Promoting Fat Loss!

[Tatsumaru]

Ahh, the time of outside tricking is almost beginning. As I do every year, I'm gonna shed the useless fat I gained over the cold seasons so I can trick at a lighter weight. This is also a great way to prevent ankle destruction on grass! Right now I'm at 85 kg, which is 1,5 kg below the heaviest I've ever been (a few weeks ago).

Losing fat is somewhat easy for me, but I thought: ''maybe I can get some fresh and fun ideas if I ask around''! So, I'm interested in what you would do, personally, if you were trying to lose fat. I thought of a bunch of questions, which I divided into 5 categories :smile:

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Training and workouts - What would your trainings look like?
1. What would your exercise selection exist of? (what specific lifts, mostly compound?)
2. What reprange would you use, and how many sets? At what intensity would you train?
3. How long would your workout sessions last, and how many times a week would you do this?
4. What exercises would you avoid (maybe because some are useless)?

Diet - Food!
5. What things would you consume A LOT of?
6. Which foods would you stop consuming (stuff you normally would eat)?
7. How many calories would you consume below your maintanance, and at what point will you decrease calories (weekly)?
8. What would your pre-bed (sleepstack!) meal consist of?

Supplementation - Powders, pills and pwnage
9. Which supplements would you keep on taking?
10. Which supplements wouldn't you take when trying to lose fat (creatine)?
11. Which supplements would you add to aid in your quest? At what moment of the day would you take these?
12. Would you try a gimmicky fatloss supplement? Why yes/no?

Extra work - Even more!
13. Would you add any more exercise/activities to your schedule? Like, walking, jogging, rollerblading, whatever?
14. If yes, what activities would you add and why?
15. At what time of the day would you perform those activites (morning, pre workout, after)? And for how long?
16. What activities would you avoid?

Other - Don't know where to put this!
17. For how much weightloss per week would you aim?
18. Would you log your weight and bodyfat (with a caliper thing)? When?

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So, if you want to, please fill in the questions, as I'm quite curious. Feel free to add any extra information, ignore some stuff or whatever. Like I said, I hope to get some fresh ideas out of this!

Thanks in advance :good::juji:

[anfeyd]

Training and workouts - What would your trainings look like?

My training does not differ if I am trying to shed some fat. Right now I only do: back squats, deadlifts, ghr, pullups, overhead press, bench press, barbell row.


Diet - Food!

My diet doesn't differ much. My food selection stays the same. Oats, brown rice, lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts. I just pour a little lets oats or rice, and take a little less nuts, it usually does the trick.

I don't count my calories so I can't answer specifically. If I am losing weight I might try to increase my intake a little more to see how high I can go with food while still hitting my goal weight.

Supplementation - Powders, pills and pwnage

I do not take supplements, but I would drink some coffee in the morning/mid day.

Extra work - Even more!

I would add small interval work (tabata maybe) or 40-100m sprints with full recovery. I would only do this if I wasn't losing fat without it because i'd rather trick haha. If you have the space doing complex training would give you quite a workout. Squats, 20 m sprint--pullups overhead medicine ball slam. I wouldn't do any LISS because I hate it.


Other - Don't know where to put this!

It depends on how fast I want to lose it. 2 lbs per week max seems to be the 'gold standard'. You can log your weight in your workout log daily or weekly if you'd like.




I went through a mini period where I altered my diet without altering my training (which is very low volume weight lifting and tricking) and lost a few lbs. It doesn't take much, I find it very easy just like you do.

[TrickerD]

I can't gain a lot of weight or lose weight so I would do muscle gain exercises instead. If I had to lose weight(which I am miserably failing for my stupid legs), I do running, elliptical work, and I would do plyometric exercises if my back was healed.

[Rahf]

Training and workouts - What would your trainings look like?
1. What would your exercise selection exist of? (what specific lifts, mostly compound?)
2. What reprange would you use, and how many sets? At what intensity would you train?
3. How long would your workout sessions last, and how many times a week would you do this?
4. What exercises would you avoid (maybe because some are useless)?

1. I decrease the overall volume but train with the same intensity. I also keep clear of failed sets and adhere from doing forced reps.

2. My current reprange is around 3-6 normally and the total number of sets for the bigger bodyparts is somewhere in the lines of 10-15. I don't do as many sets since volume is decreased and my body just can't keep up with the load.

3. Sanshou is two times a week and can be considered power training with some added cardio, that lasts for at least 1½ hours each session. Resistance training is divided into two sessions of about 1½ hours each.

4. Generally I stay away from machines and isolation exercises, they're not really worth wasting energy on at this point in my progress.

Diet - Food!
5. What things would you consume A LOT of?
6. Which foods would you stop consuming (stuff you normally would eat)?
7. How many calories would you consume below your maintanance, and at what point will you decrease calories (weekly)?
8. What would your pre-bed (sleepstack!) meal consist of?

5. Food and less of it. More vegetables, more fruit, more lean meat and less carbs/fat.

6. Snacks inbetween meals, they're traded for fruit, a light meal or nothing basically.

7. Roughly -500, I don't count and generally keep my cardio fairly high so I can eat abit more.

8. Anything that completes my day basically. Normally a sandwich or some cottage cheese. Milk is a favourite around that time as well.

Supplementation - Powders, pills and pwnage
9. Which supplements would you keep on taking?
10. Which supplements wouldn't you take when trying to lose fat (creatine)?
11. Which supplements would you add to aid in your quest? At what moment of the day would you take these?
12. Would you try a gimmicky fatloss supplement? Why yes/no?

9. The ones I am using at the moment. Pre-training supplement called Rage (ingredient list) (http://www.fairing.se/rage.php), pure EAA, homemade gainer and omega-3. I'm still quite bad at eating fish.

10. Bigger amounts of carbohydrates.

11. None right now, my pharmaceutical locker is adequate at the moment.

12. No, I'm confident that I can produce good results without it.

Extra work - Even more!
13. Would you add any more exercise/activities to your schedule? Like, walking, jogging, rollerblading, whatever?
14. If yes, what activities would you add and why?
15. At what time of the day would you perform those activites (morning, pre workout, after)? And for how long?
16. What activities would you avoid?

13/14. A couple of miles (metric system) normal walking each day just to keep myself activated.

15. Whenever it fits my schedule, normally later in the evening and often between 8pm and 12 midnight.

16. Strenous training in general, my body is hard enough to keep up with my current training.

Other - Don't know where to put this!
17. For how much weightloss per week would you aim?
18. Would you log your weight and bodyfat (with a caliper thing)? When?

17. One pound a week on average is adequate, aiming for perfect weight loss is hard since it is not linear.

18. Yes, I keep mental tabs on my general measurements and weight. This occurs randomly throughout the week and always after the morning piss but before breakfast.


Hope that gives you something to go by, mate!

[Tatsumaru]

Thanks for the response guys :) I'm gonna reply on some specific stuff, so this will probably be a huge post.

Also, I totally forgot to address this in my main post, but I'm actually going to do most of the ''extra exercise'' stuff with my girlfriend. She doesn't train in a gym like I do (3 times a week) nor does she trick (I'm picking up tricking next week after a huge break), so I was going to come up with a bunch of fun exercises that we can do together. Really appreciate all the ideas you are giving!


My training does not differ if I am trying to shed some fat. Right now I only do: back squats, deadlifts, ghr, pullups, overhead press, bench press, barbell row.

I do the same, I usually keep on doing the same type of workout I'm doing at the moment, and only alter my diet. I'm wondering though (this was my original question that I forgot to ask): if you were going to design your workout with your specific main goal being fatloss and saving muss/strength, what would it look like? Anything that makes you sweat, that's for sure haha.

My diet doesn't differ much. My food selection stays the same. Oats, brown rice, lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts. I just pour a little lets oats or rice, and take a little less nuts, it usually does the trick.
I don't count my calories so I can't answer specifically. If I am losing weight I might try to increase my intake a little more to see how high I can go with food while still hitting my goal weight.

Funny method about increasing your food intake. I used to log my calories a lot, but now I only do it once in a while (haven't done it in ages though). It's not really neccesary, as I always have a good guess how much I'm eating. When gaining: haven't gained anything in a week? EAT MORE :tongue: And the other way around of course. Good choice of foods also! I personally have to up my veggie intake again, starchy stuff = good.

I do not take supplements, but I would drink some coffee in the morning/mid day.

Ah, what's your reason for not taking supplements? :smile: Of course supps are not neccesary, but I always find they are a great addition to my diet (whey, fishoil, moar vitamin c). And also: because I spend money on the damn things, I'm willing to put even more hard work into my training haha.

I would add small interval work (tabata maybe) or 40-100m sprints with full recovery. I would only do this if I wasn't losing fat without it because i'd rather trick haha. If you have the space doing complex training would give you quite a workout. Squats, 20 m sprint--pullups overhead medicine ball slam. I wouldn't do any LISS because I hate it.

Thanks for these suggestions! The tabata thing sounds really interesting, I didn't know what it was but I looked it up. I'll have to try this.

We have this huge lake somewhere not foo far from my home, we filmed a lot of stuff from Astrum there. It's a huge walk around it! I also did the sprints last year with my girlfriend at that area, lot of fun, especially with the sun burning in your back. Exercise in the sun = tan! Win win haha! We also just take a slow walk with her dog there sometimes or cycle around it, and the place has a lot of hills and stuff, so we will probably do a lot of running up and down for fun :juji:

I can't gain a lot of weight or lose weight so I would do muscle gain exercises instead. If I had to lose weight(which I am miserably failing for my stupid legs), I do running, elliptical work, and I would do plyometric exercises if my back was healed.
Hm, personally I really despise long distance running because I prefer my fast twitch muscle fibers over my slow ones :tongue: I used to do plyometric exercise as well, until I realised I was doing enough plyometrics with tricking. In the end, your diet is the part that will either make you or break you when trying to shred.

Ack, I will respond to Rahf's post in a new post :ogre:

[Honken]

muscle gain exercises

So you really think that there are special exercises that makes you lose muscle? Weightloss/weightgain is a result of calorie decifit/calorie excess.

[Tatsumaru]

BIG POST NUMBER 2.


I decrease the overall volume but train with the same intensity. I also keep clear of failed sets and adhere from doing forced reps.
Hehe, failed sets when not having so much food in your system = fainting :tongue:

My current reprange is around 3-6 normally and the total number of sets for the bigger bodyparts is somewhere in the lines of 10-15. I don't do as many sets since volume is decreased and my body just can't keep up with the load.
Personally I think I am going to start training at a higher reprange again, but that's because I've been training in the 2-8 reps department for waaaay too long. I'm quite burnt out because of that haha. I also like training in a higher tempo when using less reps. Eventually I will decrease reps :)

Generally I stay away from machines and isolation exercises, they're not really worth wasting energy on at this point in my progress.
Yes I agree, compound really makes you break a sweat if you're doing it right. Combining exercises is also fun (clean, front squat, standing military press combo with lower weight but moar reps = death).


5. Food and less of it. More vegetables, more fruit, more lean meat and less carbs/fat.
6. Snacks inbetween meals, they're traded for fruit, a light meal or nothing basically.
7. Roughly -500, I don't count and generally keep my cardio fairly high so I can eat abit more.
8. Anything that completes my day basically. Normally a sandwich or some cottage cheese. Milk is a favourite around that time as well.
Yeah, carbs are always the thing you want to cut back on when doing this haha, they're so easy to consume. I have a fast digestive system so I also don't have to cut back that much on what I eat.

The ones I am using at the moment. Pre-training supplement called Rage (ingredient list) (http://www.fairing.se/rage.php), pure EAA, homemade gainer and omega-3. I'm still quite bad at eating fish.
Rage looks nice, what difference does it make to you? What things do you notice from it?

Omega 3 supps are also essential to me, when I'm not taking it I seem to have these sharp pains. I might die of a heart attack :worry: CHOLESTEROL DEATH.

I also bought a bunch of supplements because there was this store that was having a sale. Bunch of amino acids, glutamin, guarana and other caffein crap, green tea pills... this is gonna be fun. Aside of that there's of course whey and dextrose (I have yet to find a cheap maltodextrin around here). Like I said: when investing money in supplements, I am really going to give it my all :smile:

13/14. A couple of miles (metric system) normal walking each day just to keep myself activated.
15. Whenever it fits my schedule, normally later in the evening and often between 8pm and 12 midnight.
Yup, like I said in my previous post about the huge lake area: it's a really long walk and it's fun when the sun is shining. I prefer to do this in the early morning :smile:

17. One pound a week on average is adequate, aiming for perfect weight loss is hard since it is not linear.

18. Yes, I keep mental tabs on my general measurements and weight. This occurs randomly throughout the week and always after the morning piss but before breakfast.

Mental tabs and logs are good. I always weigh in at saturday's after taking a huge dump before breakfast. I also use a bodyfat caliper which I bought years ago (http://www.accumeasurefitness.com/). I don't think the measurement it gives is neccesarely true (because at the moment it says I'm 8.5% and that should be pretty damn lean, but I'm not!) but I just use it to see if there's any progress.

I found a picture of myself, that I took on September the 29th 2007. Here I weighed in at 76 kg, and measured myself at a bodyfat% of 5.5% (don't mind the ridiculous expression).
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/1466/smallfrontwz6.jpg

So, I don't actually believe it IS 5.5%, nor do I care, but it is a great way to track what I'm doing in the end. My goal is to get to that percentage again, and at the moment I'm 85kg at ''8.5%''.

Again: thanks for the response and telling me about how you handle these things personally, really appreciate it, and I'm getting some good ideas from all of you :smile:

[anfeyd]

I do the same, I usually keep on doing the same type of workout I'm doing at the moment, and only alter my diet. I'm wondering though (this was my original question that I forgot to ask): if you were going to design your workout with your specific main goal being fatloss and saving muss/strength, what would it look like? Anything that makes you sweat, that's for sure haha.

I always like to conserve time so it would probably be some type of complex training. Heavy lifts in the 3-5 repetition range with some type of explosive exercise after every set. I might have mentioned this in my above post but like, squat a set, put the bar down sprint 40 meters. Rest and repeat. I also like pull ups to medicine ball slams. I would only do this if I found I wasn't losing weight by just reducing food intake slightly. Especially because it may interfere with tricking.



Funny method about increasing your food intake. I used to log my calories a lot, but now I only do it once in a while (haven't done it in ages though). It's not really neccesary, as I always have a good guess how much I'm eating. When gaining: haven't gained anything in a week? EAT MORE :tongue: And the other way around of course. Good choice of foods also! I personally have to up my veggie intake again, starchy stuff = good.

Whenever I got real big into it I used to look at all of the packages and measure, etc. Now I feel I know the caloric content of everything I eat as well as how much I eat so I don't feel the need to log anything nor do I really keep tabs. So I feel the same haha.



Ah, what's your reason for not taking supplements? :smile: Of course supps are not neccesary, but I always find they are a great addition to my diet (whey, fishoil, moar vitamin c). And also: because I spend money on the damn things, I'm willing to put even more hard work into my training haha.

Currently, I am dabbing in bcaa's and a sugary (dextrose) drink post and pre workout. However, I have been on activity for the past two weeks due to a nasty leg abrasion injury i've had. I've made the best gains with consistent hardwork in the gym and outside tricking while eating enough whole foods to sustain my recover.

Here is a quote from Ross Enamait, "The human body is capable of much more than most people will ever realize. Hard work, perseverance, and a consistent effort are three attributes that you cannot buy at the supplementation store. Ive never seen anyone package character into a pill."

I'm not necessarily against supplements but I don't really find them to aid me in any way for some reason. The only thing I would dabble in would be some sort of stimulant/amphetamine but that is only because I am curious as to what it would do for me (and because Juji acts like a barbarian and since I am very non-social turning into a crazy recluse is something I would encourage myself to do).


Thanks for these suggestions! The tabata thing sounds really interesting, I didn't know what it was but I looked it up. I'll have to try this.

I used it twice a week a while back when I was fairly inactive, I also took up weight lifting then as well--they were the only two things I did and I lost a fair ammount.

[Kitosho]

Training = heavy, low volume, compound lifts, low reps
moderate lsd cardio (uphill walking on treadmill is good)

diet = vince gironda style low carb, 3-4 days all meat/eggs 1 day w/e

supplements = fish oil, fiber, possibly cinnamon

other = w/e


i don't count calories because i'm lazy

i have modded my bodyweight all the way up from 150 to 200 this way, and then down to 175/180, maintaining relatively low bf the whole time

[Rahf]

Basically I use rage to stay focused and to get a small extra boost. It is supposed to work in the lines of NO2Xplode in the forms of pump but that is not prioritized. Large amounts of caffeine (roughly 300mg per serving) coupled with a caffeine sensitive body gives me a damn rush and the creatine/β-alanine gives a decent anaerobic endurance boost.

Glutamine is a placebo supplement.

EAAs are superior to whey in every way (except serving size) but have the severe con of tasting like sewage. Mix with dextrose and/or citric acid to get a better taste.

Maltodextrin has the upper hand of both requiring alot less water to create an isotonic environment and also not providing the same sweet taste as dextrose which has a habit of turning tooth-wrenchingly sweet.

[linkrjh]

You guys have complicated methods of fat loss. I just do what I'm already doing and reduce the amount of carbohydrates I have in the afternoon/evenings significantly.

[Rahf]

It sounds much more complicated than it is.

[Tatsumaru]

I might have mentioned this in my above post but like, squat a set, put the bar down sprint 40 meters. Rest and repeat. I also like pull ups to medicine ball slams. I would only do this if I found I wasn't losing weight by just reducing food intake slightly. Especially because it may interfere with tricking.

Yeah, I'll do things similiar to this when I'm not losing weight. As of now it's already going way too fast, I cut back on my food intake a little bit and did some slow paced exercise, and I'm at 84 kg. It's kind of whack, but a lot of it must be some lost waterweight because I stopped eating a lot. My ''extra'' exercise selection I also select in the way that it won't interfere much with tricking.

And I respect your decision in supplements :) I like trying new things and experimenting with what works, and like I said - it makes me try even harder haha.

EAAs are superior to whey in every way (except serving size) but have the severe con of tasting like sewage. Mix with dextrose and/or citric acid to get a better taste.
Yeah I know, in the end I buy whey because it's cheaper and I can buy more in quantity. I wish I could still order the Optimum Nutrition bags from the USA (10 lbs), but I don't really have the money for that anymore -- so I just look around for some cheap whey with a decent ingredient profile.

You guys have complicated methods of fat loss. I just do what I'm already doing and reduce the amount of carbohydrates I have in the afternoon/evenings significantly.
I agree with Rahf haha, it sounds way more complicated than it actually is. In the end, I'm reducing my food intake a bit (mainly carbs), alter my trainings slightly (more compound and combined exercises) and do a bunch of extra work for fun (and a tan). I just like discussing this kind of thing, my main goal was to get some more ideas for extra exercise (that I will do together with my girlfriend, like I mentioned before) :smile:

[Ashtar]

I am trying to lose fat. To do this, I have worked for many hours at a physical job, and have not eaten at this job, because I tend to eat less in a way this way. It has worked, even if it is a primitive approach, but it is appropriate for me because I needed to learn to detach from impulse eating and how to be hungry and keep moving.

[compleks]

How much have you lost?
What is your goal weight?
What is your current exercise routine?

[compleks]

Oh, congrats on the weight loss. Better late than never.

Now stick with it and follow through. Put some of your knowledge into actual practise.

[Tatsumaru]

I am trying to lose fat. To do this, I have worked for many hours at a physical job, and have not eaten at this job, because I tend to eat less in a way this way. It has worked, even if it is a primitive approach, but it is appropriate for me because I needed to learn to detach from impulse eating and how to be hungry and keep moving.
With fatloss, in general, you just have to teach yourself some discipline and feed when you have to and not give in to said ''impulse eating''. It's really all a matter of discipline :)

Compleks, you confused me with those 2 posts haha. DAMN. Anyway:
Lost so far: I forgot to weigh myself today so I will do so tomorrow :tongue:
My goal (weight/bodyfat): I want to get down to the supposedly ''5%'' bodyfat (according to my caliper). I will have to drop down to 81.4kg it seems.
Current exercise routine: I lift weights 3 times a week, all full-body workouts. I am basically trying some combination exercises and ''supersets'' to intensify my trainings. Like, after a heavy set of bench press, I run to the pullup bar and do 5 chinups. Rest and repeat. Or dumbbell shoulder press and some circular shoulder raises right after. Pull ups and dips. etc. Mostly compound stuff, some isolation.

All is going well so far. Especially combined with tricking, the way too long walks with the dog, some tabata stuff once in a while etc :smile:

[Tatsumaru]

Why the hell do I have these huge empty spaces under my text in my big posts? :wonder:

[anfeyd]

I had that too.

[compleks]

Me three!

(I was actually talking to Ashtar, but the same applies to everyone I guess :good: )

[Tatsumaru]

(Haha okay, well I felt like sharing some secret information anyway :pirate:)

I weighed in at 83,8 kg with a bodyfat% of 7,5%. Almost going too fast for my liking haha.