Sub 10% by April [Forum Archive]

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Sub 10% by April

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Posted by: danzik17

Well, no use shitting around with the title. The goal is sub 10% bodyfat by April 31st.

Current Weight: 166-170lbs depending on water/waste
Current BF: I have minor to mid definition in the upper 4 parts of abs. Based on that I estimate 12-13% bodyfat. Using that guideline and the average weight (168) I currently have ~21.9lbs of fat and 138.1lbs lean mass. At 8% I would have 11lbs of fat, so I'm going to shoot for an overall fat loss of 10.9lbs. I have 11 weeks to my target date, so that means a fat loss of around 1lb per week.

Based on that, I'll need to run a deficit of at least 500 calories/day to achieve that which is pretty aggressive - about 100 calories below even my current level.

To achieve that, I may be forced to do a refeed followed by a week of PSMF with that being followed something like UD 2.0.

Comments welcome. More to come on specifics about my current diet and training (namely in 30 minutes after this episode of Lost).

Posted by: danzik17

Current Diet:

Actual calories are more around 1930. I've built in 100 calories of wiggle room on purpose because I suck at eyeballing chicken at my work meals so I usually overestimate. That and if I want an additional cup of coffee it still fits within my calories.

Posted by: sexy_animal

1. Where did you get that neat calorie breakdown thing?

2. No pictures?

Posted by: FishOrCutBait

Quote:

Originally Posted by danzik17

Current Diet:

those calories seem crazy low man, is that what works for you for sure?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sexy_animal

1. Where did you get that neat calorie breakdown thing?

2. No pictures?

fitday.com! check it out

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by FishOrCutBait

those calories seem crazy low man, is that what works for you for sure?

fitday.com! check it out

The listed calories are 1830, but actual calories are 100-200 higher on average after you factor in that I suck at measuring stuff or maybe I have 3 cups of coffee instead of 2. I have shitty genetics (maternal side of the family are ALL overweight) so my natural metabolism is lower than most people, at least from what I've found. Maintenance for me is between 2200-2300 calories.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sexy_animal

1. Where did you get that neat calorie breakdown thing?

2. No pictures?

Fitday.com like fish said. No pictures right now, but I guess I can post some later. I generally don't post pics on the internet but I suppose it would help for a beginning/end comparison.

Posted by: Triple Threat

Quote:

Originally Posted by danzik17

The goal is sub 10% bodyfat by April 31st.

Good luck with that.

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triple Threat

Good luck with that.

If you don't want to put in the work then whatever. It's only 3-4% BF in 12 weeks which is less than 0.5% BF per week.

Posted by: danzik17

Never mind. I'm not even going to edit that even though I could. I'm a douche

Does that mean I have infinite time since it doesn't exist?

Posted by: danzik17

Link to my current PSMF post in the D&N forums here. Assuming I get the diet lined up properly and understand it enough to go safely, I will do a small refeed on Friday/Saturday (no more than 100 cals above maintenance) and then begin the PSMF the following Sunday for 12 days.

Assuming the fat loss estimates are correct, these 12 days alone should dump me extremely close to my goal of 8% and well within schedule of hitting the lesser goal of sub 10% by April 30th

Posted by: PainandGain

Keep this journal up man. I am actually pretty similar to you
as far as stats go and goals.
I was 180 last weekend before i started cutting for the spring/summer. I want that 6er so i can go to the river down here everyday after class and impress the ladies.

My maintenance on the other hand is around 2600ish, so my cals will be about 200-300 more than you, but otherwise our BF% and weight are pretty close so i want to stay tuned.

Posted by: danzik17

Yup. Today is actually the first day of the PSMF. I said goodbye to "normal food" at 11PM or so with some salmon, 2 whole eggs, and some oats.

Day 1 weigh in: 166.4lbs

The diet I will be following:

I'll come up with the food for my post-PSMF refeeds over the next few days since there is no rush.

Big thanks to Built & nigeepoo for their assistance in setting this diet up.

Posted by: urbanski

i am similar to you in stats and my cutting goal, and will follow your progress.

Posted by: danzik17

Day 2

Weigh-in: 165.2lbs

Ugh I forgot how bad going into ketosis is for me. I ended up getting a chicken caesar salad while I was out in place of the 8oz chicken...the small amounts of carbs in the dressing and croutons kept me from vomiting all over the place. If this is anything like last time, I should be fine tomorrow - it's just the initial entry that I have a rough time with.

Feeling pretty wiped out even though I didn't do a whole lot today, I guess it's from having such restricted calories at the moment. I will mention that driving was not a fun experience in the morning. I'm usually a very fast driver and am very comfortable at those speeds, but I just felt very jerky today. I also had trouble keeping track of multiple objects at the same time...just seemingly an inability to concentrate.

Other than that hunger isn't too bad although the diet is kind of like tossing pieces of paper into a furnace and expecting it to work as well.

If this post seems like it's rambling......I blame the diet.

Posted by: danzik17

Workout
-----------

3x5 Squats @ 135lbs, 165lbs, 170lbs

7,7,5 BW Chinups

3x7 BW Dips

Pretty easy workout considering the ridiculously low cals I'm running right now. If I hadn't been lazy and not brought my belt I could have pulled off BW + 25lbs on the dips even.

Posted by: Built

The diet seems to get easier as it goes along. You might almost feel like you want to skip the refeed - but don't.

Posted by: danzik17

Skip the refeed? Hell no!

I'm already dreaming of a day full of pasta and bagels and sweet potatoes. Oh oh and maybe some ciabatta bread and olive oil... I haven't had that in a long long time.

Posted by: ZackAttack

single digit body fat is the way to be man, good goal there

Posted by: danzik17

Day 3
------

Weigh-in: 165.2lbs

So today was my first real "test" on this diet. Full workday 9AM-7PM, but it wasn't bad at all. My meals during the workday are actually almost identical to pre-PSMF meals except for 1/2C of oats in the morning. I did start to feel extremely hungry and a bit lightheaded around 7PM, but at that point I hadn't eaten in 4 hours - nothing that 8 egg whites and 4oz tuna couldn't fix.

I'm pretty exhausted right now which is rare for so early in the week and only at 10PM, but whatever...only 9 days left.

Posted by: Built

Why the AM oats?

Posted by: danzik17

Nah those *used* to be in my diet before I started the PSMF. My daily meals during work used to be 2 meals of 4oz of chicken and salad with 1/2C oats....now it's just the salads.

Just saying that during the day not much has changed hunger wise since my meals are so damn similar.

Posted by: Built

Ah - just re-read it.

Posted by: danzik17

Just moving some info over here so I can start planning my refeed. MMMMMMMMM.

Posted by: danzik17

Here's my Day 1 Refeed so far. You have no idea how freaking hungry just thinking about these delicious carbs made me. Oh well, time to go eat half a pound of steak.

Posted by: danzik17

Day 4
-----------

Weigh-in: 164.2lbs

Starting to see more definition. When flexed I am beginning to be able to plainly see my serratus (never had that before).

Hunger is still decently manageable. I don't know if it was the diet or maybe bad steak but something was screwing with my stomach early yesterday. Woke up at 6:30AM and nearly threw up. Thankfully I didn't....I would rather not throw up when I'm on such restricted calories in the first place.

On another note, how the hell do anorexic people do it? I've been on this diet for 4 days and I'm already dreaming of next Friday (refeed day). I mean seriously, how can anyone do this for MONTHS??! And on LESS calories to boot!

Posted by: FishOrCutBait

hahahaha, "Bread"

Posted by: danzik17

Day 5
-------

Weigh-in: 164.8lbs

Hunger seems to have calmed down. I still don't have as much focus as I do on higher calories, but I think that's to be expected. Not much else to report. Looking forward to next Friday so much.

Workout
-----------
DB Bench: 3x5 60lbs, 65lbs, 65lbs
DB RDLs: 3x5 65lbs
One Arm DB Rows: 3x5 65lbs

Yes, I really did love those 65lb DBs today. It just happened that that's what I felt I could do on each. The weights felt pretty heavy on a couple of the sets. I didn't so much get tired, they just felt much heavier than when I was on higher cals.

Posted by: Built

Gotta love the short workouts though hey?

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Built

Gotta love the short workouts though hey?

Same length as my usual workout actually

Most of my workouts are around 30m in length, 40m including warmup. This one was actually the same but with a longer RI. I only usually do 4 exercises, so this is only 1 off of that.

Posted by: danzik17

Day 6
----------

Weigh-in: 166 and change (forget the decimal)

What's with the weight gain you might wonder? Let's just say later in the day a few pounds of veggies and steak finished working their way through

The janitor at my work really must hate me.

The unthinkable also happened today. I wasn't.....hungry. 1424 calories per day and I wasn't hungry. For anyone reading this, this is why you cannot judge your needs on hunger alone. Amazing what you can adapt to given a few days.

Posted by: danzik17

Day 7
-------------

Weigh-in: 163.8

The half-way point is broken. Almost to the end.

Progress wise I noticed more definition in my legs this morning than I have seen before.

Posted by: Built

Quote:

Originally Posted by danzik17

Day 6
----------

Weigh-in: 166 and change (forget the decimal)

What's with the weight gain you might wonder? Let's just say later in the day a few pounds of veggies and steak finished working their way through

Isn't that nuts?

God bless the satiety ketosis and protein bring.

Posted by: danzik17

Day 8
-----------

Weigh-in: 162.8

Nothing really to report. Got extremely tired after kart racing like I normally do on Sundays, but that may have been because I did almost 2 hours straight (100+ laps).

Posted by: katt

Hey D - we are starting our first day of 12 of the PSMF diet as well. As you taking the supps as in the book? 10 fish oils, potassium, calcium, magnesium and multi-vit?

I'm actually excited to start it, but unsure how I'm going to react to such a small workout every third day.

You doing any cardio?

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by katt

Hey D - we are starting our first day of 12 of the PSMF diet as well. As you taking the supps as in the book? 10 fish oils, potassium, calcium, magnesium and multi-vit?

I'm actually excited to start it, but unsure how I'm going to react to such a small workout every third day.

You doing any cardio?

Actually no supplements at all. I know about them though. I try to compensate for fish oil by taking ground flax since I have a reaction to fish oil.

Absolutely no cardio at all is being done. Hell I don't do cardio even on a normal diet

Posted by: Built

Quote:

Originally Posted by katt

What do you mean by "react", katt?

Posted by: katt

probably not the correct wording Built.. but I was just wondering how the decreased workout would feel, because we are so used to doing alot more sets. But after this morning, I believe it will be just fine

Posted by: Built

It should feel pretty easy. You're hardly eating anything; it's important to not wear yourself out.

Of course, cutting workouts shouldn't feel horrible in general, other than depletion workouts.

For supps, this is what I took on PSMF:
1g potassium, 1g calcium, 500mg magnesium, 10g fish oil, Multi, also 1g vitamin C

Posted by: katt

Quote:

Originally Posted by Built

It should feel pretty easy. You're hardly eating anything; it's important to not wear yourself out.

Of course, cutting workouts shouldn't feel horrible in general, other than depletion workouts.

For supps, this is what I took on PSMF:
1g potassium, 1g calcium, 500mg magnesium, 10g fish oil, Multi, also 1g vitamin C

Yeah, that's what I'm taking as well.... except for the Vit C

Posted by: Built

Get the vitamin C - it's cheap.

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Built

Get the vitamin C - it's cheap.

Couple of quick questions then - are the supps something I should be concerned about? Only have a few days left but I can always run out to CVS and pick them up.

Also, what is the purpose of the tension workout before the refeed? At that point I would imagine that glycogen has been entirely depleted. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to do that on Saturday after the first day of refeeding is done and have an incredible power workout?

Posted by: Built

It'll set you up for the carb load. GLUT4 translocation, for one, and also to deplete any trace of glycogen - you WILL still have SOME.

Get the supps.

Posted by: danzik17

Day 9
----------

Weigh-in: 163 something

Shitty day today, not really diet related though. I don't know what the hell I did but either by racing or sleeping on my arm weird I actually hurt my shoulder. Hurts like a bitch to raise it, I hope it heals up enough tonight so it doesn't affect my workout.

Oh and for the record, don't make the mistake of picking up magnesium in powder form. Oh my god I almost threw up when I tried to down that...knew there was a reason I didn't touch the stuff after buying it like 6 months ago. Will pickup pills tomorrow.

Posted by: Merkaba

Danzik what kind of racing?

And send that mag to me I can stomach anything besides beef liver. It can't be much worse than epsom salts.

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Merkaba

Danzik what kind of racing?

And send that mag to me I can stomach anything besides beef liver. It can't be much worse than epsom salts.

Go-Kart racing - there is a huge indoor complex about 30m from me that I go to constantly. Routinely do 100-200+ laps in a single day. That's why I doubt it was the racing that hurt my shoulder since I'm so used to it, I more suspect that I just slept on it weird. It's almost completely healed already so it was nothing to worry about.

If you actually want it I'll sent it over if you toss me shipping costs. I'm not planning on mixing my own supps and there's no way I can stomach this in powder form.

Posted by: danzik17

Day 10
---------
Weigh-in: 163.2lbs

Weight loss seems to be slowing down (actual weigh is like 162 something....dumped off some uh "used" steak later in the day). I will say that I am leaner at this point than I ever have been.....ever. No matter where I end up after this cut I'm plenty satisfied. Maybe I won't be so afraid to bulk this winter now that I know I can cut back to where I am now if I want to.

Luckily that hurt shoulder I had only would affect pushing movements which weren't in tonights workouts - didn't bother me at all in pulling.

Workout
------------
Squats: 155lbs 1x5, 165lbs 2x5
Pullups: 5x7
DB Rows: 1x5 60lbs, 2x5 65lbs

Posted by: Built

Pix!

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Built

Pix!

Patience

I have a couple from before/early in the PSMF. I'll post those along with a couple from tomorrow night (pre-refeed) and probably Saturday morning (post-1st day refeed).

Posted by: danzik17

Day 11
------------
Weigh-in: 163.2

Seems my fat loss has pretty much ended at this point. Maybe lose slightly more tomorrow, but I expect this to pretty much be where I end the PSMF before the refeeds.

I'll definitely be incorporating this into my yearly cuts, it was amazingly effective though tough to follow at times.

Posted by: danzik17

As Promised
-------------------

Early in the PSMF:

Day 12 of PSMF (last low cal day):

Posted by: danzik17

Yes, I'm a pale motherfucker. I need sun.

Posted by: Built

Nice work - you are visibly leaner.

Posted by: danzik17

Tks - plan after the refeeds is to relax at maintenance for a week (or 2....I'm ahead of schedule now).

After that I think I'll give UD 2.0 a try to see if I can drop off the last 2-3lbs.

The only bad thing is the stretch marks from when I was obese just get more obvious the leaner I get. I can always get those taken care of though.

Posted by: Built

How do you get rid of stretch marks? Laser?

Posted by: FishOrCutBait

Quote:

Originally Posted by Built

How do you get rid of stretch marks? Laser?

shotgun

ALSO

nice man! looking a lot leaner around your serratus!

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Built

How do you get rid of stretch marks? Laser?

There are treatments for it, but they're expensive and I won't even consider them until I do something to hit 5% or less BF so that I am 100% positive that it's not just excess body fat (Stretch marks + "loose skin").

A more likely path is that if it's not excessive (which it doesn't seem to be) I'll just try to fill out the extra space this winter with muscle.

Posted by: Built

What are the treatments?

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Built

What are the treatments?

Dermatologists can do things like surface abrasion to reduce the appearance of them. More extreme cases can go to surgery. I'd like to avoid both and will try to fill in with muscle before even considering either.

And holy shit this refeed is damned hard. So much food left to put down.

Posted by: danzik17

I'm trying hard as hell but there is no way I'm going to hit the calorie target for this refeed (should have done Built's "small" one).

It's 11PM, I feel stuffed to bursting and I still theoretically have 16 egg whites, 2 sweet potatoes, and 2.5 cups of oats to go. Not a chance.

I can starve myself silly apparently, but there is only so much volume I can jam in my stomach

Posted by: Built

These need to be low fibre carbs. White rice. White flour. White bread, regular pasta, dextrose...

Posted by: danzik17

Yup. I learned that one the hard way. Most of my carbs came from oats, bagels, and bread.

I'm considering picking up some *gasp* cereal for breakfast tomorrow, but we'll see.

Weighed myself just for fun - clocking in at +7lbs or so. Looking forward to seeing how my power workout goes tomorrow, should have tons of energy is all goes right.

Posted by: soxmuscle

This is cool.

Keep it up, Danzik.

Posted by: danzik17

Well PSMF is all finished up now. We'll see where my weight settles in a couple of days. Right now it's at 172lbs - up 10lbs from the last low cal day of the PSMF. Looking a bit bloated as well - maybe bread isn't such a great focus for a carbup for me. I'll try rice, oats , and cereal next time. Speaking of which the cereal massively helped in reaching my carb goals. Downing 100 or so carbs was absolutely no problem at all.

Oh and holy god did eating so many carbs so fast give me rancid gas.

Posted by: danzik17

Plan for now:

Maintain for a week or so. I need a break from so much strict dieting. In the meantime I'm going to re-read Lyle's UD2.0 and will be running cycles of that until I hit my goal starting after my "break".

That and my shoulder was acting up again today so I want to eat at maintenance and let it heal up. I have no idea what the hell I did to it.

Posted by: the other half

nice job on the weight lose, current and prior.
we are down to the last 5 days before our refeed. glad to see that you were our guinei pig(sp). now we know what not to eat.

keep up the good work

Posted by: katt

how's the bloat doing? Did you get rid of it after a couple days? Did the water weight go down, or are you still up ?

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by katt

how's the bloat doing? Did you get rid of it after a couple days? Did the water weight go down, or are you still up ?

The bloat went away rather quickly...honestly it was more the quantity of the food than anything else.

My weight was still 168lbs as of this morning. Unless I'm still carrying water weight, I just don't understand it. I couldn't have gained muscle, but 168lbs was almost precisely what I was pre-PSMF. At 1400 calories a day there is no way I couldn't have lost weight...that's a 900 calorie a day deficit.

Posted by: danzik17

So I really don't like not understanding why certain things happen or don't happen the way they do (hence why I'm a tech nerd). So here I sit with UD 2.0, a highlighter, and a pen notating in the margins.

I'm only 35 pages in (seriously taking my time) but amazing what I missed during my first run through. For example, I always knew that yohimbe was an effective fat loss supp, but now I know (and understand!) that it is effective because it's an alpha-2 antagonist which should allow catecholamines to bind to beta-2 receptors to promote fat loss rather than inhibit it.

I feel an addiction coming on. Anyone else have some good resources that should be checked out and researched?

-----------

Oh and what the hell. My shoulder STILL hurts. Go figure that I don't hurt it exercising or doing something ridiculous, I hurt it by sleeping on it weird. GOD.

Posted by: danzik17

So unfortunately my weight is staying around 168 and I have lost a bit of definition. I get the feeling that the majority of that weight movement was all glycogen and water. How that is possible considering I ran at 1400 calories for 12 days straight I just do not know.

It sucks balls, but I guess I found another thing that just didn't work for me. Will have a UD 2.0 diet and training program posted up by tomorrow night. And my fucking arm still hurts, though not as much - taking this entire week off to let it recover.

Posted by: katt

Just be careful with the Yohimbe... I put some of that in a protein shake once,,,, and put too much in and I thought my heart was going to explode I was shaking so bad..

I'm reading the UD2 book as well - pretty interesting reading huh?

Posted by: PainandGain

Quote:

Originally Posted by danzik17

So unfortunately my weight is staying around 168 and I have lost a bit of definition. I get the feeling that the majority of that weight movement was all glycogen and water. How that is possible considering I ran at 1400 calories for 12 days straight I just do not know.

It sucks balls, but I guess I found another thing that just didn't work for me. Will have a UD 2.0 diet and training program posted up by tomorrow night. And my fucking arm still hurts, though not as much - taking this entire week off to let it recover.

Yea, its all about moderation.
I have tried extreme protocols for diet/training etc like this before.
Never was a fan.
So now I just be reasonable.

Sorry to hear about the arm.

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by katt

Just be careful with the Yohimbe... I put some of that in a protein shake once,,,, and put too much in and I thought my heart was going to explode I was shaking so bad..

I'm reading the UD2 book as well - pretty interesting reading huh?

Definitely an interesting read. I'm tired of shooting blind and spending weeks at a time on diets with no progress. I need to learn what is happening and why so that I can identify it and fix it. I'm not making the progress that I should be and it isn't from a lack of effort or consistency.

Posted by: danzik17

So I´ve just been lazy and haven´t posted my diet yet, but it doesn´t start until Sunday anyway.

I just wanted to make this post to get some thoughts on a theory I had while I was in the gym last night.

While on the PSMF, I had cut out fish, berries, and whole eggs entirely out of my diet. I normally use sea salt and not normal table salt. It dawned on me that during those 12 days, I was taken in close to NO iodine whatsoever which is critical to the production of T3/T4. I wonder how much that affected both my progress during the PSMF and the seemingly unexplainable post-PSMF weight gain. I was eating so far under my maintenance that I should have theoretically lost MORE weight, and I have not been eating high enough above maintenance to warrant the half pound or so of weight that I have gained. I´m fairly strict on my diet at all times with little variety...I more or less eat the same foods - just more of less of them.

Thoughts?

Posted by: katt

Yeah I think it does say on the diet to liberally salt your food..

Then again, all diets don't work for all people.. you just have to find the one that works for you I guess

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by katt

Yeah I think it does say on the diet to liberally salt your food..

Then again, all diets don't work for all people.. you just have to find the one that works for you I guess

I think I overlooked that part of the book then. It also sheds light on why the supplements (which I had stupidly neglected to take for all but 3 of the days) are so important on this diet.

Basically I'm spending a lot of time learning the science behind everything now so that I understand what the hell is going on and why.

Oh and only Built will get this one, but I'm back to working on that project we had spoken about a few months ago. I'm writing it as a Joomla component so that it can be easily incorporated into a more comprehensive diet/training website.

Posted by: Built

Oooh, interesting!

Posted by: danzik17

Here's the first section of the diet I'll be running. Training template still needs to be set up but I have a good idea of what I want to do. I just need to be aware that my shoulder is still healing even though it doesn't hurt day to day anymore.

Mon/Tues/Wed/Thurs AM Low Cal/Carb

I've also decided to run an EC stack rather than yohimbine. Since by Wednesday/Thursday the high FFA amount in the bloodstream inhibits alpha-2 receptors anyway, an alpha-2 antagonist seems redundant.

Posted by: danzik17

And I will make damn SURE to take my vitamins. The difference in appetite when I made sure I got enough iodine was astounding. I've also been eating way over what I believed to be my maintenance and have gained no weight since I started tracking vitamin intake.

Posted by: danzik17

UD 2.0........Day 1

So day 1 kicked my ass. DAY ONE.

Diet wise it's easier than the PSMF I ran since I'm allowing myself 1/2c FF half and half for coffee - that was one of the MAJOR annoyances in my PSMF was the lack of coffee. Yes I love it just that much.

What really kicked my ass was the depletion workout. I didn't even make it through the second half of the workout, I ran out of time. I'll know for the future that I need ~1.5-1.75hrs to fully complete it.

I don't think I've ever felt so exhausted and yet had SO much left to do. I'm running Lyle's suggested full body routine minus lateral raises since they target the exact part of the shoulder I hurt and I would rather not do direct work on that right now.

.......and I have to do this AGAIN tomorrow.

Posted by: danzik17

Day 2

Depletion workout part deux. I was dying, but I got through it. It was more brutal than yesterday since I was already sore and tired from that one, but this time I had some idea of what to expect.

Looking forward to taking tomorrow off. I'll be using that time to pre-plan part of my refeed.

Oh and I was pretty right about glycogen/water being pretty much all I lost on the PSMF. I weighed myself this morning and clocked in at 163.4lbs. That's quite a drop in one day even for water/glycogen (5+lbs).

Posted by: danzik17

Been lazy on posting, but here are some random thoughts from my first week on UD 2.0:

1. I need to plan out my refeed. I came pretty close by guesstimating, but my anal retentive need for perfection is nagging at me.

2. I didn't believe that the 1 day of rest on Friday would be enough, but Lyle proved me wrong. I was sore as hell that entire day of refeeding but I woke up Saturday feeling good (albeit tired w/ a headache). The mistake I made on that day/prior days was not increasing my water intake enough. Carb loading in addition to creatine dehydrated the hell out of me...won't be making that mistake again.

3. Shoulders are doing better. I did still skip the direct lateral work but was able to do shoulder presses with heavier weights than I have been for a while with no discomfort (50lb DBs).

Posted by: danzik17

Still chugging along on this. Making progress according to the mirror. I am leaner now than in previous pics though with the minor water bloat from carbup going on right now you wouldn't know it. This weekend's carbup will focus less on bagels and more on oats/rice to see if it gives me a different quality carbup (though still a lot of bagels!).

I just received my ephedrine from SBMuscle and will be using on my next cycle of this next week. I will be using half dosage for at least the first 3 days to monitor for side effects or reactions. I will make journal entries every day for that week so I can track thoughts or how I'm feeling each day to see if it's affecting me.

Posted by: danzik17

Been taking the EC stack for a few days now. Have noticed 0 effects, but I'm also on a very very low dose (12.5mg E / C --> whatever 3 cups of coffee and a diet coke works out to). I'll likely up this to 25mgE during my next cycle whether it's next week or the week after.

The only thing I've noticed at all is that a lot of foods are smelling disgusting right now. Sounds weird but foods that normally smell fine to me are repulsive right now. Might just be because I have keto breath though....that's one of the few things I really do hate about low carbs.

Posted by: Balin

Hey Danzik,

When you went from PSMF, to maint did you up your calories gradually over a few days to a week or can you just go from refeed to maint with few ill effects?

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Balin

Hey Danzik,

When you went from PSMF, to maint did you up your calories gradually over a few days to a week or can you just go from refeed to maint with few ill effects?

Just dove right into maintenance basically. No real need to ramp up the calories in this case in my opinion since you're coming down from a massive calorie amount on the refeeds. Built can give a more definitive answer though...when I did it I had been cutting for a long long time and decided to just say screw it, I need a break.

Posted by: Jodi

LOL, you really are hard on yourself sub 10%! I wish you the best in reaching your goals!!!

Posted by: Built

If you want to be careful you'll ramp up. I never am. lol!

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by calalily1972

LOL, you really are hard on yourself sub 10%! I wish you the best in reaching your goals!!!

You gotta do what you gotta do you know? Getting that lean has been a longstanding goal (3+ years) and I expect to reach it this year. If not by April 30th, then by mid-May at the latest (extra 2 cycles of UD2.0).

In any case it's really not all that bad. Dieting is very easy for me because I just don't get hungry ever except late night and early morning. I don't get cravings thanks to the whole perfectionist thing that you/Emma-Leigh got me into when I first started this thing. The foods that I crave are the foods that I normally eat on my diet....yea I know....weird.

That and I'm loving the Friday refeeds...a cheat for me is just bagels or cereal or even just extra oats. On refeeds, I get to gorge myself on all 3...what could be better?

Posted by: katt

I'm just reading up on the UD2... was suppose to transition into it this week, but decided not to right now. So you're liking this more than the PSMF? I found that the last 8-10 days of it were really hard for me.. and I've never been a cereal eater, per se.. but I found with this diet, I craved it!! lol

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by katt

I'm just reading up on the UD2... was suppose to transition into it this week, but decided not to right now. So you're liking this more than the PSMF? I found that the last 8-10 days of it were really hard for me.. and I've never been a cereal eater, per se.. but I found with this diet, I craved it!! lol

I'm loving it. Just had a protein shake w/ 3 TSP of real sugar, half a pound of strawberries, and 1 bagel. And I still have more to go.

Posted by: danzik17

I'll be taking the next week off and eating at maintenance in addition to doing a deload. My joints have been killing me lately. That and there's some stuff in my freezer that I want to finish off before it goes bad but had too much dietary fat for UD2.0.

I don't know exact BF levels but I am leaner than in my PSMF pictures. I have also gained strength.

Current Stats compared to previous in lbs:

DB Bench: 70s / 65s
Squats: 200/165 (Keep in mind I hurt myself a while ago so this dropped)
Leg Press: 600 / 445
DB Shoulder Press: 50s / 30s
Rows: 160 / 140

There's more but I'm too lazy to list it. Yes there is a notable lack of lower pull movements listed which I am working on.

Posted by: danzik17

Ephedrine @ 37.5mg/day (Day 1)

Even though I'm taking a half dose, I still got very very jittery about 30 minutes after taking it the second time. I split it into 25mg in the morning w/ coffee, and 12.5mg in the afternoon w/ another cup of coffee. After my afternoon dose, I could definitely feel my heart rate rise slightly and I couldn't sit still at all. I did get a bit lightheaded at one point, but that passed within a couple of minutes.

The appetite suppression was incredible though. I'm usually not hungry during the day anyway, but I had to FORCE my 3PM meal down my throat. I just was not hungry at ALL.

Ran out of time on my workout tonight due to some errands I had to get done beforehand that were time sensitive, so I'll be loading a bit more depletion tomorrow. I figure it doesn't really matter since Lyle claims that you can do a single day depletion if you want to anyway.

I'll be sticking with this half dose of Ephedrine for at minimum a week and we'll see how my body has adjusted at that point (next Monday).

Posted by: sexy_animal

It's April. Are you ever going to post progress pictures?

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by sexy_animal

It's April. Are you ever going to post progress pictures?

Fiiiine. I'll post some later this week when I'm more depleted. Right now I'm overfull on glycogen and retaining some water since I just came off of an off-week. I was forced to eat more than I wanted (i.e. just at or a tiny bit above maintenance) to help my joints heal up in addition to doing a de-load. The way I had been going was hurting like hell with a combination of low fat, heavy weights, and the fact that I'm on accutane.

I did pick up some glucosamine earlier which I'll be taking to try and help out with that problem. It should resolve itself even more once I'm through with accutane around May 5th.

I do believe I have a couple of shots on my cell that I can post up sooner though that I took right before doing my off-week, maybe I'll put those up. It's not 8% though

but it's closer.

Posted by: danzik17

Day 2
-----

Nothing much to report. No sides like yesterday. Probably because I wasn't looking for every single little twitch that my body made after taking it, I just fired and forgot pretty much.

Goddamn I am fried from depletion workout #2 though, thank god it's a rest day tomorrow.

Posted by: danzik17

Day of PRs (Post-Refeed):

Squats: 215lbs (PR since I hurt my hamstring a few months back, old PR was 225)

Leg Press: 655lbs

DB Press: 75lb DBs

Shoulder Press: 55lb DBs

Incline DB: 65lb DBs

Posted by: danzik17

Pics from Thursday 4/16 (Immediately before refeed)

Posted by: danzik17

I think I'm leaner on the back, not positive though. Still 2 weeks out from my target date so we'll see what happens. I'm ramping up Ephedrine dosing to 50g/day next week, then 75g/day for the final week. Maybe that will give me the slight push I need, who knows.

Posted by: danzik17

Read through P-Funk's book briefly and thinking of things I have read on his blog and whatnot.

That in mind, I'm going to start incorporating some exercises that I have been dreading for a long long time. It may seem basic, but I will admit right now that I can NOT do step ups, even body weight - I lose my balance on nearly every rep.

The same going for walking knee hugs, I cannot do them.

I will start incorporating short sets, maybe as little as 3-4 reps per set with 2-3 sets during my warmups. All bodyweight for now of course. Just posting it here so I stay honest and don't just shrug it off yet again.

Posted by: Built

One trick I've noticed with stepups is to kinda "stamp" (not brutally, but you know, a definite "step!") your foot to the UP position. You can check with Patrick to see if this is appropriate, but I find it helps me activate the right muscle sequence.

Seeing some excellent progress in here - you look lean and still "thick". Nice work!

Posted by: danzik17

Thanks. Hoping that I will reach my goal by my target date, but again we'll see. The absolute worst thing that happens is that I will overshoot it by a few weeks

I attribute that to me screwing up the PSMF though, something I will not do when I run this again next year.

Posted by: danzik17

Ugh well, I don't think it's going to happen unless I'm already at or below 10% (not positive exactly where I stand). If anyone has estimates from those pics feel free to guess.

Business trip for 2 days next week and vacation the following week. I'll still be eating clean but I have to be realistic, there is no way I can follow a diet/training program as strict as UD 2.0 while on a business trip. Even though it's only two days it would be on both of my depletion workout days

Will be dialing back to the generic high protein, mid-high fat, low-mid carb diet probably until the 2nd week of May. I'll pick up then to see what I can do, but I missed the deadline.

Just a side rant: dropped a fking 30lb DB on my forefinger on Thursday. That shit better NOT screw up this power workout tomorrow or I will be pissed. At the minimum I'll be pushing max loads on my legs and I'm hoping my grip will be up to the task.

Posted by: Built

Hmmm... well, you're not ten%, but you're not 15% either. You look pretty damned good to me!

Sorry about your finger.

Posted by: nkira

Quote:

Originally Posted by danzik17

Just a side rant: dropped a fking 30lb DB on my forefinger on Thursday. That shit better NOT screw up this power workout tomorrow or I will be pissed. At the minimum I'll be pushing max loads on my legs and I'm hoping my grip will be up to the task.

Man....that's got to hurt!! Btw looking nice

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by nkira

Man....that's got to hurt!! Btw looking nice

Thanks. It's not TOO bad, but things that put direct pressure on it like weighted pullups I may have to skip this power workout and replace with pulldowns. That is unless I go pick up a set of straps so I can take my grip completely out of the picture for this one workout.

Yes I'm leaner but still not where I want to be. Can only hope that this will get easier after I do it the first time.

Posted by: Built

It's different every time.

On one hand, you know you CAN do it. On the other hand, because you know you can do it, it's easy to rationalize your way out of doing it LOL!

Posted by: danzik17

Well good news, my finger did not affect my lifting for the most part. I had to be careful of where the weight was positioned on it exactly, but I put up just as much weight as I normally do.

Back onto the diet thing though, I'm evaluating progress on UD 2.0 to decide whether to stick with it or try something else. I have not tried doing a steady diet with targeted carbs that has been debated so heavily recently, so I'm trying to decide whether or not to give that a go or stick with my current plan.

Funny thing about that though, on UD 2.0 if you average my calories per day (including the refeed) I'm eating more than I was on my previous cut. It comes out to around 2100 calories/day which is 200 higher.

Posted by: Built

Well THAT's nice - a non-fucked finger and higher cals. Cool!

Posted by: danzik17

Question for ya:

After 5/9 when I'm back from vacation, I'll have been eating above maintenance for probably a good week. Not absurdly, but I refuse to track foods during vacations....they're vacations!

Anyway knowing what you know about how much fat I'm carrying from those pics and knowing that I'll be a good 1-2lbs heavier and coming off from eating a lot of calories, would it be safe to run a PSMF afterward?

Interested in trying it again (and NOT screwing it up this time) but only if it's not risking excessive muscle.

Posted by: Built

Yeah, that would be the ideal time to do it, wouldn't it, after an extended diet break?

Posted by: danzik17

Oh I agree, was just confirming. This time I know the importance of the supplements AND I'm going to be ordering some medical grade fish oil to run with the PSMF.

Done with accutane, so I'm going to use top quality stuff and then get tested to see if my liver enzymes are screwy, but I may as well run them while I'm on the PSMF.

Posted by: Built

Does the accutane mess with your liver enzymes? I can't remember if I asked you that.

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Built

Does the accutane mess with your liver enzymes? I can't remember if I asked you that.

Only at very high dosages - the dosage I've been on for a while barely touched them.

Fish oils screwed with them majorly though, spiking them to sometimes over 4x normal levels. It may have been that the quality in my oils just wasn't there though which is why I'm going to try medical grade oils.

Posted by: danzik17

Well, back from vacation. Let's just say I'm uhhh....a bit juicier. And the definition of bit may or may not be negotiable here. Probably on the cusp of being a Type 2 for PSMF. That's what I get for having a "business" trip to Florida followed by a vacation.

Will be starting the PSMF on Monday morning since I don't have anything in the house at the moment and stores are closed. That will also let me follow the same schedule as last time. I'll likely be following very close to the same diet as last time with maybe slight modifications, but nothing huge.

Posted by: 33sun33

Damn, good job Danzik. You definitely look leaner with each photo, and you are doing great with the diet. Im also "trying" to get sub 10%, but seeing your progress really has made me feel lazy! Ive only been on my diet for a couple of weeks, and Im just following the basic guidelines in the Jodi sticky.

Posted by: danzik17

Quick Update:

PSMF is going well. Went from ~174 -> ~169lbs so far. Much easier to follow this diet on the second go around. The only two issues are the same as last time, I WANT MY DAMN COFFEE WITH CREAM, and the super low fat/carbs makes me thirsty as hell.

Posted by: danzik17

Posting this here so it's easy for me to find when it's refeed time:

I'll be doing essentially the same refeed that I would on my UD2.0 diet. That's going to work out to a bit under 1100g carbs in total. Last time I did the PSMF refeed I did 1200+ but ended up feeling REALLY bloated with a lot of water retention.

The second thing is that I'm going to deviate a bit from doing the pure PSMF and do the refeed UD 2.0 style. That means that I'll be doing a tension workout Thursday night and then immediately beginning my refeed into Friday. I may even do a power workout Saturday. That means my PSMF will only be 10.75 days instead of 11, but tough shit - it makes more sense to me to begin reglycogenating during the post-WO period rather than waiting just for the sake of making it to 11 days.

Posted by: danzik17

As far as progress, I'm just about at the point that I was before my vacation(s), which is good - only took 1 PSMF to drop me back there.

Posted by: danzik17

So results day:

Beginning weight: 174lbs
Ending weight: 166 and change

PSMF dropped me almost precisely to where I was before I went on vacation. Not a bad deal. Thank GOD it's refeed time though, and that last tension workout was a bitch - much harder than on UD 2.0. Just had NO energy at all, but I got it done.

Posted by: danzik17

While I'm waiting to get my thyroid checked (who freaking knew it would take so long to get an appointment?!?!), I decided to run a little experiment.

There was a pretty big argument recently about the merits of carbs in the D&N forums, and I decided to be a guinnea pig. As a former fatty, I felt that I was a pretty good candidate to fit the bill.

The cut started off pretty well with the first few days being pretty uneventful. After about 3-4 days, that's when the fun started. I noticed that I was no longer able to get "full" when I ate. Carbs seemed to beget more carbs. The only way I could be satiated was to eat carbs, but the more carbs I ate the hungrier I seemed to get at the next meal.

The end result was that for me, I don't think this diet would be sustainable. I'm sitting here pretty hungry at the moment despite the fact that I ate probably half a pound of chicken, veggies, and a couple pieces of bread not two hours ago.

I'm going to be reverting to a UD 2.0 style diet. Surprisingly even with the small amount of food on depletion days, I think I've been more comfortable on that diet than any other. The good results I seem to get from that diet is another bonus.

Just figured I'd post this up in case anyone was interested in a small case study for that argument.

Posted by: danzik17

Quick update:

I need to start a new journal. The title of this one is kind of....outdated now.

Pretty much maintaining at ~170lbs. Some days heavier, some lighter - whatever. Thyroid check is July 1st so I'm really just hanging out until then (cue convenient excuse).

Just wanted to throw this tip out there for anyone who has problems deadlifting:

Was in the gym and a guy who used to be into powerlifting noticed that I had really shitty deadlift form, but excellent squat form. His advice was to forget that I was doing deadlifts, squat to the floor and just pick up the bar and stand as if I was doing a normal squat. Did that and holy shit my form just snapped into place - it was just a mental thing all this time.

Just figured I'd shoot that out there in case anyone else is/was in a similar spot with good squat form and poor DL form.

Posted by: DIVINITUS

Quote:

Originally Posted by danzik17

Current Diet:

this is something I found with Fitday and feel free to correct me if I fucked up, but the egg whites I use are more calories than what is listed for yours. My egg whites at home are 30 cals a piece and 6 grams of protein thus making your number of 12 egg whites worth 360 calories. Seems standard for what I buy in the store...Fitday needs to be corrected more than I thought sometimes.

Posted by: danzik17

Quote:

Originally Posted by DIVINITUS

That would be interesting if Fitday has been screwing me over diet wise

Posted by: danzik17

So test results are in.........

Negative for hypothyroid.

Which is good kinda and sucks kinda. It sucks in that I don't know what else I could have done to lean out more than I did which was still several % short of my goal.

Contemplating a full break for at least 4-6 weeks during which I'll train for strength and whatever size or composition changes that happen to tag along for the ride. The only thing that I can thing of is that I've been trying to get cut for SO long that it's stressing me the fuck out and I just need to take a break for a while (idea sourced from the latest Lyle podcast from RealityBasedFitness.com).

That I'm not hypothyroid also means that my natural metabolism is just absurdly low (I gain fat on calories as low as 2400/day). That's made a lot of my cutting an absolute nightmare since to get any appreciable amount of fat loss entails cutting calories to VERY low levels.

Oh well. Rant over.

Posted by: nkira

I am getting myself checked for the same thing, My TSH came in high with high T3......I am looking for a doctor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by danzik17

So test results are in.........

Negative for hypothyroid.

Which is good kinda and sucks kinda. It sucks in that I don't know what else I could have done to lean out more than I did which was still several % short of my goal.

Contemplating a full break for at least 4-6 weeks during which I'll train for strength and whatever size or composition changes that happen to tag along for the ride. The only thing that I can thing of is that I've been trying to get cut for SO long that it's stressing me the fuck out and I just need to take a break for a while (idea sourced from the latest Lyle podcast from RealityBasedFitness.com).

That I'm not hypothyroid also means that my natural metabolism is just absurdly low (I gain fat on calories as low as 2400/day). That's made a lot of my cutting an absolute nightmare since to get any appreciable amount of fat loss entails cutting calories to VERY low levels.

Oh well. Rant over.

Posted by: danzik17

Decision made - I'll be doing what Built described as "powerbuilding" for at a minimum the next 4-6 weeks.

Will be starting a new journal probably tomorrow night when I have time with more information about diet/training.

Tonights training was:

Squat
Dead Press
Leg Press
Standing Shoulder Press

Upcoming Wednesday working will probably be something like:

Deadlifts
T-Bars
GHRs
Rows

I am committed to adding on at least 5lb to my lifts on a weekly basis. For stuff like squats/deads that should be easy stuff, but will likely be harder for dead press/DB bench/rows, etc...

More detailed info to come in the new journal.

(CLICK HERE here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Sub 10% by April

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