11/23/2021 - Push
-Slept well, about 5 hours.
-Nutrition doing well, target calorie intake is 2150 at ~1000 daily deficit.
-scale says 225.5 so it seems that I’m on track or exceeding weight loss goals at the moment
Tired of transcribing from one format to the next, and I’m finding errors between the two. Will be uploading SS from my Sheets document from here on out.
11/24/2021 - legs
-will be hitting legs at home gym today, no hack squat so i will be substituting with on Smith squats.
-Only got like 4.5 hours of sleep so let’s see how this goes, at least I won’t be rushed doing squats
had to cut last set of Ham Curls short on 4th rep, hammies started feeling like shit. 365 for 5x5 squats was heavy but doable, will likely stick with this weight for another session or two and reassess. Could do more, but not worth the form sacrifice
11/25/2021 - Pull
-slept about 7 hours
-today is Thanksgiving so it will be a garage gym session today
-struggling to recover a bit so making today a re-feed day.
was still sore from squats yesterday so I went easier on deadlifts at 4x8 for 315. Could have done more but I don’t regret going lighter. Went slow between exercises today because I was lifting with the wife. Still, was a good session either way. Only ate 340 calories over goal, so was still ~660 calories deficit
11/26/2021 - Push
-Slept about 7.5 hours.
-Diet on track.
-re-feed was about 250 cal above target so still ~750 deficit
Had to substitute DB Incline press instead of BB. Made my shoulder feel like trash, but was otherwise a good workout. Will do tissue work to get shoulder back in the game by Monday.
Week 3 Nutrition. I reduced calories from ~2700 per day to ~2100 per day (knowing i was going to go a bit over) in hopes for a 1k daily deficit. I managed to average 865cal deficit daily, though i can probably do better if i dont piss away my diet on THIS saturday too lol
Week 4 starting photo:
Mild increase in abdomen definition and Biceps vascularity, traps look smaller than last picture, but I worked push today and pull on previous pictures so potentially just no pump? May have also affected biceps measurement
I’d imagine measurements and photos for the purpose of tracking would be best done first thing with no pump or food. When I was checking in weekly with my coach I’d roll out of bed, pee, then head to the back porch for a photo (good lighting outside aka not flattering).
Doing them mid day and post workouts you’re susceptible to fluctuations from diet and pump and what not
Edit: regardless, would smash. 9/10
I knew this was a risk, but i didnt have a full body mirror at the house and had already started taking photos at the gym for these purposes. Basically, once i started, i didnt want to introduce other variables such as different lighting, etc. I’m not putting too much weight into the biceps measurement, and the scale is… subjective… to say the least. Just making notes to try keeping my log as honest as possible.
Aint no love like homie love 
Just food for thought but I didn’t use a mirror. I propped my phone o in the deck railing with the forward facing camera set to video, hit record and walked in front of it, stood there, then turned around then turned the camera off. I’d just pause the video and scroll through and screen shot the still frames and use those.
11/27/2021 - skipped, legs not recovered
11/28/2021 - skipped (planned)
11/29/2021 - Push
-slept decent night before ~5.5 hours.
-Feeling motivated, ready to slam some weights
had to skip over Incline bench because the teenagers had already started forming a line (sarcasm about the line). Planned to do Incline BB at home but school/home life kinda ducked that up for me. Otherwise was good session - need to figure something out about this Incline bench situation though.
11/30/2021 - Pull
-Slept like shit, about 4.5 hours.
-Felt super unmotivated in the morning but pulled it together in time for the gym
-Hit 445x5 on deadlifts ramped up as follows: 135x5, 225x5, 315x5, 405x5, 425x5, 445x5. Was a new 5RM.
-Session took almost 2 hours. Will need to split some exercises out - considering doing biceps or traps with legs instead.
-Scale showed 224lbs so I’m not confident about yesterday’s weight for progress pic, but whatever
-Overall was a solid session.
Realized I didn’t post from the other day
12/1/2021 - Legs
-Slept about 5 hours, tired, need more sleep.
-Going to try breathing squats today after hitting
a 5RM Deadlift PR yesterday because I’m an apparent masochist
-Re-feed with sushi today🍣
12/2/2021 - planned rest day
approx. 500 additional cal deficit because no training
12/3/2021 - Push (Home Gym Style)
Slept well, about 5 hours. Considering jumping into Velocity Diet to just be done with this dieting nonsense. I WANT TO EAT AGAIN
12/4/2021 - Pull
Slept about 7 hours last night, well rested. Morning workout at the gym
12/5/2021 - rest day (unplanned)
Hit some much needed overtime. Grocery shopped, meal prepped for me and the wife (partial, so be finished tomorrow). Used these as reasons not to train… not my best day.
Considering throwing some leg isolation exercises in at the home gym tomorrow after pull day. Prue
Week 4 Nutrition
Week 5 starting photo:
Will post today’s routine when I finish at home (will have to sneak away from class to pump out a few sets).
12/6/2021 - pull
slept about 4.5 hours, was tired but no issues with motivation.
From my experience I’d recommend playing it slower given where your starting point is. As you are acknowledging yourself, you are essentially acting out of emotion here rather than reason. A higher deficit does not get you to your goal quicker, it causes your weight loss to stall earlier. To quote an article from the site,
Transforming your body is a highly emotional issue. Your gut feeling is that the more you train, the better you’ll get. If you just add one more exercise, or two or three, then you can be sure to hit every area of every muscle in your body, and success is guaranteed. Nothing could be more wrong. Being driven to succeed is great, but if you are being driven by your emotions , you are on the high road to zero results.
The same applies to deficits, IMHO. There is a time and a place for cutting aggressively, but that is when you are already fairly close to your end goal.
I don’t know how to say this without sounding rude, I wish it was possible to phrase in a value-neutral way, so please bear that in mind. If you need a re-feed, it is something that you need mentally. Or you are in a greater deficit than you think.
Re-feed does not equal a cheat day. A cheat day will cause you to retain a lot of water, making your subsequent weigh-ins less useful data points.
See my earlier remark. The best thing would have been to weigh your food, and check if your weight is stable, and arrive at your maintenance calories that way. No calculators. Might be useful for your next cut.
If anything is true for the V-Diet is that you don’t eat. You just get a single meal per day. Again, the V-diet is one of those aggressive things you can do when you are already close to your goals. I could do it, and probably get silly lean. It might carry you to your goal weight, but you’ll gain it back as your bowels fill up with food again, and I’m not certain you’d be near your end-game mirror-self.
Do you normally sleep this little? Or did this come about when you started cutting?
