My second major attempt

[rspinetti]

5/21: Pull Day and Injury!

Was only on about 4.5 hours of sleep, but decided to go in for my pull day anyway. Overall not a bad workout, although I did have to cut it short because when I was changing out the attachment to go from face pulls to lat pushdowns, I sliced my finger open on the metal hook. I finally managed to get it to stop bleeding and tried to tough out the rest of my workout -- I was able to do my lat pushdowns, but when I went to do BB bicep curls it opened up again. It had been 11 years since my last tetanus shot, so with it being 2 pm on a Friday I decided to cut it short so I could get into the Dr. office to get my shot before the weekend. Still hit all the muscle groups, even though I only got one set in for my biceps. It sucks, but it is what it is.
Did the following:

Trap Bar Deadlifts 1x5 155 lbs (+10 lbs from last week) -- Felt great. Will be upping the weight again.
Bent-Over BB Row 3x5 110 lbs (no change) -- Felt great. Will be upping the weight.
Lat Pulldowns 3x5 110 lbs (no change) -- For some reason, these felt harder than last week. Will keep weight the same.
Face Pulls 3x5 55 lbs (no change) -- These felt great. I even hit 60 lbs on my last set. Will go for 60 next week.
Standing Lat Pushdowns 3x5 50 lbs (no change) -- These felt harder than last week, also. Not sure why. My lats must have been tired for some reason. Will keep weight the same.
BB Bicep Curl 1x5 60 lbs (-2 sets) -- Felt good, but had to stop after this because of my cut.
I did manage to follow this up with 525 calories on the elliptical.

Dealing with some arm/shoulder soreness today from the tetanus shot, should be long gone by Monday's push day. I didn't get a calorie count for last night's dinner because it was a buddy's sending-off party since he's moving back to New Jersey. I had a half grilled chicken with 1/3 avocado and 1 flour tortilla from Chicken & Pickle, and my wife had a few bites of the chicken. When we got home I also had 2 strawberries diced up with 1/4 tsp sugar and like 1-2 oz skim milk (my favorite warm-weather dessert). Probably ate a little too much fat yesterday, but protein was good and carbs were possibly slightly under my goal, so if I went over it was probably only by 200 calories max -- still a good deficit.

Another thing is that I've been sleeping horribly lately. I've been average about 4 hours a night for the past 3 nights. I figured last night it would be easy to sleep since I was on 2 nights of 4 hours' sleep, but I went to bed at 10 and couldn't fall asleep until after 1. It's the latest I've been up since February. Had to be up at 4:15 for work today. So my last 3 nights' sleep have been 5 hours, 4.5 hours, and 3 hours. I did get a 1.5 hour nap in yesterday late afternoon. But yeah, 14 hours' sleep over the past 72 hours or so. I'm tired now, but not sleepy. Hopefully I'll get some good sleep tonight.

I didn't get a weight measurement yesterday, but while showing my wife how to measure her waist, I did get mine measured right at 42 inches, another 0.2 inches smaller than last week. When I went to the doctor for my tetanus shot yesterday, he remarked that I had lost close to 15 lbs since my last visit. After discussing weight-loss for a bit, he said that cardiovascular risk increases once your waist size gets more than half your height. For me at 5'9, that's 34 inches. So I'd love to get my waist down to 34 inches. Official weigh-in tomorrow!

[DoMoreWeighLess]

For the sleep issue I have found late night cardio, even low intensity, will put my ass to bed lmao. You may need to try to go to bed earlier as well until you get back to normal sleeping patterns. I realize this is not always possible in life, but it makes so much of a difference man. Not to mention it can add a lot of stress to be sleep deprived.

[safcpaul]

Great job man. Well done for keeping the deficit and training going despite the lack of sleep

[rspinetti]

For the sleep issue I have found late night cardio, even low intensity, will put my ass to bed lmao. You may need to try to go to bed earlier as well until you get back to normal sleeping patterns. I realize this is not always possible in life, but it makes so much of a difference man. Not to mention it can add a lot of stress to be sleep deprived.

Yeah lol part of my issue is that I try to sleep from 9p - 4a each night, since I usually go into work at 5a. But on my days off I usually stay up until 10 and sleep until 6 or so because I'm so tired. I think stopping that may be the first thing, but yeah I'll give the late night cardio a try!

[rspinetti]

Great job man. Well done for keeping the deficit and training going despite the lack of sleep

Thanks! Although I did take a bit of a diet break this week!

[rspinetti]

I'm so sorry for the lack of recent updates. This will be a long catch-up post!

Sunday, May 23: Weigh-In Day!

Current weight: 220.7 lbs
Change from last week: -1.6 lbs
Total Change Since Mar. 15: -15.1 lbs
Average per Week: -1.5 lbs
Starting Waist Size: 44.8 inches
Current Waist Size: 42.1 inches
Estimated Starting Bodyfat: 32.1%
Estimated Current Bodyfat: 28.1% (-0.2% from last week)
Estimated Total Fat Loss: 12.2 lbs (+0.8 lbs from last week)
Estimated Lean Body Mass Lost: 3.0 lbs (+0.8 lbs from last week)
Estimated fat poundage remaining: 62.1 lbs
Estimated lean body mass: 158.6 lbs

Well, the good news is that the number on the scale is going down. I've now crossed the 15 lb mark! Super excited to get my weight under 220 for the first time since 2012.
The bad news is that this past week, I lost roughly the same amount of fat and muscle. I'm sure there's some weird water weight fluctuation going on, as well, but the fact that my waist size is still over 42 inches is concerning. I'll give it one more week to see how things progress before I twiddle my macroes around a bit. Strength isn't dropping in the gym, so maybe it's just a water retention thing that's causing my estimated fat % to waver around? I'll see.


Monday, May 24: Push Day!

Unexpectedly bumped into a guy I work with while at the gym, so we worked out together. It was super motivating to have a workout buddy. Hit some higher weights and felt amazing. Did the following:
BB Bench Press: 3x5 130 lbs (+5 lbs from last week): Felt easy, will go for 135 next week. Super excited to get a full plate on each side of the bar.
BB Incline Bench Press: 2x5 100 lbs, 1x5 105 lbs (added 1 set at +5 lbs): 100 felt super easy, so went with 105 and it was a bit harder. I think I'll try for 105 next week.
BB Overhead Press 3x5 85 lbs (no change) -- Unfortunately after higher weight presses, this one was hard. Will keep weight the same.
DB Military Press 3x5 30 lbs (no change) -- Ditto for this exercise. Was hard, shoulders were worn out, plus lingering soreness from tetanus shot. Will use this weight again next week.
DB Side Lateral Raise 3x5 15 lbs (no change) -- This felt pretty easy. Will try for 20 lbs next time.
Skullcrushers 3x5 50 lbs (+10 lbs since last week) -- Another guy was already using the 40 lbs EZ grip barbell, so I said phuark it and went with 50 lbs. Felt pretty good. Will use this weight going forward.
DB Overhead Triceps Extension 3x5 35 lbs (no change) -- These felt a little easier this week. Will keep this weight the same.
Followed this up with 725 calories on the elliptical.

Wednesday, May 26: Leg Day!
Wasn't feeling great, but got in the gym and killed it anyway. Did the following:
BB Back Squats 3x5 150 lbs (+5 lbs from last week) -- These were pretty easy. Will up to 155 lbs next week.
BB Lunge 3x5 50 lbs (+10 lbs from last week) -- These really felt no different from 40 lbs, but I noticed on Thursday my legs were a bit more sore. Will keep this weight.
BB Bulgarian Split Squats 3x5 40 lbs (no change) -- Still hate these, still struggle with them. Will keep the weight the same.
Standing Calf Raises 3x5 125 lbs (+5 lbs from last week) -- These felt great. Actually noticed some minor DOMS in my calves on Thursday, which is a good sign. Will keep this weight one more week.
Hip Thrust 2x5 12.5 lbs (+2.5 lbs from last week) -- I can't remember if I did 12.5 lbs on this last week also, but since 2 weeks ago it's a +2.5 lb increase. Sore muscles, but felt good. Will keep this weight.
Turkish Get Ups 2x10 each side, 13.2 lbs (+3.2 lbs from last week) -- Rather than awkwardly gripping plates, I opted to use a kettlebell to up the weight. Felt good. Will keep this weight.
Floor Wipers 2x10 25 lbs bag (no change) -- No weight change, but my endurance is getting better with these. They still leave me wiped out, though.
Followed this up with 325 calories on the elliptical. I wanted 500, but I was running short on time and had a 225 calorie surplus from Monday, so just split the difference.

I've also decided to take a bit of a diet break this week. Boredom with food plus a decrease in gains makes me think my metabolism is adjusting too much to the diet. Also it has given me a nice mental break. Although I haven't really been counting calories or macroes, I've been very loosely estimating them. I haven't really had any egregious meals, but I've definitely been at or even slightly above maintenance, on average. I'm fully expecting the scale to bump up a couple of pounds just for extra glycogen and water storage, but I should lose that pretty quickly once I resume the diet again on Sunday.

In light of the lack of changes, I've also decided to make the following adjustments to my macros:
Protein: 170g --> 180g
Carbs: 185g --> 180g
Fats: 54g --> 55g (just to make it a nice, round number, although there really won't be any practical change in what I add to my diet)
This brings my calories from 1900 --> 1935.

Even though the calories will be going up slightly, I think with the higher protein and lower carbs it'll help settle the rate of weight loss to right around 1 - 1.5 lbs/week, with most or all of it being fat loss.
Before I started this whole process I felt like my body was trying to lock in at a weight of 235 lbs. I've forced it to adapt and now it seems like it's pushing back and trying to lock in at 220 lbs. I just have to force it to adapt again.

Visually, no real changes in body shape. I just look like a slightly smaller version of myself from March. I don't have to suck my gut in to button my jeans anymore, and I'm not so obviously obese when wearing clothes, but I'm still definitely overweight.

Looking forward to pull day today! No trap bar deadlifts today, but looking forward to getting a complete pull workout in and then hitting the elliptical. Will also try for a long bike ride on Saturday for some extra calorie burn.

[rspinetti]

I'm so sorry for the lack of updates recently! Things have been super busy at work and in life, but I've still been able to get into the gym and get my work done. Diet has been a bit loose lately -- I took a one week diet break because I needed a mental and psychological break, and although I've still been eating mostly on my diet, I haven't been meal prepping or following the diet as closely as I was about a month or two ago. I'm looking to get back on it here this week. I won't post 4-5 workouts' worth of numbers since I don't want this to be crazy long, but my lifts have still been going up.

Squats --> 150 lbs
Bench --> 135 lbs
Trap Bar Deadlifts --> 165 lbs
DB Side Lateral Raise --> 20 lbs
Facepulls --> 60 lbs
Standing Lat Pushdown --> 55 lbs
BB Lunge --> 50 lbs

Latest Weigh In (Numbers as of Tue Jun 1)!!
Current Weight: 219.4 lbs
Change from Last Week: -1.3 lbs
Total Since Mar. 15: -16.4 lbs
Average per week: -1.4 lbs
Starting Waist Size: 44.8 inches
Current Waist Size: 42 inches
Estimated Starting Bodyfat: 32.1%
Estimated Current Bodyfat: 27.8% (-0.3% from last week)
Total Estimated Fat Loss: 13.3 lbs (+1.1 lbs from last week)
Estimated Lean Mass Lost: 3.2 lbs (+0.2 lbs from last week)
Estimated Fat Poundage Remaining: 61.0 lbs
Estimated Lean Body Mass: 158.4 lbs

Numbers still going the right direction even after a 1 week diet break, so super happy about this.

I've been struggling a bit with diet lately, and I'm not sure if it's a lack of motivation, or a lack of discipline. Maybe a little of both? Any tips you guys have to help break through this would be greatly appreciated!

Push day and weigh-in later today!

[safcpaul]

You're doing great. You don't lack discipline or motivation mate. Youre consistently losing weight and continuing to add to your lifts. For the ohp mate. Don't be bothered about that. It is always the first to stall. Will continue to stall and then as other lifts increase you'll find you can increase it again. Keep doing what you're doing. If you can keep this up,then this time next year you will be a completely different person. Keep going

[rspinetti]

You're doing great. You don't lack discipline or motivation mate. Youre consistently losing weight and continuing to add to your lifts. For the ohp mate. Don't be bothered about that. It is always the first to stall. Will continue to stall and then as other lifts increase you'll find you can increase it again. Keep doing what you're doing. If you can keep this up,then this time next year you will be a completely different person. Keep going

Thanks man! It's been rough lately but with support like yours it's a little easier to stay motivated!

[rspinetti]

Quick Update!

Weight was at 220.4 lbs during my last weigh-in, but my waist size was down to 41.8 inches. So I'm either retaining water or going through a recomp phase.
Hit a 155-lb squat this week, and also hit 50 lbs on the Bulgarian Split Squats! Got a pull workout coming up later today (no trap bar deadlifts this week) and then a weigh-in on Sunday. Diet has been good.