Reply With Quotehttp://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...ts-part-1.html This article will give you the basics of setting up a diet for fat loss.
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Starting Over
A little history may be in order before I ask any questions. At 25 I had my L 2-3 disc removed. My right knee is very arthritic, almost bone on bone. I've not done any serious training in at least 15 years, so as the big 50 approached, I decided it was now or never and I was going to get my fat ass in shape. My current weight is around 290 lbs and my doctor wants me to put on more muscle mass to boost my metabolism. I'm currently doing the 5-3-1 program and using a modified Big but Boring assistance workout. I e-mailed Jim Wendler and he told me to keep the volume and weight low to begin with and progress slowly. He also suggested doing box squats because of my knee injury. My assistance work is 2-3 exercises, 3x10. I'm not doing any cardio. My problem is losing body fat. Does anyone have advice on an eating and cardio plan that will help me lose the fat while keeping the muscle? My goal weight is 220 lbs.
Last edited by Siltz; 09-03-2012 at 08:57 PM.
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http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat...ts-part-1.html This article will give you the basics of setting up a diet for fat loss.
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Wow, a doc who suggested more muscle mass for calorie burn! Lucky you, to have found one that smart.
I'm having no luck at getting from the 240's down to the lower 200's but I'd suggest this as an approach. Figure out what your average calorie burn is from daily activities. Then add in what it is from the lifting and some cardio. By the way, using cardio as a weight loss strategy can work, but overdoing it will hold back strength and muscle mass gain. I'll get back to that later.
You can get a reasonably good handle on your exercise calorie burn from this place: http://www.primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/calculat.htm
If you want a better handle on it I'd suggest getting a heart rate monitor that has a calorie burn feature you can program into it. Reebok makes some reasonably priced ones with easily replaced batteries. You can then get a better sense not only of the calories you are burning but also the cardio value of what even the weight training will do for you in that realm. More than you might think. I do a lot of my warmup sets for exercises paired in twos back to back and then slow down with rest periods of 2-3 minutes on the 5-3-1 worksets. I consistently end up with a heart rate of 70-85% of maximum heart rate (MHR). My lifting takes about 30 minutes, so I'm getting a good cardio workout just from lifting 3 times a week.
But I also do a GXP twice a week as insurance. This consists of a 5 minute ramp up to 85% of MHR, to a 5 minutes of sustained effort at that level, concluding with a 5 minute ramp back down. Short and sweet at a total of 15 minutes. I do a fit test every 4-6 weeks on the ellipticals at the gym I work out at and consistently test at a VO2 max of 37-40. The excellent category for us 60+ geezers. I'll be 62 in a couple weeks. Cardio is really for heart health and I overdid that aspect of fitness for decades.
So take the total calories burned for a week and eat slightly less.
Hope this was of use.
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You don't say how long you've been doing 5-3-1, but I would suggest if you've just started lifting again to instead use SS first, then switch over when it gets hard. 5-3-1 is a bit too slow for novices, even geezling ones.
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Thanks for the great advice. I am currently reading SS and have found it to be very informative. Which workout are you referring to John? I haven't gotten too far in the book. I just flipped ahead and found a workout for a beginning novice. Is that the one you suggest? I'm in the 3rd week of my second session of 5-3-1. Thanks for the great advice everyone!
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Losing weight is all about cutting out carbs. Get below 75gr of carbs per day and the weight will drop off no matter what else you eat. Cut out sugar in all its forms, grains (pasta, cereal, pizza, pastries, rice, peas, corn) and potatoes. Eat lots of meat and veggies and only one serving of fruit per day. Get over 100 gr of protein per day to save your muscles. Protein also makes you feel full. You can't eat enough chicken, steak or swordfish to stop you from losing weight if you cut the carbs. Check out http://www.marksdailyapple.com, http://thepaleodiet.com/ or for an extreme view on carbs: http://eatingacademy.com/.
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Man, I couldn't agree more. My own doc told me the same thing right before I started lifting. Greatest advice I ever received.Originally Posted by Mark E. Hurling
Good luck and I hope you continue to work toward success.
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Basically, I'm referring to the programming. SS is based on the fact that, as a novice lifter, you can get great increases in strength very quickly compared to someone who has been under the bar for many months or years. You lift 3X a week, squat every workout, alternate benching and pressing days, and alternate deadlifts and power cleans. If you complete your lifts for the day w/out issues, you add weight to the bar the next session. It starts deceptively easy, but gets hard very quickly, and also puts on muscle very quickly. It is a lot more time efficient for novice lifters than 5-3-1, which only progresses monthly.
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John answers your question above but in essence, there really is only one SS workout that changes a bit early on as you progress. It's all laid out in the programming chapter. You mention your 50th birthday is coming up. If you're like me, you're going to have to experiment with the programming a bit to get something that works for you. Your age and the fact that you want to dump weight as opposed to gaining are going to make things more interesting than the basic SSLP program. I still haven't got it nailed as it's been a busy summer--two steps up, one step back kinda deal for me. But, good things are happening. Keep your head down.
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Thanks so much for the great feedback and motivation. I'm doing the 5-3-1 3 days a week, so that does slow my progress. I like the fact that, on most days, I leave the gym feeling fresh. Squat and bench days are a little more taxing. The SS program is just what I need. Haven't cleaned in years, so that will take some work. My training maxes according to 5-3-1 are: press 120 lbs, dead lift 200 lbs, bench 235 lbs, and squat 180 lbs. The workouts are based on percentages of these. Where would you suggest I start the SS program based on these numbers?
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