My strength has been very good. I ego checked my training max right down to manageable levels (I havent benched above 220 with a max of around 250 pre diet) and having good rep targets to hit each time has very much helped me. On a whole a few things are better (my DL and bench) and my squat and MP are about the same.
I wasn’t expecting to get a ton stronger, but what i’ve had has been nice. I kept my training max the same throughout. So 3 cycles of the same weights, just aiming to beat reps. I considered the training Shelby offers, but cant afford it on top of my years consult.
Here are some pictures, both are ghey mirror shots. One is from 27th December last year, where I was one week from finishing the diet at roughly 180lbs, due to being an ass, thats the lowest I got. The second was from this morning as part of my update.
I dont usually do mirror shots, but the ones I took this AM needed me to use my cell and were bad quality so took a better lit one to give SS a better idea of whats going on.
Something occurred to me this time out, I was a bit ‘dishonest’ before (Diet 1 Oct-Jan) with the level of my deviations, I deviated a lot and only really owned up to half of it. This had two negative sides, one I could have made better progress, two, I think that it needlessly caused us to have to lower my calories.
I was on all low days for about 6 weeks last time, doing 60mins cardio a day. This time, i’m two weeks out, doing 50 mins a day and still have 4 medium carb days. The moral here is DONT DEVIATE, and if you do DONT LIE ABOUT IT! I’m 10-11 weeks now, no deviations, very proud of that fact.
Definitely look tighter at a slightly higher weight so I think your 5-7 lbs of muscle is probably right on. You can tell you are a powerlifter with the muscle density you’ve got. Good luck with your surgery upcoming.
MAF14,
If you do get a free meal my only suggestion is to limit the dairy and fluids, a buffet is an OK choice if Chinese food is what you’ve been craving.
Sidewalkdances - Looking awesome dude. The second run through no doubt you’re leaner I’d say 8-9%.
Your delts are more capped, better chest Development. Real good work.
Question: Have you had blood work down while dieting with Shelby? Wondering how everyone’s Hormones/Thyroid are doing.
MAF14 - Yeah I just have a regular sized cheat meal. I find the best bet is to go to a Restaurant, order whatever it is and then you’re done.
My woman and I love cooking big tasty meals, so cheats at home are harder lol. Couple times in my diet we skipped the cheat meal for a week, and then had a big one. Still didn’t get permission to go no holds barred, but I had a Large pizza and half an apple pie. Could have went way harder hah.
i agree about the milk products, i dont really do dairy any way. ever since i started going low-carb ive never really been tempted by ice cream and stuff. jw though, why do you say no dairy?
seems like you’re not a fan of my buffet idea, got any suggestions?
Darkane
i really like to cook too… that has been one hardest things getting used to so i feel your pain.
i got blood work done a couple weeks back. my doc said everything was VERY good except my creatine levels (oh no…) were high and i think i had elevated muscle breakdown levels or whatever its called.
Cool the way this has turned into a Starnes support site. I am finishing up my first go round with him will take a month off and back at it.
The interaction and input from Shelby is unbelievable. He will work with you to find what works best for you and then put the hammer down and go all out when he hits the right spots.
I swear, I am counting down the days of one hour cardio. 19 hours of cardio left and then I will take at least one day with no cardio.
If it weren’t for the protein pancakes I designed for myself and Shelby approved, I would have freakin’ lost my mind.
Don’t tell Shelby, but whatever the new rates are, I would pay more.
i agree about the milk products, i dont really do dairy any way. ever since i started going low-carb ive never really been tempted by ice cream and stuff. jw though, why do you say no dairy?
seems like you’re not a fan of my buffet idea, got any suggestions?
[/quote]
Just from experience going from no dairy to an all out ice cream and cheese assault will lead to some TERRIBLE pain and bloating for most. A little is fine, pizza is a popular choice but if it were me I’d opt for mainly avoiding it.
Buffets just bread a thought process of force feeding to me… but hey I like chinese food as much as the next guy, it’s your cheat(if you get it).
[quote]
If it weren’t for the protein pancakes I designed for myself and Shelby approved, I would have freakin’ lost my mind.
.[/quote]
For the record… proper protocol would be to share your recipe here [/quote]
My goal is to offer it to Shelby if he ever needs recipes for a future book in exchange for services.
So far I have a “fruit” one. But the homerun one is the chocolate/pb/caramel one. Trick is some walden farms and a kitchen aid mixer.
I bulked a bit, I got back up to 198 before my last meet, that was from Jan 7th to April 18th. I’ve just finished week 11 of a planned 13 week diet run. I got another cheat meal this week, I swear I read the email five times to make sure I read it correctly! I toned it down a bit though this week, still ate a ton but didn’t feel like shit at the end.
I did BBB for my first cycle, then it got too much, so I did a modified trivumrate for the rest. GHRs/Leg Presses/Various ab work/Dips/Pull Ups/DB work. Just very basic movements.
I’ve had no blood work done with Shelby, I had a pre admission blood test done today, so might get to see some results if I ask nicely.
I invented a decent sweet potato recipe. Thai red and garlic sweet potato mash. Simple, just add 3 tbsp to massed sweet ppotatoes and three garlic cloves, then work out portion size based off the Macro guidebook. The additions add no cals and it’s a Shelby approved recipe. Now you need to share this pancake recipe m
Anyone who is bored of regular shakes can give it a run through and see if you get inspired. Most aren’t going to be Shelby Sertified(ok that’s funny to me) but could give you some ideas to mix it up. I’ll report back on my success or failure tomorrow.
And this site is in the same line of thinking… could be tailored towards our needs but is not exactly bodybuilding oriented.
www.yummly.com This is a recipe site that allows you to customize the ingredients, set preferences for taste(satly/sweet/etc) , breakfast vs entree vs side dishes, lower calories, low carbs etc Very interesting stuff and I figured someone could get good use out of this.
[quote]sidewalkdances wrote:
To answer the questions…
I bulked a bit, I got back up to 198 before my last meet, that was from Jan 7th to April 18th. I’ve just finished week 11 of a planned 13 week diet run. I got another cheat meal this week, I swear I read the email five times to make sure I read it correctly! I toned it down a bit though this week, still ate a ton but didn’t feel like shit at the end.
[/quote]
So I guess I’m not the only one that does this?.. hahaah… I probably opened the email 5 different times throughout the day just to read it again. I had just had a cheat meal like 10 days prior so it was a big surprise that i got another one so quick. It made my weekend though. I wont be expecting another for at least 4 weeks.
Maybe he is just feeling better now that he is not pre-contest and he isn’t making us suffer as much. lol
I have a feeling its just because as we get leaner, we can handle the more frequent cheats! Maybe SS will weigh in on that one. The weight is dropping off quicker from mine this week, I was stuck with water weight from the binge for a few days (183 up to 187 where I stayed for three days), this time i’ve gone from 182.4 → 189 → 185.4 over the two days. Hoping I get one more, just to round out the diet before my surgery.
[quote]sidewalkdances wrote:
I have a feeling its just because as we get leaner, we can handle the more frequent cheats! Maybe SS will weigh in on that one. The weight is dropping off quicker from mine this week, I was stuck with water weight from the binge for a few days (183 up to 187 where I stayed for three days), this time i’ve gone from 182.4 → 189 → 185.4 over the two days. Hoping I get one more, just to round out the diet before my surgery.[/quote]
Yeah, hopefully that is it. I could do with more frequent carb ups. Now that I am this low on carbs 7 or 8 weeks would be a long time on less than a 100 grams/day. We’ll see. I have full trust in whatever he tells me.
I lost 2.4 lbs last week so that could be another reason I got one so quick after my last one. I dont think he likes to see drops over 2lbs. If I can’t evacuate my bowels by Saturday I will probably be coming in close to last weeks weight. That cheese from the pizza really backed me up I think. So worth it though
hah.