4 Weeks to Fit

Workout

* M = Mark (my workout partner)
* D = Darren (me)

Workout

* M = Mark (my workout partner)
* D = Darren (me)

As some of you know, I was a little disappointed with my results from my first 4 week fitness program. I think that part of the problem with my previous program was a little too much recovery time between exercises. Of course, proper recovery time is absolutely necessary with any weight training program, but 7 days is just a little too long in my opinion. On my old program I was doing the following:

Monday: Chest, triceps, shoulders
Wednesday: Legs
Friday: Biceps, Back

I would only workout each muscle group once a week and I don’t think that’s quite enough.

My new program will alternate upper and lower body workouts, like this:

Friday: Upper body (chest, back, biceps, shoulders, triceps)
Monday: Lower body
Wednesday: Upper body
Friday: Lower Body
Monday: Upper Body
Etc…

This still gives me ample recovery time, but gets back to work on each muscle group every 4 or 5 days.

In addition, I have read about the importance of morning cardio from multiple sources. I am now incorporating a 20 to 40 minute ride on my stationary bike first thing in the morning on the days when I am not weight training. So, going forward, this is my new workout schedule:

Friday: Upper body (chest, back, biceps, shoulders, triceps)
Saturday: Free day (no exercise, relaxed diet)
Sunday: 30 minutes on Stationary bike
Monday: Lower body
Tuesday: 30 minutes on Stationary bike
Wednesday: Upper body
Thursday: 30 minutes on Stationary bike
Friday: Lower Body
Saturday: Free Day
Sunday: 30 minutes on Stationary bike
Monday: Upper Body
Etc…

It’s common sense that the increased intensity in weight training and the added cardio workouts will give me better results than what I was doing last month.

As for diet, I’m sticking to the same strategy for the most part. No white carbs, no sugar, beans for carbs on most meals. But, I will incorporate a little bit of healthy carbs into the diet. Some brown rice and whole grains. A very small amount though. The diet will still be very high protein, lots of vegetables, low on carbs, and eating 5 to 6 times a day. 3 full proper meals, 2 supplements (protein shakes and bars), and the occasional snack of almonds, or cottage cheese, or chicken breast. I will also be taking creatine and a multivitamin daily.

Keep a look out for my 60 day photos which I will post in about a month.

From this point forward I am not going to keep daily diet and sleep logs. I will continue to post my workouts though, as I need to track my progress anyway, so why not do so here.

Finally, here’s a link with some great free info:
http://www.fatlosstips.com/

John Stone had this to say about the info found on fatlosstips.com:

Q: You’ve inspired a lot of people, but has anyone inspired you?

Absolutely. I find inspiration in all sorts of places. Most people I’ve come into contact with, either in person or over the Internet, have inspired me in one way or another. Still, I’d have to say that the turning point in my program–the point at which my diet transformed from a means of dropping a few pounds into a complete, permanent lifestyle change–was when I read Anthony Ellis’ “fat loss tips” website. Anthony is an ectomorph (a “hard gainer”), so he is coming from the other side of the weight spectrum, but one of his web sites is loaded with great advice and information for people trying to lose weight. That site really opened my eyes and basically changed everything for me. If you are trying to lose fat, it’s required reading

Today marks the official completion of my “4 weeks to fit”. As promised, here are my before and after pictures side by side:

I accidentally had the camera at a different perspective, so I dropped the images into Photoshop, superimposed my after shot on top of the before shot, and tried my best to scale the image to match the size.

These photos seriously crack me up! Aside from some very subtle changes, I look pretty much exactly the same. I lost almost no fat and I gained almost no muscle. So, I guess that’s what 4 weeks of training will get you with Tim’s program. Not much.

One thing that has been noticeable is an overall improvement in my general health. I have much more energy and in general I just feel great. Before starting the program I used to wake up with a sore back every day, but my back is never sore anymore. Weight training has strengthened my lower back and the pain has completely disappeared. I wasn’t too surprised about this, I always knew that a weak back is a sore back, but what is surprising is that my patellar-femoral pain syndrome in my right knee has gotten considerably better. I actually don’t have any “pain” in my knee, but it makes a horrible crunchy sound when crouching down or walking up stairs. The “crunchiness” has almost disappeared lately. Obviously the new strength in my quadriceps is providing much better support to my knee.

Although I did not gain 34 pounds of muscle, I am a little more fit than before, and my overall health is much better. More importantly, this “experiment” has gotten me into the habit of regular exercise and healthy eating. I did make a little progress in my 4 weeks of training, and based on that progress, I think that 12 or 16 weeks might do the trick. I’m going to look at some different diets and different workout programs though. Certainly this isn’t the end. A lifetime of healthy living lies ahead. I’ll continue posting my progress in monthly pictures.

Sleep

1:30 - 9:00 (7 1/2 hours)

Workout

Darren’s Weight: 192.5
Mark’s Weight: 165

Start Time: 8:15
Finish Time: 9:00

* M = Mark (my workout partner)
* D = Darren (me)

Diet

• 9:35: Optimum Slim with soy milk and blue berries. ½ cup cottage cheese. Multivitamin. (34g)
• 10:30: Skim latte (8g)
• 12:50: tuna steak with pearl onions, 1/2 a chicken breast, frozen veggies, fava beans (~50g)
• 3:50: About 40 almonds (~10g)
• 5:30: Skim latte (~8g)
• 7:25: Chicken breast, frozen veggies, faba beans (~35g)
• 7:30: 1/2 serving of creatine
• 9:10: 1 scoop protein shake (41g)

I recently discovered a website similar to mine, but 10,000 times better. John Stone has been tracking daily logs of his diet and workout for the past 4 years! His site is truly the mother of all fitness blogs. This guy went from fat to fit in about 4 months with a healthy diet and regular exercise. His results are truly inspiring. Check out these amazing photos of his progress.

His daily diet and exercise logs are meticulous!!
And the site is full of quality fitness advice from an expert who has been through it all.

I will be adjusting my diet and workout routines based on the information on John’s site. I’ll post my new plans early next week.

Sleep

4:20 - 10:20 (6 hours)

Workout

Start Time: 10:55
End Time:11:25

Stationary bike for 25 minutes, then exercise ball crunches and leg lifts

Diet

• 11:30: Optimum slim cereal with soy milk and blue berries, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, multivitamin (~34g)
• 11:50: Skim latte (8g)
• 2:45: Chicken breast, frozen veggies, lentils (~40g)
• 4:15: Skim latte (8g)
• 6:50: Tuna steak with roasted pearl onions. (~35g)
• 8:30: Skim latte (8g)
• 10:00: 1 scoop protein shake (41g)

Total protein: 174g

So, it has been 30 days since I officially started the program. How did it go? Well, to be honest, I’m pretty disappointed. I don’t think I have made very much progress at all. I may be a tiny bit slimmer, and slightly more toned, but the results are very minimal. If you check my daily log, you will see that for the most part I was pretty strict with both the diet and the workout.

Here’s what I think are the problems with this plan.

1. You eat too much. I wanted to lose the bit of fat around my mid-section, but I am eating so much (as recommended by Tim for muscle gain) that I didn’t really lose very much of it at all. Unfortunately, I also hardly gained any muscle. I have read that you can either do a program to gain muscle, or you can do a program to lose fat, but you can’t do both at the same time. The two activities are fighting against each other. So it would seem that I was eating just enough to not lose any fat, but not enough to put on any significant muscle.
2. The workouts almost seem too easy. I think that having a whole week before going back to a particular muscle group is too long. It seems to me that having a rest period of 3 days instead of 7 days would be more effective. By the time Monday rolls around and I am back to chest, I feel like I have lost any gains I made. I think that Tim’s original program of two full body workouts twice a week could actually be more effective than the 3 workouts per week that I was doing.

I figure my first couple of workouts were almost like trial runs just to get a feel for my max weights. Although it has been 30 days, I want to put in the full week before I take my after photos. I’ll take them on Saturday morning.

Starting next week, mark and I will put together a new workout program. We may switch to a full body workout twice a week, or we may switch to the Body for Life workout program. As you may have noticed, I started adding a little cardio this week. I plan to do a cardio workout two or three times a week on the days when I am not weight training. I have heard that 20 to 40 minutes of cardio first thing in the morning before breakfast is the best way to cut down that last bit of stubborn fat. So, I am now exercising 5 to 6 days a week.

As for diet, I am definitely going to start cutting back on the calories. I’m really not too concerned with putting on huge amounts of muscle. I just want to be fit (but not scrawny). I also plan to bring in some good carbs. I will still avoid sugary foods and white carbs with a high glycemic index, but incorporating some good carbs like brown rice and whole grains can’t hurt. I suspect that with continued regular exercise and healthy eating I will eventually reach my goal. “4 weeks to fit” just isn’t enough time. I may have to rename the site to “12 weeks to fit.” We’ll see…

UPDATE (June 22, 2007) 

After reading through John Stone’s FAQ, I realized that eating less is probably not a good idea. I think I need to figure out exactly how many calories I should be eating to build muscle. It was all guess work in the first 30 days.

Sleep

1:00am - 9:30am (8 1/2 hours)

Workout

D Weight: 194lbs
M Weight: 165 lbs

Start Time: 11:00am
Finish Time: 11:40am

* M = Mark (my workout partner)
* D = Darren (me)

Diet

• 9:30: Optimum Slim with soy milk and blue berries. ½ cup cottage cheese. Multivitamin. (34g)
• 10:30: 1/2 serving of creatine
• 11:45: 1 scoop protein shake (41g)
• 12:30: 1/2 serving of creatine
• 1:40: chicken breast, frozen veggies, lentils (~35g)
• 3:10: Skim Latte (8g) and 2 lime and white chocolate cookies (not on my diet)
• 6:30: 3 mixed pupusas from Acajutla restaurant (definitely not on my diet) (~15g?)
• 7:30: Skim latte (8g)
• 10:00: 1/2 cup of cottage cheese (16g)

Total protein: 157g

Sleep

1:50 - 9:20 (7 1/2 hours)

Workout

Start Time: 9:30
End Time: 10:25

Stationary bike for 40 minutes, then exercise ball crunches and leg lifts

Diet

• 10:30: Optimum slim cereal with soy milk and blue berries, 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, multivitamin (~34g)
• 1:00: Chicken breast, frozen veggies, lentils (~35g)
• 2:20: 1/2 a protein bar (15g)
• 3:00: Skim latte (~8g)
• 4:30: 1/2 a protein bar (15g)
• 6:45: Tenderloin steak, green bean, and basil stir fry (no rice) (~30g)
• 8:30: 1 italian caccitore sausage (16g of protein, but 32g of fat)
• 8:30: 2 slices of cheddar (~4g?)

Total protein: 157g