It is about rep number one. Partly you get a stretch reflex. But more importantly, getting that first one up is probably sapping X% of your power. I would wager starting from lockout will get you another rep, or maybe another 5 kilo.
I suspect you would just call them trousers. Although I feel slacks are slightly more fancy.
I’ll give it a try, thanks.
I’m definitely not fancy, trousers it is!
Macros for the day:
Breakfast:
My 3 main meals have been chicken and low fat cheddar cheese on salad, chicken and low fat garlic and herb cream cheese on salad, and Bolognese (homemade, 3% fat mince, chopped tomatoes, onions, garlic and basil) on broccoli. The rest has been made up purely of protein shakes. Today felt harder. Post meal I’m fine, there’s a lot of volume and a lot of protein, but coming into each meal I feel very hungry and a little lightheaded. Only 3 days left of the experiment!
but coming into each meal I feel very hungry and a little lightheaded
Are you allowed to play with electrolytes as part of this experiment? Since you’re sweating a bunch and eating so few carbs, I imagine your electrolytes are pretty depleted, which would explain the lightheadedness. If possible, I’d add more salt.
This feels like a hunger signal, it disappears after I eat, but I am salting my food pretty heavily, or adding high sodium accoutrements, so it could still be electrolytes, I’ll pick some up tomorrow and have a play, see if it makes a difference outside of food.
20/08/25 - 193.5
Breakfast
I’ve finally cracked (pun intended) the ability to separate yolk and whites… I very much look forward to not doing that in the future! This is 6 whites 2 whole eggs, I used a friend’s eggs for the whole eggs and supermarket eggs for the whites. The friends chickens are completely outdoor free roaming natural chicks, so the egg yolks are amazing and help lift the otherwise meh nature of egg whites.
Edit to add lunch and a bit more colour:
Veg, ham, low fat cheese and tuna.
Every single gram of carb is coming from veg, mostly low carb veg (still some red onions in here), and I’m still at 22g by the second meal, keeping it under 25g is a massive challenge. If fat was a higher I’d probably just go meat and eggs and be fine (I suppose I can go chicken/lean beef and egg whites), that’s why this only a 2 week diet I guess! Low fat cheese is a bit of a life saver.
When I was heavy into low carb I never counted vegetable carbs. Or “fruits” like tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, etc. I also followed the Atkins approach, high fat/low carb. Since his death his program has been more directed toward low carb/high protein. I did lose weight very quickly however.
Regardless of what I have done, your plates look good.
Keep at it.
Haven’t stopped by much lately, but wanted to say - you are truly a madlad for taking on this warrior-style diet in the middle of all the other shit life is throwing at you. Setting a high bar as usual!
I wouldn’t normally, it’s a weird thing trying to make food and working out how many carbs are in tomatoes, or whatever, pretty alien to me. This time I want to be as strict as possible. I’m pretty confident I could put down 100g+ carbs from non-starchy veg if I just let myself go wild.
Thanks, restrictions drive creativity.
Thanks Brandon, genuinely means a lot to have guys like you behind me, I value this forum so much.
I mentioned years ago watching a very young (28) colleague of mine die of cancer, he would be out working wild fires, working harder than anyone else - despite knowing he was terminal, despite being on a constant barrage of chemo, he never once showed an ounce of self pity.
I reminded myself again, just before this session, that this is a privilege, I get to do this, so many people don’t have this opportunity, it’s a choice and I’m going to grab it by the balls and not let go. Wallowing and pity never helped anyone.
On that note I’m calling this session:
An Ode to @Cyrrex
Squats: 60, 80, 100kg x 3, 120, 140, 160kg x 1
130kg x 16
I had 1 goal coming into this session, match Cyrrex and then beat him on the volume. Mission accomplished (done on 22g carbs, and 4 hours of sleep!). Done purely for my own childish sense of amusement, but hey it drove me to do something I wouldn’t have done otherwise. One day I’ll beat you on the OHP, might take a other 100lbs of bodyweight though.
A1) chin ups: 5
A2) dips: 5
A3) ab rollout: 5
The rest of this was just going to be a run through on bodyweight stuff, but the alerter went off and now my current position is:
Sat on the back of the truck sweating, wearing knee sleeves under my kit!
Really like the wording that this is a privilege. A lot of people would give everything to just workout if they could.
Living in your head and paying absolutely zero in utilities. Not sure what I ever did to deserve this, I like to just keep to myself normally.
You pay dividends - I got a good squat workout because of you.
Haha, you know it’s flattery really!
21/08/25 - 194
Super quick post drill night bench session
Bench: 20, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110kg x 3, 90kg x 10 X 2 sets
Done.
Last morning at home travelling today, flying tomorrow.
Morning weight - 194.75, went off plan for a single meal yesterday, intentional as a friend from church was cooking for us, had chicken bacon and leek pie, and a slice of homemade tiffin (I’m glad I was only given one, I would have eaten an entire tin of this, absolutely love it). Kept the rest of the day absolutely on point.
Will be largely sticking to the plan today but I am calling this the end point. Been an interesting experiment.
This was 4 weeks ago:(upload://cPjum20WlWNDZPRW8VcV0L9PbHd.mp4)
Yesterday:
I was trying to find my weight around this time and it looks like I’m only down about 3 or 4 lbs from there, down 7lbs from beginning of July.
I’ve spent a lot of this year in deficit and I’m feeling pretty skinny, looking forward to doing some growing when I get back. I’d say though that strength is pretty good considering and I’m really looking forward to pushing this and growing into the latter part of the year.
Lessons from cutting:
.
Been another interesting experience, always good to learn more about myself, I don’t have time for another blood test before holiday and I’m sure not much would have changed but be interesting to see how things look next year after eating differently.
Nice progress. Nice lessons from cutting. I find most of what you are saying to resonate as well.
I’ll echo that it sounds like this was a great learning experience.
I’m fuckin jelly of your arm and chest veins.
You’d think the 1.4g of gear im running would have done enough to my blood pressure to get something like this.
Nothin
Haha yea, funny how things like that are so individual. Straight up gram of EQ on top!
Cheater. This explains a lot. I always did better training in my basement with the axle. My wrists were in a better position and I had to start seated with the bar almost locked out thanks to the short ceiling (or my gorilla arms).
Plenty lean, brother! I’m 40 and just over a month away 41. Being lean is cool, but a big bench might be cooler! (sorry, see my most recent random post for context)
