Weight Loss 2 of 3 - My Exercise Routine

http://www.theandysan.com

Due to popular demand, I've decided to do a 3-part mini-series on how I lost over 20 lbs in 2 months without starving myself to death.

The second video will cover my workout routine as well as give you guys a quick back-story on what was going on in my life after I made the decision to lose weight.

When I started working out again, it was the dead of winter so I couldn't do much outside beyond shoveling snow, which definitely helped me lose a couple of pounds. During this time, I stuck to using the treadmill in the basement that had been collecting dust.

Originally, my daily treadmill workout consisted of a 20-30 minute routine where I'd start off at 3 MPH at a 3% incline and then increased the speed every 5-6 minutes and then went back down to 3 MPH when it got to be too much to maintain. I then tried increasing the intervals as well as the overall length of the workout to 30-45 minutes, but I soon realized that simply increasing my workload wouldn't help me lose more weight. In fact, I happened to be gaining a little bit of weight during that time.

Instead of chalking up my weight gain to muscle gain or some other BS, I decided to change up my routine in order to shock my body into losing the weight.

I then changed my routine to the following: 5 minute warm-up at 3 MPH, 1 minute at 6 MPH, 2 minutes at 3 MPH, 1 minute at 8 MPH (later 9 MPH), 2 minutes at 3 MPH, and so on until I've been working out for 20-25 minutes. This kind of routine is commonly known as interval training, and it really kick-started my weight loss and I began to notice that my endurance was increasing as well.

I used to do situps as well, but I found those to be largely ineffective since in order to lose the gut, you'd need to do cardio routines and have an overall good state of health. Even if I did situps until I was blue in the face, nobody would be able to see any changes because even if I had rockin' ab muscles, they would be covered by fat.

Since the weather's nice, I'm doing pretty much all of my workouts outside now. I would either run up and down my street for 1.5 miles or go on a long bike ride around town (by long, I mean at least 10 miles round-trip).

I remember back when I left UU around May 2007 and moved to Coldwater, I weighted around 230 lbs. This is definitely the heaviest that I ever been, and the heaviest that I ever will be! Besides blaming myself, I blame my weight mostly on poor eating, late-night eating, and not too much physical activity. Granted, I did go out on walks with my friend Dan and whoever else wanted to come along, as well as solo bike rides and stuff like that, but I was simply eating too many empty calories for it to make much of a difference. Not to mention that I was a pretty depressed guy at the time (just read some of my blog entries from late 2006-mid 2007 to get an idea of what was going on).

Anywho, when I moved from UU to Coldwater, there wasn't much of anything to do there so I decided to walk around town every day. I then progressed to taking bike rides around town to going to the Wal-Mart in Celina and back every day. As a result, I lose 15 lbs in just a month's time!

I know that there's a large group of people who think that running is a more effective means of cardio training than biking, and it is when you compare the calories lost/distance, but I find riding my bike much more enjoyable than running because I can be outside longer and actually enjoy the scenery more than I could while I'm running. Also, biking is much kinder on my back and knees so I don't feel like crap the next day.

Even though I'm not rockin' the six-pack yet, I'm still the slimmest I've been in years and I couldn't be happier! For a guy like me who's 5'10" (that's 70 inches total or 175 cm for my international audience), being over 200 lbs is considered heavy. At the time, I didn't think I was heavy (I knew I wasn't slim, but I didn't think I was fat), but now that I lost all that weight, I look back at some of my earlier videos and I can see that I was indeed overweight.

In the next and final video in this 3-part mini-series, I will go over my dieting routine. Hope to see you there!

TheAndySan

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• lose
• weight
• meps
• us
• navy
• workout
• diet
• treadmill
• running
• biking
• cycling
• bicycle
• interval
• training
• intervallic
• cardio
• theandysan

[whatryouthinking]

i run on the treadmil with 1.5 raise at 6.0 for 40 min. iv been doing this for 2 months now. all i eat is chicken or fish with spinach for lunch and dinner. maybe add few vegitables for dinner. and just a protien shake after my run in the morning. but no weight loss. any suggetions?

[AndySan]

@whatryouthinking - Have you tape measured yourself? In boot camp, I actually gained weight, but lost about 8% body fat. With that kind of regimen, I bet you've lost a lot of body fat already!

[BlackMagik187]

what about pushups,situps, and pullups? how many of those u do to prepare for the navy?

[AndySan]

@BlackMagik187 - That's a good question. Nowadays, I do as many pushups in 2 minutes as I can and then do as many situps in 2 minutes as I can.

[THCaboutstrongeR]

smart on the cardio cycling the speed on the tread mill hey i actually think the bike his better i walk and no sweet i do 20 30 min on my bike i its a in house bike dosent move but ill be sweeting but walking is better for endurance and better for the heart

[AndySan]

@THCaboutstrongeR - It's helped me increase my endurance big time!

I enjoy biking outside because I go places without feeling worn out like when I run.

[MrRevA7X]

BOOOOBSSSSS

[sweetkisses4uonly]

do u think it's important to do intervals (for half an hour) or walking at high speed for 3 hours...

[THCaboutstrongeR]

@AndySan now when i mean fun you know i mean not fun but hey just something got to do once get down weight then can relax for a little while but if you do weights i think you said circut training never tryed cause i got small space but the three or 4 exercise 3 to 4 sets to fail in the 12to 6 range working the entire body 2 or three times a week ewith cardio what im looking at so going to be alot of fun

[THCaboutstrongeR]

@AndySan lifting is also key but man i just had my first does of what i need to do i done some cardio i walk a trail and came back lidt a 140lbs stone and walk up and down a hill with it witch is easyer but just to burn little more cal i think i may just take a few day off and then start at it its going to be fun im looking to get 10 to 15 lbs off up around 290 292 but im going to try and keep my strength so ill be eating about the same but its going to be fun