Walleye's Radical Diet And Progress Log

Training Logs
1

Background: 35 years old, 6’2", 330 pounds, powerlifting for 4 years. I look like one of those offensive linemen that you see on TV, strong and flabby! I’m still pretty quick on my feet for being this big.

I have a training log titled Walleye’s Training Log. I haven’t kept the log up to date for a few years. I’ve been working out since then 4 days a week.

During the time of powerlifting I got bigger, I went from 280 to 330 increasing in muscle and fat. I’m now mainly concerned with long term health. My goal is 250.

Diet: Dr. Mauro Pasquale’s Radical Diet. A low calorie version of the metabolic diet.

The diet outline:

consume between 1000-1200 Kcals per day
keep carbs under 30g per day, get most of your energy from protein and fat.
(I’ll explain more if questions come up)

Then with each mini-goal reached on the way to 250 (2-3 pounds lost per week), I get 1 carb up day where the Kcals go to 2000 and the carbs go to 200-250grams.

Radical Diet recommends supplements: I’m not taking Dr. Pasquale’s supplements because they are pricey. Instead I looked at what he offers and came up with my own variation, knowing my body type.

Taking 3 TBL Carlson’s Finest Fish Oil Per Day That’s 360 Kcal in Fish oil
25 grams of fiber (psyllium and flax seed meal mixture)
1/2 cup plain yogurt daily for the probiotics
Power Drive Daily–To Blunt Cortisol, When I run out I’ll be taking 3 Grams Tyrosine for cortisol and thyroid health
B-Complex–To combate stress
Vitamin E–To aid in Fish oil absorption
Whey Protein–The lowest Calorie protein and easiest absorbed into the blood. Aim for 40 grams protein a day
BCAA powder–Take 35 grams pre-during-post work out. And 5 Grams Per Day
1 Serving Whey protein Post Work Out
Greens (Superfood)–To the benefits of the fruits and vegetables without the carbs.

Workout: Called Slow Burn by Fred Hahn. Got the book from the library, learned how to do the workout, and put my variation on it.

Slow Burn Nutshell: Workout entire body in 1 workout. 1 set per muscle group to failure, 3-6 rep target range, reps speed, 3 seconds to initiate lift 1 inch, 7 seconds to complete the motion, 3 seconds to reverse the lift, 7 seconds to lower the lift.

Workout designed to keep muscle mass, while doing the radical diet.

Results:

Monday April 28–Weigh in 328, Workout
Thursday May 1st–Weigh in 320.5, Workout
7.5 pounds first 4 days

Monday Results 1825/192/37/56
Tuesday Results, 1115/109/20/50
Wednesday Results, 1250/108/14/84
Thursday Results, 1300/130/20/63

Training: The strength hasn’t decreased, I’m feeling pretty good. Carb day on Sunday.

2

I cant Imagine a 320 puond man opperating on such low calories how are you feeling? If its working and you can stick to it more power to you! But I mean you realize you are going to loose A LOT of Muscle mass on such low calories right? A better number whould be like 2500-2750 but hey only my oppinion! Good luck man stay strong

3

[quote]Dave.F wrote:
I cant Imagine a 320 puond man opperating on such low calories how are you feeling? If its working and you can stick to it more power to you! But I mean you realize you are going to loose A LOT of Muscle mass on such low calories right? A better number whould be like 2500-2750 but hey only my oppinion! Good luck man stay strong[/quote]

I’m feeling fine. I think my body burns fat fairly well. I think a lot of it has to do with the mega dosing of fish oil.

The other important factor is that I sit on my ass all day in front of a computer. If I was more active I probably would not be a good candidate for this diet.

4

Ok well that makes sense! Stick with it and keep us posted! If you continue to stay with this low calorie low carb diet your sure to drop all that fat! Good luck man!

5

I’ll keep you posted via my bi-weekly weigh ins and my workouts which are fairly easy compared to what I’ve been doing.

6

Another fact, I’m drinking 32 oz green tea and about 1.5-2 gallons of water per day, and I’m using potassium chloride (salt substitute) to keep my electrolytes functioning properly.

7

Hey!

Just want to wish you all the best for your cutting stage!

I am almost finished with my cutting phase now, so I kind of know how it feels in the beginning!

Just take care of the green tea. I would not drink more than 8 big cups a day. I myself love it, but you have to drink huge amounts of water with it since the caffeine is a little bit diuretic!

Greets Arthur

8

Not much of a food update:

Friday 1120/133/10/56
Saturday 1260/60/50/70

Sunday High Carb Day 2800/130/305/117/30

I messed up on the carbs because I ate 1 cup of Grape Nuts a whopping 96 Grams of carbs. I don’t know how that happened. I also went over my daily KCal amount by 800 Kcals.

It was hard eating this many carbs because I didn’t really even want to eat them. My other real life error was eating popcorn at the cinema while watching Iron Man.

My supplements will come this next week so I’ll be able to up my protein on a daily basis with some whey protein.

I’m ready to cut back the Kcals tomorrow. 1000-1200 Kcal.

I’m changing my workout tomorrow too. I change the exercises about every 3 weeks or whenever I can tell my body is adapting to the workouts.

Deadlifts
Dumbbell Bench
Leg Press
Seated Rows
Calf Raise
Lower Trunk Twist
Horizontal Dumbell Raise (shoulder)
French press tris
Incline dumbbell curls

That’s about it, until Thursday weigh in . . .

9

My wife is starting to join me on the radical diet. She spent the last few weeks low carbing it but she doesn’t keep a food log so it’s hard for me to know exactly what she eats, but she packs her food for work so I know its fairly good.

Here’s the interesting part. . . The carb up day was OK for her but the day after she bloated all up, barely slept the night before, and felt terrible the following day.

I’m wondering if she has celiac disease, (she’s never been tested but we’ve suspected this for some time.) So next week on our carb up day she’ll get her carbs from rice, corn, and potatoes to see how she does.

10

Weighed in on Monday after the carb up day and gained 2 pounds. Had a good workout.

Below are my food log results for the past 4 days.

1320/114/25/87
990/105/4/49
1270/126/20/65
1340/170/30/61

Thursday Workout finally got my supplements in the mail. I got this BCAA drink from Metabolic Response Modifiers. It’s an attempt to make drinking BCAA with a lemon flavor. It tastes like crap but it’s good for me. I took 54G BCAA periworkout. WOW!

This stuff makes you feel incredible after the workout. I can tell I’m anabolic now because I’m not peeing as much as I was.

As for the scale I’m down another NET 2 pounds of body weight to 318.25. I need to get down to another pound for my carb up day.

I’m going to supplement heavy on the BCAA around 50G per day for the next 8 weeks while on the diet. I think it will improve my energy levels.

I’m working out 2 days a week just to keep the strength and mass. I’m also supplementing the Fish Oil 3 TBL a day with 400 IU of Vitamin E. I’m taking green Superfood since I can’t have the calories of added Veggies on this diet.

Only 68 pounds to go until I reach my goal of 250 or 36 inch waist, which ever comes first. If I can net 3 pounds per week that will take me 23 weeks.

Until weigh in on Saturday . . .

11

In my locker room you asked for my opinion, here it is.

The radical diet is good for a quick fix, but if performed over the long run it WILL lead to severe muscle loss regardless of how well planned your training is. 50g of BCAAs will help prevent some muscle loss. But at over 300lbs there is NO WAY that you will prevent losing a good amount of muscle consuming only 1000kcals per day. Heck, you could be on many anabolics and still lose muscle with that deficit!

Now, your goal is to lose 80lbs, great! But how much time do you think it will take? Even if you were to lose 8lbs per week for the whole duration of the program, which is not realistic as your body will eventually adjust to the lowered caloric intake, it would still require 10 weeks to drop the 80lbs. Are you planning on staying on the Radical diet for 10 weeks? If so I will venture as far as to say that you are likely to lose at least 15lbs of muscle, probably more. That is, if you do not go insane before that… I’ve known 125lbs figure girls who were starving on 1000 calories per day.

And as I mentioned, the body will eventually adapt to the caloric/nutrients intake you are giving it. At this point your progress will stagnate. What can you do when that happens? Drop down to 500 calories per day?!? Common!

And what do you think will happen when you increase food intake to normal levels? You will balloon back up! There is what is called a ‘‘relative caloric surplus’’; this refers to a level of food intake that is higher than what your body is used to receiving. When that happens, even if you are TECHNICALLY eating under maintenance, you will still gain fat.

For example if you get your body used to ingesting 1000 calories per day, after several weeks it will accept this as its normal feed amount, and then you suddenly increase caloric intake up to 2500 calories per day. That represents a relative surplus of 1500 calories per day, or over 10 000 calories per week (1 pound of fat = 3500 calories).

This relative surplus WILL lead to fat gain as long as your body has not adjusted back to the new caloric intake, and this will take weeks. So even though at 2500kcals per day you are maybe 1000kcals under your THEORETICAL maintenance level you will still gain fat until your metabolism adjusts.

Furthermore I don’t like to use plans relying on calories. The body doesn’t recognize calories, it’s only a measuring unit. It only recognize nutrients (quantity and quality).

I don’t know the training plan you are talking about, but a mistake peoples make when trying to lose weight is that they increase their reps and lift lighter weights. It is my belief that the best way to force your body to retain its muscle is to do everything in your power to maintain, or even increase, strength.

If you ask me you will not be able to sustain this plan until you reach your goal of losing 80lbs. And if you do, you will have lost almost as much muscle as fat. So in essence you will simply become a smaller version of what you are looking like right now.

I understand that fat loss and body transformation is an emotional issue. We want our body to change RIGHT NOW. But the fact of the matter is that you dug yourself into a pretty big hole; you can either try to do it fast or to do it right, which will require a long term approach.

ADDITION

From the look of your log your protein intake is abysmally low for a man your size. You are not even at 0.5g per pound! To maintain mass while dieting, especially during a long term low-carbs diet you need at least 1g per pound and most bodybuilding trainers recommend 1.5 and even 1.75g per pound when dieting down (the lower your calories are, the higher protein needs to be).

Okay, let’s say that you are really that fat and that protein intake should not be based on total weight. You’d still need at least 220-250g per day to maintain muscle over the long run.

YES you can avoid muscle loss for 2 weeks or so on such a low-protein/low-caloric intake, but it’s all downhill after that.

You mention that you are feeling well. Great, but it’s only been one week. You are still running high on the excitement of your new project. When that runs off there is no way you’ll be able to properly function and transform your body without losing a lot of muscle on such a diet. It’s a quick fix diet, it’s not designed to be sustained over the long run.

And if you are planning on using it only for a short time, then where will you go after that? Even a ‘‘regular’’ fat loss diet will be seen as a ‘‘caloric surplus’’ diet for a few weeks until your body adjusts back up.

12

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
In my locker room you asked for my opinion, here it is.

The radical diet is good for a quick fix, but if performed over the long run it WILL lead to severe muscle loss regardless of how well planned your training is. 50g of BCAAs will help prevent some muscle loss. But at over 300lbs there is NO WAY that you will prevent losing a good amount of muscle consuming only 1000kcals per day. Heck, you could be on many anabolics and still lose muscle with that deficit!

Now, your goal is to lose 80lbs, great! But how much time do you think it will take? Even if you were to lose 8lbs per week for the whole duration of the program, which is not realistic as your body will eventually adjust to the lowered caloric intake, it would still require 10 weeks to drop the 80lbs. Are you planning on staying on the Radical diet for 10 weeks? If so I will venture as far as to say that you are likely to lose at least 15lbs of muscle, probably more. That is, if you do not go insane before that… I’ve known 125lbs figure girls who were starving on 1000 calories per day.

And as I mentioned, the body will eventually adapt to the caloric/nutrients intake you are giving it. At this point your progress will stagnate. What can you do when that happens? Drop down to 500 calories per day?!? Common!

And what do you think will happen when you increase food intake to normal levels? You will balloon back up! There is what is called a ‘‘relative caloric surplus’’; this refers to a level of food intake that is higher than what your body is used to receiving. When that happens, even if you are TECHNICALLY eating under maintenance, you will still gain fat.

For example if you get your body used to ingesting 1000 calories per day, after several weeks it will accept this as its normal feed amount, and then you suddenly increase caloric intake up to 2500 calories per day. That represents a relative surplus of 1500 calories per day, or over 10 000 calories per week (1 pound of fat = 3500 calories).

This relative surplus WILL lead to fat gain as long as your body has not adjusted back to the new caloric intake, and this will take weeks. So even though at 2500kcals per day you are maybe 1000kcals under your THEORETICAL maintenance level you will still gain fat until your metabolism adjusts.

Furthermore I don’t like to use plans relying on calories. The body doesn’t recognize calories, it’s only a measuring unit. It only recognize nutrients (quantity and quality).

I don’t know the training plan you are talking about, but a mistake peoples make when trying to lose weight is that they increase their reps and lift lighter weights. It is my belief that the best way to force your body to retain its muscle is to do everything in your power to maintain, or even increase, strength.

[/quote]

Thanks the plan is maximum effort 1 set per excercise to FAILURE. You are trying to out match your previous best from the workout before. The rep range is targeted for 3-6 reps, once you hit 6 reps you increase your reps.

I’m changing my exercises every 2-3 weeks so my body won’t adapt. I also shift the exercises for upper and lower body. I think the lifting the entire body 2 times a week is good. Workout 3 days off, Workout 4 days off.

Let me know if this sounds good to you.

Thanks, I’ll change up my diet to include 220-250G protein per day.

[quote]

YES you can avoid muscle loss for 2 weeks or so on such a low-protein/low-caloric intake, but it’s all downhill after that.

You mention that you are feeling well. Great, but it’s only been one week. You are still running high on the excitement of your new project. When that runs off there is no way you’ll be able to properly function and transform your body without losing a lot of muscle on such a diet. It’s a quick fix diet, it’s not designed to be sustained over the long run.

And if you are planning on using it only for a short time, then where will you go after that? Even a ‘‘regular’’ fat loss diet will be seen as a ‘‘caloric surplus’’ diet for a few weeks until your body adjusts back up.[/quote]

I appreciate your insight, what would be a good balance? For an extreme fat loss plan?

13

[quote]walleye49 wrote:
I appreciate your insight, what would be a good balance? For an extreme fat loss plan?
[/quote]

I never like extreme fat loss plans… they are a recipe for disaster. You cannot maintain muscle mass on such diets (not over the long run) and you open up the door to dramatic fat regain.

If you are dead set on following a radical approach I would not maintain the radical diet for more than 2 weeks. 2 weeks at a time is fine, more than that your body will adjust to the super low energy intake.

I suggest a 2/1 approach… 2 weeks radical diet, 1 week regular ketogenic diet (1.5g of protein/‘‘target’’ pound; 0.5g of fat/‘‘target’’ pound, less than 30g of carbs).

I mention target pound instead of pounds of bodyweight because you do have a lot of fat to lose, so going with bodyweight would overestimate nutrients intake.

So for 2 weeks you go…

220-250g of protein
60-80g of fat (mainly for good fats such as fish oil, coconut oil, almonds, olive oil)
less than 30g of carbs

Then for one week…

350g of protein
115-125g of fat (from same sources)
less than 30g of carbs

This approach would allow you to:

  • lose fat fast during the ‘‘radical’’ weeks, but in 2 weeks you don’t lose much muscle.

  • prevent adaptation to the low nutrients intake by switching before adaptation sets place.

  • You will still be able to lose fat, but at a slower pace, during the ‘‘high’’ week (because of the low carbs intake) but you may actually gain some weight because chances are that you will add some muscle during that week.

  • Because of the ‘‘higher’’ weeks occurring every 3rd week, your body will keep on losing fat at pretty much the same rate as from the start. Yes, you will lose less fat on the ‘‘higher’’ weeks, but these weeks will allow you to maintain the high rate of fat loss on the ‘‘low’’ weeks.

I also don’t like your program. 1 set is not enough to maintain strength in the long run, especially not at only 2 sessions per week.

I would suggest an upper/lower/whole body split… looking something like this:

UPPER
A1. Upper body horizontal push (e.g. bench press)
A2. Upper body horizontal pull (e.g. barbell row, T-bar row…)

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps.

B1. Upper body semi-vertical push (e.g. incline press)
B2. Upper body semi-vertical pull (e.g. lat pulldown torso angled at 45 degrees)

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Upper body vertical push (e.g. shoulder press)
C2. Upper body vertical pull (e.g. lat pulldown torso straight)

Same as A1 and A2

LOWER
A1. Compound quads dominant movement
A2. Compound hamstring/hips dominant movement

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps

B1. Unilateral quads dominant movement (e.g. short steps lunges, Bulgarian squat)
B2. Unilateral hams dominant movement (e.g. long step lunges, 1-leg DB Romanian deadlift)

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Isolation quads exercise (e.g leg extension)
C2. Isolation hams exercise (e.g. leg curl)

Same as A1 and A2

WHOLE BODY
A1. Lower body quads dominant compound
A2. Lower body hams dominant compound

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps

B1. Upper body horizontal push
B2. Upper body horizontal pull

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Upper body vertical push
C2. Upper body vertical pull

Same as A1 and A2

Ideally the split would look like this:

Monday: Upper
Tuesday: low-intensity cardio
Wednesday: Lower
Thursday: OFF
Friday: low-intensity cardio
Saturday: Whole body
Sunday: OFF

14

Every time I turn around I’m seeing yet another person crash dieting. Friends, family, and T-nationers. banging head

This graph illustrates the big picture of what happens in the long term (44 weeks).

For 24 weeks, these subjects ate 50% of maintenance. You are eating even less than that. These subjects first lost fat rapidly, and muscle more slowly. But after 12 weeks, fat loss slowed dramatically. During restricted refeeding, their cals were bumped up to 70%, then 90% of maintenance.

They regained fat MUCH MORE QUICKLY than they had lost it and regained VERY LITTLE MUSCLE during this time. And remember, their cals are still below pre-starvation maintenance! When eating ad lib, they ate far more calories than maintenance, and fat continued to SHOOT UP at the same rapid rate until most, but not all (97%) of muscle was restored. They had 80% more fat at the end of the experiment!

You can argue that lifting weights, a few supps, and certain macros will change all this. But it will NOT eliminate the body’s self-preservation mechanisms. Your results might not be as bad, but in the long run you are setting yourself up for battling WORSE body composition.

The authors said

“Simplistically, it can be said that fat overshooting is a consequence of a delayed protein repletion resulting from the suppression of thermogenesis favoring specifically the replenishment of the fat stores.”

So basically, the body preferentially wants to restore fat, not muscle, after severe dieting, and the way that it does this is by suppressing thermogenesis.

You have your whole life ahead of you. Do you want this to happen to YOU?

15

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
walleye49 wrote:
I appreciate your insight, what would be a good balance? For an extreme fat loss plan?

I never like extreme fat loss plans… they are a recipe for disaster. You cannot maintain muscle mass on such diets (not over the long run) and you open up the door to dramatic fat regain.

If you are dead set on following a radical approach I would not maintain the radical diet for more than 2 weeks. 2 weeks at a time is fine, more than that your body will adjust to the super low energy intake.

I suggest a 2/1 approach… 2 weeks radical diet, 1 week regular ketogenic diet (1.5g of protein/‘‘target’’ pound; 0.5g of fat/‘‘target’’ pound, less than 30g of carbs).

I mention target pound instead of pounds of bodyweight because you do have a lot of fat to lose, so going with bodyweight would overestimate nutrients intake.

So for 2 weeks you go…

220-250g of protein
60-80g of fat (mainly for good fats such as fish oil, coconut oil, almonds, olive oil)
less than 30g of carbs

Then for one week…

350g of protein
115-125g of fat (from same sources)
less than 30g of carbs

This approach would allow you to:

  • lose fat fast during the ‘‘radical’’ weeks, but in 2 weeks you don’t lose much muscle.

  • prevent adaptation to the low nutrients intake by switching before adaptation sets place.

  • You will still be able to lose fat, but at a slower pace, during the ‘‘high’’ week (because of the low carbs intake) but you may actually gain some weight because chances are that you will add some muscle during that week.

  • Because of the ‘‘higher’’ weeks occurring every 3rd week, your body will keep on losing fat at pretty much the same rate as from the start. Yes, you will lose less fat on the ‘‘higher’’ weeks, but these weeks will allow you to maintain the high rate of fat loss on the ‘‘low’’ weeks.

I also don’t like your program. 1 set is not enough to maintain strength in the long run, especially not at only 2 sessions per week.

I would suggest an upper/lower/whole body split… looking something like this:

UPPER
A1. Upper body horizontal push (e.g. bench press)
A2. Upper body horizontal pull (e.g. barbell row, T-bar row…)

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps.

B1. Upper body semi-vertical push (e.g. incline press)
B2. Upper body semi-vertical pull (e.g. lat pulldown torso angled at 45 degrees)

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Upper body vertical push (e.g. shoulder press)
C2. Upper body vertical pull (e.g. lat pulldown torso straight)

Same as A1 and A2

LOWER
A1. Compound quads dominant movement
A2. Compound hamstring/hips dominant movement

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps

B1. Unilateral quads dominant movement (e.g. short steps lunges, Bulgarian squat)
B2. Unilateral hams dominant movement (e.g. long step lunges, 1-leg DB Romanian deadlift)

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Isolation quads exercise (e.g leg extension)
C2. Isolation hams exercise (e.g. leg curl)

Same as A1 and A2

WHOLE BODY
A1. Lower body quads dominant compound
A2. Lower body hams dominant compound

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps

B1. Upper body horizontal push
B2. Upper body horizontal pull

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Upper body vertical push
C2. Upper body vertical pull

Same as A1 and A2

Ideally the split would look like this:

Monday: Upper
Tuesday: low-intensity cardio
Wednesday: Lower
Thursday: OFF
Friday: low-intensity cardio
Saturday: Whole body
Sunday: OFF
[/quote]

I will do this CT with a Log Beginning Monday, since I’ve only been on the Radical Diet for 2 weeks I’m going to finish this week out, which ends Sunday. Then I’ll record my Weight Monday and go from there.

A couple questions. Low Intensity Cardio-- Is this like walking for an hour while pushing my 3 year old in a stroller?

Quad Dominant Exercises --Squats, Leg Press, (any others?)
Hip/Hamstring Dominant–Dead lifts,? Others?

Do I take each set to failure?

I’ll also keep a log of this too. My wife is working out with me too, some excercises she can’t do with me because of a spinal injury. I’ll adjust accordingly for her.

Thanks for your willingness to help.

walleye

16

[quote]walleye49 wrote:

A couple questions. Low Intensity Cardio-- Is this like walking for an hour while pushing my 3 year old in a stroller? [/quote]

It depends if your kids are heavy. :slight_smile: Ideally shoot for a heart rate of around 130 beat per minute.

[quote]walleye49 wrote:
Quad Dominant Exercises --Squats, Leg Press, (any others?)
Hip/Hamstring Dominant–Dead lifts,? Others? [/quote]

Take a look at my article ‘‘How to design damn good programs’’ I think that I listed quite a few good ones.

[quote]walleye49 wrote:
Do I take each set to failure? [/quote]

When training for strength failure is not a goal in itself. The objective is to have the highest average weight lifted as possible for the 3-4 sets; if going to failure leads to a lower average weight, then avoid it.

17

[quote]Christian Thibaudeau wrote:
walleye49 wrote:

A couple questions. Low Intensity Cardio-- Is this like walking for an hour while pushing my 3 year old in a stroller?

It depends if your kids are heavy. :slight_smile: Ideally shoot for a heart rate of around 130 beat per minute.

[/quote]

OK I’ll do the tread mill so I can measure my heart rate. How long on this thing 30 minutes?

When you say average weight does that mean changing the weight per set? For example, doing 150 pound dumbbell press for 4-6 reps the first, then drop down to 120 the second set to get 4-6 reps, then 100 to get 4-6 reps, for an average of 125 pound per set?

My wife will be doing this with me too. She’s 260 currently and wants to get to 180. Will her calculations be: The only thing I’m confused on is the fat intake.

160-180 gram protein
60-80G Fat
30G carbs or less

Then increase to
240-270 Grams Protein
100-120 Grams Fat
30 G Carbs or Less

Thanks again, I’ll keep the log posted.

18

[quote]walleye49 wrote:
OK I’ll do the tread mill so I can measure my heart rate. How long on this thing 30 minutes?
[/quote]

Start at 30 and gradually build-up to 60 minutes (add 5 min. to your sessions every week).

[quote]walleye49 wrote:
When you say average weight does that mean changing the weight per set? For example, doing 150 pound dumbbell press for 4-6 reps the first, then drop down to 120 the second set to get 4-6 reps, then 100 to get 4-6 reps, for an average of 125 pound per set?
[/quote]

Let’s say that you do:

SET 1: 150lbs x 6 (900lbs)
SET 2: 130lbs x 6 (780lbs)
SET 3: 110lbs x 6 (660lbs)

Total weight lifted = 2340lbs
Total number of reps = 18
Average weight = 130lbs

But you do not have to calculate the actual average. The point is that if going to failure forces you to decrease the weight you use on the next few sets too much, then it’s better to stop 1-2 reps short of failure.

For example:

SITUATION A (going to failure)
SET 1: 150lbs x 6 to failure
have to drop the weight to 125 because of fatigue
SET 2: 125lbs x 6 to failure
have to drop the weight to 105 due to fatigue
SET 3: 105lbs x 6

SITUATION B (stopping just short of failure)
SET 1: 140lbs x 6
Not going to failure doesn’t dip too much into your energy reserves so you can pretty much maintain the same weight
SET 2: 140lbs x 5
Not going to failure doesn’t dip too much into your energy reserves so you can pretty much maintain the same weight
SET 3: 130lbs x 6

As you can see you do more reps with a heavy weight in situation B than situation A… that’s what we want.

NOW, if you can maintain your strength from set to set even if you go to failure, do it. But the goal is to have as little drop-out as possible between the first and last sets.

Actually, when I train for strength myself, my last set will actually be the heaviest. If I do 4 sets the first 2-3 sets are more conservative and the last one is all out.

For example:
SET 1: 130lbs x 6 (fairly easy but still heavy)
SET 2: 140lbs x 6 (getting harder, but still not maximal)
SET 3: 145lbs x 6 (close to maximal)
REST A BIT LONGER
SET 4: 150lbs to failure

[quote]walleye49 wrote:
My wife will be doing this with me too. She’s 260 currently and wants to get to 180. Will her calculations be: The only thing I’m confused on is the fat intake.

160-180 gram protein
60-80G Fat
30G carbs or less

Then increase to
240-270 Grams Protein
100-120 Grams Fat
30 G Carbs or Less

Thanks again, I’ll keep the log posted.

[/quote]

Actually her protein intake doesn’t have to be as high as your proportionally because women have a lower protein synthesis capacity.

Something like

RADICAL
130-140g protein
50-60g fat
less than 30g carbs

KETOGENIC
170-180g protein
80-90g fat
less than 30g carbs

Should be fine

I would also not be as ‘‘aggressive’’ with the carb-up. Considering your situation I would not go above 0.5g of carbs per pound of bodyweight on the carb-up, actually I would even keep it lower than that.

19

How would the Soviets have lost fat?
brandon

20

[quote]cccp21 wrote:
How would the Soviets have lost fat?
brandon[/quote]

More government rationing, longer lines to get 1/4th of a loaf of bread, walking 20 miles per day because their Lada broke down.