Just found this.Looking good yodad and looking foreword to following along.
What is the weight difference between the 1st and 2nd batch of pictures? Could you be losing too quickly at this point? There is a dramatic difference in an apparent short space of time.
[quote]Myosin wrote:
What is the weight difference between the 1st and 2nd batch of pictures? Could you be losing too quickly at this point? There is a dramatic difference in an apparent short space of time.[/quote]
Thanks for the support guys.
Myosin, I think you’re right. Althought the first pic was taken 2 weeks earlier than posted it, I have lost about 8-10 lbs. Started about 180, now about 170 when I weighed myself in the morning. I didn’t get exact bodyfat numbers in the beginning but I’ll say I was about 14.6% bodyfat down to 12.6% yesterday. That’s about 5 lb fat loss and around 3-4 lb muscle loss. I don’t feel flatter, I do feel leaner but my clothes definitely fit looser. I think I may be going balls to the wall with cardio and HIIT training. I do about 3 to 4 days of light to moderate cardio, fasted in the mornings, about 4 days of HIIT. I’m also doing TCs version of the 5/2 intermittent fasting on non-workout days. I’m paying special attention to my peri-workout nutrition keeping my carbs high during this time and also reload on carbs on the weekend. Pretty much no-to-loew carb all other times. I may doing to much to soon so may ease back on the cardio or fasting. My weight training is a little more intense so my strength is aboout the same, maybe a tad bit stronger.
I’m no expert in contest prep, but that seems like too much HIIT. I’m sure others more knowledgeable than myself can reiterate this. 3 days of HIIT OR 4 days of moderate/light cardio would likely be a good start.
You didn’t lose 4 pounds of muscle in 3 weeks.
Seems like you may be burning the candle at both ends with moderate cardio, HITT, and fasting. There are several different angles you can take for this prep but you might be incorporating too many. Not only will it be tough to figure out what actually works for you but you might continue to get this apparent muscle loss as well. Pick a plan and work it.
I failed to get my beginning numbers at the start. The scale has been moving down though. Going to cut out the IF for now. It may be causing too much of a calorie defecit. I don’t want to pay for that later if I need to lower them. And I’ll cut down my HIIT and cardio as well. I’ll focus on slow, fat loss. Thanks for the feedback!
How are you measuring your body fat levels to get these super exact figures? If it’s one of those scales or the hand held thing just know those are incredibly inaccurate and imprecise. Focus on scale weight (I dont like it much off season, but its good for fat loss goals) and tape measurements/skin folds, and appearance. Maintain strength in the gym and you can basically guarantee you are not losing much, if any, muscle mass.
[quote]yodaddy wrote:
[quote]Myosin wrote:
What is the weight difference between the 1st and 2nd batch of pictures? Could you be losing too quickly at this point? There is a dramatic difference in an apparent short space of time.[/quote]
Thanks for the support guys.
Myosin, I think you’re right. Althought the first pic was taken 2 weeks earlier than posted it, I have lost about 8-10 lbs. Started about 180, now about 170 when I weighed myself in the morning. I didn’t get exact bodyfat numbers in the beginning but I’ll say I was about 14.6% bodyfat down to 12.6% yesterday. That’s about 5 lb fat loss and around 3-4 lb muscle loss. I don’t feel flatter, I do feel leaner but my clothes definitely fit looser. I think I may be going balls to the wall with cardio and HIIT training. I do about 3 to 4 days of light to moderate cardio, fasted in the mornings, about 4 days of HIIT. I’m also doing TCs version of the 5/2 intermittent fasting on non-workout days. I’m paying special attention to my peri-workout nutrition keeping my carbs high during this time and also reload on carbs on the weekend. Pretty much no-to-loew carb all other times. I may doing to much to soon so may ease back on the cardio or fasting. My weight training is a little more intense so my strength is aboout the same, maybe a tad bit stronger.[/quote]
Impressive weightloss. If you feel good and are getting stronger then keep doing what you’re doing.
So I took the month of December to reset my calories(I cut them too fast initially in Nov). Not necessarily bulk up, just try to gain a little lean muscle and really reset my base. Started leaning out again on Jan 6th. Here is where I am at. This puts me at about 14 weeks out. I am starting to lean more towards the Physique division, but I’ll decide that in the next week. My question is there are two contests in April and I need to decide the organization to compete in. One is NPC(Texas Shredder), the other INFB.
I would like to compete in the more stricter one when it comes to testing. I just want to compete on the same level. I’ve read on some of the differences but just wonder if anyone has current feedback, as the info I’m reading may be a little outdated. I know the NPC show is now just doing random polygraph but I’m not sure about INFB. Thanks in advance. My apologies for the camera phone picture, I’ll upload a better one soon.
[quote]yodaddy wrote:
So I took the month of December to reset my calories(I cut them too fast initially in Nov). Not necessarily bulk up, just try to gain a little lean muscle and really reset my base. Started leaning out again on Jan 6th. Here is where I am at. This puts me at about 14 weeks out. I am starting to lean more towards the Physique division, but I’ll decide that in the next week. My question is there are two contests in April and I need to decide the organization to compete in. One is NPC(Texas Shredder), the other INFB.
I would like to compete in the more stricter one when it comes to testing. I just want to compete on the same level. I’ve read on some of the differences but just wonder if anyone has current feedback, as the info I’m reading may be a little outdated. I know the NPC show is now just doing random polygraph but I’m not sure about INFB. Thanks in advance. My apologies for the camera phone picture, I’ll upload a better one soon.[/quote]
The INBF will be the way to go if you’re wanting to compete in a tested federation. As far as choosing between bb’ing and physique, I don’t think you need to feel rushed to make a decision this week. Wait until you’re closer to your entry being due and see how you’re feeling/looking, and which category is a better fit
Looking good and right on track, as far as which division to choose… Which one do YOU like the most? Do that one.
Honestly I dont really understand the point of physique… In the grand scheme of things it really just appears to be another category to get noticed in and make the IFBB money off entrants. Not a bad thing necessarily, but the “point” of body building is to push your body to its limits of muscular size and conditioning. Not really sure what the “point” of Physique is… Which seems like “body building light” to me.
If that is your thing (wanting to make a career out of this) and if you are not going to do drugs that may be your best bet… But if you just want to pursue this whole training/diet thing for your own personal pleasure like 98% of us, then just pick whichever one you like to most and give it 100%
Thanks Pwolves17. Think I’ll go with INFB.
Lonnie123, I totally agree with you when it comes to the Physique category. I guess I don’t think I’ll be ready for bodybuilding this time around. At 5’8", I’m normally around 190 lbs when I start a leaning phase. This time I’m starting at 175 lbs and liked to have started with more muscle to really compete in bodybuilding.
So I suppose I really am taking the easier road for my first time…I will only have to focus on leaning out as much as possible and keeping the muscle I do have. Plus once I see once these shows are about, I think I can step it up to Bodybuilding. Whichever I choose though, I will give it my all.
Helpful feedback guys…greatly appreciated.
At 5’8", I weigh about 175 and taking about 2500 calories. At 12 weeks out, I’m thinking I might end up at about 165 lbs. So that puts me at no more than 1 LB per week. My weight has not really moved for the last 3 weeks or my BF, I believe. I believe last month I was taking in about 3000 calories but that is just a guess, I wasn’t tracking, but pretty much eating freely being the holidays and all.
I did lower my cardio to about 3 short HIIT sessions per week. My question is does 2500 calories make sense, at about 12 weeks out? I’ve tried different calculators and they put me between 2100 and 2400 calories to lose fat. I didn’t want to start too low though, thinking I was around 3000 calories. I was just wondering if 2500 calories makes sense for my size, goal and time from competition.
DISCLAIMER I have no experience in prepping.
Ok now that is out of the way, 2,500 sounds very reasonable. 3 short (I’m guess <20 mins? HIIT Sessions sound good. You could also add in some very low intensity work or GPP stuff just to burn some extra calories. In general, I believe it’s better to burn calories than cut nutrients.
And based on what I’ve seen from other preps, you’d want to wait to cut your calories really low towards the end…like last 3 or 4 weeks?
Calculators and people guessing online will do very little for you… ONLY go by what you are doing and the results you are getting. Things that sound reasonable MAY work, MAY be too low, or MAY be too high. The only way to know is to do it and see. If what you are telling us is true, its not working, is it?
If you are not losing fat, you are eating too much and/or not doing enough cardio. I personally prefer to do more cardio rather than cut calories, but you may not have time for that, not enjoy it, or just want to cut calories because it works as well.
Cardio options could be: Extend the HIIT sessions 5 minutes a piece, add another HIIT session, add in some low intensity stuff like 2-3 30 minute walks, add in some barbell complexes, Neural Charge sessions (these are great but require equipment and a gym you can use multiple pieces of equipment at a time), “strongman” kind of stuff (farmers, tire flips, loaded carris), Crossfit WODS
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Calculators and people guessing online will do very little for you… ONLY go by what you are doing and the results you are getting. Things that sound reasonable MAY work, MAY be too low, or MAY be too high. The only way to know is to do it and see. If what you are telling us is true, its not working, is it?
If you are not losing fat, you are eating too much and/or not doing enough cardio. I personally prefer to do more cardio rather than cut calories, but you may not have time for that, not enjoy it, or just want to cut calories because it works as well.
Cardio options could be: Extend the HIIT sessions 5 minutes a piece, add another HIIT session, add in some low intensity stuff like 2-3 30 minute walks, add in some barbell complexes, Neural Charge sessions (these are great but require equipment and a gym you can use multiple pieces of equipment at a time), “strongman” kind of stuff (farmers, tire flips, loaded carris), Crossfit WODS
[/quote]
Good post, Lonnie. I agree with everything here. No two people are alike, so it’s impossible to tell you what is going to be your best course of action. I will say this though: from several of your posts, it seems that you are second guessing some of your choices and think that you went too low on your macros too fast. While in a perfect world you could simply bump up to where you should have started, the metabolism is far from static. Your body will adjust to the food intake you’ve been using, so you may have to go lower on cals than you would prefer to. You might be able to bump up carbs slightly for a few weeks and see if you can get a reverse dieting effect where your metabolism increases, but at this point in prep, I think your best bet is just to keep plugging along and do what it takes to get stage ready. Your first contest prep and competition is always a learning experience; if and when you decide to compete again, you’ll know to start with a smaller drop in calories to get the weight loss going
[quote]ZJStrope wrote:
DISCLAIMER I have no experience in prepping.
Ok now that is out of the way, 2,500 sounds very reasonable. 3 short (I’m guess <20 mins? HIIT Sessions sound good. You could also add in some very low intensity work or GPP stuff just to burn some extra calories. In general, I believe it’s better to burn calories than cut nutrients.
And based on what I’ve seen from other preps, you’d want to wait to cut your calories really low towards the end…like last 3 or 4 weeks? [/quote]
Yeah thats about how much cardio I’m doing. May just add another session per week for now.
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Calculators and people guessing online will do very little for you… ONLY go by what you are doing and the results you are getting. Things that sound reasonable MAY work, MAY be too low, or MAY be too high. The only way to know is to do it and see. If what you are telling us is true, its not working, is it?
If you are not losing fat, you are eating too much and/or not doing enough cardio. I personally prefer to do more cardio rather than cut calories, but you may not have time for that, not enjoy it, or just want to cut calories because it works as well.
Cardio options could be: Extend the HIIT sessions 5 minutes a piece, add another HIIT session, add in some low intensity stuff like 2-3 30 minute walks, add in some barbell complexes, Neural Charge sessions (these are great but require equipment and a gym you can use multiple pieces of equipment at a time), “strongman” kind of stuff (farmers, tire flips, loaded carris), Crossfit WODS
[/quote]
Tracking my food intake and logging my workouts is something I never did before, even though I’ve been lifting for years. It’s a real eye opener, when you track things on paper. It makes sense, it’s the only real guidance to go by. Thanks for the feedback!
[quote]pwolves17 wrote:
[quote]Lonnie123 wrote:
Calculators and people guessing online will do very little for you… ONLY go by what you are doing and the results you are getting. Things that sound reasonable MAY work, MAY be too low, or MAY be too high. The only way to know is to do it and see. If what you are telling us is true, its not working, is it?
If you are not losing fat, you are eating too much and/or not doing enough cardio. I personally prefer to do more cardio rather than cut calories, but you may not have time for that, not enjoy it, or just want to cut calories because it works as well.
Cardio options could be: Extend the HIIT sessions 5 minutes a piece, add another HIIT session, add in some low intensity stuff like 2-3 30 minute walks, add in some barbell complexes, Neural Charge sessions (these are great but require equipment and a gym you can use multiple pieces of equipment at a time), “strongman” kind of stuff (farmers, tire flips, loaded carris), Crossfit WODS
[/quote]
Good post, Lonnie. I agree with everything here. No two people are alike, so it’s impossible to tell you what is going to be your best course of action. I will say this though: from several of your posts, it seems that you are second guessing some of your choices and think that you went too low on your macros too fast. While in a perfect world you could simply bump up to where you should have started, the metabolism is far from static. Your body will adjust to the food intake you’ve been using, so you may have to go lower on cals than you would prefer to. You might be able to bump up carbs slightly for a few weeks and see if you can get a reverse dieting effect where your metabolism increases, but at this point in prep, I think your best bet is just to keep plugging along and do what it takes to get stage ready. Your first contest prep and competition is always a learning experience; if and when you decide to compete again, you’ll know to start with a smaller drop in calories to get the weight loss going
[/quote]
It sure is a learning experience so far. As long as I’ve been training, Contest prep is another thing.