Soldier's high volume training, high volume fat log

[Soldier]

Originally Posted by BendtheBar

Noticed the new avatar. Rock solid work hombre.

Thanks my friend. I have to say I was very happy when I put the pictures enxt to each other. For a long time I was training hard, but in all the wrong ways. Thanks to places like this site I finalyl feel like the work is producing results.

Originally Posted by T-Bone

Nice session Soldier! Wave loading is a new concept to me, so thanks for that, I like it. Pics are great too, back is look really thick. Excellent progress!

I had read about it but never tried it. Basically you alternate heavy and light, but do the same number of reps even for the light work. It may the best way to increase volume I've tried yet, but of course it's volume at the expense of intensity because there are so many reps involved.

Thanks for the compliment! I've been hitting my back hard, trying to make sure I'm balanced because I've always had a ton of mass in my chest. Of course, I hardly ever see my back, so I was pretty blown away by the pics.

[Soldier]

I'm stuck at work without my normal computer, so all my normal time wasters like t-nation are blocked. In light of this, I thought I'd write about some of the supplements I'm taking and how they're working for me.

1. preworkout- Gaspari superpump MAX.

I'm VERY happy with this product. I only need one scoop, and I feel it start to work while I'm still drinking it. I usually watch inspirational vids on youtube while I drink it, and by the end I'm ready to rip heads off. My wife amost drove to the gym without me one day because I wasn't very nice to here, and it was becuse I was so hyped up on this product. I don't even remember what happened.

After I drink this stuff, the only thought in my head is "It's time to **** some **** up." I'm not kidding, I actually feel that way.

This is very helpful on my current regimen of glycogen depleted high volume training. I don't think it would make as much of a difference if I had more muscle glycogen.

2. MGN american isolate whey protein-

I've used two flavors, cake better and peanut butter. If taste is your main concern, and/or you need something tasty to break up the monotany of your diet, then this stuff is AMAZING. The cake batter is a thick vanilla taste. It works with anything, from frozen fruit to chocolate and peanut butter. It makes anything you combine it with taste better.

The peanut butter flavor is less versatile, but it's like drinking the best peanut butter pie you've ever had. I haven't tried it with milk yet because of my low carb diet, but I bet it would taste amazing. I have to admit that now that I'm out of cake batter, it gets a little annoying to only have peanut butter, because I don't really have anything to mix it with to switch up flavors. Maybe I'll try puting a banana in with it during a high carb day.

That being said, it's a nice treat to have on a low carb diet where I don't get anything else sweet.

3. Animal pak-
This is extremely expensive and comes with a lot of pills to take. Don't try to take it with soda! You'll get gas and burp for an hour. I haven't felt any real difference with this compared to any other multi, but I also haven't felt any different taking ANY multi compared to not taking it. I'll have to chock this one up to knowing that I need a good multi because that's what everyone says.

But this one is to expensive and annoying to have to take every day with 400 pills, so once this is gone I'll be switching to a more fiscally reasonable choice for my multi.

4. Dymatize Z-force-
I had mentioned in another post that this supplement was actually KEEPING ME from getting to sleep. Since then I switched to 2 pills (the suggestion for men is 3) a night, and I take it earlier in the evening if at all. I don't take it every night, but I do most. If I take it around 8:30 than I usually get really sleepy around 10, which is perfect for me. If I take it right before bed, then I'm up for a couple hours, which is NOT normal for me.

I'm going to need to continue to use this product for a logner period to see how I need to dose it to get the right results. I've read that it's important to supplement both zinc and magnesium, so I'm going to do what I can to make it work, but NOT at the expense of sleep.

[BendtheBar]

MGN - if you like cinnamon, try the cinnamon bun flavor. It's awesome. Also goes well in coffee.

Nice review on MAX. I've had good luck with regular Superpump but haven't had a chance to try Max yet.

[Soldier]

Today's post-fast bodyweight- 205

I was a tiny bit off on what I thought it would be because last night I was insanely hungry and decided to have a protein shake a little bit before bed. If I hadn't then I would have been under 205, as planned.

I'm going to hold off on my carb up for now. I've got PT in 2 hours, which should royaly kick my glycogen depleted ass. I'm able to drop about 1lb a day when I fast, so if I hold off on my carb up until Friday I should be able to get under 203 by then. It'll be hard. Hard as hell.

I gain about 3lbs when I carbed up last time at Cici's pizza buffet, so that would leave me around 206 as a starting point for my next set of low carb days.

God, I'm not looking forward to the next few days. I need rest, but not being active will make it very hard to eat the way I need to. You know what? Bring it on. These are the days that seperate us from average people! These are the decisions they can't make. These are the reasons people will whisper "oh my god, he looks amazing!" to each other when I take off my shirt.

This is where I earn it.

PT in 2 hours. . .and I'll STILL do better than most everyone else.

Let's do this.

[Soldier]

Well at first I didn't think Superpump was better than jacked, but now I prefer it. Less pumps (ironic, but I've heard it from others too) which is a good thing to me, and it tastes really quite good, like koolaid.

I need to get some good old chocolate protein powder. That'll give me something to mix with the peanut butter protein, but also something to switch it up. The peanut butter is actually too rich, especially when added to heavy cream and eggs.

[Soldier]

So, for the second morning in a row I pumped my fist and whispered "yes!" when I got on the scale. For the second day in a row I lost 1.2lb.

Today's bodyweight- 203.8

I've realized something interesting at PT. Sometimes, as I'm running at the head of the group or finishing a set of pushups before everyone else I'll say something like "I'm too fat to beat you guys". This is odd because even though I'm the heaviest person at PT who isn't a fatty (we've got a couple, not sure what they were thinking going into the military.) I'm also one of the leanest guys there.

My upper abs are coming in nicely, especially now that I'm not being a bitch about holding off on carb-ups.

I do what a lot of FFB's do (that's former fat boys), which is to spend a lot of time looking at myself in the mirror. I even do it in public, like if I see a mirror in a store when I'm with my wife. People who haven't gone through a radical body tranformation will NEVER get it. They think we've become egotistical. Not true, trust me. Anyone who, at about 15-17% bodyfat still calls themself fat isn't egotistical.

It's more like I'm surprised every single time I look into a mirror. I have to say to myself "Is that ME? Wow, that's really cool."

It's like mind and body aren't quite on the same page, which makes sense when you think about the fact that I was overweight throughout my formative years when I was trying to figure myself out. Part of my identity was being big and chubby, so my brain still defaults to thinking of myself in that way.

I'm going to ride this wave for now. It's Wednesday and I weigh 203.8. Today and tomorrow I'll fast, then carb up Friday night. If I can lose at least 1lb a day than that will leave me under 202 Friday morning. I'll probably carb up to 205-206. Within the next month I should not only be under 200, but I should also be to the point that once I start eating "normally" again I won't jump above 200 again.

Once I can keep myself around 195 I may try to keep losing. That will depend on my momentum. If things are going well I'll keep going. If I"m wanting to kill myself then I'll try carb backloading and go into weight maintenance to try to start building up my strength again.

[Soldier]

A quick update for anyone interested in this type of diet;

I'm extremely lethargic today. The further I get from my last carb up, the worse my lethargy becomes. I also lose my motivation to go to the gym, or move at all for that matter. Every day after lunch I take my group of kids out to the field to throw around a football. It's a way of blowing off steam so once we're done they will get back to work. Normally if someone throws a ball to me and it's not quite straight I'll run after it to try to catch it or stop it.

Not today.

Today I just let it fly by then walked over to get it.

I can feel that my body is drained. It's normal for people who train to be more in-tune with their bodies than non-trainers, but diets like this make you even more aware of how your body feels. I can tell that my body wants glucose. It wants evergy, and it's not very happy about only having body fat to run off of, with a little dietary fat thrown in every now and then. I've also struggled with anything endurance related. I get winded very quickly during workouts, and have trouble running fast for very long.

Many people complain about being in a mental "fog" when they are fasting or eating low carb. I'm doing both, and I don't feel any real mental effects to speak of. However, the physical effects are extremely noticeable and annoying. Hopefully I don't have trouble building myself back up once carbs are a normal part of my everyday diet again.

I've also been getting really good sleep, but still feel VERY tired mid-afternoon. I'm feeling it right now, and it's 1:15. In 1:15 when I get off I'll feel fine, but right now it's getting really tough.

[Soldier]

Today's post-fast bodyweight- 203

I'm VERY happy about this. I'm also completely drained. I've reached my breaking point, which is fine because I got 2.5lbs lighter than I was before my last carb up. That's a succesful week in my book.

I just had some of my wife's awesome pumpkin bread (with cream cheese in the middle), and tonight I'll probably go to Cici's pizza again for dinner. I can't wait for tomorrow, because I always feel like a million bucks the day after my carb up. I'm going to be under 200 consistently very soon, and I'm very happy with how this is going!

[bruteforce]

Awesome progress Soldier! I love reading your notes. I'm a FFB myself, though not nearly as lean as you. Usually not convinced about being a "former" fat boy, just less of one. But you're right. After dropping 140 pounds, I'm shocked every time I look in the mirror. Having veins is weird. Feeling that a shirt looks too big is still foreign. Its nice.

Also thanks for posting up reviews for the MGN. I've been thinking about trying it again, got a bad batch of vanilla/caramel once and haven't been back, but the price keeps tempting me.

Great work in here, and way to kick everyone's ass at PT

[Soldier]

Originally Posted by bruteforce

Awesome progress Soldier! I love reading your notes. I'm a FFB myself, though not nearly as lean as you. Usually not convinced about being a "former" fat boy, just less of one. But you're right. After dropping 140 pounds, I'm shocked every time I look in the mirror. Having veins is weird. Feeling that a shirt looks too big is still foreign. Its nice.

Also thanks for posting up reviews for the MGN. I've been thinking about trying it again, got a bad batch of vanilla/caramel once and haven't been back, but the price keeps tempting me.

Great work in here, and way to kick everyone's ass at PT

I don't think any of us really believes that we're "former" fat boys. It's always there to some extent, in the back of our heads, the voice telling us we don't look as good as those lean guys. There was a time when I thought I'd be happy by losing 30 lbs and going from 310 to 270-280. Now here I am at 203, still not even CLOSE to happy with my body. I suppose it's a curse, but also a blessing. It's motivated me to first maintain my loss, and now to finally expose these abs that have been so well covered in the past.

I may be leaner than you right now, but you started heavier than me!

As for the protein, I know it's one of the cheaper brands, but I've had really good experiences with both containers I've had.

Thanks for checking out my log, It's awesome to know that people are reading all this crap I'm writing.