Stats:

195 lbs
15.7% bodyfat

Goal:

186 lbs
10% body fat

How I'm Going to Do It:

Training - Will consist of HIIT or moderate cardio 5x a week. Usually in the morning. Sticking with the Optimum Anabolics program. All the supersetting is intense, quick but difficult.

Nutrition - Doing a zig zag method of dieting. That means for Days 1-2-3 I will be 20% below my maintenance calories and for Day 4 I will be at maintenance. Keep the metabolism zigging and zagging. Using FitDay to track what I eat.
Will adjust my TDEE value every week as I weight myself since I won't be 195 lbs forever, I will have to adjust as I lose the fat.

Supplements - Green Tea, coffee and I'm on 1 cycle of H.E.A.T. by Avant Labs. Never tried it before so I'll do a supplment review as well.

Summary:

Overall this is pretty easy to figure out. I calculated my TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) using the Calorie Calculator in the Nutrition forum. Since I knew what I needed to eat daily, I then used FitDay to track what I'm eating to stay within that range and try and hit as close as possible to my daily calorie goals. I'm using some natural, non-banned, legal supplements to aid in my fat loss.

My goal is to lose 1 lb of fat per week and minimize the muscle loss.

I will be taking measurements and using the AST5000 program to record my progress. That program was part of the Optimum Anabolics program.

No date on this cut. It's a bodyfat goal to reach 10%.

I may or may not do cardio 2x a day at some point.

I have found that during the overtraining part of the Optimum Anabolics program that doing cardio 2x a day is insane and pretty much not possible.

Post here with comments or PM me for questions that you don't want to post.

I'm no expert in this but I will share my details.

The attached picture is BEFORE any cutting and prior to my 1st Optimum Anabolic 18 week program. I was 195 lbs in that picture.

[image]local://2/895653DF6C63453991A55291DC117EA9.jpg[/image]

Nice.

5.7% should take you maybe 8 weeks to drop.

What is your weight lifting routine like?

I'm doing a second take of the Optimum Anabolics program.

Lots of supersets and variable rest periods. Some weeks are progressive, others are hyper-adaptive.

I find it pretty hard to lift heavy on a cut. Just not enough "gas in the tank" as one older bodybuilder put it.

Meh, i disgree to some extent.

I find the cutting only starts to become noticable on a cut after about the fourth week, and even then it's more of an endurance thing more than a strength thing. Strength isn't hit hardly at all for me.

ORIGINAL: mda1125

Nutrition - Doing a zig zag method of dieting. That means for Days 1-2-3 I will be 20% below my maintenance calories and for Day 4 I will be at maintenance. Keep the metabolism zigging and zagging.

That's quite a thing, i never thought of that,... i suppose that's a very good way of not making your body into 'famine/starvation' mode where its storing whatever intake you have, by systematically 'feeding' your body.
Marc, Is there lots of info this method (which i can read up on) , or is it just something you're 'pioneering'.

Marc is a regular Mageallan.

Marc, Is there lots of info this method (which i can read up on) , or is it just something you're 'pioneering'.

BFFM

Twin's article on Carb Cycling is another method that I've not used yet but is discussed in the above book

Updates?

Date: March, 11, 2005

Weight: 194 lbs
Bodyfat: 15.7% (12mm on the Accumeasure)

Notes:

Will add measurements to this post. And I've noticed that how I look is different (more lean) and there is a noticible slimming of the waist line.

Date: March, 18, 2005

Weight: 193 lbs
Bodyfat: 15.20% (12mm exactly on the Accumeasure)

Notes:

Lost another pound but I did not feel any weaker. I can totally tell that the fat around the ab area is smaller. There is no doubt whatsoever. Especially the love handles.

By the way marc... they have green tea gum that supposedly has all the same effects as green tea itself. Its worth a look at your supermarket.
Also drink cold water, your body will have to burn calories to heat the water back to body temp. Its not much.. but its an edge.

Gdluck and i may be joining this wagon soon.

updates?

update marc?

I'm still cutting.  But not as agressive.

Since taking ActivaTe, I noticed a big increase in strenght (which is not normal for a cut) and my leaness is showing.

In fact, I'm down around 185 lbs on average and don't feel any weaker then I did at 199 lbs when I started.

Green tea and coffee are daily drinks.

Right now I'm around 12-13% body fat.  Seems like I've lost a lot in the surrounding muscle area up top.  Abs are always the last to go but I've gotten several comments like:

"You look leaner"
"You don't look as puffy.  You are still as big but that layer is gone"

And the fact that I don't seem to be dropping my lbs when I workout is a good sign.  It means most of this loss is from fat and not muscle!