I'm now 4.5 weeks out from my Men's Physique Victoria Cup Fitness Contest in beautiful Victoria BC! I have been really good about sticking to my eating program and for the most part I am at a deficit of about 1000 calories Monday to Friday with a break period on the weekends where I hit my maintenance calories on these two days.
This gives me a 5000 calorie deficit for the week which should equal about 1.5 pounds of weight loss per week. So in theory I should be down about 4-5 pounds of fat but to be honest my weight has only dropped a couple of pounds. I am at right around 192-192 pounds each morning and only weight a pound or two more by the evening. I can say I am getting leaner and I know by my extra training in the gym that I am putting in the time and effort to not only keep the muscle I have but also add a little while I cut! And to the critics out there yes it can be done and without any "special" supplements.
All you have to do is skip cardio by adding in extra weight training sessions, keep pushing yourself harder each workout. None of this super high rep light weight cutting crap. Make sure to get enough carbs to replenish your glycogen levels and give yourself enough time to get the job done, so no radical calorie restrictions!
I recorded this update video outside this time to get more natural lighting, it was a bit shadowy in places but you can get an idea of where I am so far in my cut, to be honest the video is not doing me any justice but at least when I get contest ready you will see some big changes. I figure I will be walking on stage at around 185 pounds. Last November at the Sandra Wickham Men's Master Physique Contest that I won, I was 175 pounds but was a dehydrated 175. This time I am going to dehydrate less and trust that my conditioning will get me as shredded as I need to be. The problem with dehydrating is you also lose muscle size from water loss in the muscle fibers :(
Well stay tuned for more Victoria Cup Contest Prep update videos...
I want to Feature 3 YouTube channels I watch regularly. Now there are lots of great channels I watch but in this video I want to focus on more of the Fitness Technology related guys. And I also wanted to point out some channels that are not yet at that monster YouTube channel point. I am sure if they keep up there great work they are doing they will get there ;)
Jeff from RizKnows:
Health and Fitness related with focus on Wearable Technology and other Fitness Equipment.
Videos cover everything from: GPS watches, activity trackers/fitness trackers, smartwatches, heart rate monitors, running shoes, training shoes, activewear, headphones, workout equipment, and pretty much anything else that's related to fitness.
Jeff is super real, with a great video presence, he’s even been featured on his local TV news station as a specialist in the Fitness Technology area.
Jeff is a super fit guy that stays fit by doing a lot of CrossFit, Running, Biking, and staying busy.
Jeff and I will be meeting in Anaheim this August at “theFitExpo”.
Consumer Technology focus with lots of great Health and Fitness related videos.
Everything from Fitness Bands and Watches to Smart Phones and Tablets, to Cameras and Camera Gear, to Speakers & Headphones, to Car Dash Cams and many more…
Jim makes well put together, super high quality and polished videos.
Getting a bit closer now, only 5 weeks plus a few days out from my Men's Physique contest at the Victoria Cup. I started last week with my weight cut since I do not have a lot of extra body fat to lose. I really only need to lose about 5-6 pounds of fat, last week I was able to cut out about 5000 calories below maintenacne from my diet so that should of equaled around 1.5 pounds of fat loss. I am currently aorund 192-192 pounds and my Skulpt Aim Muscle Quality Meter as showing about the same body fat percentage as the week before (about 7.5%).
I am not surprised at these results, tech gear is not always 100% accurate so there are going to be slight deviations. What I need to do is stay focuses and trust that my program is going to get me to my body fat percentage goals, over time I will see the results I want!
The lighting in this video was not all that great for showing cuts so you may not notice any improvement over last weeks video update, after all it is only a little over a pound of fat loss so there is not much to see just yet. The big changes will take place in the last 2 weeks as I get really aggressive with my diet at that point :)
The first thing I want to point out, is that you can not use a blanket statement to cover how every person should eat or how their bodies respond to any specific diets. But in general, I would say most people eat way too many carbs for what their bodies actually require. If you are not sure if you are one of these people that eats too many carbohydrates, then take a look in the mirror and if you think you are on the fat side, then you are probably one of these people.
To make this as simple as possible this is how it works. Let’s use a car as an example:
Lets say you have a car and you fill the gas tank up with gas but then don’t drive that car anywhere. The next day you go to the gas station and try to add another $50 worth of gas to your gas tank. What would happen? The tank would probably overflow, so what is the solution to this problem? Obviously, don’t put more gas in the car right! But here is what happens in this example to illustrate my point on how many people solve this problem when it comes to eating. Option number two is to add a second gas tank to your car as a reserve tank for when your main gas tank runs out. Now imagine doing this over and over again, pretty soon you have a car which is now way larger and heavier because you have 5-10-20 reserve gas tanks depending on how much gas you have been trying to jam in your car that you never drive anywhere.
Here is how this fits in with the human body:
The car represent our bodies, Carbs represent the gas, the gas tank represents our muscles liver and the stored energy within them. The reserve gas tanks would be the extra fat on our bodies.
Here is a more Scientific approach on how to explain all of this:
When you eat carbohydrates, they are generally converted to Glucose (blood sugar) that goes in to your blood, and in healthy people the Glucose triggers an Insulin production response that uses that Glucose (blood sugar) as energy for the body. Sounds great so far.
This energy can be used immediately if you are exercising or active. It can also be store as Glycogen in the muscles and Liver for use later on. Again sounds really great so far.
Here is the main problem…
Any excess Glucose (blood sugar) that is not used immediately for activities, or that is not stored in the mussels and liver as Glycogen to aid in later activities, will get alternatively stored as fat which can be converted back to energy later on if required. I reiterate (if required)!
So again here is how Carbs get used in the body:
You eat Carbohydrates.
Carbs get converted to Glucose (blood sugar).
Your body produces Insulin so it can open up your bodies cells and shuttle that energy into the body as required.
Your body will use that energy for any immediate activity you are doing.
If you are not active at the time your body has this Carb energy available, then it will be stored as Glycogen in your muscles and liver.
Once you muscles and liver are filled with Glycogen, the excess Glucose (blood sugar) is stored as fat.
So what about eating Protein and Fat, doesn’t this also get converted into fat if it is not used up? Yes and no. Unlike Carbs that create a Glucose (blood sugar) spike which in turn creates an Insulin spike opening up the body to receive the energy one way or another. Proteins and Fat do not create Insulin spikes, so they tend to hang around longer and get used to run the body, and slowly if they are not used they can then be covered to stored energy but not as extreme or as fast as Carbohydrates get converted. Because the absorption and conversion process is slower the body can run at an optimal state (no extreme ups and downs) without the feeling that it is either too augmented (Full of energy) or depleted (tired). So no food cravings!
Isn’t a calorie a calorie at the end of the day and if you want to lose weight then you need to eat less calories than your body is burning? This statement is absolutely true and if you eat less calories then your body is burring then you will lose weight! The opposite is true, if you eat more calories then you burn then you will gain weight no matter where the calories come from.
The main difference is that too many Carbs will create extreme energy ups and downs causing you to be energetic one moment and tired the next, this body confusion also makes you crave more food, even if your body does not require it.
The problem is that we are not all program the same way, some people have great self control when it comes to their diet where as some people do not. This is not always a mind over matter issue, it can be genetic and the way some peoples bodies almost completely override their will power and also how their bodies respond to the Glucose (blood sugar) from the Carbs. To compound this further, eating too many Carbohydrates will make it even harder to control food cravings. It has been shown in research that a person can eat 7000 calories of mainly Carbs in a day and still go to bed hungry. But if they change their diet to mainly proteins and fats, it will be almost impossible for them to eat 7000 calories in a day and they will feel super full all the time. So in other words, Carbs leave you hungry while proteins and fats leave you satisfied and full.
Carbs are not bad, we need them as energy when we are active to open up the cell pathways in our bodies via Insulin to convert Glucose (blood sugar) to energy and also help our muscles absolve amino acids fore recovery and growth. We also need Carbohydrates to replace the Glycogen in our muscles when we are active. But think of Carbs as gas for our bodies, we only need to add the Carb gas when we need it for activities. If you are not active at all, then you should limit your Carbs to very small amounts, just enough to run your car at idle. If you have a very physical job, or are an athlete who is training, then you need a lot more Carbs in your diet to drive your car each day, not enough and you run out of gas, too much and your gas is stored in the reserve tanks as fat.
The camera was not rolling, but to be honest I have not been that confident with my Deadlift these days and have been having trouble even lifting some of my old PR Weights so recording today's session was not in the agenda ;)
Today at my CrossFit Gym we where doing 5x5's and I felt good at all the weight increases so when we loaded the bar up with 473 pounds I was excited and nervous at the same time. I recently watched a YouTube video by MattDoesFitness where Matt had some tips about getting past his Deadlift Rut where he had a similar problem as me getting the weight to move off the ground. Once I get the bar started and the weight a few inches off the ground I generally have no problems finishing my Deadlifts. Matt had a similar hiccup so I took his advice to heart and it seemed to make all the difference for me.
Now 473 pounds didn't just jump off the ground for me but it did come up nice and even and keep in mind this should not have been a PR Deadlift day for me since I am cutting for my fitness competition and I am already down a few pounds, I weighed in at 190 pounds this morning! Perhaps my goal of 500 pounds is very close if I don't lose too much more weight too quickly :)
Wednesday, July 15, 2015 at 3:56PM 
;)
;)
;)
