Waldo's Log

[Waldo]

I decided to change the way I'm measuring my waist to better match my historic data, to flex more, which adds an inch to my waist.  Bummer.  But looking at all the measurements in my old spreadsheet and comparing, a 1" larger waist matches lbm and fat mass calcs much better.  I actually did the exact same thing in 2016 at almost the exact same time.

 

So I'm further away from my goal than I expected, but I had a suspicion that that was the case based on how much spare tire I still had.

 

This knowledge though does change my plans a little.  I think I'm going to stick with process based cutting instead of goal based.  I'm still going to stop at the end of this week (3 weeks cutting) for a 1 week break, then do the exact same 3-1 cycle again instead of switching to a 2 week cut cycle; I should still be able to handle another 3 week cut without the hormones going crazy.  I feel ok today, its the start of week 3 and I'm still going to be rocking big deficits this week.

 

Tape was 33.4" today.  On track to hit 33" by next week.

[Waldo]

Solid 33.3" on the tape this AM, I'm on pace to hit 32.9" by Monday.  The scale was 205.6, so maybe its starting some movement.

 

I am looking forward to a break next week.  This has been the strictest 2 weeks and 2 days I've had since starting this respawn over a year ago.  Hasn't been bad at all thus far though, but I expect that to change as the week goes on.  I should have a deficit around 1K today.  Definitely feeling it in the gym.

 

We've got Covid in the house.  Oldest testing positive was a wonderful mothers day gift.  Youngest now has joined in the fun.  We're all max vaxed (except youngest who couldn't yet), but that doesn't seem to help this round except make it lighter.  I would not be surprise if I come down with it in the next couple days.

 

Workout Log - 5.9.22

 

Heavy bag - 10 min

5 minutes without gloves mostly kicking, 5 minutes with gloves mostly punching.

 

Pistol Squat - 5/5, 11+/11-

I lost a rep here vs last week.   That's the deficit talking.

 

Fingertip Pushup - 5, 5

 

Deadlift

155 x 3

245 x 3

315 x 3-

335 x 3-

355 x 3+

That was definitely the easiest 355 has felt (lately).  I didn't lose bar speed that last rep nearly as much as I have recently.  Belt over 300. 

 

Romanian Deadlift

175 x 11

 

[Waldo]

Its mind over matter at this point, I made brownies for the kids earlier, only touched a little bit, can wait until tomorrow for a little more.  I want to finish this cut strong and keep on pace to finish at 32.9" Monday morning.  I'm going to destroy a gallon of ice cream next week, lol, maybe make some more brownies.

 

Scale made a nice move last night, down to 204.8.  It seems like the muscle reinflation might be over.

 

Running here in a bit.  My new shoes are great, so comfy.  My old shoes were worn down to nothing, had like 1500 miles on em.

 

Workout Log - 5.10.22

 

Bench Press

135 x 10

185 x 5

205 x 3-

225 x 1 + F
205 x 4+, 3-

Feeling some deltoid tendonitis in my left shoulder and I poked it real good with a stick doing yardwork on Sun, both fed into a weakness there.  Plus I couldn't make up my mind on my grip.  Just meh.  I should have reracked 225 after 1, I didn't think #2 was going to go up and it didn't.  Took it easy on the last set.

 

Ring Front Lever

Tuck Hold - 15 sec

Open Tuck - 15 sec

One Leg  - 4 reps (3/4 rom)

Row - 8+, 8+, 7+

Added a rep to set 2 and 3 on the rows.  I'm feelin 9 next week.

 

DB Hammer Curl - 35 x 10, 10

DB Fly - 35 x 6-

DB Overhead Extension - 60 x 10, 10

Was really feeling the tendonitis acute during the db flys so I stopped the first set and didn't do a 2nd.  Upped the extension weight to 60.

[Waldo]

33.1" on the tape today, getting close.  Scale was down a bit, to 204.6 last night.  This morning I woke up feeling thinner, it was a firm day in the squishy cycle which should mean I see some good scale movement.  I'm starting to be able to see the first hints of the bottom abs when flexed.  I've maintained a pace on the tape better than 1.5 lb fat loss per week through this cut.  I'm definitely feeling the first hints of dropping leptin, hunger is growing.

 

Right now I'm so close, right on the cusp on a couple of things.  My overall diet; I've broken it up it to little undulating chunks lately and fell off a bit in the middle, but I've been dieting now since last March; over a year now, and I'm no more than 2 undulations away, just a couple more months, until I reach the boss level.  The speakers I'm working on in the shop; I'm now like 4 layers away from finishing the main stack on #2, then I just have to do the 2 cherry layers and 2 more plywood then finally, after about 15 months of work, I'm done with the stack lamination.  Should take no more than a month.  After that I need to cut the holes, fill the foam and make the x-overs, make and glue the tops, make and glue on the bases, then final sanding and finishing.

 

Last night I ran 2.9 mi in 33.07 min.  Avg HR was 148, max HR 166.  My pace was crazy consistent, 11:27, 11:20, 11:27 per mile (11:25 avg).

[Waldo]

The scale did drop yesterday as I suspected, to 203.8.  Back into the 203's and in range of beating my Feb 7(!!) low of 203.2.  Granted I was sick with the flu that day, but still I had another low in the 203's a week later; if you would have told me at the time I would not see the 203's again until mid-May, and that I didn't fall off the wagon at all and was still on plan abs, I would have thought it impossible.  If I would not have tape data and a lot of experience, I'm quite confident that I would have lost it by this point and just quit trying to cut in disgust.  My first few calculations of my target end goal weight (when I got serious about plan abs; not a feature of the first 9 months of this diet) were around 192, now I'm thinking more like 198.  I would not be surprised though if it continues to climb.

 

Took another full set of measurements today; I think I'm going to keep doing it for a while, its really good info to have.  Not much changed except around the waist and upper thighs (areas with fat).  Still physically identical to how I was in 2014 when I was 36, a win in my mid 40's, lol.  Slightly bigger chest and glutes/hams nowadays, smaller quads.

 

Part of the reason I've gained so much LBM while cutting (a lot came during diet breaks, 4 weeks total) is that my muscles are getting back to their old sizes, which leads me to believe that I actually still have a few pounds to go, as my arms and legs aren't as big yet as they used to be; I'm about 8 lbs of lean mass lighter than where I used to be in 2016.  But maybe you only gain back a portion of it super easy.  I guess I'll see.

 

I'm running hard through the finish line to the next diet break.  I've been able to keep the hunger at bay but its getting tough, just 2 and a half more days to go.  3 weeks might be pushing it next cycle, I might need to do a refeed going into that 3rd week. 

 

Workout Log - 5.12.22

 

Kicking and Stretching - 10 minutes

I didn't much up the bag as it may be contributing to the shoulder tendonitis, so I gave it a rest.  Kicking was more slow and balanced active stretching than anything.

 

Pistol Squat

BW - 5/5

+30 - 5-/5-

+40 - 5+/5-

I guess next week I'll add another set at +50, working up to 5 reps, trying to run the rack (lol).

 

Front Squat

135 x 5

185 x 5-

205 x 4+, 3-

 

 

 

[Waldo]

Yes, level accomplished!  Check of the tape this am was 33.0"; goal of losing 1.1" accomplished.  I have 2 days for extra credit, I'd like to get another 1/8".  Then on to a week of diet break starting Monday.  I already have my ice cream pail to go to town on.  Scale was 202.6 last night, set a new low for the first time in a long, long time.

 

I started working on a wall mount for my little plates in the gym.  A while ago I bought a few basic wall mounts, however my walls are made of made of old masonite paneling, which is nowhere near stiff enough to mount the steel plate holders to, so I'm building a backing board of plywood.    I'm working on the shape, once I'm done with that I'm going to chamfer the edges, then paint it, with the edges a different color.

 

About to head out for a long run.

 

Workout Log - 5.13.22

 

DB Overhead Press

40 x 10

50 x 6-

60 x 5+

50 x 10+, 10+

After issues pressing my last 2 workouts, I took it easier this workout and played it safe, just 1 set with the heavier weights.  Tendonitis definitely improved.  I had been using a 45 degree angle grip, I switched it to hands parallel; felt a little better, though probably affected my max reps.

 

Pullup

BW - 5, 15

+35 - 3+, 4+

BW - 14

Added 10 lbs this week, 2nd set definitely felt easier.

 

L-Sit - 15, 15, 15 sec

 

Dip

BW - 5

+60 - 5+, 5-

Added 10 lbs here as well this week.  As with pullups the 2nd set was easier.

 

Chinups

+35 - 5-, 5+

And finally I also added 10 lbs on chins this week.  Unlike pulls and dips, chins were harder set 2.  I'm glad I started doing these again, they hit the biceps so much better than pulls.  I just know I have to be real careful with form, keep the stress off the elbows.

[Rooks]

On 5/12/2022 at 8:59 PM, Waldo said:

The speakers I'm working on in the shop; I'm now like 4 layers away from finishing the main stack on #2, then I just have to do the 2 cherry layers and 2 more plywood then finally, after about 15 months of work, I'm done with the stack lamination.  Should take no more than a month.  After that I need to cut the holes, fill the foam and make the x-overs, make and glue the tops, make and glue on the bases, then final sanding and finishing.

 

I would love to see these when done. Sounds really cool. 

 

On 5/12/2022 at 8:59 PM, Waldo said:

Last night I ran 2.9 mi in 33.07 min.  Avg HR was 148, max HR 166.  My pace was crazy consistent, 11:27, 11:20, 11:27 per mile (11:25 avg).

 

What do you use for a heartreate monitor and time tracking on your runs if you don't mind me asking? 

 

On 5/14/2022 at 8:49 PM, Waldo said:

I started working on a wall mount for my little plates in the gym.  A while ago I bought a few basic wall mounts, however my walls are made of made of old masonite paneling, which is nowhere near stiff enough to mount the steel plate holders to, so I'm building a backing board of plywood.    I'm working on the shape, once I'm done with that I'm going to chamfer the edges, then paint it, with the edges a different color.

 

I had wanted to do this when we splurged on our gym, but my wife ended up convincing me to just get the bigger rack with plate racks built in. Love the look of a nice wall mounted system though, even for just the little stuff. 

[Waldo]

For a while I used Strava alone while running, but to add the HRM I run it through the Wahoo app, which then sends the data to Strava which sends it to MFP.  I haven't opened Strava for a while tho.  For a HRM I use the one that came with the Schwinn IC4 bike, a basic forearm one.  My wife has a different brand that is very similar.  It auto connects to the phone when Wahoo is open super easy, and doesn't interfere with tunes on the bt headphones.  The IC4 Bike also connects to the Wahoo app, tracking speed (power) and cadence; its a great app for tracking workout data from sensors (Wahoo is big in the bike sensor business) and it plays well with other apps to feed data.

 

Here is my most recent progress photo on the speakers:

 

I'm a little beyond this, the next layer I do will be the top of the big circle.  There's a lot of funky lens effects going on, the top and bottom cherry stripes are the same size, as are the 4x 6.5" woofers, and it has mostly the same profile top to bottom (the radius on the corners drifted wider as I went up, see the top on #1 (its not glued, just sitting there)).  I'm going to glue like 3/8" solid cherry "veneer" across the top (probably a set of bookmatched strips cut on the bandsaw), the bottom is going to come from a massive hunk of 8/4 cherry I have, being a little wider but carved into a smooth transition.

[Waldo]

I added a new piece of equipment to the gym, a plyo box.  I got one of the wood core, foam covered boxes, a 24x20x16 one.  One of these has been on my wish list, to replace a super old situp bench I have that serves no real purpose but be a place to sit between sets (wife has been pushing to get rid of that thing for a while).  Big thing is that I saw getting one of these as a first step to getting a new bench; doing step ups is what messed up the fabric on my bench (not the one I'm getting rid of (yet)), I don't want to spend on a nice new adjustable bench only to mess it up with step ups too (esp because I plan to splurge on a real nice bench; adjustable bench 1.0 is the cheap amazon special, got me by for the last 3.5 years).

 

But I'm surprised at how nice it is to do box jumps on it, I thought my knees would hate them, but not at all.  I'll definitely find ways to use it (in addition to being where I sit between sets, lol).  Mmm, plyo pistols.

 

Now I have the two precursors to the things I want to splurge on, a bench and a barbell.  Needed a plyo box and plastic lined j hooks (got those a couple months ago).

 

Waist was a proud 32.9".  Not sure I made it all the way there, but I definitely beat 33.0".  Now for a 1 week break, then back at it for 3 more weeks of cutting.  I'm in that you can kind of see my abs phase.  This is where I thought I was at the last cycle but no, after the measuring shift now I'm here.  But the shift did away with the I'm feeling fat I think, now the tape is matching up with the waypoints in my memory.  Ended that cut cycle at a weight low point, 202.6 lb,

 

Saturday night I ran 3.84 mi (w/636 ft elevation gain) in 43:27, a 11:18 pace.  150 bpm avg, 169 bpm max

 

Deadlifts tonight.

[Waldo]

During my diet break this week I'm not going to track cals, just want to be mindful to always have a little surplus.  I already feel the side effects of dieting gone.  I was super tired yesterday, sleepy tired, no doubt my body wanted to use the extra cals to recover.  I think its one of the most notable effects of raising cals when you've been hitting the gym hard, tiredness and soreness at first, which is almost a little counterintuitive.

Workout Log - 5.16.22

 

Heavy Bag w/Box Jumps - 10 min

Only 2 min with gloves, the rest was without and was mostly kicking.  Every couple minutes I stopped to do a set of 5 box jumps on the 20" side from a pretty good distance away.  My balance has really improved a lot since I got my bag around the New Year, and my flexibility is improving.  Punching power, kicking placement and form have all noticeably improved.  I'm really impressed with how impactful regular work has been.

 

Pistol Squat

BW - 5/5

16" Box - 3/3

BW - 11+/11-

Its been a while since I've done plyo pistols, and I've never had such a nice surface to do them on.

 

Deadlift

155 x 3

245 x 3

315 x 3-

335 x 3-

365 x 2*

I'm not sure that's what a * level deadlift rpe is, but I broke new ground in that department.  That last rep didn't go up without a fight.

 

Romanian Deadlift

175 x 12

 

 

[Waldo]

I haven't thus far seen a big spike on the scale since raising cals, 203.6 last night.  I'm really chomping at the bit to get back at it.  As with the last two breaks, part of the cals has come from demolishing a few bowls of cereal at snack times, and ice cream for dessert (when cutting its more like a few animal crackers for a snack and some kisses for dessert).  I want much of the extra calories to come from carbs.

 

Workout Log - 5.17.22

Bench Press

135 x 10

185 x 5

205 x 4-

225 x 2+, 2+

205 x 5+

Still have some weakness in the left shoulder (feels like the deltoid tendons, not in the shoulder itself).  Mental cue to pull back the shoulder blades helps.  I didn't want to try and fail on rep #3 so played it conservative at 225.  The first 205 I intended to be 3 reps, but I forgot until I was in the hole for #4.

 

Ring Front Lever

Tuck Hold - 15

Ope Tuck Hold - 15

One Leg - 4 slow negatives

Row - 9+, 8+, 8+
Nice rep addition on rows.  The one leg negatives were stopped at horizontal; I pull the leg back some to pull back up.

 

DB Hammer Curlz - 35 x 11, 9

DB Chest Fly - 35 x 8, 9

DB Overhead Extension - 60 x 9, 10

 

 

[Rooks]

Those speakers are amazing! Are you CNC'ing each layer or do you just have a template with flush trim router bit? Either way, it's going to look incredible when it's done. Baltic Birch plywood I assume? Hope you have enough to finish as I've heard it's near impossible to get the stuff now due to the Russia / Ukraine situation. 

[Waldo]

Each layer is made up of 4 pieces, the curved side pieces are cut on the bandsaw, the straight front and back are cut to length on the miter saw. After gluing each layer I flip the whole thing over and flush trim it on the router to match the speaker shape.  And yes, I'm good to go and have enough material to finish.  In the end they'll have used 2 full 3/4" 5x5 sheets minus a couple 2x2 pieces.
 

Once I'm done I'm going to have to replace the blades on my jointer, bandsaw, and flush trim bit.  This stuff is rough on blades.

[Waldo]

Back at it cutting again.  Another 3 weeks.  I'm going to do a refeed at the end of week 2 to hopefully keep things from getting out of hand.  Despite trying my best, I was not able to gain anything on the tape, break week ended at 33".  I'm looking to lose an 1" again, so staying aggressive with deficits.  Probably will still be a couple days before things start moving though.  By the end I should be rounding third on my way to 6 pack lean.  On the verge of always visible abs now, though still too much spare tire, that is the last thing to go.

 

These last few days I went back down the geneology rabbit hole.  Working out my whole American family tree is something I've been working on for many years now, I made a couple major breakthroughs the last couple days. 

 

One was pretty crazy; I started trying children's names to skip up a generation where I was really stuck on a great (x a bunch) grandmother.  I knew her name but nothing else.  Oddly, of their many children, only one had a name that wasn't from his side of the family.  Search that name with a common old variation of the last name and viola.  Same town same church, plus I found a very well worked out tree from that point on to immigration.  Only the link I had to make was tough, between father and daughter, it was like striking gold.  And the naming oddity became immediately clear; my great x10 grandfather from this family was a loyalist, during the war his farm was burned and he fled to Canada. His daughter married just before the revolution to my great x9 grandfather, they only used his family's names once (one of the youngest too, #7), obviously why. 

 

Another branch I worked out includes a common ancestor with Barak Obama through his mother, which was pretty rad to discover; a great x10 grandfather that immigrated in 1733. 

 

I say its a  rabbit hole because you can spend a ton of time on it; and I tend to get consumed with the hunt, trying to find every piece of info I can.

 

Workout Log - 5.23.22

 

Heavy bag - 10 min

Also mixed in some 20" box jumps here and there.  5 min with/without gloves

 

Pistol Squat

BW - 5/5

16" Box - 3/3

BW - 11+/11-

 

Deadlift

155 x 3

245 x 3

315 x 3-

335 x 3-

365 x 1+f

That weight wasn't coming up for rep #2.

 

Did not have time for a set of RDL's at the end.

[Waldo]

I started feeling like I was cutting on Wed (first round of basic cutting hunger, squishy fat, moving scale).  I waited until Thur am to check the tape, sure enough, down 1/8" to 32.9".  Set a new low weight just before the break, 202.6, I was at 202.8 Wednesday, 203.0 yesterday.  My weight has actually been quite consistent since going below 205, despite cutting->break->cutting.  No wild swings, weight stayed in the 204's through the break; so weird how that works, sometimes raising cals causes a 5 lb jump, other times barely anything.

 

I did a full set of measurements again this AM.  I gained a little bit in just about every muscle group last week.  Just a hair, but it was across the board.  Most importantly, those gains persisted this week.  I'm still 1 1/2"  smaller than my 2016 peak in the thighs, 3/4" smaller in the arms, and about 1/2" smaller in the chest; so chances are I can still eek out more 1 week break gains, lol.   It'd be nice to get the flexed chest measurement back over 50", that was always a huge milepost I was working toward and it was awesome to achieve (my earliest measurements were in the 44" area back in 2012).  Even though chest is a relatively small contributor to the flexed chest measurements (wide lats = wide chest measurement).  Same with arms, my earliest bicep measurements had a low point of 14" at the end of my initial loss in 2012, peaked at 16.5" in 2016, 15.8" now, it'd be nice to be back over 16" (I first hit that back in 2014, before moving).
 

Still pretty engrossed in the geneology work.  I think I'd like to eventually put it into some sort of book form.  I've had the basic tree, the patrilineal line, worked out for a few years.  The major breakthrough I made last week was filling in the last missing bride/mother on that line.  With that now I'm only missing one patrilineal line of the brides all the way to immigration, and that one is an area I haven't worked on that much yet; I'm pretty sure I can get there.  This sort of goes hand in hand with my lifetime interest in history; I've been able to make a lot of it personal.  Right now I'm reading the History of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow, the part I'm in discusses the role the critique of Europeans by Native Americans had on the Enlightenment, specifically how the response ("oh yeah, this is why we are better than you") basically was the Enlightenment, though a core root critique became the concept of Liberty.  The philosophical framework for the enlightenment was "created" (aka best early writer of) by Rene Descartes in Amsterdam; Amsterdam was ground zero of the early enlightenment,I know my direct patrilineal descendants were book printers in Amsterdam from the late 1500's to about 1650 (Discourse on Method was published in 1637), who then moved to New Amsterdam and married into the families of the early beaver trade; where some of the critique was coming from.

 

Workout Log - 5.24.22

Bench Press

135 x 10

185 x 5

205 x 3-

225 x 2+, 3+

205 x 5+

I felt like #4 at 225 might have been there.  Built back up to peak strength after losing a bit with the tendonitis issue.

Ring Front Lever

Tuck Hold - 15

Open Tuck Hold - 15

One Leg - 4 slow negatives

Tuck Row - 9+, 8+, 8+
I'm pretty much able to stop the negatives at parallel (at least first couple reps).  Slowly but surely the tuck row reps keep climbing.  At some point here I expect to shift back to the old pattern where I make gains on the front lever while cutting, one leg+ are so deleveraged that bodyweight changes are a stronger effect than strength gain.

 

DB Hammer Curl: 35 x 11, 10
DB Chest Fly: 35 x 8, 8
DB Extension: 60 x 8, 10

I'm about ready to go up in weight on curls.

Workout Log - 5.26.22

Heavy Bag - 10 min
Mixed in some box jumps.  6 min without gloves, 4 with.  I've gotten sooo much faster and nimble on my feet, its crazy the difference regular practice has made.

 

Pistol Squat

BW - 5/5
+30 - 5-/5-
+40 - 5+/5+

I should do a set at +50 next week

 

Front Squat

135 x 5

185 x 5-

205 x 4+

Step Up 16" Box

+80 - 5-/5-

My balance was complete garbage on the right.  I think in part because holding the DB's was starting to get hard and my legs were definitely beat by that point.

[Waldo]

I finally got around to taking pics of the weight plate holder I made for the gym:

 

 

And that whole side of the gym, now that I've mounted the clock too:

 

I needed the board for extra stiffness, since the wall is just flimsy paneling.  But I cut it in an interesting shape, and put a good sized chamfer on it all around, so that the painted edge can still be seen from the front.  Taping it off to paint the top white (I did the edges first) was pretty awful, tape doesn't do chamfered curves, so I needed tons of individual pieces.

As opposed to last cut, this time around I'm not really counting cals every day in MFP.  Basically if I want to snack more than something small I need to figure out if I have space.  I can either take that step and go through the effort, or skip the snacks.  Which is the route I've gone.  Deficit is pretty big but that's fine.  Right about at the halfway point of 3 weeks now.  Sunday I'm going to do a refeed to hopefully eek out another easy week of cutting.  I'm still not really feeling any effects from it, but that's going to change soon.

Progress-wise the tape is moving every other day.  Waist was at 32.5" today.  Scale dropped big yesterday, down to 200.8.  It seems like all of the scale weirdness is over, its been moving lock step with the scale since the start of the previous cut cycle.  Before this cut is over I expect to see under 200, which hasn't happened since 2017.  I haven't really seen much change in the mirror tho. 

 

I did go shirtless in public for the first time last weekend as the neighborhood pool opened.  I'm not as lean as I'd like to be, but, at least close enough that I'm not embarrassed at all.  But I've been working toward a July 4 goal.  Next year I'll shoot for memorial day.

 

Workout Log - 6.2.22

 

Bench Press

135 x 5

185 x 5-

205 x 3-

225 x 3+, 4*

205 x 5+

Gave it my all and got rep #4, a new PR

 

Ring Front Lever

Tuck Hold - 15 sec

Open Tuck Hold - 15 sec

One Leg - 4 slow negatives

Tuck Row - 11+, 10+, 9+

Smashed my recent PR's, I'm nearing all time PR's on tuck rows

 

Time was short so I didn't do any DB circuits

 

 

[Waldo]

Into week 3 of of this cutting cycle now,.  I did a refeed last night; demolished most of a box of cereal, about 1200 cals worth.  Cereal is pretty good for it, I picked one (store brand multigrain Total) that doesn't have any fat at all, and a moderate amount of protein, but tons of non-fructose carby goodness; usually I drink the milk but avoid when refeeding (due to the fat slowing digestion).  The cut hit like a ton of bricks on Saturday, at just under 2 weeks, refeed so far seems to have worked, I've felt fine today despite going right back to a hard cut.

 

Of course my weight was up, had been in the 201's since that low point last week, but I was at 203.0 last night, side effect of refeeding.  I'd like to see it dip under 200 later this week.  Tape was 32.4" this am, on pace to hit 32" by the end of the week and the next diet break.
 

And then?  Next cycle is going to be the last in this undulating pattern, the 4th round of it.  I'm getting close to my end goals of this cut and am looking forward to gym progress picking up once I'm done cutting.

 

Its getting close to that time to put in an order to Rogue for a new barbell.  New barbell has been my planned reward to myself for reaching my overall end goals, I've been really looking forward to it for a long time.  I haven't jumped the gun yet though.  Once I'm into the next cycle it'll be about time, I imagine they don't have next day delivery a la Amazon.  I've got my heart set on a black oxide Ohio Bar w/o center knurling.  I don't back squat, not sure I ever will, but I do front squat.  Pretty hard to find a bar bigger than 28mm that has no center knurl.  It seems like its pretty much the perfect bar for me.

[Waldo]

The end of this cut has been a challenge.  In part because the refeed has worn off, in part because I've been doing an unusual number of public things where people eat and drink, but I limped to the end here and did hit my tape goal, 32.0", 1 day early.  Ever since the refeed the scale has been in crazy mode, in the 203-205 range.  After the refeed I was pretty amped about how easy it was to sustain the cut, but my the end of the week my mind was changed.  It's only going harder as well, so next round I'm going to do away with it and just go 2 weeks before another break.  But this means I probably will do 2 more cut cycles, trying to get down to the low 31" area.  Incidentally, with a break this week, 2 cut cycles will line up exactly with this next challenge.

 

Right now bits and pieces of the upper abs are visible all the time even though there's still some spare tire below.  Looking pretty lean otherwise, my arms are starting to get rather vascular.  Still not great shoulder definition though.  I can make out the various muscles in my legs when I flex.  If I flex my abs you can see all 6 pretty easy.  32" is historically where I enter the every day brings new details zone.  I'm definitely not satisfied with where I'm at as an end point, already itching to get back to cutting and I haven't even started the break.  But, break is important, it makes the following 2 weeks go.

 

That scale though, I was hoping to be under 200 by the end of this cut, looks like no.  Next cycle.  Refeed just sent the scale flying.  It had been rather stable too for a while before that.

 

[Rooks]

On 6/12/2022 at 8:38 PM, Waldo said:

That scale though, I was hoping to be under 200 by the end of this cut, looks like no.  Next cycle.  Refeed just sent the scale flying.  It had been rather stable too for a while before that.

 

Crazy how 1200 calories can send the scale into such a crazy cycle. Best of luck in the next cycle hitting sub 200.

Random thought. Do you manage your water consumption during your cuts? I ask just because I think back to my times of weight cutting in wrestling. I know it's not apples to apples since your goal isn't a set weight on a certain date, but I'd wager water fluctuation could still cause some massive shifts at the scale if you weren't paying attention. Just curious if you are doing anything to try and understand that. 

[Waldo]

No, I'm sure it is water (bound to carbs).  I use the tape measure around the waist primarily, so the scale is just a sideshow.  But after a long period of going crazy starting with the first break I took, once I got into the undulating pattern it had settled down and was moving very close to the tape, and stayed that way for a couple of months.  Refeed broke that pattern unfortunately.  That said my long term goal has always been 205, so I'm not going to complain about being around 205 while continuing to get leaner.

[Waldo]

I've been off on a challenge for a bit, but I do want to make a post here about a new weight chart I produced, my whole recorded dieting history, just after 9/11/11 to now (I have no records prior, just a vague notion that I was about 185 when I got married, about 155 when I graduated from college, 165 at my heaviest in college):

I've spent a lot of time reflecting this year about my diet and fitness history, and I want to focus on what went wrong, and what I'm doing right.

 

Despite it being basically the same thing as the myfitnesspal weight chart, this one has one key difference; gaps.  Gaps where I wasn't checking my weight.  Or watching my diet. or working out very hard.

 

The first gap, where I gained 25 lbs in just a few months, was when kid #2 was born.  Prior to that I have almost 4 years worth of unbroken weight data.  That cut just before kid #2 is the first big outlier, I had hurt my shoulder (frozen shoulder) and wasn't strength training at all, but I was still running, so despite losing weight, I was actually leaner late summer 2014.  That cut was also the start of a new pattern where I began to sync diet to season, prior to that I was basically max efficiency bulking or cutting.  2015 and 2021 are the only years I have no strength training history for; 2015 I didn't do it, 2021 I didn't write it down.

 

Not strength training I knew was a problem to correct and I did, by hitting the work gym in 2016.  My workouts changed though late summer 2016; I realized I was spending too much time in the gym so I greatly simplified my workout to 1-2 exercises and did 2-3 work sets.  And that's what I did in 2017 and through 2018.  I missed days here and there, becoming more frequent by later 2018.  But I do have lifting history throughout; I did peak in strength in summer 2016 and again summer 2017 (I was dieting and working hard in the gym, even if doing simple workouts), but strength basically declined through 2018.  I was back in the gym immediately after kid #3 in 2017.  It sucks to gain weight and get weaker despite working out, which is basically what I did in 2018. 

 

After the gov't shutdown in early 2019 I bought my gym and changed back to lifting at home at night.  And I haven't stopped lifting since, though I reduced the amount of leg work then hurt my back and took a break from shoulder and leg work.  I have no records of lifting in 2021 but I did. 

 

One thing that is apparent in my workout logs; from shortly after the point I change to simple workouts onward, only briefly in 2017 and 2019 when my gym effort is high do I ever make any gains of note.  Until 2022.

 

Cardio-wise when I go though my history, I was a runner before I ever did any strength training, back to 2011.  The only year I did not run was 2017, but I walked huge amounts playing Pokemon Go.

 

By late 2018 I had stopped the walking for Pokemon Go, stopped running (I did a hybrid run/play thing in 2018, unlike 2017 when I just walked) as it started getting cold, and the holidays/shutdown knocked me out strength training (at work).  I gained 15 lbs during that winter, which prompted getting a gym and getting back to proper running in early 2019.  It also marked the end of an era really.  I decided in summer 2016 that I was at a physically "good enough" point.  I cut like a madman when my wife was pregnant in 2017, but it was very crash diety and didn't last at all.  That 2016-2018 time I was mostly happy with my appearance and didn't think much of it, didn't see the need to try to diet.  I kept in shape doing cardo and lifted fairly regularly.  Didn't spend much time shirtless in public and didn't care when I did, was till fairly lean.  Starting in 2019 I was back to unhappy with my appearance.

 

Being happy with my appearance explains why that first cut after kid #3 fizzled.  I was still fairly lean, lean enough, and just didn't see a reason to try hard.

 

Overall the seeds for success were planted in 2019, even if it took a while to realize.  That's when I started to get back to work out every day no excuses and when I started running for real again.  The problem was I didn't care so much about my diet and when I did I couldn't sustain it.  And I just kept getting derailed.  But the exercise stuck, and eventually that has a gravity that will pull the diet in.

 

I can't point to anything in particular that derailed my 2019 cutting effort, but that time was about the most stress I'd been under in my life as I was applying to various jobs, including the one I'd been working toward for the past 10 years.    In many ways it was the relief of that stress, getting promoted, that sinking in over the holidays that led to a super strong start to 2020, even though I was starting in a hole compared to the previous year.  But a serious stress fracture that ended any cardio for months coupled with the start of the pandemic put an end to that.

 

It took a while to get the diet right, the pandemic really completely upended my life (for good).  I used a walk a fair bit to and from the train to commute, and just around the office in general.  Telework all the time was a big drop in total daily activity.  Early on I tried walking on the treadmill periodically and kept that habit up for a while (the treadmill has since died).  Getting a steady supply of herb (+the munchies) was not at all helpful just as I was getting my workout groove back.  But still, I think overall from 2019 on, once I got back to a very steady workout plan, success was going to come.  What finally made it click though was some goals.

 

I have always been a believer in the hackers diet concept of a control band, that you stay within a weight band, once outside, diet back to a point.  Which means weight regularly.  The gaps are when things are out of control, almost always when I'm mindful of my weight, I control it.  The first vague goals I had in the 2019-2021 time was to get back to that control band, which meant  get under 215.  That was pretty much the situation 2016-2018 that I was happy with.  First goal was to get back to that.  That's where I was aiming in early 2020 and where I eventually petered out late 2021. 

 

That was my first big mistake, I stopped having goals.  Once I started having goals again, things started moving the right direction and eventually staying that way.

 

I've long known that when I weigh regularly I control my weight.  One of my first goals when redoubling effort this year was to dust the cobwebs off of that, weigh every day unless I have a darn good reason not to.

 

I was really successful in 2017 using a workout plan of 5 total exercises and just a small number of work sets of each (a plan I started doing in 2016).  It was fast and efficient and a I made slow and steady gains and all my old injuries seems to melt away; I had no overwork pains.  In 2017.  It just stuck with me, and followed me home to my new gym in 2019.  After a while I just stopped caring about any sort of progress as well (and in 2021 stopped even keeping track).  But it finally became clear that I had taken it way too far, put forth far too little effort, and in many ways was just wasting my time.  Trying hard is important.  When I started always trying hard every workout again, something that used to be the norm for me 2011-2016, progress started happening again. Progress is important.  The gym is a lot more fun when you're making progress.

 

 

[Waldo]

Back to my battle log for the challenge intermission.

 

I'm just finishing a cut cycle, today is start of a weeklong break, though I haven't broken my deficit yet (I might wait until after tonight's weigh-in, one more shot at under 200).  Going into the last challenge I thought this last round would be the last one, but I want to do one more round to get rid of the last bits of gut.  Its hard to really stick the landing, I'm close enough to abs showing all the time that I'd rather cut than not at the moment.  Even though I do want to raise cals and focus on gym gains.

 

This past cycle was a bit more intense than they have been, I lost 3/4" in the waist in 13 days, but at day 14.5 I still really haven't broken it.  I'm not feeling the side effects much at all, but I don't think I could sustain another 3 weeks, so break it is.

 

After that I'm just going to open ended cut, stop when I'm happy where I get or when my body tells me to, 2 weeks-ish.  As much as anything I want to throw down a marker in measurements.  The better data I have in measurements, the easier this time is in future cuts and the easier it is to plan.

[Rooks]

Dude. That's a super insightful post. I wish I had been that diligent about things over the last 10 years. Loved reading it as odd at that may sound.

 

On 7/19/2022 at 5:02 PM, Waldo said:

That was my first big mistake, I stopped having goals.  Once I started having goals again, things started moving the right direction and eventually staying that way.

 

I have found this to be mostly true, but for me, there also has to be some sort of accountability with the goal too. That's where I struggle. I can say it, or write it down, but it's not enough for me to just say I want something. I don't know. Not sure if I just lack the ability to commit to something or what. I always struggle and wonder if that means I actually don't want that goal. 

[Waldo]

Oh I'm not that good at meeting goals, but working towards something at least is better than not.

 

Keeping it off is one of the great challenges, one of the reasons I've at least tracked my weight, that single data point daily over time is so insightful.  There's a whole lot of stuff out there about losing weight.  Hardly anything about keeping it off.  One thing I've always embraced is the idea that I'm going to dieting to lose fat again , probably relatively soon, and that's always going to be the case.  That comfort level I have with doing it.

 

I think its interesting, and I really didn't realize how strongly the effect was before, that I can trace almost all out of control weight gain to a few key events/time periods, kid #2, kid #3, and the government shutdown.  The pandemic kind of, but the gov't shutdown a year before was such a disaster to my health and fitness that I started changing my habits and situation due to it, so it was easier to handle the pandemic early on.  Not that I did particularly well.

[Waldo]

I've been meaning to write something about the undulating diets that I do.  Its such a different world from typical weight loss dieting despite being fairly similar.  I learned about it from Lyle McDonald and a couple other bodybuilding diet gurus.  I've practiced it in some form now for quite a long time total, even though it had been a while before this year.  Controlled bulks for muscle gain are a just another form of an undulating diet.

 

Undulating diets.. why?  Basically the idea was created by scientist-trainers working out "the rules" of how our bodies hormonal defenses to starvation work, how fat is lost, and how muscle is gained (that one is still poorly understood).  Both physique trainers and bodybuilders.  Many different forms were created in the 80's and 90's.  LeanGains is a well known 90's undulating diet form.

 

At some point as you lose weight, around when you are "normal" weight, your body will start actually fighting the effort hormonally in addition to the psychological fight you had do deal with prior.  You can just willpower your way through it to a point, though a lot of the negative side effects of dieting like muscle loss and BMR drop, accelerate greatly when your body has engaged hormonal defenses.  Plus it starts to become outright torture.  We interact with our hormones mentally, a lot of what you think of as mental struggles and willpower is actually chemical warfare, your bodies defenses.

 

Diet breaks and refeeds will get rid of the hormonal effects (for a bit), though diet breaks are far more potent.  Refeeds can almost never be big enough to work that well. 

 

The hormonal effects we are interested in countering primarily is the drop in Leptin.  Leptin is a happy signal.  When your body is producing it its happy, you're not starving.  Leptin is produced by bodyfat.  Bodyfat is in fact an endocrine organ, and Leptin is one of its products.  As your body fat drops lower and lower, all of a sudden its not able to produce as much Leptin and needs strong signals to produce.  What tells your bodyfat to produce Leptin?  Carbs.  Gylocgen in the muscles, insulin in the blood.

 

Refeeds are a form of hacking thyself where you take in a huge jolt of rapidly available non-fructose carbs.  It'll all get quickly sucked into the muscles and burned up, however as the process occurs your body will send out a Leptin pulse that will last a few days.

 

Diet breaks are much more effective, where you spend some time out of a deficit and fully refill the bodies' carbs stores.  Much more leptin is produced and it lasts a good bit longer.

 

In fact one of the basic rules that has been established anecdotally (and I agree) is that after a diet break or other period of non-deficit of sufficient length, the absolute minimum amount of time before leptin can drop fast enough to see side effects is 2 weeks.  A 2 week diet + 1 week break rinse repeat is almost bulletproof when it comes to hormonal side effects, no matter the deficit size or how lean you are.

 

The bodies carb stores are an important point.  First of all its important to understand that there are a few pounds of water bound with stored carbs.  Pounds.  The body seems to have 2 carb storage setpoints; a low point where it defends further carb loss by increasing fat burn, and a high point where excess is burned off.  At that high point is where the leptin signal is sent and where the muscle building signals are sent.  Between the two is 1000-2000 calories worth of carbs that weighs like 2-5 lb when bound to water in the body.  Those calories are important, when you are doing an undulating diet they are the "cost" of moving between phases.  You need 1K-2K worth of deficit to run your carb stores down enough to start seeing fat loss.  Leptin production isn't going hit peak rate until you've taken in 1-2K surplus carbs to replenish (eating at maintenance doesn't replenish nearly as well).

 

That last point is very important for diet breaks.  A good diet break (for the purposes of an undulating diet) should be a surplus and carb heavy.  The key item you are trying to achieve is to refill all of your bodies carb stores, which is most efficiently done when energy positive.  It can be a bit unnerving, weight is going to shoot up, but you'd need like 3K+ calories of surplus to see any noticable fat gain.

 

One thing I think is important is to keep a regular schedule.  I only make diet changes weekly, while sleeping on Sunday night.  Undulating diets are a plan to be stuck to, not so much an ad hoc arrangement.  In fact, that's the biggest hangup, it is relatively high effort, you have to be mindful of what you are doing, both the deficit times and the surplus times.  But its a bit easier to stick to the plan when every 3rd week includes a pail of ice cream or (and...) a few boxes of cereal. 

 

Obviously undulating diets are slower than linear diets, but not as much as you'd think.  On linear diets you're thinking stuff like sustainability, good decision making, etc...  You're in it for the long haul, a surefire way to fail is to be too aggressive.  On the flipside that doesn't matter in the slightest when doing an undulating diet; there is a surplus period that is part of the plan in couple weeks, nothing about what is happening in the cut has to do with anything long term, so you are free to be aggressive.  By breaking cuts up with frequent diet breaks, you end up with many more but smaller goals, which again tends to feed into aggressiveness; you sprint through finish lines, so throw up finish lines every few weeks and now you're sprinting most of the time.

 

When using undulating plan for cuts, the cutting period should be shortened the leaner you get.  This time I did: 8, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2 weeks, with a 1 week diet break between each (first diet break was 3 weeks, excessive in hindsight).

 

Muscle gain efforts when done right, the full bulk-cut cycle, are also undulating diets; most people want to be both bigger and leaner by the end of each cycle.  LeanGains is a form of this, though I think frequent undulations are a ridiculous amount of effort to keep track of and horribly inefficient due to the state change calorie cost and time.  Surplus periods of 3-4-5-6 weeks followed by 1-2 week cuts is also almost completely invisible to outside observers, even spouses.