Who is on a cut?

[mgil]

*not a diet guru*

I wrote some of this in my log, figured it might be more useful here?

At the end of August I was at-sea doing some research stuff. My shift was midnight to noon and my job was simply oversight. That oversight mainly consisted of me logging (manually in a notebook) sampling measurements that happened once every one to two hours and took between 5 and 15 minutes to do. In other words, at least 75% of my time was catatonic. I had lots of time to think. Sometimes the starlink connection worked, sometimes not.

Concurrently, this was my first time at sea. The boat wasn’t very large (150’ long, 33’ beam, 10’ draft - a “mud boat”) and at times the seas were enough to induce some nausea. There’s more details there, but they are unnecessary to cover.

So I was eating pretty light as a result of nausea and also eating pretty clean. Think oatmeal and meat. I might have the occasional “fun” food but it was minimal. Might I add, the cook on this boat was excellent.

While out at sea, I also had a really bad gout flare up. So now I’m doubly miserable and I had zero of my own NSAIDs, in particular indomethacin, the one that normally does the trick. The boat did have 200mg ibuprofen. But I capped that at one pill a day based on prior bouts with gastritis.

Hopefully I’ve framed this all pretty well to this point. I’m in truly international waters, no proper meds, diet restricted, working overnights (kinda), and generally miserable. Let’s add to that this boat only has 3’ of freeboard and I’m in tropical waters. It’s broiling hot and my feet are constantly wet.

Knowing enough about gout, I decide that the first thing I need to do is simply purge my body of that pesky urea or whatever. So I drive my water intake way up to about 2 gallons a day. I clean up the diet a bit more with less meat and mainly salads. After about 3 days of that and a whopping 200mg of vitamin I before bed (with Dramamine) the gout starts to clear and I’m feeling generally better. Oh, by the way, my knees were still in rough shape from trying to play rugby the months before.

Again, lots of time on my hands. So I start considering my life as a whole and what I need to prioritize. One of them is getting significantly lighter. It’s not aesthetically driven, but rather the reason my knees, feet, ankles, and even shoulders are constantly angry is because I’m too goddamn fat. It’s time to change my fucking attitude towards food in a way that’s healthy and sustainable.

Time still being available, I start digging into Ozempic and whatnot. I’m looking at the data and articles that are out there. It really does boil down to appetite suppression via some fancy mechanism. I’m glad it exists. I see the secondary benefits, like better lipid panels and other health markers. The data support that using Ozempic or similar influences these things.

However, knowing that the mechanism is the key and those other effects are simply because people aren’t eating like shit, I start the focus on what I need to change internally to suppress my own hunger. I’ve lost weight before but I gain it back. What’s the fucking problem I can’t get past?

Well, I have to stop treating a diet like punishment. Meals of cottage cheese and broccoli are bullshit. I need to eat “regular” food. Fast food needs to be an option in a pinch. I don’t wanna avoid restaurants. What can I do?

It’s pretty simple. I need to eat smarter. Smarter means cleaner when possible and simply less. It’s also okay to not finish a meal. I don’t fucking care anymore about those starving kids in Africa. I don’t need to finish my plate. Leaving food behind might be adding days to my life. Specifically ones that are enjoyable.

I can have a cookie. I can enjoy it. Enjoying the cookie doesn’t mean I need to eat 4 of them. Fuck you mom, I don’t need to “show appreciation” by being a glutton.

Anyhow, the basic recipe I’ve found is that cleaner eating, portion control, and staying hydrated (slayyyyyy kweeeeenzzz) is really about all I need to do, for me, personally. I’m not counting macros. I have a loose estimate of how many calories I can eat at a meal and I aim for 600-800. I don’t know how accurate I am.

The only other thing I’ve done is up my step count. A lot.
Mainly this is from an additional 20-30 minute walk every night. It’s not that hard. On the weekends, I start early. Like today, I walked about two miles in 45 minutes before 8 am.

As it stands now, I’m getting close to 30 pounds of weight loss since late August. My energy levels are way up. Morning wood is way harder (if you’re a male and you don’t use this as a metric, you should - it’s an easy diagnostic). I haven’t been penalized too bad as far as strength goes but I’m not too concerned. Upper body work is shit because of my shoulder. That’s okay also.

In closing, yes I’m on a cut, but it’s really more of a “eat right you idiot and get to a sustainable weight for the remainder of your days” kind of diet.

Just thought I’d share for anyone else who’s struggling. I hope you can all achieve your goals and live a long time.

[broseph]

Good stuff, @mgil. And congrats on your weight loss.

I like to eat the same "base" foods/meals whether I'm cutting, maintaining, or bulking, and add or subtract layers depending on my goals. No matter the season, I'm eating tasty nutritious food and occasional treats.

I've seen Hanley mention the morning wood vitality test. I'd love to see sources on this (genuinely curious because I notice a correlation as well).

[Skid]

Morning wood, what's that

[JimRiley]

Fantastic post, @mgil. There are lessons there for everybody, especially thinking through how to achieve your goal, and then getting that shit done. I tend to have the reverse problem from yours, namely trying not to lose weight, but I've done some cuts too, like when I regained my senses post-SS. Either way the mindset is very similar, particularly in managing the volume and composition of your eating without programming it so precisely that every small deviation feels like a failure.

I hope this journey pays off for you in a big way with injury reduction and better overall health, and improves the gout too!

[mgil]

Appreciate that, @JimRiley!

[asdf]

I’m getting close to 30 pounds of weight loss since late August. My energy levels are way up.

Congratulations!

Morning wood is way harder (if you’re a male and you don’t use this as a metric, you should - it’s an easy diagnostic).

Curious exactly how you think about that as a metric. I tend to think of it as an indication of some mix of testosterone levels and how recovered I am from training, but that's just my bro-science take.

I can have a cookie.... Enjoying the cookie doesn’t mean I need to eat 4 of them.

I find it nearly impossible to eat just one cookie, unfortunately. For me, it's much easier to just abstain altogether.

[mgil]

@asdf, my take on the morning wood is pretty much yours with cardio health mixed in. In other words, are my test levels okay, am I getting enough rest, and am I keeping my cardiopulmonary system in good shape? If yes, then I should be waking up with a boner.

[slowmotion]

Congrats on the weight loss, @mgil! Just keep going!

For me, the turning point was when my doctor told me straight to my face what would happen if I didn't loose a lot of body weight. That scared me.

So I thought about for a little while and decided that I was going to change the way I was eating and that I was going to keep doing that for the rest of my life.

So my body weight is down from 126 kg to about 86 kg. And I feel much better.

[asdf]

[boner thoughts]

I'll share an experience, in case anyone is interested.

I recently dropped 10% of my bodyweight to fit into a lower weight-class for a competition. This was actual weight loss, not including a few additional pounds from a low-residue diet and a very mild water cut.

I was already pretty lean, so it wasn't easy. The last several weeks of the cut, I had zero nocturnal or morning wood and zero thoughts about sex (though I did think and dream about cookies quite a bit). Went on a small binge immediately after the competition and have been in a slight caloric surplus ever since. It took about three weeks (!) before morning wood and pre-cut levels of sexual interest returned. It was like a switch was flipped. One day, nothing. The next day, everything's back to normal.

I wonder what flipped the switched? The amount of time in caloric surplus? Regaining some level of bodyfat? Obviously, the two are related, but mechanistically, it's possible they could be untangled.

Anyone else experienced this on a cut?

[mgil]

Congrats on the weight loss, mgil! Just keep going!

For me, the turning point was when my doctor told me straight to my face what would happen if I didn't loose a lot of body weight. That scared me.

So I thought about for a little while and decided that I was going to change the way I was eating and that I was going to keep doing that for the rest of my life.

So my body weight is down from 126 kg to about 86 kg. And I feel much better.

Jan, you continue to inspire! I didn’t want to wait for the doctor to berate me, and I don’t know if they would’ve. Your attitude towards food is what I’m adopting. I don’t know if I’ll get down to 86kg, but 110-120 would be a huge improvement for me. I started around 146kg, if my math is right.

[DanCR]

[boner thoughts]

I'll share an experience, in case anyone is interested.

I recently dropped 10% of my bodyweight to fit into a lower weight-class for a competition. This was actual weight loss, not including a few additional pounds from a low-residue diet and a very mild water cut.

I was already pretty lean, so it wasn't easy. The last several weeks of the cut, I had zero nocturnal or morning wood and zero thoughts about sex (though I did think and dream about cookies quite a bit). Went on a small binge immediately after the competition and have been in a slight caloric surplus ever since. It took about three weeks (!) before morning wood and pre-cut levels of sexual interest returned. It was like a switch was flipped. One day, nothing. The next day, everything's back to normal.

I wonder what flipped the switched? The amount of time in caloric surplus? Regaining some level of bodyfat? Obviously, the two are related, but mechanistically, it's possible they could be untangled.

Anyone else experienced this on a cut?

There's this YouTube lifter kid, Alex Eubank, who I'd never heard of until a few weeks ago when he announced that he was going on gear. It came to my attention because a few natural bodybuilders who I follow put out reaction videos. In watching a few, I ended up catching what I believe is most of his original video. It's pretty deluded and cringy, but I'll give him that I somewhat understand the trap that he felt that he was in: Social media is his job, and part of that job is staying ripped year round. If he's not ripped (or gets a haircut), he's got no product. That presented him with two problems - first, that bulking as a natural lifter never would be an option, and second, that staying as lean as he was made him miserable. He specifically mentioned having no sex drive and feeling like less of a man. He views making the switch to geared lifting as a means of checking all boxes at once - remaining ripped, while also getting bigger, while also being able to actually eat food. He also mentioned a Cialis prescription to go along with the gear, at 24 years old. Not gonna end well.

[TimK]

[boner thoughts]

I'll share an experience, in case anyone is interested.

I recently dropped 10% of my bodyweight to fit into a lower weight-class for a competition. This was actual weight loss, not including a few additional pounds from a low-residue diet and a very mild water cut.

I was already pretty lean, so it wasn't easy. The last several weeks of the cut, I had zero nocturnal or morning wood and zero thoughts about sex (though I did think and dream about cookies quite a bit). Went on a small binge immediately after the competition and have been in a slight caloric surplus ever since. It took about three weeks (!) before morning wood and pre-cut levels of sexual interest returned. It was like a switch was flipped. One day, nothing. The next day, everything's back to normal.

I wonder what flipped the switched? The amount of time in caloric surplus? Regaining some level of bodyfat? Obviously, the two are related, but mechanistically, it's possible they could be untangled.

Anyone else experienced this on a cut?

I’ve never been that lean personally but those are well known side effects that most natural bodybuilders experience by the end of their contest prep. The Eric Helms has talked about this in a million different places, here’s one that came up when I searched YouTube:

[alek]

[boner thoughts]

I'll share an experience, in case anyone is interested.

I recently dropped 10% of my bodyweight to fit into a lower weight-class for a competition. This was actual weight loss, not including a few additional pounds from a low-residue diet and a very mild water cut.

I was already pretty lean, so it wasn't easy. The last several weeks of the cut, I had zero nocturnal or morning wood and zero thoughts about sex (though I did think and dream about cookies quite a bit). Went on a small binge immediately after the competition and have been in a slight caloric surplus ever since. It took about three weeks (!) before morning wood and pre-cut levels of sexual interest returned. It was like a switch was flipped. One day, nothing. The next day, everything's back to normal.

I wonder what flipped the switched? The amount of time in caloric surplus? Regaining some level of bodyfat? Obviously, the two are related, but mechanistically, it's possible they could be untangled.

Anyone else experienced this on a cut?

There's this YouTube lifter kid, Alex Eubank, who I'd never heard of until a few weeks ago when he announced that he was going on gear. It came to my attention because a few natural bodybuilders who I follow put out reaction videos. In watching a few, I ended up catching what I believe is most of his original video. It's pretty deluded and cringy, but I'll give him that I somewhat understand the trap that he felt that he was in: Social media is his job, and part of that job is staying ripped year round. If he's not ripped (or gets a haircut), he's got no product. That presented him with two problems - first, that bulking as a natural lifter never would be an option, and second, that staying as lean as he was made him miserable. He specifically mentioned having no sex drive and feeling like less of a man. He views making the switch to geared lifting as a means of checking all boxes at once - remaining ripped, while also getting bigger, while also being able to actually eat food. He also mentioned a Cialis prescription to go along with the gear, at 24 years old. Not gonna end well.

Holy shit on a stick. Absolutely delusional. I reiterate my opinion that social media is the debil.

[asdf]

those are well known side effects that most natural bodybuilders experience by the end of their contest prep. The Eric Helms has talked about this in a million different places, here’s one that came up when I searched YouTube:

Thanks for the link. I'll give it a listen. I should mention that I was also clearly too lean in the sense that it impaired my athletic performance. In absolute terms, obviously, but also in relative terms. For instance, I could more easily snatch my bodyweight when I was at my original weight than I could at the lower weight.

[Hardartery]

those are well known side effects that most natural bodybuilders experience by the end of their contest prep. The Eric Helms has talked about this in a million different places, here’s one that came up when I searched YouTube:

Thanks for the link. I'll give it a listen. I should mention that I was also clearly too lean in the sense that it impaired my athletic performance. In absolute terms, obviously, but also in relative terms. For instance, I could more easily snatch my bodyweight when I was at my original weight than I could at the lower weight.

Well, this may be obvious but I'm going to say it anyway. Once you get below a certain BF% combined with insufficient caloric intake you test levels drop off, and by off I mean you can become essentially non-functioning out of energy conservation. No test mean no estrogen in men, and also minimal to low catecholamines (Thus the depression many also see at the end of prep).

[omaniphil]

...
Just thought I’d share for anyone else who’s struggling. I hope you can all achieve your goals and live a long time.

Well done!

I know you mentioned you looked at GLP-1s. If you ever find it difficult to maintain the weight loss, its always an option. I've been on tirzepatide for about a year and a half now, and it has changed my life. I lost 90lbs over the course of about 10 months starting in July 2023, going from 290 -> 200lbs. The last 6 months I've easily maintained it, and was able to drop the dosage down to keep the side effects minimal.

The knee and hip pain is gone, I've been able to stop taking blood pressure medication, and I just found out today after doing a sleep study earlier this week, that my sleep apnea is gone. My strength suffered with such a large weight loss, but I'm slowly building back up.

It's not covered by my insurance, but there are ways of getting access to it without paying full price which is always nice.

[mgil]

...
Just thought I’d share for anyone else who’s struggling. I hope you can all achieve your goals and live a long time.

Well done!

I know you mentioned you looked at GLP-1s. If you ever find it difficult to maintain the weight loss, its always an option. I've been on tirzepatide for about a year and a half now, and it has changed my life. I lost 90lbs over the course of about 10 months starting in July 2023, going from 290 -> 200lbs. The last 6 months I've easily maintained it, and was able to drop the dosage down to keep the side effects minimal.

The knee and hip pain is gone, I've been able to stop taking blood pressure medication, and I just found out today after doing a sleep study earlier this week, that my sleep apnea is gone. My strength suffered with such a large weight loss, but I'm slowly building back up.

It's not covered by my insurance, but there are ways of getting access to it without paying full price which is always nice.

This is awesome to hear!

I’m definitely open to preventative medicine. I’m wanting to run out this course as much as I can naturally just to err on the side of caution. I think I can do it, but I’m not afraid to seek out help now to keep the ball rolling.