My Cardio and Weight Training Process

I've written a bit about my training process and thought I would provide a few more details. Six months prior to the competition I had already begun a muscle building program with the goal of converting as much of the flab on my body to muscle. I weighed about 235 - the heaviest I've weighed, ever. Through the use of muscle training and light cardio, I was able to reduce my weight to 226.6 on the first day of the competition. I had to be talked into competing as I had already decided to undergo a rip-phase via dieting and upping my cardio. I basically wanted to accelerate my weight loss by "leaning out," for a period of a couple of months to counter-balance what I perceived was too much of a focus on strength and not enough on cardiovascular fitness. Regarding the competition, I found it helpful in that it kept me focused on my weight loss goals, so instead of stopping when I reached 205 (my initial goal), I reset the goal as I continued to lose weight. I'm currently, as of this writing, 193 lb and have reset my goal to 185 - not that I'll hit that in the next few days (the competition ends this coming Friday, about 4 days away), but I did want to have a definite goal in mind. I haven't weighed less than 195 since the early 90's, so my current weight is quite an accomplishment for me - even better, I'm now wearing jeans that are size 34 and not experiencing a "muffin top" as I had begun to experience at my starting weight in size 36 jeans. Actually as of today the size 34 jeans are loose - I may be ready for a size 32.

I've previously described both my strength routine and my starting circuit training routine in an early post:
http://strivingforfhealth.blogspot.com/2013/01/my-food-and-nutrition-changes.html

I noticed that I left out something that I think is important that should be stressed - stretching before and after workouts. Even before I get to the gym I start drinking water heavily - I try to do at least two liters of water before leaving work for the guy - this is over a period of 2 hours or so (note that I usually drink 4-5 liters of water while at work so my water intake is 1-2 gallons a day). The idea is to hydrate my tissues before the cardio workout so that I'm replenishing what's being exhausted as sweat. I also continue to drink several liters of water as I work out. When I arrive at the gym I first start stretching my calves, hamstrings and quads, using a variety of stretching forms that I learned while doing martial arts. I then work through the back and then extremities - I do this whether I'm doing a weight routine after the cardio or not as it's good practice and doesn't take an inordinate amount of time - usually 10-15 minutes. Afterward I do very low lunges (no weight) and approach a cardio machine, usually the treadmill. I like to start with the treadmill when I can because I think it allows for the most flexibility in doing intervals. Before leaving the gym I re-stretch everything similar to arriving, only in a more perfunctory manner so it's only for about half the time.

About half way through the competition I changed the nature of my cardio exercises - instead of doing a fairly consistent level with increases to the elevation (on the treadmill) to increase intensity, I've added an interval burst on the 10s and have increased my treadmill routine to an hour. I start at 3.7 (which seems to be about 3.7 mph) with an incline of 7.0. For example, when I've been doing this for 10 minutes, I crank up the speed to at least 6.0 and run for at least a minute. I then turn the speed back down, but increase the speed by 1/10th to 3.8. At the next 10 minute interval I do this again, but instead of increasing the speed I increase the elevation to 8.0 alternating between the two increases until I've finished my time (typically one hour). After cleaning up a bit I then hit the Stairmaster for at least 20 minutes at level 5, then the Stationary Bike for 20 minutes at level 12. I do the previous on full-cardio days and on weight training days, cut back the Treadmill to 30 minutes before doing the stairs and bike. Afterward I do the weight-training circuit but modified - instead of doing 80% of my weight, I'm doing 50% but repping to exhaustion and going immediately to the next machine on the circuit (no longer than 15 seconds to catch my breath if I need to). The idea here is to make the weight training as cardiovascular as possible (I liken it to cross-fit) - the routine goes by quick. I'm not trying to maintain strength at this point so much as to keep as much muscle mass as possible while maintaining a Catabolic state. I added the bike to start training for a ride (I mentioned this last week).

The second change I've made is to change the frequency of weight training. Previously I alternated weights with full-cardio days and in the beginning I would take Saturday off (I might do a neighborhood walk or hike to get some cardio in but was basically allowing my muscles a rest day - something I think is important - so the tissues can catch up and recover from the constant break-down). About two weeks ago I changed my routine to two-days of full-cardio to one day of weights/cardio and have skipped taking a day off. Now on the weekend instead of taking a day off from the gym, I've been going and then doing an additional cardio activity in the afternoons - this past weekend I went on a 30 minute bike ride (getting used to riding and also the new pedal/shoe setup I've recently gone to). Finally, this last week I'd doing full-cardio every day and working in some cross-fit exercises (calisthenics) to ramp up the intensity.

-- John

Week 7 - 5.6 Pounds Lost

Update for Week 7, ending 2013.02.22

Now that we're leading up to the final week things are getting a bit more interesting.  In week 7, my official weigh-in at work is 198.6 lb (starting weight of 235.0 so a loss of 15.59% - I'm the first to break the 15% weight loss milestone). As a group we've collectively lost over 300 pounds - quite a lot .

Name	Weigh In	One Pound	Age	Height	BMI In	Current BMI	22-Feb	%
John Eaton (me)	235.0	0.43%	50	70	33.7	28.5	198.6	15.49%
Carlos L	268.8	0.37%	36	77	31.9	27.2	229.0	14.81%
Kevin Lu	178.6	0.56%	27	71	24.9	21.8	156.2	12.54%
Mike J	263.2	0.38%	37	76	32.0	28.3	232.2	11.78%
Jeff B	282.2	0.35%	45	70	40.5	36.0	251.0	11.06%
Kevin Li	236.8	0.42%	40	72	32.1	28.6	211.2	10.81%
Verlin H	434.0	0.23%	37	75	54.2	49.3	394.6	9.08%
Stephen M	223.8	0.45%	56	70	32.1	29.6	206.4	7.77%
Steven T	272.6	0.37%		76	33.2	30.8	252.8	7.26%
Alex V	209.6	0.48%	32	72	28.4	26.6	196.0	6.49%
Chris D	224.6	0.45%	40	70	32.2	30.5	212.6	5.34%
Shane M	246.4	0.41%	41	72	33.4	32.3	238.0	3.41%
Patrick M	237.4	0.42%	40	73	31.3	30.5	231.4	2.53%
Stan Y	249.6	0.40%	45	69	36.9	36.3	245.6	1.60%
Jeff M	271.2	0.37%			N/A	N/A	271.2	0.00%
Mark F	269.6	0.37%		72	36.6	36.6	269.6	0.00%
Cary A	258.4	0.39%			N/A	N/A	258.4	0.00%
Mark M	243.0	0.41%		73	32.1	32.1	243.0	0.00%

Carlos is still creeping up towards my percentage (well, I guess they all are for that matter).

At home, my weight comes in on Friday at 194.8 lb for a total loss of 31.8 lb (226.6-194.8). I ended up hitting my 195 lb target and set a new target of 185 lb which I won't hit by next Friday, but it should end up with me somewhere on either side of 190 or so. The next couple of days will determine where I end up by the end of the competition.

My progress via graphs generated from MyFitnessPal:

The increase in my workout intensities seems to be working - I dropped quite a bit more than I expected and dropped another full pound today (Saturday) that's reflected on the graph. I'm still consuming around 1200 or so calories (even though the graphs make it look like I'm eating half of that, it's due to the reset of my goals for the third time). No adverse effects (nausea, light-headed-ness, etc). I've also increased my consumption of vitamin and mineral supplements to twice a day on the multi-vitamin.

-- John

Week 2 - Loss of Another 4 Pounds

Here's my update for Week 2, ending today 2013.01.21...

Last Friday 2013.01.18 was the second official weigh-in at work. I went in and did the weigh-in during the morning before lunch and on the official scale: 220.0 lb (starting weight at work 235.0 so a loss of 6.4% putting me in the lead). Here's the tally from work:

Name	Weigh In	One Pound	Age	Height	BMI In	10%	11-Jan	%	18-Jan	%
John Eaton (me)	235.0	0.43%	50	70	33.7	23.50	225.4	4.1%	220.0	6.4%
Kevin Li	236.8	0.42%	40	72	32.1	23.68	228.4	3.5%	223.4	5.7%
Stephen M	223.8	0.45%	56	70	32.1	22.38	215.2	3.8%	212.4	5.1%
Mike J	263.2	0.38%	37	76	32.0	26.32	254.4	3.3%	251.2	4.6%
Verlin H	434.0	0.23%	37	75	54.2	43.40	414.8	4.4%	414.4	4.5%
Jeff B	282.2	0.35%	45	70	40.5	28.22	272.8	3.3%	270.4	4.2%
Carlos L	268.8	0.37%	36	77	31.9	26.88	260.6	3.1%	258.4	3.9%
Chris D	224.6	0.45%	40	70	32.2	22.46	222.6	0.9%	218.8	2.6%
Steven T	272.6	0.37%			N/A	27.26	268.2	1.6%	267.2	2.0%
Shane M	246.4	0.41%	41	72	33.4	24.64	243.2	1.3%	243.2	1.3%
Alex V	209.6	0.48%	32	72	28.4	20.96	208.6	0.5%	208.6	0.5%
Jeff M	271.2	0.37%			N/A	27.12	271.2	0.0%	271.2	0.0%
Mark F	269.6	0.37%			N/A	26.96	269.6	0.0%	269.6	0.0%
Carey A	258.4	0.39%			N/A	25.84	258.4	0.0%	258.4	0.0%
Stan Y	249.6	0.40%			N/A	24.96	249.6	0.0%	249.6	0.0%
Mark M	243.0	0.41%			N/A	24.30	243.0	0.0%	243.0	0.0%
Patrick M	237.4	0.42%	40	73	31.3	23.74	237.4	0.0%	237.4	0.0%
Kevin Lu	178.6	0.56%	27	71	24.9	17.86	178.6	0.0%	178.6	0.0%
Average	255.8	0.4%				25.6	251.2	2.7%	249.8	3.7%
Total	100%						98.2%		97.6%

At home I've been weighing myself using a digital scale and as mentioned previously, do so after 2 cups of coffee, a small handful of raw almonds and right before showering. My weigh-in at home on the Friday morning was 215.0 lb, so about 5 pounds difference between work and home (clothes weight I'm guessing). As of today, Monday 2013.01.21, my weight is 213.2 lb so another 1.8 lbs loss over the weekend. My target right now is 204 lb which would still put me on the heavy side, but I didn't want to do more than 10% of my body weight as I believe I'll lose too much muscle mass. To counter the effect of muscle burn, I've been doing weight training 3x per week - my routine consists of about 20-25 weight-assisted exercises in a circuit, with a 15 count between each exercise, moving every body part from core to limbs. I've also been ingesting about 150 calories worth of liquid supplement after those sessions (Cytosport - Muscle Milk Light Chocolate Protein Drink No Milk 244ml (8.25 oz), with 17 grams of protein). Ideally I'd like to keep my muscle loss to around 3% or less - I'll probably need to adjust things as I go.

I went from doing 4-5 sets of each exercise, with 4-5 exercises for each body part 3 times per week (so every body part is worked once per week) to my current workout of 20-25 sets, 1 set of each exercise, 2-4 exercises per body part doing fairly heavy weight with reps in the 10-12 range. As I approach my goal weight, I'll increase the reps to 15-20 and drop the weight. This is to maximize burn and increase the intensity pulling me out of an anabolic state. Since it's only been 2 weeks and I'm already half-way to my goal weight, I'm going to see how much I can drop by doing my current routine, probably into week 4 and then adjust the workouts.

On nutrition, according to FitnessPal my target caloric intake is 1360 to lose 2 pounds per week. Cardiovascular exercise increases the amount of calories you can eat - I found that I wasn't calculating the treadmill workout correctly - turns out age and starting weight is a factor - I was going from the machine baseline of 204 calories per half-hour - turns out the more accurate number for my weight and age is 282 calories per half-hour. So this adjustment should slow-down my weight loss a bit as I'll be consuming more calories per day. I also plan to increase my cardiovascular workout times - right now I'm doing 30 minutes on days when I weight train and 45 minutes on days when I don't. As I progress I'll increase those times to 45 minutes on weight training days and 60 minutes on non-weight training days.

My progress via graphs generated from MyFitnessPal:

-- John