EmbracingChaos' Quest For The Clean Bulk

[EmbracingChaos]

Day 70/71.

 

Food: 

1,610 calories / 172g protein / 79g fat / 67g carbs

Eating window ~3:00-6:00 PM

 

Exercise:

Rest Day

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

 

Body Fat: 13.5%

[Disil]

Grinding is good. Grinding is love.

[EmbracingChaos]

Day 71/71.

 

Food: 

2,327 calories / 162g protein / 50g fat / 319g carbs

Eating window ~12:00-7:15 PM

 

Exercise:

Bench Press (warmup), 4x185, 5x170

Weighted Dips 6x195, 7x175

Barbell Rows 4x210, 2x3x210

Tricep Extensions 3x3x110

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

[EmbracingChaos]

71-Day Cut After Action Report

 

... my goal is to get down to at least 13% body fat (if I'm honest with myself I'd like 11%, but that seems daunting right now) while keeping more muscle than during my initial cut, giving myself an opportunity to still profit from at least a little bit of muscle from this whole endeavor. As I transition out of each body fat trend number I'll post my prior and current weight trends at that body fat.  Obviously there will be variations and some body fat numbers will take longer to get through, but yea, let's keep more muscle this time.  I have a feeling my body is just VERY prone to retaining the exact ratio of fat and muscle at each body fat level, but it gives me a goal to shoot for at least.

 

Body Fat:

17.9%: 149.1 lbs (prior) - 150 lbs. (current) - +0.9 lbs.

 

My current body fat trend is 13.5%, so while not all the way down to 13% exactly, it's solidly in the area.  I'm glad that lined up with the 71 day time limit I had eventually set though it's more coincidence than anything.  My weight trend is at 134.5 lbs. compared to 136.7 lbs. the last time I cut down this low.  So I have not benefited from any muscle from this whole endeavor, but I do feel like I did everything possible I could have.  I must have just put on way too much fat in way too short of a time from roughly mid-March to late-June.  Searching for a new house, selling our old house, and moving really put a beating on my diet and exercise adherence.

 

Results:

150 - 134.5 lbs. (-15.5 lbs)

17.9% - 13.5% body fat  (-4.4%)

 

 

 

Lessons Learned:

• I feel much better with having very low calories for a few days per week and eating up to maintenance the rest of the week than maintaining a consistent daily deficit
• Reverse-pyramid training appears to let me maintain strength better in a cut, without feeling like I'm on the verge of injury after each workout
• TDEE slowdown appears to take a long time for it to occur for me, my TDEE has actually increased in the last month which may be due to the longer fasts/lower calories days and eating to maintenance the rest of the week.  Here is a graph I created last night to visually display my 7-Day TDEE as compared to calories eaten per day (from when I actually started tracking calories):
  

  

 

 

What's next:

Well, I'd like to dedicate all of 2016 to long, slow, muscle-building (I'm throwing out the term bulking, that flat out makes me eat stupid and get fat).  So I'm probably going to just keep driving this thing like I stole it and cut until I just can't take it any longer or I hit 10%-11%.  Since my metabolism hasn't slowed and I feel fine there's no real reason to stop.  I'm still going out of town and that week will probably be a wash, but I'm not going to worry too much about it.  If I can just get all of the cutting I could possibly want done before Thanksgiving of this year for the U.S. (November 26) then I'll be pretty happy.  If I decide to stop before then, well, I'm still in a decent muscle-building range.

[Disil]

I love how the title of your log is/will be more fitting than ever.

 

You did quite well I would say, especially considering that as we've talked about before, you really didn't kill yourself, except maybe for the last week or so where you were more strict. Patience, again, proves to be king and this allows you to even keep on going from here on out.

 

And yeah, those pictures, they speak for themselves. But we know the real struggle never was to cut, but to do the opposite without going overboard.

[EmbracingChaos]

Yea I have losing body fat down, I just still really suck at putting on muscle. But it's only really a failure if you don't learn from it, so now I'm just going to do things differently. Track food and calories (loosely when going places without information), small surplus, work out more intense with more forced progression, and trust my waist measurements and scale trends.

2016 will be interesting.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[EmbracingChaos]

Great snippet from Ronda Rousey's mom from "My Fight, Your Fight":
 

If you did your absolute best, if you were capable of doing nothing more, then that’s enough. Then you can be content with the outcome. But if you could have done better, if you could have done more, then you should be disappointed. You should be upset you didn’t win. You should go home and think about what you could have done differently and then next time do it differently. Don’t you ever let anyone tell you that not doing your absolute best is good enough.

[EmbracingChaos]

Inspired by this blog post by Brad Pilon (author of Eat Stop Eat), I've been playing a bit of mind games with myself to view my weekly calories as a calorie savings account.  I'm a person that hates having debt, so I tend to save for things rather than buy things on credit.  But when it comes to calories I've always seen it as something that I'll "pay for later", that "there will be plenty of time to deal with it in the future", and other such justifications to eat what I want, when I want.  I'm reframing it now to where I'm given my weekly calorie allotment and I can split it up anyway that I like, but I'm done once the account is empty.

 

So I started out this week by front-loading a whopping 2,300 calorie deficit with a 40-hour fast.  I got to dinner time and felt pretty darn good, so I just let it ride.  Going to destroy a Deadlift workout in about 3 hours and enjoy a decent lunch of chicken and vegetables, and then eat a great dinner.  There's something gratifying about waking up on Tuesday morning and already being about 60% toward my weekly deficit.  Once that's done the only thing left to do is to let momentum take over and finish the week.

 

Food: 

40-hour fast

 

Exercise:

Rest Day

 

Supplements:

None

[EmbracingChaos]

Food: 

2,029 calories / 200g protein / 75g fat / 162g carbs

Eating window ~12:30-6:30 PM

 

Exercise:

Deadlifts (warmup), 4x305, 5x280

Weighted Chinups 6x185, 7x165

Overhead Press 7x115, 8x105

Barbell Curl 3x5x85

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

[EmbracingChaos]

Food: 

1,807 calories / 212g protein / 82g fat / 79g carbs

Eating window ~4:45-6:00 PM

 

Exercise:

Rest Day

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

 

Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -3,004

[EmbracingChaos]

Went to my family's favorite Chinese buffet and ate a truckload of food.  I did two large bowls of meat, seafood, and vegetables for my first trip and had it all cooked up on the Mongolian grill topped with a lot of rice.  The second trip I actually got some of the stuff I love from the line with the fattier/sugary sauces with a lot more rice.  Then some hot & sour soup, then more line items with rice, and finally called it done.  I stayed away from the desserts, ice cream and all of the fried stuff at least, so I guesstimated the meal at about 2,500 calories given the quantity of food that I ate.  Came home and polished off 2 cups of frozen yogurt with a banana for my dessert.

 

I'm debating on doing a 40-hour fast today since I woke up feeling stuffed to the brim still and I'd really like my body fat to settle at about the 13% mark at least before I stop this cut (currently at 13.2%).  We'll see how the day goes though, at a minimum I'll probably keep it really light on the calorie side in any case.

 

Food: 

2,965 calories / 165g protein / 65g fat / 232g carbs

Eating window ~5:15-7:00 PM

 

Exercise:

Barbell Squats (warmup), 6x165, 7x150

Barbell Lunges 3x5x120

Weighted Pullups 6x190, 7x170

Handstands

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

[EmbracingChaos]

More quotes from My Fight, Your Fight:

“... it is not enough to just be better than everyone else. You have to be so much better that no one can deny your superiority. ... You have to win so clearly that they have no choice but to declare you the winner. You have to be able to win every match twice on your worst day."

“The days were all soreness, sweat, the stench of my car, and constant wet hair. I didn’t mind it. I was in the middle of the hustle, and I understood that in order to be successful this was what I needed to do. I needed to practice more than anyone on the planet. I needed to be smarter and stronger and go longer. I needed to be at the gym when other people were merely thinking about going to the gym. I needed to go beyond what anyone else thought was reasonable and then go beyond that. Every day I did that, I moved one day closer to achieving my goal.â€

“Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.†Winning is a habit, and so is losing. ... Winning is a habit means trying—and expecting—to be better than everybody in the world every day.â€

[Disil]

Yeah, she's truly special. Competing with a torn ACL, sprains, she truly embodied going beyond what others consider going beyond already. I love that one quote that went along the lines of "I need to be so much better that I'll beat you on my worst day"

[EmbracingChaos]

Finished up the 40-hour fast without too many issues.  I felt pretty crappy for a lot of it because I was still stuffed to the brim when I woke up and felt uncomfortable, yet I felt all kinds of hunger pangs throughout the day probably related to my blood sugar crashing after all of the sugary sauces and what-not from Chinese.  Oh well, broke the fast about noon with chicken, vegetables, and spinach.  Tonight beef chili is on the menu, going to be great.  Tomorrow night we're going out for my brother's birthday to a Greek restaurant, so tonight and tomorrow are looking good.

 

Food: 

40-hour fast

 

Exercise:

Rest Day

 

Supplements:

None

 

Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -4,599

[EmbracingChaos]

I love how great food tastes when breaking a 40-hour fast.  Even stuff I'm not that excited about, such as vegetables, just tastes great after not eating for so long.  The chili was as good as I hoped it would be, we put in three lbs. of a fatty cut of beef and a bunch of onion.  Topped off the night with some banana and crunchy peanut butter.

 

Food: 

2,396 calories / 255g protein / 89g fat / 167g carbs

 

Exercise:

Rest Day

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

 

Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -4,483

[EmbracingChaos]

The Greek restaurant was excellent, with surprisingly HUGE portion sizes.  That inevitably led me to overeat but since it was a once in a great while occurrence, eh, I'm not going to worry about it.

 

Food: 

3,227 calories / 171g protein / 126g fat / 359g carbs

Eating window ~1:45-7:45 PM

 

Exercise:

Bench Press (warmup), 5x185, 6x170

Weighted Dips 7x200, 8x180

Barbell Rows 3x5x155 (I reset this lift, I was doing too much cheating with kipping)

Tricep Extensions 3x5x110

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

 

Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -3,536

[EmbracingChaos]

My body fat trend has settled down to 13% so I'm going to take this opportunity to call the overtime/sudden death portion of this cut as complete, transition to two weeks at roughly maintenance, and then introduce a very mild weekly surplus (~5%).  I'm going to approach gaining muscle with a ratcheting mindset.  I'm going to gain up to 14% body fat trend from this point, then cut back down to 12.5%, gain up to 13.5%, cut down to 12%, etc.  This will allow me to slowly "tighten up" my body fat range as time goes on and if I actually gain muscle over time I will look significantly better as I get lower in body fat since I currently get pretty gaunt below 13%.

 

My current intention is to keep doing a full 40-hour fast one day per week, for both health and body composition.  I'm also looking to workout every other day, rather than the three days a week I have been.  That will vary which muscle group follows my fast day, which will spread out any benefits or drawbacks among all muscle groups.  The plan will run in two week cycles where the first week I fast on Monday and workout Tue., Thurs., Sat., and the second week I fast on Tuesday and workout Mon., Wed., Fri., Sun.   Then the cycle repeats.  In any two week period this allows me to workout 7 times, complete two 40-hour fasts, and remain in a daily surplus on all other 12 days of the week when I should be either working out or recovering from the workout the day before.  It also keeps me "warmed up" to fasting, so when I transition to fat loss again it will be easy to just add in more fasting.

 

I have a very similar two week plan I'm going to use when I do get back to having to lose fat.  Also running in two week cycles, I'll continue my workouts every other day and then fast Monday and Friday for week 1, and then Wednesday of week 2.  All other days of both weeks will have maintenance calorie levels which will give a slightly less than 2 lb. deficit over two weeks (for my TDEE) which should be manageable and relatively easy at any body fat level.  Basically I've done away with daily deficits in my planning and my mind.  If I'm going to restrict calories then I'm going to isolate it to specific days and go straight for the jugular and eat like a friggin' champ the rest of the time.

[EmbracingChaos]

Food: 

40-hour fast

 

Exercise:

Rest Day

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

 

Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -2,240

[Disil]

 

I'm going to gain up to 14% body fat trend from this point, then cut back down to 12.5%, gain up to 13.5%, cut down to 12%, etc.  This will allow me to slowly "tighten up" my body fat range as time goes on and if I actually gain muscle over time I will look significantly better as I get lower in body fat since I currently get pretty gaunt below 13%.

Sounds pretty awesome overall. The only thing I'm wondering is whether you'll opt for diet breaks or the likes when transitioning back to bulking each time or do you think it doesn't make too much sense since you're basically perma-recomping with the fasts and a mostly regular eating schedule?

Other than that, the one danger I see is that this might become tedious after a while of not seeing big improvements in either direction - as recomping tends to be.

[EmbracingChaos]

Sounds pretty awesome overall. The only thing I'm wondering is whether you'll opt for diet breaks or the likes when transitioning back to bulking each time or do you think it doesn't make too much sense since you're basically perma-recomping with the fasts and a mostly regular eating schedule?

Other than that, the one danger I see is that this might become tedious after a while of not seeing big improvements in either direction - as recomping tends to be.

 

I'll probably not do any diet breaks in my first go at this, specifically for the reason you mentioned (that it's basically a perma-recomp).  If I find that I put on too much fat after a switch back and forth I'd probably rethink that though.

 

It definitely could get tedious.  Slow progress seems like a worthy trade-off for staying lean year round right now, but who knows if it will seem so in a few months.

[EmbracingChaos]

A few key reminders to myself to prevent suffering from Fuckarounditis:

 

If you're not grimacing, grunting, or experiencing some sort of discomfort, you're not training hard enough. One good set where you have to fight for the reps is better than a week of half-ass sets.

 

The only thing that should be changing from week to week is the load on the bar or the reps with the same load you used last time. If you're doing it right, these should be increasing. Everything else stays the same; the movements and the order you did them in, the sets and the rest periods in between sets. You don't add in new stuff.

This is the only way you can fairly evaluate your progress and see if you're headed in the right direction. It might sound tedious to keep doing the same movements every week and the appeal of "mixing it up" can seem strong.

 

Let's see some fucking effort next time. Don't take up precious space here when you can get a better workout from walking your dog through the park outside.

You can be doing everything perfectly, but you will not go anywhere if you're not willing to experience discomfort on a regular basis.

[EmbracingChaos]

Food: 

3,021 calories / 284g protein / 48g fat / 377g carbs

Eating window ~12:00-7:45 PM

 

Exercise:

Deadlifts (warmup), 4x305, 5x285

Weighted Chinups 6x190, 7x170

Overhead Press 5x120, 6x110

Barbell Curl 6x85, 2x5x85

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

 

Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -1,539

[EmbracingChaos]

Food: 

2,266 calories / 190g protein / 86g fat / 89g carbs

Eating window ~4:30-7:00 PM

 

Exercise:

Rest Day

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

 

Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -1,525

[EmbracingChaos]

This was a pretty good leg workout.  It will be great when I can get squats to progress again, it's tempting to just go into a straight bulk to get it to at least 225 lbs. for 5 reps.  Patience is the name of the game though.  The quick solution, relative strength-wise, would be to just keep cutting down to 11% body fat which would make me stronger relatively.  Oh well, I'll have to see how I feel when I get back from being out of town for work whether I should bite the bullet and cut a bit more.  I sure don't want to but it would remove any sense of doubt about progress.

 

I travel out of state for work starting on Tuesday morning until Friday night, so I need to find a place to fit in one more 40-hour fast between now and then.  Since I want to work out on Monday in case the hotel has crappy facilities, my options are moving my Monday fast to today or to Sunday.  I'll probably play it by ear and see how I'm feeling at dinner time.  If I'm not starving and feel like it would be an easy one then I'll probably do it today, if the day is sucking I'll just do it Sunday.

 

Food: 

3,023 calories / 227g protein / 72g fat / 383g carbs

Eating window ~12:00-6:30 PM

 

Exercise:

Barbell Squats (warmup), 7x165, 8x150

Barbell Lunges 3x5x125

Weighted Pullups 5x195, 6x175

Handstands

 

Supplements:

4 fish oil capsules

Daily multivitamin

 

Weekly Deficit/Surplus To-Date: -782

[Disil]

Since you're doing mostly barbell work, I don't see too big of a benefit in increasing relative strength. Yeah it's nice to have and would help you regarding pull-ups, dips or handstands, but you're probably gonna cut faster and easier once you've bulked for a while.