Welp, now I really have to get started!

[Dick van Viegen]

Hey guys,

 

I just recently came across NF in my search of a way to finally get the body and become the healthy person I want to be.

 

Just a little history on me; I'm 21 years old, and until I was about 17 years old, I trained 4 or 5 times a week in some way or another (7-8 years of basketball, 3 years of tennis, 4 years of judo, 3 years of baseball, 4 years of gym-going, some of these overlapping), so I was in quite a good shape, weighing around 78 kg and being 1.91m tall. 

Then I moved out of my parental home, and got a place of my own, and went to attend uni. I joined a rowingclub there, and got motivated to kick my own ass in an even higher gear. I was too light for the heavyweight rowers, and too heavy for the lightweight rowers (I really couldn't lose the 3 kilo's I had to, to be able to join them), so I started training 6 days a week, and 2 of those days I even went twice.

 

In hindsight, that might've caused my injury. I blew out a knee during one of those trainings, 3 months in (I was at 84 kg, gained mostly muscle). My physician told me I couldn't row for at least a year, and I would have trouble walking for about 4 months, which was a pretty accurate guess. This led to me getting way more involved in the social side of attending uni, and got me into an unhealthy habit: drinking. Over the course of 18 months, I lost pretty much all the muscle mass I had, and gained my fair share of weight; the scales told me I weighed about 100kg. I wasn't in the best state of mind at that particular time, and in the end moved back in with my parents and took on a full-time job, to recuperate and get my life on track again.

 

I've been living on my own again, for about 7 months now, and have been trying to get into working out, but haven't really had the discipline to keep a nice regular schedule going. I'm pretty much failing my new study (Business Administration) as well, so all in all, I just need to get my ass in gear.

 

When I got to the gym, I did an intake, to see where I was at at the time, it was pretty discouraging; 102 kg, 30,5% bodyfat, 33,3% muscle. This saturday I have a secondary evaluation (6 weeks in), so fingers crossed I guess

The last few weeks I've been pretty proud of myself, going to the gym about 5 times a week (training 3 days, then 1 day to rest, then 2 days training, then 1 day to rest, repeat), but I'm not really seeing any results just yet, which I think is to be blamed on the fact that I don't know jack about the right nutrition and excercises. So I figured I'd do some research and eventually ended up here (full circle, yey!).

 

So right now I have been counting calories for about 5 weeks, and don't even usually hit the 2k cals per day (which is already a lowered amount, to encourage weight loss). Now I've been wondering if it wouldn't be better for me to just go all-out strength training, since I also seem to be endomorphic (body type theories 'n all that; http://www.brianmac.co.uk/bodytype.htm, just a quick link). Any ideas on that?

 

Now I also know nutrition is a big part of it, so I guess I'd need to start eating MORE than I am now, to start gaining muscles. I read Steve likes the Paleo-diet a lot, anyone else got any thoughts on that?

 

So, wall of text, hope you could get through all of it, and hope to get a lot of motivation from these forums and the site!

 

DvV

[Dick van Viegen]

Thanks! Will certainly check out t-nation, am just about to start on paleo, just have to finish some stuff that I still had in the fridge

[FyreFlies]

Steve's article on the Paleo breaks it down nicely. I've read it 20 times since I went Paleo on July 1st and have been consistently losing weight and lifting more weight in the gym.

 

Good luck, I look forward to seeing your 2nd evaluation score.

[I-Jo]

I'ts the best article I have found- and I recommend it to everyone. 

 

Unlike most other sites that describe Paleo- it's not so damn overwhelming- even marks daily apple- I had a completely visceral negative reaction to the YOU DON"T EAT <_________________> list of crap that's bad for you.

 

And I walked away going ? okay- so what CAN I eat- and I hate that notion.

 

Steve's is great- and I eventually came around to a semi-paleo lifestyle and love it.

[Dick van Viegen]

Sooo, just had my evaluation, turns out  I did progress a bit, not as much as I've hoped for, but here are the new values; 

 

Weight: 100kg (down from 101,9 kg)

Fat%: 27,6% (down from 30,5%)

Muscle%: 34,7% (up from 33.3%)

Visceral fat: 8 points (down from 9)

 

So, booked some progress, not there for a while though.

Just to specify my goals; Getting my fat % down to 19% or less, get my muscle percentage up to at least 39%. Weight is less of an issue at the moment, but if I could get it down to around 90 kg, while still building muscle, I'd be a very content man

[Dick van Viegen]

Oh by the way, thanks for the replies I'll keep Steve's article on Paleo on hand when making my grocery lists ^^

[AnnleaArtsy]

I am in no way able to give any educated thoughts on the paleo diet. All I know so far is I am slowly on my way to it. If I were to go all out now I would fail within one week. So far all I have down is no fast food (haven't had it in over a year), and cutting out processed foods day by day. Instead of buying juice I make it with a vitamix. And only having meat twice a week..this one is surprisingly easy. I don't know if that last bit counts as apart of paleo but I remember a bit in Steve"s article where it says briefly it's mainly about vegetables.