Seems to be working. I had the lightest Monday morning weigh-in ever at 173.8 pounds, which means my real weight is near 169 or 170 pounds.
I can't wait to get started on bulking again. I'll probably be near to 165 or 160 pounds when this is done, and that's less mass--by about 20 pounds--than I want. My lats, chest, forearms and (to a lesser extent) upper obliques still need some work.
On the lifting front, I've had some major advancements:
I deadlifted 315 for 2x5 last Tuesday. I've been making bi-weekly gains of 5 pounds for 2x8, which has been awesome.
I squatted 3x7 for 230 yesterday, which means next week I'll have officially made 10 pounds of squat progress during my cut.
Bench is still hovering around 170/155 flat/incline, but I have made progress on reps and on other exercises.
...And all of this happened after I began carb cycling.
Welp, there's no way I can lose this weight by the end of October.
I did something to my arms while arm wrestling at Oktoberfest, and both of my forearms ache pretty badly when I lift. The pain is sharpest in my brachioradialis and the tendons on the interior of my elbows. So happens this muscle and these joints are heavily taxed with virtually every exercise I perform.
Given that the presence of the pain has reduced over the last 10 days, I'd say it's a sprain of some sort, but I need to give it 10-14 days to heal with icing.
Without going to the gym 3 days/week, I simply won't be burning enough calories per week to get it done.
Time to go for my backup costume and hope I don't put any weight on in the mean time. I'm really, really bummed out right now.
You'd be surprised how much arm strength is required to hold the bar on your back for squats, though I might do leg presses just to keep going to the gym. Definitely nothing involving my arms until they feel 100%.
Having done some squats / calf raises myself, I know how much weight has to be held in order to actually work the legs. I was referring to activities more along the lines of jogging, cycling, and any other such things like that which do not require the use of the upper body at all, except for stabilization. It won't build muscle, but it will burn carbs.
Welp, there's no way I can lose this weight by the end of October.
I did something to my arms while arm wrestling at Oktoberfest, and both of my forearms ache pretty badly when I lift. The pain is sharpest in my brachioradialis and the tendons on the interior of my elbows. So happens this muscle and these joints are heavily taxed with virtually every exercise I perform.
Yeah, it sucks. Hopefully with a week of icyhot it'll be back in fighting shape. If I only lose week, I can recover from that. Two weeks? Not so much. I'll keep doing cardio in the mean time, and hit the gym for leg work on Sunday.
Yeah, it sucks. Hopefully with a week of icyhot it'll be back in fighting shape. If I only lose week, I can recover from that. Two weeks? Not so much. I'll keep doing cardio in the mean time, and hit the gym for leg work on Sunday.
Just stop jacking off so much, I bet your arm will recover faster.
Welp, there's no way I can lose this weight by the end of October.
I did something to my arms while arm wrestling at Oktoberfest, and both of my forearms ache pretty badly when I lift. The pain is sharpest in my brachioradialis and the tendons on the interior of my elbows. So happens this muscle and these joints are heavily taxed with virtually every exercise I perform.
Given that the presence of the pain has reduced over the last 10 days, I'd say it's a sprain of some sort, but I need to give it 10-14 days to heal with icing.
Without going to the gym 3 days/week, I simply won't be burning enough calories per week to get it done.
Time to go for my backup costume and hope I don't put any weight on in the mean time. I'm really, really bummed out right now.
Rob, that's horrible news mate. I had that recently with my shoulders, totally knocked me out for two weeks. I had to radically shift my diet around to cope with the lack of activity.
Balance the nutrition and find something interesting to do to keep your motivation.
Seriously as well (I mean this), get into an exercise that uses your forearms like drumming. I work out my forearms every single day with the heaviest set of sticks I can buy. I do piano player exercises as well.
Really sorry to hear this after such a huge amount of effort. Soon my bro, soon.
Also, you definitely owe me an arm wrestle at Expo. It's ON.
Thrax, how about taking two Ibuprofens before gym, and reduce the weight to half (or more depending on pain) while increasing the time to as long as you can? Would it work?
Thrax, how about taking two Ibuprofens before gym, and reduce the weight to half (or more depending on pain) while increasing the time to as long as you can? Would it work?
Any time you're injured, it's best to simply wait it out.
0
AnnesTripped Up by Libidos and HubrisAlexandria, VAIcrontian
edited September 2009
I say man up and give the ladies what we want: your original costume idea - even if you're not at your ideal before ICOK.
Either way, <s>the lecherous bitches</s> the community wins. I plan to post results pictures when I shed these last few pounds, and I will have progress pictures when I start add another 15-20.
and who knows! I'm still gonna do cardio, so it might work out alright.
Dry weight is around 172 pounds. August and September has been bad for fat loss. I have lost 2 pounds in 8 weeks, even though I should have been losing about a pound a week. If that had happened, I would have been done already.
In response I am making a renewed effort for October to finish this fat off. If I don't lose at least five pounds, my body has metabolically given up on losing fat. In other words, I will get back on a bulking diet and add muscle mass, then interleave bulk phases with 8-week mini cuts. This cycling will make for easier fat loss, as my body's metabolism won't be six feet under due to 6 months of cutting... Having a higher weight and a higher overall lean body mass also promotes fat loss, as some genotypes don't easily accept dipping below a certain overall weight.
Stay tuned.
//EDIT: The biggest problem in all of this is that between the body fat I started with, and the body fat that I gained while bulking, I had more than 40 pounds to lose. My original estimates were for 20. I had no idea I had to burn so much to get down to 10%.
It's not terribly feasible to lose more than 1-1.5 pounds a week unless you're seriously overweight. To date, I have lost about 28 of those 40 pounds in 26 weeks. That's exactly 1.07 pounds per week. The very best I could have hoped for was 39 pounds, but my early struggles with running basically wasted a month of my time. Hurting my arms for 2 weeks cost me another 2 pounds.
The end result is that I'm right on pace, but right on pace has taken--and will continue to take--a very long time.
The body well and truly doesn't like to cut for as long as I have been cutting, and it may simply not be responsive to it any more. I don't know. Here's to hoping October is better.
You know, it amazes me, but even I gain some body fat when I'm orienting my diet around bulking. When I stopped working out for a half-year break (unintentionally) last year, I weighed about 140 pounds, and I actually had a small potbelly. I dropped to about 125 over 6 months, and have been gradually creeping back up again since I started a few months ago. This time, though, I've come at bulking with much more vigor than previously - I'm working a lot more of my body, and much harder than before. I don't think I'll gain as much fat as last time for this reason.
Carb cycling was a bust for me. It didn't work out the way I had planned, even though it's technically sound, and that's just the foibles of my metabolism.
Instead I did some complex crunching of my metabolism (more on this some other time), and jumped back up to 1930 calories a day (-652 daily). I switched to a 50/30/20 diet, meaning I'm eating carbs every day. I also stepped up my water intake to 2 gallons a day, and I am proud to say that I am losing weight again. If the numbers pan out, I should be done cutting by the end of November.
The biggest problem was that I was eating too many calories on some days, and not at all enough calories on others. To top it off, I was cycling AND going to the gym; this means my daily caloric burns were up to 2700 a day, but I was only eating 1500 mon/wed/friday. This meant that I had a -1200 caloric deficit on some days, and my body was definitely in starvation mode. I was simply not eating enough... This is a lesson in how easy it is to get so caught up in losing weight that you blindly stumble into starvation mode. I simply didn't think my metabolism through to see that what I was doing wasn't the best.
In all, I think my body simply responds best to a consistent, 1.2 pounds/week calorie deficit composed of healthy foods. I don't think I'll be trying carb cycling or pseudo-ketogenesis again.
Comments
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suggestion: 0% fat greek yogurt! i like the Fage brand, it's really thick, tangy and has comparable stats:
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I can't wait to get started on bulking again. I'll probably be near to 165 or 160 pounds when this is done, and that's less mass--by about 20 pounds--than I want. My lats, chest, forearms and (to a lesser extent) upper obliques still need some work.
On the lifting front, I've had some major advancements:
I deadlifted 315 for 2x5 last Tuesday. I've been making bi-weekly gains of 5 pounds for 2x8, which has been awesome.
I squatted 3x7 for 230 yesterday, which means next week I'll have officially made 10 pounds of squat progress during my cut.
Bench is still hovering around 170/155 flat/incline, but I have made progress on reps and on other exercises.
...And all of this happened after I began carb cycling.
I did something to my arms while arm wrestling at Oktoberfest, and both of my forearms ache pretty badly when I lift. The pain is sharpest in my brachioradialis and the tendons on the interior of my elbows. So happens this muscle and these joints are heavily taxed with virtually every exercise I perform.
Given that the presence of the pain has reduced over the last 10 days, I'd say it's a sprain of some sort, but I need to give it 10-14 days to heal with icing.
Without going to the gym 3 days/week, I simply won't be burning enough calories per week to get it done.
edited for grammar booboo.
/facepalm
qft
Hey, I enjoyed the arm wrestling, I'm not knocking it.
Just stop jacking off so much, I bet your arm will recover faster.
Rob, that's horrible news mate. I had that recently with my shoulders, totally knocked me out for two weeks. I had to radically shift my diet around to cope with the lack of activity.
Balance the nutrition and find something interesting to do to keep your motivation.
Seriously as well (I mean this), get into an exercise that uses your forearms like drumming. I work out my forearms every single day with the heaviest set of sticks I can buy. I do piano player exercises as well.
Really sorry to hear this after such a huge amount of effort. Soon my bro, soon.
Also, you definitely owe me an arm wrestle at Expo. It's ON.
this is what i came to say. thanks, Jackie
I read your mind, Patty darling.
Any time you're injured, it's best to simply wait it out.
(I MAY be a little biased)
and who knows! I'm still gonna do cardio, so it might work out alright.
OPTIMISM.
Hey, I resembl-errr, resent that remark. We're all very respectful, unskeeving ladies. *cough*
Either way, keep it up!
Tuesday: High carb
Thursday: Low carb
Sunday: Low carb
i'm not ashamed to admit that i am a lecherous bitches. i wanna see a shirtless Thrax, and i'm not the least bit embarrassed to say it.
In response I am making a renewed effort for October to finish this fat off. If I don't lose at least five pounds, my body has metabolically given up on losing fat. In other words, I will get back on a bulking diet and add muscle mass, then interleave bulk phases with 8-week mini cuts. This cycling will make for easier fat loss, as my body's metabolism won't be six feet under due to 6 months of cutting... Having a higher weight and a higher overall lean body mass also promotes fat loss, as some genotypes don't easily accept dipping below a certain overall weight.
Stay tuned.
//EDIT: The biggest problem in all of this is that between the body fat I started with, and the body fat that I gained while bulking, I had more than 40 pounds to lose. My original estimates were for 20. I had no idea I had to burn so much to get down to 10%.
It's not terribly feasible to lose more than 1-1.5 pounds a week unless you're seriously overweight. To date, I have lost about 28 of those 40 pounds in 26 weeks. That's exactly 1.07 pounds per week. The very best I could have hoped for was 39 pounds, but my early struggles with running basically wasted a month of my time. Hurting my arms for 2 weeks cost me another 2 pounds.
The end result is that I'm right on pace, but right on pace has taken--and will continue to take--a very long time.
The body well and truly doesn't like to cut for as long as I have been cutting, and it may simply not be responsive to it any more. I don't know. Here's to hoping October is better.
Carb cycling was a bust for me. It didn't work out the way I had planned, even though it's technically sound, and that's just the foibles of my metabolism.
Instead I did some complex crunching of my metabolism (more on this some other time), and jumped back up to 1930 calories a day (-652 daily). I switched to a 50/30/20 diet, meaning I'm eating carbs every day. I also stepped up my water intake to 2 gallons a day, and I am proud to say that I am losing weight again. If the numbers pan out, I should be done cutting by the end of November.
The biggest problem was that I was eating too many calories on some days, and not at all enough calories on others. To top it off, I was cycling AND going to the gym; this means my daily caloric burns were up to 2700 a day, but I was only eating 1500 mon/wed/friday. This meant that I had a -1200 caloric deficit on some days, and my body was definitely in starvation mode. I was simply not eating enough... This is a lesson in how easy it is to get so caught up in losing weight that you blindly stumble into starvation mode. I simply didn't think my metabolism through to see that what I was doing wasn't the best.
In all, I think my body simply responds best to a consistent, 1.2 pounds/week calorie deficit composed of healthy foods. I don't think I'll be trying carb cycling or pseudo-ketogenesis again.
I'm still bulking Nov - Feb, though. That should give me time to put on a solid 10 pounds of lean mass.