Rapid Weight Loss Help

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 While it has been 3 weeks since I last posted (thanks to work commitments) the following details are what I jotted down a few weeks ago and have only just had time to actually publish here on the site. What I’m saying is I haven’t been cheating! Infact, while I said last time I would only be giving you updates every 2 weeks in actuality I tried out a new diet recently and the results have been truly shocking.

My latest experiment has involved a kettlebell workout together with a paleo-based diet and has led to some truly amazing results in my opinion. The downside is that the diet is so limiting that it is virtually impossible to follow while I am working my crazy 55+ hours a week though having had five days off work recently I was able to make the most of the opportunity to see what results I could generate – and boy what results!

Appreciate the statistics below show the difference over just 7 days thanks to my new regime…

 Yes folks that almost 4lbs lost in a single week with minimal exercise! I like it! Even better according to my scales my bodyfat is at an all-time low of just 10.8%! Just 0.8% away from my target with another 2 weeks to go until the end of February. In other words if I do things right I should be able to hit my target without too much trouble.

On the downside I should say that while I am still shedding pounds thanks to my new regime it still looks like my six pack is some way off. I am seeing more definition all the time as you’ll see in the pictures below but I’m still some way from a perfectly flat stomach with those glorious abs I seek!

As I set my goal at 10% that’s what I’m aiming for but I’m starting to wonder either if my scales aren’t too accurate in terms of the bodyfat measure or if I’m going to have to go even lower. Having said that there is also the chance that the last 1% could make all the difference but we’ll see.

Here are the latest photos with last week on the left and this week on the right. I think you’ll agree that while the changes aren’t massive there is more definition to me this week. I’m quite excited to see what will happen over the next couple of weeks as this new regime seems to be doing great things for me!

As my body fat levels continue to drop so does the amount of weight I am able to lose each week. While I am attaining the sort of physique I am happy with I can still see there is room for improvement so this slower progress is getting a little frustrating.

Like last week I attended a fitness class one evening this week though work looks like I won’t be able to fit a class in next week. However having recently read about the wonders of kettlebell training I am considering giving this a try from the beginning of next month – in week 12 in other words – to try and blast off the last of my stomach before my vacation.

As with last week the changes are really tiny in terms of my weight. Less than a pound lost as you will see below though on the upside my body fat continued to drop in line with my goals to an impressive 11.6% this week meaning I should still hit my 10% body fat goal before the end of February when I take my vacation.

Here are the stats:

The changes are of course tiny now as we get down to the final leg of the journey so just to let you know I will now be swapping to updates every 2 weeks rather than every week. As you will see from the photos below I look almost identical this week (right hand pictures) to last week (left hand) apart from a tiny improvement in definition so hopefully changing to updates every two weeks will lead to more interesting results and more noticeable changes in my “before” and “after” weight loss photos.

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It’s been a week since I got back on the “treadmill” and recommenced my weight loss challenge. So how did things go?

The weather over the last week has been terrible – it is January after all. Non-stop rain, cold and blizzard-like wind which has made it essentially impossible to do any kind of outdoor exercise such as the HIIT runs I love so much.

Looking for another solution this week I went for my first ever exercise class at a local gym. The class was on Tuesday and involved a lot of resistance training. While it was great fun and quite a challenge I’m glad I only booked one as I was aching until Sunday!

Having said that it was so enjoyable I’m hoping my body can take going to two of these classes next week – we’ll see how I find the first one of the week and this will affect whether I feel up to the second one.

All I will say right now is that it is great to be back. It feels fantastic to be back getting into shape and I feel particularly motivated with the goal of my vacation in just 5/6 weeks time setting me a very firm deadline.

You may remember last week I clocked in at 12.5% bodyfat and decided on the goal of 10% before my vacation – at which point my abs should be clearly visible (they’re just about visible at present if I tense them). So what is my bodyfat percentage after a single week?

The answer is 12.1% – or a 0.4% drop in just 7 days. If I can do 0.4% per week for the next 5 weeks then that’s 2% off the current total of 12.1% taking me pretty much to my 10% goal which would be absolutely perfect.

I think this seems reasonable though my bodyfat is really so low at the moment that burning fat is rather more difficult than it was in the earlier (fatter!) days of the challenge.

But I feel like everything is well on track. Speaking of which, the table below shows the latest stats for this week. I lost a little bit of weight – which basically after just a week has recitified the slight weight-gain I experienced between November and last week. Essentially I burned off 2 months of uncontrolled eating including Christmas in just seven days; which you can’t really complain about.

Interestingly while I only lost a little weight (1.2lbs or 0.5kg) the fact that my bodyfat dropped so drammatically means I am happy with the results and because of the resistance training I think I may well have seen some muscle growth. And as I mentioned last week I’m essentially aiming to lose 5lbs in a little over a month – or around 1-1.5lbs per week – which means I am spot on right now.

Next week I hope to weigh in at 139 lbs and 11.6% bodyfat so tune in next week to see how close I get to those targets. Right, here’s the stats table:

 I also have photos as always with last week on the left and this week on the right but with only half a kilo lost in that time the photos look almost identical apart from perhaps slighly more definition on my stomach this week.

Wow, here we are in the second week of January 2011! I appreciate it isn’t exactly a week after the last update (November 1st 2010!) but boy have things been crazy!

How crazy? Think splitting up with my girlfriend, having to find somewhere new to live with Christmas and New Year ontop. Not a good combination so frankly I haven’t been doing any weight loss exercise – and I’ve also been eating and drinking more than I should. You know how it is at Christmas with all those parties!

So firstly this post is an apology for everyone waiting for the next update. I’m not dead, I just fell off the bandwagon thanks to “life”. But now I’m back.

Secondly then I am going to draw a line in the sand today and will start again on my rapid weight loss journey. Since I have done no exercise and have eaten some pretty amazing numbers of calories I decided to check my stats against those of 6 weeks ago to see how I had done.

The results are below and, to my mind, are pretty impressive. I managed to only put on a single pound in six weeks with all that tormoil going on – I can only assume that I have gotten pretty good at eating correctly before and after the festive season!

And to be fair, when I look at the stats below, not only do I look slimmer in my opinion but furthermore my waist and stomach measurements have gone down a little – go figure! Maybe the 1lb increase is more to do with using new scales than actual fat increase?

So today is day zero again. It looks like I’m pretty much starting again where I left off which is satisfying to say. We’ll pretend that the 6 weeks between the last update and this one didn’t occur and I will start to update you once again.

As an interesting side-note my new bathroom scales also estimate your body fat percentage. It measured mine at 12.5%. Apparently the average for guys my age is between 11 and 20% so that puts me right down the bottom of the scale.

I have heard it said before that when your body fat gets down to 10% you should be able to see your sixpack. At 142 pounds I need to lose 2.5% of my bodyweight to get to that stage – which is roughly 4lbs. I’m calling it 5 just to be on the safe side and give me a “fudge factor”.

While we know that the last few pounds are the hardest to shift I have a goal. Towards the end of February I have a vaction booked in the sun and I would very much like to be able to strut around on the beach with my shirt off and my sixpack out.

So that’s the goal – lose those 5 lbs as a bare minimum in the next month. Can I do it? We’ll have to see but I have a goal and I’m finding that very motivating. I have already signed up for a HIIT class in a couple of days to get my metabolism stoked again so it will be interesting to see how (if?!) I make it through the class – and assuming I manage to lose those 5lbs whether I will actually find myself with a sixpack. Stick around to find out!

OK, so that’s that done, now time for the stats table and then the photos comparing my figure on November 1st last year with today.

And now ladies and gentlemen for the photos, with November (“last week”) on the left and today on the right. I’m right aren’t I – i do look slimmer now?!

Time for another update and I’m afraid to say this one isn’t as impressive as some of my past successes. I still lost weight, but certainly not as much as in some of my better weeks.

I think there are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, the longer you’re on a weight loss diet the more used to it your body can become meaning less results. When you first significantly cut your calories and increase your activity levels through exercise your body gets “shocked” into shedding pounds by the change in lifestyle.

In contrast after a while your body can start to get used to the lower calorie levels and your exercise becomes easier and so you burn fewer calories.

Also it seems that the more weight you have to lose, the easier it is. As the weight really starts to come off as it has been doing with me you have to work harder and harder to get rid of more fat.

Lastly, hand-on-heart, I have been so busy with work over the last few weeks – with a visit from the managing director meaning many, many extra hours worked in preparation – that I haven’t had a chance to go for a single run.

Now the visit is over, and my results are less than impressive, I am going to remedy that and the next thing I am going to do after posting this update is head on out for a run.

Because these changes are happening a little more slowly at present I am planning to switch to updates every two weeks rather than every one week because otherwise there simply won’t be much to say in each update. Which is why this update is two weeks after the last one.

OK, so that said, how have I done? Well I am pleased to say that I am actually starting to feel quite slim. I still have quite a bit of fat to lose – especially off my stomach – but I am feeling “firmer bodied” now which is a nice experience. Apart from around my belly button my fingers don’t sink into fat when I touch my skin.

The new jeans I bought recently barely fit me any more without a belt and just yesterday I fitted into some work trousers I haven’t been able to wear for about a year and a half! So we’re certainly getting there.

When I was at my slimmest and leanest a few years ago I had some jeans that I could no longer fit into. Then when I lost all my weight I couldn’t even wear them without a belt as they ept falling down so after my pleasant surprise with my work trousers the other day I plan to try on those olf faithfuls and see how (if at all) they fit. I’ll let you know…

OK, onto the stats and it seems that while I didn’t lose a huge amount of weight overall, my stomach has got considerably smaller over the last few weeks. I’m not totally sure of the reason for this unless the smaller meals I am eating mean my stomach is now less stretched and is returning to it’s normal shape.

Here are the figures for this update…

 So just 3 pounds (1.5kg) lost though again it seems there are subtle changes in my photos – with as always the photo on the left showing my picture from the last update and the photo on the right showing a photo from today.

That’s it till next time folks!

So I suppose the first obvious question is what ever happened to the week four update of my rapid weight loss challenge?

The answer is that I got struck down with another virus which totally zapped me of energy. I could barely make my way into work and once I got home all I wanted to do was sleep. Because of this my last weekly update never got made. Now I am feeling like my old self and am full of energy again though I have only been like like this for a few days.

It seems that I have been constantly ill over the last few weeks – as soon as I get over one bug I catch another but I don’t suppose my job helps with this – dealing with the public all day long and often feeling tired because of the shifts I am working.

So what has happened over the last couple of weeks? How much weight have I lost if any?

Well whilst this is a “two week” update I haven’t lost twice as much weight as usual I have once again managed to shed quite an impressive amount in my opinion baring in mind the lack of exercise I have managed to get while feeling so ill.

Let’s look at the comparison table to show this week’s stats against week 3′s results and then perhaps look longer-term at what I have achieved since the very beginning of the challenge so far…

I think you’d agree that wile it seems my hips haven’t reduced in size that extra inch off my stomach has made a big difference enabling me to lose over 2kg or 5lbs in the last two weeks – without exercise!

At under 10 stone 4 lbs I wonder whether it will be next week or the week after when I finaly dip under the 10 stone mark which will really be a nice milestone to reach.

So here are the latest photos showing last time on the left and this week on the right. Do you notice the differences this extra 2kg has made?!

So now I have been going for over a month let’s take a look at the total results so far. I had planned to do this last week as a “months over-view” but of course being ill it didn’t quite happen, but let’s take a look at the total changes so far:

That means that in the space of around 5 weeks (of which I have been ill for around 3 of them!) I have lost 3.5 inches off my stomach plus an impressive 7.7 kilos! Put another I have lost over a stone (14lbs) in just a weeks. Who says rapid weight loss is difficult?!

Now let’s compare the initial photos when I started the challenge (on the left) with this week’s photos to see the differences in my physique:

photo credit: alancleaver_2000

I have talked a little about the exercise regime I use for rapid weight loss but I thought it might also be useful to discuss the list of foods to help you lose weight that I use.

Anyone who has tried to lose weight in the past probably won’t find any massive surprises here but this is really my proven list of foods that taste great, can be combined in all sorts of ways and help to keep my calorie intake in check.

My staple foods are salad of all kinds; lettuce, rocket, cucumber, tomatoes, sweet peppers, spring onions and so on. A standard meal for me is a mixed salad made up of a variety of these ingredients. To add more interest I will often add some sweet chilli sauce or a little sour cream and top it off with some lean meat for protein such as grilled chicken breast, prawns or some finely-chopped turkey bacon. I sometimes add herbs such as basil to further increase the interest.

Another staple of my diet is eggs which I prepare in all sorts of ways. Scrambled or poached eggs on brown toast (2 eggs, 2 slices of wholemeal toast) or I use some of the ingredients listed above and make a delicious omelette.

A typical evening meal involves some more lean meat (chicken or steak for example) with some vegetables. I try to avoid starchy vegetables like potatoes or parsnips and instead stick to things like broccoli, cauliflower, green beans and spinach.

Lastly for “snacks” when I’m in a hurry and don’t have time to prepare a “proper” meal I find that some nuts, fruit, a fat-free yogurt or a bowl of low-calorie cereal (bran flakes with chopped fruit and skimmed milk typically) work well and help me to stick to my diet.

So that’s about it. Nothing pre-prepared. Nothing with any noticeable added sugar. Nothing “refined”. Just lean animal protein, whole grains, salad and vegetables. There is so much that can be done with this combination that it is very hard to get bored eating this way and the results speak for themselves.

Another week is over and done with so it’s time once again for a weight loss update. Again I had a few hurdles to contend with including the tail end of my cold which left me with a bad chest and a nasty cough which made exercise less appealing.

I also had a party to attend over the weekend which meant a degree of social alcohol consumption and lastly the weather has been dreadful recently meaning that it seems whenever I have a little time off work in which I could go for a run it’s tipping it down with rain and I’m sitting indoors coughing my lungs up.

Luckily towards the end of the week things started to look up a bit and I made the most of it by going for two runs – though still not the three I like to try and aim for.

But through a cold and a 55 hour week at work I don’t think I’ve done too badly overall.

If you read last week’s update then you will remember I lost a *tonne* of weight and was getting concerned that I had somehow made a mistake of my measurements though couldn’t see how. So I was quite interested to see if I would lose any weight this week or not. After all if I mucked up my measurements last week and reported them wrong there was even a chance I could look like I have put on weight this week.

So how did I do? Well I am, once again, pleasantly surprised. I didn’t lose as much weight as last week’s amazing figures but I *still* managed to lose some weight and hope to be able to hit the one stone mark by the next weekly update.

Here are the stats comparing last week and this week:

 And here are the latest photos showing last week on the left versus this week on the right. To me there looks like a noticeable difference in the “sideways” photo though little difference in the “front” photo. What do you think? 

I have always found it strange that whilst exercise is meant to boost your immune system I always seem to come down with a cold within a few weeks of starting a new weight loss regime.

Perhaps it is more about changes to my diet than the exercise itself but as I have found several times in the past this last week I was struck down with an unpleasant bug. Whilst I managed one run early in the week, by mid-week I felt totally unable to do any form of exercise.

So rather than the three runs a week I aim for, I managed only one last week. Not good. Luckily despite feeling pretty bad for the last few days I did manage to stick to my diet though frankly with no exercise I wasn’t expecting much from my weight loss progress this week.

So imagine my surprise when I tentatively stepped onto the scales a few days ago to do my next weekly update and found that I had lost an amazing 5.75 lbs in a single week!

Indeed having lost just over 3lbs last week it seems strange that I doubled my weight loss this week with less exercise. I can only think of two potential logical explanations for this strange change of circumstances.

The first of these is simply that I made a mistake with my measurements. Was I over tired? Was I dehydrated? It will be interesting to see next weeks results to compare them and see if I lose still more weight or “plateau” a little as my measurements correct themselves.

The other possibility is that my virus really made me lose my appetite, plus having got a nasty cough I was arguably moving far more than usual as I coughed and spluttered my way through shifts at work!

As I say, I shall be very interested to see next week’s results to see how they compare with this weeks. If I keep up with the current pattern, and assuming my stats for this week aren’t wrong, then by next week I will be getting close to losing a total of a stone. By the end of week four I hope to have beaten this and to be working on the next stone where things will start to get very exciting indeed with my appearance!

OK so onto the actual statistics and then the latest set of photos showing me last  week on the left and this week on the right for comparison.

I might be imagining things but it seems there are is a small yet noticeable difference in my appearance over the last week. What do you think?

photo credit: wwarby

It seems that one of the most common exercise regimes for rapid weight loss is simply going for a run. Eat less, run more. And to a degree this is indeed correct.

However if you’ve ever been a member of a gym you may also have seen the other side of the coin – people are there on the treadmill every time you arrive, running (or quick walking) away. When you go to leave these people are still there trundling along.

Weeks or even months later they’re still doing the same thing, spending half their lives exercising yet they look exactly the same as they did when they first started coming.

The fact is that while jogging is popular and socially acceptable, it isn’t the most effective exercise for rapid weight loss. Indeed as you may have guessed from the title of this article a far more effective technique for fast weight loss in my experience is that of high intensity interval training.

The name of this type of exercise is quite apt as it accurately describes what you’re doing. You’re using intervals of high intensity exercise, interspersed with lower intensity exercise.

Jogging at a constant pace has two real downsides. Firstly your body can quickly start to get used to this increased pace and so your weight loss starts to plateau  unless you start running further and further to keep your body working hard. This means the more weight you want to lose the more exercise you will need to do.

So if jogging is to work well you will have to invest a lot of time in doing it and you’ll have to keep on extending that time to get the same results the longer you are on your diet.

This seems a little crazy to me. But there’s one other kicker and that is that research suggests that when you return from your jog your body will quickly stop burning fat. You will only burn fat and lose weight while you’re exercising and soon after you stop exercising, you stop losing weight.

High intensity interval training (HIIT) for rapid weight loss is the solution. Due to the high intensity bursts your body keeps burning fat much longer after you finish exercising and you burn up more calories doing less exercise. In short this means you can lose more weight with less exercise and by investing less time. Clearly this is a good thing all round!

So now you know what high intensity interval training is and why it can help you with your rapid weight loss goals allow me to explain exactly how I use this exercise technique myself to quickly strip off fat.

I get dressed and go out for a run like so many other people but I do things a little differently. Instead of running for an hour or so at a steady speed I aim to do 20-30 minutes of exercise only, doing some low intensity and some high intensity exercise to keep my body guessing what is going on, to keep it working hard and to keep it burning fat long after I stop exercising.

Quite simply I start running – fast. A full pelt. Really uncomfortable, all-out kind of exercise. I do this for only 30 seconds then I slow down to a walk or a very leisurely jog for another 30 seconds. Then I pick up the pace again, and back down. I carry on this pattern of 30 seconds of high intensity exercise followed by 30 seconds of low intensity exercise for the agreed 20-30 minutes and then I’m all done.

I aim to do this three times a week, first thing in the morning, on an empty stomach (so my body has to burn fat to get the energy it needs rather than using the nutrients from my breakfast) and then I try to wait 30-60 minutes after getting home before I actually eat anything.

This simple, quick program is a real cornerstone to my rapid weight loss success and so I strongly suggest you consider trying it out yourself.

Just a quick warning though before I sign off. This kind of exercise is hard work. Some people find themselves having to stop after only a few minutes. Some people feel light-headed. I’ve even heard of a few people being physically sick as a result of it. So be aware of this. It takes time to get used to so don’t push yourself further than you feel comfortable and ensure you warm up properly at the beginning.

That said, the results can be spectacular so please feel free to leave me a comment below if you’ve tried HIIT and let me know how you got on…