Oh, what the hell, let's give it a shot.

[MCEpidemic]

I probably tried one of these before, but just gave up on keeping a log. Now that I'm going to be home for the summer before next soccer season(September), it's crunch time.

Current stats(tentative, will confirm tomorrow):
Weight: 232.5
Bf%: 21.8-23.5
Waist: ~41

Short term:
Spend one week at maintenance to regulate metabolism - I'll log a sample daily diet, and then macros and cals for each day. No heavy exercise other than soccer scrimmaging on Wednesday for this week.

Weeks 2-9(maybe?) - Rippetoe training method to develop general strength. I know, trying to develop strength while cutting? Yeah, well hopefully the anabolic effects of keto will make it work. I'll also plan to ignore the whole six equal sized meals. Frankly I don't see much merit in eating six meals other than the fact that it's a new metabolic stimulus, but I'll eat six - but tapered. Bigger meals earlier in the day, smaller ones later.

The Problems:
Balancing my Rippetoe program with soccer training - that is, with what is very very likely to be a good deal of cardio. Which should I sacrifice for the other? Should I train soccer on my own time and just scrimmage every Wednesday, or take the training class and just lift first thing in the morning, leaving enough time to recover metabolically, or will that cause a plateau?

Finding ways to eat a variety of foods on limited funds. I'm looking for a summer job, but I doubt I'll make much, and I don't want to burden my parents with paying for too much expensive stuff. Which brings up to...

The Supplements:
Multivitamin
Green tea
Fish oil(I have cod liver oil already...but being as sunny as is, I don't want to overdose on Vitamin D), it's been shown to actually burn fat independent of exercuse
Natural Peanut Butter - I consider this a supplement because of its resveratrol content, an anti-aromatase agent(hopefully will improve hormonal environment)
Mushrooms - same as Natty PB
Grape Juice(carbups only) - same as 'shrooms
Whey
Do I need anything else?

Well, this is a beginning, and hopefully a fruitful one.

[MCEpidemic]

Started my carbup today to encourage my muscles to rebuild. And boy, do they need it. The past few weeks just walking up the stairs caused exertion in my legs(soccer every day for 2+ hours even during carbup...dumb of me). Which culminated in my all time worst workout today, where I could not successfully squat 205 to my desired amount of reps, despite the fact that I have squatted 275(albeit with much worse form and less depth than today), horrible lat and pullup work. So far I've eaten a ton of yogurt (after I exhaust my supply of yogurt, the total macros come out to: 40 g Fat/50 g Protein/250 g carbs. At dinner tonight I'll find something low fat to eat.

[MCEpidemic]

Started today.

Meal 1: An African meal, I'll estimate the cals as best I can: F/C/P
1 cup catfish: 30/1/27
.1 cup tomato paste: 0/5/1
.1 cup canola oil: 22/0/0
52/6/28 512 cals

Calculations:
RMR: 2086.21
Maintenance at "lightly active": 2086.21 X 1.375 = 2868.55 - Target for week 1
Maintenance on training days: 2086.21 X 1.55 = 3233.6

[MCEpidemic]

Today's totals:
Total Cals: 2842
Fat: 187
Carbs: 18
Protein: 255

[ironstrife]

gluck bro. subbed.

[MCEpidemic]

Today's totals:
Total: 2571
Fat: 200 1803 72%
Sat: 99 888 36%
Poly: 22 194 8%
Mono: 34 309 12%
Carbs: 19 65 3%
Fiber: 3 0 0%
Protein: 158 632 25%

A bit under maintenance today...we'll see the results tomorrow when I measure across the waist and maybe weigh in.

[MCEpidemic]

Calories Eaten Today
grams cals %total
Total: 2873
Fat: 204 1835 66%
Sat: 98 879 32%
Poly: 6 50 2%
Mono: 47 420 15%
Carbs: 32 106 4%
Fiber: 6 0 0%
Protein: 209 837 30%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

Will deplete and carbup tomorrow. Preparing for a hardcore IF(intermittent fast) keto variant for next week, will go into more detail later.

[MCEpidemic]

Weigh-in today:

Weight: 226
Waist: ~40.75
Bf: 23.1
FFM: 173.794

[The Director]

your bodyfats gone up?

[MCEpidemic]

Well, no. I was just ballparking it when I began this thread(the number there is in the range). The waist measurement decreased slightly, which suggests fat loss to me. I need to lose five inches off my waist to be where I need to be.

[The Director]

I think waist size during the first week or two is just normal, it goes right back up on carb up, and 3-6 days after.

[MCEpidemic]

Hopefully. Just started my carbup recently. Will continue tomorrow, start new cutting cycle/routine on Sunday.

[MCEpidemic]

I'm trying something new. An IF diet - essentially a refeed/carbup after every lifting session and a modified keto-style fast in between. So today calories were very low. We'll see where I'm at at the end of the week.

Total: 1617
Fat: 124g 1117 68%
Sat: 42 375 23%
Poly: 7 63 4%
Mono: 27 240 15%
Carbs: 18g 66 4%
Fiber: 1 0 0%
Protein: 113g 451 28%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

[MCEpidemic]

Fasted completely from 11 PM the previous night until 1:20 today, which is about a 14 hour fast. Broke it with a Pre-WO meal of bologna and steak(I'm experimenting with maintaining the keto pre-WO). Which comes to:

Total: 579
Fat: 40 362 63%
Sat: 15 136 24%
Poly: 1 9 2%
Mono: 12 105 18%
Carbs: 3 12 2%
Fiber: 0 0 0%
Protein: 50 201 35%

[MCEpidemic]

Workout went alright, Rippetoe's style:

Squats: 3x5
Bench: 3x5
Deadlift: 1x5

Starting carbup. Should I include the shake I chugged down in my daily cals even for this carbup?

[MCEpidemic]

Including the shake, I got this:

Total: 3550
Fat: 101 905 26%
Sat: 29 262 8%
Poly: 20 181 5%
Mono: 33 294 9%
Carbs: 484 1852 54%
Fiber: 21 0 0%
Protein: 174 698 20%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

Tomorrow I'll start my quasi-fast with a taper. Eat some chicken and eggs upon waking, end up around 1600 ish at the end of the day.

[MCEpidemic]

I have DOMS like no other today. Hopefully the DOMS I get will clear up by tomorrow, and hopefully by next week my muscles will adapt, because I need to train by playing soccer and not just squats...

[MCEpidemic]

Total: 1553
Fat: 112 1009 64%
Sat: 40 362 23%
Poly: 3 27 2%
Mono: 9 77 5%
Carbs: 27 110 7%
Fiber: 0 0 0%
Protein: 113 451 29%
Alcohol: 0 0 0%

The low cal days really kill me. Luckily I get to carb up every other day, which is good motivation.

[MCEpidemic]

Weigh-in:
Weight: 231.0
Waist: 40.5
Bf: 21.9
FFM: 180.4

Whoa. 1.2% loss in a week, even in a state that is somewhat bloated. I'll carbup tonight, maintenance on Sunday, Keto-fast on Monday, and recheck this Tuesday morning.

[VegasTiger]

Weigh-in:
Weight: 231.0
Waist: 40.5
Bf: 21.9
FFM: 180.4

Whoa. 1.2% loss in a week, even in a state that is somewhat bloated. I'll carbup tonight, maintenance on Sunday, Keto-fast on Monday, and recheck this Tuesday morning.

Good to hear! Your results are outstanding...GOOD JOB BROTHER!

[MCEpidemic]

Thanks man - I need all the encouragement I can get, because getting down to 14% bf In the 9 or so weeks I have left is going to take an immense amount of commitment.

[VegasTiger]

Thanks man - I need all the encouragement I can get, because getting down to 14% bf In the 9 or so weeks I have left is going to take an immense amount of commitment.

Are you getting 2 30min sessions of LIT cardio in? Muscular Development says that 2 30min sessions are better for fat loss than 1 consecutive hour.

[MCEpidemic]

Was thinking of starting daily cardio next week, even though I come down to nearly starvation level cals every other day...what constitutes LIT? Just a walk/bike ride? If so that's a great idea - since this is for soccer anyway, I could do LIT on lifting days and use soccer skill work(ride bike to soccer field, dribble around, ride back) once or twice a day on off days.

[VegasTiger]

Was thinking of starting daily cardio next week, even though I come down to nearly starvation level cals every other day...what constitutes LIT?

LIT is keeping your Heart Rate lower while doing cardio. It takes longer, but burns fat. If you are 17.and weigh around 180lbs...I would think aroud 140 BPM is the highest you wanna get. Not sure what the Equasion is to figure it out...but some treadmills will tell you if you put in your weight, and age.

Also...I would reccomend going to GNC and buying some Herba Mate Tea( its under seven bucks). Most fat burners have trace amounts of this, as an added (different) type of caffine. The tea is great for in the morning to get your metabo going, and best during your LIT cardio...because it helps oxygenate the muscles, and makes you sweat with hardly increasing your heart rate.. Go check the stuff out...it helps everyone I have told about it.

I think you can buy it in bulk on ebay as well, fo alot cheepa.

Hope this helps dude.

[MCEpidemic]

I had a horrible diet weekend. I ate well above maintenance two days in a row, then on Sunday only ate once - at a Chinese buffet. Forgive me for not even bothering the count the cals of that day.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up to the same waist measurement I entered the weekend with - 40.5. Something tells me a tadbit of that may come off after the next ketoday, which is tomorrow.

Today I had new confidence going into the gym after some rest and refeeding. The results on my Starting Strength routine:
Squat:
3x5 230 +5

Standing Military Press:
2x5 95 +10, 1x5 90

Pendlay Row:
3x5 115 (Form check needed for this exercise, added poundage is irrelevant until form is corrected)

[MCEpidemic]

Went a little overboard today with barbecue chicken...nearly 1800 cals for the day's total. That's still a pretty big deficit though, so it shouldn't be too costly in the long run.

[MCEpidemic]

I'm tired of struggling to get in protein content on my fasting days. I'm thinking of doing something more like the velocity diet - 1500 or so cals with at LEAST 750 of those coming from protein. I'm going to start consuming shakes like meals. This weight must go.

[MCEpidemic]

I'm changing the key. Today's workout:

Squat:
235 +5 2x5, 1x4(I felt that I wouldn't get the last rep up if I went down to parallel, so I essentially quarter squatted it. It doesn't count)

Bench:
135 +10 1x5, 1x4, 1x3 (had trouble with the last two sets, but pleased at the improvement)

Deadlift:
I'm still convinced that I'm doing this lift incorrectly, so I'm holding off on this for now. But my 1x5 today with with 20 pounds over my squat amount, so take that as you will.

[MCEpidemic]

For the love of God...I'm at 241 pounds(not a morning measurement, but whatever). I haven't been above 240 since last year. My waist measurement is at least 2 inches above where it *should* be. This is ridiculous, coming off of a carbup or not. It's pretty damn disheartening. I keep busting my ass, nothing works.

[Atavis]

Few things:

What is your waist measure in comparison to what it was when you started? What about the rest of your measurements?

Did you just start working out with this diet? If so, weight gain is to be expected. It should be muscle.

Whatever else you do, don't give up. If what your doing now isn't working add some cardio.