Gain 34 lbs Of Muscle In 28 Days! May 2, 2007
I was reading some more of Tim Ferriss’ blog, and saw his recent article From Geek to Freak: How I Gained 34 lbs. of Muscle in 4 Weeks. He has plenty of before-and-after photos to illustrate just how much of a difference this is. Amazing.
In it, he details the diet and exercise regimen he used to gain 34 lbs of muscle, while losing 3 lbs of fat, in 28 days. The diet is the same one I linked to yesterday, so I won’t repeat the details here, but the exercise program is interesting.
Basically, he only worked out twice per week. The workouts featured only a small variety of exercises (4-7 multi-joint exercises), and he did each one very slowly (5 seconds up, 5 seconds down) and repeated until failure (i.e. he couldn’t lift the weight another time) with a 3 minute break between each exercise.
I don’t have any weights or anything, but this approach sounds interesting. Any ideas for how to weight-train when you don’t own any gym equipment? Can it be done with common household items?
Post your ideas below!
Breaking Barriers June 28, 2006
Have you ever noticed that when you have a perceived performance barrier you’re working at, you keep coming close to it day after day, week after week, and you start to wonder if you’ll ever beat it? Then one day you break through it, then you beat it again during the next couple of attempts, and pretty soon you’re beating it every time. You then wonder what it was that was stopping you from reaching that limit all that time.
This morning I ran 5 km (3 miles) in 26 minutes 22 seconds, beating my previous personal best (from 2 days ago) by 23 seconds. My previous best before that was around 27 minutes 45 seconds.
I’d been running the 5 km in around 27:40 to 28:00 every time. My times haven’t been improving for weeks, and I was wondering how I was ever going to beat the 27:30 barrier. This time corresponds to 5:30 per km, so I’d been using my GPS to keep an eye on my pace and try to keep it under that level. I did pretty well for the first 3 km or so, but every time I’d run out of energy towards the end and my time would come in at just over 27:30.
Two days ago everything seemed to go right. The temperature was nice, the hills didn’t seem quite as hard, I was breathing and stepping comfortably, and my pace was good. I realised towards the end of the run that I was making very good time, so I put in as much extra effort as I could muster and really ran in the last 300 m or so. My final time was 26:45, a whole minute faster than what I was previously doing!
This morning I did the run again, and this time I came in at 26:22!
It seems that once a barrier is broken, it’s shattered. A switch is flipped in your mind that suddenly removes whatever thoughts were holding you back. You know you can beat it and so you do, again and again and again.
The hard part is beating that barrier for the first time.
Whatever it is you’re doing, if things seem to be going really well it’s a sign that this might be the day. Dig deep, put in as much extra effort as you can, and make the most of whatever is going right for you today. Tell yourself that this is the day you smash the barrier. Think about what you’re doing, strive to keep up your pace, and focus on the end result you’re hoping for. If you truly believe you can do it, chances are good that you will.
If it doesn’t come together this time, think about what went wrong. Did you have energy left at the end that you could have used earlier? Did you do anything differently? Did it work or hold you back? What part of your performance could you improve? What’s the one thing that’s holding you back the most? Work on these things, and eventually they’ll all come together on the same day.
Once you’ve broken that barrier, think about what it was that allowed you to achieve a new personal best. Did you do anything differently? Did you use any new techniques? Did you prepare differently beforehand? Did you pace yourself differently throughout the activity? Did you go hard towards the end? Did you start out hard, or save your energy for the end when you really needed it? What did you focus on or think about? How did you feel during the activity? How did you feel afterwards?
Next time out for that activity, remember all these details. Go over them in your mind before starting. Think of them during the activity, and try to repeat the same thoughts and actions throughout. You know you can do it, and you know how you did it last time, so chances are good that you’ll do it again this time. Once you’ve beaten the barrier a few more times, it’ll seem easy and you’ll be enjoying operating at your higher performance level.
And pretty soon you’ll encounter a new performance barrier, and you’ll get to repeat the whole process again!
Technorati Tags: jogging, running, exercise, performance, breaking barriers, personal best
The Power Of Commitment June 22, 2006
Wow, who would have guessed what a difference a “kick in the pants” would make?
On Sunday I resolved to get tough on my diet and try to get my weekly weight loss moving again. I stated that I wanted to lose 0.5 kg this week, and 1 kg next week. As it turns out, I’ve already met this week’s target, and it’s only Thursday!
My daily weight measurements for the past three days have been 91.5, 91.0 and 91.0 kg (previously they had been for a while around 92.5 or 93.0 kg), so the moving average weight loss still has some room to drop before it catches up. This should give me the momentum to reach my target next week as well, and potentially far exceed it if I keep doing what I’m doing. Fantastic!
So what have I been doing? Not a lot, really. I think what was preventing me from losing much weight over the last few weeks was that I was straying from the ‘default’ eating habits I’ve installed over the last 6 months. I’ve been bringing leftover meals to work for lunch, instead of eating my normal healthier lunch. I’ve been having slightly larger meals at night than normal. My wife has baked a few cakes and muffins in recent weeks, and I’ve been bringing them to work as snacks. I also bought lunch at work (mmm, Chinese!) a few times instead of bringing my own.
All I’ve done this week is to go back to my normal habits. I’ve been bringing my normal lower-calorie lunches to work every day again, I’ve reduced the size of my evening meals, and I bring healthy snacks to work instead of cake and muffins. It really wasn’t much effort at all, but it seems to have made a huge impact.
I don’t have much further to go before my BMI reaches 25 (it’s currently 27.6), at which point I’ll officially no longer be overweight. My medium term goal is to try to reach that point before my birthday, August 15. Time will tell!
Daily Or Weekly Weigh-Ins? May 17, 2006
I’ve seen a lot of weight loss programs that recommend you only measure weight and body fat % weekly. From what I can tell, they do that because those figures can vary so much day to day (and even within the day), that people get discouraged by the fluctuations and find it hard to “stay the course”.
The theory is that if you only measure once per week, the cumulative effect of 7 days of weight loss should overshadow the day-to-day variances and you’ll see a drop in your weight. That’s more encouraging than the swinging “Yay! D’oh! D’oh! Yay! Yay! D’oh! …” reactions you get from daily measurement.
While the idea has some merit, I think there’s a much better way.
My weight measurements can vary by as much as 4 kg (9 lbs) over a single day, and my weight loss for a week is usually about 0.7 kg (1.5 lbs). So if one week’s measurement was slightly low (say because I was slightly dehydrated at the time) and the following week’s measurement was slightly high (because I’d recently had a drink, or hadn’t gone to the toilet for a while, or whatever) then I’d be left thinking I’d ‘wasted’ a whole week on diet and exercise only to gain weight. That’d be pretty discouraging! Similarly, if I’d gone off track I wouldn’t see the result until the end of the week, and I’d do several days worth of damage before getting any feedback.
See my article on When To Weigh Yourself for more information on daily fluctuations, and what time of day to weigh yourself.
By using the Hacker’s Diet averaging technique, each day’s measurement only affects your running average by 1/10th of that day’s variance. So it takes a few consecutive ‘bad’ days before your average starts to trend up. Now instead of hoping to make every day equal to or lower than your previous day’s measurement, you’re just aiming to have more days below your average than above it. If you can do that, the average keeps going down and you’re losing weight.
Daily measurements and a focus on keeping the average trending down is a much healthier mindset. It allows you a guilt-free day off every now and then, while still reminding you to do the right thing more often than not and giving you rapid feedback if your trend starts to change.
Technorati Tags: weight loss, weight, weight measurement, diet, dieting, motivation
Body Fat Estimator May 10, 2006
With the improvements that are constantly being made to the Physics Diet weight loss tracking site, I wanted to estimate what my starting body fat % would have been. I only bought a body fat analyser recently, so I wasn’t taking measurements back then.
I know it’s only a rough guide, but I did find this cool Body Fat Estimator. It requires your weight and height in order to give an estimate, although if you happen to know your waist size it’ll be more accurate.
If, like me, you have no idea what your waist size was, you can get out your old belt and measure the distance from the buckle to the hole you used to use. If you’re not sure which hole that was, look for the one that’s had the most wear!
According to that calculation, my body fat percentage back at the start was 42.8%. So, my starting and current stats are:
| Weight (kg) | Body Fat % | Fat Free Mass (kg) | Fat Mass (kg) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting | 110.0 | 42.8 | 62.9 | 47.1 |
| Current | 95.4 | 32.9 | 64.0 | 31.4 |
As you can see, my fat free mass has increased slightly (I guess I’ve built a little muscle through increased exercise), and my fat mass has gone down significantly. Gotta be happy with that!
When To Weigh Yourself May 5, 2006
Your body weight probably fluctuates more than you realise throughout the day. Mine can vary by up to 4 kg (9 lbs) over a single day, depending upon factors like:
- food intake: Did I just eat a big meal? Or have I had nothing to eat since breakfast?
- fluid intake: Have I just drunk lots of water? Am I slightly dehydrated after some heavy exercise? Am I ‘retaining water’?
- digestive system: OK, it’s not very glamorous, but your stomach, bowels and instestines can hold a lot of waste which is only ‘removed’ relatively infrequently. Also, different kinds of foods produce different amounts of waste products, so diet can affect this factor.
- health: If you have an injury or get sick, you might get some fluid build-up that would temporarily increase your weight.
- medication: Some medications can cause you to retain or lose fluid for several hours after taking them.
- other stuff: I don’t know, there must be other factors! If you donate blood, for example, you must weigh less afterwards
.
So when is the best time of day to weigh yourself in order to track your weight loss progress?
I like to weigh myself every morning before breakfast, for a number of reasons:
- It’s probably the lightest I’ll weigh all day. Let’s face it – I want to see low numbers! I haven’t eaten breakfast yet, I’ve just gone to the toilet, and I haven’t had anything to drink, so many of the variables that can add ‘noise’ to your weight statistics are taken out of the equation.
- It’s convenient. I take off my pyjamas, weigh myself, have a shower, then put on my clothes for the day. It’s a nuisance to weigh yourself later in the day, when you have to disrobe first, and then put the clothes back on afterwards.
- It motivates me to exercise in the mornings. If I go out for a run before weighing myself, I know from experience that I’ll lose maybe a half to one kilogram (1-2 pounds) from sweating. Some might call it cheating since you’ll put that weight back on as soon as you have a drink, but if it motivates you to exercise so that you can clock up a slightly better score, it can’t be all bad! I find this motivation is especially powerful if I gained weight on the last weigh-in.
- It puts my day in perspective. If I score a new low, I feel good for the rest of the day.
- It keeps me on track. If my weight has gone up slightly, it makes me conscious of my diet and activity for the rest of the day, making sure I get things back under control promptly.
How about you? What time of day do you weigh yourself, and why?
Technorati Tags: weight loss, scales, body fat, weight loss tips, motivation
Blood Test Results April 25, 2006
I had a blood test done a couple of weeks ago (before the Easter blow-out!), and thought it’s probably worth posting the results here.
My total cholesterol score was 3.6, triglicerides was 0.8, and fasting blood glucose score was 4.6. According to these health assessment guidelines, those look like pretty good scores. My total cholesterol is actually lower than the ‘healthy’ range – I’m not sure what that means, but my doctor doesn’t think it’s a problem.
I wish now that I’d gotten around to having a blood test done before I started losing weight. It’d be interesting to see how those numbers have changed over the last several months.
I did a urine test at the same time, and the woman who analysed that remarked that I had high ketone levels. When I told her I’d been losing weight for a while and had fasted for the blood test, she said it would be expected. I guess it’s good to know that my body is in ‘ketosis’ – that means I’m burning fat.
Technorati Tags: weight loss, blood test, blood glucose, triglicerides, cholesterol, health, ketosis
The Physics Diet April 5, 2006
Here’s an interesting story from physicist Richard A. Muller about how he lost weight using the first law of thermodynamics: The Physics Diet.
Exercise is a very difficult way to lose weight. Here’s a rule of thumb: exercise very hard for one hour (swimming, running, or racquetball) and you’ll lose about one ounce of fat. Light exercise for an hour (gardening, baseball, or golf) will lose you a third of an ounce. That number is small because fat is a very energy-dense substance: it packs about 4,000 food calories per pound, the same as gasoline, and 15 times as much as in TNT.
His solution? Eat less.
It reminds me of a ‘miracle diet’ skit I once saw on the satirical lifestyle show Life Support. Dr Rudi had come up with an amazing new concept for weight loss – “eat less”. Everyone is so caught up in fad diets, cleansing programs, miracle weight loss cures, exercise programs, drugs, metabolic stimulation, therapy and even surgery, that it’s actually funny to hear someone suggest that eating less is an effective way to lose weight!
Of course, if you eat less you’ll need to learn how to deal with hunger. What does Muller recommend? He suggests that you think of hunger as an itch, and you should stop scratching it. He draws inspiration from Lawrence of Arabia, who said, “The trick is not minding that it hurts”.
I told myself that the mild ache was only the sensation of evaporating fat.
Remember, being fat is just as much of a choice as choosing to lose weight. You may not have consciously chosen to put on weight, but once you notice the extra pounds and do nothing about it, you’re choosing to be fat.
Anybody can lose weight. Energy is conserved. Just stop scratching that itch. Of course, you’ll have to sacrifice instant gratification. Is it worth it? You decide. Food is delicious and cheap. You might reasonably choose to take advantage of this unique historical circumstance, and decide to be fat.
Everybody already knows how to lose weight – eat right, eat less, exercise more. You don’t need a doctor or a physicist to tell you that.
I’m No Longer Obese! February 28, 2006
I just noticed today that my Body Mass Index (BMI) has dipped below 30, for the first time in at least 5 years.
OK, it’s still 29.9. That’s high by any measure, but at least it’s steadily dropping. Having a BMI under 30 means I’m no longer officially Obese (I’m now merely Overweight ), so this is something worth celebrating!
Your BMI is simply your weight (in kg) divided by the square of your height (in meters). Medical experts have found BMI to be useful in evaluating health risks for individuals, since it encapsulates both height and weight. In a nutshell, BMI tells you how overweight you are for your height.
The BMI formula was developed by the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet in the 19th century.
Read this very good overview of BMI and its interpretation and limitations.