Hi John, not so much a target weight but rather a body composition target of removing the fat from my lower abs that I have never been able to remove.
My BF% is likely in the 10-12% range but I don't think I will be happy until I am at about 8% and then it will depend on my muscle mass if I maintain or bulk again (god, clean bulk please, please, please)
You have made great progress too, congratulations! Do you have a target in mind?
This is a wild world Angie, take everything that is offered and see where it takes you. I don't think the heart cares too much about earning potential.
Alright, I accept that I have been slack on keeping on top of this log, as you can imagine i have been busy with finishing up and handing off my job responsibilities but all done although they are going to pay me up through the end of February which is great.
Diet has been varied, most of the time good but I am starting to crave some yummy stuff. Exercise has been great with morning fasted cardio and lifting in the gym in the afternoons. Burning about 700kcal on the cardio and lifting for around 1.5-2 hours each days. Hell, Im having a lot of fun and I can now seriously spend some quality time with the kids and help with home work and all that other stuff.
Thanks Angie, for the tip. I will check out Philips website and see what they have to offer.
Morning Weigh In: 202.4lb
Damn starting to drop weight really quickly now that I am off cycle. Wish it was all fat but without a doubt I will loss some lean mass post cycle.
Surprising considering last night I ate nearly half of a family sized Papa Murphy Thai Chicken lite pizza and did eat half of their s'mores pizza. Damn, so f'ing good but a 2000kcal meal.
Hey Angie, good to have you back. We are upside down on our mortgage and have resigned ourselves to just walking away from the house if we have to move. very very sucky for sure and cringe when I think about what it will do to our credit (both of us are around 810).
But we can't put our life on hold much longer and can't see a massive change in the RE market any time soon. LA area sounds good, After nearly 15 years in Seattle I am so fucking ready for some sun. Lots of what I do in FL so might also check out Sarasota and Tampa area. lol, hell I will probably end up in Fairbanks, Missoula or Boise.
Morning Weigh In: 204.4lb
Although each day is now like a weekend day I have been pretty good with my diet but have noticed bad stuff creeping back in.
On the plus side I can now do two workout a day if I want but have mainly been lifting mid morning and cardio before picking up the kids in the late afternoon.
I checked out the ingredients and the packs have some good stuff in them and some stuff I wouldn't expect like DMAE and NAC but they do look a little underdosed.
Did you take fish oil caps before starting with the Perricone packs? A lot of the skin benefits might be coming from the fish and primrose oil.
A lot of this stuff works but gets written off as useless primarily by people regurgitating the crap that comes from big pharma and by people that buy the wrong product for the wrong reason. The industry hasn't helped it self by making exuberant marketing claims.
For thousands of years we have treated out illnesses with herbs and food and they worked for the most part. Big Pharma comes along and now thousands of years of knowledge is worthless and the only thing that works is a product that luckily for you we happen to have a patent on, sell and have in stock.
Body Stats
1/7/2012
Weight: 205.6lb
Body fat: 7mm 10.5%
Neck:17.25
Shoulders: 52
Chest: 44
R Arm: 16, L Arm: 15.25
R Forearm: 12.5 L Forearm: 12.25
Waist: 38.5
Hips: 39
R Thigh: 24.5 L Thigh: 24.25
R Calf: 16.5 L Calf: 16
1/29/2012
Weight: 206lb
Body fat: 5mm 8% (again I am higher than this but thats what the accu-measure says.
Neck:17 (-.25)
Shoulders: 52 (0)
Chest: 44.25 (+.25)
R Arm: 16 (0), L Arm: 15.5 (+.25)
R Forearm: 13 (+.5) L Forearm: 12.5 (+.25)
Waist: 37 (-1.25)
Hips: 39 (0)
R Thigh: 25 (+.50) L Thigh: 25 (+.75)
R Calf: 16.5 (0) L Calf: 16 (0)
Waist measurement has dropped a lot as well as the accu-measure body fat measurement.
I don't really believe the body fat % it is telling me but really it is good to see it going down. Today was my last day on any anabolic supplements and I start PCT tomorrow so expect my weight to start dropping but will work hard to keep my lifting numbers up as much as possible.
I completely disagree with this. Think about when you are strongest, with your head angled back (looking up, or with your head pulled into your shoulders, looking slightly down with your head tucked towards your shoulder blades.
To each their own and I have heard and see people do the look up thing but my experience is to tuck head into the shoulders, immobilizing the head and keeping teh neck in a neutral position.
No worries I do have it and am supprised someone was selling it on ebay. Danger of creating a pdf book I guess. That said I would never try to sell it, thats just stealing from Tom.
Thanks Al and Rachael!
Al, I have been following the challenges you have been facing with your families health but don't know enough to really contribute but know that I am thinking of you and yours.
Morning weigh in 207lb
Looks like I will be laid off tomorrow so I am excited about what the future holds. I have been in Seattle for about 15 years and really need to explore a little more of the United States. Maybe somewhere warmer with a little more sunshine might be nice
Or maybe head back to New Zealand and hang out with Mike at The Mount. Love to show my family the Coromandel and where I was raised in Tauranga. Might skip on Christchurch for now, still really shaky there or maybe we can go to Australia, Lots of what I do in Brisbane, and could watch rugby and league, and drink real beer again... oh wait on that last one
Anyway I am going to continue trucking long with my fitness plan as it stands and now I will be able to spend a lot more time with my kids which is great (they may have a different opinion) as I can workout during the day and do twofers, lifting and cardio in the same day.
Hey Al, you might (likely)still are on a low carb diet if you are only eating vegie, fruit and nuts. If you are eating less than about 150 grams of carbs I would say you are low carbing (not to be mistaken for Keto, which is super low carbing or carb removal) especially compared to the SAD in which most folks eat 300gm + of carbs.
It sounds like you aren't dieting anyway right, just changing your lifestyle to eating cleaner and more healthy.
Morning weigh in: 208.2lb.
My weight isn't really moving but I am massively leaning out (likely due to some "Supplementation" i am on) but that is likely to end in a about a week and then I will be on some testosterone recovery chemicals. Life is about to suck bad soon.
And just to tie into the sucking so bad theme I am likely to get laid off from work in the next couple of days as they want to change the requirements for my position. Oh well, lemons, lemonade and all that, maybe I will more down to southern California to be closer to Angie once she moves
On a side note, my work pays for both our kids health insurance, if we move to my wife's policy it will cost about $500 a month.
Lol @ the comments to that article. John, the bad mood thing normally only lasts for about 3 day (feels much the same as giving up caffeine) and then your body adapts to running on ketones.
Indeed a keto diet isn't the best for endurance sports athletes but is very effective at eliminating body fat.
Carbing up every 3-7 days can eliminate the negative side effects of a ketogenic diet.
Thanks Sam,
while showering after the treadmill I was thinking of all the different arguments I could say to your mums comments but now that I am sitting down in front of the computer I would just like to say that I respectfully disagree with her hypothesis but appreciate the fact she cares enough to contribute.
Groovy bro and yes if you workout fasted then I would recommend BCAA's.The pill form is very expensive per gm of BCAA's and the drinks are the most economical.
I am about to hit my treadmill downstairs and have 2 scoops of RecoverPro (4:1:1 BCAA) in front of me right now (One scoop of Lemon, one of Raspberry, nom nom nom).
I also like Xtend (BCAA) and Core ABC, Intrabolic (BCAA+) and Purple Wraath (EAA+)
BCAA and ALA, CLA are different things.
BCAA, are part of the building blocks of muscle and what the body needs when it breaks down muscles to have the building blocks to repair muscles (sounds strange, but true) so when lifting or doing chronic cardio, in a fasted state it helps stop the muscles being broken down for fuel.
ALA and CLA are both fats like Fish oil but have different properties (CLA is actually a trans-fat but surprisingly a good one)
The only thing I would say about flax is that one of the things we are trying to do by taking supplemental omega 3s is balance out the omega 3, omega 6 inbalance that is very common these days. So by taking in additional omega 6s via flax seed oil you are making that ratio harder to achieve. Ideal ratio is 1:1 or 2:1 6 to 3 but we are likely to be much higher (possibly as high as 30:1) on the 6s because they are more shelf stable unlike omega 3s that go rancid much quicker. Also the less organic meat is lower in omega 3s than in the past.
Also the conversion from flax to DHA/EPA is very low. Fish Oil is still your best bet to maximise the omega 3 ratio.
Stephen, I think you are on the right track butjust for information sake, when asked by someone just starting out in lifting heavy and working out nearly daily I suggest the following supplements as a base;
For losing body fat;
Multi vitamin (I use Orange Triad, can be found for $20)
Joint support
Fish Oil (6 a day of normal straight fish oil)
Protein Powder
CLA
Preworkout (optional)
BCAA drink (intra workout, only if you workout fasted)
Post workout protein shake
For gaining weight, muscle:
Multi
Fish Oil
Joint support
Creatine
Protein Powder
Pre Workout
ALA
ALCAR (optional)
Post workout shake with Dextrose
Also really good but not in the list are digestive support, green foods.
For fat loss the best thermogenic is Ephedrine and Caffeine (20mg/200mg, 3x day for 28 days, 14 days off) or Clenbuterol (personally have not messed with that)
That's a good place to start then add stuff if you want to try new things, just add one extra thing at a time to accurately judge it's effect on you.
For me, I find supplements to be the mental side of a very physical sport. There is a lot of information, disinformation, opinion and hype that can be interesting to cut through but once you have a good basis of learning you can cut through a lot of crap and find the most beneficial supplementation for you.
All of my supplements work for me, if they didn't I would stop taking them.
OK, that said, screw it, Stephen has asked me to comment so I will.
This is just my opinion and it is what has worked for me. It likely is different from your option and what has worked for you. SO be it.
That said if your option differs from mine, your opinion is wrong
First of all the expensive pee thing that I hear all the time is just a joke. Do you only drink water? If you drink coffee, is coffee free? A Starbucks coffee a day is how much? 2-3 bucks? my multi/joint support/digestive support is only 50c a day. If coffee is not free then don't you also have expensive pee? I love steak, now I have expensive poo?
Really makes no sense.
Yes, there are wildly inaccurate company claims about their supplements, much the same in any industry.
hell watch a car commercial, do you drive your car like that? If you did it would break down very quickly and you would have expensive repair bills, so all inductries have exuberant claims about their products, you just need to be an informed consumer.
And really the fact that dropping pills might be difficult has no impact on the benefits of the content of the pills and a lot of stuff can now be got in a drink format if pills are difficult.
The Money side of it: why would you have an opinion of how much money I have and how I spend it and why would I have an opinion of your financial choices?
Just as aside, I no longer smoke, drink (as much), gamble, date (big $$) use hair product (see dating) etc, so if this is how I (or anyone else) choose to spend our money how is that an argument to not take supplements. Maybe I am a multi-millionaire, maybe I make $250,000 a year so that argument has no context for me.
When I hear, that all supplements are a rip off and unnecessary, all I hear is someone who is uninformed and that their opinion doesn't really count.
I mean good on you for being all pure and all but there is a lot of stuff I don't do or know about therefore my opinion on that stuff is irrelevant.
Some people never move, eat packaged junk food all day and live to 80 or 90 so really all of this shit we do is not necessary, but it does have some benefit for us doing it so we do it. Supplements are the same thing. There is a benefit to taking some supplements and by lumping all supplements together as an unnecessary evil you could be missing on on some of the benefits supplements have to offer.
You can tell your mum that she may be a little misinformed. We are not likely Type 1 and there is a difference between Ketosis and Ketoacidosis.
Most of us will go into some level of Ketosis nightly as the body produces ketones to use as fuel when available carbs are low.
A ketogenic diet is very popular with the bodybuilding community as the fastest way to lose body fat (not saying the healthiest way, or even the best way when you have a lot of fat to lose).
Al, your answer can be found there too, but the best way to covert fat to ketones for fuel is to go ultra low carb, like in the 20-30gm a day range. It can be a hard transition but once you are there it can be easy to drop a lot of FAT very quickly as fat is your main form of fuel.
I don't think I will be doing a hard core ketogenic diet but I will be low carbing (70-130gm) it compared to my normal 280gm of carbs a day.
Angie, You know how I feel, I just went from a fat dude to a skinny dude with a big head. Now I have a little bit of muscle, just got to get rid of the extra fat I have and show me bulging muscle off to everyone (without getting arrested)
Off from work today due to snow, nice and quiet right now, love the snow.
couldn't be bothered to make my salad over the weekend with so much stuff going on so yesterday for lunch I had a Jimmy Johns #8 and holy cow it was sooooo fucking good!! First wheat I have eaten in nearly 2 weeks and I don't regret it one little bit. nom nom nom.
That said my weight bounced up a bit but I can deal with that as I am continuing to lean out (4 pack'ish) and I had someone ask me yesterday if I am a body builder. Funny but quite the compliment for me.
Made my salad last night and good to go for the rest of the week if I ever get back to work with the snow Seattle will have tonight.
Still heading in the right direction. Haven't had any wheat products since the beginning of this log but had some sugar stuff, but nothing excessive (one small dove chocolate bar, this weekend and some 25kcal smarties packs) and have been on point with my exercise. All in all a good weekend.
Brought a pair of inov-8 195's last week have have to say they are great lifting shoes , very little to no heal raise and very little compression in the soles. They breath really well too. a little pricey but really good for lifting and now I will not have to kick off my shoes to squat and dead lift.
I wish it was only $200 a year but our normal non organic weekly food bill was about $140 from Safeway. Last weekend we experimented and went full organic from PCC, cost $260 and we got less stuff (a lot less meat) that we normally do.
$120 a week = $6240 a year extra for organic food.
So if we extrapolate this out, I'm around 40, say we live to 80, that 40 x $6240 = a quarter of a million dollars extra for organic food. You know what, in reality, I would rather eat less organic food, live to 70 and either go on a $250,000 bender near the end or give it to my kids.
That's a shit load of money to eat slightly better.
hhhuuummmmmmm.
This doesn't even count the Costco food we get every couple of months.
I am already testing with ketostix but was wondering if excess ketones in your blood have an effect on your BG results.
There are so many veriables that go into the results for urine ketones test to make them almost worthless.
