brent99’s BodyBlog

pretty good.  I was trying to keep my weight constant, but I gained a couple pounds.  Personal issues have kept my eating a bit soft and my workouts below ideal.  But, I’m getting some work in….

After two weeks, I picked up a bit over 2 lbs.  BUT, the weight was nearly 100% muscle!!  Wow, gotta like that.  Curiously, it doesn’t change my 9.5% bf much.  Apparently, adding muscle doesn’t really affect the ratio as much as dropping fat, but nonetheless its a real positive.  I kind of wish I could have maintained the weight to see that effect more but I guess I can’t complain.  My total bodyfat stands at 16lbs still and as long as that remains true, that’s good.  So I’ve cut down, and now I’m rebuilding without additional BF added back on.  Nice!  I wish I could say I’m optimizing things, but I’m not.  Still, sometimes rest is good….

I’m back on the weights and filling out on my skinnier frame.  I’m trying an idea I’ll call "targeting" where I’m trying to keep my weight about the same, which is currently 166-167, and exchange muscle for fat.  I had to keep things real easy last week and my strength is definitely down after shedding a lot of muscle in the cutting phaze, but it feels real good.  I wasn’t too sore except for the leg workout.  Within a couple days, I looked more like "me" with the muscle tone filling out quickly.  I’ll do round #2  of lifting this week and then check in on my status again.

I came out of the weekend a bit high in weight, closer to 169, and I’m not confident its "good weight" because we’ve had a lot of junk around the house, but I think it’ll work down over the next couple of days.

So, "officially", I put on about 2lbs of fat and 1/2 lb of muscle over the last couple "off" weeks.  I’m still under 10% bodyfat and my total bodyfat of 16lbs is still at the lowest level I’ve had in years.

In cutting down under 10%, I’ve lost a lot of muscle so I got back in the gym yesterday.  Its time to cycle back the other way and rebuild.  While I lost more muscle than I would like in shedding bodyfat, I guess the overall result — under 10% — is positive.  Because I should regain the muscle quickly, the outlook seems positive to me as to where I will go next.

Dietwise, I will switch back to a more traditional diet with frequent eating stops.  Clean with carbs, measured portions…

So on a ketosis diet, I dropped 15 lbs from 177 to 162.  The split on muscle and fat was somewhat even in the drop.  Somewhere around Dec. 24th, I ended the diet and haven’t watched my weight or eating for a couple weeks now.  What would happen?

Well, in short, not much has changed.  Within a day or two, my morning weight was back up about 4-5 lbs and that’s where it has moderated at.  Today, I’m still at that weight after a couple weeks without diet or exercise. 

 That’s one way to survive the holidays!  Diet first, not afterwards…I’m now in a much better position to advance my goals in January.