Fitness Bump

Got back from the gym late tonight. I am cutting on around 1,400-1,500 calories per day at the moment, and surprisingly my performance hasn't suffered much. I am lifting heavy and pretty much keeping both volume and frequency the same as before starting the cut. Tonight is my free night, so I am going to cook up a sirloin with some broccoli and rice. I have a few goodies for after dinner. I am going to up my calories for tonight and tomorrow to around 2,500-3,000 calories.

 

7km walk.

 

You dont feel weak at all with that calorie amount? Dont you usually eat around 3,000 per day? or have you been cutting for a while now?

 

I've been cutting for a few weeks. I spike my calories on the weekends, but keep it low during the week. I went into my workout tonight (Saturday) 16 hours fasted, having consumed only 1,500 calories from 10:30 Friday night to 6:00 Saturday morning.

I think part of the reason I do so well on limited calories is because I am metabolically flexible, so I can just as readily use fat for energy as I can glucose. I think most people suffer weakness at the gym when they're cutting mostly because they're carb depleted and are not fat-adapted. I fairly regularly go into the gym having fasted upwards of 24 hours, even when I am not cutting, and in most cases my performance is better than if I had eaten beforehand, which I why I almost never train in a fed state. Plus fasted training is actually better for muscle gains because of the increase in growth hormone while fasting.

So I think most people experience weakness when cutting because of being carb dependent, and not so much because of the reduced caloric intake. I think being fat-adapted negates a lot of the weakness most people experience when cutting.

 

I went to the gym today with the intention of doing a full body workout, however after a couple of sets of squats, I realized that my left IT band is incredibly tight, as it was causing me a lot of pain in my leg. I did arms and a little bit of cardio instead, and spent about 10 minutes with the foam roller, to try and loosen up the muscle. I am trying not to be in a funk about it, because these things do happen, and I have been going hard lately.

 

Today I went for a really intense paddleboard. I can't say that often. I found myself with a lot of extra pent up energy today, so i went out for a long time.

It was super windy so I spent a while going directly into the wind upstream, which was pretty difficult. I then spent the rest of the time practicing spins and tricks on the board as the wind carried me back to my starting point. I'm getting much better at spinning and can get right at the back with the nose way in the air now, but I still fall in a lot while practicing that.

I went for a swim afterwards aswell, and then spent the day lifting boats and carrying things at work. I consider that a full body workout! My arms are especially tired.

 

I hope your leg is alright now ash!

 

It is still sore. If I take it easy on the leg work at the gym for the next little while, I should be just fine. Kind of annoying because I LOVE working my legs at the gym, but I've gotta look after my injuries, right?

Do you think I should use a heat pad on it tonight?

 

20+km walk total over the day.

 

That sounds lovely!!!!

 

If it's still sore I would put some heat on it. Or take a soak in the bath!

 

I've been logging all my diet info into my Fitbit application and I've said all year I was losing weight. Well according to my Fitbit over theist few days, my calories burned are just a lot more than my calorie intake. Even at the moment I could literally afford to eat bad food every dinner and I'd still be under. I get close to my probably target, because a few beers and muffins add up, but I'm just not taking in enough calories to put on weight. It's a good thing.

 

jumped off the lighthouse platform a bunch of times today and yesterday (and the rest of the summer). not terribly strenuous exercise, but it's more interesting than posting "i went to the gym" 3 times a week.

this lighthouse, but with less ice and snow. i have have no summer pictures because you have to wade through a substantial amount of water to get there, and i don't want to risk wetting my phone.


you can jump off the lower platform or the top of the stairs. a few crazy people jump off the vent above the door, but you have to clear a lot of concrete to get to the water from there and i like being alive.

 

But at least the gym sounds somewhat believable.

 

Damn, that looks like a TON of fun! Can I come over and jump with you next time? We can hold hands as we take a leap of faith, or something equally cheesy.

 

I admire your patience with the logging of the calories. I've tried many times to log what I eat, and I always stop after a few days.

 

I still feel pain when I do squats, but not as much pain as I was feeling yesterday, thank goodness. I think the heat and the foam rolling really helped.

 

Im sure the novelty will wear off sooner or later hehe. But what's easy with this is once I key in my food and diet then it's really just a press of a button.

 

Yeah see I could never make it past the keying in of the foods in the first place. Sigh. I am just so darn impatient.

 

It does get annoying lol. I dunno why nutritional stats even bother with kilojoules. Who the hell even walks around wanting to know that. We want calories. Not kilojoules. You immediately convert them into calories anyway.

The app though has a bar code reader so you can photo products into your custom food diary. And yeah, basically just trying to work most of it out but I'll have no idea really if we go out to eat.