I reached 8-10% body fat after cutting for 6 months. I started at 177.0 lbs 19-20% body fat Feb. 1st and finished today Aug. 2nd at 155.8 lbs.

The measurement method puts me at 9.3% bf; 3 site calipers put me at 8.1% bf; and my scale (which has a bad track record) has me at 10.4% bf.

I’m going with the 9% estimate. I think that seems right. 

Unfortunately I lost LBM. At 177 my LBM was 142.6 lbs and it’s now 141.2 lbs (lost 1.4 lbs). Oh well. I shouldn’t be surprised since I had had my body in a Caloric defecit for 6 months with only a 1 week break from dieting.

I feel much better about my physique now; I feel like I look as if I train hard, which I do! Hahahaha… I didn’t like how at 177 lbs I was big, and people said I was big/muscular, but I looked soft and not like I eat healthy. I had been eating healthy… it was just TOO MUCH healthy food, and I got fat. I know now how to estimate my maintenance, and I’m going to try to gain muscle slowly with a diet that is only slightly over my maintenance. I hope to not gain fat over the next several months so when I cut again I’ll be starting my cut at 9-10% body fat. If gaining fat is absolutely necessary to put on muscle then so be it, but once the Measurement Method estimates me at 11% body fat I will cut for a month or so to get back down to 9%. I want to maintain the look that I’m happy with while I add muscle. Then come this time next year (July/August) I plan on being more muscular than I am now for one, and two 4-5% body fat less!  

-Be ~150 lbs @ ~6% bf Aug. 25, 2008

The 1st goal I feel very confident I will meet. I am 153.2 lbs today (Aug. 29) @ 7.8% bf, and from last Tues to this Tues I lost 1.4 lbs and .8% bf. So, I plan on losing at least 1.4 lbs from today until next Tues, which should also mean that I lose at least .8% bf again… bringing me to 151.8 lbs @ 7.0% bf.

The 2nd goal I think is possible, but I may not meet it in full. I don’t plan on gaining any weight on my vacation… I’ve never gained weight during this vacation b/c I’m so active the whole time - jogging, walking, surfing, swimming. I mean yeah, I’ll be up 2-3 lbs fom water weight, but I shouldn’t gain any fat/lean tissue while gone. So, I’m figuring to get to 150 lbs I will just need to drop 2 lbs in the 2 weeks before I start classes. Not a big deal, but I am planning on living life a little bit for the last few weeks of my summer vacation. So, while I will have a good base diet plan (the one I’m eating this week - 1660 calories)… I will be deviating from it 3-4x per week. What that will equal out too as far as fat loss/Caloric defecit and all… I dunno, and I’m not gonna worry about it. I’m just gonna do my thing for 2 weeks and see what happens. If I meet the goal of 150 lbs @ 6% bf… awesome! If not… no big deal… I will at least be 7% bf still or slightly leaner. Either way I will finish my 6.5 - 7 month long cut off nicely, in my opinion .

I should have a picture of him up somewhere soon  

I officially started cutting yesterday (Feb. 1st). Unfortunately it looks like I’ll be cutting until June 21st in order to reach my goal of 4% bf. Oh well.

Even though my bulk ended w/ my bf% bein too high (14-15%) it’s cool. I enjoyed myself with eating crappy foods a little more than I should have, but life was good those 6 months! Basically I ate too much the 1st half of my bulk. It actually wasn’t that much crappy stuff then - it was too much of the good stuff. It’s cool; I know for next time how to calculate what my body needs, and for SLOWER gains. After this cut I will NEVER, as long as I can help it, let my bf% get over 10%. The bulk was successful in that I did gain 2 lbs of muscle per month - that was the goal! So, I’m 12 lbs up (in muscle) from Aug. 1st Too bad I’m up like 12 lbs of fat HAHAHAHAHA…

I think the past, almost, 2 years I have built up a decent base, so now I am going to concentrate on slower muscle gains so that my bf% stays in check between 6 to no more than 10%. I don’t mind if my muscle gains are only .5 lb a month now; I’ll take that over 2 lbs plus FAT, hahaha. If I learn or figure out a way to gain 1-2 lbs without fat - AWESOME! If not, bring on the slow gains for the next several years. I actually don’t wanna get too much bigger anyway - not sayin I’m big, but my ideal look is more of the fitness model, so a little more size and bein lean is my goal, nah mean?   

Now I gotta put up 315 for reps, hahahahahaha In time

I looked through my journal and saw that when I had hit 169 lbs in October I was just filled with water… I was actually more like 167 lbs! I was 167 like the day before I woke up 169, and when I started my cut I dropped back down in like 1-2 days - water retention! Anyway, after my 2 week cut I started trying to gain mass slower, and it seemed to be goin good since the scale was moving up still, but very slowly.

I had gotten discouraged b/c after cutting for 2 weeks my arms had gone back down to 15.25. I weighted a few weeks to measure them again in hopes that they’d be back up… they weren’t OR, SO I THOUGHT!!!!

I measured my arms (along with the rest of me) last night, and they are back up to 15.5!!!! I must’ve measured em wrong when I did it the other day! I even took a picture w/ the tape around my arm…

This picture’s also in my workout journal - it’s bigger there, so ya can see it better  

I also found that I’ve made some improvements over the past month or so… 

weight 168.2 lbs (morning of 11/30/2007)

measurements:

waist = 33
hips = 38.5 (+.5)
thigh = 23.5
chest = 44.25 (-.25)
shoulders = 50.5 (+.75)
arms = 15.5
calves = 14.5
forearms = 12.5 (+.25)
neck = 15.5 (-.5)

bf% = 8.3% (really like 10-11%)
abs 13 (+1)
chest 4
quad 12 (-1)

So, not so bad after all!!!!

Also, I’m super happy b/c I started creatine this past Tues (5 grams per day) and this morning (12/01/2007) my weight is up to 170.4 lbs!!!! 2.2 lbs in just a day! hahahahaha I know it’s water retention, but it feels really cool to look down in the morning and see 170 lbs for the 1st time ever!!!!

Progress after all!!!

I started eating more carbs and less protein… I noticed better strength and energy and I feel better in and out of the gym.

However, I after training less and with less volume I feel that my growth is slow… slower than when I trained with higher volume and at a high intensity (dropsets and supersets for EVERYTHING!).

Also, I’ve  decided to live a little and eat more leniently (mostly just on the weekends). It shows on my physique, b/c I’ve gotten carried away a bit.

The good news is I think I’ve learned some things through it all…

My body responds well to high volume and high intensity… it just needs a break after about 2 months of it. Also, I don’t need to eat quite as much as I was in the beginning of this bulking phase.

I’m trying a new routine right now, the Tri-Phase workout, although I have modified it very slightly and the 3rd phase will be of my own design - most likely the routine that proved to be very good for me a couple months ago. The tri phase workout program is a 9 week program. After these next 9 weeks I think I’ll be over do for a cut… I may not even make it through without giving in to cutting. I’m very disappointed with myself, but I plan on stepping it up now and doing better.   

I had gotten 6 reps w/ 315 for the past 2 weeks which was good b/c I had been stuck at 315 x 5 for a good while, but today when I pulled it up a 7th time I was sooooooooo happy!!! I’m gettin stronger!!!! I’m gettin bigger… WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO  

I’m goin for 225 x 9 tomorrow… we’ll see!!! If I just get 8 again I’ll be happy, but I’m really hopin to hit 9. The past couple weeks I’ve done things a bit different, so tomorrow I’m gonna do my origional game plan for gettin the most reps w/ 225… that is:

135 x 5

185 x 5

225 x ? - hopefully 9… last time I did this I got 8 reps

The past 2 Sundays I’ve worked w/ dumbbells on flat bench… last Sunday I did:

db flat press 60’s x 8, 80’s x 8, 100’s x 5, 100’s x 4, 85’s x 7

We shall see what that all has done for my flat bench w/ 225

My incline barbell was stronger this week… 185 x 8 with no spotter… if I had someone behind me I’m sure I could’ve gotten at least 9 w/ no help and maybe 10 w/ minimal help. This is a big improvement for me. Like I said… I’M GETTIN STRONGER!!!!

Wish me luck w/ the 225 x 9 tomorrow

Oh yeah, I also joined this gym - ACAC… it’s super nice… pretty expensive, but I’m gettin a sweet student discount I hope to work there someday, so I’m gettin my foot somewhat in the door.

Ok… I was mainly just estatic about deadliftin 315 x 7

Bye bye  

I had planned on doin 6 week bulks followed by 2 week cuts, but I think before I go that route I’m gonna see how my body responds to just lower calories - not so low that I’m losing weight/strength but I’m gonna experiment to find an amount that my body gains strength well with. I figure if my strength improves every 1-2 weeks then that means i’m eating enough and that my weight should increase at least 1 lb of muscle a month. I could be wrong, but I wanna find out. 

If it turns out that the only way I’ll put on muscle is if I gain all the fat with it then so be it. I just wanna see if I can gain muscle without too much fat. Really I wanna look like I workout all the time. We’ll see how it goes, eh?

The main thing is once my waist gets to 32.5-33 I’m definitely cutting back down to atleast 31. I can’t stand the way I felt when my waist was a 33 last June I aint tryin to look or feel like that again! 

My plan is this… "bulk" for 6 weeks and then "cut" for 2 weeks. I’ll repeat this until sometime in May. Then I’ll cut May, June, and thru July as needed. I’m hoping to stay lean enough to where I won’t actually need to "cut" during July, but only maintain my bf% throughout July and during our Aug. vacation I’ll start eating to gain muscle again.

I’m hoping this approach to gaining muscle will work well and I’ll be able to stay somewhat lean.

Here’s my estimations of where I’ll be by July/Aug…

Aug 1 - Sept 15 = *155 lbs 6% bf to 160 lbs 8% bf (I was 152.4 but gained like 2 lbs of water just in like 2 days of eating a normal amount of carbs)

Sept 15 - Oct 1 = 160 lbs 8% to 158 lbs 7%

Oct 1 - Nov 15 = 158 lbs 7% to 163 lbs 9%

Nov 15 - Dec 1 = 163 lbs 9% to 161 lbs 8%

Dec 1 - Jan 15 =   161 lbs 8% to 166 lbs 10%

Jan 15 - Feb 1 = 166 lbs 10% to 164 lbs 9%

Feb 1 - March 15 = 164 lbs 9% to 169 lbs 11%

March 15 - April 1 = 169 lbs 11% to 167 lbs 10%

April 1 - May 1 = 167 lbs 10% to 170 lbs 11% 

May 1 - June 1 =  170 lbs 11% to 166 lbs 8.5%

June 1 - July 1 = 166 lbs 8.5% to 162 lbs 5.5%

July 1 - Aug 1 = 162 lbs 5.5% to 158 lbs 3.5% BLAMMO!!!!

There ya have it! August 1st 2008 I plan on bein 158 lbs 3.5% body fat!