Having read over the posts, I was just wanting to get some feedback regarding my current diet plan. First some background… 6’6" Male, 33 years old, approx 242lbs and something like 22% bf according to the calipers.
Just started a Keto diet based around Fat Fast, I will be getting 1500 cals, primarily from protien + Flax with some solid meals of tuna/oil etc. Training Mon/Wed/Fri with cardio on the alternate days.
Supplements are limited to original T2 at 3 capsules per day (8am/3pm/10pm). Living in Australia, I have no access to ephedrine or pro-hormones, so unfortunatly neither of these are an option.
My aim is to strip of a significant amount of lard in a short amount of time… BTW, I have dropped about 28lbs and a number of pants sizes over the past 12 months, so I am not doing everything wrong.
Really, I was just wanting to get a bit of feedback regarding whether I should expect significant muscle catabolism? I would have though that at 22% bf it shouldn’t be a big problem for a while…
Anyway, feel free to flame or give me advice on how to do it all better. I will try to post weekly progress reports…
Day 4: Down about 8 lbs. Don’t really get much hunger pains, usually at night when I go to sleep. Having trouble falling asleep too. One thing that I noticed which was really weird was that my right arm shrank 1/2 an inch and my left arm went up about 0.2 inches. So now my left arm is bigger than my right. My right arm has always been bigger than my left by about 1/2 an inch or less. I was using metamucil the first few days and because of it’s sugar content (even in the unflavoured one) I switched to wheat bran. 3 tablespoons is equal to 4.4g of fiber and 1.4 grams of protein. Only problem is that this stuff is hard to get down. Anyways good to see things are going well for the rest of you, keep up the good work.
hey jason i replied before re: my HST training routine but for some reason it didn’t go thru (maybe cuz i tried to embed some html to make it easier to read)…here it is again:
Squats (2sets)
Ham(tractor) (2sets)
deads (1 set)
Standing Calf Raise (1set)
Seated Calf Raise (1set)
Incline Bench (2sets)
Incline Flies (2sets)
Dips (1)
Triceps Pushdown (2)
Standing Biceps Curls (2)
Shoulder Press D/B (2)
Lateral Cable Raises (2)
seated Rows (2)
Chins (1)
Lat Pull (2)
Abs + forearm thrown in at end
ive been readin a ton lately on the keto diet…and i think its gettin integrated with my HST (just underway). keep me posted on ur results…
That’s a lot of sets. Keep me posted on how you do with them. In regard to a keto diet. I think that would work ok with the 5s and 5/Negs, and maybe the 10’s but I would keep carbs up for the 15’s. Haycock has said this several times and I would follow his instructions at least for the 15s. My routine is as follows: 15min cardio warm-up, 15 min stretching, 3-4 sets warm-up squats and everything else is just one set (except for an occasional warm-up set when the weights get heavy): Squats, One-Arm DB Snatch, Calf Raises in Leg Press, Hyperextensions, Decline Sit-ups, Hammer Strength Incline, Behind Neck Press, Lat Pulldown/Chins, Seated Rows on Nautilus machine, Dips, DB Curls, Nautilus Crunch Machine. I think I got them all. I’m in my first week of 10s right now. Good luck!
Regarding the catabolism, I’m not sure. I think you could probably avoid a fair amount for a few weeks at 22%. What does your training routine look like? I have some ideas about training on no-carb diets and would be willing to share them with you or you could read the “Can Meltdown work on low/no carb diets?” post to see my reasoning. The post is still around, you’ll just have to scroll to page 2 or 3.
I read you thoughts on MeltDown on No Carbs. Training is the one thing which is giving me problems at the moment as I have absolutley no energy…
Currently training Mon, Wed, Fri with alternating Upper and Lower body workouts. The first few sets of each bodypart are primarily warm up sets.
Lower body: Squats:12/10/8/6/12 Leg Ext:12, Deadlifts:12/10/8/6/12 Leg Curl:12, Calf Raise:25/20/15/10/25 Toe Press:25
Upper Body: Same rep sequence as above…
D-bell Press/D-Bell Flyes, Smith Mach Shoulder Press/Lat Raise, Bent Over Rows/Chin Ups, Tricep Pushdown/Dips, Incline Bicep Curls/Barbell Curl.
Overall it seems that the volume I am doing is to great, I probably need to drop the number of sets, and just go for broke on 2 heavy sets per body part.
Any feedback or advice would be appreciated. I have only been seriously lifting for a bit over 12 months so I am really just a rank beginner.
I’m going to assume that fat loss is your ultimate priority right now and your willing to let a little muscle go. Of course you want to avoid this, but a little is acceptable. Start supplementing with 10g creatine a day for a week or two and then you can drop down to 5g a day. Take 5g a day with your breakfast dissolved in tea. Take an additional 5g a day in your post-workout drink or in a shake later in the day. You could also begin taking in some Medium Chain Triglycerides to assist with energy needs(maybe half flax oil and half MCT’s). As for training, keep doing moderate cardio as you can tolerate it. Stay around 60-70% HRmax. With lifting, I would suggest a radical change from what you are doing. You need to stimulate the muscles enough to maintain strength, but remember that your recovery will be severely limited. Here is a suggestion: Monday-Deadlift, Bench Press, Barbell Curls (all done in a 3x3 mode). You should be able to complete all sets with a given weight that is near max and should try to avoid failure most of the time although hitting failure on the last set should not be a problem…Wednesday - Chins, Push Press, Calf Raises (all done 3x3 again)…Friday - Squats, Dips, Turkish Get-up (see www.testosterone.net/ articles/159short2.html and don’t forget to delete the space in front of “articles”) (use 3x3 again)…By supplementing with creatine and working within that energy system for the most part, you should still be able to lift well. As soon as you move past 3-5 reps, your energy will begin to come from protein and possibly fat and I would suggest avoiding this. Best of luck and please let me know if you add any of my suggestions as I am very curious to how people will respond.
Unfortunately I’ve fallen off the shredding-wagon in recent days. Binged on an immeasurable quantity of fast food, sweets, and processed carbs. I had my BF tested today and my ab skinfold was 8mm, and my pec was 3.75mm, but I feel really flabby. I’m going to follow JBs Don’t Diet plan for a while in order to get my body into a more stable state. I think I’d gone way too long cutting and that I needed a release from it. I’m lean, but not even close to being near contest shape. Maybe my self-image and perceptions are out of whack? After a week or two on a relatively high calorie Don’t Diet (around maintenance) I’m going to attack fat loss with vigour once more. I’m happy with my current mass situation and don’t want to go out and buy another new wardrobe atm, since I pack muscle on very easily! So in around a month I’ll get stuck into a hybrid Fat Fast or Steroid Dieting plan to get really SHREDDED and hit the beaches of Bali in June once exams are done!
Ok fellas, I think I’ve been dropping weight too quick, let me know what you think. Two weeks I’ve been on a diet, and four of those days I’ve been sick, which during that time I’ve upped my calories. I’m between 1800-2100 calories a day, coming from flax, oatmeal, a little chicken, and whey. I work out 4 days a week, heavy. I do the treadmill 20-30 minutes, 3x a week. I’m taking in 220 g of protein a day, about 50-75g carbs. Supplement wise, I’m taking tribex, 3, 2X a day, methoxy 2x, old T2 3x , and 4 MD6 a day. I started at 254, and this morning I weigh 239. 15 pounds in 14 days is excessive. I don’t believe that I had lost much in muscle, if any at all, the tape measure is still the same, my gut has shrank noticeably. Are these supplements really causing this much of a dramatic difference, or am I screwing up somewhere ??
It would depend on your beginning BF%. If starting at >15% BF, and especially if closer to 20%, you will initially lose a lot of water, especially in the first couple of weeks. The higher the starting BF%, the faster and easier the weight will come off initially, and its been stated on T-Mag, the higher your starting BF% in situations like this, you can lose weight safely much faster than when you get down around 10%. My own weight loss went very fast and regularily from 15% down to about 9-10% but after I got <10%, the rate of loss has slowed dramatically, but it’s still coming off just slower. (I got used to seeing faster losses at the >10% phase and had to readjust mentally after going below 10%). To determine if loss is to drastic would depend on measuring any LBM losses by using a caliper to measure BF% and subtract that from weight and compare to starting LBM. You will lose some LBM as glycogen and water. You can also judge if loss is occuring to rapidly by how you feel physically and more importantly, gauging any strength loss which can be gauged in the gym by poundages and reps. If your LBM loss is relitively small and strength has not suffered to much, than initial losses would be due to a lot of glycogen and water and you should start to stabilize soon and losses will gradually slow as you approach 10%. Good luck.
Thanks heb ! you’ve pretty much told me what I was hoping and wanting to believe… just seems like a lot of weight to me. 15 pounds in 14 days. After figuring LBM, I should be at 10% at around 220 pounds, (i’m 6’2") which leaves about another 19 pounds to go, by now that should be 19 pounds of fat. Since it’s only been two weeks, I haven’t been able to tell if there’s any strength loss yet. So far, my energy has been surprisingly normal, if even a little better ! (must be the MD6, huh ? especially with the flax maybe). So this morning, being at 239, by next Friday hopefully I’ll be down to just 236-237.
First time caller, long time listener.
Since the beginning of Jan, I’ve gone from 215 24% body fat to 196 at 18%. Calories are about 2200 a day, 44% protein, 22% carbs, 34% fat. Last week was the first week since I started I hadn’t lost weight so I stepped up the cardio from 2x a week to 4x as well as lifting 4x a week. The question being is there a point where you should up calories to maintainance even though you haven’t reached you goal yet. In one of his articles Barardi mentions dieting 8 to 12 weeks at a time will not result in significant lean mass losses. I was wondering if any of you have time line say 12 weeks where you up calories for a couple weeks and then start cutting again. My initial thought is to keep cutting until I reach my goal body fat of 10%. What do you guys think?
Since you’ve lost 16.3 lbs of fat and only 2.7 lbs of lean mass, I think that you can definately continue the cutting cycle. I think that increasing your work output will benefit you more than significantly reducing calories further. My reasoning is that it helps keep resting metabolic rate up and also allows you to eat higher calories and thus it is easier to meet all the various nutritional needs. Aside from adding a little more cardio, what about switching up your lifting routine? What have you been doing? Also, what about supplementation? Overall though, it sounds like you are on the right track and making good progress.
Thanks for you input. I didn’t want to cut calories much beyond what I’m at now which is why I increased cardio. As far as workout is concerned I do back and biceps on Monday consisting mainly of chin ups(right now I can only do 3 so I do 1x3 and 3x1 30 second negative) Dumbell rows 3x10, and bicep curls 3x10. Tues. Dumbell press 3x10, flies 3x10 and lying tricep ext 3x10. Thurs legs which is currently Ian King’s limping into Nov. part 1 yesterday and part 2 next week. Sat is shoulders, abs and calfs which consists of shrugs 2x10, overhead press 2x10, calf raises 2x10 standing, 2x10 sitting, and currently using an ab wheel for abs. This is more of a sample then an exact workout. I use techniques like 1 and 1/3 reps for chest and rows to change things up occasionally. Supplements are just fish oil capsules and protein powder, I’ve thought about adding a fat burner like md6 but probably as a last resort. I’d like to see how far I can go without it.
Just posting my latest results. Down to about 6.6% BF. I’m feeling pretty small and weak right now, and I attribute it mostly to the continued lack of carbs. I trained chest and biceps this morning, and my strength was noticeably down (mostly on chest-my incline press was down 10 lbs.). I’m hoping that once I start to carb up (I’ll be going to a Don’t Diet-type framework soon), I’ll get that full look back and the poundages will go back up. I’m hoping that the fat loss from here on in will be all the “good stuff.” In other words, I can’t lose anymore in my legs (2.5mm quad skinfold), and my arms are pretty cut already. As such, I’m figuring that the next 2-3 lbs. will be the remaining love handles and some lower abs. If I’m lucky, I’ll even be able to get rid of the stubborn stuff right under my right pec (don’t ask me why it’s there and not on the left!). I also realize that these last few lbs. will be the most difficult, which is why this support group is really going to help me. Luckily, I’m now officially on spring break, so I won’t have much stress to deal with other than a few shifts at work to get some cash in my pocket (while other people my age are just blowing money!). Hope everyone is doing well, because I’m still at it!
How’s your strength holding up throughout all this? Are lifting poundages going up, down, or maintaining? Your workout look sufficient. It has a high ratio of upper to lower body exercises. Depending on the type of cardio, you are doing, I would suggest adding some more legs into your training routine. If you are doing high intensity stuff (lots of sprints and intense cycling intervals) don’t worry about adding more leg training, but if your cardio is more moderate, I would add a bit more. Good luck and keep working hard!
Well, W,R, and F were days that I kind of fell off the wagon. Not too far, but I missed a lifting workout and some cardio and had a few too many “glycogen loading” meals. Anyway, I’m not going to worry about it too much. It’s Sat morning now and I’m about to print of the final copy of my thesis and after that I’m going to go through some weights around to celebrate. It’s time to get back to business. Rome was not built in a day and neither will I be. I gave myself 8 weeks to get this thing done and I’ve got 5 left. Keep working hard - I’ll report measurements tomorrow.
hey jay how you holdin up there? against my better judgment (and bryan haycock’s) i’m doin the keto contemporaneously w. the HST program. dear good God does it take a lot out of you… i bought a bunch of those ketostix and i can’t seem to get into “LARGE” keto area…kinda chillin btwn small and moderate (but i know they aint perfect an all)…
i honestly cannot wait till this cycle (im shootin for 30 days, 2 weeks in ketosis, 1 day carbup, 2 more weeks in ketosis 1 day carbup then ease back to “regular” diet {I MISS FRUCTOSE!!!}) freakin ends. carbs are so damn good. PIZZA IS SO DAMN GOOD!!!..im trying to avoid the scale but I tend to hop on the one at my gym on my way out of the locker room and it looks like i’ve already dropped a few more pounds (dare i say i’m at like 182 now)…
for the record, i’m doing this keto diet all natural. supplementing with a thermogenic, multi-v, fibrosol and some flax oil (only occasionally cuz it tastes like absolute shiznittt). the rest of my diet is like eggs, bacon, turkey, chicken, salmon, tuna, pepperoni, mozzerella etc (you get the picture). the only issue is im havin difficulty gettin up to 180sh g protein, 150sh g fat…im afraid im very hypocaloric (500+ deficit) but i do eat when im hungry, so i guess whatevaaa…
I’m down another 1.5lbs this week and sitting at about 11.5%. I’ve decided to continue this week’s training with higher carbs (about 200g/day). After that, I think I’m going to switch to a keto diet to finish out my 5s microcyle and 5/negs microcycle. It would likely be along the lines of T-Dawg with protein at lg/lb BW and carbs (100 on lifting days/50-70g non-lifting) and the rest coming from fat. I’ll be doing this for 4 weeks so my question is regarding the carb up days? Over 4 weeks with low carbs, do I need to carb up? I’m thinking no, but I would like to hear some other thoughts on this.
Jason, my personal experience has led me to believe you’re much better served with regular carb-ups especially at lower BF levels (<12%). The lower you go, the more regular you should carb-up (eg. <8% every 3-4 days). It also depends on how restrictive your diet is. If you’re quite low in terms of calories then carb-ups become more important. I think more moderate carb diets can get away with longer periods without a refeed. Just make sure carb-ups are planned and purposeful.