Since the last update I’ve been experimenting with a modified version of one the most effective ways to lose the most amount of fat in the least amount of time – a protein sparing modified fast (PSMF for short).

When dieting to lose fat, you want to keep your protein levels high enough to preserve muscle mass while still maintaining a weekly calorie deficit. The problem is that the further you venture from your maintenance calories without returning to, or close to, those levels, the higher the risk of muscle loss if you don’t match that decrease in calories with more protein.

Think of fat loss as a game of tag, with maintenance being your “home base”. The further you get from base, the more in danger you are of getting tagged, aka muscle loss (and getting tagged SUCKS DRAGON TAIL).

A PSMF diet bypasses this problem by providing very high levels of protein and, well…not much else. In order to create the largest deficit possible, there simply isn’t room for many calories coming from other sources. Also note that for someone who is already reasonably lean,  a diet like this is only supposed to be used in the short term in order to prevent possible side metabolic side effects. The more fat the that you have to lose, the longer that something like this can be maintained.

My diet from Sun-Thursday:

100g protein shake, 1 cup of 1% milk and 1 cup wat
2lbs chicken breast
1-2lbs of steamed broccoli
3 grams of fish oil
1 daily multivitamin

Pretty bland, but it’s the nature of the diet.

After Thursday I got mentally fatigued and decided to end it prematurely (I planned on doing it for 2 weeks), eating at maintenance up until Sunday night, where I weighed in at 192.

With my speaking event coming up on Friday and having lost 18lbs in 6 weeks while increasing my strength, it’s safe to say that I’ve accomplished the main goal of this leg of the journey. My long term goal is still to hit 180 or so, but I’ll take more of a relaxed approach and enjoy fulfilling some fun & kooky objectives that I’ve been kicking around in my head for awhile.

For those of you who are looking for more information on a scientifically sound approach to losing fat rapidly and safely, look no further than Lyle Mcdonald’s Rapid Fat Loss book. Filled with both the how and the scientific reasoning behind the why, it is simply the most user friendly and effective product on the market.

 

Faithful Sexification Supestars, do you have any questions that you want me to answer about this whole process?
Post them in the comment section below and I’ll do my best to help make your next move your best move.

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!