[EasyEJL]

So the question here is - given 2 bottles of Shred-XS and someone with obsessive compulsive disorder taking them, what sort of progress can we see in a month?

Quick background - 39 yo 5'9", I hit 245# in late january. Desk life plus travelling for business had been adding 5-7 pounds a year on, and each year I was just a little too busy to do something about it right now. When I hit 245 I was wearing 38 waist pants and they were getting too tight to wear, and I was about to have to buy 40s. The only 40s I buy are Mickeys I had to make a change, and make it big and serious. I clipped calories significantly also going low fat + low carb. So majority of calories was protein, around a 65-25-10 mix for the first 4 months. I lost a little under 30 pounds in that time, but wasn't really putting on muscle, which I also wanted to do.

On May 14 @ 216#, I decided to enter the Body For Life challenge, and started using their strength workout routine, but with my own cardio style, and my own diet. It took most of the first 4 weeks to really sort out my supplementation, but I'm pretty nailed down now, and will be sticking with what I am using the rest of the time on that challenge. My ridiculous goal is to reach single digit bodyfat, somewhere in the range of 180-190 pounds total body weight by Aug 6. Using my weight from sunday of 207, that means between 17 + 27 pounds of weight loss (2.4 - 3.9 pounds a week). By accu-measure calipers my current bodyfat is approx 23% (21mm) To reach the bodyfat % goal @180 still means converting 3 pounds of fat to muscle in those 7 weeks. To hit single digit body fat at 190 means converting 11 pounds of fat to muscle.

Its farfetched, but not impossible, nothing is.

How I'm going to get there

Supplements

Puritan's Pride Omega-3 Fish Oil with Policosanol 1 3x daily
Puritan's Pride Time Release Ultra Vita-Man 1 2x daily
Puritan's Pride Focus Complex(fish oils, ALA, ginko, etc) 1 2x daily
GNC Pro Performance CLA 2 3x daily
Schiff Glucosamine plus MSM 2 3x daily
Amerifit Nutrition DHEA 50mb 1 2x daily
bulk powerFULL 1066mg 3x daily
MHP T-Bomb II 3 (to be replaced with T-Force on bottle emptying) 3x daily

Shred-XS 2 2x daily

V12 2x daily
Betagen 3x daily

NO Shotgun - 1x workout days

The only change I know of outside of the T-Bomb to T-Force switch is that I was selected to log for Reset-AD as well. I'll definitely make a post when that starts, as raising my sensitivity to stims may make a significant change.

Food

I've decided to up protein intake. So basics are
150g from syntrax nectar as 50g preworkout, 50g post workout 50g one other time per day, possibly split at 2 25g servings
30-60 g from fish, chicken or beef daily
50g mix of GNC TR whey / Muscle Milk Lite / EAS whey protein
for a total of 250ish daily. I'm going to try to continue to press that upwards as well.

The non bedtime shakes will all have phyllium husks or other vegetable based high fiber added (12g fiber), as well as 2tbsp of milled flax seeds. Oil supplementation will come from 1 tbsp each of cod liver oil, coconut oil, and flax oil per day

Total calorie intake is around 1400 give or take 150 depending on details. As this is a modified CKD, there is a 1 day a week refeed, which is inconsistent on calories + details, so I'll try to be specific each time it happens.

Water intake between 1.5 - 2 gal a day

Strength workout
M-W-F in a 2 week cycle alternating between

Upper body

Chest - Barbell bench press 12/10/8/6/12 - Barbell incline bench press 12
Back - Wide Grip Lat pulldown 12/10/8/6/12 - One-arm dumbell rows(per arm) 12
Shoulders Seated Dumbell Press 12/10/8/6/12 - Lateral raises(per arm) 12
Biceps - Barbell Curls 12/10/8/6/12 - Concentration Curls(per arm) 12 - Hammer Curls(per arm) 12
Triceps - Triceps Pushdowns 12/10/8/6/12 - Seated Triceps presses 12

Lower Body

Quadriceps - Leg Extensions 12/10/8/6/12 - Barbell Squats 12
Hamstrings - Lying Leg Curls 12/10/8/6/12 - Dumbell Lunges 12
Calves - Standing Calf Raises 12/10/8/6/24
Abs - Cable crunches 12/10/8/6/12 - incline leg raises 12

All are to reaching 100% on the muscle group on the last set.

Cardio

If you didn't think I was crazy from the diet, you probably will from the cardio. I use the Reebok 120 heart rate monitor and my daily goal is 1000 calories in the gym. on strength days, that means between 350-450 calories from cardio, on non strength days its all cardio. It appears to end up being the equivalent of about 5 miles on strength days, and 12 on non. I've been trying to split it some, and allow some "rest cardio" activity to occur. What I mean is that I'll do a 20 minute stretch with heart rate in the 140s, ramp up to 180s in the last 4 minutes, then do some casual walking for the next 5-10 minutes. My heart rate collapses within the first 2 minutes to the 120s, but doesn't reach below 100 throught that whole time. Primarily I have been using an arcrider (sort of ellipticalis), ellipticals and (mainly) stationary bike. I have arthritis worst in my knees so treadmill is out. Lately i've been trying to do more upper body involved cardio, so high speed clean and jerks as well as other upper body excersizes done with very light weights but very fast will keep my heart rate in the over 120 range. I'm considering buying a punching bag set (both heavy bag and speed bag) but I'm not quite sure, money is a wee bit tight.

I've been running the above cardio for the last 2 weeks now (previously was approx the same strength days, but 500cal on non strength days), and oddly enough i'm not loosing any weight. I originally attributed it to the change to adding fat to make sure I was really in a ketogenic state, but now I believe its due to adding muscle. I can see the difference daily, a little more definition here, the love handles shrinking, etc. So for right now i'm not letting the scale disrupt or depress me, so long as the mirror still loves me

Thats it in a nutshell (big nutshell). I wouldn't recommend that anyone else go quite so extreme. I wouldn't do it myself other than that I signed up for the Body for life challenge, and know how I want to look at the end of it. I believe that the powerFULL is starting to kick in, and that the heightened protein intake as well is making me get some moderately significant lean muscle gains. The mix that is in Shred-XS is unique so far as I can tell, and I am very interested to see how it supports my goals.

Ok so the stats as a recap

34" waist, 5'9", 208#, 21mm @ suprailliac for 23% bf

pics




And so it begins!

I took 2 Shred-XS when I got home, so its been about 2 hours now. I can definitely feel the thermogenic effects, as i'm feeling a bit warm. It doesn't seem to have a high stim content, although I am getting a little bit of an ephedra like "fuzzy" feeling on my legs and arms (sort of the feeling when the body part has fallen partially asleep). No headche, no jitteryness, no stomach issues. I'll likely post again later if there are any other sides, otherwise not till tomorrow. Note that I am still going to update my complete log as well, and try to chronicle the Shred-XS specific details here (or what I believe are specific to it) and highlight on pictures / weight / bodyfat, but not go into particular more detail on supplements, diet (except for free days) or my workout unless they change significantly. All that stuff is in my other log. This way this will be clear and relevant for Shred-XS and less cluttered with other stuff, and also leave space if people want to ask questions.

[Millennium 1]

Very nice intro. Subbed!

[ncangey0513]

Very detailed but to the point intro. I like! Sick stack, also!

Subscribed!

[EasyEJL]

Day 1
The thermogenic activity is very noticeable. Took 2 on empty stomach (with other supps) and went for morning cardio with a Sans V12/Syntrax Nectar shake. Inside of 4 minutes on the bike at a heart rate of only 125, I was already starting to sweat noticeably. At 20 minute, still at only average heart rate in the 130s, i had sweat pouring off me like I had been on the elliptical for that long at high intensity. I had good energy levels, didn't notice any unusual side effects other than my heart rate was a little harder to control than usual.

What I mean is that say that normally a setting of 4 on the bike at 70rpm would have my heart rate hit 130 within 3 minutes and stay there, it seemed that my heart rate would spike higher than normal on effort at first, but then come back down to what it should be for that effort within a minute. So in that scenario what happened is that as soon as I got on my heart rate spiked to mid 140s, so I lowered resistance, and within a minute I was in the lower 120s. So I raised resistance, fast spike to 150, lowered resistance etc until I decided to sit it out one round, and it lowered itself. Not sure if its related to the Shred-XS or if it even matters. I woke up a couple of times last nite (once was catching my 11 year old daughter watching tv at 2am), so it may be that i'm just a little beat. I'll keep an eye on this and mention whether I continue to see it.

[spaceclown]

I'm in.

[ncangey0513]

Nice details so far, man. Lookin' good.

[EasyEJL]

Day 2

I theres a good bit of an energy boost with Shred-XS, but not huge. Its nicer that way actually, as the bigger the boost, the worse the crash afterwards, and I haven't noticed any crash with Shred so far.

Last nite (lord I wish I wasn't so compulsive) I dragged the couch and coffee table (3" pine with african slate laid in it, and cast iron legs, heavy as crap) out of the way in the living room and proceeded to watch and do a Body Sculpting with Gilad @ 9pm. We've got FitTv on Fios plus a DVR so I'm recording those. About 350 calories later and a lot of sweat I was done. When I went to bed I remembered that the following morning was as lower body, and wished I hadn't gotten the thighs + glutes aching so bad.

Well, I had enough energy to not only make it through my workout, but post a few personal bests on it

Lying leg curls 12@62.5/10@67.5/8@75/6@80/12@55 + 12 dumbell lunges per side @ 25/pounds per hand

Standing heel raises 12@155/10@175/8@195/6@225/24@155

and still do 50 minutes of cardio after for my 1k calories in the gym. If the weights dont seem that impressive, consider that the whole bunch of sets between the two of those takes under 18 minutes including setup, so its pretty high speed. So now if I can do the body sculpting or other similar nightly, I'm up to around 1400 calories burned in excersize daily, and about 1400 calories in food intake Forgetting the other 22 hours I'm awake I'm already neutral caloriewise.

I feel better than I normally do on low carbs without a heavy stim, and I'm not getting any of the ickier side effects of the heavy stims I've taken in the past.

As my (hopefully) final dietary changes, I'm trying to get more than 1 meal from a solid protein high food to help keep a more even protein level in the bloodstream, so maybe 2 out of 7 eats will be solid, but not significantly different overall protein/fat/carb profile. Also, I'm going to add some BCAA dosing as well, but it will partially replace powdered protein. I think I'm going to do 5/5/5 pre/during/post workout + major cardio, maybe 5 during the minor cardio. The nice part about the split cardio will be that I can use the evening cardio as high intensity, and then just drone on for an hour and a half at low fat burining intensity on the main cardios, and get the best of both worlds.

[ncangey0513]

Impressive workout, to say the least. Best of luck in achieving your goals. It looks like you're on the right track!

[EasyEJL]

Day 3

Cardio day, 1000 calories burned this morning from 30 min bike, 15 min calisthenics + low weight high speed excersizes, 36 minutes arctrainer. A little lighter than usual foodwise today too, not on purpose, just not particularly hungry, and yet still felt good. Possibly went a little heavy (for me) with dinner, had a half rack of ribs and some collard greens.

Started taking Reset-AD lunchtime, and although when I took that I felt all the usual stimulant side effects (slight lightheadedness, tingly feeling, etc) that was because I took it with a Monster Energy drink. When I later took the Shred-Xs and second Reset with just water, I felt energetic, but none of the common stim side effects. I'm liking the Shred so far, I can tell I have some support there, but I don't feel overwhelmed by it either. Evening cardio was only 220 calories, but felt good. Right now tho i'm ready to pop some powerFull, maybe some tryptophan, have a pro-pudding, rub some lipoderm all over my fat abs, and pass out.

[ncangey0513]

Originally Posted by EasyEJL

Right now tho i'm ready to pop some powerFull, maybe some tryptophan, have a pro-pudding, rub some lipoderm all over my fat abs, and pass out.

[EasyEJL]

This morning I was completely on fire. For my upper body workout, I had higher weights for about half of the sets. If you are interested in details, you can look at my high detail log. It was hard doing the cardio afterwards as I was a little sore and worn out from the extremely strenuous strength workout, but I managed to survive through to my 1000 calorie goal for the morning.

I ended up deciding to bring carbs back into the fold, but to try not to raise calories by much in the process (so maybe sticking in the 1500 area) by clipping fat. I had a small burger on a whole grain bun for dinner, with some baked french "fries". I took my evening Shred XS a little later than usual (around 7:30pm) and had a nice energy boost from it. Again, not a set of strap on jet thrusters, but a nice feeling. I ended up doing 2 sessions back to back of cardio starting at 8:30, for a total of 620 calories this evening, so 1620 total burned in excersize for the day, 540 during upper body strength training, 1080 in mixed cardio... I'm still feeling good now, not wiped out, but also not all hopped up. I think I may start purposefully holding the 2nd Shred dose till after dinner (i generally take the other supps before dinner).

[Millennium 1]

You are all dialed in man. You are feeling exactly what Shred-XS is all about. Nice smooth energy with good appetite suppression without a crash. I'm glad to hear that it agrees with you. I think the Reset-AD combined with the Shred-XS is a great idea. The more adrenal support you get the better the fat burner will work.

Keep up the great work!

[ncangey0513]

Look's like your well on way to getting Shredded! XS style.