P90X and "Insanity Workout"

[character]

But: an alternative theory blames refined carbohydrates. And my problem is that I think that would include white rice and noodles? But these have been staples in Asia for ages and obesity hasn't tended to be a problem until recently.

The science is still unsettled, but most people find if they are overweight and cut out sugar/refined carbs they lose weight.

Even if you eat those, portion size is very important. Eating a little rice in sushi is different than eating a family size bag of Doritos or a quart of ice cream. There's also been some research showing that different people may have different intestinal flora, so the foods they can process are different.

It shouldn't be forgotten that being able to easily add fat (store energy) was probably an evolutionary advantage early on.

[Guest realmayo]

It shouldn't be forgotten that being able to easily add fat (store energy) was probably an evolutionary advantage early on.

That's just a guess. It might be a disadvantage: if people got fat they couldn't escape from predators!

[character]

It shouldn't be forgotten that being able to easily add fat (store energy) was probably an evolutionary advantage early on.

That's just a guess. It might be a disadvantage: if people got fat they couldn't escape from predators!

Hence the 'was probably'.

[edelweis]

so, do we get to see the before and after photos now

[Guest realmayo]

Is it rude to mention that, a couple of months ago, not long after commenting on this topic, and reading up a bit*, I went on a diet for the first time, it involved eating high-fat low-carbs, and in six weeks lost 18 pounds to move from being a bit overweight to being normal weight, never once feeling hungry or uncomfortable, and actually eating more calories each day than I was beforehand, while doing only occasional exercise. Whole process was a complete mind-changer and I feel so sorry now when I see overweight people doing exercise in the hope that it will make them skinny, such a waste of time and emotion for them.

*http://www.rivbike.com/product-p/bo16.htm

[edelweis]

Well, then, post your own photos realmayo. We want proof

[Guest realmayo]

Haha, would love to! But ... there would be no "before" photos to compare against the "after" ones, haha

Anyway you need proof you don't trust me ?

[kdavid]

I've lost 20 pounds since I started this post ~10 weeks ago.

I've started the P90X workout, and am doing it in conjunction with Insanity.

Aside from being active, the other main life style change was diet. I eat smaller portions now, and skip the sweets (most days).

While I have "before" photos, I'm still a bit bashful. Perhaps once I finish the first cycle of P90X I'll post them.

[imron]

@realmayo. It's not necessarily a waste of their time. Excercise has other benefits besides just helping lose weight.

[edelweis]

Well, if realmayo merely looks skinny, and kdavid looks skinny and fit, I'd say exercising definitely has benefits

Eskimos are not known for living long healthy lives, are they? Okinawa people are. (this about diets.)

[Guest realmayo]

Imron, I agree that exercise has benefits, & I believe the famous Dr Atkins told his disciples that 'if you're not doing exercise you're not doing Atkins'. But I think a lot those people who take up exercise to lose weight, and then fail to lose weight over a long period, end up stopping exercise. The fact that I now get on my bicycle because I want to, rather than because I feel I must in order to lose weight, makes my cycling so much more pleasant.

Of course for lots of people it works great! Look at kdavid above. But for lots of others, it doesn't.

I used to assume the statement "burn more calories than you take in" made sense, and it was a real shock to discover from a theoretical point of view backed up by my own experience that it's an absurd statement. I also used to be maybe a tiny bit sneery (privately) about people who didn't knuckle down and lose weight, but now understand why that's a stupid thing to expect too.

[Guest realmayo]

Eskimos are not known for living long healthy lives, are they? Okinawa people are. (this about diets.)

1. I'd imagine your average hunter-gatherer Eskimo lives a rather tougher life than your average Okinawan.

2. You should read about Vilhjalmur Stefansson -- here's a snippet from Wikipedia:

Stefansson documented the fact that the Inuit diet consisted of about 90% meat and fish; Inuit would often go 6 to 9 months a year eating nothing but meat and fish—essentially, a no-carbohydrate diet. He found that he and his fellow European-descent explorers were also perfectly healthy on such a diet. When medical authorities questioned him on this, he and a fellow explorer agreed to undertake a study under the auspices of the Journal of the American Medical Association to demonstrate that they could eat a 100% meat diet in a closely observed laboratory setting for the first several weeks, with paid observers for the rest of an entire year. The results were published in the Journal, and both men were perfectly healthy on such a diet, without vitamin supplementation or anything else in their diet except meat and entrails.

[edelweis]

thanks for the links. I'm still a non-believer though. But never mind.

Do you intend to remain on this diet forever, or return to a more conventional eating plan at some point?

[Guest realmayo]

Well it doesn't feel like a diet per se I guess because the only rule is to cut out refined carbohydrates, cut down on other carbs, and replace them with fats -- and the great thing with fat is that not only is it good for you, it it makes you feel full unlike carbs which make you (well, me) feel hungry. The stricter "diet" part is just to lose the weight you want to lose, which I've done. I guess the long-term plan would be a modest amount of complex carbs alongside plenty of animal fats, a regular amount of protein, and loads of vegetables. Kind of turning the "food pyramid" on its head.

Those links above merely show that carbohydrates aren't necessary for a healthy diet: I'm not actually gorging myself on seal entrails each morning!

I went back on carbs for a recent trip to Germany which I knew would involve lots of beer and potatoes, and will be back again for a couple of weeks in Asia which will involve lots of beer and rice! But for most of the year and for most of the future I want to keep them limited, partly because I think there's a good chance they are bad for us, partly because of the weight thing, but also because the change of diet made me feel great: some of that could be placebo effect, but often in the past I used to feel tired and find it extremely difficult to concentrate on studying and other stuff an hour or two after eating a meal -- that post-eating dip was entirely done away with once I stopped the carbs.

I don't know about China, but I understand a common and common-sense way to lose a bit of weight in South-East Asia has always been to temporarily stop eating rice -- which, given that rice is traditionally the main carb source, is basically a low-carb diet.

[WangYuHong]

I started the "Insanity" workout shortly after finding this thread in the beginning of March...

(you can find a sample of the workouts on Tudou to see if it's something you can stick to.)

A couple months before trying the workout, I started trying to eat healthier (without any real dieting plan) and lost about 3kg off dieting alone. While I could probably have continued dieting to lose more weight (losing 10kg total was my goal), I wanted to change my sedentary lifestyle a bit so that I could be more active and have more energy.

So I started doing the "Insanity" workout...

And it's hard... like, kicking-my-ass hard, but it doesn't feel impossible.

They say it's a 60-day workout (or about 9 weeks). The first 4 weeks are the "easy" period, then you get a week of "rest", and then you finish up with 4 weeks of the "hard" period. (I put those terms in "quotes" because "easy" and "rest" are relative terms. They're definitely better than the hard period, but don't think for one second the instructor (Shawn T) is gonna go easy on you)

I have about 2 weeks to go in the whole program, so hopefully I'll have good results by the end.

The things I like about it so far are:

1. A fitness test every two weeks. This is a great progress indicator, as it is a clear quantifiable method of proving that you're getting in shape. It's a set of 8 exercises that you do for a minute each (with a break in between), and you record the number of reps you did at the end. The first test happens before starting the workout. I did okay for the first two exercises, but was exhausted and did poorly for the remaining 6. The second test I did was like night-and-day. I saw minor improvements in the first 2 tests, but I wasn't nearly as exhausted so the remaining 6 sets I was able to complete and post dramatic improvements.

2. Rotating workouts to keep things different, but still maintaining a structure. For each week, you workout 6 days (and rest 1 day). The first 3 days are the "regular" workouts for that period, one day of "recovery", and then 2 more regular workouts, followed by a full day of rest. Any workout routine is going to end up being a big repetition of exercises over and over again, but I felt like in this format it kept things varied enough that I didn't feel bored while doing it.

3. No equipment necessary for the "Insanity" series. This was a huge plus for me. Since I had been so inactive for so long, I wanted some way to start getting in shape without requiring a huge investment. The space requirements are pretty easy too. You just need a clear, solid floor area about 2m by 2m to do the whole program. If I eventually find this series to be too easy, I might step it up with weights or something, but by that point I should be in a routine and know that my exercise equipment will get used (unlike all those other things I bought that ended up packed away in a box...)

I'm not going to get into a diet vs. exercise debate... I think they're both important. Exercise without a healthy diet is pretty useless, but I also think dieting without exercising doesn't cover whole picture. The best proof of this (for myself anyway) was starting up the Insanity workout.

In the 7 weeks I've been doing the workout, I've only lost 2kg more (so, not quite as much as I lost just dieting alone). Again, this is without real dieting plan other than "try to eat less junk food".

The weight loss was a little disappointing too. I've kept a daily weight log, to try and measure results.

Week 1: Gained 0.5kg (+0.5kg overall)

* This was a big shocker to me... talk about moving in the wrong direction. The workouts were kicking my ass everyday, and my clothes were literally drenched in sweat when I finished. I was only able to do about 50% of the workouts since the exercises were new to me (and required moving in new ways and using new muscles) and left me feeling exhausted. The reason for the gain was due to building up all these new muscles, so if you can make it past this first period you should start seeing better results

Week 2: Lost 0.2kg (+0.2kg overall)

* Feeling better this week... still only able to keep up with about 66% of the workout (I keep doing the whole exercise, I just take longer and more frequent breaks depending on how tired I am. Drinking water throughout the workouts are a requirement!).

Week 3: Lost 0.3kg (+0.0kg overall)

* Did fitness test at the beginning of the week, huge improvements over the first one. Getting better, able to do about 80% of the workout.

Week 4: Lost 0.3kg (-0.3kg overall)

* Finally hitting my stride... can do about 90% of the workout... starting to see consistent loss on the weight scale. Keeping up with this routine would probably go a long ways towards my goal of losing weight and staying in shape.

Week 5: Lost 0.2kg (-0.5kg overall)

* This is a "recovery" week, where you do a different set of exercises to maintain cardio, but don't go all out, and don't feel entirely exhausted by the time you finish.

Week 6: Gained 0.1kg (-0.4kg overall)

* Another fitness test at the beginning of the week. Consistent improvements in every exercise, definitely don't feel as tired as the last times I did the test. This is the first week of the "hard" four-week period. It kicked my ass thoroughly. I thought I was making great strides with the previous 4 weeks and coming close to being in shape, but this week made me feel like I'm back at square one again. The moves they have you do require more (more balance, more power, more precision), and the workouts are about 20 mins longer (40mins average for the first four weeks, 60mins average for this four-week period). Leaving me feel totally exhausted after each workout.

Week 7: In progress

* Getting better again... starting to feel more confident with these new workouts... should start to see some dramatic weight loss within the next week or two.

Now, there's one thing the weight number doesn't show: the shape of my weight loss. (And I really wish I took a "before" picture, just for my own comparison's sake) Muscle is denser than fat (for the same mass, muscle takes up less volume than fat). If two people weigh the same, but one has more muscle and the other has more fat, the person with more muscle will look skinnier. I've always had a big stomach (I called it a "keg" to contrast it with those 6-packs everybody flaunts about). Now, I'm not at a 6-pack level yet (my friend says I'm closing in on a 4-pack), but already the keg is shrinking. My clothes just seem bigger now (they fit looser). I've had to bring out my belt again and start using it... My co-workers have told me that I look better and younger than before.

I still have about 3 weeks left before I complete the full workout... but I might just keep repeating the "hard" 4-week part for a while longer to maintain my fitness level.

[imron]

So how is everyone's exercise going?

[WangYuHong]

I completed the full Insane 60 day workout!

(And then got caught up in work travel and haven't worked out for over 2 weeks now... *sigh*)

The end result was that I'm down 7kg overall since I started my diet plan at the beginning of the year. 3kg from dieting, and 4kg from the insanity workout.

I really liked the workout. Towards the end of the second month, I was getting more adjusted to the higher level, and I felt like I was getting better results out of it. I lost more towards the end of the month than I did in the beginning.

I had planned to just repeat the last two weeks over and over again to maintain an exercise level and hopefully keep up the progress, but it's hard to get into a routine when you're living in a hotel room the size of a sardine can...

I never did get my full six-pack that I was shooting for... towards the end of the program it was looking good, but now that I've rested a couple weeks I feel like my shape has regressed a little. My weight hasn't changed, which is good, but the muscle tone isn't as apparent any more... (or maybe that's just what I imagine)

My friend says the exercise has had quite an obvious effect on my body though, and she's as giddy as ever. I suppose that's where the results really matter though.

I'm not sure I'll start any other programs anytime soon though... I felt like an hour a day of cardio workout was about all I could manage.

[kdavid]

So how is everyone's exercise going?

I weighed myself yesterday, and I'm down to 78 kg from ~95 around the Spring Festival.

I haven't been this thin in a decade. P90X + Insanity and a good diet have done wonders.

I also feel that my stamina is much better, and mind a lot sharper. I don't need coffee to get through the day anymore.