I’m dropping weight too fast. Last couple checks were 185 (today) and 187 (couple days ago).
Plan was 188 end of January. Guess im on the right track.
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Yep, and loin chops work too if you don’t want to deal with the whole thing!
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I’m toying with the idea of increasing my overall intake slightly for the same reason. Been averaging 2 lbs a week, which is way faster than I anticipated or needed. Debating whether to continue the next 2 weeks and theoretically hit my goal if I stay on the current projection then figure out maintenance levels, or increase now slightly and slow the loss a bit so I’m feeling less hungry. Hasn’t felt like it’s been affecting my workouts (yet) so I’m on the fence.
Also - random, but TBH, I feel like I’ve never really experienced the filling effects of protein that I’ve seen touted in various articles, podcasts, etc. I don’t notice that I’m any less hungry within a few hours of a high protein meal or protein shake than I do after a meal with lower protein levels. 
Maybe I’m just not going high enough with it.
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Who are you madmen not eating that delicious chicken thigh skin? Thighs are super cheap and super tasty (especially the skin if it’s cooked nicely which is fairly easy). Switching to them on a bulk is easy extra calories, cutting them out is easy too.
Still, for people who don’t eat the skin and eat ~200g of chicken a day. That ~30 calories each day which could be 800-900 calories over 4 weeks. Stacking those kinds of changes together that are easy to stick to with things like popcorn instead of potato chips, mustard instead of mayo, having all your sandwiches open top, fat-free yogurt or cottage cheese etc…It soon adds up!
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Spending two days in Castlemaine (1hr 40) from Melbourne, watching strongman. Beers and burgers are deff doing to ruin my macros
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Work started back up this week. Got all my workouts in, and I went grocery shopping. I picked up a lot of tuna and canned chicken! Trying to watch sodium intake. Things are looking up. Weight gain slowed so I’m thinking about increasing calories a bit if it doesn’t pick back up now that I’m back in my regular routine.
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Good on you getting back to it.
Any particular reason you are watching sodium?
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Don’t have a fridge at work and bought a bunch of canned foods (affordable option). I do have fresh vegetables and fruits that can stay out of the fridge. I’m just trying to limit my canned foods per day. They seem to be really high in sodium. Canned chicken isn’t bad though, it is mainly the vegetables, beans, and condensed soups that are the culprits. Maybe I should try to eliminate those?
Right, I understand, I’m asking if you have a particular reason you are attempting to limit sodium. Are you sensitive to sodium?
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Oh, gotcha. No, I don’t have a particular reason like that; I just looked at the sodium content and thought it was high enough for me to be cognizant of when planning my meals. I averaged around 5000mg a day this past week and thought “Whoah!” More of a personal observation and decision.
For me, I have to aggressively salt all of my food and take in a good amount of sodium as a result of hard training. I’ve blacked our a few times during overhead pressing due to an inadequate amount of electrolytes.
I’m not a medical professional, so this is just a shared experience, but some hard training athletes are going to need more sodium than the average couch potato.
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I have a love/hate thing going on with chicken breasts.
No matter where we get them, it seems like 1 out of 3 is super tough and shitty.
I just go with more protein shakes for a while when this happens.
I also find that cooking them in a pan on the stove with a little oil seems to help. Baked in the oven or grilled just get super old and I am starting to gag just writing this.
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Sounds like the same problem I have had for the past year.
Glad I am not alone in my disgust of chicken. Seems like no matter how I cook it, it tastes like… Chicken. Soups, slow cooking, curry, marinades, I get very diverse with it.
You are uncovering my beginner-ness here as I am not familiar with all of the diet and nutrition aspects that should increase or decrease when adding an exercise regimen. I did read that exercise increases our ability to deal with higher sodium intake but it was a blog like article and didn’t discuss any references or anything like that. I’m not sure where 5000mg per day falls in there. What is your sodium intake, if I may ask. I have followed your log so I am as familiar as I can be with how hard you workout.
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So if I eat a loin chop it would be roughly the same nutrient and health-wise as a top sirloin steak?
I was thinking about this a lot last night, lol. I am really excited to have pork sometimes. I haven’t had it in like a decade. I don’t know why I thought it was like…really bad for you. Has the mentality on pork shifted over the years or was it always agreed upon that it was good for you in the same regard as steak?
Lay off my chicken thighs, bro. They are my favE!!! 
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I genuinely don’t know, haha. I never measure or count anything. I have a naturally bland palette, so if I don’t make an effort to add salt to my food I’ll underconsume and my blood pressure will crash which, combined with a low resting heart rate, is a recipe for blackouts.
I’m really big on asking “why” when we do things. We’re told “limit sodium”, but who SPECIFICALLY is that message for? The RDA for protein is like 50g a day, which is cool if you’re a sedentary American with an office job, but if you’re in the pursuit of BUILDING muscle, you’ll need more. There’s a lot to explore.
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Pork is the other white meat! I buy a half to whole hog each fall and love it
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I find the issue with pork is how it’s raised. Pigs live true to their name: they’ll eat anything. And “you are what you eat” is more “you are what you eat EATS”.
Farmers have fattened pigs up on melted sour ice cream from buffets, literal garbage, animal feces, etc. It’s where the notion of pork being “unclean” from Biblical times comes from. BUT, you can absolutely get pork that was raised on a good diet and taken care of, and it should be plenty nutritious.
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Right on. Now I’m embarrassed. I said I follow your log which means I should have known you don’t count macros and stuff. That being said, might it be easier to identify too little sodium than too much sodium (at least day to day)? So passing out/crashing vs. slowly building up of blood pressure, heart disease risk, etc. However, regarding your point about the intended audience and asking why, I get that.
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