Exactly one month ago, I decided to get back on track on my fitness regimen. By sheer force of will, I just said I needed to lose all the extra weight and flab gained in the past 5 months.
At the start of the year, I hit the wall when it comes to working out. I was getting injured easily. I was always tired. My body was aching all the time. I had to make a drastic change. I didn't renew my personal training sessions with my trainer in FF Trinoma and avoided that branch altogether.
I tried another branch and even went for the personal training there. Then I stumbled on another gym, Kinetix. They are into functional fitness with emphasis on the fundamental exercises: squats, bench, deadlifts. No wonder that gym is full of huge guys, mostly powerlifters. My sessions there had me going back to those basics with strictest form. I learned so much from my
trainer there.
During this time, I wasn't on a diet. I was eating and drinking as I pleased. It showed as my clothes started getting tighter. And even my liver showed some distress from the alcohol.
Yet I knew I had to go back to FF Trinoma and my trainer there. FF is just so convenient for me. I made the most gains when I was under him previously. Besides, what I have learned from the other trainers, I could just ask my Trinoma trainer to adapt. So I had to go back.
Cut to end-May. I made the decision to 'kem bek to a young and beeyutiful' me. (Sorry. Joke limited to those who saw that film.) I went back to my diet and calorie-monitoring. I went back to FF Trinoma and my trainer there. I established baseline weight: 148 lbs with 16% Body Fat.
End-June, I lost 10 lbs and went down to 13% Body Fat. Yet I even gained lean mass.
What worked for me
Intermittent Fasting - I start ingesting food by 12nn and stop by 8pm. Funny though because this ain't 'intermittent' as I have been doing this continuously.
Proper Food Combination - I eat meat only with vegetables, not with carbs like rice or bread.
Less Sugar and Carbs - Though I can eat carbs if combined with vegetables, I avoided rice, bread, noodles. I had to deny my sweet tooth of cakes and chocolates.
Calorie Monitoring - I had to be strict about the amount of calories I was taking in. That included weighing my food and writing all of it down daily. Also, I am conscious of 'active calorie burning' (calories used up in exercise). I approximate calories burned via my Polar heartbeat monitor. I try to burn 500 - 600 calories everyday.
Low-intensity Steady State Cardio - Those 500 calories take about 1hr and 10mins as I average a low heart rate of about 120-130bpm. By next month, I'll try doing HIIT (high intensity interval training) instead for comparison. I'll check out how it relates to my fat loss.
I emphasize the words "what works for me". Our anatomy and physiology can never be the same so I wouldn't know whether this would work for anybody else. But an important thing for me is the monitoring of key metrics (calories in and out, weight, fat%, heart rate) and the analysis of such.
And before I forget, I also cut down on alcohol consumption drastically. It wasn't doing my liver any good. Thankfully, my liver has recovered.
I'm in my early 50's and I'm feeling good about my body again.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
4 comments:
That's a lot of improvement for a month's worth of workout. Wow.
I've been Intermittent Fasting for more than a year na. I skip breakfast.
I felt fine. Well...it works for me.
Hey CC i started reading your blog since 2010. though you are not posting as often as before, your entries are still as entertaining and as informative as before. :-) even when I moved overseas, i still continue to read your blogs. Made me feel connected to the massages that I enjoy whenever I am in manila :-)
50 looks good on you. Keep up. L
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