Below is my training schedule. 3 days a week, in and out of the gym in under 40 minutes (warm up included) as long as I don’t spend too much time chatting between sets with co-workers and gym members.

Day A (Sunday):

A1) Trap Bar Deadlift – 3 x 3
A2) Weighted Chins ups – 3 x 5,6,8
B1) Gluteham Raise – 3 x 10
B2) Weighted Hyper Extension – 3 x 15

Day B (Tuesday):

A1) Weighted Dips – 3 x 2-8
A2) Weighted Hyper Extension – 3 x10
B1) Trap Bar Row – 3 x 8, 1 x 10-15
B2)  Ab Wheel Rollouts – 3 x 10
C) Cable Face Pulls – 3 x 15

Day C (Thursday):

A1) Front Squat – 3 x 5
A2) Weighted Pushups – 3 x 10
B1) Band Hip Thrust – 3 x 15-20
B2) Seated Cable Row – 3 x 15-20

Diet first, training second.

Think of your diet as a box. How much, or how little, you’re eating, will determine the boundaries of the box; how big or small it is. The bigger the box, the more stuff you can put inside without it spilling over into the streets and having people point in your general direction while laughing as you scramble to pick up your unmentionables.

Now that “stuff” I talked about earlier, that’s the training. When eating at maintenance or above, you can get away with a lot more training wise without getting run down or halting your progress than you would while dieting. My diet-determined box is small, which doesn’t leave much room for a lot of sets and reps, so I’ve only included big lifts that will give me the most training bang for my time & effort invested, with enough accessory exercises to add a little extra emphasis to areas I want to focus on (upper back, booty and core strength).

Maintaining (or increasing) your strength while on a diet is an ideal situation, since doing so is a pretty solid indicator that you’re not losing muscle mass. To keep it as simple as possible, I give myself a number of reps to hit on the big compound lifts and if I hit that number and feel good about it, I increase the weight by 5-10lbs during the next session, staying there until I hit that rep number again. Since I’m eating like a baby bird, my strength gains are nowhere near where they would be if I were eating well, but I’m cool with that. Strength maintenance is my goal, so any gain is icing on the delicious cake of Sexification.

For cardio, I do nothing but walk 45-60min on my off days (or a random game of Dance Central), and I only do this because I love reading and being on the treadmill for an hour gives me some quiet time to do just that.

So far I’ve had a nice increase of strength on all my exercises, but the workouts have definitely become more taxing in terms of effort. I’m not run down by any means, but nor am I super excited for a set of heavy chin ups and deadlifts like I was pre-dieting. In light of that, this weeks training will be the last where I increase the weight in any of the exercises, and going forward I’ll just keep everything the same and ride those numbers out until I’m done dieting.

Here are some take away points for YOU:

1 – Focus on the big training rocks. Nothing wrong with included other exercises, but make sure you have your basis covered to a certain degree.

2 – Less is more. Your recovery is already compromised to a degree on a diet, so do less while making sure that the work you do in the gym is meaningful. I recommend training 3 days a week max. Use the extra time this saves you to enjoy your life outside of the gym.

The next Sexification update won’t be until April 1st, but starting next Sunday I’ll be undergoing a more strict diet for 2 weeks to finish off this phase, so I’ll be talking all about that.

Weight: 196.6

I’m a huge proponent of IIFYM (if it fits your macros), with the main reason being that most diets fail from a combination of the physical – occasional hunger, etc – and the mental. Anything that we can do to minimize the perceived difficulties will go a long way towards success in the long run, and this approach does just that (for both me and my clients).

There are no off limit foods. If you want it, you can have it, as long as you hold yourself accountable to the decision and fit it into your calorie budget for the day. This kind of freedom drop kicks the mental side of dieting in face and can change the way you think about dieting (and your relationship with food) forever – triple win.

Here’s a sample of my usual meal schedule.

Training Day:

Pre-Workout: Usually a scoop of Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs). Sometimes it will be a glass of milk or half of a protein bar. All depends on how I feel.

Post-Workout: 1lb of meat with 2 cups of oats, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar & 1 tablespoon of honey.

Meal #2: 2 cups of milk with 100g worth of protein powder and 2 cups of frozen berries.

Meal #3: 6 eggs, 2 oz of cheese, 4 pieces of beef bacon & 1lb of broccoli

Non-Training Day

Meal #1: 2 cups of milk with 100g worth of protein powder and an apple (or no fruit, depends on my mood).

Meal #2:  8oz of meat.

Meal #3:  1lb of meat with a separate plate of veggies.

Burgers (85/10 – 96/4% lean depending on the day)
Steak (sirloin tip usually, but ribeye if I’m feeling particularly manly)
Eggs (6 is the minimum – anything less would be uncivilized and a waste of my skillet)
Butter
Fish (tilapia, salmon)
Pork chops
Bacon
Cheese
Chicken (breasts and thighs)
Protein Powder (CINNAMON ROLL FLAVORED!)
Broccoli
Peas
Corn
Green Beans
Oats
Honey
Brown Sugar
Cinnabons
Milk
Quest Protein Bars
Rice
Apples
Oranges
Blueberries
Strawberries
Ribs
Ice cream
Shrimp
Octopus

Notice a trend here?

Most of my foods are minimally processed, but I also make room for treats if I want them. I also make sure that I’m only eating foods that I enjoy the taste of. I’ve learned the hard way that food that “sounds good” for me to eat will just end up going bad in the fridge, making both my wallet and soul depressed. I’ve had a carton of egg whites sit in the back of the fridge for more than a year once – true story.

Also I pretty much eat whenever I want, subscribing to no pre-determined number of meals I need to get in for the day.  Some days I eat 3 meals and on days I’m feeling more glutenous I’ll eat just once during the day.  Hitting your calories and macros by the end of the day is what matters the most from a physique standpoint.

Greetings and salutations!

My good friend JC & I just released the second episode of our wonderfully swell and informative fitness podcast. In this episode we cover:

How to maintain muscle while dieting.

Program design and modifications for the individual.

How to break through strength training plateaus.

What music we life and chill too.

In other news, we’re still at a loss for what to call the podcast! If you have any input or suggestions, we would love to hear them.

To listen, you can either click play below or right click and save here.

You can also download our very first episode by right clicking and saving here

[audio:http://jcandroglawfitnesspodcast.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/jcdeen_roglaw_podcast_2.mp3]

I also talked about microloading as a form of progress, so if you’re interested in ordering some of those plates click this link: http://www.mcmaster.com/#catalog/118/3217/=ggpbvp

To find them, hit “ctrl-f” on your PC or “cmd-f” on your Mac and paste this number into the search field: 90108A046

Thanks for the support!

Before you start moving in any direction – putting on weight or trying to lose it – you first need to determine where you are.

It all starts with maintenance (how many calories you need to maintain your current weight within a 2-4lbs).

Step 1: Figure out your BMR.

BMR stands for Basal Metabolic Rate, a fancy term for the amount of calories it would take to maintain your body weight if you were to enter some type of bear-like hibernation, not moving at all.

There are a few different formulas for figuring this out, but since the numbers are going to have to be adjusted based on real world results, keeping it simple as pie works best, and this calculator does just that: http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

Step 2: Factor in activity

Using the number you got from the calculator, you would now factor in your activity in order to arrive at that maintenance number: ====> activity multipliers.

BMR = 2120

I train 2-3 days per week, walking an hour 2-3x a week, but other than that I’m not very active & am either training clients or sitting at the computer (aka not much activity). I’d then check the activity multiplier chart and see which one best fit in with current situation.

2120 (BMR) x 1.375 (multiplier) = 2915 calories

Note: The activity multipliers can sometimes spit out a number that’s a bit too high (which it is for me in the above instance), so don’t be afraid to use a lower number that’s not on the page. Test for 2-3 weeks & adjust on based on results.

I feel my number is a bit too high given my activity, so I played with the numbers and below are my adjusted calculations.

2120 (BMR) x 1.28 (adjusted multiplier) = 2714 calories

Step 3: Adjust For Goals

Now that I have my theoretical baseline, I can now plot out my training day and off day calories.

In my case, I’m going for straight up fat loss at the expense of everything else – muscle or strength  gains are not in my plans at all. If I gain any of those two, it will simply be icing on the cake. The goal is to maintain what strength I do have until I’m done dieting down.

With that determined, I subtracted 500ish calories from my maintenance calories to determine workout day calorie intake (2195) and a little more than 1,000 calories from to determine my off day calorie intake (1660).

As you can see, I’m venturing pretty far from my maintenance levels, adding up to a pretty big calorie deficit. Please note that the bigger the deficit, the smarter you need to be about diet breaks and refeeds (check here for a great explanation as to what those are and why they’re important).

It all comes down to this: how fast do you want it, and how much of a deficit can you handle day in and day out?

I wouldn’t recommend big deficits like this for someone who is prone to food binges – slow and steady often is the best way to go in those cases.

For someone looking to lose fat at a slower pace (or increase strength and muscle mass), they would ease up on the big calorie deficit and add more calories to both their training days and off days, adjusting based on their results.

Step 4: Fill in with macros

Note: scroll down to the bottom of this post to see my macros & calorie intake.

Protein: 1 gram/lb of body weight is a decent starting point for fat loss, but in order to ensure maintenance of muscle mass I like to go a bit higher (1.1 – 1.2 grams/lb of body weight). The further you venture from maintenance (and the longer you’re in those periods) the more protein you’re going to need to make sure you don’t end up a smaller version of your former self at the end of the dieting process. This means your intake could vary anywhere from 1.1 – 1.5 grams/lb of body weight.

I set mine at 1.15 for the sake if ease and comfort.

Fat: I love eggs, cheese, ice cream, full fat dairy, bacon and fattier cuts of meat, and on a diet I would much rather have more of these than loads of potatoes, pasta & rice, and my macros reflect this as I skewed my numbers more towards fat on both training and off days. Coupled with all the protein, it helps keep me full longer and just tastes downright delicious.

Carbs: This was a personal preference decision. Large amount of carbs make me sleepy, even fruit if I eat way too much of it at once, so I kept them relatively low on my training days and very low on my off days, allowing me to enjoy more delicious fat while still getting in just enough to make sure that my workouts are productive and adequate recovery still takes place. Since I’m refeeding once a week, this isn’t a problem for me.

In general, you want to cycle your carbohydrates, having more of them when they’re needed (workout days) and less of them when you don’t (off days). As a result, fat also generally decreases significantly on workout days and increases on off days.

1st update

Questions? Concerns? Mean comments that make me want to go cry in the corner for all eternity? Drop them below in the comment section!

 

For the past few months I’ve just been eating anything that I’ve wanted, loosely tracking calories and macros, but for the most part not really caring how much I ate – lots of ice cream, steak, ribs, fruit, pasta and the occasional Cinnabon.

Training has been whenever I’ve felt like it – sometimes 1x a week, but usually 2x with a couple of challenges throw in for fun. Simply put I’ve been maintaining my results with as little time as necessary, but today marks the the day that I finally get off my butt cheeks and decide to actually get moving towards my own personal Sexification goals for several reasons.

1. I’ll be speaking on a panel along with Fitocracy at PAX East in Boston on April 6th entitled Gaming and Fitness – A Surprisingly Awesome Marriage, so I want to come in looking as Sexified as I can.

2. Pursuing a solid physique goal helps keep me on track in other areas of my life as well.

3. I want to show you, live & in the flesh, that getting the body that you want doesn’t have to be difficult at all (and it can actually be more fun than a box of kittens playing with a box of puppies playing with a box of pandas).

4. It gives me a fun reason to keep myself accountable along with my awesome friend Sohee Lee on her own Sexification journey.

My goal is simple: to look and feel as great as I can over the next 12 weeks, with April 6th being a nice checkpoint.

At my current weight, I have about 30-35lbs to lose, and I’m giving myself  8-9 months to knock it all out in a leisurely manner.

Here is my diet breakdown, with the logic and how I accomplish to be the subject of an upcoming post:

Training Days

240g protein
75g fat
140g carbs
2195 calories

Off Days
240g protein
60g fat
40g carbs
1660 calories
This is on top of getting in an hour of activity that I love on off days (walking, hiking, dancing, practicing kung-fu moves, fighting along with Bruce Lee movies, etc).

Every Sunday I’ll be updating with pictures and talking about what I’m doing training wise, what I’m eating, my calorie intake and how I’m varying it and pretty much anything else that I think will be helpful.

More importantly, I’ll be covering what YOU want to know about the transformation process and how you can apply it to your own situation, so ask away in the comment section below!

Starting weight as of 2/18/2012: 210.4lbs