Keto log and comments

[kenpodragon]

I decided to repost this here because i decided to keep a little running log:

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FIRST POST
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After doing my research I came up with the following diet:

Calories Protien Fat Carbs
Breakfast - 6am
Eggs 61g (Large) x4 404 28 28 3
Lunch - 12pm
Tuna 80g (x2) 158 35 0.6 1.2
Tofu 150g (x2) 198 17.1 12 5.7
During Workout
BCAA Drink 500ml 100 2 0 15
After Workout - 3pm
Protien Shake 100g 398 80 4.5 9.5
Midnight Protien Influx
Protien Shake 30g 132 26 1.5 3.1
Cottage Cheese 159 23.25 6.3 1.2

Totals 1549 211.35 52.9 38.7


What I also do is take the eggs 2 at 6am and 2 at 1pm, the tuna and tofu 2 at 8am and 2 at noon. This way I keep the calories coming about every 3 hours or so.

The only way I can see cutting out more carbs is to eliminate the protein shake, BCAA drink, and tofu, but then I loose out on a ton of protein and I don't really know where I can make up the lost calories and protein from.

Keep in mind, also, that I live in Japan and things here aren't as easy to come by as they are in the states (eg cheese, suitable meat products, etc...).

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm trying to break the 15% barrier and its going so painfully slow atm.

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SECOND POST
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Ok so I added mayo and oil packed tuna into the mix, but unfortunately that 15g carbs from the BCAA drink during the workout really hurts the ratios.

With the new additions I get
2000cal 47%P 49%F 8%C

Without the BCAA drink I get
1900 cal 43%P 51%F 4.9%C

I really want to keep the BCAA drink in there as it helps maintain the protein levels during/after workout, however it almost doubles my carbs. If only I could find some raw BCAA without carbs somewhere, that would be perfect. That and get some protein shakes with 0 carbs. But seeing as how that is prettymuch impossible here in Japan I just have to make do.

What do you think? Keep the BCAA and the carbs or kick the BCAA and go for the better ratio?

What would make this even easier were if keto sticks were available here so I could check my keto levels and then decide what to do with the BCAA.

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NEWEST POST
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After 3 days on the aforementioned diet, well there is no way in hell I'm going to make a full 3-4 weeks. I feel like crap and am moody to boot.

So I adjusted things a bit further.

I decided to take out the BCAA drink because there were just too many carbs to deal with. I appreciate the suggestion about BCAA powder and the ketosticks at the pharmacy, but you have to realize that this is Japan and things here are well, different. The sports suppliment industry here is ruled by a few companies, who push their products everywhere - including the convienence store, and beyond their products, there is absolutely NO other product available - the selection of supps here is extremely limited, and I searched and had no luck finding any diebetic supplies. Seems as though diabedics are in short supply here in Japan, and beyond a few speciality order foreign medicine shops - the only one of note is on the otherside of Japan, the likelyhood of getting quality supps and the like in Japan is pretty negligable.

I did try and order some supps from the BB.com store, but its been over 3 weeks and delivery still hasn't happened yet - so I am thinking that the package was intercepted and the ability for me to get any sups of any real value has summarily dissappeared (not to mention the price of things here - Hydroxycut - the Japanese equavalent here - goes for around 18,000 yen or around $150 for a 4 week supply - vs $30 plus $20 shipping through BB.com where I know what I am getting - almost 1/3 the price even including international shipping. If I combine suppliments in a single order - the saving goes up from there - for $150 I can get an assload of supps from the BB.Com store, including international shipping, vs a single half assed attempt at supplimentation here in Japan) problem, as I mentioned, is that I think the package was intercepted and for some reason the products are unable to be imported - even though the ingreedients in these products are the same as the products on the shelf already in Japan.....

But I digress... yeah things suck. I hate eggs. I also hate mayonayse. But due to the fact that Japan is so bassackwards when it comes to nutritional things being available - its pretty much what ive been left with. Peeling 4 eggs a day sucks, peeling 4 eggs per day for 2 weeks sucks even more.

So as it stands, with my modifications - added some beef and cheese for dinner, along with the previous diet and I get these ratios.

Calories Protien Fat Carbs
Breakfast
Eggs 61g (Large) x2 202 14 14 1.5
Second Breakfast
Tuna 80g Oil Pack 230.50 13.6 19.6 0.6
Tofu 150g 149 8.55 6 2.3
Mayo 15g 110 0 11 0
Lunch
Eggs 61g (Large) x2 202 14 14 1.5
Second Lunch
Tuna 80g Oil Pack 230.50 13.6 19.6 0.6
Tofu 150g 149 8.55 6 2.3
Mayo 15g 110 0 11 0
Dinner Sometime
Beef 100g 254.12 24.59 16.47 0.00
Cheese 18g 57.00 4.30 4.30 0.20
After Workout
Protien Shake 100g 398.00 80.00 4.50 9.50
Midnight Protien Influx
Cottage Cheese 159.00 23.25 6.30 1.20
Totals 2151.117647 204.4382353 132.7705882 20.8
Percentages 39.02%P 57.01%F 3.97%C

Hopefully this new ratio will make things a bit more bearable, and I can't wait for the crab up this weekend.

As far as workouts go - I'm on a 3 day split:
1 (Main group) Chest/Back/Abs/Legs.
1 (Supporting Muscles) Flys/Bi/Tri/Obliques/Calves
1 Day cardio and minor ab warmup Only.
Wash rinse repeat.

Every day 45 minutes of my version of HIIT cardio.
Which entails setting the treadmill at a comfortable pace - 10-12ish, setting the timer for 45 minutes. Every time that bubble reaches the next stage (approximately every 2:10) increase the incline by 0.5 until 5.5, the next increment go to 7,8,9 then reaching a maximum incline of 10 - continue at this incline until 30 minutes, the next bubble (32 something) decrease the incline 9,8,7 then 5,3, then 2,1,0 and you should be done.

Every week or every cycle, increase the speed on the treadmill by 0.1-0.5.

As far as numbers go, I get my monthly weigh in tomorrow, so I'll see where everything goes from there. And then after next week see how much fat was lost in compairson to the loss rate of last month - 0.5% per week.

[Mainframe]

I like how you're imaking sure to increase your workouts a little at a time. Much betetr than suddenly making sharp upgrades and it will really add up.

[ronz0r]

Looks pretty sound...Good Luck!

[kenpodragon]

Big day today - monthly weigh in day. And, as I suspected the scales are all kaput. If someone wants to donate an old set of calipers with Body Fat measuring chart, please feel free to send them to Japan. As it stands not a single store in either the Osaka Metro or Tokyo metro area sells anything resembling these essential tools. The only measurement I get is with some biofeedback device, and as todays measurements show, they are all screwed up.

At the gym my weight came in at 93.5 (due to clothes and such) at home my weight came in at 91.5. At the gym they measured my BF% at 32% at home the scale registered 17.4% Using an online measurement calculation thing - circumfrences neck, arms, legs, hips, waist, forearms, calves - I came in at 11%.

So I am somewhere between 32% and 11% - probally closer to 11% but more like 16-17% ish.

As far as my scale goes, it has 12 settings - Child/Adult/Elderly. Male/Female. Athlete/Normal.

Depending on which setting I choose I am either as high as 28.1% (surprisingly the same as my BMI measurement) to as low as 12.3%. i have kept it on Adult Male Athlete ever since I hit 25% as it was giving me readings in the 40% range before. The fact that my abs are outlined unflexed, I have some non-pumped vascularity, there is some distinction and separation between the muscle groups visible, leads me to believe I am somewhere in the range below 20% but above 13%. What a PITA.

Speaking of PITA, tomorrow is the start of my carb up - Horray! I so can't wait. Im going to eat a ton of ruf***e or something to get my bowels started. Since I stated this keto I have yet to take a dump. And the feelings of non-dumpedness are there - meaning that there is nothing really in my intestines to warrant a movement.

Ever since I started cutting and restricting calories the frequency of my bowel movements has decreased. I can go 1-2 days between using the restroom. However, on this keto thing, my calories have increased by about 500cal as well as the frequency of ingestion, and yet, its been 7 days between the want or need to use the little body builders room.

I know what some of you are saying - get some fiber caps or metamucil. I'd love to. Except this is japan and that doesn't happen here. Sure people get constipated all the time and there is a good amount of laxitavies available, but extra fiber (non-carb) supplements are non-existent. I might just go get a box of x-lax and flush out my colon this weekend regardless - I don't really like going so long without taking a dump - the thought of all those toxins sitting up inside me festering is just bleh. (on a side note there has been 0 gas this week either, so nothing is really going on down in there to speak of).

My mood has been depressed, just feeling like crap, persistant headache, moody, with an urge to go suck on some mayonayse (which incidentally I absolutely hate).

We'll see at the end of next week what this keto crap has done for me. I hope to god this is going to work, this feeling of craptacularness just better be worth it.

[kenpodragon]

What a crappy day. Quite literally. The influx of minor amounts of fiborous carbs in my diet today did wonders for my missing movements.

Plusses - my muscles swelled up like mellons and I had some really nice vascularity goning after the workout. The influx of carbs gave me a substantial boost in energy for my cardio.

Minuses - the dead skunk smell from a week without a movement. The cardio crash. I was running like normal, when all of a sudden the gas pains started, then my lower abdomen started sharply paining me - so strong I thought it was either an appendix rupture or a hernia. This caused me to loose out on the last 4 bubbles of my cardio run and over 400 calories not being burned. On these runs (see above for a description of the intensity) the caloric meter on the machine registers anywhere from 1400-1700 cals burned on a 45 minute run. Today, due to the pains in my side and my needing to stop and lower the pace while keeping the incline going, made me miss out on my lower target by 400 calories - only doing a meager 1053 on the machine today. But then, after clearing things up in the little muscleheads room, things became sooooo much better.

Ill get up a new progress pic this weekend sometime.

[kenpodragon]

Today was such a much better day in the gym. My energy levels were explosive, and thanks to my dead skunk from yesterday vacating the premises, cardio was fantastic.

Definitely need to find some dietary fiber because the going a week without going is just not going to happen.

A question, I'll look up in a bit, but if anyone has any answer please feel free to post - do the carbs from the dietary fiber supplement count towards counted total carbs in the diet, or, due to their low glycemic index not count at all?

I was finally able to find a fiber supplement - however it has 1g of carbs for each gram of supplement, with a very low caloric content of something on the order of 3 cal per gram of carb - thus the recommended daily serving of 6g gives 18 cals but also 6g of carbs. The question again remains, do these carbs increase the glycogen stores or just serve to help keep things moving through the bowels?

On another note my skin has separated from my fat in several areas. A pinch test can either grab just skin and give very low results, or pull a little deeper and grab the skin and fat. Is this normal - whatever the case, it feels freaking weird. I first noticed the 2 layers of subcutaneous things on my cheeks, but now the same loose floating skin is on my arms, the sides of my abs, my hips and some areas of my legs.

[kenpodragon]

Dietary Fiber FTW!

Right now I really would like some keto sticks or something to see what the dietary fiber does for the whole ketosis status. As it stands, even with the additional carbs from the fiber I am still way low with my carbs, however, the percentages jump up quick - from the 4% to around 7% - not as nice of a ratio but at least I keep the intenstines moving.

Now, its only 2 days after my carb up (saturday carbs, sunday - 0 absolutely no carbs - today 5% carbs, normal diet) but the bowels seem to be adjusting fine. I feel a lot better then I did this time last week on the keto, we'll have to see where I feel come wednesday and thursday, the crap days from last week.

On a side note, I did learn something wonderful about hard boiling eggs and how to prepare them a hell of a lot faster then they were being prepared before - check out my bodyspace blog for that little tidbit.

[r_robert]

nice log,
that sucks living in japan being an athelete, im currently in the middle east and plan on moving to japan to study and i plan on being a serious BB'er, I dont know what im going to do

[kenpodragon]

In Japan and other areas where supplementation is at an absolute minimum - you can be proud and say you are one of the absolute few who are hardcore enough to do things 1000000000% completely natural using only raw materials and strange substitutions ;p

Well, I got home from work, and the moodiness hit again like a ton of lead bricks. Still peeved over the fact that the order from BB.Com hasn't made it here yet and I haven't heard thing one from Customs - nor have I even gotten a tracking number yet. I think that they forgot to ship it out or something - probably not the case, but seeing as how Ive ordered other crap from other places and not paid for premium shipping and it getting through just fine long before this stuff got here...

I think the moodiness comes form the keto - when I am in a pissy mode I am in keto - since I dont have any strips to test things with I can use this as an indication of my progress. Damn, I still want to find out if this fiber is getting me in keto or not. I really, really, really would like to re-add the BCAA into the mix - remember you just have to be in keto to get benefits - there is no benefit of being further into keto then absolutely necessary. In otherwords you could be eating 0 carbs or 1000 carbs, if the body is in keto its going to use the fat as its primary energy source. I would prefer to keep the carbs as high as possible and just go from there, but since this isnt happening I'm just really pissy right now.

Maybe the workout tomorrow will kick some more ass or I'll finally land myself a date here in this hellhole country.

[kenpodragon]

What a pissy day.

At least I don't feel as crappy as I did this time last week - but I'm still moody as all get out.

The highlight of the day was seeing boobies at the gym. There was this lady wearing god knows what too big for her top floundering around doing god knows what - one of those noobie gym rats who signs up, you see them for like a week, then they disappear. Well, she was floundering around and her boobies popped out.

Its the highlight of the day considering that those were the first real Japanese boobies I've seen since I moved here to Japan 2 years ago.

Other then that, I have DOMs up the ass again. The glutes and hamstrings are killing me for some reason, tight as all get out and stretching doesnt seem to aleviate the problem.

God I so need a girlfriend to reassure me about my self image and stop this crappy dieting. I think I look a hell of a lot better then I did before, but without external positive reinforcements, this is just me feeling pissy again and loosing motivation oh so ... whatever.

My earbuds are crap - I found out. I sweat like a ... insert whatever sweats as much as I do. Quite literally when I work out, I could go into the shower and actually come out dryer then when I went in. Then, at work, the freaking cold blooded japanese and their insistance on keeping the office at like 32 degrees doesnt help either in a suit. I need to sit on a towel because my but perspires so much I get wet stains on my ass. I need to find myself some fabric that doesnt change color when it gets wet now... So anyways, the ear buds seem to get flooded with my mansweat and then they still work, but because all the holes are covered with the water, none of the sound gets out, so I have to take the damn things off and swing them about furiously to dislodge the sweat from the earbud holes, and reopen the airflow in them. Gah what another pain...

What a pissy day.

[kenpodragon]

Day was a lot better, I don't feel nearly as crappy as I did yesterday - however, my little legs feel like asssssprin and its really a pain in the but - seeing as how I walk everywhere.

I did get the neon freak show going today with my bodily fluid release program - lots of pretty greens and yellows - all glowing like some mad raidoactive material. Maybe I should bottle it up and sell it the next time I get a glowy urge to go...

[kenpodragon]

Today is brought to you by the letters A, S and the letter S.

I just sucked wind in the gym today, I couldn't figure it out until I remembered I woke up at 1am this morning and couldn't fall back asleep. Currently I am sleeping as I type this - no small task.

Going to sleep now.

[kenpodragon]

What an end to a really crappy week here are the stats

Starting:
91.5 and 17.4%

Ending:
90.95 and 17%

The loss rate is slowing down, and it feels a lot better - not as exaggerated as it was before - looking to keep a lot more of my precious. My preeeeecioooous muscle. I've lost a bit since Ive started and the weakness is starting to be a bit noticeable (this is from the start of the cut 6 months ago not the start of the keto).

Really crappy day in the gym despite the carb up - the pumps were still freaking sweet, but the run kicked my ass again. I just dont have the energy reserves like I used to so I ended up having to decrease the speed just to keep going without stopping. However, in the end I felt really sucky and so I decided to kick it up a knotch in hopes of having my heart explode - sort of suicide by workout (you know the depression due to lack of food and not having a girlfriend things) but that didnt happen, but I did end up projectile puking all over the treadmill, the mirror, the monitor, the person next to me the cieling.... I set that damn machine up to its max - speed and incline and for 5 minutes just hauled my fat ass. Too much I guess so instead of having the heart explode, my stomache exploded. Cool stuff. I think I still made my calorie levels with the extra burst of speed at the end.

So how many calories does projectile vomiting burn ;p

And as a side note, the Thermo from the BB.Com store FINALLY shipped. Like a freaking month later. After a long talk on the phone (calling from Japan is not that cheap mind you) they finally figured out that the thermo was backordered. All the other times Ive contacted their Customer Service they said that the order already shipped, yet the page never showed a tracking number nor packer and despite my insistance of them checking it out, they never did. At least give me the courtesy to let me know if something is backordered. I ordered this specifically FOR THIS MONTH and was going to cycle some good THERMO in with the keto. But FAAAAK one month later they finally tell me its backordered when it ships late. Had I known it was going to be backordered or taking this long I would have canceled the damn order and gotten some other quality thermo so AT LEAST I could continue my cut this month on thermo as planned. As it stands, half the freaking month is going to be gone before the crap even arrives.

Lemme say that was just the craptacular icing on this months craptacular cake. I hope that if I ever order from BB.com again they at least ship on time. Maybe I should order something now so itll arrive in time for the start my bulking 3 freaking months from now (August/Septish). At least I hope it would get here by then. FAAAAH.

[kenpodragon]

I had half a beer last night and this morning I had a hangover like no other. WTFM! So the workout at the gym was less then spectacular.

The other point of note is that due to my keto induced psychological state I decided to shave all my hair. Chest hair, head hair, arm and leg hair, back hair, unmentionables hair. Let me just say I look... different.

Still crabbing up today. Hopefully tomorrows 0 carb run will be better then last weeks.

[kenpodragon]

So the package finally arrived yesterday, just as fast as it should have for the shipping method. No problems with customs as was expected.

All I can say is I feel like an old man - there are like half a dozen pills in those Animal Cut baggies. I get bloated just drinking the water to swallow all those pills and 2x daily, you have got to be kidding me.

So I decided to try it out this week at half dosage, just to see how my body reacts to it - as with any new supplement, I like to gradually work my way into it - especially with the thermo - after being off it for a month or 2 I like to slowly work back up to a full dosage so I don't give myself a heart attack and I can see how I adjust to the new chemicals in the system with the lower (or higher depending on the cycle) weight.

So far so good, nothing abnormal - no spikes in energy levels, no sleep pattern disruptions, no hunger issues. So, if things go as planned, next week I'll start on the full dosage, 1 pack upon waking up and 1 pack shortly before lunch (noonish). This will also give me a good chance to see the impact the Animal Cuts has on my fat loss progress.

Last week, on the keto alone I lost .5% BF. Well see where the keto and the Animal Cuts brings me by the end of this week.

Speaking of which, I've crossed the big barrier. I was looking at myself in the mirror and I just looked bigger then normal today. The realization hit me that I made the crossover and things are going to get better as we get closer to the goal.

The bigness barrier is that point where your level of body fat and current muscularity levels balances out, so that either direction you go you appear to get bigger - either gaining weight and you appear to be bigger, or loosing weight, and due to the added definition you appear to be bigger. Finally some relief in sight. All this damn cutting and I finally get to the big barrier.

Before this, as I lost weight, I shrunk and looked smaller, now, even though I am still loosing weight and still shrinking, I will appear bigger simply due to the fact that the added definition and vascularity gives a nice boost in both cutting morale and physical appearance.

Due to the fact that my skin hangs too loosely on my body, I really am missing out on a lot of definition. I can flex my abs and seem some, just barely, striations in the muscles - not just the center and side outlines, but some very feint comformation to the 16 pack below the surface. Had the weight been lost slower and the skin were tighter I am pretty sure that currently I would be sporting some decently lookiing abs instead of this soft pretend stuff and soft, flacid skin all over by abdomens.

[kenpodragon]

This week stunk. Literally. My sweat, breath, urine, skin, etc...

But, in a strange twist of events, the lowered calories this week from last week, combined with the new animal cuts (same workouts) caused me to gain .4KG and loose .4%BF so this week I am 91.4 and 16.4%. Very strange indeed. Well see what happens this next week, see if the weight continues to go up or whatnot.

I think the primary reason for the weight gain is the lack of bowel movements this week. Not once - well not until I took an entire pack of laxatives to clear that track out.

Mood is a lot better, keto I guess is getting in earlier and earlier in the week. 2 More weeks before my monthly pictures. Yay.

[kenpodragon]

The longer I stay on keto the better I feel. The moodiness is completely missing.

In other news, I ordered myself some fat people calipers and measuring tape from the BB.Com store, and, just as predicted, it shipped out right away.

Reading back over the previous posts on how they backlogged my order, and how moody I was it was understandable for me to be in such a pissy mode. Not so much at the site, but rather at the whole switching to a new energy source and my body being in such a moody condition.

That being said, I have about 3 more months on this cut. I figure that I will cut until I hit 6% or until September, and start back on a bulk/cut cycle then, as I am getting to the point where all this daily cardio and low cals is just wearing on the psyche. Even the carb ups and cheat meals aren't breaking this consistant bleh feeling. This is going into the 9th month of the stretch - September last year is when I started, 3 more months... bleh.

I have had to replace my gym shorts 3 times so far in the conversion as the amount of weight loss has bumped me down several sizes too many, and running with loose pants is the suck - 3 times already have they fallen in the gym because of their looseness due to weightloss and 3 times already I have gotten the tightest pants possible, which have gotten too big for me to continue with. Yeah loosing weight is cool and all, but dammmm its getting expensive. Not to mention that these old clothes aren't going to be doing me any good any more. Even when I start bulking I am never going to get myself above 16%, and the likelyhood of me needing to get into the 1st or 2nd pair is slim to none. I am still holding off on buying new business suits as I still have 9% to loose and don't want to end up looking all dumpy like I do now because my clothes are too big and having to buy yet another set of clothes at the end of the cut.

Bah. I just need a girlfriend and let her sort all this crap out for me. Or a live in personal assistant. One or the other - someone who can take care of all this crap for me.

[curly-top318]

This is a very entertaining thread:)
You sound frustrated, but you are dedicated. The crappy feeling seems to finally be easing up a little...thank goodness. I have the opposite effect. Carbs make me miserable and keto makes me a peach;) Well, not exactly a peach but much more pleasant..
Keep logging and good luck...

[kenpodragon]

So today was ... I don't know.

At work I was told that my pants looked too big and I should get some new ones. I wanted to strangle the person - I live in japan and I just recently have been able to slip into japanese sized shirts and underwear - but pants. Not gonna happen.

Problem is that with all my martial arts and the like I have some huge freaking legs which means any pants which fit my legs are way to big on my waist, and those which fit nicely on my waist are too small for my gigantic quads.

Ive gotten sick of the tuna and tofu, so I have started to puree it the night before and drink lunch. The start of the week, its all good, but by thursday, the eggs (o my god I hate eggs) and the tuna just get to me so I start pureeing everything.

That and I got the bends.

You know, when you stand up straight and you look ok, but then you bend over a little bit and you look like you have saggly little teenage tits and some bloated wad of chewing gum for a stomach. I got these craptastic stretch marks starting to show up on the slowly tightening skin - which is loose as a monster, pulling it tight - tight as it normally would feel, shows off some good definition. I have this flap of belly bag below my abs but my belly button has the nice girls-want-to-stick-their-finger inside lean-ness.

I noticed some vascularity on the outer forearms, along with the popeye bulging they have begun to display. Me thinks Ive been working them too much, as well as some vascularity on the shoulder near the chest and the upper leg near the inside of the leg crack place.

With the carb up before the work out tomorrow, Im going to look freaking sweet. Usually my veins explode and I get some awesome pumps on the glycogen restoration. Can't wait. Now all I need to do is find some hot pants to wear to work to show those bastards.

5 more weeks of this crap - then hopefully no more only-going-once-a-week-after-crab-up days which is really making me irritable. The breath stench, the stench that is abounding around me like a little rabbit who hasn't showered for 28 years. Blah...

Weigh in tomorrow, 1 more week till the monthly weigh in, body blog update and pictures. Go go gadget fat loss thingy.

[kenpodragon]

I love my carb up.

This weeks paint by numbers:
90.2 and 16.6

Decreased weight by 1.2kg (WOW) and body fat by 0.2% This is after last weeks crazy eat everything in the world to hope to generate enough solid matter to give me a good bowl movement event. At least 6k calories and good loss during the week.

The prior week, I watched the intake and kept the calories low during the carb up and guess what, I gained weight while lowering body fat.

So, in the spirit of the lost weight due to pigging out during the previous carb up I am hereby going to pig out again in hopes it drops even more weight off by the end of next week. All this dieting and I can't actually bring myself to eat as heavy as I did last week. I literally had to force myself to eat - but the results are showing.

A nice change of pace as usual, and wishing my pants were smaller and I didn't stink as much. Japan summers for the loss!

[kenpodragon]

So my skin calipers came, and well, all I can say is I am more confused then ever.

According to the skin fold tests, I acutally have less body fat then all other measurements.

I first started questioning my BF levels a couple weeks back when I did the tape test and it came out with a reading of 11%.

Well, curiosity got the better of me and I got myself some sophisticated skin calipers:

http://www.bodybuilding.com/store/acc/fat.html

And, well, I have a boat load of loose skin - as was mentioned previously.

At first, I didn't believe them, but after taking them to the gym and testing out some lean people there, having them test me, taking a ton of readings and using the included CD and plugging in 4500000 measurements. They all pointed to the same direction -

10.5-9.8% body fat.

The problem - lots and lots of freaking skin with little to no fat undernieth and me looking like a saggy piece of crap. As I mentioned before, if I pull my skin tight - to about the same tightness I think skin should be - I get some pretty tripped out definition, but if I just the loose flabby skin flap around, I look - well, craptastic. The issue is now my body image and my actual fitness levels are completely skewed.

I need to figure out how long it will take for this skin to pull back to its normal tightness - if it will ever, and take appropriate steps so I don't end up starving myself.

Part 2 of this investigation comes from here:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=1348321

where I dissected my body fat ratings and calculated what percentage of fat I had to loose to get down to 6% body fat. At that time, I estimated my end weight to be around 85-87kg. Which means, from now, 3-5 more kg to loose to reach the target goal. Problem, well all this damn extra skin in the way.

I am a bit concerned, in that if this is just extra skin and I still don't reach my appearance goal by the time I hit 85kg, then I really need to consider going back on a bulk, and getting on with my body building progress. If I stay on the cut beyond this, with such low body fat - it seems the excess skin gives false readings on these biofeedback devices, that I risk moving into the danger zone and loosing out on too much muscle as it is. Its like, I still look fat because of all the excess skin, but I can squish it up like paper tissue, and caliper readings - measuring the level of subcutaneous fat, are showing that the skin is actually lean, just loose as frack.

The issue, again, is that I don't feel lean as I should and I dont look as lean as I should - unless of course, I pull the skin tight and show off all this damn work I've been doing.

I mean, look at it this way:
I run hard core 6x a week - burning at least 1500 calories per bought. I've been doing that for the past 4 months. The past 5 months before that I was doing HIIT on the eliptical and stair-stepper - along with some intense workouts.

I've lost almost 40kg since I started, and my strength, while decreased to a point, as started to once again started to increase. My upper chest and neck is defined up the yin yang, and I have vascularity on parts I shouldn't have with as high a body fat level that the bio-devices say. Pulling the skin tight, only adds to the vascularity.

But I don't want to be decieving myself, and lulling myself into a false sense of lean-ness. Its an issue of skin, to be honest, and I really need to figure out what to do with all of it.

I think what I'll do is continue the cut until I hit 85kg or 3 months from now - which ever comes first, then get back onto a bulking cycle - with hopes that the weight gain there helps to stretch the skin back to normal proportions so that the next cut, the definition will more readily appear and the skin, not be as loose.

So, your homework, is to figure out how long it takes for loose skin to relax back into shape and report back here to me and give me some sort of time table.

[kenpodragon]

So today I went into a Hulk rage. I was trying to peel the damn hard boiled eggs and none of them were peeling right so I freaking smashed the entire bowl against the far wall.

Horray for messes and having to clean things up.

I fuggin hate eggs and this is the crap they give me. ASFGAFSDHALDFH+ADFNBAL+DNBAL+SDFJBASGHJQ#$IUYQ`#$Y JQ`#PO$J

[kenpodragon]

Crash and burn baby - too much working out and I died.

Well, not really, but last night I could not fall asleep. I had those restless legs and kept mancing about. Finally at 5am (30 minutes before I had to get up for work) I passed out.

No workout today. I feel so fat now.

[kenpodragon]

Im going to completely rest this weekend and feed my body. It needs it.


This weeks stats 90.95 and 15.1%.

[VegasTiger]

Your right man, its time for some R&R! Dude you an I are very, very, much alike.

Except you are living my dream in Japan. I think you and I have some visiting to do in the future.

I have subscribed to your Journal, and am looking forward to seeing your updates.

I am starting the keto diet today, and will start my own journal tonight.

Good luck brother, and may a blessing be with you! :D

[kenpodragon]

I have been trying to get myself out of keto for the past several days, in that I want to get into a normal diet phase for a day or two - unfortunately, all indicators are that I am still within the keto boundries. I have slowly increased my carb intake (even the higher then normal amount on saturday supposadely a carb up) from 15g to 400g and I am still fought with the smelly breath, mind fog, neon colored urine, not to mention, that despite the fact I didn't work out all weekend and my calories are approaching a lot more then what I was eating before, my weight, in these past few days has drastically dropped. I guess I have been eating wayyy to low calories in recent months and the influx of even more calories - still below some supposed maintainance is causing my body to still keep itself in keto - either that or I have some funky bacterial problem going on. I'm going to keep on the carb increase until my body breaks out of the keto - meaning no bad breath, mind is clear again, and the urine is not so glow in the dark flavored.

Once that happens, I'll sit like that for a day or two then get back onto the keto. Bah, my body is just a screwy thing at the moment, I feed it more and it looses weight. I stop feeding it as much and it sill looses weight, but lots slower.

1 month on keto and then I break it - I was supposed to be breaking it during my carb ups, but I guess my workouts are just so intense I really need to up my carbs dramatically to see any results on my body - that or I just killed my kidneys and I am just waiting for kidney failure to kick in. Either way, I really need to find myself a better job and some female companionship...

[curly-top318]

The increase in calories probably spiked your leptin levels which raised your metabolism...it should normalize in a few days. Which would explain the weight loss. However, the ketosis thing has me puzzled..

[kenpodragon]

I think my workouts are just too intense is all. I might need to seriously look at increasing my calories or something, and on that note, I stopped trying to increase my carb intake to break out of keto as I was planning on going back on it once I broke it anyway. No sense in trying to beat a dead horse and I really don't feel like keeping my diet in limbo for too too long.

Honestly, I really wish I had a reliable way of telling if my body was in keto or not. Currently, I am taking in under 15g of carbs per day - the majority of which come from the PWS (~9ish grams per serving), and a few are found in the TOFU I use as padding for the lunchy tuna puree. The only indicators I have to go by are the rank breath, sweat, urine and mind fogginess. However, these could also be signs of other things (some not to nice) going on in the body.

One thing that is different this week, as opposed to the last few weeks is that I am off of thermo. My month (or rather 3 weeks because for some reason some online store decided not to tell me something was backordered and I had to do without and sit in limbo for the first 2 weeks of the month cycle) on thermo is going to be followed by the usual month of no suppliments (other then protein shakes and vitamins) For July I go back on creatine, and then in August I go back on thermo. Hopefully by that time I will have reached my goal of 82kg or 6%, but at the rate things are going that may or may not happen.

As I mentioned before I have a lot of excess skin and it really throws most calculations off - skin with squishy fluid like stuff inside - not fat, or if it is fat its very fluidy fat, and I am just confused as all get out as to where I really am in terms of body fat. I can't go by the visual test because the damn skin is all screwy. I can't go by the calipers, bio impdeence, tape measurers, or other indacators of fat because the skin is again, causing issues. So, I will go with the original calculations I did when I started this. I estimated that for 6% body fat I would have around 82kg. Currently I am sitting at around 88-89kg, meaning I have somewhere in the order of 6-7kg left to loose.

After which, no matter what the scale says, or what I look like, I am going to go on a bulk.

The reason is quite simple - the excess skin is getting in the way of both aesthetics and accurate body fat measurements and as a result I can not adequately track my progress at this point. I will bulk for a set period of time - either in terms of months or body fat percentage, in hopes that during this transititiory period, a good amount of the skin firms up and allows for better measurements and readings. Then, after this bulk, cut down again, and since the amount of body fat to loose will be drastically lower then the amount I originally started with, I should be able to keep a much better visual progress indicator of the whole event.

Well, in any rate tomorrow is the weekly weigh in, and hopefully sometime soon I'll get some progress pictures taken.

Oh yeah, with my freakish popeye forearms I have been working on I finally got the #3 Captains of Crush gripper in the mail. Wow, what a huge leap in tensile strength. I had been happliy cruising along with the #2, but needed a bit more challenge, so I opted to get the 2.5 and 3. Now my daily sets go 2,2.5,3 15/10/5 reps and a hold for 45/30/20 - instead of the T/1/2 I had been doing - I was up to around 25 on the #2 before I decided to give the next level a go. You have got to love the amount of pullups you can do now that your forearms and grip can actually sustain the weight for longer periods of time.

And with that, I am off to bed. Exhausted as usual.

[kenpodragon]

Weekly update:

The past 2 days I have been drinking like a fish - 6+ Liters per day, I have been thirsty as all get out, and...

92.2 and 17.4% up from 89.5 and 14.1 earlier in the week. I guess all that water is being retained and making me bloat or something. No way in hell I can gain 3% body fat in a few days and over 3kg. Water sure, it throws the readings off and I can store a bunch, but fat - no freaking way. Which is why I am a bit cranky at the moment.

I mean FAAAAK if I am going to put on that much weight in that short of a time span at least let me eat some decent food. Sure I upped the carbs in the beginning of the week, but come the day before yesterday when I went back in keto, I was at 89.5 and now, in the span of less then 48 hours I am up to 92.2. No sense at all there.

Hopefully next week will be better.

I think it partially has to do with getting off the Animal Cuts and the body's desire to drink water in excess amounts for some reason.... Whatever. I work out hard every day and today in the gym in was showing people the veins bulging out of my forearms.

I am like the hulk. When I'm not working out I have very limited vascularity, but as soon as I get a pump going my veins start throbbing like a sailor on shoreleave, and I get this massively awesome vascularity bloom. The muscles fill up a lot of the excess skin slack and I get to show off my body Ive been working so hard on for the past 9 months. To be honest, I can get vascularity at any time, just by pulling the skin tight like it should be. Damn, I can just imagine how sweet its going to look once the skin finally retracts to a nice taught level. Yeah! But until then I look pretty dumpy until I start pumping and then people start staring profusely.

I think for next month's creatine fix I am going to try and get my hands on some nitrous oxide or whatever that stuff is that people take for massive pumps and long term pumpage - I really want to show some of this hard work off, but it is really hard when the only time you look good is right after you get out of the gym because your skin is so fubar at the moment. Oh well. Maybe I should dehydrate myself so I can get back down to the 14.1% and pass out all by my lonseome.

[VegasTiger]

I was hoping to hear back from you man, good to see you are making a comeback to keto. Have you bought some Keto strips? They are $10 on BB.com.

I test every morning, just to make sure I dont screw myself outta keto.

Keep up the good work brother! :D

What are you going to use for a NO pump enhancer? I wonder how good naNO Vapor works by muscletech..

[kenpodragon]

Me? Give up?

Maybe on keto, but not on working out - well maybe not...

Today I broke the 2k level on the treadmill today - for whatever its worth and whatever those number mean, I pumped out an amazing 2031 calories in my 45 minute session today. It was hella intense. I was pushing close to 14 the entire time, and this is what is depressing the hell out of me.

I work my ass off, I eat right, keep my calories in check and recently I feel as If I havent made any progress, and last week with the freakish weight and bf gain, just really gets me down. I mean ....

I give up on trying to explain this crap. 5 months later I'm going to be through, and then start bulking again. And by then, maybe even have found myself a Japanese girlfriend (although at this time I will pretty much settle for anything resembling a female around my age and in good physical health without excess deposits of body fat on her frame)...

[kenpodragon]

Have you ever just crashed in the middle of your workout? I have never, in all my years in the gym or the dojo experience what I did today.

First, I had a ton of strength, more so then I was expecting and was able to push out a lot more weight and reps then I was expecting. Instead of upping the weight by 1.25kg from last time, I was able to go overboard and add an additional 15-20kg from the last working set. I was able to do sets of 25-30 for my pull ups (narrow grip, wide grip, reverse grip - wash rinse repeat), instead of the normal 10.

But when the abs rolled around, my last set, my abs just stopped. I literally could not do a single crunch no matter how hard I strained. I just completely shut down.

Then, waiting for the tread mill my body started shaking and all of a sudden I got this surge of energy - and blasted through the first half of the run at a blistering pace, but as soon as the 32 minute mark hit (when I start lowering the incline), I just started huffing and puffing out of the blue and I literally could not take another step - everything was fine and I was working harder then ever, when all of a sudden, my body just stopped.

Very strange. Maybe its because I stopped eating all those damn eggs. Its funny, now that I don't eating the eggs every day, I am much more regular with my bowel movements, I feel a lot happier and healthier, and, despite taking in less calories due to the lack of eggy crapness every day, I have had more energy then I know what to do with. Very strange. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

[VegasTiger]

Interesting...how does your ammino acid profile look now that you are not eating as many eggs?

[kenpodragon]

No clue what my amino profile looked either way ;p

But for the week things got back to normal - looks like some weird freak of nature for last week or what not.

90.3 and 14.4

2 more weeks on keto and then back to a restricted low fat diet. 8 weeks on and 8 weeks off is a good enough cycle methinks.

[kenpodragon]

I tried to do HIIT in the gym today (as opposed to my 45 minute hell run session) and it literally almost killed me.

Well the HIIT didn't kill me but the treadmill did.

Running. Very, very fast, machine cuts out. I fly forward and knock my head against the wall.

Not once but 3 times it happens. So, 30 minutes into the program I decide enough is enough and go hit the shower.

Gonna love to see what tomorrows measurements brings.