Fantastic man. When you get past the worst of a cold it feels so good. Sorry it lasted so long that’s tough!
Thanks. I am celebrating feeling a little better and letting myself have some oats for breakfast. Only small serve about 25g carbs but yum they were good !!
4 Likes
Glad I already took my turn getting sick. I was sick three weeks ago.
1 Like
I got a shot today and a zpack. The shot has me feeling better already. To bad it’s not anabolic
1 Like
So I’m going to tag @jackolee in here because he is deff the most dedicated to this shredding lark right now. But everyone else please chime in.
I missed a couple of conditioning sessions this week, mostly cause I still feel like cack and am congested. I have been trying to get 2 boxing’s sessions in a week but that is really it interns of conditioning/ cardio.
How important is cardio when it comes to dropping body fat. Should I be doing more and is faster cardio in the morning better that after dinner !!!
1 Like
I would say it depends how much wiggle room there is with your diet, if you can look at your diet and say “it would be easy to drop some fat/carb cals from here” then dropping cals would be my first choice over adding a tough conditioning session. Walking more could also be the next step.
If your really struggling diet wise, are at rock bottom cals and have little wiggle room left than look to some extra conditioning to get a little more of a deficit. I used mainly barbell complex finishers and walking when I got to my leanest.
I also found I accidentally leaned up whilst running EDT routine.
2 Likes
At around 50g each of carbs and fat a day, I’m not sure I have any wiggle room. I’m still loosing consistently each week so haven’t plateaued yet. Looks like I’ll keep the boxing and add some more weighted walking as things slow down. Thanks man
1 Like
Thought faster cardio was bro science?
Maybe some lighter stuff to still burn calories but not beat you up or require lots of motivation or effort to do?
I heard cycling is good and interferes with lifting less than like running.
Not sure I could do the whole Lycra thing!!
I mean like stationary bike, flip flops and a couple of decent YouTube vids going to pass the time. I got an old beat up bike machine downstairs I just don’t really get around to using it much
1 Like
That’s awesome, keep doing what your doing then buddy, if or when you plateau then certainly up the conditioning as 50g sounds like it sucks!
This article has some good stuff in it
1 Like
@kd13 is spot on on this one. Diet is always going to be your most efficient tool. I’d say if your having 50 carbs and 50 fat you don’t have much room there.
I like to think of total effort involved. I typically burn 200-250 calories in a 35 minute cardio session on the bike. Which effort is harder? Cutting 250 calories out of the diet or spinning 250 calories on the bike?
Fasted cardio is a controversial topic. Your going to be in a catabolic state upon waking especially with your low carb intake. Your glycogen is pretty depleted, and your body is going to turn to fat stores for fuel, but as a non enhanced athlete you will probably also incur some muscle canibalism as well. I’d at least have some BCAAs in your system.
They’re roughly 3500 calories in a lb of fat, so at 250 calories daily in a 35 minute session your gonna burn an extra 2/3 - 3/4 of a lb each week. At the end of the day I like cardio for heart health, diet for fat loss, and weights to shape the body.
I take test, and sermorelin (GH therapy) so I’m not as worried about muscle loss while in defecit. It’s definately a balancing act. I’ve mentioned it in other places but I’d be tracking weight, skinfold calipers, and taking measurements. If measurements are staying the same other than your waist, and skinfolds and weight are dropping then you know your loosing fat not muscle. If you carry fat in your thighs or upper arms then measurement could be tricky. I don’t, so I know that a drop there is either muscle loss or I haven’t been getting my water in like I should.
Hope that helps!
1 Like
I use the seven site method it tends to account for obscure body fat storming areas not in the typical 3 site caliper method
1 Like
I don’t even bother calculating it. Just track the mm. If it starts at 10 and two months later is 7 you know your making progress.
2 Likes
How many total calories are you eating? 50g carbs and 50g fat is 650 cals. If you’re eating 250g of protein then that’s still only 1650 cals a day. That’s low.
I would increase physical activity throughout the week. It doesn’t have to be cardio; just make sure you’re getting your walks in and doing what you can to keep your body burning fuel. My goal would be to increase my base metabolic rate so I could eat more calories.
Any idea what your calories will be once you reach your goal?
1 Like
Spot on 1600-1700 a day
Not sure what you are asking here. I’m not planing on dropping cals any lower so at some point I know my weight loss will slow down. At that point I’ll add more walks.
I don’t have a target weight for this cut,
Just a timeline. I 4 weeks time my parents come to visit and this cut will most likely come to an end.
I’ll eat at maintenance or probably a bit over for a few weeks and then we are on holiday so all bets are off.
The second half of this year I’ll be chasing strength hard again so cals will go up and so will my weight.
1 Like
I’m eating at a deficit and plan to go back to maintenance once I reach my goal weight. That’ll be about 400 calories higher than what I eat now.
I wonder if you’re eating enough. I know we’re all different, but I’m losing weight on 2500 cals/day. That’s my bodyweight x 11.
179 x 11 gives you 1969 calories a day. That’s a starting point to lose 1+ pound per week. If you don’t lose then you adjust down from there multiplying your BW x 10.
@robstein @jackolee, @The_Mighty_Stu, what do you guys think? Is 1600-1700 cals a day too low for someone who weighs 179 lbs?
I didn’t think any of us would need to go below 2000 calories during this challenge.
I see what you are saying and over the last 7 weeks I’ve lost 6kg which is about 1.8lbs a week. I didn’t really settle on 1700 as part of a plan. I must cut out all the crap from my diet, then nearly all the carbs, upped the protien a little and that’s where I ended up. I add a little more carbs in training days and Strength seems to still be ok.
The other thing to consider here is that I have a desk job which only a little walking through the day, and I only lift weights 2 days a week. So my output is a lot less than some of you.