Competitions The Magpie's Nest 6 Week Summer Challenge - Information & Progress Log

[Ricky90]

Well that's it. I know different poses and stuff but its all I could post for now. I have other comparison pics with the same poses but can't post till Sunday night.

Edit, not working??

 

[Ricky90]

There we go.

 

[PremiumPies]

Gained again this week; what a surprise. *end sarcasm*

Start Weight:- 76.00kg.
Week 1 Update:- 75.15kg.
Week 2 Update:- 75.35kg.
Week 3 Update:- 74.05kg.
Week 4 Update:- 74.60kg.
Week 5 Update:- 74.05kg.
Week 6 Update:- 74.35kg.

 

[WakeUpPies]

THE END!

Let the results roll in!

I will update this and make everything pretty once I recover from my 3 days of alcohol related activities....

What even is it??

It is a thing on an armband that collects info to calculate your daily energy expenditure, it is pretty cool, even measures your sleeping cycles.

Haven't started using it yet because I want to make the most out of my free 3 month subscription but from all reviews and actual studies done (lol) it is ~90% accurate.

Need to plug the thing into a comp and upload a bunch of data to a web service or some s**t.

sad i am using it to figure out how much more ice cream i can eat during cut, lulz . Will use for bulk later to limit fat gains

 

[Number 10]

84.9 kg final weight!! Did well considering gave up the calorie counting after a week and just decided to exercise heaps more.

My daily food consisted of fruit for breakfast, anything for lunch, usually a roast beef baguette or sushi, snack at 3 (fruit or dry biscuits), and whatever was at home for dinner (tried not to drink alcohol during the week). On the weekend I would just eat whatever, but nothing more than one bad take away per weekend as a treat.

I now want to lose at least 1-2 more kg of weight then get back at the gym hard (when a break in pre-season starts) and put on 2 kg of muscle (even though I did say I wanted to maintain, I just want a bit more)

Thanks for doing the thread WUT, it's definately helped me get trim and reach my target!

1 last thing though, I cbfd going to the vitamin store and getting ripped off from a bloke trying to sell me every gym supplement under the sun, so what should I just go in and buy?... If of coarse you think people should even take them (I haven't suffered)

Cheers

 

[Ricky90]

1 last thing though, I cbfd going to the vitamin store and getting ripped off from a bloke trying to sell me every gym supplement under the sun, so what should I just go in and buy?... If of coarse you think people should even take them (I haven't suffered)

Cheers

Ahhh the wide world of supplements. I seriously think a Whey protein is a staple. It's a stretch for me to even call it a supplement these days - for everyone. People who want to lose weight, people who want to gain weight and people who want to maintain weight. Fast acting protein for first thing in the morning and post-workout; although the latter is more important than the former if you're on a budget. That's probably all you need if you're wanting to maintain anyway.

I tend to buy RedBak Rapid WPI in bulk (4.5kg) but you can get pretty much any brand. Try not to pay more than 30 bucks per kilogram.

If you're a little more adventurous with your supplements then tell me your exact goals and I'll give you some options. I know far too much about this crap.

 

[WakeUpPies]

Ricky can be the pro-supplement guy and I will be the "anti"-supplement guy, I will post my thoughts tomorrow when I sleep off my ****ing headache

Ah nvm screw long responses - most studies that support the supplementation of whey/BCAA powders over whole foods are done on fasting subjects and/or on subjects that are getting inadequate protein in the first place - i have also seen studies where they compared a whey protein group to a CHO only group - whey was superior...no wonder...

Protein powders are good if you
A. You enjoy eating protein powders - you can make some awesome protein pancakes/cakes/fluff om nom nom
B. You have trouble meeting protein needs with regular food
C. Protein powder gives you less stomach issues (performance issue here)
D. feel it is convenient

Advantage over whole food regarding body composition? Nope (assuming we are talking about complete proteins like meat and dairy (which is a mix of casein and whey in the first place) and not bread/legumes etc)
Comes down to personal preference

If you must buy something, stick with whey - the research surrounding most other supps are dodgy at best (similar experimental limitations to the ones i have already mentioned) (with exception of creatine, but some people are non-responders)

if above makes no sense blame the alcohol

fyi i haven't used a supplement since my protein ran out a few month ago, i was using it as a substitute for desserts that are chocolate based

Good progress guys btw

edit. btw ricky do i have permission to move oyur pics to the front page?

 

[Ricky90]

Ricky can be the pro-supplement guy and I will be the "anti"-supplement guy, I will post my thoughts tomorrow when I sleep off my ****ing headache

Ah nvm screw long responses - most studies that support the supplementation of whey/BCAA powders over whole foods are done on fasting subjects and/or on subjects that are getting inadequate protein in the first place - i have also seen studies where they compared a whey protein group to a CHO only group - whey was superior...no wonder...

Protein powders are good if you
A. You enjoy eating protein powders - you can make some awesome protein pancakes/cakes/fluff om nom nom
B. You have trouble meeting protein needs with regular food
C. Protein powder gives you less stomach issues (performance issue here)

Advantage over whole food regarding body composition? Nope (assuming we are talking about complete proteins like meat and dairy (which is a mix of casein and whey in the first place) and not bread/legumes etc)
Comes down to personal preference

If you must buy something, stick with whey - the research surrounding most other supps are dodgy at best (similar experimental limitations to the ones i have already mentioned) (with exception of creatine, but some people are non-responders)

if above makes no sense blame the alcohol

fyi i haven't used a supplement since my protein ran out a few month ago, i was using it as a substitute for desserts that are chocolate based

Good progress guys btw

edit. btw ricky do i have permission to move oyur pics to the front page?

I'm not going to argue as I don't have the time or the desire to go find studies about them. But I believe (yes, I'm a believer) in whey protein.

Everything else is pretty much garbage, although creatine is good and BCAAs are also good. And a multivitamin.

I just love supplements alright?!

Permission granted on the photo front. Not sure if anyone will see it anymore though, the challenge is over?!

Congrats to all who reached their goals as well, or at least made headway into living a healthier, fitter life!

 

[WakeUpPies]

yea defs on the whey bandwagon, it is even 50% BCAAs!
buying some for my trip

edit. the challenge is never and should never be over for everyone!!

 

[Shellz]

As I said stopped weighing myself a couple of weeks ago. The number just doesn't interest me.

I may take pics it I can be bothered. Silhouette!!!

 

[WakeUpPies]

Much needed sleep!


Finished on 71.3kg, not 100% happy as I don't really have a 6 pack yet - but I lost a bit of the chest fat that was bothering me a bit ...Waist not quite <30 yet but is a bit under 31 now and I still have plenty of fat to lose!

Edit. Yay found before pic, no longer have the need to use strong lighting

What I Learned:
- Set ambitious but realistic goals instead of impossible ones
- Don't try to do too much at the same time, the 1st 3 weeks I built a meticulous diet + exercise regime to gain muscle and lose fat - was burnt out big time, the last 3 weeks (focused on maintaining muscle while losing fat) were far more enjoyable
- Have to buy the right ice-cream! (Seriously Bulla is amazing, goes great with diet Coke! Couldn't believe the calorie content! and I thought Peter's had good macros mind was blown)

- Patience patience patience patience
- You can mess around with specific macro-nutrient timing, calorie cycling etc etc all you want to optimize hormone levels but in the end that only probably make up 5% - 95% of it still comes down to calories in vs calories out (and meeting macronutrient targets) - not worth worrying about unless you are more advanced

Diet mainly consisted of fat-free yogurt, kiddie cereal (Coco pops + Milo), roo + chicken, veggies, eggs, ice-cream and Weetbix (delicious dipped in yogurt!) - was annoying at first because I was weighing everything but got used to it soon.

Going to keep dieiting for 2 more weeks then start bulking and adding more mass...I want to be a lean 76kgs by August 17th 2012 (~ 1 year)

 

[Number 10]

Thanks for the info re: protein. I will go out and buy some and take after each session if I am not having meat for dinner (I usually come home from the gym and eat dinner straight away).

I won't be posting photos, but I hope to be 10-12% Body Fat in another 2 weeks.

 

[The Magnificent Seven]

To everyone who haven't posted result....Come on guys, Ricky and I were brave enough to put up pics, the least you guys could do is let us know how you went

Sorry mate, I'll weight in on Monday when I get back

 

[WakeUpPies]

Haha don't worry about it mate! Just trying to push you guys harder
The "comp which was technically not a comp since it had no structure or rewards" helped some people find motivation and take steps in the right direction, that is all that matters!

Plus I didn't want to cut alone bit of selfishness there

 

[WakeUpPies]

Thought this was interesting so I will share.
First day of using BodyMedia Fit, a device that measures energy expenditure

A pretty sedentary day for me, spent the majority of the day reading about biochem like normal people do and had 2 exercise sessions...small spike in activity was my weights sesh that went for ~ 2 hours but I only got up to 7kcal/hr at max while that massive spike in activity (12kcal/hr) was from what I consider a light jog.

Also interesting that my energy expenditure was increased after my weight session for a while! FWIW I stopped at ~1:30 but burn was elevated for a while afterwards! (and NFI what I was doing from 11 to 11:30 probs was walking around, see below)

Really makes you appreciate cardio and general activity doesn't it I stopped for a brief walk during the cardio sesh and the kcal/min was still greater than the peak of my weights session.
Be interesting to see how little I burn on a rest day.

Note to self: Weight train for muscles, cardio for fat loss!
And maybe I am better at running than I thought I was once a runner always a runner

Edit. I've only had 2300kcals today, and yes I am sitting here with ~300kcal worth of Bulla low fat Icecream as we speak so I don't mess up my hormone levels by having too big of a deficit

Pretty much the reason I got this device in the first place...To find out how much extra icecream I should be eating...el o el

 

[The Magnificent Seven]

Big weigh-in this morning...

95.2! Very happy with this result, as I've been building muscle at the same time. Next two weeks I should also see better results for running/cycling as I get back into exercising at sea level.

Congrats to everyone who participated. Should we have a New Years Thread so noone falls off the bandwagon?

 

[WakeUpPies]

Maybe we can have a competition style thing where you get matched up with a person with similar goals and we can do it bracket style or something

Maybe have like a reward for the overall winner
Too bad this forum doesn't have a rep system, maybe winner chooses 5 people to get red carded?

Edit. Actually this wouldn't work well since people won't take pics and most people tend to disappear if they aren't getting good progress.

nvm nvm

 

[Ricky90]

Has anyone heard frmo Dawesome Dock? I haven't heard from him since before schoolies!