Bombadil

So here is the story – I follow this forum almost at least a 3-4 times a week, and though I am not very active here or do many challenges (more a time constraint of updating the site), I do appreciate and agree with many, many people on this forum. That being said, I have been weightlifting for almost a year now. I have lost 23.4 lbs (250 to 226.6) and ~8% BF% (~33% to ~25%) but have been stuck there weight wise for ~2 months now and now my lifts are really starting to stall…. My current lifts (in lbs) are 225 x 5 BP, 275 x 5 SQ, 145 x 5 Row, 130 x 5 OHP, 290 x 5 DL. I have been stuck at these numbers for ~1 month now… I eat all the calories MFP gives my for a 0.5 lb/week weight loss. I make sure that at minimum I eat at least 1g of protein per pound of lbm a day (usually closer to 200g/day). Almost every week, I work out 3 times a week and am currently using the madcow program (started with stronglifts, but at 41 years old, found recovery a bit easier with Madcow once the weights started getting a little higher). So my question is, I still have weight I want to lose, but I also love to lift and want to increase my strength. I don’t want to by the next Worlds Strongest Man, but my end goal is ~20% bf and to be / look strong (thinking ~210 lb at 20% BF). Should I switch to some kind of “maintenance programâ€, focus on weight loss and suck it up / admit that my lifts are going to suffer or should I eat more to increase lifts and worry about “cutting later†? Anyone have suggestions from their experience on how I should move forward? Right now, I am getting frustrated that both weight and lifts seem to be stalling. I can deal with one stalling and improving the other, but not to be making progress on both is disappointing…

Well, I am back from vacation and am logging my results (albeit it after the challeng officially). Somewhat unexpect results, but I am happy with the weight loss aspect and am very happy with the results on that from tracking right with theoretical expectations. BF % however is not so nice... I am not sure if it is the BF% device I am using or if expectations were "a bit" off, but there was a definate departure from theoretical, but I am still happy with the downward trend. On the weightlifting note, I met my Squat and DL goal with a x5 of 280, but fell short of my bench goal by 5 lbs (max x5 is 220 currently). I did a 225 x3 last week after my normal routine, so I think this should be doable next weekish. My OHP lifts seem to have hit a wall at 125... I just think this is a bear to get increases in, but will continue to push along with it. I am SO CLOSE on my Row lift at 145 x4. Try as I did, I just could not get that fifth rep up to my chest.... So, overall, I think my first quest was fairly succsessful. I give myself 100% on Quests #1, 3 and 4 and a 90% on Quest #2. On the side quests, I did ok on side Quest #1 excpet on my weekly weigh-ins and did very well on Side Quest #2! I am finding archery VERY enjoyable and a nice way to get out and relax for a couple of hours. I hope everyone is doing well out there and I look forward to reading how everyone did and getting ready for the next challenge. I will say, that I am thinking of putting my next challenge more geared in the Ranger / Druid side of things. I love lifting weights, but my heart of hearts belongs to wilderness and the outdoors and I think I need to shift some of my fitness goals towards enhancing that side of things (though I do firmly believe that having a strength base is critical).

I have been updating my daily battle log, but thought I would put progress through Sunday on here as well. I have done very well at calorie intake to +/- 10 calories per day from what myfitnesspal tells me. Workouts are going well with Squat/DL at 260, bench at 200 and row at 135. I have started Yoga and have been to about 3 sessions so far and have signed up for another 3 sessions for this week. I have update the tracker on my signature and so far it seems to be tracking decently, but a little anxious about the lbm. As of Sunday, my weight was 237.2 lb and a bf% of 28%. Feel free to check out my daily battle ramblings for a more detailed view into things I hope everyone is doing well out there!

Well, I said from the beginning that there was no way this would be a "daily" battle log At any rate, had a "good" week last week in the fact that I ate my calories (actually am getting quite good at being +/- 10 calories from what myfitnesspal says I should eat. Did three sessions of Yoga, two of which kicked my butt and the other was quite relaxing and gave a good stretch. I am finding in Yoga that there are types that are good for flexibility and stretching, but there are a lot of them out there right now that treat it more as an aerobics exercise.... I think I want to stay away from the latter and try to get 2 sessions a week that focus on stretching and mobility (and relaxing) than the more strenuous "exercise" Yoga classes. I have update the tracker spreadsheet and so far things look like they are lining up ok. Weight/bf is at 237.2 / 28%, which is slightly behind in the lbm that I was expecting. That being said, weight and a handheld bf analyzer are not the best tools out there, so I am more interested in seeing what the trend is rather that week to week results. Still a bit tight today from last nights workout, but maybe Yoga tonight will help (though I think it is one of the "exercise" Yoga classes). I am not sure why, but I have felt VERY low on energy the past few days (since ~last Friday). I think it may be from overdoing it a bit with Yoga and weightlifting. I am not sure, but it is a constant mental battle to go do something. The good news about that is that I have had no problems going to sleep!!! That's it for today. I hope everyone is doing well out there!

Ok - I have put up a google doc for tracking BF% / Weight and will probably add lifting tracker at some point as well! Here is the link (also in my signature): NF Tracker

So last nights workout went well except I go a little twinge in the area between (possibly connecting?) my left glute and hamstring. Since I have the great fortune of being married to a massage therapist, I am going to take her advice and take the rest of the week off from working the legs in weightlifting (but still doing everything else). Me being me, I ask if that included Yoga if I went back for a beginners class, and she gave me the all-clear for that. So I will be doing at least two (possibly three if I go after Archery on Saturday) Yoga classes this week to supplement weight lifting (minus legs). Overall though, I am still making good gains in strength and am happy to my progress to 255 Squat. Funny enough, I still feel like I have a lot in the tank on bench at 195. It will be interesting to see how much I can get up to there before it starts getting tough. So, metrics (like that subtle switch in topics?)... As stated before, I am trying to lose fat while building muscle. I am being VERY strict in counting/weighing everything I eat in myfitnesspal for tracking. I previously went over my thoughts on Nutrition, but as far as metrics go, I am keeping it fairly simple: Lose 1lb of fat a week and build 0.5 lb of muscle (LBM) per week. This is a net loss of 0.5 lb/week. To track this I am using my scale (same one every measurement) and weighing myself once a week (first thing Monday morning). To track BF%, I am using the Omron handheld BF analyzer. I know this isnt perfect, but it is what I have. One thing I have noticed is that It is VERY dependent on water intake and (believe it or not) bowel movement (aka pooping)... Since my body seems to be on a schedule of late afternoon "movements" (LOL - I don't believe I am actually putting this here), I have found that Monday afternoon about an hour before dinner gives me consistent, in the right range, measurements. So, the BF% metric will be done weekly at that time. I have made a handy dandy little worksheet that I am using to track the goal versus actual. I will try to make a google doc from it to link here. So far, at least for the first week, it seems to be tracking well. We will see at the end of the 6 weeks what my progress was and put some more data behind the big mystery of losing fat while building muscle... Hope everyone is healthy and well!

So... Busy weekend of "recovery"! Had a good volume day on Friday, though energy was pretty low. I know this is due to the calorie deficit, and I have been fighting through it, but it is getting tougher each week. I have found that protein powder in water 30 minutes before and 30 minutes after with a banana helps a fair amount, but this will be something I have to deal with if I continue to eat a deficit while heavy lifting. That being said, I FINALLY broke the 238.4 lb plateau I had been sitting at for about 3 weeks! I think a lot of that has to do with eating at maintenance on Saturday and then having a very busy Sunday. Speaking of Sunday... So, I was feeling pretty good and did yard work for about 2.5 hrs on Sunday (by itself added >10k steps according to fitbit) in the hot and humid weather we are having. Having spent many years in Alabama, I know the need to hydrate in these conditions, so I consumed ~2.5 liters of water during this time. After coming back in and farming a couple of rifts in D3, I felt really good and decided "I am going to start Yoga". Me being me, I have researched this previously and knew that there was a very good studio close by that had classes on Sunday and one at 4:30 that was listed as "beginner appropriate". Never having stepped inside a Yoga studio, I had no idea what that meant or what the differences are in the different classes... So I sign up for an inexpensive beginners special for unlimited classes for a month and head to the studio. The person at the desk is not really sure what the class is like (i believe it was titled "empowered yoga" and was "unheated"), but the teacher was there and said she does think it is a good thing to just start somewhere and into the class I go. I am there about 15 minutes before the other students come in and I am relaxing and feeling good about actually starting to do something to improve my flexibility and mobility. The first thing I notice is that the studio we are in is the studio that just had a "heated" vinyasa class and although the heat was not still on, it was still QUITE warm in there! As students started coming in (total of 6 of us) and they learned I was a COMPLETE yoga noob, they all had a look on their face and asked "this class was on the beginner appropriate list?". A normal person would probably have left at that point, but being stubborn and in a mind set to start working on this, I laughed and decided to stay the course. Well, I won't go into the details, but I did in fact do it (very, very far from correctly, but at least you could tell I was trying) and truly believe I sweat out ~2 L of sweat. Everyone was very encouraging and (at least they said) stated they were impressed I made it through! I could not do a couple of the hand stand poses (but most of the others had a lot of trouble as well and several of them had been doing this for years), but overall I felt pretty good with myself. On my way home I drank a liter of water and then we made dinner. The rest of the night, I consumed my huge taco salad (lol - I will have to post a pic sometime of my taco salads) as well as 3 L of water, but sometime around dinner, I got very "stiff" and energy levels just plummeted. I went to bed early (~9:30) and slept like a rock. Upon waking up this morning, I have to say I actually feel pretty good! Still a little sore, but not too bad and definitely a different kind of sore than lifting weights. Hoping to continue this (at maybe a more appropriate speed), I signed up for their Vinyasha Yoga 101 class for Tuesday. My hope is to do Yoga as a supplemental on off days (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday/Sunday). Well, off to meetings, but I realize I have left out my rambling about metrics.... I will try to add another post this afternoon or tomorrow on that subject! Hope everyone is doing well out there!

Ok - longer update tomorrow, but here is a life tip I have just learned: if you are feeling good and take that first step into something new (yoga) and go to what is labeled a "beginners" yoga class as your first EVER exposure to yoga and everyone in the class looks at you and asks "they had this listed as a beginners class?", you should really just turn around and leave and come back for another class!

LOL! So true

Fridays are great days! Not only because it is the end of the work week (or at least when you have to physically go into the office), but more importantly because after the "light" day of lifting on Wednesday, a lot of stretching on Thursday and at least a decent nights sleep, I feel great on Fridays! All of that being said, the one issue on Fridays is thinking about eating (this is a subtle steering toward the topic of nutrition)... I have googled the topic for months now and there does not seem to be any consensus on how many calories you should eat if you are overweight and strength training. I understand it is dependant on what your goal is - lose weight, gain muscle, or lose fat while gaining muscle, but with all the technology and advances we have made in human history, you would think there would be some clear answers on what the nutritional make up of your diet should be for these goals. Personally, my goal right now is to lose fat while gaining muscle. It makes sense to me from an energy balance perspective that if you eat a slight deficit while lifting heavy and you have a good chunk of fat reserves to pull from, that your body can utilize fat energy to build muscle. However, there seems to be a huge debate on whther it is even possible to lose weight while building muscle... Some swear it is possible if you have excess (~>20-25% BF) body fat, while most sweat it is impossible to build muscle while losing fat and you have to go on a "bulk" to truly gain muscle. I am not a doctor and I do not want to spend my life researching the nutrition sciences, so I have compacted what I have read into what I will call the "Bombadil" experiment (which is by no means unique, copyrighted or original!) and I will post my results here in hopes that maybe somewhere down the road it might help someone else if I am able to do it... So here is my approach. First, I am an Engineer at heart and as much as I like data, analysis, etc , I am also aware of analysis paralysis and am a big believer in the K.I.S.S. philosohy, so please keep that in mind if this seems overly simple: Calories: 1956/day base. Using my fitbit and myfitnesspal, I eat additional calories for exercise. I count a lifting workout as 200 calories. Some days, this could add up to 2500+ calories... "macros": the ONE clear, consistent message I am getting is that to gain/maintain muscle is that you need to get enough protein in your diet. I put in my quest that 190 g of protein is my goal, but when using myfitnesspal and planning out my meals, I actually plan on 230 g of protien/day. This is ~1 g/lb body weight or about 1.35 g/lbm with current measurement metric. The protein goal would put me at 920 calories/day. Outside of that, I try to limit carbs to ~100 g (~400 calories) and the rest in fat. What carbs I do have mostly consists of fruit and the sonoma chicken salad wrap from Whole Foods I eat for lunch every day. So, that is the goal I have right now. As I go along, maybe I can tune it a bit as I learn and track how my body is behaving, but for now, I think this is a good start... Tomorrow (or sometime this weekend), I will ramble on about my views and approach on metrics, but for now it is time to go to an endless stream of meetings (that + office politics = why it is so difficult to get things done)

I am really enjoying Madcow right now. I did 12 weeks of stronglifts, and it was great for getting a foundation. I liked how stronglifts started out with low weight and let me focus on form, but I felt the increasing weight every workout with squats three times a week did not allow my older/out of shape body to recover adequately once I got ~225 lbs on squat (especially since I am no longer as young as I think I am). The heavy (Monday), light (Tuesday), volume (Friday) weekly rotation in Madcow really seems to work better for me (though make no mistake, you are still working hard and building strength). Of course, I am still a noob, and there is a part of me that thinks I may be leaving some easy "noob" gains behind by not sticking with stronglifts for another 12 week cycle, but my body feels better and I do not seem to spend as manyof my off days dreading the thought of walking because I am so sore

Ok, so this is the first "daily log/rambling. Last night was a "light" day on the lifting schedule. I am still liking the Madcow program and do think these "light" days help in my recovery for Friday's volume day, but I have a little bit of an issue with calling a day consisting of squat sets followed by heavy deadlifts (ok, there are OHP sets in between them) as "light". Deadlifts beat me up. I am not complaining - I do really think they work well in building strength, and a lot of it has to do with my body having become accustomed to squats rather than deadlifts, but they still leave me sore for the next day or two every time... On a related subject, I am having issues on my deadlifts with my grip... I am good for the first 2-3 reps, but I am really having difficulties hanging on to the bard for that 4th and 5th rep. I am sure a lot of it has to do with my grip strength catching up to my leg strength and the fact that I am still a noob, but I definitely think it is time to look into some straps. I friend suggested looking into the "hook grip" first, so I will give that a try and see if that helps at all. I did keep my calories in check at 1978 for the day, but I am really starting to question whether I should keep it at this level while strength training on work out days. I don't know - more research is needed, so for now I will continue on this path in hopes I am not eating too little and sabotaging my metabolism. On a different note, spent an hour at the range and was able to get some really good groupings from 10 yards out on Tuesday! I have only been shooting for about a month now, but I am REALLY enjoying going out to the range for some target practice. I find it very zen-like to have a hobby where you clear your mind, focus on form, draw, aim and release. I think tomorrow I might ramble a bit about Nutrition.... I think it is a good start today just to get my log started, so won't overdo it on day 1!

Since I put up my “first†challenge with a week remaining in the previous 6 week challenge, I am going to call that a trial run and start this as my official first challenge. First, a little about myself and some background... First, my name is not “Tom†(yes, you will have had to have read Lord of the Rings to get that). Although I am trying not to define myself these days in “professional†terms, I will make an exception here and say that I am an enginerd at heart who sold my soul to the “business†side several years ago. All was plodding along while focusing on my career until some significant life events occurred relatively close together (divorce, moving for the 6th time for my career, dating again, getting married and mom passing away). Since then, I have taken a step back and evaluated my life, where I am and if I am happy. Believe me when I say that this was/is not easy for someone who thinks like an Engineer (all those squishy, non-logical, non-quantifiable “feelingsâ€). What I found is that I have spent so much of my life focused on career, money and “stuff†that I lost who I actually am. I know that sounds very funny, but believe me when I say that it really has been enlightening and the journey back to being oneself is a lot more difficult than you would think it would be (burdened with all these adult responsibilities)... So, with all of that being said, I am finding all of those long hours in an office and very little physical activity in my life has left me in poor physical shape. I have always been a very large guy (an old high school coach would call me “house†because he said i was built like a “brick s*%t houseâ€), but at 5’ 7†tall, I weighed 251 lbs with 33% body fat. Needless to say, I need to prioritze getting back into shape so I can start to enjoy other activities I enjoy again (camping trip on my motorcycle while exploring the U.S., target archery, hiking, etc). About 14 weeks ago, I started (or more precisely, I got serious / consistent) the strong lifts program to build my base strength. I am now currently at 238.4 lbs and 28.6% body fat. I have recently moved over to the “Madcow†strength program because, well, I am not 20 anymore and my body does a lot better with eh “light†day in after the “heavy†day. I am really enjoying strength training, and feel my body is somewhat built for raw strength, but I feel that focusing only on the strength aspect neglects improving other activities that I really enjoy such as camping, hiking, backpacking, archery, etc. In a nutshell, I put “warrior†on my profile because I am somewhat focusing on building strength as a foundation, but there is a large part of me that feels like a Ranger too.... Luckily, I just read that it is possible to have challenges in other guilds regardless of what guild you are registered with. Is it possible to dual-class like in the old Baldur’s Gate days??? Lifetime Quest / Goal: Be able to do a hike-through of the Appalachian Trail. Quest 1: Limit daily calories to 1956 calories/day. This was determined by myfitnesspal for a 1 lb/week weight loss. In conjunction, I will eat a minimum of 190 g of protein per day. I am not an strict Paleo follower, but believe in most of the principles and will follow a mix of Paleo/Eat Clean (more of a Eat Clean with a strong lean towards Paleo). This will be tracked through myfitness pal. Oh - I will also drink a minimum of 3l of water per day... Quest 2: Continue Madcow program and have the following lift #'s (for a x5 set): Sq: 275Bench: 225Row: 145Press: 135Deadlift: 275 (ugh... I love the results, but it just really beats me up!) Quest 3: Take my lovely wife on a very long overdue honeymoon and make sure she is treated like the long haired Italian princess she is! The only bad part of fulfilling this quest will be that it will be for two weeks right at the end of the 6 week challenge! Quest 4: Start incorporating stretching exercises into my daily routing. The metric for this to perform a 30 minute stretching routing (regular stretches, some kind of Yoga, etc) five times a week. This will be independant of “warm-up†stretches before lifting. This will be my start into some more "rangeresque" challenges as well... Side Quest 1: Stop looking at that traitorous, back-stabbing, filthy beast of a machine called the scale and just be happy that my clothes are looser and I am feeling better! Side Quest 2: Practice Archery twice per week with the goal of consistent groupings in the gold from 20 yards (bare recurve ILF bow).

Due to the typical long story of 15+ years focused on career, money, obtaining "stuff", etc, I have come to see/admit that I had become terribly out of shape. With this realization, I have rearranged some/most of my priorities and have started the journey back to being me (and being able to do the things I enjoy!). I know there are a lot of philosophies on what "getting into shape" means, but to me, it starts with strength. I loved lifting when I was younger and am built (as my wrestling coach use to call me) like a "brick s*#t house". I started Stonglifts about 6 months ago and have started to get my rhythm back (as well as realize I am not 21 anymore). I moved over to the Madcow program when I realized my body needs a little more recovery time than a straight linear program. I am currently on week 5 of the program and am loving it! So.... to get to the point here, listed below are my Quests! Quest 1: Limit daily calories to 1956 calories/day. This was determined by myfitnesspal for a 1 lb/week weight loss. In conjunction, I will eat a minimum of 150 g of protein per day. I am not an strict Paleo follower, but believe in most of the principles and will follow a mix of Paleo/Eat Clean (more of a Eat Clean with a strong lean towards Paleo). This will be tracked through myfitness pal. Oh - I will also drink a minimum of 3l of water per day... Quest 2: Continue Madcow program and have the following lift #'s (for a x5 set) by the end of August: Sq: 275Bench: 225Row: 145Press: 135Deadlift: 275 (ugh... I love the results, but it just really beats me up!) Quest 3: Take my lovely wife on a very long overdue honeymoon and make sure she is treated like the long haired Italian princess she is! Side Quest: Stop looking at that traitorous, back-stabbing, filthy beast of a machine called the scale and just be happy that my clothes are looser and I am feeling better! So there it is... I have been thinking about putting this up for weeks now. It isn't pretty, but I had the afternoon free and thought I would just get it done... Wish I could have come up with a few witty comments, but results (getting it listed) is more important than being witty at this point! Please don't judge harshly