I remember the first time I decided to diet down. It was during my freshman year in college; about 15 of us guys put our money in a pot and agreed that the winner, second and third place would walk away with some money. We agreed on selecting random judges to determine our “best body contest” winner. I still laugh at what we all went through but I learned a lot about altering one’s body composition as a result. Oh, and I screwed up a ton.
So What Did I Do?
I dieted for about 16 weeks and got the leanest I have ever been in my life. I made some major mistakes though. I did too much cardio, trained too frequently and with too much volume, didn’t eat enough protein. Did I mention I ran too much?
I did just about everything the wrong way.
My Schedule:
Before Class: 45 minutes to an hour of fasted cardio on the treadmill/elliptical
Breakfast: Lots of egg whites and oatmeal
More Cardio: Lots of walking between classes and the cafeteria (I was eating 5-6x per day)
After Class: Hit the gym and do a high rep bro split
Dinner: no carbs after 7 pm, because that makes you fat and stuff
Bed Time: never at a decent hour(then wake up and do it all over again)
How Did I Fail?
I failed in almost every way possible. I was doing way too much volume to be in a kcal deficit. Heck, I was doing too much volume, period. My workouts were long and the cardio was severely cutting into my recovery. Every workout I got weaker. My CNS was taxed and I needed some serious rest but in my mind I would only get fat if I took a few days off. Boy did I have a lot to learn.
So, after I dropped a good 30lbs of fat and muscle, I was weaker, thinner and leaner. However, I was actually in the best shape of my life. I was sub 10% body fat and could run 5 miles without ceasing. This was the first time I had ever seen a full row of abs (on my own body) in my entire life. As a result, I ended up half naked in a room with 15 other guys, flexing and posing in front of some dudes I have never met. I got second place, won 300 dollars and got to eat some real food that night. We went to Denny’s and proceeded to eat everything on the menu (I might add this is typical post-contest behavior of the neurotic bodybuilding population).
Needless to say the attention I got for my accomplishment was quite flattering but this was the beginning of an unhealthy obsession with my body composition and a nasty relationship with food.
The Downward Spiral
I swear, dieting down for the first time was both a curse and a blessing. The blessing was that I learned a ton about how not to do all of this body recomposition stuff. I learned that too much volume will eventually run you into the ground. Too much cardio is a good way to burn out really quickly and skimping on the protein is a surefire way to lose muscle mass.
The rest of the spring semester I over exercised and spun my wheels. I continued doing a ton of cardio for fear of getting fat again. I was obsessed with being able to take my shirt off to reveal the washboard stomach I was sporting. My training suffered though. This continued all the way through the summer.
I eventually pulled my head out of my ass and found a mentor. I handed over my training to him and began making progress again. Later, after my training was back on par, I developed some issues with food and social eating. I cover a lot of what I went through in my meal frequency article.
So What Could I Have Done Differently?
I should have trained no more than 2-3x per week. My workouts should have been brief and intense whilst working in the 5-6 rep ranges. It would have been smart to focus on maintaining the weight on the bar as opposed to doing a lot of high rep pump work all the while getting weaker. Cardio could have been kept to a maximum of 2x per week as I was walking everywhere; I walked to class, the store, the bar etc.
Since I wasn’t counting calories at all, I should have focused on more lean protein and fruits/veggies as opposed to all the pasta and bread I was eating. I am not saying those foods are bad or anything but I definitely could’ve used more protein considering my training. I probably wasn’t even getting 1g/lb of protein during this disaster of a diet. No wonder I lost strength and mass.
So now that I have told you exactly how to lose a lot of muscle mass while dieting, in the next installment I will explain exactly how not to lose of your muscle mass while dropping body fat. Stay tuned.
the point is cutting the calories.not aerobic(not necessary )
okay, so what?
I can relate to this, I wanted to get extra lean so I stopped weights hit cardio 200%, reduced my intake to less than 1000 calories a day and ended up looking emaciated. I couldn’t see it but everyone knew kept telling me not to lose anymore weight. I look back at the few photos I have of then and cringe. They aren’t pretty but I earnt a valuable lesson, I would rather have sexy bigger muscles than look like a Praying Mantis with twig arms and legs.
Bring on the weights, the protein, the dairy, the good fats and days of rest with a little cardio thrown in on top
So I am sitting here at 0230 hours simply because I thought “Oh yeah, I’ll check my muscle mass!” I checked it and was horrified that in the last 52 days since checking I had lost 1% of lean muscle mass and GAINED 1% of body fat this is in spite of walking upwards of 6.5 miles a day and having lost 10kgs (22lbs)…So found this website and have discovered that I’m not the only foolish one to have done this…So what I’m gathering thus far is that I need more protein, more weight-bearing exercises and not to be so strict on the calorie intake…Thanks a heap, would love to see the second installment on how to add lean muscle mass while exercising! Thanks again!
hey Jeff – what methods were you using to measure these changes? Those are pretty small differences and I’m curious as to if it might be the shifting of water or something else that might skew your results.
Have you maintained your strength during the diet?
so im a really built guy i powerlifted in college…but i wanna go military so i want to lean up i have to much muscle and a little fat too loose whats the best way of doing this?
eat in a deficit, do lots of aerobic work (running, jogging, biking, etc.) and don’t lift as heavy.
Hey what do you mean by, taking in too much “volume”?? You mean foods or water?
My apologies for missing this one. When I was referring to volume, I meant the volume of training. Thusly, if you do 10×10, you’re doing a lot of volume. of you do 2×5, that’s low volume.
you said you ate 5-6 times per day..
what kind of food did you eat? and how much of it?
i’m actually trying to lose fat AND muscle at the sametime.
typical “clean” bodybuilding foods.
if you want to lose the fat and muscle, create a caloric deficit and skimp on the protein.
thanksss .
what types of fruit would you suggest ?
bananas, apples, berries. any of them, really.
HAH! I used to over exercize to the point of that I lost 50 pounds in two months! but it turned into some serious eating disorder anorexia nervosa and bulimia. I see myself as big and I got scared to eat. I litteraly starved myself at 135 pounds. I didn’t eat anything except drink water. I was 80 pounds at height of 5’7 and almost died…I had edema too… icky stuff. I gained back what I lost when I first became a bulimic before anorexia nervosa hit home. Good thing is I am able to lose weight and am working on this with a nutritionist to get to my goal weight of 127 pounds because I gained up to 157 which wasn’t too bad. I’m glad my body realized it wasn’t starving anymore and decided to start breaking down calories instead of storing more. I consider this a blessing. I’m thankful! So you bet I lost a ton of muscle! Since I’ve been eating I gained the building blocks of muscle aka protein..but not muscle itself. Everyone would look like arnold s. if we all ate protein and bulked up. But yeah I’ve been through this. Glad you shared soemthing like this from a males point of view. It’s quite interesting because for girls stuff like this can be really bad. Take it from me. Glad you’re doing well! So it seems.
thanks for sharing Christina. I knew a girl my first year of college who became really skinny due to bulimia. eating disorders are nothing to mess with and I’m glad you are getting help from a nutritionist.
Wow, you guys were serious way back in college, huh! “bro split” lol!
The bottom line is – you got results despite the tons of mistakes – because of your shotgun approach. It sure is possible to get those results with a tad less effort.
yea, the results were very suboptimal tho.
Good stuff JC. I like how you mentioned that you even walked to the bar. LOL. But, you’ve highlighted a trap that many, many, fall into. I’d say especially females, in regard to over-cardioing and under consumption of protein. It’s also unfortunately common in the fitness/figure scene, contributing to the metabolic issues so many can experience in the post-competition or post-dieting phase.
You’re a great teacher, but as for ending up “half naked in a room with 15 other guys, flexing and posing in front of some dudes I have never met”, why wasn’t I invited??
heh, I think we had a “no females allowed” policy. This is not something I put together… haha
Very interesting story about your journey to be fit. If I’m understanding you correctly, you’re saying you lost a lot of fat and were in great shape, however, you lacked strength.
Kinda curious. How did some of your 15 competitors in the bet fare? Did you learn anything from their experiences? Did they do the same type of training and dieting you did?
I did lack strength. I lost lean body mass as a result, too. When one diets and strength loss occurs, muscle loss occurs.
Most of them did the silly crap that I did. So, no, I didn’t learn much from their experiences.
@JC
Great stuff here. Most people don’t realize protein requirements increase under hypocaloric conditions. 2g/lb, even on natural trainees, isn’t unheard of if the deficit is encroaching on 50% of maintenance caloric intake.
wait i still dont get it… how do u lose musclee
under eat on protein, don’t train with weights and do lots of cardio