Planning next 3 months - recomp + cut (log)

[Gutterpump]

Looking for some help or comments on the next 3 months I've been planning out.

Looking to do a recomp and then all out cut.

Diet will be as follows:

Month 1+2: Anabolic diet (TKD)
Month 3: Velocity Diet
(Month 4 I will then go into an all out bulk, CKD)

I am looking to get sub 10% BF by May 15th. I am at 14-15% now (might be higher). Going to be tough but I think I can do it. May aim for 10-12% as long as I have core definition.


Workouts:

I've recently switched from a 3-day fullbody to a 5-day split again. Here is what I am looking at doing though:

2 months: SAIS program (4-day + cardio/core on off days)
Last month: ? still deciding


Supplements:

11OXO (6-8 caps day) - 500-750 mg
Primordial Performance CLA ethyl ester
Primordial Performance Dermacrine
Fish Oil - 10+ grams a day
Evening Primrose (o 6/9) - 5+ grams day (keeping hormones balanced with high dose of fish oil)
MAN Clout
NAPALM w/clen
MST - MVP/ZMK
Now's Thyroid Energy
Poseidon
Multi-enzyme

MAN Blue Print (for after 11oxo)
AI's Post Cycle Support (usually take this but I will possibly double dose after the 11oxo)

Oryx Goat Whey
Biotest Metabolic Drive - low carb casein/whey mix

Note: also dosing hcg, 380iu eod. I don't want any shutdown from the dermacrine or 11oxo since my test is already low-normal. I may also be starting TRT in the summer.

Any comments or suggestions would be great. I may use this area as a log as well and post my workouts + progress.

I am also looking for new ways to work the core, since I've been neglecting it. I have a contest going on here at work with a bunch of other guys - who will have the best core/abs by May 15th. Winner takes $800 and all the glory lol. This is my motivation. I only lose $150 if I'm not the winner, but since I am the only one here who has been consistently working out, I think I have a great chance.

 

[Neil5585]

Work hard in the gym logging at least 5 hours of exercise a week and be consistent with diet and your training. It should be a breeze to lose that weight in 11 weeks...you didn't mention your weight but let's just say you're 210 lbs at 15%, to get to to about 9% you'd have to lose 14 lbs, 18 lbs to get down in the 7% range where abs would look great.

 

[Gutterpump]

Thanks. I've already lost 5 pnds this past month and I wasn't even trying to cut, just switched over to a very-low carb diet a couple weeks ago.

I'm 220 pnds
6'2
I think around 15%bf might be more like 16% though.

I have visible veins from my chest through to my forearms..first time I've seen the full path like that.. Only area I need to lean out is midsection. I can see side of my abs and can see obliques, those need to lean out too but I wouldn't say I have handles though. I don't have a lot of subQ fat, mostly a lot beneath it (VAT)

I have another question. How long till ketones should be visible on my keto-stix. It's already near end of week 2, and I'm only showing a small-trace amount of ketones. Where am I aiming for on the sticks. It's my first TKD.

 

[Neil5585]

What percent of your calories are from fat? What are your total carbs? You could post up your diet if you want so we can take a closer look.

 

[Gutterpump]

my current diet needs to be tweaked (and I need to be better at counting cals + portions), but typical day now looks like this:


am

meal 1:

45grams oryx goat whey
4grams salmon oil
2grams evening primrose
=
45 grams protein
2 grams fat
0 grams net carbs

meal 2:

baby spinach with 2 whole eggs
3 strips of bacon
1/2 cup of chicken
lots of olive oil, vinegar
4grams salmon oil
2grams evening primrose

meal 3:
metabolic drive shake (casein/whey)
40 grams protein
4 grams fat
2 grams of net carbs
4grams salmon oil
2grams evening primrose

meal 4:

baby spinach with 2 whole eggs
3 strips of bacon
1/2 cup of chicken
lots of olive oil, vinegar
4grams salmon oil
2grams evening primrose


Workout:
------------------------------------------------------
30min preworkout
Clout serving (~ 1 gram of carbs I think)
DCP

Sip around 60grams of the Oryx goat whey during workout

post workout Clout (1 gram net carbs)
------------------------------------------------------

meal 5:

Large steak
spinach + butter

meal 6:

50grams pure casein before bed.
4grams salmon oil
2grams evening primrose

Occassionally I have mixed nuts throughout the day.



I'm thinking I'm not getting enough protein to support my training, and I'm not getting enough fat to speed up ketosis. Definately far more fat than carbs though, carbs are very minimal atm, aiming for <20grams. I think I also need more fat in the morning instead of just a large amount post workout. Also something to note, I work a desk job so my calorie requierment isn't extremely high.

Current breakdown in order would be (without percentages)
Protein/Fat/Carbs

I really need to get things measured properly instead of just winging it.

 

[Neil5585]

Okay, i didn't add everything up but just a few quick tips before I'm off to work:

-Definitely looks like you need more fat. Animal fat and olive oil. I tend to go somewhat leaner earlier in the day and a little more fat later in the day and this seems to work well. Shoot for probably 40-50% calories from fat.

-The protein shakes are definitely too low in fat. You need to add quite a bit of olive oil to these.

-Don't take fish oil pre-workout. You don't want it just being burned up for fuel.

-Protein can be in the 1-2g/lb range and be fine. The higher the fat, the lower the protein can be, and vice versa.

-Don't consume much fat PWO. This is one time where I think it's good to get in basically just a protein shake. Reason being is that your body will burn up the fat you consume at that meal, however that's going to be displacing body fat from being burned as fuel. Big no no for recomp and fat loss.

 

[Gutterpump]

-The protein shakes are definitely too low in fat. You need to add quite a bit of olive oil to these.

How about coconut oil? My latest bloodwork showed that I was extremely low in cholesterol (107 total). Adding saturated fat should help that. Currently I am eating a lot of olive oil with meals, along with animal fat.

-Don't take fish oil pre-workout. You don't want it just being burned up for fuel.

True. I've been taking it with my 11oxo to help absorption pre-and post workout to help fight cortisol at those times. I'll take it with some bioperine instead maybe.

Also forgot to note that I've added DCP in pre-workout.

-Protein can be in the 1-2g/lb range and be fine. The higher the fat, the lower the protein can be, and vice versa.

True, I remember reading this. I've been stuck in a 'try to get as much protein as I can' mode, which I need to fix.

-Don't consume much fat PWO. This is one time where I think it's good to get in basically just a protein shake. Reason being is that your body will burn up the fat you consume at that meal, however that's going to be displacing body fat from being burned as fuel. Big no no for recomp and fat loss.

Guess I should nix the post workout steaks and add chicken + spinach instead. Steaks I'll have earlier in the day :food:

How safe are BCAA's on a TKD? I have a cpl tubs of XTEND sitting right here. I'm worried about gluconogenesis.
I've also added 60mcg of systemic clen on top of the topical clen/napalm. Ramped up from 20mcg.

I've had a hard time trying to track down Neurobalance, didn't know it was discontinued!!
I finally tracked down a place that had some left and ordered 2 bottles.
Now I'll be getting some deep sleep again.

 

[Neil5585]

I don't know that coconut oil will help to raise cholesterol. I wouldn't artificially try to raise cholesterol...I'd stick to a healthy diet and exercise program. You can always eat eggs, not that those are known to increase your cholesterol levels.

BCAAs are great on low carb diets. Probably the most beneficial use of them is 0.44g/kg bwt of them during a workout. When severely cutting calories like the velocity diet, they are great between shakes to preserve muscle. I'd use the same dose but taken throughout the day between meals.

I dunno about the clen, man, I don't really see why people would use it just to lean up. If you're a competitive bodybuilder, okay, but just to lean up, there are plenty of effective fat burning supplements without the nasty side effects of clen. Just my opinion...you can take it or leave it.

 

[Gutterpump]

I don't notice too many sides at a low dose while taking in lots of taurine + poseidon. As long as I stay around 60mcg, things are pretty good. I know what you're saying though.

I still need to tweak my diet, probably using fitday. I'm not sure how many cal's I'm taking in, mainly been focusing on ratios and staying low carb to kick into ketosis. Once I'm sure I'm in ketosis, then I'll adjust carbs, etc as needed, probably sticking sub 20grams though the whole time with no carb ups.

I thought I read that l-glutamine and iso-leucine can convert to glucose during physical activity? I have some bulk leucine I was going to use before/during morning fasted cardio, but Xtend is just so tasty.

 

[JDF]

Where did you get your keto sticks?

 

[EasyEJL]

SAIS is a great workout, i like the philosophy of the mix of rep ranges

 

[Gutterpump]

Where did you get your keto sticks?

@ Duane Reade, right by all the diabetic products at the pharmacy counter

 

[Gutterpump]

SAIS is a great workout, i like the philosophy of the mix of rep ranges

Yeah I'm hoping it will also help endurance. I think I have decent power, but not for long periods of time. Probably because I don't often work in high rep ranges. Would be nice if I can get some LBM out of this all too, even with restricted cals. But I think I'd be happy just to maintain and add hardness since I plan on a lean bulk right after.

I'm thinkink SAIS now, then fullbody workout again during the velocity diet. I think that should help keep my body more anabolic while I'm taking on fewer cals. When I first switched to a fullbody workout last summer, I was always feeling pumped and noticed a quick hardening of my muscles too.

 

[Gutterpump]

My thoughts on SAIS so far:

I'm following the program as laid out, 3 reps of 6, 2 reps of 10, 1 rep of 20. I get a nice pump, but I feel like I can go longer. The workout is not killing me like volume training / fullbody was.

I'm going to finish my first week of this program and see how it goes, but I may not take as many rest days as laid out in the program since I am used to hitting each muscle group twice per week. We'll see though, maybe giving it some time will show some nice results. I may have been slightly overtraining before.

Some goals for my recomp: gain some chest + upper back thickness while losing inches around the waste. Going to try some new excercises in the routine.

Today was chest + bi's. Nice ab/core session afterwards too. I've been logging my lifts this time around. I've lost strength since last summer ever since I started volume training, so I'm just going to leave the numbers out for now I think, we'll see. Have also had some wrist pain that's just starting to go away so I'm looking forward to adding some strength again.

 

[EasyEJL]

I think if you feel like you could go longer, raise the weights

Or add in one or two supplemental exercises at either the 2 sets of 10 or 1 set of 20 levels or both if its more about endurance. its easy enough to find at least 1 additional exercise per body part

 

[Gutterpump]

Yeah it's more of an endurance thing. I'm working till failure on my sets, but I can definately do more excercises...I just need to draw the line between a good work day, and overtraining.

Yesterday was:

Flat bench (2 warm up sets) then 3 sets of 6 - heavy
Incline bench - 3 sets of (10,9,8) - medium
Vertical Press - 1 set of 20 - medium light

Worked till failure on each but I think I could have easily thrown in cable flies, squeeze press and maybe some DB press in there. Same with bi's, I think I could have squeezed in a couple more excercises, 6 more sets.

 

[JDF]

How safe are BCAA's on a TKD? I have a cpl tubs of XTEND sitting right here. I'm worried about gluconogenesis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glucogenic_amino_acid

I cant take credit for this arjun4 posted this for me in another thread.

Guy really seems to know his stuff as I've seen him post in a few different threads.

Oh, and it came from this thread which you may be interested in

http://anabolicminds.com/forum/nutrition-health/86879-why-am-i.html

Good luck bro!

 

[Gutterpump]

Thanks for that link. I think I will then stick to the bulk Leucine...I just need a better delivery system for it, tastes so nasty.

I also need to heavily increase my fat intake, that's what I'm finding tough to do right now. I'm getting most of my fats currently from saturated fat as well (trying to boost my cholesterol which is absurdly low) and I think that's also a no-no on this diet, or at least on the anabolic diet.

On second thought as well, back to the topic of # of set / excercises...I think I can workout each muscle group twice per week if I keep the sets to 6 per day per group. I might change the program to a 3-day upper-body split, doing legs once a week, making it a 7-day training week and taking breaks only when needed.

 

[Gutterpump]

Not really keeping a great log here, going to try to update once in a while, just to help me keep track. Been really busy apartment hunting here in NYC and busy with work.

Starting weight just over a month ago: 226
Weight beginning of last week: 220

Current weight: 216.5

I can definately see more vascularity right now and I'm also visibly losing weight around the waist. Still not totally in ketosis, only seeing very low amount of ketones. I just cut out nuts from my diet, and I upped my fat intake a lot. Going to keep macadamia nuts in once in a while though since they are super high in fat and almost nil carb count.

I think my cal's are too low atm..struggling to keep them consistent with my busy schedule and not being able to cook much.

Yesterday I worked back/abs and did cardio for 20min at good pace, worked slightly over an hour. Today I worked shoulders and tri's. Keeping somewhat to the SAIS routine, but custom sets. It worked well on chest day, but for back and shoulders, I have to add more sets in.

Lateral raises: 1 set of 15, 1 set of 10, 2 sets of 6
Shoulder press: 2 sets of 10, 1 set of 8
Rear delt: 3 sets of 10
machine press: narrow grip for 10, no pause> wide grip for 10

Skull crushers: 3 sets of 8
Tricep pulldown: 1 set of 15, 1 set of 12, 1 set of 8
Tricep pulldown > dropset (40 reps)

Finished my workout in about 35 min today.
Definately felt weaker, my lifts were down =( Could be from lack of carbs or calorie deficit.

 

[JDF]

Still not totally in ketosis, only seeing very low amount of ketones. I just cut out nuts from my diet, and I upped my fat intake a lot. Going to keep macadamia nuts in once in a while though since they are super high in fat and almost nil carb count.

Any idea why nuts will keep you out of ketosis? I like to snack on almonds but I only have very few and track them along with my other CHO's throughout the day.

 

[Gutterpump]

I eat a lot of them once in a while...those are the only carbs I don't count so much... I'm just being safe, they likely aren't affecting me, but they could be on days where I eat a whole can hehe.

I think I'm just not getting enough fat. My protein is still higher than my fat intake.
I just bought a big tub of extra virgin coconut oil, going to have a cpl spoons of this in every second shake. Should taste better than olive oil (which I'm going to add to shakes as well now)

 

[Gutterpump]

btw, I dunno what's causing this, maybe the diet or maybe the Clout, but my bowels are not happy with me lately. Maybe I'm not getting enough solid fibre? Just started the past few days.

 

[EasyEJL]

Fiber should help. Higher fat levels effect some people that way

 

[Neil5585]

2 things for me that keep me regular:

-Lots of water
-Enough fat

I can have just fine bowel movements with zero fiber so long as I have these two things.

 

[Gutterpump]

I'm regular, that's not the problem, it's just basically liquified when I do go. Not too pleasant lol. :dump:

 

[ja391]

I'm regular, that's not the problem, it's just basically liquified when I do go. Not too pleasant lol. :dump:

Yeah, I'm like that too when I'm on a low carb high fat diet. I usually just add some fiber powder to my bedtime shake.

 

[Gutterpump]

It's back to normal now. Doing a weigh in today. Now that St. Patty's day is out of the way, I need to get more serious again. Been missing my am cardio lately. Worried about hitting my mark by May 15th. I need to drop about 7-8% BF, but this month I'm only focusing on recomping. If I really want to win this contest, I should just be cutting for 3 months. I'm hoping a 4 week velocity diet is going to do it for me, which should bring me to 2 weeks before my set date. At that time I can do a CKD to try to get my muscles to pop a bit, or do another velocity diet, which would just be painful after just finishing 4 weeks of it.

 

[Gutterpump]

Just another note: going to run another 3-4weeks of dermacrine/hcg alongside my 11oxo while I'm doing my TKD + napalm, etc. Thinking of throwing in some zol right now as well.

When that's done, I am switching to the velocity diet and swapping out napalm for dermatherm.

Just weighed in at 216.4 #
Started 2 weeks ago at 218.6 #

Not bad so far for a recomp, think I can do a bit better though and cut out some of the saturated fats right now.
I'm tryin to fluctuate between maintenance and deficit, but I'd say half of my fats are saturated right now. I think I should taper them off and take in more fishoil till I start the VelD.

 

[Gutterpump]

Keto-stix are purple finally, I'm in!

 

[JDF]

Keto-stix are purple finally, I'm in!

Must be nice :sad:

Im cutting out the BCAAs this week to see if that does the trick, im believe that im dropping the lbs just not falling into ketosis.

 

[Gutterpump]

yeah I dropped BCAA's and all nuts except for macadamias (which are fukcing expensive btw).

I've also upped my fat levels over my protein, which was hard mentally lol...I think that's what set me back at first. It's important in the first week to really boost that fat level to force yourself into ketosis. I'm going to taper down on the fat/cals a bit once I get those strips to a darker purple in the next few days.

 

[JDF]

i've been eating at right around .9g of protein/lb of BW and well over that my PRO intake in fat, breakdown is around 55-60% fats / 40-45 PRO / 1-2 CHO.

Hopefully its not the BCAAs cuz I've grown accustomed to sipping on my Xtend through my workouts, Im hoping its the Almonds ( about 1oz or 22 kernals a day ) that is doing it to me.

 

[Gutterpump]

Well, almonds have more fibre than anything (when it comes to carbs). They aren't that bad.

BCAA's are likely the culprit. L-glutamine + Iso-Luceine can both convert to glucose during excercise and times of need. I love my Xtend too, but bulk luceine is probably the best/safest alternative if you want to stay in ketosis.