Patto's Rapid Fat Loss

Patto

Sunday 15/11/09 209 (Don't know what that's about. With a gym session yesterday I would have expected to have at least partly depleted from 208.6 yesterday) Did a one hour repetition/depletion session today, Sunday. Mind numbing stuff, still got a decent pump with the leg curls and leg presses. See if I deplete quicker this way.

Monday 206
Didn't do plyos, too much doms in hamstrings. Down 1lb on Saturday morning's weight. The depletion session yesterday seems to have had some impact. I suspect I needed much more burn and volume. Its taking 4 to 5 days to deplete after a 5 hour refeed.

Tuesday 206
Deadlift 130x5x3, bench 90x2. That’s good, nearly down to full depletion. I feel a bit of a woosh coming on, should get to 203 by the weekend.

Wednesday 206
Not so confident about that woosh now. I felt a bit bloated last night, maybe the storts drink and the salts. Going by last week I'll maybe get down to 204 by Friday. Which means I'm chugging away at 2lb a week. 192lb fully depleted is 90Kg fully loaded, that's the ultimate target.

Thursday 205
Back squats 100x5x3, chins bw+10kgx5x3. Depressing lack of progress in the gym. I reckon I was graphing at 2.5lb a week in the first two weeks. I'm only 1lb down in the last 6 days. A whoosh would be really nice. 204 on Friday or Saturday is still where I reckon I'll get to this week.

Friday 204.6
No sign of that bloody woosh anyway. Today will be a tough day. Mind you I don't see a woosh in the mirror either. I'm convinced there has been a major slow down. A bowl of corn flakes tomorrow morning has my name on it. Friday is the hardest day, no training and not a scap of glycogen in the system. Please God give me 204 tomorrow. that would put me on track for 202 next week and a 9lb net fat loss over 4 weeks. Looking at the calander I reckon I'll take a break for a week then another 2 weeks of dieting before Christmas to bring me down to 198 fully depleted. I'd probably need another two weeks then in January to get me into to 194 fully depleted. That would put me at 91kg/200lb fully loaded. 8 weeks of RFL in all. Here I am finishing week 3. When I get there I'll never want to do this again.

Patto

Saturday 205.4
Soul destroying to see a 1lb gain after a horrific Friday. Its not that the diet is so hard, the energy levels or the hunger is all that bad. Its dealing with the mental stuff, watching the scales each morning, wondering what the hell I am at, thinking about how slow the process is and how my progress seems to be slowing. I still have a bit of a belly, how on early am I going to get gid of the stuborn stuff.

Anyway Saturday is reffed day and I get a hell of a job refeeding. I kept it pretty clean. I also took a cheat meal on Saturday night. I needed the mental break. Only six days to go, should be easy. What will be will be."

This is what I did in the gym...
Tabata front squats with 40Kg, RDLs 80kgx8s, bb Split squats 60x5, IR and Push up clusters. The Tabata front squats really make you feel alive. Need to work on my form though, I was a bit lazy on the form side of things letting my elbows and upper back drop for 7 reps of 8.

Patto

Sunday 211
Didn't get enough sleep and the session yesterday gave me some healthy doms. Like a briar all day. Cheated on the diet to have some of birthday cake. Food preped for most of next week. It’s a stroll from here to Friday. Friday will again the the toughest day.
Gym stuff...
120 foot contacts. Knees a bit sore, not sure if its from the split squats or the plyos.
Monday 208.8
Nothing of Note.
Tuesday 206.6
First morning in ages that I have been plesently surprised with my weight drop.
Deadlift 150x3, Bench 85x5.
Wednesday 205
204 is in the bag, Maybe a 203 by Saturday, more likely 203.something.
Thursday 205
Drank a lot of water last night and got a decent nights sleep. Just looking at last years results I reckon the depletion weight is more like 7-9lb. I'm now where I was when I started dieting last year. It will be interesting to compare pics. I might get 2 pics of me at 212lb one from Dec 2008 and another at 212 in Dec 2009.
Gym stuff...
Something a bit different... 100 squats at 80 kg. 3 sets of 8 chins.
There is a famous Charlie Francis quote I read recently in Dan John's book "Most peolpe's highs are too low and lows are too high". Its an interesting point and so relevant to dieting which is the ultimate low. Its a good one for staying focused and getting that low as low as posible. I'll hit the heavy weights and conditioning in the spring and the highs will come in the summer. Incidenetly Dan John's book is called "never let go" its so aptly named.
Friday 204
Knees are still feeling the affects of Monday's plyos. So, no plyos today. I'll do something on Saturday if they recover. The 100 squats have no affect at all my my knees. Delighted to get to a clean 204 this morning. I just need to be more realistic about my targets. I'm not tracking much more than 1lb a week at this stage. I'm going to experiment with more of a UD2.0 approach next week. I have a theory that maybe the best fat loss is gained in the 6-8 days following a massive carb load. Its worth a try. It also means I might be able to fit in a conditioning session.

Just one more measuremet left, then a full refeed through the weekend. I'll do a strength test and take pics on Monday.

[-0-]

I just read your blog mate. Well done, keep it up.

Patto

So here goes again...

I reckon I lost somewhere between 5lb and 7lb in Nov. There is only a 5lb difference between the pics. My morning weights suggest I may have lost up to 7lb. If I lost 7lb then I lost 5lb in the first two weeks and 2 in the second two weeks. I kinda knew by week 3 that things were stalling. I had hoped it was a blip.

My Strength test results were as follows:
Bench 100 before 100 after
Chins 12 before 13 after
Push ups in 60: 40 before 37 after
Inverted rows: 27 before 32 (PB) after
TB deadlift: 200 before 210 after

As you can see the scores are slightly up and down. I just about held on to my strength during the month.

The other things the pics reveal, I reckon, is that my back has got bigger in the last year so that is something positive.
Have a look at the pics on the blog and tell me if I'm full of sh!t. I might be...
http://johnsrapidfatloss.blogspot.com/

So the plan of action for December is slightly different I'm going to do much bigger and longer refeeds then diet for no more that 8 days at a time, something like the UD2.0. I'm hoping to bottom out at a net 2lb depletion loss then load back up over two days then dive back down again for another 2lb. A bit life a whale coming up for air.

I've changed one or two other things. I'm eating too much cheese for sure so I'm going to cut back on that. I'm going to have a shake in the morning with milk protein isolate, half a bananna and half a glass of milk.

That should keep my calcium levels up and the fructose in the bananna might keep my liver going with glycogen. Dan in IP brought it up last week that the liver takes in fructose first. I remember reading this in Lyle's UD2.0. It might help stave off the metabolic slowdown if my liver doesn't deplete. Its worth a try.

I've changed my program too. I'm going to try a 2 day a week version of the 5/3/1 program.

Patto

Mon 7th 208.4
Half depleted already after night out and very little food yesterday. Just wrote off nearly a full week due to hangovers. Its gone, forget it move on.

Tue 206
Started the 5/3/1 program. Squat 105x6, Bench 80x9. Nice bench score but didn't push the squat enough. The session took 90min. I'll have to speed up the assistance stuff with rearer 10 rep sets.

Wed 205.4
That’s normal, lets see if I get a drop tomorrow then a stall for two days then another drop on Sunday or Monday.

Thu 204.4
Deadlift 155x6, Press 50x6. 30 min cycle to work added to help mobilise subbort fat loss.

Fri 203.8
30 min cycle to work again.

Sat 205.4
The morning weight must have been water retension. Drank a lot of diet coke and eat a load of salty ham on Friday. Saturday was a tough day, felt very tired and not at all hungry enough for all the bagels and milk. The worst days of the diet are the refeed day and the last 2 or 3 days before the refeed.

Sun 210 (after refeed)
210 was a low enough load up given all the bagels and milk I eat yesterday.

Patto

I've been very lazy filling this out. I've kept all my notes logged so I better update...

Monday Dec 14th 207
I think I'm after getting a whoosh. I look leaner in the mirror I reckon. My weight is over a lb down on last Monday's my carb load weight was quite low. Lets see what I deplete to this week, Did a good 40 min cycle into work this morning including about 5 1 min tempos. There is hope, it was so encouraging to look in the mirror and look at the scales this morning. This weight loss craic really is all out metal warfare.

Tuesday 205
Squats 115x5, Bench 85x6. 40 min cycle to work. Reckon I'm on track for 203 at least this week. Looking at things now I'd be targeting 200lb by end of month. Then 196 end of Jan and 192 end of Feb. 192-197 is the my zone. I should hit the zone by end of Jan.

Wednesday 204.2
40 min cycle to work. Did a decnet session in the gym last night, had an apple and 40g of cytomax with it. Should get below the 203 this week 202 would be worthy of a celebration.

Thursday 202.6
Deadlift 160x6, Press 57.5x3 (rep 3 was a cheat) 40 min cycle to work. It was 202.2 on the first count. 202.6 on count 2 and 3. Nearly worthy of a celebration. I was right, I suspected a bit of a woosh since the weekend. It's amazing, I can see fat loss in the mirror before I see it on the scales. I'm tracking 1lb a week over the last two weeks. I'm happy with that now. Its about being a bit more realistic I guess. The 40 min cycles in the morning seem to help too.

Friday 202
202 on the Button. Only now after about 18 weeks of RFL and UD2.0 since this time last year do I feel I have a accurate guage on how much weight I can drop week to week. I'm running at 1lb a week right now, I think I can maintain that. Another 2lbs to go in Dec then 4 in Jan and another 4 in Feb, I can do it. Bought a pair of 34" jeans today, haven't fitted into 34" Jean since I was 19.

Saturday 202
Power cleans and Tabata front squats with 40Kg nearly killed me. One of the worst sessions in the gym in memory. It’s a very hard session after a long week of dieting. The body was fairly beaten up from the Tuesday/ Thursday strength sessions. Weight came in as expected. At 202 it was time for a reload. A good weeks dieting. Very pleased with my progress. Got a decent amount of stretching done, plenty of squats and split squats.

Sunday Refeed

Patto

Monday Dec 21st 212
That is a decent load up. Got plenty of carbs in on both sat and sun. Not completely clean but not too bad either.

Tuesday 208
Squat 120x4, Bench 90x4. Actually did 5 reps on the bench with an assisted spot. Maybe could have squeezed out one more squat, upper back bending issues. Its going to take a bit longer to deplete this week. Got two good 30-40 min cycles in yesterday. 4lb down in a day is never bad.

Wednesday 208.2
Bewinldering, how could I have put on 0.2kg in a day where I eat no carbs except an apple and an orange and half a bananna. No cycle as I was off work. I think I need the cardio the keep this ticking over. I can't see any fat loss in the mirror this week, if anything I overdid the refeed last weekend. Maybe a bit of bloating but maybe that is wishfull thinking.

Thursday 203.4 Deadlift 175x5 PB, Press 60x1. An incredable session given how depleted I was. Makes such a difference having a training partner there. That is nearly a 5lb drop in 1 day, unreal. The thing I really struggle with on these diets is inconsistency. I reckon the two 40min cycles, both of which included hills and tempos got rid of plenty of glycogen. The 3 glasses of wine last night didn't help my blood sugar levels this morning that is for sure. I think I'll try the yohimbine and loads of cardio next week.

Friday Dec 25th 205
That is the second time this week that happened. I weight gain after eating no hardly any carbs all day. I have two suspects, either the cycling has some delayed water retension afteraffect of the diluted workout drink is the culpret. It maybe tea with milk. Its cheating but I do slip the odd one in here and there. I think it shows when I spend a day sitting around doing nothing I don't shift much of anything. The moring cycles are a good idea. Refeed, loads of junk. Couple glasses of wine and beer.

Saturday 212
Just some carbs before the game, I'm going to go all out this week to get down to 200lb. Yohimbine all the way I think.

Sunday 208
A day in the freezing cold listening to Dan John with two steaks and a tub of veg to keep me going. Got some new diet ideas to try out next week from Dan.

Patto

Monday Dec 28th 204.2
Looking back two weeks to a very similar week I reckon I'm heading for 201 at the moment. Did a 1 hour cycle in the morning and an unscheduled 1 hour walk in the afternoon. A lot of huger issues yesterday, probably cheated a bit with a huge tomatto, turkey and cheese omlette at 6pm.

Tuesday 202.8
Cycled for 30 min. Deload - Squats 90x5, Bench 65x5. Big DJ warmup and tried Kettle bell snatches. The session took 80 min plus another 15 min of fecking about. 202.8 is alright, I'll probably get another 1.5 down tomorrow then another 0.5 the day after will have me down to full depletion. I can feel a small bit of fat loss around the mid section, PJs are fitting loosely.

Wednesday 201.6
I got a 201 on the first measure, I can see fat loss in the mirror now. Should tip down below 201 by the Friday. I'm going to change things next week. Using more shakes, grapeseed extract maybe and leucine.

Thursday 199.8
Deload deadlift 5x130 and OH press 45x5. They still felt heavy. Full DJ warmup and kb snatch. That was quite a woosh. I haven't had one like that since week 1 back in early Nov. On the last day of the year I'm now down to my lowest weight of 2009 by 0.2 of an lb. I took the yohimbine in a full 50mg dose yesterday morning. It maybe making a little difference. So I lost 4lb in 4 weeks in December. Nothing spectacular but 196 by the end of Jan doesn't look too outragous now. I think I'll try using L-leucine next week see how it affects my weight training espiceally.

Friday 200.2
Had to wizz twice, first weight was 200.8. No cycle yesterday, I probably hydrated up a lot with the pre workout drink yesterday. Its funny from 199 its only another half a stone to go. Somehow that seems within grasping distance.

Saturday 200.6
Did a handy enough session in the gym, 45 min DJ warm up + KB Squats. Did some Olimpic lifts as the main session. Mostly a technical session. I got back down to 199.8 after a 30 min cycle in the snow yesterday. Then back up to 202.6 at night. After 6 days of depletion I just seem to hit a dead end in terms of metabolic slowdown and weight loss on the scales. This was a good week, nearly a clean 2lb fat loss but maybe some of that was "borrowed" from last week where I probably could have depleted further. The cycles seem to work well as does the yohimbine, I'm going to try L-leucine next week and creatine the week after. Hunger was a bigger deal this week but its not that bad. The worst is from the 8am shake of milk protein and bananna to 12am lunch. The bananna seems to work well too. At least it keeps me regular. 199 next week should be a walk in the park, 198 would be nice to keep me ahead of the curve. Took some pics last night. It should be interesting to compare with my 200lb fully depleted pics from last year.

Sunday 206.6
Nice reload, not 100% clean but not bad either. Didn't quite get fully loaded. I should be up around the 210 mark.

Patto

If anyone wants to see the pics and read through the reams of daily notes see here: http://johnsrapidfatloss.blogspot.com/ Otherwise below is a summary of 4 months of clinical dieting for a 30something gealic football player...

The Goal
In October 2009 I was 219lb or just tipping 100kg @ 6'3", you can see the pics if you click back, I wasn't lean by any means but if I was a rugby player and played second row I probably would have been pretty close to an ideal weight. I'm a gaelic footballer and my position is mid field 100kg is far too much weight to be hauling around a pitch for 60 minutes.

My strength stats are ok, I'm very much an intermediate lifter with a two to three year training age. I bench just over 100kg, deadlift just over 200Kg, I've a strong back I can do 12+ chins even off 100kg.

I'm not particularly fast or explosive but I have very good anaerobic endurance. I know this because of my 6x30sec rowing tests where I score big totals (1000m+, 1000m+ is a good score) but very modest early splits (191m 1st split at best, where 200m+ is a good score).

I've very tight hips and tight hamstrings.

My goal was to get down to 90-92kg in the close season, Nov-Feb and stay there for the season. I also wanted to maintain my strength and muscle mass. I figured this was where I would get most bang for my buck. At 90-92kg I figured I would be more agile, faster and go further and last longer with the same level of fitness.

If I knew then what I know now
In mid Jan I got down to 92kg, that's also pretty much where I finished in late Feb. After 4 weeks off the diet I was back up to 95kg. And I thought I was watching what I was eating in those 4 weeks. In the last two weeks I've managed to maintain that 95kg. My goal now is to stay at 95kg for the season.

For me its 10 times easier to maintain 95kg than to maintain 92kg. For the same reasons that it is 10 times easier for me to get from 100kg to 95kg than it is to get from 95kg tom 90kg. I could go into the details but I'd make a balls of explaining it to be honest. Read any of Lyle's books, he always has a chapter called "your body hates you".

What I should have done was dieted down to 95kg, which would have taken about 6 or 8 weeks and maintained that. I would have saved myself about 4 or 6 weeks of useless bloody mindedness and completely wasted energy and mental exasperation. Now, in theory, I know it can be done, I could have got to 90kg and I could have maintained it. It would have come at a cost, most likely at the cost of all my in season gaols.

In terms of playing football where I get my bang for my buck in season is through practicing the skills of the game first, then speed and fitness, then strength, then maybe body composition. And if you have stiff hips like I do, flexibility and stretching has to fit in high up that list too.

What stacked up and what didn't
The shocking weight gains I made once I went back on a maintenance diet was soul destroying. It shows how effective my body is at regulating my body weight. I think everyone has a sweet spot, a weight they can comfortably maintain on a "normal" diet. My sweet spot is about 95kg and isn't a very lean 95kg, I know people my age and older can maintain a leaner body composition on a so called "normal" diet. I also know a handful of people, big into nutrition, who can maintain a very very lean body composition through some very clever dieting. Getting below that sweet spot and staying there is all about cheating your own body which can be done through clever dieting and training or through drugs (I know which is easier).

A lot of professonal soccer players and even intercounty fotballs seem to be able to maintain a very lean body composition through the season. They can't all be naturally that lean and I don't think they are into dieting drugs to the same extent as say bodybuilders or girl bands. Maybe there are ways of eating clever and staying below that sweet spot without the anal obsessions and calorie counting. One of the problems is that you have very little time for error whe going back on a maintenance diet. Whereas I had weeks and weeks to dial in the UD2.0 diet, after 4 weeks of dialing in a maintenance diet wrong I had put back on 4lb.

I did maintain my strength and muscle mass. I was eating enough protein. I was eating over 200g of protein a day. That was another thing that was very tough mentally. To go into the gym and do a savage deadlifting session, I remember one session where I finished on 175x5, and have no gain to show for the effort.

My recovery between sessions was normal, my immune system was rock solid. My hair and beard grew the same as normal, possibly faster if anything.

I often wonder, where does all the protein go? I had to back off the protein big time when I came off the diet to stabilise my weight. On a maintenance diet I take about 150g of protein a day, I doubt I even need that. I reckon your body is very effective at using protein as an energy source and on a high prtein diet will use the excess protein as energy. I don't buy the idea that your body can only absorb a certain amount of protein at a time or that you pee out what you don't use.

I do believe that high GI carbs are the enemy. So bloody hard to stay away from after 4 months of dieting. I'm not sure they ever come guilt free, even as cheat meals or post workout. Certainly if I were to try maintain 90-92kg I could never ever get away with any. At least at 95kg I can tighten things up for a few weeks and make room for a few cheat meals. At 95kg, I can probably even get away with being strict Monday to Thursday and cheat here and there Fri-Sun. I noticed when I went back to maintenance the more cereal (corn flakes) I eat, the more I wanted. There was no satisfaction. One thing I'm trying now is using flapjacks as mid afternoon snacks.

So what now
Well 95kg it is from here on. No more dieting beyond that. If I start drifting up, I'll tighten up on the carbs for a week or two and control things that way. I've no notion of trying to run even a small deficit. I'd rather have the cheat meals and save the free will for something else.

I'm only lifting weights once or twice a week in season and I do nothing heavy. I've started reading a lot of Pavel Tsatsouline's stuff lately. I'm doing Kettle bell snatches twice a week and I'm using his "relax into stretch" techniques to loosen up my hips. I have measured my board jump so lets see if I can push that number up through developing explosiveness and mobility in my hips. I'm not going to loose any sleep if my bench press of deadlift maxes drop 5-10%.