Subject: My next to last Bodyopus experience.week 9 (very long) Copyright Lyle McDonald 1996 Date: 1996/06/30
The final ponderings (got something else in store as a prelude to the week 10 update): 1. This question has come up a few times in email so I thought I'd adress it here. Anyone following these things has probably noticed a big tendency for spillover to fat cells during the weekend carbo-binge. Hence, some have asked, why not just stay in ketosis (i.e. Atkins dieting) until fat loss goals are met and forget the carb-up. I can think of two compelling reasons to include a weekly carb-up: a. According to Duchaine, the carb-up is necessary to rebuild any muscle that may have been lost during the week due to higher systemic levels of cortisol and glucagon (assuming it makes it out of the liver). This is the primary difference between Bodyopus and other low-carb diets (or any diet for that matter): the weekend carb-up gives a concommitant anabolic response to short-circuit any muscle catabolism that might be occurring. To the contrary, according to Krabbe, this is not the case assuming you're lifting heavy enough. He doesn't feel that muscle will be lost regardless of the length in ketosis. b. Psychologically, I would have trouble sticking with no carbs for longer than 6 days. Don't get me wrong, I probably *could* do it if I really put my mind to it. But, and this gets into my own personal dieting theory, any diet that forever restricts any one type of food is a recipe for disaster. The short time I spent on the low-carb mailing list pointed this out rather painfully to me. What happens to strict low-carb dieters is this (and this applies to anyone dieting whether it's low-fat or whatever) i. go on exceedingly restrictive diet (in this case, low carb but it applies to any diet which forever restricts a given type of food) ii. crave the foods you cannot have for no other reason than you cannot have them (i.e. you always want what you can't have) iii. eat some of the food you cannot have (because no one has that much willpower, at least not forever) iv. feel extreme guilt because you were too 'weak willed' to stick to your diet (this is the really silly part but it's a failing of any dietary plan) v. eat more of the foods that you cannot have as "Anything worth doing is worth overdoing." (this quote stolen without remorse from BK) vi. possibly derail your diet completely and not get back on it once you're off (you probably know people that this has happened to. They start on exceedingly strict diets and hardcore exercise routines only to burn out after about 2-3 weeks and quit completely. I'd rather see people find a dietary and exercise approach they can live with and will stick to in the long term.) (Additionally, the massive gains in water weight that occur when one carb-binges on a low carb diet simply exacerbates the feeling of failure although, as I tried to point out to the low-carb dieters to no avail, the excess weight is primarily water and glycogen and not fat. It's simply not physiologically possible to gain 5 lbs of fat in one day as that would require a caloric intake of 20,000 calories+ over maintanance. I like to eat carbs and all but come on...). The above pattern called the Dieter's Failure Cycle by some and I agree with it. Any diet based on lon term restriction/deprivation of a given food is a recipe for failure from the outset. Personally, that is what I like about Bodyopus dieting: it's not that I can't ever eat any particular type of food again (which has not worked for me or just about anyone else in the past), it's just that I have to wait until a certain time. Just about all foods are permissable on this type of diet, just only at the proper time. Yes, I know I'd get better overall results following Duchaine's specific recomposition guidelines instead of my haphazard junk food carbing but I can live with that as it means I will more faithfully follow the low carb portion. So it takes me a couple of extra weeks to get to my goals. That's fine, I'm not in any massive hurry. IAE, back to the point: the weekend carb-up, while possible causing me to take a step backwards every week makes it easier psychologically for me to stick with the diet. I have tried to minimize any major fat gain damage by cutting the length of the carb-up to 24-30 hours and taking HCA. I fucked up last weekend by not being organized with my supplements and ended up paying the price for it. But, that was the fault of the dieter, NOT the diet. c. Thyroid upregulation: A buddy of mine has told me of research that even one 200 gram bolus of carbs can upregulate T3 levels. I definitely notice that morning temp is higher during recomposition than during the week. It does drop back to baseline rather quickly but every little bit helps when you're dieting. 2. Training structure redux: A long while back (week 4 or 5?) I discussed the suggested Bodyopus training structure and where I thought it might be modified for different goals. I felt then (and still do now) that the high rep workout prior to recarbing is really only useful for the individual looking to carb-up for a contest and I think that a heavy tension workout makes more sense, especially if you're using a ketogenic diet for muscle gain. But, that's not what I want to talk about now. If you recall, in week 7, I tried a radically different training structure from previous weeks working the hell out of two bodyparts per day. The two observations I made were: a. I didn't get into ketosis until day 4 although I still can't be sure if this was related to my training structure, the use of melatonin supplements, or my ketogenic ratio being too low from cutting fat calories. b. I was sore as all hell much, much longer than when I train according to the suggested BO routine (1-2 sets of 6-8 to failure with 1-3 exercises per bodypart: more for larger muscles, less for smaller). I want to delve a bit into observation 'b'. We know that two effects of low carb dieting are: 1. An increase in cortisol levels which is good for fat burning but bad as it may cause muscle catabolism. But, ketones blunt catabolism so it may be a wash as far as overall effects. 2. Longer duration soreness since there aren't any carbs to repair damaged muscle fibers. My question is this: on a ketogenic diet (moreso when total calories are restricted as in Bodyopus), should one use a lower training volume than while on high carb diet. Yes, testosterone is supposedly higher with the higher fat intake but, then again, so is cortisol. So, the question is what is happening to the testosterone/cortisol ratio (a rough indicator of the overall anabolic or catabolic state of the body). It would be interesting to get a free test and free cortisol assay done while both high carb and low carb dieting to see if there are any overall shifts in the T/C ratio. I sent email to Coach Charles Poliquin with that very question but have yet to receive an answer. Any of you biochem buffs out there have an opinion on this? ----------------------------------- The body composition record: Day Date Weight Pec Abs SI Thigh Sum3 BF% FM FFM -------------------------------------------------------------- Mon 4/31 156 15.4% 24 132* Mon 5/6 153 13.6% 21 132* Mon 5/13 154 7 27 18 8 42 12.2% 18.8 135.2 Mon 5/20 151 6 27 17.5 9 42 12.2% 18.4 132.6 Mon 5/27 154 5 24 18 8.5 37.5 10.4% 16 138 Mon 6/3 149 5 25.5 15.5 8 38.5 10.4% 15.5 133.5 Mon 6/10 155 5 26 16 8 39 11.3% 17.5? 137.5 Mon 6/17 149 5 25 16 8 38 11.3% 16.8 132.2 Mon 6/24 153 5 24 13.5 7.5 37.5 10.4% 15.9 137.1 * These two measurement were taken with the one site home calipers. Therefore, they may or may not be directly comparable to the other measures. Key: BF% = body fat percentage FM = fat mass in lbs FFM = fat free mass (total weight - FM) Well, due to my massive screwup forgetting to take HCA this past weekend, it looks like I had some spillover from Friday (though, as mentioned a couple of weeks ago), I'm still not sure if comparing Friday and Monday measurements is all that accurate. IAE, fat mass is down a full pound from last Monday which is a move in the right direction. Down to the final 2 weeks so no more mistakes like this can happen. Shooting for about 1450 calories or so and going to do more low intensity cardio than last week to make that final push. I'm not sure if 7% bodyfat is in my grasp in the next 2 weeks but you never know what will happen. My week at a glance: ------------------- Sunday: As stated, did about 1.5 hours of mountain biking in the heat and stopped carbing about 1pm in the afternoon. Didn't keep track of calories today but will be from here on out. Monday: Started the day with a one hour walk outside to stretch my legs, burn some calories (hopefully fat) and start making the move into ketosis. I hope to be there by tonight after lifting. I'd have lifted this morning but I have early personal training appointments which throws a wrench into everything. Supplements: Same as always, 3 doses of ECA, 3 Yohimbe fuel, multi-vitamins, etc. Workout: Same workout as last week since it worked well for getting both me and the ex into ketosis. I pretty much maintained my workout levels neither gaining nor losing which is not horribly surprising considering that: 1. This is week 9 of this diet and I'm most likely overtrained. I plan to take a week to chill out after week 10 before I attemp a mass gaining phase. 2. My low calories last week. If I can maintain my strength levels (which I take as indicative of lean mass maintenance) over the next two weeks, I'll be very happy. The ex got stronger in almost every movement which was also not horribly surprising. She hasn't been working out for a while and will likely see some quick and dirty strength gains over the next few weeks. Tuesday: I'm not in ketosis yet which is strange. However, recall that my carb-up did last until about 1pm Sunday and the quickest I've ever made it is about 48 hours following cessation of carbs. So, I'm looking at 12pm today to enter ketosis. Did another 30' easy walk this morning before breakfast to burn some calories and further lower blood sugar. Oh yeah, bodyweight is down from 153 to 149 today if that gives you any indication how much extra water I was holding. Well, in the spirit of experimentation, I did the following. One question that's been on my mind is how much/how intense of cardio will get you into ketosis quickly. So, I figured it was high time to find out. I'm making two assumptions that may or may not be correct: 1. Blood glucose has to get below 60 to start making ketones. Recall that I've been in ketosis and my glucometer showed a BG of 63. 2. My One Touch glucometer is accurate enough to tell me anything useful. A very big assumption based on past experience. Here was today's experiment: Pre-cardio: Ketones: negative, Blood glucose: 86 (not sure why it's still this high, might be related to high levels of liver glycogen which are still dumping glucose into the bloodstream, gotta get the liver emptied completely to get into ketosis) Workout: 5' warmup, 20' at 70% of max (about 150 heart rate), 5' cool down Post cardio: Ketones: still negative, Blood glucose: 72. So, if this is accurate, 20' at a relatively high intensity dropped BG by 14 points. A question that I didn't have time to answer today was whether another 20' of cardio would have dropped it a further 14 points to 58 and ketone land. An experiment for another day. One hour post cardio (I wanted to check for any blood glucose rebound which would indicate a still glycogenated liver): BG = 83. Very strange things afoot here. But, looking back over last week's record, it did take me until Wednesday morning to get into ketosis. It would surely help if I could lift in the mornings to get rid of some blood glucose but that's just not something my schedule allows me to do right now short of getting up at 5:30 am to lift which I am not going to do. Workout: Chest, delts, tris, abs again same format as last week (2 warmups, 2 sets of 6-8, one set of 20-25). Started with 10' cardio and ended with 10' cardio. Just for grins, I checked blood glucose before and after to see what kind of drop this workout caused. Pre-workout BG: 71 Post workout BG: 64 So, it's inching down at last and I hope to be in ketosis by tomorrow morning then it's cardio, cardio, and more cardio until I can't stand it anymore. And the more cardio. Just at really low intensities. Wednesday: Ok, after much pondering (ponder, ponder) and discussions with Jeff Krabbe, here's what is going to happen from here on out: My plan was to finish the 10 week diet cycle next weekend which is July 4th. The problem is that I will be going out of town in the middle of the week which will screw up both dieting and activity levels. So, if I'm to come anywhere close to reaching my body fat goals, some changes will have to be made. Despite my ponderings in the prologue, Jeff assures me that muscle loss is not anything to worry about while in ketosis. I'm going to have to trust him on this one and hope he's right. Considering this, I've decided to forego carbing this next weekend at all. This will give me almost 10 full days in ketosis as I will most certainly be carbing next weekend as I visit with my relatives for the 4th. On top of this, I will be combining a rather severe caloric restriction (again, hoping that the ECA stack plus the anti-catabolic effects of ketosis will prevent any muscle loss) with lots of cardio and every legal thermogenic/diet trick in the book. Today is a good example of how things will be run for the next 10 days. (For the record, I don't recommend this to other Bodyopus dieters at least not until I've evaluated the results for myself. It's entirely possible that I will lose muscle during the next 10 days. It's entirely possible that I will screw myself up royally with all the things I'm going to combine together. But, I'm the only one at risk here. I repeat: Do NOT try this at home.) With that in mind, here's how today went: Ketones: Trace as of this morning. Finally. Wake-up at 6am: 50 mg eph, 200 mg caff, 81 mg asp, 1 tab Yohimbe do 1 hour of cardio at 70% of max (150 HR) 8 am: Breakfast: 2 cheese sticks with 2 TBSP cream cheese: 200 calories plus 2 capsules Nature's Way Cayenne capsules (another thermogenic product suggested by Jeff. He's using it instead of the ECA stack. Being the psycho I am, I'm using it *in addition to* the stack. Grog only knows what I'm doing to my thyroid levels). 10: 30 am: another dose of ECA on an empty stomach 12: pm: Lunch: 1/2 Cup salmon with 2T mayo: 340 calories + 2 more capsules of Cayenne + Yohimbe fuel 2:30 pm: last dose of ECA on an empty stomach 7pm: 30 minutes more cardio 9pm: Dinner: 1 scoop Designer with 2 T oil (1 olive, 1 flax): 350 calories + last 2 capsules of Cayenne + Yohimbe fuel Total calories: 890 I want to try and estimate what the potential fat/weight loss from the above regimen might be (assuming I can stick with it for the next 10 days). Let's put my overall caloric requirements (BMR+incidental activity) at 1800 calories per day (or about 12XBW). Figure a 10-20% increase in calories burned from thermogenic aids. So, 1800 + (1800*.2) = 2160 calories per day. Figure added cardio activity at about 750 calories per day (assuming 90 minutes total/day at relatively low intensities) gives 2160 + 750 = 2910 calories per day expended. At 900 calories of food, that is a 2000 calorie per day deficit. But, figure in an additional deficit of 23% for inefficient ketone to calorie conversion (7 cal per gram of ketones/9 cal per gram of fat=.23). So, 2000 + (2000*.23) = 2460 calories per day total deficit. It takes a caloric deficit of 3500 calories to lose one pound of fat. That yields a deficit of 2460/3500 = .7 lbs per day fat loss if total loss is coming 100% from fat stores. Across the next 10 days, that should yield a fat loss of 7 lbs. Which, if it really happens, would put me at 9 lbs of fat/~143 total lbs = ~6.2% bodyfat. That would be more fat loss in 10 days than I've achieved in the last 8 weeks (or damn close). Is this even physiologically/ biochemically/thermodynamically possible? Something tells me it's not going to work out quite that nicely but we shall see. In moderately deep ketosis as of tonight. Which is strange considering my low calories and high activity levels. Dan has written that this will typically lower ketones in the urine but I've always found the exact opposite to be true (i.e. high activity plus lowered calories gives me more ketones in my urine). Since calories are so low, I take this to mean that my body is mobilizing body fat to produce the ketones which is a good thing. Thursday: Went for an hour walk this morning pre breakfast. Too my ECA stack + Yohimbe and added 500 mg of HCA to the stack and will be adding L-carnitine as well. This is based on a paper I came across earlier this week suggesting that pre-breakfast cardio + caffeine plus citrimax and l-carnitine would theoretically increase fat oxidation during exercise. Ref: McCarthy MF "Optimizing exercise for fat loss." Medical Hypotheses 44(5): 325-30, 1995 May. Looking in the mirror today, I look noticeably leaner than earlier this week. If I pose very hard, I can see a 4.5 pack (I've got that Boyer Coe fat lower ab thing going). Also, I've got my first sign of vascularity on my left side between my rectus abdominus and my rapidly declining love handles. Weight has dropped to 143 as of this morning and I look and feel very flat muscle wise. Which is to be expected since I'm very carb depleted. I've decided to do a heavy, full body tension workout tomorrow instead of the depletion workout since I won't be carbing. The goal being to maintain muscle mass in the face of extremely lowered caloric intake. Another 30' of cardio tonight with the ex. Ran a quick body comp tonight. BW=144. Sum 3 skinfolds = 34. BF% = 9.4%. Fat mass= 13.5 lbs. LBM = 130.5. So far so good. Friday: Here's the tabulated Friday changes in bodyfat: Day Date Weight Pec Abs SI Thigh Sum3 BF% FM FFM -------------------------------------------------------------- Fri 5/17 145 8 27 18 8 41 12.2% 17.7 129 Fri 5/24 144 5 24 19 8 37 10.4% 15 129 Fri 5/31 146 5 24.5 17 8 37 10.4% 15.1 130.9 Fri 6/7 146 5 25.5 15.5 7.5 38 11.3% 16.5 129.5 Fri 6/14 146 5.5 25 16 8 38.5 11.3% 16.5 129.5 Fri 6/21 144 5 24 13.5 8 37 10.4% 14.9 129.1 Fri 6/28 143 5 22 11.5 7 34 9.4% 13.4 129.6 Key: BF% = body fat percentage FM = fat mass in lbs FFM = fat free mass (total weight - FM) Notes: Cool! Cool! COOL! Bodyfat is on the way down to the cellar and it looks like the severe protocol outlined above is working to some degree. And, lean body mass hasn't dropped any more than usual which is also good. Body temp was 97 this morning so it's holding steady. Time to go do that morning cardio. Tell me if you think the following is the ultimate pre-cardio stack or what: Ephedrine: 50 mg caffeine: 200 mg aspirin: 81 mg l-tyrosine: 1 gram (since I'm in ketosis, I'm not worried about getting kicked out) HCA: 500 mg L-carnitine: 2 grams Cayenne: 80,000 heat units (2 caps Nature's Way Cayenne) Yes, a handful of pills but that's cool if it works. Again, I do NOT recommend this to anyone else out there. Yet. Oh, yeah, did one hour of easy walking pre breakfast after dropping the stack from hell. The workout: Like I wrote above, I decided to make today a heavy tension workout. I essentially have a 'contest' in the form of a 4th of July party next Thursday so I'm following Dan's pre-contest training (more or less) until then. Now, I wanted to make sure tonight was a good workout and I recalled reading an article in MD a while back by Fred Hatfield about his experience with the WBF and Anabolic diet where Pasquale had them take in 200 calories of high GI carbs before training. It's from a 1995 issue so I'm glad for once that I never throw anything away. IAE, I figured I'd do it to try to increase anabolic drive and give me enough energy to get through the workout. Here's how the protocol looked: Initial blood glucose measurement = 62. I am in ketosis at this blood sugar level. 30' prior to workout: drank 1 cup grape juice (41 grams carbs) + 1 scoop designer with 50 mg VS, 200 mcg CP, 250 mg magesium. If I didn't get sick at my stomach from it, I would have added some creatine monohydrate to this. Blood glucose at 20' mark at gym = 95 (big spike). I got some funny looks from a guy in the bathroom while I was doing the blood drop thing. It's kind of a good thing there is a bodybuilding contest coming up as it means there are lots of pre-contest guys doing weird shit at World Gym where I train. Even though I'm skinny as shit (maybe a super lightweight), my weird ass training methods and stuff look normal relative to what everyone else is doing. Like I give a flying fuck what anyone thinks of my training and eating patterns anyhow. And, yes, the lack of carbs/calories is making me pissy and irritable. I'm going to have to be very careful that I don't snap at any of my clients this next week. 10 days of no carbs, 900 calories of food, and too much cardio make Lyle a dull boy. I'm just trying to muddle through the days at this point without killing anyone. I can seriously understand what pre-contest bodybuilders go through after this week. (you hear that kcory@bright.com?) Anyway... At the gym: Warmup: 5' on bike (Note: All heavy sets were taken to failure.) Squat: 2 warmups, 2X8 (2' rest between sets) Leg curl: 1 warmup, 1X10 (1' rest between sets of all other exercises) Incline bench: 1 warmup, 1X8 Row: 1 warmup, 1X8 Shoulder press: 1X8 Assisted chin: 1X8 Tri pushdown: 1X8 Machine curl: 1X8 (Note: I used the exact same weights as on Mon/Tue heavy workouts and managed essentially the same reps (I might have dropped 1 rep here or there) which suggests to me that the carbs before workout helped and that I haven't lost any muscle with the severe dieting.) I followed the above with1 set of 20-25 of each exercise in a circuit format with about 50% of the weight used in the above work sets. Finished with 20' light cardio on bike (HR about 130 but it's falsely elevated after weight training). Blood glucose after workout = 63 At home: back in ketosis. No problems. Friday night: Tonight I was weak. Since I've been having trouble sleeping, I've started eating 1/2 a raisin muffin (about 70 calories and 14 grams of carbs) to get just enough of a serotonin pulse to put me to sleep. Well, my mom has some friends staying and bought this raising bread with frosting on it (see where this is going?). Well, once I got the taste of carbs in my mouth from the muffin, I lost it. 3 pieces of raisin bread later... Unfortunately, one of mom's friends was staying in my room so I couldn't get to my vanadyl and chromium to do damage control and just had to face the consequences. Saturday: Well, I'm just barely, barely (like if I hold the ketostix in the right light) showing ketones and blood sugar reading shows 57. Which I find strange since I rarely get that low even in deep ketosis. Took 50 mg vanadyl with 200 mcg chromium and 250 mg magnesium along with the thermogenic stack and went walking for 30 minutes. At work (grog I hate Saturday appointments) I measured BF% with the real Lange calipers and they put me at 8.5% bodyfat so they are consistently lower than my Slimguide by about 4 mm (30 mm with Lange vs. 34 with my Slimguide). I'll be figuring in the 4mm adjustement from here on out. Still, this means I'm still on track. Abs are just starting to come through (ab skinfold is still the largest at about 20mm. Zero subcutaneous fat is a measurement of about 3-4 mm. Something tells me I'm not going to get there by Thursday but 7% would be damn good. 7.6% BF is a sum of 26-28 mm. 6.6% is 23-25 mm. So, figure 7% is right at 26. A further loss of 4 mm (which should mostly happen at the iliac and abs as there's really nothing left to lose at pec or thigh) would be quite nice. If it can be done. Started tanning today. Since it's so frigging hot in Nashville, I started with a mere 10' on each side to avoid burning. To be honest, I don't burn (I'm one of those swarthy middle easterners) anyway but I'm not taking any chances. I will be gradually increasing my tanning time over the next few days. Thing is, I have to balance out a horrible cyclist's tan (meaning my legs are tan from above the knee to above the ankles and my arms are tan from below my shirt sleeve to my wrist) so I may or may not need longer tanning times. I'll just play with it as I go along. Gonna start reducing sodium (not that I get much anyway) and will most likely potassium load on Wednesday. Also going to increase water intake. Finally, I have to decide what to do about all this damn body hair. My legs are already shaved (which look goofy since the rest of me is pretty damn hairy) and I typically keep my chest trimme with hair clippers. I did shave my whole body once for a girlfriend but it was a major pain in the ass and I can't get at my back. I'd consider waxing but a whole body wax would hurt so much I can't even imagine it. Have to think about this one some more. In order to scare everyone on m.f.w (and have an official record of my one day of physical perfection), I'm going to make sure and get a good picture of myself looking pumped and lean on Thursday or Friday. Then, I will upload it as a JPEG to m.f.w if that's ok with everyone. Just remember, if you don't want to see it, don't download it. I wish I had had the sense to take a before picture to compare with. Especially since Dan has approached me about publishing the BO diaries. Would have been nice to show Fat Lyle at week 1 and Lean Lyle at week 10. Saturday night: I'm hungry. Dieting sucks. But, only 3 more days of this crap. I did increase calories a bit (about 100 calories) with an extra 2TBSP of cream cheese. Also, I found a great snack in raw cucumbers with salt on it. Of course, come Tuesday or so, I'll have to drop the salt to start reducing sodium intake. Oh, the inhumanity of it all. Sitting at home tonight watching TV instead of being at the gym doing cardio (it's closed) isn't helping. Being at home is a great big food trigger for me. So, I'm going to go skate around the city for a bit. Thinking about getting my nipples pierced (seriously) again. I have thought about it before but I'm not sure that I should do something that rash while in the throes of low calorie, low carb dieting delirium. Did I mention how hungry I was? Ok, I had enough. Had 3 cheese sticks (150 calories) and some cream cheese (100 calories more) and decided not to go skating since my legs are so damn sore. This is the last time I increase calories until I carb up on Wednesday (the total was still probably only around 1200-1300 anyway which is still a major deficit. I needed this little boost to get me through the next three days. Going to make sure to get the fuck out of the house tomorrow so I won't be so triggered to eat. Mon and Tue will be cakewalks food wise as I have clients to torture, er, train and won't have time to think/worry about it. Late last night: Well, after going to the store to get last minute supplies, I decided to try my late night carb experiment again. Had some of that killer raisen bread (again, more for psychological peace of mind than anything else). Sadly, this morning I'm back to no ketones. Took 50 mg vanadyl, 400 mcg chromium, and 500 mg magnesium to get back in. Sunday: Ok 3 days to crunch time so I have to figure just how much fat I need to lose by Wednesday when I start carbing to reach my goals. Body weight is 144 lbs. BF% is 8.5% (again, using the correction factor from the Lange calipers at work). Fat mass = ~12 lbs. Lean mass is 132 lbs. There's a handy equation you can use to determine total fat loss to reach a certain percentage bodyfat. Note: this assumes no change in lean mass over whatever period of time. Recall that adding lean mass (by carb loading or whatever) will decrease BF% but will not decrease fat weight (see week 1 update for a more in-depth discussion). It is: Desired weight = (lean weight/(1-goal bodyfat). Goal bodyfat is 7. Plugging the numbers in, we have: Desired weight = (132/ (.93)) = 142 lbs. So fat loss needed is current weight minus desired weight = 144 - 142. Assuming all weight loss is from fat stores, that would put me at 10 lbs fat/142 lbs = 7% BF. By the time I gain back all my lean mass (water, glycogen, and I may try creatine again). Figure 5-6 lbs which will put me 10 lbs fat/148 lbs = 6.75% BF. Yeah, body. So I need to lose 2 lbs in the next 3 days to reach my 7% BF goal. This works out to .7 lbs per day (which is the same as the above calculations) so I will be doing the same thing food wise and exercise wise to get there. Dropped the stack, time to go do some morning cardio. I skated 1.5 hours this morning with some friends. Came home. Ate some cream cheese and then went and skated again with some other people. Total of 2.5 hours of cardio today but all at low intensities. I'm tired, irritable, my feet are swollen and my breasts are tender. Let's face it, this is as close as any male will get to PMS. Really cut calories today. Only 440 total and it's 5 pm. But, I'm in ketosis and am not worried about losing muscle at this point. Continued to work on my tan moving up to 20' each side (sounds like a recipe doesn't it). Increasing water intake and starting to pay attention to sodium/potassium levels and all that fun stuff. I'm debating getting some creatine to help with my loading but, the last time I took it, it just made me sick. Still trying to figure out a way to get all this body hair off. Shaving is a pain in the ass and too short term. I'm not getting waxed (well, maybe the bikini line <G>). Anyone out there have any success with the depilatory creams like Nair and Neet? I've heard that some react badly and break out in a rash which I do not need to have happen. I guess I can try a small spot on my shoulders or something and see what happens. Anyone know how long this stuff will keep me clean and smooth? And, that's it for week 9 update. One more and then I'm outta here at least for a little while. 6 days and counting to 'contest' time (turns out my 4th of July party is on Saturday the 6th which is good as it gives me longer to carb and look my best). Lyle McDonald, CSCS