Otep's Velocity Log

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I started the velocity diet yesterday. Here I intend on logging my progress as I go through this 28-day journey.

Yesterday kicked my ass. From what I’d read of the initial thread, I thought it would be a walk in the park. I figured Micellar casein prevented hunger, tasted like wedding cake… you know, things like that. It turns out that, while many of the difficulties involved in the initial ‘fat-fast’ have been corrected, it’s apparently still quite a trial to go through.

Started: 230 lbs, 24% bodyfat.
Goal: 210lbs, 14% bodyfat.
I intend on losing 20 lbs of fat in 28 days.
I’ll post pics later.

I think a lot of the uncomfortability is that I’ve never taken this many supplements before. I’ve used creatine, and I sparingly use Spike to study for tests, but HOT-ROX is a completely new sensation, especially the double dose. The Metabolic Drive tastes… good… but it always leaves this shitty aftertaste. It’s not something I really look forward to eating/drinking. Even Surge seems to taste different than when I was eating solid food.

My first strength workout yesterday was seriously lagging. I had to drop a set from each of the four exercises I worked (bench press, back squat, snatch-grip deadlift and decline situp). My muscles just didn’t bounce back or recover in-workout the way they usually do. I guess it has to do with the reduced carbs/calorie total. That, and my old intensity-headache came back, which didn’t help.

Today starts day 2. I’m in for a long February.

Hopefully, though, I’ll emerge on the other side more ripped than I’ve ever been in my life. So I’m excited too.

2

[quote]Otep wrote:
My first strength workout yesterday was seriously lagging. I had to drop a set from each of the four exercises I worked (bench press, back squat, snatch-grip deadlift and decline situp). My muscles just didn’t bounce back or recover in-workout the way they usually do. I guess it has to do with the reduced carbs/calorie total. That, and my old intensity-headache came back, which didn’t help.[/quote]

Have you tried sipping half of the serving of Surge throughout your workout?

From what I’ve read that seems to help a lot.

3

Yeah, I drink about half of it halfway through. It doesn’t help.

Weird thing… Metabolic Drive isn’t exactly low on carbs. I’m getting at least 100g BEFORE surge. I mean, that SHOULD be enough to… I don’t know. Massive calorie restriction has to have some performance effect, I guess.

Day 2 is done, day 3 in progress. I’m shitting water. I don’t think that’s a good thing. It’s understandable, since I’m not eating solid food (Flameout for omegas instead of flaxseed because the latter contains too many calories to fit inside Shugart’s limits). I think I might just have some beans or something on my solid meal, just to remind my gut not to get too comfortable.

It’s really hard to go to sleep and I don’t want to get up. Kinda reminds me of a roadies life, but it’s HOT-ROX and NyQuil instead of cocaine and qualudes.

I tell myself I’m eating Ice-cream when I’m slurping my shakes. After I started putting cinnamon in them, I started believing it.

I don’t get the green-tea ice-cream smoothie suggested elsewhere.

I can’t wait for this to be over, but I can’t help but notice that it feels really sustainable. It feels manageable for the duration of the 28 days. Without too much exertion. I feel proficient at every day life under the extreme conditions I’m putting myself through.

4

[quote]Otep wrote:
Metabolic Drive isn’t exactly low on carbs.
[/quote]

Yes it is. Are you using low-carb or Complete?

Low-carb = 3 carbs per serving so about 6 per shake.

Sounds like you’re really messing up somewhere if you can’t fit in the flax seed calories.

And what do you mean double dose of HOT-ROX? Use the max amount, but not double. And stop taking NyQuil to sleep. That’s dumb.

I have a feeling you’re making other mistakes as well. Better provide some more details.

5

[quote]Dave2 wrote:
Otep wrote:
Metabolic Drive isn’t exactly low on carbs.

Yes it is. Are you using low-carb or Complete?

Low-carb = 3 carbs per serving so about 6 per shake.

Sounds like you’re really messing up somewhere if you can’t fit in the flax seed calories.

And what do you mean double dose of HOT-ROX? Use the max amount, but not double. And stop taking NyQuil to sleep. That’s dumb.

I have a feeling you’re making other mistakes as well. Better provide some more details.

[/quote]

Good call. Using Complete, not low-carb.

Max dose HOT-ROX = 2 pills, 2x day. To me, that equates to two servings.

Other mistakes… Umhh… I wake up around 7pm, take 2 pills of HOT-ROX, about an hour later I have my first shake. I take 4 flame-out capsules with that first shake.
Shake #2 at 11pm.
2nd dose HOT-ROX (another 2 pills)at 1am.
Shake #3 and 4 more flame-out capsules at 2am.
Shake #4 at 5am
Workout M/W/F full body at 6. done by 7. Take 3 scoops Surge in about 12oz water half in workout, half immediately after. Head back home, shower, head to class.
Shake #5 at 8am.
Classes finished and bedtime by 11am.

I had serious trouble sleeping, just due to a lot of energy when I need to winding down. I don’t think it’s lifting so close to bedtime, I did that before the diet and didn’t have problems with it.
NyQuil came as a last-resort- I really needed to get some sleep because I had to wake up early yesterday, and it was already late…
I’m actually not sure it worked.
I also have a case of the sniffles. I figured it couldn’t hurt.
Stretching right before sleeping helps.

I made a mistake when stocking up on supplements. I should have gone with low-carb and flax seeds. I’m not willing to re-buy 9 tubs of Metabolic Drive. Metamucil’s sounding like a good idea.

Any other ideas of things I can do to improve?

6

Well, as it turns out, re-ordering supplies seemed like a good idea. So I did. They should get in on Tuesday. I’m gonna sell the overstocked Metabolic Drive Complete to people I know that work out.

In order to save money until the Low-Carb Metabolic Drive comes in, I’m mixing one scoop Metabolic Drive with 1 scoop EAS Whey (it’s what I had) and two tablespoons of flax seeds for three of my five shakes. It’s not quite as filling, or as thick… but it is easier to eat.

It doesn’t keep me full as long- the last couple of days I’ve been doing it I’ve been hungrier than the first couple. I am reminded that the motto of the initial ‘fat fast’ was “Suffer and drop fat”.

Oh how true.

I haven’t weighed in yet. I’m hoping for good results, even though I’ve consumed more than a typical carb profile for this diet. I have noticed that an old, thinner pair of pants fits me. I’ll find out details on Monday, at the end of the first week.

I’m leery of stepping on the scale too often for fear of getting conflicting results based on different time-of-day testings. That,and ‘a watched pot never boils’.

7

End of Week 1

Weight: 220.5 lbs.
BF%: 22%

I’m incredibly impressed. I did not believe I would recieve results this fast. I havn’t lost any(?) Lean body mass and I’ve shed about ten pounds of fat. This really is about 3x the results I was getting before doing it.

Because I ordered Metabolic Drive complete instead of low carb, I’m getting at least 100g of carbs/day, so I assume practically all of the lost weight is fat, and not water. This is still about 3x the rate I was losing fat earlier (went from 240-230 in three weeks before doing v-diet).

It’s really encouraging to see results. Especially such substantial results. Before, I had always gotten bored with dieting, and since I never made significant progress I always dropped it, or something came up that seemed more important (work, school) that would prevent me from continuing to lift or eat properly. Either way, my motivation would fizzle out.

THIS! This is motivation in itself. Incredible.

I hold concerns for next week. I’m going to be having solid food again (a once/week solid meal eaten out… probably chicken salad) it should be a nice treat eaten early in the day. To make up for it, I’ll just drop a couple of my shakes for a total of 1 chicken salad and 3 shakes, still staying in the 1600-1950 kcal range which seems to be working like gangbusters.

I’m kinda bothered by the lack of visual progress though. While I can fit old sets of pants with ease now, I still seem to lack definition in my stomach… which I guess is good. it’s only been a single week, and my BF is still in the twenties. If I can get similar results, I should definitely be able to see a six pack by the end of the month.

And that, of course, will be awesome.

8

Day 10 or so.

I realize I said this before, but I’m starting to feel really competent in doing this. I had two… no cheat days, but solid food days, on Monday and Wednesday, dealing for week 1 and 2, respectively.

Grilled chicken and mashed potatoes (and veggies, probably a little over 600 kcal at about 40g protein. Not good, but acceptable. cut back 2 shakes.) and steak (again, 2lbs of lean steak, probably close to 1000 kcal and about 100 g protein - at least. Cut back 3 shakes).

Neither meal was ideal according to the velocity diet. I’m not disheartened though. I don’t choose to do that again on my remaining two solid meals, and I’m psychologically charged to continue with this diet.

The low-carb Metabolic Drive came in and I’ve been using that and flax meal. It’s the low-carb part I didn’t do correctly last week. I don’t know if it’s working better or not. I’m not gonna weigh myself until Sunday, the end of week 2.

However, I am noticably thinner, my belts are all a shitload tighter, my shirts all hang loose on my shoulders and chest (which is nice), and while I can’t see my abs just yet, I can see the gut around them disappearing.

I’m excited! I’m not even halfway through and I’m seeing results! I’ve still got like, two and a half more weeks of this! Awesome.

I am somewhat afraid I’m losing muscle mass. When I weighed myself on Sunday, it showed that at least part of my weight loss wasn’t fat, or my BF% would have been closer to 20, not 22. Maybe it’s water-weight, I don’t know. This is what Shugs did, that’s what I’m doing, from the total-body workouts 3x a week to the hour of walking every day.

Perhaps the most noticable element of learning this week is that I now make my shakes right before I drink/eat them, while they’re still thick and fluffy with air, and thus more filling. After they’ve sat for a while they go flat and aren’t quite as hunger-killing as they are in the beginning.

9

Day 15, the start of the third week. I stepped on the scale and damn near shit myself.

weight: 220 lbs.
BF%: 22%.

Exactly the same as a week ago.

I weighed myself on Thursday (three days ago) and had the exact same measurements. At the time, I chocked it up to the fact that my solid food meals hadn’t been completely digested yet. That or some other aspect of weight/time was messing with the scale. Now I have a different theory.

I’m a genetic freak that doesn’t lose fat on low-carb diets.

While I’m leery of altering the diet, I’m a big fan of results. The first week, while using Metabolic Drive Complete, I lost 10lbs. While using low-carb Metabolic Drive and flax meal, I lost nothing. Same amount of HOT-ROX, four less Flameout capsules (but with the difference made up in flax meal), but pretty much the same caloric count (1600-1950), same weight training, same sleep patterns, same everything.

A part of me really believes in not altering Shugart’s diet, in giving it another week. If I did that though, there’s a pretty high chance nothing different would happen, and then I’d be kicking myself for not having changed what didn’t work.

If anyone has any experience with this, feel free to chime in.

Meanwhile, I’m switching back to a more… complete, diet (heh heh heh…)

10

Day 17

After another three days of eating the way I was the first week (using Metabolic Drive Complete) I have not lost a single pound, fat or otherwise.

I’m terminating the diet. It requires a great deal of effort and I have not gotten results that justify that effort.

I really don’t know what happened. Things were great that first week. Then I changed to the low-carb MD and everything went downhill. And when I switched back, the fat loss still didn’t kick in.

So I tried something new, and it kinda worked. Then it stopped. And now I’ve got enough protein left in my cupboard to last me till armageddon.

I think, also, I’ve seen some value in patience, in addition to experimentation

11

When you were using LOW carb protein shakes, on workout days ( 1900 calories ) what was your breakdown of fat grams, carbs, and protein?