Forgot to say, protein doesn’t need to be high on carb refeeds, but don’t neglect it completely like on your first meal (even if it’s just 20-30g of whey in a milk shake).
Thansk for the info, the refeed went quite well i think, kinda fucked a few things up but i guess i’ll learn as i go a long. Today is my 3rd low carb day n feelin pretty good. Guna plan the carb up a bit better week and try and get a good flow on.
2 bags of skittles and oat/honey flapkacks (homemade) were on last weeks menu, oats for breakfast with honey, i had a piece of country fried chicken chicken with 2 servings of mexican rice from my local mexican place, with some tortilla chips as starter (this was a fuck up) but hey, i’ve learnt kind of and hopefullt this friday will be better.
If my weight doesnt shift that much over the next few days should i skip this carb up and postpone till next week? So i have 2 full weeks at low carb or should i just stick to the plan?
[quote]Marzouk wrote:
Thansk for the info, the refeed went quite well i think, kinda fucked a few things up but i guess i’ll learn as i go a long. Today is my 3rd low carb day n feelin pretty good. Guna plan the carb up a bit better week and try and get a good flow on.
2 bags of skittles and oat/honey flapkacks (homemade) were on last weeks menu, oats for breakfast with honey, i had a piece of country fried chicken chicken with 2 servings of mexican rice from my local mexican place, with some tortilla chips as starter (this was a fuck up) but hey, i’ve learnt kind of and hopefullt this friday will be better.
If my weight doesnt shift that much over the next few days should i skip this carb up and postpone till next week? So i have 2 full weeks at low carb or should i just stick to the plan?[/quote]
The plans fine; it’s overall calories that count more - if weight isn’t shifting, either reduce the high calorie days from say 2-3 to 1-2, or reduce overall calories (either from high cals days and/or from low cal days too). Once you get to the saturation point with energy work/working out (or just the upper limit you’re comfortable with), most of your fat loss will come from reducing calories.
Consistency is important, so don’t be obsessed over results every 3 days or so, that’ll just drive you insane and often leads to changing things too soon/giving up 
Don’t change something just because you aren’t losing 3lbs a week or more, 1-2lbs IS good progress (safe) and you’ve got to be realistic (e.g. losing 40lbs+ takes many people MONTHS…actually, it took me just under 6 months to lose 30lbs and I have a fast metabolism).
On the other hand, if nothing is happening, don’t just cruise along, change something (usually drop cals…or add really low calorie days into the plan).
^^ thanks for input mate, i’m guna stick with exactly what i’m doing for 4 weeks or so. hopefully i would of lost around 15-20lbs in this 4 week period. so far i’m on 9lbs , so i think in the next 20 days or so i should be able to shift 6-10 more pounds. I can always seem to get to around 210lbs pretty easily but sub 210 is where i start to struggle.
However this was before i gained some muscle. Going off the last 6 months i have gained around 15lbs since january.
My LBM used to be around 165lbs now its closer to 180 (178) thanks to training back and legs a lot more in my routine. Hopefully i’ll be leaner at 210 than i used to be. All i can do is persevere and see where it goes.
You’re welcome. You don’t have to do it all in one go, most people do it in stages (e.g. diet, then slowly gain for a while, then diet again and get leaner than before…so each time you diet you’d get say 2-3% leaner than you did last time at your leanest).
If you do go for it all in one go (like sub 10%), you’d probably have to accept more muscle loss (and it can be soul destroying not making any progress in the gym for months). Up to you really and which is more a priority…
Ye good points again, i’ll see where im at after 4 weeks, and then adjust from there.
As of this morning i’m down 12lbs in 2 weeks. Pretty happy with that, this kind of diet is really easy for me.
As my carb up is on a friday (first day of the weekend here) it mean i have some space at weekends to ‘live’ a little, while working in the week i don’t really worry about what i’m guna eat so its easy for diet. No cravngs really and the lifestyle isn’t giving me any trouble whatsoever. Just happy i’ve finally found something that i could actually stick with for a few months and hopefully i’ll see the results of my hard work.
Wow 12lbs, you sure you didn’t crap out a baby?
Most of that will be the initial water weight drop, so don’t be disheartened when it slows down (which it will), as long as the scale is going down weekly then that’s progress. You don’t want to do extremes or you’ll just yo yo/crash.
The plan is a good one, not only effective but like you said, easier to stick to since it rewards you often (anyone with experience will tell you it’s the sustainability of a diet that’s more important, not how quickly it gives results). Many also notice that they feel better (like it balances/shifts the hormones favourably…guess that’s why it’s called the anabolic diet!)
When you reach the point in the gym where you struggle to maintain your strength, then you may do well to just hold your weight for some months (maintenance calorie intake) to allow things to “balance out” and get your body more used to holding a leaner weight…before you decide to get leaner again.
Cool, thanks for the advice.
2nd carb up is over with now, back to low carb tomorrow and time to start adding a little cardio 3 or so times a week in. Guna dial in the diet a little more this week and try and cut some nuts out over the week just a little to drop the cals a little. So far so good.
Quick question.
my bro is doing the exact same diet as me, same food etc ( we live together) and he has yet to drop even 1 pound which baffles me. No water? No glycogen? i don’t get it.
I read somewhere that he might have really bad insulin sensitivity. Any ideas?
There’s quite a few things really, how sure are you that he’s followed it 100%? How active is he compared to yourself (e.g. full time vs part time work/no work…does he train)? Was he already strictly dieting beforehand (especially limited carbs)? Has he struggled with weight loss more than you (may need fewer calories than yourself)?
When doing a diet, me and my brother do it at the same time too (train together aswell). He needs a more intensive cardio regime, and a bigger cut in calories. For me, I let diet do most of the work, whereas he loses hardly anything unless doing cardio every week. I can get away with just slow paced cardio once or twice a week, he needs high intensity cardio (HIIT) done at least twice a week to be able to shift anything. We discovered that a while back - while doing slow paced cardio 3x/week an hour at a time, he lost nothing whereas I lose 1lbs (then stagnated shortly after). HIIT made me lose fat really quickly, and him at a decent rate compared to before. HIIT is a ‘godsend’ for those wanting faster fat loss, or those who struggle to shift the fat at all. Sprinting (including uphill sprinting) and the rowing machine were the best tools we found (allowed a more intensive session compared to other stuff).
Ye his diet is the same as mine and he joined the gym with me last week. I’ll tell him he might need fewer calories and get him to up the intensity of his cardio work and see what happens. Thanks for help, i’m sure if he doesn’t lose something pretty fast he’s guna quit!
Yeh, interval training doesn’t need to be for a long duration (typically 10-30mins), as long it’s intensive enough. We do a good bought (really push 110%) for 10 seconds followed by about a minute ‘recovery’ (slow pace). This releases lots of adrenaline (which is one of the things, amongst others like increasing metabolism after the exercise, that contributes to good fat loss).
The initial weight loss is mostly water (anywhere from 5-10lbs depending on the muscle being carried initially…some NFL players can drop 15lbs in one game). 12 pounds in two weeks is a bit much…and if you keep that up, it is very doubtful you will be happy when you hit 200lbs…because much of any muscle will be lost as well.
For a 30lbs loss in body weight, you should already expect it to take about 3-4months and that is if cardio, diet and training are in order. It will take longer than that if you haven’t done this before and want to keep the muscle you have.
Your goal should be cleaning up your diet…and then focusing on strength levels. If your strength is going way down, you are fucking up. Minor decreases are to be expected.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
The initial weight loss is mostly water (anywhere from 5-10lbs depending on the muscle being carried initially…some NFL players can drop 15lbs in one game). 12 pounds in two weeks is a bit much…and if you keep that up, it is very doubtful you will be happy when you hit 200lbs…because much of any muscle will be lost as well.
For a 30lbs loss in body weight, you should already expect it to take about 3-4months and that is if cardio, diet and training are in order. It will take longer than that if you haven’t done this before and want to keep the muscle you have.
Your goal should be cleaning up your diet…and then focusing on strength levels. If your strength is going way down, you are fucking up. Minor decreases are to be expected.[/quote]
Hey X, yeah i’ve done this before kind of on the V-Diet. I always notice a fast drop in the first week or so then it slows down a bit. The first week my strength levels dropped quit a bit but i noticed this week in the gym that they started to come back. Obviously i’m not hitting PR’s but my strength is creeping bk up.
I realised a while bk that to change my body comp i can’t do it in 28 days so my plan this time is at least 12 weeks. 4 weeks as an introduction to see where this kind of die and lifestyle can take me, then i can adjust from there.
So my dad has a mango farm here in Egypt, he used to have cows as well a few years back. Anyway my bro dropped my dad off at the farm this morning.
He came back with a giant cool box with around 80lbs of beef in it! He emptied the chest freezer there and theres still some left maybe 20-30lbs worth. He couldn’t carry it all back so when he picks him up next week he’s guna bring that back as well. I think my diet just got a whole lot easier! And cheaper!
Diet is still holdin up well, this day 18 now and im feeling good. Sitting around 226-227 still, day off from the gym today needed a bit of recovery. Back to tomorow hitting back and dead lifts.
Added low intensity steady state cardio itno my routine this work, 15 mins of incline walking on the treadmill 4 times a week. Adding 5 mins every week until i hit 35 mins a session. hopefully this method will maintain the my fat burning even though my body will be slowing down.
@ X my diet has been pretty solid for the 18 days or so.
Almonds/cashews/peanuts (max 50g a dam of any)
Eggs
Cheese
Lean meat
Chicken (whole and breasts)
Cabbage
Green beans
Tomatoes
Onion
Lettuce
Broccoli
Tuna
Salmon
Mixed veggies (carrots/peas/green beans)
Whey
That’s pretty much it aside from the carb up i have. Thats all i have in my house and all i buy when i go shopping. If it ain’t there you can’t eat it! Seems pretty clean to me at the moment.
As i said i’m guna skip the carb up this week as i feel i don’t need to do it every 7th day every 14th day should do me fine i think, and will keep me in the fat burning zone for longer. I’ll try and grab an old pic and a new pic taken 2moro so i can compare. Hopefully there’ll be some kind of difference!
So today is the start of day 21, weighed in at 226.5 which i’m kinda disappointed with stil stuck around the 12lb weight loss in 3 weeks. However i got the tape out and my waist has dropped, lost 3 inches of my waist in these 3 weeks which is strange seeing as my weight has moved.
Any way today should be my carb up, but like i said im guna skip it and wait until next friday to see if anything else changes.
3 inches in 3 weeks! Man sometimes I have a really hard time beileiving you…
[quote]Maiden3.16 wrote:
3 inches in 3 weeks! Man sometimes I have a really hard time beileiving you…[/quote]
Seeing how Marzouk hasn’t posted update photos, yet, I can understand where you’re coming from.
Fat loss isn’t linear, though, as you know.
Or he just laid the mother of all turds.
So it might be Marzouk’s telling the truth, one way or the other.
Marzouk, are you taking weekly photos to track/check your progress?
Dropping waist size but maintaining weight is a bonus in bodybuilding (a rare thing), you should be glad not disappointed
You must hold quite a bit of water weight compared to many if your measurements are definitely accurate.
Obviously, if things haven’t changed much in some weeks, make a drop in calories or add more intensity/volume to your cardio.