Urban leans out

[Urban]

Yesterday I hit my long term goal of 220, which was great... but now I have this squat gut (and a body fat probably upwards of 18%) so I guess It's not all fun and games. So I'm going to make a dedicated effort at cleaning up my diet and leaning out a bit. I may lose some weight in the process, but I think even if I go down to 205 I'd be in better shape than before. So I thought, "ok, here we go!" then I realized I had no idea where to start.

I figured the first step is just to stop making cheating a daily occurance. no more banana pancakes, no more bagels at breakfast, no more donuts, no more pizzas, no more burgers and fries 5 times a week... ah it makes my soul hurt a bit just thinking about it.

I recently started incorporating more conditioning work into my routine so that seemed to be well timed (though it doesn't explain my sudden surge in weight gain), so I have that pretty much handled for now.

Right now the plan I have for cutting looks something like this:
- 3 meals a day

- 1/2 lb mixed veggies (for two of the meals) or 1/2 lb mixed fruit smoothie, each with 1 oz fat (approximately 400 Calories)
- Protein shake (50g net protein, 8 0z milk, 1c frozen spinach, 1 oz butter/olive oil mix (approximately 500 Calories)
- Whatever else until I'm full (which will qualify as an "anytime" recipe under precision nutrition.)​

- 1lb Mixed low GI fruit as snacks
- 3500 daily calorie goal (My first challenge was just hitting 3500 Calories while eating clean. I found the key is adding fat everywhere.)

In terms of supplements I'm currently taking a break from stimulants due, so for the time being I wont be having any thermogenic help, though I may start taking green tea extract (or doing something crazy like drinking green tea!). I'll be taking 5g of creatine a day like I always do though. when I start a fatburner though, I was looking at starting with

- 200mg caffeine
- 12.5mg Ephedrine hcl

with meals, and tinkering with the ephedrine dosage until I'm happy with it before adding aspirin or yohimibine and continuing to develop it from there.

So... here we go.

 

[Ian Coe]

*waits to see progress*

One thing I'm bloody terrible on is losing weight (infact it hasn't happened yet unless I have a virus).

edit- I have loads of ephedrine from SND still (I think I have about 1200 10mg doses kicking about from the 2 lots of 700 I ordered xmas of 2007-2008). Depending on your success I might start using them consistantly.

 

[10thpjj]

Good luck Urban!

Is seriously jealous of your calorie allowance! I'm trying to stay under 1,500 a day!

 

[Urban]

*waits to see progress*

One thing I'm bloody terrible on is losing weight (infact it hasn't happened yet unless I have a virus).

edit- I have loads of ephedrine from SND still (I think I have about 1200 10mg doses kicking about from the 2 lots of 700 I ordered xmas of 2007-2008). Depending on your success I might start using them consistantly.

Ephedrine WORKS for me. When I was taking it as a pre-workout stim in addition to caffeine it destroyed my appetite in addition to the buzz it provided.

Good luck Urban!

Is seriously jealous of your calorie allowance! I'm trying to stay under 1,500 a day!

I actually have no idea whether 3500 calories will be a caloric deficit for me since i've never done any Calorie counting before. but I'd rather start this little adventure adjusting my intake from a surplus than from a deficit, so I set the bar kinda high. Since i have no end date, no weigh in i'm trying to cut for, it makes this a little easier. otherwise I'd start from a deficit and adjust upwards to lose only a lb a week.

 

[Oblivian]

I look forward to following this. You are basically doing exactly what I have started. I bulked and got up to 190 lbs while focusing on strength. I'm now doing the opposite and doing mainly conditioning while cutting calories. I'm doing good, but the weight loss is always quick in the first week.

 

[Deltron 3030]

I think we need before and after pics (no homo).

 

[mad-max98]

I think we need before and after pics (no homo).

hahaha

 

[mad-max98]

Good luck Urban!

Is seriously jealous of your calorie allowance! I'm trying to stay under 1,500 a day!

How much do you weigh?

 

[Urban]

Ok, day 1 in the books
Breakfast -
Protein shake (50g net protein, 8 oz milk, 3 oz frozen spinach, 1oz butter/olive oil mix)
1/2 lb mixed veggies (cooked in 1oz butter/olive oil)
3 eggs cooked in the rendered fat of 2 slices of bacon

Lunch
Protein shake (50g net protein, 8 oz milk, 3 oz frozen spinach, 1oz butter/olive oil mix)
Tuna Salad

Throughout the day I ate 1lb of fruit mixed (2 bananas, 1+1/3 oranges, bunch of strawberries)

fell asleep and skipped dinner.

I don't know if I'm doing this right, cause I'm pretty full after eating all this. But I'm finding that skipping out on all starchy carbs and sugary stuff is harder than when I quit drinking. Temtation is everywhere, I can only avoid it by staying almost uncomfortably full.

 

[Azmodan]

I'll be following this, sounds like you're going to have fun.

Out of curiosity, what does 1/2 lb. of veggies equate to in terms of volume (IE, how many cups) roughly? I don't have a scale around here for reference.

Also, speaking of temptation:

 

[Endo]

Congrats on your losses Urban. 3500 calories sounds like a lot to lean out, but depending on how you do this, it very well could work. Good luck.

 

[Urban]

ok, so three days in and it's been much of the same, I'll start carrying around a physical log with me to better record my meals, but by and large it's been just as scheduled.

yesterday (day 3) I weighed myself and I was down 7 lbs. I think I'm going to cut out the fat tomorrow and carb back up. Smart money says the weight lost is water weight (despite drinking a TON of water) and that carbs will help pull it back into the muscles that have lost it. so until told otherwise, I'm going to go 3-4 days high fat, low carb, and one days low fat, high carb.

 

[Urban]

Last four meals:
meal 1

• protein shake (50g protein, 3oz spinach, water+ice)
• 1/2 lb mixed veggies (broiled, no fat)
• Mac and cheese, 3 dinner rolls (no butter), mashed sweet potato from wood ranch

Meal 2

• Protein shake (50g protein, 3 oz spinach, water + ice)
• Short stack banana pancakes
• Skipped vegetation

Meal 3

• protein Shake
• 1/2 lb mixed veggies (broiled, no fat)
• half a loaf whole wheat artesian bread (about 150g total carbs)

Meal 4

• protein Shake (50g protein, 3 oz spinach, 1 oz butter/olive oil mix, ice + water)
• 1 lb mixed fruit (two bananas, 1 1/3 oranges, and enough strawberries to round it out)

My first carb day is over, and I now know these days, as much as any other day, require planning and forethought. I probably went WAY overboard on carbs today, but I'll know better next time, and I'll try and have some recipes prepared for it. I intend to start with 4 low carb, high fat days for every single high carb low fat day, and hopefully minimize any high fat high carb meals by cycling this way. when I go back to bulking, I think I'll try tampering with this ratio to find a balance of staying relatively lean and adding weight (maybe 2:1 instead of 4:1). I'll see how this goes first.

 

[Urban]

Two days ago was a cheat day. It wasn't on schedule but I was still WAY ahead of where. Wanted to be so I went out and got a veggie pizza from joe peeps and ate it throught the day. Think I had a protein shake and some fruit in the morning.

At the end of mu cheat day I was sitting at 215 so all things considered, 5 lbs in my first week aint bad. The carb cravings are subsiding significantly and its really making me pick and choose my carbing meals. Maybe sushi next time? Maybe I'll try my hand at bread baking. There are always people willing to eat the leftovers.

Yesterday was back to the status quo: 3 shakes (50g protein, 3oz frozen spinach, 1 oz fat, 8 oz milk, water + ice), 1.5lbs mixed veggies broiled (w/ 3 oz butter/olive oil), and the toppings from two remaining slices of veggie pizza (onions, pepperoncinis, green peppers, cheese, sauce... No crust). Pretty straightforward day, but I wasn't very hungry for some reason. I really need to make a point to eat BEFORE my shake, as the latter is quite filling.

Today thus far:
2 protein shakes, a pound of turkey chili from whole foods, 3 oz bacon, 1lb mixed fruit (2 bananas, an orange, 2/3 apple, some strawberries to round it out).

 

[modena1983]

looks like you are doing pretty well. Carb cravings pass and eventually You do not miss them.

 

[Urban]

this diet log is a fail, but thus far my diet is not. I was down to 210 about 4 days ago, and I've been sticking to my diet pretty well, but was back up to 214 today. I figure this is a result of hydration due to
- creatine supplementation. 5g a day is something I started with regularity at the beginning my cut, and historically have added 5lbs in the first couple weeks when I start taking it.
- being dehydrated when I weighed 210. it happens.

All in all, I feel like I've already gotten noticeably leaner, and I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.

 

[PitaDSkittlz]

Hey, I know this is an old thread but there is a website:
FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal
You can create a food and then an exercise log and then it takes the amount of calories you consume and subtracting the calories burnt to see if your loosing weight or not.