3 months ago I went on a 12 week diet to lose about 10kg. You can go and see by clicking on this link right -> here.  I underwent this experience because I went on a six month powerlifting challenge to get my squat to 140kg, my bench to 110kg and my deadlift to 180kg. And I did it.

I haven’t written anything about it yet, because I think that I could have done a better job, but I will probably be writing about the mistakes i made which are probably much more useful. I also ate like an animal to get there, and even though I knew I had put on some weight, I actually weighed a lot more than I expected. Like 5 kg extra weight I did not need.

And.. I breached my 97kg limit, which is the point at which I become officially obese. So even though I can lift weights, jump, run move etc, the psychological slap was a bit much. As I got the bars I wanted, I no longer needed to eat as much, and decided to lose the fat, but keep as much of the muscle and strength I could.

The plan was a 500g/ week weightloss. Before I started the actual diet, I took 3 weeks of food testing. I weighed my portions, counted how many calories were in each one of them to crete standard meals that I would repeat in order to avoid the hassle of having to weigh every single thing I ate. I like being precise but i hate asking time. So that already got me down about 2kg right off the bat, but that is basically water retention and a little at loss. As I simply started paying attention to how much i was ACTUALLY eating, I naturally reduces the portion sizes i was having.

What I did next was get myself a Garmin HR watch that estimates the number of calories I burn in a day ( separating the resting calories and the active calories). Going with plain math, I had to lose 3500kcal per week to lose this 500g / week. So I had to eat 500 calories less per day in order to do that.

1) THE FOOD

I knew I had to find foods I digest well, have around 180g of protein a day, and adjust the rest accordingly. My days were basically :

• 200g of meat (chicken, red meat or pork)
• vegetables (carrots, courgettes, broccoli, capsicums) as the weeks went by I discovered leaks, aubergine and onions were undigestible foods for me and were thus eliminated

• 1 greek yoghurt, 1 teaspoon or cranberries, 15g of nuts, 1 teaspoon of brown sugar

I also decided to have release meals instead of days. So what I would do is eat very little on the days I knew I would go see my parents, friends, or go out to have drinks, so that my calorie intake would be the same, but instead if eating healthy food, on those days I would have bad meals (except that my parents really really make great food with fresh food so that doesn’t count as a bad meal… just a lot of food).

As stated in the PRE-DIET article, I started out with 2 days per week from week 1 to week 4, 1 day per week from week 5 to week 8, and changed the plan on weeks 9 to 12, because :

1. I came to notice that when the calories get a bit more scarce willpower goes down… So knowing you have one or two escape meals really helps out
2. The football world cup was on, some matches I could not watch on my phone, and this meant going to a bar or my parents, and it is so much more fun when you drink at these events.
3. I have anxiety, nothing clinically diagnosed, but having a bit of alcohol once in a while relieves me from it. Yes I meditate, and yes it’s kind an excuse.
4. I really like having a drink or two in the week.

SO the last 4 weeks, I ate really really clean, but allowed myself 1 or 2 days a week where I could have a few drinks, while staying in the allotted calorie bracket.

I wanted to go for Olympic Weightlifting, but I honestly have never had a single class on olympic training programming. So I had to do my research which I did for about a month. SO here is what ACTUALLY happened during the 12 weeks

Week 1 :

Week 2 to week 9 :

1. Monday – Max effort Legs :

2. Wednesday – Max effort arms :

3. Thursday – Speed day legs :

1. Front squat for 3 weeks (50%, 55%, 60%) with single red bands,
2. Small olympic weight lifting focusing on snatch, clean, front squat, and deadlifts for 2 weeks
3. Front squat wave with (50%, 55%, 60%) double red bands for the next 3 weeks

4. Saturday or Sunday – Speed Day arms :

1. OHP for 3 weeks with (50%, 55%, 60%) with single red bands,
2. Small olympic weight lifting focusing on push press, push jerk, split jerk and overhead work for 2 weeks
3. OHP wave with single black bands (50%, 55%, 60%).

Extras – Tuesdays and Fridays – Small Olympic Weightlifting Sessions :

Weight used : 20kg -> 50kg max

• Power moves : power snatch, power clean, from the floor, below knee, above knee, hanging
• Partial moves : Deadlift, pull, high pull, muscle, snatch and clean, but also front squat clean, front squat, overhead squat, split jerk and push jerk.
• Combinations of the above

Week 10 to week 12 :

1. Monday – Max effort Legs :

2. Wednesday – Max effort arms :

3 weeks of volume on incline and bench press, 4 sets of 10 reps at 65-70%, then 3 weeks of 1 rm on incline press,

3. Thursday – Speed day legs :

Then 3 week wave of 9 sets of 3 reps of cleans with 70%, 75%, and 6 reps of 3 reps 80% of max cleans

4. Saturday or Sunday – Speed Day arms :

Then 3 week wave of 9 sets of 3 reps of cleans with 70%, 75%, and 6 reps of 3 reps 80% of max split jerk

Extras – Tuesdays and Fridays – Small Olympic Weightlifting Sessions :

These changed. The technical section got lower volume and added explosive and abdominal work that was lacking in the other sessions.

Olympic weightlifting : 

• Power moves : power snatch, power clean, from the floor, below knee, above knee, hanging
• Partial moves : Deadlift, pull, high pull, muscle, snatch and clean, but also front squat clean, front squat, overhead squat, drop snatch, split jerk and push jerk.
• Combinations of the above
• 4 sets of 10 jumps : forward, on a box, with or without barbells)
• 3-4 sets of abs : Hanging leg raises, weighed planks, abs rollouts, incline abs
• 3-4b minutes of hanging

I only did two of these in the final two weeks, lasted 20 minutes and were :

1. 5 1 min walk at 5km/hour, 1 min run at 12/13/14/15/16 km/h
2. 6 1 min walk at 5km/hour, 1 min run at 15/15/15/15/15/16 km/h

3) EXTRAS : 

“thankfully” a heat wave struck as the weeks went by, so increasing the cold showers was no problem. However, taking cold showers in the afternoon helps sleep, whereas cold showers in the evening decrease the quality of sleep… go figure!

B. THE RESULTS :

I lost 9,1 kg all in all, going from a starting weight of 96kg down to 86,9kg. The goal was 500g per week, or 6 kg, so this is a major win. No extra effort was put in to lose more weight.

No loss of strength in most lifts, either stagnation or improvement (box squat +5kg, close grip floor press +2,5 kg).

Increased mobility mostly due to increased range of motion necessary in the Olympic lifts.

No loss of energy, even though sleep quality did go down. I’ve had recurrent left shoulder pain that has been with me for 10 years that increased during the first six weeks, waking me up several times during the night.This has dramatically reduced during in the second half of the program. I believe it was due to three major factors which were 1) Cryotherapy 2) Pullups 3) Overhead work. The pain during the first 6 weeks felt like “good pain”. As if something was finally moving and changing in there. And it gradually reduced, but is still very lightly present.

No extra hunger, cravings did have to be controlled in the last 2 weeks of the program, but more sleep and more food at breakfast seemed to solve the issue.

Too much coffee made me more tired so that had to be cut down slightly. Having coffee too late meant bad sleep, which meant more cravings and more calories.

C. WHAT WOULD I CHANGE :

1) FOOD

To be honest, I wouldn’t change much here… I think the plan was straightforward and didn’t need too much tampering. The food programming was great, and I think that considering I lost nearly nearly 10% of my bodyweight, it went pretty smoothly. I would simply remove the troublesome foods right from the start.

2) TRAINING

I would change a few things on the training program though, now that I have a better hang on the olympic weightlifting part.

I would have added interval running once a week straight from the start. Starting on small, slow easy intervals in hills for low impact, and slowly increasing distance, speed and reducing slope.

The extra jumps would have coming in when the bodyweight went below 90kg.

I would have insisted on more mobility work straight from the start, and longer warmups, and added more pull-ups from the very beginning.

I would have also added grip work, ab work, and hanging, which I believe are now very important components of the training.

3) EXTRAS

I would have aded a cryotherapy session every 4 weeks to accelerate the fat loss. It was great boost at the beginning of the program, and I believe I would have lost another 2kg if I had added two extra sessions.

I think that floating is an extremely important part of my life, and that I don’t float enough. I honestly believe that it should be a weekly endeavour for anyone that has trouble focusing, organising, or has anxiety about the future. It clears out the mind and gives a good 3 to 4 weeks focus. Unfortunately, it is still too expensive to do on a weekly basis, but I believe I will make efforts in order to go every 3 weeks this year. The reduction in stress levels does help comply with the programs.

CONCLUSION :

I am writing this conclusion over six weeks after the end of the diet. I have stopped counting calories, and have gone on holiday. I have only added an extra 2kg, which has not moved since I came back from holiday 4 weeks ago. I am happy withe the fact that my appetite has been regulated and that I don’t ever eat until my stomach is completely full anymore. I stop eating when I don’t feel like eating anymore, and that generally does it. once in a while I get a hunger ping between 4min to 1 hour later, so I eat again. I really feel that this is the greatest benefit of this diet : the ability to listen to what my body actually needs.

I hope this helps you if you are on one of these dieting endeavours, if you liked this article please share.

And take it easy.

Morgan.