TT Eric diet log 2014

[Primal]

Jeez Eric no offence but the people in your gym sound like straight up jerks! God, I would destroy workouts if I was in your gym just to prove the people there wrong! You look good in my opinion man and that's even after you came off from vacation! Couldn't help notice that it looks like we have similar arm genetics, your bicep head looks very long and the bone structure is very thin just like mine... Ah genetics suck sometimes. But seriously, you look good! Prove those guys wrong man!

-Primal

[TT Eric]

I highly doubt you lost the muscle mass you think you did. If you were eating adequate protein which i am sure you were it is actually quite difficult to lose muscle unless you are doing something highly catabolic ie running long distances. Also most people under estimate the amount of weight they need to lose to get lean...this is very common. Fat combined with water loss can easily add up to numbers that are a bit of a surprise.
Naturally as you diet your test levels may drop...this is normal as well thyroid levels may drop again normal...this doesnt mean drastic muscle loss...if it did humans as a species would have died off long ago.

I wouldnt over complicate things and I also wouldnt worry too much. What I would do is create an off season plan, stick to that plan and shoot for a higher leam body mass about 10-12lbs from where you are now.
Reduced cell volumization can appear as muscle loss very easily...creatine, glycogen, water all contribute to this.

Stick to a year round plan...as an example 4 months dieting, 4 months lean mass gaining. and 4 months maintenance...this does many things...such as keeps your metabolism optimal, keeps you lean, makes dieting easier, makes lean mass gain easier, keeps you motivated mentally.

P

What do you think caused such a loss of strength ? I mean, it's quite a lot, hardly doing my deload weights on my hard week...

I never loss that much strength on any of 8 times I've dieted! Also never loss as much muscle size, except for once where I lost some size in my legs due to poor choice of exercises.

You don't find it weird that I have went from straight hard diet to eat twice as much and loose 10lbs ?

Eric

[TT Eric]

Jeez Eric no offence but the people in your gym sound like straight up jerks! God, I would destroy workouts if I was in your gym just to prove the people there wrong! You look good in my opinion man and that's even after you came off from vacation! Couldn't help notice that it looks like we have similar arm genetics, your bicep head looks very long and the bone structure is very thin just like mine... Ah genetics suck sometimes. But seriously, you look good! Prove those guys wrong man!

-Primal

Oh don't worry I'm very well respected in my gym, they said that out of concern, no one said it in a dis-respectful way! About destroying workouts, I seriously try to do so, but even though I set my mind to do something, it just doesn't work even with all the will power I put in. I mean even though I have done a lift with xyz weight 100 times in the last 2-3 years, it just doesn't go up anymore. Heck I was doing around 17-20 bodyweight dips at 210lbs and last time I did only 11 at 170lbs, I was supposed to do more reps, not less with -40lbs.

In my 13 years of training, I never experienced a loss of strength and volume as big as this, in fact for me strength is something pretty stable, I gain very slowly, my former experiences with dieting is that I usually don't gain much while dieting, I usually maintain, at worst I can loose a little on the bench, but not much, maybe a rep or 2 less with the same weights max.

The good thing is that I didn't seemed to have gain any fat yet.

Eric

[steve_d]

You dieted very hard for a decent amount of time in my opinion. You lost a fair bit of weight quickly. I personally have a hard time keeping strength up in a slow diet losing only a small amount of water/fat over a longer period of time. You then went on vacation and what strength your body was trying so hard to hold onto simply couldn't anymore with a 3 week gym vacation. Strength goes down faster than size - and you lost size pretty quick.

I don't think I am surprised about the lack of the weight going up more than 2 pounds. Eating 2500 is not a big deal when you're already lean. The weight won't climb too quick. I mentioned this earlier - the weight won't skyrocket unless you completely get off the diet and eat until you feel sick, and do it over and over. You were at a point in your weight that it was hard to lose bodyfat without doing drastic things - but same could be said about the weight going up. A lean body wants to stay lean - a fat body wants to stay fat. Until you do something drastic, the body will likely stay near the same for a while.

If I stopped training for 3 weeks right now I would lose 25% of my numbers at the gym. It'll come back. give it a few weeks. You'll probably be really sore until your used to training again. Like P said, you haven't lost muscle, I wouldn't worry about anything either. Just continue to do what you do. Muscle loss is difficult - even in severe times, the body will not steal your muscle. Bodybuilders who say they lost muscle at the end of their diet simply are wrong. They lost water, they lost the ability for their muscle to show fullness, etc. the muscle is still there. You could diet off rice and peanut butter and still hold onto muscle for a long time. Strength loss is not an indicator of muscle loss either.

[TT Eric]

Good explanation, thanks Steve. Nevertheless it's the 1st time I've experienced such a loss of strength and volume, but on the other hand I never stopped 3 weeks after a diet, the longest break I took was 2 weeks and lost 2lbs but I was still able to lift pretty much the same weights, minus a few reps. And I also can say that in the first 2 weeks of vacation I didn't really saw a change, but the 3rd week was the one I really shrimped out and weirdly it occurred in the days right after I have train there (the only time I have train in vacation).

Eric

[Praetorian]

Totally agree with Steve. I was off the gym entirely for 3 months upper body wise and you would think I would have dropped tonnes of size...not true. Its wierd how we think if we even take 1 or two extra days off we will lose size. I was 240lbs when i had surgery and I was 238lbs when I started training upper body again 3 months later...i did cardio and kept my diet keto all week...weekends i ate what i wanted. I figure i lost maybe 5lbs of muscle if that but it shouldnt take me longer than two months to get it back.

Sometime we are just our own worst enemies.

P

[TT Eric]

Totally agree with Steve. I was off the gym entirely for 3 months upper body wise and you would think I would have dropped tonnes of size...not true. Its wierd how we think if we even take 1 or two extra days off we will lose size. I was 240lbs when i had surgery and I was 238lbs when I started training upper body again 3 months later...i did cardio and kept my diet keto all week...weekends i ate what i wanted. I figure i lost maybe 5lbs of muscle if that but it shouldnt take me longer than two months to get it back.

Sometime we are just our own worst enemies.

P

Hey I'm glad you are back in the gym Ted! You must be pretty lean at 240lbs, I hope it's the last tearing you'll ever experience!

Your example make my case even weirder! You loose 2lbs in 3 months off, I loose 10lbs in 3 weeks off while eating twice as before! You said yourself I would blow up like a balloon if I was not having a transition time.

I have no doubt I will gain back the strength and volume I lost, I was just finding it odd and was looking for answers, for me something seems not normal if you eat twice as much and loose 10lbs.

Eric

[steve_d]

Hey I'm glad you are back in the gym Ted! You must be pretty lean at 240lbs, I hope it's the last tearing you'll ever experience!

Your example make my case even weirder! You loose 2lbs in 3 months off, I loose 10lbs in 3 weeks off while eating twice as before! You said yourself I would blow up like a balloon if I was not having a transition time.

I have no doubt I will gain back the strength and volume I lost, I was just finding it odd and was looking for answers, for me something seems not normal if you eat twice as much and loose 10lbs.

Eric

I'd consider 3 weeks of eating 2500 calories a transition period! it might be twice normal, but its still a low calorie consumption. You're better off looking it as eating about 1000 calories more than normal. In 7 days, thats only 70000 calories. You were losing 2 pounds a week, so now you are maintenance. The 10 pounds can purely be exlplained as glycogen, water, detrained muscles, etc. You probably didn't lose even 1 pound of body fat in that 10 pounds - and if you did, it was because you overestimated how much you were eating. You're typical day might have been what you said, but perhaps the day after you ate very little because you simply weren't that hungry. Being on vacation with so many other things on the mind, you could have quickly gone without food for longer than you imagined.

I know the last time I was on the beach on vacation, we went practically all day without eating and then had a few drinks and light meal at dinner time without even much thought to food. PS: I need a vacation! it's been almost 8 years!

[TT Eric]

8 years is a pretty long time!! You are long overdue! With young kids it's not as easy though and less cheap, plus all the competitions... We only have one kid, 17 y/o, we bring him most of the time with us, but sometime we go as a couple. Have you seen the pictures I've posted on FB ?

Eric

[steve_d]

8 years is a pretty long time!! You are long overdue! With young kids it's not as easy though and less cheap, plus all the competitions... We only have one kid, 17 y/o, we bring him most of the time with us, but sometime we go as a couple. Have you seen the pictures I've posted on FB ?

Eric

I did see the pics! Last time we went was pre-kids. it was actually within our first year that we met. We went to florida in Venice/Sarasota. Since kids the closest to a vacation was Ange competing in Toronto at the pro show and having 3 days to ourselves, lol. We do take the kids sometimes with us - but more or less local (ex. crystal palace / moncton / etc) so not considered too relaxing of a vacation.

[TT Eric]

Off the 5 weeks we have per year, we try to keep one for ourselves. You should take a week alone with Angela if you can have someone to watch the kids for you, you guys deserve it!

Eric

[TT Eric]

I am at 174.2lbs so gained 1.4lbs. Honestly it was a surprise again when I hopped on the scale I thought I was up 5-6lbs from the mirror, seemed to me I gained a little fat back over the abs and gained back some muscular volume, I measured .5'' more arms and legs. Strength went up from last week, still lags a lot on the bench. I dunno why it take so long to gain back those 10lbs if they came out from loss of cell volumization.

Eric

[steve_d]

I don't think it was all cell volumization. I'm thinking you ate a bit less than you think and burned alot of it up throughout the day just walking etc. The fat loss may not necessarily show up in the mirror. Also, when you are coming off a diet, you're more likely to gain in different spots than when you were losing (ie doesn't come back on in reverse). You also more likely to hold some water in the skin that may look like fat but is not. Like you said, you thought you gained 6 from the mirror but was only 1.4. After a diet, I always notice that 180 pounds on the way up doesn't look as good as the 180 on the way down (if that makes sense). All in the way your body holds water and gains fat, etc.