Still eating junk, and no more supplements

Although I have switched to leaning phase, I still have the very bad habit of eating unhealthy food. I eat anything and everything. I should be more disciplined but it never seems to happen anyway. Most recently I have eaten at least 3 chicken sandwiches with fries. Add to it 3 more desserts and 2 cokes. And a marathon of greasy indian food such as chicken and egg biriyani and you get a bunch of unnecessary calories. It is not even like I have a sweet tooth or something. I just like to eat what I can get. This does not mean I am not eating anything healthy at all. I do eat cottage cheese 5 times a week and yogurt or oatmeals once in a while. I wonder if I keep eating junk like this then if I will ever be able to acheive 7% body fat. I decided to continue the junk as long as I am losing fat.

One more important change is that I stopped taking supplements of any kind. Yay! That is a big acheivement. No more protien shakes for me. I really question the use of the supplements in helping me gain muscle. I am gaining as much muscle without them as when I was taking the supplements. It feels great to not be forcing chemicals into my body. Eat natural food and be happy. I decided to not take any supplements unless I cannot get anything good to eat.

Filed under: food, junk, supplements

Changes to diet and exercise: January – March 2010

Now that I am in the leaning phase I made some changes to my diet. Instead of force feeding myself with a lot of food every 2 or 3 hours, I relaxed it to “eat when hungry” mode. I don’t force myself to eat every few hours whether I feel hungry or not. I eat when I start feeling a bit hungry. This means I still have to keep food stocked all the time so I can eat at the first indication of hunger. I try and keep each eating session to a modest 400 calories or less so I don’t strain my body into digesting a lot at a time and it also helps me feel hungry in 3 or 4 hours. So far this new regimen is working well. I am slowly reaching my goal of losing 3 lbs of fat in 3 months. Still have to do something about gaining muscle though.

I also switched to a more relaxed 2 workout sessions per week. Each session involves a full body workout with more emphasis on chest and triceps. In general this is what I do

• Day 1: Monday
• Decline Bench Press (Chest and Triceps)
• Squats (Legs)
• Rows (Back and Biceps)
• Dips (Chest and Triceps)

• Day 2: Thursday
  
• Bench Press (Chest and Triceps)
• Deadlifts (Legs and Lower Back)
  
• Pull-ups (Upper Back and Biceps)
• Push-ups (Chest and Triceps)
  

These exercises help me keep the muscle while I am losing fat. Notice that I do not have any shoulder exercises. I sometimes do it on one of the days when I feel like, but I should really add it permanently. Or at least do just Shoulders and Traps on another day.

Filed under: calories, diet, exercises, fat loss, musle gain

Staying with a slower tempo but switching to 3×5

I have been doing all my workouts with a slow tempo for a while now. I like it. It puts more strain on my muscles for longer and I have a lot more control. I don’t lose energy all of a sudden in the middle of a rep especially on my bench press, because it is the most dangerous exercise to do without a spotter. Losing energy in the middle of a rep means you just have to let the barbell drop on your chest and roll it off your stomach. In that process you will most likely hurt your shoulder.

On the other hand doing slow reps means you have to reduce the weight to be able to do the same number of reps and sets as you would do with power lifts. When I first started doing slow reps I wanted to do it for a month or so and go back to power lifts. But once I started doing the slow ones I felt so good about the immense control I am getting and the good form I am able to maintain I decided to go with it as long as I cannot increase my weights for 4 weeks straight. Then I will switch to power lifts again.

Now to fix the problem of not being able to lift the same amount of weights as power lifts I decided to reduce the number of reps per set. Instead of my usual 8 to 10 reps, I switched to 5 reps per set. The total number of sets still remains the same at 3. With this change I am able to continue to increase my lifts slowly. My decline bench press is back to 115 lbs, which is where I was when I did power lifts.

My deadlifts and squats are still a far cry from my power lifts but I am getting there very slowly. I am having a much better form especially with squats, because when I used to do quick lifts I found that I did not go all the way down. So I was actually doing partial squats! No wonder I was able to increase the weight so quickly. I always had good form with dead lift but with the slower tempo my grip is giving away before my legs do. I don’t want to use wrist straps because I want my grip to improves as I increase my weights.

Here are the latest stats on some important exercises

• Squats: 165 lbs (5, 4, 3)
• Deadlift: 175 lbs (5, 5, 5)
• Dips: Body Weight + 15 lbs (5, 5, 4)
• Bench Press: 115 lbs (5, 4, 3)
• Rows: 90 lbs (5, 4, 3)
• Pull-ups: Body Weight (10, 7, 5)
• Push-ups: Body Weight (36, 19, 11)

You will notice that I am not following the slow tempo and low reps for pull-ups and push-ups. For push-ups I want to continue doing fast, max reps for every set. I am hoping to reach my goal of doing 50 push-ups in 1 set. As for pull-ups I will switch over to slow tempo, fewer reps starting from next week. Also I am trying to put more effort on gaining more tricep muscle.

Filed under: 3x5, control, power lift, tempo

The Numbers: January 2010

I was so busy this month that I did not know when the month started and ended! Time just flew. As I mentioned in my previous blog this quarter I am trying to get rid of some of the fat that I gained during my bulking phase from October to December 2009. The goal was to lose 1 lb of fat while gaining 1 lb of muscle during the same time. Basically replace fat with muscle pound per pound.

Here are the raw numbers for the month of January

• Weight: 124.26 lbs
  
• Fat %: 10.99%
• Fat: 13.66 lbs
• Lean mass: 110.60 lbs
• Weight change: -1.34 lbs
• Fat % change: 1.51%
• Fat change: -2.04 lbs
  
• Muscle change: 0.7 lbs

The program did not go as planned. I lost 2 lbs of fat which is great! But on the flip side I was able to gain only 0.7 lbs of muscle instead of the planned 1 lb. The main reason is that I got very busy at work and could not give enough attention to my diet. I ate only when I felt hungry. However I did not miss a single workout during that very busy month.

I have to be more careful from next month. Eat a bit more yet be slightly below my daily calorific requirements so I can continue to lose fat.

Filed under: exercise, fat, lean mass, muscle, numbers, reps, stats, weigh