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DKeddo

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  1. Thanks so much for your replies, guys. Really appreciate you putting up with my noob questions. Yeah, I think I just need to get over it and give it a shot. For starters I will look to fit in one more meal a day. I already take whey protein shakes pre and post workout, but I'd like to work in a casein shake before bed as well. Just another thing I'll have to get used to. So full disclosure, right now I'm using 8lb weights for almost all bicep/chest/shoulder exercises (I feel such shame in writing this!), but as I mentioned I go up to 20 reps with those. Setting an objective goal in bulking is a lot harder for me than in cutting, but if I were to do so, I'd like to be able to comfortably lift 15lb weights in 3 months.The thing is, I recently bought 15lbers. When I use them I *can* make it to 10-15 reps, but in doing so I feel excessive strain in my back & neck starting around 3 reps, which is why I hesitate to continue with them. So I will probably just buy 12lbers to help me to bridge the gap. Well one thing to note is that while I'm extremely tired for about 30 min after my workout, I've never really felt sore past that point, even when I first started working out. So that tells me I *could* be lifting harder, and I think going for heavier weights will be a good step. I think this was a good suggestion I hadn't even done for myself yet, so I'm going to use the 15lb lifting goal I mention above. I don't really have an associated weight goal; I'm not sure I need one given that being heavier is not what I'm directly looking to achieve.A secondary goal would be to not exceed 10% body fat, but I should probably just view this as a potential side benefit for now. Will definitely go back and track those down. Even outside of my own goals, nutrition has become a fascinating topic to me.Thank you again guys. I'll admit that it's funny to me that the only post I've made about my progress with all this is on OCR, but given how great this community is, it's not a hard notion to get over.
  2. Heyo, I randomly stumbled upon this thread after being a 9-year OCR lover, and am hoping to join in on the fitness fun. 7 months ago I started working out for the first time in my life, and have been really excited & motivated the entire time to keep it going. Even though I've been at it for over half a year it STILL feels so new to me, so I'd love to get your guys' input on what I've been doing. My regimen is the at-home P90 program. Basically for 6 days per week, you alternate between 1 day of 45 min overall weight training (all muscle groups, dumbells-only), and 1 day 50 min cardio/situps. Continues back and forth, so no particular day is devoted to a muscle group, but you don't work out any muscle groups 2 days in a row (though I do pushups & situps every day). I also walk ~50 minutes per day and jog ~10. My TDEE is apparently ~1800. Over the first 4 months, my macros were 1400-1500 cal, 30 fat, 4 sat. fat, 180 carbs, 110 protein. I cut 20lbs over those 4 months, which was my ultimate goal. In a self-performed body fat test using calipers, I measure about 9% (5mm belly, 6mm pec, 22mm thigh). Since then I've been eating much closer or above maintenance: 2000 cals, 45 fat, 12 sat. fat, 250 carbs, 145 protein. In the 3 months since that increase, I've seen virtually no weight loss/gain. Which I guess makes sense given that I'm eating more, but I would have expected an even bigger increase in weight gain. Maybe my TDEE is just higher than calculators show. So, my questions: - Ultimately, I'm looking to gain muscle. I'll admit that I'm a bit "scared" to eat more to achieve this, given all the work I've put into cutting. Sounds like a stupid question, but I guess the answer is simply to man up and do it, huh? - Visually I see a small amount of muscle increase. However, 1) the change is coming exceedingly slowly, and 2) I don't *feel* much stronger, evidenced by the fact that I have barely increased my weights at all during this time. I usually do 15-20 reps of any given lift, but my capabilities here have never really increased. Should I be aiming to increase my weight regardless, doing fewer reps per exercise? - If caloric deficit is all that matters in weight loss, I'm having difficulty understanding the role of fat, sat. fat, and carbs in weight loss. In my research I've never found a final answer to this. I've only found a few studies which showed that low-medium cal/low carb diets outperformed low cal/low fat diets. - This last page had some discussion about sodium. I understand its impact on water weight, but sodium has close to no longterm effect on weight whatsoever, correct? - The only break I've taken during this time (besides the 1 day per week) is a week in January. Should I be taking extended breaks of no workout whatsoever more often? Say, a week every few months or so? - Does my regimen sound effective? From what I've read it's pretty standard, but it's a fairly outdated approach (2005), and it seems HIIT is becoming the hot ticket these days. Thank you! Catching up with this thread has been enlightening, I've learned a lot of things I wouldn't have expected.
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