Ringtail's Accountability Log

Training Logs
1

I don’t know what to say to introduce myself. I’ve lurked on these forums since the early 2000’s. I’ve been lifting off and on, but mostly on for 20 odd years now. But I’ve never really gotten a handle on my nutrition, and now I find myself dangerously overweight as I approach middle age. I mainly want to start a log to help keep me accountable and motivated. I really don’t want to do the weight loss support group my primary care doctor keeps pushing, but I know I need more social support.

My main goal right now is to lose 40-50 pounds and get to around 260 from my current 308ish. (My weight’s a little low because I didn’t eat or drink as much as normal yesterday.) I’m still at the point where I’m just logging my meals and trying to find consistency and figure out what my maintenance diet looks like, as opposed to eating like a campground raccoon. Then I can start slowly lowering it. As far as I’m concerned if I’m actually keeping up my food log I’m winning.

I’ve been successfully food logging for a couple weeks or so. I put the weight and calorie data I have into excel and at 2700 kcals I stayed right around 310.5 lbs (five day averages) With my diet sloppier and bumping up to 3700 I gained about two pounds. 2700 kcals seems low for maintenance so I might have to bump that up but for now thats what I’m shooting for: 250g P, 250g C and 75g F with an IIFYM type approach.

Training wise, I train in a pretty good powerlifting and strongman gym. Over the years I’ve dabbled in powerlifting, my last meet was in 2019 (god it feels just like yesterday). I went 1388 at 308, so not super strong. My training goal right now is to look like I lift weights and eventually join the 1500lb club at my gym.

I’ve stuck to low reps and low volume for basically my entire training career. I think I avoided higher reps out of laziness more than anything, because of the conditioning demands of doing higher rep compound exercises. With that in mind, and the fact that I’m coming off a couple months lifting hiatus, I’m switching it up and doing more of a moderate volume hypertrophy program-I feel great and finally feel like I’m doing enough volume to grow. I’ll do this for a few months and then switch back to a strength program, hopefully with some new muscle.

Here’s what my template looks like:

Monday

dumbbell press 4x10 slow eccentric and deep stretc
dumbbell flye 1x10-12
nautilus row machine 4x10
wide grip pulldown 2x15-20
dumbbell lateral raise 2x10-12
one arm cable curl 3x10
one arm supinated pressdown 3x10
forearm work – extensions, curls and captains of crush gripper

Tuesday

hack squat 5x10
leg extension 1x15-20
laying leg curl 3x6
bb upright row 2x12-15
concentration curl 2x15-20
forearms work – higher reps than monday

Thursday

dumbbell press 4x60% of Mondays reps
one arm lat pulldown 4x10
nautilus row 2x12-15
dumbbell lateral raise 2x10
hammer curl 3x8-10
overhead rope extensions 2x15-20
forearm work – meet or beat mondays reps

Friday

low safety bar box squat with slowww eccentric 2x20
leg extensions 4x10
laying leg curl 2x10
cable curl with rope 2x10
bb upright row 2x15-20
forearm work – meet or beat Tuesdays reps

Note: My natural inclination would be to superset the antagonistic exercises but I’ve done some reading that that might not be optimal for hypertrophy. So with that in mind and for the sake of doing something novel, I haven’t been supersetting anything. But if my workouts stretch out too long I may have to start doing it for times’ sake.

I look forward to getting to virtually “meet” you folks and thanks in advance for the support!

-Ringtail

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2

Todays morning weight 307.5.
Yesterday’s nutrition 3120 kcals 217 P 256 C 131 F.

This is the last half of a deload week so if I do any training today it will just be a little fan bike and stretching.

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Morning weight 309.1

2716 kcals 261 P 250 C 78 F

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Morning weight 306.9
2676 kcals 241 P 257 C 75 F

A little worried about today because I tend to fall off the wagon on the weekends anyway, and I have a lot of errands and chores to work on today and don’t have a lot of food prepped or anything.

At least taking the week easy has made me antsy to get back into the gym.

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5

Morning Weight 306.9
2613 kcals 221 P 220 C 82F

The logged macros and cals are probably a little low, but in the ballpark. I had dinner at a chain steakhouse but didn’t go out of control and most importantly tried to log everything. Overall I’m proud of myself.

Also, I tweaked my shoulder a while ago which is part of the reason I took a deload last week. My shoulder feels as good as it has since I tweaked it and I’m hoping I’ll be more or less back to normal in the gym tomorrow.

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6

Morning weight 307.3
4010 kcals 408 P 251 C 150 F

Definitely fell off the wagon last night. I don’t know if it’s because I didn’t eat consistent meals or because I was up a little later watching west coast football, but I ate way more than I’d planned. As you can see by the macros, it was mostly savory shit, and heavy on the protein so not the worst binge in the world, but still.

I took an afternoon drive to the gym yesterday, just did some warmup stuff for the hips and shoulders and walked on the treadmill a bit.

I’m having some issues with my car but I’m still planning on making it to the gym tonight. Worst case scenario I do have a little bit of a home gym setup that I can get something done if I need to. Something is better than nothing since I’m in this for the long haul.

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7

11/13/23

I did manage to train in the actual gym tonight. Everything done with an accentuated eccentric unless otherwise noted.

dumbbell bench 80’s x 10, 10, 8
(I had more in me on that third set and programmed a fourth but cut it short because my shoulder was feeling a little wonky at lockout.)

dumbbell flye (scrapped just to be extra safe on shoulder)

nautilus row 45x2x10 (had a lot more in me but felt weird on shoulder so played it very safe with weight)

lat pulldown with wide mag attachment 110 x 2 x 15

one arm cable curl 50x3x10

one arm supinated pressdown 50x10, 12, 12

dumbbell lateral raise 20’s x 12 (scrapped a second set d/t shoulder again)

dumbbell wrist ext’s 10 x 2 x 15
dumbell wrist curls 20 x 2 x 14

captains of crush “Trainer” 2 x 10 Right hand only because I have a big blood blister on my left ring finger that didn’t play nice with the gripper. I’m very pleased with my progress on these. I’m almost ready to bump it up to the next size gripper.

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8

Morning weight 308.0
3199 kcals 303P 291C 88F

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11/14/23

Hack squat machine 45x4x10
(My quads are a definite weak point. I’m slaughtered with even light weights on quad movements)

Leg extension 30x1x16

Laying leg curl 110 x 3x6

Db lateral raise 15’s x 1 x 18

Concentration curl 15’s x 2 x 17

Db wrist extensions 5 x 2 x 30

Db wrist curls 10x 2 x 26

Captains of crush trainer x 2 x 12

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10

Morning weight 308.0
3096 kcals 333 P 254 C 82F

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Morning weight 308.0
3255 kcals 309 P 192 C 137 F

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12

11/16/2023

dumbbell bench 80’s x 6,6,4,4

dumbbell fly 10’s x 10 (went very light and careful, with a deep stretch)

one arm lat pulldown 70x2x10 right side, empty stack x 2x10 left side (taking these easy because of shoulder, but still much improved from last week)

nautilus row 70 x 18 (again, took these easy but went much better than last week)

hammer curl 30’s x 12,11,11 25’sx9 dropset

tricep pushdown with bar 80x20, 90x20 (I programmed overhead rope extensions, but they felt a little off too so I switched to high rep pushdowns)

dumbbell lateral raise (scrapped bc felt a little funny on shoulder)

DB wrist extensions 10x16,16
DB wrist curl 20x15, 10

captain of crush trainer x 10, 8, 6 on left, 10x10, 8 on right - my right hand has shot way ahead of my left so I’m trying to balance that out a bit with an extra set for the left.

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morning weight 309.7
3575 kcals 307 P 269 C 132 F

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14

11/17/23

Safety bar box squat to low box: 155x2x10 (I recorded the second set and I’m a little meh about my form even though it felt fine. I had solid three second eccentrics on these.)

Leg extension: 60x10, 11, 11, 11

Leg curl: 70x 2 x 11

Cable curl with rope 50x2x20

Db lateral raise 15sx20

Db wrist extensions 5x30, 6x20

Db wrist curl 10 x 2 x 30

Captains of crush trainer x 10, 8, 7 on left, 10, 8 on right.

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15

Morning weight 310.6
3178 kcals 363 P 238 C 73 F

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16

Welcome (well welcome out of the lurking shadows).

Since you’ve posted this:

I’d hope you’re open to conversations in here? Sorry this will be a tough love post.

Couple of observations:

Great that you recognise this, and you want to address it, I’d suggest you go full tilt on fat loss for the time being, meaning things like this:

Are less relevant, honestly the difference in that specific example will be minimal and I think supersetting would be more beneficial for your primary goal.

Within the space of a week you went from lossing a little weight:

To gaining more than your starting weight:

With a couple of days of poor eating. This is why I think you need to go all in on the weight loss, for you right now it’s going to be 95% diet, obviously keep the training up and add cardio in as and when you’ve got time, but at your weight unless you’re carrying a Mr Olympia level muscle development or are a giant you’re probably morbidly obese, and need to address this with a laser like focus and big eating on the weekends won’t cut it.

It looks like you do well on keeping protein high which is great, probably need to start by looking at meal sizes and keeping calories a fair bit lower. You have been on the boards for decades so hopefully you know all the usual advice, you know what’s healthy and you know to avoid alcohol etc, I’d say you probably just need to get comfortable being uncomfortable and really commit to that for a prolonged period, let hunger be your friend.

Sorry if that comes across harsh, but hopefully your open to the conversation! If not let me know and I’ll delete the post.

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17

Definitely doesn’t sound too harsh! Thank you for the feedback–I do need to get back on track meeting my calorie goals and get this weight loss moving.

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18

Sunday Morning Weight 311.3
2787 kcals 244 P 227 C 88F

Monday Morning Weight 310.6
2457 kcals 183 P 173 C 100 F

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11/20/2023

Had an excellent session tonight. Shoulder felt great and hit a bunch of mini rep/set PRs. I took Alex_UK’s advice and let myself superset several of the exercises–still seemed like high quality sets and got me out of the gym a little faster.

dumbbell bench 80’sx4x10
db flye 10x15 (bottom third)
nautilus row 45x3x15
pulldown, wide mag grip 120x2x15
db lateral raise 20’s x 2 x 14
one arm cable curl 50x11,10,10
one arm supinated pressdown 50x3x14
db wrist extensions 10x2x17
db wrist curl 20x16, 10
captains of crush trainer x 3 x 6 - These felt really easy on my right hand but my left hand was gassed.

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20

Good luck with your weight loss goals and good move starting a log!

Last year I did something similar and I think you generally have the right idea. Like learning to log macros, and then lowering the caloric intake once you figure out maintenance. That said, I think you have figured out your maintenance at this point and can probably lower the cals a bit now :slight_smile: (seems like you did that today!)

Have you thought about adding in something like a daily step count goal? When I started trying to lose weight my physical activity was just strength training and getting 10k steps a day minimum and it worked well. The walking didn’t take much motivation to do, and there was basically no recovery needed. It was perfect for me and the 2-300 extra calories a day adds up over the months.

You can even work up to 10k steps a day, maybe start with 6k or something. If you don’t have a smartwatch or Fitbit, the Health app on the iPhone tracks steps or you can download an app that will.

Just an idea of course, and you can always add something like this in later, too. And I agree with @alex_uk that this is 95% diet.

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