Yes, as your weight decreases, so do your metabolic needs - so, the leaner you get the harder it gets to keep the scale moving. But, there are also times that if you just give it a week or two of no/little movement, the next week you’ll get a big drop. I recommend, giving it at least a week of low/no movement without making adjustments. If after two weeks there’s still no movement, something needs to change.
Well, your choices are to decrease caloric intake or increase activity. That doesn’t necessarily mean eat less in terms of volume, but maybe just trade higher fat/higher calorie choices with lower options - leaner cuts of meat, don’t add fats or cook with oils/butter, choose less calorically dense carbs - more veggies, fewer grains/heavy starches, etc.
Remember that a lot of body-type/leanness stuff is genetic - so, it might be tougher for you to get ripped than for someone who’s genetically predisposed to leanness. There’s a point where you have to decide how miserable you’re willing to be in order to look a certain way. Life’s a b!tch… lol.
Kinda crazy, right? We all need to remember that what works for one person, just might not be what works for us. Listen to your body - it’s the best gauge of what you need to do for YOU!
If you ever want to get on the phone and talk about all this stuff more in depth, just let me know! I’d be more than happy to chat. I’m a really good talker but have less than great typing skills. My brain moves faster than my fingers, but my mouth can keep up. lol
I’ll keep this in mind. Patience is not one of my virtues!
This is one I can work on. I have been replacing some beef with chicken and shrimp lately. Definitely helps with the calorie count! I do add butter to my morning eggs as well. Easy thing to leave out.
Could be a factor. I don’t want to use the genetics card as a scapegoat, but I am the only one in my immediate family that wouldn’t classify as at least overweight. Some are what I would consider obese.
I’m not miserable yet! I want to see how lean I can get and hold without sacrificing too much. Two-pack abs and no cellulite lean is stuck in my head.
You are always so generous. I may take you up on that and stop tying up @T3hPwnisher’s log!
Really appreciate the awesome chat and environment here @QuadQueen@unicornsandrainbows and @EmilyQ . Iron sharpens Iron, and I couldn’t ask for a better grouping of folks.
AM WORKOUT (0410 wake up via alarm)
Prowler
Unloaded harness drag down, low handle push back (.1 mile total distance)
Logging this will be a little weird, as I’m going to go off memory. My goal this phase is to get closer to the comp demands, so instead of making this more conditioning focused, I wanted to get in more reps of 1 minute of solid effort (although upon re-reading the rules, we’ll be given 90 seconds…next time). I also wanted to get in more reps with the heavier weight, vs burning out with the lighter stuff. So I got in the warm up (I finally measured the distance on a recent walk, and it was .05 miles for 1 length, and I go there and back, so a total of .1 miles covered), and then let the EMOM timer run. I’d pull with the harness for a full minute, rest for a minute, and repeat. I ended up doing that to travel a distance of .1 miles by going there and back for both the 140 and 90 run, whereas the 50 run was just a 1 minute as far as I could go, rest, return. For the 140 run, it was about 12 minutes of total work. For the 90 run, I think it was about 14 minutes.
Finished off with the throwbag. Minus Monday, I’ve done a good job of getting in 5-6 throws a day at minimum. I’m trying to “Easy Strength” this, and just get in good reps every day and make my minimums go up. I’m definitely relearning how to be explosive and move the bag. I’m not throwing it over anything specific, which may come back to bite me, but I’m at least getting better at throwing in general.
I was actually pretty enthused about this training today, and I think it’s because I knew I wasn’t going to beat myself to hell with this. This tends to be a pretty tonic day, and by only pulling with the harness vs doing a lot of pushing it really seemed to help just bring my hips and legs back to life. My right knee is actually feeling really awesome too, which may be because I went from doing EMOM heavy squats to the DoggCrapp hard set/widowmaker approach this week. It feels good to feel good, and once again the 3 days of lifting with cardio/conditioning between is really suiting me.
It’s also nice that I don’t feel this need to completely destroy myself during these prowler workouts. My headspace has really improved regarding the purpose and function of training. Training is now enhancing my life, vs consuming it.
Valkyrie and I both got our final stripes on our brown belts last night after demonstrating proficiency with the staff. We’ll be testing for our next belts in early August. We also confirmed our boxer puppy from the breeder, and will pick her up the day after that belt test. Exciting times ahead. Still one more Tang Soo Do class tonight. The staff has been a great workout. I intentionally picked the heaviest one available from our catalog, so I get in a pretty gnarly shoulder workout.
Really appreciate the tags, and sorry I’m late to the party. All the smart things have been said, but I’ll drop a couple random notes I remember from my experience @unicornsandrainbows.
I think having a few weeks of the strict carnivore diet was pretty important, because it set me up to be able to “feel” variables when I added things back in (more on that later).
I felt pretty poopy for the first couple days. I don’t think I added enough salt to my meals to make up what I wasn’t taking in anymore. I didn’t go overboard, because I do have to keep an eye on my blood pressure, but getting a little salt helped. I was also a very carb-dependent dieter at first, so I think there’s just some “keto flu” that’s going to happen at the outset.
I was ravenous to begin with, and noticed I actually filled up faster when I ate lower-fat meals: chicken and egg whites vs. ground beef or whole eggs. This didn’t make a ton of sense at first, but @T3hPwnisher pointed out the concept of protein leveraging (basically your body will be hungry until it’s protein needs are satisfied) and I think that was likely at play.
It was eye-opening how different a meal cooked at a restaurant vs. home is. We all “know” this intellectually, but when I’m literally eating the same steak and eggs on the road as I am at home, but feel totally different, it kind of hit.
Once I adapted, maybe a week or so in, I started getting pumps in the gym again. This is both extremely important, because I’m a wannabe bodybuilder that will never go onstage and someone somewhere might one day glance at me and tell my wife I’m jacked, and it’s something I always attributed to being very carb-driven. Being able to feel a similar pump on the proteins and fats was pretty cool.
I think the real magic was in being able to add foods back in and see what happened. One evening I had a steak or something with peppers and onions on it and felt so bad I’m pretty sure my wife thought I’d fallen asleep in the bathroom. These are things I like to eat, but absolutely not worth it when I realized the discomfort they’re bringing. On the other hand, trying out some mushrooms hurt me not at all. There were lots of these little experiments.
I also found a real difference in how different carbs impact me (I took myself, slowly, back up to about 100 - 125g a day). For instance, rice (once a staple for me) immediately puts me into a coma and I wake up with an unstoppable appetite half an hour later. Potatoes don’t do this to me at all and leave me feeling stuffed for the rest of the day. Useful knowledge as I moved into the “how do I keep this off” phase.
This diet, although I really think it was having a couple phases of low-carb dieting under my now not-so-stretched belt, set me up with more flexibility for future phases. I’m currently doing another run of the Velocity Diet, which I had done once before. This time, I haven’t been hungry at all - I actually have to remind myself to get some of the shakes in during the day. I’m ready to wrap it up, but the main thing I want to get back to is eggs for breakfast… I don’t have a desire to eat 14 burritos and a pizza. Moral of the story is I think the real benefit of an intervention like this is setting up the diet after the diet.
@QuadQueen jumped on the phone with me as I was kicking off and kind of talked through reality and being smart and how to approach this. I saved this point for last, because I think it was a bit of a bedrock: having a plan both to go in and how to phase out took a ton of stress off of me and set some practical (and, I assume, safe) boundaries. Incredible support network here that really played out in this microcosm: @T3hPwnisher with the advice, tips and cheerleading and @QuadQueen immediately rushing in to ensure we’re managing this appropriately and within the context of our whole lives.
Holy cow, dude, that was an AMAZING post. Thanks so much for taking the time to include all those details from your experience. That would be an excellent primer for anyone interested in trying out carnivore coming from a hard training background.
That is praise from Caesar, as I have always appreciated your ability to express what you’ve learned from your experimences and your writing style in general.
So many great things in this post. Thank you for taking the time to write that up!
This really stood out to me. Going back to the experiment comment in the discussion earlier. Something as minimal as Carnivore answers the “what does or doesn’t work for ME?” Question quickly. I don’t plan on it being a long-term strategy, or a quick fix, something in the middle that will help me efficiently dial in MY nutrition, for all phases.
Many times I have rebounded weight back up because I go back to old eating habits and never truly established what worked for me. I just ate less, but never mindfully.
I did mini elimination diet about two years ago because my digestion was randomly angry. Turns out I have developed a level of lactose intolerance. Like the rice thing for you, it doesn’t need to be an intolerance, but if I know something is going to cause a food coma, bloating etc. I can easily avoid it. As opposed to, hmm, I feel crappy today. Wonder why?
Sounds awesome! I would just say to give it some time before you add things back in, and expect to not love it for the first few days.
If you can do ~4 weeks pretty strictly, that should put you in the driver’s seat. I was able to do 6 weeks pretty on-point, then another couple with heavier travel (so more oils and stuff over which I had less control) and I got immediate feedback when I ate something that didn’t agree.
On this wonderful discussion of carnivory, I wanted to share 2 carnivore “get to yes” wins from yesterday.
On Wednesday, I don’t pack lunch, because my favorite local BBQ place has a food truck that comes by my work that day and I give them patronage. Since I’m eating less food these days for my upcoming comp, I actually have leftovers after lunch, so I planned on making that my dinner yesterday too.
I headed to where the food truck was supposed to be during lunch…and it wasn’t there. No idea what happened, but they no showed.
Thankfully, I DO still have “emergency food” at work, so I grabbed my can of Trader Joe’s sardines packed in water and swung through Burger King to get a plain hamburger. Tossed the buns, broke up the burger and the sardines and ate the whole mess with my chopsticks (I use those because they force me to eat slower). Lunch was done…but what about dinner?
It was supposed to be “leftovers night” since our schedule is insane this week, and my job was to get home first and prep them for my wife and kiddo so they could just roll in the house and eat before we got to Tang Soo Do. I had a half hour to make it happen. We still had leftover farmer’s casserole for the wife and kiddo Meanwhile, inside my freezer was a package of piedmontese stew meat and piedmontese grassfed steak tips. They were completely frozen, but I learned that you can cook a steak FROM FROZEN in an air fryer in about 20 minutes, so that’s what I did. Tossed them both in there at 425 degrees and let them cook until the wife and kiddo got home. Immediately plated everything, and I had dinner ready for all 3 of us, and NOW I’ve got TONS of leftover steak for whatever else the week throws at me.
Carnivore became a natural extension of the Velocity Diet for me, back when I initially started this whole quest for a “High speed/low drag” life. It’s so simple when all you eat is meat.
@dchris The air fryer is such a cooking hack. I wish I had one when I was in high school: I’d have had zero excuse for my eating habits, haha. And it was heartbreaking not seeing he foodtruck there, but it helps to always be prepared. Plus, I DID save a good amount of money on lunch that day, so I got that going for me, which is nice.
@burien_top_team Hell yeah man! Been using it for years. Mindfulness for sure, and also just satiety as well. As I’ve shown: I can eat FAST, and that’s awesome if I’m trying to do some sort of food challenge, but if I want to NOT achieve mega-obesity, slowing down and enjoying the meal goes a long way.
AM WORKOUT (0410 wake up via alarm)
PHYREXIAN DREADNOUGHT Phase 2, Week 1, Workout 3
1 min log clean and push press away w/180lbs (3 reps total, 2 on the first clean, 1 on the second)
5x1 min log viper press w/160lbs (3-5-4-4-4) w/1:40 between rounds
3x10 standing ab wheel
50 band pull aparts
25 conan curls
50 band pushdowns
Neck harness
BREAKFAST
Longer walk w/dog
Notes:
The trend continues where I show up to train, think to myself “I don’t think I have anything in me today: maybe I should go back to bed”, and then I end up knocking out a really solid workout. I’m not dreading training or not wanting to train, but physically I feel exhausted before the work starts. I do wonder if the 3 nights of Tang Soo Do in a row are contributing to it, as we’re actually getting a decent workout in class these days. All the staff work, in particular, has really been hammering my elbows and upper body. My shoulders feel like they’re going to fall off. I took a little extra time warming up this morning and feeling sorry for myself, but after that things moved well.
Still trying out comp gear on the log to get a better idea of how I’ll set up. I wear the soft belt far on the right and the lever far on the left to keep things out of the way. Felt much stronger on 180 today and was pleased with how it moved. 10lbs off of comp weight, and in less than ideal circumstances. So far, I’m the only one in my weight class, but honestly, I’ll be happy no matter if I compete with myself or against others. It’s really been awesome caring about a competition again, and this has driven me well.
Followed up with vipers. I’m liking my plan of one day on push press and one day on vipers. Gives me a chance to drill the press for one and the clean for the other, and in both cases I’m still getting weight overhead. Went a little shorter on the rest times so I can keep a bit of conditioning, and went a little heavier than Monday.
First time in this cycle my lower back felt strong enough to go heavy on Friday. I’m wondering if cutting the pushing out of the prowler work helped out there. I also didn’t do EMOM work on Monday, so there are a few factors at play. Either way, it was good to get that hard band work in. It’s just a different kind of awful, especially the widowmaker work. Every second under those bands really tests you. I wanted 20 and just couldn’t put it out there, so I did the follow up on the dropset.
Assistance work was on the light side today. Mrs had to leave early for work, so I cut things short to be able to still see her before she left. But I wasn’t heartbroken over that, because I was pretty wiped out. There’s an absence of back work here today, but with me hitting up the axle mat pulls tomorrow and my elbows being a little pissed off, that seemed like the smart call.
On the subject of Tang Soo Do, another good class last night, more staff work alongside open hands forms. Got in a good workout and some more technique refinement.
Once again, bodyweight is stupid. I’m the leanest I’ve been in a LONG time. I took off my shirt before bed last night and was shocked to see the vascularity I had, and my telltale signs of hitting new low bodyfat milestones were all there, but I’m still weighing 82.1kg after sweating a ton. I only care because I have a weight class to make, but this is exactly why I stopped weighing myself in the first place: the scale doesn’t offer anything relevant as far as what’s actually going on.
@TrainForPain Hey thanks man! Always means a lot to have your support. I had the thought the other day while having some time to myself “I want to be a strongman again”, and it was really awesome to have that thought. I thought of myself doing some heavy farmer’s walks, flipping tires, and doing all those things that look incredible and drive me to be better than I am. It seemed awesome to do that again.
I DO hate the weight classes still, primarily because I’m ALWAYS right on the cusp of one. I’m not gonna be the guy that cuts weight to make the class below me, but I’m ALSO not going to compete up a class, as that’s how I broke my knee before (well, that and being stupid). But I’m also running into that with grappling, so such is the life of a weight class athlete.
EDIT: Oh yeah, I meant to mention this: I noticed today that my limp is gone. I’ve had it ever since my ACL reconstruction. Not sure when it went away…but that’s really cool.
So… along the lines of what you went through. The timing is ironic. Yesterday, I had two of my kids and had to run to UPS to drop off a package before they closed. I chose a specific UPS because it had a great steakhouse next to a McDondals (for kids), before I went to BJJ class. As I’m leaving, my kids start crying because I drove past the brand new McDonalds they put near my house. Apparently, they interpreted my incentive for coming with me as they could go to the NEW one. In deviating plan, I wouldn’t make it to the ideal UPS before they close. Oh well, have to keep kids happy because I’m asking them to sit at my class for 2 hours. I get them the same meal they’d have at the old one, then go to a different UPS. There weren’t any good options for food, so I stopped at Panda and resisted urge for 3 entree plate with rice/noodles and just got a medium al a carte entree of teriyaki chicken sans teriyaki. Yep… I didn’t give in… Thanks for tip on Panda btw.
EDIT I feel this. I was 245 before I got sick. 228 after. I can either cut down to 222 or go 222+ and get smashed by 300+ behemoths. Obviously I’m going to cut down… but then I’m the guy who lost 25lbs to compete in NBD tournament.
Hell yeah dude: way to get to yes! And when you say “sans teriyaki”, are you saying the made it fresh for you without the seasoning on it? If so: that’s clutch! I’m gonna do that.
Ah, your place is different from mine. They don’t put any sauce on ours, but they’ll include a packet of sauce. Either way, great you were able to make it work.
