Strongman-
How much to do you weigh and what is your approx body fat… if you don’t mind posting those? Thanks bro.
TopSirloin
I think I posted these earlier, but I will give the update stats as well.
As of 1/10/05:
Weight: 273
BF: 17%-20% (I used the three skin-fold test; hence the variance, although I believe I am closer to the 20%)
As of 1/17/05:
Weight: 268
BF: I haven’t done the math yet, but skinfold measurements dropped about 4mm
I have also dropped an inch from stomach and waist, a little from the thigh and chest.
Stay Strong,
Dan
Hey Guys,
Keep up the strong effort…it’s great for the motivation of the rest of us. I began Shugart’s Velocity Diet on Saturday and although I haven’t ‘seen’ any direct fat loss effect, my past experience has told me it IS happening. The biggest issue I have to contend with, as mentioned above, is that I now find myself occasionally forgetting to eat/drink a shake. Also, seems no matter how much water/unsweeteened green tea I drink, my mouth always seems dry. Any of you guys notice this as well? I take a 1/2 serving of Lime Accelerade 45 minutes before my 45 minute HIIT cardio to prevent electrolytic depletion and then consume 1/2 serving of Surge 20 minutes afterwards. Cravings seem to be at an absolute minimum, due to the amounts of fiber in each shake. Supps are Maximum Strength HOT-ROX, 1/2 dose MAG-10 (10 day cycle) and Alpha Male & M for between the MAG-10 cycles. I’m now 181-182 lbs. My goal is to weigh 170 with 10% BF and a full six pack. If I can do it, any of you can…I’m probably 90% of the way towards my goal, as my effort began back in early June 2004 weighing 237.
Stay strong…
MicroSlash - “Graciously donating protein to hot young groupies since ‘Appetite for Destruction’ went platinum…”
I also started “velocity” yesterday 01/18/05. Weight yesterday mrning was 270.5 and today it was 264.5. This isn’t uncommon or me, I can easily add/drop scale weight daily.
SOme background- I am 6’1’, had weighed 340 lbs got down to 240, but have been around 270 lately. Though this last year have been working out 3x per week, so weight has shifted more to muscle than before. I did notice yesterday working out that I did notice greater dry mouth than other days, plus noticed a head-ache. I also started taking Alpha male yesterday. I am also taking HOT-ROX, ZMA and M. I had the 5 shakes (140 servings) this is not enough calories for someone my size (no Surge, sold out), less than 1200. Today I added Hoods low-carb beverage to my morning shake with natty PB, this gets my calories up to about 1500 today. Still I’m sure it should be more according to Chris formula I should be getting 1800 or so. I originally lost the weight doing atkins for 7 months, just stopped one day. I will keep everyone posted.
Welcome to the party, Redux! Yeah, you will need about 1800 calories minimum a day. With plenty of fiber, you won’t feel too many cravings. I am about the same weight as you, and am looking to lose about 40 pounds. Obviously, this is not going to happen in four weeks, but it should give me a good start. How does Hood’s Low carb milk taste? I would rather use that than milk or water, but I figured the taste without the sugars had to be different.
Stay strong,
Dan
Thanks. It taste rather good. It is not something I normaly drink by itself, it is something I use in place of milk, to cut the carbs. I use it in shakes, oatmeal, etc… A concern I noticed yesterday while picking up laundry putting it into the wash. When I stood up I got very light-headed. I am not sure the reasoning. I don’t think its the food or lack of it, since I have fasted for over a week and never had such issues. Like I mention earlier I started taking Alpha Male and M. So, in the morning I take 3 AM, 3M, and 4 HOT-ROX, then 6 hours later the AM and the HOT-ROX again, then 3 ZMA at night. We’ll see how I do at my work-out today. Hey I drop another 2 lbs scale weight.
Day 11
Wow, more then a third of the way through.
Its only getting more easier for me it seems eating wise. No cravings, and I stay so busy on the weekdays that I hardly notice the boring food repetition. I’m also developing quite the taste for coconut oil.
Last night’s lifting was a little abbreviated, not due to the diet, but because I got out of work late and the gym closed before I got done, though I managed to hit every body part. I seem to be doing fine moving back to three low volume lifting sessions a week, unlike last week’s unexpected two. We shall see how Friday’s goes though.
Just to give a full accurate report for anyone looking at my way of doing this for guidance, for some reason or other, my bowel movements have been extremely loose some days, to the point of “pissing out my ass”. Do NOT mistake this for diarhea though. It occurs once a day, at a very regular time, and is not terribly urgent. I would probably relate this to the high fiber to calorie ratio I’m having somedays, along with water drinking in the excess of 2 gallons a day.
On a completely seperate note, Hood’s Carb Countdown Milk tastes good, but has a slight aftertaste especially if you’re sensitive to splenda. It also, being flavoured with splenda, needs to be shaken well, and drunk quickly else the taste will get a bit off. In other words, I’d say, good for shakes, not good for a leisurely breakfast with the family.
Thanks for the input on the low carb milk, guys.
Redux, the light-headedness could be from the max dose of HOT-ROX and Alpha Male combined. I think this was warned against in another thread with Red Kat and HOT-ROX, and Alpha Male is a stronger version of RED KAT. I use three of each Alpha and HOT-ROX twice a day and have had no issues.
Moon Knight, I have had the same experience with the “rapid fire” emissions. Probably the fiber.
Stay strong,
Dan
Hey all. I started the fat fast/velocity diet Sunday, wich was January 16. I stepped on the scale yesterday morning and had lost about 3 1/2 pounds…so far, so good. I’ll probably weigh in tomorrow morning before my weight workout. I’m actually using 4 shakes a day, and substituting a piece of lean meat in the evening. Post weight workout, instead of Surge, I do a protein shake and a half cup of oatmeal. I workout with weights 3 days a week, and try to do a little cardio two days. On cardio/non weight training days I don’t do the oatmeal. So far, today has been the worst day. My cravings this afternoon have been rough.
Djohns, up your fiber! It makes a huge difference. I add a tablespoon of milled flaxseed and a teaspoon of ground psyllium husk fiber to each shake and have had no real hunger pangs or cravings.
Welcome to the group!
Stay strong,
Dan
[quote]Strongarm wrote:
Djohns, up your fiber! It makes a huge difference. I add a tablespoon of milled flaxseed and a teaspoon of ground psyllium husk fiber to each shake and have had no real hunger pangs or cravings.
Welcome to the group!
Stay strong,
Dan[/quote]
Thanks Dan. I’ve actually been doing that all week. Been taking about 3 -4 servings a day of the milled flaxseed, actually the same one that was pictured in Shugart’s article. I really think it helps.
I don’t really have a reliable BF% reader, so I am just going by looks alone here. Unfortunately, that sucks. The first week I shot from 209.5 to 202. WOW. Now after day 16 I weigh 203.5. Its like my body has said ‘yep fuck you I am not moving’. I do a cheat meal every 4 days consisting of 100g of carbs. That is it, and its supposed to help according to Cheater’s Diet. I mean I don’t need it, I just am doing it because its supposed to jumpstart the metabolism.
4 shakes, 4 tbs of flax, 6 fish oil pills
MAG-10
HOT-ROX
ZMA
Enriching greens
multi
vit c
green tea extract
Sure, I can see results, but GOD DAMNIT. I am using Fat to Fire and doing HIIT sprints 3 days a week.
Anyone want to suggest?
Hi Lotus, are you seeing improvements? Sometimes the muscle growth and fat loss can occur at the same rate, especially if you are using prohormones, HOT-ROX (which is supposed to help with maintaining lean mass), and your diet is spot on. I once did a brutal workout plan and diet that helped me cut my bodyfat almost in half, and my overall weight only changed four pounds! That was pre-T-nation. It took me about three years to get back to training with that intensity due to the side effects. On another thought, maybe the cheat days are not allowing your body to strip fat effectively. Try spreading them out to just once a week, or going two complete weeks without a cheat and then adding them in. Everybody is different, and I find that for myself, cheat meals become cheat weekends!
Stay strong,
Dan
Lotus, can you give us a refresher on your calorie breakdown minus the cheat meals? Try backing off the cardio and make sure your diet is perfect. Sometimes the cardio can “frustrate” the ability of the muscle and diet to do their jobs. At least in my experience.
Stay strong,
Dan
Strongarm, I bet I could teach you a thing or two about cheat weekends, you should have seen what happened the FIRST time I tried the Fat Fast.
Lotus, I agree completely with Strongarm, and the only thing that I can add is that occasionly, despite everything the body reaches plateaus that it takes a brief time to break through.
My update: Day 12
Today, was, for me, royally screwed over at every turn it would seem. Not rushing at all to get ready for work, I realize minutes before leaving the apartment that I’ve forgotten that I need to buy more almonds. I bought all that the grocery store had in stock last time I was there, and had planned on visiting another to get a few bags(I buy the whole almonds from the baking aisle, as they are unsalted and unpreserved) until the first restocked. However, I did not have time for this in the morning, and had to instead try to make do with whatever I could get from the small store across the street from work.
This place, unfortunately, was out of the variety of the almonds(blue diamond, natural but salted) that I usually have made do with, that they carry. I instead picked up a can of Emerald Dry Roasted Almonds. Some combination of rushing and mental fogginess(low carbs and Sudafed) caused me to check salt content but NOT ingrediants. What did I overlook? These nuts had MSG, and more importantly, a number of extra carb sources(albeit in small quantities). Maltodextrin, modified potato starch, modified corn starch, and corn syrup solids to be exact. Thus, I came to find that beyound getting approximately 2300 mg of salt more then I have been lately, I would be getting 33g of additional carbs.
I’ve told myself its no big deal, that it won’t kill the diet, especially with the fiber slowing digestion, and the insulin sensitivity I’ve developed, plus the generally high energy expenditure just working. However, it still bothers me.
Beyound this, I’m running short on protein powder. I have a shipment coming in tommorow, but things are going to be tight tonight. I’ve had to restructure things a bit, moving the last nut meal away from my bedtime meal, and planning to have some duck then instead(using the nuts earlier in lieu of a shake).
Additionally, the gym I workout at(my local YMCA) closes early on Fridays. I skipped taking a lunch break today in the hopes that I could get out 30-60 minutes early and get in some lifting before they close. Unfortunately, I have a coworker who comes in in the evenings to help finish things up, and he was late. He isn’t the best worker most days anyway. In short, I was not successful in getting lifting done, and will have to do it tommorow instead maybe, or just take today as an extra “day off”.
My diet consists of:
4 shakes all Grow! micellar casein except for the morning one before workouts which consists of whey.
4 tbs of flax seed oil
2 scoops Citrucel (fiber)
6 capsules of fish oil
1 scoop enriching greens don’t think
calories are present in this
that is it.
so: 880 calories from protein
520 calories from fat
180 calories from fish oil
60 calories from fiber
So: 1640 calories a day.
On lifting days I add in around 180 calories from Surge and the 25g of carbs that come with that.
I was doing Fat to Fire and HIIT alternating days for 6 total on days. I am switching it to HIIT and Fat to Fire on the same day 3 days on 4 days off a week. Hopefully this will help.
I think that there is a very large possibility that I am losing fat and gaining muscle at about the same “weight” ratio. I haven’t taken measuremtns yet, but I shall do so tomorrow and post them. I really wish I could find calipers around here to measure myself with.
Every 4th day i have 100g whole wheat pasta.
HA! I am right with you on the cheat meals, brother. One slip and I feel like Prometheus. Thanks for the advice on the milk! I eliminated it from the shakes, and have dropped three pounds since Tuesday. I have been having some crazy things going on and forgot to bring protein with me (since I wasn’t staying at home for the night), so I stopped and picked up some tuna packets, olives, and horse-radish sauce. So it shouldn’t mess up the diet, but it kind of blows out the one solid meal a week idea.
Lotus,
What is your body weight, did you use Shugart’s formula? Sorry for asking some of these obvious questions, but I am trying out if you are just missing some small detail. Otherwise, it looks like everything is good, just stay the course!
Stay Strong,
Dan
Lotus, without knowing your bodyfat percentages, before/now, I would have to say IF your fat loss is struggling and its not just being replaced by muscle, then I would blame it on the frequent 100g carb bombs you’re putting into your diet.
The load is high, the source is probably not the lowest glycemic you could get, and every 4 days is rather frequent. You are not giving your body enough time(especially if you are not generally one who eats lower carbs) to adapt to the fuel source shift completely.
Imagine your body as a drug-addict. Its going cold turkey, fighting the cravings, and starting to get over the worst of the withdrawl, when suddenly it finds an old stash in the back of its closet and smokes it, thus remembering the good(but not the bad) of it.
Hmm… not sure if that comes across well… I have another analogy… involving a desert island if that one isn’t clear(I love analogies).
In short, this failure to adapt IS going on. The question is, whether it is helping, hurting, or having little/no effect on your goals.
Strongarm,
After this diet is over, and we both can handle talk of the evil tastiness, lets compare notes on how far off track we can get.
I’ll tell ya, there was a time I was eating a tub of ice cream with my postworkout meals, and this wasn’t even my cheating 
Well the reason i do 4 day carb meals is because I read the Cheater’s Diet by I believe…damn I can’t remember who wrote it. Let me look it up and then put the link here.
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459905
The idea behind what he writes makes perfect sense to me. I don’t think that a small meal of carbs is doing anything. I weighed myself this morning and was down to 200. This is after…18 days. So i guess I am doing OK because for 18 days i’ve lost 9.5 lbs. THat is little over 0.5 lbs a day while on a prohormone.
I suppose I may have been too finicky and bitchy. I do not know if I am aware of what you were saying about Chris Shugart’s formula?
I’ll remeasure BF% with that stupid handheld thing at the gym today to see if it fluctuated at all. Thanks for advice.