look like:-





Currently, here are the goals, I've set for myself.

December 2008 : Hit 65kgs and gain some muscle definition.
June 2009 : Hit 60kgs and shed of excess body fat.
December 2009 : Hit 55kgs and be a lean machine!

The plan began in September 2008 and all I did was building a fitness base meaning:-

• 3 sets of 15 pushups
• 10 chin ups (with anywhere from 1 minute to 5 minute breaks, I couldn't even do 1 in the beginning!)
• 3 sets of 15 ab crunches.
• 3 sets of 10 bicep curls.

This was done during Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. No cardio, nothing. Just plain ol' weight training. Dieting was simply a matter of just having 2 meals a day (I rarely wake up in time for breakfast.) I just made sure I ate simple and small meals, no junk food and no snacking in between meals. I drink about 2.5 litres of plain water a day.

Fast forward to October 2008, I began to change my workout plan as I wanted to concentrate on working my core muscles (Back, Chest, Abs, Thighs.) So I found this interesting site called The Hundred Pushups Challenge. It's not so much that I want to be able to do 100 pushups in one go with no rest but the mere fact that the system allows me to push myself better.

In October 2008, I managed to convince my friend Bryan to join me in my workout plan and we added a new step. That is:-

Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays: Brisk walk around our area for a grand total of 10km.

So yeah, why did I decide to walk and not run? Well, brisk walking is an aerobic exercise while running is anaerobic.

Aerobic : Your body gets the right amount of oxygen, triggering it to burn fat.
Anaerobic : Your body doesn't get the right amount of oxgen, your heart does get stronger but you don't really burn fat.

Well, that's my rough understanding of it anyways. So if you know better, please comment.

Anyways, now it's November, I'm starting to push harder and instead of brisk walking 3 times a week. I do HIIT or High Intensity Interval Training on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

So now, here's my current plan which I'll stick to with very minor changes till the end of December 2008.

Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays

• Hundredpushups.com Plan.
• 5 sets of 15 reps various ab workouts.
• 5 sets of 5 chin ups. (The stronger I get, the more reps I'll do, for now, 5 is fine.)

Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays

• High Intensity Interval Training. 5-10 intervals each session.

That's it for now, I'll be posting updates and results every week to see how my body is shaping up.

DISCLAIMER : While my workout plan may work for me, it is by no means perfect as I'm constantly reworking it to get the best possible results. It's nothing more than a way for me to keep in check so please don't blame me if it's not working for you. Everybody has different goals, body types, metabolism rates, etc etc and so, do your research and find one that suits you best.