Tonino's Log

Training Logs
81

[quote]Tonino wrote:

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Up to you, but it’ll make things easier for the future?
[/quote]

I’m willing to give it a try. Is it something I should continue into next week, even with the new routine? Looking over my diet, I wouldn’t say I go completely low carb (not sure what constitutes LOW). But the majority of my carbs come pre/post workout, with a minimal amount at breakfast. The rest of the day, I’ve been getting my carbs from veggies.[/quote]

Low carbs is usually about 0.5-1g/lbs in bodyweight (for you it would be about 75-150g/day).

Very low carbs or no carb diets = 50g or less (usually closer to 30g or less). This is the range where ketosis usually happens (fat as the major fuel source for everything). But like I said, some people don’t always react very well to this type of diet and need a decent amount of carbs even to lose fat.

What to do is give the routine a chance first, about 2 weeks (see how that effects your body composition…you won’t see major changes especially on low cals, but you should feel it and get a sense of it, and you could get leaner because of the higher volume). Then try high[er] carbs (probably close to 40%) for 2 weeks or so (or longer if you like it and can’t make up your mind). This would work out to be around 200-250g/day for you I think. It may prolong the diet phase a bit longer, but at least you’ll see how you handle carbs (good or bad).

As you get more experienced, you’ll learn that making only ONE change at a time is always the best way to go. This ensures that you realise WHAT it was that made the difference. Too many people change everything at once (e.g. take every supplement under the sun, drop calories, do more exercise etc) and end up not realising what it was that made the most difference lol.

Obviously, as you learn more about your body (e.g. usual maintenance/cutting/bulking calories, how quickly you lose fat, how much cardio to do etc), you can make changes more suddenly and all at once because it becomes far more straightforward. Each step is like switching a button on because you know the exact outcome. Each time you do it, you get better at it, and it becomes more predictable. Meanwhile, the average person on the “outside” (typically the type who’ll read up about EVERY gismo/gadget/fad diet etc) are blindly taking a stab at every direction and being frustrated at slow/no results lol.

82

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Low carbs is usually about 0.5-1g/lbs in bodyweight (for you it would be about 75-150g/day).

Very low carbs or no carb diets = 50g or less (usually closer to 30g or less). This is the range where ketosis usually happens (fat as the major fuel source for everything). But like I said, some people don’t always react very well to this type of diet and need a decent amount of carbs even to lose fat.[/quote]

Based on my food logs, last week I went low carb on non-training days (~110g/day), but higher on training days (~190g/day). This week, however, these numbers have come down based on your suggestion of focusing on red meat, fish, eggs, nuts. Yesterday (training day) I ate 150g of Carbs. Today (non training day), I’ll be eating close to 60g of Carbs.

Just to make sure I understood, you’re saying not to change diet much for the next 2 weeks, this way I can evaluate the effects of the new split. So I’d keep my calories below maintenance, at same levels as I’ve been doing for last few weeks, and I’d focus on red meats, eggs, fish and nuts (keeping carbs fairly low). Then after 2 weeks, I’d up the carbs per your suggestion.

After this trial-and-error phase, I’ll learn how my body handles carbs, and I’ll be able to set up my bulking diet accordingly.

Did I get everything right?

On a side note, I completely agree with changing only 1 variable at a time. In the past, I’ve changed multiple variables at once, thinking that I was shocking my body quickly for the good, but in reality, I wasn’t able to deduce which variable had what type of effect on my body. Now I understand that this is not a sprint, but a marathon, and these mini trial periods will benefit me greatly in the future.

83

[quote]Tonino wrote:

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Low carbs is usually about 0.5-1g/lbs in bodyweight (for you it would be about 75-150g/day).

Very low carbs or no carb diets = 50g or less (usually closer to 30g or less). This is the range where ketosis usually happens (fat as the major fuel source for everything). But like I said, some people don’t always react very well to this type of diet and need a decent amount of carbs even to lose fat.[/quote]

Based on my food logs, last week I went low carb on non-training days (~110g/day), but higher on training days (~190g/day). This week, however, these numbers have come down based on your suggestion of focusing on red meat, fish, eggs, nuts. Yesterday (training day) I ate 150g of Carbs. Today (non training day), I’ll be eating close to 60g of Carbs.

Just to make sure I understood, you’re saying not to change diet much for the next 2 weeks, this way I can evaluate the effects of the new split. So I’d keep my calories below maintenance, at same levels as I’ve been doing for last few weeks, and I’d focus on red meats, eggs, fish and nuts (keeping carbs fairly low). Then after 2 weeks, I’d up the carbs per your suggestion.

After this trial-and-error phase, I’ll learn how my body handles carbs, and I’ll be able to set up my bulking diet accordingly.

Did I get everything right?

On a side note, I completely agree with changing only 1 variable at a time. In the past, I’ve changed multiple variables at once, thinking that I was shocking my body quickly for the good, but in reality, I wasn’t able to deduce which variable had what type of effect on my body. Now I understand that this is not a sprint, but a marathon, and these mini trial periods will benefit me greatly in the future.[/quote]

Oh sorry, I thought you were already doing very low carbs (like just a tiny bit at breakfast and workouts)…my bad.

In that case, scrap the higher carb/moderate carb idea because you weren’t far off that anyway lol. To be honest, I had thought that you would get leaner a bit quicker, but this may actually come from the very low carbs. So carry on with the suggestions (eggs/meat/raw veg etc) for a couple of weeks or so (this is closer to the very low carbs), then we’ll increase cals little by little until you’re gaining (while also keeping carbs moderate, not necessarily very low). In fact, for now, try to keep carbs as low as possible apart from what you’d get incidentaly from vegetables and some nuts, and a little bit before workouts (e.g. 30g).

Start the routine next week too. I know that this is like 2 variables but the routine is more long term anyway (whereas you’ve already given the moderate carb diet some trial)…

84

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
In fact, for now, try to keep carbs as low as possible apart from what you’d get incidentaly from vegetables and some nuts, and a little bit before workouts (e.g. 30g).
[/quote]

The reason my carbs have been slightly higher on workout days is because I have a slice of Sprouted Multi-Grain bread with my omelette for breakfast (15g Carb), and then my pre/post workout shake, with fat-free milk and bananas (42g Carb before workout, and another 42g Carb after workout). On non workout days, I don’t have the bread nor the shake, therefore my Carbs are very low, and predominantly from veggies and incidentally from nuts.

Should I be cutting down the size of my pre/post workout shake?

85

[quote]Tonino wrote:

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
In fact, for now, try to keep carbs as low as possible apart from what you’d get incidentaly from vegetables and some nuts, and a little bit before workouts (e.g. 30g).
[/quote]

The reason my carbs have been slightly higher on workout days is because I have a slice of Sprouted Multi-Grain bread with my omelette for breakfast (15g Carb), and then my pre/post workout shake, with fat-free milk and bananas (42g Carb before workout, and another 42g Carb after workout). On non workout days, I don’t have the bread nor the shake, therefore my Carbs are very low, and predominantly from veggies and incidentally from nuts.

Should I be cutting down the size of my pre/post workout shake?[/quote]

For workout shakes just cut down the carbs like to one banana which is around 25g carbs (keep protein the same), and only have the pre-workout shake…or just have the post workout shake (doesn’t make a world of difference where you have most carbs around workout IMO - science on the topic is always changing it’s opinion - before/after workout etc).

86

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
For workout shakes just cut down the carbs like to one banana which is around 25g carbs (keep protein the same), and only have the pre-workout shake…or just have the post workout shake (doesn’t make a world of difference where you have most carbs around workout IMO - science on the topic is always changing it’s opinion - before/after workout etc).[/quote]

Ok, I think I got it. Last 2 questions (for now… haha)

  1. Should I still aim for similar calorie totals (e.g. slightly over 2000 for Workout days and slightly under for Rest days?

  2. If answer to above is yes, then can I substitute some addl fat for the carbs being removed (e.g. olive oil, more fatty meats) ?

87

[quote]Tonino wrote:

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
For workout shakes just cut down the carbs like to one banana which is around 25g carbs (keep protein the same), and only have the pre-workout shake…or just have the post workout shake (doesn’t make a world of difference where you have most carbs around workout IMO - science on the topic is always changing it’s opinion - before/after workout etc).[/quote]

Ok, I think I got it. Last 2 questions (for now… haha)

  1. Should I still aim for similar calorie totals (e.g. slightly over 2000 for Workout days and slightly under for Rest days?

  2. If answer to above is yes, then can I substitute some addl fat for the carbs being removed (e.g. olive oil, more fatty meats) ?
    [/quote]

Yeah that’s right for 1+2 :slight_smile:

88

Wednesday, 3/23/11 (Legs/Shoulders)

Back Squat
95/3
115/3
135/3
155/3
175/3
185/3
195/1
175/4

Standing Calf Raises
155/3
205/3
245/3 (PR)
225/14

Seated BB Press
65/3
75/3
85/3
95/3
105/3
115/3
125/3 (PR)
110/5

Side (Power) Raises
20/3
25/3
30/3
25/15 * I really tried focusing on form. Elbow felt better than last time, but depending on how my arms come up, I still feel that slight pain in left elbow when using 30 lbs or more.

Deadlifts
135/3
155/3
185/3
225/3
245/3
270/2 * I was so close to that 3rd rep! This time, my grip held on, I got the bar up close to my knees, but then couldn’t lock out.

Comments:
Looking over my numbers from today, I maintained strength levels on Squats and Deadlifts, and improved on Calf Raises and Shoulder Presses… and that’s all while bringing my diet down to very low carb, so I’m very happy. I expected to be much more lethargic today, and was afraid that my strength levels might dip slightly, but I proved myself wrong.

89

A note on my diet.

I’ve modified slightly and am now down to VERY LOW CARB (50g or less of CARBS). I removed the Sprouted Multi Grain toast in the morning, cut down my peri-workout shake in half, and replaced the FF milk with water.

99% of my carbs now come from veggies only (and 1 banana on workout days). The rest of the carbs come from nuts and… eggs! (each egg has 1g of carbs, but I’m assuming that’s negligible against the 50g target).

I’ll continue with this until its time to up the calories.

90

That’s good going!

Like I said before, you were on a low-medium carb intake which was ok for some fat loss, but probably not as much as you’ll lose on very low carbs (contrary to what I believed when I thought you were already on very low carbs lol).

Many find that their energy levels actually GO UP with very low carbs and they feel more focussed (especially when low carbs before a workout…which seems unusual). Like I said before; some people are the other way around.

After about 2 weeks on very low carbs, it’s often good practice to do brief carb refeeds. It’s nothing extreme, just a few meals a week where you give your glycogen stores a little “top up”. Some carbs can help act like a cheat meal where it speeds up a sluggish metabolism. This is one of the reasons for cheat meals once a week (e.g. on a Saturday or Sunday) - to help speed up metabolism after being low calories/carbs for several weeks.

You may find it quite difficult as your body adjusts over the next 2 weeks to very low carbs, but if you ever get periods where you feel light-headed, or “headachey” (typically after at least 3-4 days very low carb and after a few days of working out), then feel free to have a few carbs (e.g. 20g or so). The few carbs during/after your workouts should prevent this though…

91

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Some carbs can help act like a cheat meal where it speeds up a sluggish metabolism. This is one of the reasons for cheat meals once a week (e.g. on a Saturday or Sunday) - to help speed up metabolism after being low calories/carbs for several weeks.
[/quote]

This actually reminded me of a question I had on cheat meals.

Should I be planning 1-2 cheat meals per week, as you said, for the weekends? And how much “cheating” should I keep myself to (e.g. 1 slice of toast vs a large bagel) ?

92

[quote]Tonino wrote:

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Some carbs can help act like a cheat meal where it speeds up a sluggish metabolism. This is one of the reasons for cheat meals once a week (e.g. on a Saturday or Sunday) - to help speed up metabolism after being low calories/carbs for several weeks.
[/quote]

This actually reminded me of a question I had on cheat meals.

Should I be planning 1-2 cheat meals per week, as you said, for the weekends? And how much “cheating” should I keep myself to (e.g. 1 slice of toast vs a large bagel) ?[/quote]

Well treat the cheat meals as being more of a break rather than planned eating. So in two weeks from now (assuming you’d be dieting for longer than 2 weeks…because you’ll be going to a more low-moderate carb intake when gaining anyway) you’d have a weekend day, like Sat/Sun, where you don’t stick to the plan except maybe the breakfast meal (which at least gives you a good start to the day).

Naturally, most foods have more carbs in them than you’ll have been eating, which is enough to give a little top up/boost.

Eat more, but obviously don’t go wild (e.g. 5 meals of all you can eat buffets with extra ice-cream is probably too much lol). Say 3 or 4 out of 5 meals are just eating as you wish.

93

[quote]its_just_me wrote:

[quote]Tonino wrote:

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Some carbs can help act like a cheat meal where it speeds up a sluggish metabolism. This is one of the reasons for cheat meals once a week (e.g. on a Saturday or Sunday) - to help speed up metabolism after being low calories/carbs for several weeks.
[/quote]

This actually reminded me of a question I had on cheat meals.

Should I be planning 1-2 cheat meals per week, as you said, for the weekends? And how much “cheating” should I keep myself to (e.g. 1 slice of toast vs a large bagel) ?[/quote]

Well treat the cheat meals as being more of a break rather than planned eating. So in two weeks from now (assuming you’d be dieting for longer than 2 weeks…because you’ll be going to a more low-moderate carb intake when gaining anyway) you’d have a weekend day, like Sat/Sun, where you don’t stick to the plan except maybe the breakfast meal (which at least gives you a good start to the day).

Naturally, most foods have more carbs in them than you’ll have been eating, which is enough to give a little top up/boost.

Eat more, but obviously don’t go wild (e.g. 5 meals of all you can eat buffets with extra ice-cream is probably too much lol). Say 3 or 4 out of 5 meals are just eating as you wish.[/quote]

Ok, I wonder if this could have also slowed down my progress. During this recomp phase, I’ve been specifically planning 2 cheat meals during the weekend. On Saturday mornings, along side my omelette, I’ve been having a whole wheat bagel and butter (the bagel alone accounted for 50+ g carbs)… and then on Sundays, along side a meat and veggie dish, I’ve been having a small portion of pasta (try convincing an Italian family not to have pasta on Sundays, let alone every day! haha).

I’m going to be very strict from this point forward, though, this way I can accurately evaluate how my body responds to very low carb diet. I never thought about these particulars before, since I assumed that simply cutting down overall calories would do the trick. But that worked to get me from the 16-18% BF level down to where I am now (12-13%). Now we’ll see if very low carb does the trick in getting me down to 10% or less.

94

Forgot to mention alcohol. I’m going to guess that while on very low carb, no alcohol is permitted, but when on low/moderate carb, a glass or two of red wine can’t hurt, especially over the weekend. Sound accurate?

Again, I’ve been having a couple glasses of red wine over the weekend, but now on very low carb, I was planning on eliminating that as well.

One more note, not to get ahead of myself, but I feel like after only a couple days going very low carb, some of that stubborn fat is already starting to come off!

95

[quote]Tonino wrote:
Forgot to mention alcohol. I’m going to guess that while on very low carb, no alcohol is permitted, but when on low/moderate carb, a glass or two of red wine can’t hurt, especially over the weekend. Sound accurate?

Again, I’ve been having a couple glasses of red wine over the weekend, but now on very low carb, I was planning on eliminating that as well.

One more note, not to get ahead of myself, but I feel like after only a couple days going very low carb, some of that stubborn fat is already starting to come off![/quote]

Yeah good call on the alcohol.

To be honest with you, I only drink on social occasions, my body really doesn’t like it even in small amounts (it’s like the next day, especially in the gym, I can feel my drive’s sapped a little bit). There’s plenty of studies out there showing how it lowers testosterone levels, although I’m not sure how much it takes.

But also, like you said, it’s a great way of screwing up a very low carb diet lol

Good news on how your body comp’s going! It does look like this is the better route for you. Most do lose quite a bit of initial water retention (especially in the first 2 weeks of going very low carb), so don’t be surprised if the scale drops a good 2lbs+ or so aswell.

Sometimes I take it for granted when I diet, because normally, I don’t tend to favour carbs anyway…but for an Italian - that’s a different story lol. It’s quite important that the 1st 2 weeks is strict with the low carbs, then after you can have your cheat meals etc on 1 or 2 days of the weekend if you wanted to stay on the diet a little bit longer.

96

Thursday, 3/24/11 (Cardio session)

15 minutes of HIIT sprinting (outdoors) … 10 seconds on, 50 seconds off

How should I treat cardio starting next week?

97

[quote]Tonino wrote:
Thursday, 3/24/11 (Cardio session)

15 minutes of HIIT sprinting (outdoors) … 10 seconds on, 50 seconds off

How should I treat cardio starting next week?
[/quote]

Since you’ll be doing an extra lifting day (similar calorie demands to HIIT) you’ll only need one day for HIIT for one of your days off.

Strictly speaking, since volume in workouts has gone up slightly, you may not even need that day of HIIT. So you could drop it altogether if you wanted, and then put it back in if no fat loss happened after one week? Up to you…

If you do do it, then bear in mind to treat it like a workout (i.e. have some carbs afterwards)…this ensures that muscle isn’t used for fuel and that blood-sugar levels don’t drastically dip to the point of dizziness (which can happen on very low carb diets).

98

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Strictly speaking, since volume in workouts has gone up slightly, you may not even need that day of HIIT. So you could drop it altogether if you wanted, and then put it back in if no fat loss happened after one week? Up to you…[/quote]

I’ll see how I feel next Saturday. If I still feel energetic after 4 days of lifting, I’ll give HIIT a go on Saturday.

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
If you do do it, then bear in mind to treat it like a workout (i.e. have some carbs afterwards)…this ensures that muscle isn’t used for fuel and that blood-sugar levels don’t drastically dip to the point of dizziness (which can happen on very low carb diets).[/quote]

Ok, I definitely didn’t consider that. However, I felt good after today’s HIIT session, and I’ve been very low carb for a couple days now. I did use the protocol that I’ve been using all along with HIIT, that is, I drink Scivation Xtend before AND after HIIT. Xtend is a BCAA/L-Glutamine supplement. By taking it before, I feel as if it gives me an extra boost of energy. By taking it after, I feel as if it speeds up my recovery. Also, to be honest, in terms of calorie consumption, I’ve been treating HIIT days as Non-Training Days (less than 2,000 total calories).

Does it sound as if I could be sacrificing muscle on HIIT days by doing what I summarized above?

99

I have another question on the very low carb diet. Sorry if I’m redundant, just want to be sure I’m not sabotaging my progress at all.

Today, I’m eating LESS than 50g of carbs, and they’re coming from 1 banana (peri-workout) and veggies throughout the day.

… BUT, my food log shows that I’m near 80g of carbs for the day. After looking at it, I noticed that foods such as Nuts, Fish, Eggs and Protein Powder are accounting for nearly 30g of carbs.

Can I still consider myself compliant, in essence neglecting the carbs that come from these other sources?

100

[quote]Tonino wrote:

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
Strictly speaking, since volume in workouts has gone up slightly, you may not even need that day of HIIT. So you could drop it altogether if you wanted, and then put it back in if no fat loss happened after one week? Up to you…[/quote]

I’ll see how I feel next Saturday. If I still feel energetic after 4 days of lifting, I’ll give HIIT a go on Saturday.

[quote]its_just_me wrote:
If you do do it, then bear in mind to treat it like a workout (i.e. have some carbs afterwards)…this ensures that muscle isn’t used for fuel and that blood-sugar levels don’t drastically dip to the point of dizziness (which can happen on very low carb diets).[/quote]

Ok, I definitely didn’t consider that. However, I felt good after today’s HIIT session, and I’ve been very low carb for a couple days now. I did use the protocol that I’ve been using all along with HIIT, that is, I drink Scivation Xtend before AND after HIIT. Xtend is a BCAA/L-Glutamine supplement. By taking it before, I feel as if it gives me an extra boost of energy. By taking it after, I feel as if it speeds up my recovery. Also, to be honest, in terms of calorie consumption, I’ve been treating HIIT days as Non-Training Days (less than 2,000 total calories).

Does it sound as if I could be sacrificing muscle on HIIT days by doing what I summarized above?
[/quote]

That’s a good protocol, carry that on (especially if your head/energy feels ok). 15 mins may not be long enough for the effect I described (e.g. drastic dip in blood sugar).

According to your stats you haven’t lost ANY muscle at all so far…and your workout logs support that too (which is great!)