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Hallo All!I started CNS the first week of June, so I'm wrapping up my second month on CNS. When I look at my over all success, it's great! But when I look at the scale, the mirror or my BF % I get a little de-motivated.A friend lent me the CNS book, and I was super excited! Except, I remember reading something that said, "Whether you have 50 lbs to lose or 10..." And all I could think of was... I have a lot more than 50 lbs to lose. Looking around on the site, it seems like most of the people joining or intro'ing themselves are starting this out at like between 15 and 20% BF...I am really ok with slower weight loss, (and yes, I remember this is about fat loss, not weight loss, and the scale and the mirror lie - however) but I guess I still question really just if this is something I should be doing - or if I should be doing something else UNTIL I have more like, "only 50 lbs to lose." I really like the diet! It's easy to do and initially I had things moving pretty quick. My initial 9 1/2 days I lost 15 lbs! Then by the end of June I was down 20 total lbs - feeling good! But then this month, it's been hovering right about the same weight all month... So I decided to remember what Kiefer said and check my BF loss - and focus on that! So, I remembered my starting BF - it was 36% (I know - shut up...). I looked and after 20 lbs of weight loss - my fat loss was... Uhh... nothing. Actually, worse than nothing... I was up to 39%. Now, the tests for BF were on my scale, so I know these aren't the most accurate things, but... Yeah...I've been working out - I have been following the "7 Weeks to Ripped" app on my iPhone. It is all about body weight exercises - lots of push-ups, pull ups, squats - things like that... Now - at my weight I can't really do a pull up, so I got that "perfect pullup" and have been doing the Australian pull ups... Everything else I can follow and hopefully at some point I will get to where pull ups are possible!So I guess what I'm curious about mainly (other than babbling, which I tend to do a lot) is - since I like the diet, do you think the fat loss will come if I just stick with it? Or do I need to do something different to get further down?I started this at 320 lbs. I am at 296 today (24 lbs lost total) I'm 35 - Male, and am sure I keep turning my body into crap with "fad" diets... I did Atkin's - I lost like 90 lbs. - stayed on it for 2 years, and then in 4 months gained over 100 lbs when I went off. I did HCG, and lost 50 lbs, gained 60. Sugar busters, Zone, blah blah blah - I've done them and just like JK said even when I went back up to my original weight I looked fatter - and I know this was because I had lost muscle... So again, I like the diet - it's easy to do and I like working out - I guess I just want to make sure I'm doing it right, because it feels like it has slowed - I seem to gain as much on carb nite as I lost the previous week - like I just flux the same 5 lbs or so, over and over... Is this pretty common? Am I too fat for CN? Should I just shut up? Is this the most annoying post you've ever read?
Congrats on the progress so far.You are better off going on a slower loss, and it will be slower the some methods due to pure fat loss instead of muscle. Those home BF scales are worthless, have one professionally done or just rely on how you look, feel, and preform. I'd suggest listing out an average ULC day and an average carb night, at the very least list your macros.Carb night is an older book so there are is new advice that can help speed up the process and having some more info on your food will help us point you in the right direction.
Jeresk, welcome! There are plenty of folks here that started with needing to lose over 50 pounds. My goal was 60 and even when I meet that goal, I expect I'll look like some of these guys' BEFORE pics. I was 185 in college, so that's probably where I OUGHT to be, but I'll be thrilled with 200.Do not trust that scale for BF%. At our size, we can't really even go by calipers -- there's just too much fat, and a lot of it is not surface fat.I've read that even the expensive tests you can take are not all that accurate and can have huge variances from one week to the next.Are your pants fitting looser? Shirts? Do you feel like you're getting stronger or weaker? Those are better indications of fat loss, for now.From what I got from Kiefer's writing as well as others, you really should be focusing on lower rep, heavy lifting, rather than higher rep, lower weights.I started at 260 (actually started with CBL, but switched to CNS due to a couple of minor injuries that don't allow me to lift heavy for now -- and CNS is actually what's recommended for high BF, anyway). I've lost 15 pounds, so far and I'm looking and feeling better. And, my clothes are all fitting better. So, I count that as fat loss. And, if it's not, well, I can live with that.This is by far the best program I've come across for easy compliance, lower will-power requirements, enjoyment, and results.Good luck. Start a log and folks here will advise and encourage as you go.
Thanks all!Again, I have found some great success and I'm really ok with some "slow going..." I mean, I'm still netting about 1 - 2 lbs a week. I KNOW it has been said by a million people not to pay attention to the scale - but first, I can't help it. Second - what I was hoping was to have a good log showing what changes happened each day so that in the end WHEN (not if) I hit my goals and people are saying "OMG! Tell me that diet again!!?? I want to do it!" and then IF (not when) they get frustrated, I can show them that this is not some miracle diet where they are going to drop 20 lbs a week and be the weight they always wanted to be by next month... It's about diligently following the diet and trusting that even when you may not be able to SEE the changes, they are happening. Mainly just the more I read, the less I felt I had in common with other people starting the diet. It seemed like everyone was trying to lose the last 5% of BF, or the last 15 lbs... Since I was trying to drop like... 80 lbs, I just wanted to make sure I was on the right program 🙂My general sample menu for every day other than CN is:Morning - Water (sometimes with a few MioEnergy squirts) Multi-Vitamin Fiber Supplement (5 gm)Noon - Chef Salad - Turkey Ham, Cheese, Olives, Mushrooms - Regular (not low fat or lite) Ranch or Italian Dressing Diet CokeDinner - Meat and Cheese - usually just like Pepperoni & Cheese, Sausage and Cheese, sometimes steak/chicken/bratwurst/pork chops. Quite often I really just get a plate of cheeses and Italian meats... WaterAfter Dinner - (this is not every night, but probably 3 times a week) - Raspberries/Blackberries in HWC sprinkled with Splenda w/Fiber (1 carb - 1 Fiber). OR I'll have a glass of the Calorie Countdown Choc Milk.On my Carb Nites - same as above until Dinner, and then I'll snack throughout the evening on things such as: Pizza, Doughnuts, No-Bake Cookies, Chex Snack Mix, Thick Cut Potato Chips w/ Onion dip Red Velvet cupcakes, M&M's, Fried Chicken, Chinese Food, Sherbet, etc.Honestly, either the night before carb nite, or around 3 or 4 in the afternoon of carb nite, I go shopping and put pretty much whatever I want in my cart... I had a huge pasta dinner with cheesy garlic bread once - and then snacks the rest of the night... I generally pick like some meal that I've been craving (Spaghetti, Fried Chicken, Tacos, whatever), and then a lot of little snacks that I'll just munch on over the remainder of the evening... I have been doing the pre-training for the "7 Weeks to Ripped" app on the iPhone, which is 3 sets of small routines of things like push-ups, pull-up's, squats, etc. It takes me about 5 min to warm up - about 5 min on each set (then a 2 min rest in between sets) - and then there is a 10 min cardio (usually jog in place, or bike), then I stretch for about 5 - 10 min - so it's usually under 45 min - I do this 3 times a week and try and make sure that one of the evenings I work out is my carb nite. I usually work out around 5:00 pm...That's kind of my week in a nutshell? I've read some of the more recent articles, and have picked up a few things here, but any further tips that anyone has are greatly appreciated!Monday will be 8 full weeks and I'm down 25 lbs. 15 on the initial 10 days, and then an additional 10 lbs... So (I know I know - it's not about weight loss, but fat loss, but I still have weight goals, and since my fat measuring scale sucks - I have to go by something...) my average is 1.6 lbs a week. If I do this for 6 months, I would have 22 weeks left. If I kept up on my current average, that would be 36 more lbs. IF that happened, that would be over 60 lbs in 6 months and I'd only be 20 lbs away from my goal weight. Now, I'm not saying that I think it will always stay this rapid (though I have hopes..) but that's not really all that "slow!" I should also note, that I was feeling a little frustrated last week, so again, I thank everyone - I was having a difficult time with the ups and downs in weight...Father's Day I went to see my family and I was 2 weeks into the diet. I told them about it and they kind of laughed at me. I showed up on Wednesday for my Grandpa's birthday, and everyone was there and at LEAST 4 people said, "OMG! That "whatever" thing you are doing is REALLY working!!! I mean.. WOW!!!" Nobody ever notices my weight loss until I've dropped like 40 lbs.. but here they could see it BETTER with only 25 lbs lost, so I think it really does prove that this is FAT loss, and not just "weight loss..."Sorry - I talk a lot, so I type a lot too and kind of ramble....
Jeresk, welcome! There are plenty of folks here that started with needing to lose over 50 pounds. My goal was 60 and even when I meet that goal, I expect I'll look like some of these guys' BEFORE pics. I was 185 in college, so that's probably where I OUGHT to be, but I'll be thrilled with 200.Do not trust that scale for BF%. At our size, we can't really even go by calipers -- there's just too much fat, and a lot of it is not surface fat.I've read that even the expensive tests you can take are not all that accurate and can have huge variances from one week to the next.Are your pants fitting looser? Shirts? Do you feel like you're getting stronger or weaker? Those are better indications of fat loss, for now.From what I got from Kiefer's writing as well as others, you really should be focusing on lower rep, heavy lifting, rather than higher rep, lower weights.I started at 260 (actually started with CBL, but switched to CNS due to a couple of minor injuries that don't allow me to lift heavy for now -- and CNS is actually what's recommended for high BF, anyway). I've lost 15 pounds, so far and I'm looking and feeling better. And, my clothes are all fitting better. So, I count that as fat loss. And, if it's not, well, I can live with that.This is by far the best program I've come across for easy compliance, lower will-power requirements, enjoyment, and results.Good luck. Start a log and folks here will advise and encourage as you go.
+1 Great post!There are actually a lot of us on this site that is over the 20% body-fat range. And, there are even more who are here to help and/or encourage you in this journey. So, Welcome aboard!
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