KartMan

Slim,

I was never very athletic – I always let my weight get in the way. Since losing weight over the last year or so I have gotten extremely active. I truly love it. I’m not the fastest runner, nor do I lift the heaviest weights, but I enjoy everything I do now. I don’t really have aspirations of finishing on any podiums, but I am convinced I will at least finish in the middle of my age group for everything I attempt.

Good luck to you and feel free to ask any questions, I’m happy to help if I can.

Thanks MrRiceGuy!!!

I posted an answer to you on my message page, hope it helps.

Sure, but it’s nothing fancy. I have reached my weight goal and am now zeroing in on Body Fat (my current goal is 13%). I don’t really want to lose any more weight, so I do almost no cardio – if I do, it is only 10-20 minutes on an elliptical machine just to warm up. I try to do weight training 3-5 days a week, usually working 2 body areas at a time and alternating those on different days. For example I might do Abs and arms today, then back and legs tomorrow. I usually do 3 sets of 15 reps of each exercise and do 4-5 different machines per area I am working on. Probably 80% of my work is on machines, very little free weights. Depending on pace, this usually equates to about 50-75 minutes in the gym. I start out every workout with a PowerBar and a glutamine vitamin, and finish every workout with a 25g protein shot and a glutamine vitamin.

Thanks Keith, and congrats to you on the 100# mark – that is a huge milestone. I think the weight training and protein have been key in getting the BF where I want it. I am about due to get tested again and think I am closer to 13% now. Can you believe it? Me at 13% BF, I still think it’s unbelievable. Truth be told though, some people are saying I look a little too skinny – which is sort of true. I haven’t been able to tone up all of my muscles fast enough. So while it’s true I have very little fat left, I still have quite a bit of work to do on the muscles. It’s all good though, I love going to the gym now.

I think weight loss really is as simple as calories in versus calories out. The trick is really counting calories (you must be honest here) to find out what you are consuming then cutting back on a daily basis until you reach an amount that causes you to lose weight. For me (I am a 43 year old, 6’ tall male) that number is 1200-1500 calories on non workout days and 1500-1800 calories on workout days. If I stay under that amount, the pounds just melt away. Now that I am below goal, I shoot for about 1500-2000 calories a day to maintain my weight.

I do sort of eat 4 meals a day on workout days. On those days, I eat a Power Bar that has 240 calories before the workout and I have a 100 calorie Protein Shot after the workout. I have not eaten anything like lean cuisine or other “diet” foods since banding. My philosophy is that if I’m only going to eat a small amount, it might as well be full flavored. I eat mostly protein, with a small amount of fat, carb, and vegetable. At the end of the day, I might have some popcorn as a snack food. I try not to drink shakes unless I am in a hurry as they don’t tend to keep me full between meals.

I tend to focus more of my time on weight training rather than cardio. I am where I want to be with body weight, but want to build muscle mass and the way to do that is thru resistance training. I usually only do 10-20 minutes of cardio at the start of my workout, then about 60 minutes of weights, I do this about 4-5 days a week. At least one day out of the week, I do just cardio – spin class, bike riding, swimming, group class, etc.

2Fly, I?m not an expert so take my advice as opinion rather than fact. The way I understand it, weight training is anaerobic and cardio (elliptical, stairs, etc) is aerobic. You can?t replace one for the other, they both have different values to you. So while you are waiting for your stitches you will miss out on the anaerobic and have to focus solely on the aerobic (although I would think you could do some isolated arm bicep/triceps work). As for the intensity of the aerobic as a replacement for time, it sounds reasonable but I just don?t know for sure.

Thanks Dee,

I have been lucky, good restriction and no complications. The hard work in the gym is helping too.

Good luck on your journey,

KatMan

Thanks Bea!

The band has been good to me

You look as though you have been doing great too. I love the before and after jeans picture.

Thanks gitrdone,

Here’s to success in your goals too!