Yay for all of you in the "Co-workers Weight Loss Challenge"!

[Core Dynamics]

Weigh In Day!
Well its better than I thought (I guess). I didn't gain any weight but I also didn't loose any either. I was not able to get to the gym yesterday like I had wanted but I will try and go walk tonight even if its by myself. I might like it better that way anyways. One thing is that I am back at work today so I know that I will atleast have time to make myself eat better. I will be off for the rest of the week so I will just need to go grocery shopping so that I can have some healthy snacks to have over at my mother-in-laws. One of my other co-workers lost another 2lbs which will make her total 9 so far! Congratulations to her. I am so proud of her! Me and the other co-worker are neck and neck. I am not giving up, I still have 5 weeks to go so hopefully after this week things will go back to normal and I can get back into my routine of going to the gym and eating my HEALTHIER meals and snacks.

All of you are to be commended for you efforts! The fact that you are all in this is huge! Commitment is the hardest part of losing weight. Let me just say a few things, though. DON'T DEPRIVE yourselves of the foods you enjoy! Research has shown that when people eliminate the foods they enjoy completely from their diet, they are more prone to temptation and actually have more of a tendancy to over-do when the opportunity presents itself. That is probably one of the biggest killers of 'diet' efforts. And especially if you add stressful situations on top of it like... say... a death in the family. I also encourage you not to beat yourselves up when you do 'slide' a little. Also guys, keep in mind that healthy weight loss is no more than 1 1/2 - 2 pounds a week. If you try to lose too much in a short period of time ( and 8 weeks is a short period of time) then you may be more likely to go to the other extreme when your 'time is up'. Focus also on how your clothes fit, how you feel, inches lost... Remember, women can lose and gain weight over night! Freaking hormones! Anyway, don't totally deprive... control. Keep exercising daily. Push your work effort a little. And, the absolute best of luck to all of you! You should be proud of yourselves!

[AT]

It's weigh in day & I lost 2 more pounds. My co-workers maintained & thats good too considering all of the things that went on last week. It's a lot easier for me to lose weight because I have more to lose than they do. This week should be easier for all of us but next week will be another story for me. I'll be leaving to go on vacation Saturday for a week & I'm not sure how my will power will hold out. Hopefully everything will be ok. I'll go walking one more time this week with shelley & I should be able to get in plenty of walking next week at the beach. We'll see. I'm so proud of all of us. Jen & shelley are doing really good & have been my biggest supporters. I think I'm more scared of letting them down than myself. I know I couldn't do this without their help.

[Jenn052402]

Back to work!
So today I am trying to get back in the habit of eating "healthier" meals and snacks. I must say though that all the wonderful HOME COOKING which included endless buckets of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, biscuits, BBQ, peach cobbler, brownies, cakes, cookies and sweet tea were WONDERFUL in limited amounts. I definitely allow myself to eat things I enjoy at least once a week for 1 meal. This was a little more than 1 day but things happen and yes you may fall off the wagon but it's about how quick you get back on it that matters.

I did get to go to the gym last night and can I say that it was wonderful. I did cardio for an hour! I plan on going back tonight. I stepped on the scale to see how badly I did while I was out with the FATTY FOOD ATTACK and can I say that I have maintained my last weight! Not bad plus I still have the weekend to try to get down 1lb. All in all it hasn't been that bad and I am proud of myself for not giving up.

[AT]

This has been a pretty good week for me. I weighed today because I'll be leaving for the beach tomorrow & it seems I have gained 1 1/2 pounds. I can't really say why I gained other than the fact that I have not walked any this week. I've just been so busy getting ready for vacation that I just haven't had the time. I stuck to my diet as far as what & how much I ate so I know that wasn't the problem. I will try to weigh again on Monday. The place we are staying at has an exercise room & I'm hoping they have a scale too. If not I will weigh at our next weigh in the week of the 21st. I'm not going to let the gain discourage me though. I plan on walking every day & using the exercise room as much as possible & hopefully get back on track with my exercise routine. Wish me luck!

[mbake]

Just curious girls, how many of you are participating in any resistance training? I know your not in your 40's yet , but i believe the findings are that every decade after age 40 women can lose 7-10 lbs of lean muscle mass! You would think one would lose more weight. But there seems to be a long period of time where more fat is stored because of the muscle looss. However those women who do resistance training can increase lean muscle mass and decrease fat gain. so each new lb of lean muscle uses "Burns" 25-50 calories in a 24 hr period. This is why I believe women have a much more difficult time with weight fluctuations. it is contrary to what it seems. most women try to avoid weight training because they don't want to get "musclely". that's nonsense! you girls really don't have the teststerone to look like one of the wwf female wrestlers UNLESS you take some extra "things" and work out about 4 hours per day. so if your not doing weight (resistance training yet join Libby in her push-up goal for starters!

[Jenn052402]

Weigh In Day
So still the same which I guess is better than gaining. I did go to the gym Friday and Sunday and I did cardio Friday night but I did do some machines yesterday. I think my problem was eating!!!!!!!!!! I ate out alot this weekend and I didn't choose the best foods. Today I have had a granola bar for breakfast and I have a 3L bottle of water that I am working on. I am going to the gym for my lunch break and I plan on taking the girls for a walk this evening. This week I am really gonna buckle down and do what I need to do. I have been at this weight for about 3 months now and granted I did loose 33lbs before I got to this weight but I need to get off of this hump and get down to my goal weight. Maybe by next summer I will be bathing suit ready!

[ligatoni]

Weigh in today was better than last week. I lost another pound which is encouraging, although it would have been nice if it was more! I've been pretty consistent with weight training but I didn't do as much walking due to the heat. My eating has been pretty good, but I still need to look at my diet and see where I can cut back a little more. It would be nice at the end of this project if the winner only won by a small margin and didn't completely blow the rest of us out of the water (Angie, I'm talking to you!). I would also like to see a physical difference in the way that I look; so far, I haven't been able to tell anything. I know that I have only lost a few pounds but thought with the walking and weight training that maybe I'd see a smidge of a change. Overall, it is getting a little easier; I've cut back on alcohol in an effort to save some calories but there will be a celebretory drink at the end of this!! My end goal is to lose 6 more pounds, which is more than I really need to lose but with this cruise coming up I know that I'll gain a little and that will give me some wiggle room. I don't want to have to stress about a diet on the ship!

[Jenn052402]

So this week has been GREAT for me. I have been exercising at the gym almost every day and I went grocery shopping on my way to work Monday so I stocked up on healthy low calorie snacks. I have been eating my 3 meals a day and 2-3 snacks. My days usually consist of Yogurt with granola for breakfast, a fresh fruit or vegetable for snack, a lean cuisine for lunch, a low calorie snack pack as an afternoon snack (to kill the sweet tooth), a 15 calorie popsicle for the ride home and then a good healthy dinner and then another popsicle usually. I feel great and I am ready for the weigh in next week!!!!!!!!!!!

[ATC]

Hello everyone.

Found this article about EPOC on askmen.com.

Hope it well help with your goals....

While on the quest for fat loss, many people place far too much focus on how many calories they are burning during their exercise sessions, while forgetting to account for the calories that will be burned because of that exercise session -- after all is said and done. If you train in the proper way, you can actually greatly enhance the total amount of fat burned with your exercise program by taking advantage of these additional calories lost after the training program is completed.

what is epoc?
These calories are collectively known as Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption (EPOC). What this basically represents is how many additional calories your body will burn after the exercise session has been completed in order to return your body to the state it was in before the exercise took place.

This will include a variety of different processes that are related to recovery, such as increasing the amount of muscle glycogen contained in the muscle that's been depleted during the workout, restoring the blood lactate levels to normal and bringing down the heart rate and body temperature.

what affects epoc?
If your goal is to achieve a maximum fat loss, you will want to optimize EPOC as best as you can, thereby increasing the total number of calories you burn that day.

The degree of EPOC you experience has a direct correlation to the intensity of your workout session. The harder you are able to work out, the more you will disrupt all the measures listed above and, therefore, the more energy your body will need to expend to bring them back down to normal once again.

Furthermore, there are certain variables within your workout that you can alter to get that "after burn" up even higher:

Rest periods
When trying to maximize EPOC, taking slightly shorter rest periods will help. This forces your body to work harder without as much recovery between sets, so you will require more in-depth recovery after the session has been completed.

You don't want to take it so far that you sacrifice your ability to lift heavy weights, because that, as you will learn next, also increases EPOC.

Heavy lifting
As you go about your weight-lifting session, trying to lift weights as heavy as possible will further enhance the energy your body needs to repair itself later.

You've probably already noticed that after a heavy set on the weights your heart rate is up a lot higher, particularly if it's a lower-body exercise. This increased heart rate is what helps generate EPOC, so the longer the period of time it is elevated, the greater the number of calories that will be burned.

When comparing a heavy resistance training session, (3 sets of 8 exercises, 3-8 reps per set at 80-90% 1 rep max, also known as RM) to a circuit training protocol consisting of 4 sets of 8 exercises performed for 15 reps at 50% 1 RM, a higher degree of EPOC is seen in the former.

So, if you are currently doing more of a circuit training program and if you think that this is more aerobic in nature and will therefore burn more calories, you may want to reconsider.

We continue to explore EPOC and its effects on your body...

Aerobic training
Aside from heavy weight lifting with slightly shorter rest periods, the manner in which you perform your aerobic training can also have an impact on EPOC.

Just as with weight lifting, the more intensely you perform your aerobic sessions, the greater the EPOC you will generate. Ideally, you would actually move into the anaerobic range while doing high-intensity sprints to really get those after-calorie-burning effects up there.

Note that this often goes against commonly held beliefs, since anaerobic and aerobic work done at such high intensities are performed for a much shorter duration of time, thus the calorie burn during the actual activity will be less. But it's the overall calorie burn that you need to consider here. Short, high-intensity exercise is what will increase your daily burn the most.

Furthermore, EPOC will be extended over a longer duration of time once the exercise session is completed if you are working at a higher intensity. This again translates to you burning more calories over the course of the entire day.

When it comes to duration and exercise performed at the same intensity, however, the longer you are able to sustain that exercise, the greater the EPOC will be. In a study done on such a protocol, subjects were instructed to perform 30-, 45- and 60-minute sessions, all working at 70% of their VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen one can use while exercising). The 30-minute group saw an EPOC of 33 calories over 128 minutes, the 45-minute group saw an EPOC of 74.5 calories over 204 minutes, and the 60-minute group saw an EPOC of 156 calories over 455 minutes.

Remember though, if trying to exercise longer means you need to adjust the intensity and make it lower, this trade-off likely is not to your benefit and you'd be better off keeping the intensity up, while reducing the duration slightly. After you are able to sustain a decent intensity, then work toward being able to extend the duration of your exercises.
putting everything togetherWhen putting together a program designed to maximize EPOC, remember that while you are going to need to increase the levels of intensity, this should not come at the expense of rest. If you are not getting enough downtime between training sessions, you will only wind up overtraining, and this will do nothing but decrease the EPOC that's experienced, since you really won't be exercising with any degree of intensity.

You should, ideally, be performing three to four heavy weight-lifting sessions per week, along with one to two high-intensity aerobic/anaerobic sessions. Then, if you wish, throw in one more longer, moderate-intensity aerobic session to further get your calorie burn up there, as long as this does not come at the expense of intensity.

Furthermore, because your body will be burning calories at a higher rate immediately after the workout, and is also more susceptible to taking up nutrients in the cells, concentrate a great deal of your total daily calories into this post-workout period.

You will get the best muscle partitioning by doing so, while also improving your body's recovery ability.
epoc decodedSo, make sure you don't forget the important factor of EPOC during your next workout. If you plan your program right, it can mean the difference between coming in large and ripped by the end of your goal month, and being muscular, but not all that defined.


Ryan Lee has created an exercise program based on EPOC if you are interested ==>> http://tinyurl.com/65nzrl


Wishing you health and success,
Joe

[ligatoni]

Another weigh in tomorrow. I honestly have no idea how I'll do, but as far as my habits this week I think I've done really well. I've noticed that as far as eating I'm getting full on less, but I have to watch my moods since if I'm upset or irritated I usually start wanting to eat something. Work this past week wasn't the best so I've been agitated. Luckily the walking helps quite a bit. Another coworker not in the challenge is walking with me on Tues and Sat, and it is a big motivator knowing that she is looking forward to going. My challenge this coming week is visiting my in-laws. My husband and I typically hit the fast food since it's a long trip and we really don't have time to search for anything too far off the highway, and the healthier food isn't always easy to eat in the car! I may try to stock up on some stuff before we hit the road. My in-laws usually are pretty good with what they fix to eat, but the wine is always flowing, and a lot of the times they are ready to eat it's way past my usual time and I'm starving, so I eat more than I should. Maybe I should bring some snacks for their place too... In August I'm starting an exercise class my husband told me about, 2 days a week. I am looking forward to that and I think that will help more than anything. We don't have too many weeks left, so I need all the help I can get!

[AT]

Ok so its back to work this week. I had a great vacation & really hate to be back. Things were not as bad as I thought they would be last week. I was able to stick to my diet even when we went out to eat. We went out twice. Once to a steak house where I ordered grilled chicken & vegies & the other was an awesome pizza place that my husband loves. I really didn't want to go there but since it was vacation I thought I could splurge just once. My husband was really sweet & ordered a light pizza with wheat crust & buffalo chicken and a large salad that we split. I only ate two small pieces & it was really good. Normally I could have eaten at least 4 pieces but with the salad I had plenty & I didn't feel too full. Its all about portion control for me. I didn't walk as much as I planned to but I did walk more than I would have at home. I was a little worried about the weigh in but I did lose 3 pounds. Thats 11 pounds so far! I feel great & definately have more energy than before.

[ligatoni]

Monday's weigh in was a bit of a disappointment for me; no change. I'm the only one that didn't lose weight this week. I really thought I was doing a bit better; I feel like my clothes fit a bit better which is nice but the winner of this bet isn't going to be judged by how easy it is to button her pants! And let me just say that today was absolutely the worst...my husband and I drove to PA to visit his folks today, and he had read my last entry about bringing some snacks. So this morning we're about to hit the road and he says 'No fast food on this trip! I've packed snacks!" Well, let me just say that the GRANOLA bar that constituted my food for the entire 6+ hour drive left me a little on the hungry side when we arrived. My poor in-laws wanted to show us around and see some of their recent projects and all I could do was ask when we were eating. Suffice it to say that my plate was pretty clean by the end of dinner. Tomorrow we will be in Baltimore and should do plenty of walking, so I may actually do alright the rest of the weekend, activity wise. I did let my husband know in no uncertain terms that we will need more substantial food for the ride home.

[ligatoni]

Well, I think I did okay the rest of my trip out of town. We went to Baltimore on Thursday and did a lot of walking, and I did well on my eating. I didn't deprive myself when the others were having dessert, but I kept my portions somewhat smaller. Friday I actually went out dancing and pretty much danced 2 hours straight so I felt like that was pretty good exercise! Yesterday we came home and I did much better. My father in law made us a really good breakfast and that kept me full enough for the ride home that rather than stop and eat in the car we waited until we came home to have dinner. We'll see how the weigh in goes tomorrow; we have decided that we're extending the competition through the end of August, so it takes a smidge of pressure off (when we saw we only had 3 more weigh in's, I think we all preferred a bit more time.) So I'll keep you posted on tomorrow's weigh in!

[AT]

Ok, so last week was a really good week for me. I lost 5 pounds! I really couldn't believe it since I didn't get in as much walking as I normally do. But I have really been sticking to my diet....watching portion sizes & what I eat. This is the first time in my life that I have totaly done the diet all on my own. I have been on a number of different diet programs & lost weight but of course put it back on. The main thing I do is watch my calories & fat. I'm eating three meals a day, which I never did before, & a light snack in between meals if I feel like I need it. I also have cut out fast food altogether. I think I have had it twice since the competition started & that was because I was on a trip & didn't really have any other options. Before I would have at least had it one or two times a week. I know my eating habits have changed for good this time. I feel so much better & actually feel like exercising or working out in the yard with my husband rather than coming straight home, fixing dinner, & sitting down the rest of the night. I'm so glad my co-workers asked me to be in this competition with them. I don't think I could have come this far without their help.

[mbake]

Epoc sounds like hard work. Would an epoc style workout be better suited for those in "good" shape or is it all relative?