smallguyjoe’s BodyBlog

After just about 6 weeks of cutting I’m down from 158 lbs to 151 lbs. My body fat % was around 9.6% or a bit higher with calipers at 158 lbs. Now 3/30/07 it’s 7.9% w/ calipers! WOOOOOHOOOOOO!!!! On my scale my bf% fluctuates from as low as 8% to as high as 11%. I think in actuallity at the start of my cut I was 12-13% bf and am now actually 9-10% bf… I don’t think I’m quite 8% bf… I may be, but I’m happy that I’ve gotten a bit more defined and now I’ll feel alright with my shirt off at the beach this summer! I’ll start clean bulking in a couple of weeks and will try to cut a bit again sometime in the summer before August. I’m pleased to know that I now know how to cut effectively, so I know what to do if my abs get blurry in the summer…LOL!

I’m not where I wanna be with my definition, but I’ve got a small tour with Eric James commin up, so I won’t be cutting, bulking, or training consistantly until May. I’m not happy about this, but oh well. I lost a lot of strength the last month long tour back in Sept. - not so cool! One thing I’m gratefull for is that I don’t seem to lose muscle mass when cutting or taking off from training. When I came back from the last tour I was about 3-5 lbs heavier (145 - 148-150 lbs) due to water retention and a poor diet, but dropped back down to 145 lbs in about a week. I also looked exactly the same; maybe a little different in the abs, but not much different. My strength also came back in full and better in a little less than a month.

This tour I plan on trying to workout at gyms if possible, do a ton of pushups and crunches, and I’ll bring some dumbbells to try and maintain while on the road. Also, since I just fricken cut, I’ll be trying extremely hard to not over do it at diners and rest stops with all the crappy food! Wish me luck!!!

I’ve been cutting since Feb. 19 (I think that was when I first started?). Anyway, I was 158 lbs bf% 11 - 13%. 2 weks before cutting I was said to be 9.6% bf w/ calipers at my gym. Then after 3-4 weeks of cutting at 153-154 lbs I was still 9.6% bf w/ the calipers, but the site readings on my chest and abs went down - legs were the same. So, now I’m hovering between 150 - 152 lbs (I think I’m a solid 151 lbs). I’m hoping that I’m finally the same bf% w/ calipers that I was in Sept. (7.9%)… I think in actuality I’m 9-10% bf now whereas before I was 11-13%. There’s definite improvement, but the thing is in Sept. I was 145 lbs and I think I was actually 8% bf… I don’t know if I’m quite that low yet. I don’t wanna go too low in weight. I mean if I’m not actually 8% bf when I’m 150 lbs then that’ll suck! I wanted to get down to 6% bf, but I think I’ll have to go down in weight to around 145 lbs.

 Who here thinks I should keep cutting until I’m 6% bf? I’m thinkin about takin a break when I hit 150 lbs and super clean bulking for a few months then trying to cut down to 6% bf then for the peak of the summer (I go to the beach in Aug.).

 Any thoughts fellow body builders?

I’ve been following the Ultimate Diet 2.0 for the past 4.5 weeks and have lost at least 5 lbs (I have a log if you want to check it out), but I’m thinking of changing up my diet and training.

Here’s some insight to what the Ultimate diet is:

3.5 days of low calories/carbs - the goal is to deplete your glycogen stores w/ a coloric intake of half your maintenance calories and 2 high rep full body workouts on Mon and Tues, and then cardio on Wed and Thurs mornings.

1.5 days of carb loading - refill glycogen after a normal rep full body workout on Thurs night and keep refeeding through Fri until bed - evidentally the body will use all of the carbs to refill the depleted glycogen stores and not store any as fat.

2 days of moderate carbs/calories - training on Sat is a full body power training workout that lasts forever!

repeat the cycle on Mon.

The UD 2.0 has given me good results, but the precise calculations with carbs/calories is annoying, and the full body workouts just seem like a waste of time to me. I want to train more like how I use to - more volume/ 1-2 muscle groups a day. I’m trying to improve my muscle shape too, and doing full body workouts at a fast pace with light weight seems like I’m doing intense cardio and then not feeding myself enough on the low calorie days… it may just be a mental thing. And, going into the gym on Thurs. night after 3.5 days of low calories/carbs and trying to lift normally sucks! The carb load’s fun and so is the power training workout - although the power traing workout is too fricken long (2 hrs) and is probably counter productive.

I’m toying with the idea of consuming about 2250 calories/training day and 2080 calories/off days… maybe even doing a carb load day of 2750 calories followed by a power training day - but only doing flat, incline bench, pull ups, bent over rows, squats, deadlifts, and maybe close grip bench and barbell curl. So my split would be:

Mon - cardio in AM & bi’s and tri’s and light abs at lunch (2250 cals)
Tues - cardio in AM & legs at lunch (2250 cals)
Wed - cardio in AM & chest and back at 5:30PM (2250 cals)
Thurs - cardio in AM & shoulders and heavy abs at lunch (2250 cals)
Fri - cardio and carb load (2750 cals to no more than 3000 cals)
Sat - power training (2250 cals)
Sun - off lower calories/carbs (2080 cals)

How’s this look? Does anybody have any advice/suggestions on how to cut efficiently and better my shape?

I’m 5′6" 25 yrs old, and currently 9.6% body fat w/ calipers done by a trainer, 9-11% body fat on my bf scale at home, and I’m 151.6 lbs in the morning and 153.2 lbs throughout the day. I want to be 5-6% body fat whatever lbs preferably not any lower than 148 lbs if possible.

Any help will be greatly appreciated… Thanks!