JimBad05’s BodyBlog

A quick recap of the situation:

I got down to 227 by Feb., where I could lose no more
I put on muscle for a few weeks in March, ~10lbs gain
I began cutting again and got to 222, where I could lose no more.

Obviously, my bulk had an effect. It allowed me to lose an additional 5lbs. But, the duration of only 2-3 weeks was too short to do my metabolism justice. I’m now ending week 2 of my second bulk. This time, I plan to continue my progress for 8 full weeks. Already I’ve seen significant gains in my lifts, accompanied by significant fat gain unfortunately.

Around Fall, I’ll begin cutting weight again. By the year’s end, I hope to be a leaner, more muscular man. If all goes according to plan, my weight will be around 210-215, my bodyfat percent will be approximately 25% and my bench press will be over 300lbs. I know that, given the timeframe, these goals may seem conservative. But, there is no telling what further complications may be in store for my metabolism, making rates of loss and gain hard to figure.

What a terrible bulk up period I’ve had! As I took my measurements today, I see that I’ve gained 0.75 inches on my hips in 3 weeks! Right now I’m about where I was in mid-February. My weight and bodyfat percent are uncertain now as I’m carrying lots of glycogen and water weight - it’s been fluctuating by as much in 3lbs.

My problem stems from the fact that my bulk period didn’t begin gradually. I jumped right into it and before long lost any semblance of control. I was doing a very dirty bulk and gaining weight drastically. Cardio became noticably more difficult and I skipped several sessions. The one redeeming effect is that my maxes shot up drastically, as did my measurements and presumably my weight.

The lesson I learned is that such big changes take big planning. Also, Spring Break and Easter didn’t help. I’ve decided that when I go home in the future I need to treat it like a military operation. I’ll prepack all my food and have an exercise routine planned out in advance instead of abandoning it.

In any event, I’m now back to weight loss. My metabolism is revved and I’m anxious to redeem myself. Also, I’m kinda proud that I’m returning and not just throwing in the towel as I would have in the past. The future looks bright.

This past week I’ve had a hard time keeping my eating under control. It’s the end of the quarter, the weather is crappy and I’m ready for Spring break so I’ve just let the stress of it all get the best of me.

But, evaluating things I see I’ve not lost very much this quarter (though I have lost some). I’ve been losing weight for about 6 months now and I’ve gone from 270 to 227, a loss of 43 pounds. So, things are bound to slow down sooner or later. Also, my lifts have always been decent but they’ve been suffering lately.

So, I’ve decided to switch gears and reset myself for a bit. During the month of March, I’ll be doing a more strenuous lifting program and less strenuous cardio. I’ll drop cardio down from 60m 3x weekly to a 20m run 3x weekly. I’ve already revamped my lifting program and I’ll basically be aiming to do a 5×5 program to shock my body by doing something different.

For eating, I’ll up my calories to 3,000 per day over 6 meals.

I’ll continue my program for the month of March (with a break on week 3 for Spring break - I have no other options). At the end of March, I’ll e
valuate how things are going and how much weight I’ve gained. I may switch right back to cutting or I may continue bulking for all of Spring.

My lift goals for this endeavor are:
Bench: 270
Stiff-Legged deadlifts: 200
Squats: 175
Overhead Press: 150

I’m disappointed to abandon my weight loss goal before I reach my goal weight of 205. But, I’ve been in this situation before and I know that I’m tired of eating small and doing so much cardio. If I try to keep at it, I may get too frustrated and quit altogether.

I just got back from my hydrostatic test and while progress wasn’t as swift as before (due to Christmas) I still lowered body fat by about 3%.

July 10th: 262 Lbs  -  37% Bodyfat  -  97 Lbs fat  -  165 Lbs Lean Body Mass
August 13th: 249 Lbs  -  35% Bodyfat  -  87 Lbs fat  -  162 Lbs Lean Body Mass
November 1st: 237 Lbs - 31% Bodyfat - 73.5 Lbs fat - 163.5 Lbs Lean Body Mass
January 23rd: 227 Lbs - 28% Bodyfat - 63.5 Lbs fat - 163.5 Lbs Lean Body Mass

I’m now officially out of the "obese" category, which begins at 30%. I’m going to continue my weight loss until I’m no longer "overweight" at 20%. Then, I’ll begin to bulk up - mostly for my sanity.

Also, at these tests they measure waist circumference. Mine had been steady at 42" but this time it measured at 38.5"! It seems, for the time being, I’ve stopped losing weight from below the waist and have begun losing it from my midsection.

I’ve just come back to school from winter break yesterday. Today was my first day back in the gym since early December. My cardio session today was lackluster, but I expect to be back where I was within the week.

Break didn’t go as well as I had hoped. I stayed somewhat active through work, but did no other exercise. I also ate quite a bit more than I should have, but I guess that comes with the territory at Christmas time. Today, I weighed in at 239lbs. I was 237 on November 1st and in the low 230’s before break. Though, I’m pretty sure much of it is water weight. I really doubt I gained about 7lbs in 3 weeks.

This break has shown me that, as my weight and bf% get lower and lower I need to become more disciplined. During subsequent breaks, I’ll need to make use of my parents crappy treadmill, do what I can on my ancient weight bench and maybe even run outside. Also, I’ve discovered clementine oranges - hopefully they will help me out next december. In any event, I’ll be pushing back my next hydrostatic test to mid-January. By then, I should be rid of this water weight and be back to where I was physically.

As I’ve decided before, I’m not going to be exercising over winter break. I’ve been doing well in my workouts this week but today I had a poor day of lifting - telling me that my body was getting used to my stale program, which is bound to happen after 10 weeks or so. So, like I did between summer and autumn quarter, I’m going to stop working out for 3 weeks and come back to it in January. My previous vacation gave me a chance to eat some foods I haven’t had in awhile - but not overdoing it. When I came back to it, I found I had gained virtually no weight but had a high metabolism thatÂ
 helped me have more effective workouts after the break.

So, today was my last day of exercise for awhile. I’m going to do some long shifts at work before returning home next week. Then, sometime after Christmas I’ll be returning to it rejuvenated with (hopefully) no weight gain. I’ll still eat roughly my 5 meals daily and get up early, but I won’t stress about having a piece of pie with dinner either. It feels counter-intuitive but this may be just what I need to sharpen the saw.

I’ve decided to drop the weekly format of weekly journal entries because I have so little to write about. I’ll now update only sporadically when I have stuff to record.

Over the past 2 weeks I’ve revised my cardio by adding jogging on the treadmill. I started at 2 incline and 5.1mph for 20 mins. Now, I’m up to 2 incline and 5.4mph. My goal is eventually to hit 6.7mph, which is roughly a 9 min mile. It may seem almost impossible fo
r me to do, but as a test I’ve tried running at 6.7mph and was able to maintain it for a full 5 mins. I was
suprised I was able to do it and am confident that I will be able to hit my goal.

I’ve also changed my lifting routine slightly. I’ve removed dumbell flyes from my chest day and I’m doing pushups in their place. I really don’t do much with muscular endurance and the dumbell flyes won’t be missed.

Also, I was unable to do cardio on veterans day because I was at home and I overslept and had to drive back to Columbus then had to work so I really couldn’t fit it in. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to handle Thanksgiving a little better.

Today I had my third body composition analysis and I couldn’t be more happy with the results.

July 10th: 262 Lbs  -  37% Bodyfat  -  97 Lbs fat  -  165 Lbs Lean Body Mass
August 13th: 249 Lbs  -  35% Bodyfat  -  87 Lbs fat  -  162 Lbs Lean Body Mass
November 1st: 237 Lbs - 31% Bodyfat - 73.5 Lbs fat - 163.5 Lbs Lean Body Mass

*All of the above numbers are taken from only the hydrostatic test

I’m happy that my LBM has remained so steady and that my fat loss has continued, even accelerated. I plan to continue through the month of November and December, with my next weigh in occurring on January 1st, 2008.

Nothing much to report this week. I learned to run on the treadmill so I’ll be adding that into what has become a pretty random mix of cardio.

Thursday is my official weigh in and body composition analysis. I seem to be somewhere in the low 240’s now, though I won’t know the official numbers until Thursday.

This week, I added swimming. It’s certainly more challenging and different, but it’s difficult to gauge distance or calories burned. But, I’m still losing weight and I’m more energetic than ever, despite classes and working 27 hours/week. I normally have my alarm set for 6am but lately I’ve been getting up 20-30mins before that!

Today, I tried on some of my old pants. As of right now, all but 3 pairs fit. In April, only 2 or 3 fit, and they didn’t fit that well. In fact, most of my clothing is starting to get pretty loose. I’m planning on making some major wardrobe changes sometime around the end of the year. Also, tomorrow I’ll be scheduling my next body fat percent analysis for November 1st. I haven’t had one since August, so I’m looking forward to it.