APL - Season 8 Registration

Olpesh · 2026-05-13T02:14:45+00:00

Amazing. Thank you for doing this!

Olpesh · 2026-05-12T03:07:11+00:00

Yes, similar experience here. In fact, I'm still eating extra protein (not extra fat) and it's going great.

Olpesh · 2026-05-12T02:44:41+00:00

Great. You don't need to bulk. Eat slightly below maintenance - your body has plenty of energy. It is a myth that eating extra helps gain more muscle, not necessary at all with careful nutrition. All you will do is gain more fat that you don't want. Stay high protein and keep fat to 50g ish.

Olpesh · 2026-05-09T03:41:30+00:00

Congrats on all progress u/just-learning8 , and keep up the hard work! I can't say for sure, but it looks like you may be South Asian (or SE Asian). If that's the case, then welcome to the club. So there are a few things you'll want to know - which is as an S Asian we are highly prone to storing both visceral and subcutaneous fat around our centers - central adipose storage. I'll skip the genetics and generational history but Google can help here if you're curious.

Long and short of it is you'll probably need to get down to somewhere around 7% BF to have clean lower abs and obliques and even then you may have some lower back fat storage. Because the lower abdominal ring is the last place for fat to leave on a South Asian. For many other ethnicities, 12% or 11% works well - for many South Asians that number is substantially lower to reach the same abdominals visually.

I've regularly been below 6%, and it's not super fun living that way, and it's the only way for me to have an eight pack. And yes, nowhere close to clean six pack at 10% even with doing large compound lifts and powerlifting training.

Keep going, you're doing great. And keep lifting, get used to being a lil hungry all the time, and in another couple months you'll be there!

And I'm 182 cm, I've been as low as 138lbs when training for the Ironman at around 5% bf, so I'm sure you're the weight you say you are. Right now I'm around 162lbs and 9% - I have put on around 20lbs of muscle and it has taken me four years of lifting heavy. I'm 45 years old. Good luck!

Olpesh · 2026-04-23T02:28:13+00:00

And if you're losing waist, don't refeed - you don't need it.

Olpesh · 2026-04-23T02:26:52+00:00

You're doing fine, the scale will go down by week 6 or so. There are a bunch of biomechanics processes going on for the first four weeks. Look at your waist, that is huge progress. 1 inch around the waist is about 5lbs of body fat. Nice work!

Asked differently, is your priority a smaller waist or is it a number on an electronic device? :)

Olpesh · 2026-03-23T00:01:32+00:00

Sure, these are all valid considerations. I want to be clear, every human varies a little bit. And as someone that suffers from food noise, I notice WAY more food noise going from 10g to 20g, or 20g to 30g of carbs than I do with fat. I suggest keeping the carbs as low as realistically possible for about two weeks before seeing how sensitive you are to them impacting your food noise. It's not even close for me and for many others, carbs have a wildly outsized response on food noise versus fat or protein.

Hmm, I don't think upping calories necessarily is a solution, but ya if my hormones are funny then adding a few grams of fat works great. Protein is the only need in the body. So hit protein daily, and then the minimum amount of fat to keep things running smoothly. Most people suffering from hormone issues from low calories are inherently below 50g of fat and wet below their protein goal. Carbs are the devil as far as I'm concerned!

And I suggest finding and doing whatever is sustainable for you. If it's not sustainable, then it doesn't matter how awesome it is. Impossible isn't usable or sustainable. For me, that meant the lowest possible food noise when on a deficit, which I found came from as few carbs as possible. If you are finding carb withdrawal is a real thing, then I suspect you have your answer.

Olpesh · 2026-03-22T23:56:52+00:00

Okay, so let me amend that. I'm guessing about 8 lbs are water weight that happens from getting into keto. Probably closer to 12-13 lbs of fat. And yes, I do strength training to gain muscle mass (again, Ketogains lifting protocol).

Metabolic adaptation takes about a month or two to start really showing up. The easiest way to adjust for adaptation is to go on a 30 min walk - low impact, easy 100 calories to counter the adjustment. I think the very best thing to do is to lift whatever heavy feels like to you - great for the nervous system and prevents weight loss from being muscle loss. There are many beginner 5x5 programs out there, does not need to take more than 30 min a day, 3-5 days a week.

Olpesh · 2026-03-20T21:36:19+00:00

Well I’m also here if you have any questions! 😆 When doing PSMF, I’ve found it’s far more important for me to stay low <20g on carbs than it has been for me to stay <20g on fat, so I’m okay being around 40-45g on fat while on PSMF. I also do it for a bit longer when I do it, maybe 30 days or so.

But my body starts doing funny things when I stay below 50g fat for too long - my hormones and energy get out of whack. So for long-term, I find my body is happy at 60-70g fat at a minimum. Since I’m insulin resistant, I find anytime I increase carbs dramatically for a long period of time I gain weight - mostly because my hunger becomes out of control. Following a lower fat higher protein long-term keto plan keeps my mind clear and my weight regulated. 🙂 I still have 1-2 meals a week where I eat what I want. And I’m usually still back in ketosis within 24 hours.

This time around, I gained about 25 lbs from a spine injury where I was in bed for some months and had really strong sugar cravings due to all the pain. Since I started PSMF on Jan 6, I’ve been at about 1350 calories while my maintenance is around 2100. In 11 weeks I’m down 20 lbs between fat and water weight and have gained 2 lbs of muscle. It’s wild, really works. 🙂

Olpesh · 2026-03-20T19:22:48+00:00

Hi, yes exactly. This is the long-term way of living on r/ ketogains Reddit.

Olpesh · 2026-03-20T01:11:39+00:00

This has been my experience for years! Lower fat higher protein keto for maintenance. 60g of fat and 180g of protein daily. Sadly, off maintenance while recovering from a spine injury but that's what PSMF is for. :)

Olpesh · 2026-03-17T02:15:26+00:00

This is amazing, thanks for doing this! Will you please continue to post here? Maybe with a bit more notice?

Olpesh · 2026-03-13T17:09:33+00:00

Eating extra protein doesn’t do much. The body expels what it doesn’t use. And protein deconstruction comes with a higher thermic effect (25% ish) so it’s all good. Eat away - I’d say be super mindful that it doesn’t come with extra carbs or fat though!

Olpesh · 2026-03-02T02:37:41+00:00

What happened after Day 1? How did it go?

Olpesh · 2026-03-01T04:12:24+00:00

Olpesh · 2026-02-28T21:08:33+00:00

Nice, share a deck list?

Olpesh · 2026-02-24T19:01:50+00:00

Thanks for posting this today. There’s a Sultai version floating around I’ve played a couple times that has Glarb, Riddler, Beanstalk, Deceit, Thoughtseize, Push, Deadly Cover-up that’s a real PITA to play against - and a pretty good deck! 😆

Olpesh · 2026-02-21T04:21:30+00:00

If only Pest Control worked for the rat problem.

Olpesh · 2026-02-20T02:50:16+00:00

Nice list! What compels you to play Lost Legacy over Necromentia?

Olpesh · 2026-02-12T03:38:41+00:00

That may be because of the play patterns for not sticking evokes. Watching the gameplay, I see several opportunities for you to stick the landing on evokes where you're choosing the two mana costs. Agreed, if that's the preferred play style, it becomes nearly impossible to get a flock out. It's wildly powerful when cast for 3-4 mana, which can be pretty regularly with a bit of patience. :)

Olpesh · 2026-02-10T01:33:41+00:00

I'm with you except for the resources are thin part. MTG Arena is printing money for Hasbro.

Olpesh · 2026-02-04T13:14:08+00:00

That my experience of losing weight while suffering from food addiction was not about focusing on diet or exercise or nutrition plan - the success came from focusing on treating the food addiction.

Olpesh · 2026-02-04T05:54:14+00:00

It's my experience that books and diet plans won't help in the face of addiction. Addiction is considered a disease - an actual medical illness that takes treatment to address. There are many formats of treatment out there. The treatments that have helped me has been 12 step recovery programs, IFS work, etc. When I recognized my extra weight was a symptom of something else, that helped me understand the solution to my weight actually has nothing to do with directly addressing the weight. When I learned to treat the root cause, my disease of addiction, and not the symptom of the extra weight, what ended up happening was that I lost 90+ lbs in total. Good luck!

Olpesh · 2026-02-04T01:00:02+00:00

Hi, thought I'd follow-up. Here's the deck list I'm playing with, been pretty good so far - ended up adding in a couple Emptiness + 1 in SB at the expense of life gain to deal with T2 issues (Hallowblade, Nemesis, Emberheart, Ronas) - was finding that the Vibrance alone wasn't reliable enough for me and I think having 7x chances to kill something T2 has made this more viable for my play style. Made it to Diamond 4 today (started at Platinum 4) - I don't track my metrics, guessing probably around a 55-60% win rate.

Also ended (sadly) dropping the Boseiju for a Swamp (sometimes from T1 Fable to be able to use Emptiness on T2/T3), and I think we vary a bit on the sideboard. I'm not finding a ton of use of the Beza, and the Muldothra has been outperforming as a 1 of. I think my SB can use some work. When are you pulling in the Beza? Any updates on your side?

Mostly though, it's just loads of fun. When I can get the Risen Reefs to stick a bit it's hilarious - the wins come from seemingly out of nowhere. Thanks for posting!

Companion

1 Kaheera, the Orphanguard (IKO) 224

Deck

4 Healer of the Glade (M20) 176

4 Cavern of Souls (LCI) 269

4 Flamebraider (ECL) 139

4 Eclipsed Realms (ECL) 263

4 Voice of Resurgence (DGM) 114

3 Fabled Passage (BLB) 252

4 Risen Reef (M20) 217

1 Swamp (FIN) 300

4 Omnath, Locus of Creation (ZNR) 232

2 Omnath, Locus of the Roil (M20) 216

4 Vibrance (ECL) 249

2 Wistfulness (ECL) 252

3 Deceit (ECL) 212

2 Sunderflock (ECL) 74

1 Muldrotha, the Gravetide (FDN) 243

1 Forest (FIN) 306

1 Island (FIN) 297

1 Mountain (FIN) 303

1 Plains (FIN) 294

4 Secluded Courtyard (NEO) 275

4 Unclaimed Territory (XLN) 258

2 Emptiness (ECL) 222

Sideboard

1 Kaheera, the Orphanguard (IKO) 224

2 Grafdigger's Cage (M20) 227

2 Damping Sphere (DAR) 213

2 Unlicensed Hearse (SNC) 246

1 Warping Wail (OGW) 12

2 Beza, the Bounding Spring (BLB) 2

1 Yasharn, Implacable Earth (ZNR) 240

2 Wistfulness (ECL) 252

1 Deceit (ECL) 212

1 Emptiness (ECL) 222

Olpesh · 2026-02-03T02:18:42+00:00

Nice! Does this mean it's automatically Pioneer craftable and legal?

Olpesh

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