I've dieted down quicker every year and this was the fastest - Dexa scan was just under 10 weeks from starting and it likely would've been the same at 9 weeks. In years past I've eased into the diet by tapering carbs down but this year I went straight into it by taking carbs from whatever I was consuming to 0 the next day.
I've dieted the same way for years - 0 carbs Monday through Friday, eat pretty much whatever on the weekends. I truly enjoy eating just protein / fat and when I'm done being a huge bodybuilder some form of keto or CKD is how I'll eat for life. Also, knowing that I just have to make it to the weekend to get some normal food makes it very easy to stay on track - I never cheat or have weak moments during the week.
Weekday diet the last few weeks:
- Breakfast:
- 2 scoops True Nutrition custom protein mix
- Omegalyze
- Lunch:
- 8oz. 98% ground beef
- 7oz. chicken breast
- Postworkout:
- 1 scoop True Nutrition custom protein mix
- ~11PM:
- 5oz. 98% ground beef
- 5oz. chicken breast
- TOTALS – 1,144 calories / 222g protein / 0g carb / 20.5g fat
Fat loading:
- Over the last 3 weeks I did fat loads 1-2x a week as needed, usually Wednesday and Friday
- 3 - 16oz. nuts, usually cashews
- Bowl of PB2, sunflower butter, protein powder, and sugar free chocolate syrup
- Muscle gets depleted of fat just like glycogen so when you’re deep in a hard diet fat loads are needed
- My typical signs for a fat load are being flatter than normal and having weight drop too fast, which always happens for me in the last 3-4 weeks of dieting
Weekends:
- Saturday is:
- Brunch at a restaurant – steak and eggs, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, etc.
- Dinner take out or at a restaurant – sushi, fried rice, Mexican, steakhouse, etc.
- Dessert – ice cream, protein powder, cookies, whatever I’m craving
- Sunday is:
- Breakfast at home
- Dinner at home, usually with leftovers from breakfast and dinner on Saturday
- Dessert – same thing
Cardio:
- I approach cardio like this - what takes LESS effort, performing cardio or not eating as many calories?
- Obviously it's not eating as many calories
- In a diet, whatever takes LESS EFFORT is what I want to do since my energy resources are so constrained
- I think most guys could get away with less cardio if they didn't eat so much out of fear of losing muscle, being flat, being hungry, etc.
- The most cardio I did this diet was 57 minutes in a day, and that was just because I was killing time while my girlfriend was making dinner
- The most cardio I consistently did this diet was 45 minutes a day
- I typically do a 30 minute walk first thing in the morning
- I live in a gated community on a hillside and walk loops around it
- With how it's situation on the hill, it ends up being about 20% incline, 20% decline, 60% flat
- I then do the rest of my cardio on a Precor elliptical after lifting - never any resistance or incline
- I don't track steps, calories burned, NEET, any of that stuff
- I just track the minutes of cardio I'm doing and continue to increase them through the diet