Getting Bigger, Stronger, Leaner And HEALTHY Over The Last 15 months: Lessons Learned

[T3hPwnisher]

Really appreciate you swinging by dude!

@Stormblessed

I would never look at you at 201 and expect you even had that much fat to lose; let alone still look absolutely jacked at 165.

Thanks so much for saying that, but I do like to point out that I WAS really damn skinny at that point. Here’s a NON anabolic photo, haha

But I also don’t feel it was ALL fat: I had a LOT of inflammation to lose due to the way I was eating before. But @LoRez also had a great observation that there’s a fair chance I was losing intermuscular fat/marbling during that time as well, which can lend to it.

But that Mark Bell quote is spot on. We equate weight with fat, when weight honestly doesn’t capture the story at all. “Take your weight loss goals and double them” is a phrase I hear often, because that initial 5lbs of loss IS going to be non-fat weight: water, glycogen, food mass in the guts, etc.

@Stormblessed

Do you think calorie counting is pointless or simply don’t do it yourself?

I think it’s tedious, and I find that calories really don’t tell the fully story. I’m not going to say it’s pointless, because MANY people are able to be VERY successful with counting of calories, but I know for my personality type it’s a no-go.

Your caloric cycling idea would pair well with a CARB cycling idea (if you are a carb user). Justin Harris has spoken on this topic frequently, and there’s lots of good resources here as well

A Beginner's Guide to Carb Cycling

[Beginners-Guide-to-Carb-Cycling] by Matt McGorry The inside secrets to getting ripped and shredded, simply by manipulating carb intake. I rushed into the venue – a nondescript warehouse in the middle of nowhere called “The Compound III” – exactly 30 minutes late. Dave Tate uses the Compound both as a showcase for his company’s products and as a serious training facility. As such, it’s stocked with everything you’d ever want or need to get big and strong – power racks, monolifts (squat racks …

Carb Cycling That Actually Works

[Carb-Cycling-That-Actually-Works] by Alain Gonzalez Lose Fat, Retain Muscle and Strength Carb cycling doesn't work the way you think it works. But it can be used to preserve strength, energy and muscle while losing fat. Here's how. Carb Cycling Is Hogwash. Do It Anyway. There’s a lot of hype about carb cycling, and many claims are being made about it that are yet to be substantiated. The idea that alternating between high and low-carb days will accelerate fat loss is, well, hogwash. The truth…

Otherwise, for myself, I sort of end up doing that with my nutrition. My biggest intake days are actually on weekends, when I tend to do my least training, but during weekdays, my protein sparring modified fasting heavy days are on my walking and events days, whereas the days I have a midday meal are on the days I lift.

As for what program best suited fat loss: “Chaos is the Plan”, no question, followed by my Viking inspired 2 weeks of improv. The big takeaway there was that I wasn’t focused on progressing at all: I was focused on the method instead. I just wanted my training to tell a story and to get in my 180 minutes of overhead work in the week. All I needed to do was maintain muscle at that point. If I tried taking on something like Deep Water or Mass Made Simple, I would have crashed.

Regarding strength: it’s been absolutely surging once I got my body in a state where it was ready to grow again. I’m seeing PRs every training session, with DoggCrapp in particular really shinning through.

Thanks for the questions! Happy to answer any more you may have.