Maximum Definition Diet recap
Breakfast was 3 pastured eggs and 5 whites alongside 11oz of turkey breast and some beef liver.
Dinner was Texas Roadhouse: 2 bowls of hardboiled eggs and a 25oz bone in ribeye, cooked rare, no seasoning. Doesn’t get more steak and eggs than that.
Damn man. There was a point in your transformation where you had definitely lost some mass in the process of getting shredded, this is by far the beefiest I’ve seen you looking since you started this whole process. Those triceps just HANGING off the back haha. Looking good man, nice work
Sorry about your pooch, always hurts
@atlas13 Really appreciate that dude. What’s funny is: I was never IN a process of getting shredded. When I switched up my nutrition in 2023, the last thing on my mind was getting shredded: I just wanted to get WELL. I was eating my face off during that time, but getting away from all that processed junk and plants and switching to purely whole animal foods just had me drop a TON of inflammation, and with that was some size as well. A similar thing happened to Matt Wenning. I stayed the course, my body adapted, and now it seems to be thriving again off a much cleaner fuel source. But it was a wild journey to watch what my body did with that change.
Got in some EMOM sandbag yesterday
200+lb bag, 50" bar, doubles for 8 rounds, which is a PR, then 2 singles, finished with a double. Did a better job getting the bag higher on my chest during the lap, which made it easier to get over the bar. My fingers need to get build back up to handling sandbags: they’re a little sore after this.
Also got in a 4+ mile walk outside in the sun with over 100 degree heat index.
For the diet recap of yesterday
Breakfast was 2 omelets with 3 pastured eggs, some grassfed wagyu tallow, leftover meatloaf, a slice of Jarlsburg reduced fat swiss each, topped with leftover au jus, alongside 4 slices of pancetta.
Dinner was a whole rack of ribs, no sauce, from my favorite local BBQ place, alongside their brisket.
Maximum Definition Diet recap (with carb meal)
Breakfast was the same as yesterday, but 1 fewer piece of pancetta.
For dinner, we did our own gyro night. We brought back the recipe to make our own tzatziki sauce, and picked up some pitas from Aldi (a white flour one and a flax and oat version: I did one of each). Picked up some beef and lamb gyro meat from Costco and I made a knockoff using Gary’s quick steak and some gyro seasoning (put the gryo meat on the white pita and the quick steak on the flax one). Hand crumbled feta cheese, and then onions prepared in the style they taught us in Mykonos alongside some sliced tomatoes. And, of course, I had to have my eggs with it. Afterwards, we made smores out on our firepit. I used cinnamon graham crackers and peanut butter cups instead of chocolate bars: it turned out fantastic. Would have liked to put some honey on it, but it was too big of a sticky disaster to do anything other than just inhale it.
Today was a restful day. Just some walking.
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 2, Week 2, Workout 1
MAIN WORK
SSB Squat
5x5x325
ALTERNATE w/
Axle Strict press from rack
5x5x166+1 push press rep per set
6 chins between sets
ASSISTANCE WORK
6 round circuit (90 seconds rest between rounds) of
Standing ab wheel
3x10
Notes:
This was a challenging workout. I’m glad it fell the morning after I had the carby meal. The squats actually felt the best on set 4 of all things. I’m trying not to let my body fishing pole on these, but at this point it’s just a matter of getting the reps in. SSB makes me stronger in general, while other squats make my legs strong. This is why I’ll rotate the implements.
I did sets of 10 for chins during the warm ups, so I managed 100 total reps when the workout was done.
Got in the 6 rounds for assistance, but cut the reps short on the second run through. I’ll attempt to build up to a full 10 per. Controlling what I can for my upcoming competition, I can show up with the strongest shoulders possible and really blow away the press event if I prioritize this.
Weighed in at 82.3kg this morning, post workout, which is dead on the exact weight I need to be for the competition. That bodes well. I’m still going to try to drop a little weight to give myself a buffer, especially with holidays and family visits coming up, as I want to be able to enjoy myself during that time. But it’s good to see the system working here. I got a little lighter than I needed before the cruise so I could come back right about where I needed to be.
Maximum Definition Diet recap
Breakfast was 12oz of grassfed lamb, 3 pastured eggs and 5 whites, alongside some beef liver. No added fats.
No photo of dinner, but we did another piedmontese grassfed 93% lean meatloaf, which I had alongside 3 pastured eggs, that I poured the drippings of the meatloaf on top of.
No joke there mate. That is proper old fashioned hard work for sure.
@simo74 Much appreciated dude. I’m most likely exceeding the intent of “owning the weight” with the struggle, but AM workouts tend to go that way.
AM WORKOUT (0510 wake up via Valkyrie’s alarm)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 2, Week 2, Workout 2
“CHARON’S TRINITY”
5 rounds total
Notes:
This is originally “Devil’s Trinity”, but I replaced the heavybag rounds with the rowing, hence the name change. It was a good change. It’s a little easier for me to dog the heavybag than it is the rower, since the rower has the immediate feedback on screen for my performance level. I was definitely feeling this when it was over, and the swings, rowing and burpees were a solid full body workout. Definitely want to keep this in the rotation.
Left hip is a little pissy from yesterday’s workout. Can’t let that compound over time. Deadlifitng tomorrow.
Tang Soo Do sparring tonight. Tends to be a solid workout.
Maximum Definition Diet recap
Breakfast was the standard. Dinner was a 10oz piedmontese grassfed New York strip, 3 pastured eggs, 5 whites, and 3oz of sardines. I also ended up having the fat strip and about 5 pieces of my kid’s steak as well.
My hunger returns post breakfast a little earlier than it was before. I’ve been cutting the breakfast portion down, and it may show. This could also be me having acclimated to a greater energy intake during the cruise. I’m not suffering: just observing.
I’m thinking of doing the Max Definition for 6-8weeks or so. Is this a long enough timeframe? Do you remember your adaption time? I know for me going no carb is difficult weeks 2-3 and then it gets better but i always have trouble in the gym. I think it may have been not enough fats during theses periods as they were contest prep and i felt like dog shit any as total caloric intake was also low.
@s.gentz I’m super excited you’ll be giving it a go! 6-8 weeks will definitely give you time to observe some fat loss/leaning out. “Adaption time” is a tricky subject for me: I’ve eaten low carb for years, and carnivore for 2 years, so going to the Maximum Definition Diet really wasn’t a big transition for me: it just meant cutting out dairy that wasn’t butter or cream (so goodbye cottage cheese and sour cream) and transitioning away from a Velocity Diet style approach of only 1 solid meal a day with protein shakes to 2 meals with only 1 shake in the middle of the night. Not enough fats is certainly an issue I see people run into when they eat this style of diet. Fats are now the fuel source when you transition away from carbs, and though the goal is to get your body to use it’s OWN fat as a fuel source, you gotta kind of “prime the pump” and give it fats to run off of at the start so that it can make that transition. Additionally, supplemental electrolytes become a BIG factor, as you’ll drop a lot of water at the start and will have difficulty holding onto water/electrolytes in the absence of carbs. Salting food goes a long way as well.
AM WORKOUT (0400 wake up via alarm)
Tactical Barbell Operator Cycle 2, Week 2, Workout 3
MAIN WORK
SSB squat
3x5x325
ALTERNATE w/
Axle strict press from rack
3x5x166+1 push press rep per set
6 chins between sets
(5) Texas Deadlift Bar mat pulls
13+4+4x425
ASSISTANCE
3 round circuit of
Notes:
My hips were really sore yesterday, which I attribute to DOMS from the heavy SSB squats. I’m learning that, when things get heavy, I shift weight to my hips, which explains why they tend to be in agony during my heavier training cycles. They’re most likely where I hold most of my strength, but I can overload them in turn, so it’s something I need to watch out for. In addition, my Valkyrie kicked me square in the knee last night during sparring and completely dropped me. It’s the knee with the torn meniscus, and she got me in the most sensitive part of it. I applauded her for being able to drop a grown man with combat sports experience with one light kick: a testament to the effectiveness of what we’ve been studying, but it also became a psychological factor during the training session today. Once I warmed up, I was fine, but I still wanted to baby the knee a little. Previous lessons learned still apply: the slower I squat, the more my hips hurt, so I did my best to move the reps as quick as I could in spite of the heavy weight.
I think I forgot to do the push press on the second set of presses, but I’m pleased with my ability to own the weight.
Did sets of 10 chins during the warm up, getting me 76 chins total for today.
The mat pulls didn’t move as well as they did last week, but last week as an afternoon training session, with this being my first AM session with these weights. Biggest x-factor is that the bar kept snagging on my knee sleeve. I’m wearing the sweats to try to prevent that, but I think next time I’m just going to roll them down like I used to and reduce drag. Still got in some awesome effort.
More sparring on the docket tonight. Last night I went up against a junior student and then the Valkyrie before I was eliminated from the tournament. Tonight tends to be a smaller class, but it may mean more reps once our tournament is done.
@T3hPwnisher
Thanks for the reply. I’m currently only on about 175-190g of carbs so not a huge sacrifice. When i was ultrarunning/marathoning i was no carb fat adapted but that is a completely different type of stress on the body. Longer duration cardio as opposed to high output muscle stimulus. Right now i’ve shifted my lifting style to a med volume maintenance type of training as a long recovery period until i start building again in the fall. I’m gonna start the planning this week and begin the protocol on monday after a nice carb load of course!!! 
That’s so fascinating! I hear more and more about that in that community and it makes total sense to me. Something I dig about the Maximum Definition diet is, with the carb meal every 3-4 meals, I feel like it does a solid job of promoting “metabolic flexibility”. I feel like I can pretty effortlessly shift between the two fuel sources. But in that regard, something you could take from Dan Duchaine and Justin Harris would be to leverage that carb meal WITH your training. Figure out when your hardest training days are and plan your carb meal to fuel that training day, and then use the other training days to be the days where you deplete.
Which I actually meant to mention in my most recent log there: I went a long time WITHOUT a for real carb meal during my travels in Europe, just having some snacks and samples here and there. I got home and my physique was completely washed out. After this Sunday’s meal of gyros and smores, my abs are sharp again. Wild how it works.
What electrolytes are you using? Does it matter?
I use ElitePro minerals before bed, which helps. I also use an electrolyte powder that is a composition of potassium, sodium and magnesium, which tend to be the big 3 to focus on. I used to use a flavored one, but found out I was overconsuming it because I just liked to flavor. Once I switched to unflavored, I was more prudent with my usage.
Way behind on your log and others, but from what I’ve seen that trip looked awesome! Sorry about Yoshi and torn bicep??
I’ve been having thoughts of ‘what would The Pwnisher do’ for workouts lately. I live on a huge hill now and do a lot of carries as far as I can.. once I hit that limit of I can’t do this anymore, I turn around and walk back. I also have had panda twice this week, just getting plain teriyaki chicken, sans teriyaki for lunch.
Today’s session was particularly brutal, where my 100lb ball was hurting my abs/stomach/organs. Once it was too painful, I sat with the ball, took some breaths and reset it and turned around to walk back.
As always the volume here is insane brother. Looking lean and strong as hell!
@dchris Appreciate you swinging by dude, and the condolences. Don’t sweat the bicep: I tore that about 2 years ago. The trip was absolutely life changing. Means a lot that I can serve as an inspiration for your training and eating. The way you’re training those carries is DEFINITELY going to be transformative.
@oldbeancam Always high praise from you brother!
I’m in. Starting over the weekend. I have some prepped meals I don’t want to waste so I’ll be using them once per day and that will be the only carb source. 220g of rice. After the meals are gone I will transition to the diet proper. 
