Warrior Diet Experiment

[Muscle and Brawn]

I missed updating my last three workouts. All is well. Feeling strong, and great during the day. Workouts are still full of energy...much better then on a bodybuilding diet. I can't remember the last time I felt sluggish during a workout.

I generally take it easy on bicep work...10 years ago I had killer tendinitis from heavy curls. Tendinitis is all but gone, but still taking it slow.

01/16/2009....Shoulders

Overhead Press

165 x 6
165 x 4

Side Laterals

25's x 9/4/4/3

Upright Rows

95 x 8/5/4/3

Overhead Press

135 x 9/4/2/1/1/1/1/1

01/17/2009...Legs

Squats

335 x 5
335 x 5
275 x 8
275 x 8

Leg Extensions

65 x 8/6/6

Ham Curls

80 x 6/4/3/2/2/2/1

01/18/2009...Arms

Seated DB Curls

35's x 8/6/6

Barbell Curls

65 x 8/7/5

Barbell Skull Crushers

75 x 8/7/5

DB Overhead Extensions

65 x 8/7/5

[Muscle and Brawn]

A good workout today. I was a bit hormonally challenged at work, mostly because I work with a sociopath, and I saw him more then I cared to. But by the time my workout came, my bad mood had subsided.

Anywho, another good day. My deadlifts felt stronger then my last go around, and my t-bars and DB rows both went up in weight - and felt light as well.

Deadlift

405 x 10

T-Bars

140 x 7/5/4/4

DB Rows

85 x 8/6/6

[racer]

It looks like your lifting more poundage now than when you began.  Before you started WD, you were concerned with losing lean mass and strength. 

Give me a gerneral assessment of how you feel your overall energy and strength is now that you have been on WD for a while.

For me, I am amazed at how I am continuing to get stronger and increasing my endurance also...while undereating during the day. 

Racer

[Muscle and Brawn]

My energy is MUCH better then pre Warrior Diet. I now feel great all day long, and never have bouts of fatigue or "the yawns."

My workouts have been seamless from pre-WD. In fact, before the Warrior Diet I often entered a workout exhausted from work, and from eating too much during the day.

My strength is going up...not any more then pre-WD, but around the same pace.

[Muscle and Brawn]

I started taking Horny Goat Weed on Friday. Adding this to my basic supplements to try and foster some natural test.

Everything is going smoothly. Weight is still falling off like mad. I am very anxious to check my bodyfat levels, but I'll have to wait a month. My first bodyfat (caliper) check will be at the end of February.

I will be posting a Vlog weigh in next Saturday. Right now I have lost 22.6 pounds in 26 days. I think there is a good chance that my first month on the Warrior Diet will result in a 25 pound loss. That is utterly insane.

I am seeing strength increases from workout to workout. Still no energy issues while working out.

I feel freaking fantastic during the day, even when I don't get enough sleep the night before. I have yet to have a day where I feel super sluggish or tired.

01/21/2009: Chest

Bench Press

225 x 8/4/2/2/2/1/1

Incline Bench Press

185 x 7/4/3/2/2/2

01/23/2009: Shoulders

Overhead Press

165 x 7
165 x 5

Side Laterals

30's x 7/4/4/3/2

Upright Rows

100 x 8/5/4/3

Overhead Press

135 x 9/4/3/1/1/1/1

01/24/2009: Legs

Squat

340 x 5
340 x 5
280 x 8
280 x 8

Leg Extensions

70 x 8/7/5

Hamstring Curls

80 x 7/5/3/2/2/1

[Muscle and Brawn]

My writeup on Bulldozer Training. (http://muscleandbrawn.com/2009/01/bulldozer-weight-training-system-basics-by-muscle-and-brawn/)

[Muscle and Brawn]

I felt a little off today. My stomach was bothering me, and I felt like I might have the runs. But all turned out well...literally...I ended up having to take a second dump after work...which rarely happens for me on the WD. iI feel better now.

My workouts have all been going up in strength. I am finding that the longer I am on the WD, the stronger I am feeling. I am REALLY going through a period where my back and bicep strength is returning to old form....and it feels goods.

Vlog this Saturday with official weigh in.

01/25/2009: Arms

Barbell Skull Crushers

80 x 9/7/4

DB Seated Tri Extensions

70 x 10/7/4

Seated DB Curls

40 x 8/5/4/3

BB Curls

75 x 8/5/3/2/2

01/27/2009: Back

Deadlift (Light Day)

345 x 15

T-Bars

145 x 8/5/4/3

DB Rows

90's x 8/5/4/3

01/28/2009: Chest

225 x 8/4/3/2/2/1

Incline Bench

185 x 9/5/4/2

[Muscle and Brawn]

The Warrior Diet Experiment, Part 2 (http://muscleandbrawn.com/2009/01/the-warrior-diet-experiment-part-2/)

01/31/2009

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8QoDKjNink

Goal. My goal is to lose 100 pounds of bodyfat using the Warrior Diet.

The experiment. To see how much lean muscle mass I can retain while losing 100 pounds of fat on the Warrior Diet.

Current weight. 282.2 pounds, 01/31/2009. Beginning weight. 307 pounds, 12/31/2008.

Overview. My first month on the Warrior Diet is over, and it has exceeded my expectations in every way. My strength is up. I have great energy during the day. I am sleeping better. I do not crave junk food. I am rapidly losing weight.

I never expected, even in my wildest dreams, to lose 25 pounds in a month. I have tried to cut weight several times before, and have never lost more then 18 pounds in the first month.

The true test of how this experiment is going will take place at the end of February. At this time I will be measuring my bodyfat using a skin fold caliper. To restate the goal of this experiment…I want to see how much muscle I lose on the Warrior Diet while losing one hundred pounds of fat.

Energy. One of the most surprising aspects during the first month is my daily energy. I do not feel sluggish or tired during the day, even when I get less then desirable sleep. Before the Warrior Diet, at least 30-40% of the time during the day, I had the yawns, and could think of little else other then going home. On the Warrior Diet, I feel very, very good…and have not had a day like that yet.

It was also common for me to get tired before my workout. I drive one hour home each night, and would often hit the gym with zero motivation. That is not an issue now. On the Warrior Diet I never feel tired driving home, and almost always feel mentally strong and ready to workout.

Pre-workout Meal. Going in to the Warrior Diet, I was very concerned about not eating a pre-workout meal. I have never trained on an empty stomach, and feared loss of energy, lightheadedness and weakness. But the opposite has happened. My strength is going up, and I never feel weak or tired. I feel much better then pre-Warrior Diet.

Strength. Though my strength improvements have been consistent on the Warrior Diet, they have been noticeably better during the last week of this month. I don’t know if my body is adapting to the Warrior Diet, or if I am simply going through a strong phase. In either case, my bench press, deadlift, overhead press, back, biceps, triceps, etc, are all up in weight on the Warrior Diet.

Sleep. On bodybuilding diets, I had a tendency to flush water at night while I was sleeping. I would have to make 2-4 trips to the bathroom to urinate. On the Warrior Diet, I tend to flush water during the day, which is helping me sleep better.

In general, my sleep is more satisfying and refreshing on the Warrior Diet. I still have plenty of mornings in which the alarm clock goes off and I want to stay in bed, but I almost never feel exhausted an hour after getting up.

Workouts. I have been using Bulldozer Training (http://muscleandbrawn.com/2009/01/bulldozer-weight-training-system-basics-by-muscle-and-brawn/) exclusively during this experiment, and it has been awesome. I love the training style. During my first week on the Warrior Diet, I was hesitant to work out over 30 minutes. I feared loss of energy and strength. For the last three weeks my workouts have been about 40-50 minutes, and all is well.

Bulldozer training incorporates controlled fatigue (rest pause), and can be used for strength or bodybuilding training.

2 PM. At approximately 2 p.m. every afternoon, something strange happens to my body. I start to feel more aggressive, strong and mentally aware. It is almost as if every function in my body has been turned up a notch. It appears as if this is a reaction to the upcoming overeating meal. Maybe my brain is unlocking some primal switch, priming me for the upcoming hunt and kill. Either way, I am more then ready for my workout.

Next update. The next article/update in this series will come at the end of February. This will be a critical moment in the experiment, as I will get to find out how much muscle I have lost.

Success. The following list shows how I will view the success/failure of this Warrior Diet experiment…

    * Complete Success. No muscle loss. 180 lean mass, 27 pounds fat. 13.0% BF
    * Quality Success. 5 pounds muscle loss. 175 pounds lean mass, 27 pounds fat. 13.4% BF
    * Success. 10 pounds muscle loss. 170 pounds lean mass, 27 pounds fat. 13.7% BF
    * Failure. 20 pounds muscle loss. 160 pounds lean mass, 27 pounds fat. 14.4% BF
    * Complete failure. 30 pounds muscle loss. 150 pounds lean mass, 27 pounds fat. 15.3% BF

I will also consider it a minor failure if I lose any strength over the course of this experiment.

Notes. I am in no way affiliated with the Warrior Diet, or Ori Hofmekler. I am not a Warrior Diet jedi. nor do I believe one way or the other if the Warrior Diet is a valid muscle-retaining, fat loss option for weight trainers. Ori Hofmekler states that it is, and my experiment exists merely to take a look at the Warrior Diet’s viability. For more info on the Warrior Diet, visit the WD site (http://www.warriordiet.com/).

Questions. It is best to reach me with questions via my blog. My email address is a few lines down on this page (http://muscleandbrawn.com/2009/01/about/).

[TheUsurper]

Dude, your progress is incredible!  I just saw the youtube clip and I heard you say something like you didn't physically notice much of a difference but I pulled up your two weigh-ins in two different windows for a side-by-side comparison, and your improvement really does show!  I believe that most of your fat-loss probably came from intravenous fat loss as opposed to subcutaneous at first, so while you may not notice any new veins "popping out" or anything like that with this first 25 lb loss, your organs and muscles probably look a whole lot "cleaner" from the inside.  Your silhouette in both your side bi and side tri pose are phenomenally better, with your stomach looking much tighter than before.  Next time, I think you should post the camera at the same angle and distance(you were closer in the new one) as you did in the first video though, for a more equal side-by-side comparison.

I am also curious as to what your solution will be if your progress slows as your metabolism begins to climb down to meet your intake? (you are currently at 2100, right?)

[Rachel421]

your stats speak for themselves!  the videos are going to show an amazing morph as you progress. no worries. re-composition does primarily work from the inside out. we appreciate all your detailed documentation. its a real inspiration>

[Muscle and Brawn]

Dude, your progress is incredible!  I just saw the youtube clip and I heard you say something like you didn't physically notice much of a difference but I pulled up your two weigh-ins in two different windows for a side-by-side comparison, and your improvement really does show!  I believe that most of your fat-loss probably came from intravenous fat loss as opposed to subcutaneous at first, so while you may not notice any new veins "popping out" or anything like that with this first 25 lb loss, your organs and muscles probably look a whole lot "cleaner" from the inside.  Your silhouette in both your side bi and side tri pose are phenomenally better, with your stomach looking much tighter than before.  Next time, I think you should post the camera at the same angle and distance(you were closer in the new one) as you did in the first video though, for a more equal side-by-side comparison.

I am also curious as to what your solution will be if your progress slows as your metabolism begins to climb down to meet your intake? (you are currently at 2100, right?)

Thanks so much for the encouragement. Even though all is well, there are days in which I feel like the task ahead is larger than my willpower to overcome.

I think you are right regarding the organs...that thought hadn't crossed my mind since reading Ori's book. There is much less internal pressure, and I am breathing better, and my front torso feels much more relaxed. I hold most of my external fat on my stomach and man-breasts, so the next 25 (from my experience) usually shaves my gut. The breast fat is generally last.

I'll try a wider angle next go around. Sometimes I am patching things together quickly, so I can do a video log before the kids wake up and start calling for daddy

Regarding my metabolism...I have been cutting on and off for about 20 years, though this is the heaviest I've ever been. Generally, I never have metabolism issues to that extend. I can eat about 4000 calories and maintain weight, believe it or not. If, by chance, my metabolism stops dead...I would begin cycling calories...or as Dr. Squat calls it, zig-zagging.

If I resorted to zig-zagging, I would most likely bump my caloric intake by 500 calories every third day, and then have a massive pig-out every 3-4 weeks. This is how I generally cut on bodybuilding diets...but remember, I had massive junk food cravings on bodybuilding diets...and needed junk food days.

One thing I would like to point out is that, though I make 1800 calories meals every night, most nights I struggle to finish them. I don't want anyone to think that i am stopping short of satisfaction..by no means! I am eating like a king, and then some!

I think I need to vlog one of my meals

[Muscle and Brawn]

your stats speak for themselves!  the videos are going to show an amazing morph as you progress. no worries. re-composition does primarily work from the inside out. we appreciate all your detailed documentation. its a real inspiration>

Thanks for the encouragement. I hope by detailing my progress that others will understand that no mountain is to big for a Warrior to climb.

[Rachel421]

  since we're on the topic, does anyone know, when you're getting the fatty acids released from the undereating/fasting, you have intraveinous, intramuscular, viceral, and subcutaneous fats to draw off of...is the under the skin stores the last to be dumped, i know the visceral fat is pretty much treated as a foreign object by the immune system so im not sure why im dropping so much from my limbs, back, face, but the belly just sits there,,,,mocking me,,lol...any thoughts?

[Muscle and Brawn]

  since we're on the topic, does anyone know, when you're getting the fatty acids released from the undereating/fasting, you have intraveinous, intramuscular, viceral, and subcutaneous fats to draw off of...is the under the skin stores the last to be dumped, i know the visceral fat is pretty much treated as a foreign object by the immune system so im not sure why im dropping so much from my limbs, back, face, but the belly just sits there,,,,mocking me,,lol...any thoughts?

I'm no expert...but I am wagering a guess that the body might work itself from the inside out. I believe the opposite happens when you gain weight.

But, it may be different for each of us. I tried Googling this, but couldn't find anything...

[Rachel421]

came across an article that ventured to state that diet tends to alieviate visceral fat, while exercise tends to burn subcutaneous fats, so we're getting the best of both worlds. and yes you're correct, each person will have individaul tendencies.