Hello,
I just completed all 6 weeks as of today (-17lbs)… just about on track for 199lbs (from 314lbs) by Christmas currently.
Not sure how to re-start the program as the cardio/sets/reps were increasing. Do I add +1 set & more cardio to create a Block 3; or just repeat Block 1, but decrease some carbs further?
Thanks.
I would not advise restarting this program right away. It’s called Blitz for a reason.
For your own hormonal and psychological health, consider taking a 2 week diet break.
Eat about 600-800 kcals more than you did during your blitz for the entirety of the diet break. The increase in calories comes exclusively from carbs. You will definitely benefit from this strategy after something as draining as a blitz approach. You will gain weight initially, especially the day after the first day of your diet break but don’t panic. This is water retention from eating carbs. You can hold 4 grams of water per 1 gram of carbs. So if you eat 200 grams of carbs on diet break day 1, this might show on the scale as a 1 kg increase in bodyweight the following day (200 grams of carbs + 800 grams of water weight). You did not gain fat! Focus on the average bodyweight difference of the whole week.
Reduce cardio by about 50%. For example if you finished week 6 with 3 x 30 minutes of steady state cardio on off and/or on days, make it 3 x 15 minutes. I don’t know the exact amounts of cardio in the program but I’m guessing it is probably somewhere around 30-40 mins steady state cardio on top of maybe 6-8 mins of HIIT. Do half the cardio work on HIIT as well for the entire diet break.
Note: If you notice that you’re still losing weight on the diet break, then you are in luck and it would be in your favor to capitalize on this positive metabolic reaction. Add 100 kcals for the next week after each week that you were still losing weight and stay on the diet break until your weight stabilizes. It might be 2 weeks but it could also be 3 or even 4 weeks.
Then, and only then, would I restart the blitz program BUT start your deficit around 200 kcals higher than where you previously left it.
Hey,
Thank you for that…but my goal is 199lbs by end of year. Now sitting at 231lbs (down 83lbs so far) and I will lose that 32lbs no matter what I need to do. Kind of my “victory” that I’ve set myself after everything that went on last few years. So increasing calories, and decreasing work effort would send me in the other direction.
Congrats on your progress so far! Incredible work.
I refuse to be a naysayer or tell you what your goals should be, but that’s a brutal road ahead - just FYI. Those lbs. are going to be a lot harder to lose than the ones in your rearview.
Well, at least you’ve set a clear goal for yourself. I can respect that because 90 % of the population can’t even manage to do that.
Having said that, it seems you are very fixated on your bodyweight. If that’s all that counts for you, that’s fine. But you can expect to feel like crap for the next 6-8 weeks and potentially a big risk to fall back into your old eating pattern if you don’t know how to manipulate and sustain your nutrition long term. But that’s your choice and I don’t mean to break your spirit. You have come a long way and I truly applaud you for that.
However, if you wish to keep some muscle at the end of the journey, adding another blitz right away where your goal is to lose another 32 lbs in a little under 8 weeks, might not be the smartest idea. Yeah, you’ll lose a lot of weight, but you’ll probably lose a lot of muscle too because you won’t be able to train hard.
Trying to sustain high volumes of cardio and lifting in a big caloric deficit after having just completed a 6 week period of this, will take a huge toll on you physically and mentally speaking.
You’ll feel a lot worse, your sleep won’t be good due to elevated cortisol levels, you won’t be able to train as hard because with such a large deficit you will get be depleted after a couple of weeks.
Training hard and getting enough sleep are your most important variables for maintaining muscle during a fatloss phase. If those variables are bad, it will reflect on your body shape in the end.
Something to think about if that matters to you…
I totally understand your goal. And congrats on your progress so far.
There is no doubt in my mind that you can achieve your goal of 199. Not sure is shooting to achieve it by Christmas is a smart strategy though.
Don’t let the math from losing 89lbs so far mislead you into believing that you can maintain the same rate of fat loss until you reach your goal. The more fat you lose, the slower you’ll lose the rest.
Objectively, you lost around 3lbs/week over the past 6 weeks. Which is actually a fast rate of fat loss considering that you were not 300lbs anymore. Typically we are shooting for 1% of your body weight loss per week, so you are slightly over that. Which is pretty much the limit without the risk of rapid metabolic adaptations which will lead to an even harder time to lose fat.
Let’s say that you have 7 weeks left until what you established as your deadline. 32lbs in 7 weeks in is over 4lbs per week. Which is significantly more than you have achieved on an extreme approach.
Even if you were to keep up your current rate of fat loss (which you probably won’t as the body adjusts) you would lose still be 10lbs short. of your goal by your deadline.
I’m not saying this to be a party pooper. But you could easily do a lot more harm than good by absolutely trying to fit your goal to your deadline. You’ll have severe metabolic adaptations, which, on top of making you feel like crap and craving all the time, will lead to a massive rebound once you ease up even a tiny bit.
That’s why I personally do not recommend that anybody be a significant caloric deficit for more than 12 weeks (16 is the upper upper limit if everything is done perfectly). After that period, you should take a 2-4 weeks period of maintenance eating (increasing calories to the point where your weight is not going down, but not going up either). Then you can resume your fat loss effort.
But you will not listen, I know how it is. I’m just telling you the smart thing to do. Sadly, it is impossible to make someone change their mind with logic and reason when their decision is based on emotions.
All I can say is that the blitz program is a super high-stress plan that was designed to be followed for no more than 6 weeks. I do not recommend repeating the plan for another 6, much less add work to it.
Also, have you considered holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas eve?
Are you going to skip all those diners with your friends/family? If you plan to stay on the plan, you’ll probably will have to exclude yourself somewhat socially or the temptation will be to big for you to binge, especially if you want to lose 4 lbs/week.
Why would you suffer through that when there are much better options out there that will still allow you to reach your goal? Although it wont be at the end of this year, you will feel much better and even be able to enjoy your fatloss journey.
If you are in doubt on how to proceed with your training if you can’t do the Blitz, may I suggest following up with men’s physique? This is a very well balanced and fatloss targeted program that progressively builds up over 12 weeks in volume. But the increase happens ever so slightly and you’ll be able to handle the work because the progression is mostly one of reps and density. Only the last phase has a volume progression in the form of extra sets, but you don’t max out sets from week 1, the sets are added gradually over the 3-week period.
Stick to losing 1% average bodyweight loss per week. Maybe you could go up to 1.5% for the first 3 weeks but after phase 1 I would advise you to stick to 1%.
You’ll also be able to eat more calories than you do now and still lose weight effectively. You don’t need to skip on holiday meals if you plan your nutrition ahead. For example you could calculate your total weekly value of calories that you can consume to maintain your 1% weight loss goals and redivide them based on how much calories you think you’ll consume on holiday meals. It is a little bit of a guess I know, so give yourself a margin:
For example, let’s say your caloric intake for fatloss is 2500 kcals to lose 1% BW per week. 2500 x 7 (weekdays) = 17500 calories total to reach your weekly target. Now, if you know you’re going to have diner with family for Christmas eve on Saturday the 24th and you’ll guess that the appetizer, main course and dessert will be around 5000 kcals total, then subtract that number from your weekly calorie target → 17500 - 5000 = 12500.
The next step is simply to divide your 12500 calories over the remaining six days → 12500/6 = 2083 calories. This amount of calories is very manageable and you’ll still be able to enjoy having a great meal with you family and/or friends.
If you decide to use this strategy, you can expect to reach your goal within 13-14 weeks. So by the end of Januari or beginning of February, you’ll have succesfully reached your goal.
This is just one possible solution on how you could further approach your fatloss effort in a way that is much more sustainable and will get you better results both physiologically and psychologically speaking.
But it is your choice. If you insist on reaching your goal by Christmas, then go for it. Best of luck.