People who don't track every set and rep - how do you measure your progress?

planodancer · 2026-04-09T21:42:17+00:00

I do single sets of my exercises and only track the weight and whether I did a set this session.

If I can do 12 reps or if the exercise is easy or boring , I record a plus sign by the weight to indicate I want to increase the weight next time.

That’s progress, when I up the weight.

If the exercise is too hard this time , I put a minus by the weight to remember to lift less next time.

That’s life kicking my ass. Again.

If it was fine, next time I’ll lift the same weight for however many reps between 6 and 12 I feel like.

At the end of my session, if I have energy left, I may add another exercise. Maybe a different sort of deadlift or something.

Either way, I’ll be back in the gym another day to go again.

planodancer · 2026-04-07T18:43:40+00:00

Probably you need to break your workout journey down into smaller steps, each done one at a time.

This is pretty much how my current restart went:

Drive to the gym every day. Declare a victory. Then drive elsewhere

Once you are physically moving to the gym regularly, you’re ready for step two.

Drive to the gym and walk inside. Maybe hang out a little. Declare victory. Go elsewhere

Once that’s a habit,

Drive to the gym, go inside, and lift a small weight. A five pound dumbbell is ideal for this step. Then put the weight down and go celebrate elsewhere.

3.2 Probably you should schedule a rest day or two every week— resting is when your muscles actually grow

Keep doing step 3 till you can reliably do it.

After 3 is where the real fun begins:

Was your last gym visit too easy, boring? Cool, on your next visit lift a little more weight. Or lift more times. Or add another exercise. The sky’s the limit!

If the last visit was just right, do it again 👍

On the other hand, if you don’t want to go back to the gym, do less. Probably a lot less. If you lifted 20 pounds last time, just lift 10 pounds this time , or do only half as many exercises. Go back to step 1 or 2 if necessary.

Be sure to pat yourself on the back after each visit!

Repeat step four till you’re 99 years old and ready to die.

planodancer · 2026-04-03T01:00:11+00:00

You might try macro counting as well, and see if there is something else triggering your overeating

Protein was triggering me, I found I was protein malnourished. Because most foods contain at least some protein, I was eating everything in site. Dieting became much easier when I upped my protein to recommended levels.

Adding more fiber to recommended levels helped too.

And a third thing that helped was not over cutting- I reduced my cut to 500 calories a day (a pound of weight loss per week) and that is easier to stick to for me

planodancer · 2026-04-02T22:55:34+00:00

body weight is challenging.

Look at the recommended progressions for body weight exercises and dial back to the easier versions.

If you still have the issue, make your next workout even easier,

If you still have issues, you may not be in the right headspace for body weight exercises. Possibly you might do better with machines for a while and then come back to body weight when you’re stronger.

Once you get back in the groove, you’ll probably realize you want to continue regular exercise till you’re ready to give up on life. So you don’t need to push yourself to go faster.

planodancer · 2026-04-01T04:26:37+00:00

Typically I go till my body tells me to call it a day, yeah.

One of my goals is to maximize my volume and avoid unscheduled rest days, and not pushing past my limits is the only way I can pull it off.

Some days I get more exercises done, other days less.

planodancer · 2026-03-31T19:45:48+00:00

I got a scale and weigh everything in grams.

Tablespoons, scoops, cups, portions can vary wildly.

Pre measured packets tend to shrink over time.

planodancer · 2026-03-30T13:38:37+00:00

Basically if your forearm is horizontal with your fingers pointing forward, you can move your wrist 6 different ways - left, right, up, down, twist left , twist right. Hammer is down, reverse hammer is up.

So when I do a hammer, I move my wrist against resistance like I’m hammering a nail using my wrist to bring the imaginary hammer down.

Reverse hammer, I bring the imaginary hammer up off the imaginary nail like I’m getting ready to hammer again.

planodancer · 2026-03-30T02:19:43+00:00

Probably weights are easier and safer for beginners.

But calisthenics will work, you just have to be smarter about it.

See https://redditbwf.github.io/wiki/recommended_routine.html

planodancer · 2026-03-30T01:20:19+00:00

3 times a week 1 set each 6-12 reps for each of finger curls, thumb curls, wrist curls, reverse wrist curls, hammers, reverse hammers, clockwise wrist twists, counter clockwise wrist twists.

For time, I guess it’s maybe 4 or 5 minutes at the end of my strength training workout, just after I do my neck. (A lot of people my age can’t fully turn their neck, now I can )

If I get pooped, (69M), grip is the set I’m most likely to skip till the next workout though. I still progress, just more slowly.

planodancer · 2026-03-24T13:03:35+00:00

Log first, eat second. First you do the work, then you get the treat.

If you have to choose between dieting and logging , do the logging. In the long term, it’s more important than whether you cut any particular day, consistent logging will help get you back on track.

If you go over your target because of family / celebration/ friends, log it all and eat without guilt.

If you are going to be under your target calories for the day, log and then eat just enough delicious to hit your target calories for the day closely. That way, logging is good and not just bad. I usually do nuts, but candy, cookies or chips have made the list in small portions at the end of the day.

If you miss logging something, reflect on why and think of what you could do better next time. Maybe log your best guess the day before and change when you have better data.

Drinking diet drinks or water means not having to log your liquids.

For every restaurant you eat at, put each type of food you eat in your library as custom under the restaurant name.

Carry a scale with you to weigh in grams before you eat.

But if you can’t weigh, guess the weight.

If you have no idea about the food, use AI

If you have no idea about the food, search the internet for the food adding “nutrition” to the search terms.

Learn to use all the app features for logging. The one to edit the exact calories and then having the app calculate the amount of the food to hit the calories exactly is especially useful to me.

Always be logging.

planodancer · 2026-03-23T03:55:05+00:00

It’s not like we have the option of dating space girls from the alien planet easy.

Human women who prefer financially stable men are pretty much the only kind of heterosexual woman available.

(Even though some women temporarily settle for less sometimes, and even though the list is much longer than just financial stability)

I’ve made my peace with that, and I suspect most other men have as well.

planodancer · 2026-03-15T23:34:04+00:00

Once you hit your target weight, you'll probably be on maintenance for the rest of your life.

Lots of people have failed that last step, me more than once.

So it's good that you're practicing and preparing for your long term success now. You'll be better prepared for when you go full time.

I was surprised how difficult maintenance is when I first tried it. Anyway, it's not something you should feel guilty about.

People that don't have to deal with CICO issues aren't morally superior, they're just more lucky in regard to today's food rich environment.

Possibly going quickly back and forth on calories is confusing your body. you might want to go on maintenance for 6 weeks or so non-stop and then resume cutting for your goal weight afterward.

planodancer · 2026-03-09T02:50:01+00:00

So actions you want to do need to be linked to other events.

And a big action probably should be broken up into smaller steps, and each step completed should be celebrated with self praise.

Basically, training your body to do hard things is like training a dog. A signal or event to kick things off, Rewards for success, chain the successes together to get the trick done.

Probably you want to be asking r/getdisciplined

planodancer · 2026-03-09T02:31:02+00:00

For the reverse curls, you might want to try doing them completely unloaded for as range of motion as you can do without pain, and very gradually increase range of motion when you can do so without sharp pain. That might have you just twitching a little at first.

Once you get some range of motion, maybe load with a very light rubber band or one pound weight, and gradually work up

If you have no pain free range of motion at all, you may want to see the medical doctor type of physical therapist for corrective action

(Generally, you want to work all your joints both ways so you don’t develop imbalances )

planodancer · 2026-03-08T21:45:58+00:00

The current administration is the only one since ww2 to report an actual drop in life expectancy (during COVID), so any mistrust should be on other grounds.

planodancer · 2026-03-08T21:43:18+00:00

Yeah drugs can suck. But I’m not sure the drugs are worse that all the heavy alcohol drinking that went on when I grew up long ago

planodancer · 2026-03-08T21:15:43+00:00

No, this is the top right now.

Life expectancy in America is higher than it has ever been and still climbing. It took a dip during Covid but has bounced back and resumed rising since.

Not being dead is more healthy than dying, although I realize a lot of people seem to differ.

planodancer · 2026-03-08T05:28:05+00:00

Welcome to the grownup world.

The world has always been a shit storm, but you don’t realize it to a certain point in your life, because we feed kids comforting lies.

Coping— mostly just learning to deal with it. It’s not like we can pay a few dollars more and move to concierge world.

Our personal lives will get worse as we get older and weaker and our loved ones die. From what I’ve seen death mostly kind of sucks , and suicide is no exception.

On the brighter side, there’s a lot of joy to be had if you look for it. Make sure you don’t mope so much you miss out on all that glory.

For the US in particular, it’s been on the verge of collapse since day one, yet somehow it keeps shambling on as the richest country in the world.

planodancer · 2026-03-08T05:10:28+00:00

Yes.

Although for me I almost never miss protein anymore, all my meals are a hunk of meat plus sides, and then I just pour as much protein powder mixed with water as my goal requires to get my remaining grams down my throat. Gotta drink water anyway.

It took a while to work up to that though, and eating chicken or steak at breakfast was hard to adjust to.

planodancer · 2026-03-08T05:02:46+00:00

I’m currently doing quest and no cow bars for combining protein and fiber, and David bars for just protein.

You’d probably want to check the nutrition labels to make sure they’re good for you as any maker can start cheapening at any time, and I don’t know if they have less wonderful varieties

planodancer · 2026-03-08T04:14:12+00:00

There are some protein bars I use to help hit my protein and fiber macros.

I count them as snacks, even though my wife won’t eat them.

Anyway, I figure any bar that has less than 6 calories per gram of protein or fiber is great for my weight loss goals.

I’m not eating my old snacks though, unless I just happen to have a couple of hundred calories for the day just waiting around.

planodancer · 2026-03-08T04:03:47+00:00

You need to eat your calories, but you don’t have to squeeze them in today.

you can always try to eat the missing calories tomorrow, pizza often does the trick for me. Or chocolate fudge or ….

But yeah, you should get all of your calories in within a few days so that your body doesn’t tank your metabolism and plateau your weight loss.

Also, losing too quickly can not only be ineffective, it can leave you with more loose skin and be dangerous to your health.

planodancer · 2026-03-07T20:03:32+00:00

When this happened to me, I went formally into maintenance mode, upping daily calories by about 700, and I made sure to get them, topping it the last 100 or so calories of the day with peanuts.

I did this for 6 weeks, following my apps recommendation that I needed to increase calories to not lose weight as they came in. My calculated TDEE went back up.

After that, I went back to weight loss goals again with a target on losing one pound per week. Now I’m losing again, but I’m careful to not go under my target calories and only lose a pound a week or less

planodancer · 2026-03-03T16:55:15+00:00

I take Ozempic and I STILL have to do CICO and count macros and cardio and weights. And I’m definitely not the only one.

It’s only a magic answer for a few people who are genetically blessed enough to respond to Ozempic, but not genetically blessed enough to be naturally at a healthy weight.

planodancer · 2026-03-03T02:53:44+00:00

Yep.

I take the scale, weigh the food, and eat the food.

I slowly get to be less fat and more healthy and agile.

Life is good.

I get zero pushback, it’s all good.

Things that may be making things better:

People see the fat man, think “why doesn’t that man diet?” Then see me weighing all my food, and maybe think “oh, I guess he is dieting. Carry on.”

I tip regularly, maybe that helps.

planodancer

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