check out Berardi’s article on here. “Get Shredded Diet.”
He does his best to make it not miserable, but an extreme cut’s always going to suck.
I’m quite lucky in that I seem quite capable of brutalising myself with low calories.
If you really want to question your life choices, check out Lyle McDonald’s Rapid Fatloss Handbook. Just horrible but it works.
Fortunately for me, I keep a close eye on my weight due to making weight for meets so I only want to cut about 5lbs to get back to 57kg, my previous weight class. My last meet I weighed in at 59.1. I admire people who can lose a lot of weight. I don’t think I have the intestinal fortitude to do it.
Thursday:
BP: 15, 13, 10 x 175
rows and rear delts 3 sets
laterals 3 sets
curls 3 sets
Friday:
Soccer (7 - 0)
tweaked my right calf just above the achilles, s/b ok for today’s DL session.
Saturday
Mile run to the gym, mile run back
DL 8 x 3 x 300
4 circuits of:
RDL
t bar rows
neutral grip lat pulldowns
reverse hypers
Solid DLs, the last 4 sets felt stronger than the first 4. RDLs were with 225 focusing on form and speed. The left side of my back was tweaky this AM but the DLs straightened it right out.
No soccer this AM on account of Mother’s Day.
PM: 5 mile run, 9 minute mile pace. Easy peasy.
On a different note, one of the reasons I’ve been motivated to become more active lose weight is because my blood pressure was hovering up around 140/80. Over the last few months, I’ve upped my activity dramatically, dropped 18 lbs and the average of 3 readings a day over the last 3 days is 149/84. WTF.
Maybe I’ll try to get to 190 and then reassess.
Weight has been steady at around 203 for the last 4 weeks despite the workouts. Daily average cals over the last 6 weeks have been: 1,552, 1,972, 2,148, 1,795, 1,897, 1,802 for an average of 1,861 cals per day. I’m also averaging 145 grams of carbs per day so I’m going to drop it down to 100 to try and get the dial on the scale moving in the right direction again. That will bring my daily cals to 1,680.
How are you finding recovery from running to lifting?
How old are you now? I mean we know what you weigh now we need age and actual hair colour 
I’ll be interested to see how your BP reacts to further weight loss.
Recovery is better than I thought although everything I’m doing is sub-maximal right now. But I’m really noticing that running (quad dominant/cardio dominant) isn’t getting in the way of my DL’ing (posterior chain), at least for now.
I’m 44 right now with a lot of salt and pepper at 203. I really don’t want to get on high BP meds…that kind of medical management for a chronic condition would make me feel old, tbh.
Monday:
2 mile run
Pin press: wut 4 x 235
cable rows/rear delts
laterals
curls
Weight 204.8 on Tuesday AM which I attribute to better hydration.
Tuesday: 4 mile run, 8:10 pace
Today’s food:
Two cucumbers, orange pepper, 5oz tuna, baked Lays, 20 kalamata olives, 3 oz feta, 10 oz ribeye, salad.
~1600 cals today
Weekly average of nutrients
150grams of protein
95 grams of carbs
100 grams of fat
Didn’t train Wednesday or Thursday, life intervened and I had a tweaky calf.
Friday, soccer (7-3)
Saturday:
Trap bar DL 3 x 5 x 300lbs
Snatch grip rack pulls 3 x 6 x 275
Reverse hypers 3 x 15
Mile run back home.
Cals hovering right around 1700 per day, weight steady at 204. Should start dropping any day now…
Sunday AM: soccer, 90 minutes
PM: 2.5 mile run, 8:45 pace
I’m going to cut back on the length and distance of my runs for now and focus on keeping the distance ~2.5 miles at an easy pace until I can get more of a base built.
Monday:
Pin press: wut 3 x 235, 6 x 215
Pull overs ss rear delts 3 x some
curls
laterals
2.5 mile run, 8:25 pace
Average daily cals over the past week, 1,767
p 132, Carbs 156, Fat 72
Weight holding steady at 204, strength is coming off a bit. I’ve been keeping a food log off and on for the last 5 years and I’ve had less alcohol since March 1 than any 3 month period going back to 2012 so that’s something, I guess. I had expected to see some better physique gains by eliminating nearly 600 empty calories a day. I’m starting to toss around the idea of a 2 week PSMF because I hate this slow and steady shit.
I’ve also recently made the decision to cut out Friday and Saturday night whiskey. It may not sound like much but between the two days, it’s around 1,000 calories or more. I’m still trying to stick to slow and steady.
Tuesday:
mile run
TBDL: 8 x 3 x 300
RDL: 3 x 10 x 225
Reverse hypers: 3 x 15 x 300lbs
Macros were spot on today, P150 C91 F100
Now that my cals are so low, I can’t afford to choose an alcoholic drink. Hell, a Stella is nearly %10 of my daily allotment and I’ve have a strict rule against having an odd number of drinks.
Wednesday:
Pin press wut 4 x 235, 6 x 225
rows ss rear delts 3 x some
curls 3 x some
laterals 3 x some
Thursday:
Chase Corporate Challenge - Really happy with my performance, I finished the 3.5 miles in less than 25 minutes right around a 7:0x pace. This projects to a 45:xx 10k meaning I can pretty much maintain my current training level and easily beat my 45:00 goal…or shoot for sub 40:00.
Friday:
Limping around after Thursdays run, my lower calf (under the gastroc) is noticeably swollen. My gf palpated it and said it feels “boggy”, in other words warm, fluid filled, and swollen. Skipped soccer. Shit on a shingle. Luckily deads always seem to help my tweaky calves so:
TPDL 4 x 5 x 300
Fourth rep of the fourth set I felt a little popping sensation from my left QL and quit immediately. It’s been sore since even though I’ve been rolling it out with a lacrosse ball daily.
So tomorrow I head to my primary doc for a PT referral. I need to get a handle on what’s going on with my calves. I expect I won’t be running at all this week and soccer is wait and see. I’m the perfect demographic for an Achilles rupture (middle aged, male, desk-jockey) so I’m going to do whatever it takes to minimize the risk.
Calories have been averaging 1,600/day over the last week. Weight hovering around 202.
Sorry about your calf. That’s got to be frustrating af. I hope it’s something minor that’s a simple fix.
Thanks for the thoughts, I don’t think it will be simple (like I could take a pill and everything would be fixed) but I do think there is a path out.
So, looking at my food logs I’ve been dropping cals from 2,000 to 1,600 over the last 3 months and my weight has been constant +/- 2lbs since April 3. Earlier this week, I dropped down to 1,200 cals and with some help from my friend ephedrine HCL I’ve decided to do a PSMF since I won’t be running or playing soccer for the next 7 - 10 days. It helps that exquisitely sensitive to stimulants; they shut my appetite down hard. I’ll weigh myself tomorrow AM and hopefully be on my way to the low 190s by this time mid-June. I’ve got 36 2.5oz pouches of pink salmon at work for lunch as well as protein, almond milk, flax meal, and psyllium husk. Which brings me to my next thought. I believe (blessedly free of having to provide any evidence whatsoever) that one can eat as much red meat as they like with no deleterious effects as long as one’s fiber intake is sufficiently high.
All of those studies about hot dogs and butt cancer, and red meat and coronary episodes, and saturated fat and strokes can be safely ignored if one keeps their fiber intake at >30g per day. That, imho, is the PRIMARY purpose of vegetables. Not to get trace vitamins and minerals, but to keep the protein and fat moving through the digestive system. Again, I have no evidence at all but that’s what I believe.
And today’s musical selection:
Weighed in a 196 this AM, the low cals having finally kicked in. I’ll keep cals between 1200 - 1600 until I get down to 185 and then try and maintain there. The lightest I’ve been in the last 6 years is 193 and that was for a brief, dehydrated moment after my morning constitutional about 4 years ago.
Friday:
Pin press wut 6 x 225
rows and rear delts 3x
laterals 3x
curls3x
No soccer tonight to let my calf heal a bit more but I’ve been doing some eccentric-only heal raises and glute med stuff with the TRX.
Started with a 5 minute jog, then 10 minutes on the rower, some Vinayas flows, Agile 8, then 3 sets of light kettlebell swings to warm up my back.
TBDL:
wut 1 x 300, first rep of the first working set my left QL goes “pop, pop, pop” and I’m done with deads for the day.
Reverse Hypers 3 x 15
Farmers walks 3 x 50 yards, 115 per hand.
My various muscle strains usually respond well to heavy loads in a small, controlled ROM so the farmers walks felt good both on my QL and calf.
Weighed 196 this AM, Dexa yesterday showed %16.2 body fat. My average of 3 BP readings this last week are 155/91 and heart rate is 45bpm. Average cals over the last week is 1,423 with 104 grams of protein.
I think the solution to my high blood pressure is throwing the fucking machine out the window (though I may have some contributing anger issues).
Moving forward with whatever I can do as best as possible. I’m going to spend the next 40 minutes on some glute med stuff to see if I can get my QL to quiet down. I’ll also nick one of my gf’s muscle relaxers this evening.
Edit: ok, my 5 cup of coffee a day and 50mg of ephedrine hcl habit may be factor in my high bp, though the ephedrine is just within the last 5 days. I’m may try to cut back on my coffee as well and see how that works.