By: Kevin Larrabee, CSCS
Week 3 is now behind me. Again another tough week with the diet. I have had 100% compliance to Leigh’s guidelines. 100%. This is what it takes to get the fast results that you want be it fat-loss or muscle gain. As I write this I have one meal left in day 1 of my refeed. It is weird that I am eating carbs (about 400g) and I am not really enjoying them. Like they taste good, but it wasn’t like there was a party in my mouth and everyone was invited.
Leigh Peele has put together the nutrition portion of this program and I have constructed the training program. If you haven’t read her book The Fat Loss Troubleshoot, you have no idea what you are missing. Leigh has a no bull shit approach when it comes to this stuff. If you are one of those dieters who has smothered the furnace that is you metabolism, Leigh’s book will do the trick to get that fire stoked.
The training went well. I haven’t done crunches in like two years I think. Maybe more.
Here is a picture of the refeed food:
Finally here are the updated pictures. From Left to Right it goes Day 1, Day, 15, then Day 22.
(Day 1 then Day 22)
(Day 1, Day 15 then Day 22)
(Day 1, Day 15 then Day 22)
Looking good buddy, your posture in the latest pic seems improved as well!
Ben-
I have been doing some more mobility drills to work on that. Luckily we have 30 minutes of down time some days at the facility.
It is amazing what 22 days of dedication can do. Good for you. Have you noticed any strength gain/loss and/or energy gain/loss through this caloric deficit phase? How are you managing the sugar cravings if any?
Stephen-
I actually gained strength for my incline DB bench. I didn’t really lose strength, but I had to take longer in between sets because I would get light headed or more tired than normal.
Why does refeed food have to be junk?
wow nice, it took me almost 3 months to get where you are, im jelous haha i could not do what your doing
Fred-
Who said it had to be? For these two days I have macro nutrient numbers I need to meet, that’s it. I can get those calories from where ever I want.
Also it is a chance to address any cravings that I had and to take a break from purely “clean food.”
nice progress.
…is it just me or is your left shoulder lower than your right?
Congratulations Kevin !
Keep up the good work, I remember you saying on your podcast a while back something along the lines that cutting weight and being ripped was not an achievable goal for you.
Looks like you are going to make a liar out of yourself !
yo kevin! i’m on a diet right now and your pics really keep me motivated!
(i’m not doing the same diet as you are but maybe i’ll give it a try after i’ve seen your results ^^)
do you actually check your weight daily? and how much cardio are you doing atm? (you’ve mentioned on mike robertson’s podcast that u hit the treadmill on mondays for 30min.) ah, and i’ve almost forgot: how many weeks of dieting did leigh plan for you (or the book…i’m not quite sure if you’re following leigh’s book or if she modified it for you)?
all the best! take care
ryan
Very nice! Did you take any before and after body comps?
Fair enough.
Hopefully this does not sound abrasive.
In my opinion is not the whole point of going on a diet to lose weight and to change one’s eating habits. If people re-feed on junk then more often than not they will go back to that junk afterwards since their craving from it will remain.
The perfect re-feed in my opinion would be a fat steak, spanking fresh veg and some fresh calorie dense fruit with a variety of nuts for dessert.
But good loss so far, keep it up!
Great work Kevin! Looking really smart!
H – Nope, thats your eyesight!
Great progress Kevin. Looking good!
Julien-
I guess so, but then that is a good lie, right? I guess I just wan’t dedicated enough before this.
ryan-
Glad that this blog could provide some inspiration. I haven’t weighed myself in 10 days. Weighing yourself daily is pretty pointless in my opinion, especially for women. I just do 60 minutes of incline treadmill walking per day. This is pretty much all from Leigh’s book.
Steph-
Nope, all I care about are the pictures and keeping strength up.
Fred, its not a healthy eating plan Kevins on as I’m sure he eats your prefect “refeed meal” as a regular meal on a regular eating plan on a regular basis.
Its DIET with very low calorie levels and there is nothing wrong with throwing in some crap on a refeed. During my refeed while on Berardi’s get shredded I ate some junk (some of which was a pizza ordered by JB) I still got down to 6% and don’t eat it while I’m eating normally.
As a former massive dude (200kg) I got down to 90-ish kg and was never really lean and probably had the same mindset as Kevin… that’s just something I could never achieve.
I did though. It was funny how all the same stuff that I’d been reading and reading that other lean people talked about actually then applied to me. When I ate lots of carbs I got vascular, if I ate that over a day or two I’d put on a decent layer of water and get less cut. There was a grind period where it just went so slowly, but then all of a sudden things started happening, I ended up looking bigger than I did 10kg before and so on.
Good on ya Kev, not much further to go! I think it’s solid proof that anyone can do it, it’s just whether you’re willing ot work at it. Of course it’s easier for some, but then some people are dumb and some are smart too
Fred:
Congratulations, you’ve just proven how ignorant you are. I don’t mean that in a mean spirited way (well not entirely anyway), but it’s true. A “refeed” on steak and veggies is 1) stupid and 2) NOT a refeed.
Listen up: refeeds are HIGH calorie, HIGH carbohydrate, and LOW fat periods placed strategically within a diet to up regulate metabolic pathways, and refill depleted glycogen stores. The serve a specific purpose, and if you mess them up (by say, eating a steak and nuts) you are only shooting yourself in the foot.
I suggest you go do some reading up on the topic before you go giving your opinion how other people (especially people as smart as Leigh Peele) go about setting up a diet.
Incidentally, I have a refeed scheduled for tomorrow. On my grocery list: white rice, plain bagels, rice krispies cereal, skim milk, sweet tarts, and raisins.
Kevin
Are you doing the Fatloss trouble shoot, the opt, or the opt remix?
Jordan-
Thanks for taking the time to explain it. I just didn’t feel the need to explain something that is a pretty common practice.
Excellent dedication Kevin and way to put it on the line. Many talk and few do.
Rock on
Mike N
Susan-
It is from Leigh’s FLTS. At least the plan is.
Kevin, that is some truly amazing progress. I bet it feels great to see such results so quickly. Do you intend to ramp up your calories after this fat loss stage is over in order to keep packing muscle?
Best
Rodrigo