TT Eric diet log 2014

[TT Eric]

What would you would do in my situation ?

I'm running out of options beside raising activities and/or cutting calories.

In 2012 I've stopped at 4 no fat days, but I went up to 3hrs cardio + training.

I'm still far from being 'competition ready'. IMO I'm at 11%. Veins on abs seems still far away, hammies are far from striated, etc...

I really seems to me I've lost some muscle on the way (something that did not happened in 2012). 30lbs is about 15% of my starting weight, so if I was at 21%, I should be 6-7%.

Eric

[TT Eric]

In 1990 when I did my 1st diet, I use the same diet for 15 weeks, no changes whatsoever, no cardio and I leaned out very well, I would say easily. Maybe I lean better on a low fat diets vs keto, but to be fair, I need to consider that I'm way older and that I started with more fat then back then.

But low fat diets are not as healthy IMO and also it may work well, but I become more aggressive because of constant hungriness. Something I don't have at all with keto diet, not even a little bit. Only time I remember being pissed off is when I my lifts went down.

Eric

[steve_d]

well it sounds like you'd need to lose 10 pounds to get competition ready, assuming most of it would come from fat. My thing is losing more gradual, and not for long. IE - not being too far out of shape when comes time to diet. That doesn't really answer your question now though. I would have to say if you are not suffering, and not moody, then you're still not really that far below your natural set point. What it sounds like is you were way above that setpoint when you started. Is that possible? I just think that from what you've said in the past, force feeding, etc... it may be that you were over what your body wanted to be. And no one feels good on a diet. If dieting and getting ripped was easy, everyone would do it! Sure, some diets may be easier, but if you are doing that much cardio and eating as little as you say, then eventually you'd get to a point where you'd just want more.

You said dieting on low fat makes you moody... but doesn't that contradict what your diet is? 5 no fat days in a week I would consider low fat! even during you're normalish food days, you're still eating on the low end of fat I'm sure.

You're doing something right if you're still losing and feeling ok. The only thing I don't agree with is any sort of large variance in the way you eat today vs. the way you eat in a month. I'm more of a 'think about it from a long term perspective'... Pick a look you want, a body fat % you want, and eat the way someone who would look like that eats. EX. if you want to be 5% bodyfat forever, then do what you're doing now. If you just want to look the way you do now, then just turn down the throttle a little and keep that diet. In a nutshell, I don't think any kind of yo yo variance in you're diet will get you to your goals any faster - and it's mostly unnecessary. Competitors yo-yo mostly because its not very sustainable to get to 5%. The competitors that get to 20% + in the offseason will either say they are doing it to put on more muscle, but the reality is some just have a harder time staying lean in the offseason. Genetics, will power, whatever. I have nothing against getting 'fatter' in the off season unless you are doing it forcing yourself to and feeling like shit in the process.

[TT Eric]

When I started the diet I felt that at 180lbs I would be ripped, then I've been sick, I did not eat much for 6 days, maybe 300 cal average per day for 6 days, this week I think I took a toll in the muscle department, so my goal moved to 175lbs. Then as my weight was going down, IMO it was not going accordingly to what I was seeing in the mirror (seems to me I was loosing muscle), so yes now I would have to move my goal weight to 170lbs if I was to compete.

And yes I was above my 'natural' set point since I was force feeding 6 meals per day for the 2 last years, some meals were welcome like breakfast, but many meals were done 'by the clock', like a plan that I respected very well.

Low fat diet made me moody in the past because I was on glucose fuel, now I'm on low fat & carbs diet but I'm still using ketone for fuel, this doesn't get me aggressive.

It's not that hard for me to diet because I'm dedicated and disciplined, but it doesn't mean it's a walk in the park all the time, yes I'm freaking hungry sometimes, I even dream I eat, I can smell food like a dog, I'm also tired to eat dry chicken, it's been more then 4 months now and I've dealt with freaking big and deep blisters, hip and articulations bothering me when I walk, etc.. but I can bite in the piece of wood harder and getting it done no problem, on will power.

I intend to stay leaner this year and surely this will help next year's diet. I intend to still eat by the clock as Ted recommend, but I will adjust quantities according to how I'm hungry at that time and adjust the fats/carbs according to how my weight fluctuate. Overall same levels of protein, but less overall fats and more carbs peri-workout. Going from 1.5L of raw milk per day to about half of that will also help I'm pretty sure.

For setpoint year round, I would like to be maybe a little leaner then I am now.

Eric

[TT Eric]

This is the actual diet (no fat days) in details:

Glass of water + 200mg caffeine + 1g L-tartate Carnitine

Morning walk

Meal #1: 45g of protein from whey Isolate+ 5g creatine +1g TMG + 1T grounded flax + 1T psyllium

Meal #2: ~180-200g non fatty fish baked + garlic powder and curcuma + sliced green onions + multivitamins + 2 caps of omega-3 fish oil + vit D

Meal #3: (pre workout) 45g of protein from whey Isolate + 1T flax + 1T psyllium + 5g beta alanine + 2-3g citrus malate + 200mg caffeine + 1g L-Tartare Carnitine

Intra workout: Water + 5g beta-alanine + 2-3g citrus malate + 1T lemon juice

Second walk

Meal #4: pwo shake: 45g protein from whey Isolate + 5g creatine + 1g TMG + 5g Cissus Quadrangularis + 1G vit C

Meal #5: 180-200g chicken breast (beuuurk)+ 1 cup green vegetable + multivitamins + 2 caps omega 3 fish oil + vit D

Meal #6: 45g protein from whey Isolate + 1T flax + 1T psyllium + ZMA

Eric

[steve_d]

When I started the diet I felt that at 180lbs I would be ripped, then I've been sick, I did not eat much for 6 days, maybe 300 cal average per day for 6 days, this week I think I took a toll in the muscle department, so my goal moved to 175lbs. Then as my weight was going down, IMO it was not going accordingly to what I was seeing in the mirror (seems to me I was loosing muscle), so yes now I would have to move my goal weight to 170lbs if I was to compete.

And yes I was above my 'natural' set point since I was force feeding 6 meals per day for the 2 last years, some meals were welcome like breakfast, but many meals were done 'by the clock', like a plan that I respected very well.

Low fat diet made me moody in the past because I was on glucose fuel, Eric

Sickness would only temporarily screw things up in terms of the gym, fatigue, water lost, glycogen, etc. In the grand scheme of things it was only a set back at that time and the net result would have been the same (in terms of body weight and body fat percentage). You were likely losing more fat internally, which may have made it look like while you were losing fat, nothing was visually changing in the mirror. People store fat in all different ways and it dictates more or less how much you'll lose before you look 'ripped'. Body fat calipers for example may put you at 10% but you need to lose more fat than the math works out to be. For some it works out perfect, and for others not so much. Point being, lots of individual variance. It's one of the reasons why so many people are shocked when they are 1 or even 2 weight classes lower than they thought they'd be before deciding to compete for the first time...

2 years of force feeding is enough time to start increasing your natural set point - which you don't want! It sounds like that isn't the case though. I'd never go above it again. Just as someone who is anorexic is under-eating, the reverse can be true. No matter how healthy the foods you are eating, over doing it is never a good thing.

I still can't agree with using glucose as fuel as the cause for moodyness. I would think there is more to it. When people diet for a show, there is an extra pressure mentally than just dieting for fun. I might get moody when I diet for a host of reasons - feeling behind, not pleased with the way an injury is going ... there is more of a focus on the show itself, which can be a big stress - especially for anyone who takes competing seriously. I've had easy days eating no carbs, and less food, and hard days doing much the same - the mood relates to other things going on. For us the biggest challenge is doing the diet with the responsibility as parents. a few days with no kids and all of a sudden no pressure, no problem, diet is a breeze. For others there are far worse things to deal with... everyone has something and it's especially true as we get older. When I dieted in university it was a joke, or through the summer between terms. All I had to do was a manual labor job, dieting was a breeze. All a diet does is exacerbate any of the the things you have going on already.

If one diets on 2000 calories (with 100g carbs), and is feeling moody, I'd be shocked to find them feeling better by simply removing the carbs and not replacing it with something else (ie dropping to 1600). A good experiment would be again, post diet, eat the same thing you are this week except add in 15g carbs per meal. As long as your being quite consistent with your carb intake, it shouldnt have any adverse effect on mood. 15g of carbs does not go very far as fuel! Being sub 10% and especially closer to 6-7% those 15g carbs during an intense contest prep will be like throwing a cup of water on some crops in a 1 month summer drought.


I am not pro carbs, or anti carbs. Most bodybuilders are eating far less carbs than ideal. I don't think 1 diet is better than the other really. Whatever is easiest to follow I suppose. For some it might be IIFYM, others might be keto, and so on. For you it may be Keto, but it might not. You can't compare the way you felt 20 years ago to now! Keep experiementing!

[TT Eric]

I was wondering how long do you start to cut the sodium before the day you compete ?

Eric

[TT Eric]

Soon it will be my last week, would it be a good idea to introduce a few carbs, like 50-75g peri workout (cyclic dextrin/vitargo) while continuing the same diet, all no fat days and cutting sodium of the last x days ? So I could appear less flat, a bit more dry for the last day, the day I'll get my LBM and BF% measured. I do not want to make a big load up in carbs and completely shut down fat loss, my reasoning is that 2-300 cal from carbs will slow down fat loss, but not kill it completely.

Eric

[TT Eric]

Ok decided to go ahead with that yesterday! Going for 100g of carbs peri-workout along with some hydrolized casein and 60g of carbs on off days. Probably will do HIIT on off days now that carbs are in along with the regular 120 min cardio. Will go with no fats in the diet till the end. Carbs are from cyclic dextrin. Just to be clear, they are not enjoyable carbs, they taste like sh!t. I will not add any other carbs then that. Will try to skip the re-feed meal since the carbs are in. The carbs will add about 2500 cal for the week, but the cheat meal is about that amount, so all in all I'll stay in a pretty similar calorie range. (Average of ~1700cal per day including traces).

The goal is to look better at the end of the diet and still loose fats on the way.

Will see what it does. Yes I like to experiment.

Eric

[Delt King]

I truely respect your motivation, drive and dedication Eric. Inspiring. Wish i had that consistency
. Thankfully i have decent genetics lol