I'm 165cm. So, yeah, smaller than a lot of females. I mean, I've been eating 1600 for 20 weeks now and barely losing weight so 1250/day average seems about right for a reasonably fast cut.

edit: Not fair to say "barely losing weight." I've been losing about 0.2 kg/week. I anticipated hopefully maintaining that rate of loss while making progress at 1600 calories for the next 6-8 months. Now I think I'd end up with more gains in the long run if I just cut in 12 weeks and then began to eat the amount of food that a growing body needs to thrive.

I see. Still feels low to me but you know what your body needs better than me obviously. Are you very sedentary outside of lifting? I guess it's not a surprise you had a hard time progressing on so few calories so it makes sense to just cut and get it over with imo.

Yeah, sedentary outside of lifting. I ride my bike about 35km a week but other than that I sit on my ass.

I may adjust the calories up slightly after the first 2-3 weeks if adherence becomes a problem or if I lose weight too quickly. But like I said, I've become quite comfortable with under-eating so this seems like the best possible time psychologically to do this cut.

Monday, July 18, 2016

45 min walk

I planned for an hour but my toes started to blister. New shoes!


Tuesday, July 19, 2016 Training

Front Squat 35kg (5, 5)

These were interesting. I tried the clean rack position first, and I was able to get in it with two fingers under the bar, but my imbalanced shoulders looked grotesquely asymmetrical. I used the arms-crossed position instead. 35kg was fairly challenging so I'll begin here, taking 2.5kg jumps for a while.

Bench Press 50kg (5, 4)

The first set easily had two reps left. Not sure what happened in the second set but it got hard all of a sudden. I rested 5 min between sets.

Superset:
DB External Rotation 10# (12L/12R, 12L/12R)
DB Lateral Raises 10# (12, 12)


***

I started the cut yesterday, eating about 1100 calories and 75c/29f/126p. When I got to the gym I had very little energy so I decided to take it easy. I didn't work up too high on front squats and I avoided failure on bench press. I could certainly have got a fifth rep in the second set but probably not a sixth. For the next few weeks, I'm going to avoid training to failure and see if I can still make progress. I feel like the grindy bench and ohp reps may be doing me more harm than good.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

45 min walk

Thursday, July 21, 2016 Training


Press 30kg (5, 9)

I resetted this because it was so hard last time and I'm still trying to take things easy while my body gets used to 1250 calories a day. Got one more rep than 30kg three weeks ago so I call it a small win. The amrap displays why I'm leery about near-failure reps on the press. It seems like it's always the left shoulder that fails first, so I get this awkward lockout.

Front Squat 37.5kg (5, 5)

First set felt great. Nice and deep. Second set felt clumsy and awkward.

Lat Pulldowns 130# (9, 9) +1 rep

Facepulls 85# (13, 14) -2 reps

Probably because my back was fatigued from the pulldowns.

Friday, July 22, 2016

60 min walk


Saturday, July 23, 2016

45 min walk


Sunday, July 24, 2016 Training

Front Squat 40kg (5, 5)

Getting the hang of these. I wish my flexibility permitted going deeper, but they're below parallel.

Bench Press 50kg (5, 7)

I'm relieved to have found 7 pretty easy reps. Still not as strong as 52.5x7, but def stronger than the 50x7 I got last month.

DB Bent-over Rows 40# (12L/12R, 12L/12R)

Started doing these like this, which made them significantly harder, so I dropped the weight.

Superset:
DB External Rotations 10# (12L/12R, 10L/10R)
DB Lateral Raises 10# (12, 12)


***


Week 15 Diet, Week 1 Cut



The first week went pretty smoothly. The 1150 days were a little tougher than I thought, especially to get adequate protein. I'm considering increasing the calories slightly and adding a bit more cardio, but I'll stick with this for at least another week.

Monday, July 25, 2016

60 min walk


Tuesday, July 26, 2016 Training

Press 31.25kg (5, 7)

Got 9 reps on this weight a couple weeks ago, oh well

Front Squat 42.5kg (5, 5)

Deadlift:

60x4
80x3
95x2
100x5

It's been a few workouts since I deadlifted fully recovered, so I wasn't sure what to go for. I was working in with another guy who was using the same weights. I mistook the 95 (which he loaded) for 90. It felt easy enough so I went for 100.

Facepulls 85# (15, 15)


***

An hour after the workout, I managed 95% of a chin-up. Just need to lose another kilo! I'm down to 70.25kg/154.5lb as of this morning.

Even if you lost 2lbs that doesn't guarantee you will make a single pullup, no offense.

The video is tough to tell, but it looks like you're starting the pull with your arms. Ha!

What I mean is, a proper pullup should actually start with a retraction of the scapula - doing this helps greatly encourage the back muscles to participate in the lift. Youtube 'scap ups' or 'scapular pullups' to help understand the activation better.

Honestly, I haven't put a whole lot of (read: any) thought into chinup form. I'll look into that, thanks.

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

60 min walk


Thursday, July 28, 2016 Training

Bench Press 51.25kg (5, 7)

Maybe a slight performance gain over the last time I did 51.25. I've noticed that on all of the tough reps I press the bar vertically off my chest instead of back toward my face. Today in the AMRAP I tried to really focus on flaring at the bottom and it turned out a bit better.

Front Squat 45kg (5, 5)

Lat Pulldown 130# (9, 9)

Superset:
Dumbbell External Rotation 10# (16, 15)
Dumbbell Lateral Raises 10# (15, 15)

First chin-up in over four years.

Boom! Congrats.

Nice

Friday, July 29, 2016

60 min walk


Saturday, July 30, 2016

60 min walk


Sunday, July 31, 2016 Training

Press 32.5kg (5, 5)



Front Squat 47.5kg (5, 5)

Form wasn't great. I'm gonna start doing the light day on Tuesday, 50kg on Thursday, and 1.25kg jumps from 50.

DB Bent-over Rows 45# (12/12, 10/10)

Facepulls 85# (12, 12)

***

I didn't sleep well last night, and I was in a sullen mood from a bad day of poker yesterday. I also haven't taken a solid dump in over a week. A dip in performance wasn't surprising. I'm just happy to continue showing up to the gym at this point.


Week 16 Diet, Week 2 Cut



Weight loss is happening to be sure, but it's becoming quite a struggle to get adequate protein. When I was eating 1600 a day, there was room to depend on whey to hit protein marks, but now I'm reluctant to consume liquid calories with so few to distribute. I've been forsaking protein to some degree just to make it easier to stick to the calorie deficit.

Monday, August 1, 2016

60 min walk


Tuesday, August 2, 2016 Training

Front Squat (light) 40kg (5, 5)

Bench Press 52.5kg (4, 5)

The first set was just bad technique. While I'm bummed to only get 5 in the amrap, I'm quite happy with the form. I didn't lose the groove on the last rep like I normally do.

Deadlift 102.5kg (3), 90kg (5)

Warmups felt great. The work-set was harder than I expected, and bad form besides. I did a back-off set just to rack up some reps.

Superset:
DB External Rotations 15# (7, 5)
DB Lateral Raises 15# (10, 10)


Chin-ups (1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1)

Did these an hour after gym, with 2 minutes rest between singles.

***

I felt better than usual this morning, so I expected the workout to go a little better than it did. One thing I'm noticing with this cut is that I have a lot less endurance to complete a set. The first 2-3 reps will move quite fast, then all of a sudden the 4th rep is a grind. It makes me wonder if I should be doing more sets of fewer reps instead of fewer sets of 5+ reps.

Did you go for a fourth rep?

On the deadlift, no. Form was sufficiently bad on the third to make me abort the set.

How so?

I really doubt your set up on the deadlift is doing you any benefit.. It looks weird. Do you really get a good feel of a proper starting position rocking your way to and fro like that?

some people rock like that to get tension into their hamstrings

More advanced lifters do. I know Rubish does it or at least used to. Lillibridges do too IIRC (which is why Rubish did, he lifted under them for awhile years ago)

But they do it in a more meaningful manner, rocking like that almost looks more like an attempt to put 'english' then actually getting the hamstrings engaged.

More like the form felt bad. And it was plain that I didn't fully lock out. I've been trying to avoid ugly grinding reps, especially deadlift reps, when eating only 1300 calories a day. I could probably have pulled a fourth, but it would have been ugly IMO.



It's not generally a to and fro thing. Just a rocking back, but if I don't feel sufficiently tight I'll start over and rock back again before pulling. Ideally, I'd pull on the first try but I find that my technique isn't as good when I'm only deadlifting once per week. I think it just comes with being an unathletic person who doesn't have good kinesthetic awareness.

Anyway, I find that rocking back helps me get my hips a little lower without losing tightness. It's just something that works a little better for me than the rippetoe setup.

That may be, though it's not the intent obviously.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

60 min walk


Thursday, August 4, 2016 Training

Press 33.75kg (5, 5)

I'm pretty happy with this. It's the same reps I got at 33.75 a couple of weeks ago, but I half-expected to need to reset the press today (based on the general trend of things lately). I need to work more on getting under the bar as soon as it clears my head. The difference between the first and second reps of the last set is huge.

Front Squat 50kg (5, 5)

These are tough enough now that I'll start taking 1.25kg jumps.

Lat Pulldowns 130# (10, 8)

Facepulls 85# (15, 14)

***

Pretty good workout today. It's been a while since I've had one of those

Friday, August 5, 2016

60 min walk


Saturday, August 6, 2016

60 min walk


Sunday, August 7, 2016 Training

Bench Press 53.75kg (3), 48.75 (5, 9 [PR])

As embarrassing as the first set was, it helped me realize what my issue is on the bench press. I tuck too much on the descent and the excessive lever arm costs me reps. It's not as big of a deal when the weight is low, but it exponentiates as the weight increases. I also lost my upper back during the first set so it was a botch from the start. Resetting right away might have been premature, but I wanted to work on form, and hitting a rep PR for the first time in weeks was a pleasant surprise.

Front Squat 51.25kg (5, 5)

DB Bent-over Rows 50# (10/10, 13/13)

Making nice progress on rows, but it's hard to accurately measure since the tougher reps are never as strict.

Superset:
DB External Rotations 10# (18/18, 14/14)
DB Lateral Raises 15# (12, 12)


***


Week 17 Diet, Week 3 Cut



Energy levels are low but I'm having no issues with hunger. As ever, protein could improve, but I need carbs and fats too. I'm not going to sweat macros too much at this point.

Monday, August 8, 2016

45 min walk


Tuesday, August 9, 2016 Training

Front Squat (light) 42.5kg (5, 5)

Press 35kg (5 [PR], 3)

Deadlift 102.5kg (1), 92.5kg (4)

Chin-ups (2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1)


***

Very weak day, especially for deadlifts. Not gonna sweat it too much. I'm making some nice progress on chin-ups, at least.