Diet + DFHT, 4 weeks in, Before/After

[DrBones]

I look a little skinnier in these pictures... maybe I lost a bit of muscle.. I don't know... But my strength has definitely gone up.. and my bodyfat has gone down A LOT... I've lost 14 lbs in just over 4 weeks since these pictures were taken. I'm aiming to drop another 4-5 lbs of fat... Its kind of hard to judge how much fat I actually had in that first picture becuase my hands are in the way of the bottom of my belly... My stubborn fat pocket that rests there i about 85% gone.... which is a VERY good indication that my diet is working

4 weeks ago

Today

 

[DrBones]

Oh yea...
Any idea on roughly what my bodyfat % is looking at?

I'm personally guessing about 12%...
But I'm not certain

 

[The Red Dragon]

10-12%?
Good work man, nice quads/traps. The deltoid separation on your right shoulder is cool too...the abs are starting to come in

 

[Lee]

10-12 for sure. lookin good man, your abs are so close to commin out, lucky bastard!

anyways, whats yer diet look like brother?

 

[DrBones]

My abs show up quite a bit better when not photographed.. its wierd... pictures seem to hide them a bit.. ahh well...
Diet is very simple... very easy to follow.. and I do very minimal cardio.. However I am doing DFHT which is quite calory consuming..

Anyways.. diet looks like this...

100g-150g carbs a day
200+ g protein (probably averages out around 250g)
< 40g fat a day... usually around to 20-30 but I'm not too picky

I eat diet yogurt and 1/4 cup of oats for breakfast every day...

then i eat a carby source (rice crackers and tuna) usually post workout.. and maybe 1-2 more carb meals before dinner... I try to keep my carbs around 30g a meal...
Then only meat and fibrous veggies after that... Its a pretty basic diet.. but works so well... I might do cardio 1-3x a week... I've probably done maybe 8 jogs/cardio sessions in 4 weeks...
But i did work hard labour for 1 week so that definitely did help drop a bit....
I plan on getting very ripped this year...
If you have any other diet questions or anything let me know
Thanks

 

[casualbb]

What calorie total is that?

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if you lost muscle. 14 pounds in 4 weeks is a lot for anybody. Most recommendations I see say to shoot for 1lb of fat/week to minimize muscle loss.

-casual

 

[Zander1983]

You've made obvious progress, although the way the pictures have been taken make it harder to compare directly. Next time around, take them exactly the same?

Your traps are looking very impressive. I'm jealous! Keep working hard, mate, because your goals are just around the corner.

 

[DrBones]

CasualBB
You have to take into account water loss... I was retaining a ton of water...

I massively carbed up last weekend and went up to 190lbs and was down to 183 by the end of the week...
The muscle loss I believe has been kept to a minimal as I am still progressing in strength and my protein intake is VERY high...
The biggest key to this diet is how you time your carbohydrate intake.. I'm using them to fuel my workouts and to refill my muscle glycogen post workout... other than that... I'm eating almost all protein and more or less trace carbs and fibrous carbs..
Those numbers are very rough estimes (on the cals) but I'm pretty sure I'm taking in roughly 2000 cals a day on weekdays and probably close to 4000 on weekends... in order to shock my metabolism into moving quiker.. I also eat small meals VERY frequently which prevents much from getting stored and again keeps the metabolism moving...

 

[casualbb]

Good point about that water. Also sounds like you know what you're doing with the diet.

What are your plans from here?

-casual

 

[Zander1983]

I'm eating almost all protein and more or less trace carbs and fibrous carbs..

I would think about increasing your intake of good fats.

 

[DrBones]

Good point about that water. Also sounds like you know what you're doing with the diet.

What are your plans from here?

I plan on continuing to diet down... maybe until as low as 8-9% maybe lower...

Once I'm there, I intend of maintaining that bodyfat, probably until mid August.

Come mid august, i plan on upping my carboyhydrates by 10g/meal.. or roughly 50g a day the first week, as well as 10g protein more per meal.
This will supply an extra 400 calories the first week.
If this goes well, I will do the same for the following week. This will be an additional 800 cals on top of what I'm eating right now.

My goal this year is to not pack on as much fat as last bulking season while simultaneously growing... if you havnt seen how fat i got from other threads... here is a pic.. its from oct 24/02. I don't want that to happen again
http://www.medialunchbox.com/ryans/fatryan.jpg

If I can make gains with this additional 800 calories I will use that as my base... if I stay stagnant, I will add an additional 400 cals a week until I'm at a level where I can comfortably grow. I wasn't quite as lean as I am now last year when i peaked and I was weighing in at 178 at my leanest weight... So I've put on roughly 6-8 lbs of muscle since last year in august.

The only other thing that I will probably add to my cutting plan... possibly in another 2 weeks, is some creatine. Low carb diets are notorious for making your muscles look kind of flat... By tossing some creatine in the mix I should be able to increase cellular volumization in my muscles and give myself a "bigger" look.

Thanks

 

[DrBones]

I would think about increasing your intake of good fats.

This is a very good point and something I definitely should be doing...

I really eat VERY little fat.. the only fat i typically get comes from a bit of light miracle whip or red meat(which i eat maybe 2x week) and a VERY minute amount from tuna...
I'll have to start adding a little olive oil or flax seed oil to my tuna or someting

My joints could definitely use it and im sure it would also help out in the metabolism department as well

 

[Zander1983]

A very simple change could be to add an extra meal of eggs to your day... The extra calories won't hurt a bit, because you need your fats for very many reasons.

 

[DrBones]

Thats a good idea.. maybe hard boil 6 eggs every 3 days and pop 2 a day... i love HB eggs

 

[Zander1983]

I have eggs daily. Usually 3 whole eggs + some cheese and ham (and of course some herbs and maybe chilli ), mixed together and microwaved.

 

[coolcolj]

Hard to tell becuase of the different lighting, but you definitely look leaner. Losing bodyfat can meke anyone look smaller - all that padding is gone etc

But the fact your stronger means that you probbaly haven't lost any muscle mass, despite losing "leverage"