Progress is slow but good. Just finished deload.
I also hit a bit of a wall during this week or should I say the corner of some furniture that I moved. So I have a badly bruised middle toe.
I hope that it will not real slow me down.
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For anyone who wants to burn some calories tonight and ramp up their progress
7pm gmt
2pm et
11am pacific time
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Just finished a 7-week run of a 5/3/1 & Bodybuilding mash-up I’ve been calling Frankenbuilding, which itself ends a really long gaining phase that began on 30 October 2022.
Here’s what I looked like this morning:
Among other things, the Frankenbuilding run included 25,000 swings over the first 50 days of 2023, or an average of 500 swings a day. (I’ve got a detailed write-up in my log, if you’re interested.)
At this point, I need a break from pounding ridiculous amounts of food, and I should probably try to shed some of the fluff I accumulated over the gaining phase, so after a quick 7WP, Deload this week, I’m headed into:
- 3 weeks of 5s PRO, 5x5 FSL,
- a 7WP, TM Test week, and maybe
- some variation of 5x5/3/1 leaders and anchor.
Honestly, though, I’m so exhausted from the past 7 weeks I can’t really see past this deload! Guess we’ll just have to see how things play out…
Keep up the good work, everybody!
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Why must set the bar so high?
Pavel would be proud.
Haven’t brought myself to do 500 swings in a session since the 10K challenge.
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Closed out Mardi Gras weekend with this beauty. Didn’t stray too far off the diet so I’m proud of that
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Working out my calories last night before dinner and realized I only had ~400 left to hit my targetted deficit and needed around 90g of protein!
I literally had a tin of skipjack tuna on it’s own, 180cal, 40g protein. That’s fine dining. A double-scoop of protein 2-3hours later and all was good in the world of calorie counting. I find hunger isn’t much of an issue when I know there’s a shake coming up.
Also, now some of my back fat has gone, it would appear I do actually have a lat.
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This is specifically why I don’t read your log. People think I’m crazy, but I think YOU are crazy. Watching this made my back ache.
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Crazy is all I got! Haha. Hope the back feels better dude!
Grabbed from latest post in my log:
BW68kg (belt hole on work pants same - down from 72kg peak around xmas)
-haven’t changed things a heap of late, but items of note: having some liquid carbs during the session (Surge, sportsfuel), hitting 10k steps a day, food about the same, less snacks after dinner in recent weeks. BW dropped slightly, strength is solid (hitting pr’s - mind you the addition of lifting belt defo helped there on SQ/DL’s). So transformation (somewhat) is happening…
Have continued running 531, this week started on 531 Coffinworm for 2x leader cycles then an Anchor.
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Disappointing bloodwork results today despite much more working out and cardio (and a fairly strict diet)
A1c: 7.6 (previous was 6.5)
Fasting glucose 195 (yikes)
Triglycerides 453 (this is actually on the low end for me due to crappy genetics so not to worried about this)
Total cholesterol was 101
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HI all.
Still struggling with life a little at the moment, mainly motivation outside of work. I started swimming yesterday which I am crap at, funny because I surfed a lot, but it’s good to have this as a backup for my cardio.
Anyway, I started back on food logging now, started yesterday and right now i am using Lumen to see if I am any kind of fat burning mode.
I was good until about 2, then I had my meal, which was just rotisserie chicken, a glass of collagen peptides, so essentially a good 50-60 g of protein, after an hour I tested myself again, and the result was not fat burning, but burning all carbs.
The question would be, with about 10-15 net carbs today only, what would be the reason my body moves more to burning carbs after a high protein meal than continuing into a full fat burning mode?
I’m also going to be receiving my continuous glucose monitor this week, I feel like I have some issues turning on fat burning mode with a recent history of such bad processed food and high carb intake.
BK
My understanding is that protein is fairly insulingenic.
First study I found
And protein can become glucose with gluconeogenesis
If the goal is to burn fat: why not eat fat?
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Why not get a Thyroid panel and full diabetic workup then? This would answer some questions.
you only put down 50-60g protein when sitting in front of a rotisserie chicken?
I wouldn’t put too much faith in these calorie burning devices. The scale and mirror are a much better guide than anything else you can get (unless you’re cool with spending the money on periodic DEXA scans).
Eat more protein, less of everything else (carbs and fats). The weight will come off.
^Keep fats at 0.3g/lb BW to support hormone profile.
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While this thread has a load of people on it, thought i’d ask.
Is there any research of data/ reading i can do on how long it takes to build muscle or lose fat?
What i am interested in, is trying to understand a bit around being in a calorie deficit and then how long it takes to actually use your internal stores of energy and trying to understand why i can be in a deficit for 3-4 days with no weight movement and then it comes off in a lump.
Likewise i’d like to understand how long it takes to build muscle after exercises etc.
Just overall interested and wanting to learn a bit more about the science behind it all. Do you gain a little muscle after each workout when you repair yourself? and if so why can’t you gain muscle and lose fat at the same time (as in there must be science behind the processes and therefore timelines etc.)
Cheers People
Some guys sell a “set point theory” but ultimately any number of physical and psychological reactions could be happening as your body fights for homeostasis. This could be hormones (more cortisol often = more water retention), thinking about food more, mood changes etc. There also could be some trade off going on (a little bit of muscle being gained despite the deficit), some food still stuck in your gut etc.
Honestly though, all the above may not even be true in your case. The body is complex and unless it stops going down for 1-2weeks or more then I don’t think a plan needs to change. It’s extremely common that it looks like people have plateaued for a few days and then boom, a couple more pounds gone.
Because they are two opposing signals. If you get into the depths of the science you can do both at the same time, certain conditions need to be met and this could mean very, very slow progress or perhaps even wheel spinning if not a beginner or relying on muscle memory. The higher the deficit the more unlikely it is to occur. A deficit is catabolic, a surplus is anabolic. For the same reasons it’s not a great idea to try and become an elite runner whilst having powerlifting goals, it’s rarely a great idea to try and lose fat and gain muscle at the same time (there are some situations it can work though). Training at a good intensity during a cut is you trying to keep that anabolic signal as high as you can whilst losing that fat - not so much to gain muscle but to keep that boat floating “hey I still need this”, so that weight loss will mostly come from fat stores.
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Folks are updating so here’s mine.
Weighed 181.8 last night directly after dinner, so ive already hit February’s weight loss target.
Work is super busy which gives me less opportunity to snack anyway.
To avoid obsession over strength loss ive been practicing something new (the snatch).
And still hitting the main lifts but without real percentage targets.
Love handles are gone, just have that abdominal fat over the bottom 2 of the 6-pack. TBD if i can actually peel that part off.
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Glad to see you back @anon18050987
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I don’t understand what you mean by only 50-60g in front of a rotisserie chicken, I didn’t eat the whole thing, I ate like a whole breast.
I did have a blood work up recently, no thyroid issues.
I just have to knuckle down like you said, prep my food, hit my protein, make it simple.
I have a tendency to make things hard, even when they are supposed to be easy.
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Ah, my mistake. If a whole rotisserie chicken is in front of me, there will be naught but a pile of bones in my wake.
Good on you for noting it. Don’t overcomplicate it - you can make progress simply by eating less. As for what it is WE do here, maximize protein intake (literally no upward limit), keep fats at 0.3g/lb BW for sufficient hormone profile, add in veggies to every meal to fill you up, and limit carbs as much as possible. Carbs are fine to have, as long as you can keep them/yourself in check.
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Had my doctor’s appointment yesterday, and he agreed with what I suspected - likely a bulging or herniated disc, nothing to do about it but pay attention to my body and stay away from movements that increase pain - not muscle soreness, but actual ‘hey, something’s wrong’ pain. (which, really, is probably good advice in any situation).
Been taking it pretty easy the past week and a half, and the pain has retreated up into my lower back and been fading. Excited to get back to normal.
I started my new strength program this week, which is quite different than anything I’ve done before. Only two days a week lifting, but every day except the lift sessions I’m doing 2-3 ‘trigger’ sessions at a max of 10 mins apiece with some body weight and band exercises that are, according to the program, not intended to be a workout, but should get a slight pump and keep the muscle-building signal higher. I have rep ranges for each phase, which certainly for now is useful for me to ensure I’m listening to my body and allowing the disc to keep healing without feeling like I ‘have’ to hit a certain weight.
Running program is over halfway done, though I might extend it a week or two to account for the wishy-washy weeks I had when I wasn’t feeling great. Today will be a good test for how I’m feeling: speed workout, 1000m x 5 at “race pace”, then a handful of 200m sprints. I hate this workout, but I know it’s probably one that will help me the most with hitting my PFT goals. I’ll be paying close attention as to whether it aggravates my disc and am sternly instructing myself to stop if it feels like it’s triggering anything bad.
Weight has stayed within the same 3 lb range since my cut, experimenting with slightly increasing my calories just a tad (100 cal) today out of curiosity to see if it’s useful to my body.
Reading everyone’s posts here definitely gave me a little oomph to not dump the baby out with the bath water when I felt discouraged. Kudos to you inspiring folks.
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