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I used to be a national, competitive swimmer - University put a stop to that. So from a 11st, 6ft swimmer I turned into 16st 12lbs after 3 years. I decided to start my gym work to get this under control last month and have just lost 1 stone (now weighing at 15st 12lb on today's date).

I would like to try and decrease my weight quicker. To me, a stone a month is very slow, when I'm trying to get back down to at least 12st with muscle mass.

This is my diet:

  • Porridge with protein powder (breakfast 8.30PM)
  • Chicken Salad (lunch 1PM)
  • protein bar + 2x pre-work out tablets (~6PM)
  • Chicken + rice (dinner 8:30PM)
  • about 2-3 litres a day of water

Cal intake a day ~1600

I have not swayed from this for the whole month.

I have a trainer who focuses on my muscle gain every 2 days a week, and then the rest of the days I do cardio by myself to burn between 400-500 cals. I do have 2 rest days in the week. So thats 2 days muscle, 3 days cardio, 2 days rest.

Am I doing this right? I always used to just swim so doing gym to lose weight is weird to me and I don't really know if I am burning too much, not resting enough, eating too much / less.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Edit: My cardio is basically the rower with 45 seconds medium intensity with then 15 seconds high intensity for sets of 20 mins with a break between until I reach the cal goal count.

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    I looked up stone conversion (not used in the states) and it equates to about 6 kg? If so a stone a month is incredibly fast weight loss.
    – DeeV
    Jul 20, 2017 at 18:38
  • Really? 6.5kg a month seems really slow..
    – Goralight
    Jul 20, 2017 at 21:28
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    If I'm properly converting this into sensible units, one stone a month is about the fastest you'll want to lose weight.
    – Mark
    Jul 20, 2017 at 21:43
  • Guess this is it then! Thanks guys for the feedback, I'll keep at it
    – Goralight
    Jul 20, 2017 at 22:09

1 Answer 1

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The problem is there will be a certain amount of trade-off, initially, when you start getting back into a workout routine. Over the years, you have not only added fat, but your muscles have had a certain amount of atrophy due to not being as used as vigorously or frequently.

As you are getting back into a workout routine, while you are losing fat, you are also adding muscle, and this will continue for a while. Keep in mind that muscle tissue is more dense/heavier than fat tissue. What will eventually happen is that your muscle mass will stabilize as it reaches a level where it has adapted to the stress you are putting on it, and then it won't add as much new tissue, and you'll see more of the weight loss as there isn't the offsetting gain as you continue to lose fat.

How do you look in the mirror? Leaner? Tighter? More defined? This is a much better gauge for how you are doing than the scale. Or maybe get your body fat percentage measured as you go to help you assess progress.

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  • My triceps look more defined along with my chest - but my belly has not changed at all. It feels like im gaining muscle and it shows, but the fat isn't moving if that makes sense
    – Goralight
    Jul 20, 2017 at 16:23
  • @Goralight - People add weight differently. My body seems to distribute it pretty evenly. Others put it on more around the belly - first-on, last-off. Even when I was in relatively decent shape as a teenager, when swim season would start and we'd be burning through 7000 - 10000 calories every day, I'd actually add weight, which would drop precipitously once we did our taper, because of the added muscle that swimming, especially, brings. If you're not adverse to jogging, that tends to help keep a slimmer body build (see the build of distance runners) and from bulking up too much, for me.
    – PoloHoleSet
    Jul 20, 2017 at 16:38
  • First on-Last off - This is incredibly true.
    – Goralight
    Jul 20, 2017 at 21:28
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    While this answer is not wrong technically, I would like to point out that OP may have some unrealistic expectations as to the amount of fat/weight loss that is possible per month. 1 stone/~6kg a month is very respectable and I would say about as much as you want/can lose in a month.
    – Dennis Haarbrink
    Jul 21, 2017 at 8:50

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