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Nutrition The “Hit the Target” Fat Loss Plan

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So I've had a cheat day off since then and and currently back at 216ld on my way down to 212.

Same weight but feel fine unlike the above post. I can now manage pistols on my always slightly wonky left leg which is nice and my pull-up game is improving greatly. That alone is motivation to keep this up down to the sub 200 mark.

Strength is always the main priority. Being lean will help with business as it's what people look for in a trainer but my main incentive WAS to get under 220 for the SFG 24kg standard. Now it's to get to 204 for the 44kg SFG2 standard. The pistols and pull-ups are a nice bonus.

I realised that while my macros were absolutely perfect (and have been for the whole diet) my vegitable intake was terrible the last week and that's probably why i was so tired. I ate buckets of cabbage and butternut squash yesterday and today and feel much better.
 
That's 100 days on the diet.

I'll be 30 pounds down on my next cheat day which is coming soon. The second twenty pounds has been coming off a lot slower than the first twenty but that's hardly a surprise to anyone. I've seen a bigger shift in bodyfat the last week while than scale weight so I'm still happy and motivated.

Everyone else who has come onboard has seen similar results. A diabetic dude is down from 15 units of insulin to 2 after a 5kg drop really quickly and another girls IBS is pretty much gone.

So winning all round.
 
I can't remember if I posted this before but last week I stalled out on the RoP program with 28kg.

I will admit this might be partially due to adding GtG pull-ups and pistols, some deadlifting and the Viking Warrior cardio session each week. Everyone loves overtraining right?

So yeah. Backed off to 3x1,2,3 ladders again and those are going up great and I'm only doing pull-ups to match those reps. Still GtG pistols but taking it easy. I've not snatched again but want to keep the Vo2 work going as it works wonders.

I don't want to add extra food as the diet plan is going great will be at my 210 day off tomorrow or the next day in all probability (32 pounds lost) so in order to improve my recovery I ditched all caffeine for 7 days and now will have either one cup in the morning on non serious training days or pre workout.

This might not seem like a major change to some of you but I drank ALOT of very strong coffee often up to quite late in the day and pretending that it wouldn't affect sleep or recovery is naive. I already feel a lot better actually and will police that particular addiction a lot more closely in future.

My cravings for my jolly days have changed dramatically. For the first few months I wanted sugar. Doughnuts, buns, sweet baked things and icecream. I'm increasingly disinterested in those things and craving starches like oarmeal and wheatabix instead as well as huge quantities of crap protein like barbecue ribs and burgers.

The guilt free consumption of 'bad foods' is a huge positive to this diet. I guess everyone likes to do things they shouldn't (I'm an overgrown toddler so I certainly do) but now I don't feel guilty about eating bad stuff I also don't really want it as much.

As the trainer with the highest bodyfat percentage in my gym I would NEVER want anyone, especially my wife to see me eat much of anything 'bad' despite 99% of my diet being better than anyone else's I work with. I don't want to be seen eating a box of doughnuts and everyone thinking "ahhh, I see that's why he is fat" even if I know what a rarity that kind of thing would be. Always having my 'treat foods' in secret really bothered me and now I'm moving away from that I realise how much that will have affected my enjoyment of them.

Now I am making such rapid and undeniable progress and have confidence that it will continue for a while to come I really don't care if someone watches me eat a pint of icecream while I talk about whether to have a pizza or kebab for lunch (yup breakfast icecream). It just makes them wonder how the hell i'm dropping fat so fast.

We all love the 'what the hell' effect.

Sorry for the ramble but that was very therapeutic.
 
Thanks for documenting all this, this is one of the most interesting posts and I appreciate your careful documentation. Although my lifestyle may not be ideal, I typically gain 10-20 lbs every year or 2 or 3 and usually spend one month every year (or maybe 2 or 3) "dieting". So I'm keeping this diet as an option for me in the future.

Have you tracked lean body mass or %body fat on your journey? I usually track this with a formula that looks at waist circumference at the navel and bodyweight. It is probably not that accurate but most of my "diets" are high protein and low carbs and I usually find that my lean body mass increases while still losing weight. How has your lean body changed on this diet? On my last diet, my INDICATATED lean body mass (and I stress indicated because it might not be real) increased 10 lbs even though I lost 25 lbs total bodyweight. As a person who hovers around 200 lb with more muscle mass than the average person, I am always surprised by this.

Curious if you are noticing similar experiences on this diet.
 
I'm only tracking by electrical impedance so when I weigh more after a day off I'm at a much much higher indicated body fat percentage.

I didn't track bf% at the start because I don't think it's accurate with the ways I measure it. I have a note somewhere that I was 28% at 246ld. I started the HtT plan at 242 so pretty close.

I registered 19% at 211 this morning. But it will say I'm 21% after my weight spikes from my next jolly day.

This is the 'issue' with my weight on this diet. If you go back to the graph from before and see the variance. I was 222 after my last cheat day. I was 222 a day or two after the cheat day before that... I was also 222 a few days after the cheat day before that. And so on and so on until the eighth week of the diet where I dropped to 222 for the first time.

I'm undeniably far far leaner after 16 weeks on this diet than I was at 8 even if (for a day anyway) my weight was a match. My scale weight is only important for two reasons. SFG weight classes and tracking jolly days. Otherwise it's meaningless.

Once ladies clothes start spontaneously dropping off around me I'll know it's worked (this is a joke, for the more literal amongst you).
 
Sitting just over my previous 'Target' weight of 210 tonight. I'll possibly maybe hit 208 tomorrow morning or if not Monday/Tuesday.

I'm feeling quite depleted at the moment. Feeling sorry for myself as while I've dropped a lot of weight I don't 'feel' like I've achieved much. You know when you see those pictures of people who lost 100 pounds and that nasty bit at the back of your brain notices that they are still pretty fat?

I'm just whining I suppose. I realised I've been on this plan for over 16 weeks now. I'm considering a higher carb month while running the Shock and Awe protocol.

I don't want to 'quit' and technically my goal was 220 not 204 or 192. I'm wondering if a month higher calorie would reset me a little bit... or am I making excuses for wanting porridge and banana?
 
You have done well! I would say, ease up, enjoy a brief reset of healthy calories, then reassess your goals and if you want to go farther. Focus on your capabilities, not your numbers.

Thanks for sharing your journey.
 
I think you've done awesome.

I don't think there is anything wrong with spending 2 weeks or so taking a break from this diet. It might even be good for your metabolism long term. For myself, I find that a couple week break, or reset, allows me to continue on when my fat loss approaches an asymptote.

Re-read the article for this Plan. I don't think it is intended to be a permanent, long term diet.

If you took 2 weeks off you may increase from 210 to 218. But afterwards, you may be able to drop down to 205 or 200.

Lol, I feel like I'm a little devil on your left shoulder, convincing you to quit. Someone else needs to respond and represent the little angel on your right shoulder, telling you to never give up!!
 
My biggest mental shift with this diet (and my justification for having had such horrific jolly days) is that by losing weight at a sensible pace of a pound or two a week by refeeding I feel like I can choose to stop the plan rather than 'fall off'.

I've lost significant amounts of weight in very short spaces of time but ended up fried and unfocused for a few weeks and put it back on. While I don't feel anything like that now it has been over twice the length of time the diet was suggested for and there must be a moment when it's been too long.

I don't want to STOP exactly. I've worked out macros for a more traditional 40:30:30 type diet which I'm supremely confident I'll be able to stick to after this last while. I think I'll stick with the HtT plan down to 204 as that was my goal really (technically it was lower so that I wasn't 10ld over as soon as I touched carbs but meh).

I'm pretty motivated to train harder without worrying that I'll be drained and missing lifts by the end of the week. I plan to hit the beans and barley pretty hard and see if Ori Hofmekler was right about it being gladiator food. While I don't feel weak and tired particularly I'm certainly not recovering like I would eating freely or anything like as fast as I did on the GOMAD thing... that made me into a fat Wolverine, instant healing and a low center of gravity.

While I DO want to look good I'd rather pick a 'weight class' and then work on being as strong and lean as I can while staying under it than just getting lighter and lighter for the fun of it. 204 seems like a nice number.
 
Are you familiar with Tim Ferriss' Slow Carb Diet? I think if you wanted to have a maintenance/refeed period then this would be a good option, as my understanding is that Tim intended for it to be a lifestyle plan that one could maintain basically forever, unlike the HTT plan.

It would likely be an easy transition for you since the food choices for the SCD and HTT plans are virtually the same (high protein, loads of veggies), the only real difference is that with SCD you'd be removing the fruit and replacing it with legumes. You also don't need to track how much you eat (Tim says to just make sure you eat enough - don't go hungry). I've been tracking my food purely out of curiosity with MyFitnessPal and have found that my calories are pretty much always in a slight deficit (just shy of 2000 generally), as Slow Carb is a VERY high protein diet (my macros usually end up at roughly 50%+ protein, 35-40% fat and 10-15% carbs), and protein is very satiating and very hard to force-feed yourself with.

You also get a cheat day once a week.

I've been back on Slow Carb for about a week and I really like it, as it also works nicely with my new routine having just finished my first week at a new job. I've gotten visibly leaner and more muscular with it (plus S&S), even though I've had more alcohol than Tim recommends on one or two nights this week due to social functions.
 
If you've reached a point where this feels sustainable you've accomplished the most important part of it (IMO).
 
Slight update: after two weeks more or less with higher carbs I managed a 46kg bent press which is the heaviest I've ever done. (It WAS easier before but it went up)

I couldn't even get 40kg up on the last day of the diet. So a good chunk of any 'lost' strength was just depletion not actual atrophy.
 
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