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.
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.