@dchris Love it! I am greatly looking forward to loosening the reigns a bit next off season. Certainly going to keep things in check, but can’t wait to program in some amazing foods!
Rob, many thanks for the comprehensive reply. I’m sold!
The points you make are actually well made on me because I have been training more in this mode for the last few months. This was largely inspired by Gironda methods, which included attention to the mind muscle connection, not locking out during sets, etc.
Further, I have just started on a round of GVT (which I have had some success with in the past). As per Poliquin principles, I am really paying more attention to the negative. While I have loathed tempo prescriptions in the past, I have committed to slow the negative and really concentrate on the mind muscle connection. This is ensuring the sets are in the 30-40s TUT range.
So, all in all, it sounds to me GVT is a good choice programme based on your advice re Micro PA! I will take my first delivery in the next few days.
Cheers again mate, and keep up the sterling work. It is an inspiration to a lots of us on here!
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Thanks, man. First… those progress pics are bananas. Second/on topic, I haven’t really seen anyone figure a better way to dose Micro-PA outside of the label recommendation. I think a few guys played around with double doses (taking it twice a day, not 2 doses at once) and they talked about it in the Micro-PA Results thread a while back with good results along with a significant appetite increase.
But like you said, it’s more a matter of programming the training to optimize the mTor effects. Thibaudeau has a ton of info about that.
[quote=“The_Mighty_Stu, post:97, topic:224871”]
Amazing what a good shave can do!
Ask Brick about that next time you see him -lol[/quote]
This is relevant to my interests. Will inquire further.
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I gotta gal in Hicksville if you’re interested. She’s licensed, fast, affordable, lol.
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I started adding a scoop of vanilla whey to my chocolate chip ice cream to make it less guilty ha!
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You’re welcome man, glad I was able to get you on the Micro-PA wagon! Be sure to keep us posted with your thoughts!
Agreed definitely, especially with your focus on the negative and TUT.
Thanks again for the kind words and motivation brother!
Awesome, thanks for the info. I’m looking forward to experimenting with that once the off season rolls around, not trying to significantly increase hunger any more than it already is on a contest diet!
I’ll confirm that a good shave does wonders for the physique, although it always feels weird to feel the fabric of the shirt against the skin if I haven’t shaved for a while 
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Nice! Whenever I have Halo Top, I make some Metabolic Drive protein icing as a topper, a tasty and guilt free addition.
Couple pics from the last two mornings right out of bed, some significant tightening up this week. New low of 147.4 this morning, 1.4lbs down from last week.
Interesting to note we haven’t made ANY changes to the prep with cals or cardio. We’ve done some experimenting with macros by shuffling a some carbs around to give me more carbs in my pre-workout meal, that was a big win and we’ve stuck with it. We’ve experimented one day with doing a “keto Sunday”, which left me feeling very foggy and drained the next couple days, and decided to leave carbs as high as possible on all days, including low days, because I’m responding well to them and we’re still ahead of schedule. My normal medium day carbs are 190g, low day is 158g. After keeping carbs higher last week, things are really moving along.
Here’s a pic of my weight log to illustrate the non-linear scale weight loss, just to show how even without making ANY changes at all in the past 5 weeks, scale loss goes quickly, stops, stalls, moves again, goes up, etc., which is why we’ve been focusing on conditioning, the mirror and gym performance, with the scale taking a back seat. This might be helpful to anyone doing the T-Ransformation challenge! @The_Myth @Chris_Colucci @dchris @kd13 @Yogi1 @anon50325502 @dchris @buttwink.
While there’s still more work to be done, the fact that I’m still losing solid scale weight and getting tighter, considering the level of difficulty of the prep currently, is very encouraging. Last year I was stuck at 151 forever, and staying below 150 was a challenge, I never got below 148. At the time I was doing over 90 minutes of cardio every day, cals and carbs were very low, and I was living in sufferville. Right now, while the prep is certainly challenging, as @The_Mighty_Stu and I were talking about yesterday, we haven’t started “digging in” yet and still have a LOT of room to mess around with cals, cardio, etc. Some days are harder than others, but it’s not even close to how I felt towards the end of my prep last year. With our progress this week, we can keep up with our current plan, and I’m hoping to ride this out as long as possible, then really dig in as the shows approach to bring it all together.
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Don’t read my log… I posted about this literally 5 minutes before you posted this; except, I said scale weight is taking the front seat… and it’s a motorcycle… and no other factor matters.
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Lol, well of course I just read it. I understand exactly how you’re feeling man! I believe you’re also on keto? That certainly messes with water weight when you have carbs. Last year I REALLY dug myself into the ground in an effort to get the scale moving and did more harm than good. If you know you’re looking leaner, (that leg pic definitely looked tighter!), know that you’re on the right track. Sometimes in an effort to dig deeper, we actually slow things down because the body is already depleted, and it doesn’t want to give up anything. This is what I experienced at the end of my prep last year, and we actually got things moving again by adding cals and carbs. If you look at my second week of weight recordings, you can see my average weight was up from the previous week, which last year would have made me say “we need to keep cutting right away! Dig deeper!” But, by prioritizing the mirror/conditioning/gym performance, we thought better of it, waited, and things keep on trucking. Looking at your log, you’re DEFINITELY looking tighter man!
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Weirdest. Sudoku. Ever.
I definitely get the idea of daily weigh-ins and totally agree that it can be a useful tool, but I think many people have to be careful not overreact to any “drastic” changes that pop up, like gaining/losing weight overnight or dropping weight then “gaining it back” a few days later.
That’s when it’s important to either really know what you’re doing or to be in the hands of someone who does (which, just so happens, Rob does and is. 
)
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Thank you very much for the tag in and info buddy, appreciate it. To be honest this is one of the first places I look for info anyway!
do you mind me asking what your daily fat intake is like? It’s something I’ve never really calculated and I’m feeling like maybe I should aim to get it pinned down.
looking great and it must be nice be in a better position than last prep.
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Appreciate the tag Brother. I’ve mentioned it before, but I log my weight and BF% in a spreadsheet and average it for the week. It minimizes variances from day to day. As such, I don’t sweat a swing up or down in weight, but keep an eye on the weekly average.
Of course, since I’m a psycho, I figure the average each day and have a function that shows weight gained or lost from last week’s average. If it gets too big (if the projection is to be down more than a pound), I tend to bump my calories a bit.
Just letting you know what special kind of crazy I am.
BTW, gave the S’mores a second chance last night. It wasn’t coconut that I tasted, it was that salted caramel, and once I figured that out, it tasted pretty damn good. I think the keto has my taste buds a little funkified.
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Wow, you’re looking even gnarlier! This is definitely a great insight–your visual improvements have been pretty awesome while maintaining the same weight the past few weeks! Any time I start to lose patience with the process, I like re-reading your posts from this prep so far to keep myself in check re the virtues of taking a long-haul approach to things
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Of course man, please always feel free to ask anything. Current normal day macros are:
Carb - 184g
Protein - 175g
Fat - 40g
Cals - 1860
On high days carbs are ~350, low days 150, fat is pretty much the same every day.
Primary fat sources are Flameout, the fats in my Finibar and Cookie combo, and chicken thigh, plus a few incidental grams from Ezekiel bread and cottage cheese. Most folks do chicken breast, I do organic chicken thighs every day. They’re delicious, a great source of fat, and taste/feel better than a dry chicken breast. I get the vast majority of my carbs in my first three meals of the day, then fats start with the Finibar/Cookie pre workout, my post workout chicken thigh and Flameout, and a few grams with my evening cottage cheese.
Through trial and error, I’ve found I can tolerate good amounts of carbs and continue to lose fat if fats are relatively low, if I keep carbs and fats separate at meal time, and if I get all my carbs in the meals before my workouts. Protein is ~1.1-1.2g per pound, fat is 20% daily cals, and the rest is carbs. Very important to note at the very least, fats should comprise 20% of total cals, except on a re-feed day.
In the off season I’ll definitely raise my fats, not too much though, 30% of total calories max.
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Yessir.
This is the problem, I had a 400 grams of carb dinner on sunday and didn’t drink nearly enough water on Monday and Tuesday.
Thanks, I feel like there is a point in weight loss, when you actually appear bigger. I’m not sure if it’s how the fat comes off the handles or upper abs, but I swear I look fatter, despite feeling smaller and weighing less.
Keep telling myself 10 more #s.
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Good call man, smart approach! You’re definitely looking leaner, your leg definition is on point.
Ahh good to know! Gotta pick the flavor for tomorrow night…S’mores, cookie dough or cookies n’ cream…
Great stuff, thank you very much. Seems i shouldn’t worry too much about my fat intake being lowish, I’ve tried fat being a higher percentage of my cals before and felt I got softer pretty quick, I’m definitely a high carb guy.
I’ve been really into whole chickens at the minute, can get a nice mixture of meat.
keep up the good work
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Thank you very much man!
Definitely, it’s truly the only way to ensure you’re losing all fat, and maintaining muscle. Especially when it’s the first time on a hard diet, you really feel like things should be moving faster. A small deficit each day adds up big time, it just takes a long freaking time lol. Keep up the good work bro!
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