Maybe i'm just impatient?

[carma]

Hi guys.

Well ive adjusted my diet by adding in more carb meals and uping the calories, so i'm now on about 1700cal a day instead of 1100cal.

I'm wondering if i'm doing too much cardio because people seem to think that i am. I go for a 30min walk every morning and do 30min on the exercycle 6 days a week (weights 4days/wk). I really want to start dropping body fat and im starting to get frustrated because i havent lost any in 3 weeks. I know i have to give it time to see if the increase in calories helps. Am i just impatient? Should i keep this amount of cardio up? Any ideas? :?

[jono]

i think once you make a change you should wait like a week to see if it works or not. i think the question of cardio should be: "am i doing the right amount to get the results i want" . you might find you dont need to do cardio as often. i would write everything down .. food/training/cardio including times of eating/training/cardio. then after a week you can look back at your notes, make a change if your not getting the results you want then write eveything down again for the next week. this way you can really find out what works for you, no1 is the same. you might find you have to increase you cardio time to like 1hr but do only 4 sessions a week ? .. its all about making sure you have an accurate record of EXACTLY what you did last week or last month etc.. this way you can make intelligent changes to bring results...

my 2c

[Growth]

I aggree with jono, any changes you do make you need to make them one at a time, not make a bunch of changes all at once.

I think the diet was the best place to start though as just over 1000cals of food per day in addition to the amount you were burning while exercising doesnt make for good reading.

Like jono has already said (smart fellow him), you need to keep track of absolutely everything to do with your training.

Just a side note, you also need to take into account exactly how many calories are being burned during your workouts and your cardio. For the exercycle this should be easy as the machine will display the amount of calories you burned in that seesion. As for the walks and the workouts, there are various calculators available to estimate the calories being burned.

1700cals is a good place to start but if you are buring say 700cals a day from your workouts then based on a 2000cal maintanace level your deficit would be way too low.

[deegee]

I agree with above change one thing only then give it time at least a few weeks to evaluate changes. start changing too many things and you dont know what change is doing what.

[carma]

Thanks for the advice. :wink:

It's nice to see so many responses. I have been keeping detailed records of pretty much everything such as, meal content, timing,cal,fat,pro,carb intake, water intake, supplement intake, weight training record and cardio record. I also record all my weigh ins and measurements. So i think i've got that side of things sust. I will keep the cardio the way it is coz i've adjusted my diet and go along with all your advice to just change one thing at a time. I'll keep you posted.

By the way is anyone going in any comps this year, if so what ones?

[jono]

i was going to do a wellington bb show this year. but ive decided that i dont have enough of a physique yet... the time will come though.

[Pseudonym]

Carma - just be aware that you've increased the calories so I wouldn't be surprised if you see a wee bit of a rebound backwards. Don't worry - it wouldn't be much, I think. It's just a possibility in the early stages as your body recovers from the starvation. You'll start to move in the right direction again soon enough.

I guess I'm just saying the same as the others - patience! Don't be discouraged by what you think is slow progress... these things take time!

Jono - I'd really, REALLY recommend doing a show just for the experience. Don't worry about whether you're big enough to win yet - just do it for the practise. There are so many variables that can only be worked out through trial and error (how you respond to carb/water/salt manipulation, pumping up, applying tan, confidence on stage, etc, etc, etc) - and the more you do that, the better you'll be able to find out what works for you.

I'm already looking back at my comp photos and wincing at how small I was... but now I've got a damn good idea of what will work for me next time. So now when I compete again, I'll have the physique AND the knowledge - so watch out!

(As an added bonus, the gains you can make on the post-diet rebound are simply awesome! :grin: )

[Marcus]

Carma, can you post up your current diet or is it the same as your previous posts?

[Growth]

Carma - just be aware that you've increased the calories so I wouldn't be surprised if you see a wee bit of a rebound backwards.

Think of it like this...

A space ship is flying around in orbit...its got just a TINY amount of fuel...so, to ensure the crew can survive as long as possible the ship turns off the amenities and slows itself down to a crawl. Your body does the same on a low cal diet, it shuts down all kinds of things...

Just like the ship, if your body goes to zero fuel for to long it will die.

You've been riding with your tanks on low and your body has shut a lot of things off...your calories werent too drastic so the symptoms might not be dramatic, but they are there none the less.

When the ship finds fuel reserves it doesn't wastefully turn everything back on though. It stores 99% of it away because history has told it not to be wasteful because it doesn't know when it'll receive more.

Until you re-establish a healthy diet (aka fuel stores) daily, your body will continue to be conservative and hold onto the precious fuel stores it finds until its convinced that things have changed for the better, at which time it'll turn things back on and go back to a normal "Healthy" way.

If you slowly increase your fuel stores each day the system will slowly turn back on and will never have to store such a great amount of fuel (weight gain)...this might take 3-5 weeks, and if done slowly enough there is no reason you should see significant weight gain, because your body will consume as the fuel comes in.

Slow and steady up, and slow and steady down wins the race in weight loss, muscle retention, and health.

Then, once your system is functioning at 100% you can slowly drop calories, a little at a time and the system will not react aggressively to turn things off.

But if you cut the system out of fuel for 2-3 days it will shut things down rapidly! I've read leptin levels can for 75% on a 1 day fast, which is terrible if your trying to lose weight.

[Growth]

And Jono, i agree with psuedonym. You should enter the comp if for nothing else then just for the experience. Your obviously very serious about your bbing so you might as well make a start now.

If i remember you were aiming for the Wellington comp near the end of the year... its only february, you got heaps of time to prepare..

I say go for it.

[jono]

i have a couple of holes in my physique tht i want to fill .. or at least begin to fill before i enter a comp. ive looked at photos from previous contests and i think if i filled a couple of holes i would have a legit chance of winning.

[Marcus]

I'm afraid I agree with Jono on this one, although this is off topic.

I can see the benefits of doing a show for the experience but at the end of the day I don't want to compete unless I'm happy with my physique.

I was pressured to compete last year by some people at my gym. But I took the advice of someone who said to wait. Bodybuilding is a sport where you can compete right into your mid - late thirties (open physique), so there's plenty of time. Use these younger years to put on a shit load of muscle. Then when you step on stage people will stop & look at the freaky body you have developed rather than "just another nice physique".

Just my opinion.

[Growth]

Fair enough its just if i were to enter a comp myself id rather enter one, get the experience, learn some tanning techniques, see how i handle diuretics, get some posing experience and tips from vets etc, rather than try it all on my first comp.

Even though a person may have the best physique, you have to consider the things psuedonym talked about.

Just my opinion though.

100% behind you jono :grin:

[Marcus]

Yeah I guess it's just a matter of personal preference. I can see the benefits of everyones point of view though.

[jono]

well, my training and diet is going well so far this year, cant wait to see what sort of results ive gotten in 6mnths time.

[Growth]

And now back to carma's diet :grin:

[carma]

Cheers for all the feedback and advice guys. I think patience is the key here. I think i'll stick with the changes ive made to my diet and keep up the same amount of cardio and see what happens over the next few weeks. I wish i hadnt put my body into starvation mode, but i spose you learn from your mistakes, aye. I think one of the biggest things in body building is learning from trial and era!!

[jono]

Cheers for all the feedback and advice guys. I think patience is the key here. I think i'll stick with the changes ive made to my diet and keep up the same amount of cardio and see what happens over the next few weeks. I wish i hadnt put my body into starvation mode, but i spose you learn from your mistakes, aye. I think one of the biggest things in body building is learning from trial and era!!

yep trial and error is the way, since we are all different. if its not working change it, if it is dont