Steak, Eggs, Lean Salad and Two (Potentially Three) Beards. Diet Log.

[LtL]

Weight is 96.05kgs this morning. Only had PWO carbs yesterday and nothing in the evening as I have a family meal today which should be big to make up for it. 2 weeks left until holiday and then hopefully I can have a more gentle approach during the final lead up to the meet. 12 weeks out now.

Al

[Fazc]

Great stuff Al.

[LtL]

So I called a stop to the backloading yesterday. I am sick and manipulating carbs on a strict diet will not help that. I have pretty much hit the weight that I want to anyways so I just need to maintain now. I weighed in at 95.7kgs this morning after eating carbs all day so am pretty pleased with that. In 7 weeks I have come down from 102.8kgs and have at least maintained strength. Now it's time to develop a healthy diet to maintain the weight and gain strength. I will be manipulating carbs and having more around training but will be eating them every day regardless.

Overall I like backloading but following a discussion with Fazc and my own experiences I have decided that it is most definitely not a long-term solution. Works very well as a short-term fix to drop weight though. The weight that I lost has come mostly from my mid-section. My lifting belt and all of my trousers are looser and I can even see the outlines of some of my abs. Now it's time to see what I can lift at this weight.

Al

[BendtheBar]

Are you going to keep the carb intake about the same or not worry about it and just monitor cals?

Overall I like backloading but following a discussion with Fazc and my own experiences I have decided that it is most definitely not a long-term solution.

Would like to hear an overview on your thoughts about the pros and cons.

[Fazc]

That's a fine weight loss in that period of time.

I think whatever your goal is next, either to maintain or lose more it's wise to have a short break in the interim. This will allow your bodyweight to stabilise somewhat. Full focus on maintaining that weight now Ltl!

Good work!

[LtL]

So a quick update as to where I'm at: I took 2 weeks off carb backloading before and during my holiday and weight stayed pretty much the same between 95 and 96kgs. While I was away I read Kiefer's backloading manual and having understood the diet better, decided to go back on and use it to maintain my current weight whilst recomping. The changes that I have made from before are slight but important:

- Morning shake is now 50grams of whey, a cup of coffee, 10 grams of creatine and a tablespoon of coconut oil. The coconut MCT fats give me better energy and help prolong ketosis.
- Backloading every day starting at 5pm.
- First backloading meal always contains sugary, high GI foods and protein (whole food or whey). I was concerned about this before but having read the book, the best results come from these carbs and not low GI.
- Second carb meal in the evening is whatever Mrs Al cooks supplemented with extra high GI carbs (kiddy cereal or whey shake with dextrose).

Results so far are that despite me eating on average 4 doughnuts per day I am looking more muscular, my waistline is still getting smaller and I have lots of energy during the day. I am also running Fahrenheit's GF-T21 which is helping recomp. Bodyweight was 94.25kgs this morning. I will continue to eat this way for another week or two and then make a decision if I need to up the daytime meals to maintain weight more easily or keep going and not hit 93kgs without having to manipulate water. I am erring on the side of not dehydrating but that is on the basis that my strength continues its upward trend and my gear still fits.

Thanks to Fazc for inspiring me to make this change. Overall this year I have dropped from 107kgs to my current weight. Any strength loss has been marginal and mostly due to changed leverages and ROMs. I feel more athletic, can train more and feel overall better conditioned. Hazzard doesn't like it though as he says I am too skinny and am making him look bad

Al

[Fazc]

Originally Posted by LtL

Thanks to Fazc for inspiring me to make this change.

It's all you bro.

You look like a lifter now, and like I keep saying in my log any marginal strength loss will return over the coming months. So you'll be in a better position looking ahead.

Also you've had the experience of losing weight, you may want to vary your weight over the years to benefit from the very anabolic nature of weight gain. So this will allow you that possibility as well.

Proud of you dude.

[BendtheBar]

Glad to hear all is going well Al. And as for Hazzard, he's a Patriot's fan so there was little hope to begin with.

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by LtL

- First backloading meal always contains sugary, high GI foods and protein (whole food or whey). I was concerned about this before but having read the book, the best results come from these carbs and not low GI.

Have never read the book (not even sure what the title is which is fine) but I've also read that from different sources and the reasoning why which really puts things into perspective.

[LtL]

It's a diet which forces you to reject a lot of accepted diet staples but it works. Just trying to adapt it to maintain weight now.

Al