By what metric? A scale, mirror, or some bioelectrical impedance device?
I ask because to put on muscle you have to put on some fat. If you haven’t gotten extremely fat, or to the point of some sort of body image issue, and you’ve had performance increases, you might just want to maintain where you are for a little bit instead of cutting
Im heavier on the scale, and I feel fatter. I kinda look the same, but I feel fatter. When I sit down, I feel the fat going over the waistband of my sweatpants. And when I stand in the shower, I notice my stomach isn’t as flat as it was, there is evidence of lower-abdominal fat gain. It disgusts me, mostly because I know what its like to be fatter (I was 160lbs at 5’4" no muscle only 2-3 years ago), I hate it. I still have a six-pack when flexed (not a super shredded pack, but still defined decently), but also my waist size has went up to 33 inches (a month or two ago it was more like 30-31 inches)
My performance I think is increased, so yeah I guess maybe I’ve gained some muscle.
Another thing I was thinking of might be a reason is stress. I’ve noticed that for some reason I feel stressed (school work, alot on my schedule, etc). I don’t understand WHY I feel stressed. As long as I do everything, I’m fine! But my body is stressed from it, I can feel it too.
I am going to maintain, of course. I don’t want to eat less (duh), and also I know that it isn’t healthy to cut at my age
I need to clean up my diet. No more juices. I need to eat some fruit or vegetable (why is this so difficult. Just eat it. We always have some. Eat it first before anything) with every meal. No more rice crispy treats or other desserts. No more cereals. The only grains I can have are plain oats (minimal) and stuff in protein granola or protein oatmeal. That’s it.
I know this is very clichéd or whatever, but how do I burn more fat easily and quickly? Are there any foods that promote fat loss?
There’s no food that makes you lose fat. Fat loss is a product of NOT eating, allowing the body to metabolize food as a fuel source.
There’s an interesting little bit of psychology here. When we focus on what we CAN’T do, we tend to fixate on those things AND we tend to consider ourselves failures when we don’t abstain. When I put you on the “don’t eat oranges diet”, suddenly, it’s all you want to eat, and when you eat one you think yourself a failure, and frequently failing perpetuates more frequent failing. It becomes a pattern.
It works better to focus on DOING vs not doing. Instead of “I’m not going to eat ANY junk today”, we say “Today, I am going to make sure that, no matter what, I eat 2lbs of beef and 9 whole eggs, and drink a gallon of water”. We shift our focus on SUCCEEDING rather than failing AND, often, we discover that, in our quest to try to take in all this good food, we don’t have room for the junk.
Yeah, I’ve heard of that before. I guess it would be beneficial to apply it. I can make a list of foods that I am to eat. If its not on the list, I have to use reason and decide if it can be on the list.
What I get to eat!
Fruits
Vegetables
Beans (these don’t count as vegetables (technically fruits) in my opinion)
Canned meats
Minimally processed meats
Anything Mom makes for Dinner (not other stuff)
Oats
Rice
Protein oatmeal
Protein granola
Unsweetened dairy products
Honey
Eggs
Vietnamese food (I really enjoy pho, I’ve had it once and It was amazing)
Mexican food (The place we go to has great burritos, and they are decently healthy (as healthy as take-out/restaurant food can get atleast))
Heres what I have so far.
I am a big fan of food lists. I’ve never counted a macro or calorie in my life, and find I do much better with a restriction based approach.
However, I’d move away from language of “allowed to eat”. You don’t want to put yourself in food jail. It’s the kind of language that results in “cheat meals”. It’s the idea that the way you’re eating is so restrictive that you need to be “freed” from it. That’s just unsustainable, and it develops a really poor relationship with food.
Instead, I bring up the analogy of a dog with kibble. I don’t know if you’ve ever had a pet dog, but you can feed a dog kibble every day of it’s life, and every day, when that kibble hits the bowl, that dog will be excited. You’ll watch that dog have the BEST moment of it’s day, right then and there, eating that bowl of kibble. The dog doesn’t think “this is what I’m allowed to eat”, it thinks “This is what I GET to eat”.
That’s how I approach my own nutrition. By all accounts, my diet is INCREDIBLY restrictive, yet every time I sit down for a meal, I am blown away at how I get to eat. My food is so delicious AND it helps me achieve my goals: how is this even fair?
Thats a good point.
I don’t have a dog myself, 4 cats though. They love their wet-food and their dry-food. Im sure they don’t think its what they are allowed to eat (they get more than enough “goodies”), they probably do think its what they GET to eat, like you said.
I will edit my above list now.
Wow it already feels better I want to stick with it. Its what I GET to eat!
Snack:
1/2 can cannellini beans
1/2 cup beef bbq
1 oz broccoli
----Total: 430 Kcal, 13g fat, 50g carbs, 31g protein
Need 953 Kcal and atleast 49g protein
Dinner:
A bowl of shrimp pea soup in white sauce
1 fried chicken wing
1/3 cup protein granola
1/4 cup milk
2 hard boiled eggs
1 oz cheese
----Total: 857 Kcal, 49g fat, 46g carbs, 56g protein
Days total: 2604 Kcal, 113g fat, 232g carbs, 166g protein
Pretty decent
Day 3/30 failed. RIP
There’s so much political noise.
Where is the escape?
Where is the hope for a better America?
Where are the promises?
Broken, Crumbled, trampled
No more are they.
Lies, they are, broken promises
Of things that have not, are not, and will not be.
There’s no hope in people, a person, rather, Trump.
To place hope in a person is futile, for they will die, and be unfulfilled
But to place hope in the Lord is blessed, for He is and was and is to come, and is sufficient for all things
Behold
The time
He is coming
Not much longer now
You must hold on tight
Never lose your faith in God
Keep strong, have faith, follow his Word
Then, you will surely be saved
Only in God is hope
Be in the spirit
Not the flesh
Have hope
Amen
November 4 2025 W11D2 Strength Day
Time to calculate this week’s numbers
OHP: well this is in my book, It should be about 75lbs though.
Squat: 185 lbs
Pullups: +10lbs
Two more weeks until I will test my strengths. I feel pretty good about it, but I’m not 100% percent. Only testing will tell. My grade in strength class depends on me getting stronger. I should be fine though. As long as this program had worked as intended (I know it has), everything should be fine.
Breakfast soon
My grade in strength class depends on me getting stronger.
I honestly love your school for this. There are certain “game day” things you can do to help put yourself in a positive way here, but as you note: the system has already done the work.
I found out where the weight is going today. My ass. Squats must be working. Lol.
I was walking to strength class and I saw my shadow on the wall and was like, hm. So I looked in the mirror. Holy crap. When did my ass get that fat. Im pretty sure its (mostly) muscle though, not a lot of extra adipose tissue. Its not like “huge” but its bigger. Shorts fit tighter, both around my glutes and my upper legs. I had a suspicion my glutes were bigger before this, though, because my shorts were feeling tighter, but I was just playing this down to maybe they shrunk or something, or that I was just noticing it more during our warmup. Nope. Glutes are actually bigger.
Breakfast
3 eggs
1 oz cheese
1 cup milk
1/2 cup cottage cheese
1/2 cup protein granola
1/4 tbsp honey
1 cup tea (unsweetened strong black, that’s how I like it)
----Total: 752 Kcal, 37g fat, 51g carbs, 52g protein
Lunch: I wanted a salad, but they didn’t have any today. Made my own Nano-salad
Wrap with Italian meat, lettuce, and cheese. NO TOMATO! I’m fine with that because I don’t care for it. More meat too
1 crouton
2 shreds lettuce
1 tortilla shred chip
----Total: 473 Kcal, 28g fat, 30g carbs, 25g protein
Dinner:
5/4 cup rice
5 oz beef
1/8 cup butter beans
----Total: 651 Kcal, 24g fat, 61g carbs, 44g protein
Need 824 Kcal and atleast 39g protein
I saw something in the sky tonight. Two things. First I saw this strangest spiral moving west to north across the sky, slightly downwards. It was white, with a defined center I think it was either a bar or two close dots (looked like almost 2 stars together) and had two gassy arms coming off of it spiral-wise. I found a picture of the same thing somebody else saw online. I saw it around 6:02PM EST. On the forum I found it on, their saying it was a fuel dump from something. Still cool.
I also saw a comet or meteor or whatever. It was white and we saw it break up in the sky. It was fast but it wasn’t a zip, we could follow and watch it. Neat.
Time to eat.
Hah. That made me laugh. Yeah, it makes sense though. Its a very important muscle group. I think of it as the lower-body’s equivalent of shoulders. That’s what they are really. It all corresponds. Calves-Forearms, Biceps-Hamstrings, Quads-Triceps, Glutes-Shoulders.
Snack: Leftovers
1/4 cup peas
4 oz beans
6ish shrimps
1 can tuna
1/4 cup white sauce
----Total: 459 Kcal, 13g fat, 37g carbs, 46g protein
Days total: 2334 Kcal, 102g fat, 179g carbs, 167g protein
Need 366 Kcal, protein requirement fulfilled. Might treat myself to some macadamia nuts. I wonder if there’s any fruit I want with it.
The novel is an allegory for the Russian Revolution and Napoleon represents Josef Stalin.
At least, originally.
I know that, it also seems to work with Trump. He says stuff that uneducated people blindly believe regardless if its true or not, like the sheep “four legs good, two legs bad” being turned to “four legs good, two legs better”, as a example.
November 5th 2025 W11D3 HIC day
Will do a cardio session today on the bike. Ive been slacking alot on my Endurance work, I will do more of that these last days. I need to get my mile time down by atleast 1 second to get my 500 points on my grade (out of 5000, 10 goals 500 points each). Even if not, its still a 90%.
I think I will go look at the stars this morning. Nope. its cloudy and the sky is lightening up.
Government shutdown down is officially the longest in our history. I don’t think the shutdown is every going to end because of all the political advantage there seems to be for Trump.
Will continue to follow my list of foods I get to eat.
Last night snack:
1/4 cup macadamia nuts
----Total: 202 Kcal, 22g fat, 4g carbs, 2g protein
Yesterday’s Total: 2536 Kcal, 124g fat, 183g carbs, 169g protein
Never marked down my workout from yesterday.
Il correct this later, this is just from memory
OHP
45 x 5
55 x
65 x
75 x 5
75 x 5
75 x 5
75 x 5
75 x 5
Pullups
5
+10 x 5
10 x 5
10 x 4.5 (increasing rest time a bit)
10 x 5
10 x 5
10 x 4.5
These were tough. Will surely get stronger over the week
Squat
115 x 6
135 x 5
155 x 5
175 x 3
185 x 5
185 x 5
185 x 5
185 x 5
185 x 5
Assistance
10 archer pushups
10 side squats
12 scap pullups
10 face pulls 60lbs
185lb trap bar shrug x 20
185lb front bar shrug x 20
185lb behind bar shrug x 20 (these are difficult, butt gets in the way)
Im amazed how far I’ve come. I’ve stuck to a plan for the last 18-19 weeks. Wow.
4 minutes until breakfast, I’m quite hungry.
Im amazed how far I’ve come. I’ve stuck to a plan for the last 18-19 weeks. Wow.
I am so delighted for you. I wish I had done this at your age.
Breakfast:
2 eggs
1 oz cheese
1/2 cup milk
1 packet protein oatmeal
1 banana
2 tbsp peanut butter
----Total: 797 Kcal, 42g fat, 67g carbs, 43g protein
Lunch:
1 salad with turkey and cheese
----Total: 194 kcal, 11g fat, 9g carbs, 16g protein
No wonder these are always diet foods lol. There’s almost no calories. In a big salad. The calories are mostly from the meat and cheese
Workout
50 Kcal bike challenge: 3:04ish. Awful. Any ideas why my times are worse nowadays? Lack of LSS work? I was dead after these. I sat down so I wouldn’t collapse, and I had my friend help me stand up. My head was pounding, my eyes felt like they were going to explode, lungs were jumping out, mouth was itchy I felt like this for minutes. Water seemed to have helped a bit. I feel better now, My lungs still burn/itch a bit. Been coughing too.
After I did my cardio and recovered somewhat, I was messing with some stuff with friends/their friends, well we (well, me and my one friend) got into some posing lol. Apparently I have a great physique, I then did some stuff like trap bar deadlift for 2 something, normal deadlift for 245 I think, some pullups, and picking up a 110lb dumbbell with one hand a few times (man that was SUPER easy didn’t even feel like anything). Did a few tricep extensions (did like 72.5lbs for a few for fun, didn’t go to failure just did like 2 reps), then DB curls (worked up to a 45lb curl 1rm lol). My one friend (skinny) did leg extension at 305lb or something (maxed out the machine) for reps. UHH??? I couldn’t do that (maybe because of the bike challenge, but I don’t think I could have done it normally either). He only trains legs really. He does train, just not really with weights much (as far I as know), he does brazillian jiujitsu though.
Snack
1 ensure
1 packet protein oatmeal
1/2 cup milk
----Total: 494 Kcal, 14g fat, 68g carbs, 25g protein
Need 1214 Kcal and atleast 76g protein.
Time for homework.
Dinner:
4 oz kielbasa
3 oz rice a roni
1/8 cup peas
1/8 cup beans
2 cans tuna
2 spreadable cheese wedges
1/6 cup macadamia nuts
1 fruit strip
----Total: 1190 Kcal, 52g fat, 92g carbs, 83g protein
Days total: 2676 Kcal, 120g fat, 235g carbs, 167g protein
Im fine with that.
Tomorrow is a strength day. Either going to do core or grip for assistance. Id rather do grip, so Il do core.
I’ve been thinking about electron configurations. They are beautiful in a way, I like to think about their shapes. I see everything up to the d orbitals. I can visualize each energy level, and their combinations. Its beautiful.
November 6 2025 W11D4 Strength day
Excited to do my workout today.
I should be able to pour my agar plates today to start my moss protonemata cultures, or at the very least just the plates in preparation for next week.
Breakfast in zehn Minuten. Es ist zehn vor sechs. (We learned how to read a clock in German)
