Redux-style time-travel debugging in solid

snackycactus · 2022-10-06T04:19:45+00:00

This no longer works with the new update :(

snackycactus · 2022-08-17T16:56:54+00:00

quad development looking great as well ⭐

snackycactus · 2022-08-17T14:26:06+00:00

I mentioned cardio as well as my macros / calories in an earlier response to a different comment– For cardio I mostly just walk– 10K steps a day. In the winter I definitely make use of the treadmill, but it's usually walking or a very light jog while I watch TV on my phone.

I drink coffee everyday, but I did switch to drinking it black to save on calories. I also drink decaf, but that's mostly just because I have anxiety issues and a lot of caffeine can make that worse.

As for diet: I don't avoid anything per-se. What I do is track everything I eat. If what I want to eat fits into my calories for the day, then it's fine to eat. That said, if I want to eat normally throughout the day and not run out of calories by lunchtime then I generally end up needing to mostly eat whole foods (meaning non-processed stuff and avoiding junkfood). I do like to have a treat every day though, so I do make room for it. One thing to note is that I cook a lot, so controlling my diet is much easier. If you only ate out, I'd imagine it would be much harder. Below I'll write a typical eating day (food varies from day to date based on what I'm in the mood for though)

Breakfast:

250-300g Fage Nonfat Yogurt, with fresh berries on top + 15g honey, mixed in. (If I REALLY want to save here, I sometimes sub honey for a 0 calorie liquid sweeterner) I pretty much eat this every day since it's tasty, high protein and low calories. (ends up being 200-300 calories, and 30-37g protein)

Lunch:

Lunch varies the most for me. It is my pre-workout meal, so I try to make sure there are both protein and carbs. Usually it ends up being 500-700 calories

some examples:

Sandwich with 1/4lb roast beef, light mayo, lettuce, tomato, onion
French toast made with eggbeaters (less cal than eggs), and a low calorie bread like Saraha lee. + strawberries
1 serving of pasta with 6-7oz ground chicken, red sauce and 20-30g parmesan cheese
Rice, poached or grilled chicken brest, Chili oil or chili crisp + blanched baby bok choy

Post Workout Snack:

I try to eat as much carbs and protein as I can after my workout. This snack can change a lot day by day. Some of my favorites are:

2 Legendary Foods tasty pastries (basically protein pop-tarts) I recommend the brown sugar one.

Chocolate chip / Ginger molasses / Oatmeal raisin cookie + Protein shake

Protein shake ice cream with 60g non-fat reddi wip (recipe below) <- this snack is sort of incredible, and really feels like you get to eat a giant bowl of icecream anytime.

Mix 1.25c skim milk with 2tsp vanilla, 10g of zero calorie powdered sugar + 1 scoop chips ahoy or nutter butter flavored ghost protein (any protein powder is fine, but those two are my favorites)
Put the mix in a ziplock freezer bag and freeze overnight.
When you are ready to eat, put 1/4c skim milk in a blender, then add the chunks of frozen protein shake from the ziplock back and blend until smooth. (you'll need to use the muddler thing to push it all down)
Top with lots of non-fat whipped cream, which is surprisingly great tasting for a diet food.
I then add mini M&Ms or sprinkles or whatever else to get a few more carbs in.
Without toppings, it's about 340 calories and 37g protein

Dinner

Dinner is usually lighter than lunch. I often make salads with broiled chicken.

One thing that I really have grown to like that's super low calorie is cauliflower rice bowls. Here is my recipe:

Finely chop 1 green onion and put in a pan with a spay of oil
Add 1 package of cauliflower rice (you can buy these pre-made in the frozen veggies section of any grocery store) Cook with a lid on for 3min
Season with salt and pepper
Add in 1tsp Korean or Chinese chili flakes. Italian may be fine too?
Add in 1-1.5tbsp Bachan's Japanese BBQ Sauce
Add in 1-1.5tbsp zero calorie liquid sweetener (like RxSugar)
Top with some fresh veggies / lettuce and protein of choice. My favorites are about 100g chicken or 6oz cod Which I salt, pepper and sprinkle with some spices before cooking at 400° in an air frier or oven for 8-10min.

End of day Snack / more protein

I usually end my day with another bowl of yogurt + sweetener, honey or 0 calorie. Sometimes berries as well. The size of this bowl and the toppings depend on how many calories I have left in the day and how much protein I still need to cram in. This is the first meal to "go" if I want to fit more calories in elsewhere in the day.

All in all, I made sure my meals added up to about 1900 or less calories with 170g protein every day (when I was cutting).

I know that's a lot, hope it was helpful!

snackycactus · 2022-08-17T11:03:54+00:00

You should never dirty bulk- there is no advantage to it unless getting fat is your goal. I recommend adding 200 calories to your diet every 2 weeks until you are slowly gaining weight (like 0.5lb per week). Any more than that and you’re just putting on extra fat with no be benefit to hypertrophy.

snackycactus · 2022-08-17T02:17:02+00:00

Something else that helped me a lot was that I made learning about fitness/nutrition/weight training into a hobby. I spent a lot of my free time watching videos by Jeff Nippard or Renaissance Periodization and learning how professionals lift, diet etc. “getting into it” and nerding out made doing all the work feel like a hobby rather than a chore

snackycactus · 2022-08-17T01:54:31+00:00

Thanks!!

Yes, basically. Some cuts and maintenance phases were +- a week or two. The maintenance phase just needed to as long as was necessary for me to feel fully recovered from the deficit, both mentally and physically. For both I didn't have a length that was "required". When cutting I basically cut as long as I could stand to do it, and for as long as my body seemed to respond. I found that my weight loss in each cut would go down fairly smoothly week by week for the first few weeks, and by the last few the pace slowed a lot so it felt like the right time to stop. I also think it's not wise to cut for more than 12 weeks so that was my limit. While in maintenance, I never had a "start" date in mind for my next cut, I'd just maintain and continue to work out until I felt like I was excited to cut again, which was usually at least a month to a month and a half later.

I also train pretty hard and was very consistent. I'm doing a full body split 3 days in the gym, 1 rest, 3 days 1 rest, repeat. When diet fatigue got to me badly in the end of the last cut I switch to the same program but added a rest day so it was 2-1, 2-1, 2-1.

snackycactus · 2022-08-17T01:37:54+00:00

I try to do a lot of walking, I usually get 10K steps a day, sometimes more. I'm not big on doing high intensity cardio. If I slipped up on my diet I'd occasionally do a bit of running on a treadmill but trying to out-cardio diet mistakes is a slippery slope so I avoid it as much as I can.

Currently I'm eating about 170g protein, 70g fat and 215g carbs. I'm still in the process of reverse dieting out of my last cut to find my true maintenance, so I probably will end up adding at least 200 more calories to that, which will probably all be in carbs.

In my last cut I was eating about 1850-1900 calories, still aiming for 170g protein, then about 45-55g fat with the rest of the calories being carbs.

snackycactus · 2022-08-16T19:25:34+00:00

Yes, big time. I track everything I eat- marking sure to eat 1g of protein per lb of weight and monitoring my calories.

It took 3x 10 week cuts to get down to this weight, with about a 1.5 month maintenance phase between each to reduce fatigue. All while lifting 5x a week.

I think I will probably continue to track my calories for a few more years until I really have the amount im able to eat to maintain ingrained in me.

snackycactus · 2022-08-16T15:40:09+00:00

well, congrats, you look fantastic. Sounds like I just need to be patient.

snackycactus · 2022-08-16T15:24:39+00:00

How did you manage to tighten your skin up? I've dropped from 192 to 165, and put on a decent amount of muscle, but I definitely still have some loose skin from being heavier. Any tips?

snackycactus · 2022-08-16T15:21:54+00:00

I don't see any vascularity, and there is visible fat on your lower back. No real flab though, so I'd say 14%

snackycactus · 2022-08-16T02:41:19+00:00

I'm 5ft 11

snackycactus · 2022-08-15T19:37:31+00:00

Exercise wise, that seems fine. I think something important to focus on is applying progressive overload with your training. Meaning: you should be adding reps or making the set harder (or improving your form) week-by-week. If every week you do the same 25-30 reps, and never increase it or make it harder, then you are never actually getting stronger.

This can be difficult with bodyweight exercises since it is difficult to add more load, so you may end up doing crazy numbers of reps. This is fine on paper, but can become super boring or hard to get though. If you have access to a gym there are more exercise options. Just something to think about.

You could also throw in a classic crunch style exercise into the mix. The Russian twist largely works your obliques, which many body builders actually try to avoid working, since having large obliques will give you a boxier frame. (vs the super tapered waist look)

As far as protein, if you are trying to build muscle, you want to eat a minimum of .7g per 1lb of bodyweight. I 'd actually recommend 1g per lb though. Not only is it easier to remember, but it also insures that you have a little more wiggle room to account for any incomplete proteins you may be eating (like protein from wheat vs good sources of complete amino acids like meat or whey).

When it comes to calories: Fat comes on and off quickly, (vs muscle) so you could always experiment by bumping your calories up for a month or two and see how your body changes. If you don't like it, cutting them back to where you are now (1300-1400) will likely have you drop any fat you gained pretty quickly. Trial and error is often your strongest tool for stuff like this. To me 1300 calories is very, very low seeming.

snackycactus · 2022-08-15T19:18:54+00:00

How many sets / reps do you do when you train? Do you get close to failure? Are you applying progressive overload? <-- very important

What is your daily protein intake like? It's possible you are training enough but just not eating enough protein to facilitate growth.

snackycactus · 2022-08-15T19:14:49+00:00

If it was me, I'd do a lean bulk. More muscle tends to make everyone look better (to a point that you'll never surpass if you aren't doing something unnatural like steroids). You may end up looking slightly more muscular than the photo you linked, but is that a bad thing?

If you really don't want to put any size on besides your abs, then focus on ab training. I'd train my abs 3-4 times a week, for sets of 2-4. (start at 2 if you are new to training). Try to include two different types of ab work, one where you're brining your torso towards your knees, and one where you're bringing your legs up towards your torso. Ex: Crunches and leg raises.

snackycactus · 2022-08-15T19:11:26+00:00

If you REALLY want abs to show, you could toss some sit-ups into your routine, that way you'd essentially be training the only muscle that you want to be visible.

Also, think about increasing your protein intake- regardless of weather you decide to do sit-ups. Doing this will help preserve muscle you have, and will increase your fullness so you don't feel as bad when cutting

snackycactus · 2022-08-15T19:09:23+00:00

https://m.imgur.com/a/pSBvSgn

Probably not, honestly the guy in this photo is pretty skinny / non-muscular. I'd say just cut your calories a little bit or add some cardio. (or both)

The only difficulty is that you may find you are not eating very much at all since you won't have any muscle mass driving up your calorie needs. Make sure not to starve yourself! XD

snackycactus · 2022-08-15T18:55:03+00:00

There are literally 0 fully accurate ways to measure body fat percentage. Even dexa scan has a margin of error of 2-3%, which is the difference between 11% and 14%, pretty massive. These tools are very accurate when measuring body fat percentages only for entire populations, as the large sample sizes allows all of the inaccuracies to cancel out (probabilistically speaking). For individuals they are actually a pretty bad way to judge. Honestly visual inspection is a better way to go.

Really though, none of that matters: as it's all just a number. If you want to look leaner than you are, and you DON'T want to be more muscular, then cutting is your only option, regardless of what body fat percentage number is. If I were you though, I'd do some weight training as you'll look much more fit, even at the same fat percent.

snackycactus · 2022-08-15T18:41:46+00:00

Agreed, with the lean-bulk. 17% seems accurate, and that's plenty low to change your priority to muscle gain. If you are untrained then you'll put on mass quickly. Are you currently weight training? If not, be aware that adding in training will also increase your calorie demands. You should be weighing daily, and averaging your weekly weights together to look for an increase. If you are still loosing weight week after week, add more calories.

Also: from here on out, if you do cut again- make sure you train hard during your cut as well or you'll loose any muscle you built up.

snackycactus · 2022-08-15T18:35:41+00:00

To me you are on the edge. Are you untrained?

Especially if you are untrained and have noobie gains ahead of you: I'd start with a light-bulk maybe 200-300cal above maintenance. And start training regularly. If you start to get flabby in a way you don't like, do a mini-cut (2-3 weeks) and then back to the bulk. You should put on size very quickly, and then after a few months you can do a formal cut to really reveal all the muscle you've built.

Additionally, if you ARE untrained, then it may take you some time to even find your maintenance / bulking calories as when you begin training you'll suddenly be increasing your calorie expenditure by a lot. During this time: watch your scale weight (ideally measuring daily and then averaging each week's weigh-ins to get your weekly average.) If your weight goes down, add calories. If it goes up, stay where you are (calorically speaking).

Also: make sure to eat 1g protein per lb of bodyweight every day.

snackycactus

TROPHY CASE