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Phase II of fat reduction

Having lost a lot of enthusiasm because I took 10 weeks to lose 5% instead of the planned 5 weeks, I decided to finish phase II quickly with a lot of cardio. First I started walking about 2 to 4 miles every other day. Since monday, wednesday and friday were my workout days I decided to go walking on tuesday, thursday and saturday. Sunday being the rest day. But walking did nothing to me. I continued for 3 weeks and my fat % was still in 11% range. First week (august 22, 2009) it was 11.9% no difference at all. Next week (august 29, 2009) it was 11.6%, next week (september 5, 2009) it was 11.7%. I thought I might have reached my plateau.

I tried again in one last desperate attempt to reduce fat by taking up running. I never jogged, much less run. I gave it a try on september 1, 2009. I ran as fast as I could. I ran for about 20 to 30 seconds before I was completely out of breath and thought I would die. My shins were killing me. Then it hit me, I was super unhealthy. My body is not made for endurance nor strength. What good am I? I decided to take it slowly so I looked up on the web for some tips on how to improve in running for the weak. I found couch to 5k. I did it for 2 weeks. Every time I did c25k I would feel I want to throw up. And my shins kept hurting me more and more. I finally have to give it up after doing only 5 workouts in 2 weeks. I went down to 10.9% body fat during this time.

While I was doing cardio I was also reducing the number of calories I was taking in. And was taking a toll. I always felt too tired. I was sleepy by 9 in the evening and morning started with a headache and feeling of tiredness. I was struggling with my weights too. Slowly I was going down. I was almost at the point where I started! It means I did not gain any muscle since I started (well I gained and lost it too). What am I to do? It is the curse of skinny guys I guess. After all the experimentation I decided to just give up leaning to 6-7%. It is not worth if I have no muscle left. Also it has been 4 months with my diet restriction. Now I started my gaining phase again. I will see how it goes.

Here is the body fat and weight graph up to date.


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