Fitness Federation

[ReimTime]

Mordred11 said:

PieToast said:
I'm glad this thread is still alive. good job Reeiam!

Anyway. To any weight lifter who is trying to lose weight this summer, you should gauge how successful your cut is not just by the scale and how good you look, but also by your performance. The plan is to lose fat and not muscle (obviously) so if your performance has suffered, you need to take a step back and reassess what went wrong. Just remember to take things slow. Loss of strength might happen inevitably depending on how far and extreme the fat loss phase is going to be, but a quick and drastic drop is a sure sign that something went wrong.

Sometimes the best solution is to just take a week off! Many would be surprised how much stronger they would come back.

This, and a reassessment IMO. If you want my take on cutting:

- Instead of mainly cutting calories I like to add calorie burning activity. I still count my calories and watch what I eat (important) but I this method leaves me less tired/hangry and helps me retain muscle mass. Thus, instead of eating ~2000 calories a day to have a 500 calorie deficit, I can eat ~2400 and cut out 100 while burning 400 (hypothetical numbers). Two apps that really help with this are MyFitnessPal and Fitbit (if you have a device). You can track your workouts and/or steps to see how many calories you are burning, since they sync together.

- I use a "batting average" for my weekly meals. If I hypothetically eat 30 a week, I like to keep 27 of them clean and leave room for some mis-steps; because a .900 batting average is pretty damn good. This keeps me focused and less likely to slip up completely.

- I make sure to eat about 160g protein per day (0.8/lb of bodyweight) in order to retain as much muscle mass as possible.

- I don't take it super seriously or break it down too much. As long as I keep below my calorie goal and hit my protein intake requirement, I don't really give a dump about macros. Eating right is mostly common sense! MyFitnessPal is my best friend right now. Admittedly I only started my cut last week, but I am already down 2.5 pounds while eating 2500 calories a day. It makes me wonder how many I was eating when they were unregulated.

All these things help me stay focused on my cut.

SvennoJ said:
I managed to get out for a long ride today, 75km in 3 hours on the dot. Perfect day, max 10km/h wind, 23 degrees full sun. I followed the Grand River up to Kitchener along the trails, back by road. All terrain route from rocky boulder paths to 4 lane highway and plenty hills along the way. The muscles above my knee started cramping on the way back, I guess I got behind on my water intake, more water and a sweet & salty snack helped.

Summer is the best. Traffic lights are the devil though. Suddenly having to stop with no further cooling from the wind it only takes 30 seconds to effectively go blind... Helmet for safety, as long as you keep moving lol. Always fun crossing a huge intersection with salt burning your eyes!

What kind of bike do you have?

The brakes almost went out on mine while cycling down a veerrrryy steep hill. I said a quick prayer to Brodin though, and all was well.