I'm failing my diet because I can't comply on the weekends

[z1ggy]

It's certainly not healthy and I question your capability to maintain it, even for an additional two weeks, but if it works for you then great.

I agree about the healthy part, but only if this was somehow done long term. If you read the "booklet" written on it, it's only meant to be done in 2-6 weeks stints, then you take a break. For guys 10% fat or under, it's only meant to be done for 2 weeks, period... then you take on a 'normal' slower cut.

For people in my camp - the 15-20% fat range - you can run two 4-6 weeks cuts on this protocol and be okay. I do worry about tanking my Test levels but I listen to my body. I've been performing excellent in the gym, and I have more energy in general. I played *two* hockey games yesterday and was fine.

 

[z1ggy]

@z1ggy that sounds KIND of similar to how I eat when I lean up. Typically my meals M-F on my normal schedule include protein shakes (3x a day), then my lunch at work is 2 of these chicken burritos I make in low carb tortillas, and dinner is usually some chicken or pork + a salad. My snacks are primarily string cheese and almonds. I'm not going for 0 carb or anything, but it's like < 30-35g/day or so NET carbs.

Then on the weekends I usually eat whatever I want, or I will try to keep that lower carb diet going on some weekends, etc. It just depends how I feel. Knowing your cheat day is coming up definitely helps from the mental point of view.

I have had great results doing this over the years. I'm starting this week again on it since after my trip to Turks and Caicos in mid-November, through the holidays, I have been eating like crap. My abs aren't really visible like they were 2 months ago so I want to get that back.

According to myfitnesspal, I'm right around 30 net carbs also, then on my cheat meal day 1, I hit about 160c, then on my "refeed" day, I'm supposed to hit about 250-300, which I struggle to do (because your fat intake should be very low). It's honestly not too bad. As I write this I'm eating 2 chicken fillets, chopped onions and a few portobella mushrooms and some dashes of soy sauce, washing it down with water. Tonight I'll have 1lb of 96% ground beed, with onion, garlic, romain lettuce and some salsa, topped with 1/4 cup low fat cheddar. I eat that as my 2nd and last meal of the day... takes me around 1 hour to consume. Easy to cook and I don't need to meal prep. Working well so far.

 

[deadlyapp]

If I ever maintained that low of a carb load I'd crash hard in the gym. My daily carbs are around 200-240, protein 180-200, fat 100-110. About 190lb and ~17-20% BF currently while I maintain for another month or two. I'll start a cut near the middle to end of Feb, probably reducing about 20g a fat each cut level until I get down to around 178-180 and should be around 12% BF.

 

[purbeast0]

If I ever maintained that low of a carb load I'd crash hard in the gym. My daily carbs are around 200-240, protein 180-200, fat 100-110. About 190lb and ~17-20% BF currently while I maintain for another month or two. I'll start a cut near the middle to end of Feb, probably reducing about 20g a fat each cut level until I get down to around 178-180 and should be around 12% BF.

Have you tried it? Or you just assuming that you will crash? Because when I do it I don't crash or lose much (if any) strength at the gym. And my workouts are pretty fast paced/intense.

Right now I'm around 205lbs and probably around the same BF as you if I had to guess, 17-20% or so.

I'll probably get down to around 195lbs and be like 12-15% after 2 months of sticking to these new eating habits. I try to go for like 1-2lbs a week as far as weight loss goes

I don't really track my actual BF% and am estimating just based off of pictures that I have seen of others at certain percentages and guestimate based on that.

 

[z1ggy]

If I ever maintained that low of a carb load I'd crash hard in the gym. My daily carbs are around 200-240, protein 180-200, fat 100-110. About 190lb and ~17-20% BF currently while I maintain for another month or two. I'll start a cut near the middle to end of Feb, probably reducing about 20g a fat each cut level until I get down to around 178-180 and should be around 12% BF.

Yeah, I'd agree with Purbeast on this... have you legit tried it? Before this, I'd have agreed with you and said there's no way I could lift heavy on virtually no carbs.. but... I am. Plus keep in mind, I'm going low on carbs but refeeding my glygogen levels every Weds, and again Saturday, so I'm not really experiencing full ketosis for more than 1-2 days, if I even get into it at all.

Now granted I'm only here squatting like 265 so it's nothing extreme for my body weight, but still.. For the past going on to 3 weeks now, I've hit squats 265x5 for 2-3 sets, 3 times a week and been ok. Am I tired after? Yep. But.. by no means have I crashed. And after that I go to do 2-3x5 bench, heavy pull ups, then OHP (lighter though, because I have shoulder issues). I'm actually going to try putting 275 on tomorrow when I squat again.

I'd say the hardest workout was probably work out #2 where I felt like garbage but I think that was more CNS conditioning than anything else. I had to drop down to 250 for my 2nd set, but the following work out I was able to get all 3 sets on 265 again.

I'm also drinking a cup of coffee before I go lift and I'm drinking about 90oz of water a day, so I'm getting a pretty decent energy burst right before hand. During this time, my bench has actually gone up about 10lb, but... I also haven't been benching heavy in a while, so I'll just say I'm "regaining" instead of making new gains not had before. My bench is WAY down from where it was a few years ago.

 

[deadlyapp]

Have you tried it? Or you just assuming that you will crash? Because when I do it I don't crash or lose much (if any) strength at the gym. And my workouts are pretty fast paced/intense.

Right now I'm around 205lbs and probably around the same BF as you if I had to guess, 17-20% or so.

I'll probably get down to around 195lbs and be like 12-15% after 2 months of sticking to these new eating habits. I try to go for like 1-2lbs a week as far as weight loss goes

I don't really track my actual BF% and am estimating just based off of pictures that I have seen of others at certain percentages and guestimate based on that.

I dabbled in low carb for a while - my original foray into dieting (once I was serious) was paleo and after a month of doing it strict I had to add carbs back in - I felt flat and tired in the gym (however I should specify I generally was doing 1-2 sessions of crossfit a day). It did help me kickstart things but I would have never maintained it for a significant stretch of time. I know some people do better on low carb (eg long term keto people) but it wasn't for me.

Now knowing what I know about nutrition and performance, I would never recommend a low carb diet to anyone other than someone who those significantly overweight and need a carb reset.

My BF percentage I'm stating is basis my impedance scale, which has seemed relatively accurate when compared to a full DEXA scan. Dexa scan I might be 2-3% higher since the impedance scale doesn't do a great job calculating midline fat, which is where I generally hold most of mine. My best DEXA was 10.5% at 185# and my worst DEXA was 20.7% at 199#. Scale weight is around 190 so on DEXA I'm probably around 195.

 

[purbeast0]

I will say though I have changed my routine for about a year now where I do sets of 12, sometimes 15+, instead of doing like 4-8 reps of heavier weight, because I'm tired of being injured all the time, and there's really no reason to risk injury at this point in my life. My shoulder is still messed up going on a year+ now and I can't do certain exercises, like barbell incline press. Hell even just the BAR on incline barbell press, I can feel the pain. But I do dumbells for that and can still do sets of 12 with 85lbs now and it doesn't really hurt. So I just have to pick and choose.

I haven't done real heavy weight on a lower carb diet in a very long time though so I can't really compare that type of program. I also typically don't go full on low carb and cheat on the weekends, so that could also help. But there was a period of like 6-8 weeks where I was doing low carb on the weekends as well, and I didn't notice any strength losses either or tired feeling.

 

[z1ggy]

I will say though I have changed my routine for about a year now where I do sets of 12, sometimes 15+, instead of doing like 4-8 reps of heavier weight, because I'm tired of being injured all the time, and there's really no reason to risk injury at this point in my life. My shoulder is still messed up going on a year+ now and I can't do certain exercises, like barbell incline press. Hell even just the BAR on incline barbell press, I can feel the pain. But I do dumbells for that and can still do sets of 12 with 85lbs now and it doesn't really hurt. So I just have to pick and choose.

I haven't done real heavy weight on a lower carb diet in a very long time though so I can't really compare that type of program. I also typically don't go full on low carb and cheat on the weekends, so that could also help. But there was a period of like 6-8 weeks where I was doing low carb on the weekends as well, and I didn't notice any strength losses either or tired feeling.

Yeah I'm not into the science or biology too much but from the books I read from SME's, you can basically "live" off the stored up energy from carbs for a few days, while actively not eating carbs. The only way you really run out and get into a full on keto mode is by doing like... 20-30 sets over those few days of very high rep, lower weight work. This is the fundamental principal behind the Ultimate Diet 2.0, which is basically meant for hardcore natty's who want to get ripped... purely for physique competitors or for nuts who just want to be ripped for no reason.

Witht his method now, I should never really hit full keto mode because I'm still eating probably 30c a day between some veggies and the meat, and then essentially every 3rd day, I'm filling back on up carbs. I'm just going very low on calories 5 of 7 days, but I'm still eating 200g protein a day. I just assume that I still have enough fat reserves and glycogen stores to not get too burned out from 3x a week heavy lift. I'm still probably also at best, 16-17% fat right now. If I was doing this again in the future and I was at 10-12%... I imagine it would be much harder, and I believe the protocol in the book says when you are that low on body fat, you have to refeed carbs even more often b/c the catabolic effects will kick in even faster when you go that low on calories.

 

[z1ggy]

190.2lb as of this morning. Might see myself under 190lb for the first time in about 4 years next week. Ending the diet next Friday, taking probably 2 weeks off, then resuming another 4 weeks in which I hope to get down to 185. 2 weeks off, then another 4 on, hoping after that one to see 180lb.

 

[ArchAngel777]

It is interesting how priorities change when you are age. I am nearing 39 and I have gradually shifted to less heavy training method. I played hard like I was still a teenager, but managed to avoid any serious injury. I consider myself lucky...

I have given up running as of 2 months ago. I have found something far, far better: Rowing Machine. I always knew about rowing, but *thought* it would be boring and so I never really did it. However, as my knee joints were starting to age, I decided to give it a shot again. Can't recommend it enough. Low impact, works more muscles and is concentric, not eccentric work, so less soreness the next day.

 

[z1ggy]

It is interesting how priorities change when you are age. I am nearing 39 and I have gradually shifted to less heavy training method. I played hard like I was still a teenager, but managed to avoid any serious injury. I consider myself lucky...

I have given up running as of 2 months ago. I have found something far, far better: Rowing Machine. I always knew about rowing, but *thought* it would be boring and so I never really did it. However, as my knee joints were starting to age, I decided to give it a shot again. Can't recommend it enough. Low impact, works more muscles and is concentric, not eccentric work, so less soreness the next day.

For now, I'm still able to play hockey. Actually skated twice yesterday; A morning practice and then a game later in the evening. I'm sure as I age more I'll be playing less but I'm trying to take advantage while I can.
I find most traditional forms of cardio pretty boring and if I don't find it somewhat enjoyable, I won't stick with it long term.

 

[rstrohkirch]

Depending on the trail systems you have in your state, you could try mountain biking. A lot of people I know who ride motorcycles on or off road tend to enjoy it. It's a good blend of cardio and thrill...again depending on the trails systems you have.

 

[Muse]

You know that a small pizza can have like 4000 calories? A milkshake can have over 1000.

I think you need to meal prep for the weekends to stop yourself from going insane calorie-wise.

IMO it's a mistake to jump the tracks on a weekly basis. If you have a discipline for during the week, you need to have one for weekends. If it's the same as the one for during the week, you're set. It can be different (for me, there's one meal I have on the weekend that's only on the weekend, but it's not egregious at all), but don't let your weekends be an eating freakout. Find activities to do on the weekends that let you forget about your food trips, eating fantasies. Controlling your weight is easiest when you're too busy to think about eating!

 

[ArchAngel777]

IMO it's a mistake to jump the tracks on a weekly basis. If you have a discipline for during the week, you need to have one for weekends. If it's the same as the one for during the week, you're set. It can be different (for me, there's one meal I have on the weekend that's only on the weekend, but it's not egregious at all), but don't let your weekends be an eating freakout. Find activities to do on the weekends that let you forget about your food trips, eating fantasies. Controlling your weight is easiest when you're too busy to think about eating!

Definitely some great truth here. That said, I suspect those of us having difficulty on the weekends suffer from a lack of structure that a work week gives so easily.

 

[Ackmed]

Just don't keep junk food in your house and you won't eat it. If it's not there, you won't have access to it.

Pretty good advice. We get snacky the later it is, especially when drinking.

We've got a huge bowl of candy since Halloween still. I munch on it all the time. Probably eat 20-30 pieces a week. Seems like a sin to throw away... So slowly whittling it down.

I still eat pretty terrible a lot of the time. But do make some conscience efforts to try and do better. I don't have any rules, eat what I want. Just hit the gym often, and am very lucky with my genes.

Good luck to you, and do what you need to do!

 

[cosmo1212]

I used to do the exact same thing as you but I've pulled it in by a day and it's helped.

So all the way until Saturday evening, I keep the diet tight.

Saturday I'll eat whatever I want for dinner and leave it as a drinking night.

Sundays I'll try to keep the diet on point - it doesn't always work that way, as some Sunday's are rough and end up becoming a wreck.

But keeping it together for 1 more day I would say depends on what you're doing Friday (socializing, drinking?) and if you have that notion all week of wanting the week to end, the weekend is going to be an absolute eating disaster.

 

[z1ggy]

Wanted to update because I want to be accountable:

So, I was pretty successful as of my last post on Jan 13th. I think I went from 20% to 18% body fat, lost like 12lb or something (yes water of course). However, I'm RIGHT back to where I was in December, I'm now 198lb, 20% fat again. The whole "crash diet" just does not work people.. Not long term.. DO NOT DO IT.

I've hired a coach. I think because A) I'm paying money to use him and B) I'm now accountable to him, I will be more successful long term. With the gym's being out of commission, strength and muscle gain will be minimal, but that's okay with us because my biggest goal for the next 3 months is to increase my metabolism (it's absolute dog shit right now) and burn fat. He is a pro and am body building coach who competes so I think this will be the final ticket for me. We are aiming to lose weight slowly, eating whatever I want as long as Im hitting Macro and calorie goals, but overall still making good choices.

I will post updates.

 

[Muse]

I think it's tougher with the covid thing now. My gym's closed and I still haven't doubled down on my commitment to redesign my gym workout as best as I can for in-the-house. I have worked on the aerobic aspects. I used to bike (skate 1/2 way a lot of the time) 5 miles each way to the gym 3x/week with heart rate monitor on hitting as high as 160bpm (16bpm over the max recommended for my age group!). I don't feel like aimlessly riding city streets so I bought a bike trainer that I finished (almost) setting up today. I ordered a new bike seat for it last night, but meantime am using another.

At the start of sheltering I was doing well, but have slipped some over the course of the almost 8 weeks. A couple days ago I weighed myself and realize I've gained back all the weight I lost over the last year. So, I'm cutting out everything extraneous (even though I was disciplined with those things). "Turning over a new leaf," as my mom would say. That generally works for me.

Now that I have the bike trainer set up (with 4K TV and world class nature videos, heart rate monitor and cell phone on bracket, audiophile earbuds and big box fan!) I hope to reenergize and get BPM's up. Then get back into stretching and develop some more muscular aspects of fitness at home. Honestly I still feel GREAT, but know that I should work at it, not coast on the fitness I achieved over the years to carry me through the pandemic.

 

[z1ggy]

I think it's tougher with the covid thing now. My gym's closed and I still haven't doubled down on my commitment to redesign my gym workout as best as I can for in-the-house. I have worked on the aerobic aspects. I used to bike (skate 1/2 way a lot of the time) 5 miles each way to the gym 3x/week with heart rate monitor on hitting as high as 160bpm (16bpm over the max recommended for my age group!). I don't feel like aimlessly riding city streets so I bought a bike trainer that I finished (almost) setting up today. I ordered a new bike seat for it last night, but meantime am using another.

At the start of sheltering I was doing well, but have slipped some over the course of the almost 8 weeks. A couple days ago I weighed myself and realize I've gained back all the weight I lost over the last year. So, I'm cutting out everything extraneous (even though I was disciplined with those things). "Turning over a new leaf," as my mom would say. That generally works for me.

Now that I have the bike trainer set up (with 4K TV and world class nature videos, heart rate monitor and cell phone on bracket, audiophile earbuds and big box fan!) I hope to reenergize and get BPM's up. Then get back into stretching and develop some more muscular aspects of fitness at home. Honestly I still feel GREAT, but know that I should work at it, not coast on the fitness I achieved over the years to carry me through the pandemic.

What's really killing my fitness in general right now is 1) No sports... My hockey season got completely cancelled due to Rona, that was a major cardio workout every week for me and 2) Even with home work outs, I don't have heavy weights. Doing 100 push ups every day just isn't the same as slapping a bunch of 45's on the bar and going to town.

Coach and I have modified his normal routine he'd prescribe to be home friendly. It's still a lot of body weight movement, but I also incorporate bands, and some lighter dumbbells. I also have a very well made tool bag that I can fill with heavy things, I think it weighs about 45lb or so, so this can be used to modify some exercises. For legs... I'll be doing most everything single legged. I'll be getting really good at pistol squats it would seem.

Right now, I'm hoping to lose almost pure body fat and not tons of water, and hopefully only very small amounts of muscle over the next 10-12 weeks. My wife and I are having a child around July 15, so I really hope after that point I can at least avoid gaining any weight back. Unsure how energized I'll be for work outs when I'm getting sporadic sleep. I'm hoping by then I can go back to the gym so maybe I'll muster up the will power to still go in at least 2x a week for a full body.

 

[deadlyapp]

Sorry to hear that your diet crashed. I was skeptical but everyone has different solutions and as long as they get to the end goal they want - then I'm open minded.

I feel you on the equipment thing during virus shutdowns. Thank god I own a gym and was able to grab some equipment even though we let our members take most of it. Still limited to a single 50lb DB but we've been programming our workouts around it. Just a lot more longer duration aerobic work or high repetition hypertrophy rather than our typical lower rep strength work.

One of the best things you can do (if you're home bound for work) is try to take more opportunities to just go out for 10 minute walks. Keeps your metabolic rate up a bit through the whole day. Also attempt to get your work out in during the morning hours - same thing - it should give you more energy and increased metabolic through the day.

 

[z1ggy]

Sorry to hear that your diet crashed. I was skeptical but everyone has different solutions and as long as they get to the end goal they want - then I'm open minded.

I feel you on the equipment thing during virus shutdowns. Thank god I own a gym and was able to grab some equipment even though we let our members take most of it. Still limited to a single 50lb DB but we've been programming our workouts around it. Just a lot more longer duration aerobic work or high repetition hypertrophy rather than our typical lower rep strength work.

One of the best things you can do (if you're home bound for work) is try to take more opportunities to just go out for 10 minute walks. Keeps your metabolic rate up a bit through the whole day. Also attempt to get your work out in during the morning hours - same thing - it should give you more energy and increased metabolic through the day.

Yeah I use my tool bag and fill it with stuff... lol I do curls, frotn squats, single leg stiff DL, etc. I've gone from doing 2-3 sets of heavier weight to 8-9 sets of much lighter weight. Body is still adjusting.

The key here is being accountable on diet, and truly changing my mindset and life style. I'm hoping my new coach will help. Long term goal is to get to 10% body fat this year. We'll see... baby coming in just 8 weeks, not sure if that's going to hold me back or not due to lack of sleep.

 

[Mai72]

You are failing your diet because you probably don't like the foods you are eating. I hate restrictive diets. They never work.

You have to enjoy what you're eating. Do that first, and the weekends won't be so bad. Good luck.

 

[z1ggy]

So I'm done with my first week of being coached by a pro body builder. What's really interesting is by my estimated accounts, I've raised my calories by at least 200-300 per day but I've especially upped carb intake (and probably lowered fat intake a lot) and I've only gained 1-2lb. This is likely all water... but the big plus is I feel so much stronger and less tired during the day.

It kind of stinks the real gyms aren't open but I've kind of adjusted my work outs to focus on a lot of reps/volume vs the traditional heavy lifting I'm used to. He gave me an entire work out program as well but we've had to modify it quite a bit.

I believe my coach will start adjusting my caloric intake and macros pretty soon to begin my fat loss phase.

 

[deadlyapp]

So I'm done with my first week of being coached by a pro body builder. What's really interesting is by my estimated accounts, I've raised my calories by at least 200-300 per day but I've especially upped carb intake (and probably lowered fat intake a lot) and I've only gained 1-2lb. This is likely all water... but the big plus is I feel so much stronger and less tired during the day.

It kind of stinks the real gyms aren't open but I've kind of adjusted my work outs to focus on a lot of reps/volume vs the traditional heavy lifting I'm used to. He gave me an entire work out program as well but we've had to modify it quite a bit.

I believe my coach will start adjusting my caloric intake and macros pretty soon to begin my fat loss phase.

Hopefully it works out for you. I give my nutrition clients about 8-12 weeks to balance to maintenance (generally adding 100-200 cal / every other week) and then once they balance I make them stay there 6-8 weeks before we start a cut (considering they have been eating like garbage or undereating significatly). Starting to diet too soon before your body is ready can be just as harmful.

 

[z1ggy]

Hopefully it works out for you. I give my nutrition clients about 8-12 weeks to balance to maintenance (generally adding 100-200 cal / every other week) and then once they balance I make them stay there 6-8 weeks before we start a cut (considering they have been eating like garbage or undereating significatly). Starting to diet too soon before your body is ready can be just as harmful.

Usually my diet would go kind of like this: Mon-Fri - Low-ish cals, maybe like 1700cal per day, Work out 3x per week. Low carb, high fat, medium protein. Sat-Sun: Total reverse. High calorie, high carb, low protein, medium fat.

So over the course of months... I was slowly gaining weight b/c my metab was being kept lower from eating so few calories, but then I was spiking up all my weight gaining hormones and signaling my body to retain weight on the weekends.

Now I'm just an even 2400 cals, every single day for the past 2 weeks now. Body weight hasn't really changed much other than an initial 1-2lb weight gain. Some days I'll be as much as 202lb, but I'm not too concerned. I like to judge myself more by how I feel, how clothing is fitting, and how I look.

Today is my check in with him, and we'll see if he keeps me at 2400 cals or bumps me down a bit. I was hoping that I could lose 8-10lb by mid July when my baby is born but that's def not happening now. I'm okay with that, as really my long term goal of getting to like 180lb is still out there, I just hope the lack of sleep and whatnot doesn't kill my progress.