Well, back up the thread aways I told a story about how some self-appointed gym experts were quietly giving me a hard time about my workout, and that I had decided to work more on cutting. I mean, in an ideal world the male human body can shuffle in a whopping 1 pound of muscle in any given month and, spread out over the entire body, it's pretty hard to see any results for many long months, or even years. Thus, I decided to work on cutting out the remainder of my excess body fat rather than focusing on muscle growth. Mostly because it's a lot harder to cut out that last ten pounds — comfort-wise, anyway — than it is to just lift a bunch of heavy weights.
So, I set out a month ago to knock out 20 pounds and wanted to post an update on my progress. When I posted my rant, I was weighing in at 178-180
every week (once again, I found my maintenance level and was comfortable there). I wasn't gaining, I wasn't losing. Today, I weighed in at 168.5. I like to round up, so I've cut 10 pounds in 4 weeks. 2.5 pounds per week is hard, too, especially as the body fat comes off and you start hitting those hard-to-hit spots: The stomach, the love handles, and the lower back. Apparently, there is very little blood flow to that stuff, so it is extremely hard to metabolize, and harder still to get to it without burning off muscle. It's, well, hard!
I restructured my diet to about 1200 calories/day M-F before accounting for calorie-burn during my workouts. I was actually knocking out about 4 pounds/week, but I kept losing progress over the weekend. I mean, it's camping season, already! Beer and burgers, baby! BUT! Those beers and those burgers were really ticking me off, so this last weekend I decided on a different weekend approach. I took only two beers camping, and focused on eating less goodies. Thus, I went into the weekend at 168, and came out at 168.5, whereas last weekend I went in at 168 and came out at 172!
And that was a heartbreaker. I mean, I suffered all week and lost all of my progress over the weekend.
My own fault.
What did I learn? The primary culprit is the beer and the mixers. Last weekend I had 6 beers, and 4 whiskies with either coke or lemonade. So, that's 10 total ounces of alcohol and 4 high-calorie mixers, as well as all the trimmings with meals. I pigged out! However, this just past weekend I felt very much more in control and, although I did splurge on the goodies a bit more than I wanted, I booted the alcohol by simply not having any extra with me, and no mixers at all. 1/5th the alcohol, and none of the sugary wonderful. It helped a lot!
This weekend there are no campings planned, but I have much easier access to my stash, so it will be fun trying to keep it under control. But, now that I can see the difference I'll have a better insight, and I plan to keep it under control for the simple reason that I want to hit my goal by the end of August. That is, between 155 and 160.
Also, this week is a "rest" week in both diet and workout. Lower weights, higher reps at the gym, and I'm taking in an extra 300 calories (or so) each day. By Friday, I hope to have gained nothing. However, if I lose a little that's good, and if I gain a pound that's okay, too. Then, next Monday it's back to the hurt for 4 weeks.
You can do it! 🤬