Weekly Progress Thread

[warlockjmr]

Okay so starting a new progress thread as I'm 100% throwing myself into my new regime and wanted a clean slate to be able to track my progress.

Meal plan is such


PWO Shake 1

Diet Fuel Power 1 scoop
Skimmed Milk 400ml

P = 20.4g C = 18g F = 1.2g

Meal 1
250g Chicken
1 x uncle bens basmati rice
Steamed Broccoli

P = 87.2 C = 77 F = 4g

Meal 2
150g Frying Steak
2TBSP Olive Oil
Spinach

P = 32g C = 0 F = 33g

Meal 3
250g Chicken
1 x uncle bens basmati rice
Steamed Broccoli

P = 87.2 C = 77 F = 4g

Meal 4 (low carb meal before sleep so fasted AM card is more effective)
150g Frying Steak
2TBSP Olive Oil
Spinach

P = 32g C = 0 F = 33g


PWO Shake 2 (put in whenever needed from workout)
Diet Fuel Power 1 scoop
Skimmed Milk 400ml

P = 20.4g C = 18g F = 1.2g


Totals Calories 2688

277g protein

85g fat

190g Carbs

Trying to keep carbs and Fats separate. Going to make sure I get the food in me but not sticking to a strict timetable, I'd rather eat when I feel hungry than eat at a set time and then feel like shit later on because I'm starving.

Training, based around strength training but my body seems to respond well to working at 80% with progressive loading techniques. Managed to build strength and mass whilst cutting before which was awesome.

For example my highest set of three box squats is 200kg so I'll be doing box squats at 160kg but loading it and unloading changing the resistance

Squats 165kg x 3 160kg x 3 162.5kg x 3 165kg x 3

Second week I will double this third week I will triple the amount of sets I do, fourth week I will drop sets right back and add 10kg to the weight rather than 5kg and start again.

Monday Lower Body Pressing: Squats 160
Dead lifts: 170

Assistance work, one legged squats 4 x 10 each leg
Straight leg raises 4 x 15
If I still have energy do a horrible set on the leg press where we start with about 200kg and then do sets of five putting 50kg on each set until we cant complete the set. When we get to this point we drop back to around 150-200kg and then rep out. Its enough to make you puke but its awesome.

Tuesday Upper Body Pressing: Push press 60kg
Incline Barbell 70kg
Chest Press 80kg
Assistance work: One arm dumbbell row 30kg. sets of 10, 12 14 and then rep out
Lat pull downs 4 sets of 10-12


Thursday: Lower Body Pressing same as monday but assistance will be heavy good mornings 4 sets of 10-12 (no glue ham raise machines in my gym but there are in the proper rugby team gym )
stomach pull downs 4 sets of 12-15
Seated cleans. 3 sets of 8-10

Friday: Upper body pressing
Assistance work

JM Press
dumbell tricep extensions

Cardio:

Mon-Friday AM fasted cardio 30 minutes to start with because I'm rubbish at cardio and need to build up my running again.



Problems I may encounter

1. I'm a student so all my food has been done on a budget I need to be able to afford to eat haha.
2. I work as a doorman at the weekend so that can really throw off my sleeping patterns, will try and include cardio on the weekends but usually I'm shattered from work where I'm switched on for about 5-7 hours.
3. I love to socialise, like I said I'm at university and I enjoy going out. I'm not going to shut down my drinking 100% because I know thats not going to happen and if I lapse in one area of the plan I know from experience its likely to screw up the entire thing. Instead I'm going to allow myself one night a week with the lads and try to keep it moderate. I know for a fact that when I'm dieting and training properly I become a massive light weight anyway so this shouldn't be too difficult!


Progress:
I've not bothered with weighing myself this time as I don't really think it shows me much on a week to week basis. I'll weight myself once tomorrow and then again in say four weeks. I am into progress photo's though and will be taking one every week when I update this on a Sunday. I probably won't be putting them up though because I am quite heavily tattooed and its quite easy to recognise people through this!

[Back In Black]

Without reading much of this how are you basing the macro's on your chicken? Cooked? It should be the uncooked weight/macro's you are using. Whereas your steak macro's appear to be from uncooked weight?

[warlockjmr]

It should be uncooked but I may have made a cock up using myfitnesspal to find the macros for it. I'll double check, thanks for pointing that out!

Weight wise, I do everything uncooked.

[warlockjmr]

It would appear it was uncooked but if this doesn't seem to be right I will re do it. Looking through some of the other threads my chicken protein macros seem to be off, I've seen about 50g protein for 125g uncooked chicken? Not sure if what my macro counter is telling me at the moment!

[Back In Black]

100g raw chicken breast will yield approx 22g protein and approx 3G of fat. Hope that helps.

[warlockjmr]

Ah balls that would put me at a total of 213g of protein a day so I need to find another 60 odd. I'll recalculate it and amend it. Cheers Stem, would of definitely missed that if you hadn't said.

EDIT

Here is my revised edition

PWO Shake 1

Diet Fuel Power 2 scoop
Skimmed Milk 400ml

P = 32g C = 26g F = 2g

Meal 1
350g Chicken
225g x uncle bens basmati rice
Steamed Broccoli

P = 77g C = 67.5 F = 10.5g

Meal 2
150g Frying Steak
2TBSP Olive Oil
Spinach

P = 32g C = 0 F = 33g

Meal 3
250g Chicken
225g uncle bens basmati rice
Steamed Broccoli

P = 77g C = 67.5 F = 10.5g

Meal 4 (low carb meal before sleep so fasted AM card is more effective)
150g Frying Steak
1TBSP Olive Oil
Spinach

P = 32g C = 0 F = 20g


PWO Shake 2 (put in whenever needed from workout)
Diet Fuel Power 1 scoop
Skimmed Milk 400ml

P = 32g C = 26g F = 2g


Totals Calories 2562

282g protein 1128 cal

78g fat 702 cal

183g Carbs 732 cal

Also want to add I'll be trying to drink at least 4.5 litres of water a day.

[warlockjmr]

Just finished my first AM fasted cardio and I feel awesome for it! Was only a 20 min run but me and my running partner have found a few nasty hills that we will incorporate hill sprints into to up the intensity when we can do the run easily.

[Back In Black]

What are your stats and goals by the way ?

On cycle? If not, no need really To be aiming for 4.5 litres of water IMO.

[warlockjmr]

Ah sorry left that bit out haha

Age:23
Weight: Around 250
BF: I'd say about 25% at the moment

I'm not cycling no, long term goal is yes I'd like to at some point in the future but I want to see how low a fat percentage I can get too and keep at before hand.

My overall goal with lifting is to do powerlifting as a sport but firstly I want to get as lean as possible as bulking when lean tends to end up with better LBM gains.

[Back In Black]

Ok, I hear ya. 25% is pretty high. I'd say your cals are set pretty high too.

Your tdee is likely around 2800 so if be looking at approx 2300cals as a max. The macro split is up to you. I like 50/30/20. If you are particularly concerned with carbs you can take that to 60/60/20 although that will make it more expensive in terms of protein.

Either way that would max your fat at approx 50g per day.

[warlockjmr]

Dropping the calories and fat is pretty easy as I'm adding a fair bit of fat in through olive oil so I can drop that out completely and that will take me down to

2205 cals and

38g fat

Would you say this is better for my goals?

Also yeah, I really don't like how high a lot of the TDEE calculations put and always get confused whether or not I should take into account exercise when working out my deficit. Personally I prefer a really restricted diet and tend to get good results this way but always get moaned at by my friends lol.

[Back In Black]

Add 10g fat to that. EVOO or, better yet omega 3 fish oil.

We just started using a simpler calculation on this board of LBM x 15.

Your 2300 can be adjusted dependant on your results but you'll be about right with it. Your LBM should be quite safe at this cals and with your bf as it is, no matter how many times a week you do cardio.

With regard to cardio, just burn as many cals as you can in the time you have!

[warlockjmr]

Yeah I'm really into my HIIT cardio tbh, love doing hill sprints so will try doing as much as that as poss.

Cheers dude thanks for your help.

[warlockjmr]

Having serious problems with energy levels at the moment. I'm fine until about 8pm when I crash hard, been sleeping like 7pm through to 7am at times which for me is insane as I have parasomnia. Would this be down to not having enough cals, or because I'm just adapting to having no low GI carbs? Bit of a problem as tomorrow will probably see me waking at 10am and finishing work about 4-5am saturday.

Low energy shouldn't be a problem as I am running clen too and at the moment am on 80 micrograms and as of tomorrow will up it to 120.

[warlockjmr]

Week one of my diet done and I'm feeling pretty damn good about it. Going to nab the scales from my flatmate tomorrow so I can do a fast AM weigh in, decided on this because I wan't to make sure I don't lose too much weight a week.

Still having some problems with energy levels even at 120mcg of clen is it okay to be getting a lot of sleep like ten hours a night? Its only on days when I strength train but the sessions just knock me for six!

Oh also found a new training partner at my uni who has the same level of intensity as me when it comes to training. He's never really trained before but he's willing to train til he pukes or cries (as nearly happened friday haha) so I'm a happy chappy!

Cravings for something a bit crappy have gone through the roof so I'm looking at getting me a cheat meal in. Will probably go with a chicken shish kebab and salad with some hot sauce. Its more of a mental cheat as its actually not that bad for me.

[warlockjmr]

Weighed myself this morning as I was meant to and got

weight =246 lbs

body fat = 25% (roughly going by pictures)

fat weight 61.5 lbs

LBM 184.5

I have a question, if 61.5 lbs of my body weight is fat at 25% if I dropped half of that would I then be at 12.5% BF?

If so my new goal is 210 lbs

[Back In Black]

37lbs of fat list and no LBM and you should be around 10% @ 210lbs

You lost 4lbs this week?

[warlockjmr]

Last week was a guestimate I decided to start recording my weight because I wanted to make sure it was a steady loss. Its probably just the gym pump/ getting rid of water but I feel tighter and less wobbly already so want to record it!

And 10% at 210 wow, thats going to be my goal none the less but I think that may be a little harder for me to achieve haha

[warlockjmr]

Bored so here's my session today

All the main work stuff had a down time of around 30-60 seconds to try and keep my heart rate up as high as possible during them

Back squat (ass to grass ofc)

Warm up sets: 5 x 60kg 3 x 80kg 3 x 100 kg 3 x 120kg
Work sets: 3 x 145kg 3 x 140kg 3 x 142.5kg 3 x 145kg 3 x 140kg 3 x 142.5kg 3 x 145kg 3 x 140kg

Sumo Dead lift, switched to sumo and I love it, conventional deads just don't feel right for me this definitely suits me much better.

Work sets: 3 x 145kg 3 x 140kg 3 x 142.5kg 3 x 145kg 3 x 140kg 3 x 142.5kg 3 x 145kg 3 x 140kg

I then did some assisted one legged body weight squats, had to stop early as my knees were starting to hurt like a bitch. Need to remember to bring my knee wraps for leg days!

Then did some leg press work, little longer rest times here maybe 60-120 seconds

8 x 160kg 10 x 160kg 12 x 160kg normally would of gone for 14 x 160kg here but my knees were paining so again need to bring wraps.

All the above took around about 40-50 minutes to complete, I like hard short sessions in the gym with little rest time.

I then decided that it was a good idea to go and do some cardio on an elliptical, jesus christ I have no idea what made me think this. All you guys who swear by cardio in the morning and then more after workouts later are god damn nuts!

I did 45 minutes at around about 140 bpm heart rate. After I felt like a new born giraffe walking up and down the stairs! Going to the toilet tomorrow is going to be rather amusing...

[GirlyGymRat]

progress is progress......

[warlockjmr]

No real progress apart from looking and feeling better because of gym.

Deciding to drop my calories down to 2000 a day roughly

P: 276
C:76
F:69

Cutting a lot of the carbs out and getting my fat intake from oily fish and beef.

[warlockjmr]

Bit of a back on track post here. I have been really distracted with my work and training took a back seat which sucked!

Since last posted spent a lot of time doing uni work and drinking and it has not paid off! I've managed to maintain around 240 lbs without putting on too much fat. My biggest problems I've had has been social, drinking and lack of gym partners (which sucks as my old gym had a no weights room on your own policy...)

A few things have changed now which really make me think I can get to my target weight of 210 lbs 10% BF finally in my life.

I have a new mrs who is really supportive and helps keep me on track, I also have a friend who's bulking who I'm in contact with every day to own up to my sins of bad eating or over eating whilst he gets an earful from me if he's not hitting his calories or macros!

I have also joined a new gym where I can go and train whenever I need too with whatever kit is needed. Having a shit tonne of spare time in the day is also helping with this!

For the last month or so I've been tweaking my diet to a point that I'm in a calorie deficient state without wanting to kill people. The majority of my days are low carb, anywhere between 50-80g of carbs which are usually consumed pre and post workout and take the form of fruit and simple carbs. I know this seems low but any higher and I just feel bloated and crappy, I just don't sit well with carbs all the time. I am making sure I get one high carb day a week where I try and push 300g for that day and let my calories go high too. This sits on an intense workout day and is also my treat day where I spend the money I've saved not drinking on a nice meal for myself! By restricting my carbs most days and having one day where I eat a lot I also find I can eat 'clean' carbs and yet still feel like I'm cheating.

I'm ranging from 1800 - 2300 calories a day depending on how I feel, usually 1800 on just cardio days and 2200-2300 on weights days.

Macros change depending on calorie intake, I always try and hit 250g of protein a day majority of which comes from meat, I've recently fallen in love with mussels and prawns such an awesome low fat source of protein!

I try and stay under 100g of carb a day and make the rest of my cal up with fat.

Cardio is three times a week on non weight days and is hill sprints (only cardio I enjoy)
Weight training is four times a week and is strength based.

I am going to force myself to keep tabs on this as I'm pretty much going to be living on my own over the summer with very little social life (everyone else has gone home) and my job allows for a lot of training (work a couple of nights a week). I'm starting this now and hope to see good results by the end of September when my academic year starts again!

Sorry for the Life story!

EDIT: I do eat a lot of veg but this mainly takes the form of spinach and peppars and the like so I don't count it towards my macros.

[warlockjmr]

Dragged myself out of bed for some hill sprints, had a fruity smoothie about an hour before with about 20g of carbs in it just so I didn't throw up after the fourth sprint...

Hill is about 50m long maybe over a 30ft incline, 3 warm up jogs and stretching followed by ten hill sprints. Rest time is as long as needed to stop retching and wanting to pass out.

Gonna cook myself up a tonne of chicken salad now which will be eaten between now and work.

[energizer bunny]

good stuff mate, hill sprints are killers!..........good that you are back on track!

[warlockjmr]

Cheers man!

Taking my first rest day in a week today. Low cal is really starting to hit me hard with my crazy shift/sleep patterns but have scheduled in my first cheat meal for Friday so that will be two weeks in. Going to load up on carbs all day and it fits well as thats my Squat day.

[warlockjmr]

Quick question because this is intriguing me.

Does anyone else find that they get a massive drop in water retention from a low carb diet after a week or so? Not sure if its the carbs or the fact I've been really dehydrated the past few months but over the last week or so the change in my physical appearance has been pretty mad. I'm seeing vascularity, my top two abs starting to show, muscle definition in the majority of my upper body and my ribs are constantly on show. Obviously not to the extent of looking 'Ripped' but its fairly obvious to me.

I know for a fact its not going to be fat loss but could dehydration/carbohydrates make up this much of a difference? I'm pretty intolerant to carbs full stop and a binge will see me put on about 2-4 inches round my waist just from bloating!

I also haven't had an alcoholic beverage in over two weeks as well.

[warlockjmr]

First proper day feeling out Jim Wendlers 5/3/1 programme.

Was working nights last night so got about four and a half hours sleep fun times!

Managed to work up to a set of 75kg (165lbs) x 4 strict military press, pretty happy with this as my previous best was a 70kg 1 rep max push press! I worked up to this because I felt the training numbers I had plugged were a bit out!

Then did 37.5kg (82.5) 5 x 10 with the swiss bar changing grips each set (swiss bar helps with my wrist problems)

Inbetween these sets I was trying to knock out a couple of pull ups, I'm really crappy at these so I'm going to increase my volume

Then I did 4 x 5 sets of dips and pull up holds super sets. This is humbling, dips are probably one of the most intense body weight exercises I have done, really showing up my weaknesses. End goal is to be able to knock out 5 x 10 of these.


EDIT: Oh I also bought some Lambs hearts today! Always up for trying something new (and it was dirt cheap!)

[warlockjmr]

Today was a close one, was lured into staying in bed all day with the wench but common sense prevailed. Would of meant training three days in a row with only a bench for rest inbetween my deadlift and squat day... FOOK THAT

Ballsed up my training maxes today, doing 5 reps of 165kg deads wasn't what I was actually meant to be doing and man did I pay!

4 x 10 Trap bar romanian deads 120kg for the first two then 100kg for the second two

Then to make sure I really couldn't grip anything for the next two days I finished with some Kroc rows. Only managed 37.5kg x 10 and then 37.5 x 8 before my grip strength failed but I'm gonna track it and see how it goes.

Diet wise, bit of a splurge with two peices of brown toast this morning and a packet of quavers (seriously peer pressured from the wench haha)

Got me a protein smoothie for PWO and then gonna eat some lamb heart later mwuhahaha

Also updating this every day and then will do weigh in every friday and probably start with pics. I know its tedious but if I do it every day then I'm more accountable in my head!

[warlockjmr]

Eurgh had a cheat meal last night of Pizza and my god do I regret it. Felt like crap as soon as I had finished and still haven't stopped feeling like crap today. Never again!

[warlockjmr]

Been offline last couple of weeks as moved into new house and my phone died! Progress wise doing really well! This week I started my Jim Wendler 5/3/1 programme and it's thoroughly enjoyable! I've also started doing morning cardio, only two miles or so fasted but it's good! Thursday was an insane day for me, two mile jog, chest day and then kickboxing straight after! Wanted to die haha

[warlockjmr]

Gym is closed for two weeks for renovation alive taken this time to really smash my cardio and get into the habbit! Actually starting to enjoy running now as well! Smashing out 3 miles in 30 mins now which for me is good progress! Getting in as many sessions as possible, at least one every other day.

[warlockjmr]

All I can say is DAMN YOU POLLEN. Went to do some interval training and about 15 mins in I was dying! Can't deal with my lungs on fire haha. Looking forward to having Wednesday as a fast day. Going to try one day a week to begin with for four weeks see how I get on. Finding it hard to hit calories at the moment because I am really poor atm. Hitting shakes just to get my protein in.

[warlockjmr]

Couple of pics up there, been pretty shoddy with my diet/working out and everything over the last year but still managed to shift some body fatin the process. looking at the guide think I'm about 25% atm goal is to get down to 15% over next two months at least.

Started with my IF this week, thoroughly enjoyed the challenge! Going to be fasting on Wed and Sat allowing for a higher calorie intake Tues and Friday for the wonder that is Leg days.

[warlockjmr]

First week of my IF and third week done of increased cardio!

As far as the fasting goes really enjoying it. Main benefits are that its helping me deal with my cravings in the rest of the week, also food just tastes AMAZING when you stop fasting!

Cardio is getting better, bar friday due to work commitments I've managed to run every day this week, sometimes even twice. Managed 15 miles all in all so I'm happy.

Next week I can start introducing my weight training back into the mix as the gym is ready again, I'm going to have wed and saturday as complete rest days as these are my fast days and attempt to run every other day including leg days. Carbs will still be kept under 100g for the next three weeks and then I'll try a 250c 250p 50g fat split (As recommended by back in black on other threads) depending on four week results! If I feel my energy levels are okay and I don't need to up my carbs I won't as I don't really deal well with them. Eight weeks is the longest however that I'm happy to run low carb.

Calories I'm hitting 2200 religiously, protein is a little harder to get at the moment as I am SKINT, living on cheap meat and protein shakes which sucks and means my diet is really high in fats at the moment.

All in all really really motivated with this, being able to keep up and keep improving my cardio these passed three weeks is really helping with over all motivation. That and the fact I've been reading 405's blog every time I feel sluggish and lack of energy hahaha

[warlockjmr]

Weighed myself on Sunday forgot to add that in, currently at 17 stone 2 lbs which is my dry weight.

Yesterday decided to do some hack squats on a machine to work on my quads as I still can't dead lift in my gym as renovation has not finished. MY GOD THE ISOLATION!

100% cannot believe the pain I am in today, this is good and shows how piss weak my quads are (definitely glute ham dominant!)

My legs were like jelly all day after so I tried to do some evening cardio that turned into more of a walk than a run but I'm happy I did something.

Hitting 3000 calories on my high cal day is damned hard to do, last night I barely hit 2200

Fast day today so gonna spend it doing stretching and rehab work for my back/legs ready for tomorrow and Friday lifting. Still really motivated.

[warlockjmr]

Just got back from a run, literally swimming in sweat, this heat is insane!

Hit chest today in the gym, only went up to 70kg for a set of three bench, wasn't comfortable with the bench I was using and it was the only one in there whilst they renovate, J hooks were far too low (and I have short arms!) and I was having to press it out of the rack.

Went on to do super sets of body weight dips and half body weight lat pull downs, once I got under 5 dips I changed it for push downs and drop setted these and the lat pull downs until I felt like crying!

One thing is for sure, my diet is really making cardio difficult. Not sure whether or not to see that as a good or bad thing and whether or not to start carb cycling after my 4 week low carb diet or still push it out to 8 weeks. If anyone reading this is knowledgable feedback on this would def be appreciated!

Can't wait to weigh myself tomorrow morning

[--->>405<<---]

One thing is for sure, my diet is really making cardio difficult. Not sure whether or not to see that as a good or bad thing and whether or not to start carb cycling after my 4 week low carb diet or still push it out to 8 weeks. If anyone reading this is knowledgable feedback on this would def be appreciated!

dont start cycling carbs until the current diet is no longer working!

[warlockjmr]

Okay man cheers! Will just stick with what I know is working!

[warlockjmr]

Weighed myself and came in at 16 stone 10lbs so am very very happy. Understand I've lost a lot of water weight over last couple of weeks but that's still probably about 7 lbs of actual weight lost! First time I've been under 17 stone for a loooong time haha. To celebrate I'm going to go out and order the biggest pizz... Lol jokes no cheat meals for me for at least another two weeks!

I am going to mix some sweetener in with yoghurt fruit and raspberry protein powder and freeze it for my PWO though!

[warlockjmr]

Hey guys! Couple of weeks since I last posted!

Few updates I have on the go.

Firstly I have swapped out running for prowler work for my cardio. My god is the prowler awesome. Never in my life have I felt so miserable doing cardio and yet feel so great and aggressive about it! I do it every workout, lighter speed work on upper body days and heavier single slow work on leg days. On my non lifting days I beast it until I throw up.

Secondly weighing in at 16 stone 7 pounds. I had an off week with carbs so thats probably hindered my progress a touch but I'm happy to be on average still losing weight.

I have been trying on old clothes and I'm over the moon with the fact that so many of my old t-shirts now fit me again! When I went home I got a lot of compliments from people saying I'd lost weight and so thats always a really good morale booster!

Pretty sure I've been putting on a bit of muscle as my shoulders and traps are starting to stand out a fair bit compared to old photo's!

Overall over the moon with progress and really looking to get down to that goal of around 15-15 half before I can start lean bulking again!

Cheers