This run felt much better than the last one, but I still felt very weak at the end. Hence the poptarts…
Nutrition 12:00: 6 crumpets with jam 17:00: 6 poptarts, cashews 19:00: roast chicken, veg
Bodyweight: 96.5kg
Clearly my nutrition wasn’t optimal today. I deliberately carbed up for lunch, although I could definitely have made a more sensible choice of source. After the run I felt very light-headed and weak and so went to the shops and got poptarts. That was far from ideal, but a refeed isn’t the worst thing I could do at this point as my weight is dropping so fast - I’m down 2kg in 9 days.
Note - I’m really not doing much for overcoming national stereotypes with this diet haha. Fry-up on Tuesday, haggis on Thursday, crumpets today. At least poptarts are a bit international lol.
This was a reasonable home workout. I warmed up very thoroughly for the pistol squats and they felt good technically, but not as strong as I’d like. The last couple of reps on my right leg were a real grind. My pistol squats improved really quickly at the end of last year, but I don’t feel I’ve progressed at all since January. It’s a little frustrating, but on the other hand I don’t really have any big goals with them.
Again, I haven’t had dinner yet so I’ll update this if anything changes. I’m very happy with a bodyweight of 96.7kg - it fits with yesterday’s carb intake. If I can average 96.5kg or below this week that would be fantastic.
EDIT: I had barely started my chicken and veg when I was called back to work for several hours. When I was finished I was very hungry and ended up making a couple of bacon rolls. Not great, but I reckon I’m still in a deficit.
At this point I’m ok with how quick it’s dropping. Whenever I’ve cut weight in the past the first couple of kilos have come off really quick and then everything has slowed down, and that’s what I think is happening here. If I continue to lose weight at this rate below 96kg I will definitely do something about it, but I don’t think I need to right now.
Honestly this feels pretty good. The only time when I feel like I haven’t eaten enough has been during and after the runs. On the other days I feel totally fine.
I just calculated my macro breakdown for my last deadlift day because that was my strictest day for nutrition and it worked out as 2245kcal, 171g protein, 192g carbs, 97g fat. I agree that this is all a bit on the low side, but I think it balances out with the other days.
Like I said, I think I’ll continue like this for a little longer then re-assess. I definitely don’t want to lose muscle, but I also don’t want to prematurely put the brakes on this.
That’s VERY low - especially this early on. You’re giving yourself hardly any room to move down if you stall. When I was at 96 kg I was only just starting to drop from 2700 cal/day. I didn’t hit 2300 until I was around 90 kg.
Thanks for the advice man, I think you’re right. I was hoping to do this without tracking macros/calories but I guess I’ve been going too low. That was one of my stricter days though, on other days I’ve definitely been eating more. I’ll have to have a think about my strategy going forward.
@furo try the formula: bodyweight in lbs x 14 is your low end maintenance. For you that’s around 3000 cal/day. If you set your limit at 2700 cal/day that’s a deficit of 2100 cal/week. Plus, if you’re around the 20-25% bodyfat mark (let’s split the difference), your LBM maintenance window is 2300-2800 cal/day or thereabouts - so at 2300 cal/day your right at the low end of your LBM maintenance window already - so anything less than that and it isn’t going to do you a whole lot of good. At 2700 cal/day you’re at the higher end of your LBM maintenance window while being in a deficit for your total mass which leaves you plenty of room to move down if you need to.
Thanks a lot @MarkKO, that’s extremely helpful. I think what I might do is aim for 2700kcal on training days, but a bit lower on rest days. What are your thoughts on how much protein I should be getting? I usually aim for over 150g per day, because I’ve never personally noticed a difference going higher (but I have going lower). Do you think I should get more?
@furo until I hit much lower calories (2300 cal/day which is close to the low end of my LBM maintenance), I found I did best with about 0.8 x bodyweight in lbs of protein, but higher carbs (280-300 g/day). So for you 170 g/day of protein would probably be the minimum, maximum around 200-210 g/day.
One thing I would say about calorie cycling as you suggested it is that on rest days you’re still recovering - so why deprive your body of fuel? You might do better cycling carbs although IMO the same logic applies.
I found that what is key (and of course that could be just me) is the macro breakdown. Specifically, limiting fat intake in favour of higher carb levels - with carbs mostly from rice, oats, potatoes and the like but limited wheat sources. Having carbs during training was also a game changer for me. I lost more fat and less muscle doing that compared to limiting carbs and glutting myself on protein and fat. I’m just super, super sceptical about how well low carb/high fat diets work for muscle retention when in a deficit.
Ok great. 170-210g protein sounds very realistic. Good point about the calorie cycling and the macro breakdown. Regarding carbs vs fats I’m going to experiment with this. It seems that some people swear by low carbs while others like yourself prefer higher carbs. On a theoretical level I like the idea of the Palaeolithic diet, and I know guys like Alpha and T3hpwnisher limit there carbs a fair bit. Your perspective is greatly appreciated on this though, and I will definitely bear it in mind. What sort of carbs do you have during training? I like the idea of that.
Beautiful day today so I decided to make the most of it by going for a long cycle. This is the furthest I’ve been, but it was a very flat route. I didn’t rush it, the cycling is just for fun and not performance. Later in the day I decided to go for a short run. I’m watching season 6 of The Walking Dead and there’s a lot of running in that lol. I wanted to push the pace but the trail was very steep and I misjudged it a bit so had to walk at the end. This has already been a good week for training - I just need to get a solid deadlift session in to have hit all the basics.
I took @MarkKO and @theBird’s advice and upped my intake today. This worked out as 2,739kcal with 203P/241C/94F which I’m very happy with. I’ve got a lot of work to do on my nutritional approach, but I’m excited about it.
I have this suspicion once you’ve set your body in a good place in terms of composition and metabolism any sensible dietary approach will work and it’s down to personal preference. When you’re trying to get to that place, it really seems like high carb/low fat works better from a performance and muscle retention perspective. It looks like the majority of people who start out where we did and try the high fat/high protein approach find it harder to maintain and experience much more significant performance impact with more muscle loss. I think a major caveat to the high carb/low fat approach is that you have to be sensible with your carb choices (avoid bread, pasta, wheat flour etc because that doesn’t seem to do anyone much good), and it helps to give your body plenty of intra workout carbs.
That makes complete sense. I’m definitely going to take that on board and up my carbs a bit, especially around my training. Thanks for all the help man!
I used to think similarly because you generally hear quite respectable sources bang on about how lower carb diets work better - which they do in general population because gen pop does sweet FA physically AND tends to get their carbs from bread and processed wheat not to mention doesn’t carry much muscle at all.
Very different story when you look at our group, who are at least moderately physically active and tend to carry a significant amount of muscle whatever bodyfat level we happen to be at. In our case I think it’s more a matter of manipulating calories and being smarter about carb sources than reducing carbs. I think it was one of the most respected physique guys on here who said very, very few (if any) aesthetics competitors successfully use a low carb/high fat approach.
Deadlifts
130kg: 1
150kg: 1
160kg: 1
180kg: 6 - belt on, straps on
200kg: 1 - mixed grip
Pull-Ups
BW: 4x5
Smith Machine Bench Press
60kg: 5
80kg: 5
100kg: 5
This was a good deadlift session. I got 6 reps with 180kg which is a personal best and then just a single with 200kg. I could’ve pushed for a second or possibly third rep with 200kg, but the first was a struggle and I didn’t think it would be useful. The 6 reps with 180kg were the real work. Afterwards I did some pull-ups which were mediocre and some Smith machine bench press which was horrific.
I worked this out as 2542kcal with 193P/235C/81F although it’s probably a bit of an underestimation because I didn’t include the mayo on the turkey and probably ate more than 100g of peanuts. I actually felt very full after dinner but my calories were too low so I made the difficult decision to supplement with a cookie lol (a couple of bananas would’ve been a better choice). Part of me was very worried my bodyweight would have ballooned up this morning with the introduction of more carbs, but it hasn’t so that’s fantastic, and I’m pretty sure the carbs contributed to having more energy during training.
I’m eating round at a friend’s tonight and I believe it’s going to be a vegetarian risotto, so I’m not going to get much protein today but I’ll make up for that tomorrow. I feel like training today but I should take a day off. My bodyweight is at a new low of 95.9kg, which is very interesting. I really don’t feel like I’m trying very hard with my diet at the moment.
EDIT: Things went a bit sideways today. Work was extremely busy so I ended up snacking on crap. I should’ve had a banana instead of the cookies, I’m sure it would have given me the energy I needed. But seeing as my bodyweight was so low today I think it will be fine.
