Slightly skinnier
So as I mentioned a few weeks ago, I’ve been doing the Lean Gains diet, along with an RPT routine. Methinks it’s time for an update on progress, and a general review of the programs.
Short version: everything is awesome. Well, pretty much. I’ve been on Lean Gains for about 8 weeks, I’m down 11 pounds, and the bodyfat percentage number is down about 3.5 points. In case you missed the post about it, here’s a bit of detail on how the diet works.
LG was developed by the remarkably shredded Martin Berkhan. It’s based on Intermittent Fasting, the gist of which is that you go for significant periods without eating, usually from 16-40 hours, although some folks go nuts and shoot for 72 hours or more; at that point you’re losing as much muscle as fat so it’s usually not recommended. The Lean Gains protocol calls for 16 hours of fasting and an 8 hour feeding window every day, with macronutrient cycling, which is just a fancy way of saying you eat more on training day (usually lots of extra carbs) and less on rest days.
The original design specified that on training days, you eat 20% more than your “maintenance level” (the amount of calories you would eat to remain at exactly the same weight), with about 3 times as many calories coming from carbs as fat, and on rest days you eat 20% less than your maintenance, with fat and carb calories being fairly equal. The idea is that on training day, you build muscle with plenty of protein and carbs, and then on rest days you’re cutting fat by eating fewer calories overall, and reducing insulin response by keeping carbs low. It was designed to help guys and gals who are already at low bodyfats get into shape for bodybuilding competitions without having to crash diet, and while building muscle at the same time. It basically turns the “cut and bulk” process, wherein you spend months building muscle and then months cutting fat, into a daily system that keeps you relatively lean all the time (instead of developing the major chubbiness that pro bodybuilders usually have in the offseason when bulking up).
While it was designed for those already in pretty good shape, an enterprising young man named Andy realized that there really was no reason that an out-of-shape person couldn’t do the program and lose a bunch of fat while maintaining, or even gaining, muscle. So instead of the -20/+20, he devised the -35/+10, which is what I’m doing. My maintenance level is approximately 3000 calories (based on weight, height, age, gender, and general level of activity), so on my rest days I eat 35% less (about 1950), with half of the calories coming from protein and the rest coming roughly equally from carbs and fat. On workout days, I eat 10% more, with about a third of of the calories from protein, and at least 50% from carbs.
My feeding window is usually about 1pm to 9pm, which means of course that I don’t eat breakfast. This has been less difficult than I thought, to be honest. Coffee helps a lot, but even without it, it’s not really THAT hard to just not eat. In fact, to compensate for going away to the beach a few weeks ago (where I ate and drank like a Walmart shopper for 3 days), I did two 40-hour fasts (one before the trip, and one after), where I took in nothing but water and coffee. 40 hours. I won’t say it was easy, but it sure was interesting, particularly after the hallucinations started (just kidding, I’m sure that talking pink moose was totally real).
As to the workout, I honestly can’t say I’m enjoying it, but I don’t think I’d really enjoy any routine while losing fat. If your lift numbers aren’t going up, it’s not fun. It’s almost like practicing the piano for weeks and never getting any better at the song. I do see the results at the scale and tape measure, but it’s awfully slow, and adding weight to the bar at every workout is nice and fast. Also, I’ve been fighting a weird hip pain that doesn’t want to go away; I injured it squatting over a month ago, stopped all the lower body stuff for a few weeks until it felt better, and it basically came back as soon as I lifted again. Right now I’m working around it (a narrower squatting stance results in almost no pain at all during the actual workout), but it’s a nuisance.
Still, I think the Reverse Pyramid Training workout is generally easier on the body than SS and Madcow, while achieving similar volume. It makes more sense to do the heaviest set when the body is freshest, and then tack on longer/lighter sets afterwards to achieve the necessary volume. I’ve got my squat numbers back to maybe 25 pounds under my January maxes, my bench press is down only about 10 pounds, my overhead press is about the same, and my deadlift is almost back to the 405 max I pulled in February before the lack of carbs hit me. I’ll probably be on the “Lean Gains cut” for another 5-6 months (gotta get that 6-pack, son), and if I can keep my bench press over 200 pounds until then I’ll be pretty happy. Plus, I can do chins again (4 in a row!).
The gist of my program is that it’s a bit of Madcow plus Starting Strength plus RPT:
- Monday:
- Back squats – Warmups, then a top set of 5, then 6 at 90% of that weight, and 7 at 80%.
- Bench press – Warmups, then a top set of 5, then 7 at 85% of that weight, and 9 at 70%.
- Chins – I do at least 15 total reps, divided into however many sets that takes. When I can get 5 reps a set, I’ll start just doing 3 sets of however many reps I get. When I reach 8 rep sets, I plan to start adding weight, but that’s months away.
- Wednesday:
- Front squats – Warmups, then a top set of 5, and 6 at 90% of that weight. Really just resting my legs from Monday’s heavy routine, and preparing for deadlifts
- Overhead presses – Warmups, then a top set of 5, 7@85%, 9@70%.
- Deadlifts – Warmups, top set of 5, then 6@90%.
- Friday:
- Back squats – Warmups, then a set of 6 at about 94% of Monday’s max, 7 at 90% of the 6 rep set, and 8@80%.
- Bench press – Warmups, then a set of 6 at about 94% of Monday’s max, 8 at 85% of the 6 rep set, and 10@70%.
- Chins – Same drill as Monday.
I’m very happy with the routine. Fairly quick (under an hour), and only three workouts a week.
If you’re having trouble losing fat and getting/staying strong, I’d give LG and RPT a look. It’s working like gangbusters on my big ol’ gutty gut.
