Lost 18 lbs since last week in Dec (is this bad)

[steppinthrax]

I've been jogging on the treadmill 40 mins each day. I've now increased the speed of the treadmill to 6mph and a 3 % incline (constantlly). I'm going to increase the inlcine even more shortly. I'm doing this every day 7 days a week since the beg of Jan. I've also starting lifting weights. I'm lifing 10 reps of 60 lbs (olympic barbell) 2 times of bicep curls, 10 reps of squats (after the treadmill) and I'm doing sit ups (20 or so) while holding a 40 lb barbel on my chest.

I've reduced my food intake considerbly. I haven't eaten out (mcdonalds, bk, etc..) since last week of december. If i have to eat out I do Subway (flatbread veggy with no cheese, oil and vin). No soda, no candy, very little sugar. fruits and vegs. Also a multi-vit and fish oil.

My question is that I've been feeling better, but I think my exercise routine may be excessive, or lacking some other things. Should I do less treadmill or more weightlifing? So I do like 3 days a week instead etc..???

 

[Pantlegz]

Not really, but it also depends on your starting height/weight. 1-2lbs a week, especially if you have a lot to lose, is pretty common. I think the standard is 1lb/week is optimal for sustained results but that would again depend on you starting weight and how much weight you have to lose. And possibly who you talk to.

 

[steppinthrax]

Not really, but it also depends on your starting height/weight. 1-2lbs a week, especially if you have a lot to lose, is pretty common. I think the standard is 1lb/week is optimal for sustained results but that would again depend on you starting weight and how much weight you have to lose. And possibly who you talk to.

I used to weight around 230. I weight now around 210.

 

[blinky8225]

Track how much weight you're lifting. If you're getting stronger or not losing strength, you're in good shape. If the weight that you can lift goes down, you may want to eat more and take it slow because that may be an indication that you're losing muscle mass.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If you want those 18 pounds back, I have 8 of them here. (CHRISTMAS COOKIES NOM NOM.)

 

[marmasatt]

You are fine. Congratulations actually. What are you trying to accomplish exactly? Do you have a specific goal? You have to remember it's a lifestyle change, however. Yo yo ing up and down is not healthy at all. I don't know your specs, but if you told me you were 180 and you dropped to like 162 or something then I'd be inclined to say, no that is not healthy. By exercising every single day, some may say you are being a bit excessive and I'd say you are prone to over-training. Possibly even overuse injuries. But if you feel good and you are getting results it is due to your discipline. You are doing a great job. Maybe ease up to 5/6 days a week or look to "reward" yourself a bit more if you are feeling this is a bit extreme. Just my .02.

 

[iluvdeal]

If you are doing intense exercise and pushing yourself to the limit every workout, I'd say 7 days a week is too much. And when you overtrain, your body lets you know it.

If your are jogging 7 days a week and feel fine, keep it up. There was a time humans had to be physically active every day in the search for food, so being active everyday is not an abnormal thing for us to do. Sitting down most of the day on the other hand is.

Your workouts are up to you. If you like jogging, stick with it. For weight training I'd recommend at least 2-3 days per week. I'd also look into a more structured weight lifting program to maximize the benefits you get with your time spent lifting.

 

[Miramonti]

Great job. Imo that's excessive, but depends on age etc. If you found you don't need more time to recover, muscles and joints, then go for it. However excessive workouts w/o adequate recovery time can lead to frustrating injuries that could sideline you for a while. Adequate diet plays a part in this as well.

Most impressive in this all is your discipline...outstanding.

 

[HNNstyle]

Weight training can be excessive if you don't give your muscles enough time to rebuild but you can do as much cardio as you want and it actually helps rebuild your muscles by carrying more nutrients to them. The only real thing you have to worry about when doing cardio is injuring yourself. Increasing too much cardio at once will cause knee injuries in runners.


If you want to do more then 40 minutes of cardio during a day then try including breaks in your sessions and increase your routine by about 5-10% per week. Seeing as how you want to increase the incline some more then i suggest increasing it by the smallest amount possible. This isn't an issue of you not being able to workout at that intensity, it's an issue of you injuring something in your legs that would prevent you from doing cardio for the next 3 weeks.


Michael Phelps does cardio/swims twice a day, for 5 hours a day, 7 days a week, and lifts weights 3 times a week.


Edit: Instead of increasing the time length of your cardio routine, you can just do HIIT workouts to get the same effect. It's been said that a 16 minute HIIT workout is equivalent to jogging 40mins at your normal pace. All you have to do is include 40 second sprints inside of your normal 40 min jogging routine. Don't try and sprint 40 times within your 40 second routine, at least not at the beginning. Start off with 4 sprints inside of your normal routine to see how it goes.

Edit2: If you do decide to include sprints inside of your routine, start off at sprinting only at 1 or no incline just to see how it impacts your feet and knees. If something is wrong then you should feel it the next day. Jogging injuries do not start off as painful but they end in pain if you keep doing the routine that's causing the problem. For me, it normally starts off like feeling that you've bumped your knees against something, burns in your feet keeping you from standing or walking, and just anything in general that brings your attention to your legs. Good rule of the thumb is, if you notice your legs then something's wrong.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

HNNstyle, while I appreciate your feedback, what you're saying just isn't correct. You can weight train every day, if you train properly. You can also very easily overtrain doing cardio activity only. Light cardio on "off" days from weight training CAN be useful, but if it's used as a training period, that may damper recovery.

Also, Michael Phelps is far from the average individual. His recovery ability is higher than 99% of the population so the comparison is a bit exaggerated. In addition, he takes time off as well. Keep that in mind.

 

[SearchMaster]

Congrats - that's great progress! Don't expect it to continue at that rate though - 2 months from now you're unlikely to have lost another 18 pounds (possible but not common).

 

[steppinthrax]

Congrats - that's great progress! Don't expect it to continue at that rate though - 2 months from now you're unlikely to have lost another 18 pounds (possible but not common).

I still have a stomach (not as large though). I weight myself recently and see a 2 additional lb loss (20 lbs). How do I continue the loss. Will I have to workout more???? My diet is pretty trained right now...

 

[nitsuj3580]

I still have a stomach (not as large though). I weight myself recently and see a 2 additional lb loss (20 lbs). How do I continue the loss. Will I have to workout more???? My diet is pretty trained right now...

Nice job, man. Funny enough, I was going to post almost the exact same question!

On January 1 of this year I was 6'1", 230 lbs. Today, I am currently 202 lbs. I dropped about 20 lbs in January and about 8 in February. I'm so close to being below 200 for the first time in ~12 years, I can't wait. Goal is to get 185 and see how I look feel.

In my case, I was a fat 230. I went from eating excessively (~40 oz soda/day, candy, junk food all the time). To eating clean (oatmeal, fruits, fish, chicken, tons of veggies), eating a bit over my BMR. I also went from total inactivity to exercising 4-5 days per week in January doing mostly light weights to get my muscles back into the groove and heart monitored cardio on the ellipitcal. For the past 3 weeks, I've been doing the Insanity program and weights have gone up.

I feel amazing. I'm going to go for a physical in a couple weeks (the 'recovery' week in the Insanity program) since I haven't had one in a couple years.

Good luck! Keep it up!

 

[steppinthrax]

Nice job, man. Funny enough, I was going to post almost the exact same question!

On January 1 of this year I was 6'1", 230 lbs. Today, I am currently 202 lbs. I dropped about 20 lbs in January and about 8 in February. I'm so close to being below 200 for the first time in ~12 years, I can't wait. Goal is to get 185 and see how I look feel.

In my case, I was a fat 230. I went from eating excessively (~40 oz soda/day, candy, junk food all the time). To eating clean (oatmeal, fruits, fish, chicken, tons of veggies), eating a bit over my BMR. I also went from total inactivity to exercising 4-5 days per week in January doing mostly light weights to get my muscles back into the groove and heart monitored cardio on the ellipitcal. For the past 3 weeks, I've been doing the Insanity program and weights have gone up.

I feel amazing. I'm going to go for a physical in a couple weeks (the 'recovery' week in the Insanity program) since I haven't had one in a couple years.

Good luck! Keep it up!

Hey, I got the px90 program, but it requires all this equipment that I don't feel like bringing to my living room. I was told insanity requires no equip? Is this ture?

 

[HNNstyle]

HNNstyle, while I appreciate your feedback, what you're saying just isn't correct. You can weight train every day, if you train properly. You can also very easily overtrain doing cardio activity only. Light cardio on "off" days from weight training CAN be useful, but if it's used as a training period, that may damper recovery.

Also, Michael Phelps is far from the average individual. His recovery ability is higher than 99% of the population so the comparison is a bit exaggerated. In addition, he takes time off as well. Keep that in mind.

When you say it's fine to weight train daily, you are talking only about separate muscle groups correct? As in Monday would be chest, Tuesday would be legs, Wednesday would be arms, and so on. I'm assuming it's not possible to weight train the same muscle groups day after day as in doing chest Monday, chest Tuesday, and chest Wednesday. If it is possible, how would one go about training the chest multiple days in a row and what benefit would it have over someone who trains the chest only once per week? I'm just here to learn and reach that ultimate 10% body fat goal.

 

[nitsuj3580]

Hey, I got the px90 program, but it requires all this equipment that I don't feel like bringing to my living room. I was told insanity requires no equip? Is this ture?

Yes, that is true. I decided to do Insanity first since it's pretty much all cardio (there are pushups, burpees, body squats though, but not nearly as many as P90x from my understanding). I'm thinking of going to P90x afterward or do a second round of Insanity if. I'm really loving the interval training style of Insanity. I use a heart rate monitor also to keep myself honest that I'm really pushing.

The only equipment you'll need is a towel to wipe up all the sweat off the floor

 

[iluvdeal]

Hey, I got the px90 program, but it requires all this equipment that I don't feel like bringing to my living room. I was told insanity requires no equip? Is this ture?

It's true but Insanity is pretty much all cardio as nitsuj3580 said. I think p90x is a better designed and more well rounded fitness program than Insanity since it incorporates weight training, cardio, and stretching/yoga. Insanity is definitely more intense though.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

When you say it's fine to weight train daily, you are talking only about separate muscle groups correct? As in Monday would be chest, Tuesday would be legs, Wednesday would be arms, and so on. I'm assuming it's not possible to weight train the same muscle groups day after day as in doing chest Monday, chest Tuesday, and chest Wednesday. If it is possible, how would one go about training the chest multiple days in a row and what benefit would it have over someone who trains the chest only once per week? I'm just here to learn and reach that ultimate 10% body fat goal.

Nope, I'm talking about weight training the same muscle groups every day. Olympic weightlifters typically train 5-6 days per week, sometimes multiple times per day with pretty heavy weights. Their bodies adapt.

Overall, it's not advised because people don't know how to self-check. It would be silly to do heavy squatting and deadlifting on back-to-back days, but if one was heavy and one was lighter, then that could be ok. I don't typically suggest doing that, but the human body can tolerate it if you take good care of yourself. It has the benefit of increased neural gains, but also increased hypertrophy stimulus. Granted, you have to recover appropriately so at least one day off in between working a given body part is recommended. You can use weight training AS recovery though if your lifts indirectly address the recovering part.

 

[nitsuj3580]

It's true but Insanity is pretty much all cardio as nitsuj3580 said. I think p90x is a better designed and more well rounded fitness program than Insanity since it incorporates weight training, cardio, and stretching/yoga. Insanity is definitely more intense though.

Agreed, to round out my workout, in addition to Insanity, I lift 3 days/week and instead of the Cardio Recovery video in Insanity, I attend a Bikram Yoga class on those days.

 

[ringtail]

"(is this bad)"

"where you end up usually depends on where you start..."
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