Good results this week… not quite as big a drop as I’d've liked to have seen, but will put that down to the following:
So this is a bit of a surprise:
So – let’s work through the logic. I’ve increased my calorie intake by about 500-1000 cals per day. I lost 2lbs of weight. Hmmm. Confused much?
I am.
I think the whole carb approach explains this… the fact that I’ve cut carbs right down, and particularly removed them from the evening meal.
What this is telling me, is that I certainly haven’t reached maintenance yet! Not by a long shot. Which means my metabolism is running HIGH! It’s just destroying all the fat in my system.
I’m not quite at my all time low body fat level of 16.8% / 27.7lbs, but I’m 0.2% off it, or 0.5lbs, so that’s not much.
Reiterating what I said earlier today, I feel like I’ve grown… and I certainly feel strength gains from this week! So I’m quite surprised that muscle’s gone down… but the feel good factor is really engaging me. What’s going to be interesting is how much food I’m now going to have to eat to support this body of mine. Argh. I didn’t quite anticipate this big a change, but hey – this is the first week of this change… the body’s adapting. Next week may be entirely different!
On that note… looking towards the next few weeks, things are going to get a bit insane… 3 weeks from now I’m moving into the loft. Next week will be as good as the week just gone. Minus the ZMAs, so potentially even better 
The following week has a long weekend and my PDI early on Tues morning, so I’m going to have to cram my training together somehow :s (depending on whether I’m going out of town that weekend or not – we’ll see). Nutrition should also be good.
The following week is going to be the tough one – that’s the one when I move into the new place :s I can’t anticipate how that’s going to go down. All I know is that the weekend will be quite intense and I’ll have quite the workout from moving all the furniture around! We’ll see how that pans out
What I’m trying to say is that I have another two weeks to really focus and get the best out of this plan… then I’ll be off base for a short while moving… and then back on track for a few more weeks at the new gym, before I (fingers crossed) am away on holiday and then phase 4 starts. Right now things are insane… so much going on… it’s like a jigsaw where all the pieces aren’t quite fitting :s But it’ll work. Gym and nutrition is my base… it’s a form of stability that I’m very appreciative of right now. Phew.
Going to delve straight into the results:
So what I thought would happen, has happened… I’ve put on too much fat – a total of 1.6lbs. But, compensating for that, is the fact that I’ve also put on 1.1lbs of muscle! And that’s pretty huge.
So it tells me a few things:
So for next week:
Of course, all of this change in focus starts to impede my goal of 12-15% bf by the time I get to my next trip. I’m perfectly satisfied where I am right now - aesthetically - although certainly want to push things further. I’m going to see if I can find that balance – having no chocolate tart from Andy (damn it was good), no fried foods (damn Horseshoe Valley), and no pizzas (damn friends)… that should really help things out this coming week. I somewhat hope that I go under again, so I can enjoy more food But we’ll see. This week was good – and the results were favourable given the circumstances!
UPDATE
I’ve been thinking about some of the goals I put up for next week, and I’m going to take one of them off the table – I’m not going to include SuperPump in my training regime yet. Reasons are a fewfold: cost of it – wrong time, ability to take – there’s insufficient time between pre-workout and workout. I’ll start taking it when I move into the loft… I’ll have sufficient time on my walk up to the gym to be able to take it, for it to kick in, and for the world to be right again 
So let’s throw directly into it:
Interesting… so I’ve increased my calorie intake significantly this week, and I’m still losing weight. My big concern here is that I’m still losing muscle – or at least that’s what it’s telling me. That I lost 0.9lbs of muscle this past week. I’m quite surprised at that. I didn’t think that’d happen this time, given the additional calories, etc… that I’ve been injesting.
Altogether, not bad… I’d still like to see the muscle degredation stop… but I’ll have to see about adding additional calories next week.
In addition, this week may be a bit fuzzy due to the coming off of the Animal Cuts last week… I don’t know.
It’s all positive, but just for losing 1.3lbs of bodyfat, yet it meaning only 0.3% of bodyfat, that doesn’t make sense… 0.3% bf at 167.5lbs = 0.5lbs. So – in reality, based on those numbers, I should have lost ~0.7% bodyfat… but it hasn’t worked. I’m not following. Ewwww. Damn numbers name again :s
So I was right! These results aren’t that profound… and it tells me a LOT about Animal Cuts
I’m not going to have an immediately strong reaction to this. But here are some insights:
At first blush – here’s my reaction – there’s no hail mary here. There’s no quick fix to getting to the 12-15% goal. I’m not far off by any means… in fact, by putting on this amount of weight (yet only putting on 0.1% bodyfat), I’m getting to a more reliable bodyfat percentage I like that!
This is interesting… I’ll post more comments as I let it settle… as well as discussing next steps. I know the first one is to completely come off of the Animal Cuts
OK – Animal Cuts has to be the MOST INSANE product ever launched (or, more specifically), that I’ve ever tried. Here are my results:
Seriously. Seriously.
Like – SERIOUSLY?
Losing 4.1% since Mon. Oh – and I should state that Mon was late night, after a McDonalds and plenty of ice cream, as well as reasonable levels of stress. It was also at a different time of day – so there would definitely be some considerable body changes from them to today.
But like – SERIOUSLY? Losing 4.1 percentage points of bodyfat. Apparently gaining muscle (probably just water as I’ve been drinking a lot this week), but losing almost 10lbs of fat? WHAT THE HELL?
The last time I took Animal Cuts, I had exceptional results, but they were nothing like this. Nothing at all. This is unbelievable. And I believe it’s the lowest body fat percentage I’ve ever been at. Sure, I wish I could actually see my abs at this point, but they aren’t playing ball. Apparently ~15% is when that’s going to happen.
I think my body needs to do some catching up!
Also – I think this is the perfect time to engage in that new eating plan – more carbs, protein and generally more self-sustaining. This is a very good thing.
So – looking at my results… if I want to achieve my optimal levels of bodyfat:
12% is within reach! Wow. This is kind of insane… and fantastic at the same time. Again – my goal is 155lbs at the absolute minimum. Whatever bodyfat level that’ll give me. Then – the goal is to increase total weight to 160lbs (before Mexico?)… and then 170lbs by the end of the year, while maintaining the same level of body fat.
Then the goal is to add around 10lbs of muscle per year. But that’s something I ought to talk about elsewhere.
But hey – this is amazing. And probably completely devastating to the body. Wow.
Next week will be more of a realistic experience – I won’t have had the stress of Newark, coming back, eating bad, etc… it’ll be more of a level-headed approach. We’ll see the results there.
OK – this is incredible… and I’m going to call this out:
I lost 0.5% bodyfat – I’m at 20.1%!!!!!!
That’s incredible! I was looking at my scale, and when I saw that I’d only lost a little bit of weight, I was like – that’s better than I thought… but somehow I managed to lose a total of 0.5% bf! That’s insane!
Anyway – here are my itemized results:
This is great! It’s incredible how I’ve been able to only lose 1.5lbs, yet equate it to 0.5% bodyfat. That’s really awesome.
And I have to admit… this diet / workout plan is definitely working! Something that I’ve lost… whether it’s the whiteness… aka the potatoes, the white bread, etc… or something else, this is really having a huge impact on me. These results are somewhat being sustained from week to meet. Last week, 0.6% (with exacting nutrition), and this week 0.5% (with terrible weekend nutrition). That’s what I find so hilarious – that on the weekend I had a diet of brownies and pizza, and yet I still lose this!
That’s what’s starting to make me think that perhaps I am more of a mesomorph than an endomorph (I’ve got a post in draft right now that I’ll upload shortly)… my eating habits have created a physique that’s more akin to an endomorph… but with work, it’s turning out that I may be more of a mesomorph. Why do I think that? Well, I find it reasonably easy to lose weight… I’m 2.5 months into this, and have lost a total of 24lbs now. To the same extent, the previous phase / stage, while I didn’t gain lots and lots of weight, I gained HUGE size, quickly. They’re both indicators of a mesomorph – which is kinda the ideal body type. But I’m still going to temper that with a meso and a tendency towards endo.
Anyways – great news. I’m excited. I’m highly motivated! And let’s watch that scale go down, since this weekend is good nutrition and SNOWBOARDING!!! YAY
I’m just gonna dive in… you can assume all nutrition and training was pretty awesome today…
This is huge. And this is all due to diet this week… and training. 3lbs of loss is back to the level I was losing when I started this whole experience. So – it’s a huge improvement from the 0.4 / 0.5lbs from a couple of weeks back. I’ve definitely kick started something! So something’s going right.
I’m very satisfied with this. As for the whole losing 1lb of additional muscle. Don’t really know what that’s about. It could just be water retention, since this week I’ve been cutting out most of my salt… because don’t want any of that holding me down!
It’s funny – that bodyfat figure keeps confusing me… I keep thinking I’m making it… but then I ‘apparently’ lose more and more muscle! Anyways – I’m close to the lightest I’ve ever been, and am certainly fitting into clothes that I haven’t fitted into in quite some time!
I was chatting to one of my colleagues this morning at work, and I’m sure that I don’t want to go smaller than a 32″ waist. Even if that means my 32″ pants become too baggy for me. I’m happy with that. 32″ is a satisfactory waist size for me… I’ve been 29-30″ before now, and I didn’t like myself at that level. 32″ is perfect for me… and I’m close to it.
I also am starting to get a flatter and flatter stomach… surprisingly that’s flattening before I get to flatten those love handles! So I can see this is going to be a fun experience All’s good nonetheless!!!!
I’m happy and excited after today. These are good results, and show with a certain amount of dedication and perseverance, that results are doable, without stimulating supplements.
First up – just did my cardio. Didn’t push too hard – end of the week and all. But it went well! Very good indeed.
So onto results:
So these are REALLY interesting results… increased on every scale… but apparently put on 0.6lbs of muscle this week. Interesting. Not sure where the whole 0.3lbs of fat came from??? Well, probably the pizza and cupcakes from last weekend – it was a bit of a splurge
The good thing is that while I’ve gone up an entire 1lb of weight, I’m only up 0.1% bf. That’s good!!! Very good indeed. It means that I don’t need to be too skinny in the near future
I’m a tad upset that I didn’t proceed going down, but I guess the body needs to adjust back to accommodate for all the crazy that happened last week with the fat burner. The body’s getting back its jive… and I’m happy to support it. In my opinion, this is all good. Next week – therefore – will be another test for the nutrition plan. I just want one week where I can tell if it’s working… first week was confused with the fat burner, this week was confused by the non-existance of the fat burner. Hopefully next week there won’t be anything to interfere – but I know with saying that, that something’ll now happen to fuck it all up!
I know I’m not in the weekend yet… but I have high hopes for maintaining good nutrition over the weekend… apart from the brownie I have staring at me right now Muhahahaha. And going out for dinner tomorrow night… will probably try to be reasonably good – only a glass of wine. Perhaps. We’ll see. Life still has to happen…
OK – so I have to admit that I had to do a bit of a double take when I saw my results today. They’re quite astonishing:
That’s quite the impressive loss over a week – 7lbs. That’s HUGE! But the loss of another 3lbs of muscle is also huge. And that’s a big concern. When I looked at these results, I didn’t expect that. I thought the fat burner was meant to just burn fat, not muscle. So it’s probably a good thing that I’m stopping it for the time being.
See – what I don’t know right now is how much of the above results are down to the fat burner, and how much is down to the nutrition plan. This past week has been incredible for the nutrition plan. I’ve been so good. No white foods, no white flour, no sauces… it’s been turkey and chicken with wholegrain rice and pasta all week. It’s been a lot easier than I had anticipated – so that’s a good thing.
But – given that I’ve stopped taking the fat burner, we’ll see what next week begins. Of course, I’m not going to expect results in the same league again. That’d be a bit silly. But this is a huge drop – in fat as well as muscle (which is somewhat sad). Although – what I may suggest is that this fat burner also burns off a lot of water… since water is treated the same as muscle by the scale, it may have just been reading water loss – that could explain a lot of the results. Perhaps. So they’re inflated artificially. But – being devil’s advocate, I could just be trying to rationalize an insane reduction in muscle. We’ll see.
What I do know is that this is a huge motivator. And I’m hoping it’ll’ve got me over my little hump. As of next week, I’m back to basics. This insight into nutrition has been huge, and mightily valuable. Next week will be an interesting week to determine how much of the loss this week was due to the fat burner, how much down to water loss and how much down to nutrition. A good mix. This was a good week. No wonder I could tell a change! And I’m far closer now to be goal of 20% bodyfat! In fact, if I’m extremely lucky, I may be there by the end of next week… I only need to lose about 1.8lbs of fat, and I’m there… 3 weeks early! Yippee We’ll see…
