Podge: Glad to here that you have been staying the course. If you need anymore advice regarding what other cuts of red meat you could certainly eat on “cheat meal” day - ask Ko. He’ll help you with ways to “dress up” a meal to make it even more tasty w/out sacrificing all your hard work with your diet.
Okay - I've already dropped BF in the waist area, people. Without going through a huge adjustment in my diet - and I had beers last night. I've been jumping rope in the evenings when not in the gym. And have been continuously adding weight to my lifts. Once a week, will go about 20-minutes on the rowing machine at the gym. I have been leaning up - and I know I'll hit my goal by end of May, beginning of June for 8%. Everyone else, stay the course!
I DID IT!!! I just completed my first very successful carb-up on the CKD, can’t believe it!!! Even got up every two freaking hours to eat (paid the price for that the next day though). I haven’t heard whether Lyle McDonald has made any modifications to the diet since his book was written. The one thing I was wondering is on a 24 hr. carb-up do those of you who follow it strictly use high-glycemic or low-glycemic carbs? It was inferred that if you only carb for 24 hrs. then high-glycemic might give better glycogen replenishment; however I felt like a damn zombie all day yesterday and could barely function at times due to what I believe was a hyperinsulemic response…plus it was the first day in a long time that I didn’t use any MD6, so I’m sure that was part of it as well. My carb-up consisted of Surge for meals 1 and 2, and the rest was six meals of corn flakes w. 1/2 scoop low-carb Grow and water, one meal of a maltodextrin/dextrose/fructose drink similar to Ultra Fuel, two meals plain white spaghetti, and one meal plain oatmeal. Ate veggies w. all meals except the first two and the last two, and I took 250 mg. alpha lipoic acid w. every meal. I’ve got one more week of this, but I don’t know if I can take the coma-like feeling from carbing. Would switching to lower glycemic items like br. rice/oatmeal for the majority of the carb meals make that much difference? I realize that getting up every two hours couldn’t have helped me too much in this dept. either. Anywho…just wanted to share my experience and didn’t mean to hijack what I’m feeling like is a post only for Norcross, Podge and Marion (just kidding guys!)
hell buddy, post all you want !!.. i wished more people did !!.. i like to hear what different things others are doing that are working or not working for them… that’s the only way to learn.
I “cut and pasted” that whole Tanita thread to print out… i haven’t had a chance to really read/study it, but y’all convinced me to give it another chance… the other thing that’s been tough on diet/training is that this is my second week of working 70 hours, actually working that much makes me more focused on making sure i eat and workout when i’m supposed to… kind of on a tight schedule to where i have everything fitting in where it needs to be. (i’d love to post on NAAFA to those people who say they don’t have any time to work out !!)… like i’ve said before, if you want something bad enough, it’s easy to achieve.
How do you all come out of a cutting cycle. I am currently doing the T-dawg diet eating 1800 cals. I plan on doing this one more week and then working my way back to maintenance. I plan on bumping up cals to 2200 my first week off my diet and then to my maintenance at 2400 my second week after my diet. I’m going to be eating a 40P/30C/30F diet. And how long should I stay at maintenance till I try a bulking cycle with mag-10. I am a fat hardgainer and put on fat pretty easily while bulking so I got to watch it. This is also my my first time cutting cals this low so I’m not sure. Last year when I lost 87 pounds I kept cals at 2200 and sprinted. It seemed to work better but oh well. My stats are 5’7 163 and 12-13%. I asked about this on another post but didn’t get any answers. Any help would be appreciated.
Podge, I recommend you go get that Papa John’s pizza you’ve been craving. Alot of people really do themselves a disservice by never-ever going of the diet for a meal. It’s the best way to hit a dieting platuea. Now i’m not talking about a potato and some butter; little “cheats” probably do more damage then help. You just don’t get the full psychological and physiological benefits. Like Jason told me; you need a weekly cheat meal or day (depending on your past experiences) to experience some very healthy psychological and physiological benefits. Go for the pizza; just not on a day before you sprint.
Ritchie - Post all you want. I agree with Podge. The more people that participate, the better we all are for it. As for your question about high vs. low glycemic carbs. I haven’t been there so take my advice as a best guess. I don’t think it is going to matter over 24 hours. You are still going to feel groggy and stuffed (especially if you are not getting sleep), but you may have a more balanced blood sugar, so you’ll have less up and downs.
Patricia - You're a stud. It drives me nuts that you have a lower % body fat than most of us, but you deserve. A lifetime of training generates rewards that a few years can never match.
Podge - Eat some darn pizza!
JasonL - I think your plan for coming out of your diet is fine. You've been doing T-Dawg, so switching to a 40-30-30 combo or isocaloric should be fine over 2 weeks. I'm not sure when you train, so if you train in the evening, eat your 2 P&C meals in the morning and drink your shake after your workout. If you train earlier in the day. Have a P&C meal for breakfast and the other 2 P&C meals after your workout. If this is a new low (body weight and body fat) for you, I would suggest trying to learn what maintenance is going to be like for another 2-3 weeks. If you provide a little more history on your body weight and composition changes and also about what your future program looks like (1 mag-10 cycle or a bunch coming up), I may be able to give you a better answer.
To all the lurkers - Keep up the good work and start posting to this thread if you are on a cutting cycle or have something good to add.
If you are only going to carb up for 24 hours, go with the high GI carbs. However, you probably could carb up for 48 hours with low GI carbs without laying down the fat.
Actually last July I got down to 155 and 9-10%. This was my lowest ever bodyfat and I was pretty much fat all my life until I was 21(23 now) and lost the weight. After July I went on a bulking phase, put on too much fat too quickly and got disgusted. I took 2 months off of lifting weights and diet and then started back up in Janurary. I pretty much figured out the problem though. I was eating about 900 cals over my maintenance (no androgens) and I think that is way too much for me(didn’t know too much about bulking). I’m probably going to do either a 3 week cycle of mag-10 or 2-2 week cycles of mag-10 with a 2 week break in between. I also plan on doing EDT with the Mag-10. I think I am going to see how I handle maintenance before I bulk also. Also thanks for your help.
Hello everyone. I’ve been lurking on the T-mag forums for a long time now and it’s time I start participating. I especially like this thread as it keeps me going on my cutting cycle. I currently weight 172# at about 15% bodyfat (measured on a Tanita-adult setting). I can see all six abs when I flex(none when relaxed), so I know the Tanita is wrong, but it helps me track my changes.
I started Fat to Fire last week in combination with the T-Dawg diet. My goal is to get the lean/ripped look (6-7% bodyfat)by July 1st without losing too much muscle. I’ve always wanted that look, but it just seemed out of reach for me. When I started reading T-mag over a year ago, I realized that I had all of the info right in front of me to achieve my goal. I thank all of you for your continued inspiration. You’re all doing great! I’ll continue to post my results as I lean out. Once I reach 6%, I’ll go to maintenance calories for the rest of the summer, and then it’s time to bulk!
Timothy - Glad to see you have the right perspective about using the Tanita scale. Please keep us posted on how you tolerate T-Dawg in conjunction with a high volume program like Fat to Fire. I have been working on figuring out the best way to combine diet and training.
My scientific mind tells me that low carbs and high volume work are not well suited, yet people still seem to do ok with these combinations. Let me know how things work out for you. If you have any problems, I have a few thoughts to help.
Jay - What kind of training program are you doing? With a fat fast type diet, your ability to perform in the weight room will be markedly affected. My suggestion is to lift heavy but with low volume and do your cardio to creat the energy defecit. May I also suggest adding creatine to your supplement arsenal. 5g in the morning with green tea or in one of your shakes and 5g in the evening in one of your shakes. Please let me know how I can be of help.
Tim and Jay - Welcome, like Jason said, any ?'s we can help on, don’t hesitate to ask.
I've decided to continue my cutting program, and wait a while to bulk; not neccesarily because I think I won't be lean enough in a few week, but I want to take some time and concentrate on strength. I'm in the process of putting together a program that should help put "wheels" on all 3 powerlifts. I plan to start next week.
Jay I’m also starting the Fat Fast diet today. I’m currently at 230, and about 13 to maybe 15% bodyfat. I can see the outline of my top 4 abs. Before when I was down to 9% my lower abs still didn’t look that great, so my goal? To get down to maybe 6 or 7%. 5 weeks of fat fast should get me there. Taking MD6, T2pro, creatine, and using androsol as soon as it gets here. I’m on week 3 of the first phase of EDT. This should be fun.
The somewhat funny thing is, my domestic girlfriend is upset that she can’t cook anything for me.
I know many individuals will advocate supplementing with creatine as you have suggested; however, I have done extensive research on the subject, and have not seen one scientific publication that recommends more than 3-5 grams a day. Not that any more than this will yield detrimental effects to the users health, but it could be detrimental to your pocketbook.
I think the main issue here is muscle creatine uptake, and that's probably where the higher dosage recommendations come in. If your not taking creatine with an ample portion of carbohydrates, then you'll probably need to take more to get the optimal effect. But when ingesting it along with some carbs, I don't see the need to intake more than 3-5 grams daily.
I would recommend 3 on non workout days, and 5 post-workout on training days.
If you have data I don't know about; let me know man...just wanted to see what you thought.
Jake - welcome to the club! Why did you choose EDT training to incorporate with your dieting on this cutting phase? Just wanted to get your thoughts before i give mine.
I didn’t actually chose EDT to go with this diet. I had been following the Don’t Diet for a few weeks. I was doing EDT with a workout partner who had asked me to help him build some muscle and lose some fat. Since the main purpose of the workout is for hypertrophy I thought it would be a good choice. As far as the Don’t Diet and combining protein and fat, tne protein and carbs, my body was acting very anabolic, and I was putting on muscle mass easily… but not dropping fat as well as I would have hoped. I decided I wanted to drop as much fat as possible. So I chose to try the Fat Fast, and the EDT workout is just what I’m in the middle of, just started week 3, and since it is aimed at hypertrophy and that’s what I’ve always been told and read to go for when cutting, I thought it wouldn’t clash too badly.
One other question though, will Methoxy 7 give me the same muscle protection Androsol would have? I got a better deal on Methoxy 7, so I ordered it instead.
wow, ok, so I decided to really go at this. I’m running 3 times a week, now, at 15 minutes a session… yes, I am that out of shape, cardio wise. That’s in addition to 3-4 days of weight training, and 2 days of fencing class. The funny thing is that even though I’m hypocaloric, I’ve actually got more energy. Man, I love MD6 and T2
i wished more people did !!.. i like to hear what different things others are doing that are working or not working for them… that’s the only way to learn.