Consistency. It's not a pizza topping.

209.2 again this morning. Still seem to look better in the mirror every day, but this damn well better not be that **** that was happening last time. I know my body can easily drop 2.4 lbs a week at this weight, why does weight training make it... not? The only explanation is that I'm gaining muscle, but I find it very hard to believe that it can be enough to offset all the fat loss. If this continues, it'll be the same thing that happened last time. Really quite irritating. I mean, I'm eating at a 2500 calorie deficit. Somebody throw me a fricken bone here. (It's not that I'm undereating, last time I stayed right at or around a 1200 calorie deficit). Anyway, I'm getting ahead of things, but I'm not gonna screw around with waiting this time. I'll give it a week, maybe a week and a half of maintaining and then I'll try TNT. I'll give it maybe a month of that, and if I haven't seen some drastic changes in the mirror (and/or the weight), I'll drop the weight training entirely. I know that may sound stupid to some of you, but at some point it comes down to simply doing what works. I'm not here to screw around.

Wonder how my strength will be when I hit the weights today. Gonna read TNT and NROL this afternoon. Thinkin' I shoud maybe hit up NROL fat loss. Do some endurance work. On the bike, my endurance massively exceeds my power, but with the weight, my power exceeds my endurance. Still have this feeling that shifting the focus of my weight training to endurance might give me better results (not that they aren't good), and that's how NROL starts, if I recall correctly.
 
Last edited:
Just wanted to pop in and say that Biotest Surge kicks ****ing ass. I've now tried every flavor, and they're all good. **** yeah I'll pay $2/serving for a PWO that's got most of what one supposedly needs, mixes perfectly with almost no foam and tastes like liquid ice cream, or a smoothy, or whatever. Shiet, should have tried this stuff much earlier. Anyway, I'm well pleased. Now to see if I can move any weight. :)

I'm sure I'll be sick of the sweet taste very soon, but for the record, it started off tasting good... just like everything else. :p
 
Last edited:
about your plateau... dude, a 2500 calorie defecit each day? I am reading "the ketogenic diet" right now and having that big of a defecit is not recommended. There is a floor apparently where too big of a defecit doesn't cause extra weight loss just decreased metabolic rate.. damn man, how many calories are you eating each day to create that large of a defecit?

I really think you should try keto, just think, when you are on the bike burning off 1500 calories all of it will come from fat! Some dietary, some bodyfat, but hey... better than coming from carbs! Ya know?

EDIT: Also I made a thread about metabolism.... it's some very useful stuff... here is what it says:

Take your temperature:

It is the best indicator of metabolic rate fluctuations. An decrease of 1 degrees = a 10% drop in metabolic rate and a gain of 1 degree indicates a 10% increase in metabolic rate.

Take it in the mornings before doing anything for accurate results...!

I found it a very useful piece of info... if your metabolism is dropping then that's bad obviously.
 
realworksuks said:
about your plateau... dude, a 2500 calorie defecit each day? I am reading "the ketogenic diet" right now and having that big of a defecit is not recommended. There is a floor apparently where too big of a defecit doesn't cause extra weight loss just decreased metabolic rate.. damn man, how many calories are you eating each day to create that large of a defecit?

I really think you should try keto, just think, when you are on the bike burning off 1500 calories all of it will come from fat! Some dietary, some bodyfat, but hey... better than coming from carbs! Ya know?

EDIT: Also I made a thread about metabolism.... it's some very useful stuff... here is what it says:

Take your temperature:

It is the best indicator of metabolic rate fluctuations. An decrease of 1 degrees = a 10% drop in metabolic rate and a gain of 1 degree indicates a 10% increase in metabolic rate.

Take it in the mornings before doing anything for accurate results...!

I found it a very useful piece of info... if your metabolism is dropping then that's bad obviously.
Click to expand...

Hmmm. Interesting advice. I'll definitely try that out. The temperature, I mean.

Thing is, I don't think I'm decreasing my metabolism because a) I have ****lots of energy, b) I feel hot all the time, and c) I'm making consistent strength gains. It's not that I'm not eating much to create that deficit, it's the cycling. At my weight, 2 hours a day of cycling is an instant 1.5k deficit, even if I eat as much as I can get down the rest of the day (1500-2000 calories most of the time). If I eat at my target, it adds up to between 2 and 3k on days where I'm not weight training (on which my pre, during and post workout nutrition adds around a thousand calories to my daily total).

I would love to try keto. As I said, if I don't see inches going down or scale numbers or obvious changes in photos or something I will transition into keto before you can blink.

I realize 1500-2500 calorie deficits are excessive, but I suspect my basal metabolism is close to 500 calories lower than average. I believe this is the case because I have been basically sedentary for the last 10 or so years of my life! Last year when I was eating at a 1000-1500 calorie deficit for a couple months, my weight hardly budged at all. I lost about 7 lbs in 3 months, with little to show for it in the mirror. But, I wasn't taking measurements, so who knows. This time I'm paying a lot more attention, I think. There's also my strong suspicion that the calories burned estimates in my formulas are significantly off. But mostly, I happen to know for a fact that a large deficit works for me. It has in the past, under almost the same conditions. The only difference is the addition of weight training. (And much better food choices - the ratios are still mostly the same).

Having said all that, I do appear to be gaining strength quickly. This was also the case last time I started this stuff up. It's perfectly possible that I was putting on muscle almost in proportion to the fat I was burning, and thus not seeing any obvious indicators of what may have been excellent progress. Unlikely, though, as I've said in other posts.

Edit: Come to think, it might be a great idea for me to track down somewhere here in town I can get underwater weighing done. I've got no problem paying whatever they charge for some peace of mind. :)
 
Last edited:
yeah man, bodyfat tests are so useful... I am lucky that one of the trainers at my college does it for me for free!

I would look into finding a place that does do skin caliper testing if money is an issue at all, I know the YMCA does it.

But yeah, underwater weighing would be sweet if you can find a place that does it..

And yeah, it is a possibility you are gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time... I remember when I hadn't lifted weights in a couple years the bodyfat tests were showing me gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time for the first month.
 
01/31/2008

Today's weight training:

[Number coloring: Improvement | Decline | No Change | Δ]

Bent-Over Row x15 @ 40lbs
Straight-Legged Deadlift x15 @ 40lbs
60s Rest

Bent-Over Row x8 @ 100 lbs
Sumo Deadlift x20 (+5) @ 100 lbs
60s Rest

Bench Press x 15 @ 65lbs
Standing Bicep Curl x15 @ 20lbs
60s Rest

Bench Press x16 (+2) @ 85lbs
Standing Bicep Curl x14 (+1) @ 40 lbs
60s Rest

Straight-Legged Deadlift x 15 @ 50lbs
Military Press x15 @ 20lbs
60s Rest

Straight-Legged Deadlift x15 @ 130 (+30) lbs
Military Press x10 (+1) @ 40 lbs
60s Rest

Dumbbell Squat x15 @ 50lbs
Close-Grip Bench Press x15 @ 20 lbs
60s Rest

Dumbbell Squat x18 (+5) @ 110 lbs
Close-Grip Bench Press x14 (+2) @ 65 lbs

Total time: 40.5 (+2) mins​

Thoughts:
Bitch-slapped by the rows, again (think I went up too high, but I refuse to lower the weight, hahaha), but other than that, it was a banner day. Bruce Banner. Look at that RDL. That’s messed up. Last time I could barely do 15 at 100, this time 15 at 130 almost felt easy.

And a special note for the squats. I got to 15 and I thought I was done. Then out of nowhere I just yelled at myself, "YOU’RE STILL STANDING, AREN’T YOU? " Hahahaha. Glorious. I bet the neighbors thought someone was beating his wife or some other disturbing thing was going on. I didn’t just grind out the next 3 reps, I launched them. Like missiles. Only reason I stopped at 18 was because I could feel I was about to pull something in my right calf. Then I lay there on the ground for a couple seconds before getting up to do my CG BP’s, and man were they hard. Workin’ on fumes and ****. I love eet. :D

I only used the straps on the dumbbell squat work set.

Also, the time is red for conformity purposes. I'm actually quite satisfied with it. Seems about right. Could push it down to 35 mins if I didn't stop moving, but it'd be a race.​

Edit: 90 mins stationary cycling, 30.0 miles, 1277 calories
 
Last edited:
90 mins stationary cycling, 30.0 miles, 1277 calories

The amount of energy I have after my weight training and (I think, especially) pwo nutrition is crazy. I was firing on extra cylinders today. And the same cycling was less taxing than it was yesterday (though it was 30 mins less, same pace).

Maybe I need to be eating more? But it's tons of energy vs. lots, not tons vs. none. :)
 
Last edited:
209.4

Gragh. Not this **** again. How am I gaining weight at this deficit? I was really expecting to see it go down a couple lbs today. If I am putting on muscle, I'm some kind of a mutant. I mean, imagine what would happen if I actually tried to bulk. :p

Edit: I had a good, biological reason for expecting the loss, btw. Just trying to avoid more TMI for a little while. :D
 
Last edited:
if you're gao gaining weight then you're at a calorie surplus, there's no other way to gain weight.
Why do you say you're in a deflict? how do you know?
 
Karky said:
if you're gao gaining weight then you're at a calorie surplus, there's no other way to gain weight.
Why do you say you're in a deflict? how do you know?
Click to expand...

Beginner's gains, Karky? There's also the possibility of nonstandard genetics, though this seems unlikely as soon as one asks the question "well, how did you get fat in the first place?" :p I was an obvious mesomorph as a kid, before I got sedentary and fat.

I say I'm in a deficit because I'm eating far less than my maintenance calories for the 3 months prior to this, and expending an extra 1000-1500 calories per day through exercise.

Before I started up my diet consisted of 1 XL deep dish pizza and a bottles of orange crush (that's a type of cola, sugar in) a day and I was MAINTAINING, Karky. Sometimes I feel like nothing I've learned about exercise or nutrition applies to me, haha. But, I'll soldier on. I told myself I wouldn't get whiny and give up like I did last time. ****, if this is an excuse to try keto, all the better.

I am allowing myself to whine, though. It's soothing. :D

Edit: To be more clear, the "most accurate" calorie calculators I've found would indicate that I am in a 1250-1500 calorie deficit daily (on average), assuming my bike is overreporting my calorie expenditure by 100% (which is clearly not the case, I've tested and run some numbers).

Edit: I also know that what I'm doing now will cause me to lose weight, and quickly, when the only difference is the omission of weight training. I have lost successfully, in the past. 110 lbs, to be exactly. Combined with the fact that I am gaining strength and endurance quite quickly, and that I feel leaner, it doesn't really leave a lot of room or other possibilities, does it?

At least, I hope so. I really don't want to have to do anything stupid like dropping the weight routine and going down to skinny fat, then having to go through a couple of bulk/cut cycles. I mean I'll have to anyway (the bulk and cut cycles), but I'd like to see solid results in 5 months time, if at all possible. I realize this is a bit of wishful thinking, but I don't think it's wishful thinking to expect consistent fat loss when I'm carrying an extra 50-60 lbs of it and doing everything "right" as far as I know. I could hardly eat less or exercise more. Unless someone out there wants to call me lazy. :p
 
Last edited:
you can't gain weight with a calorie deflict, where would the extra weight come from? You're body can't gain mass without anything left to build mass from.
You're metabolism could have been screwed up when you figured out your maintnence level if you had been eating very little just before that.
How many cals are you eating per day now? Could you be counting cals wrong? If you're in a very high deflict maybe your body has reduced it's functiones to make up for the loss thus lowering your maintnence level? Have you felt tired in any way since you started with such a big deflict?
 
Karky said:
you can't gain weight with a calorie deflict, where would the extra weight come from? You're body can't gain mass without anything left to build mass from.
You're metabolism could have been screwed up when you figured out your maintnence level if you had been eating very little just before that.
How many cals are you eating per day now? Could you be counting cals wrong? If you're in a very high deflict maybe your body has reduced it's functiones to make up for the loss thus lowering your maintnence level? Have you felt tired in any way since you started with such a big deflict?
Click to expand...

Karky, I have 60 lbs of fat stores. Of course I could gain weight. It's not the most likely of physiological responses, but it could be happening. If it is, I'm confused. If it isn't... I'm confused, haha.

The maintenance I gave you was just to drive home the point that I am very likely in a deficit. When I do nothing and get no exercise while eating 2200-2600 calories a day, I maintain my weight. This has been the case for 10'ish years. When I eat significantly more, I gain. I'm currently eating an average of 1700 calories a day, zigzagging based on whether I did any weight training (WO nutrition) and how hungry I was throughout the day. I know this because I'm recording and tracking the exact numbers (if you like, I'll show the charts of my macronutrient and micronutrient intakes). I'm currently expending a minimum of 1200 calories a day through additional exercise alone. More than 1500 on weight training days.

By my math, that puts me at a minimum daily deficit of 1700 calories. Which, as I said, is more than sufficient to stimulate mass weight loss, when I'm not weight training. And I'm not tired at all. My energy levels are much higher than they were prior to adopting my current eating and exercising habits. I am also gaining muscular strength and endurance, both. Given these observations, what other explanation can you come up with?
 
Last edited:
This discussion reminds me... Today, I need to seriously look into hydrostatic weighing. Simply knowing for sure would be of tremendous benefit for me. Not in terms of motivation, because I've already committed myself, but in ensuring steady progress. I don't like wasting time. -_-
 
if you are eating less than you are burning, how could you possibly gain weight?
Even if you lose fat and gain muscle at the same time, gaining or losing weight will depend on surplus or deflict (as a newbie, you can be gaining muscle and losing fat whether you are going up or down in weight)

I'm sure you have the ability to gain weight, if you eat a surplus. You weigh yourself in the morning right after waking up, right?

I do agree that it's really weird though, but your body simply can't gain mass without the food to build it. Though, I can't really explain how you would be gaining weight either from your cal intake.. it's really weird. The only logical explaination I can come up with is that your body has gone into "starvation mode"
 
Karky said:
I'm sure you have the ability to gain weight, if you eat a surplus. You weigh yourself in the morning right after waking up, right?

I do agree that it's really weird though, but your body simply can't gain mass without the food to build it. Though, I can't really explain how you would be gaining weight either from your cal intake.. it's really weird. The only logical explaination I can come up with is that your body has gone into "starvation mode"
Click to expand...

Yep, every morning, immediately upon waking. Same routine, every day.

See, the thing is, I agree with you. It just doesn't make any sense to me. After reading that article on sodium, though, I'm thinking maybe I need to get more salt. I'd be shocked if I'm getting 2g of sodium in a day, and Abel says I need to be getting that much for each litre of water I drink? Holy Jebus that's a lot of pickles. I need to get a salt lick. Like a horse. :D

Yeah, the thing is, I've never had issues with "starvation mode" prior to the last couple years. In the past, "starving" myself worked great. Not that I'm saying it's a good idea, at all, I'm just saying I'm not convinced it's the culprit. And I'm not hungry! Most days I try to eat a little more, if I can. I mean, I don't try very hard, but I do try. :p I did mention that I've tried eating at a more "moderate" calorie deficit of 800-1000 (using the same calculations), right?

I dunno. I guess the next few days will be telling. Definitely need to look into that underwater weighing, though. It'd be real nice to know.

Edit: I'm wondering if I should maybe try coming at things from the other direction by bulking for 3 months (and hopefully resetting my metabolism) before returning to a cut? But I've never heard of anyone training for physique bulking at what is probably 25-30% body fat. Haha.
 
Last edited:
well don't get upset because you don't drop every day. I'd rather just weigh myself once a week, since then you got more time to see change.
 
Well if you come up with an answer, let me know. I used to eat fast food AT LEAST once a day, if not twice or even three times. When I wasn't eating 'meals' I was eating ice cream or chips or something else dumb. The only exercise I got was walking to the music building, which is like, 100 yds away.

I don't eat any fast food anymore, I don't snack on ice cream and my roommate's donuts, I weight train three times a week and I get cardio around three times a week. However, I seem to be gaining weight....

The thought that I was some muscle building mutant also crossed my mind. Maybe my bones are adamantium and if I concentrate real hard I can make claws come out of my fists.
 
Karky said:
well don't get upset because you don't drop every day. I'd rather just weigh myself once a week, since then you got more time to see change.
Click to expand...

Haha, yeah, I know. I'm not upset, yet. I'm just speculating. Honestly, it's something to do other than sit around being bored at "work". :p The only reason I actually weigh myself every day is so I can make neat charts.

But it's been a few days, and last time it was a couple months. I decided from the start that I'd do a review every two weeks, and if I didn't like the results, I would make a change. Stickin' with that plan.
 
kittyhartman26 said:
However, I seem to be gaining weight....

The thought that I was some muscle building mutant also crossed my mind. Maybe my bones are adamantium and if I concentrate real hard I can make claws come out of my fists.
Click to expand...

It could be any number of things, kitty. The keys are consistency and appropriately-spaced review periods. All this rambling I'm doing now, it's just the mind playing tricks. Don't be following my example. It's not healthy. ;)

I have this happy little delusion that in 5 months time I'll have corrected 10 years of treating my body like ****. Which is fine, imo, right up until the point when I start making decisions based on it. Realistically, it will be more like 1.5-2 years. Had I not let this kind of **** get to me last year, I'd be half way there by now.


I think, for the moment, I'll try raising my sodium intake. Can't hurt. I'm always craving salt, so it's good to know there's a reason. Gonna have to figure out how to get anywhere near enough, though...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top