Weight / Fat loss

mmm 175grams of gummy bears ftw! Not sure that will help my slimming stomach

^^ Someone just went out for bacon rolls for the office. Extra tattie scone. #winning

Three weeks in
Weight loss nil
Inches lost nil
Have gone from being totally sedentary into exercising at least 500 calories a day, whilst only eating 1200-1500.

I thought the weight would be dropping off, it isn't. But I do feel better....

Should I drop all the carbs?

Feeling better is a start isn't it?
Maybe up the exercise as it's been three weeks, so either more time exercising or more intensity.

Three weeks in
Weight loss nil
Inches lost nil
Have gone from being totally sedentary into exercising at least 500 calories a day, whilst only eating 1200-1500.

I thought the weight would be dropping off, it isn't. But I do feel better....

Should I drop all the carbs?

No, but sensible consumption of carbs is not a bad idea. If you much on bread/rice/pasta etc throughout the day when you are sitting about and not very active, your body will store this as fat. In the long term it also makes you less sensitive to insulin which is route into type II diabetes.

It is better to reward yourself with carbs only after strenous physical activity. Activities which reallly challenge your muscular strength will prime your body to deliver nutrients into the muscles for repair and fortification. Activities that test your endurance like long slow days out running/cycling or a short intense spinning class/swim session, will deplete your bodies carb stores (which can last for a week if you are sedentary) so you can 'refill' your carb stores afterwards, without it gettig stored as fat. f you are somebody that sometimes drinks sugary drinks or eats a lot of fruit, these in particular would be best post-exercise. It does not matter if this is at bedtime even.

If you manage to run your body completely empty of carbs, which is a bit of an ordeal to get used to and takes a few days. Your body will enter what is known as a 'ketogenic' state. Where you will start to use fat stores for energy. This has the potential to really eat away all your fat stores and make you very thin, but can be very testing on your mood, hormones etc. If you push yourself too hard into this distressed state, your body can release a lot of cortisol which will start to cause muscle breakdown and encourage your body to create fat stores again of whatever it can. So you have to keep an eye on things, best not to jump into for long periods to begin with.

A popular way of managing long periods of "ketogenesis" is to spend 5 days with no carbs, then carb up at the weekend. This method is used a lot by bodybuilders under the name 'anabolic diet'. Which is not too different from the atkins diet. Both require upto 2 weeks for the starting period with no carbs at all.

You can get 'ketosis test strips' on ebay to check when your body has entered this state. If you find that you can have X amount of carbs in a day and still remain in ketosis, then you can roll with that.

My 3 weeks of post training carb timing, and NO calorie restriction. Gave me a 5kg fat loss. But it was a pain in the arse. I ate copious amounts of carbs every evening after training but only fat+protein+non starchy vegetables in morning.

Fuck'n science, folks.

Boast Post Alert -

After starting this whole weight loss thing right at the beginning of this thread I would proudly like to report I am now rocking myself a proper bonafide torso from "300"

Hell yeah - thanks for all the banter and chat and comparisons and geeky science in this thread for helping keep me on the pie eating straight and narrow.

+1 for forum love

pics or gtfo

DFP

You sound like you know what you are on about, I am 6ft tall, 48 years old and I dropped from 92Kg to 72Kg, I did this by taking up boxing and carb cycling, I train six days a week, I load up on starchy carbs once a week when I am on the nightshift, currently I would guess that I am between 10 - 15% bodyfat, I am lean but not as lean as I would like to be. What happens is if I go too low my face starts to look gaunt. I kinda figured that I just need to go slow but if you have any ideas of how to get get below 10% bodyfat without it showing in my face I would be interested. Its not the be all and end all as I am in pretty good shape for my age and I do this more from health than vanity.

You cannot really control where on your body you will lose the fat from, so your face will get gaunt. If you do not like the way this looks you may want to re-evaluate your aesthetic goal, a solution might be to put on MORE muscular bodyweight. This will give you a wide back/shoulders/chest/arms etc, and visually narrower waist in comparison, while staying at a weight high enough to have some muscle and fat on your face, so it does not look gaunt.

Also, 10-15% is low, a big deal for someone knocking on 50 unless you are strongly genetically pre-disposed to be lean. If you think you can get sub 10%, my hats off to you.

As it happens I have just started with strength building calisthenics, pullups, pushups, squats, leg raises, handstand pushups (I am learning) & back bridges so lets see how we get on with that. Also my boxing club re-opens in September. From what you are saying 10 -15% is perfectly good enough for my age so I'll probably just stick to a clean diet and lots of exercise and see what happens with that. Thanks I really appreciate your input as I kinda had to figure out most of what I do for myself !!! Buddha

Id like to point out that most examples of bodyfat percentages you see on the net are wildly innaccurate. 15% bodyfat means you have clear six pack, 10-15% means you can see your serratus anterior, and sub 10% means you can see a frightening amount of veins and muscle fibres twitching all over your body, you basically look like an anatomy diagram.

I must be 15 % - 20 % as I have the four pack, but not the six, twitchy veins on my arms - I will look at foods to eat to make collagen, which is the fleshy stuff in the face

So if I am building muscle but still have some fat to lose, do I cycle between calorie deficit and calorie excess, and if so, how long ought those cycles be? and can I still do my calisthenics during the calorie deficit phase? (I get plenty of cardio with boxing training)

I don't do weights because I have a fractured 7th vertebrae in my neck which makes lifting a bit iffy.

Buddha

15% bodyfat means you have clear six pack.

Not true.

Well, looking at the results of several DEXA scans begs to differ.

I went back and reread this thread and there is a picture of you in 2010 with 15% bodyfat - from behind I look about the same

I went back and reread this thread and there is a picture of you in 2010 with 15% bodyfat - from behind I look about the same

Me?

If there is a pic of me I will be at 25% bodyfat as I only very recently dropped to 20 or so.

page 11, that's you innit ? I quite fancy having a DEX next time I am in London, how much does it cost?

Something between £60 and £150 I think.

Or just sweet talk people at your local university sports science lab.

smiling-buddha, where's your boxing club? Have been thinking about getting back into this now I'm getting closer to my weight loss target. Thanks.

Or just sweet talk people at your local university sports science lab.

Ooooh. My college has a partnership with Imperial, we're allowed to use their equipment and know-how for our whimsical arty projects if we want to. I suddenly feel a new project coming on...

VanUden I live in Paris, my club is at the end of my street in the 2eme arrondissement, I love it, the training is hard & it never ever gets easy, you have to be self disciplined to have any chance to be any good but its brilliant fun, you get super fit and its a good skill to have. I had done it before also and I picked it up in no time. That's not to say I am any good. Just the fact that I can get into a ring and spa with a twenty old (I'm 48) makes so happy I can't even tell you.

I'm about to join a boxing club in Islington for some boxing fitness. Need to get fitter and lose a few pounds in the process.

Here's the link if anyone is interested.

http://www.islingtonboxingclub.org/

My club before I moved sniff Great club, free for kids.

http://sandsendabc.org.uk/

I'm about to join a boxing club in Islington for some boxing fitness. Need to get fitter and lose a few pounds in the process.

Here's the link if anyone is interested.

http://www.islingtonboxingclub.org/

I used to live round the corner and trained there now and again. It is an excellent no nonsense work out. Friendly people as well.