Vaestas' Adventures

[vaestas]

Hello to all,

Apologies for writing in English...its easier for me than Italian but hopefully over time I'll get better in the latter.

I've been following a diet and training regime for about 8 weeks now and have seen pretty good results. Attached are my 8-week progress pics.

STATS
Height:1.75

8 weeks ago: 77.27 kg
35% bf

Now:
72.7 kg
25% bf

So that's my progress to date. Now I want to up the ante a bit and do two weeks of Lyle Mcdonald's rapid fat loss diet, which is essentially a protein sparing modified fast for TWO weeks. The reason why I put two weeks, is because its a good time frame to see if the diet is working well for me and is short enough to give me the motivation to stick through with it.

START: July 12
END: July 26

MACROS
140 g protein
10 g carbs
10 g fat
Total calories 690

ONE refeed on July 18th
150 g protein
300 g carb
30 g fat
Total 2070 calories

TRAINING
6x/week heavy training
Hams/quads
Chest
Back
Arms
Glutes/Calves
Delts/Abs

I train calves a few times a week.

CARDIO
30 minutes post workout (LISS)
Sometimes may do additional LISS in the evening

WILL DOCUMENT:
- Diet
- Training + perceived intensity
- Cardio
- Energy levels
- Weight
- Pictures

[menphisdaemon]

Welcome even in Bodyweb. Best wishes for the competition

[Otoha]

Just sayin', you probably skipped 2 chapters of RFL diet: the first is about the training, because training so much with that deficit is unreal and unhealthy and Lyle clearly says to cut back frequency of weight training to twice a week at maximum and states that addition of cardio can cause more problems than it solves; the second is about the refeed, because considering your data (1.73x72 kg) you have to stick to what he says towards "Category 1", and that means goin' on with RFL straight for 12 days followed by 2 full days of refeed that mark the end of the diet.

[vaestas]

Menophisdaemon, thanks for the welcomw!

Otoha, appreciate the feedback. I tried the RFL before and found that I could actually sustain a very high and intense volume of training....crazy enough in 3 weeks of RFL, my fat weight went down by 3.6 kilos and LBM was up 1.3 kilos. I know he says not to do cardio, reduce volume, etc. but I've had really great results in modifying it slightly. It worked last time so will give it another shot the only difference I'm making from the previous time i did the RFL is addition of cardio as from previous experience I know it happens to be very effective for me in terms of fat loss and also just doing a refeed a bit sooner because I'm trying this out for 2 weeks. I think I remember Lyle mentioning in some of his bodyrecomp forums that HIIT can slow down your progress but LISS can be ok, which is what I'll be doing.

I think...the pics will tell if this works for me.

[vaestas]

In what sense?

[vaestas]

Unfortunately, no. I'm quite tall and like most women hold most of my weight in my lower body. I tried attaching pics now from this morning post workout but for some reason the attachment function isn't working...gonna have to try later.

Weight this morning: 72.9 kg (yup, that's 72.9! No overestimations unless my scale has been consistently wrong).

[Otoha]

Do you have a blog or something? Not asking for the link, but i'm almost sure that i saw those pics somewhere surfing in the net while trying to find logs about different diet strategies.

[vaestas]

Used to have a bodyspace account, which may have had the first pic from 8 weeks ago but not the most recent ones.

No blog though. Tried to start one a few times but had a major issue with sticking to it...

[vaestas]

Workout today:

ARMS:


Negative dips

Push downs (3 x 8-10)

Concentration Curls (3 x 8-10)

Reverse Grip Barbell Curls (3 x 8-10)
SS
Dumbbell Kickbacks (3 x 8-10)


Dumbbell curls (3 x 8-10)
SS
Skull crushers (3 x 8-10)



Was surprised to find out I can do ACTUAL (mini) dips not just negatives...did 4 sets of mini dips and finished off with negatives to start. The above workout I've been doing for a few weeks now as I really like it. I just reversed the order of my exercises today to change it up a bit (so started with negatives instead of skull crushers)

Overall strength seems to be going up over the past few weeks, but we'll see how it goes over the next couple of weeks with major caloric restriction.
- Pumps are good today. Post workout pic attached.
- Also, in reply to PrinceRiky, lower body pics attached. The legs add a lot to the weight...
- Abs starting to show. I train them very very little but maybe I should start putting greater efforts on training the core

[menphisdaemon]

Believe me, you don't need to go into a PSMF to achieve your goals: shape is good and you can exploit a minimum carbs intake to improve your workouts without compromise fat loss. I read EVERY single book of Lyle and I'm quiet good in nutrition.

You said you want to compete in the other forum: are you going to compete in bikini or body-fitness (this is very important in order to take the best out from your diet and workouts)...and...in which federation?

I still don't understand if you are/will compete in Italy or somewhere else.

I noticed you are experienced both in diet and workouts: i'm just giving you some suggestions, since i usually work with people who compete.

[vaestas]

Hi Memphisdaemon,

Many thanks for the feedback. My plan was to compete in bikini with the timeline being around the beginning of October. The reason I am looking into more extreme measures is because the timeframe is quite short and I still have a good amount of fat to lose in my lower body (hip/thighs) which does not budge for me until my upper body is already extremely lean. Doing lower body training tomorrow so will take more pics.

In terms of competing, I’m specifically interested in the IFBB stream. Italy/France area. I’m very much a beginner and training for about two years now, but I did notice that north American IFBB bikini competitors are extremely lean, and I’m definitely not there yet.

[menphisdaemon]

I will follow your log with interest.

[vaestas]

Thanks Menphisdaemon! We'll see how this 2 week experiment goes

I will make tweaks in 2 weeks as required by my progress.

---------- Post added at 21:35:29 ---------- Previous post was at 16:44:16 ----------

1 scoop whey
60g chicken breast

300g egg whites

150g tuna
10g whey

300g egg whites


1 tbsp ground chia seeds


163g P
6g F
10g C


780 cal

hmm...really high on the protein today due to some miscalculations earlier in the day. Oh well, at least carbs and fats are in check. Added some ground chia seeds as there's so little fibre on this diet.

Will aim to get some FFA's tomorrow also but will have to lower protein consumption so as to not be over on my calories.

Energy today was totally fine. Went for half hour jog outside in the evening.

[divemaster]

Very interesting ... I'll pass by here to check how your preparation goes .. good luck with your contest!!

[vaestas]

Yesterday energy levels were DEFINITELY down...just getting through the workout was a mental challenge in of itself. But I'm hesitant to pin it on the diet because:
- Friday went to bed much, much later than usual
- Spent a lot of time in the sun on Saturday and got a sunburn
- Had to train in the evening (with jersey shore crew...) instead of the morning like I usually do

Weight yesterday morning was 72.9 kg

DIET

Can't say I felt any hunger yesterday but I really wanted to eat...had to drink a lot to distract myself from eating and had a tsp of protein powder here and there (which I included in my macro count) when felt like having something sweet.

200g egg whites
20g whey
30g chicken breast
1 cup green beans
1/3 cup milk (2%)

120g tuna
150g broccoli

30g whey

20g whey
3tbsp cream (in coffee)

10g fat
24g carb
130g protein
700 calories

TRAINING
4 x 12 hack squats (120 kilo)
3 x 1 leg hack squats (40 kilo)

3 x 10 butt machine
SS
3 x 10 abductor machine

3 x10 wide squat (30 kilo)
SS
3 x 10 sumo squat holding dumbbell (20 kilo)

3 x 10 split lunge

3 x 10 bridge hip raises

CARDIO
20 min jog in the morning
20 min stairmaster post workout

Attached are pics of legs PRE training. Calves are getting better but still much work to be done.