8 Week "LeanGains" IF Cut.

Just finished another 8 week cut, from January through end of February, 2021. Not a true LeanGains cut, because I didn't do the Reverse Pyramid training. I didn't do any real, progressive training at all (work, work, work, and not under the bar, if you know what I mean). If anything, this cycle goes to prove that this program works. The basic elements make it work: Intermittent Fasting with a caloric deficit and a modium of physical activity; the heavy lifting only serves to ensure that one doesn't lose strength and muscle.

Objectives: Compositional; cut some of the thickness around the waist, don't lose much or any of the good stuff. Lose 4 or 5% bodyfat, which would be a loss of body weight from 227 down to 218 or 215. 

Start: 227/15% BF
End: 212/12% BF

So I lost 15 lbs, which is a significant number, looking back. A couple of pounds a week, but I didn't feel it going at all. I used the caloric daily objectives from last time I did this cut (but wasn't as focused on differentiating between training day/rest day calories). Goal was 14000 cals a week - or 2000/day, but I ate 2326/day on average. Goal is over 200g protein/day, but I was at 190g. Try to have carbs under 100g/day, but I was at 118/day.

I would have preferred to see Protein at 40% or more and Carbs at 20% or less. So, I didn't hit any of my marks, but this still worked well enough. Maybe not doing this during football season would help - late January with playoff game Sundays and Super Bowl Sunday in February; these three "bites" are enough to shake up the average for the whole cycle. 
Besides, cutting when the weather is cold is contradictory to nature. Still, we'll take this all as a win.

Did IF everyday, and on weekdays, it was easy to have coffee and one drink of BCAAs (two scoops, 14g pro) each day til noon. Many days I bubbled ozone water first thing, and I think on an empty stomach, this helps tighten things up (maybe kills candida, which shrinks all the pipes in there under the fat?). Shrinking the midsection's not only about losing fat, it can be surely be about doing TVA vacuums and not having guts full of sludge.

Didn't get to train heavy as I would have liked, on the road with long days at a job site an hour from home, so was away from 4am to 7pm. I brought DBs in the truck with me, and a ruck with water bottles in it, and did 6 sets of squats every other weekday, and some flies/curls with them. 

Being able to do some NEPA walks in the AM, and some rucking would have helped a lot. I did walk a good bit early on at the job site each day, before having to use a buggy to get around and move gear. 

So the whole cycle was an approximation, in both the nutritional side but surely on the training side, but it was successful. Again, the goals coming in were to get around 215 (did), lose off the waist (3 inches from 40.5 to 37.5) and not lose everywhere else or lose significant strength.  

I didn't gain any size in the arms, even with that being kind of a focus. Neck down an inch, chest down 1.5, Hip down 3. Shoulder girdle grew 1.5. Added another belt hole to the belt-I-had-to-add-belt-holes-to during the cut in 2018 (yeah, time to get some new belts) ... waist ended at 38.5 then, so another inch off was a plus, even from last time when I was adhering pretty strictly to the protocols. I think I ate cleaner this time, which is to say carbs might have been up a bit but those carbs were foody, and not refined sugars.

Want to hold here for a month and eat at 2500 cals/day for a while, then do another cut and get the waist down even more. I may not see 33 or 33.5 as Steve Reeves and the ancient Romans would like, but 34 is within reach. 

Recomping this year for reals and for good, not just a nebulous purpose that I write about, cut for, and then find at the end of the year, the numbers are basically the same as before. Maintaining at 212 and holding here will be a good test for 4 weeks at least, while keeping the waist from expanding right back to 39 or 40 will be a win. Then drop under 210, down to 205 say, during another 8 week cycle in April - May. The idea this year is to get light enough and lean enough to then work on power-endurance and rucking without all the wear and tear. Limit strength on the backburner (still simmering there though). 

Time and determination will tell.