Hmmm. You know, I would try going higher for a couple of weeks and see how you do. It might be that your body loses at about the same rate if you're eating 1600 or 1400. My feeling is that higher is always better, especially if you want to do hardcore exercise!

Hi Everyone! I'm going to be starting this on Wednesday and I'm trying to figure out about how many calories I should be eating.

On days that I'm not going to be lifting I think I'm going to stick between 1500-1600 calories. And on days that I'll be lifting I was thinking 1600-1700 calories.

Does that sound about right or should I be eating less?

First workout of Stage 2 today! IT was a welcomed change and definitely challenging. It took me every bit of 45 minutes to complete. Part of that was getting adjusted to the new routine and figuring out the right amount of weight to use. It definitely takes longer than the workouts in Stage 1....in my experience anyway.

I really did NOT enjoy the "special workouts" at the end of Stage 1 where you perform the exercises AMRAP with your beginning weight. I felt like it was a huge waste of time...that's just me though.

Linds - congrats on starting phase 2!

My weight has almost completely stalled since starting 2.5 week ago......but I'm sticking the course and hoping it budges soon!

LindsB: Congrats! The stages seem to roll along quickly after Stage 1. I skipped the AMRAP workouts at the end of Stage 1. I knew I was gaining strength, and from what I could tell, the sole purpose of that workout seemed to be proving that to yourself. So I just did another couple of 3x8 workouts.

Sumire- I should have done what you did instead of the AMRAP!!

I did workout B/Stage 2 this morning......with the intervals it really kicked my tail!

I am loving the front squat/push press! I can't do a ton of weight, but I feel like such a beast :)

LindsB: The front squat/push press is one of my favorites, too. Wait 'til you get to those one-arm dumbbell snatches in stage 3-- wheeee! :D

Happy to report that I now have my chin-up!!!! :D :D I can do literally one per few hours-- try again in 5 minutes, 10, 30, whatever... nope. :p (It's funny, it doesn't even feel that hard when I'm doing it, but afterward, I guess my muscles must be super depleted.) I'm definitely looking forward to stage 6 now, as I hope that I might be able to get up to 2 or 3 chin-up reps.

My trainer tells me
1 have schedule for work out i e.
One day legs, one day back and one day hands and shoulders
Core exercises every day.
Aerobic every day.
2. Have 48 hours of rest to each muscle group
3. Have proteine shake after workout.
Do you have different sets of rules?
3. Do not exercise more than 4 days a week

puneri, thats pretty much what my trainer said, although I have taken some of things I did before I started this program and incorperated them into it. I will do the workout as laid out then do a few extra things I was doing with my trainer. I realllly want rid of this underarm flab, so working really hard on that.

Sumire- OMG! Congrats on the chin up!!!! :cheer3: :cheer2: that is so awesome!

Spreadsheets Anyone?
 

Hey Guys,

I bought this book, after reading your guys' recommendations and have decided that I'm going to give it a whirl. While doing some investigating etc. I came across a set of spreadsheets made by someone on another forum that she made available for others to use. She was from Europe and so they were a little different (used KG instead of Pounds etc.) but they were pretty great!

I've gone ahead and adjusted all of them to print properly (at least they do in my settings on my computer), as well as just correct some of the formatting and some spelling errors.

Here is the link to the file (I uploaded it into google docs.) Feel free to save it to your own computer and make modifications as you like. It's one file, with multiple tabs along the bottom. I think it will definitely help for recording things at the gym. Or maybe filling in at home and keeping track of things nice and neat.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers :)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...jZieGdWRktBcmc

So, bumped up to 1550 this week and so far, since Sunday I am up 3.2 lbs.

Since starting the program ~3 weeks ago I have remained the same weight. I am also highly frustrated. I dropped my cals to about 1300-1500last week and gained weight. This week I'm going to back up to 1600.

If I can't lose weight while lifting, what's the point?

Scale weight & gains: water weight, food weight, glycogen, etc:
http://www.fitnessquestonline.com/whythescalelies.pdf

Retaining water during the first several weeks of training:
http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/2043494-post4.html

Well, I'm back at it after one full week off. I have to say that stage 7 is killer!! Holy crap!!! Freakin' 18-20 sets per workout is intense with a capital I. I'm only one workout in and I have the worst case of lower-body DOMS in like three months. It hurts to sit down! :eek:

Sumire: Congrats! I knew you'd do it! :D