Weight Loss & GB schedule

Hey guys I am doing GB F1 and I feel and know that my body weight is hindering some of my progress. I am thinking of putting in some cardio to help speed the fat loss process to make me lighter etc to help with my progress. 

My diet is pretty good I am wondering if I am going to throw in some cardio should I throw in some cross fit, sprints, crawling for cardio etc.. and how many days? 

Doing whatever cardio you want is good and will speed up your recovery. Start with two days for week and see how your body will react to that, if it works fine and your not feeling tired add one more day and so on.

To much cardio can ruin your strenght gains so be carefull. There were some threads on this forum about cardio so you can search them for more information.

Cardio is a slippery slope. I went definitely too far last summer trying to speed up my fat loss and it did ruin my strength and recovery. I since then dialed back the running to a more reasonable level and greatly increased walking. Good results and I feel much much better.

By the way, speeding up fat loss with cardio is a questionable concept and need to be taken with a  grain of salt. The calorie deficit has to be reasonable, in the end, you can't just add more and more cardio without increasing the calories intake indefinitely and get good results. I convinced myself that the main advantage of cardio is maintaining and increasing cardio conditioning.

I'll go a step further: cardio is a terrible idea for people looking to lose weight. If someone has accepted that they need to exist in a calorie deficit for a significant amount of time to lose weight then extra cardio can just serve as an excuse to eat more for a lot of people.

I've combined Intermittent fasting with a ketogenic diet for the last few months. I watch what I eat to consume 1,800 calories a day and I've lost 18lbs from 178lbs to 150 thus far. It's made a big difference but I would not have gotten there without this discipline. Weight loss happens in the kitchen, not in the treadmill.

IcedDante said:

I'll go a step further: cardio is a terrible idea for people looking to lose weight. If someone has accepted that they need to exist in a calorie deficit for a significant amount of time to lose weight then extra cardio can just serve as an excuse to eat more for a lot of people.

 

I've combined Intermittent fasting with a ketogenic diet for the last few months. I watch what I eat to consume 1,800 calories a day and I've lost 18lbs from 178lbs to 150 thus far. It's made a big difference but I would not have gotten there without this discipline. Weight loss happens in the kitchen, not in the treadmill.

1800 calories? That´s so little! How have you been feeling during these months? Do you have enough energy to wake up early, work and exercise ? How is your performance ? Have you been progressing at Foundation? I´m asking because I would be extremely fatigued and incapable of doing even Fa/Fb workouts, let alone F7 with only that amount of calories and much more exhausted doing IF and a keto diet.

I had the same concerns as you before I started. I had the benefit of skepticism and proceeding slowly working for me and I think that helped. First off, I spent two months getting and maintaining a ketogenic state. Being in keto is known to have a muscle sparing effect and is awesome for my energy levels. After that I started intermittent fasting. Again, I did this for 3-4 weeks, getting into it slowly and allowing my body to adjust.

In taking my time and getting used to these two modalities, by the time I started a calorie restricted diet it was effortless! There are a couple of tough days here and there but you have to be a little tough. Currently I skip breakfast, train fasted around 2pm, and have lunch about half an hour after my workout. That's about a 450 calorie meal, followed by a huge 1100-1200 calorie dinner. Before bed I make a chocolate desert with bakers chocolate and coconut butter.

Quite frankly, my energy levels have never been better, and I'm continuing to progress with Foundation and the weight lifting I'm doing.

I'm not saying people need to do the keto diet or intermittent fast, but I will say that, for me, these two things combined have made weight loss really effortless.

Can I ask how is your training schedule and how are you adding weight lifting to Foundation? What about your daily energy demands? I mean, are you a student, a worker, is your work hard, physically demanding? I often don´t get enough sleep during the week, maybe an average of 4 hours a night, I have to wake up at 5 AM, work with children the whole day, need to move, play with them, etc.,  and need to work out around 9 or 10 PM in 3 different parks that have the necessary equipment. In the winter nights it can be very exhausting if I don´t have enough energy...

I tried something similar to keto and IF sometimes but I get really tired even with Fa/Fb if I do that. I´m 42 and late to recover.

Though I have to admit that I was the leanest when I  did mostly weight lifting and HIIT and something close to keto. Now that I´m doing mostly GST I´m not satisfied with my body composition at the moment. It´s taking too much time to lean and maybe my Fa/Fb schedule is not stimulating the weight loss enough.  I´m quite rigorous with what I eat, almost nothing industrially made, no sugar, basically no wheat, but other carbs occasionally like rice, sweet potatoes, quinoa, lentils, etc.

I think moderation in all point of views is in order. Cardio could be helpful. I went through a 55lb loss and some cardio that allowed me a little more calories here and there has been useful, so let's not demonize it.

What I argue is that an excessive calories deficit is a recipe for disaster. So if you do a lot of cardio and create too much deficit is not going to work in the long term, because is not sustainable. Healthy weight loss means finding a way to manage your nutrition that can be maintained for the long run. Killing yourself with cardio is not the right way, IMHO.

Romulo said:

Can I ask how is your training schedule and how are you adding weight lifting to Foundation? What about your daily energy demands? I mean, are you a student, a worker, is your work hard, physically demanding? I often don´t get enough sleep during the week, maybe an average of 4 hours a night, I have to wake up at 5 AM, work with children the whole day, need to move, play with them, etc.,  and need to work out around 9 or 10 PM in 3 different parks that have the necessary equipment. In the winter nights it can be very exhausting if I don´t have enough energy...

I tried something similar to keto and IF sometimes but I get really tired even with Fa/Fb if I do that. I´m 42 and late to recover.

Though I have to admit that I was the leanest when I  did mostly weight lifting and HIIT and something close to keto. Now that I´m doing mostly GST I´m not satisfied with my body composition at the moment. It´s taking too much time to lean and maybe my Fa/Fb schedule is not stimulating the weight loss enough.  I´m quite rigorous with what I eat, almost nothing industrially made, no sugar, basically no wheat, but other carbs occasionally like rice, sweet potatoes, quinoa, lentils, etc.

So of course 4-5 hours of sleep a night isn't enough, but as an Uncle to my newborn nephew and baby niece I know that a sound 8 hours is an impossibility. Try to get naps in during the day!

The great thing about intermittent fasting and dieting is that it is a time saver. Once you find one or two meals that work within your macros and calorie range you can just stick with those and sacrifice variety for consistency.

The transition to Ketosis and Intermittent fasting can be hard on the body and stressful. With ketogenic eating I really only had one day of sluggishness, but some people have reported an entire week of the "keto flu". Also most people don't realize they are eating too much sugar in certain foods, or not enough fat overall.

For me the transition to IF was tougher. I started off by cheating: I'd have a coffee with heavy cream and coconut butter around 10 or 11 to get me to lunch, and then I would eat a HUGE lunch to reward myself. Over the next few days I got rid of the calories and just moved to water with a cup of coffee or tea here and there.

As Giovanni said, too extreme of a calorie deficit is a terrible idea. You won't have energy, you'll catabolize muscle, you're going to feel horrible, etc. Not enough of a calorie deficit and you won't lose weight. Use an online calculator to determine your macros and start experimenting with it. 

Once you look in the mirror a few months from now and see a whole new body you're going to be amazed!