so you lost 14LBs in just over a month.

You notice the difference physically?

Just thinking if you are more happy about your size maybe you should go for maintenance for a while and try to make more gains?

Saying this because im thinking about doing the same thing right now. I want to loose about the same amt in about the same time ish.

BUMP

I did a deload week that I didn't really feel like posting about and missed a workout or two. I started again strong today and I'll go into details about it when I have time. Thanks for the interest!

OK, I've decided to switch to GSLP. I don't think I am eating enough for SS to be the best choice. When I was doing SS the stalling was really burning me out and making me want to quit, I think the constant resetting of GSLP will be a lot less depressing and allow for more gradual progress.

Re: diet, I've decided to continue cutting, but at a much slower rate. This calculator says my maintenance is 2150. I'll shoot for 2200 on workout days and 1500 on rest days, for an average of 1800 calories. This is a 350 calorie deficit that I'll supplement with activity, and hopefully come out to around a pound of fat loss per week. I'll start logging my calories again tomorrow.

I just read the ebook and I have built the following routine based on it's recommendations for fat loss.

Monday:
AM Fasted Walking*
Press 2x5 5+
V-handle Pulldowns 2x6-8
Squat 2x5 5+
PM Burpees**

Tuesday:
AM Fasted Walking *
GTG Chins***
PM Burpees**

Wednesday:
AM Fasted Walking*
Bench Press 2x5 5+
BB Curls 2x10-12
Squat 2x5 5+
PM Burpees**

Thursday:
AM Fasted Walking *
GTG Chins***
PM Burpees**

Friday:
AM Fasted Walking*
Press 2x5 5+
V-handle Pulldowns 2x6-8
Squat 2x5 5+
PM Burpees**

Saturday:
AM Fasted Walking *
GTG Chins***
PM Burpees**

Sunday:
Rest

The curls will be on bench days, and the pulldowns will be on press days.

* Fasted walking: I'm gonna start with 20 minutes and bump it up a minute per day until I am up to 60 minutes.

** Burpees: I have a serious lack of conditioning that depresses me every time I reach the limits of it (which is very often since it sucks so much). I'm going to start of super conservative on these, just a few sets of a few reps. These sessions will never exceed ten minutes.

*** Chins: 8 singles on off days besides Sunday.


As always I'm welcome to comments. If any mods see this its probably a decent idea to remove "SS" from the title of the log.

8/18/2012

Mobility: 10 min MM

Bench Press: 95# 5, 5, 10
Squat: 145# 5, 5, 11

First serious workout in a while. I just did the core GSLP stuff because I hadn't put my program together yet. I think I haven't been sitting back far enough in the squat, but I'm not sure how to fix this.

Frequency chins have done a lot for my physique/OHP/overall strength. Can't recommend them enough.

gslp>>SS imo. GL.

8/20/2012

Morning: brisk walk for 20 minutes

Mobility: 5 min MM
Press: 65# 5, 5, 9
V-Handle Pulldowns: 115# 10, 10
Squat: 150# 5, 5, 11

Evening: Burpee (with pushup and jump), 10, 10, 6

Decent day. Press is abysmally low but I guess I should have expected that. I had some familiar shoulder pain at the front side of the top of my left arm during the 5th rep of the first set and it persisted randomly during the rest of the reps. I was damn happy to get 11 again on the squat. I lost count during the set and thought I only got 9 until I counted the video.

Burpees were absolutely brutal and I stopped the third set because of shoulder pain (the same as during the press). I'll try to shoot for 3 sets of 10 every night for the next week or so while I ease into these. I'm doing them as fast as I can (which isn't very fast), but I think its a good idea because the point is to get my conditioning up, not necessarily my strength.

Diet:

<walk>

Bagel, 3.6 oz of, 294 cal 11p/58c
Cream Cheese, 1 tbsp of, 51 cal 1p/0c

<training>

Indian food, est 1150 cal 62p/126c
(ate half of this and half 6 hours later)

Milk, whole one cup of, 150 cal 8p/12c
Whey, 3 scoops of, 360 cal 72p/9c
Peanut Butter, 2 tbsp of, 190 cal 8p/7c

TOTAL: 2195 cal, 162 grams protein, ~212 grams carbs
WEIGHT: 144 pounds (beginning weight)


LOL, I'm clearly not accustomed to eating 2200 a day. It may be a good idea to split the protein shake up in the future instead of drinking a massive one before bedtime to iron out my macros.

8/21/2012

Morning: brisk walk for 24 minutes

During day: 10 chin-up singles

Evening: 1x going up 10 flights of stairs in 90 seconds

My shoulders feel really bad today so I decided not to do burpees. My plan was to do a few intervals of stair climbing, but after the first one I was pretty gassed, lol. I'll ease into these. Felt good, though.

Diet:

Rice, 60g of, 150 cal 3p/33c
Spring Roll, 180g of, 400 cal 6p/40c (lol)
Fried Pork with Pumpkin, ballpark 570 cal 40p/12c

Whey, 3 scoops of, 360 cal 72p/9c
Omega 3, 4 caps, 40 cal 0p/0c

TOTAL: 1520 cal, 121 grams protein, 94 grams carbs
WEIGHT: 145 pounds (+1)

Pretty terrible diet day, lol. Spring rolls were a mistake.

Just read log, good read.

Care to reclarify your goals at this point? Is it more for physique or for strength?

Either way though, the volume seems too light even with a small deficit. Maybe I missed it, but what was the reasoning for removing deadlifts from your routine? They're really fantastic for strength and aesthetics imo.

GSLP programming has deadlift one day a week, which will be tomorrow. Yeah my gym sessions are short but I'm doing the chinups on off days and a little interval training nightly. It seems like enough to me.

My objectives right now are strength gain and slow fat loss.

It's difficult to continually fail and reset, so I understand your frustration. GSLP is a modified version of SS and it may be slightly easier on recovery, but it's not so drastic that you'll bust through your plateaus. Keep in mind that these are programs meant for rapid linear gains, and your cutting diet is a direct antagonist to this progress. Stalling is expected once you cross the threshold of beginner gains. I believe that once you get to a certain level of strength, you cannot add on much more until your diet supports the building of new muscle. That means that until you're finished cutting down to your desired body composition, your lifting serves the purpose of retaining muscle mass and strength levels rather than building them.

Edit: if your goals really are strength gain and slow fat loss, you may want to switch to a maintenance/recomp-type diet.

Well i'm starting out with a much smaller deficit than I was stalling with. I'll adjust upward from here if I continue to stall. If that means eating maintenance or a small surplus, then so be it. I will know very quickly if my diet is working or it isn't (e.g. if my gslp cycles are like 2 weeks and I don't gain reps anywhere).

Sounds like an excellent plan (and a good time to switch to GSLP). Good luck.

lol?

This is good particularly since it is relevant to me as well.

i do deadlifts.

i look pretty good.

duh.