Nice! I'm sure that burnt you out quick. On top of HIIT, thinking of you saying lat pulldowns w/ jump squats. I read this workout a long time titled Dante's Inferno, the whole premise behind it was alternating between an upper body exercise and a lower body exercise. Their logic was your heart has to pump extra hard to switch back and forth from lower body to upper body exercises. Sounds like you are doing it right!
This thread has motivated me to make a confession--- those who know me, know--- but It sucks to admit it, but I haven't worked out for 25 years--- my svelte skater boy bod became disgustingly fat as i am a foodie and love to eat. ( as Baron can attest ) I am 6 ft and weighed 230 at my heaviest-- I have a new baby daughter so it motivates me to get into shape--its bad enough having an old dad, but a fat old dad is the WORST! - over the last 5 months I have been working on losing weight-- i ride my bike several miles a day, and have cut out most carbs five days a week. I have also cut out all sugar drinks like coke etc and drink primarily unsweetened ice tea and water. On friday and saturday I go out and eat my favorite foods- gourmet burgers , pizza , pasta, etc for dinner. My goal is to get to 180--- but I am stuck at 213 for some reason--- I also kayak several times a week, swim and walk so I was never really sedentary, but I added the bike to the mix so on most days I do some exercise. BUt I am innately lazy when it comes to working out. I can't seen to get below the 213 plateau --- any suggestions for a lazy fat fu#k ?? surf
Surf, Low and ~medium intensity cardio is overrated for fat loss. If you can safely work out intensely then you should do so. Since you haven't worked out for a while, work up to it, but check with your doctor first. Resistance and HIIT give you the best bang for the buck. For resistance, stick to compound exercises rather than isolation exercises because compounds have a much greater effect on your metabolism. And that's what you're looking for. This-just-in fads aside, carbs are given a bad rap. If you don't get enough it messes with your hormones and stresses the body. It's all about macronutrient balance and avoiding the empty white carbs. Avoid silver-bullet crash diets and find something you can stick with for the long haul. As soon as you adjust, it ceases to become a challenge.
If you are stuck, then that just means you have reached a level of homeostasis where your calorie intake is roughly equal to your energy output. So either find another way to cut back some daily calories, or add some type of daily activity to what you are already doing. Doing 50 air squats each day upon waking is an easy and fast exercise I recommend. And at your weight you should be consuming one and a half teaspoons of fish oil each day. Fish oil ramps up the production of enzymes that increase your body's ability to burn calories.
That's probably where your weight loss is stalling out. Big meals like that can easily have an entire day's worth of calories in them, so if you're going to eat like that a couple times per week, you need to make those cheat meals your primary source of calories and eat virtually nothing else on those days. Personally, I never found the cheat day system to work out for me. I would be so strict throughout the week that all I thought about was making it to my cheat day, and then I would just hog out on everything and completely screw up the prior 6 days of effort. And the day after cheat day was always the worst, because my body would literally be craving what I had the day prior, which was torture. I prefer to cheat on a small scale every day so it keeps my head straight. As an example, every day I have a serving of brownie brittle, which basically tastes like the crunchy corner of a brownie, but a serving is only 120 calories. It gives me a super rich chocolate taste but without the heavy calorie load of a full blown brownie or chocolate cake. For me, that small thing each day helps me feel like I'm not really dieting, which is a lot better than constantly day dreaming about the next time in the future that I can eat a dessert, pizza, whatever.
the 'sweet spot' is not eating the calories first. do you know how much muscle activity takes to burn off a plate of pasta? i do. the key is discover relatively lower calorie nutritionally sound meals that satiate. i don't wish to spend my life exercising off for 5hrs a plate of pasta that took 20mins to consume.
Some interesting research results on exercise volume: http://www.exrx.net/WeightTraining/Research.html
Losing weight is hard and requires constant dedication to achieve your goals. Different plans fit (pun intended) different people. Eat right and exercise. Eat right and exercise. Eat right and exercise. (Put NOTHING in your mouth between meals...NOTHING.) Except water, of course.