P90x & Low Carb Diet = Success!

[rp99pts]

I'm throwing this one out there for anyone who might be looking to shed a few pounds and make a change for the better..I am by no means endorsing or promoting any workout routine or diet. Just what worked for me..

Met Tony Horton back in August of 2011 and must say I'm very impressed. Guy is 52 and ripped...Heard of the P90x Work out but never did it. I was 6'3 and 252 lbs and on meds for high blood pressure. Pretty muscular but carrying a lot of flab too. LOL!!.. Started the work out routine and noticed a little change but didn't really change my diet cuz I figured "I'm bringing it" and can eat whatever I want..Wrong!! Went to Italy in September and separated my ACL playing Soccer. Good job Dumb ass, at 41 figured it might be a very long recovery. Went to the Doc and at the same time getting my referral for my ACL tear I did a blood test. My results were less than great..

Triglyerides: 253

LDL:97

HDL:40

Total Cholesterol:188

Not bad, but no great either, especially the Triglyerides at 253 which are supposed to be under 150. Doc told me, go Low Carb, take Fish oil and Exercise. Ok, time to make a change. One thing I was not gonna change was wine and cigars though.

With a separated ACL it was gonna be tough for the work out but it was time to grow up and get my act together. Surgery was scheduled for Jan 31st 2012. Weight 253, and time to hit it. Knee had healed up pretty good prior to my surgery and P90x was coming along great. Besides Yoga X (I hate Yoga) i was able to do all the workouts. Tony had said it didn't matter if you could keep up with the workouts as long as you kept your heart rate up. He is absolutely correct. I'm sure there are a few P90X'rs on here that know what I mean. Going into surgery I had dropped down to 235lbs and felt better. After surgery I was laid up for awhile and obviously couldn't work out. Approx 3 weeks later I was back again working out but could only do 3 of the workouts(the best being chest and back with Morraine the German chick who used to be a Porn Star!! Look it up..Classic!!).. The low carb part was easy and i realized the biggest villian was "Enriched Flour". Will never eat that crap again. I was done with phsyical therapy after 2 months and I'll give credit for being in half way good shape.

Ok , so forward to Mid April, I go back in and get a blood test. I'm down to 214 Lbs and need new clothes. I went to my Doc today for my results..

Triglycerides: 70 from 253

HDL: 44 from 40

LDL: 114 from 97

Total Cholesterol: 172 from 188

Slight uptick on the LDL but still within the normal of below 130. Doc was stoked and so am I.

I must say I can't be happier with the results. I'm not gonna post any before and after pics(those are G%y), but I'll tell you I am getting totally ripped. I have Brazzoeagle's Dry Rub Cheat every week and love it...I'm having a nice glass of Cabernet as we speak and will be burning one in a few. The funny part is my goal is 200Lbs..

It's not that difficult and one can still enjoy life's tempatations and get healthy at the same time. if anyone has any questions, plz email me and I'll see if I can help out..

I know this is a cigar forum but I bet there are a few folks out there who were/are in the same boat as me..Cheers!!!

[investandprosper]

Great work brother! Nothing better than feeling good while smoking a fine habano with a glass of wine. Keep it up!

[NitrousPurger]

Good job! I also have p90x and it is a *****! very sore after the first week... haven't done it in a while however. Going to start it up again this week. It's such an intense program that its hard to get over that initial motivational hump. I've never been one for working out though. Keep up the good work!

[LeafLover]

P90X hurts! But, I do know first hand the success of it.

Good job Robert. Wishing you continued success.

[dicko]

Good work mate!!!

I recently took a holiday (over Easter) and had some snaps on the beach which were not very flattering.

I put myself on a diet and am now lifting heavy (bench press, military press, squats and deadlifts) 3 times a week.

My diet is an intermittent fast - basically skip breakfast, have a moderate lunch at work (1:00 pm), then pig out at dinner (7:00pm). 1900 calories total. lots of coffee and pepsi max,

I use "my fitness pal" iphone app to count calories, I had no idea how much food I was eating, or rather, how many calories I was taking in.

already lost 4 kilograms and retained muscle.

^blog post lol

[Chunks96ss]

Agree with the P90x when I tried it out it was just to hard for my fat azz but I found the original power 90 good enough and it's also a great workout

[bebster]

Dicko definitely has the right idea. Everybody who is serious about weight loss or training should be doing a compound barbell routine consisting of 3x5 barbell squats, bench press and standing overhead press and 1x5 deadlifts. If anybody is interested I would recommend reading the eBook Starting Strength. Using this method I dropped from 25% body fat to 12% whilst gaining loads of muscle (bench went from 50kg to 122.5kg). This method is what fellow cigar enthusiast Arnold used when he was young.

With all that said, for guys just looking to get their heart rate up and drop a bit of fat from around the middle then doing an endurance program like p90x is perfectly good - just don't expect muscle gain!

Good job everyone - hope that my advice is useful to somebody!

[kafreeman]

Dicko definitely has the right idea. Everybody who is serious about weight loss or training should be doing a compound barbell routine consisting of 3x5 barbell squats, bench press and standing overhead press and 1x5 deadlifts. If anybody is interested I would recommend reading the eBook Starting Strength. Using this method I dropped from 25% body fat to 12% whilst gaining loads of muscle (bench went from 50kg to 122.5kg). This method is what fellow cigar enthusiast Arnold used when he was young.

With all that said, for guys just looking to get their heart rate up and drop a bit of fat from around the middle then doing an endurance program like p90x is perfectly good - just don't expect muscle gain!

Good job everyone - hope that my advice is useful to somebody!

This is almost what I do...

Im doing 5x5 Squat, 5x5 Benchpress, 5x5 Overhead Press, 5x5 Heavy Rows and 1x5 Deadlifts. Then I will do HIIT a couple times a week.

I eat only fresh vegetables, eggs, beef, chicken and pork.

[bebster]

This is almost what I do...

Im doing 5x5 Squat, 5x5 Benchpress, 5x5 Overhead Press, 5x5 Heavy Rows and 1x5 Deadlifts. Then I will do HIIT a couple times a week.

I eat only fresh vegetables, eggs, beef, chicken and pork.

Does that include a few lighter sets or is that 5 working sets? Looks good either way!

Have you tried throwing some simple carbs in immediately post workout with your protein? I spent a while eating just meat and veggies but a friend convinced me to eat carbs after working out and I now recover far quicker (has something to do with glycogen replenishment). Give it a try!

[ramon_cojones]

I warm up with 4x25 pullups and do all that heavy lifting on different days. Bench, squats, deadlifts, overhead press, tons of dips and pushups. I need to start doing muscle ups next, clean and jerks, thrusters and other moan inducing activities

[partifan]

P90X's founder has a great mentality - workout 6 days a week to build it as a habit, and you will be healthy. If you only do 3 days a week, and traffic is bad one day, or you have to work extra and skip, you are down to 2 or 1 workouts for the week. That's not good. If you do 6 days a week and end up missing one or two, it's not anywhere near as bad. I'm working on being an endurance athlete, and this summer my goal is metric centuries for biking, and a 10k. I do 15 miles of running a week over 4 days, 50 miles of biking over 3 days, and weights 2 days a week. Last fall I couldn't run more than a mile straight and I've already run 2 5ks this spring. My largest road race in the fall on the bike was 30 miles, and now I do that for my long ride each week. You just need to stick with it. I was pushing 300 at 6', and I'm down to 273, and my hope is by the end of the summer to be around 250 which would be my lowest weight since high school days. For a clydesdale runner in his 30's, I took 54th in men 30-39 in my last 5k that had 10,000 racers, so you can do it if you put your mind to it.

[kafreeman]

Does that include a few lighter sets or is that 5 working sets? Looks good either way!

Have you tried throwing some simple carbs in immediately post workout with your protein? I spent a while eating just meat and veggies but a friend convinced me to eat carbs after working out and I now recover far quicker (has something to do with glycogen replenishment). Give it a try!

Ive been adding 5 lbs every day I do a set. Im doing Stronglifts...

Two Workouts, three times a week, alternating.

Workout A: Squat, Bench, Heavy Row

Workout B: Squat, Overhead Press, Deadlift

So it's a two week split. I do 5 sets of 5, whatever it was last time +5 lbs. No warmup sets etc... i go around the block a couple times to get the blood moving.

I also dont eat breakfast, so I practically train fasted. Then I will have a lunch with sweet potatoes or cauliflower, but I dont eat bread. Gives me problems in the gut.

[bebster]

Ive been adding 5 lbs every day I do a set. Im doing Stronglifts...

Two Workouts, three times a week, alternating.

Workout A: Squat, Bench, Heavy Row

Workout B: Squat, Overhead Press, Deadlift

So it's a two week split. I do 5 sets of 5, whatever it was last time +5 lbs. No warmup sets etc... i go around the block a couple times to get the blood moving.

I also dont eat breakfast, so I practically train fasted. Then I will have a lunch with sweet potatoes or cauliflower, but I dont eat bread. Gives me problems in the gut.

Awesome! SL is a great program.

I'm suprised and impressed by how many people in this thread know what they are talking about. I would have thought there was less crossover between cigar smoking and strength training.

P90X's founder has a great mentality - workout 6 days a week to build it as a habit, and you will be healthy. If you only do 3 days a week, and traffic is bad one day, or you have to work extra and skip, you are down to 2 or 1 workouts for the week. That's not good. If you do 6 days a week and end up missing one or two, it's not anywhere near as bad.

I think thats a fair call for most people. If I have a workout to do though, it gets done. I'd say i've missed less than 5 in the last year. I couldn't work effectively 6 days a week - I need the recovery time. Deadlifts and C&J both fry my CNS totally for the next 24 hours.

[kafreeman]

Awesome! SL is a great program.

I'm suprised and impressed by how many people in this thread know what they are talking about. I would have thought there was less crossover between cigar smoking and strength training.

I think thats a fair call for most people. If I have a workout to do though, it gets done. I'd say i've missed less than 5 in the last year. I couldn't work effectively 6 days a week - I need the recovery time. Deadlifts and C&J both fry my CNS totally for the next 24 hours.

There are a couple days of lower intensity stuff. P90x is good for the people sitting on the couch, as it might get them into it and keep them going because of the variety. I did P90x for about 2 months... then the whole watching the tape thing got really old and I stopped. Then I continued getting fat, not that I ever stopped. I don't buy the "muscle confusion" part of it. I think that's a load of bs, and it's the variety and keeping people going that actually does something.

I wanted to do some weight training at the beginning of the year since the wife was starting to develop some serious health problems that were a cause of weight. I'm pretty sure I was developing diabetes as well. So we joined the gym and got on the treadmill and did the no carb thing. I started doing a lot of research on nutrition and weight lifting. Eventually I found Martin Beckham's site, and finally saw something that made sense and worked for me since I am NEVER hungry in the morning, but always thought you had to eat 6 times a day to lose weight so you can ramp up your metabolism (a bunch of BS, never made sense and never worked for me). After looking around for some weight training info I happened upon Stronglifts and Beginning Strength and I opted for Stronglifts. Amazing what can happen when you do the "basic" weight lifting moves, which work your entire body.

Of course, I didnt find any of this info at the start, and did what I always before to "workout". I was just flailing about at the gym, I might as well have just danced around to look a little more stupid than I already did. After two months of the gym the wife said screw this lets run in our neighborhood. What a novel idea. Go outside and do something. The worst part is, I didn't think of it. I wanted to do weight training because you know, I had been flailing weights around at the gym building those muscles right? But, I never did get stronger at the gym. I found Martin Beckhams site, did a basic routine I found on there (yeah, squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead rows, you get the idea.) Then Sears decided to close across the street and I picked up over 300 lbs of weights for ~$100. For two months now I have have been gaining strength every time I work out. Dropped that $23 a month bill from Planet Fitness too.

I used to be voracious throughout the day until I cut wheat and sugar out of my diet. I could go a day or two now without eating.

At the beginning of the year I started measuring what I ate, which was a revelation in regards to my caloric intake. I changed things up quite a bit, and drastically altered my eating. I used to have a peanut butter sandwich with a cup of yogurt for lunch along with the portion size of potato chips. I dumped that into my little app for counting calories and it was at practically 1000 calories for a single meal that I felt starved after within a couple hours. After removing processed and wheat based foods from my diet I can have a ridiculous amount of whatever I'm eating and the caloric intake is lower and the nutritional value is higher. Plus, I don't get the cold stare from the wife anymore from breaking wind every 2 minutes or when she goes to the bathroom and sees the results of my diet on the sides of the toilet.

I have to wonder what the years of pounding the standard western diet into us has really done, as I had no clue to what was really healthy until now.

I changed my diet before I went to the Doc... and the Doc told me to keep how I eat up. He said stay close the farm and out of the bakery.