Using SL 5x5 to lose fat

[Saint Nick]

Dude its all good. If it makes you feel any better, I spent about a year in the gym doing compounds, but doing them mostly wrong. Dieting wrong. I kept putting weight on the bar, but eventually I decided I needed to revamp what I was doing.

Completely restarted SL5x5 and started tracking my food. Made lots of gains then 🙂 I think you are smart for starting over. It will give you time to really focus on your form.

 

[z1ggy]

Dude its all good. If it makes you feel any better, I spent about a year in the gym doing compounds, but doing them mostly wrong. Dieting wrong. I kept putting weight on the bar, but eventually I decided I needed to revamp what I was doing.

Completely restarted SL5x5 and started tracking my food. Made lots of gains then 🙂 I think you are smart for starting over. It will give you time to really focus on your form.

Exactly. Plus my gym is inside my work building, and as an engineer...Most people can barely bench more than 135 any way. I rarely see people doing squats or dead lifts, or even BB rows. Pretty unbelievable.

Also after I watched Mehdi's way of doing a BB row, I was totally doing it wrong before. Wasn't bent over enough and engaging my lower body really. The only thing I do right is bench. Now that I've seen lots of youtube vids and what not, I think I can get good form down on all my lower body lifts, too.

Hopefully I can serve as an inspiration of success to people who read this who are in my shoes- Lifted and worked out their whole lives, but really never achieved their body composition goals.

 

[alkemyst]

This.

I don't post much in this sub forum, but reading threads of people's progress and struggles help motivate. Some might even inspire!

And worst case scenario you might bump the locked threads about fake cancer cures and doctors being scammed off page one.

One has to be careful apparently that they don't create a blog here.

I stopped my updates.

 

[alkemyst]

Exactly. Plus my gym is inside my work building, and as an engineer...Most people can barely bench more than 135 any way. I rarely see people doing squats or dead lifts, or even BB rows. Pretty unbelievable.

Also after I watched Mehdi's way of doing a BB row, I was totally doing it wrong before. Wasn't bent over enough and engaging my lower body really. The only thing I do right is bench. Now that I've seen lots of youtube vids and what not, I think I can get good form down on all my lower body lifts, too.

Hopefully I can serve as an inspiration of success to people who read this who are in my shoes- Lifted and worked out their whole lives, but really never achieved their body composition goals.

I wouldn't say most men can't bench at least 135 lbs.

Seeing Squats and Deadlifts are usually rare even among the 'fit crowd'.

I do my bent rows with dumbbells. I start at 100lbs each arm 😉

 

[rga]

One has to be careful apparently that they don't create a blog here.

I stopped my updates.

I think that's exactly what people should be careful of. There's a big difference between the workout logs that Pantlegz1 and Saint Nick keep, and the log that you kept and that Zeze is keeping. The former list specific exercises, with sets, reps and weight done. Zeze lists four sets of curls, but doesn't list the weight. He posts his run time, but he doesn't post the distance; instead he posts what the weather was like that day. You just seemed to brag about pounding back a 24 and that it wasn't stopping you from losing weight 😛. I typically only post when I hit a new personal best, have advice to give, or have specific questions I need answered.

 

[alkemyst]

I think that's exactly what people should be careful of. There's a big difference between the workout logs that Pantlegz1 and Saint Nick keep, and the log that you kept and that Zeze is keeping. The former list specific exercises, with sets, reps and weight done. Zeze lists four sets of curls, but doesn't list the weight. He posts his run time, but he doesn't post the distance; instead he posts what the weather was like that day. You just seemed to brag about pounding back a 24 and that it wasn't stopping you from losing weight 😛. I typically only post when I hit a new personal best, have advice to give, or have specific questions I need answered.

I did post on my personal bests.

That usually included beer and fornification.

I try to be totally honest as opposed to many the claim at 50lbs overweight they did the P90X program and did all those pullups without cheating.

 

[rga]

I did post on my personal bests.

That usually included beer and fornification.

I try to be totally honest as opposed to many the claim at 50lbs overweight they did the P90X program and did all those pullups without cheating.

Touché.
😛

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

I feel like a celebrity.

I gained strength and lost weight doing what i was doing. I also think if I was not loosing weight while doing everything that I was doing, I would have gained even more strength.

Doing running while doing SS or SL is not a big issue at the beginning. It gets harder when you are really near your max weight on things like deadlifts and squats. You really need to plan things out well. sadly, I forget what my routine was like when I was lifting heavy and running.

I was still progressing on squats and deads when I pulled my groin. It was a VERY bad pull that took months to heal. It's been almost a year and I am still not at 100%. It was that bad. I can lift without fear of injury but it was probably 3 months of pure down time.

I'll give you my answers:

Can I lose fat AND possibly gain muscle while doing SL5x5?
Yes. I was probably doing a 500 calorie deficit a day for a 1 pound loss a week though. I wasn't doing hard core calorie cutting.

Do I have to eat MORE or can I keep eating how I am (I can give a detailed breakdown of my meals if somebody thinks it's important)?
Eat helathy and take in 100g+ protein a day.

Should I not run, or limit my running post work out?
Oh, I forgot my routine back then. I was doing running on days opposite weights till I started lifting heavy weights. I think once squats were getting heavy, I was trying to space things out as long as possible. it's easy to run and squat 2 hours later. It's hard to squat and try to run within 24 hours though. It just sucks.

 

[z1ggy]

I start at 100lbs each arm 😉

Impressive. I will be using the BB so once I get up to 135, I can set the bar down and regrip if I need. But like I said, I am not that concerned with strength right now, I would rather cut as much fat as I can and get leaner for summer. Over the winter I can eat more and worry about getting stronger and going for PRs. As far as I am concerned, I won't be hitting PRs until then anyway (PR Bench:225, Squat:275, DL:285)

Also, does anybody know where to get chalk for lifting cheap?? I anticipate once I am up in the 200 range, I will need it for grip on DLs.

 

[z1ggy]

I feel like a celebrity.

I gained strength and lost weight doing what i was doing. I also think if I was not loosing weight while doing everything that I was doing, I would have gained even more strength.

Doing running while doing SS or SL is not a big issue at the beginning. It gets harder when you are really near your max weight on things like deadlifts and squats. You really need to plan things out well. sadly, I forget what my routine was like when I was lifting heavy and running.

I was still progressing on squats and deads when I pulled my groin. It was a VERY bad pull that took months to heal. It's been almost a year and I am still not at 100%. It was that bad. I can lift without fear of injury but it was probably 3 months of pure down time.

I'll give you my answers:

Can I lose fat AND possibly gain muscle while doing SL5x5?
Yes. I was probably doing a 500 calorie deficit a day for a 1 pound loss a week though. I wasn't doing hard core calorie cutting.

Do I have to eat MORE or can I keep eating how I am (I can give a detailed breakdown of my meals if somebody thinks it's important)?
Eat helathy and take in 100g+ protein a day.

Should I not run, or limit my running post work out?
Oh, I forgot my routine back then. I was doing running on days opposite weights till I started lifting heavy weights. I think once squats were getting heavy, I was trying to space things out as long as possible. it's easy to run and squat 2 hours later. It's hard to squat and try to run within 24 hours though. It just sucks.

I am only cutting 500 cals a day, but only 66% of the time. So I may see slightly more gains in strength but slightly less weight loss...Or it will just take longer to lose the weight.

As for cardio, I don't think I am going to run. I have bad hips and knees from years of martial arts stuff. I will probably switch between walking on the tread with a high incline % at a fast pace for like 20-30mins and elliptical machine at a medium intensity for around 20-30mins.

The diet plan I will be following is basically a 3:2:1 protein carb fat diet, so my intake of protein will be a bunch more than 100g. Probably a lot closer to 200. My cal cut days I will be taking in around 2000-2100 cals, and maint. days will be about 2500-2600 cals with those days being same as the cal cut, but just more carbs.

I don't plan on making this a Zeze Blog. I am going to try my best to post every night, (and once I get into it more, maybe just once or twice a week) with what lifts I did, what weight and what reps, what meals I ate that day, and how many cals it was along with the amount of protein, carbs and fat. I really want to post some before and after pics, with maybe a 4 week and 8 week progress pic. Nobody will tell me how to embed pics though 🙁

Alky??? You must know. You've plastered yourself all over the forum with self pics.

 

[smackababy]

I wouldn't say most men can't bench at least 135 lbs.

Seeing Squats and Deadlifts are usually rare even among the 'fit crowd'.

I do my bent rows with dumbbells. I start at 100lbs each arm 😉

I would say most men can't bench at least 135lbs. While in the military, most of the people I worked with couldn't bench 135lbs. It was strange. Granted, I was a software developer, and most of the people in the gym were as well, but I'd wager they were in better shape than the majority of the population of America. I mean, they could all run 1.5 miles in less than 13 minutes and do 35 push ups in a minute. Those were the basic requirements of a passing physical training assessment, along with 44 sit ups in a minute.

 

[alkemyst]

I really want to post some before and after pics, with maybe a 4 week and 8 week progress pic. Nobody will tell me how to embed pics though 🙁

Alky??? You must know. You've plastered yourself all over the forum with self pics.

You need to find a picture host, I found that the bodyspace section of bodybuilding.com is excellent and has progress trackers as well.

Then you just copy the link to the picture and stick the http://YourPictureLink in between [ img ] [ /img ] tags

[ img ]http://www.example.com/picture.jpg[ /img ]

 

[rga]

Upload the pics to a hosting site, and take note of the image url. When you arw ready to embed them, click on the little clipart icon, and enter the url of your photo in the window that pops up.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Labral tear repair. I literally just started doing heavy legs again ("heavy" relative...I was squatting 135 the other day in comparison to doing body weight for PT). My doc cleared me to squatting weight like 135 again..And since it's been so long I honestly don't have the legs in me to do much more (3x12 @135).

I have a 4month follow up on 6/17 to see my progress. At this point the only real issues I have remaining are some tightness, but most of the pain is gone. I have been doing light dead lifts now (95lb) for about 2 weeks to ease back into legs. I've also been doing abs for about a month and my hip flexors feel okay. Running is pretty much pain free as well.

Seeing as that I will be starting SL5x5 exactly by the books means I will be squatting a measly 45lb bar then up to an astonishing 60lbs by the end of the first week. I think I will be okay...

Yeah, with labral tears, it depends mostly on the size of the lesion. One of the things to be aware of is that squatting without appropriate hip flexion range of motion can actually lead to things like femoroacetabular impingement and higher risk of injury to the labrum. You mentioned PT - did they ever tell you that you had tight hips? Is it hard to bring your thigh up toward your chest without rounding your back? That's just food for though, as some orthos forget about the implications of high hip flexion on hip injury.

Just make sure you keep working on your flexibility aggressively. The better you move, the more appropriate the distribution of forces within the hip. So don't forget about stretching like most people 😛

 

[z1ggy]

Yeah, with labral tears, it depends mostly on the size of the lesion. One of the things to be aware of is that squatting without appropriate hip flexion range of motion can actually lead to things like femoroacetabular impingement and higher risk of injury to the labrum. You mentioned PT - did they ever tell you that you had tight hips? Is it hard to bring your thigh up toward your chest without rounding your back? That's just food for though, as some orthos forget about the implications of high hip flexion on hip injury.

Just make sure you keep working on your flexibility aggressively. The better you move, the more appropriate the distribution of forces within the hip. So don't forget about stretching like most people 😛

It is tough at times to lift it allll the way up, and yes I do have tight hips. You're right, I need to work on stretching better. I do stretch, but probably not for a long enough duration, and not enough in general. I should probably be doing the hip flexor stretches everyday.

 

[z1ggy]

Ok so I will be starting my daily lifting log & eating log here. Please don't hesitate to give me suggestions and feed back.

Later on tonight or more likely tomorrow I am going to take some pics and add them to my bodybuilding.com account so I can toss them in here so I can have some proof of any future gains.

Meal #1
1 cup potato
3 scrambled eggs
-----------------
Meal #2
6oz greek yogurt, non fat
1 gala apple
20 almonds
--------------
Meal #3
6oz greek yogurt, non fat
20 almonds
-----------
Meal #4 (pre lift)
1/2 chicken breast
8oz class of soy milk
-------------------
Meal #5 (post lift)
1/2 chicken breast
fruit smoothie;
-8oz soy milk
-1/2 scoop dymatize fusion 7 protein powder
-3oz greek yougrt, non fat
-1/2 cup rasperries
-1/4 cup black berries
-1/4 blue berries
---------------------
Meal #6
Can of tuna, water packed
2 slices whole wheat bread
3 table spoon light italian dressing
Smack Snacks 100 cal popcorn
-------------------------------
Totals:
Calories-2147
Protein (g)-164
Carbs(g)-225
Fats(g)-70


Now this is NOT going to be my regular meal plan after today. I have almost no food left in my house and I need to hit up the store soon to get some different foods so my protein intake is higher and my carb intake can be lower. Fat is right where it should be, but I had to make do with what was in my house.

Lifting:
Workout A

Squat
5x45

Bench:
5x45

Bent Over Row:
5x45

 

[Koing]

I see I see. Well I am not really concerned about my strength honestly. When I was 16 I probably weighed about 175 at 15% fat and I was squatting around 275. Now I am 190 and 18%... so If I lost 10lb to get to 12% fat, I'd be more muscular than before, with less fat, therefor shouldn't I at least be able to squat 275?

Right now the plan is to be under by 500 cal a day, 66% of the time, and the other 33% I will be eating exactly what I need to just maintain. I am going to *try* this diet plan out (follow Tom Venuto's diet plan which is roughly a 2300 cal/day diet, with about a 3:2:1, protein:carb:fat ratio while doing SL5x5.

I think posting on here as far as my daily calorie intake and lifting will hold me accountable, and lurkers of this sub forum can ask any questions, and also I can ask questions to the more experienced people.

I am going to do 12 weeks then reevaluate.

Should I just post all this in here, or start a new thread? Seems like a lot of other people have threads about their logs... I don't want to be a pain in the butt by making another.

It'll be interesting to see how your fat loss goes with 2/3 under maintenance and 1/3 at maintenance.

Regarding weights, I'd go higher than your starting weights unless you are injured at the moment?

Your PB's are PR Bench:225, Squat:275, DL:285 right? How long ago were they and how what sort of weights were you hitting recently? I would say it would be VERY safe to use

BP: 120
Squat: 145
DL: 145

If you start so low it will literally do practically nothing and you are wasting your time in the gym. BUT if you are injured or coming off a long lay off I'd step it up still after a few weeks. No point doing 20-25% of what you can do.

Good luck.

I weighed in at 87 flat this morning. Lowest in nearly 4 weeks. It'll be 4 weeks tomorrow and that'll be 3.5kg down in 4 weeks. 4/5kg to go until 82/83.

Koing

 

[z1ggy]

update for pics: Taken may 18 2013

 

[z1ggy]

From now on, I am just going to post my total cals, protein, carbs and fat numbers, along with my lifts or any other physical activity I do

Saturday-

Cals: 2488
protein:203g
carbs:141g
fat: 101g

Little higher than I wanted on the cals, but on the weekend I tend to use that as my cheat meal day.

Going to take Koing's advice and up my lift weights for the 5x5 on monday. If I stall out, I will just have to deload sooner than I would if I started from the very very bottom.

 

[z1ggy]

Your PB's are PR Bench:225, Squat:275, DL:285 right? How long ago were they and how what sort of weights were you hitting recently? I would say it would be VERY safe to use

BP: 120
Squat: 145
DL: 145

What about Row and OHP?? My OHP is weak because of the shoulder impingement, so I might actually keep that around 45 to start..just to build into heavier weights slowly. My max on the row is about 155.

I hit the bench PR about 1 month ago.

Squat.... about 8 yr ago.

DL...About 3-4yr ago.

 

[Koing]

What about Row and OHP?? My OHP is weak because of the shoulder impingement, so I might actually keep that around 45 to start..just to build into heavier weights slowly. My max on the row is about 155.

I hit the bench PR about 1 month ago.

Squat.... about 8 yr ago.

DL...About 3-4yr ago.

What are your recent numbers and how often have you been to the gym in the past few months? This will be a much more accurate reflection of what you can do.

Does doing OHP hurt your shoulder? 45lb is just the bar.

Row, You can start on at least 80 or so but again I need to know when you last did the row and is that a one rep max row? Most people never do a 1RM row, they generally do sets of 6-8-12s or so.

Koing

 

[z1ggy]

What are your recent numbers and how often have you been to the gym in the past few months? This will be a much more accurate reflection of what you can do.

Does doing OHP hurt your shoulder? 45lb is just the bar.

Row, You can start on at least 80 or so but again I need to know when you last did the row and is that a one rep max row? Most people never do a 1RM row, they generally do sets of 6-8-12s or so.

Koing

It hurt doing 95lb for the OHP. So I switched to DBs and it was fine because I could angle my elbows inward a bit to relieve the stress on the joint.

155 or so is my 1RM and I did that because I was doing a lift where it told me to do 65% 70% etc of my 1RM.

Recent numbers for my row are 155 for the max. I did that about 1 month ago along with the bench.

 

[z1ggy]

Sunday:

Cals- 2234
protein-211g
carb-159g
fats-81g

 

[Koing]

It hurt doing 95lb for the OHP. So I switched to DBs and it was fine because I could angle my elbows inward a bit to relieve the stress on the joint.

155 or so is my 1RM and I did that because I was doing a lift where it told me to do 65% 70% etc of my 1RM.

Recent numbers for my row are 155 for the max. I did that about 1 month ago along with the bench.

I see.

Ditch the barbell OHP then. Stick with DB if that doesn't hurt you.

Koing

 

[z1ggy]

Mon: Lift & Maint

Cals-2732
protein-207
carbs-306
fats-77

Work out B:
squat-95x5
OHP- 55x5
DL-95x1

20 min elliptical machine on level 4

Overall, the OHP which usually bothers my shoulder was fine. I am going to keep trying it until I notice any pain, and which point I will switch back to DBs.