Today At Gym - 07/31

If there ever was any doubt in my mind about this it has been completely erased last night – I now know that I am absolutely rotten at romantic relationships.

I am also not very good at gym (not that strong, very slow progress, occasional bad exercise posture, etc) but at the very least it is an unchanging mistress always willing and eager to welcome me thorough her doors and hang out with me for at least an hour almost every single day.

Yes, occasionally she makes me angry, often she frustrates me, and sometimes even depresses me slightly, but she is always there to welcome me back. The very next day after we had a fallout I can come back to her as if nothing ever happened – she would have long forgotten the nasty things I may have said, and never will she bring up, or even recall, past arguments we had.

Like all women she is very demanding and even place a lot of physical strain on my body but, all things considered, she is a very positive influence and has brought many great things into my life like:

• True sense of wellbeing
• Better image of self
• Much more confidence in myself
• Sense of purpose
• More discipline
• A better appearance
• A healthier body that very seldom get sick
• A healthier mind better capable of dealing with daily stress
• A fitter and more physically capable body

She also helped me a great deal with any shyness I may have had. Some situations (especially social ones) may still make me feel a bit uncomfortable, but long gone are the days where I would break out in a cold sweat – worst that can happen now is I will just smile and stand around looking pretty…

Start Time	05:39
Duration	78 minutes
Calories Burned	907 kcal
Session Type	Strength Training
Session Focus	Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Abs

At this point I realize that I am heading right at becoming that dreaded gym bunny that is spending an obsessive amount of time in the gym, but I ask you this: If you had such a wonderful girlfriend/boyfriend would you not also want to spend as much time together?

Today At Gym - 07/30

One of my Facebook friends once had "I'm a gym bunny" set as their profile status. Today I could not stay away from gym (it's an addiction you know) and thought about gym bunnies.

After reading the following definition of a gym bunny on Urban Dictionary I realized that this is something I should avoid becoming...

"A (gay) man who spends an obsessive amount of time in the gym working on sculpting his body -- not for health reasons -- only to show it off in a club or on the beach.

Hey dude... can you spot my glutes while I do some squats? "

Start Time	06:17
Duration	57 minutes
Calories Burned	543 kcal
Session Type	Strength Training
Session Focus	Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

I suspect that last Monday I strained my shoulder slightly with either bench dips or side lateral raises. I attempted a couple of dips this morning and really thought that is was the most likely suspect. I will thus be looking for another triceps exercise to replace this.

I am also varying my diet slightly today, my lovely girlfriend made me fruit salad which is so much healthier and tastier than that second PB&J sandwich!

Overtraining

Today I feel very fed up with gym. Yesterday while swimming I noticed a pain in my right shoulder, and since tomorrow is shoulders day I don't really feel up to it.

I have been continuously training for a couple of months and think it might only do me some good to take an entire week for resting.

I am also not sure if bulking at this point is such a good idea. I took quite a few pictures of myself and all I see is a short fat guy with skinny arms - no wonder I can trick the Virgin Active machine into thinking I have only 11.7% body fat since this machine takes the measurement on my right bicep...

See you in a weeks time when I will be re-examining my situation and goals.

Weekly Feedback - 07/26

This morning I felt like going for a swim in the nice heated pool at gym - yes indeed, that red Speedo is not just for having half naked pictures of myself taken.

While there I decided to quickly take my measurements again, and now my body fat is showing as 14.6% on the machine, amazing how fat I've gotten this week!

I basically lost all faith in the Virgin Active health zone machine and can clearly see that it is a totally rotten tool to try and track your progress with...

	18 July	25 July	26 July
Weight	67.8	67.6	69
Body Fat %	11.7	12.8	14.6

I'll keep measuring and posting the results though, like I said before, perhaps I will see monthly trends. I have noticed that if you take multiple measurements without moving your arm you also get different results, so I will also just take the first measurement I get and not bother doing it again.

Being told you are 3% fatter than you were a week ago does however not do wonders for your motivation levels.

Today At Gym - 07/25

First thing I did this morning was to take my measurements for the week.

As I suspected I still lost weight despite being on a 3165 calorie diet. What really discouraged me quite a bit was when I took my body fat measurement and the percentage came up as 13.3%

My initial thoughts of shock were  that I am getting fatter while losing weight, which must means I am losing a lot muscle which is totally not a good thing!

I took two more measurements which came up as 11.7% and 12.8%. Feeling very annoyed with the darn variability of the machine (which uses the FUTREX 6100 Body Fat Analyzer) I proceeded to do my workout for the day.

Start Time	06:22
Duration	64 minutes
Calories Burned	684 kcal
Session Type	Strength Training
Session Focus	Biceps, Calves, Back

Doing some Internet research I discovered that even hydrostatic weighing, which is perhaps the most accurate way of measuring body fat, is also only accurate to within 2%-3%^[1]. Another thing I came to realize was that my cheap plastic USN body fat callipers are also a complete waste of time since there is no way I can take the measurements at the exact same locations, with the exact same amount of pressure every time.

I will therefore have to accept that there will be inconsistencies in my readings every time I take a measurement, and that I will perhaps only be able to see trends from month to month. I have to admit, this still annoys me quite a bit since it makes it so much harder to determine whether or not I am making real progress on a weekly basis...

Today At Gym - 07/24

Today we started off with a game of squash instead of doing other cardiovascular training first.

As you may already know from past blog posts, squash mornings are never uneventful. Today I got struck by a ball from behind (I suppose I ran in front of it) and later was hit on the head with a racket.

Next week I will be without a squash partner as Christo will be on leave, this makes me feel almost sad as the games on Tuesdays and Thursdays truly are the highlights of my week.

Start Time	06:19
Duration	80 minutes
Calories Burned	1252 kcal
Session Type	Cardiovascular Training
Session Focus	Squash (50 min), Stationary Bike (20 min), Elliptical Trainer (10 min)

I guess next week I will do some additional cardio machines while I can't play squash, or perhaps start swimming again, I haven't been doing that in quite a while.

SMART Goals

SMART is a mnemonic I borrow today from the project management field to help me set my training goals. The five keywords mean the following:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Actionable
R – Realistic
T – Time-bound

I will now use each one of the above keywords and apply them to my personal training goals for the next 6 months.

Specific

As mentioned before I would like to weigh 74 kg and only have 10% body. I realize that this will be a two step process of bulking up and later cutting the fat. For now I will focus only on the bulking phase.

If I am at my ideal weight my lean body mass will be 66.6 kg. During the bulking phase I must thus try my best to overshoot this as I will inevitably loose muscle again during the cutting phase.

Right now I am at 68 kg with 11.7 % body fat, which means I currently have about 60 kg of lean mass. My goal should thus be to pack on, at the very least, 6.6kg of muscle with 7 kg or more perhaps being the ideal to compensate for later muscle loss during fat cutting.

Whether or not this is actually possible I don’t know yet, we are still getting to the “R”.

Measurable

This is one of the easy parts since I am already measuring my weight and body fat percentages every week. In addition to this I can also take a normal tape measure to measure my biceps, calves, waist etc to help me identify where changes are happening.

I will measure my weight and body fat every Friday at the same time to make sure that “outside factors” does not influence the measurements.

Actionable

To attain my goal I will have to be very strict with my diet and ensure that I am getting the right amount of calories that will be necessary for muscle growth. I will also have to keep an eye on my progress and adjust the diet when necessary. Since I have followed a strict diet before I am sure that I can manage this.

Naturally another important part is my training at the gym; again I must consistently follow a program that will be in line with my goals. I have already started to keep a training log in a little A5 book I carry around the gym. I can use the notes I write down as a feedback mechanism which will help me determine when adjustments needs to be made.

Realistic

This is the difficult part and the part where reality can actually de-motivate me a tad. While 7 kg may not sound like all that much it may actually take much longer than I think to build that amount of muscle.

According to what I read on the Internet ^[1] it would seem that if everything goes perfectly I can only expect to put on at most 2 pounds of muscle per month.

Thus to build 7kg of muscle it would take me almost 8 months if everything goes perfectly. 8 months for 7kg of muscle is perhaps not that bad, and also not completely unrealistic – the fact that I am still reasonably new at strength training also counts for me as beginners can gain muscle a little more rapidly.

Time Bound

I don’t want to spend too much time on the bulking phase as I will be potentially gaining a lot of fat during it. I am going to set a 6 month limit on it. If I only gain 4 kg of muscle in the next six months I will be very happy about it and will proceed to the cut phase.

I must however be vigilant at all times to ensure that my diet and training is optimal as the last thing in the world I want is just to spend the next 6 months in gym wasting my time!

Today At Gym - 07/23

When I stepped on my bathroom scale this morning it almost seemed like I am still loosing weight, but I realize it is too early to tell...

This leads me to confess my worst fear: Every day at gym I am not playing around, I really try as hard as my body allows and I am putting in a consistent focused effort - my worst fear is that despite all my efforts I will stay about the same and not really gain much muscle.

But as one of my friends pointed out yesterday: "You haven't been training for that long, and anyway, you look better already than when you started, don't you?"

Start Time	06:21
Duration	68 minutes
Calories Burned	864 kcal
Session Type	Strength Training
Session Focus	Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Abs

When I look in the mirror I see lots of loose skin hanging around and some fat still hiding underneath, but I know very well that there will be no point in slimming down even more, I will just loose too much muscle in the process and end up looking like a very-very skinny guy, which is definitely not my goal!

Today At Gym - 07/22

At gym I again managed to be a source of amusement for my squash partner on two separate occasions...

First I tried to make a "great save" and dove into the glass wall at the back of the court, we both laughed so hard that we had to "rest" for a moment to shake it off.

The second time I don't even know what happened, I went into one direction and my left shoe went flying into another!

Start Time	06:17
Duration	86 minutes
Calories Burned	1332 kcal
Session Type	Cardiovascular Training
Session Focus	Stationary Bike (20 min), Stepper Machine (10 min) Squash (56 min)

Somebody mentioned that up to this point I have not been very specific on what my goals are other than to build some muscle, so now is perhaps a good time to mention this briefly.

A general rule of thumb is that for every centimetre your height is above 1 meter you must weigh 1 kilogram. Since I am 1.74 meters tall this would mean my ideal weight should be about 74 kg.

If you want to be more "scientific" about this you can use the following BMI formula to calculate how much you should weigh to have a body mass index of 25 which will place you in the upper range of the normal category.

upper normal weight = 25 x height²

So here is my medium term goal: Weigh 74 kg and have only 10% body fat.

This is medium term goal since at the very least this will take me 12 months: 6 months of bulking and 6 months of cutting to get that body fat down.

See you in the next post where I will be discussing SMART goals!

My Diet

Below you will find the eating plan I intend to follow in the coming months.

I must admit that my mom will not be very proud as you will not find any veggies in there, but I promise mom, I am taking a multi-vitamin daily...

Since I am living as a bachelor a very important requirement is that my food must be easy and quick to prepare. I am also working in an office which, for some obscure reason, does not have a microwave on our floor, so another requirement was that my lunch must be one I can eat cold.

I used the calorie calculator to work out my basic caloric needs and added 357 (2500 / 7) calories to it to try and achieve a weight gain of 0.45 kg per week.

			Mass	Calories	Carbs	Protien	Fat
Breakfast Oats
1	cup	Oats	100.0	362.6	58.4	11.7	9.3
1	serving	Pure Protien	56.0	196.5	3.0	40.0	2.0
Gym Drink
1	serving	Whey Protien	34.0	132.2	2.3	25.0	2.4
Work Breakfast
1	medium	Green Apple	93.0	59.3	12.1	0.0	0.0
0.5	cup	Instant Porridge	80.0	298.1	66.7	4.9	0.8
1	serving	Pure Protien	56.0	196.5	3.0	40.0	2.0
Peanut Butter-Jelly Sandwich (Snack 1)
4	slices	Wholewheat Brown Bread	160.0	400.4	76.3	14.9	3.4
2	teaspoons	Medium Fat Spread - Lite	10.0	49.6	0.0	0.0	5.5
2	teaspoons	Crunchy Peanut Butter	18.0	112.6	4.2	4.1	9.0
1	tablesoon	Apricot Preserve	19.0	50.0	12.0	0.0	0.0
Peanut Butter-Jelly Sandwich (Lunch)
4	slices	Wholewheat Brown Bread	160.0	400.4	76.3	14.9	3.4
2	teaspoons	Medium Fat Spread - Lite	10.0	49.6	0.0	0.0	5.5
2	teaspoons	Crunchy Peanut Butter	18.0	112.6	4.2	4.1	9.0
1	tablesoon	Apricot Preserve	19.0	50.0	12.0	0.0	0.0
Supper
		Lean Beef Mince	140.0	307.8	0.0	38.4	15.8
		Wholewheat Linguini	100.0	326.2	65.5	11.7	1.4
3	tablespoons	Pasta Souce	60.0	61.7	5.9	0.5	1.9
				3165.8	402.1	210.0	71.4

I invite you to watch  my progress in the coming weeks, you must be as eager as me to see how this is going to work out!

Today At Gym - 07/21

When I got up this morning I was full of energy and ready for the day. I think this was because I slept enough and had enough to eat this weekend.

After a while at the gym I did however start to struggle a bit. I could not do all the reps I planned to do, and on some exercises I also had to drop some weight. Constantly I said to myself: "Try harder, try harder!"

The fact that I could not complete all my reps is however also positive feedback - when I will be able to do all the planned reps with the same weights than I use now I will know that I have managed to increase my strength.

Start Time	06:19
Duration	75 minutes
Calories Burned	808 kcal
Session Type	Strength Training
Session Focus	Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

Today I packed a lunch of Peanut Butter Jelly sandwiches. During the course of today I will be publishing the diet I intend to follow. Bear in mind that I am not a dietician and the diet I plan to follow will possible have many shortcomings, but you can watch my progress in the coming months to see how well it works out, or doesn't work...

Nutritional Facts Table

Today I sat down and made a list of all the food I like eating and which I actually have in my house right now - you will see the results of my efforts in the table below.

I intend to use this list to help me come up with an eating plan which I can follow in the coming months that will help me reach my goal of gaining weight. Like I mentioned before I wish to gain weight in the form of muscle, but naturally my weight gain will also include fat gain, I will thus have to go into a pure fat loss diet at a later stage.

Compiling lists like these are very easy, all you have to do is read the label on the food. The only thing that might throw you off is when the energy of the food are given in kilo joules (kJ) instead of calories, but you can easily convert to calories with the following easy equation:

calories = kJ x 0.239

Brand	Name of Product/Food	Mass	Calories	Carbs	Protien	Fat
	Chicken Breast	100	160	0.0	28.9	4
	Lean Beef Mince	100	220	0.0	27.4	11.3
Black Cat	Crunchy Peanut Butter	100	625	23.6	22.5	50.2
USN	Pure Protein	56	196	3.0	40.0	2
USN	Whey Protien	34	132	2.3	25.0	2.4
Ace	Instant Porridge - Strawberry	100	373	83.4	6.1	1
House Brand	Oats	100	363	58.4	11.7	9.3
Albany	Wholewheat Brown Bread	100	250	47.7	9.3	2.1
Woolworths	Organic Wholewheat linguini	100	326	65.5	11.7	1.4
Monteverde	Farfalle (Pasta)	100	361	73.2	12.4	1.5
	Potato	100	109	23.3	2.3	0.1
Harvestime	Mixed Vegetables	100	53	10.0	2.0	0.5
	Green Apple	100	64	13.0	0.0	0
	Naartjies	100	51	9.0	0.8	0.2
Danish Preserve	Apricot Preserve	100	263	63.2	0.0	0
Fatti's & Moni's	Pasta Sauce - Picante	100	103	9.9	0.9	3.2
Kraft	Real Mayonnaise - Lite	100	318	6.0	0.6	34.6
Blossom	Medium Fat Spread - Lite	100	496	0.0	0.0	55
	Carrots	100	34	7.5	1.4	0

All weights are in grams.

Weekly Feedback - 07/19

This week I did gym pretty hard but followed my "diet" rather haphazardly as I actually have not worked out a diet that will help me reach my goals - I ate almost anything I felt like during the week.

As you can see from the results below no miracles happened and I essentially stayed the same - not necessarily a bad thing...

	14 July 2008	18 July 2008
Weight	68	67.8
Body Fat %	11.7	11.7

My priority now is definitely to pay more attention on diet and watch what I eat more carefully. In the next post I will be making a list of foods I like to eat and will provide the nutritional information for each which will help me work that diet out.

Today At Gym - 07/18

Part of my routine focused on calve exercises. I have always had rather small calves and I am not sure if these exercises are making any difference.

Currently I am using 90 kg on the standing calve raises machine. This thing always just bruise my shoulders more than doing anything else...

Sure I could use heavier weights since the 90 kg don't feel particularly difficult to do, but I know not to. For one thing I'll just end up bruising my shoulders even more, and also, I have seen quite a few gentlemen at the gym setting the machine on the maximum weight and then stacking on even some barbell weights, but guess what, I never see them again for the rest of the week at the gym after such a session!

Start Time	06:23
Duration	60 minutes
Calories Burned	671 kcal
Session Type	Strength Training
Session Focus	Biceps, Calves, Back

Next up I'll be posting my stats for this week. I have also taken a photograph first thing every morning (except Monday, when I overslept) so also keep an eye out for those!

Today At Gym - 07/17

This morning my cardio workout started off with 20 minutes on the rowing machine which happens to be my favourite machine in the gym.

Every since I first sat on it I knew I would like it - it conjures up vivid images of a romantic day where you and that special someone hires a boat and blissfully row around a lake while enjoying each others company, and perhaps some Champaign.

I have to admit though that 10 minutes or so into the exercise, when I start perspiring, the romantic image rapidly changes and I imagine myself as one of the oarsmen propelling a big Viking galley across the ocean trying to dodge cannon balls...

Start Time	06:19
Duration	80 minutes
Calories Burned	1308 kcal
Session Type	Cardiovascular Training
Session Focus	Rowing Machine (20 min), Stationary Bike (10 min), Squash (50 min)

All I can say about the above figures is that I am just happy I burned that much calories - last night I was feeling a bit sad and lonely and had a large pizza and some ice-cream...

Today At Gym - 07/16

Today was strength training - on Wednesdays my routine starts of with squats, which reminds me:

When I initially started to include squats in my gym routine I really hated them, the very first time I thought I was going to pass out!

As with anything you keep doing it becomes easier after a while, and now if the squat rack is not occupied this is the very fist thing I do and I quite enjoy it.

Start Time	06:19
Duration	73 minutes
Calories Burned	984 kcal
Session Type	Strength Training
Session Focus	Quads, Hamstrings, Glutes, Abs

This morning I could not find the padding to put around the barbell bar which meant that it did dig into my back more than usual and caused a bit more discomfort, but this actually made me feel stronger, almost like I could squat more weight - I might try it "bare" again next Wednesday...

A pound of flesh

It is widely accepted that one pound of fat contains about 3500 calories.^[1]

What this means for us is that if you are desperately trying to loose some weight you will have to cut your calories by 3500 per week to loose a pound of fat every week.

But before I carry on, lets convert the numbers to metric measurements and round a little since I could never quite grasp the imperial madness:

3860 kcal = 0.5 kg Fat

So if you want to lose 0.5 kg per week you only need to create a 550 calorie deficit per day from what it would take to maintain your current weight (you can use the calorie calculator to figure out how much you need to maintain your current weight, then simply subtract 550 from this number).

Creating this daily deficit can be as easy as not eating that extra piece of chocolate cake, or just doing some additional physical exercises, for example, this morning alone I burned a good 1354 calories at gym.

If you follow this calorie guideline your weight loss will be more healthy and more predictable at a steady pace. You can even get fancy when you realize that your weight is changing too little every week and use your results to re-calculate that calorie deficit.

It is however very important to realize that what we have just discussed are guidelines, not pure hard science. I do however promise if you follow your calorie planned diet you WILL see results, they may not come overnight, but they will come!

Up to this point we have discussed weight loss, but you will know that is not my goal, I've already done that, so you can take my word for it and know the above works. My goal is to gain weight, and by weight I mean muscle, not fat!

Unfortunately, from what I have read, muscle gain is a little less predictable than weight loss, and I am not exactly sure how many calories you will need to gain a pound of muscle. From Google research it would seem that you will need a surplus of 2500 calories per week. ^[2]

2500 calories = 0.45 kg muscle

I am quite happy to use this smaller number and I am happy to gain that amount of weight every week, assuming that most of it will be muscle.

Next up I will have to calculate the calories I will be consuming ever week, and then work out from which foods these calories will be coming from. So keep visiting the blog and post comments or ask questions!

Today At Gym - 07/15

It was a pretty good morning at gym today, I started off with a little cardiovascular activities on the Elliptical trainer, then spend some time on the stationary bike before moving on to the highlight of my day, squash!

My new pair of squash tekkies made all the difference, and for the first time I can't complain about any soreness on my feet. I must admit that the thicker socks I wore also contributed to a painless experience.

Start Time	06:17
Duration	90 minutes
Calories Burned	1354 kcal
Session Type	Cardiovascular Training
Session Focus	Elliptical Trainer (20 min), Stationary Bike (10 min), Squash (60 min)

As always after a good game of squash I feel amazing right now and very happy, hey, gym becomes addictive for a reason!

Today At Gym - 07/14

This morning started off as a tad blue, I woke up with a knock at the door realizing with a shock that it was Christo ready to head for gym and that I had completely overslept...

After he smiled at me and walked to his car I felt pretty upset with myself since I knew this meant that there was simply not enough time to go to gym before work and my routine for the day was ruined - from past experience I know that if I skip gym in the morning there is a high probability that I will skip gym for the day...

After the initial shock and disbelief I decided to calm down and do the only sensible thing which was to get dressed as quickly as possible to get to work early so I can leave a little early and go to gym afterwards.

I am very happy to report that I did not skip gym today and followed though on my morning plans. Only downside was the gym experience today was also a bit blue, but let's check the stats for the day first...

Start Time	16:25
Duration	59:33 minutes
Calories Burned	741 kcal
Session Type	Strength Training
Session Focus	Chest, Shoulders, Triceps

Like I mentioned, the gym experience was a bit less than optimal today. This was mainly due to the fact that I went at a very busy time with people buzzing all around me and all the benches being occupied the whole time.

Normally I first do my "bench work" with free weights while I am still fresh and able to lift "heavy" stuff, but today I had to start off with the other things first like the triceps exercises (which went pretty well and I could even do 10 kg more than I usually can without much effort) while waiting for an opening. This meant that by the time I got to inclined dumbbell presses, and seated dumbbell shoulder presses I was pretty much useless...

But actually, if you really think about it, today was a good day at gym: The change in routine was a good thing since I could lift more weights with the exercises I usually do last and struggling a bit more with the other exercises was perhaps worth it!

Tomorrow is cardio/squash day and I get to try out my new squash trainers, hopefully the blisters on my feet will be at an end now!

By the way, just to prevent the same thing happening again I bought a R 50 electronic clock radio as a back-up for my cell phone alarm clock. :)

Calorie Calculator

Where I am now

I joined the gym in November 2007 with the main goal of losing body fat and becoming a leaner healthier person. For years before this I “knew” that I had to get more physically active and eat better, but merely thinking about things are not enough to make it happen. What really made me jump to action immediately was when I saw in a photo just how horrible I looked in a wetsuit! You can read all about it here, and click on the picture to see the full-size version…

If you look at the “before and after” picture on the right, and the measurements below, you will see that I have become quite lean and (at least I think so) a little easier on the eye. I would certainly go as far as to say that I have successfully completed the goals I set for myself in November 2007. I can now wear smaller jeans, I feel more confident, I look better in clothes, and most important of all, I am a much happier person!

	November 2007	July 2008
Weight	81.2	68.4
Body Fat %	24.1	11.2

How did I get here, and was it easy? I would answer the last part of the question first: No, don’t kid yourself, doing nothing at all and carrying on with your normal lifestyle before joining the gym is obviously easier. Is it fun to get up early every morning and go to gym? I won’t lie to you - HELL NO it’s not fun by a long shot! Who would not want to sleep-in on a very cold-rainy winter morning?

But when I look at myself now, the question I really ask is “was it worth it?” Can you guess what my answer would be?

As to how I got here I can say with confidence that ANYBODY can do what I did, there is no magic to it. Simply follow a calorie restricted “eating plan”, stick to it, go to the gym 5 days a week and alternate between strength training and cardio training. It’s really that simple!

So now that I am lean, healthy and happy, is that it? What’s next? Next up is getting some decent muscle on my frame, right now some would argue that I look like just another skinny guy, and this is true as a matter of fact! If you have been following my personal blog, located at http://hannesfoulds.blogspot.com/, you will know that I am fighting an almost losing battle to get that muscle!

I think one of the reasons I am losing this battle is due to my own fear. To gain weight (muscle) you have to overfeed and create a calorie surplus, this is very well known, but if you gain weight you are going to gain both fat and muscle, and this is unavoidable regardless of what clever nutritional supplement companies will have you believe. I am very afraid of becoming a fat person again since it took so much sweat and tears to get to where I am now!

Sometimes I do manage convince myself that I will have to accept that I will get a little fatter, for one meal or so and eat a lot, but then that fear creeps up again, and the next time I am at the gym I just do a little bit more cardio, just a little bit more vigorous to try and compensate.

Naturally if I want to see some noteworthy muscle size increases I will need to do almost the opposite of what I’ve been doing until now, and I will have to overcome this fear I have. I now invite you to become part of my journey by regularly visiting this blog and participating by posting your comments and hints. I will be making a new post almost daily to keep you informed of how the new things I am trying are working out!

Hope to see you soon!
Hannes Foulds