Fat Loss by the numbers, and the perils of overtraining.

To maintain good habits and practice, I've been keeping record of my bodyweight and body fat percentage since the end of November 2007 (gives or take a few odd months when at the time I didn’t feel it really mattered). To be honest I never really gave it much thought until I started playing with a few calculations yesterday.

I decided to do this after subscribing to Mike Geary's "Truth About Abs" email newsletter. As a freebie for signing up I was able to download his eBook "Training & Nutrition Insider Secrets For A Lean Body".

Well it wasn't until I calculated my body fat mass and fat free mass that I realized I may have lost quite a lot of muscle.

Going back to the first recording on my bodyweight chart which was 21 November 2007 I weighed 84.1kg (185 lb) and my body fat percentage was 26.1%. So my fat mass (FM) was 22kg and fat free mass (FFM) 62.1kg. My lowest weight was 75.8kg (167 lb) and body fat percentage 22.9% 2 April 2008 meaning FM 17.4kg and FFM 58.4kg. Looking back at my weigh in stats from last week my FM was 19.8kg and FFM was 55.5kg. Since the majority of the loss CANNOT be just down to water retention, it can only be concluded that I MUST have lost muscle.

I must admit that I have exercised to excess in the past. I guess it was probably down to my bad alcohol habits, and the guilt I have been feeling about it; in other words I've been trying to burn off the alcohol calories instead of making the changes in my lifestyle that would allow me to burn my body fat and build lean muscle instead.

The Turbulence Training email newsletter from 25 March was talking about skinny guys wanting to lose more weight instead of gaining muscle to make them look better for the "beach body" look. Although not what you would call a hard and fast rule in the real world, Craig suggests that a person of my height should weigh no less than 165 lb/74.9kg in order to look good on the beach.

This has given me the opportunity to take a look at the figures to aim for which the table below shows:

Suggested bodyweight	75.8kg	FM	FFM
Bodyfat percentage	20%	15.2	60.6
	15%	11.4	64.4
	10%	7.6	68.2
	8%	6.1	69.7

Wow! That is some challenge. To lose 14kg of fat and increase my muscle mass by nearly 15kg.

Fortunately, taking a closer look at these numbers and reading Mike Geary's book have given me insight, as well as quite a big shock, as to how I must have been punishing my body by overtraining, with the increased cortisol levels reducing my muscle mass. Thank god I have taken interest in the range of eBooks that I am promoting, as these will allow me to train in a smarter, more efficient way and manage my nutrition so I can build up my muscle mass and reduce fat which of course is the reason why I'm doing this.

Mike Geary's "Truth About Six Pack Abs" is now available from the health and fitness pages at Godzillamarketing for the amazing price of US$39. For more information or to order click here.

Your continuing partner in the quest to look healthy and lean, all the best for the rest of the week,

Neil

P.S. Since writing the blog draft yesterday, I weighed myself this morning (31/3/09) and I was 78.2 kg 23.9% body fat (18.7kg). I’m really pleased to have lost 2 ½ lb of fat this week. It proves that my diet and exercise program are working as if it had not gone down I would have been in starvation mode and retained my body fat.

I will be doing my turbulence training first thing tomorrow after a lean breakfast of Shropshire produced Muller light and a cereal bar. I’m going to do the body attack class after I will make a sincere effort to recover some protein and calories when I finish working out. I have finally decided to buy some whey protein. But this will only be as a recovery aid. I am not a real fan of supplements and have always been skeptical about them. However, I do need protein to keep my muscle mass from decreasing rapidly. As always I will keep a record and publish my progress here. Stay in touch with me!!!

Saturday 28/3/09 Circuits and Body Attack classes at the gym

just a quick post tonight.

had my usual saturday today spending the morning and afternoon with my gorgeous daughter whom i wish i could be with every day. after i left her back at her mum's i went back to the gym for the circuits class and, it was a great bodyweight cardio class this afternoon. just what i wanted after last weeks torture!

in this one we work in pairs, so whilst i am doing the exercises, my partner is resting (albeit supposed to be doing step ups), and vice versa. so this is how it goes:

round 1: 30 bicycle crunches

round 2: 30 bicycle crunches + 12 power squats

round 3: 30 bicycle crunches + 12 power squats + 10 press ups.

You get the picture...you do the previous set and then add another exercise so the pyramid looks like this.

30 bicycle crunches +
12 power squats +
10 press ups +
9 burpees +
8 shuttles runs (length of studio) +
7 crunches +
6 gun raises (power lunges) +
5 tricep push ups +
4 reverse crunches +
3 press ups and start jumps +
2 high knee shuttle runs +
1 tuck jump

whoa! that sounds like hard work. and then, guess what? when you've finished all that you have to do the pyramid circuit back in reverse!

I partnered up with Mark again, and guess what, we completed the whole circuit first. Wow, we must both be fit as there are some pretty fit people who do circuits on a saturday.

I did the body attack class afterwards. Mark had to give up after about 4 or 5 tracks, he must be getting old. we're getting the next routine in a couple of weeks and i can't believe it's now 3 months since hearing some classic old tunes like abba's "knowing me knowing you" and joan jett and the blackhearts "i hate myself for loving you!" amongst some others. i really wonder what the next routine will hold in store? some great music i hope and fun aerobics i hope.

ahh well. i'm glad to say that tonight was another enjoyable evening.

i will keep you posted with my progress on my fat loss quest. the next weigh in will be on wednesday

keep the faith

Neil

www.godzillamarketing.co.uk

Big Wednesday

Just posting a quickie tonight as feeling really really tired tonight.

I call it Big Wednesday because I do a good solid stint of exercise. Today, I did the body attack class. I was a little late as Micky started the class on time for once. But she never does all 11 tracks for some reason. Still we did all the aerobic tracks and given yesterday's and Monday's training efforts, and with bigger than usual turnout on a Wednesday, I was dripping by the time I came out of the studio at 10:30am.

I spoke to my mate Mark after the class (who incidentally was a footie referee here in Shropshire). We were both still feeling the effects from the studio classes last Saturday, and we were both soaking wet from just the one hour body attack class.

That little chat left me a little late going back up to do my turbulence training (program B) routine, but I did manage this in full, including interval training on the cross-trainer. I was unsure about going to the circuits class, but decided to go anyway. It was quite an intense half hour (after warm up and instruction on the circuit), and followed with a cooldown (in the loosest sense of the word) with a mini abs circuit for about 5 minutes or so.

All I can say is that If I don't sleep well tonight, then maybe I never will.

Oh, I have just remembered, for all you ladies out there, check out the Fit Yummy Mummy program available at godzillamarketing.co.uk. This has to be the premier fitness program for new mothers who are looking to get themselves back into their pre-pregnancy shape. And further, those principles can be applied to any woman of any fitness level, beginner or expert, whether post pregnancy or not. Incidentally, a copy of the basic FYM e-book is also available with the deluxe turbulence training e-book suite, also available from godzillamarketing.

Keep up the hard work.

Wishing you all the success in your fat loss quest

Neil

Let The Trials Begin!

The first thing I’m going to say is that I finally decided to download Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training e-book suite. I purchased the deluxe version, and after an initial review am quite pleased.

I will be using the TT program 3 times a week. In addition to this, I will be treating any other swimming or classes at the gym as what Craig describes as “fun” activities.

So, despite the fact that I usually do my weigh in on a Wednesday morning, knowing that I was likely to be writing up my blog, I thought “well one day is not going to matter”.

I’m pleased to say, that despite some difficult family circumstances during late February and early March, I have managed to maintain my weight. The additional stresses meant that my alchohol consumption crept back up to the excessive and unhealthy levels of the recent past.

However, I am determined to change that. After all, if I am to promote my range of health and fitness e-books that focus on losing body fat, I had better set a good example!

Here are my vitals:

Name: Neil Gazzillo

Age: 36 (I will be 37 in June!)

Height: 5 ft 9 ½ inches 176.5 cm

Weight: 177 lb (12st 9lb) 80.2 kg

Body Fat %age: 24.7%

Chest: 39in

Waist: 34in

Hips: 39in

Arms: 13 ¾ in (right) 13 in (left)

Thighs 22 in (right) 22 in (left)

I have set some short and long term fat loss goals;
To lose at least 1% within 4 weeks (I think this will be easily achievable) and to reduce the body fat percentage to 18% by the end of September.

As I intimated earlier, alcohol is likely to the biggest obstacle to overcome in my fat loss quest. That said, other than enjoying far too many glasses of wine, I do have a pretty good diet. I guess the level of exercise I undertake has meant I have been able to maintain my weight.

Whilst at the gym today, I had a good look at myself and thought I was in pretty good shape. Whilst I still have a bit of a spare tyre around my belly, my abs are reasonably well defined, albeit, nowhere close to a “6 pack”! However, the one area I am not happy with is my upper back. I expect this to be the area where the most effect is seen, although, I must admit, that I would love a 6 pack, and that is the whole point of my efforts.

So, this is where I let you know my plans for my workouts over the next 4 weeks:

This week I went in yesterday and did a 25 minute X-trainer interval program as per last entry, used the resistance equipment (rather than free weights), and some abs work.

Today I did my first TT workout (original workout A). Craig recommends using the bike rather than the X-trainer, and whilst my preference is definitely with the X-trainer, given that I did a pretty damned hard workout on it yesterday, I thought the bike would be better. Given that I haven’t used the bike for a while, I must admit I did feel it in the legs!

Tomorrow is “big Wednesday”. I love the body attack class which is a great cardio routine with some upper and lower body conditioning for a well deserved break. I will then do TT (original) workout B with the cardio element on the X-trainer. I expect to feel pretty drained after then, so I will probably give the circuit training class a miss!

Thursday is set to be mainly a rest day, although I haven’t been swimming properly for donkey’s and I think a nice half hour, reasonably paced swim sounds in order!
Friday will be TT workout A again. Saturday will be my usual day with my gorgeous daughter Lydia at the pool, and then followed by circuits and body attack in the late afternoon. There is no way I am doing anything energetic on Sunday!!!

From there, I will start next Monday with workout B and then follow a plan to workout Wednesday as per this week (but TT workout A) then TT B on Friday.

For more information, or to order the Turbulence Training e-book suite, view my sales page (and see other programmes that may interest you or others) click here.

The other thing I am going to talk about is a supplement called CLA (or Conjugated Linolelic Acid). It is reported to have anti-oxidant and fat burning/muscle mass gaining properties. I’ve purchased a tub of 270 500mg tablets from Argos for a reasonable price. I don’t claim to be a scientific expert by any means of its chemical composition can be found through the usual search engines.

I am usually skeptical about supplements, however, in the eyes of my “research” I am quite happy to keep an open mind. Obviously, with this trial, there is no “control” so to speak. So the plan is that I shall analyze my weight/fat loss whilst using the supplement and compare results after I have run out of tablets. I expect that rate to reduce once I have lost a few percent but then again I will be able to compare results after roughly 4 months.

In the meantime, I will be publishing my progress here on my blog, and giving you my (non-expert) opinion on the effectiveness.

In the meantime, keep working hard.

Neil

Welcome to my blog.

Welcome to the first entry of my fat loss blog.

I'm Neil Gazzillo. I live in Telford, Shropshire in the UK. I'm not promoting myself as a fitness or health guru. However, I am a relatively fit and active person with an interest in losing fat in those tough areas such as the belly and the love handles!

I've decided to share my tips with you on how to lose body fat effectively. These consist of both diet and exercise. But this first blog is just going to be about how I exercise.

My local gym has been a godsend to me over the last couple of years after a spell of depression after separating from my ex-wife and taking an enforced career break. However, doing the same routine in the gym everytime I go is something I have found that can become a bit tedious.

So I like to mix my workouts up.

I do a circuit training class once or twice a week along with a class called body attack, which is a mix of high tempo high impact aerobics and conditioning for the upper body, legs and abs. I usually do body attack 2 or 3 times a week. Sometimes I will do other classes such as body combat and body pump, but the other classes are the ones I attend regularly. In addition to those I normally do a cardio and resistance programme twice a week.

Recently, I have also become interested in other programmes. I have recently discovered a range of e-books and have decided to give the workouts in there a trial. "Turbulence Training" is a system developed by fitness guru Craig Ballantyne, from Toronto, Canada, which promises fat loss without doing long boring cardio exercises, and uses minimal equipment over a period of approximately 45 minutes. The workouts focus on bodyweight and dumbell exercises and a stabilty ball. So these are workouts that you can do at home.

I've decided to incorporate some of the principles from Turbulence Training into my cardio/resistance programme.

My cardio programme is on the eliptical cross trainer.

1. 2 minute warm up at level 11 out of 25.
2. 2 minute at 14kmh at level 14.
3. 1 minute as fast as possible at level 14.
4. Repeat of steps 2 and 3 a further 5 times.
5. 5 minute cool down level 10.

For my weight training I am doing supersets using the barbell.

3 supersets of:

15 shoulder press (20kg) and 20 upright row (20kg)
20 deadlifts at 30kg and 15 bent-over rows 20kg
20 barbell squats at 30kg and 30 bulgarian split squats (15 per leg) with 7kg dumbell
21 bicep curls (7 full range, 7 upper, 7 lower) and 15 tricep pullovers both at 15kg
20 chest presses at 25kg and 15 decline press ups

I then move on to my abs, where I do not tend to have a fixed programme, but do the usual suspects for the upper abs, obliques and lower abs. I then stretch and cool down and hit the sauna and spa. Well deserved too I can add!

Its a pretty tough workout but highly effective. I promise you one thing, you will sleep well the following night!

For more information on the "Turbulence Training" programme, and to get a FREE 10 minute holiday workout e-book, you can subscribe to my newsletter by filling in the form below.

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In the next few weeks, I will be reviewing more programmes and providing some diet and exercise tips that will help you lose body fat and tone up for that sexy physique!

More information on the other programmes I am promoting can be found at www.godzillamarketing.co.uk/healthandfitness.htm

Wishing you all the success you deserve on your fat loss quest,

Neil