[Leigh P.]

[quote]

Originally Posted by bacardio

Noted and will watch out for


Yeah, I suppose that won't work. Hard to create muscle endurance in a calorie deficit.

Actually it is easier to create muscle endurance in a deficit, harder to increase maximum strength/mass.

My bad.. After re-reading what I wrote I should have explained myself better and my be screwing up the terminology.
While I did have days I could keep eating and never felt full. I didn't, I stayed with my calorie goal. When I stated I was 80% faithful, I was referring to macros, not calorie goal. I would guess since January I have been over my calorie limit maybe a dozen times and over my BMR half of those. Still not great, but I will start tracking better.

I know I can come across as anal but when you see a decrease in progression there are only a few places you can go, the easiest is the deficit being created by properly tracking food intake.

The next is things like NEAT decrease, training decrease, and overall "effort" falling back. There is also just getting burned out. 9/10 though the first is the general culprit.

Remember, the body doesn't want you to do this so it will do what it can to slow you down.

I see what you are talking about.. I will have to go back and see what my nutrient was like before that week of lifting. I had one week, during the NROL fat loss I phase that the lifting went smooth, I believe it was workouts #3 and #4 of both A and B. Not certain if I can contribute this to the lower of the set reps or not. During this part of the workout routine, the reps per set were reduced from 15 to 12 while reducing the RI from 75 seconds to 60 seconds. But as my log shows a did add weight during most workouts, which I guess doesn't make sense, if you can't gain any strength while in a calorie deficit.

Don't get me wrong you can increase strength, you can make progressions but SOMETHING is going to give at a point to keep doing so on a easy level. Usually what happens is our training gets all of our energy focus but we crash everywhere else.

With food, we get that big meal in or nibble here or there that seems like a 100 but adds up to 1000 by the end of the week.

So if training is going easy, too easy, then that can be a sign to some degree.

I did feel like the quiz didn't ask me about my night time habits enough when it gave me my activity number, but thought maybe I was reading too much into it. Here is a basic week of my life

Job: computer programmer so I am sitting on my butt all day
Workouts: I was going to the gym at noon and lifting for 45-60 minutes on M, W, and F. I followed the NROL FLI routine to a T for rest intervals and all, so it was pretty serious lifting.

Night: Karate (TKD) on Tues and Thurs (roughly 45-60 minutes each night). TKD Sparring Friday (60 - 90 minutes, actually matches maybe half that time). Usually some type of home project, home carpentry, painting, cleaning, yard work for a couple hours, then relaxing.

Weekends: Sat mornings kickboxing 45-60 minutes. Usually some type of home project, home carpentry, painting, cleaning, yard work for rest of the weekend.

You always have to give a logical thought to movement. For example...
at your size when you sit, if all is pretty normal, you burn roughly 1.4 calories per min in sleep and in sitting. Anything else that is movement can range from 2.0 a min to 10.0 or more. So like I said decrease at a moderate level and then bump it up harder to get it done until you find you are starting to slow down, sabotage, or just binge.

To me you seem like you would put together a pretty healthy burn and will find it not to hard to get really run down if things are too aggressive.

Re-feed every so often for a few days and then jump back in but MONITOR the re-feeds, don't go nuts, keep it smart. Remember overeating helps up with our hormones but it is also what gets us fat in the first place.

What do you suggest for endurance both muscular and cardio?

Everything that everyone hates. High Reps, longer sessions, less rest times. With your training needs I would save the high joint and impact work for training only and hit more lower impact cardio like ellipticals/swimming for your aerobic threshold work. Favorite though would be jump roping but on support mats. You build up endurance and the reaction/coordination you need for you training BUT doing it on mats takes some of the strain off the joints.

Just make sure to keep your pre/post nutrition solid. It doesn't have to be expensive, just some Whey/Gatorade will be fine but you don't want to get burned out by not supporting your workouts. These workouts AREN'T for fat loss, that is what your life is for. This work outs should be in support of your training and might burn some extra calories for you. Mix that with proper protein and your LBM should be fine and you should gain some endurance and increase in your training some even in a deficit. Might even still pack on a bit mass too at your level still with some ease.

Thanks SOOOOOO much for your help. I will heed and follow your recommendations. If it would make more sense to continue this conversation in a PM, we can, I don't want to bog down this thread, due to my confusion/ineptness.

Not everyone can afford the book, not everyone wants it. The info here is still good regardless and it helps to educate people. Plus it is all in one spot which my unorganized self loves.