Posted: 6/24/2012 4:26:55 PM EDT
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I started tracking my calories and began exercising on May 7. I'm lifting weights 3 days a week and running the other 4. The first 2 weeks were tough, but I'm now able to run 4 miles in 30 minutes. I started at 255lbs, currently weigh 236. I'm 34, been a couch potato with a desk job, terrible diet and no exercise whatsoever for the last 5 years. Please critique or offer advice if you notice anything wrong.
Breakdown: Eating 1620 cal. day, tracking with myfitnesspal.com Running is Sunday/Thurday HIIT, Tuesday/Saturday distance for 30 minutes M/W/F following a slightly tweaked Starting Strength program The only supplements I'm taking are a daily multivitamin and creatine. Here I am last month at 255lbs. 6'2 with 36" waist. My goals are run a 5k in 20 minutes, have visible abs, wear 32 jeans, and bench press my bodyweight 20 reps. 
Update! Just hit 229 over the weekend. Based on the advice above, I did up my daily caloric intake to 2000. Went on vacation last week and slacked off a bit ( a lot), but I did run a 5k on Wednesday. Pic from yesterday. 
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Are you doing anything wrong? Yup. You are getting older.
You have too many goals you are working on at once. Weight loss, strength, endurance and speed. That is a tall order. Pick the most important to work on first. Fitness is a life long journey, not a destination. |
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You have some lofty goals...that's not a bad thing though, but like H46 said sub 20 5k is going to be very difficult to reach on that much running and HIIT. I've known people that could do it, but not many. I'd also like to hear what you changed on SS.... And like Gunguy said, I think 1600 cals is way too few to be doing SS + HIIT + 2 30 min runs a week I would make an uneducated wild ass guess you should be in the mid 2,000s to support that. All in all though I think you're on the right track. Where do you get your HIIT programming from?
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Quoted: Are you doing anything wrong? Yup. You are getting older. You have too many goals you are working on at once. Weight loss, strength, endurance and speed. That is a tall order. Pick the most important to work on first. Fitness is a life long journey, not a destination. Eh...yes and no. Lots of people do the same thing (I do) one just has to realize that the goals will come a little slower. |
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Hmm, already you guys have given me some things to think about. This is the first time in my life that I've counted calories, so the 1600/day is straight from the myfitnesspal app. My entire life (until I became a lazy couch potato) just occasional cardio with weight lifting was enough, I never had to care what I ate. Would I benefit from increasing my daily caloric intake a bit?
My only little change to SS was adding dips on "A" days, and barbell curls on "B" days. HIIT routine is 30 second sprint, followed by 60 seconds rest, 8-10 times. I'm hoping to change that to 30/30 by the end of July. |
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Quoted: Hmm, already you guys have given me some things to think about. This is the first time in my life that I've counted calories, so the 1600/day is straight from the myfitnesspal app. My entire life (until I became a lazy couch potato) just occasional cardio with weight lifting was enough, I never had to care what I ate. Would I benefit from increasing my daily caloric intake a bit? My only little change to SS was adding dips on "A" days, and barbell curls on "B" days. HIIT routine is 30 second sprint, followed by 60 seconds rest, 8-10 times. I'm hoping to change that to 30/30 by the end of July. I added both of those as well when I was doing SS. I think he even said it was ok to add them.
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| ^ concur with the above advice, and yes, I believe you will benefit from more calories while doing SS. If your body doesn't have the calories and protein needed, your recovery will suffer and so will your workouts. You'll get discouraged because you won't be improving and you may fall off the wagon. Fuel your workouts and your recovery properly! |
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1. keep a food diary and running total, albeit most folks are notorious at underestimating the daily total caloric intake.
2. it sounds like what you want is sharply defined abs, broad shoulders, and narrow waist. Abs/narrow waist comes from diet(type of food you eat/total caloric intake) more than anything else. 3. cardio: you want to vary it, both the order and type due to body's amazing ability to adapt quickly. For example, alternate b/w walking, running, and swimming. 4. weight training: focus on large muscle, esp. glutes/thighs/leg and core. If you work on the core, you will develop muscular/broad shoulders and arms that will be in balance with your torso. You want both diet and workout to be sustainable because data shows that most folks will gain back the lost weight sooner or later. GOOD LUCK! Quoted:
I started tracking my calories and began exercising on May 7. I'm lifting weights 3 days a week and running the other 4. The first 2 weeks were tough, but I'm now able to run 4 miles in 30 minutes. I started at 255lbs, currently weigh 236. I'm 34, been a couch potato with a desk job, terrible diet and no exercise whatsoever for the last 5 years. Please critique or offer advice if you notice anything wrong. Breakdown: Eating 1620 cal. day, tracking with myfitnesspal.com Running is Sunday/Thurday HIIT, Tuesday/Saturday distance for 30 minutes M/W/F following a slightly tweaked Starting Strength program The only supplements I'm taking are a daily multivitamin and creatine. Here I am last month at 255lbs. 6'2 with 36" waist. My goals are run a 5k in 20 minutes, have visible abs, wear 32 jeans, and bench press my bodyweight 20 reps. https://dl.dropbox.com/u/15164380/1st%20%28Medium%29.jpg |
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How in the hell are you running 4 miles in 30 minutes?
I've picked up running on the treadmill the past couple months. I'm 5'10, 155lbs, and can only do 5.5 to 6 miles in an 65 minutes, including warm up and cool down. I typically jog at a 6.0 for the first 20 to 30 minutes of the run, then walk a few minutes at a 4.1, then run another 5-10, walk a couple, etc. I'll include probably 3 to 4 minutes of 8.0 to 9.0 sprints in the hour. |
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Quoted:
How in the hell are you running 4 miles in 30 minutes? I've picked up running on the treadmill the past couple months. I'm 5'10, 155lbs, and can only do 5.5 to 6 miles in an 65 minutes, including warm up and cool down. I typically jog at a 6.0 for the first 20 to 30 minutes of the run, then walk a few minutes at a 4.1, then run another 5-10, walk a couple, etc. I'll include probably 3 to 4 minutes of 8.0 to 9.0 sprints in the hour. It's not 30 even, more like 30:45 or so. I don't know man, but I feel great when running. I was always a 6 min mile guy in the Army. At least at the distances I've been running, my legs don't tire and I'm not sucking wind at all. My first day out I didn't even make 1/2 mile before I was totally out of breath. I couldn't even run during week 2 because my knees hurt so bad. Muscle memory maybe?? |
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Quoted:
How in the hell are you running 4 miles in 30 minutes? I've picked up running on the treadmill the past couple months. I'm 5'10, 155lbs, and can only do 5.5 to 6 miles in an 65 minutes, including warm up and cool down. I typically jog at a 6.0 for the first 20 to 30 minutes of the run, then walk a few minutes at a 4.1, then run another 5-10, walk a couple, etc. I'll include probably 3 to 4 minutes of 8.0 to 9.0 sprints in the hour. Its only a 7:30/mile pace... |
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Quoted:
How in the hell are you running 4 miles in 30 minutes? I've picked up running on the treadmill the past couple months. I'm 5'10, 155lbs, and can only do 5.5 to 6 miles in an 65 minutes, including warm up and cool down. I typically jog at a 6.0 for the first 20 to 30 minutes of the run, then walk a few minutes at a 4.1, then run another 5-10, walk a couple, etc. I'll include probably 3 to 4 minutes of 8.0 to 9.0 sprints in the hour. I'm a 5'10" 195lb fatty and I ran a 43:23 10K in April. If you want to run faster, you have to run more and at the right intensity. Do you want to run faster? Serious question - not everyone cares to. If you do, how much are you running now per week? |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
How in the hell are you running 4 miles in 30 minutes? I've picked up running on the treadmill the past couple months. I'm 5'10, 155lbs, and can only do 5.5 to 6 miles in an 65 minutes, including warm up and cool down. I typically jog at a 6.0 for the first 20 to 30 minutes of the run, then walk a few minutes at a 4.1, then run another 5-10, walk a couple, etc. I'll include probably 3 to 4 minutes of 8.0 to 9.0 sprints in the hour. I'm a 5'10" 195lb fatty and I ran a 43:23 10K in April. If you want to run faster, you have to run more and at the right intensity. Do you want to run faster? Serious question - not everyone cares to. If you do, how much are you running now per week? Yes I want to run faster. Right now I am doing 5.5 to 6 miles almost every other day. I am coming off an injury from two months ago where I fractured my foot and felt like I destroyed my hip flexer after running 7.25 miles on the treadmill. Think I ramped it up too fast... but I am just now getting back to where I was before my 7.25 mile jaunt... The farthest I have ever been able to run is 3.1 miles which took exactly 31 minutes before I had to slow to walk a few minutes. That's a 10 minute mile pace. |
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Quoted:
Yes I want to run faster. Right now I am doing 5.5 to 6 miles almost every other day. I am coming off an injury from two months ago where I fractured my foot and felt like I destroyed my hip flexer after running 7.25 miles on the treadmill. Think I ramped it up too fast... but I am just now getting back to where I was before my 7.25 mile jaunt... The farthest I have ever been able to run is 3.1 miles which took exactly 31 minutes before I had to slow to walk a few minutes. That's a 10 minute mile pace. How long have you been back running? |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Yes I want to run faster. Right now I am doing 5.5 to 6 miles almost every other day. I am coming off an injury from two months ago where I fractured my foot and felt like I destroyed my hip flexer after running 7.25 miles on the treadmill. Think I ramped it up too fast... but I am just now getting back to where I was before my 7.25 mile jaunt... The farthest I have ever been able to run is 3.1 miles which took exactly 31 minutes before I had to slow to walk a few minutes. That's a 10 minute mile pace. How long have you been back running? Couple weeks now |
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Couple weeks now I'd recommend another week or two of every other day, then 3 weeks of 2 days on, 1 day off. Make it through that injury free and I'd say to do a maximal test of 1 mile to 5K (if you can find a race) and plug the numbers into either the McMillan calculator of the Jack Daniels Vdot formula to get recommended training paces, then start upping miles. How many miles depends on goal race distance. Once you spend a few weeks at that volume, you can add in some tempo work. |