I've read BP 2.0 and 3.0 up and down, bought everything I need to have an awesome run, and I'm going to try to do everything perfectly, especially my diet. I bought a kitchen scale to weigh my food, and I'm using my true maintenance calories on a daily basis as a guide for my caloric intake.
My diet:
My true maintenance calories (based on body fat measurements and the Katch-McArdle equation) come out to 2310 per day, if I'm sedentary. I work from home, so on days I don't work out, I am often completely sedentary. I will adjust my true maintenance calories up on a daily basis according to whatever sort of activity I do that day. Whatever caloric percentage I'm using on a particular day will be relative to that.
Since I'm an ectomorph, I'll be doing 80% of maintenance during famine and 120% of maintenance for the first week or two of feast before I start doing zigzags.
Current Status:
I'm 28 years old and 6'0", I lifted consistently for about 5 years up until about a year ago I stopped. While I was lifting, I was playing football and I ended up blowing out my knee and subluxating both shoulders numerous times, to the point that they are both quite unstable. I have rehabbed my knee to the point where it doesn't bother me much, and before I took my week off to start this BP run, I had been rehabbing my shoulders by taking a combination of Super Cissus & GLC 2000, and doing dumbbell cuban presses along with cable external and internal rotations. I only did that for two weeks, and I am amazed at how much my shoulder stability has improved. Unfortunately, I also incurred a bulging disk in my lower back playing football about 6 months ago, and it has been a real detriment to my quality of life lately. I've always had extremely tight hamstrings and calves, and I think they contributed to my lower back injury by pulling on my pelvis and messing up my alignment and posture. For this reason, I've started doing hamstring and calf stretches on a daily basis, and I'm hoping the disk issue will resolve itself over time.
I did 5x5s for 6 weeks to get re-acclimated to lifting after my time off, then I took a week off, and now I'm ready to start famine.
Starting Point/Goals:
I am starting at 180lbs and 11-12% body fat. I'm hoping by the end of this run I can get to 185+lbs and 10% body fat or lower.
Precision Blueprint w/ Convict Conditioning & Synthagen!
Famine Day 1
Today's Exercise: Famine Workout 1
Today's Maintenance Calories: 2310 + 171 = 2481
Daily Caloric Goal: 75% of 2481 = 1861
Calories Consumed: 1850 (31g protein) ~75% of maintenance
Net Calories: 1850 - 2481 = -631
Workout:
One legged squats in doorway for balance 180lbs x 6
Weighted pullups 180 + 25 = 205lbs x 5
One legged squats in doorway for balance 180lbs x 6
Weighted pullups 180 + 25 = 205lbs x 5
One legged squats in doorway for balance 180lbs x 6
Weighted pullups 180 + 25 = 205lbs x 5
One armed bicep curls 40lbs x 6
One armed bicep curls 40lbs x 5
One armed bicep curls 40lbs x 5
Notes:
I had a headache for a large part of the day, but sucked it up and avoided taking anything for it. I really hope that doesn't last for all 5 days. I got the workout done in 20 mins. It was pretty tough, but I'm happy to say day 1 of famine is in the books!
Today's Exercise: Famine Workout 1
Today's Maintenance Calories: 2310 + 171 = 2481
Daily Caloric Goal: 75% of 2481 = 1861
Calories Consumed: 1850 (31g protein) ~75% of maintenance
Net Calories: 1850 - 2481 = -631
Workout:
One legged squats in doorway for balance 180lbs x 6
Weighted pullups 180 + 25 = 205lbs x 5
One legged squats in doorway for balance 180lbs x 6
Weighted pullups 180 + 25 = 205lbs x 5
One legged squats in doorway for balance 180lbs x 6
Weighted pullups 180 + 25 = 205lbs x 5
One armed bicep curls 40lbs x 6
One armed bicep curls 40lbs x 5
One armed bicep curls 40lbs x 5
Notes:
I had a headache for a large part of the day, but sucked it up and avoided taking anything for it. I really hope that doesn't last for all 5 days. I got the workout done in 20 mins. It was pretty tough, but I'm happy to say day 1 of famine is in the books!
Famine Day 2
Today's Exercise: None
Today's Maintenance Calories: 2310
Daily Caloric Goal: 70% of 2310 = 1617
Calories Consumed: 1647 (29g protein) ~71% of maintenance
Slight headache here and there, but not as bad as yesterday. I am definitely not enjoying famine at all. I can't wait for these 5 days to be over.
Today's Exercise: None
Today's Maintenance Calories: 2310
Daily Caloric Goal: 70% of 2310 = 1617
Calories Consumed: 1647 (29g protein) ~71% of maintenance
Slight headache here and there, but not as bad as yesterday. I am definitely not enjoying famine at all. I can't wait for these 5 days to be over.
I appreciate the input. What do you suggest? 70%? Can you tell me what you usually use and what your bodyweight and body fat % are?drtda wrote:I would recommend dropping your calories a bit further for famine to create a more "stressed" state in the body. That way when you jump up to 120% of Maint for a couple of weeks, you will get more of a supercompensation by the body and hopefully start into better gains.
Let me give you some insight as to how I came up with a calorie number which is so high. Initially I was going to do 8 calories x bodyweight during famine, which would be 1440 calories. However, I was also going to do 10 calories x bodyweight during cruise, which is supposed to be slightly above maintenance. For me 10x bodyweight is 1800 calories, and according to the Katch-McArdle equation, my maintenance if I'm sedentary is 2310, so that 1800 calorie number would put me at 78% of maintenance during cruise, if I did nothing all day, and even lower otherwise. At that point I realized that if the 10x number was too low, then the 8x number was probably too low as well. I decided to figure out my true maintenance, and use 80% of that for famine.
Specifically for famine, I would stick closer to the 8X bodyweight, as it's only for a few days.
In regards to feast, I think that those of us who have run a number of BP cycles have found that 10X bodyweight is way too low for Cruise, unless you are trying to cut some serious body fat at that point. As an example, my maintenance level is about 2800 calories and right now I'm doing about 110% on lifting days and 80-90% on non-lifting days during Cruise. At the 10X level, I drop weight like crazy, and my goal during Cruise is to maintain or even gain during this time.
In regards to feast, I think that those of us who have run a number of BP cycles have found that 10X bodyweight is way too low for Cruise, unless you are trying to cut some serious body fat at that point. As an example, my maintenance level is about 2800 calories and right now I'm doing about 110% on lifting days and 80-90% on non-lifting days during Cruise. At the 10X level, I drop weight like crazy, and my goal during Cruise is to maintain or even gain during this time.
Famine Day 3
Today's Exercise: Famine Workout #2
Today's Maintenance Calories: 2310 + 171 = 2481
Daily Caloric Goal: 70% of 2481 = 1737
Calories Consumed: 1752 (~71% of maintenance) 28g protein
Weight: 177 (-3 lbs)
Woke up this morning and checked my heart rate and it's already up 10 bpm over my baseline. Is this normal?
Workout was absolutely brutal. I felt like I was going to pass out when I left the gym. Glad that's over, and given my heart rate already this morning, I probably won't need the third workout on Friday.
Bench press 185 x 8
Dumbbell shoulder press 40 lbs x 9
Bench press 175 x 9
Dumbbell shoulder press 40 lbs x 8
Bench press 175 x 8
Dumbbell shoulder press 40 lbs x 7
Bench press 175 x 8
Dumbbell shoulder press 35 lbs x 8
Tricep cable pressdown 50 x 10
Tricep cable pressdown 50 x 9
Tricep cable pressdown 45 x 10
Tricep cable pressdown 45 x 10
Today's Exercise: Famine Workout #2
Today's Maintenance Calories: 2310 + 171 = 2481
Daily Caloric Goal: 70% of 2481 = 1737
Calories Consumed: 1752 (~71% of maintenance) 28g protein
Weight: 177 (-3 lbs)
Woke up this morning and checked my heart rate and it's already up 10 bpm over my baseline. Is this normal?
Workout was absolutely brutal. I felt like I was going to pass out when I left the gym. Glad that's over, and given my heart rate already this morning, I probably won't need the third workout on Friday.
Bench press 185 x 8
Dumbbell shoulder press 40 lbs x 9
Bench press 175 x 9
Dumbbell shoulder press 40 lbs x 8
Bench press 175 x 8
Dumbbell shoulder press 40 lbs x 7
Bench press 175 x 8
Dumbbell shoulder press 35 lbs x 8
Tricep cable pressdown 50 x 10
Tricep cable pressdown 50 x 9
Tricep cable pressdown 45 x 10
Tricep cable pressdown 45 x 10
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dropthebeats
- Posts: 219
- Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 8:12 pm
- Location: Western New York
Yeah, it definitely shoots up like that in a lot of our runs. That's why the 3rd Famine workout isn't always needed.aron7awol wrote:Famine Day 3
Today's Exercise: Famine Workout #2
Today's Maintenance Calories: 2310 + 171 = 2481
Daily Caloric Goal: 70% of 2481 = 1737
Calories Consumed:
Woke up this morning and checked my heart rate and it's already up 10 bpm over my baseline. Is this normal?
Famine Day 4
Today's Exercise: None
Today's Maintenance Calories: 2310
Daily Caloric Goal: 70% of 2310 = 1617
Calories Consumed: 1629 (~71% of maintenance) 25g protein
Checked my heart rate again this morning and it's even higher. I'm now 12 bpm over my baseline. Can I stop this madness a day early? Please?
Checked my body fat % this morning as well, and I'm down to somewhere between 10.5-11.5%. I'm very happy about that.
I actually didn't feel that bad today, I'm almost getting used to eating like a rabbit. Cannot wait to wake up and start inhaling eggs tomorrow morning though.
Today's Exercise: None
Today's Maintenance Calories: 2310
Daily Caloric Goal: 70% of 2310 = 1617
Calories Consumed: 1629 (~71% of maintenance) 25g protein
Checked my heart rate again this morning and it's even higher. I'm now 12 bpm over my baseline. Can I stop this madness a day early? Please?
Checked my body fat % this morning as well, and I'm down to somewhere between 10.5-11.5%. I'm very happy about that.
I actually didn't feel that bad today, I'm almost getting used to eating like a rabbit. Cannot wait to wake up and start inhaling eggs tomorrow morning though.
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dropthebeats
- Posts: 219
- Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2010 8:12 pm
- Location: Western New York
Awesome, that works out well with my schedule anyway, as I can eat heavily Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, then hit the gym for my first Feast workout on Monday.dropthebeats wrote:I would finish your 4th day of Famine today, and then tomorrow start your 3 days of eating your face off.
I was planning on eating 120% of maintenance calories for the first week of feast. Do you think I should go even higher than that for these first 3 days? Like 150% or something crazy?
My custom dietary plan
Since I'm calculating a daily maintenance calorie number which includes the exercise I do that day, my calories will automatically zig-zag according to the exercise amount, so there's no need for me to use zig-zags on top of that. I will use a flat percentage week by week according to my goals.
If I used an average caloric maintenance number based on working out 3 times a week, and used the standard BP 3.0 dietary plan, at the end of the 6 weeks, I would end up at an overall average of 94.3% of maintenance, or about 6000 calories below maintenance. That explains why many people running stock 3.0 end up losing a lb or two overall.
My goals are slightly different, as I'm already down to about 11% body fat. I'm going to use my true maintenance values and their built-in zig-zag, and use a flat percentage which reduces each week. For a point of reference, I did the math and found that using average maintenance and a zig-zag of 120%/100% has the same weekly caloric intake as using true maintenance and using 108.5% as the multiplier. Average maintenance and 100%/85% has the same weekly caloric intake as true maintenance and a 91.5% multiplier, and average maintenance and 100%/70% corresponds with true maintenance and a 83% multiplier.
Using those reference points and my goal to actually gain a little bit of weight during my BP run, I've come up with the following plan using my true maintenance calories:
Week 1: 120%
Week 2: 110%
Week 3: 105%
Week 4: 100%
Week 5: 90%
Week 6: 85%
This gives me 2 good bulking weeks, 2 good recomp weeks, and 2 good cutting weeks, while getting me to an overall caloric ratio at the end of the 6 weeks of 101.7% Using the true maintenance values will always ensure that I'm always about the same amount above/below maintenance.
This super precise dietary plan is why I'm calling this run The Precision Blueprint. I'm expecting very good results.
Since I'm calculating a daily maintenance calorie number which includes the exercise I do that day, my calories will automatically zig-zag according to the exercise amount, so there's no need for me to use zig-zags on top of that. I will use a flat percentage week by week according to my goals.
If I used an average caloric maintenance number based on working out 3 times a week, and used the standard BP 3.0 dietary plan, at the end of the 6 weeks, I would end up at an overall average of 94.3% of maintenance, or about 6000 calories below maintenance. That explains why many people running stock 3.0 end up losing a lb or two overall.
My goals are slightly different, as I'm already down to about 11% body fat. I'm going to use my true maintenance values and their built-in zig-zag, and use a flat percentage which reduces each week. For a point of reference, I did the math and found that using average maintenance and a zig-zag of 120%/100% has the same weekly caloric intake as using true maintenance and using 108.5% as the multiplier. Average maintenance and 100%/85% has the same weekly caloric intake as true maintenance and a 91.5% multiplier, and average maintenance and 100%/70% corresponds with true maintenance and a 83% multiplier.
Using those reference points and my goal to actually gain a little bit of weight during my BP run, I've come up with the following plan using my true maintenance calories:
Week 1: 120%
Week 2: 110%
Week 3: 105%
Week 4: 100%
Week 5: 90%
Week 6: 85%
This gives me 2 good bulking weeks, 2 good recomp weeks, and 2 good cutting weeks, while getting me to an overall caloric ratio at the end of the 6 weeks of 101.7% Using the true maintenance values will always ensure that I'm always about the same amount above/below maintenance.
This super precise dietary plan is why I'm calling this run The Precision Blueprint. I'm expecting very good results.