At the beginning of this adventure, I'd gotten down to 132.5# @ 10% body fat (caliper-measured). This was achieved by diet alone with virtually no exercise. I was taking in about 1400-1800 calories daily while maintaining a 1000-1400 calorie daily deficit.
On July 4th, I had established a plan for SLOW muscle gains while avoiding a build up of adipose fat. The plan called for increasing intakes to 2200 calories at first and building that up until the deficit became a slight surplus.
I added all sorts of junk food and went carb CRAZY! Having come from a background of LCHF and keto for a number of years, I thought I'd die within a week lol. No such luck!
The carbs significantly improved my workouts, gave me tons of energy, improved deep sleep patterns, and just improved my mood in general. Oh! AND NOT MUCH EXCESSIVE ADIPOSE FAT GAINED! 👍👍 I was art 10% BF until last week, but I messed around and played with my RDI. Before settling on a new number, I went too high for a minute...
The tricky part with high carbs (250-350g/day) is they hang onto water and eliminations have added a day between from my regular daily routine on LCHF. The only area this makes a difference is at weigh-in time. My numbers bounce around a bit more than I'd like.
So, 5 weeks later, here's where I'm at:
Weight: 139.5 or so (up 6-7# - which is a good thing in my case!)
Averaging 2600 calories/day (more on workout days and a lot less on rest days) and still high carbs with 155g+/day of protein to support muscle growth. I'm not working at a complete surplus yet, but enough to get in the ballpark. Again: SLOW gains is the goal, but the most important thing to me is fat minimization.
Fat gains: 1.5%... not too shabby considering my diet is almost 50% carb-based! Totally not the results I'd have imagined! But the fat isn't even noticeable.
Muscle gains: measurements increased VERY slightly. It's more the extreme definition I see; major league vascular action and muscle definition is great! I need to wax my chest and go get a spray tan like the cool kids 😜
Gym results: I've blown away my previous high-level weight records! All my lifts are beyond my prior maximums! I've changed my workout plan to less power-based to focus more on muscle-growth now which required a slight drop in weights to accommodate the slightly higher amount of reps.
Previous attempts at muscle gains had never gone well. I'd increased food intake without a plan and was eating 3400 calories and stacked on a LOT of fat! Or, trying to lose fat and gain muscle was too hard to measure progress. This way works perfectly!
In the zone now and ready to see more positive results! 💪
Checking in again in another month....
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139.5 lb
Lost so far: 18.5 lb.
Still to go: 0 lb.
Diet followed reasonably well.
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Diet Calendar Entries for 10 August 2018:
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2444 kcal
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Fat: 101.96g | Prot: 176.06g | Carb: 223.89g.
Breakfast: Ground Beef (70% Lean / 30% Fat, Patty, Cooked, Pan-Broiled), Sunny Farms Jumbo Egg, Albertsons Blueberry Creme Cake, Kroger Vitamin D Whole Milk. Lunch: Kellogg's Nutri-Grain Cereal Bar - Strawberry, Now Sports Whey Protein Isolate, Optimum Nutrition Micronized Creatine Powder, Nature's Best Perfect Low Carb Isopure Whey Protein Isolate - Dutch Chocolate, Coffee (Brewed From Grounds), Kroger Vitamin D Whole Milk. Dinner: Halo Top Creamery Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream, Albertsons Blueberry Creme Cake, Kroger Vitamin D Whole Milk, Sunbelt Fudge Dipped Coconut Chewy Granola Bar. Snacks/Other: Olly Restful Sleep Gummies. more...
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2489 kcal
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Activities & Exercise:
Bus Driving - 6 hours and 45 minutes, Driving - 1 hour and 30 minutes, Sitting - 15 minutes, Watching TV/Computer - 3 hours, Housework - 15 minutes, Walking (moderate) - 3/mph - 15 minutes, Standing - 30 minutes, Cooking - 15 minutes, Sleeping - 7 hours and 30 minutes, Resting - 3 hours and 45 minutes. more...
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gaining 7.0 lb a week
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