DriverDan's 12 Week Body-For-Life Challange - Cut To Victory

[DriverDan]

DriverDan's 12 Week Body-For-Life Challenge - Cut To Victory



Click on the ToC links to visit each section.

Table Of Contents
Summary, Overall Goals, History (below ToC)
Diet
Workout
Supplements
Pictures
Week 1 (02/10 - 02/16)
Week 2 (Starts 02/17)
Week 3 (Starts 02/24)
Week 4 (Starts 03/03)
Week 5 (Starts 03/10)
Week 6 (Starts 03/17)
Week 7 (Starts 03/24)
Week 8 (Starts 03/31)
Week 9 (Starts 04/07)
Week 10 (Starts 04/14)
Week 11 (Starts 04/21)
Week 12 (Starts 04/28)
Conclusion

Summary
This log will follow my 12 week transformation for the Body For Life Challenge. For those who don't know what the challenge is here's a quick summary. It runs for 12 weeks at a time, 4 times per year. This year the overall winner will receive $50,000 and category champions win $20,000. I'll be competing in the 18-30 category. I believe I have a chance of winning for these 12 weeks. It all depends on everyone else in the competition because I know I'm going to stick with my plans.

This log will contain my diet, supplementation, and workout routines. I will also be posting pictures every Saturday. One unique thing I'm trying out is posting a graph of my weight and body fat progression. This will be updated manually or automatically everyday from my web server, I'm not sure which yet. I may also plot trend lines to make sure I'm meeting my goals.

I'm 5'5", 25 years old, caucasian male. On the start date, Feb 10, 2007, I weighed 166.4lbs @ 20% body fat according to my scale.

Overall Goals

For the first two weeks my goal is to build muscle while maintaining or slowly losing weight. For the remaining 10 weeks I'll be losing at least 2 lbs of fat per week for a total minimum loss of 20 lbs of fat. I don't care what my final weight is so long as I lose this much fat. Taking everything into consideration I'll most likely end in the middle of the 140-150 lb range. I would also like to increase my bicep, chest, and thigh measurements as the result of increased muscle mass and volume.

History
Growing up I was never fat by society's low standards. Everyone thought I was skinny and in shape despite mediocre body composition. From 7th or 8th grade on I always weighed 140-145 lbs and had a 30" waist. I estimate my body fat was in the 20-25% range. The only time I ever worked out was in 10th grade when I was on the track team, and I use the term workout loosely.

Fast forward to November 2005. I noticed that my pants were feeling tight. I weighed myself for the first time in months and came in at 140 lbs. My waist was up to 31". That means I had lost over 5 lbs of muscle and gained quite a bit of fat. I needed to do something about it. I began researching nutrition information and exercise routines. I got a copy of Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle and started measuring and tracking everything I ate. In January 2006 I took a PE class at college that forced me to work out at least twice a week but usually added a 3rd day as well. Our routine was up to us so I made one loosely based on Max-OT. By the time the semester was over 5 months later I was up to 145 lbs and my waist had returned to its normal 30". I then joined a gym and began a full 5 day a week Max-OT workout. I cut down to around 10% body fat at 140 lbs and then started bulking again. I followed that for the remainder of 2006. After my beginner's gains everything slowed to a crawl. I was stuck lifting the same weights for almost all exercises for months. I started cheating on my nutrition plans, frequently eating candy and other junk. As the end of 2006 approached I was rapidly closing in on 20% body fat. My weight was up to 155. I decided I'd get everything back in order and start cutting in January. I followed that for a little while and then rediscovered the Body For Life website. I had heard about it before but hadn't seen it since 2005. When I found I still had time to join the Challenge I decided to replan everything. Instead of cutting in January I decided to push it off to February 10th, close to the final start date of the first round.

[DriverDan]

Diet
My diet is going to be very clean and very strict. After doing some math based on previous results I've found my BMR (including activity) to be in the range of 2600-2900 kcal/day depending on activity, supplementation, and food consumed. For the first two weeks I'm planning on eating 2500 kcal/day. For the following 12 weeks I'll be eating 2150 kcal/day. These amounts may be adjusted as necessary to increase or decrease fat loss. I'll be eating 7 meals a day for the first 2 weeks and 6 meals per day for the remaining 10 weeks. My workout is either in the morning or in the afternoon. I'll be rearranging a few meals here and there to work with that.

I designed the meal plan by starting with ~1.5g of protein per lb of body weight. I currently weigh 166.4 lbs. 166.4 lbs x 1.5g / lb = ~250g of protein a day. I wanted at least 20% of my calories to come from fat, so (.20)(2500kcal) = 500 kcal. There are 9 kcal per gram of fat so 500 / 9 = 55.6g of fat per day. Then I had to figure out how many calories were left for carbs. 2500 - 500 for fat = 2000kcal. 2000 - (250g protein * 4 kcal per gram) = 1000 kcal for carbs. That ends up being a 40/40/20 plan. When I reduce my kcalories to 2150 per day I'll be cutting carbs and a few grams of fat. Protein will be staying the same.

I haven't decided if I'm going to use FitDay or not to track my results. As I'll be eating almost the same thing everyday I'm not sure it will be necessary. Any variations will be minor. I also have a spreadsheet I use to calculate total macronutrients if anything changes. I inputted a single day's food into FitDay (including supplements) and the macros/micros both look good. I've included any supplements that add calories such as EPA caps. Supplementation will be discussed further below.

My first two weeks will be as follows:

Meal 1
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 scoop ON 100% Gold Vanilla Ice Cream protein powder
1/2 medium apple
1 tbsp flax meal
cinnamon to taste
1 CLA cap
1 EPA cap

KCalories: 437
Fat: 10.2g
Carbs: 56g
Protein: 33g

Meal 2
1 cup Wegmans (store brand) Shredded Wheat
1/2 oz Unroasted unsalted Almonds
1 Sesamin cap

KCalories: 225
Fat: 8.8g
Carbs: 36g
Protein: 7g

Meal 3
2 slices Wegmans (store brand) Whole Grain Bread
6 oz sliced turkey breast
1 CLA cap

KCalories: 457
Fat: 6.25g
Carbs: 38g
Protein: 58g

Meal 4 (PWO shake)
1.25 cup Skim milk
1 scoop EAS Chocolate 100% Whey Protein
2 tbsp Maltodextrin
1 tbsp Dextrose
1/2 Medium banana
1/2 cup Frozen strawberries
1 tbsp creatine monohydrate

KCalories: 396
Fat: 2.3g
Carbs: 60.5g
Protein: 34g

Meal 5
2 cups Walmart frozen deluxe stirfry vegetables
6 oz Chicken breast
1/2 tbsp Olive oil
1/2 tbsp Sesame oil
1 EPA cap
1 CLA cap

KCalories: 387
Fat: 18g
Carbs: 16g
Protein: 38.6g

Meal 6
1/2 cup Chopped green pepper
2 Large eggs
5 Large egg whites
3/8 cup Skim milk
1 tbsp ON 100% Gold Vanilla Ice Cream protein powder
Powdered Chipotle and Habanero pepper to taste
1 Sesamin cap

KCalories: 314
Fat: 11.3g
Carbs: 12g
Protein: 38.8g

Meal 7
1.5 cups Skim milk
1 scoop Milk protein isolate
1/2 cup Strawberries
1 CLA cap

KCalories: 279
Fat: 1.3g
Carbs: 25.4g
Protein: 38.5g

Daily Totals

KCalories: 2494
Fat: 58g (21%)
Carbs: 244g (39%)
Protein: 248g (40%)

For the remaining 10 weeks I'll be removing Meal 2, removing the Sesamine caps, and changing meals as follows:

Meal 1
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 scoop ON 100% Gold Vanilla Ice Cream protein powder
1/2 medium apple
1 tbsp flax meal
cinnamon to taste
1 CLA cap
1 EPA cap

KCalories: 437
Fat: 10.2g
Carbs: 56g
Protein: 33g

Meal 2
2 slices Wegmans (store brand) Whole Grain Bread
6 oz sliced turkey breast
1 CLA cap

KCalories: 457
Fat: 6.25g
Carbs: 38g
Protein: 58g

Meal 3 (PWO shake)
1.25 cup Skim milk
1 scoop EAS Chocolate 100% Whey Protein
2 tbsp Maltodextrin
1 tbsp Dextrose
1/2 cup Frozen strawberries
(removed the banana)
1 tbsp creatine monohydrate (2 weeks)

KCalories: 343
Fat: 2.3g
Carbs: 47g
Protein: 33.5g

Meal 4
1 cups Walmart frozen deluxe stirfry vegetables (reduced from 2 cups)
6 oz Chicken breast
1/2 tbsp Olive oil
1/2 tbsp Sesame oil
1 EPA cap
1 CLA cap

KCalories: 360
Fat: 18g
Carbs: 8g
Protein: 37.3g

Meal 5
1/2 cup Chopped green pepper
2 Large eggs
5 Large egg whites
3/8 cup Skim milk
1 tbsp ON 100% Gold Vanilla Ice Cream protein powder
Powdered Chipotle and Habanero pepper to taste
(removed sesamine cap)

KCalories: 305
Fat: 10.3g
Carbs: 12g
Protein: 38.8g

Meal 6
1.5 cups Skim milk
1 scoop Milk protein isolate
1 CLA cap
(removed strawberries)

KCalories: 254
Fat: 1g
Carbs: 19.5g
Protein: 38g

Daily Totals

KCalories: 2156
Fat: 48g (20%)
Carbs: 180g (35%)
Protein: 239g (45%)

[DriverDan]

Workout
My workout is based on Hypertrophy-Specific Training (HST). I did 2 weeks of HST before and noticed increased muscle size along with loss of fat so I'm excited to be doing a full HST workout plan. Since I've only done Max-OT before I never did more than 6 reps at a time. 15 reps really kicks my ass! My muscles are not used to that at all which is why I think I can get great results switching to HST.

I'll be sticking to the HST principles but changing a few things to fit me better. First, instead of training everything 3 days a week I'm splitting upper and lower body onto different days. That will put me in the gym 6 days per week, Saturday to Thursday. Since I wouldn't be able to get to the gym until the evening on Friday, and I hate working out in the evening when it's busy, I decided to make that my off day. While the HST routine normally runs for 8 weeks I'll most likely be using it for the full 12 weeks. For the first two weeks I'm trying to gain as much muscle mass as possible so I'll be doing 5 reps per exercise. After that I'll be doing a normal 8 week HST routine, with 2 weeks @ 15 reps, 2 weeks @ 10 reps, 4 weeks @ 5 reps. I'll be deciding what to do at that point. My choices for the remaining 2 weeks will be either Max-OT, HST with the same rep count, each week with a different rep count, or each day with a different rep count. I'll decide when the time comes since I want to leave my options open.

I start every workout with a warmup run, some stretching, crunches and situps. On upper body days I do a 10 minute run and burn around 150 kcal. On lower body days I run for 8 minutes.

Rather than list every single workout day I'll give a general idea of what it looks like. Here are the exercises, number of sets, and the days I'll be doing them:

Saturday
Incline Bench x2
Dips x1
Lat Pulldown x2
Cable Rows x1
Military Press x2
Lateral Raises x1
Barbell Curls x2
Cable Pushdown x1

Sunday
Squat x2
Leg Curl x2
Shrugs x2
Plank - 30 sec to 1 min
Bicycles 2x15
Ab Crunches x2
Calf Raises x2

Monday
Dumbbell Bench x2
Dips x1
Lat Pulldown x2
Dumbbell Rows x1
Seated Press x2
Lateral Raises x1
Dumbbell Curls x2
Cable Pushdown x1

Tuesday
Leg Press x2
Deadlift x2
Shrugs x2
Plank - 30 sec to 1 min
Bicycles 2x15
Ab Crunches x2
Calf Raises x2

Wednesday
Incline Bench x2
Dips x1
Lat Pulldown x2
Cable Rows x1
Military Press x2
Lateral Raises x1
Barbell Curls x2
Cable Pushdown x1

Thursday
Squat x2
Leg Curl x2
Shrugs x2
Plank - 30 sec to 1 min
Bicycles 2x15
Ab Crunches x2
Calf Raises x2

Friday
Off

This continues each week with the days switching on the following week, eg Saturday and Wednesday become Monday and Monday becomes Saturday.

[DriverDan]

Supplements


Most of the supplements I've selected have been chosen because of the science that backs them. I'll cover each individually as needed. I've already spent enough time putting this together so I won't be citing studies to back each supplement. I may add them later.

Protein Powders
I'll be using ON 100% Gold Whey Protein (Vanilla Ice Cream), EAS 100% Whey Protein (Chocolate), and True Protein's Milk Protein Isolate (Vanilla). As we all know ON is a great deal. EAS is priced close to ON and the Body For Life competition requires the use of at least one EAS product. Milk protein isolate contains casein and whey in their natural ratio of about 4:1, an excellent ratio for a night time shake.

Fats
NOW Super EPA (fish oil) - 2 caps provides 720mg EPA and 480mg DHA. These Omega3s are good for joints and may reduce the risk of heart attack although there are conflicting studies on that.
NOW CLA - Each cap provides 800mg of CLA. The majority of CLA studies have shown it to help increase fat free mass while reducing fat mass. There are a few conflicting studies but the majority indicate strong benefits.
Scivation Sesamin - Each cap provides 500mg sesamin lignan. I bought these a while ago despite there being little scientific evidence they help fat loss as they claim. I want to use the bottle up so I'm using them to add a few grams of healthy fat.

Creatine
For the first 4 weeks I'll be using 4-5g of NOW Creatine Monohydrate 7 days a week. If you don't know what creatine does you're behind the times, start reading From the 5th to the 9th week I'll be using Controlled Labs Green Bulge on my workout days with no creatine on the off day. I used a few bottles of Green Bulge before and I could tell the difference between a workout with it and one without it. I'm hoping it helps again. For the final 3 weeks (10-12) I'll be dropping creatine to increase muscle definition.

Stimulants and Fat Burners
BN Bulk Green Tea - I cap my own green tea since it's a lot cheaper. Each cap is ~500mg and provides 250mg EGCG. EGCG has been shown to increase metabolism by around 10%. Green tea is also rich in antioxidants.
EC Stack - We've all heard of how great ephedrine and caffeine are. I'll be using Bronkaid which provides 25mg Ephedrine Sulfate and 400mg Guaifenesin and is the cheapest source available in the US. Right now I have around 30 days worth, depending on how slowly I add it and cut it back down. I haven't decided if I'm going to add more. I'll be starting it on week 3 and by week 4 will be up to a full 25mg/200mg 3 times a day dose.
EAS ThermoDynamX - I wanted to try another EAS product so I chose their "thermogenic fat burning capsules." Each dose is 3 caps and contains 500mg cayenne pepper, 360mg polyphenols, 270mg total catechins (140mg EGCG), 199mg caffeine, 8mg theobromine, and 5mg gingerols. Cayenne and gingerols are both thermogenics. I already covered EGCG. I haven't decided if I'll be using ThermoDynamX with ephedrine or alone. I'll be experimenting with it when the time comes.
CNS Synephrine HCl - Due to its similarity to ephedrine, synephrine is being marketed as a similar weight loss supplement. There is little science to back it up. My experience is that it provides no stimulant effect on me at all. I've never used it long enough to tell if it works. I'm trying it out this time around.
Natrol DHEA - While not truly a stimulant, 50mg of DHEA has a decent stimulant effect on me. I've had the end of this bottle sitting around for a while so I'm finishing it off now. It will be gone after the first 2 weeks.
Primaforce Yohimbine HCl - I've had this sitting around for a while now. Just like synephrine I feel no stimulant effect of it, even up to 7.5mg. It does increase my heart rate slightly. I'm not sure if it will be used at all.

Misc
Walmart Equate Men's One Daily Multivitamin - I see so many people throwing money away into multis that are overloaded with waaaaaaay more than your body can handle. It all gets washed right out in your urine. Instead I'll spend my money on useful supplements and get these 100 tabs for $3.88.
Natrol Ester-C - I take this for the immune system boost. Each cap is 500mg. I've always had a very good immune system and very rarely get sick. I started coming down with something in late fall, got some Ester-C, and was fine after only a few days. Since then I've used it. I may not use it over the summer, I haven't decided yet.
Dymatize Z Force - The main reason I wanted Z Force was for cheap ZMA. The rest was just bonus (tribulus, mucuna purines, vulgare, LPC, NAC). However, I believe that Dymatize may have changed their ingredients. ZMA is not listed anywhere on the bottle anymore. I purchased 3 bottles but may end up selling the 2 unopened ones and buying NOW ZMA.
NOW L-Tyrosine - Tyrosine is an essential amino acid that provides a mild stimulant effect. I'll be using 500mg of it on days when I feel tired or burned out.
Twinlab DMAE - Supposedly provides a mental boost. Effects, if any, seem to be very mild for me. I take it on early school days when I'm feeling very tired.
True Protein bulk Acetyl-L-carnitine - ALC has a mind boosting and mild stimulant effect on me. I like to take this on days when I get less than 8h of sleep. Too much gives me a mild headache so I have to be careful.
NOW Ginseng & Royal Jelly - I tried Ginseng once before with very few results. The only thing it seemed to do was increase my libido and gave me spontaneous erections like I was 14 again. I've read that quality can vary from batch to batch so I decided to try it again. So far I've had the same results so I'm not sure if I'm going to even continue taking it. I may finish the bottle, I may not.
NOW AAKG - AAKG is great for increasing pumps. I don't think I'll need it for the first few weeks but once I cut back on carbs I may start using it.

Supplementation Schedule
Here's what I'll be taking daily for the entire 12 weeks:
1 Men's One Daily tab with meal 1
1 Ester-C cap with 2nd meal
2 Super EPA caps, one in the morning one in the afternoon, with meals
2 Green tea caps, one in the morning one in the afternoon, 15 min before meals
4 CLA caps, spread throughout the day, 1 hour before meals
4 Z Force caps, 1 hour before final meal

For the first 2 weeks:
2 Sesamine caps, one in the morning one in the afternoon, with meals
2 DHEA tabs, 30 min before workout, on leg workout days week 1 and upper body days week 2
1 Synephrine cap 30 min before workout, with a 2nd cap taken later in the day during week 2

After the first 2 weeks if my pumps start to weaken I'll be adding 1 tsp AAKG twice daily, in the morning and at night. Nothing gives you pumps like carbs. Since I'll be cutting back on carbs I may need to make up for it with AAKG.

When using EC I'll take one week to increase dosage from 1/2 E and 1/2 C tab once daily to 1 E and 1 C tab 3 times daily. I will reverse that at the end as well. That helps decrease caffeine withdrawal.

From week 5 to week 9 I'll be taking 5 Green Bulge caps 45 min before my workout.

[DriverDan]

Pictures

[daYDreAmErX]

Great plan and nice layout. Ever thought about going on a keto diet ?

*subscribed*

[DriverDan]

Thanks. I put a lot of time into writing everything up. I'm trying to be as serious about this as possible as it's the only way to have a chance at winning.

I've never considered keto since I belong to the school of thought that believes it's unhealthy, at least in the long run. Plus I don't want the loss of energy. I'm in my last semester at my current college with 18 credit hours and 3 labs and need all the energy I can get.

[DriverDan]

Week 1, Day 1

Weight: 166.4 lbs, 20% fat

Today was the beginning of my log. I had a good day at the gym. Whenever I'm less than max on my lifts like at the beginning of an HST week I always feel like I should be doing more. I'll be sticking to HST though.

About an hour after I got back from the gym a friend asked if I would help clean up some drywall he just knocked down. I spent about 45 min helping out.

I ate according to my meal plan listed above. I started cooking the turkey later than expected so I had to push that meal out by 30 min or so. I was out of bread too so I ended up going to the store and eating the bread by itself about an hour later. My scrambled eggs turned out runny but I still ate them. One very surprising thing was that I wasn't hungry beyond the meals. With as much as I was eating before I expected my appetite to be high.

I expect to drop quite a bit of water weight over the next few days. I'm sure I was retaining a lot of water from all the salty food I was eating. According to FitDay I'm only taking in about 1.6g sodium a day now. I may add some soy sauce into my stir fry to increase that a little.

[DriverDan]

Week 1
Day 2

Weight: 160.6, 18% fat

Now's a good time to note that the body fat % on my scale isn't always accurate. My bathroom tends to get pretty cold overnight and the scale seems to read low when it's cold. I weighed myself after my workout and it was around 163 lbs and back to 20% fat. I'm sure I did lose a few pounds of water since I was consuming a TON of salty foods last week and now I'm down to 1.6-1.8g of sodium a day.

My workout went well. Again I felt like I should have been lifting more weight but I'm sticking to the HST plan and maxing out on Wednesday and Thursday. I'm going to start putting my workouts in my daily logs. I'll edit the first 2 days tomorrow to put them in.

Workout (everything x5 reps)
Squat, 2 sets + warm up, 215 lbs
Leg Curl, 2 sets, 135 lbs
Shrugs, 2 sets + warm up, 255 lbs
Plank for about 60 sec
Bicycles x15 reps
Ab Crunch Machine, 2 sets, 115 lbs
Standing Calf Raises, 2 sets, 270 lbs

My diet was perfect today. My appetite was back to normal. I found that I was slightly hungry between meals. I ate a pickle slice between meals 5 and 6. I wanted to add a little more sodium and was hungry.

[DriverDan]

I didn't realize editing was time limited. Looks like I'll be putting in pictures as I go and won't be able to update the table of contents.

Speaking of pictures, I forgot to say that per the contest rules the pictures had to be relaxed, no posing allowed. From what I've seen some minor posing is allowed at the end. From this point on I'll be flexing in pictures.

[DriverDan]

Week 1
Day 3

Weight: 160.2 lbs, 19% fat

Oops! I was so busy reading other posts I forgot to update my own. As you can see it seems that my scale is reading correctly again.

Workout (all x5 reps)
Dumbbell Bench, 2 sets + warmup, 55 lbs
Dips, 1 set, body weight + 35 lbs
Lat Pulldowns, 2 sets, 155 lbs
Dumbbell Rows, 1 set, 65 lbs**
Seated Dumbbell Press, 2 sets, 45 lbs
Standing Side Lateral Raises, 1 set, 25 lbs
Dumbbell Curls, 2 sets, 50 lbs
Cable Pushdowns, 1 set, 90 lbs

** - These were too easy so I'm bumping my max up from 70 lbs to 75 lbs.

Diet
For some reason I can't seem to remember to put the flaxmeal in my oatmeal. Everyday so far I've forgotten. I always remember after I'm done eating. To make up for it I've been adding a few extra almonds.

I decided to change a few things. I want to increase my sodium intake so I added 1/2 tbsp of low sodium soy sauce to my stirfry. I can't imagine how much sodium normal soy sauce has since this stuff has 570mg sodium per tbsp. I also decided to change my scrambled eggs a bit. I have a lot of low fat shredded cheese left over so I'm temporarily dropping one egg and adding in 1/4 cup of cheese. This increases my daily kcal intake by 10 so it's no big deal. Once the cheese is gone I'll be going back to 2 whole eggs.

I've decided to add in 1 cap of ginseng preworkout with the synephrine. I haven't noticed any difference from it but I want to do it for at least 2 weeks.

[DriverDan]

Week 1
Day 4

Weight: 160.5 lbs, 20% fat

It has been an interesting day. My workout was pretty good. The deadlifts were too easy so I think I'm going to up those next time. Normally I'll be doing 2 sets but for some reason I only did one today. Also, I forgot my wrist straps so I could only get out about 7 total reps for shrugs.

Tomorrow will be my first upper body max day. I should be maxing out at 5 reps. I'll be pushing hard to go beyond that. If I can I'll be upping the weight next week.

Workout (all x5 reps)
Leg Press, 2 sets + warmup, 565 lbs
Stiff Leg Deadlifts, 1 set, 205 lbs
Shrugs, 2 sets, 260 lbs (only got 7 reps total)
Plank, 60 sec
Bicycles, 1 set, 15 reps
Ab Crunch Machine, 2 sets, 120 lbs
Standing Calf Raises, 2 sets, 280 lbs

Before I took the last few weeks off I was never sore. I've been a little sore all week. It's good to feel it again.

Diet
I had to make a few changes again today. I had class from 2-7:30 and didn't have time to cook beforehand. I still had a turkey sandwich but instead of the stirfry I had a Chicken Of The Sea pink salmon foil pack. It was one of the most disgusting things I've eaten in a long time. It took a lot of will power to keep it down. I won't be buying any of that stuff again. Since I had salmon I didn't take the 2nd fish oil cap.

I've decided that on my day off (Friday) I'll be replacing the PWO shake with food I have left over from before I started the challenge. This week it will probably be Kashi Go Lean.

[DriverDan]

Week 1
Day 5

Weight: 160.6 lbs, 20% fat

So far it has been a great day! I woke up to a ton of snow on the ground and more in the air. I love snow so that made pretty happy. My last class of the day was cancelled so I got out early. I ended up rearranging my meals and working out late but damn, the workout was excellent! Today was my first max day and everything went awesome. I pushed myself very hard and managed to beat my planned maxes on almost every exercise. Most of these maxes are the same as I established at the beginning of January before I took 3 weeks off. I'm not sure what got me there as a lot was different today. I worked out in the evening instead of morning or afternoon, the meal I had before my workout was stirfry so mostly protein and fats with very few carbs, and I push myself hard to do that extra rep or extra 5 lbs. I'll be raising my weights next week.

Workout
Incline Bench: 1x6x135, 1x5x140
Dips: 1x6x45+body weight
Lat Pulldowns: 1x6x160, 1x5x165
V-Bar Cable Rows: 1x6x190
Military Press: 1x6x115, 1x5x115
Standing Lateral Raises: 1x6x27.5
Standing Barbell Curls: 1x6x100, 1x5x100
Cable Pushdowns: 1x5x95

Diet
Like I mentioned above I worked out later than normal so I rearranged my meals a bit. I had my stirfry meal before the gym. Normally I try to have a meal with carbs and protein before. It didn't seem to make any difference today.

[DriverDan]

Week 1
Day 6

Weight: 159.6 lbs, 19% fat

I woke up later today pissed twice before weighing myself so that could account for the lower weight.

I thought of a few things to add. I'm debating as to take all future pictures posed or standing like the first. I think what I'm going to do is post both relaxed pics like the first week AND poses.

I also forgot to mention that I am constantly chewing gum. There was a study done that showed chewing gum burns 11 kcal per hour. If you chew a low calorie sugar-free gum like Trident for 1.5 hours per stick you end up burning about 10 kcal. Do that after most meals and it adds up. My goal is to burn 40-50 kcal a day doing this. It also cleans the food out of your teeth. I'm not going to brush after each meal, 7 times a day.

I'm heading off to the gym in a few minutes, hopefully today will go as well as yesterday.

[svcatch2]

wohoo looks awesome so far !!!! You have a good set up goin and a great oppurtunity go for it!!

p.s. how do you change font colors and stuff on here hahha thanks!

[DriverDan]

To change style options you use BBCode. For example, the code for "Week 1" above looks like this (without the spaces in the brackets):

[b ][color=red ][size=5 ]Week 1[/size ][/color ][/b ]

You can find a complete list and more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode

I'm trying to standardize the layout of my daily posts to follow what others have done. I think I like the workout summary in this post the best.

Workout
Another great workout! I pushed hard again and beat all of my planned maxes. I hit bunch PRs too!

Squat: 225x6x1, 235x5x1
Leg Curl: 145x6x1, 150x5x1 (PR!)
Shrugs: 265x6x1, 275x5x1 (PR!)
Plank for 60 sec
Bicycles x15 reps
Ab Crunch Machine: 125x6x1, 130x5x1 (PR!)
Standing Calf Raises: 290x6x1, 295x5x1 (PR!)

Wow, now I'm really psyched! I haven't looked back in my workout log for a while. After looking through it I found that almost of my current maxes are the best I've ever done. The only ones that aren't the best are squats (245x6), incline barbell bench (145x6), and cable pushdowns (at PR but better form). I didn't realize I was making such good gains.

I've decided that next week is going to be an all out push to beat ALL of my PRs. I'll be starting the week at my maxes instead of lower like normal HST. I may even crack open the Green Bulge and do a week of it now. I want this to be the best workout week of my life. The really nice thing is that I have no school. Next week is spring break #1 (we have 2) so I'll be able to focus a ton of time and effort on my workouts and diet.

Diet
I have 2 meals left but so far I've followed my normal plan. Meal 5 (stir fry today) was late, about 3.5 hours after my PWO shake. I was out and didn't have time to make it before I left. I'm REALLY starting to like the stir fry. I've been using my omelette pan to make it but it's really too small. I always lose some veggies in the process of shaking everything up. I have to dig up my regular frying pan. I may go buy a wok, I haven't decided yet.

[DriverDan]

Oh, and I'm open to any and all suggestions that anyone may have.

The one supplement I'm not taking is a test booster. I'm not really counting Z Force although it may do a little. I've contemplated a few options but I think I'd like to exclude them for now. I've changed so many things this time around that it would be hard to gauge how well it works. I'm already hitting PRs anyway. Once I get down to 8% fat I'll start a slow clean bulk and may add some kind of test booster.

[svcatch2]

Thanks Mate !!!

[DriverDan]

End of Week 1
Day 7

Weight: 159.2 lbs, 19% fat

Looks like the weight loss wasn't a fluke. It may not be water.

Last night I noticed a significant increase in acne on my forehead and upper back. I think it's from Z Force. I had a bit when I was using Z Force last time that disappeared when I stopped using it. I don't know if it's from increased test levels or just the ingredients.

Time for school. 2 tests and then next week is vacation.

[DriverDan]

Since today was an off day I changed a few meals. I replaced my PWO shake with 1.25 cups of Kashi Go Lean, 1 cup shredded wheat, 1 frigo light string cheese. I ran out of turkey so I had a chicken sandwich instead of that. I may start making chicken sandwiches or wraps instead of turkey because it's cheaper and easier.

[DriverDan]

Week 2
Day 8

Weight: 158.2 lbs, 18% fat

I think I'm still losing water weight. There's no way I lost 2 lbs of fat this week unless my metabolism is going crazy. My weight will probably go up a little tomorrow. I think I'm going to bump my sodium intake today to a minimum of 2.5g.

Workout

WOW WOW WOW! Nearly everything was a PR again today! I'm obliterating the gym. I don't know how I'm doing it but it feels, both mentally and physically, great. I'm getting great pumps and my muscles are rock hard after lifting.

Dumbbell Bench: 60x5x2 (65 next time) (PR)
Dips: 50x5x1 (55 next time) (PR)
Lat Pulldowns: 165x6x1, 170x5x1 (PR)
Dumbbell Rows: 75x6x1 (80 next time) (PR)
Seated Dumbbell Press: 50x5x1, 52.5x5x1 (PR)
Side Lateral Raises: 30x5x1
Dumbbell Curls: 52.5x5x2 (limited by forearm strength)
Cable Pushdowns: 95x5x1

I decided I need to do some cardio work. Over the past week my heart rate was in the low 140's after my warmup run. In the past it was in the low 130's. I'm going to take advantage of the free time I have this week and do a 20 min HIIT session on upper body days. It will be in the evening. My goal is to push hard and burn at least 325 kcal. To compensate I'm going to replace my shredded wheat meal with another PWO shake after the cardio. See below for more details.

Diet and Supplementation

I'm tweaking my diet and supplementation this week. I have lots of time to play around with everything and prep food. I am going to be replacing the turkey with chicken. It's cheaper and easier to make. A 7 lb frozen turkey (no wings or legs) yielded enough meat for 6 days. That's quite a bit more expensive than chicken. Plus I have to cook a turkey every 6 days and they're loaded with sodium.

I'm adding 1/2 tbsp of flax meal to my PWO shakes. It adds 15 kcal (1.25g fat, 1g fiber, 0.75g protein). I'm trying to find ways to increase my Omega 3 intake and this was the first that came to mind.

As I mentioned in the workout section I'm going to be replacing the shredded wheat with another PWO shake on upper body / HIIT days. This will increase that meal by 186 kcal (including flax). Since the cardio will be burning 300-400 kcal (not sure yet) I'll be increasing my calorie deficit by 114-214 kcal per day. I should see some fat loss this week.

After reviewing my fat intake I found my Omega 6 to Omega 3 ratio was waaaaay higher than it should be. As I mentioned above I decided to add some flax into my PWO shake. I'm dropping the afternoon sesamin cap since I'm getting 7g of sesame oil in my stirfry anyway. The ratio is still off so I may make further adjustments. I wish there was a high Omega 3 oil that could be used for cooking.

I'm using Green Bulge this week. For weeks 3-4 I'll be switching back to creatine monohydrate. I'll add GB back for weeks 5-8. I think GB made quite a bit of difference in my workout today. I took it 45 min before leaving leaving for my workout. After about 30 min I started getting aggressive energy. I feel it really helped me push my workout to the limit. 10 months ago when I took it I felt the same way. I could tell the difference between a workout with it and one without it. I wish I knew what's in GB that helps my workouts so much. It can't be the creatine since that works over time.

My green tea caps are running low so I need to cap more. I'm going to be making what I like to call Green Tea Fire Tips (TM) I put the green tea in the long end of the cap like normal. Then, before closing them, I put 50-100mg of dried habanero pepper in the other end. I could write a whole article about hot peppers and capsaicinoids. To summarize, scientific data points to capsaicinoids as a metabolism booster and thermogenic. I try to use hot peppers in as many meals as possible. I've been using chipotle and habanero in my stirfry and scrambled eggs. I'm also going to use it in my chicken sandwiches. Since I don't eat anything with capsaicinoids in the morning I'll be using a Green Tea Fire Tip at breakfast and regular green tea cap in the evening.

I'll be posting an updated summary of my daily meals and supplementation shortly along with this week's pictures.

[DriverDan]

Week 2 Pictures
From this point on I'll be posting both relaxed and flexed pics. They're going to be larger than the first week, those were a bit small.

Relaxed

Flexed


The camera angle I used makes my head look big. I'll have to fix that next week.

[DriverDan]

I just got back from doing cardio on an elliptical. It wasn't exactly HIIT, more like medium IIT Still, I burned 360 kcal in 20 minutes and my heart rate was 155-170 bpm the whole time. That's a much higher heart rate than I used to have. I used to struggle to keep it above 150 bpm. I hope to keep it lower by the end of the week.

[DriverDan]

Week 2
Day 9 of 84

Weight: 159.8 lbs, 19% fat

Looks like my increased sodium intake did the trick. I consumed about 2.6g of sodium yesterday and retained more water. I'd like to keep my sodium intake in the 2-2.5g range from this point on.

Workout
Another great day! I'm getting gains like I'm a newbie all over again. The weights just keep going up every workout for almost all muscle groups. I was afraid I'd be sore from last night's cardio but it didn't seem to have any impact. I think the PWO shake did its job well.

Leg Press (includes sled weight): 585x6x1, 635x5x1 (PR)
Stiff Leg Deadlifts: 225x5x1, 235x5x1 (PR)
Shrugs: 275x6x1, 275x5x1
Plank: 60 sec
Bicycles: 15 reps
Ab Crunches: 130x5x2
Standing Calf Raises: 295x6x1, 300x5x1 (PR)

My deadlifts were much better this week. Every time I do them I seem to improve my form AND raise the weight. I think I now have the form just right since I felt nothing in my back afterwards. I'm keeping the shrug weight where it is because I'm not lifting them quite as high as I'd like. I finally maxed out the standing calf raise machine. I can still add 15 lbs more on top but 300 lbs is the max for plates.

I wish I didn't change so many things at once. It's impossible to figure out exactly what has made me get such great gains again. Later today I'm going to make a list of everything I have changed and see if I can narrow it down. I do feel that Green Bulge makes a noticeable difference but it's not the only thing.

[DriverDan]

Looks like I forgot to include how much water I drink. I drink 2 cups (a full glass) with each meal excluding my PWO shake. I bring 4 cups with me to the gym (water bottle). I usually drink 0.5-1 cup when taking supplements between meals.

That totals to the following:
Water with meals: 12 cups
Water with workout: 4 cups
Water with supplements: 3+ cups

...for a total of 19+ cups (~1.2 gallons).

[DriverDan]

I've been calculating the cost of various foods per serving. Turns out my meal plan costs $9.10 per day including food-based supplements (EPA, CLA, sesamine caps). I made a graph of the cost per gram of protein for various foods. Turns out whey protein concentrate and skim milk are the cheapest sources of protein. I'll make a new post tomorrow with the graph.

[DriverDan]

Week 2
Day 10 of 84

Weight: 157.6 lbs (-3), 19% fat (-1)

I'm not sure what's going on with my weight. It keeps bouncing back and forth. I'm convinced it's water fluctuation. Also, I may have misread the scale yesterday. It's possible it should have been 158.9 instead of 159.8.

Workout
Another great workout. Most weights are up again. The only upper body muscles lagging are my delts and triceps. I really had to push the military presses today. I think my shrug form may be off a little resulting in use of my delts. I've been pushing so hard to increase the weights I may have sacrificed a little form. From this point on I'm going to be focusing on having the best form possible. After looking in the mirror this morning I noticed increased definition in my delts and my upper chest.

I've decided to include how much each lift has gone up.

Incline Bench: 140x6x1, 145x5x1 (+10) (going to 150 on Wednesday)
Dips: 55x6x1 (+15) (PR)
Lat Pulldowns: 170x5x2 (+10) (keeping it here and working on form)
V-Bar Cable Rows: 205x5x1 (+20) (PR)
Military Press: 115x5x2
Side Lateral Raises: 30x5x1 (+2.5)
Barbell Curls: 110x6x1, 110x5x1 (+10) (PR)
Cable Pushdown: 95x5x1 (better form)

I'll be doing another 20 min HIIT session tonight. I'm going to try to push harder than Saturday. I've noticed that my heart rate after my warmup run is getting back into the 130's.

[DriverDan]

In the process of trying to pinpoint the reason for my gains I've made a list of things I've changed.

Diet

• Stopped eating salmon, was eating it every other day.
• Stopped eating rice, was eating it daily.
• Reduced amount of low fat cheese consumed.
• Reduced amount of cottage cheese consumed, from 1 cup a day to 1 cup every other day.
• Increased amount of milk and protein powder in PWO shake.
• Increased amount of vegetables consumed.
• Increased amount of chicken consumed to make up for salmon.
• Replaced raisins in morning oatmeal with apples.
• Added flax meal to oatmeal and PWO shake.
• Added nighttime shake to replace cottage cheese every other day.
• Added olive oil and sesame oil.

Supplements

• Reduced Ester-C caps from 2 to 1.
• Increased CLA caps from 3 to 4.
• Increased fish oil caps from 1 to 2.
• Added 1 sesamine cap.
• Added 2 synephrine caps.
• Added 50mg DHEA preworkout every other day (first 2 weeks only).
• Added Green Bulge preworkout every day (this week only).

Workout

• Changed from Max-OT (each muscle group once per week) to HST (each muscle group 3 times per week).
• Increased from 5 to 6 days per week in the gym.
• Added MP3 player with hardcore music instead of gym sound system with garbage pop music.

[DriverDan]

Using the stat software Minitab, I just did a trend line plot for my weight so far. Without today's weight it calculates me losing 1.7 lbs per week. With today it calculates 2.24 lbs per week. 1.7-2.24 lbs per week is the range where I want to be. I plan on losing an average of 2 lbs per week for 10 weeks. It seems that I've already begun that trend.

When this week is over I'll recalculate the trend line. The more data points the more accurate it should be. I may post a graph if it looks like it will be accurate.

[DriverDan]

Just a quick update to yesterday before I start today.

I did 20 min on the treadmill last night with 320kcal burned. I played around with some of the programs. I've never used the treadmill programs before and wanted to see what they were like. I'm not a big fan of Alpine

On Wednesday I'm going to try to do the 20 min at a steady 7mph pace. I never run continuously for that long so I want to see how well I hold up.