Hi all,
I'm just finishing up a successful Kickstarter DietBet and beginging a Transformer. Since i'm doing things a little different than many of you other DietBetters, I thought it may be worth it to post my workouts. Not only will this help me stay motivated but it should show you all that heavy resistance training is an effective weight loss tool. Not just for men, but also for women. You don't have to starve yourself and spend hours on a treadmill. I mean you can if you want to, and that does work for a while, but why not have some fun and gain some strength as well.
Workout
My main workout routine is a Push,Pull,Legs (PPL) program with linear progressive overload. This is solely resistance strength training, with no cardio in the program. I lift 6x a week. So my days look like PPLPPLR. I chose to have my rest day on Saturday.
With this program you have one main compound lift every workout, with accessory lifts after that.
Schedule
Sunday: Legs (Barbell squats)
Monday: Push (Standing overhead press)
Tuesday: Pull (Barbell rows)
Wednesday: Legs (Barbell squats)
Thursday: Push (Barbell bench press)
Friday: Pull (Barbell deadlifts)
Saturday: Rest
Repeat
Program
For the main lifts each day, I do 5 sets of 5 reps. The last set I try to do as many reps as possible. Every day I add 5lbs to the main lift. This is the linear progession part. You're always pushing your body...until you fail. Failure is when you cannot do 5 reps during your sets. When this happens, I deload 10% the next time I do that lift, and start the progression over from there. Failure is part of the program, this way you don't really have a goal, but you have more of a system that you follow. Chasing goals are how you fail, you can never fail as long as you're following a system.
All of the accessory lifts are between 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps, there's no rigid structure to these I just push as hard as I can and increase weight when I can solidly do 12 reps across all of my sets. The key here is not to overthink things, they're called 'accessory' lifts for a reason.
Diet
I try to keep this simple as well. No strict calorie counting here, although I do eyeball and estimate calories consumed daily. I try to stay around 2000 cals, and I'm a 32yr old 6' 220lbs Male. I've done a lot of experimenting over the years and that seems to be the sweet spot for me with exercise to lose weight. Since i'm trying to lose weight and doing resistance training, the first thing I do is make sure I get enough protien. I try to get at least 30g of protien every meal. This ensures that I'm at least preserving as much muscle as possible while maintaining a deficit in calories (the only way to actually lose weight). The rest of my calories are split between fat and carbs. I try to eat one or the other but not both at the same time. For instance one day (Usually Leg day) I'll do 75% carbs - 25% fats after calories from protien is counted. And other days (rest day for instance) I will do 25% carbs - 75% fats after I account for protien calories. The only food I really try to stay away from is sugar, but it's easy for me as I don't have much of a sweet tooth. I also try to drink as much water as possible throughout the day.
If I do everything right...
I regularly see a loss of 1lbs a week once i'm settled into the exercise/diet routine. My strength gains for the past 2 months on this program have been linear and I have not yet stalled out (had to deload). I'm probably going to have to deload on my barbell rows soon, but the rest of my lifts look like they have room for much more progression.
Anyway, if you got this far and are in my Transformer game, look out for me to post my workouts daily. See if i'm keeping up with workouts, hitting PRs, and most importantly for this game, losing weight.
-Tyler