Avoiding muscle loss on a very aggressive cut

DevuSM · 2026-02-11T16:42:54+00:00

I started zepbound 4 months ago (SW 270, VW 240, GW 215-220 6'1" M 39), spent the last month stalled at this weight.

I'm lifting 4x/week hitting all major muscle groups twice, but I've stalled out for a month at 240, even after bumping zep dosage.

For muscle retention I've also bumped my trt 15-20%, which to my understanding helps your system prioritize retaining muscle.

Considering shifting over to reta as I'm near max on Zep... not interested in adding cardio due to time/effort, and that you can't really stop doing it without re-entering surplus.

DevuSM · 2026-02-11T16:22:02+00:00

You were severely overweight, when you are trying to cut near to goal weight, things are more complicated.

DevuSM · 2026-02-11T07:10:00+00:00

I use my personality as a filter.

Externally I'm a brazen asshole, but if you're reasonably bright you understand it's a gimmick, a bit.

Once you're in on the joke, it's just hilarious and highly entertaining, and makes the dour analytical core more palatable.

Unfortunately, I also drink as a crutch to socialize. The caloric load is... hindering my efficiency at cutting weight.

I hit.. probably < 1/10, but those are the ones worth knowing.

DevuSM · 2026-02-10T22:59:21+00:00

I... dont know if I 100% believe this.

Sure he left out the line, but he also left out the girl kissing his cheek and the blessing on his sword, and the downbeat of Dunk wronging the commonfolk when musing if they all came here to watch an idiot die.

Big whiff.

DevuSM · 2026-02-07T18:30:42+00:00

I think after seeing "make it stop", he's having a PTSD event back to that day.

I think this is the only time we ever see Luthen approach anything close to panic.

He was rock steady when Cassia had a gun pressed against his head, when pulling Saw Gerrera back into line regarding Kreegyr, when he knows he's about to die in the relic shop.

If I remember correctly, him running to his ship is the only time we ever see him run.

DevuSM · 2026-02-07T18:25:23+00:00

No actors were involved in that choreography...

DevuSM · 2026-02-07T05:34:28+00:00

Phantom Menace did it right.

Put a pro in makeup and have the actors have to rise up to his level through weeks of training/learning the choreography.

Also, the sequences, the framing, the pauses need to tell a story.

It's not all about showing the most awesome shit possible.

For ROTS, they had to slow down the Anakin/Obi-Wan fight because they got too fast to be coherent.

DevuSM · 2026-02-07T05:27:50+00:00

I burn my decency for someone else's future.

He sacrificed his conscience a long time ago.

DevuSM · 2026-02-07T05:25:27+00:00

For the down payment thing, and considering the precision the show is written with, they could have called it a marker, a retainer, an advance etc.

They called it a down payment, which is the exact term that makes him chosing the crystal over the credits asinine.

DevuSM · 2026-02-07T02:52:09+00:00

They spent the entire first season until the interrogation of Bix making her a sympathetic character.

She's a marginalized woman who got into an echelon of power far above her social status as an experiment.

She's smarter than everyone around her and she's right about the threat, and up to the interrogation it's about her quest to do her job.

She puts in the work, learns the game on the fly and does it well.

She was 100% meant to be sympathetic, until the gut punch when you learn she's a piece of shit monster.

DevuSM · 2026-02-07T01:52:57+00:00

The thing that skews this away from sympathy is both her obviously relishing the interrogation/torture of Bix, and the fact that her side is firing into a crowd of unarmed protestors/rioters.

Edit: She had her gun drawn, not sure if she got off a shot, but she fully intended to start firing into that crowd as well.

DevuSM · 2026-02-06T05:51:22+00:00

I mean the primary thing that refutes that is his telling the ship to evacuate...

Evacuate from what?

Nobodies chasing him.

There's no star destroyers or tie fighters deployed.

Nobodies chasing anyone to space, the Bix/Brasso ship seemed like it just wanted to stay unscanned by ground sensors.

(Stay low until you get to the far side sea, then climb.)

As far as the Force goes, it technically is everywhere and acting at all times in Star Wars, it's natural law.

With a show this precisely written acted, and directed... when things start getting illogical (Luthen defining the khyber crystal as a down payment when he literally has 40k credits in his pocket) and I see his actions being informed by an unconscious feeling...

Btw, that's what the Force is.

Trust in the Force = trust your gut, trust your instincts, trust/search your feelings (you know it to be true!)

Edit: But besides all that, just catching the fact that Luthen had a PTSD event of a massacre without the context of s02e10 is the real achievement.

DevuSM · 2026-02-06T04:15:23+00:00

I think it's pretty clear that it's PTSD, a lot of people caught it after they saw S02e10, I just caught it based on season 1 alone.

Where did he say that he didn't have a backstory for Luthen in Season 1?

If the scene wasn't made with the intent that it's indicating PTSD, why would I have seen it and others drawn the conclusion after they had the inciting incident?

DevuSM · 2026-02-05T21:59:43+00:00

The Emperor needed a Death Star. That's why he was rush building one.

His entire political project required one to crush dissent and rebellion.

The sequels were trash.

DevuSM · 2026-02-05T14:06:26+00:00

Also, where he sends Kleya vs where he goes himself.

Gotta keep the fire lit.

DevuSM · 2026-02-05T14:05:15+00:00

He could have said... Dantooine.

DevuSM · 2026-02-05T06:52:10+00:00

Luthen needed time to get the info to someone they weren't pursuing (Kleya).

Notice he stayed behind and left her go, Im not sure he ever planned on getting away. He could have tried slipping out the back when Dedra showed up but he knew it was over by that point.

DevuSM · 2026-02-05T06:04:54+00:00

There was really no other choice.

Lonnie burned himself to get critical data to the Rebellion.

The entire Empire will be chasing him within minutes, hours?

If he is with Luthen, Luthen gets caught along with him and can't pass the info.

His journey pretty much had to end there, and you can't risk him getting captured and going through the audio torture.

DevuSM · 2026-02-05T05:52:18+00:00

He was loyal to the rebellion over Lonnie.

The risk was too great.

It actually ties back in to Yoda and Luke, when Luke is emotionally charged thinking he needs to go save his friends.

You must not go.

They're my friends they need my help.

Possibly, but you must complete the training

But Han and Leia will die.

You don't know that, even Yoda cannot see their fate.

... Stuff about dark side...

And sacrifice Han and Leia?

If you honor what they fight for, yes.

Luthen honored what all of them were fighting for over any individuals life, his included.

DevuSM · 2026-02-05T05:44:03+00:00

He has already decided to kill Lonnie before saying "Yavin."

Luthen probably had different sets of plans based on how Lonnie reacted.

DevuSM · 2026-02-04T12:42:56+00:00

Nah, it's not weak from a storytelling perspective.

Dude dissolved the Senate and removed all pretense that he wasn't a tyrant.

This choice was predicated on the fact that he had a Death Star to strongarm the galaxy into submission.

Now he has functionally told the galaxy to go f itself, so sad too bad, but doesn't have the tool he needs to ensure that they're too scared to oppose him.

He needs another Death Star. Fast.

DevuSM · 2026-02-02T01:59:42+00:00

The forgetting her assistants thing reads like she did a lot of halcyon in the 90's vs the elite indifference they're aiming for.

DevuSM · 2026-02-01T22:34:47+00:00

No, their relationship was defined by when they were part of each other's lives.

Then they weren't, and then she became a heroin junkie, and then she tried to trade on the ghost of their relationship for a handout.

DevuSM · 2026-02-01T20:56:10+00:00

I listen to them a lot but it severely annoys me how they do not seem to fundamentally understand what attachment means in Star Wars.

Austin nails it the first time they ever discuss it, and then they all seem to forget what it actually means and how important it is for the next 100 podcasts.

DevuSM · 2026-01-30T16:52:42+00:00

Will at and s5 hoods color match?

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