70 Day PSMF Attempt

[losingit1]

Yep, I said 70 days. Because 2 days after that I'm heading for the beach. Posting here because after reading so much nay saying on other PSMF logs I'm hoping proving people wrong will help keep the fire lit under my ass. The joys of being a contrarian.

I'm following the RFL plan for the most part. I'm a Cat 3 so my 2/week free meals are optional and I'm not intending to use them unless I have to (about to kill myself (or someone else)/need to break a plateau/travel/etc.). I'm coming off of Keto so I am used to low/no carbs so that won't be a huge adjustment.

Known challenges:

- I'll be hungry like a beast - will have to just suck it up.
- I'm a Digital Nomad and between now and the end of the 70 days, I have a minimum of 5 relocation days. They're short hops so hopefully I'll still be able to stick to the plan, but those might be free meal days.
- I've been out of the gym for about 2 months so DOMS are going to be a bitch.

The plan:

- IF 16/8 - 2 meals/day
- 120g protein/day with minimal additional C & F
- pre-meal a cup each of chicken broth and green tea
- 5x5 on a 1 day on, 2 days off schedule (which could be impacted by relocation days)

Supplements:

- Lite Salt, Magnesium, Fish Oil
- NC (1g/100g)
- Creatine
- BCAAS (I train fasted and they help with DOMS. Will reassess this as I go as they might not be necessary with this much protein.)

The plan for after the plan:

- after the 70 days I plan to reverse diet adding @ 300-500 cals/day each week until I get up to maintenance. I'll do maintenance for 2 weeks and reassess my goals and see where I am at that point.

Goals:

- Stick it out.
- 20 lb weight loss (figuring 2-3 lbs/week for 10 weeks. I won't have a big water purge at the start to boost the numbers.)

Starting Stats:

11/14/2015
weight - 193.2
r bicep - 33
r thigh - 68.5
shoulders - 116.5
chest (under boobs) - 96
chest (nipples) - 111
stomach (narrowest) - 98
stomach (bb) - 107.5
hips - 112.5

total - 743 cm

Bring it!

[losingit1]

Day 1/70:

Starting Weight: 193.2

First day: here we go! Weather was **** so not much added activity. Bit of a headache so I need to stay on top of my electrolytes. Need to watch meal planning as today I ended up eating 1 lb of chicken for dinner which was way too much for me in one sitting. Was gagging it down by the end. Have to make sure I split the portions more evenly or front-load. Drinking lots of water, not much in the way of hunger.

Food: 634/14C/6F/123P

[losingit1]

Day 2/70:

Morning weight: 192.7 (-.5)

Feeling a little foggy. Haven't been able to start supplements yet as shops are closed in this tiny town. That's my first stop tomorrow morning. Not much hunger but I think drinking lots of green tea, water, and a couple cups of chicken broth are helping with that. Energy feels ok, but my guts are making a racket!

Food: 607/12C/5F/120P

[KidSchutty]

thats a tall order! I hope you can do it!

[losingit1]

thats a tall order! I hope you can do it!

Thanks. Yeah, it's either going to be a great success or a complete train wreck. Only time will tell.

[losingit1]

Day 3/70:

Morning Weight: 192.3 (-.4/-.9)

Woke up feeling great. Lots of energy, not hungry. Slight headache but hopefully that'll clear up with I start taking a full supplement stack. Had a lot I wanted to get done today, including a workout and buying supplements but not much success. I'm currently in a small town in Northern Europe so the gym (once I found it) was closed after 12:30. So, I'll go tomorrow. I went to the pharmacy and had credit card problems when trying to pay so I only walked out with the fish oil as it's the most important. Damn was it expensive!! $31 for a 10 day supply!! Hoping it'll be cheaper when I get to Turkey next week. Also can't get caffeine tablets here so trying to figure out a work-around for the NC stack. Might look at energy drinks even though I really really hate them. I definitely miss having a CVS where I can just wander the aisles looking at options vs having to ask a person to keep fetching me stuff from the back room. Oh well. I did quite a bit of walking today considering how sedentary I've been. Also did a shop so going to try to food prep for the next few days. I have 8 more days here so need to time the food right.

ETA: ended up getting magnesium and some nicotine gum so starting NC tomorrow.

Food: 628/17C/3F/121P

[losingit1]

Day 4/70:

Morning Weight: 191.8 (-.5/-1.4)

Was woken up at 6:30 am by the cats and had a piercing headache. Was able to go back to sleep for a couple hours and woke up feeling fine. Not foggy though a little tired since I didn't sleep well. No hunger issues still but I'm starting the NC stack today to see if I can get some extra burn. 1g Nicotine and a 2 bag cup of tea which should be @ 100g of caffeine.

I'm really happy with my progress so far. the 1.4 I am down should be all/mostly fat since I was already water/glycogen depleted from being in Keto. Since my hope is to average 2 lbs a week I'm well on track. I know there will be ups and downs but that's all par for the course. Getting back to lifting will help keep them steadily averaging down and help with my mental health since I love lifting.

2 months out of the gym shows. I'm sure this WOE doesn't help. But, something is better than nothing. Restarted 5x5 today. Gym was sucky. No squat rack so had to do goblets. Which is probably ok since I can get much deeper with them even if I go lighter. I lost a lot of mobility in my hips and ankles so the goblets were good for stretching those out. I usually finish with an evil 8 pyramid but I got part way through the first round of 6 and started getting dizzy. Almost fell over during my back squats so I think I will drop that and just stick to the 5x5 for now. It's mostly for cardio anyway which is proscribed on this plan. I think before I hit the gym next time I'll down a cup of broth. That might help.

Lifting in kg:

goblet squat: 22 5x5
bench: 20x5, 25x5, 30x5, 35x5x2
bent over row: 20x5, 30x5x4

evil 8: 15x6x1

[KidSchutty]

Day 4/70:

Morning Weight: 191.8 (-.5/-1.4)

Was woken up at 6:30 am by the cats and had a piercing headache. Was able to go back to sleep for a couple hours and woke up feeling fine. Not foggy though a little tired since I didn't sleep well. No hunger issues still but I'm starting the NC stack today to see if I can get some extra burn. 1g Nicotine and a 2 bag cup of tea which should be @ 100g of caffeine.

I'm really happy with my progress so far. the 1.4 I am down should be all/mostly fat since I was already water/glycogen depleted from being in Keto. Since my hope is to average 2 lbs a week I'm well on track. I know there will be ups and downs but that's all par for the course. Getting back to lifting will help keep them steadily averaging down and help with my mental health since I love lifting.

2 months out of the gym shows. I'm sure this WOE doesn't help. But, something is better than nothing. Restarted 5x5 today. Gym was sucky. No squat rack so had to do goblets. Which is probably ok since I can get much deeper with them even if I go lighter. I lost a lot of mobility in my hips and ankles so the goblets were good for stretching those out. I usually finish with an evil 8 pyramid but I got part way through the first round of 6 and started getting dizzy. Almost fell over during my back squats so I think I will drop that and just stick to the 5x5 for now. It's mostly for cardio anyway which is proscribed on this plan. I think before I hit the gym next time I'll down a cup of broth. That might help.

Lifting in kg:

goblet squat: 22 5x5
bench: 20x5, 25x5, 30x5, 35x5x2
bent over row: 20x5, 30x5x4

evil 8: 15x6x1

Yeah you don't wanna push it too hard in the gym when you're not eating much. Lightheaded-ness will only become more of an issue.

[losingit1]

One weird blip today is that I had bright orange oil in my poo. After doing some research, I'm either super sick and dying or my body isn't liking the huge increase in fish oil I'm getting. Since I have no other issues, I'm going with option 2. As a result, I'm going to scale back the fish oil. Instead of 6 at one time I'm going to drop it to one. If I have no more issues I'll increase it a little at a time until I'm back to full dosage. I've taken fish oil before but never 6 pills at once and also while eating a can of tuna a day.

I can definitely tell a difference in my hunger with the NC. I wasn't really hungry before but I had kind of a dull gnawing in my stomach. Today I had none of that and putting down my dinner is killer. Going to have to front-load my cals so I'm not forcing down a huge meal at night when I'm not hungry. I'm taking a stab at making strained yogurt so if that works, that will help a lot and also drop my carbs a bit.

I started creatine again today so I expect to see no loss and probably a gain over the next couple days. Usually I gain 2-3 lbs of water when I go on creatine and I don't see a reason why this would be different.

Yeah you don't wanna push it too hard in the gym when you're not eating much. Lightheaded-ness will only become more of an issue.

Yep. I will just stick to the 5x5 which might end up turning into 3x5 by the end.

[losingit1]

Day 5/70

Morning Weight: 191.4 (-.4/-1.8)

Given that I started creatine yesterday, I’m a little surprised that I’m down anything, but I’ll take it. I might even get to my goal of being 190.x by the end of week 1 which would be great! I did more research on the fish oil last night and it seems that I was ODing. The version of the book I have talked about quantity of pills not dosage. So according to new info, I should be taking 2 pills, not 6.

Feeling the DOMS today, for sure. But it hurts so good and they’re not TOO bad. I did have a low grade headache all day that got worse as the day went on. I suspect it is tied to not eating all of my food yesterday. It got so bad in the evening that I had to pop some aspirin. But, I still wasn’t hungry and I think I can thank the NC for that.

I changed my eating today because of the issues i had finishing everything yesterday. I had my big meal at lunch and then I had a small dinner and a bowl of strained yogurt with a little fat free, low sugar chocolate sauce on top. This will work much better. When I get to Turkey I’m going to find some protein powder to add to the yogurt so I can skip the dinner all together and not have the extra carbs from the chocolate sauce. I was still under 30g total carbs for the day though so I’m not sweating it too much.

[losingit1]

Day 6/70

Morning Weight: 190.5 (-.9/-2.7)

Woke up feeling great, but super thirsty. Given the color of my pee and the fact that I didn’t poo I’m thinking I’m dehydrated which could account for my .9lb drop (yay!). I wonder if I’ll drop 3 lbs this week. That would be amazing! My goal for the 70 days is 20 lbs, but if I did drop 30, I would be the lightest I’ve been in decades.

Waking up not hungry makes me think my way of eating yesterday worked, so today I’ll be going to the shop and picking up more yogurt and some lunch meat to have for ‘dinner’. The NC seems to be wiping out all of my hunger. To the point where I kind of had to make myself eat tonight since I wasn’t hungry at all. Double edged sword but I’ll take not being hungry for dinner and having to eat anyway over being hungry all the time any day of the week!

[plAythiNG]

nice work so far!!

[losingit1]

nice work so far!!

Thanks. I'm sure it'll get harder and I'll have some ****ty days, but so far I'm loving it and it's not any harder (actually easier than a few) than any other WOE I've followed. If it stays like this I shouldn't have a problem finishing the 70 days. But I'm still in week 1 so who knows, holy hell might descend upon me. This would definitely be easier to do in the USA though with it's ridiculously huge selection of fat free/sugar free stuff. Fat free isn't really big here which limits my choices to some extent. Yay for spices!

[losingit1]

dupe

[Justjake19]

Subbing GLuck!

[losingit1]

Subbing GLuck!

thanks!

[Justjake19]

I added a signature to my profile...

I'm logging my weight also but using the actual graph they give you, seeing a plot helps!

[losingit1]

I'm logging my weight also but using the actual graph they give you, seeing a plot helps!

I log mine in Libra every morning. I like that it plots a trend and gives me an estimated goal date that changes every day. Today it's saying I'll reach my goal on March 11, 2016. A few days ago it was saying april.

[Justjake19]

You're taking nicotine, which is a highly addictive drug; my advice would be don't get addicted to it or any other drugs you're taking and take that sh*t AWAY from junk food, unless u wanna be a junk food addict again :P, you're doing great!
Protein powders 1-2 scoops are a great option during that IF eating window, find the cheap bulk stuff not the OvPriced junk.
Experiment with 1 full day fast/week (means you don't break the fast, and just go to bed), especially after eating alot the previous, or if u wanna get glyc depleted faster.
If u wanna skyrocket the fat loss maybe try restabilizing your blood sugar with some aerobic activity at the end of eating.
Sugarfree stuff still spike blood sugar, so eat/drink this crap away from large meals; high blood sugar even eating healthy means you most likely gain most of those calories...
You could probably eat a sh*tton of your daily food buffet style if u keep your blood sugar stable

I log mine in Libra every morning. I like that it plots a trend and gives me an estimated goal date that changes every day. Today it's saying I'll reach my goal on March 11, 2016. A few days ago it was saying april.

gonna check it out

[losingit1]

You're taking nicotine, which is a highly addictive drug; my advice would be don't get addicted to it or any other drugs you're taking and take that sh*t AWAY from junk food, unless u wanna be a junk food addict again :P, you're doing great!
Protein powders 1-2 scoops are a great option during that IF eating window, find the cheap bulk stuff not the OvPriced junk.
Experiment with 1 full day fast/week (means you don't break the fast, and just go to bed), especially after eating alot the previous, or if u wanna get glyc depleted faster.
If u wanna skyrocket the fat loss maybe try restabilizing your blood sugar with some aerobic activity at the end of eating.
Sugarfree stuff still spike blood sugar, so eat/drink this crap away from large meals; high blood sugar even eating healthy means you most likely gain most of those calories...

I'm following RFL so I'll just stick to that program which includes no fasting, little/no cardio, and lifting - which is what I prefer anyway. I've been doing keto so I'm pretty glycogen depleted already and I'm not doing refeeds/cheat meals unless I've no other option. So far I've not had a need for them.

Nicotine, when not ingested with MAOIs (like in cigarettes), and in the dosage I'm taking, is virtually non-addictive in the short term (which is how long I'll be using it). I'm more worried about becoming addicted to caffeine.

[Justjake19]

I'm following RFL so I'll just stick to that program which includes no fasting, little/no cardio, and lifting - which is what I prefer anyway. I've been doing keto so I'm pretty glycogen depleted already and I'm not doing refeeds/cheat meals unless I've no other option. So far I've not had a need for them.

Nicotine, when not ingested with MAOIs (like in cigarettes), and in the dosage I'm taking, is virtually non-addictive in the short term (which is how long I'll be using it). I'm more worried about becoming addicted to caffeine.

i read rfl and ud2.0 and stubborn fat solution lots of rambling and sh*t you can just google >_>, in both he tells you to do FB wo's 2x Mon and Tues to completely deplete (this is also called endurance training) after EVERY cheat meal or day if you're already lean (doesn't apply to you), and do cardio or "met. work" which is just 40-1hr mod aerobic activity! The reason i'm not focusing on what you're doing the 5x5's is because these are "strong" lifts and are to get muscles bigger they are completely pointless since no carbs are being eaten AT ALL, when u gain muscle follow that rule of eating carbs throughout many meals it works by keeping blood sugar moderately high and feeding MUSCLE not fat!!! especially after a strenuous wo you can possibly eat up to 3000 cal's all from carbs to "refill" ofc you have to deplete again... But this is what UD2.0 emphasizes when you get extremely lean at 15% shooting for <10% (for men)!
Don't do any cheat days, i'm taking mine out also or extending them 1 month apart, def. follow that chart he gives for cat 1, 2, 3 and full diet breaks of 2 weeks, you're doing it perfect!
IFing is a tool used during RFL eating window of 4-8 hours depending keeps your blood sugar elevated and burning your food only during that period, the leftover say 20 hours you're stabilized blood sugar (not too low, not spiked) and burning fat for energy! It's actually really easy, just don't eat breakfast for 4 hours after waking and no food 4 hours before sleeping, any food affects blood sugar! GLUCK!!!!!
Just take your cheat meals i think it said 2x/week and no cheat days, you need those cheat meals or else your met. get's f*cked by lowering 100-150 cals from normal. Try to keep your BMR same during this process!
Yea caffeine is addicting for <200mg max/day everyday is fine and i'm starting to think it might actually be a nutrient lol...
The reason why cat 3 don't need refeeds is because their stores will probably NEVER be emptied, it'll just be replenished by YOUR FAT you burn AND your diet!!!
But food for thought!
Did you use the max fat met. tool? lbFat*30to32cal=Max burned, mine was like 2100 at the start it dropped to 1650 now, this is a daily number! You can workout out hitting that much of a deficit from exercise EVERYDAY!!! that's why i did so much Aerobic activity! Just track your burns!
You saw my cardio bouts from my log already and how i can't even get my HR up to 190 anymore ><>< means i either got trained or it's resisting...

[losingit1]

Well, having made great strength and muscle gains while doing keto with very few carbs (almost same is while doing this) I can't say that I agree with what you said regarding that. He says clearly in the book, and it's reiterated frequently in his forum, that when doing RFL, strength training should be the focus, not cardio. In fact, cardio is strongly proscribed. Strength training is what helps you maintain LBM.

He also states that free(cheat) meals are optional for cat 3s and there is no physiological need to do them, they're there for psychological reasons. I have more than enough body fat to feed my energy and metabolic needs for the relatively short period of time I'll be following this WOE. I've been doing IF for ages, it's my standard way of eating.

I'm not familiar with the max fat tool and have no easy way of tracking my HR but since I don't intend to do cardio it's not much of an issue.

Good luck to you!

[losingit1]

Day 7/70

Morning Weight: 189.8 (-.7/-3.4)

Last day of week 1 and I made it with flying colors! I did better than I imagined I would! I’m back in the 180s which is awesome! So far this has been super easy. I know it’ll get harder but getting through the first week when so many people can’t makes me feel good.

Today was a lifting day. Again, sad numbers and I hate not having a squat rack (no mr gym owner, a smith machine doesn’t count) but gotta do what you’ve gotta do. I got to deadlift today which is always fun. I started back with just the big wheels but it felt good so I’ll definitely be increasing next session.

Picked up some beef and pork to switch it up. Tonight I’ll have surf and turf with the beef and shrimp. The pork just looked yummy and I won’t be getting any where I’m going next so I figured I should have some now.

Lifting stats in kg:

Goblet squat: 22x5x5
OHP: 20x5x1, 25x5x4
Deadlift: 60x5x1

[Justjake19]

Here you go! http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

[losingit1]

Here you go!

Thanks?

I don't get why I would need the first link. It's a macro calculator. You don't need a macro calculator for RFL. I figured out my minimum protein to hit and the rest I keep as low as possible. The 2nd calculator always breaks when I try to use it so I've given up on it. I just use the calculations in the book. It's basic math, no need for a spreadsheet.

I understand that you're making up your own program as you go along so you might need extra tools. But I'm following a tried and true program created by an expert that has all of the calculations included, so there's really no need for these tools. But, I appreciate the links.

[Justjake19]

Thanks?

I don't get why I would need the first link. It's a macro calculator. You don't need a macro calculator for RFL. I figured out my minimum protein to hit and the rest I keep as low as possible. The 2nd calculator always breaks when I try to use it so I've given up on it. I just use the calculations in the book. It's basic math, no need for a spreadsheet.

I understand that you're making up your own program as you go along so you might need extra tools. But I'm following a tried and true program created by an expert that has all of the calculations included, so there's really no need for these tools. But, I appreciate the links.

here's another one that helped me:
http://keto-calculator.ankerl.com/
i found these useful for me
here i put your numbers into the spreadsheet,
and the 1p.com link is to find max fat metabolism since u didn't know how!
it says you can burn up to 1995 cals from fat in one day that's 4 lb's a week i hope i helped!

Atavis' PSMF Calculator

User Inputs
Body Weight 188 Yellow Cell = User Input
Fat % 35% Green Cell = Calculated Cell
Gender Female
Training Weight Training LBM 122
Activity Level Lightly active Btype Category 3

mPSMF
Daily Macro's gr kcal Diet Breaks and Refeeds
Protein 122 489 Full diet break Every 6-12 weeks
Fat 20 180 Free meals 2 per week
Carb 20 80 Refeeds None
PreWO Carb 5 20
PWO Carb 0 0
Total 769

Maintenance
Daily Macro's gr kcal
Protein 153 611
Fat 97 869
Carb 194 776
PWO Carb 20 80
Total 2256


Total 2256
Based upon the dietary plan laid out in Lyle Mcdonald's "The Rapid Fatloss Handbook"


sorry for so many links just trying to share what i learned along the way! use em or don't at least you've been "exposed" to it...

[losingit1]

Appreciate it. I got the protein calcs from doing the calculations in the book. carbs and fat are not irrelevant since I keep that as low as possible. When I'm doing keto I follow ketogains so that keto calc doesn't work for me though I've seen it before and it's a useful tool. Still not sure why it would be useful during PSMF though.

[losingit1]

Day 8/70

Morning Weight: 189.8 (-0/-3.4)

Today was my first day with no loss but it’s all good. It could be for a number of reasons. My fats were higher than normal yesterday because of the steak, I woke up dehydrated, I lifted yesterday. Whatever. As long as the trend is down, I’m good. When I first started logging in Libra it said my anticipated goal date was mid July now it says late Feb, which is great.

Today is not a lifting day, but I need to go buy something and the shop is about an hour walk away. I’m going to try to walk there and maybe back. It’s on a bus route though so if I feel like crap I can just wait for the next bus to come along.

Final stats for week 1: -3.4 lbs/-1.54 kg and -8.27 in/-21 cm. I'll call that a win since my goal is 2 lbs/week. It should be all/mostly fat since I was already water/glycogen depleted.

The first couple days were hard, figuring out the electrolytes, supplements, etc. but I’m in a groove now. I lifted twice last week and both sessions felt great. I’m just going to stick with what I’m doing since it’s working.

measurement (cm)/11/14/2015/11/20/2015/difference
weight/193.2/189.8/-3.4
r bicep/33/32/-1
r thigh/68.5/66.5/-2
shoulders/116.5/115/-1.5
chest (under boobs)/96/92.5/-3.5
chest (nipples)/111/106/-5
stomach (narrowest)/98/94/-4
stomach (bb)/107.5/103.5/-4
hips/112.5/112.5/0

total/743/722/21

[losingit1]

Day 9/70

Morning Weight: 189.8 (-0/-3.4)

Another day with no loss. Boo. But, looking at the big picture. I can think of a few potential reasons, one of which is that i’ve been eating fattier meats for the last few days, another is that I’ve been pretty sedentary. I was going to walk yesterday but it snowed so I ended up sitting on my ass pretty much all day. So, I’m going to go back to chicken and tuna. I’m also going to cut the chocolate sauce out of my yogurt at night. The added carbs from that might be causing some water retention. So, back to basics I go. Hopefully I can find some protein powder when I move in a couple days.

But, weight loss aside, I’m still feeling great. No hunger or energy issues. I’m on top of my electrolytes so I’m happy with how things are going. My fat is starting to feel a bit spongy which is generally the signs of a woosh, so maybe that’s what’s happening.

[Justjake19]

Day 9/70

Morning Weight: 189.8 (-0/-3.4)

Another day with no loss. Boo. But, looking at the big picture. I can think of a few potential reasons, one of which is that i’ve been eating fattier meats for the last few days, another is that I’ve been pretty sedentary. I was going to walk yesterday but it snowed so I ended up sitting on my ass pretty much all day. So, I’m going to go back to chicken and tuna. I’m also going to cut the chocolate sauce out of my yogurt at night. The added carbs from that might be causing some water retention. So, back to basics I go. Hopefully I can find some protein powder when I move in a couple days.

But, weight loss aside, I’m still feeling great. No hunger or energy issues. I’m on top of my electrolytes so I’m happy with how things are going. My fat is starting to feel a bit spongy which is generally the signs of a woosh, so maybe that’s what’s happening.

You're doing great! Yea i've noticed my fat loss act like a water balloon is a way to describe it: as fat is lost those missing areas are replaced with water (that "whoosh") and then when the water goes so does the weight... (this is like that 5lb water loss i've been seeing after eating higher carbs from refeeds before i stopped these, my weight loss resumed going lower as soon as i took out those carbs: it's after FIVE days you see your true loss [this water loss is from muscles though])!
Stick with it! Yea take out high blood sugar spiking carbs or do something to restabilize after your last meal!