I need to make sure my muscle cells are full of nutrition and water before i do another body composition test.
My current results show that while i been losing weight ~16 pounds this month about 10 of that seems to be muscle. Some of that should be from creatine stoppage perhaps the LBM loss is water loss in its majority.
Either way i feel a lot better emotionally, and physically with the weight lost. I also got the benefit of fitting into jeans and shirts that were headed for ebay and the trash can.
Stats are stats. I’d like to saturate my muscle cells in order to leverage the most complementary results my caliper and scale can provide me.
I stopped lifting 3 days a week. For two weeks. For the last two weeks i only lifted one day a week moderate intensity and the rest of the week is cardio. 20 min sessions 1-3 times a day and fasted 1-2 hour treadmill walks. Fasted plus bcaa xtend servings in water.
Q1. Will i get the best and most accurate body composition results if i do a full body workout, then a refeed? I think this will get me the best results saturating my muscle cells increasing my LBM and decreasing my Body fat percent. Then I’ll log these stats and move forward with a more accurate check point.
You’ll obtain the best and most accurate body composition reading if you stop trying to fool it into thinking you have a better body composition than you really do. Just train normally, and eat normally.
Pizza and ice cream would be my choice.
And by the way, if you lost 10lbs of muscle in a month you really need to go to a doctor because you’re probably dying.
Hahaha… I think he meant 10lbs of lean mass, seeing as how he mentioned retaining less water after discontinuing creatine use.
I think the important thing is consistency. If you wanna “fool” the test into giving you the lowest possible result, that’s fine… But make sure you do it that way every time. It’s hard to get a really “honest” measurement with calipers or BIA (the most common and convenient ways of measuring BF) but what you CAN do is track change over time.
With the BIA machine at my work, sometimes I’ll get 11% BF in the morning and 18% in the evening. This fluctuates based on how I eat, lift, hydrate, etc. so the only way for it to be meaningful for tracking progress is if you try to simulate the same circumstances every time you take it… In that case, I think going for “as lean as possible” is as good a goal as any, as long as you do it the same each time!
I’m not sure how you’re doing your test, but in my experience, here’s how you “game” a BIA machine into giving you the best results (if that’s what you decide you want to do :D):
Eat a bunch of protein and carbs. Especially carbs.
Have a big workout. Full body would be good. Try to get a nice pump.
Get hella hydrated
Use the toilet
Make sure the food you ate in step 1 is good n’ digested, and not sitting in your stomach
For your refeed… If you’re trying to look as lean as possible for it, this is worth looking at:
I’m not trying to fool my self into believing i have a lower body fat so i can tell people. I wanted to do everything i could for the lowest result so that i had the best readout i could get. Then yes, use that method. I been tracking my self. Weight in the morning after i use the bathroom. And with body fat i needed something i could make routine. My body fat went from 25 to 20 percent. My weight from 230s to 212 but i seem to be at 215 since my last post. I hurt myself. So i thought fat loss was my only way to train. Liss type stuff. My injury feels better with training. Better then with out. having learned that after testing i can try to find a balance between strength maintenance and fat loss.
I’m probably going to find the feel good i got from the body change will be sacrificed when i go back on creatine. I’ll probably put more weight back on. Then regain strength. All at the expense of the leaner look i wanted so i’m just giving myself a runaround.
Mate, creatine isn’t gonna make you fat. You might look softer if it makes you retain water, but you can get rid of that any time in a few hours.
The bulking/cutting cycle can feel like “giving yourself a runaround,” but the idea is to avoid getting fat while you’re bulking, and avoid losing muscle while you’re cutting! (Or take a moderate approach and do both gradually) That’s totally possible, and recommended.
John Meadows is a guy who knows his stuff. What he means by this is that building more muscle is actually the best tool to get rid of fat. So many trainees see their weight on the scale stay the same (or even go up) as their body fat melts away and their muscles swell. Trust your program and don’t worry about 3 pounds. I can gain/lose 3 pounds while I’m shoe shopping with my girlfriend.
What’s this injury though? Is it preventing you from doing any weight training?