Week 1: Jan 6 – Jan 13, 2013
Diet
First week back to restricting calories and carb/fat cycling. The start of the week was tough, but I got back into the groove quickly. My intake was in line with my goals on rest days, but I found myself wanting to eat more on training days. I am curious if this will continue or if it’s just my body readjusting to the diet.
| Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Fat (g) | Calories | |
| Average | 135 | 197 | 46 | 1722 kCal |
| Rest Day | 62 | 181 | 55 | 1464 kCal |
| Training | 234 | 207 | 34 | 2056 kCal |
Training
- Week 1 Training Log (link)
- Top Sets for my ‘Big 4’ :
- Deadlift: 295 lb x 4 reps
- Barbell Bench Press: 235 lb x 3 reps (sore shoulders)
- Chin-ups: 3 reps || weighted || 49 lb
- Squat: 155 lb x 8 reps
Week 2: Jan 13 – Jan 19, 2013
Diet
Came down with the flu Tuesday afternoon and broke my fast early most days so that I could take medication. My average weight increased slightly for the week, although my waist measurement and body fat seemed to decrease.
Calorie and macro information from this week is less useful than normal. I did not track intake 1/15 & 1/16 (really sick) and 1/19 (hiking day).
| Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Fat (g) | Calories | |
| Average | 154 | 205 | 55 | 1859 kCal |
| Rest Day | 63 | 202 | 83 | 1747 kCal |
| Training | 244 | 208 | 28 | 1971 kCal |
Training
- Week 2 Training Log (link)
- Re-organized workout schedule:
- Day 1: Off
- Day 2: Squats, Chins, Curls
- Day 3; Off (bodyweight squats only)
- Day 4: Rotator Cuff Exercises, Neutral Grip Dumbbell Press, Standing Shoulder Press (OHP)
- Day 5: Off (bodyweight squats only)
- Day 6: Deadlifts, Dips, Pull-ups
- Day 7: Hiking if possible
- As noted above:
- I added some direct bicep work back into workouts (EZ Curl bar)
- After reading about the benefits of OHP, I added it as a new exercise. Adding OHP was the main reason for reorganizing everything. If my shoulders start hurting again, I will go back to neutral grip shoulder presses.
- Started doing bodyweight squats in the days after doing barbell squats. Hoping it will reduce DOMS
- Top Sets for my ‘Big 5‘ :
- Deadlift: 255 lb x 10 reps
- Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 80 lb x 10 reps
- Chin-ups: 4 reps || weighted || 49 lb
- Squat: 165 lb x 8 reps
- OHP: 70 x 8 (new exercise)
Week 3: Jan 20 – Jan 26, 2013
Diet
The flu lasted until mid-week, but I was back on my fasting schedule starting on Sunday. On average I was able to lose .5 lbs for the week, despite my calories being higher than my goal (+150 kCal per day).
| Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Fat (g) | Calories | |
| Average | 135 | 212 | 58 | 1864 kCal |
| Rest Day | 78 | 214 | 60 | 1672 kCal |
| Training | 191 | 209 | 55 | 2056 kCal |
Training
- Week 3 Training Log (link)
- Workouts were bunched near the beginning of the week because of a hike planned for Saturday. I also only did bodyweight squats in preparation for the hike. In the end, the hike was cancelled and I ended up snowshoeing instead.
- Purchased Dip Belt for chins and dips
- Started doing ‘Starting Strength’ barbell curls instead of EZ bar Curls
- Top Sets for my ‘Big 5’ :
- Deadlift: 235 lb x 8 reps (going light on legs)
- Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 90 lb x 6 reps
- Chin-up: 4 reps || weighted || 50 lb
- Squat: N/A
- OHP: 75 x 10
Week 4: Jan 27 – Feb 02, 2013
Diet
A normal week in terms of training schedule (M, W, F train). Caloric intake was in line with my goals and on average I lost about 1 lb of body weight for the week.
| Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Fat (g) | Calories | |
| Average | 147 | 207 | 46 | 1804 kCal |
| Rest Day | 84 | 209 | 47 | 1584 kCal |
| Training | 211 | 204 | 46 | 2023 kCal |
Training
- Week 4 Training Log (link)
- Workouts were spread out over 4 days instead of 3, due to my lifting partner’s schedule and my weekend hike.
- I’m noticing that I really need to work on my grip strength. This is very apparent with deadlifts:
- Set 1, no hooks: 255 x 4
- Set 2, with hooks: 255 x 10
- Top Sets for my ‘Big 5’ :
- Deadlift: 255 lb x 10 reps
- Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 90 lb x 7 reps
- Chin-up: 3 reps || weighted || 55 lb
- Squat: N/A
- OHP: 85 x 10
Week 5: Feb 03 – Feb 09, 2013
Diet
Started off week 5 with a well-deserved cheat day (Superbowl Sunday). Struggled with keeping calories and avoiding carbs on ‘non-training’ days during the week. Struggle may be due to a couple of things that are different this week:
- I’m on vacation and at home. Food is more of a temptation
- I’ve been busy moving stuff and doing local hikes when I can. I may be burning more calories than normal
- I saw a big drop in weight and waist measurement mid-week. Have I gotten to the point where I need a break from cutting? I read somewhere that you should only ‘cut’ for ‘x’ consecutive weeks.’ I forget what that number is and am wondering if I’ve reached that point.
Weds at 8pm I gave into the carb cravings and blew the diet. The remainder of the week, I tried to cycle carbs, but had a tough time doing it. Decided to try to get strict again with the new week. If it doesn’t go well, I may need to increase my intake for a couple of weeks.
The information below only includes 2 training and 2 rest days. 2/3 was SuperBowl Sunday, 2/6 I blew the diet and stopped tracking and 2/9 was a hiking day. Rest day carbs have also been creeping up over the last couple of weeks – our oranges trees are loaded with ripe fruit, so I imagine this trend will continue.
| Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Fat (g) | Calories | |
| Average | 163 | 187 | 50 | 1799 kCal |
| Rest Day | 99 | 174 | 52 | 1526 kCal |
| Training | 228 | 200 | 49 | 2073 kCal |
Training
- Week 5 Training Log (link)
- Very active week: multiple short hikes, moving furniture/boxes most days.
- Getting more comfortable with OHP. Starting to use heavier weight and reduce reps
- Top Sets for my ‘Big 5’ :
- Deadlift: 235 lb x 12 reps
- Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 85 lb x 8 reps
- Chin-up: 3 reps || weighted || 60 lb
- Squat: N/A
- OHP: 105 x 4
Week 6: Feb 10 – Feb 16, 2013
Diet
Started the week with a cold. I noticed that I’ve been having a really hard time staying at the 1500 kCal || 1900 kCal goals and will consider increasing my upper limits to 1700 kCal || 2200 kCal for a couple of weeks. It seems that I’m always wanting to eat at least 1600||2100.
I started thinking about how the weight hasn’t been coming off as quickly as I thought it would and decided I needed to do ‘the math’ to figure out how my body composition has changed over the last few weeks:
Week 1 measurements
Weight: ~167 lbs
Bodyfat per http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/: 14.3%
Bodyfat per skin-fold test: 10.7%
Bodyfat per Navel research method: 12.46%
Average Body fat: 12.45%
Lean Body Mass: 146.2 lbs
Lbs of body fat: 20.8 lbs
Week 6 measurements
Weight: ~165.2 lbs
Bodyfat per http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/: 11.9%
Bodyfat per skin-fold test: 9.12%
Bodyfat per Navel research method: 10.08%
Average Body fat: 10.37%
Lean Body Mass: 148.1 lbs
Lbs of body fat: 17.1 lbs
So,
–3.7 lbs of body fat
+1.9 lbs of lean body mass
While I only lost less than 2 lbs of weight, I increased my lean body mass by nearly 2 lbs lost nearly 1/6th of my body fat. This makes me better about my recent struggles.
| Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Fat (g) | Calories | |
| Average | 161 | 191 | 54 | 1882 kCal |
| Rest Day | 83 | 190 | 56 | 1578 kCal |
| Training | 239 | 192 | 51 | 2185 kCal |
Training
- Week 6 Training Log (link)
- Snowshoe trip on Saturday, so a light legs/deadlift week.
- Had a hard time handling 95 lbs dumbbells with no spotter. Will need to go lighter.
- Top Sets for my ‘Big 5’ :
- Deadlift: 215 lb x 10 reps (going light on legs and no straps)
- Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 85 lb x 8 reps, after trouble with 95 x 3
- Chin-up: 4 reps || weighted || 60 lb
- Squat: N/A, did widowmakers(x2), dumbbell squats and goblet squats
- OHP: 105 lb x 4 reps
Week 7: Feb 17 – Feb 23, 2013
Diet
02.19.13 – So far, having a hard time keeping my calories down. It may be time to increase them. If I don’t do this intentionally, I end up eating the calories anyway and not eating what I should. If I plan for it, I will be more disciplined in what I eat. I would like to push through it and complete this 8 week cycle as I started it, but it doesn’t make sense to do so.
I’ve also noticed that when I have a strenuous hike Saturday, I’m not eating nearly enough calories. I may burn 5000 kCals and in the end may eat a total of 4000 if I really force feed myself. Considering my TDEE is around 2200, I’m at a 3200 kCal deficiency for the day when this happens. It doesn’t seem to bug me the day of, but the next couple of days are tough; once I break the fast, I can’t stop eating.
02.20.13 – After last night (becoming voracious around 9pm as my feeding window was closing), I’ve decided to increase my rest day kCals to 1700 and training day kCals to 2200, if I want the extra calories. I’ll try to keep them down, but if I’m hungry, I’m going to eat and not worry about it. I will try to stick to protein for the extra kCals.
After this 8 week cycle ends, I was originally thinking that I would continue to cut at a slower rate, maybe eat at -20/0. Now I’m started to think I should try a stand recomp (-20/+20) and closely watch my measurements to ensure I don’t add body fat.
02.21.13 – Since I am increasing the amount of cardio I have been doing in anticipation for a big upcoming hike, I have decided I need to track the calories burned and eat back at least half of them. I may end up eating 100% of them, but I’ll have to see how it goes. Doing this will obviously skew my data some. I will need to come up with a way to note the increased intake due to cardio.
| Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Fat (g) | Calories Eaten | NET Calories* | |
| Average | 188 | 189 | 71 | 2140 kCal | 2020 kCal |
| Rest Day | 131 | 193 | 70 | 1955 kCal | 1880 kCal |
| Training | 227 | 186 | 71 | 2263 kCal | 2113 kCal |
*Net Calories are calories eaten, minus calories burned during extra cardio work
As you can see in the table above, on average my (net) caloric intake took quite a large jump. I will try to keep this number down for 1 more week, then will reevaluate.
Training
As a result of some scheduling issues, I will be lifting Sunday, Tues, and Thursday. I may be hiking or snowshoeing this weekend, so I’m taking it easy on legs… widowmakers on squat day and bodyweight squats for the days following
- Week 7 Training Log (link)
- My workout on 2/17 suffered as a result of the snowshoe trip on 2/16. My back and legs felt quite sore once I started the workout.
- Top Sets for my ‘Big 5’:
- Deadlift: 225 x 10
- Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 85 lb x 10 reps
- Chin-up: bodyweight x 17 reps (back is sore from using hiking poles)
- Squat: N/A,
- OHP: 105 lb x 5 reps
Week 8: Feb 24 – Mar 3, 2013
Diet
02.25.13 – Still having a hard time keeping my calories down especially on workout days that I end up throwing in some extra cardio. I really wanted to finish out this 8 week period as I had planned it from the beginning, but it is stupid to be stubborn about it. I definitely need to ‘eat-back’ some, if not all of the calories I am burning doing my cardio sessions.
I’ve been thinking about what to do next week after this cycle is over. My plan is eat ‘normal’ for two weeks, starting on 3/4/13. I will still fast for 16 hrs. I plan to keep my net calories (calories eaten – calories burned during cardio) around 2000 kCals per day, but I won’t cycle calories and macros during this period.
| Carbs (g) | Protein (g) | Fat (g) | Calories Eaten | NET Calories* | |
| Average | 223 | 183 | 45 | 2017 kCal | 1945 kCal |
| Rest Day | 118 | 173 | 62 | 1697 kCal | 1607 kCal |
| Training | 293 | 190 | 33 | 2231 kCal | 2171 kCal |
*Net Calories are calories eaten, minus calories burned during extra cardio work
Training
02.25.13 – This week I am gearing my workouts towards getting benchmarks for my ‘big 5’ exercises. My plan is to do this for weeks 9 & 10, so that if I have a bad day, it doesn’t throw off my numbers too much.
02.29.13 – I was able to set several Personal Records (PRs) this week. I’m trying to distinguish the difference between ‘PRs’ I set 15+ years ago and those that are more recent. For the purposes of this blog, I will refer to them as PRs and All-time PRs until I come up with something better.
- Week 8 Training Log (link)
- Top Sets for my ‘Big 5’:
- Deadlift: 305 lbs x 4 reps (PR!)
- Neutral Grip Dumbbell Bench Press: 100 lb x 4 reps (All-time PR!)
- Chin-up: bodyweight x 19 reps (PR!)
- Squat: N/A (big hike Saturday)
- OHP: 115 lb x 3 reps (All-time PR!)