For what it's worth, I thought I would post about a fat loss program I am doing. I did this once before back in March-May. The first time around, I lost 30 lbs (low 250s to low 220s). I am currently at 224, so the fat pretty much stayed off. But I want to be leaner and take more weight off my joints. Although weight is not as much an issue, I'd like to be below 210 and more importantly below 10% bf.

Here is essentially what I am doing - it is VERY basic, but basics tend to work very well. This same type program is followed by most bodybuilders leading up to a contest - it's mainly the intensity that varies between people. In fact, my mom followed the basics of this program and dropped lots of weight and she's 55. So it *can* work for anyone.

I will begin by eating 12 cal/lb/day, broken into 6 meals/day. For me, this equates to about 2700 cal/day. I will do this for 4 weeks.

After 4 weeks, I will drop my daily caloric intake by 200 cal/day and keep it at 2500 cal/day for weeks 5-6. I will keep dropping 200 cal/day every other week, as long as fat loss is not too rapid (try to stay in the 3-5 lbs/week range, if not lower). For weeks 7-12, I will up the meal count to 7 meals/day to give my metabolism a boost and change of pace.

My meals consist of very basic foods - mainly chicken/turkey breast, albacore tuna, and egg whites for my proteins. Sweet potatoes, brown rice, steel cut and quick oats, rice cakes as my carbs. Fats mostly from flax seed oil, which I don't count against my daily caloric intake. And obviously lots of water. I will mix in something like a fajita salad or some spaghetti with rice instead of pasta just to keep it interesting. But most of my meals are pretty basic, but I luckily have the will power to just eat that and not get phased. It is hard, but worth it.

Supplements are flax seed oil, multi vitamin, glutamine, glucosamine, ZMA, B12 complex, and maybe creatine.
Workout is fairly simple - do cardio 2-3 times a week, 20-30 min/session for the first few weeks and slowly add a session/week and 5 min/session. During the last 4 weeks, I will be doing 5-6 cardio sessions/week at 40-45 min/session. This is where my metal CDs help me a ton!

I lift 3 times a week, no more than 45 min/session. I stick to the bigger, complex lifts and supplement with isolation lifts. More than anything, I want to keep the intensity high and mix it up enough so my body does not adapt. I am not so interested in adding mass during this 12 week program as I am just keeping the furnace going. I find that 3 times a week if enough for me - if I wanted to add mass, then 4-5 would be needed.

I am in the middle of week #1 now - I began this wek because I am out of school until mid-Jan. So that 1 month without school helps me get into the swing of things even better. I find this time around is much easier since I did it once before, which is kind of obvious.

Hope this helps others get motivated! I'll try and post updates as I progress. I know most of this is basic, but I wanted to share anyway.

 

Good luck....

 

Thanks - it's really all about consistency for me. Since I did it once before, the second time around will hopefully be easier.