Just started a bit of a program.

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I just started a bit of a workout program...as one may have so astutely assumed from the title. I've been on this program that I made for myself for almost two weeks and already I FEEL better. I've been lurking here for a while reading and seeing how helpful all of you are for each other, and I began to think that maybe you could do the same for me...if any of you happen to be so inclined. Well, here it is:

* I am 18 years old.
* I weigh 175 pounds.
* I am 6 feet tall.
* My body fat percentage is somewhere around 20; I can only measure with online calculators that use tape measurements...I have no means to have this professionally determined so I'm stuck with very rough guesses.
* I wish to lose fat and eventually (when I have the money to join a gym) begin weight training.

So far I have been attempting to fix my diet. I started with a journal of everything i ate, and it did help me to stay just about 500 calories under what I had figured (from online calculators) was my maintenance level. This became tedious and tiresome after about a week; I don't think I could keep it up for an extended period of time before I said screw it and went back to eating how I used to (which was horrible). I now just try to eat healthy. I've been getting foods low in fat and calories. I've eating about five small meals a day, and just yesterday I ran out and bought a multivitamin supplement called Onesource Ultimate Men's.

I've also started a running program that I've been alternating on a three day cycle. I start day one with a HIIT session that consists of 30 seconds of sprinting as hard as I can followed by 30 seconds of an easy jog. I am now able to sprint 10 times before I feel like I'm about to die. This lasts about a total of 20 minutes if you include the 5 minute warm-up and the 5 minute cool-down (both of which are just a moderate jog). Day two is a 30 minute jog at a reasonable pace. I have no accurate way of measuring my heart rate, but I make sure that it feels like I'm working at a challenging and steady pace for the full 30 minutes. I take the third day off.

If anyone has any suggestions of what I'm doing right or wrong I would greatly appreciate it.
 
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Sounds good to me!
 
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Everything sounds pretty awesome to me. The only thing left for you to do is to start lifting and you will be set. The fact that you can do HIIT like that is pretty good too.

Looking forward to barging into your journal when I please :D

haha

Good luck!
 
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My right calf hurts...not the left...just the right. I have all kinds of time today to go running, (I was planning on today being a HIIT day) but I don't think I'm able to do that today without making the injury worse. Would it be a bad thing if I were to just have today be a slower jog day, or might that still be a bad thing? I think I'm going to jog...:)
 
I feel your pain man. I've been dealing with recurring calf injuries from running for over a year now. I stretch, i warm up, i stretch more and yet on almost all my runs one or both of my calves will end my run early.

A slower less intense jog will certainly put less strain on your calves.
 
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My diet has gone, while not perfectly, decently well, and I will soon be able to obtain a gym membership. My running, however, is still giving me problems. My muscles are all (mostly) free of pain, but it's been feeling more and more lately like my left leg is longer than my right, and I can feel strongly where my leg pops into its socket because of this. I've noticed it in the past, but it's never been REALLY noticable until just recently. Is this something that's happening because I've just starting running, or is this something that is only being brought more fully to my attention because I'm now putting more stress on my legs, joints, body etc..? Is this something I should go to a doctor to talk about, or might this just go away if I allow time for recovery and then continue running?
 
So this is what I've been doing for the past two weeks. I don't have much of a reason for a split other than "that's-what-my-brother-does-and-it-seems-to-work-well-for-him." I don't have a clue as to what the pros and cons of split and full-body workouts are. I have it split and all placed out like this:


Day 1: Shoulders/Legs/Abs/Cardio

Front raise - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Lateral raise - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Shrug - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8

Leg press - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Leg extension - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Leg curl - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8

Some weighted ab machine for the rectus abdominis - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Side bend - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8

Treadmill jogging - 30 minutes: generally 5 minutes at an 8% incline at 4 MPH and 25 minutes at a 2% incline at 6.5 MPH


Day 2: Nothing, schedule packed as is.


Day 3: Biceps/Back/Abs/Cardio

Standard curl - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Hammer curl - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Preacher curl - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8

Lat pull-down - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Bend-over row - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Lever back extension (Erector Spinae) - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8

Some weighted ab machine for the rectus abdominis - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Side bend - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8

Treadmill jogging - 30 minutes: generally 5 minutes at an 8% incline at 4 MPH and 25 minutes at a 2% incline at 6.5 MPH


Day 4: Cardio

Treadmill jogging - 30 minutes: generally 5 minutes at an 8% incline at 4 MPH and 25 minutes at a 2% incline at 6.5 MPH


Day 5: Triceps/Chest/Abs/Cardio

Kickback - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Triceps extension - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Bench dip - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8

Lever bench press - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Dumbbell fly - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Push-up - a bunch

Some weighted ab machine for the rectus abdominis - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8
Side bend - 3 sets: 12, 10, 8

Treadmill jogging - 30 minutes: generally 5 minutes at an 8% incline at 4 MPH and 25 minutes at a 2% incline at 6.5 MPH


Day 6: Cardio

Treadmill jogging - 30 minutes: generally 5 minutes at an 8% incline at 4 MPH and 25 minutes at a 2% incline at 6.5 MPH


Day 7: Nothing, schedule packed as is.


My legs are fine, running now presents no physical pain beside the neck strain from checking out the girls running in the row ahead of me.

I'm thinking of getting rid of the ab machine; something about it seems...off...? I don't know, but I've been thinking of replacing that with weighted crunches.

I don't much do HIIT any longer because it's too cold and ugly outside to hit the trails or the roads and I would feel too awkward to do HIIT for an indoor audience (introversion isn't as glorious as it appears:)).

I'm no expert by any means, and I would seriously LOVE for all of you to make suggestions as to how I can better my workout plan, but I think it's at least okay. I would like to throw in squats and barbell benches, but I'm too new to lifting to be comfortable doing things like that without a spotter. Oh, and just so you guys know (for when and if you offer alterations), the reps aren't carved into stone. Those are generally the numbers I'll hit, but if I can do more I do and then I up the weight next time.

My diet has changed drastically. Before I was concerned with losing fat, and now I wish to build muscle so that I can cut right before summer and not worry about being too skinny. My problem with this is that I simply can't afford to eat 3500 clean calories a day (I had been able to do about 1800 (which I believe, in retrospect, may have been too drastic of a cut from my maintenance level of about 3000). I don't know of foods that pack a ton of calories that are healthy. I'm sure they're out there, and I'm sure they can be had for a decent price, but they seem to be gone every time I try to look for them. I've been drinking two Six Star Muscle whey protein drinks everyday, but they're only 150 calories per serving. To compensate for this, I have admittedly been eating about half of my calories in Taco Bell food (I work there and it's free).

Any suggestions to any portion of what I'm doing would be absolutely amazing.
 
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I do cook for myself, but I'm eighteen years old and living with my parents, so I have a very limited say in what foods they buy (I'm the only one in my house who cares at all about what is eaten). I end up buying as much healthy food as I can afford, but it always comes up far too short calorically.

Why do you ask?
 
Oh, I eat a lot of Taco Bell because I work there and it's free and I'm trying to bulk but am having a difficult time eating over 3000 clean and cheap calories a day. So I end up not eating all clean, but I do where I can. Any suggestions of cheap calorie dense foods that aren't all just saturated fat cals? I do eat a lot of nuts which I believe are a healthier fat/calorie dense food, but I'd like to know of more variety. I've heard you're generally not supposed to have more than 30% of your calories come from fat; I'm probably a decent amount over that.
 
beans and rice would be one option, also long digesting proteins like cottage cheese I think would be great as well. You can also get frozen veggies to defrost as you need them for meals. Buying in bulk would help here too - I pick up 5lbs of boneless/skinless chicken breasts that lasts me about a week, for around $13-$15. (I'm sure you can find even cheaper as well).
 
Thank you. I never thought of looking at cottage cheese. I'll also consider looking into Sam's club (a bulk version of walmart pretty much). Are you experienced with workouts? Is there anything you could suggest to tweak to mine?
 
My long-term goal is to have visible abs; I'm not setting myself up for failure by comparing myself to people on TV or mags or anything, but I want something that will turn heads.

My mid-term goal is to loose my love handles.

My short-term goal is to bulk as slowly as possible until I hit 20% BF (I began at about 20%, went down to about 16% before I started lifting, now I'm at about 18%).

I had originally been eating very clean and HIITing and jogging a lot, but I soon noticed that as I lost fat I began to look odd. My bones were sticking out a lot, and though I was loosing fat I didn't care at all for the way I was beginning to look. I had read (on here I believe) about people being "skinny-fat", which I think I was...am.

I'm now trying to bulk until I look/feel fat (which I believe is going to be around 20%), then I want to loose my love handles, possibly bulk some more, and then hopefully cut till I have some sort of abdominal definition.

I want to achieve all of this in time for summer. Honestly I am very new to all of this and I realize that I could probably use a lot of help with how realistic my goals are, or perhaps I could (more blatantly) benefit from somebody slapping me in the face with a reality which is unknown to me.

Thank you for helping me as much as you have already Stingo.
 
You gotta dump the taco bell. I hate to sound like one of those people but if you want your body to look good, you have to take good care of it.
 
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