The beginning of my two week cardio blast
 

Well I have decided that I am not happy with my rate of fat loss.

So I have took it upon myself to do exactly what phil suggested in his post in my thread about increasing muscle to burn fat.

I am going to do hard cardio for two weeks, every day, and eat as perfect as I possibly can (without protein powder, as I do not have cash for it until mid july.

I am going to only eat omelates, meats, a little veg, some fruit, and chicken wraps.. I am going to try and keep my calorie intake as low as possible, but with sufficient energy for my workouts. Hopefully this, coupled with the intense cardio every day, will give me some noticable fat loss.

I am not going to do any weight training for two weeks. Some people may argue this is not a good or healthy way of losing the fat/weight, but I am doing it anyways.

Any suggestions on energy boosting but low calorie/carb/fat foods will be appreciated.

I will take measurements on my body, photos, and weigh myself before and after and every few days.

I weigh 13 stone, but have quite an amount of belly fat (more than I want anyway!)

Any suggestions on hard cardio ideas and food ideas appreciated

Dan you already know my view on intensive vs moderate sustained cardio.
Try and stick to around 2000 kCal per day whilst trying to lose weight, oh and I'd urge you to do some low weight/high rep weights (not strictly necessary, but beneficial)
Great shout on the photo diary though, it's a really good technique for tracking the changes in your physique.

Giant, what you say about moderate sustained cardio,

Is this because doing short bursts of HIIT makes it more anaerobic, and thus burning carbs instead of fat stores?

Whereas prolonged moderate cardio will burn fat stores?

I read about it on bodybuilding.com today at work..

Yeah pretty much, although I've just looked into HIIT, it kind of makes sense. I'd still go for a long moderate cardio session if you've got the time, training at 120-135 bpm or there about, for as long as you can really, say an 1-2 hours. I'm not an expert on training as such, I just know quite a bit about metabolism through studying biology.

I've just been on a 7 mile bike ride for roughly an hour.. I am FUCKED!

Fair play mate, it's shit being out of shape, I'd probably struggle with that at the moment. I remember when I used to ride 15-20 just for fun. I need to start training again, and start using some of the advice I'm giving.
Your on the right path though, keep it up!

Looks like you're doing well!

What kind of cycling are you doing? Road? City? Mountain? Machine? I found cycling worked really well for helping me lose weight and build my lower abs & ass, and gave me killer quads but girls don't swoon at them. HIIT training doesn't work well with cycling

It kinda sucks cos I cycle on the road, but on a mountain bike.. lol
So it just tires me out so much I need a proper road bike to be honest

I'm considering those forza T5 fat burning pills as well soon now I've pretty much stabalised my diet..

There are cycle machines in the gym as well I could use.. but I like the cross trainer for cardio in the gym..

Whats your thoughts daleinthedark on burning fat

Mountain bikes on the road suck ass - however because of the resistance they will eat up your calories like nobodies business - I went from 13 to 11 just cycling and running!

The one thing that i find when i'm trying to put together a plan is information overload - there are so many exercises, diets and everything out there it's best to pick the diet and plan that you enjoy the most because you'll stick to it.

Recently at the start of this year I lost a stone in body fat and built up half a stone in muscle (roughly) with the following regime:
6mile runs on Tues & Thurs evening and a Sat morning
Mon, Wed & Fri - 10mins HIIT treadmill running then Upper body free weight workouts; 2 sets of 6-8 reps always to failure on the second. shoulders, tris and bis, chest + incline, pec flys and lat pulldown behind the head.
And I cycle 6miles to and from work.
Get 8hrs sleep a night and rest for a whole day and night even when having a full on regime!

I really found that the weights boosted my weight loss as they continue to burn calories. I'd always struggled to get below 11 on cardio alone, however in 1 week I dropped 11st to 10st10 ehrn I followed that regime.

And like the other guys say just watch what you eat! I was having scrambles eggs with salami on beans for breakfast.
then 2 lots of salad and home made veg soup (no potato in the soup) during the day
Then grilled chicken/steak/tuna with roasted peppers, challot onions and mushrooms for dinner followed later in the evening with a snack of natural yoghurt with cinnamon.
I allowed myself to have a take-away on Fridays just for the mental cravings and also a singlelarge glass of red wine (the drier the better)

This isn't a be all and end all plan and there are some more effective workouts available but I really enjoy it! The more you enjoy it the more you'll stick to it!

Feel free to pick it apart, take anything from it or leave it all alone :)

Did you run 6 miles on treadmill or road or grass or track? Road running KILLS MY BACK, and treadmill isn't that great for it..

Sleep is a big problem I seriously don't get enough of it.. probably 6 hours most nights sometimes 4 or 5..

My diet has improved massively but I am still looking to further improve and iron out the crap.. i no longer have fizzy drinks or fatty foods apart from the odd friday like you say..

I like the workout you do three times a week.. you could finish off with some more HIIT at the end of the weights as well?

I'm not fussed about my weight really, I just want to look muscular (probably brad pitt style in snatch) and fit.. I wana look good round the pool and have women turned on by it! But at the minute, I think that drinking water seriously bloats me by the end of the night, cos in the morning I look skinnier.. But I'm seriously determined to shift this fat

Edit: Yeah the mountain bike seriously takes it out of me which is good I come home dripping wet through and my leg muscles are getting unreal..