Good plan for the summer?

[joshuam789]

I am 19, 5' 11" amd weigh 217 pounds.

Let me start from the beginning. I think it was the beginning of September when I decided to get a personal trainer and start working out again. I had really let myself go. I was about 240 pounds and very chunky. Well my trainer told me I needed to go on the caveman diet (no bread, only things a caveman would eat, no fun). I hated it but I did it and dropped down to about 220 at the beginning of December. I wasn't hardcore about it either. I had three intense workouts each week, one day upper body, other day core, last day lower body. I was able to have a day off each week and chow down on whatever. I wasn't very deciplined on cardio at all. I probably ran 1-3 days a week depending if I felt like it or not. And, I am in college, so about every other weekend I would go to the club and get trashed or to a friends camp and eat whatever. Yet somehow I dropped to 220. By December i was feeling good about myself I just basically said, "screw the diet, I want to eat for the holidays.". So I did, and ate horribly and ran maybe once or twice a week but still kept up with the workouts. After new years, I made my resolution to be to at least be able to see my abs by the summer. I weighed myself, thinking it would skyrocket, but i weighed 215?! I didnt know what was going on. I weighed again on a different scale and It was 215 again. I asked my trainer and he said sometimes on a low caloric intake diet, that your metabolism gets kicked up and uses fat storage or something like that. I'm still confused about it, but I accepted it for what it was. So now, ever since new years, I have been running and working out every day or sometimes twice a day and have barely slipped the diet, for a sliceof pizza at a party or something. So I'm wondering now what I have to do to reach these abs? Theres still a layer of fat I need to go through. And Im probably just getting really impatient, but according to this workout routine and diet, how long will it take before I can see these abs? I don't have one of those pinching-body fat things, but according to some measurements of the neck, waist and height and weight I'm supposed to have 18% body fat (thats really low to me considering I was 36% my senior year of high school). Probably isn't correct. So is this a good plan for the summer?

 

[luckystreak]

Originally Posted by joshuam789


I am 19, 5' 11" amd weigh 217 pounds.

Let me start from the beginning. I think it was the beginning of September when I decided to get a personal trainer and start working out again. I had really let myself go. I was about 240 pounds and very chunky. Well my trainer told me I needed to go on the caveman diet (no bread, only things a caveman would eat, no fun). I hated it but I did it and dropped down to about 220 at the beginning of December. I wasn't hardcore about it either. I had three intense workouts each week, one day upper body, other day core, last day lower body. I was able to have a day off each week and chow down on whatever. I wasn't very deciplined on cardio at all. I probably ran 1-3 days a week depending if I felt like it or not. And, I am in college, so about every other weekend I would go to the club and get trashed or to a friends camp and eat whatever. Yet somehow I dropped to 220. By December i was feeling good about myself I just basically said, "screw the diet, I want to eat for the holidays.". So I did, and ate horribly and ran maybe once or twice a week but still kept up with the workouts. After new years, I made my resolution to be to at least be able to see my abs by the summer. I weighed myself, thinking it would skyrocket, but i weighed 215?! I didnt know what was going on. I weighed again on a different scale and It was 215 again. I asked my trainer and he said sometimes on a low caloric intake diet, that your metabolism gets kicked up and uses fat storage or something like that. I'm still confused about it, but I accepted it for what it was. So now, ever since new years, I have been running and working out every day or sometimes twice a day and have barely slipped the diet, for a sliceof pizza at a party or something. So I'm wondering now what I have to do to reach these abs? Theres still a layer of fat I need to go through. And Im probably just getting really impatient, but according to this workout routine and diet, how long will it take before I can see these abs? I don't have one of those pinching-body fat things, but according to some measurements of the neck, waist and height and weight I'm supposed to have 18% body fat (thats really low to me considering I was 36% my senior year of high school). Probably isn't correct. So is this a good plan for the summer?

I have no idea at what weight you need to be when you'll start seeing abs, that's kind of a hard question but you want to lose weight, so keep concentrating on that and the abs will come WITH it. It seems to me from your posts that you're looking for easy ways out, numbers matter a little too much and not the actual lifestyle/exercise benefits you'll get in the long run. You can't have this type of mentality because you'll be so caught up in numbers that the moment they disappoint you, you'll get severely discouraged.


Try to take this weight loss step by step, and in the end you'll see the abs you want.


PS that drop in weight loss even though you ate junk -- happened to me too. It's because your metabolism was sped up when you did all the exercises prior to that junk food fest. So even though you slowed down on the diet/exercise, your metabolism was still working hard to lose fat. Eventually it will slow down again if you don't keep up with the exercises, and can even get really slow and be your worst nightmare.

 

[Justin D]

Hey Joshua,



First, great job so far, your doing better than 90% of people who start a weight loss routine by having stuck at it so long.


I think Luckystreak has a great point - don't get caught up in numbers.



Not numbers on the scale anyway.



The numbers you need to be looking at are your improvements in fitness and workout intensity.


Every session (not every week, or month - every SESSION) you should be aiming to either perform more repetitions or increase the weight used for each strength exercise.



Then you should also be tracking and improving the intensity of your cardio workouts (although you will always get far faster results by doing body-weight circuits instead of cardio machines for fat loss - Im saying that through 8 years experience of training clients as a PT)



If those numbers are increasing your body has NO CHOICE but to adapt by building muscle and melting fat.



Best of luck and keep going, you'll get there! Don't give up



Justin


P.S - oh, one number I will give you - to see abs you'll need to get to aroud 12% body fat.