Intro: The Experiment
I’m experimenting again. If you know me, you know I LOVE trying new things. Especially when it comes to food and overall health. I think it’s FASCINATING how the human body works. I love reading and researching and trying, experimenting, succeeding, and failing. I mean, isn’t that exactly how we learn? (Do you remember my Paleo experiment?)
Over ten years ago when I was about 170 lbs and needed to lose weight, I didn’t know how to do it so I yo-yo dieted….a whole freakin’ lot. I started screwing up my metabolism early in my 20s. And a few years later when I started figuring out how the body actually works and the proper nutrition needed, I was able to lose a lot of fat and actually put on several pounds of muscle.
Then, like every female struggling for perfection, I hit a plateau. Ultra low-carb dieting and intense, revved up lifting + cardio may have put me in a state of metabolic damage that now, I can’t seem to get out of.
It has been SO HARD to shed these last few pounds and I’ve been struggling for too long now. It’s really frustrating to work so hard in the gym and not have the same physique that the same type of athletes in my field have. (I know, we’re not all the same, but I want to shed some excess poundage.) I also know that I probably have some metabolic damage and insulin resistance issues from my years of “dieting wrong.” I mean, I can train for hours a day, eat clean, go Paleo, etc., etc., but if my diet isn’t spot on ALL THE TIME, and I mean spot-freaking-on, I gain weight. Not muscle, fat. Jiggly fat. I know I’m hard on myself but I hate it. Shouldn’t I be able to enjoy a beer or two and couple slices of pizza this summer? Don’t tell me I’m the only athlete who splurges!
I know that this blog is meant to focus on being STRONG–physically and emotionally–proving that women can be badasses, and showing that STRENGTH is way sexier than the traditional qualities of what is considered “feminine.” I know that. This is just me…my experiment…and an attempt to lean up a little bit and see what happens. If you don’t care about physique, you can stop reading now.
So here’s what I’m doing:
Recently, I’ve been lifting like a powerlifter. And now, it’s time to cut like a powerlifter.
I’m going to follow Professional Powerlifter, Caitlyn Trout’s advice on how to cut weight safely for a powerlifting event. I’m not competing any time soon–just seeing how this might work for me. If it does work then I’ll know how to cut if/when I do compete, and it’ll give me a good post for you guys!
And I’m really hoping that this is going to help me shed a few pounds of fat (not just water weight, and no muscle!) so that I can break through this metabolic damage I did years ago. I do want to compete in some powerlifting and strongman/strongwoman contests, but I really don’t like the idea of having to “cut weight” for them. I’m hoping I can cut this time and see where it lands me. Then I can figure out where I need to be weight-wise and muscle-wise for comps and for my lifting and adjust from there.
Could this worsen my metabolic damage? I don’t actually think so. I think it will help because I’m NOT GOING TO WORK OUT during the toughest phase of the experiment. “Workout less and eat less” is supposed to be the way to fix metabolic damage and insulin resistance. Hopefully this will help!
I’m hoping to cut off about 8 pounds…safely. And I’m hoping that it’s a kick start to a more chiseled look in which I will maintain for as long as necessary…hopefully for a very long time!
So here goes nothing!
Day 1: Monday, July 28, 2014:
- 6am: coffee, black. Taught bootcamp class
- 7:30am: coffee, 1 tsp coconut oil
- 8am: taught another bootcamp class
- 9am: Conditioning workout: 5 rounds of 10 deadlift at 155# and 20 wall balls at 14#. Felt GREAT til the last round. Low back started to hurt. 🙁 Energy was pretty good.
- lots and lots and lots of water
- 1pm: ANS Performance HIT (high intensity thermogenic) capsule. I was starting to get hungry but had a desk shift and wanted to wait til after that to eat.
- 2pm: 4 oz turkey, 1/2 sweet potato, 3 oz green beans.
About 3 oz. green beans, 4 oz ground turkey, and 1/2 sweet potato. - 5:30pm: Protein shake
- 6:30-8: Lifted (PR’d my deadlift at 285 and strict pressed 85# three times) 😀
- 8p: Protein shake
- 8:30 Dinner: Chicken, mixed veggies, and the other half of my sweet potato
Dinner! This cutting thing seems more normal than not.
Then I added up my calories so far for the day and realized I was at a huge defecit. Oops. At this point I was under 800 calories. I think I should have eaten another turkey/veggie meal at some point during the day. So I had two TBS of all-natural peanut butter. I then fell asleep on the couch while Erik was watching an arm-wrestling tournament (he was fascinated by this…) and when I woke up alone some time past midnight, I had another TBS (or two?) of peanut butter before going to bed. I’m guessing I did come close to my 1200 calories for the day.
CALORIC INTAKE : About 1200
VITAMINS: 2 fish oil, 3 vitamin D, 1 vitamin E, 1 multi, 1 B-Complex
WATER: 1 whole freaking gallon. I peed SO much.
MOOD: GREAT! And I felt great lifting too!
Day 2: Tuesday July 29, 2014
I got up this morning and went downtown for a conditioning workout. I slept fine last night, btw. I think I averaged about 7+ hours. The workout was tougher than I expected:
20 Minutes: On all the odd minutes, row 15 calories. On all the even minutes, 5 handstand push-ups. I did NOT expect the push-ups to be the easiest part of the workout. OMG. I was DEAD when it was over. I had planned on staying and working on OLY lifts or maybe do a strongman workout but I was beat. I grabbed my gallon water jug and went back home!
So far today, I’ve had an accelerator shake: coffee, 1 tsp coconut oil, and 1/2 scoop protein. I did, however, pack TWO meals of turkey and veggies and sweet potatoes for work today so that I’m not at another deficit trying to eat peanut butter for my calories. (Although I’d more than love to eat PB all day long if I could.)
I had Erik take some before pics this morning, as well as weigh me so that I can give you some accurate before/after feedback. That will be posted at the end of this experiment in roughly two weeks!
STAY TUNED FOR MORE UPDATES! I’ll be posting more later this week/early next week, and then a final recap to let you know what happened.
Have any of you had to cut for a meet/comp before? Let me know your thoughts/opinions/suggestions/etc. in the comments below!
