+1 Nice job!

Thanks guys. It was an inspiring session after a few rough ones. Hoping these happen more and more often as I get lighter. I am so beat up today, idk how I'm gonna climb hard tomorrow lol

8/12

Climb 1:45 Framingham

Warmed up resending some old 2’s and 3’s and tried several new routes. Sent a new crimp route that was at least V5, the crux move was the hardest move I’ve ever done and I couldn’t believe I stuck it. Route took 5 attempts, 3 of which we’re working the individual move. Also made some progress on another new route that was at least V5 with side pull crimps that have a mono for a pinch and was surprised to hit another really hard move and then fall about 60% of the way into the route. Tried the V6 cave climb after this and hit the move I’ve been falling on only to find the next move seems even harder, may have to change foot position before going for it.

Will now rest till Weds and hope shoulder continues to improve, and weight continues to drop. May hit up momentum Monday or Tuesday

BW: 196.7 (-4.8)

8/14

Went to Osteopath doctor and he diagnosed my right shoulder as a minor rotator cuff strain. I was recommended to take off at least 4 more days, possibly as much as 2 weeks. I guess this will be the longest break I've taken the entire year, had to happen eventually. Pretty sure I strained it 2-2.5 weeks ago and have just been climbing through it + made it worse 2 Saturdays ago.

No excuse anymore, back to Momentum! I'm gonna be light as hell next time I climb

Having some problems with sleep since totally quitting the medical marijuana. Ended up smoking last night to try to get a single good nights sleep and ofc slept like a baby. Seeing the doctor tomorrow, hopefully will find a reasonable alternative because I am done being dependent on smoking.

**** you’re wasting away, tinybro.

Could sleep issues be lack of calories related?

Yeah bro, <90kg, hopefully I don't start getting picked on by the other kids

Could be but the past week has been very average. I had 3 days at 1600, 2 days at 2100, and 2 days at 2500-3000 (one of which was a slip, the other planned). Weight loss for the entire week was around 3 pounds and I rarely was hungry even on low calorie days. So I think it's more likely that not smoking the herb I've used for like 9 years to assist sleep is the causal factor

seeing the doctor today, perhaps a mild sleep med is called for. Or maybe I just need to tough it out. I've done a great job lately quitting the smoking, massively reducing alcohol intake, calorie restricting, and optimizing diet with regards to protein intake and healthy food/fruit and vegetable intake. So I think once this sleep thing gets resolved everything will start coming together

Itching to climb though, lol. Shoulder feels slightly better every day. PT today and Friday should help a lot. My fingers need a little rest anyway so this is probably all a good thing

IIRC, Lyle McDonald has written that trouble sleeping at night may be a sign that a caloric deficit is too large. I am having trouble locating the article or where exactly I have read this. Someone else can likely provide a proper reference or resource.
This, of course, may or may not be the case in your situation since there are more variables in play. It is probably worth keeping in mind though.

Is your shoulder bad enough where you can't climb at all? If I get a little banged in my shoulders, elbows or fingers feel a little tweaky I tend to try and climb through it. For example, if my shoulder is bothering me I might climb 3x that week with lower intensity and volume. Low level aerobic work like blocks of continuous climbing, easy on the minute boulders , laps on easy auto-belay routes if they are available etc are all good choices. Just stay away from moves that put your shoulder in compromising positions. No gastons, no thrutching to holds, nothing where you have to try hard at all etc. Steep walls tend to be harder on my shoulders as well it seems.

Yeah. It's causing trouble on numerous moves, but it's a minor tweak. Considering its the rotator cuff though, I'm gonna be careful. My fingers are sore from that hard crimp climb last weekend too, and one finger has been <100% for 2-3 months now. I've been climbing through everything multiple times a week for this entire year. At this point my body probably desperately needs a 1-2 week break so I'm gonna take it.

My deficit isn't really that big, I've averaged over 2k calories the past week. I'm probably gonna increase the deficit this week and also increase protein intake. Low days will be 1500-1800 and moderate days 1800-2300, and the carb refeed day 2500 or higher. As long as I'm not getting very hungry it doesn't matter to me. It's not like I'm ever going to bed hungry

Finally got a good nights sleep last night. New sleep med seems to work. Glad I don't need to smoke

Diet:

8/6 2200
8/7 2100
8/8 1800
8/9 1600
8/10 1600
8/11 2500
8/12 1800
8/13 2500
8/14 3200
8/15 4000
8/16 1800

Fell into some bad habits briefly a couple days ago but righted the ship yesterday. Was under a lot of stress plus sleep deprived and ended up going out to eat and having wine 2 nights in a row, hence the high calorie days. The first day of 2500 was planned. However I smoked to try to induce a good nights sleep the next 2 nights and ended up still not sleeping and eating various added calories throughout the night despite not being hungry. Back to no smoking, so glad I have a sleep med now. Yesterday was pretty much perfect, today will be similar except more fruits and veggies and some possible PT in the evening. I wouldn't mind cutting back on my wine intake but I guess my deficit is so big at 1800 kcal that it doesn't really matter. Perhaps as I get lighter and more motivated (and possibly craving more satiating foods) I'll go back to having it just once a week

Would love to get in a climb this Sat or Sunday but I think I'm gonna have to pass, shoulder hasn't felt much improved the last couple days and even my left shoulder has given me occasional pain. Operation bulletproof shoulders begins today. When I get back in the climbing gym I want to be <197 again, preferably <195, and I want my shoulders to be non symptomatic , though if that takes too long I will start some easy climbing and avoid all shouldery moves/routes

Fingers and even hips are still a little tight and sore too. This break came at the right time.

To give an idea of what the 4000+ calorie day was like, I ate very lightly throughout the day (600-800 kcal or so) and then in the evening ate:

11pc sushi (fish ones small, some cooked and larger/higher kcal)
4pc sashimi
4pc smoked hamachi sashimi with a light sweet sauce
2 king crab dumplings (light)
4oz duck with roasted fruits and sweet sauce in an apple
3 glasses red wine (500)

after smoking:

6oz ribeye steak 500
1 muffin 600

Perhaps 4000 is a high estimate, but some of the pieces of sushi were 2 bites and included stuff like a foei gras piece and a large lobster tempura piece. Now that I think about it the previous day could have been as high as 3500 too, due to french food (3 appetizers and a tart for dessert with wine the whole way through, no entree) + some late night eating

Here's a recent 1600 calorie day for comparison:

1 coffee w milk and half and half 50
fruit/veggie shake (broccoli sprouts kale berries banana kiwi) 200
fish oil 70
2 scoops whey/casein 240
salmon cooked with olive oil, rice 800
asparagus with olive oil 50
red wine 200 (1/3 bottle)

my protein is a little low here it seems. Might need to supplement more and increase eating frequency. When I start getting lighter and hungrier I'll definitely add more solid protein/food

I'm not that crazy about a 1600 meal plan that includes 450 liquid calories (690 if counting the whey). The only way you can sustain that intake is to split the calories up into 3 small moderately-high protein as meals, with as much solid mass as possible for satiety. And top off the protein with whey as necessary (without extremely clean eating, it will be).

I’m not even getting hungry on 1600-1800 and have at least 2 days a week of 2500. It’s also really easy for me to fast during the day for whatever reason. When I start getting hungry I’ll def modify it though. Right now my body fat is so high I just don’t need many calories to sustain myself, especially since I’m on a short break from climbing. I could probably just do a 1200 calorie PSMF for 2-4 weeks and not even struggle with the intake right now, but then I wouldn’t be enjoying food, so that’s just not an option.

There’s also no way I’d do better on 3 small meals. I eat 800+ calories at dinner period. That’s not changing ever. It’s the best way for me to make sure I don’t go to sleep hungry and actually enjoy my diet

I could see increasing protein and having 2 doses other than dinner for sure though. My protein varies from 120-180 or so right now. I know 120 is a little low but since I’ve lost so little weight so far and am >20% BF I doubt it matters. I also want to lose some LBM in my legs if possible

I could also see adding in some chicken or similar solid food instead of scoops of protein, but if I did that right now and ate chicken for lunch or breakfast I wouldn’t even get hungry for dinner even if it was only like 400 calories

I’m also on psychiatric meds that can cause weight gain and quickly gain weight on 2500-3000 calories. So keep that in mind when considering my calorie intake. Basically I’m just not hungry right now so I’m gonna milk that for all it’s worth

Counting fish oil and creamer as calories I get but damn that sucks when it’s ~7% of your intake.

Only critique would be if you need to up volume then find a leaner protein source than Salmon. But yea your 1,800 day looks awful to do which is fine because it’s super low calories. It’s supposed to look like it sucks to go through.

Yeah I mean it’s not hard for me at all. I eat a large delicious dinner every night and eat super light during the day when I’m barely hungry. Sometimes I have a little more meat/protein near bed time and that’s about it

Your point is IMO the best criticism. It’s hard to justify having 1/3 bottle of wine a day, or cream in my coffee, or an 85% cheeseburger cooked in oil, when it’s a relevant % of overall calories on the low kcal days. I really enjoy the wine though, it goes with my cooking, and I eat food I enjoy for dinner every night and never go to bed hungry, so this feels pretty sustainable. As long as I’m getting the nutrients I need and enjoying the diet it seems like it doesn’t matter

I think I definitely need to increase protein though. 120 just isn’t enough when kcal are this low.. I have no problem with the liquid calories, it’s a really effective approach for me and I’ve done well on diets with a lot of liquid in the past.

I could probably afford to increase veggies too. I get a few servings of greens from the broccoli sprouts and kale in my shake plus have green veggies with dinner every night but there’s clearly room for improvement

Workout days are never 1600 btw. I always have a protein shake with fruit and nut butter pre workout which is 500+ calories

Yea if you’re satiated/satisfied at 1800cal and hitting protein minimums then keep on keeping on. Sounds like the better area to focus is days you smoke and maybe backloading the calories? If you know it’s going to lead to extra meals then perhaps you need to fast even longer or find some slightly better caloric choices.

Well, now that I have a sleep med i’m Back to no smoking. Not much can stop me at this point =)

We’ll see how the hunger is in another 10 pounds lost

No offense but you're just saying the same thing fatties been saying in this graveyard of weightloss threads for years. Motivation and perseverance comes in waves and leaves in waves. It's a good approach to do things that are easily sustained, rather than going for maximum rate of loss you're capable of at any given time, because it can be difficult to anticipate episodes of mental weakness.

This is extremely good advice that applies to many things in life. Nice post!

You will get hungry at some point in the future. Just start adding in more veggies+lean meats and you should be good to go.

What the **** so you not understand about someone having a drug problem being the cause of their eating? What do you not understand about low calories being sustainable for me, or me having a low maintenance, or me being on drugs that cause weight gain? Can I spell these things out any clearer? I climbed V6 today and I’ve lost 7 pounds since I quit marijuana. I’ve been <160 pounds before using this exact approach and only regained the weight because of meds and because of marijuana driven compulsive eating. So **** off talking about my will power and comparing me to delusional fatties doomed to fail. I don’t need to hear your ****. I WILL succeed. Because no matter how many times I fail or how hard it is I ALWAYS keep pushing. I smoked for NINE YEARS almost every night and managed to quit. I went on a drug that made me gain FOURTY pounds without increasing calories, twice, and managed to get off that too and lose the weight. I lost 40 pounds when I first got into fitness and kept it off for 8 Year’s. If you think you know better than me what is sustainable or what my will power is then you’re the one who needs to question their thought process. If you think shoveling an extra 500 calories a day into my stomach in the initial period of a diet when I’m not even hungry is going to improve my results that says a lot about your knowledge of dieting. If I was going for a maximum rate of loss I wouldn’t be drinking ****ing wine and cooking gourmet dinners. I would be PSMF, which is also a proven effective approach that INCREASES long term adherence. Your assumptions are offensive whether you mean it that way or not. You don’t think I know I’ve failed dieting for almost a year now? Guess what, I took the steps necessary to succeed. Perhaps you can’t do that for yourself and are projecting your own lapses into me? You actually advised me to eat 3 small meals a day, the ONLY way to guarantee I would hate my diet and myself. Imagine if I disn’t Know better and actually took that advice? I’d suggest you stop giving people lectures on subjects you know little about

Sorry if my response was over the top, you obviously struck a nerve. I would edit my response and be calmer if it weren't too late. I've put a lot of thought into these things and I know what I'm doing. Thank you and sorry if I offended you. I do know you've put a lot of thought and research into diet/nutrition and its practice

If I start getting really hungry I will refeed more often and increase protein and fruits/veggies. That is all. If I was eating 2k-2500 a few years ago and lost weight continuously while being mostly sedentary, I can eat less than that now and make my goals happen, meds or not

When I say I have a sleeping med and am done smoking and eating, I mean it. I'm absolutely done. The marijuana was the only thing making me eat. Without it the drive is just gone, its nothing

Keep reading this log and you'll see

I see right through you, ranting just to slip the old V6 send in there lol.

8/18

climb 3 hours

Monster session. Burned through all the 2's and 3's in the gym and sent every 4 I've done previously in 1 attempt. Skipped most of the new 4's due to them being too shouldery. Right now there's only one 4 in the old set I haven't sent yet, and no longer any V3. Attacked my yellow V5 crimp problem again and sent it again, though it took 5 attempts to stick the crux move. Didn't rest too long until later into this session but despite that experienced no pump at all. Didn't cave climb though. Fell on one new 4 and one new 5 I couldn't quite figure out one move of.

Highlight of the session and month was sending a new green V6 problem. This was particularly satisfying because a bunch of better climbers than me were falling on it including a guy who sent a newly set V7, and for once I was the guy who could actually send. Basically the only reasonable way to make the climb possible is to a do a ridiculously high right foot on the side of a hold in a straddle position while mantling on right hand and holding a terrible undercling with left hand, and then fully extend to reach the next hold. The guys who were as tall as me couldn't get the foot up and the one girl who got the foot up didn't have the reach to get to the next hold. Eventually V7 guy found some monstrous beta that involved a massive dyno and stuck it, looked sickeningly hard.

I think the crux on the yellow V5 crimp climb was actually significantly harder for me but still, a 6 is a big win. I think this is my first legit 6. I didn't think I'd get there at >195. Back to 180 is next, then who knows what's possible

Zero shoulder or finger pain whatsoever today. Gonna hit PT monday and climb again Tues or Weds and see if I can continue the rampage

lol I just can't help myself. Glaring flaw obviously. When you're redpointing V6 though, I guess you can afford to have some flaws