1st Quarter Summary

It's been nearly 3 months since I started going to the gym.

I have added definition to my upper body and overall strength by continually moving up to the next weight on the stack or the next dumbbell to see if I can handle it. I started out going 3x a week for a habit, then started doing a more programmed routine 3x a week, then stepped it up for the last 3 weeks to do 2-day splits. It now takes me about 1.5 hrs to do my weight routine and 30 minutes to do cardio. I got out of bed 3 days in a row to make it to the gym for 5 a.m. (to see if I could do it). I have pinned down a new selection of routine food staples that I eat just about every day.

I have not seen much fat loss though, and I use scales that weigh in pounds and provide body fat %. I have weighed at the gym in the evening and at home in the morning and still no real changes.

At this point, it comes down to food.

I'm not entirely sure what caloric balance will work for me and have gone on the guidance of the personal trainer I've seen 4 times and still nothing.

I found this site this evening and determined the following:

Basal Metabolic Rate:
370 + (21.6 x 47kg) <--the 47kg is the lean body weight since I know my body fat % from the scales.
370 + 1015
= 1385

Total Dietary Energy Expenditure:
Using the Moderately active multiplier = BMR X 1.55 (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/wk)
1385 x 1.55
=2146.75 (this is the number of calories I would need to eat in order to maintain my weight)

To lose 2lbs a week:
(each pound of fat is 3500 calories...)
3500 x 2 = 7000
need to cut back 1000 calories per day
2146.75-1000 = 1146.75

It starts to be detrimental to metabolism when you go below 1200 calories per day so...will need to bring calories down to 1200 per day.


NEW EXERCISE PLAN:

For the next 3 months, I am going to follow Kris Gethin's 12-week transformation .


NEW EATING PLAN:

The Drawing Board....

Since I would need 1g of protein per pound of body fat in order to build muscle (to increase metabolism and hotness) and a gram of protein has 4 calories:
4 calories x 152lbs = 608 (51% calories from protein)

Since I need a good amount of fiber each day, I have a cup of All-bran and have 1% milk, blueberries, plain yogurt and a few other things that have a carb count in them, and since carbohydrates have 4 calories per gram and I would likely be having around 111g of carbs a day based on my eating trend, I would want to build into my food plan 37% calories from carbohydrates.


That leaves 12% for fats. Since that is probably a bit unrealistic with all the chicken, natural almonds and other protein sources that come with fat, I'm going to have to cut back on carbohydrates by about 10%. So.....

Final draft:
51% calories from protein (612 calories)
27% calories from carbohydrates (324 calories)
22% calories from fats (264 calories)


As well, I will need to eliminate cheat meals each week and go to 1 cheat "treat" every other week to keep me going. Maybe I will have a feature Cheat Treat 'O' the Month! It's a toss-up between the big Cadbury Fruit & Nut bar or something like a Dairy Queen Blizzard!

Nothing sucks more than working super hard at the gym not to at least start to see some fat coming off. Even 5 lbs would've been nice, but generally I'm flyin' solo on this mission and I'm trying to get the information I need to yield the right results.

To execute this plan effectively WILL require menu pre-planning. That's where FitDay.com comes in for me.