Who is on a cut?

[cwd]

My weight has been freakishly consistent lately. 185.5 lbs, 5 mornings in a row.

I'm maintaining this week, so I'm not unhappy about this. But don't we expect more variation? I tested my scale, it's not broken.

[TimK]

My weight has been freakishly consistent lately. 185.5 lbs, 5 mornings in a row.

I'm maintaining this week, so I'm not unhappy about this. But don't we expect more variation? I tested my scale, it's not broken.

Lots of scales have a snap-to "feature" where it will give you the same reading if the measured weight is within a certain margin. It's basically designed to make them appear to be more consistent than they actually are. That could be part of it.

[quark]

My weight has been freakishly consistent lately. 185.5 lbs, 5 mornings in a row.

I'm maintaining this week, so I'm not unhappy about this. But don't we expect more variation? I tested my scale, it's not broken.

My weight often varies by approximately 2 pounds per day. On my current cut, it rarely varies by more the 0.2 pounds per day.

I weigh myself three times, holding something heavy between weighings to avoid the snap-to feature.

Very odd.

[cwd]

My scale's actual resolution in the 180-200 lb range is about one pound, but it displays tenths.

I guess you could call this a "snap-to" feature.

[Wayne]

Regarding compliance strategies, one thing that really helps me is that I don't eat my first meal until 11:00am or Noon usually. I'm not hungry in the morning so I just wait. After that I eat every 3-4 hours, four meals total, and I'm never ravenous or anything like that. If I ate first thing in the morning and my last meal was around 6pm I would have a much harder time avoiding snacking in the evening.

I still eat/drink breakfast (always a protein shake with loads of extras thrown in), but manage to have a snack with my 11 am coffee - generally a couple of chocolate biscuits - and always save calories for some post-dinner ice cream. I actually attribute my dieting success to these snacks, sort of kind of. Basically just avoiding the feeling of sacrifice / voluntary hardship (even though it's refining).

Hey DCM - I think you mentioned you were in the UK and the lack of access to blood work. I got a voucher code for Thriva which is a blood testing service so got an analysis done for around £20. If you’re interested it might be worth checking them out.

[DCM]

Regarding compliance strategies, one thing that really helps me is that I don't eat my first meal until 11:00am or Noon usually. I'm not hungry in the morning so I just wait. After that I eat every 3-4 hours, four meals total, and I'm never ravenous or anything like that. If I ate first thing in the morning and my last meal was around 6pm I would have a much harder time avoiding snacking in the evening.

I still eat/drink breakfast (always a protein shake with loads of extras thrown in), but manage to have a snack with my 11 am coffee - generally a couple of chocolate biscuits - and always save calories for some post-dinner ice cream. I actually attribute my dieting success to these snacks, sort of kind of. Basically just avoiding the feeling of sacrifice / voluntary hardship (even though it's refining).

Hey DCM - I think you mentioned you were in the UK and the lack of access to blood work. I got a voucher code for Thriva which is a blood testing service so got an analysis done for around £20. If you’re interested it might be worth checking them out.

Thanks mate, will check it out!

[ch]

I’m on a cut.

Haven’t started counting calories yet. I’ve almost completely quit drinking, which is enough for now. I’m down almost 9 lbs. in 3 weeks. (219 to 210.4). I weigh in every morning and have a overengineered spreadsheet with a rolling average to track things. This helps smooth out the fluctuations.

However I tore my MCL Monday, which has thrown a wrench in my training and conditioning plans. I managed to lose 4 lbs. since then, probably due to water weight fluctuations and diminished appetite.

Counting calories has always been the hard part for me. I’m addicted to fried food.

[quark]

@ch I'll see you a rolling average (I use a seven day average) and raise you a chart of that average over time.

I also track and chart waist size (to the nearest half inch, not averaged).

[ch]

Same here. I only measure my waist weekly, though. Learned a lot about Google Sheets making the chart. I have lots of fun conditionals and color coding.

[MPhelps]

Been cutting since around May 1st. I was around 205-207 then. This morning I was 168. Trying to lose at least another 8 lbs. I found that I was getting fat and my lifts were going backwards so I didn't have anything to lose. No cardio to speak of and was having a hard time with stairs for the first time since I did SSNLP in 2014 and I gained 50 lbs.

So I started walking a few miles a day 5 days a week and cut out the nightly Doritos or combos binge and one of my 52g of protein shakes. Then I took out dairy, then eggs and then all meat at the end of June. Lost 23 lbs since then. I've been reading (proteinaholic by Dr. Garth Brooks and YouTube vids) a lot about protein overconsumption, and I've cut out all protein supplementation and just get it from beans, rice and oats. Can't speak about the effect of that because of the cut causing my lifts to go down in general. I do Olympic lifting, so huge protein supplementation doesn't mean as much as in powerlifting.

Intermittent fasting is pretty effective, but I can't keep it up for more than a couple of weeks at a time.

I've also tracked calories with myfitnesspal since 2016, so that's pretty second nature to me. I mostly just looked at protein and total cals. Around 2700 cals and 225g protein. My fat was high and carbs low at below 150g a day. Now I do around 1700 cals with carbs at 330g, protein at 50g and fats at 15g. It's amazing how much salt I was consuming before, and how low my potassium and fiber was. Now I'm at about 55g of fiber and 4000mg potassium. Sodium around 1750 down from 4700 of so.

I've taken a kitchen sink approach gradually taking things out so it's hard to say what exactly has worked, but my knee tendonitis/arthritis is gone, I'm sleeping much better, and my cardio is great. I can bike about 20 miles without a problem, and still lift three times a week.

[TimK]

Then I took out dairy, then eggs and then all meat at the end of June. Lost 23 lbs since then. I've been reading (proteinaholic by Dr. Garth Brooks and YouTube vids) a lot about protein overconsumption, and I've cut out all protein supplementation and just get it from beans, rice and oats. Can't speak about the effect of that because of the cut causing my lifts to go down in general.

Maybe your lifts wouldn't have gone down as much if you had kept your protein intake high?

[MPhelps]

Eh chicken or the egg. My lifts weren't going anywhere before the cut began when I was keeping it in the bro range of 1g per lb. There's only so many calories I can eat, so high carb is what I'm doing, broscience and whey supplement funded science be damned.

[PatrickDB]

The evidence that a high protein intake is for important strength and hypertrophy outcomes seems pretty ironclad. I'm curious what scared you so much that you cut out all meat, eggs, and dairy. I don't see any good reason to not eat those foods (excepting the ethical ones, which may be under-appreciated).

[JohnHelton]

Greg Nuckols on this topic: https://www.strongerbyscience.com/athle ... in-intake/

[MPhelps]

The evidence that a high protein intake is for important strength and hypertrophy outcomes seems pretty ironclad. I'm curious what scared you so much that you cut out all meat, eggs, and dairy. I don't see any good reason to not eat those foods (excepting the ethical ones, which may be under-appreciated).

Cardio vascular health. Plants have complete proteins. Not scared, just trying something different at age 43. High protein wasn't working. The list of reasons goes on but I'm wholly unwilling to argue an unpopular viewpoint. There are plenty of places to read about plant based diets.

[JohnHelton]

The evidence that a high protein intake is for important strength and hypertrophy outcomes seems pretty ironclad. I'm curious what scared you so much that you cut out all meat, eggs, and dairy. I don't see any good reason to not eat those foods (excepting the ethical ones, which may be under-appreciated).

Cardio vascular health. Plants have complete proteins. Not scared, just trying something different at age 43. High protein wasn't working. The list of reasons goes on but I'm wholly unwilling to argue an unpopular viewpoint. There are plenty of places to read about plant based diets.

Do what works for you. Seems like you are happy with the results.

[PatrickDB]

The evidence that a high protein intake is for important strength and hypertrophy outcomes seems pretty ironclad. I'm curious what scared you so much that you cut out all meat, eggs, and dairy. I don't see any good reason to not eat those foods (excepting the ethical ones, which may be under-appreciated).

Cardio vascular health. Plants have complete proteins. Not scared, just trying something different at age 43. High protein wasn't working. The list of reasons goes on but I'm wholly unwilling to argue an unpopular viewpoint. There are plenty of places to read about plant based diets.

Most of those places are of dubious scientific quality. (Though of course fruits and vegetables are an essential component of a balanced diet.) I'm not trying to start an argument, but let me gently suggest you might be receiving some incorrect info, especially if you're getting told that protein alone is wrecking your cardiovascular health.

Certain sources of protein may high in saturated fat, which in my understanding is no bueno for heart health, but that's why we have skim milk and whey protein.

[michael]

I'm also too old for the 8 ounces of animal protein 5x per day bro-science bullshit.

I took a more moderate approach, 3 ounces animal protein 4x per day.

This is about 20 gm of high quality protein.
I get an additional 10+ gm of lower quality plant protein from grains and vegetables with each meal.

It might not be optimal, but it's good enough.

[broseph]

I'm also too old for the 8 ounces of animal protein 5x per day bro-science bullshit.

Are people saying this? 2.5 lbs of meat per day?

I took a more moderate approach, 3 ounces animal protein 4x per day.

This is about 20 gm of high quality protein.
I get an additional 10+ gm of lower quality plant protein from grains and vegetables with each meal.

Pretty sure this is exactly right.

[michael]

Are people saying this? 2.5 lbs of meat per day?

Maybe a bit high, but 6-8 oz of animal per meal is bro-approved. Usually half is whey, so not all meat.

Andy recommended 6-8 oz of animal per meal in his article "Building a Simple Diet for Mass".