yacob555

I try to do compound exercises to get the best bang for my buck. Recently started doin single arm dumbell bench press - and it works my abs possibly more than direct ab work, I love it! Wondering if anyone has any other exercises like this (not direct abs) that I could incorporate on my other days to be able to essentially skip direct ab work more often. Thanks!

Welp, I figure it's time to update this thing. In short, this unfortunately wasn't as successful as I'd hoped...I'll share why I think that was. I entered this cut eating a TON and gaining muscle and strength at a good rate. It took me about the first month (in hindsight, not on purpose) to lower my calories to a true cut....I spent that whole time rationalizing that ribs and buffalo wings were okay because they were low carb....looking back that was dumb and I know that. The next month was spent trying very hard to cut, with some success - but I let snacking creep into my diet and didn't really notice it for a few weeks (4 pounds of cashews in 3 weeks! - I was severely underestimating the calories in cashews). Next few weeks got more strict and got some more success but a few huge cheat days where I just lost control held me back - at this point (50 some days into the cut, my willpower was shredded). I let sweets get to me sometimes, and just general snacking others. All-in-all I did not get the results I was looking for. I did, however, lose some fat. Not gonna post pictures because they won't show much difference on a head-on view, and frankly I'm not in the mood to share because I'm a little disappointed. I also think I gave my body too long to adjust its BMR downward so by the time I actually strung some very good days together, the cut wasn't as "deep." However, the past 2 months weren't a total loss. My weight/reps have increased in every exercise, I've begun to realize that I do not need alcohol in my life, like ever (turned down drinking many times on this "cut"), discovered some cool new foods that I can cook. I also think I've discovered a new way for me to cut this fat, at a future date. After reading some posts on here, mostly Waldo's, I'm going to go with the 1-2 week hard cut periodically. This length and slow lowering of calories was very unsuccessful and a struggle without adequate results. Anywho - I'm not onto bulking - yay for eating again!! Sorry to let everyone down with no cool progress pics :/

It's an excuse, typical of the victim mindset in the US. Sure it may be hard as hell - but it can be done, period.

Holy cow! 20 calories/nut - I bet most people would guess 5. Again, there are wayyyy worse ways to get your calories - but underestimating these can slow you down without you knowing, I know they have me :/

Fresh Market (where I'm at at least) sells awesome chicken breast for $2.99/pound on Tuesdays. I load up - 15+ pound batches. That's an awesome $/protein ratio right there!

I was basically binge-eating nuts at night while on the cut that I'm currently on - wasn't quite seeing my results. I figured out one of the reasons why and wanted to share. I, like maybe some of you, think - oh, nuts, they're healthy and a good snack. Well.....yeah they're "healthier" than a snickers but they're huge on calories. One cashew is almost 10 calories! I could easily eat 40+ in an evening, and randomly more during the day (mistake made of buying 4 pounds of bulk cashews). That's at least 400 calories a day - nearly a pound/week. That'll slow your progress. Anyway, now I have 5 cashews at a time, or none. Just wanted to share in case anyone else was making this mistake and not knowing it. Btw, this applies to all nuts, I'd presume.

So, I may have posted this in the wrong section. Please forgive/delete if so.

I was basically binge-eating nuts at night while on the cut that I'm currently on - wasn't quite seeing my results. I figured out one of the reasons why and wanted to share. I, like maybe some of you, think - oh, nuts, they're healthy and a good snack. Well.....yeah they're "healthier" than a snickers but they're huge on calories. One cashew is almost 10 calories! I could easily eat 40+ in an evening, and randomly more during the day (mistake made of buying 4 pounds of bulk cashews). That's at least 400 calories a day - nearly a pound/week. That'll slow your progress. Anyway, now I have 5 cashews at a time, or none. Just wanted to share in case anyone else was making this mistake and not knowing it. Btw, this applies to all nuts, I'd presume.

It's weird for me - I'm not so sure I choose when willpower comes. I said I was dieting for a month - and I did reduce and watch what I ate but I allowed too many things to sneak into my diet. Then, one day I just woke up determined and kept this whole week at 160g+ protein and <1500 calories, the perfect cutting diet(for me). That willpower just came one day...I think maybe you work up to it?

Add walnuts FTW! Also, I do 3 egg - one banana - more protein and has more of an "eggy" french toast taste, which is good imo.

I eat a lot of chicken - I don't have any awesome cooking techniques but here's a few things I do to make it something that I enjoy. By the way, on Tuesdays The Fresh Market has their chicken on sale for $2.99/lb. The best deal I've seen for good quality chicken - I bought 15 pounds (~1lb/piece which makes it easy to calorie/macro count as well). Typically, I always grill it on a stovetop cast-iron grilling pan I bought (watch out for the fire alarms...ugh). Also, don't overcook - basically you want to be about as close to getting salmonella as possible without getting it Then, you use it in a few different ways; My favorite recently is to cut it in half so it's thinner (mentioned before) and so I have a 1/4 lb. chicken "tender" and I dip that in hummus - an awesome snack. Another one is to grill it up and then cover it with red sauce (there's some TFM with only 3g sugar/serving - I like the Marinara flavor best) and some mozzerella - very good. If I'm ambitious, I'll make some zucchini noodles with it too - and add in some sweet or bell peppers, onions, red pepper flakes, garlic, and whatever else you can think of. Obviously top of with some Parmesan - basically a very healthy Italian dish - and I don't miss the pasta one bit. Can also make Thai chicken - only done this once but will do it again. Cook breast (I grill) then combine with thai ingredients which are typically something like; green onions, white onions, sweet peppers (Kroger sells a bag of mini sweet peppers for like $3, some fish sauce, thai chili oil! and the real secret is to have coconut oil as the base when you cook that mixture. Also, a stir-fry isn't bad. Buy a big bag of stir-fry mix (throw away the brown bag of shit they put in there), mix with soy sauce, rice wine vinegar. I sometimes also throw in some steak (cheap cut) and a bag of "salad shrimp." They're very cheap but add a good seafood taste and bring a ton of protein to the table. Another easy one is to make a chicken-caprese. Cook chicken breast, cover in fresh mozzerella, tomatoes, balsamic and olive oil, tad bit of salt and some fresh basil leaves. Can also get some taco seasoning - cook and shred up some chicken in that - toss it in some lettuce, peppers, onions, cheese, etc. - make a taco salad. Not bad. That's all the chicken skills I got!

Not seeing the results I want (if so, it's way too slow). Getting more strict on calories and input. It took me a couple weeks to actually get my calories down from the bulking phase - then I let some dumb things hurt me (cashews and PB are easy to underestimate the calories). No more nut/nut-based things! Also convinced myself a few times that buffalo wings were okay since they weren't carby - c'mon. Anyway, I've shifted to a 4-8 eating window (somewhat naturally) and going to monitor calories more striclty and hopefully see something in short order. Adding more sprints, going for ~1500-1800 cals/day on workout days and 1k on off days. Something's gotta give!

Btw, recently my "can't stop eating" at night has been cashews - they're so addictive! Had to put them out of reach, where I have to move things to get them out. Hope that helps me out.

I'm gonna use this! It's funny much of a "serious offense" it seems to us to eat after brushing, when in reality brushing your teeth twice isn't a big deal - I guess it just feels like more of a failure and disincentives eating again. Thanks for the idea!

I just bought some black rice (trying the whole resistance starch thing). Tastes okay - probably about the same as brown rice. The packaging calls it a "superfood fit for gods" or something. Anyone know more about black rice? Why it's black, nutritional value, etc.