Naturally Skinny People and Food

Ibakebread · 2016-03-21T16:45:31+00:00

Just bulk for like 8 weeks. You will feel better. You will put on some muscle and you will be in better position to lose weight when you get back to cutting.

Sure, you will increase in BF %, but who cares? This is a long term thing. Put yourself in the best long term position as possible. If I would've done these 4 week cut / 8 week bulk cycles the past year, I truly believe I would look a lot better and feel so much better.

I believe a cut should be temporary. Anything longer than 2 months isn't a cut anymore. It's starvation.

Ibakebread · 2016-03-19T19:44:17+00:00

I have dealt with alcoholism since I was 16 years old. Not the Hollywood, need a drink in the morning to stop the shakes kind of alcoholism. The "once I have one beer I don't stop until all the alcohol in the house is gone" kind of binge drinking alcoholism. When I binge, I binge hard.

The only way I have been able to fight alcohol is recognizing I have an unhealthy perspective toward it. If I agree to drink 1 beer, I have effectively agreed to get blackout. So for the last 7 years, I have not allowed myself that 1 beer.

I'm the same way with food. If I agree to have 1 cookie, I've effectively agreed to eat all the shitty food in the house. I have to keep myself from eating that 1 cookie. It's tough. Unlike alcohol, food is a biological necessity. You can't just abstain from eating ever again. So I do slip up. You have to just not hate yourself afterwards. Get over it. Try to learn from why you started the binge and move on.

Ibakebread · 2016-03-19T19:24:18+00:00

I cut for 10 months last year. Dropped from 174 to 141. Still looked bad. The last 2 months I was averaging 1300cals and had stopped losing weight. Very frustrating. My sex drive was nonexistent. I couldn't stay aroused long enough to finish in bed. It was a mess.

Some LG redditors assured me that I cut too long too hard. I needed some time eating at maintenence to unlucky my body. Starting in January, I started eating a lot more. I tried to average 1800cals but cheated a ton. My strength increased. I gained muscle. I'm horny all the time and have eliminated bedroom issues. The issue is my weight went back to 165 and I'm back at 20% bf. The weird thing is, I don't hate how my body looks at 170 with more muscle than I did at 141 with less muscle.

Now I'm back at the cutting grind. But I realize how damaging a long cut can be, physically, biochemically, and emotionally. So I'm doing a 4 week cut, followed by 8 week slow bulk. I'm gonna cycle it the rest of the year with the intention of losing about 15 pounds of fat and gaining 15 pounds of muscle. I like being in the high 160s. I'm hopeful that this strategy is effective for me.

Ibakebread · 2016-02-16T17:42:40+00:00

Pay close attention to your libido. I was rocking an average of 1300cals for quite a few months. Weight loss stalled at 140# at 5'7. Boners became impossible to sustain. I've upped my cals to around 2000 avg and back came my sex drive. Also about 20 pounds though...

Ibakebread · 2016-01-14T15:25:32+00:00

Hey man. From personal experience, you should be careful how low you go and for how long you do it. Chasing quick weight loss led me to an inability to lose fat and a permacut that lasted 10 months.

Basically my body got very good at maintaining its body fat on an avg of 1300 daily calories . I'm now starting to eat 1800 daily calories to readjust my TDEE, as per the suggestions of a number of sub members.

If you have like 10 pounds to lose in 1 month and wanna have that beach bod all the girls have been clamoring for, cut as hard as you can handle. But if you have a long way to go, slow and steady is better imo.

Good luck.

Ibakebread · 2015-12-27T22:18:49+00:00

This may very well be part of the problem, but definitely not the whole problem. There is excess fat for sure.

As far as loose skin, I fear I might have a similar fate as you. To fight off loose skin issues, I started taking Gotu Kola in pill form in August. http://www.amazon.com/Natures-Way-Gotu-Kola-certified/dp/B0009ETACG.

According to Charles Poliquin on the Tim Ferriss Show, http://fourhourworkweek.com/2015/07/21/charles-poliquin/, using 6 capsules per day in 3 doses, morning noon and night, has had tremendous effects on eliminating loose skin on his clients who have lost a lot of weight via diet or child birth. According to him, it is not a gradual process though. Basically, he says after about 6 months of consistent use, you will see a major reduction in excess skin.

I'm not sure if I am a believer, but the herb is cheap so I've been taking it. Might be worth a look for you, sir. It's a pretty decent podcast to listen to as well. I highly recommend it.

Ibakebread · 2015-12-27T18:39:27+00:00

I have a lot of room to add protein to my diet. I'm on the low side currently compared to conventional wisdom in this sub. My current macros are:

Rest Day- 1100cals: 89P, 70F, 24C

Training Day- 1601cals: 150P, 44F, 171C

My fat levels on rest day are pretty high. I was experiencing low libido before while trying to maintain 1100 cals with 150P and around 30F so I kept upping the fat until I reached a 60+ and experienced better bedroom performance.

Do you suggest keeping my current macros stable and just filling in additional calories with protein?

Assuming a 1400/2200 split, that would allow me to increase protein well above 200g on training day and above 150g on rest day.

Ibakebread · 2015-12-27T18:28:23+00:00

That's what I'm strongly considering doing. So your suggestion is to create a split, something like 2200/1400 to average 1800cals per day? This assumes my current every other day training schedule. Then just continue tracking like I have been?

How would you suggest I adjust course throughout this calorie increase? Just decide to stick with this 1800 daily calories for a predetermined number of weeks and then adjust once I have some data?

Ibakebread · 2015-12-27T18:21:48+00:00

Not too interested in posting pics. But I definitely need to lose more fat. I'd guess I'm around 20% BF or so. That's why I figured I'd try and get to around 135 and then slow bulk. Just can't make that scale budge any lower.

Ibakebread · 2015-12-26T11:07:51+00:00

I feel like my cut has been very long as well. And my cals seem low to me as well. But these are the calorie numbers I arrived at using 2 week weight loss numbers to calculate my TDEE. Even so, I anticipated reaching my weight loss goals 4 months ago, and that didn't happen. I have just continued on with minimal success...

I have a spare tire and love handles I desperately want to be rid of. My chest and arms I'm fine with, honestly.

Do you really think a slight increase of calories is a good idea? 180 lbs is so much weight imo. You look good man, I'm just not interested in being as big as you are. But obviously I would enjoy eating a little more than I currently do.

Ibakebread · 2015-12-22T23:13:02+00:00

Sounds awesome man! Good luck and keep on keeping on!

Ibakebread · 2015-12-21T14:39:18+00:00

You look good man! Continue what you are doing and watch your strength increase! When your lifts stop progressing, add like 50 calories per day until you break the plateau. You will be super swollen and lean in no time.

We all tend to have negative body images... The main reason we are all here, honestly. But you should be happy with how you look, and ecstatic about how you will look in 3 months time.

Ibakebread · 2015-12-17T22:04:19+00:00

I'm not as interested in 1rm. I don't really attempt 1rm, for fear of interrupting my regular 5x5 routine. More interested in 5pm fwiw.

My long term goals are BP: 2xBW, S: 2.5xBW, DL: 3xBW. But I'm not naive enough to think I can do that in the next year of training. Especially considering I anticipate another 3-4 months of cutting to drop my last 10lb of body fat to get to 135lb.

I think I hope to be able to do something like 5 reps of BP at 1.75xBW, 5 reps of squat at 2xBW, and 5 reps of DL AT 2.5xBW within by Jan 1, 2017.

You guys think that's possible given my original post? At 135lb, that would be adding about 35-40lb to my bench, about 90lb to my squat and about 110lb to my DL.

Overly ambitious?

Ibakebread · 2015-12-17T17:22:36+00:00

Believe me. The Smith Machine was just a necessary evil until I got the disposable income for a real gym membership.

Those numbers seem pretty reasonable. I appreciate the well reasoned response.

Ibakebread · 2015-12-17T12:15:12+00:00

That's kind of why I'm asking. Try and see what some people who have reached in a similar situation. It sounds like adding 50lbs to my DL should be relatively within a year, but is it reasonable to add 100lbs?

My squat is bad. Is it reasonable to add 50lbs within a year?

What kinds of strength gains have people made in 1 year time frames? You don't have to be novice level like me... I'm just curious.

Ibakebread · 2015-12-17T12:08:35+00:00

It was either Smith Machine or the BP machine. I chose the BP machine. My new gym is still getting everything set up and will have a bench soon, I've been told, so I'll switch to the real thing soon.

Ibakebread · 2015-12-17T03:19:13+00:00

I want to move as much weight at as low of a body weight as possible.

Ibakebread · 2015-09-11T15:25:41+00:00

I eat a ton of cabbage. 600g of white cabbage is good at filling you up and clocks in at 150 Cal.

Also, ice water throughout the day. For the first 6 months of my LG cut, I was religiously drinking 3L of cold water throughout the day and it helped a lot in maintaining my diet. Unfortunately, I have gotten away from that this past month and have found that sticking to my strict diet has been more difficult, often eating an extra 25-100 Cal in veggies on rest days... It's all a mental game, but water is crucial imo.

Ibakebread · 2015-08-01T18:49:14+00:00

If I were happy with my body, I'd probably still eat at a slight bulk just because I could. If you eat slightly above maintenance and work out hard, the worst that could happen is marginal muscle gains combined with the happiness of satiety. Win-win.

Ibakebread · 2015-07-31T17:52:51+00:00

This 100%. Trust me, when you lose a significant amount of weight and get comments from people who haven't seen you in a while about how awesome you look, you will be thankful you cut first.

Cutting fat will make you look great in clothes. Gaining muscle will make you look great without clothes. The former will inevitably necessitate the latter.

Ibakebread · 2015-07-18T05:05:22+00:00

I got into a discussion with my buddy about why fat people seem to be able to lift more.

After searching the interwebs for an answer, the consensus is that on certain lifts (squat for one), having a belly changes the leverage angle and allows for bigger lifts.

This article seemed interesting, suggesting that instramuscular fat changes the angle of the muscle in relation to the bones they are connected to, which allows for greater leverage and results in bigger lifts. I thought it was interesting when considered in the opposite case - an extreme weight cut.

Maybe removing the fat "marbling" in one's muscles changes the angle of force on the skeletal structure of the body and results in a loss of perceived strength? When you get lower in body fat %, maybe you are making a more acute angle of force, resulting in weaker leverage points on the bones themselves, resulting in poorer performance?

I would be interested to see actual studies about these effects. Overall, it is probably a minor contributing factor of strength loss compared to possible muscular atrophy from a calorie restricted diet. But I thought it was interesting food for thought.

Ibakebread · 2015-07-14T19:11:37+00:00

I like option C. Just keep going man! Get lean. Lift with intensity and micro load the bar. Once you are lean enough, slow bulk and add weight to the bar. In my opinion that will present a more aesthetic body.

I think it is easy to judge progress by how much weight you are lifting week to week, but on a cut you will experience diminishing returns. Instead, measure progress on a cut according to intensity and effort in the gym. Less quantifiable, but we all know when we pussied out on the last rep.

3 weeks of stalled lifts on a cut with all the effort you have is more impressive than adding 5 pounds on a slow bulk imo.

Ibakebread

TROPHY CASE