Pre-diabetes and IF cutting log

[BBJT200]

Hello everyone, I've been around here for a while and have worked my ass off for a long, long time with no success in fat loss.
Muscle gains have always come incredibly easy. I was always the stronger, more muscular one growing up, but also fatter and slower.

I've recently found out why due to some blood tests:

Primary hypogonadism (am now on TRT)
Pre-diabetes (insulin resistant)

Basically, the 7 meal a day, caloric deficit approach has literally made my body starve. When you burn up all of your carbs, but are still flooded with insulin, your body still can't use fat for energy. Some strange things happen: Water retention, abdominal fat gain, intolerance to cold, depression, anxiety, and to top the list, I developed an eating disorder because I was literally starving. I would binge and purge because I was literally killing myself, and didn't know it.

SO, I've decided to give intermittent fasting a try. So far, I am LOVING the results. I suppose it's more of a warrior diet for now, but once I get as lean as I want to be, i'll be getting on to the 8-16 split.

This is what my exercise regimine looks like:

AM cardio 1-1.5hrs of low intensity, steady state cardio.

Evening lifting 1hr, followed by 30mins low intensity cardio. 2x/week I will do HIIT instead.

For the most part, I don't eat anything but broccoli, chicken breast, oats, yams, water, and whey protein. My diet is about as clean as you can get, and i've managed to gain muscle AND fat in an extreme caloric deficit. For the longest time, I thought...WTF?! THIS MAKES NO SENSE. I was consuming roughly 1300-1400cals/day while doing this much exercise. I had tried it at 2000 cals, as people warned me of "starvation mode," but I still managed to gain fat doing that much exercise and eating a 'normal' diet.
I started to think...maybe it's metabolic damage from under-eating so much? Well, it didn't turn out to be quite that. Maybe a little, but that was not the big issue at hand.


My benefits so far, after ONLY ONE WEEK:

I am less hungry
I am more mentally satisfied by my 1-2 big meals in a 3 hour window
I can visibly see fat loss.
Digestive problems are GONE. [Frequent diarrhea, followed by an extremely hard and painful BM the following day]
I have more energy than i've ever had in my entire life.
My depression/anxiety is GONE. I've suffered with that for over three years, increasingly worse as I followed the "bodybuilder diet" closer and closer.
I've actually maintained my weight and visibly lost fat, and my BF % measured with hydrostatic weighing has gone down.

I can't believe I bought into all of the broscience and BS that has been passed around for years. After reading Martin Berkham's guide at leangains.com, I'm now questioning everything i've ever been told by the bodybuilding community. It seems that most of it is complete BS. At least his articles are backed by real research and clinical trials.

Anyway...
My goal is to end at around 9% body fat. Started at 16%, currently at 14%. 5'8.5", 170lbs.
I've bounced from 13-18% for the last 6 months. I had hit 10% when I basically didn't eat...at all...for about a month. I got very, very skinny and lost a LOT of muscle.

I'll post some pictures over the last few years. These should be in chronological order. The only time i've ever made progress on fat loss is where I went through a period of just not eating much....ever.



I will be doing a weekly update w\ pictures for the next 12 weeks.

[BBJT200]

My typical day is this:

AM cardio @ 9-10 for about an hour.

10g BCAA's @ 5:55
Lifting from 6-7, feast from 7-11. Sleep from 11-7:30-8am.
Fast is broken with a 50g whey protein shake, followed by a variety of oats, f.f. cottage cheese, chicken breast, broccoli, other veggies, and yams.
Total intake is about 1500 cals/day, TDEE is ~3200cals/day. Aiming for 3lbs/week for the first month, then will drop down to 2lbs/week. I'm trying not to drive myself nuts here, I'm just aiming for in the ballpark of 10% fat for my macros, and 150g-180g protein/day

[RaginCajun]

Congrats on your progress and getting thru some hardships.

I did the IF diet and still do on some days, love it.

It all comes down to hitting your macros on a consistent basis, and finding a way in which it fits into your lifestyle. At least that's the way I see it.

[nkyle90]

This is interesting.
I've always had the same problem, easy muscle and strength yet always "soft" looking

At your age where did you get your bloodwork done?
I'd like to get mine but am reluctant to go to my doctor and ask

I'll be subscribing

[BBJT200]

Congrats on your progress and getting thru some hardships.

I did the IF diet and still do on some days, love it.

It all comes down to hitting your macros on a consistent basis, and finding a way in which it fits into your lifestyle. At least that's the way I see it.

Yep, that's what this program is centered around. You eat 150g protein in one meal? Well...you'll be geting amino's for at least 15 hours from that.
I'm just making sure I keep my protein intake high enough, my fats around 10-15%, and the cleanest carb sources I can get.

This is interesting.
I've always had the same problem, easy muscle and strength yet always "soft" looking

At your age where did you get your bloodwork done?
I'd like to get mine but am reluctant to go to my doctor and ask

I'll be subscribing

I don't have insurance, so this was all cash. When my doctor tried to put me back on antidepressants when I went in describing these symptoms (as well as the "my body doesn't respond normally to a caloric deficit and exercise"), I told him what was on my mind. It's my health, and I'm in charge of it. This is what I think has been going on, and you're going to do these tests for me, or I will go elsewhere. He complied, and was embarrassed as shit when the bloodwork came back.

You don't have to have these tests done if this isn't impacting your life severely. I work in modeling/porn, so this was something much more important for me to sort out than the average person. Most people with this condition won't develop type 2 diabetes unless they get severely overweight. You should try intermittent fasting...it will be a clear way of seeing if you have insulin problems or not. I've gotten myself down to one huge meal a day. Once I'm at least closer to my goal, i'll swap to 2-3 meals in a 4-6hr period.

[BBJT200]

Today's work:
12:30pm-1:30pm: 30 mins rowing, 350cal. 10min break. 20mins biking, 150cals.

6:30-8pm: 1hr lifting, 30 mins walking. (10g BCAA pre-workout)
Had PR'ed on bench, 3 sets of 205x7. I've never been able to get that much up consistently before. Six reps at 205 for one set was my previous max. And this is fasted training.

1600 cals for the day between 8:30-10pm. 11pm now, and I'm just now feeling like i'm not pregnant.
140g protein, roughly 20g fat. 10g from two eggs, and the rest from naturally occuring fats in oats/pasta etc. I take 4g fish oil/day for my EFA's



entire green bell pepper, 2 cups spinach, 2 cups whole wheat pasta, 100 grams steamed broccoli, 2 eggs+6 egg whites, 1/2 cup fat free cottage cheese, 1 cup old fashioned oats(no sugar, no salt)


Eh...STARVING at 11:30 and can't sleep. I had a cup of fat free cottage cheese @ 160cals, 30g protein. I destroyed my chest today and it's one of my lagging body parts, so I guess it probably won't hurt much to add just a bit more protein to digest overnight.

[BBJT200]

Will post pics tomorrow afternoon of the day I started I.F. as well as tomorrow's "friday" update.

[fatman225]

Congrats on getting on IF.

I'm wondering if the eating frequently may have something to do with your low testosterone?

Look up Brad Pilons blog, the one where he talks about testosterone. There seems to be a supressive effect on eating often, that at least in some guys is very harmful to testosterone production.

Anyway, once your body is not always flooded with insulin, the sensativity goes up.

My body got a LOT healthier from IF. Not to mention leaner and better looking.

[BBJT200]

Nah, it was determined that my testicles basically don't function. I wouldn't be surprised if the frequent meals made it worse, though.
I'll check out that blog, that's an interesting bit of information that I hadn't heard before.

I've definitely noticed that I get a huge rush of energy about 20 mins after I eat. I'm assuming this is because my insulin sensitivity is improving. I feel a hell of a lot better in general doing this.

Unfortunately, I accidentally took 3ml (600mcg) of clen instead of 3ml of keto on saturday night. I immediately induced vomiting for about half an hour to make sure I got it up, flushing water in and out of my stomach. My heart rate was in the 150's for a few hours but backed down and was able to get some sleep. I was prepared to go to the hospital if it hit 170-180...but glad I didn't have to go there. I just couldn't believe I did that!

Having to induce vomiting started a bullimic cycle, which destroyed me for a good 16 hours. My old habit took advantage of the situation and really hit me hard. I look terrible, feel terrible, and hate myself right now. My mouth is raw and almost to the point of bleeding, my lips and face are swollen/chapped, and my house is a wreck. I wish that I could say my only reprocussion of mistaking keto for clen was the rapid heart rate. I probably gained in the ballpark of 2-3lbs. :[

Anyways, here's friday's picture:

[RaginCajun]

Nah, it was determined that my testicles basically don't function. I wouldn't be surprised if the frequent meals made it worse, though.
I'll check out that blog, that's an interesting bit of information that I hadn't heard before.

I've definitely noticed that I get a huge rush of energy about 20 mins after I eat. I'm assuming this is because my insulin sensitivity is improving. I feel a hell of a lot better in general doing this.

Unfortunately, I accidentally took 3ml (600mcg) of clen instead of 3ml of keto on saturday night. I immediately induced vomiting for about half an hour to make sure I got it up, flushing water in and out of my stomach. My heart rate was in the 150's for a few hours but backed down and was able to get some sleep. I was prepared to go to the hospital if it hit 170-180...but glad I didn't have to go there. I just couldn't believe I did that!

Having to induce vomiting started a bullimic cycle, which destroyed me for a good 16 hours. My old habit took advantage of the situation and really hit me hard. I look terrible, feel terrible, and hate myself right now. My mouth is raw and almost to the point of bleeding, my lips and face are swollen/chapped, and my house is a wreck. I wish that I could say my only reprocussion of mistaking keto for clen was the rapid heart rate. I probably gained in the ballpark of 2-3lbs. :[

Anyways, here's friday's picture:

i noticed this when ingesting my first meal of the day also on IF.

keep up the progress!

[fatman225]

Anyways, here's friday's picture:

You look pretty good, especially for a guy who has low test.

I suggest stop barfing. Don't beat yourself up over the slip, just move forward.

Also, you don't need the clen or keto right now. You are already very lean, and those things are more for a guy who is already lean, has a contest getting close and is behind the clock on how lean he is. You could easily get more ripped just by eating less calories, but wait on that until your testosterone levels are stable. I don't suggest stims or severe caloric resriction when testosterone is low.

At this point its best to get your hormones stable, get your testosterone level and dose figured out. Glad you got a script for it. Did you get IM cyp or enth? Able to do it at home? what dose?

If you want to maintain low bodyfat (and you are already low bodyfat) then just keep the calories at maintanence level. If it takes 2300 for you to maintain, then that is what you must eat in your eating window.