My Latest Summer Cut - All welcome for a chat

[HelixFuse]

Thanks, you guys are definitely awesome for motivation! Never had a log before but am always gonna do it this way in future

Think scales are starting to give ip. Weighed in at 78.7kg initially but it kept jumping.

Finally got a decent reading of 80.1kg which seems right.

Have a good weekend guys! About to have a fried breakfast. Sausage, bacon, egg, black pudding , fried egg, beans etc. All should fit within todays calories

Keep it up man, and sounds like an awesome breakfast indeed! Enjoy.

[safcpaul]

Can't beat a full English breakfast but I agree that would blow most my calories for the day too lol

[RandyMcFlab]

guys your killing me, that fried breakfast sounds too good! might make a good cheat meal...

Have a good weekend too mate, this heat is mental lol

[AlexSays]

Today and confessions of the weekend

Hi all, indeed it was a gorgeous breakfast! Can often fit one in if I accept it's only going to be one of two meals that day. Also find that frontloading a bunch of calories in the morning actually makes it quite a bit easier to stay light the rest of the day.

Right so didn't exactly cover myself in glory this (long) weekend. Weighed in at 81.7kg/180lb. Will estimate that at least 1lb (probably more) of this is genuinely gained fat. I'll list out the mistakes balanced against the pros here:

Cons

Drank heavily on all 3 days
Ate heavily on all 3 days
Had a bit of a full on spiral on Sunday and reverted to old alcoholic ways (full bottle of vodka, didn't leave my bed, ate like chit)
Feel a little derailed mentally
Elbow aint feeling great again

Pros

Had an awesome time with my best friend
Forced him to do some lifting with me on Saturday morning during which I obviously outlifted him
Had a whiskey and cigars evening
Tried out two different restaurants
Got a good tan yesterday at the beach
Swam in the sea

Plan from here

Back to the drawing board. Am going to attempt a fast (from 10pm last night officially). Hopefully will make it to either 36 or 48 hours. Feel like my body needs a bit of a washout. From there it'll be up to a smaller deficit than usual for a couple of days and then back to normal grind from then on.

Have booked in a session at a local gym tomorrow which gives MMA lessons (but not until corona abates more) so hopefully will get to do some lifting with proper equipment for an hour.

Hoping discouragement will ease as the day moves on and the alcohol/****ty food flushes out

Am open to admonishments and stern head shakings!


Workout

Still sticking to low volume compounds for this week to save elbow, also lower back is twinging a little today. Both exercises have multiple warmup sets not included here

Back squat 57kg/126lbs: 10, 10
RDL 37kg/82lbs: 10, 10

Nutrition

None

[wilkinkc]

Everyone falls at times, its those who get back up and press on that shine. Overall you are doing really well so don't let one weekend hang over you for too long. Life is too short not to enjoy it, just keep your longterm goals in mind and stay on your grind bro.

[AlexSays]

Everyone falls at times, its those who get back up and press on that shine. Overall you are doing really well so don't let one weekend hang over you for too long. Life is too short not to enjoy it, just keep your longterm goals in mind and stay on your grind bro.

thanks for the encouraging words bro

That's the plan! I'm still gonna make it

[Raigs]

I feel like you worry about what the scale says to much. Just go on how you feel in the mirror. All the extra **** this weekend you ate and drank will be the refeed for your body to pump out some strong gains.

Everyone gets a bad weekend. Just keep it at a weekend right lol

[RandyMcFlab]

You know what, looking at the pros for your three day bender id say that was totally justified and worth it anyway - once in a while its worth having a blow out like that just for the memories if nothing else.

now you can get right back on it!

[AlexSays]

Haha it was a great weekend! Thanks guys, I feel a little more justified now :P

Today

Am now around 36 hours into my fast and at 79.8kg, may try for either 48 or 60 hours total. Am going to treat my scale weight as fairly meaningless during this process as there will be so much glycogen wobble that I probably won't get anything worth reading until a day or so after.

Workout

Today will be going to a real gym (!!!) just for a pay as you go session to see if it's any good. Will be doing a push workout and may update it here later. Will add in exercises below in case I do

DB Bench
OHP
Incline
Dips

There is a real chance my elbow issue might return with a vengance so not counting on getting all of that done. Also unsure how many reps/sets I'll be able to manage on no food

Nutrition

None

Supplementation/hydration

Couple of glasses of water + Lo Salt (potassium and sodium)
Multivitamin
Lots of water, coffee and Pepsi Max

[safcpaul]

Haha it was a great weekend! Thanks guys, I feel a little more justified now :P

Today

Am now around 36 hours into my fast and at 79.8kg, may try for either 48 or 60 hours total. Am going to treat my scale weight as fairly meaningless during this process as there will be so much glycogen wobble that I probably won't get anything worth reading until a day or so after.

Workout

Today will be going to a real gym (!!!) just for a pay as you go session to see if it's any good. Will be doing a push workout and may update it here later. Will add in exercises below in case I do

DB Bench
OHP
Incline
Dips

There is a real chance my elbow issue might return with a vengance so not counting on getting all of that done. Also unsure how many reps/sets I'll be able to manage on no food

Nutrition

None

Supplementation/hydration

Couple of glasses of water + Lo Salt (potassium and sodium)
Multivitamin
Lots of water, coffee and Pepsi Max

Hope your session goes well mate. Forget about them 3 days and get back at it. Although if you Drank a full bottle of vodka you probably have forgot alot of it ha ha

[AlexSays]

Thanks bro and I actually retain pretty good memory with alcohol. Bottle of vodka throughout an entire day is less than people think it is :P

EDIT: Fast experience

Thought I'd add this for my own retrospect and if anyone is interested in it. Am approaching this as someone who hasn't really done it before and is not evangelical about it so should be a pretty honest log.

Similar to other experiences I've read, the first day was hard. Constantly reaching for food, hunger, dizziness, feeling shiddy, not knowing what to do with myself. I went by the wisdom that when things got very bad it was likely to do with hydration. At these points I dump a little pile of Lo salt in water and chug it and it has thus far improved my state rapidly. I've probably gone through about 2.5l of pepsi max along with ALOT of coffee. I'm sure this is what gave me the fairly nasty stomach cramps late last night.

Today I woke up feeling good. I slept fairly lightly last night but feel very rested. It more felt that my body needed less sleep rather than it being hard to sleep. No hunger, fairly energised this morning and mind feels clear and also energised. I think I can definitely vouch for the famous second day 'good feeling'. Apparently it is something to do with the body ceasing to fuk around with glucose and switch to fat mobilization and dependency on ketones for energy. I know enough to know that this process is not going to do anything further for fat loss over and above the vast deficit I am currently in but it definitely feels good.

Thinking this might be a fun tool to use in general life every couple of weeks or so (not necessarily for fat loss). The alleged health benefits are pretty diverse and are fairly wells supported in science. Let's see how we go

[AlexSays]

Workout update

Went to the gym for the first time in about 5 months, quite like this gym so may go back. Had very, very little energy due to fasting and likely zero glycogen:

DB Bench 35s (77lb): 6, 6
Standing BB OHP 50kg (110lb): 5, 4
Incline DB press 30s (66lb): 6, 6
Hanging raises: 8, 8, 8

[wilkinkc]

I'd say you did pretty well for running on "empty". This may be a dumb question, but is what you are doing considered to be intermittent fasting? Or is that qualified by less time between eating than you are currently doing?

[AlexSays]

I'd say you did pretty well for running on "empty". This may be a dumb question, but is what you are doing considered to be intermittent fasting? Or is that qualified by less time between eating than you are currently doing?

I would maybe consider this an 'extended fast' given that I'm likely to go up to 60 hours and it is more of a one off experiment, not my cutting technique or an eating habit. In general my habit for cutting is just eat less food -> lose fat lol.

I'd say intermittent fasting is an eating pattern where you either restrict all your feeding for the day into a certain window (say 4 hours) and fast the rest of the day OR a pattern where you severely restrict say two non-consecutive days a week and eat at maintenance the rest of the time. Both are used as ways to control hunger during weight loss (it does not result in more weight loss than the same calories spread over regular eating hours/days) and/or to reap health benefits of fasting in general life.

I have done IF in a 16/8 timeframe in the past but mainly just because I found it better for hunger during cutting.

EDIT: and cheers haha, my body felt like it was made out of lead! Soft but heavy and hard to move lol

EDIT EDIT: I am not proporting the truth of the health benefits of fasting here, they are relatively well backed up in science but I'm skeptical of anything being claimed as 'magically' healthy to the extent where fasting is. Just explaining why people tend to do it.

[AlexSays]

Today

Weighed in at 79.1kg/174.3lb. Rest day today

Fast

Finally broke my fast at 60 hours this morning. Initially had a protein shake and some fruit, a couple of pork scratchings (best invention ever) and a bowl of 3 chocolate Weetabix + milk. Almost immediately feel sluggish and tired now, I hope this goes away, am almost wishing I didn't start eating again as still didn't really feel hungry this morning. Food also seems to have lost some of its pleasure/richness of taste but I presume I just need to readjust. Am hoping this will help me control my eating over the next day or two (I see them as the danger days until I readjust, could easily eat all the calories back if I lost control).

Plan on 'refilling' with two sandwiches for lunch and 4x El Paso tacos with minced beef, cheese, pepper and onion. The total should fall somewhere around my maintenance or maybe 1-200cals below. Not planning a proper refeed as I know once my body goes back into 'food mode' there is a real binge danger and I don't want to indulge the 'it's a refeed, it's good for me' mindset because it very quickly just becomes an excuse in my head. So aiming for around maintenance today and then back into a moderate deficit tomorrow.

Overall the fast experience was a good one. Felt good and energised after the first day, woke up significantly leaner on both days, body feels a little better almost like a mini reset feeling. As for the endless magical health benefits: truth is f*ck knows, no way to measure that. Strangely I did notice that despite likely losing a hell of a lot of glycogen I've actually looked strangely juicier on the muscle front for the past 24 hours. This could just be my perception from a fairly sheer drop in fat in a short space of time. Lower bodyfat can make one appear 'bigger' sometimes.

Feel I may repeat this again but maybe not during a cut, more if I feel a need to 'refresh' at any point during daily life. I will say that personally I wouldn't bother doing it for under 36 hours. The first day just feels like sh*t and if I'm going to not eat I want to actually have a positive experience. It was really only waking up on morning 2 that anything good started happening.

Am again ignoring the scale weight until I'm fed to some extent as there is likely all kinds of water garbage that needs to level out

[AlexSays]

Today

Weighed myself groggily at 7am and came up 80.1kg/176.4lb then again at 10am I weighed at 80.9kg. After my maintenance day yesterday (managed to keep it within calories) I'm not surprised. Am now reaching that cut headfukkery stage where scale weight is starting to get to me. I think the answer is to maintain a consistent deficit for a week or so to find out exactly where my weight is at because to be honest I've had no idea of my linear progress for about 2 weeks, weekend hiccups and the fast have basically thrown my weight around like a bouncy ball and it hasn't settled yet to an accurate number. I know I'm losing fat but am too reliant on the scale to monitor it because the mirror is currently useless due to various levels of dry and bloat.

Still feel pretty good after the fast, my hunger has not yet gone through the roof (just the odd 'innocent' notion that I should have another maintenance day or add an extra bowl of cereal to today's calories) so hopefully if I can remain strict with a moderate deficit then subconscious regain won't be an issue and I'll level back out, retaining the fat loss benefits of the fast at least.

Workout

One last low volume pull workout today before I go back onto my program (maybe switch things around a little to avoid back and elbow issues). Will be:

Dorian DL
Wide grip pullups
Wide grip BOR
*Maybe* curls of some description if I can be bothered

Nutrition

50g Whey + satsuma + pear
Some leftover tacos from last night
Probably sandwiches for dinner as am off to my gf's mum's house this evening and we normally arrive too late for proper dinner

Had a nice surprise. I've been going on the basis that my whey is 20g protein per scoop for the 110odd cals it provides. Turns out it's 25g which makes sense as it's isolate so the calories wouldn't have quite added up there. Which means I have a teensy bit more breathing room around my macros/calories

[Raigs]

Oh man next day tacos are delicious for some reason. Excited to see what your program will be. Hopefully it helps you motivate you during your cut

[AlexSays]

Oh man next day tacos are delicious for some reason. Excited to see what your program will be. Hopefully it helps you motivate you during your cut

Bro they are so good, don't even heat them up.

Yeah man have been itching to get back to a proper program. Frigging body is letting me down

Dorian DL today was 57kg/126lb didn't feel to bad on back. Did 2x8
Pullups were wide grip and BW 2x8
About to go do BOR

EDIT:

Wide grip rows 57kg/126lb: 6, 6
Narrow grip reverse rows 57kg/126lb: 8

Decided to get a set of narrow grip rows in just for chits

[wilkinkc]

Tacos, don't speak that word HAHAHA man that sounds good.

[AlexSays]

Tacos, don't speak that word HAHAHA man that sounds good.

I am sorry, that-which-cannot-be-named shall not be mentioned again ! :O

[RandyMcFlab]

be interesting to see you fast results in time, how often are you planning on doing it?

[AlexSays]

be interesting to see you fast results in time, how often are you planning on doing it?

Not sure, been considering doing another (shorter) one soon. If I do I will log it here! Not sure what doing it too often while in a deficit will do for strength however. I understand they are normally done whilst at maintenance the rest of the time.

Today

Really not doing well with this not drinking thing. Got wasted Saturday night and then got an absolutely insane migraine at around 3am. No joke I've had them before but absolutely nothing on this, was vomiting left right an centre it was so painful.

Not sure what weight was this morning, was probably a fair bit over maintenance Saturday but likely a fair bit under yesterday so who knows. Heading home this afternoon

Nutirtion

Today will be:

Skyr Yogurt 450g (honey flavor)
My standard 2 sandwich special
Not sure for dinner

Workout

Am heading back to my normal routine hopefully so today will be:

Bench press
Rows
OHP
Curls
Diamond pushups

May add in neutral grip pullups as my upper day is a little push heavy. Also may sub diamond pushups for narrow grip pushups to spare my elbow somewhat

[safcpaul]

Not sure, been considering doing another (shorter) one soon. If I do I will log it here! Not sure what doing it too often while in a deficit will do for strength however. I understand they are normally done whilst at maintenance the rest of the time.

Today

Really not doing well with this not drinking thing. Got wasted Saturday night and then got an absolutely insane migraine at around 3am. No joke I've had them before but absolutely nothing on this, was vomiting left right an centre it was so painful.

Not sure what weight was this morning, was probably a fair bit over maintenance Saturday but likely a fair bit under yesterday so who knows. Heading home this afternoon

Nutirtion

Today will be:

Skyr Yogurt 450g (honey flavor)
My standard 2 sandwich special
Not sure for dinner

Workout

Am heading back to my normal routine hopefully so today will be:

Bench press
Rows
OHP
Curls
Diamond pushups

May add in neutral grip pullups as my upper day is a little push heavy. Also may sub diamond pushups for narrow grip pushups to spare my elbow somewhat

Thanks for reminding me of diamond push ups. Going to throw them in at the end of my routine tonight lol. As for the drinking im not going to say nothing but you know my opinion on what you should do

[AlexSays]

Thanks for reminding me of diamond push ups. Going to throw them in at the end of my routine tonight lol. As for the drinking im not going to say nothing but you know my opinion on what you should do

Hahah no problem, pushups of all kinds are so diverse, love them

And I know stern disapproval is appreciated. As a long time addict I shy away from making promises to myself and others but can always promise to try

[RandyMcFlab]

I love how flexible your diet seems to be! makes things so much more sustainable long term..

I think thats why i seem top have crackled it this time, I eat whatever i want for dinner (just keep it within 800 calories) So not binged at all.

[AlexSays]

I love how flexible your diet seems to be! makes things so much more sustainable long term..

I think thats why i seem top have crackled it this time, I eat whatever i want for dinner (just keep it within 800 calories) So not binged at all.

Yeah I long ago gave up on 'clean' and now just settle for 'some fruit and veg' and 'variety'. A combination of whey isolate (so I don't really stress about macros) and basically just having normal, large dinners pretty much stops me feeling like I'm even on a cut. That's my biggest advice lol. People don't seem to realize that even if their allowance is only 2000 calories, if they just use 200 in the morning that means they can have an 800 calorie lunch and a 1000 calorie dinner. which to be honest is a bigger meal than most people even have normally. The trick is not to snack lol.

Today

Weighed in at 79.4kg/175lb so the dust has settled. Pretty happy with this drop and hoping to keep deficit consistent for the next 2 weeks and shave off a good portion (can't go out this weekend as new kitten is arriving!). Unsure of bodyfat, the abs seem to come out to play at random and I think I'm around 14%, then I'll look in a different light or different time of day and I'm thinking no way, I'm definitely 18%. So I'm basically just going to stop thinking about it now.

Workout

Back to routine, missed yesterday as felt unwell

Bench 82kg/181lb (67kg on last set for extra volume): 4, 4, 4, 8
Wide grip BOR 57kg/126lb: 9, 9, 8
OHP 42kg/93lb: 9, 8, 7
Neutral grip pullups BW: 8, 6, 5
BB curls 29kg/64lb: 8, 8, 8
Narrow grip pushups BW +10kg/22lb: 10, 8, 10

Back actually felt quite strong on the rows!

Nutrition

50g Whey Isolate + 1x chocolate Weetabix + milk
2x small chicken mayo sandwiches (1x chicken breast, 2tbsp lite mayo, half a tsp mustard)
Will likely have chili and rice for dinner

Hope all's well with you mofos

[Raigs]

Glad to see you back on track. The weighted pushups are a good finisher. I’m the opposite I am a huge snacker. So most of my meal are smaller so I can snack.

[AlexSays]

Glad to see you back on track. The weighted pushups are a good finisher. I’m the opposite I am a huge snacker. So most of my meal are smaller so I can snack.

Yeah I understand some people function better with different meal frequencies. Used to eat more smaller meals as I thought eating more often would be more satisfying but realised I work better with at least one large meal so I can feel full for at least some of the day. I'd rather be truly satisfied once than perpetually kind of hungry.

Think some people who are more natural grazers find the opposite where they'd rather boost their satiation in little bits as it comes?

[RTB1]

So you've gone from 187.8lb on 30 June to 175 lbs today. That's fantastic, you should be proud. Way to stick with it!

I can definitely relate to the binge drinking. I would do that and then, to make it even worse, go on a food binge as well ("drunchies" -- drunk munchies). I stopped drinking completely for a couple of years and then started up again in the last six months, but only in small quantities. I lost a lot of good years to the bottle, unfortunately. I remind myself of that any time I get the urge to get hammered (does't really happen much these days, thankfully).

It's also cool to see you can have success without being super strict. Everyone's different, and there's no one-size-fits-all solution.

[RandyMcFlab]

Best part of a stone, well done mate!