peeperjj's Journal, 01 Oct 18

Oops. It kept giving me an error and a try again button. Guess it was posting each time and a wrong error 😳.  

I'm an advocate for getting as lean as you can tolerate before building muscle. what's funny is how many people comment on how big you look the smaller you get.... always makes me laugh 

I’m wondering if I stopped the fat loss too early. I felt the need to increase the calories because the workouts were very draining and some days halfway through I felt like I’d never get to the end. I’m talking 3-3.5 mph walking on a 5-15% incline (short legs so this is fast and 4.4 is a decent run, 6mph is as fast as I can run without sprinting) and 20-30 minutes weights (15-20 second breaks between sets and to move to the next machine). Not that strenuous lol. Considering a week of 1200 or less, all meat until I get 100-120g protein then fill in with junk so I don’t feel so deprived and won’t binge at the end. Or maybe three days a week since we have a lot of dinners coming up, carnivals etc and just do that the whole month. Man I wish there was a guide tailored to my health needs and body type lol.  

That's why I used the word tolerate hahahaha. Lack of energy is a real thing the leaner you get. I don't know where I'm at currently (will know on Monday) but at the weigh in when I found out I managed to get as low as 6.6% I was lethargic as hell. It's funny though that getting lean has nothing to do with being hungry. I was not overly hungry the whole challenge. It's just that the body didn't have any stored energy. 

I have avoided scales like the plague for a month. Using what I have learned to work out to maintain weight. Will be very interested to see how close my results are to my scan 3 weeks ago. I'm hoping I have ate enough to slightly nudge body fat up to about 10% 

Haha you know me well Chris. I hear patience is a virtue but it’s one I don’t possess haha. I’d love to eat anything I want at any time in any amount and not gain weight and still be healthy. I also want to see major improvement yesterday or today ;). By the end of this week would be okay too! See I can have patience 😳😝.  

Keith, is it safe to gain 3.4% bf in a few weeks? I was just as tired at 160 eating 1200 as I was at 145 eating 1400. Now that I’m 135ish I’m more tired and lethargic under 1500 but it takes 2-3 days before it’s an issue. I can’t imagine what it’s like for someone 200 going to 1200 quickly or even 120 and going that low. Then again at 135 with the activity I was doing I should’ve been 1500-1600. Take away that extra 100-200 on lazy days and 300-400 on workout days and I’d basically be back to 1200-1400 a day.  

I’m school I would eat a honey bun (or 2) and a coke (140kcal each) for breakfast. Lunch was whatever the school provided and 2-3 days a week I added a Reece’s or 1oz bag of chips and another coke. After school it was 2 snack cakes, 2 pop tarts, a big bowl of cereal or a sandwich. I ate 1-2 plates of whatever Mom made for dinner, a casserole or meat and potatoes generally, then another snack before bed. Bedtime snack could’ve been anything food wise but would’ve equaled a sandwich or less. Keep in mind I had another 2-3 cokes in there. Didn’t gain much at all! 105 in 8th (14)when I moved to high school math, 110 when I got my license, 115 at graduation and 118 at 20. Started working more at a job that put me on my feet a lot and dropped to 105 again. I kept slowly growing all through high school but gained maybe 3” total and 115-118 was my ideal weight back then when I graduated. *sigh* ahhh to be a kid again and be a bottomless pit haha.  

So fat loss on the back end probably isn’t right for me. I don’t plan to diet during the holidays. Turkey is my weakness lol. And everything that goes with it. However my second plate is usually just turkey and a bit of gravy (2T worth probably) and I usually skip the dessert unless there’s fudge. 100-200 kcal per square of delicious fudge. So I need to decide if I want to cut now and get as low as I can by mid November then bulk and lift OR stay the same as I am now. Not being able to see gains sucks a fat one though! Not seeing any difference in any measurement sucks too. Still losing slowly from places like shoulders and lower back but not where I want like legs and waist 😖. Can someone loan me some patience? Lol  

IV been told that sitting on maintainance Cal's should increase my body fat quite quick. Went from a deficit of about 300 a day to maintenance (what I believe) and stayed their for 4 weeks. Apparently the body does not like being at a very low body fat% eg: under 8% and will store fat very effectively back up to the 10% range. Let's hope so. I wouldn't recommend staying that low to anyone for to long. I really am hoping to float around the 12% mark. I know now if I ever want to I have learnt enough about myself that I could be competition ready in a matter of 8 weeks. I don't have the muscles yet to so it and my immediate goals keep changing. You don't see many body builders climbing a 4k mountain or winning ninja warrior hahahaha. One day I'm going to bulk and not enter but win a body building comp hahahaha. The idea of bulking does have drawbacks, will lose alot of cardiovascular strength and a crap tonne of mobility 

I didn’t realize how much muscle affected mobility. At the beginning of our LiveSTRONG program I could reach behind my back (one arm over shoulder and one under) and easily overlap my fingers and almost touch the opposite wrist. Then at the end I could overlap half or all of my fingers depending on the side. I lost about 8” of distance there. All I can figure is that I had 0 muscle in my upper back and then gained some. I doubt it was the little growth I’ve noticed on my arms and my shoulders were loose and limber on the last testing day. The program was 12 weeks long but we had 2-3 weeks where we didn’t meet so 15 weeks from start to finish.