Love that movie.
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Re: dieting and weight loss.
What you’ll find is that most people are either “on a diet” and losing weight. They choose something that isn’t sustainable, and white knuckle it. They reach their goal weight (ideally) and then go back to their old ways and gain it back. This is different than pre-planned cutting and bulking, which of course some can do but often they’re already dialed in and this is all purposeful.
For the majority of people that just want to be fit and lean, the problem is that they never learn how to sustain this. They’ve never been in maintenance mode and are either under-eating and losing weight, or over-eating and gaining weight. I’ve been pretty good at avoiding this, and have held a relatively narrow weight range for quite some time. That said, if I were ever more serious about really getting stronger, or really serious about ever getting leaner, I’d need a different approach.
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Yeah, Im past 40 now with different goals than when I was 20-30, and for the past probably 8-10 years I’ve been in a 20lb window as far as my weight goes, but I have been 40 pounds heavier in the past and definitely ate differently back then
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What you’ll find is that most people are either “on a diet” and losing weight. They choose something that isn’t sustainable, and white knuckle it. They reach their goal weight (ideally) and then go back to their old ways and gain it back. This is different than pre-planned cutting and bulking, which of course some can do but often they’re already dialed in and this is all purposeful.
I’ve recently had my eyes opened regarding the “so what?” of this.
The biggest issue with a white knuckle crash diet is that WEIGHT is lost: and this includes lean tissue. And, typically, it’s more lean tissue than would be lost with a more gradual approach, because when we push the body HARD with the signal “lose weight or else!” it just starts jettisoning EVERYTHING it can to comply.
But BECAUSE the body likes homeostasis, it REALLY wants to get back to it’s previous weight. And once the diet is “over”, it’s in a rush to put all that weight back on. And we know that we can get fatter FASTER than we can build muscle, so that’s primarily what the “new” weight is made up of. So we lost a disproportionate amount of lean tissue during the losing phase and gained a disproportionate amount of fat during the gaining phase, meaning we end up with a worse composition than when we started.
But when we do the yo-yo CYCLE, it gets even worse. Because now, since we have more fat and less lean tissue, we require fewer calories than we did before, which means eating at a deficit is going to be even fewer calories than it we did this. If, before, we needed 1800 calories to lose weight, now it’s going to be like 1500.
And aside from the fact that eating so few calories tends to mean being undernourished (creating it’s own host of problems), it’s also just plain miserable, which tends to make us jump off the diet even harder when it’s over, and we just keep making our body worse and worse and crashing our metabolism harder and harder until we’re “getting fat” off 800 calories a day. This is the stuff we’re seeing with the former Biggest Loser contestants.
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Over here, we’ve been playing around with IF.
I can totally see OMAD working. It’s high speed low drag, and you get to go to bed feeling full.
However, stressful days drive me to eat carbs.
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So I already talked with @TrainForPain about this, but for the sake of transparency…very recently I got onto taking some testosterone. Nothing crazy…it’s a pretty conservative dose. 300mgs/week split into two 150 doses of test c. We’ll see what happens out of it…
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I think a slight update is due. I’ve been tweaking and fixing my diet, and the bulk is going steadily. I weighed in at about 96kg last time I checked, but I’m also taking creatine, so I don’t know how much of that is water weight.
I’m hovering around 90kg for working sets on bench.
OHP has been particularly tough because of my long arms, but I came in at about 55kg for 3x8, so I’m pretty happy about that. Squats are up too, to around 90kg for working sets. I think I may have overshot a little with the weighted pull ups, but I’m working with 20kg with half decent form. As for biceps, I’m getting around 45kg for sets.
I think there are a lot of things I could do better, but for now I think this is great progress. I haven’t gained all that much fat, and I’m slowly filling out my frame.
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Weighed in at 171.8 lbs today. This is not much different than I usually weigh, but I do feel leaner, stronger, and “better”. Switched up my training to being KB-focused and away from MetCons and CF, and have seen across-the-board progress. Also added LISS runs back in the last couple of weeks. Been running Dan John or Pavel programs since August.
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Any thoughts about this? I know the sample size is small, but I’ve always admired the physique CF can build. I know a guy close to my size (a bit shorter) who got into it and he looks pretty awesome.
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Well, I’ve been at for about 6 months now in terms of KB-focused training. I feel better, and look leaner training this way. I have always gravitated toward simplistic training, and never could get excited about “training muscles” so traditional body part splits never did anything for me.
I really like Pavel’s approach, which is more Eastern than most of the training regimens we’re used to. Rather than “working out”, you “practice” movements. It’s very Zen-like in philosophy and practice.
That said, if your goal is mass/hypertrophy or bigger numbers on the big barbell movements, this won’t get you there as well as other methods. I’d say it gives you more of a leaner fighter-type physique than a bodybuilder. In fact, I used to box, and these KB training sessions feel more aligned with boxing practice than lifting weights.
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Well I like both of these statements. I’m switching to a kettlebell challenge from 5/3/1 in about 2 weeks. Maybe once that is finished I can settle into a longterm kettlebell practice.
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Honestly, I see crossfit as a selection system rather than a producer. Similar to the Bulgarian system, it’s not that it produces superior athletes/physiques: it discovers them. Those that are able to survive through the process are those that have the genetic potential to excel in the activity, and those that cannot get weeded out through injury, or, in the case of Crossfit, simply never made it beyond the beginner threshold of the scaled event.
Now, that said, training FOR Crossfit is a whole different animal. Reading through Mat Fraser’s “HWPO” book, there’s a lot of careful consideration given in how to excel at the sport, and I feel like it’s a pretty solid approach to be a well rounded athlete.
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I hadn’t thought of the first part of this statement, but definitely can’t get the second part out of my head. I see the movements they love like thrusters and muscle ups and I immediately re-experience the hip pain I had in 2017 before my surgery along with the shoulder pain I felt in 2019 after I subluxed my biceps tendon.
I saw my buddy at basketball a few weeks back and he let me know they have a free class on Saturday mornings. I’ve talked to him about CF workouts and how to plan back when I ran my little experiment with CrossFit Invictus last year, so he knows I’m interested. The thought of those rock bottom front squats or pistol squats hurt my hips and I’m currently sitting in a chair.
Check In - I’ve slowed down on my fat loss progress (its completely my fault). I’ve had 1 late night with some drinks then had a day at Twickenham drinking and eating all day, then had my birthday where i did keep to maintenance but had a late night and some wine.
I’ve got back on track the next day each time but I’ve also got a few more events coming up where i will probably end up drinking a lot. I feel like just those two events have really rocked my progress and its very frustrating but 100% my fault.
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I haven’t read the book, but I think this is a distinction. The masses that join CF train mostly by doing AMRAPs or similar many times a week. The problem is, if you get decently fit, strong, and capable (let’s face it, many never do) this type of training is non-sustainable or advisable.
Those that are actually competing at a relatively high level will instead “train” each week - building strength, practicing the more challenging movements (like OLY lifts and gymnastics), and work on conditioning. They don’t go as hard as they can for 15 min and lay in a pool of their own sweat. This, to me, is one of the central problems with the popularization of CF - too many get addicted to training to absolute failure and exhaustion too frequently (essentially every time they work out), and treat every workout as a competition. That said, CF boxes rely on new members constantly joining, and know they will likely only stick with it a few months.
At my gym (I stopped with the CF WODs back in July and pivoted my training), the only people that have gone for years and years are the weakest, least capable people (that sounds mean, and I don’t want to imply anything about their character, simply they are not at all fit or strong). For them, they can repeat AMRAPs and WODs over and over because they are doing low level, highly modified movements at a slow pace.
I’d say for me, I went about a year longer than I should have. The first year, I saw positive changes in my performance, my bodyfat percentage dropped from 18% to 14%, and I had made big improvements on the movements. For the next ~year, I slowly saw my strength regress and my BF creep up. I was too into it, and started going maybe 4x a week rather than using CF a couple times a week to compliment strength training.
So sorry this is such a long post. I’ll stop now.
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@antiquity don’t apologize at all: these are excellent observations! It’s also great for the group to hear, because it’s one of the cruel tricks of the game here. Things work until they don’t, and often, when we keep going back to the well to try to rediscover that magic, we get the REVERSE of what we used to get. And if we just keep stubbornly try to MAKE it work, we REALLY get in a bad way.
Your observations regarding newer trainees is something I wrote about recently in my blog. It’s this idea that beginners don’t progress faster than advanced trainees: they’re simply so BAD at exercise that they can’t accumulate as much fatigue as an advanced trainee can in the same amount of sets. A new trainee pushing their hardest just plain can’t dig as deep as someone who has experience doing that, which means they can bounce back faster and train sooner than a more advanced trainee employing the same protocol. It’s why beginner routines are what they are: just get them in the gym a bunch of times and keep adding weight until they finally get good enough that they need a REAL program.
The whole “feel like I got a workout” thing is another wonderful point to discuss. It took me too long to appreciate building vs testing. Your recent foray into the KB world is an excellent demonstration of that, as Dan John’s “Nudge” approach for physical improvement sure FEELS unsatisfying at the time, but you can’t argue the results.
@Frank_C I’m fairly certain my experiment with high bar squatting for 2 years helped regress my body by 4 years, haha. As much as we hate to believe it, great athletes aren’t made: they’re born. Sports don’t turn people into athletes: athletes find the sport that best suits them. We get real stupid about this and say things like “Swimming gives you a swimmers build” or “long distance running makes you long and lean”, but when I say “Playing basketball makes you really tall”, suddenly I’M the dumb one.
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You gave me a flashback to my first police academy. I had a ‘coach’ tell me I should be at the front of the pack during our 1.5 mile run because I had long legs. I was truly the intellectual superior in the room, but in no position to say so, so I just took it. I obviously vented to my peers later wondering if he knew anything about physics, levers, or even a seesaw. It takes a more work for me to lift and drive these legs than it did for the guy at the front who was 5’5".
That makes sense. Having deadlifted 500 lbs or more multiple times in my life, I realize the strain it puts on the body. It’s hard to explain to someone with a 200 lb max why it takes longer to recover from the 500 lb lift.
Never! I love these discussions.
I think I’m finally getting close to being an experienced lifter, but I still struggle. I can’t help but think of some of Wendler’s earlier stuff and Paul Carter’s stuff where I got the impression I had to work harder - especially with PR sets. If I wasn’t pushing myself to my limits on squats and deads, I was slacking off. Those are the same sets that pushed me away from 5/3/1 years ago. I hated them. I know some view it as a challenge, but I did not enjoy looking at the log book, doing the math, and realizing I had to do x amount of weight for 18 reps on deadlift to be last week’s performance.
I’m back to 5/3/1 and probably on one of my more consistent runs of it (finished 2 weeks of cycle 2 and still going), and I’m enjoying the 5s PRO and FSL stuff. I’m going to give PR sets a go during the Anchor phase, but I’m not chasing a log book number. I’ll focus on max good reps and call it there.
Once again, I’m right there with you. In regards to your upcoming events, you could take a page out of @T3hPwnisher books and eat a massive steak or rack of ribs before the drinks are available. Odds are, you won’t want to drink very much if you do it right. 
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I’ll definitely vouch for any strategy that is “eat a massive steak or rack of ribs first”, but you might also be onto something there with swapping dopamine fixes…
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Well if we’re all checking in, I guess I will too.
Originally planned on a 5/2 powerlifting meet, but one popped up closer on 5/9. Starting a 10 week meet cycle this week. For the past 6 weeks its been try to address weaknesses. I got a hold of some monster chains from work and i’m loving them. My deadlift slows down just below the knee, so I’ve been adding the chains in and it’s already paying off. Squat is moving along nicely and most importantly my hip feels good. Bench feels pretty good. I’ve been focusing almost entirely on close grip and dips.
On the other side of things, i’m down to 198 from 204. Slow and steady since i’m trying to both drop some fat and get stronger. The belly is still there, but receding. Back and shoulders look meatier.
Diet has gotten much cleaner but i’m not deliberately avoiding carbs like I have in the past. I’m just eating real food and have all but cut out processed stuff. Added some good whey protein everyday, lots of steak, eggs, and seafood. Carb intake is almost all vegetables and fruit with the occasional taco shell. Even added a multivitamin.
It definitely helps that my wife is trying to lose weight at the moment too. All the snack she usually enjoys are not in the house.
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The T-ransformation midway point is around the middle of the month. That’s a good time to check-in and assess what’s working and still have plenty of time to make changes, if necessary.
My January BW average was 153.25 lbs. February was 151.63 lbs. 150 lbs is the target for March. This is where things usually get a little challenging for me. Introducing some HIC along with 2x/week weightlifting and 2x/week rucking.
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