Thanks guys!
T-Ransformation: Week 18 - Run
Run
4 miles
Time: 41:16
This was pretty good - it’s the fastest I’ve done this route (I did 4 miles quicker on my 10k, but that was a much flatter trail). I had some right Achilles and knee discomfort, but nothing too bad.
Nutrition
13:00: chicken panini, lemonade
15:30: Relentless, chocolate
19:30: sausages, bread rolls, tomatoes
Nutrition today was pretty bad. No excuses, I just got carried away with lunch and the afternoon snack and thought I’d commit and make a poor dinner decision too. I estimate this at around 3000kcal and 120g protein. I’ll get back on the turkey breast tomorrow.
2 Likes
T-Ransformation: Week 18 - Rest
Nutrition
13:00: crumpets, eggs, Monster
16:00: 2 bananas
19:30: chicken breast, roast veg, tomatoes
Bodyweight: 96.1kg
2500kcal and 220g protein today. My feet and knees are sore from the run yesterday, which is annoying. Not sure where I’m going with my running at the moment. I just want to maintain my current level/make slow progress but I haven’t found a good way to do that. Running definitely beats me up, but it’s quite unpredictable. Running over 4 miles usually gives me problems, but running any distance can leave my legs pretty rough.
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T-Ransformation: Week 18 - Summary
Bodyweight: 96.0kg
Training: 3 sessions, big trap bar deadlift PR
Nutrition: Good overall
It’s nice to see the scale drop again, albeit minimally. I only did 3 training sessions this week: a 4 mile run, a bodyweight/kettlebell session and a gym session. The highlight of the week was the 230kg/506lb trap bar deadlift PR, and I’m also pretty happy with the run. I didn’t actually do any conventional deadlifts this week, so I’ll have to make up for that next week.
2 Likes
T-Ransformation: Week 19 - Lower Body
Deadlifts
170kg: 2
180kg: 2
195kg: 2
All sets belted, mixed grip.
Front Squat
60kg: 5
70kg: 5
80kg: 5
90kg: 1
100kg: 1 - tied lifetime PR
All sets belted, cleaned.
Pistol Squats
BW: 2x5
Very cool day today! I’ve decided to run the Tim Henriques 6 week deadlift routine again, this time without straps. I’m using 210kg as my training max which is possibly a little ambitious, but it should hopefully be fine. The top set was pretty tough, but I’m a bit out of practice with conventional deadlifts.
After deadlifts I decided to mix things up a bit and try front squats. This was hands down the ugliest lifting of my life, so grotesque I think @T3hPwnisher would be proud. This gym doesn’t have any type of rack so I had to clean the bar for each set and my clean technique is horrible. 80kg onwards I basically just muscled it into my chest and rolled it up onto my shoulders, but lowering it was much worse. Because I could only keep a couple of fingertips on the bar I had to use a reverse continental/zercher combination, absolutely hideous lol. My shoulders/arms are pretty shredded from the knurling. But none of that is important - the important bit is that I equalled my lifetime best of 100kg (220lbs). By default this was also a clean PR, if you can call it that. This definitely proves that my leg strength is fully recovered following the injury, if there was any doubt remaining. It also suggests that the pistol squats are having some carryover after all as I’m not doing anything else for my quads.
Nutrition
11:00: chicken sandwich, chocolate, Monster
15:30: protein bar, 3 bananas
19:00: chicken breast, roast veg
Bodyweight: ?
Not a great start, but things picked up (2500kcal, 195g protein). My scales were acting up today and reading anything from 96.0kg to 96.8kg so I decided to ignore them. The scale at the gym showed 93.5kg, but I don’t exactly trust it either. However, I haven’t been to this gym for a little while and I noticed a huge improvement in the changing room mirror and that’s what matters.
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You absolutely made me proud, haha. Great work dude!
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Nutrition Thoughts
I’ve been looking through one of my old logs as I actually did a cut back at the end of 2014/beginning of 2015 which worked really well. @Rattlehead was guiding me through it and we used a calculator from one of Romaniello’s articles. I went for 20 weeks consistently losing weight and dropped from 97kg (213lbs) to 92.5kg (203lbs) on 2300kcal (40/40/20). At the time I wasn’t as muscular as I am now as I was going through a long kettlebell-only phase, but I wasn’t far off. Interestingly I was also doing a busier job at the time and managing fine with the lower calories, and I remember I maintained the weight loss for a good length of time with minimal effort.
That’s not going to change anything that I’m doing right now, but it’s nice to see that I should have a lot of potential to lose more weight when I drop to 2300kcal. It’s funny how much stuff you forget you already learned lol. I really don’t know why I was so fixed on dropping my carbs drastically for this cut when the best progress I ever made was on a 40/40/20 split.
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Same! Bench too. Big fan - simple and it works.
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Yeah I really like it!
T-Ransformation: Week 19 - Upper Body
Kettlebell Rows
40kg: 5x5
One-Arm Push-Ups
BW: 3x5
Band Pull-Aparts
Blue: 10x25
Band Curls
Blue: 10x25
Reasonable upper body session today. Not much to say about this one.
Nutrition
12:30: eggs, crumpets, tomatoes
15:00: Rockstar, 2 protein bars
19:00: Chicken, potatoes, veg
Bodyweight: 95.5kg
The scale was playing up again, but mostly said 95.5kg so I’m going with that. 2500kcal and 195g protein today. Good stuff.
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What protein bars do you like?
tweet
I’m not sure if it’s ok to comment, but I like dynabars.
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T-Ransformation: Week 19 - Rest
Nutrition
11:00: Monster, blueberries
13:30: chicken sandwich, eggs
17:30: 3 bananas
19:30: chicken, potatoes, veg
Bodyweight: 95.5kg
Nothing to report today. 2500kcal, 175g protein.
Cut Plan
I’m trying to plan the next few months of my cut around some life stuff. I have an exam towards the end of June so I think it would be best to keep my intake at 2500kcal until after that. That will mean I’ll have been at 2700kcal for 5 weeks and 2500kcal for another 5 weeks. After that I have 4 weeks before a holiday, then soon after the holiday I’m going to be working back in the city so will be living full time with my wife again.
My current thinking is that I really want to maximise my cut in the 4 weeks between my exam and my holiday, and then start reverse dieting after that. That will have been a 14-week cut which is a reasonable length. If it weren’t for the holiday and moving back in with my wife I’d push it further, but I’d rather do a shorter duration and a good job reverse dieting.
I’d really appreciate some input on what I should do in that 4-week period. My thoughts right now are to drop to 2100kcal for 3 weeks, then begin to reverse diet the week before my holiday. I don’t have plans to eat big on my holiday, but it will be much harder to track my intake and I want to be careful about that. Thanks in advance!
I suppose you could drop to 2100 cal for three weeks, but why not go 2300/2200/2100 and do extra LISS? That way you only have a week at really low calories.
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so you’ve 4 weeks before the holiday? I’d go 2 weeks PSMF followed by 2 weeks eating at maintenance before your holiday.
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I would “Water Fast” for 4 weeks.
JK, Marky Mark and Yogi-Bear are a tad more knowledgeable and experienced in nutrition than I am. I appreciate the tag though! I’ve successfully deceived enough people into thinking I know what I’m talking about…mwahahaha
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@MarkKO Yes that would be an option. I have to say I always feel a bit sceptical about relying on cardio to drop fat. What would you do for the fourth week before the holiday? Back to 2300? Or straight to 2500?
@Yogi1 Thank you for responding man. I have been toying with the idea of doing something more extreme like that. How is it for day-to-day function? I can see it being extremely effective, but also reducing me to a snivelling mess lol. And how would you calculate my maintenance calories afterwards?
@littlesleeper I appreciate your humility sir, but you haven’t ended up where you are by chance!
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de nada! It’s pretty rough but your body changes so fast it’s very motivating. Black coffee is your best friend on a PSMF. You can lose 3lbs of fat in a week.
As for the maintenance cals - BW x 15.
Hmmm I think I might give this a go. Maintenance calories would work out at 3000-3100kcal based on me probably ending up around 92-93kg. So would you jump straight to that, or transition gradually? Thanks again!
do yourself a favour and read the Rapid Fatloss Handbook so you get an idea of what to do and expect. It’s a great read.
I’d just jump straight in with the maintenance calories.
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