225 by Thanksgiving

[EliKoehn]

Sep 13th: 242.5
Sep 20th: 240.4
Sep 27th: 241.8
Oct 4th: 237.4
Oct 11th: 236.8
Oct 18th: 237.7
Oct 25th: 236.8
Nov 1st: 233.5
Nov 8th: 233.2
Nov 15th: 230.6 (-2.6)
Nov 22nd:

Thanksgiving Day, Nov 25th:

Waist measurement: 38" (+0.5" in two weeks)

Hopefully the waist measurement going up slightly is an anomaly as it is a very slight difference over two weeks. Also I am somewhat surprised that I ended up losing on the week as I did have a couple of honest cheat meals where I did not binge but still ate plenty of rich food and wasn't concerned about it. 10 more days, and I am close to my stated goal!

Might save progress pics for the end and post them in the BF% check thread.

[EliKoehn]

Woohoo made it to the 220s and it's not even weigh in day yet

Celebration pic

[EliKoehn]

Sep 13th: 242.5
Sep 20th: 240.4
Sep 27th: 241.8
Oct 4th: 237.4
Oct 11th: 236.8
Oct 18th: 237.7
Oct 25th: 236.8
Nov 1st: 233.5
Nov 8th: 233.2
Nov 15th: 230.6
Nov 22nd: 234.8 (+4.2)

Thanksgiving Day, Nov 25th:

Waist measurement: 37" (-1.0")

Well that's a bit odd to lose an inch off the waist and gain almost five on the scale in the same week lol. The combination is promising that the weight increase is water/glycogen/intestinal content, but either way, it means this is the "real" weight I must expect upon ending the caloric deficit and training at full intensity. Let's see if I can find the low end of that range over the next few days. Hopefully it's 225, but if not, I've still made a lot of substantial progress and am not disappointed with my results.

Going forward...

Spoiler!

I think I will continue this log for at least a couple more weeks to keep track of my weight and waist measurement as I continue with another run of the 6 week strength program. I expect to gain 8-10 pounds of volatile weight within a couple of weeks, from training at full-trim and eating at maintenance. The program has a two week mini hypertrophy phase, and that second week is particularly intense and challenging. Gaining plenty of fluid, glycogen, and digestive content weight is guaranteed to happen but by observing an approximate maintenance based upon what I've been losing from up to this time (3,500 calories), only a negligible portion of this could realistically be fat. However, it's enough time to budge the fence of the volatile weight range, so bookmarking the waist measurement and bodyweight on the first day of Week 3 will be important to discern any increase of bodyweight or waist measure beyond a minute level as fat, as recomp hypertrophy at a late intermediate level is unlikely and the waist couldn't be increasing beyond this point any other way.

I'm quite pleased to have lost enough where an expected gain of 10 still gives me a cushion of several pounds beneath the 110KG weight class for my lifts, as the next class up is a 15KG range rather than 10 and within it my total is pathetic, whereas beneath 110 it's significantly better.

[EliKoehn]

Sep 13th: 242.5
Sep 20th: 240.4
Sep 27th: 241.8
Oct 4th: 237.4
Oct 11th: 236.8
Oct 18th: 237.7
Oct 25th: 236.8
Nov 1st: 233.5
Nov 8th: 233.2
Nov 15th: 230.6
Nov 22nd: 234.8

Thanksgiving Day, Nov 25th: 229.2* (-5.6)

Waist measurement: 37" (no change)

*This was my weight after waking up having broken a fast with a large meal late last night. Did protein-sparing modified fasting the past few days at about 1,200-1,500 calories and fasted from about noon to midnight yesterday, weighing 227.4 at that point. I think there is some value in knowing how low the short-term pendulum can swing, but the weight this morning after having eating plenty is more meaningful. To less than a fraction of an inch, my waist was actually very slightly thinner this morning after waking up.

As stated, I'm expecting a quick regain of 6-8 pounds from fluid, water, glycogen, food weight, etc., and will bookmark any changes in my waist measurement at the start of Week 3 of my strength program with the 37" I've held upon breaking the fast with a large meal.

Goal Not Reached

... did not reach my stated goal, but I got quite close and made a lot of solid progress and am not upset with this. Will upload comparisons of physique photos now compared with a couple of weeks after I've been training hard and eating at maintenance. Any significant difference of waist measurement will be taken as fat gain.

[Camarija]

Sep 13th: 242.5
Sep 20th: 240.4
Sep 27th: 241.8
Oct 4th: 237.4
Oct 11th: 236.8
Oct 18th: 237.7
Oct 25th: 236.8
Nov 1st: 233.5
Nov 8th: 233.2
Nov 15th: 230.6
Nov 22nd: 234.8

Thanksgiving Day, Nov 25th: 229.2* (-5.6)

Waist measurement: 37" (no change)

*This was my weight after waking up having broken a fast with a large meal late last night. Did protein-sparing modified fasting the past few days at about 1,200-1,500 calories and fasted from about noon to midnight yesterday, weighing 227.4 at that point. I think there is some value in knowing how low the short-term pendulum can swing, but the weight this morning after having eating plenty is more meaningful. To less than a fraction of an inch, my waist was actually very slightly thinner this morning after waking up.

As stated, I'm expecting a quick regain of 6-8 pounds from fluid, water, glycogen, food weight, etc., and will bookmark any changes in my waist measurement at the start of Week 3 of my strength program with the 37" I've held upon breaking the fast with a large meal.

Goal Not Reached

... did not reach my stated goal, but I got quite close and made a lot of solid progress and am not upset with this. Will upload comparisons of physique photos now compared with a couple of weeks after I've been training hard and eating at maintenance. Any significant difference of waist measurement will be taken as fat gain.

Good job bro!
The rate at which you lost weight was in that perfect sweet spot range, between 0.5% and 1% body weight lost per week on average.
Perfect really! Great job!!

Do you FEEL any different being lighter now?

Do you have any plans to go for another cycle of cutting after a break at maintenance?
(Also very smart to go for a maintenance phase now!!)

Cheers bro!

[EliKoehn]

Good job bro!
The rate at which you lost weight was in that perfect sweet spot range, between 0.5% and 1% body weight lost per week on average.
Perfect really! Great job!!

Do you FEEL any different being lighter now?

Do you have any plans to go for another cycle of cutting after a break at maintenance?
(Also very smart to go for a maintenance phase now!!)

Cheers bro!

Thanks man!

Incidentally, I didn't actually "feel" bad being heavier in a physiological sense. The drug effect of regular heavy lifting and copious eating in conjunction with what remains of my youth probably had been masking what is still bad news for long-term health, of course. I'm only just now at a 50% WHR, which is right on the fence of what should be concerning, so I haven't made it quite as far as I want to go as I would like to be safely on the other side of it with room to spare.

For me, that probably means losing 15-20 more pounds; so, yes, I've decided to do another cut down to 210-215, which is as light as I'd ever want to go. (And if I start losing more than a little bit of strength at that point, it'd be a huge red flag that I'm losing muscle and will quickly reevaluate what I'm doing.) Thinking about starting in February. The Candito 6 Week Strength Program (which I'm excited to start again tomorrow!) will see me to a retest of all of my maxes by the end of the year, then in January I'm unsure what I want to do, but something different and fun. OHP or Bench specialization are high on the list, but I might try something unique that I've never done before, like focusing on sprints or pullups. Leaning towards something upper-body though as that program is so demanding with the legs I'll likely want a break from that.

The thing I'm most happy about actually, is that I haven't seemed to lose strength. I started this log having already lost about 5 as I know the first week is less meaningful, so even if that weight is counted, I'm down about 15 pounds of actual fat it seems (didn't think to post it until later, but my waist measurement at the start was about 40" IIRC, so that's down 3 inches which seems to be an appropriate correlate). I have been training at a deficit at close to maximal intensity, which makes me stoked that at maintenance I'll be where I was before, but we'll see! That was my biggest fear about cutting. Not overeating every day isn't that hard, especially when you can make allowance for bigger meals once or twice a week and be fine if everything sums up appropriately. So, I feel a little lighter on my feet and look better, but the biggest gratification to me is that I made a nice, modest stride of progress (neither huge or negligible) apparently without losing any meaningful amount of muscle.

I love lifting. If I make it to 3/4/5 without being "fat" I'll be as happy as if I had a million dollars.

[EliKoehn]

*How I feel about beginning the strength program again tomorrow without a deficit*

[EliKoehn]

*Update

Going to track weight and waist measurement on a weekly (or at least near weekly) basis. As suspected, I've regained about exactly what I was anticipating going back into a hard training program. Fortunately, my waist measurement is almost exactly the same even while the scale weight has increased a lot, cluing glycogen as the major variable.

I am also looking bigger and more muscularly full. That said, I did legitimately overdo the calories on a couple of instances and to avoid simply becoming fat again, this must be infrequent and offset when it occurs.

The hypertrophy phase of the program has a higher difficulty level and caloric demand, so eating abundantly is more important here than elsewhere, except perhaps the max attempts themselves. I'm nearly through with this portion and expect weight to go down slightly in the intervening days. As long as I max out beneath 242 I'll be happy.

12/6/21: 239.2 & 37.5"

[EliKoehn]

Two week check-in.

12/20/21: 244.2 & 38"* (+5.0 & +0.5")

*Actually somewhere between 37.5 and 38", but rounding for ease and consistency

As suspected, I regained plenty of weight, but prior to weighing this morning, I've noticed I'm looking more full, solid and even overall better than when I was flat at the bottom of the cut. Some recent workouts have had notably high performance, as well: for instance, benching 275 for 6, followed by comparable volume, deficit deadlifting 365 for an easy 8 after heavy squatting, squatting 295 for 10, etc.

Lo and behold, my waist measurement increased by less than half an inch only, despite gaining 5 pounds over the past two weeks, on top of quick gain from the week before, and that week ought to have represented most of the water-regain... So surely I've gained at least a pound of two of actual fat (as my waist did increase just a little bit), but asking anyone reading along who could chime in what kind of maximal range of volatile lean gain is represented by existing research or one's personal experience?

I mean, if I'm looking bigger, lifting with much more strength, not appearing more fat in an obvious way, and my waist measurement only increased minimally, you would think I only gained a couple of pounds, but that would mean that there's a ridiculous range of weight fluctuation going on besides, and I did not avoid carbs or stop lifting with regularity and responsible intensity while cutting, which should rule out the wild swings you would see from something like someone who did keto and stopped lifting, for instance. An individual pound or two of fat is perfectly acceptable and more or less expected for my short term purposes; more than that is what is concerning.

I'm a little frustrated because I want to be sub 110KG for my maxes and now I'm going to have to be careful not to eat too much the day before I attempt them so as not to budge over the fence, but am more relieved that I've retained my strength with a sizeable net loss of fat, as per the waist measurement.

This log is mostly for my own purposes but if anyone reading along knows anything in particular about how wide I could realistically expect the volatile range of weight to be, I would appreciate it. Last time I ran this program and regained plenty of weight, I was looking chubbier and less careful about avoiding it; this time, I actually look like I'm leaner and my muscles feel full and powerful in a way they did not basically the whole time I was cutting.

EDIT: Even if a 15 pound "minimal fat equation" weight swing can definitely happen for an experienced lifter my size, I do noooooot want to get any heavier than this under any circumstance, though

[EiFit91]

Two week check-in.

12/20/21: 244.2 & 38"* (+5.0 & +0.5")

*Actually somewhere between 37.5 and 38", but rounding for ease and consistency

As suspected, I regained plenty of weight, but prior to weighing this morning, I've noticed I'm looking more full, solid and even overall better than when I was flat at the bottom of the cut. Some recent workouts have had notably high performance, as well: for instance, benching 275 for 6, followed by comparable volume, deficit deadlifting 365 for an easy 8 after heavy squatting, squatting 295 for 10, etc.

Lo and behold, my waist measurement increased by less than half an inch only, despite gaining 5 pounds over the past two weeks, on top of quick gain from the week before, and that week ought to have represented most of the water-regain... So surely I've gained at least a pound of two of actual fat (as my waist did increase just a little bit), but asking anyone reading along who could chime in what kind of maximal range of volatile lean gain is represented by existing research or one's personal experience?

I mean, if I'm looking bigger, lifting with much more strength, not appearing more fat in an obvious way, and my waist measurement only increased minimally, you would think I only gained a couple of pounds, but that would mean that there's a ridiculous range of weight fluctuation going on besides, and I did not avoid carbs or stop lifting with regularity and responsible intensity while cutting, which should rule out the wild swings you would see from something like someone who did keto and stopped lifting, for instance. An individual pound or two of fat is perfectly acceptable and more or less expected for my short term purposes; more than that is what is concerning.

I'm a little frustrated because I want to be sub 110KG for my maxes and now I'm going to have to be careful not to eat too much the day before I attempt them so as not to budge over the fence, but am more relieved that I've retained my strength with a sizeable net loss of fat, as per the waist measurement.

This log is mostly for my own purposes but if anyone reading along knows anything in particular about how wide I could realistically expect the volatile range of weight to be, I would appreciate it. Last time I ran this program and regained plenty of weight, I was looking chubbier and less careful about avoiding it; this time, I actually look like I'm leaner and my muscles feel full and powerful in a way they did not basically the whole time I was cutting.

EDIT: Even if a 15 pound "minimal fat equation" weight swing can definitely happen for an experienced lifter my size, I do noooooot want to get any heavier than this under any circumstance, though

If you don't want to cross a certain weight threshold I'd personally probably just drop another 10 pounds to lower the probability of crossing it. The further away from that threshold your mean weight is, the lower the probability that random fluctuations will push you over it. Would be easier to not have to worry about that and even allow yourself to stay in a small consistent surplus for a long time. The alternative would be to do what boxers etc. do to qualify for a weight class prior to an event, but for a lifter attempting to push his limits that's probably not a good idea?

[EliKoehn]

If you don't want to cross a certain weight threshold I'd personally probably just drop another 10 pounds to lower the probability of crossing it. The further away from that threshold your mean weight is, the lower the probability that random fluctuations will push you over it. Would be easier to not have to worry about that and even allow yourself to stay in a small consistent surplus for a long time. The alternative would be to do what boxers etc. do to qualify for a weight class prior to an event, but for a lifter attempting to push his limits that's probably not a good idea?

Somehow I missed the notification for this, but thank you for the response.

You're probably right.

Forgot to take my waist measurement again but this morning (and last week) I was 240.7, presumably glycogen and digestion full. I like this idea, however. Losing 10 more pounds is modest and would eliminate the concern. It would probably mean losing 15-20 on the scale to be a real 10 pounds of fat, given how much of a volatile swing is apparently possible for me, but this is okay.

I think I'll resume a maintenance level of calories through January (which will end up being slightly longer than 2 months, a healthy "break window") then cut down to 220, expecting to "refuel" up to 230 maximum when no longer dieting.

Since it would be a home stretch sort of cut and I'm 80% where I want to be, I might get a little bit aggressive and aim to do it in only a couple of months.

[EliKoehn]

237.4 (-3.3)
38" (no discernable change)

Not deliberately restricting calories. I have been sick with covid and so staid at home almost the entire week. It was a mild case but still had virtually no activity. Benched and did pull-ups to prevent atrophy on Monday, one day before I tested positive, but virtually no activity otherwise.

[EliKoehn]

Switching to the collaborative weight loss log. Will likely update final numbers and physique progress here at the end.