My Warrior Diet

[Renegade]

Week 36

Another busy week, but now I've also gone and caught a cold. Still, not the end of the world. Tomorrow sees the start of my honest attempt to lose a little excess body fat. I left it until now because my parents have been staying over for the past couple of weeks and we were away from home most of the time and also ate out a lot. It just didn't seem like there was much point doing it then.

I'll be doing a basic zig-zag diet, which has always worked for me in the past and isn't too different from what I'm already practicing on a day to day basis. This means that I'll have 3 days where my caloric intake is around 20% below maintenance, then a day of regular eating, then another 3 days of low calories, and so on and so forth. To make things simple, I'll keep to fat fuels on the low-calorie days and have carbs on the high-calorie days, which should work okay. All I have to do to drop the excess calories is omit almonds from my current daily eating plan (should save a few pennies there, too).

I'll also be starting my VO2 max cardio work 2-3 mornings a week to jump start the fat melting process. I'll see how it goes. If I get to where I want to be sooner, that's great, but the longest I'll be doing this diet for is 12 weeks.

The other thing I started this week was the Centerpointe "Holosync" meditation program. I'd read a couple of negative reviews about the company before buying into it, but most were positive. Actually, the first person ever I heard to recommend it was Mike Mahler when he was talking about hormone optimization, and that made me think it must be worth a try. At the moment, all I can say is that it works wonders in sending me off to sleep at night. I really feel like I'm getting into a deeper meditative state than with more traditional methods, and I've only been using it a few days. I won't even start listening to the full 60 minute soundtrack for a couple more weeks yet, so it's pretty exciting. In fact, I'm going to log off and go for my 30 minute session right now. I might log in tomorrow to mark the start of my diet with a few measurements. Night night.

P.S. If you're interested in learning more about Holosynch technology, here's the link:

http://www.centerpointe.com/

[Renegade]

May 5th

Age: 33
Height: 1m 77cm / 5' 10½"

Start of 12 week diet:

Bodyweight: 72kg / 158.7lbs
Skinfold Measurement: 8.5mm
Bodyfat: 11.7% / 18.6lbs
Lean Body Mass: 140.2lbs

[Renegade]

May 5th

Age: 33
Height: 1m 77cm / 5' 10½"

Start of 12 week diet:

Bodyweight: 72kg / 158.7lbs
Skinfold Measurement: 8.5mm
Bodyfat: 11.7% / 18.6lbs
Lean Body Mass: 140.2lbs

That should be May 10th.

[Renegade]

Week 37

May 17th

Bodyweight: 71.4kg / 157.4lbs
Skinfold Measurement: 8mm
Bodyfat: 11.12% / 17.5lbs
Lean Body Mass: 139.9lbs

This first week on the diet was a bit of an experiment. I found the 3 day zig-zag rotation didn't work, as for one reason or another I ended up eating carbs on both days over the weekend. Cutting almonds out of my diet also made a big difference to my hunger levels at the beginning. My low carb days went very low, and I felt hungrier more often. So, I decided to switch to a rotation of 5 days low carb (i.e. low calorie) with the weeekends free to eat as many carbs as I like.

Week 38

May 24th

Bodyweight: 70.2kg / 154.8lbs
Skinfold Measurement: 8mm
Bodyfat: 11.12% / 17.2lbs
Lean Body Mass: 137.6lbs

The second week was much more successful. I changed a few things around on my low carb days, and they generally looked like this:

07:00  Pre-workout morning shake: 2 raw eggs, 160g coconut cream, water to make it up to 500ml (actually tastes okay!)
09:00  Training
10:00  Post workout shake: 25g whey concentrate, 5g honey, 500ml milk
11:00  Mixed salad, 15g perilla oil, 15g extra virgin olive oil, 1 avocado, 4 egg omelet, steamed vegetables
15:00 500ml yoghurt, 25g raw almonds, small portion of fruit

Approx: 2200 cal, 20% protein, 15% carbs, 65% fat

This gives me an 8 hour eating window, with a 16 hour fast (no calories, black tea or coffee okay). The fats I get early on really stop me from getting hungry again later in the day. I was actually surprised at how easy it is to stick to!

[Renegade]

Week 39

May 31st

Bodyweight: 70.2kg / 154.8lbs
Skinfold Measurement: 7.5mm
Bodyfat: 10.6% / 16.3lbs
Lean Body Mass: 138.4lbs

My weight was exactly the same this week as it was last week, but my bodyfat has dropped, so good results. The skinfold measurement was actually closer to 7mm, but I took it as 7.5mm. Hopefully it should be at or below 7mm by next weekend. I've also got used to training after not having eaten for around 18 hours beforehand, so I've dumped the pre-workout shake and added the coconut cream I was having to my post workout, with the extra eggs in my main meal. I felt I needed a pre-workout meal at first, as I felt like I was going to pass out during intense cardio! 3 weeks later and I'm fine.

Without the pre-workout meal, my eating widow is back to around 6 hours, fasting for 18 hours. Feeling great!

[Renegade]

Week 40

June 7th

Bodyweight: 71.0kg / 156.5lbs
Skinfold Measurement: 7.5mm
Bodyfat: 10.6% / 16.5lbs
Lean Body Mass: 140.0lbs

The fourth week on my diet. Weight was up a little, but bodyfat was still the same as the previous week, so a positive result.

Week 41

June 14th

Bodyweight: 70.8kg / 156.1lbs
Skinfold Measurement: 8.5mm
Bodyfat: 11.7% / 18.3lbs
Lean Body Mass: 137.8lbs

The fifth week on my diet. Bodyfat went up slightly, basically nothing much was happening.

Week 42

June 21st

Bodyweight: 71.6kg / 157.8lbs
Skinfold Measurement: 8.5mm
Bodyfat: 11.7% / 18.5lbs
Lean Body Mass: 139.4lbs

The sixth week on my diet. What's going on? I'm almost back exactly where I started six weeks ago. Still in caloric deficit, still training hard, but getting zero results. I have to say that I got much better results using a more conventional diet / exercise program in the past. Maybe it's time for a change.

[Nate]

maybe try weighing yourself everyday then taking the weekly average to give  yourself a better picture of whats happening, or maybe you had a carb day the night before but not the other week .... can easily put on 1.5kg i find

hey did i read you were going across to for the rkc? how was it?

Nate

[Theo]

i find eating fruit,  mainly sour and bitter, not sweet fruits, during the day makes me kick off fat pretty fast as does extending the undereating phase. might be worth a try,

on a longer term note; packing on some muscle would help your efforts to drop body fat quite noticeably.

the other consideration is are you taking the readings in the same way each week?

 i'm not assuming you can't work calipers but a slight movement or even the direction of the calipers can make a fair change to the reading. also, if you get it taken at a gym, do you get it taken by same person each time?

[Dano3000]

All good advice. Couple questions for you:
1. How are your stress levels
2. How is your sleep
3. How are you? Nothing ever changes for the better until you yourself are well, as far I have experienced. Keep that in mind.

[Renegade]

Thanks for the advice.

I always weigh myself at the same time each week under the same conditions, so I'm really not sure what the problem is. The calipers I use are the same one's I've had for a few years, and I've never had a problem with reading them in the past. In fact, they're relatively easy to use and seem to give pretty accurate readings. Maybe I should invest in a new pair, just in case.

As for gaining muscle, I must be one of the hardest "hard-gainers" on the planet. Even before I started training with kettlebells, I used to train hard for rock climbing doing heavy weighted sets of pull-ups and various other stuff, but barely gained an ounce. I considered myself lucky back then, as I wanted to keep my bodyweight low. Since then I've read tons of material on different methods of training and nutrition, and have probably gained about 10 lbs of muscle over the last couple of years. When I look at the way I train today, I can't believe I'm still so small!! I think the main problem is that I need to eat more, the exact opposite of trying to diet for bodyfat loss. Maybe I should try gaining a bit weight before trying to lose any.

Nate, the RKC is in Budapest in August, so I'm busy trying to get myself ready for that at the moment. I'm pretty sure I'll be okay, but with the jet lag from Japan to Hungary to contend with as well as a change in eating habits for the week, I'll need to be in tip-top shape to get throught the course without having to struggle too much. I'll let you know how it goes.

Dano, my stress levels are pretty good at the momenrt. I've been doing an hour of meditation every night for the past 7 weeks, and I think it's really helping. Sleep is always good, and all in all I feel better about myself than I have in a long time.

[Dano3000]

Glad to hear your feeling awesome! I'm trying to brainstorm on what it could possibly be, and the thing that comes to mind is your morning VO2 workout. Is your recovery meal well enough so that your metabolism doesnt slow for the rest of the day? I notice that when I don't get good recovery in I...well....don't want to move/talk to anyone/do anything. Just a thought.
Man I really wish we had mods who knew everything who could help us.

[fotakou]

Hey bro how has it going?Any progress?

I got a little worried about you so i decided to try and log your food.Your food came up as 1800 calories without adding though the whey concentrate,the coconut cream and the veggies.Are you sure that the remaining food adds up to 2200 calories?

Do you really find the morning shake necessary?Something that really can revitalize me is cold green tea with some lemon juice in it.Have you tried doing the old WD stuff,training on empty?

Try to search a little about a hormone called leptin,one of the major hormones in the fat loss road.A really nice interview with Joel Marion,a guy who uses the hormone as means to lose fat can be found here
http://www.mikemahler.com/articles/marion1.html

Finally,have you tried to cut the fruit at 15:00?I am a firm believer that fruits should be consumed alone,many hours after eating something.I had a really nice site explaining the science but i cannot find it at the moment.Try cutting the fruit and might substituting it with the honey for you post workout meal

[Renegade]

Weeks 43-45:

Hi Fotakou,

Thanks for writing. I always like to train on empty, so losing the pre-workout shake was one of the first things I did. Even so, everything eventually seemed to go a bit out of control with the diet, and I ended up pretty much going off my routine completely. I think it was probably Wolf's advice that made me decide to actually start eating more in an attempt to gain some muscle, something that I think is going to take a lot of work! I've even started trying to eat breakfast again, but it feels really unnatural after going without for so long. Eating enough calories to build muscle on low carb just doesn't suit me. After downing so much oily and fatty food in one sitting I just feel like throwing up afterwards, so I think I'm going to stick to intermittent fasting but maybe take a different approach, like Leangains or something where carbs take priority over fats.

On another note, I probably would have posted on here last weekend to let you all know what's going on, but I got some really bad news from home in England. My dad died suddenly last Thursday night, so I'll be flying home to the UK with my family on Sunday for the funeral and to help look after my mum. They were only here visiting us here in Japan the other month and he was looking better than ever. We still don't know exactly what happened, he hardly ever got sick and was always in great spirits. At least he knew how much we all loved him. He lived a great life, and he adored his grandchildren. Just 62 years old, it makes you rethink a lot of stuff about life, kind of puts things in perspective. Let's just say I'm not going to be worrying about whether I eat nuts and grains on the same day anymore.

[Theo]

hey man,

i think maybe what i said was misunderstood. I don't remember advising breakfast - If that's a choice of yours then that's cool but i didn't want to advise you against your instincts. Also if you eat a lot of fat in a short amount of time there's a chance it'll go straight through and if you feel sick you might be consuming too much at once.
Sweet foods are anabolic accross the board, muscles, fat, bodily fluids etc so i think they are perfectly aceptable if you would like to gain muscle.  I have read that the desire for sweet foods is much more pronounced in children because they need it for growth, this desire diminishes somewhat in adulthood.

 If you're interested in my opinion, i think that keeping with the WD setup and increasing carbs, lowering fats to an amount you would be happy eating and aiming for strength increases in big lifts is the way to go.
however you do it, all the best

Shame about your dad man, sounds like he'll be well remembered though

... nuts and grains!!??  crazy maaaaann

[Renegade]

Thanks Wolf,

I just decided to start having breakfast again myself, usually 3-4 soft boiled eggs and a grapefruit. To tell the truth, I don't feel any different whether I have it or not, it just seemed like an easy way to get more calories into the day without stuffing myself to the point of feeling sick during my main meal (which is usually at lunchtime anyway, so only a few hours later). The oils were probably causing most of the problem. Sometimes I skipped my salad and just had 30g of mixed oils straight from the spoon. Anyway, I'll see how things go. I haven't completely given up on the Warrior Diet ideal just yet.