Another vote for 10k challenge! Just watch your hand health!
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A month of living on protein shakes and endless kettlebell swings. I can’t see any way that this goes badly… It’s possible that my family will require thoughts and prayers.
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Just tell the family you’re thinking about getting into swinging, and then when you explain what you mean, the relief that sets in will give you carte blanche to do whatever you want.
It’s kinda like the high school trick where you ask your parents if you can spend Spring Break with your friends in Cabo and then, when turned down, follow it up asking if you can get some cash to go to the movies.
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I’ll go ahead and do that!
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And another!
I did this version (more or less) in 12 days, and our very own Pwn did it in a week!
It’s an absolutely fantastic change of pace from 5/3/1, and it can be quite transformative if you let it.
I think you’ll find yourself ready to dive back into some form of 5/3/1 once it’s over—not only physically and mentally stronger, but well-conditioned to boot!
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Not a lot happening in the body transformation but today I hit a new lifetime PR on the trap bar of 500lbs. And a rep
PR at 180KG (396 lbs) of 15 reps. Very happy
Back starting to transform from the heavy reps
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Fantastic, as always! And congrats on the PR!
Great song for it, too!
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While i’ve got so many good and educated people in one place i wanted to ask a muscle building question.
When building muscle and adding a calorie surplus into ones diet. Does it matter too much on the timings of that or if some days you fast until dinner (if you wanted a bigger evening meal.
The reason for asking is when cutting i do well if i have to eat out, i usually fast or just have shakes until an evening meal and can enjoy a 2000 calorie dinner.
But when building muscle does this matter if i do the same (as long as i hit my overall weekly calorie target.
Thinking about my next gaining phase (who doesn’t when they are cutting) and i wanted to make sure that i don’t add too much fluff while also making sure i can still enjoy my bigger meals at the weekend and a few treats here and there.
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Timing wise, I think carbs around workouts or before bed (if you train super early) are the best with protein throughout the day. I like the protein fasting until a bigger evening meal on some days.
I enjoy this practice primarily because it does 2 things: A- I get my protein in for that day while allowing for B- I can eat “more free” at dinner without going over weekly calories. I almost think of this as a “cover my ass” approach because it’s a practice that allows for freedom but doesn’t completely set me up for failure. For example, if on multiple days a week I’m waiting for a big meal, having the protein shakes will allow for me to feel like I had food all day and not break down to eat during the day or go completely overboard at night.
John Heck and Stan Efferding seem to favor spaced out meals over 1 big one so this kind of works toward a middle ground.
So overall, the protein shakes spaced out with a big meal to back fill the rest of your calories is what I see as a really good approach. Plus when it’s time to cut you just adjust the calories of the big meal rather than the whole day.
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As @freshyfresh brought up Stan Efferding, I’ll also bring up his famous quote of “Compliance is the science”, such that, whatever small difference in outcome that may arise between the two methods, if one method will gain 98% compliance because it’s sustainable for your lifestyle and the other only 80% compliance, the former is going to get the superior outcome.
Thomas Delauer recently talked to a study that demonstrated that trainees that ate a bolus of over 100g of protein post training still absorbed all of the protein: it just took a long time to digest. So it proved a viable method if one wanted to just slam protein post training and not eat again for 5-6 hours. And the protein sparing approach to fasting you speak of has demonstrated efficacy on multiple occasions (as have approaches like sardine fasting, egg fasting, and @EyeDentist intermittent fatting approach). Lots of ways to approach this.
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Did you write this on purpose? That’s what I prefer to call it! I also refer to gluten free as glutton free because most of the people I know who go gluten free have a problem with the latter phrase.
Did you write this on purpose?
It’s what he called it. It was a fat fast.
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Agree with the thoughts that whatever 1% it matters will pale in comparison to actually sticking to a diet.
To add more fuel to your metabolic fire, though, the only meal timing that I’m aware has consistently shown any benefit in literature is having 3-5 protein feedings a day… so your plan of a couple shakes on your way to a big dinner is even scientifically “optimized!”
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Things are going great here - I want more cardio, but that’s a cold weather and ice issue, which will presumably get better over time. I do have indoor options, but get out for hilly 2 mile+ walks at least 3x a week, so I’m not stressing it.
What I am stressing is the couple of pounds I’ve put on. As is the case with seemingly every single female on the site, it’s hard not to freak a bit over it. On the other hand, I noticed this morning doing my before-work mirror check that the back of my sweater was resting on the top of my butt rather than draping down, which has been happening occasionally lately. It’s my glutes, and I’m thrilled. My upper legs looked pretty robust, too, and it was altogether pleasing. I also checked back progress during my shower process and while nothing particularly exciting is happening there, my delts were absolutely popping.
I have to keep repeating to myself that I’m keeping the goal the goal, and the goal currently is to build.
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Nice! Sounds like every single indicator is headed the right direction - even the weight gain is in-line with the glute/ leg/ delt gains!
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I’ve had two trips since the competition:
A work trip in Charleston. Lots of walking and some hotel gym workouts. Good food poisoning the night before leaving. But, besides that, ate pretty well and stayed active.
A vacation in Cabo. Again, lots of walking up hills and generally pretty active, but no real workouts. I brought a resistance band, and did the Built from Broken movements every morning and some push ups. Ate well, and kept the beers and margaritas in check.
Now, I’m back at it. Didn’t really “see” any set backs in terms of weight gain or bloat.
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Now than January is done and all the “questionable” food in the house was done away with… I was gonna further tighten the dietary screws in February and then my kids show up with 40 goodie bags of chocolate from school valentines celebrations today…
luckily my weight loss stalled a bit so my willpower is fairly high so saying no is easy for the time being but damn if I don’t love that chocolate haha.
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I feel this. My favorite grocery store is having a 40% off Chocolate bar sale. This particular store has an amazing chocolate selection. I had to have my husband hide my wallet.
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Why did my post about chocolate bring this thread to a standstill 
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Because we all ran out to the store to buy our own boxes of it! I tried to respond to your post earlier, but my fingers were too sticky and I was crying over the chocolate stains on my new shirt. On the plus side, each piece is bite size so basically calorie-free. It doesn’t matter that I ate 77 pieces when each piece is “negligible” in terms of caloric load.
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