TT Eric diet log 2014

[TT Eric]

I pretty much eat similar to DP diet all year round, but with more fats in solid meals and more carbs peri-workout. So when I began the diet, I dropped about 75g of carbs and about 50g fat per day from my off season diet, so about 750cal less, that only would have been enough to make a difference.

When I started, the first day, I was a bit hungry, I even woke up in the night because too hungry, on the second day, I was not hungry anymore, I was feeling normal.

Now I just dropped the carbs and some fat (I replaced the milk I was having with shakes with 50g avocado, so from 18g to 7g fat) and I feel hungry since yesterday (so 2 days in a row), last night I woke-up hungry again.

From how I actually feel, it's going to work well for this week IMO.

For beef, I'm eating steaks and was eating ground beef 2-3 times a week, but I dropped it since the batch I have seems high in fat. Now I introduced bison also, about twice a week.

Yes I'm very meticulous and use a scale. Been doing this for a long time.

As far as the cheat meal, I do not go overboard, I eat until I'm satisfied and it doesn't take long, I'm not used to eat bad, so if I do too much I feel sick. To give an idea, a cheat meal for me is a few (5-6) organic cookies (the size of oreos) and a portion of home made sweet potatoes fries shape bake in oven with some coconut oil, the size of a medium fries at McDo, those have been 2 of my last cheat meals.

Last cheat meal was the biggest one, 52g pro, 40g fat and 140g carbs, so 1128cal.

Eric

[steve_d]

Sounds about right then - based on the reduction of calories, you're probably on track to lose a pound a week.

I might have said this somewhere before. When I diet I tend to shock the body the first week or 2 then ease back. IE- I might drop the calories suddenly rather than cut 200 calories per day and slowly introduce cardio. My body adapts quick which I think is what you're saying. It's as if it has an easy time maintaining, so a small drop or small increase in calories does nothing to the scale. In order to gain or lose, I need to do things drastic. I might go from 3500/d to 2500/d right away for a couple weeks, then gradually work back up to 3000 and then drop down as needed after that. 2 years ago, my diet increased calories and reduced cardio throughout the entire prep!

Doesn't always work like that though.

[TT Eric]

Yeah my body adapt quite fast, this is why I need to make change very often, dieting slowly doesn't seems to work for me. Like I already said, I lost 25lbs in 2 intense week once, not saying it's the best, but it was so fast my body didn't had time to adapt.

Eric

[Praetorian]

Dieting slowly doesnt work for anyone...if you think you'll diet for a year and slowly drop you are mistaken. You need to make a plan with timelines and stick to it. When I diet I pick 16 or 18 weeks...whatever the number and base my weekly drop on what is necessary to reach my contest shape in that time. If you are too vague in your timeline you will never get to where you need to be.

P

[steve_d]

Dieting slowly doesnt work for anyone...if you think you'll diet for a year and slowly drop you are mistaken. You need to make a plan with timelines and stick to it. When I diet I pick 16 or 18 weeks...whatever the number and base my weekly drop on what is necessary to reach my contest shape in that time. If you are too vague in your timeline you will never get to where you need to be.

P

Well, I wouldn't go as far as saying it doesn't work for everyone! in 2003 I made a conscious decision to diet slowly for a full year. Long story short, was easiest diet I've ever done. I do agree, pick a timeline, and a plan, and stick to it. If you're meticulous enough, you can figure out a way to gradually lose weight over a year.

Of course that was just what I wanted to do at the time. I wasn't focused on bodybuilding, or competing. I was in school and living in a new city where I didn't know anyone. I just wanted to keep busy and stay in shape. Was it optimal for bodybuilding? Of course not... but as far as dieting goes, I'd say it was the most optimal thing to do for someone looking to reach a goal and stay there - not just get there for a day/week / photoshoot.

If you mean dieting slowly for a year for a contest, disregard my thoughts lol.

[TT Eric]

Dieting slowly doesnt work for anyone...if you think you'll diet for a year and slowly drop you are mistaken. You need to make a plan with timelines and stick to it. When I diet I pick 16 or 18 weeks...whatever the number and base my weekly drop on what is necessary to reach my contest shape in that time. If you are too vague in your timeline you will never get to where you need to be.

P

I'm not vague at all in my timeline, 4 months for a diet is the ultimate MAX I wanna put, if I can loose the 25lbs faster, then it's better, more weeks to grow between diets.

What I meant by saying 'slow dieting doesn't seems to work for me' is making small changes to keep the diet working, my body seems to adapt very fast so I need to be more drastic then you guys.

To be honest, I'm astonished that you can just add 3x20min of walking per week and keep the diet going with that, I would like that to be the same for me. The first year I did the diet, in the 3rd month I was already doing fat-free days and 2 hrs of cardio everyday and hardly was loosing 2lbs a week. I had to make huge increment from week to week to continue loosing 2lbs, I often ended-up loosing 0.0lbs if I was keeping 2 weeks the same.

This is pretty much the reason I decided to make this thread, so you guys can see how I react to dieting and help me!! I would like to use the smallest change to keep the diet working this time.

I welcome any advice you have for me and will follow them, I'm even ready to try to make small changes from week to week if you think I,m wrong and that it will work better, surely you must have encounter a few guys like me in your years of experience.

Thanks!

Eric

[TT Eric]

Since I removed the carbs form the diet I thought I should post the layout in details:

Meal #1 - 4 eggs + whey Isolate (17G pro) + fibers

Meal #2 - 60G Whey Isolate (equivalent to 45G pro)+ 1T EVOO + fibers

Meal #3 - Red meat 200g + 2 cup of salad (salad + a bit of onion + cucumber + mushroom) + 1T EVOO *

I train here

Meal #4 - Same as #2

Meal #5 -200g chicken + a cup or less vegetables**

Meal #6 - Same as #2


* I use about 1T to 1-1/2T of coconut oil to cook the meat, the whole salad fit into 2 cup, no need to squeeze it hard.

** Also use the same amount of coconut oil to cook the chicken, I often cook the chicken with onions, mushrooms, coriander and since they absorb the oil, I do not add more fat. If I eat vegetable, like asparagus or broccoli with the chicken, then I add 1T of fat (butter or EVOO). Also OFTEN, I can't eat all the chicken, so I ended-up eating between 150-180G total, cooked.

PS. I never take a whey only shake after training (like a non calculated 7th meal), I take the shake as a meal.

BTW I decided to use 1T of EVOO with shakes instead of 50g avocado like I said I would, since I woke-up in the night hungry. Since it's half the fat of 1T of EVOO I'll keep the 50g avocado for later when I'll need to make a change to keep the diet going.

Also since I'm more hungry then usual, I decided not to do the morning cardio this week, I want to keep it also as an option to add when diet will slow down.

I think it will work well this week, but will know only when I hop on the scale.

Like I said any advices are welcome.

Eric

[steve_d]

You should lose well this week on this diet. Actually, on this diet + working out intensely you shouldn't stall for a long time, with or without cardio. The thing about cardio for me is that adding 10-20 minutes works only when you have a bunch to lose. Once you're below where your body wants to be, 10-20 minutes extra cardio simply makes the rest of your day 'slower'... As in, less zip in your step, less enthusiastic calorie burning movements. Just look at some bodybuilders the last couple of weeks in their diet. Unless they are at the gym, they are likely moving around slowly as can be - conserving every last ounce of energy they can in order to survive.

Of course I generalize - but most of us have been there at one time or another.

That's why I like to control 90% of my fat loss through diet alone. Priorities for me are:

1. Make sure my workouts never suffer
2. Make sure I am not too hungry, but keep always running on almost empty
3. If I still have energy at the end of the day for cardio, sure, I'll do a bit.

Because of #3 you'll never see 2 days alike during a diet. Some days you just don't need the extra cardio, (for me that is usually a leg day!).

Just a question... Did you ever try a diet with more carbs, but less fat keeping calories similar? I am not talking a drastic change though, but I guess similar to the plan on page 1, but with calories overall and the ones dropped coming from fat.

I don't think you need to resort to a total keto diet unless you're getting ready for a show, and near the end of the diet.

at ~2000-2500 cals daily, with 250g protein, 100-150g carbs centered around workouts and the rest fat I think you'd have success.

[TT Eric]

Thanks Steve. When I was competing I was doing no fat diets, I was leaning very well, but now I stay away from those diets, not only for health issues but because you usually loose some muscle during those diet and as a natty I have none to spare.

Eric

[steve_d]

Thanks Steve. When I was competing I was doing no fat diets, I was leaning very well, but now I stay away from those diets, not only for health issues but because you usually loose some muscle during those diet and as a natty I have none to spare.

Eric

Anyone needs some fats in the diet. I used to do zero fat as well when I was in my teens/early twenties. I've tried them all. What I find works best all around is whatever works best not only with results, but with everything else - my lifestyle, my surroundings, my mental... That is to say, a small amount of carbs does seem to help along with small to moderate fat and of course moderate to high protein. When I am away from carbs for long enough time, I have issues when I re-introduce. I remember never feeling good on a cheat day no matter how big or small when I wasn't used to the carbs.

Although, I've never noticed losing muscle on any diet I've been on though. I think it's a common misconception about losing muscle vs. losing strength, glycogen, etc. It's physically very difficult for the body to tear away muscle tissue to any noticeable degree. It's very easy however to get your body into a zone where it has difficulty keeping a solid pump, keeping fullness, etc. I think those are things that happen when you do anything drastically different then what your used to. Everyone is different. Every diet can be different. That's why its important to learn and recognize the signs of things going wrong.

When you're so in tune with your body, you can just feel what you need to do to make things work. It sounds to me you know exactly what you need to do, or what works for you. It's always good to try new things when you have the chance too though. You'll learn some more each time