Fat Adapted Training - Journey To 1000 lb

[kris90]

Bodyweight: 168.4 lbs

Week 18 - Workout 2:

Squats: 245x5x2
Bench: 220x5, 220x4x2
Deadlift: 390x4

Notes:

Gahh, cold got worse and is in my chest now. Since I'm stubborn, I trained anyways (fasted). Felt ok, but probably not recovered from Monday. I'll try to take an extra day off to rest before hitting workout #3 this week.

I think I definitely could've hit my 3x5 on Bench had I not have been sick, and same with deads. Next week I'll attempt 225 bench and 395 deadlift, and hopefully I can get my reps in.

[bikesandcars]

Made a post for some advice on my programming a little while back, and am getting a ton of heat for it.

I follow your posts with interest. I think part of the "heat" is that you came out of left field with really long excited posts about a completely different way of eating and recovering than the norm. Also you tend to interject a lot of scientific words and sometimes say things that don't make sense like talking about "different kinds of electrons".

Rip, the coaches, and the experienced folks here are very good at making people strong with methods they have proved over the years, there is hundreds of years of combined professional training experience here. That said, you are you and there are always outliers and different ways of doing things. I think the best thing to do is what you are doing here, documenting your training and your results.

You have pretty solid strength numbers for your age / bodyweight. A big part of this kind of training is motivation and putting the effort in. You seem to be channeling your passion for your lifestyle into lifting motivation which I believe is a huge part of your overall success. In other words, you found a eating method / lifestyle that works for you and you have simply decided that you are going to make it work for strength.

Keep up the good work. Carbs are always there if you need them. I'm curious about how your method impacts biological markers like HDL/LDL cholesterol, testosterone, cortisol, insulin, etc., ever had bloodwork done?

[kris90]

I follow your posts with interest. I think part of the "heat" is that you came out of left field with really long excited posts about a completely different way of eating and recovering than the norm. Also you tend to interject a lot of scientific words and sometimes say things that don't make sense like talking about "different kinds of electrons".

Rip, the coaches, and the experienced folks here are very good at making people strong with methods they have proved over the years, there is hundreds of years of combined professional training experience here. That said, you are you and there are always outliers and different ways of doing things. I think the best thing to do is what you are doing here, documenting your training and your results.

You have pretty solid strength numbers for your age / bodyweight. A big part of this kind of training is motivation and putting the effort in. You seem to be channeling your passion for your lifestyle into lifting motivation which I believe is a huge part of your overall success. In other words, you found a eating method / lifestyle that works for you and you have simply decided that you are going to make it work for strength.

Keep up the good work. Carbs are always there if you need them. I'm curious about how your method impacts biological markers like HDL/LDL cholesterol, testosterone, cortisol, insulin, etc., ever had bloodwork done?

Thanks man! It's been pretty fascinating learning how mitochondria work at a quantum mechanical level rather than biochemical. It makes me sound like a weirdo, but really how we operate is at the subatomic level: electrons and protons and how they get programmed by light frequencies (i.e. the electromagnetic force).

My excitement definitely comes from the fact that I am ready to bring back an old hobby (i.e. lifting) but leveraging a completely different metabolic pathway. My experience with keto back in the day to try to lose weight was that my strength suffered immensely. And it took me time to realise that keto/fat adaptation can take 2-3 years, at which point performance improves. The main problem with carbs is that they cause higher levels of oxidative stress in cells because electrons from carbs are more leaky inside the electron transport chain in mitochondria. Carbs will always provide fast ATP, so we can rely on them to fuel muscular contractions for weight training. BUT, what people don't realise is that we can optimize our ATP-recycling pathways and learn to better utilize our own body fat if we go back to living a similar lifestyle of our ancestors. Being cold adapted and practicing fasting is a great way to tap autophagy to allow us to do this.

Absolutely. I'm not 100% against carbs, I just practice seasonal eating. I believe carbs are not harmful for us if we eat them in the right environment (i.e. summer). Sunlight, specifically UV light controls how we handle electrons from carbs, and most often, we don't even need insulin to clear blood glucose when we are absorbing strong UV on our skin. UV light keeps us fat burners even in the presence of a lot of carbs. So that being said, I will definitely add carbs back in within a few months. I've already experimented a little with having small amounts of maple syrup pre-workout (i.e. 10-15g of glucose) and the results have been decent.

As for bloodwork, my levels are pretty interesting to say the least... I've reversed several health ailments including: hypogonadism, subclinical hypothyroidism, adrenal fatigue, leaky gut and seasonal depression. My HDL is pretty high (above 2.0 mmol/l) and my LDL is slightly high around 4.0-5.0 mmol/l, but my triglycerides are very low (I believe around 0.6 mmol/l). Fasted blood glucose is around 4.0 mmol/l. Testosterone I haven't had done in a while, but it's always at the low end. Funny thing is, when I reversed my hypogonadism, my T levels went from low to low. THe reason is because I used the cold-adapted pathway to tackle the problem, and what this does is it dramatically increases androgen receptor binding affinity, so your body does not need to produce/release very much T to activate the receptors, because cold increases the bond strength. That means most of the T I have is bound to the receptors, thus less in the blood. All my symptoms went away without the number changing really. Cortisol is the same thing. It's within range but a bit on the lower end. That also has to do with increased receptor sensitivity and binding. It's also why my SHBG levels are high, because it's a protein that packages up the T, and delivers it to cells without having to release Free T. Insulin levels are also on the low end (not surprisingly).

[carson]

I note that your goal is 1000. Is that by 1? If so how close are you to it or have you surpassed it? I'm on the other end of the age spectrum but am often curious to see how you young guys are doing. Keep up the good work.

[kris90]

I note that your goal is 1000. Is that by 1? If so how close are you to it or have you surpassed it? I'm on the other end of the age spectrum but am often curious to see how you young guys are doing. Keep up the good work.

Thanks carson! Yes it was a 1000 lb total between squat, bench and deadlift 1RM. I haven't tried for any 1RMs since I started this round, but my rep PRs this round are as follows:

Squat: 305x3
Bench: 220x5
DL: 390x5

I assume I'm pretty close, or perhaps could hit it now, but we'll see. I'd like to move to triples on bench and deadlifts to get some practice going heavier (I already moved to triples for squats).

I'll be honest, I never would've expected this type of progress in 4 months. Yes, things are slowing down now, but my best strength gains always came from a high carb diet. I used to eat cupcakes before squatting heavy back in my BBing days, and it worked like a charm. I'm happy to say most workouts today I train fasted. Just some coffee and 2mg of nicotine. Not to mention my muscle gains. Yes, I'm not big by any means, but I packed on some mass quickly without carbs. 15 lbs of muscle (no fat gain) which I could've only ever achieved with steroids in the past or I would've had to pack on atleast 20 lbs of fat with that. I've researched that fat-adapted athletes store more intramuscular triglycerides (fat), and that's how we can get jacked without having to use carbs to restore muscle glycogen. I certainly do not look flat at all like most keto-goers who've only done the diet short-term. There's definitely some incredible adaptations that occur if you stick with it long-term.

[kris90]

Bodyweight: 167.2 lbs

Week 18 - Workout 3:

Squats: 310x3 < PR
OHP: 127.5x5 < PR (this round)
Chins: BWx5, 25x5x2

Notes:

Video of squats: YouTube

Had a good workout considering I'm at the tailend of bronchitis. I've been sunbathing for an hour around solar noon the last few days. It's been beautiful this winter, and the UV index has just reached 3 now which means Vitamin D season has opened up here in Canada. I still think I'm the only one taking advantage of nude sunbathing in -8 C weather. Haha, pays to be cold adapted. But ya, the sun has helped me fight off bronchitis ridiculously fast.

I may do some 1RMs next week or the week after to see if I have hit my 1000 lb total. If so, I'll probably peace out and continue to reach another goal. I don't belong in this community given the argumentative posts in some other threads and calling Mark out himself. I'm trying to bring another approach to lifting, but it seems to be rejected. Too bad. I'll probably start my own community.

My latest post which I believe Mark did not allow to be published was defending my point about cold. I was mocked and laughed at regarding cold being able to increase energy flow. Well anyone who actually reads this, take a look at this abstract below:

Human physiological responses to immersion into water of different temperatures. - PubMed - NCBI

A 350% increase in metabolic rate, 250% increase in dopamine and 530% increase in norepinephrine after full body immersion in 15 C water for an hour. OK Mark and others, I guess I'm full of shit about the cold increasing our energy flow, and it's useless for lifters to become cold adapted. Suit yourselves...

It's a little sad that as a strength coach he has no earthly clue how mitochondria work, when it is mitochondria in skeletal muscle that are responsible for generating the force and heat of muscular contractions. Maybe one day he will understand the link between cold and energy with regards to mitochondria if he looks closely and realises that the strongest men on this earth tend to come from Iceland.

[kris90]

Bodyweight: 168.0 lbs @ 11% bodyfat

Week 19 - Workout 1:

Squats: 290x3x3
Bench: 225x4, 225x3x2
Rows: 170x5x2

Notes:

Aghhh, not a great workout... Everything felt heavy today... Kind of wish I trained fasted, but ended up having a pre-workout meal of cottage cheese w/ some maple syrup. I think I will stop doing this. It's clear it interferes with my fat utilization which is naturally high for my workouts given my fat-adaptation. Anyways, I cut back to 3 sets of 3 since I ran out of gas on squats and missed reps on bench. Stupid sugar metabolism... I felt extremely distracted and not focused. Fasting gives me laser focus, probably due to the higher levels of catecholamines which sugar suppresses.

I think at this point, I'll probably just do 3x3 on squats and go for 5 lb progressions 2x per week while maintaining my light squat day on Thursday. For this week though, I want to hit my 3 plate squat (315) so starting next week, I'll go 3x3 both days.

As for Bench, I'll re-attempt 225 on Saturday (fasted) and hopefully my theory on the sugar pre-workout is correct. If not, I have a few options. I may do a 5% deload and begin microloading while aiming for 3x5, or I'll go 1x5 followed by 2x5 @ 90%, or I'll switch to 3x3.

[TravisRatzloff]

Keep us posted on this sugar metabolism thing.

[kris90]

Keep us posted on this sugar metabolism thing.

Will do for sure.

[kris90]

Bodyweight: 166.2 lbs

Week 19 - Workout 2:

Squats: 230x5x2
OHP: 130x5x3
Deadlift: 395x5

Notes:

Fasted training today. SO much better! Felt strong and focused. No more pre-workout meals for me.