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layout: post title: …and more nutrition author: Stephen

Six weeks ago

About six weeks ago, I posted about my last body composition analysis (BCA) and the nutritional adjustments that it inspired.

My numbers, then:

  • weight: 188.9 lb
  • fat-free mass: 149.20 lb
  • fat mass: 39.7 lb
  • body-fat percentage: 21.0%
  • resting metabolic rate (RMR): 1,832

I started to closely monitor my diet. This was my first foray into nutrition and calorie counting. I used the MyFitnessPal app and gave it a target of a 10-pound weight loss. That put me at 2,720 calories per day. That aligned well with the BCA calculations that determined 2,766 to be a “low active” daily activity level for me (RMR x 1.51). I strength train three days a week, so figured this would serve me well for a cut phase.

Counting calories

Prior to this endeavour, I had no idea how many calories I was taking in each day. I had even less of an idea of what my macronutrient balance was. Now targeting 2,720 calories per day, I decided to balance my macros as follows:

Carbs: 35% (238 g)
Protein: 35% (238 g)
Fat: 30% (91 g)

I quickly realized that I was not getting enough protein. Not nearly enough. So that was a major change immediately. If I needed to snack, I’d look at MyFitnessPal to see what would fit my macros targets. This was an eye opener, as it highlighted that my usual type of snack choice was often the wrong one. After less than a week of following this plan and respecting these targets, the barbell was moving quite well at the gym. I was quite surprised. Four days of optimized nutrition seemed to actually make a difference.

The first week felt quite good. As the cut went on, I really started to feel it. The barbell wasn’t moving as well, my energy level in the gym was low and my workouts were just bagging me. I felt like I was maxed out. I was hungry a lot. Fortunately, after a couple more weeks, I had a scheduled active-recovery week followed by a 10% deload. I was definitely ready for it.

Rest and deload

Three weeks after the BCA, I had an active-recovery week. On these weeks, I drop my work sets to 50% of my 1RM. This gives my body a break from the stress and allows it time to heal up, while I maintain physical activity and exercise movements, and keep my creaky, old joints moving. It’s also a week where I can focus on form and power and enjoy shorter workouts.

Following my active-recovery week, I deload all of my lifts by 10%. These weeks always come with thoughts of, “Oh no”, “Maybe 20% would be better”, “How was I lifting this before?” and “How will I never lift more than this?”. But you grind through.

The active-recovery week and the deload felt like my body was able to acclimatize to the 2,720 daily calories. It was like a reset. For the next couple of weeks, things were moving pretty well and feeling pretty good.

The cut results

Six weeks after the first BCA, we headed back for another.

My numbers:

  • weight: 184.9 lb
  • fat-free mass: 150.70 lb
  • fat mass: 34.2 lb
  • body-fat percentage: 18.5%
  • resting metabolic rate (RMR): 1,846

Weight loss: 4 lb
Fat loss: 5.5 lb
Muscle gain: 1.5 lb

I’m sold. I am happy with these results after just six weeks of giving careful attention to my diet. It was a cowboy bulk before that.

Overall, these are the changes I made for that six weeks:

  • daily caloric intake (2,720)
  • balanced macros (35% carbs, 35% protein, 30% fat)
  • carb-load, post-workout (energy bar or a bagel with honey)
  • turned 38
  • trimmed my beard

As before, I drink water throughout the day (2–3 litres), have a snack around 10am and 2pm, and aim for at least eight hours of sleep per night.

A slight adjustment

Although I’m happy with the results of these changes, I’m interested to see what happens when I adjust my macros slightly. Now I’m aiming for this balance:

Carbs: 40% (272 g)
Protein: 30% (204 g)
Fat: 30% (91 g)

I am hoping this will give me a little more energy, while still providing at least one gram of protein per pound of body weight. I’m trying to get about 1/3 (~90g) of those carbs before a workout, then the rest throughout the day.

I don’t know when my next body composition analysis will be. I might wait longer than six weeks this time and focus on my lifts. I feel like I’m on a better path now.

–Stephen