Arghh Cutting! Not working well for me

[stargazer30]

Revisting my thread...

About 4 weeks in on the 5:2 fast diet now. Half a stone off, BF% down from 22.3% to 20.2%, but the important part, no loss of strength on my lifts. I even managed to creep up a tiny bit on my bench and over head press.

When I started this I was kinda thinking eating only 600 cals the day after training is bound to have negative effects but so far, no problem.

Anyway have about another 3 weeks cutting then I'm done, if I can get down to 18% BF I'm happy.

[cliffe_mafia]

stargazer30 said:

I love squats they just seem to hate me

My back ached doing squats and after watching this vid I now look down more and bend over at the top

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbNA17KjBzU&li...

It feels a lot comfier and I can feel that I'm keeping my back straighter (less rounding) than before. It might be worth a try for you.

[Pvapour]

stargazer30 said:

Revisting my thread...

About 4 weeks in on the 5:2 fast diet now. Half a stone off, BF% down from 22.3% to 20.2%, but the important part, no loss of strength on my lifts. I even managed to creep up a tiny bit on my bench and over head press.

When I started this I was kinda thinking eating only 600 cals the day after training is bound to have negative effects but so far, no problem.

Anyway have about another 3 weeks cutting then I'm done, if I can get down to 18% BF I'm happy.

thanks for letting us know, good to know advice works out for people

if you intend to use it ongoing...

I found your body adapts to this also (expected) but I found that if on normal eating days i returned to my old style of 'bodybuilding' eating i.e. every 2 hours (keeping metabolism stimulated) then this shocked the system back the other way, makes sense really as both styles of eating are at opposite ends of the spectrum, very difficult for you body to normaliser to this.

since doing this the 5:2 results have returned, for now..

[DuncanM]

Pvapour said:

stargazer30 said:

Revisting my thread...

About 4 weeks in on the 5:2 fast diet now. Half a stone off, BF% down from 22.3% to 20.2%, but the important part, no loss of strength on my lifts. I even managed to creep up a tiny bit on my bench and over head press.

When I started this I was kinda thinking eating only 600 cals the day after training is bound to have negative effects but so far, no problem.

Anyway have about another 3 weeks cutting then I'm done, if I can get down to 18% BF I'm happy.

thanks for letting us know, good to know advice works out for people

if you intend to use it ongoing...

I found your body adapts to this also (expected) but I found that if on normal eating days i returned to my old style of 'bodybuilding' eating i.e. every 2 hours (keeping metabolism stimulated) then this shocked the system back the other way, makes sense really as both styles of eating are at opposite ends of the spectrum, very difficult for you body to normaliser to this.

since doing this the 5:2 results have returned, for now..

Good stuff guys, I'm going to try 5:2 after reading the posts on this thread

I've been doing 16:8, but after reading the posts about shocking the system, 5:2 actually makes more sense.

Way too fat to call it cutting

[ORD]

You should read up on the 'yo-yo' effect that comes with using any extreme weight loss approach. It's pretty troubling stuff. I would have thought you should try simple calorie control first.

[stargazer30]

ORD said:

You should read up on the 'yo-yo' effect that comes with using any extreme weight loss approach. It's pretty troubling stuff. I would have thought you should try simple calorie control first.

Its not exactly extreme weight loss. You still average maintenance calories over the space of the week still. The only difference is you load the feed days and only eat 600 on the fast days. Even then the fast is 12 hours so it not a starvation job. TBH I don't really notice the fast/hunger much now. Also my weight loss has been about 2lb a week so its well within the safe limits.

[stargazer30]

cliffe_mafia said:

stargazer30 said:

I love squats they just seem to hate me

My back ached doing squats and after watching this vid I now look down more and bend over at the top

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbNA17KjBzU&li...

It feels a lot comfier and I can feel that I'm keeping my back straighter (less rounding) than before. It might be worth a try for you.

I meant to post I'm squatting again too and ironically your link is how I fixed it. I had not been able to low bar squat in the past due to lack of shoulder flexibility but I am managing now, still painful on my shoulders/upper back as the bar digs in but I think they will get used to it. It does take much of the strain off my lower back though. I did 100kg low bar for the first time last week and my lower back was fine and my legs were just getting started. I'm going to slowly increase each week and see how I go.

[Autopilot]

stargazer30 said:

Its not exactly extreme weight loss. You still average maintenance calories over the space of the week still. The only difference is you load the feed days and only eat 600 on the fast days. Even then the fast is 12 hours so it not a starvation job. TBH I don't really notice the fast/hunger much now. Also my weight loss has been about 2lb a week so its well within the safe limits.

A few people I work with use fasting diets and say they get good results. I'm a little baffled by it to be honest as my mind tells me that if they just ate the same amount of calories across the same period of time without the fasting bit, then they'd get the same results - Calories In Vs Calories Out.

What does the fasting part do that assists with weight loss and has anybody tried both methods in controlled conditions to understand the real differences?

[Pvapour]

Autopilot said:

stargazer30 said:

Its not exactly extreme weight loss. You still average maintenance calories over the space of the week still. The only difference is you load the feed days and only eat 600 on the fast days. Even then the fast is 12 hours so it not a starvation job. TBH I don't really notice the fast/hunger much now. Also my weight loss has been about 2lb a week so its well within the safe limits.

A few people I work with use fasting diets and say they get good results. I'm a little baffled by it to be honest as my mind tells me that if they just ate the same amount of calories across the same period of time without the fasting bit, then they'd get the same results - Calories In Vs Calories Out.

What does the fasting part do that assists with weight loss and has anybody tried both methods in controlled conditions to understand the real differences?

Short answer - when you deprive your body from its normal energy source - food - it uses your fat stores for energy instead (which were created from past excess calories you consumed)

[stargazer30]

Pvapour said:

Autopilot said:

stargazer30 said:

Its not exactly extreme weight loss. You still average maintenance calories over the space of the week still. The only difference is you load the feed days and only eat 600 on the fast days. Even then the fast is 12 hours so it not a starvation job. TBH I don't really notice the fast/hunger much now. Also my weight loss has been about 2lb a week so its well within the safe limits.

A few people I work with use fasting diets and say they get good results. I'm a little baffled by it to be honest as my mind tells me that if they just ate the same amount of calories across the same period of time without the fasting bit, then they'd get the same results - Calories In Vs Calories Out.

What does the fasting part do that assists with weight loss and has anybody tried both methods in controlled conditions to understand the real differences?

Short answer - when you deprive your body from its normal energy source - food - it uses your fat stores for energy instead (which were created from past excess calories you consumed)

Also it stops your body slowing your metabolism to match a regular cal intake. So if you eat 2000 cals but your body needs 2400, it works at first but after a week or so it has slowed things down a tad, you feel a bit colder etc.. and get by on 2000 just fine and its not really touching its fat stores, which it really doesn't want to do. Fasting, it can't adapt that fast, 2400 each day then 600? It has to burn fat.

Also there is some science (not sure how true this one is) that says growth hormone is linked to insulin levels. Insulin suppresses growth hormone (which is used to burn off the fat as well as build muscle). So by having a constant intake of food (ie eating regular meals) we suppress the need to burn fat.

The first one I buy totally, not convinced the 2nd part is true but to be fair it does seem to be working for me. Just did a 5 rep 105kg squat yesterday which is a PR.