oops, not sure why I programmed OHP and Military Press. Here is the revised template:

once I can lat pulldown 200lbs, I'll switch to pullups.

9/14
OHP: 45lbx5x3
Chin-up Lat Pulldown 40lbx10, 50x5x2
Deadlift: 65lbx5x3
DB Curls 15lbx10x2

9/16
Power Cleans: 45lbx3x5
Bench Press: 55lbx5x3
Lat Pulldown: 50x5x3
Side Lat Raises: 15x10x2

just getting my forms down and thinking about staying tight, the weight is light.

Went to the gym about 80% consistently for the past few months, until a string of illnesses threw me off the exercise wagon for about two months. Now I've basically deloaded 80% off my previous lifts and going to restart linear progressions. Adding about 5-10lbs per workout.

4/22
Squat: 135lb x5x3
Bench Press: 135x5x3
Deadlift: 195x5x1

Meant to do Chin-Up Lat Pulldowns, but the cables were busy and I didn't feel like waiting. The deadlift hit me pretty hard and I was panting.

Weight: 233.6lbs as of 4/22, 31.9% bodyfat.

I'm starting RFL tomorrow (Tuesday 4/25) for about a month. I'm hoping to lose about 15lbs of fat. Only using Caffeine to blunt appetite. I'll log my progress here.

There is no more Tai Chi here, sadly.

LFG boy, back in shape. Drop the Rippetoeism and get in some damn volume. 4 sets of 8 on everything but DLs which get 2 sets. 12 minutes of HIIT post training. Timed rests, don't try to move up the weight every workout. Lots of curls and triceps

Thanks. How do I move up the weight? Or do I up the reps till 10 then move up?

I'm going to maintain my current approach for the next month of Rapid Fat Loss, then will reconsider and up my volume on more food.

Also was gonna steal your arm workout

4/24:
Squat: 145lbx5x3
Bent Over Row: 135lbx5x3
OHP: 95lbx5x3
DB Curls: 17.5x12x2

Mentality was very poor today. Really didn't want to go to the gym and didn't feel like doing any of the workouts, but still did it.

Here is the workout template on the diet:

This is the go-to daily meal template (goal is to hit 160g protein daily):
Doing this for a month.

I actually don't think it's the "best" arm workout, but I have a problem with my proximal bicep tendon so I literally can't do movements like normal dumbbell curls, cable curls, or preacher curls. Although while you're still regaining fitness it barely matters, but if I could design a more "optimal" arm workout it'd be starting with cable preacher curls, then standing hammer curls, then normal dumbbell curls (seated).

That diet is concentration camp, bro. But you're fat enough to where you'll be fine and probably actually feel really good the first 10 days before you start to feel bad.

Triceps I think it doesn't matter as much; they are less sensitive to angles and stuff. Don't need to FPS on those.

4/28

Weighed in at 236.2 (last week was 333, I guess the scale pegs were stuck). Doing RFL for 3 days now and had my first cheat meal yesterday (4 slices of pizza). No hunger pangs yet, even though there is some food obsession and thought of food.

I'll take some "before" pics too sometime.

Going to the gym in a few hours.

PS, I should mention that I just got on statins for high cholesterol, but I don't think it should affect my diet. And I really should have been on statins since my mid-20s, I've always had high cholesterol.

4/28
Had low energy, but powered through it.

Bench Press: 145lbx5, 135lbx5x2
Chin-Up Lat Pulldown: 120lbx5x3
Side Lat Raises: 17.5lbx12x2
Power Cleans: 115lbx3x3
Deadlift: 205lbx5x1

Tomorrow is my next cheat meal, sushi. Lyle McDonald said not to push it, so I'll probably max out at 4 rolls and 2 scoops of ice cream.

5/01
Had moderately low energy, about what I should expect on the diet. RFL is definitely much easier as a fat man @32%BF compared to when I was 15% BF. About a week in and still no hunger pangs at all.

Squat: 150lbx5x3
Bent Over Row: 145lbx5x3
Overhead Press: 100lbx5x3
DB Curls: 20lbx12x2

Canned salmon tastes disgusting and I’m growing tired of chicken breast. Need to find something to mix it up, maybe pork. Going to buy Casein powder to reduce the amount of chicken I need to eat every day.

5/02 usual 40 minute walk (which I normally don’t log), but I felt light headed towards the end. Some chicken solved that problem.

I also cheated with some gummy bears, probably 150cals

Don't drink whey on a diet lol. Huge donk move for satiety. Suck it up and eat chicken breast or get 95/5 (or 93/7) ground beef, tilapia, or basa. Ground beef/patties+taco seasoning is easy and doesn't require much thought. Ground beef also keeps very well in the fridge.

Also how do you prep your chicken? That can make a huge difference. Pan frying and then putting in the fridge is ultra donk move and will ensure you fail.

I'll pan-fry 3 breasts and eat them over 2-3 days. I don't know of any other way to prep chicken. I should mix it up with 95/5 beef.

How about Casein, is that enough satiety? I plan to drink it before bed so overnight hunger doesn't strike. Although I honestly can't say hunger has been a big problem. More like craving tasty food.

My impulse is to thremp out and tell you to suck it up and quit bein ghey, but more productively: Greg Doucette cooking videos for this. I guess when I say "no whey", I mean "no whey shakes"; as an ingredient in food its fine. But generally you really don't want liquid cals when dieting.

I've been contest shredded 4 times now. What I've discovered is that the most important thing by far is having meals you actually enjoy that taste good enough to eat even if you weren't on a diet. As soon as dieting becomes an exercise in struggle and awful tasting food, you're propensity to cheat massively increases. As a result, one of the keys to weight loss is just developing your cooking skills or being willing to shell out a whole lot of money to get somebody else to prep healthy but tasty weight loss friendly meals for you. It is very possible to make bodybuilidng "bro" foods very tasty to where you could eat them 365 day a year. You're just doing some initial weight loss starting from a super high bodyfat so the stakes are low; take some time to experiment. Devote some hours in the weekend and some USD to experimenting with new recipes and ways of preparing foods that are optimal for weight loss. It means blowing money on ingredients/spices/seasonings/sweeteners etc, but the knowledge is worth it and the habits this allows you to develop is going to keep the weight off. But here's a suggestion to start:


Chicken breast baked is the way to go. It doesn't dry out in the fridge at all when baked because it cooks much more evenly. Do a "wet rub" with just a small amount of olive oil and the seasoning of your choice. I use Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic (or rather, a copycat recipe of it b/c they don't have it here obviously). For 1.6kg of chicken breast, I use about 2 tbsp of olive oil, 3 spoonfuls of the seasoning, 1 spoonful of just salt, 2 tbsp of soy sauce, rub it all in, and then let it rest for 1-3 hours (not too long or too short). After that I bake at 230c for 17 minutes and let it rest for about an hour afterword. Turns out amazingly every time. Most importantly, it stores incredibly well compared to other cooking methods.

If you're going to eat it "fresh" though, chicken tenderloins are much better than breast. They don't seem to bake as well, however. They're more tender and also lower dietary fat.

As a fat dude who isn't as fat as I used to be:

Make the veggies a minimum amount rather than as much as you want. Like, eat a couple servings of whatever vegetable each meal minimum. Season it with seasonings. If you aren't hungry for broccoli, you aren't hungry.* If you really don't have a clue how to cook, buy frozen steam in bag vegetables and just do what the directions on the package say to do.

Don't drink any calories. I think that was probably beaten to death over the last couple of posts, but liquids aren't filling.

Use salsas or something to liven up the chicken or beef or whatever if you have to. Nothing sugary or fatty. If you like mustard, use mustard. If you like garlic, use garlic. Try not to accidentally dump a pound of cheese or mayonnaise or on your chicken.

Have a cheat meal no more than once every six months or so. Cheat meals make it harder. You wouldn't try to cut down on nicotine by chain smoking for a couple hours once a week. That would work against your goal and make it harder after your cheat was over. If you need a reward, make it something that is not food.

Find **** to do that is not compatible with eating. You have known you your entire life, so you should have some ideas of what activities outside of eating that you enjoy doing.

And, for your amusement:

https://youtu.be/1NjTWvl8x-U

*Not sure who first said that, but it is a good way to think.

Thanks all, taking notes and refining the diet.

5/05

Bench Press: 150lbx5x3
Chin-up Lat Pulldown: 130lbx5x3
Side Lat Raise: 22.5lbx10x2
Power Cleans: 125lbx3x3
Deadlift: 215lbx5x1

Had good energy and all the lifts were pretty easy.

My goal is to eat the chicken pretty regularly after the diet to keep the protein, just add more tasty meats and fish to mix it up. I don’t think I was eating enough protein before with just takeout to get gainz.

And thanks for the Poultry Magic and baking advice. The chicken came out without the overcooked outside and the seasoning is delicious. If it weren’t so salty I could eat it with a spoon.

5/06
Weighed in at 235.6lbs after almost 2 weeks. I expected more progress, but I know weight loss isn’t linear.

5/08 - Week 3 of RFL
Weighed in at 235.4lbs, 32.3% bodyfat

Overhead Press: 105lbx5x3
Squat: 155lbx5x3
Bent Over Row: 155lbx5x3
DB Curls: 30lbx10x2

The lifts were fairly easy, except the OHP was grindy on the last couple of reps.

Threw up a little this morning taking 2 bites of cottage cheese. I think I need to switch to greek yogurt for a while.

Also the chicken is getting tiresome. I can objectively tell that it's pretty moist baked and the magic poultry seasoning is delicious, but it's still chicken underneath. I need to explore pork and beef loins to mix it up.

2.5 weeks down, and I'm going to run this for 5-6 weeks total.

5/12
Weighed in at 229.4lbs, 31.0% bodyfat. Finally some progress. Let's just assume I started this around 240lbs.

Bench Press: 155lbx5x3
Chin-Up Lat Pulldown: 140lbx5x3
Side Lat Raises: 22.5lbx10x2
Power Clean: 135lbx3x3
Deadlift: 225lbx5x1

Everything was pretty easy.

5/13 Saturday
Decided that I can handle a bit more exercise and I got a 35lb kettlebell laying around the house, so I added a day of conditioning on my cheat day. Hopefully I can do this on all non-gym days once I’m at maintenance. Borrowed from S&S.

KB Swings: 35lbx50x2
KB Turkish Getups: 35lbx1x2 each side

I’m definitely not ready for Turkish getups, so I bought a 25lb dumbbell to do getups and curls with.

Sunday was probably the most energetic I've felt in years. Woke up early and had lots of energy all day.

5/15 Monday - Week 4 of RFL
Weighed in at 227.6lbs, 30.6% bodyfat

Woke up sore and with a pinched nerve on my right trap near the neck. Didn't think today would go well, but after warming up the pinched nerve wasn't a problem at all.

Overhead Press: 110lbx5x3
- the last rep of the last set was a real grind, hitting the limit again (last time I failed 120lb and deloaded)
Squat: 165lbx5x3
Bent Over Row: 165lbx5x3
DB Curls: 30lbx8x2

Everything except the OHP felt very easy. When I failed the OHP back in March, I deloaded all my lifts which was probably wrong, so now the lower body is way ahead of the weight on the bar.