My Not-Remotely Secrets to Losing Weight (Part 4)

I'll stop with the vague info for now and get on to some specifics about my personal journey through what I've described. Along the way, I'll provide a few tips as they occur to me.

Tip

Bring a notebook with you and record everything (exercises, reps, sets, etc.) to track your progress.

At the start of 2011, I weighed about 200 lbs. and was really quite sick of it. I'd learned from Trainer David all I needed to learn to get me started. I had my notebook ready, bought some workout clothes and signed up for the gym. When I got there, as mentioned previously, they measured my fitness and here's what they got:

1. % Body Fat : 24.2%
2. Fat Weight: 47.9 lbs
3. Lean Weight: 150.1 lbs.
4. BMI : 27.3

I started doing my workout from college which took probably 75 minutes, but amended it once I got to work with the trainer. Now, each of my lifting workouts take around 30 minutes doing about the same number of exercises, but pairing two together that work different muscle groups. Here are my workout as they stand, organized into routines.

Routine A

1. Hang Clean
2. Bench Press
3. Reverse Fly
4. Shoulder Press
5. High Row
6. Fly
7. Triceps Extension

Routine B

1. Hang Snatch
2. Push up
3. Lat Pulldown
4. Shoulder Raise
5. Incline Press
6. Supine Pull up
7. Dip

Routine C

1. Body Squat
2. Exercise Ball Crunch
3. Front Squat
4. Plank
5. Deadlift

Routine D

1. Front-to-side Lunge
2. Exercise Ball Plank
3. Overhead Squat

I'm still working on that last one; I'm thinking I'll add leg press to it. I don't want to add another core exercise to it because of how strenuous Overhead Squat is on the entire core. I alternate weeks on what order I do these, but the order is either A, C, B, D or C, A, D, B.

Now, let's talk directly about how these routines have affected my weight. Thanks to a request, I present you a graph of every day I recorded my weight (through June 14th).

As you can see, during nearly every week my weight fluctuates by 3 or so pounds. But, there has definitely been a downward general trend. Some of the longer gaps are from breaks due to soreness, illness, or external factors. I find I weigh the least at the beginning of the week, and that weight show me my actual progress.

That covers the lifting portion, up next: Cardio