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[LaneDS]

Nice going Steve! I hope to be able to say some of the same things when I'm 51. You've got a lot of good years ahead of you still so I'm sure you'll keep knocking out these types of goals!

I've nearly completed a full round of Insanity Max 30 with each workout being somewhere between the modified and non-modified workout, depending on the moves. Haven't lost any weight in nearly two months which is really frustrating, but have noticeably put on a lot of muscle and slimmed out some. I'm around 215 lb which is just too heavy for 5'8" so I think I'm going to change gears to something else once the 8 weeks are completed (next week). End of year goal is sub-180 which at this rate seems really far off. Diet has been on point as well. Frustrating!

 

[Ixian]

I've nearly completed a full round of Insanity Max 30 with each workout being somewhere between the modified and non-modified workout, depending on the moves. Haven't lost any weight in nearly two months which is really frustrating, but have noticeably put on a lot of muscle and slimmed out some. I'm around 215 lb which is just too heavy for 5'8" so I think I'm going to change gears to something else once the 8 weeks are completed (next week). End of year goal is sub-180 which at this rate seems really far off. Diet has been on point as well. Frustrating!

Good to see you still kicking around Lane! (I used to go by nekura on these boards.) Can you give me a breakdown of your diet? FWIW, I'm also 5'8 and I remember being real jealous of your body composition after you completed one of the BB programs a couple of years back. As for me, I'm just doing barbell training three times a week and doing some light walking each day, I've dropped from 180 to 169 since early January. I'm purposely going for around 1 lb/week to help mitigate loose skin issues and to ensure I have the energy for my lifting. I'd be happy to offer any advice I can. The important thing to remember is that diet is everything.

 

[ryan299]

I have 3 weeks of x3 left and really haven't seen many changes. Certainly no where near the level of the examples they share. It's discouraging lol

 

[LaneDS]

Good to see you still kicking around Lane! (I used to go by nekura on these boards.) Can you give me a breakdown of your diet? FWIW, I'm also 5'8 and I remember being real jealous of your body composition after you completed one of the BB programs a couple of years back. As for me, I'm just doing barbell training three times a week and doing some light walking each day, I've dropped from 180 to 169 since early January. I'm purposely going for around 1 lb/week to help mitigate loose skin issues and to ensure I have the energy for my lifting. I'd be happy to offer any advice I can. The important thing to remember is that diet is everything.

Hey man! Great job on that scale... 169 or anything really sub 180 would be a dream for me. In fact, that's my goal by year's end... anything below 180.

My body composition is... frustrating, to use that term again, for me. I'm stocky and I put on muscle quickly, but it sure feels like my body is clinging to fat too. Granted, that's a super non-scientific view of my problem as I don't have all the numbers and stats to say if that's actually the case. I know I'm stronger and less fat than I was at the start of the year (a real low point) but the scale remains unmoved. My diet before I started mid-January was horrible... lots of meals out, lots of pizza/burgers/ice cream/you name it. And I hadn't exercised since last summer, at all. So to go from that to being very strict about exercise and diet again and not see that scale budge is not great.

Typical day of eating:
Quest bar for breakfast with water/coffee w/ skim milk and Splenda/or maybe a Diet Soda
Lunch is now salads, but it was a turkey or tuna sandwich (thin slices of bread, I think 16g of carbs for two slices), a bag of raw snow peas and an apple.
Afternoon snack was a second Quest Bar, around 4 or so
Dinner is something healthy, low on carbs, high in protein.
Post workout I do 16 oz of skim milk + two scoops of protein powder, some BCAA supplements and a scoop of glutamine for recovery.

Occasionally I can add an apple or one of those thin slices of bread with some peanut butter, but that's not a daily thing.

Given working out five or six days a week, combined with that diet against where I was at... I'm kind of wondering what the deal is. It *could* be that I'm putting on so much muscle (it feels like it even if it doesn't look like it) but I also think that might just be me being optimistic. Or maybe IM30 (modified!) just isn't as good for the results I want as I was hoping for, that's possible too.

What are you doing for routines and eating these days? I've still got access to my free weights and a pull up bar, so switching to something more lifting focus is definitely possible. Also trying to work in running 2-3 times this week in addition to the IM30 workouts.

 

[SteveMeister]

Nice going Steve! I hope to be able to say some of the same things when I'm 51. You've got a lot of good years ahead of you still so I'm sure you'll keep knocking out these types of goals!

Thanks! Next up is 2nd degree black belt; that'll take another 2 years or so. At that point (in my school anyway) I'll be studying more weapon types (Naginata is first up) and refining techniques in Japanese and Chinese sword styles. I'm thinking of branching out into an empty hand discipline as well, but not right away. Never thought I'd get into martial arts -- better late than never!

I have 3 weeks of x3 left and really haven't seen many changes. Certainly no where near the level of the examples they share. It's discouraging lol

So I've mentioned this before, but I think that the 30 minute (or less) workouts simply are not all that effective if it's all you're doing. Yeah, you need to focus on diet, and following Beachbody's meal plans is an excellent way to do that, but I think that at the end of the day 22-30 minutes simply isn't enough, even if those workouts are intense.

I feel like I got a lot more out of Hammer & Chisel than T25, P90X3, or Insanity Max 30. Most of the workouts are around 40 minutes; some go longer, some shorter, and there are often additional 10-15 minute workouts you add on for certain days. They're not as padded with rests as something like Body Beast, either.

I think that adding a weight lifting program to Insanity Max: 30 or T25 is a good way to go. With P90X3 I'd add in a 15-20 minute cardio or calesthenics routine.

Either way, diet is crucial. If you're doing a Beachbody program and not reaching your weight loss/fat loss goals, look up the meal plan and try to follow it. Many of the newer workouts are making use of the color-coded plastic containers introduced in 21 Day Fix, and they make it pretty easy to figure out portion sizes.

 

[Ixian]

My body composition is... frustrating, to use that term again, for me. I'm stocky and I put on muscle quickly, but it sure feels like my body is clinging to fat too. Granted, that's a super non-scientific view of my problem as I don't have all the numbers and stats to say if that's actually the case. I know I'm stronger and less fat than I was at the start of the year (a real low point) but the scale remains unmoved.

To be blunt, I think you are being optimistic, but it's still good that you are seeing some changes. While body composition changes can definitely mask fat loss, not seeing any changes on the scale for two months is crazy -- possible, but rare.

My suggestions to you would be:
- Make an effort to be more accurate in tracking what you're eating. Enter everything into MyFitnessPal, at least for a few weeks. Buy a food scale and actually measure things out. It's very easy to eat too much when you don't know how much you're actually putting in your mouth, conversely, it's also possible you're eating too little. It's hard to draw a conclusion either way without the data, though.
- Track body measurements in addition to weight. Buy something like Orbitape and measure yourself weekly using this image as reference and log it in a spreadsheet. This helps track fat loss when the scale number isn't changing. It's also helpful to take pictures every two weeks to one month.

I also like this spreadsheet for tracking weight loss. Because of all of the ways that weight can fluctuate, it's helpful to have a long term view of things along with the trend line.

Personally, I'm eating around 1500 calories a day, but I'm following the LeanGains-style of eating more carbs/calories on my lifting days and more fats/less calories on my rest days. Over the course of a week it averages out to about 1500 calories a day. It's not necessary to do that kind of split, but I feel more satisfied doing so.

As far as my actual lifting routine, I'm just doing Stronglifts 5x5. Takes about an hour a day, three days a week and hits all of the important muscle groups.

 

[LaneDS]

To be blunt, I think you are being optimistic, but it's still good that you are seeing some changes. While body composition changes can definitely mask fat loss, not seeing any changes on the scale for two months is crazy -- possible, but rare.

My suggestions to you would be:
- Make an effort to be more accurate in tracking what you're eating. Enter everything into MyFitnessPal, at least for a few weeks. Buy a food scale and actually measure things out. It's very easy to eat too much when you don't know how much you're actually putting in your mouth, conversely, it's also possible you're eating too little. It's hard to draw a conclusion either way without the data, though.
- Track body measurements in addition to weight. Buy something like Orbitape and measure yourself weekly using this image as reference and log it in a spreadsheet. This helps track fat loss when the scale number isn't changing. It's also helpful to take pictures every two weeks to one month.

I also like this spreadsheet for tracking weight loss. Because of all of the ways that weight can fluctuate, it's helpful to have a long term view of things along with the trend line.

Personally, I'm eating around 1500 calories a day, but I'm following the LeanGains-style of eating more carbs/calories on my lifting days and more fats/less calories on my rest days. Over the course of a week it averages out to about 1500 calories a day. It's not necessary to do that kind of split, but I feel more satisfied doing so.

As far as my actual lifting routine, I'm just doing Stronglifts 5x5. Takes about an hour a day, three days a week and hits all of the important muscle groups.

That spreadsheet looks incredible! Will try to get into using that. Will also start tracking calories, something I've never done in the past (usually shifting my diet from complete shit to relatively focused, plus exercise, has been enough to get decent results). I believe I have a similar measurement device but haven't ever really used it (not knowing how or where is a big part of that, which your image seems to address) so I'll see if I can dig that up too.

I'm confident in my "I have put on considerable muscle" bit at least, since my body simply feels totally different than it did at the start of the year. If I flex, for example, my torso is rock solid and that's also particularly true of my quads (hello Insanity) and triceps which always seem to get good results. Clothes fit much better too. Just puzzled at the scale but going to definitely take all your good advice and try to incorporate as much of that as I can.

Always good to have this kind of discussion in here, and glad to see familiar (and new) folks posting in here. Maybe as the winter thaws it'll get more active again?

 

[SteveMeister]

Speaking of short workouts, Beachbody just released Tony Horton's newest workout, 22 Minute Hard Corps, a military boot-camp style workout program. Each workout is 22 minutes, although there are some days where you do a 10 or 12 minute core workout in addition to the scheduled workout. As you progress, the workouts get increasingly more challenging, and at the end there's a "Hell Week" challenge where you do two 22 minute workouts per day, and 3 days out of the week you also do the 12 minute core workout.

Here's the purchase link for the base edition, which is $39.90, And here's the preview video.

 

[SteveMeister]

Today Beast Cardio & Abs were on the schedule but I thought I'd give 22 Minute Hard Corps a try. I did the 12 minute Cold Start workout, which actually was a decent workout in itself, then Cardio 1, a 22 minute cardio/calisthenics workout, and Core 1, an 11 minute ab/core workout.

I enjoyed them -- not super hard, although there are a lot of burpees in Cardio 1 and that can really get you winded. Definitely a challenge to keep up. I do think the 22 minutes is too short, but combining with the Cold Start & Core brings it up to a more reasonable level of effort.

I'll probably continue replacing the Beast Cardio & Abs workouts with these, and possibly rotate one in on rest days.

 

[obijkenobi]

The 22 minute time frame actually sounds kinf of perfect for me since I have been sneaking in yoga aftet my morning workouts if I have the time

 

[Pyrokai]

Glad to see this topic return to life a little bit!

Not sure how I feel about Tony with a beard.......ha.


Anyone try Hammer & Chisel? Really intrigued by it but still unsure how it is.

 

[BeautifulMemory]

I agree longer workouts are more effective but at the same time Insanity Max 30 kicks my ass

 

[SteveMeister]

Glad to see this topic return to life a little bit!

Not sure how I feel about Tony with a beard.......ha.


Anyone try Hammer & Chisel? Really intrigued by it but still unsure how it is.

I finished it a couple weeks ago. I think it's excellent, although there are a couple workouts that have some dangerous moves. I'm going to do a second round after Body Beast.

 

[Pyrokai]

Cool, I might have to check it out. Curious as to which moves are dangerous, haha.

Trying now to decide which routine I should do to do some "cutting". I'm pretty much debating between P90X and P90X3.....

Maybe I'll just go through each one! I have P90X2 as well and I've NEVER done it : o

Edit:

Gonna try a high protein / low carb diet with some fat. I'm thinking either a 40/30/30 macro split at a caloric deficit? Or maybe I should do 50/25/25?? Keeping the carbs complex and fats healthy, of course.

 

[SteveMeister]

A couple of the routines in Hammer & Chisel have you stepping up onto and down from your weight bench. Depending on the height of your bench relative to the length of your legs, it can be easy to trip or slip & fall. Also, some of these moves are lateral/sideways and done while holding weights. Very easy to roll an ankle. I saw a video of a woman who did that, and man, the loud "pop" when she rolled it was kinda sickening. She was lucky it only ended up being a sprain,

My bench is very tall, so I ended up using an adjustable step riser I bought when Les Mills Pump was one sale cheap a couple years ago, for moves like that.

 

[God Enel]

hey guys, it's not directly beachbody related but does anyone know a home program (like p90x and stuff) but just focusing on yoga?

So in the morning I'd like to do a yoga workout about an 30minutes/hour in length.


Would love to hear some recommendations if possible

EDIT: NOT DDP-Yoga. Something else, maybe more advanced if possible.

 

[Sora_N]

hey guys, it's not directly beachbody related but does anyone know a home program (like p90x and stuff) but just focusing on yoga?

So in the morning I'd like to do a yoga workout about an 30minutes/hour in length.


Would love to hear some recommendations if possible

I was thinking of looking for something like that too.

 

[Gintamen]

I have one at home, but can't remember the name right now. Will be home in six hrs to look it up.

edit: Yoga Journal - Complete Home Practice , those are 8 different videos

 

[Pyrokai]

hey guys, it's not directly beachbody related but does anyone know a home program (like p90x and stuff) but just focusing on yoga?

So in the morning I'd like to do a yoga workout about an 30minutes/hour in length.


Would love to hear some recommendations if possible

EDIT: NOT DDP-Yoga. Something else, maybe more advanced if possible.

You should look into PiYo from Beachbody. My sister has done it multiple times and seems to LOVE it. It's like a mix of Pilates and Yoga.

 

[Sora_N]

You should look into PiYo from Beachbody. My sister has done it multiple times and seems to LOVE it. It's like a mix of Pilates and Yoga.

Awesome I may try that later! Thanks.

 

[LaneDS]

After two months of IM30 I switched back to P90X this week and my muscles are really feeling it two days after chest & back. Ran 5 miles yesterday instead of plyo, but I will probably sub in IM30 workouts here and there and maybe even run some kind of hybrid between P90X and IM30.

Liked the IM30 moves but it got a little tedious and hard to start up with after weeks of the same stuff. Also didn't get to do most of the jumping moves due to condo living (still!) so I'm sure that has something to do with me being disappointed in the program. Looking forward to trying it one day where I can really go all out with the moves, although the modified stuff was still quite tough a lot of the time. Just didn't see the weight coming off in the way I hoped for, so back to lifting weights and running (tried and true).

 

[SteveMeister]

On Monday I suspended my Body Beast schedule and started a three program hybrid. Each week I'll do the next week of each program in turn.
This week is week 1 of 22 Minute Hard Corps, which is good especially if you do the 12 minute "cold start" routine, which is a nice short workout itself.
Next week will be week 1 of Hammer and Chisel.
After that I'll be continuing Body Beast, starting at week 4, the first week of the Bulk phase.
Then it'll be week 2 of 22 Minute Hard Corps, and so on.
Should be interesting! Beachbody On Demand really makes this sort of thing easy.

 

[SquashMatch]

Hey man! Great job on that scale... 169 or anything really sub 180 would be a dream for me. In fact, that's my goal by year's end... anything below 180.

My body composition is... frustrating, to use that term again, for me. I'm stocky and I put on muscle quickly, but it sure feels like my body is clinging to fat too. Granted, that's a super non-scientific view of my problem as I don't have all the numbers and stats to say if that's actually the case. I know I'm stronger and less fat than I was at the start of the year (a real low point) but the scale remains unmoved. My diet before I started mid-January was horrible... lots of meals out, lots of pizza/burgers/ice cream/you name it. And I hadn't exercised since last summer, at all. So to go from that to being very strict about exercise and diet again and not see that scale budge is not great.

Typical day of eating:
Quest bar for breakfast with water/coffee w/ skim milk and Splenda/or maybe a Diet Soda
Lunch is now salads, but it was a turkey or tuna sandwich (thin slices of bread, I think 16g of carbs for two slices), a bag of raw snow peas and an apple.
Afternoon snack was a second Quest Bar, around 4 or so
Dinner is something healthy, low on carbs, high in protein.
Post workout I do 16 oz of skim milk + two scoops of protein powder, some BCAA supplements and a scoop of glutamine for recovery.

Occasionally I can add an apple or one of those thin slices of bread with some peanut butter, but that's not a daily thing.

Given working out five or six days a week, combined with that diet against where I was at... I'm kind of wondering what the deal is. It *could* be that I'm putting on so much muscle (it feels like it even if it doesn't look like it) but I also think that might just be me being optimistic. Or maybe IM30 (modified!) just isn't as good for the results I want as I was hoping for, that's possible too.

What are you doing for routines and eating these days? I've still got access to my free weights and a pull up bar, so switching to something more lifting focus is definitely possible. Also trying to work in running 2-3 times this week in addition to the IM30 workouts.

Not sure if you will see this but I may be able to help you a bit. Your body composition sounds EXACTLY like mine. I can pack on muscle but fat, especially around the belly, is slow to come off. I was 5'8 216 when I started T25 last year and while I gained strength and definition the weight was hardly dropping at all.

The key is to cut your carb consumption as much as humanly possible. I will tell you right now it will show in your workouts, you will get gassed more quickly and won't have that extra bit of juice for your heavy lifts. It sucks and makes you feel like your dogging it but you will change your body composition.

I would suggest also looking into more whole foods, Quest bars are great for most people but I don't react well at all to sugar alcohols and other similar ingredients, I started eating more jerky ot nitrate free lunch meat and avocado wraps for protein.

Also some body types react terribly to diet soda. Mine being one of them, I dropped weight once I dropped it from my diet.

In summary, get rid of the processed bars, try to get as many carbs as possible from fruit and veggies instead of bread, and try to eat as much whole foods as possible.

I find if I keep my carbs to around 75g a day I will drop weight, less carbs in non training days, around 40g. For my body it is what I have to do to lose weight!!

 

[LaneDS]

Not sure if you will see this but I may be able to help you a bit. Your body composition sounds EXACTLY like mine. I can pack on muscle but fat, especially around the belly, is slow to come off. I was 5'8 216 when I started T25 last year and while I gained strength and definition the weight was hardly dropping at all.

The key is to cut your carb consumption as much as humanly possible. I will tell you right now it will show in your workouts, you will get gassed more quickly and won't have that extra bit of juice for your heavy lifts. It sucks and makes you feel like your dogging it but you will change your body composition.

I would suggest also looking into more whole foods, Quest bars are great for most people but I don't react well at all to sugar alcohols and other similar ingredients, I started eating more jerky ot nitrate free lunch meat and avocado wraps for protein.

Also some body types react terribly to diet soda. Mine being one of them, I dropped weight once I dropped it from my diet.

In summary, get rid of the processed bars, try to get as many carbs as possible from fruit and veggies instead of bread, and try to eat as much whole foods as possible.

I find if I keep my carbs to around 75g a day I will drop weight, less carbs in non training days, around 40g. For my body it is what I have to do to lose weight!!

Thanks for this reply! I'm going to try and incorporate as much of what you suggested into my routine for a month or so and see what kind of results I get.

Things I'll try:
-cutting diet soda. This might be the hardest thing for me. I drink a lot of it, and have for a long time, and it'll be difficult. Have been drinking more water, and my body is grateful for it with all the exercise I've been going through but I know dropping diet soda is the way to go. Maybe even limiting it to one a day would show improvement. Related thought... when I have coffee, I usually put skim milk and a Splenda packet in, and I assume that kind of sweetener probably falls under the same category of shit I should cut out. Need good coffee I can drink black! The stuff at work is some horrid K-Cups stuff.
-tracking carbs. Will try to keep them to under 75g. This'll take some thinking and some work, but I think I can do it.

When you took these things into account, how successful were you with what I assume were your weight loss goals?

Either way, appreciate the response!

Completed a week of modified P90X1 yesterday (ran on the plyo and yoga days, but might do yoga tonight instead of running another 5 miles) and legs & back destroyed me, same as ever. That workout is king. My pull-up and chin-up numbers, even using the pull-up assist band, are down quite a bit from last year when I was actively working out with P90X which is to be expected, but it's fun to work back up towards that. Probably going to do weeks of P90X and weeks of Insanity Max 30 semi-randomly to keep from getting bored of the workouts, with running thrown in sometimes as well.

 

[Ixian]

...

I only drink K-Cup coffee; I started off drinking it black so I'm kind of used to it but if you can't adjust to it over time I'd recommend trying lighter roasts. I like Starbucks Veranda Blonde but it can be pricey.

 

[LaneDS]

I only drink K-Cup coffee; I started off drinking it black so I'm kind of used to it but if you can't adjust to it over time I'd recommend trying lighter roasts. I like Starbucks Veranda Blonde but it can be pricey.

I think it has more to do with the machine used here at work, and a billion types of K-cups getting run through it. I use one at home and it's fine, but every one I've tried here so far needs creamer/sweetener or SOMETHING. It's way yick.

Related thought- thoughts on stevia? I like me some Splenda, but stevia ia supposed to be better for you despite kinda tasting gross.

 

[SquashMatch]

Thanks for this reply! I'm going to try and incorporate as much of what you suggested into my routine for a month or so and see what kind of results I get.

Things I'll try:
-cutting diet soda. This might be the hardest thing for me. I drink a lot of it, and have for a long time, and it'll be difficult. Have been drinking more water, and my body is grateful for it with all the exercise I've been going through but I know dropping diet soda is the way to go. Maybe even limiting it to one a day would show improvement. Related thought... when I have coffee, I usually put skim milk and a Splenda packet in, and I assume that kind of sweetener probably falls under the same category of shit I should cut out. Need good coffee I can drink black! The stuff at work is some horrid K-Cups stuff.
-tracking carbs. Will try to keep them to under 75g. This'll take some thinking and some work, but I think I can do it.

When you took these things into account, how successful were you with what I assume were your weight loss goals?

Either way, appreciate the response!

Completed a week of modified P90X1 yesterday (ran on the plyo and yoga days, but might do yoga tonight instead of running another 5 miles) and legs & back destroyed me, same as ever. That workout is king. My pull-up and chin-up numbers, even using the pull-up assist band, are down quite a bit from last year when I was actively working out with P90X which is to be expected, but it's fun to work back up towards that. Probably going to do weeks of P90X and weeks of Insanity Max 30 semi-randomly to keep from getting bored of the workouts, with running thrown in sometimes as well.

I went from 216 to about 185 in a few months. I moved into a new home, got out of my routine, and gained some weight back but Im back at it again and hope to hit my original goal of 170 lbs. Some people can just count purely calories and be fine but as I said before I have to eat more whole foods, less processed stuff, and really zero in on lowering carbs to get the results.

If this is all too much try one thing at a time and see how your body adjusts.....I can almost guarantee you that eliminating diet soda and drinking green tea or taking green tea pills for caffeine fix will make a difference. Looking at your post again there are some people that struggle to lose weight when consuming too much dairy and you are putting a lot of milk in your protein shake, I would only try that as a last resort though.

 

[LaneDS]

I went from 216 to about 185 in a few months. I moved into a new home, got out of my routine, and gained some weight back but Im back at it again and hope to hit my original goal of 170 lbs. Some people can just count purely calories and be fine but as I said before I have to eat more whole foods, less processed stuff, and really zero in on lowering carbs to get the results.

If this is all too much try one thing at a time and see how your body adjusts.....I can almost guarantee you that eliminating diet soda and drinking green tea or taking green tea pills for caffeine fix will make a difference. Looking at your post again there are some people that struggle to lose weight when consuming too much dairy and you are putting a lot of milk in your protein shake, I would only try that as a last resort though.

Nice progress and good luck on that goal. My goal, end of the year, is sub 180 but it is clearly going to take something more (like what you described) to make it happen.

I might take my 16 oz of skim and do 8 oz skim, 8 oz water. Starting next week I'll try the no diet soda/artificial sweeteners (need to find good coffee I can drink black before then), and I'll get green tea extract (any recommendations on a brand from folks reading this would be great) to give me my caffeine.

Gotta figure out an easy breakfast replacement for the Quest Bars... been so reliant on them for years.

 

[Ixian]

Nice progress and good luck on that goal. My goal, end of the year, is sub 180 but it is clearly going to take something more (like what you described) to make it happen.

I might take my 16 oz of skim and do 8 oz skim, 8 oz water. Starting next week I'll try the no diet soda/artificial sweeteners (need to find good coffee I can drink black before then), and I'll get green tea extract (any recommendations on a brand from folks reading this would be great) to give me my caffeine.

Gotta figure out an easy breakfast replacement for the Quest Bars... been so reliant on them for years.

You could try going without breakfast. Take a couple of weeks to adjust but I really enjoy having two bigger meals versus three.

Have you tried using almond milk for your protein shakes? Also good for your coffee too.

Lastly, I know we've talked about it before but have you earnestly been tracking your food? It's important to make sure that aspect of your diet is dialed in before you start making other changes.

 

[SteveMeister]

Pulled a shoulder muscle a couple weeks ago, so I did a week of CIZE to recover, then it was back to Body Beast last week. This week is week 2 of 22 Minute Hard Corps. This program is legit. On Resistance days I do the Cold Start first, which is a great warmup and it a bad workout itself. On Cardio days I follow up with one of the Core workouts, which are 10-15 minutes.

 

[sp3ctr3]

Help! I need help/advice.

I've been punishing my body since xmas and it's soon warm enough for beach and bare skin and it's freaking me out.

There's no shortcuts, I know that, but I do recall how fast it went when I did P90X a couple of years ago.

I've been doing home dumbbell workouts for about a month now and while I can see my muscles swelling I don't see myself burning any fat. I thought about power walking to get into that fat burning zone but it's boring, the weather is shit here and I want something more active and fun, so I remembered that you can do lean versions of P90 programs.

Basic numbers:
height 180cm ~5ft11
weight 85kg ~187lbs
bodyfat 26% (guesstimate)

I want to shed atleast 10% body fat ~8kg?

I'm thinking about doing P90X3 lean while I cut back a little on my regular workout. Yay or nay? I mean would it work?

Run the P90X3 lean program and do weights mon,tue,thur,fri alongside. My program is fairly fast. My weight program would look like this:
mon: chest + tricep
tue: legs
thur: back + bicep
fri: shoulder + neck

each weight workout is about 20mins. Would it be too much? My plan is to do P90X3 in the morning and weights in the evening.

Also, is the P90X3 workouts 30mins flat, start to finish, or does Tony add on Ab ripper + warmup/cooldown at the end?

 

[SteveMeister]

In the lean schedule for P90X3, the entire workout is 30 minutes including cooldown. There is an optional 12 minute "cold start" warmup routine you can do before if you need to.

But it sounds like what you really want is to cut, and cutting is primarily accomplished through diet. You need to make your body burn your stored fat, and unless you're running daily 10k's it's going to be hard to do with exercise alone.

My advice would be to change your workout so you're doing higher reps with lower weights, and to adjust your diet. You want to go VERY low carb, and if you're doing a lot of extra cardio you're going to end up eating too much. The high rep/low weight will maintain your current muscle growth. You want to basically eliminate all extra carbs -- bread, rice, pasta, potatoes and obviously sodas & fruit juice. Change the fruits you eat -- ditch the apples, oranges and bananas in favor of blackberries, raspberries & blueberries. Eat as many vegetables as you can stand -- broccoli, kale, spinach, etc. The more colorful the better. And eat lean meat. Skinless chicken & turkey. Lean beef & pork.

If you can limit your carbs to ~75g per day you'll burn fat pretty quickly, and your modified workout will keep your muscle size up.

 

[Shabadoo69]

Awesome I didn't know this thread existed. My wife and I got serious about losing weight again. We just finished T25 beta and our in our 3rd week of Gamma. We actually have been doing T25 in the morning and Max 30 at night. I started at about 205 and I'm down to about 185. I want to lose another 10 pounds or so. It just hard because I carry all my weight right in my gut so its hard to see any progress. My wife has lost like 15 pounds and almost has a six pack now which is awesome but makes me jealous. I've been pretty good about my diet high protein low carbs. No soda and I try to cut back on the booze. That's the hardest part for me.

 

[LaneDS]

Awesome I didn't know this thread existed. My wife and I got serious about losing weight again. We just finished T25 beta and our in our 3rd week of Gamma. We actually have been doing T25 in the morning and Max 30 at night. I started at about 205 and I'm down to about 185. I want to lose another 10 pounds or so. It just hard because I carry all my weight right in my gut so its hard to see any progress. My wife has lost like 15 pounds and almost has a six pack now which is awesome but makes me jealous. I've been pretty good about my diet high protein low carbs. No soda and I try to cut back on the booze. That's the hardest part for me.

Nice, welcome!

How long was your shift from 205 to 185 and how tall are you?

 

[Shabadoo69]

Nice, welcome!

How long was your shift from 205 to 185 and how tall are you?

We started Feb 2. So almost exactly 3 months. I'm 5'10''

 

[LaneDS]

We started Feb 2. So almost exactly 3 months. I'm 5'10''

That is great progress then!

 

[Ixian]

Currently at the lowest weight of my adult life: 157.6 at 5'8. My previous lowest was 159~ in 2014. Still feels a bit unreal even now, but when it happened this morning I grabbed a 5 pound weight to make sure the scale was working properly. So happy! I need to lose another 10-15 pounds or so -- always hard to tell -- but then I can actually start a traditional bulk / cut cycle. I've always spent my life cutting so it'll be fun to actually put on weight in a controlled fashion.

 

[LaneDS]

Currently at the lowest weight of my adult life: 157.6 at 5'8. My previous lowest was 159~ in 2014. Still feels a bit unreal even now, but when it happened this morning I grabbed a 5 pound weight to make sure the scale was working properly. So happy! I need to lose another 10-15 pounds or so -- always hard to tell -- but then I can actually start a traditional bulk / cut cycle. I've always spent my life cutting so it'll be fun to actually put on weight in a controlled fashion.

Man, also awesome. I can't imagine being 157 let alone 142... if I can hit 175 by year's end I'll be ecstatic. Where were you at at your heaviest?

 

[Ixian]

Man, also awesome. I can't imagine being 157 let alone 142... if I can hit 175 by year's end I'll be ecstatic. Where were you at at your heaviest?

230 back in 2008. Crazy how far my knowledge of nutrition and fitness has come since then -- but also dangerous because I know how to undo any trouble I cause myself. That said, I turn thirty this year so I wanted to give myself the gift of finally seeing this process through to its end. I started at 180 at the beginning of this year and have been pretty good about sticking to my diet and weight training, aside from some special occasions (Valentine's Day) or if I was away for a music festival.

As a bonus, I've also helped guide my girlfriend to the lowest weight of her adult life too. She still only has a few pounds left to shed now but it's a bit slower for her since she can't operate at as high of a deficit.

I'm always here to offer feedback and advice; as I've grown more confident in my understanding I've developed a love for actually talking about this stuff. I spend quite a bit of time reading the /r/loseit subreddit and offering advice when I feel comfortable doing so.

 

[neoemonk]

At the end of next week I will finish up Power 90, and I've got X3 waiting in the wings.

I started with a large belly and it's still bigger than I was hoping for at the end of ninety days, but I feel so much better. Plus my arms look cooler than they did before and my wife told me last night I'm good looking again since my fact isn't so fat.

I'm actually nervous about starting the X workout, even though Power 90 isn't really a challenge anymore (outside of the ab workout). It's still cool to be able to say I stuck with it this long. Might even kick off X3 on Monday of next week.

 

[Ixian]

At the end of next week I will finish up Power 90, and I've got X3 waiting in the wings.

I started with a large belly and it's still bigger than I was hoping for at the end of ninety days, but I feel so much better. Plus my arms look cooler than they did before and my wife told me last night I'm good looking again since my fact isn't so fat.

I'm actually nervous about starting the X workout, even though Power 90 isn't really a challenge anymore (outside of the ab workout). It's still cool to be able to say I stuck with it this long. Might even kick off X3 on Monday of next week.

Congrats man, sticking with anything for 90 days is a hell of an accomplishment. Just remember diet is everything!

 

[LaneDS]

230 back in 2008. Crazy how far my knowledge of nutrition and fitness has come since then -- but also dangerous because I know how to undo any trouble I cause myself. That said, I turn thirty this year so I wanted to give myself the gift of finally seeing this process through to its end. I started at 180 at the beginning of this year and have been pretty good about sticking to my diet and weight training, aside from some special occasions (Valentine's Day) or if I was away for a music festival.

As a bonus, I've also helped guide my girlfriend to the lowest weight of her adult life too. She still only has a few pounds left to shed now but it's a bit slower for her since she can't operate at as high of a deficit.

I'm always here to offer feedback and advice; as I've grown more confident in my understanding I've developed a love for actually talking about this stuff. I spend quite a bit of time reading the /r/loseit subreddit and offering advice when I feel comfortable doing so.

That's incredible! I at least have you beat on one end of the 5'8" spectrum, but sadly it's the wrong end (I think I was 240 at my heaviest... dark times!). I hope you're feeling the appropriate amounts of proud and accomplished, along with focused (you sound focused!) to maintain into the future.

I am going to workout shortly, on a related note. 204 here, still slowly dropping from 220~ish at the start of the year and aiming for 175 by September.

 

[Ixian]

That's incredible! I at least have you beat on one end of the 5'8" spectrum, but sadly it's the wrong end (I think I was 240 at my heaviest... dark times!). I hope you're feeling the appropriate amounts of proud and accomplished, along with focused (you sound focused!) to maintain into the future.

I am going to workout shortly, on a related note. 204 here, still slowly dropping from 220~ish at the start of the year and aiming for 175 by September.

I'll be happier once I'm free of my moobs. >_< Hopefully the paper towel effect will have a few surprises for me over the next ten pounds of loss.

 

[neoemonk]

Congrats man, sticking with anything for 90 days is a hell of an accomplishment. Just remember diet is everything!

Diet is still something I have to come to terms with. Food discipline is such a challenge for me.

As it stands right now I only drink coffee and water. I do drink a few beers every now and then when I'm with friends but that has been twice in the past three months.

Three things that I know kill my diet right now:

1. Eating out - thai, chinese, mexican, italian, pizza - I love all of these things
2. Ice cream
3. Sweet baked goods like cookies, brownies, donuts, etc

It's a work in progress. I've eliminated a lot of salty snacks (chips, combos, things like that) for the most part. Right now I'm snacking on some celery and hummus, but some days my willpower eludes me. Need to do better but also trying not to beat myself up too much about it.

 

[Ixian]

Diet is still something I have to come to terms with. Food discipline is such a challenge for me.

As it stands right now I only drink coffee and water. I do drink a few beers every now and then when I'm with friends but that has been twice in the past three months.

Three things that I know kill my diet right now:

1. Eating out - thai, chinese, mexican, italian, pizza - I love all of these things
2. Ice cream
3. Sweet baked goods like cookies, brownies, donuts, etc

It's a work in progress. I've eliminated a lot of salty snacks (chips, combos, things like that) for the most part. Right now I'm snacking on some celery and hummus, but some days my willpower eludes me. Need to do better but also trying not to beat myself up too much about it.

FWIW, you don't have to give up all of these things, though you may have to find less bad versions of them. I'll offer some examples:

1) Pizza: On workout days, my girlfriend and I will sometimes split a frozen pizza from Costco (not their big ass 4000 calorie ones, these come to around 800 calories for each of us). If we want pizza on a non-workout day, I make a cauliflower crust pizza to keep the carbs almost nonexistent.

Mexican Food: Use low carb tortillas to help mitigate some of the calories. We do use rice on workout days, but if I wanted rice on a non-workout day I'd make cauliflower rice.

Chinese / Thai: Can't speak to these too much, I love thai but I've only eaten it on my girlfriend's mother's birthday this year. There are lower calorie variants you can make though if you poke around though.

2) For ice cream, I'm a big fan of Halo Top ice cream, and Watch'n Carbs Fudge Bars and Ice Cream Bars from Safeway/Vons.

3) Check out keto recipes for your favorite treats. I made a low carb pecan pie last year and it came out really good, and as it turns out despite normally being calorie bombs due to all of their sugar, they're really not so bad once you use an artificial sweetener instead.

The most important thing is to just have a better understanding of your macronutrients and how many calories you need to eat. Alcohol can be kind of a pain in the ass because your body needs to metabolize it first. Protein helps you build muscle, fat keeps you feeling full, and carbs provide energy, but most importantly you just gotta watch your calories.

 

[LaneDS]

Chiming in to say Halo Top is the real deal. Only recently was introduced to it, having denounced all "diet ice cream" as total garbage previously I was really surprised by how good it is. Good enough to satisfy the craving, and at around 25% of the calories/carbs and a decent serving of protein if you're lacking in self control like myself and eat the whole pint.

I still need to cut back on the artificial sweeteners. I've bought better coffee that I can drink black (welcome recommendations, especially if they're sold on Amazon!) and need to actually start doing that more. Am considering switching away from skim milk to something with more fat and less sugar as well.

Finished chest and back today and feel good about it.

 

[sp3ctr3]

In the lean schedule for P90X3, the entire workout is 30 minutes including cooldown. There is an optional 12 minute "cold start" warmup routine you can do before if you need to.

But it sounds like what you really want is to cut, and cutting is primarily accomplished through diet. You need to make your body burn your stored fat, and unless you're running daily 10k's it's going to be hard to do with exercise alone.

My advice would be to change your workout so you're doing higher reps with lower weights, and to adjust your diet. You want to go VERY low carb, and if you're doing a lot of extra cardio you're going to end up eating too much. The high rep/low weight will maintain your current muscle growth. You want to basically eliminate all extra carbs -- bread, rice, pasta, potatoes and obviously sodas & fruit juice. Change the fruits you eat -- ditch the apples, oranges and bananas in favor of blackberries, raspberries & blueberries. Eat as many vegetables as you can stand -- broccoli, kale, spinach, etc. The more colorful the better. And eat lean meat. Skinless chicken & turkey. Lean beef & pork.

If you can limit your carbs to ~75g per day you'll burn fat pretty quickly, and your modified workout will keep your muscle size up.

I got the diet thing down. My weakness is chocolate and soda, and that is what I've been destroying my body with. I have cut back and keep that shit to fridays (my cheat day) and in a not-exaggerated amount.

On all other days I eat ok and varied. drink lots of water, milk in the morning, vegetables, lean meat like chicken or low fat % ground beef etc. On saturdays I do splash and eat a portion size above average. A big nice Steak for example with a glass og wine.

I know to lose weight I have to eat about 300kcal less than my maintenance level. Will try lower weight and higher reps for about a month and see how that goes.

And I can't do below 100g carbs a day. I tried it during my P90X program and I felt sick. Had no energy to do the workout...

 

[SteveMeister]

So I cancelled my Beachbody Coach status. Between work & family I just don't have time for it. Still keeping my Club membership though -- Beachbody On Demand is awesome. I use the native AppleTV app every morning -- I don't even have a DVD player hooked up in my gym room anymore.

I'm in week 9 of my hybrid workout program. I've decided to rotate Hammer & Chisel out, and other workouts in. This week I've been doing Phase 3 workouts from P90X3 (Complex Upper & Lower), and next week I'm doing the first week of Asylum Volume 2. Then it'll be week 5 of 22 Minute Hard Corps. I think I'll do another week of Body Beast Bulk Phase workouts after that, and keep to this rotation for a month or so. Seems to be a good mix.

 

[LaneDS]

You'll always be the coach around these parts Steve!

 

[Infinity]

Indeed, Steve - what Lane said.

I've been hitting the workout routine 4-5 times per week. I have a new job and between that and just life, 5 nights is about all I can do. When I slip to 4, I sometimes feel bad about it, but hey ...

Mixing in P90X3 routines with P90X One-On-One, and I'm getting what I need.

*fistbump*