Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

Another hard day at gym

Guys I am doing cardio for 45-60minutes daily (5 times a week). Should I bump it up more? I want to burn fat faster. OR should I just be patient and wait for gradual results in 3-6months time?

What exactly is happening to my body when I do 1:15 hour of weights followed by 45minutes of cardio daily (5 days a week)? I am not fully sure what the net effect is of doing that? Fat and muscle both get burnt or is it maintaining my muscle and burning fat but not putting extra muscle? Just trying to understand what happens.

vG, my humble opinion (and only since you asked) is to stick with what you're doing if it's manageable. I also tend to be a perfectionist, and I want results NOW NOW NOW!!! The unfortunate fact I've had to accept is it's a lot quicker, easier, and more fun to get fatter than to get leaner/more muscular. And from what I understand from a lot of the reading I've been doing on this site as well as other informal education I've gotten on fitness, doing more and more and more may do 3 things you won't like:

1) Point of diminishing returns--every increment of extra time you put in doesn't deliver as much bang for the buck, so to speak, as the initial time you put in. Sort of like it takes a certain amount of effort to raise a grade in class from a C to a B, but it takes far more effort to raise it from a B to an A (or so conventional wisdom says). You're trying, it seems to me, to raise your grade from an A to an A+. Is it worth it?

2) Worse: you may be sabotaging your gains. Overtraining may result in LOSING muscle and/or your body hanging onto fat. Like studying so hard you don't get enough sleep the night before the exam and bomb it because you were up all night studying and you were fatigued...

3) Back to the point that's been raised before: is it something you can stick with? Will you burn yourself out? I know that when I was trying to undo holiday damage as quickly as possible, I got frustrated and just wanted "cheat days" and resented the gym time. Decided being miserable wasn't worth it if the goal was to be happy.

Good luck, hope this helped.

Thanks Clever. Yes it helped! If I maintain my current routine then I will succeed. I should be patient. Currently I am enjoying my gym time even though it kills me. If I overdo then maybe it will become a drag.

Btw you are free to comment on anything
The whole point of this blog for me is that people continue giving me their valuable advice

My left shoulder is in bit of pain! I think I might have overdone it I can move the left shoulder properly like the right one but I definitely have overcooked something there! I will stop doing shoulder exercises for 2 weeks just to be safe. Hopefully it will be back to normal and then I will definitely do weights every other day instead of everyday

I think it was overuse of the bicep, and chest press machine that caused it.
It's hurting exactly where the "Deltoid" is pointing. Back to gym tomorrow minus shoulder exercises

So I stayed home because of being paranoid about too much gym. My left shoulder is still in pain...mainly if I lift my arm to shoulder height. I applied ice packs and some muscle creams. Hopefully it will get better soon. I don't think I have damaged anything too severely. Should be ok in few days. I have been googling and reading about shoulder injuries all day. It is really scary! I think I have learnt my lesson and I will control my ego and not overdo

I am thinking of not touching shoulder exercises for at least 2 weeks. If the pain stops in next few days then should I start shoulder exercise with lighter weights straight away or is it better to leave it for 2 weeks?

VG, I tend to push too hard too soon as well. But I have not yet gone wrong with starting back up when the pain is gone. And BTW, congratulations on staying away from shoulder work when your shoulders are hurting. I know that's mentally TOUGH! Also, if you're not already, I'd stay away from exercises that involve the shoulder secondarily, such as bench press, lat pulldowns, etc. Hope you heal soon!

Clever I am staying away from complete upper body exercise for now. I am just doing cardio + stomach & lower body stuff. Hopefully the shoulder will be good in next few days.

Clever is that you in your avatar? You look nice

P.S- Yeah it is you. Just clicked on your MySpace account. What do I have to do to get on your MySpace friends list?

Another productive day at the gym. Pain in the shoulder has gone down dramatically. Looks like I did not do any major damage 2-3 more days of rest should fix it completely (fingers crossed). Lesson learned!

Thought about doing light shoulder exercises today. Sat on one machine to do a dry run but pulled out as my shoulder still felt sore.
Did usual cardio and stuff.


I am thinking about taking photos of everything I eat daily and posting here Not sure as it would involve lot of work on my part. Would be nice though

Glad to read your shoulder is on it way to being healed. I get so frustrated taking rest days to recover! How do you feel you're progressing toward your goals?

Another day at gym. I think I am eating too many fruits! I go through apples, bananas, peaches like they are going out of fashion. So I started upper body exercises again. The shoulder held ok. Although I used lighter weights but did do lot more reps. Still mentally scared so will take it slowly for next few days.



Well wife thinks that i am looking better already but I think this is going to be a long term permanent lifestyle thing. I am on the right path so I just need to continue. To be honest I don't know how long it will take to reach my goal. 1-2 years of indiscipline cannot be undone instantly. I will reassess in 3 months time--> August 17th

Clever you will hang around right? Just consolidating my support network

My weight is still 71Kg/156lb I think the weight of fat is being replaced by weight of muscles?

VG...congratulations on a return to shoulder work! And glad your wife can tell a diff. Others can see our transformation before we can recognize it ourselves.

What leads you to believe you're eating too many fruits? Too many for what: your budget, your calorie limit, your...uh...bathroom preferences?

You are so right that "1-2 years of indiscipline cannot be undone instantly." I'd also put forth that this applies to our mental state as well as physical. I don't know about you, but I tend to have all-or-nothing thinking, and the mindset that I'm in when I'm "undisciplined" is often "no food plan, therefore, eat whatever and however much I please, whenever I want to," while my "disciplined" mindset is, "Should I be counting the 5 calories from that piece of gum? Or from the sugar-free lemonade? Ooh, I'd love to have some more veggies, but I haven't allowed for the calories." ?!? Stressing about insignificant stuff like that after stuffing myself silly? Hello, it wasn't the sugar-free gum that put on the fat!

But maybe that's just me...

Are you doing any work on the mental aspect of muscling up and slimming down? I know I need to do more on that, but that's the part I usually blow off.

And I plan to hang around...still need to get into the other threads and categories!

Hey Veggie Guy...

Just thought I would chime in as I was thinking about starting my own training blog. I thought I would share since I think we have similar goals and weight issues.

You are definitely working out harder than me and have the added bonus of being younger. I'm turning 38 this year. 5'11" - started at 168 lbs and 19.8% bf. I work with a trainer 2x a week and do cardio [20 min] plus abs and legs in my off days. I get to the gym 5-6 times a week. After 8 weeks, I lost 4 pounds of fat which - if you think in terms of a 1 pound carton of butter - losing 4 of those is decent. I gained 3 pounds of muscle [obviously I could work harder], gained 1/2 inch in my arms and lost an inch in my waist. Obviously, as you continue, the gained muscle will burn more fat. I understand, like you, that it's definitely a lifestyle now; something I have to keep up on every day. I've been eating MUCH cleaner and I love it and feel great. Clothes are fitting better and I'm JUST starting to see some physical changes.

I definitely think at the rate you're going, 3-6 months is realistic. Best of luck.

peace

Not so quick The shoulder never got back to 100% but it it had stopped hurting. Yesterday I did some machines and it did not feel right. I mean it was not as bad as when I got injured but it's just not right! Maybe 85% normal but when I push it then it goes down to say 70%.

Anyway today I was pissed off so just skipped the gym and took out my bike and went for a long ride. Rode for 1hr 20min. The bike speedometer battery died so need to replace it. Plus need to replace the battery for my Polar heart monitor.

Last summer I was doing 60km/30-40miles on each outing (not regularly)...so maybe I will start doing that regularly. Alternate between gym cardio and outdoor bike cardio.



Calorie angle.



Yeah I am like that as well. If I suck a candy then I start thinking about the sugar



What the hell is that? It's hard enough staying disciplined now you want me to do some mental stuff?



Chime away and feel free to chime again


Trying to anyway Motivation is not a big problem currently as I want to get fit and then super fit! Biggest problem seems to be silly things that come in the way like this mini shoulder injury. It's nothing serious but it's preventing me from working my upper body properly! Then this morning my throat got all painful...maybe infection...hurts to swallow. My knees are not the best either so all these small niggles eat you away. As if staying motivated is not hard enough!



6months if I am lucky!

peace out!