Another Saturday snowstorm in Richmond. The third since mid December and the second weekend in a row. This is not as bad as the others as we got rain last night instead of snow. Snow started back again early this morning, its noon and its coming down pretty hard. American Family is closed, Golds is open but I am not about to clear the snow off of and dig my car out until this stuff stops. I missed last night's cardio and it doesn't look like its going to happen today either. I got 4 cardio sessions in this week, two on Thursday AM and PM.

More news. The no protein shake experiment did not work and I stopped it on Wednesday. Three weeks ago, I elminated shakes and bars from my diet. At that time, my energy levels in and out the gym were very high. My metabolism was jacked up. A week later, I started carb cycling and my cardio also got bumped up.

At the end of last week, I noticed my energy levels dropping and my workout last Thursday January 28th was very ordinary, even for a cruise week workout. Sunday workout and cardio, energy level was still below par. This was unusual for me. I only train three days a week at all times. With this low level of activity, almost all of my workouts are high quality sessions.

Tuesday morning, I looked visibly smaller in the mirror and my scale weight was down 4 pounds from the week before with a slightly higher bodyfat reading. When I went to the gym and got on the Stairmaster for what was supposed to be a 60 minute session, I could not get past my warm level zone on the speed of the stepper. Within a minute at the next level, number 4, I was feeling exhausted and knew I could never last at that speed much less get to my usual level 6 or 7. I did 30 minutes at the Level 3 and then went to the treadmill for 30 minutes more, again at a low speed and only a slight incline.

At lunchtime Tuesday at work, I was feeling exhausted and decided I would not train that night. Later on, I started looking at my nutrition logs this time and also at the same point five plus weeks out from vacation last year. My calories were down 300-400 a day and whereas I was getting 300 plus grams of protein on low carb days last year, this time I was in the 240 range and this was seven meals! Even on training days with tuna and chicken added for pre and post training, I was still only in the low 300s. There was no more volume of food I could put down without getting ill or causing my stomach to bloat out.

It wasn't working and so I decided to ditch the concept.

Wednesday, I was back to drinking at least one protein drink on off days and adding them back to my pre and post workout and cardio nutrition. I am also clawing back some additional calories with additional healthy fats from nuts and olive oil and an occasional half a protein bar if needed.

My readings were much better on Thursday and I had high energy workouts and cardio, even doing cardio twice that day because I was worried about this weekend.

Here is what I think happened after reading back through some of my books on nutrition and training. When you start lowering carbs or carb cycling, you have to make up for some of the lost calories on low carb days with additional protein and/or fat to prevent catabolism of muscle. If you don't, then the body starts using muscle ( instead of stored glycogen) for fuel. This is NOT what I wanted. This explains the visible loss of muscle I saw in the mirror, as well as explained why my energy levels ( and metabolism) dropped. 

The second reason probably has to do with my age and genetics. No shakes may work for a 35 year old Ron Harris or the 20 something gifted bodybuilders ( most of whom also have the help of anabolic drugs) Hany Rambod trains, but at 50 I do not have the testostorone levels they have. Thus I probably need much more protein than they do to prevent catabolism or at least maintain the muscle I have especially when I am cranking up the amount of cardio.

Anyway, I don't regret at least trying. Learned something and stopped the program quick enough so that the damage was not too bad.

I am now five weeks out from vacation. This week, I add high intensity intervals to my cardio program, two days on Monday and Thursday mornings. Cardio is hoped to be five days, but the weather may not cooperate Tuesday. Early forecast is freezing rain, for crying out loud!

I am also starting my DC cycle a few days early, Thursday this week instead of next Sunday. I have three days of offsite training for work the week of February 14th, so I may miss a training day. Plus looking ahead, starting early may allow me to have the flexibility not to have to weight train heavy the two or three days before I leave on my long vacation drive.