New log title, who dis?
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Jackolee brah!
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I can’t wait to change my log to ‘Finally Serious’
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Your photographing every meal man… I think you can do it now!
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4/27
Woke 179.2
I feel like I’ve found my stride with nutrition. Been eating around 2500-2700 calories. Weight was 182.6 at the beginning of the week after an Easter binge. Went down to 178 and then rebounded to 179.2 today. Hopefully I can keep a slow steady gain from here on out.
Legs
Hungarian oak leg blast day 2
Gonna bump the weight to 95 rather than 75 today.
Squats
Warm up sets
2 slow sets of 6-8 reps
Work set
AMRAP
2 minutes and 20 seconds
Leg extensions
3x30@80
Leg curls
3x30@100
Goblet squats
3x30@60
Weighted calves
3x30@200
1 toes in, 1 toes out, 1 toes straight
Depending on how smokes I am I might add in shoulders as well and have a true rest day tomorrow.
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New log title, ambitious Mate.
30 lbs of lean muscles is a lot as far as I understand it.
I’ll be watching and learning
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4/28
No lifting today, but a lot of yard work so I’m sure I’ll be burning a ton of calories.
Today’s conditioning lol
60 bags at 40-50 lbs each. The ones on the bottom of the stack are way heavier with water in them.
Get them out of the truck, carry them to their location in the yard and then empty and spread. Oh man I’m whipped!
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Nothing like good old honest hard work.
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4/29
Woke at 182.4
A little heavier than expected, but we went out for dinner and drinks on both Saturday and Sunday evenings, go I guess I should have expected it.
Back and biceps
Superset 1
Wide grip pull downs
Straight arm lat pulls
Superset 2
Cable rows
Incline dumbbell rows
Superset 3
Underhand pull downs
Alternating dumbbell curls
Superset 4
Isolation curls
Cable curls
Finishers
Poundstone curls with ez curl bar
Wide grip lat pulls (amrap)
Made it through the poundstone curls but grip was too smoked to get the lat pulls
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We rented a “brush hog” this weekend. Wore me out! Its self propelled but it still requires a lot of man handling to control. We also raked up about 25 bags of leaves.
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4/30
Woke at 182.0
Everything’s feeling a little beat up lately so I’m going to take a rest day before legs tomorrow.
I’m really hoping that I can do a bit of a recomp at 185 throughout the rest of the year rather than going up to the 190s. I’d prefer to maintain a little bit of leanness lol.
I have regional championships for my trampoline team this weekend. Hopefully the hotel will have a decent gym. Tomorrow is day three on the new legs protocol and squats go up to 2 minutes fourth seconds for amrap, so that should be interesting.
Think that’s it for today.
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Yeah, I’d put off those squat sessions too!
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5/1
Woke 179.6
Pretty surprised to see a number that low on the scale. Didn’t feel too dehydrated but who knows.
Don’t know which I’m dreading more… the almost 3 minutes of squats or renewing my drivers license at the DPS.
Line is around 2 hrs long right now. Too bad they don’t have a gym here. Would be nice to kill two birds with one stone.
Legs
Hungarian oak leg blast day 3
95lbs
Warm up
Squats
Slow 6-8 reps (two sets)
Working set
2:40 AMRAP
Leg extensions
3x30 @ 80
Hamstring curls
3x30@110
Goblet squats
3x30@52.5
Prepped all my meals today so my nutritions on point today.
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Been following this thread for a while now and have a lot of respect for your dedication, detail, and perspective! Would you be generous enough to weigh in on my situation?
I’m starting an 8-week summer cut on Monday, trying to drop from 12-8% BF, and wanted to get your POV on my plan for tapering calories. My maintenance is 2300.
I was planning on going with…
Week 1: 2000
Week 2: 1950
Week 3: 1900
Week 4: 1850
Week 5: 1800
Week 6: 1750
Week 7: 1700
Week 8: 1650
…and adjusting along the way based on results. I was thinking I’d just take these calories from carbs, leaving protein and fat pretty much unadjusted. Thoughts?
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This is the way to go right here. Id start at a 500 calorie defect per day. That should put you on track for a lb per week of loss. So maybe start around 1800-1900 calories.
Then I’d just hang out there as long as your still making progress. I don’t think you should need to drop down too much more than that.
When you stop making progress either cut 100-200 calories from carbs or up your cardio.
What macro split are you shooting for with this cut. That will have a huge impact on the progress that you make.
I’d shoot for something like 50% protein, 30% carbs and 20% fat to start with.
I also find that more meals makes me drop faster than fewer larger meals. My body seems to burn through it easier that way and it’s nice to always only have a few hours before you get to eat again.
Keep me in the loop with your progress man! I’m always happy to help where I can
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5/2
Woke 178.6
Drivers license renewal ended up taking over 3 hrs yesterday so leg day moves to today. Same routine. Let’s do this!
Update. Just finished… I can’t believe how much harder 2:40 was compared to 2:00 and 2:20. Holy hell my legs are fried!
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You are the man! Thanks for the top-quality feedback. I really appreciate it. I’m going to start around 1850, like you noted, instead of 2000, and plan to hang there as long as I’m progressing. So, from your experience, it’s better to start at a more significant deficit (e.g., 500) than start with a smaller one (e.g., 300) and gradually taper?
Agreed, macros are definitely key on an aggressive cut – and this will be my most aggressive one yet! I was planning on doing 40% protein, 35% carbs, and 25% fat. 50% might be tough, lifestyle-wise. I also like having slightly higher carbs for energy/refueling before/after workouts, and I also don’t like dropping fat too low (skin/hair/libido feel best when I’m at least having a few eggs in the AM). Do you think the 40-50 jump in protein would make a big difference? I know you’ve experimented a lot, so I obviously trust your opinions, though we’re all biounique.
Interesting note about meal frequency. I have long been an infrequent eater – someone who eats big meals, driven from the IF paradigm. But then I’ll end up feeling starved by meal time and just go to town. Does eating more regularly help you control your satiety? You keep the smaller meals in the 400-500 calorie range with about 40g protein?
Here’s my two cents. I haven’t done a show but I’ve cut 35 lbs since Halloween and like to think I look alright.
CT wrote an article called The Best Damn Nutrition Plan For Naturals. In that, he recommended to start at bodyweight x 11 for a cut. Eat your weight (at least) in grams of protein and adjust carbs and fat as you see fit. I prefer more carbs so I keep them.
If you’re doing BW x 11 then you should lose 2-3 lbs per week. If you’re way short of that then drop to BW x 10. If that stalls out then increase physical activity.
As long as you’re losing weight then there’s no need to adjust from week to week.
Meals should be viewed as fuel. If you want to build a camp fire that will last all night then you just gradually add to it throughout the night to keep it burning. You don’t put all your wood on it at once and you don’t let it burn out before adding more.
Food is the same. Start the fire and add to it frequently throughout the day.
Don’t be afraid of carbs. Eat carbs first in your meal before and after training. Eat protein before carbs at all other meals. This helps you control your insulin spikes and keep them working in your favor.
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@bkb333. This is spot on. Keep that metabolism burning. I keep protein at 50% when cutting because is is thermogenic in nature. It helps preserve muscle and makes your metabolism work hard.
My approach to cutting is always eat as much as I can while still loosing. No need to suffer for no reason lol
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This is some legit and thorough advice. Thanks, man!
I’m at 175, so BW x 11 for me would be 1925 (10 would be 1750). I’m planning to start at 1850, per @jackolee’s general recommendation, so I’ll be a little over 10.5.
Also planning on getting ~200g protein, and, like you, I prefer more carbs. Out of curiosity, why don’t you have any carbs before that pre-training meal? Insulin spike? I was considering having a small bowl of oats with my eggs each morning, but suppose those carbs would be better used post-workout (I lift around 4-6 p.m.).
Do you shoot for all carbs in one window (e.g., 6 hours, with the lift on the early end of that window)? And what are your thoughts on eating before bed? I’ve read mixed things.
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