If you’re on a diet, don’t watch the food network

11 03 2012

Both of my parents are on (stupid) diets, and in the past 24 hours I have seen them both watching the food channel.  Tip of the day: don’t stress your own willpower.

You can't have this

 





Self Experimentation/Demonstration: GOMAD, muscle gain, good health, etc

27 02 2012

Please read the whole article before commenting on how crazy I am.  But, feel free to post that.  It will just make it funnier in 2 months when I prove you wrong.

If you don’t know already, GOMAD = Gallon of milk a day.  Note: I’ve done GOMAD twice before so I pretty much know what to expect, which is why this is a experiment/demonstration.

Where I Am Now

Since new years I have been lifting lightly and slowly getting back into shape.  I’m finally at a reasonable point (Deadlift, 265, Squat 215, Bench 150, Row 150, Overhead Press 120) and am going to kick it into high gear.  I currently weigh 168 lbs, my goal is 175 lbs with a good body fat %.

My Plan

Exercise

Stay on my current linear progression lifting program (based on Stronglifts).  I will probably have to switch to an intermediate program soon enough.  See my current results as well as projected workouts here.

Diet

Eat my normal diet (low/slow carb mostly, but plenty of crap also), but add GOMAD.  Stay on this until I reach 180 lbs (should be 2 months), at which point drop GOMAD and cut down to 175 lbs while attemping to not lose any muscle mass.  I may do only half a gallon of milk on Sat and Sun since I don’t lift those 2 days in a row.

Health

For fun, after I reach my goal of 180 lbs I will get a cholesterol test to show you the reader what happens.  Either you’ll be surprised by awesome numbers or I’ll be surprised by crappy numbers.

Demonstration

I will try to photo every bit of food I eat until I reach my goal of 175 lbs and post the photos to my flickr account.  You can follow along with my workout progress here.   I took a video since photos are easily altered and posted it below, and I will repeat at 180 lbs and 175 lbs.  At the end of my GOMAD I will get a lipid panel (cholesterol test).

In the spirit of full disclosure I have a few extra things I do/don’t do:

  • Never work out within 30 minutes of waking up.
  • Never lift right after eating.
  • Sleep plenty.
  • Short warm up.

Things I’m Not Doing

People have a million and one (stupid) tips on how to lose or gain weight.  I’m not doing anything but what’s above.  Here’s a short list of things I’m not doing that you may have heard of:

  • Counting calories
  • Going out of my way to walk or jog or walk up stairs or anything like that
  • “Timing” my protein
  • Working out at a specific time (ie, workout before you eat breakfast or other such bs)
  • “Confusing my muscles” by switching exercises
  • Supplementing in any way (although I do take vitamin D3, vitamin B and fishoil for other reasons)
  • Substituting “healthy food” for other food.  For example, quinoa, low fat anything, etc.  I cook with real butter, bacon, etc.

Hypothesis

I have done this before, so I pretty much know what’s going to happen.  It should take a month or two to get up to 180 lbs.  From there it’ll take another month or two to drop back down to 175 lbs.  At 175 lbs  I will look noticeably more muscular than I do now, but still have a small belly.  Hypothesis for my cholesterol levels after reaching 180 lbs by drinking a gallon of milk a day: should be similar to my last test: total 185, triglyceride 84, hdl 68, ldl 100, (all mg/dL), December 2010.

Call for Comments

I really want to hear from you on what you think will happen.  I know this sounds crazy, so I’m hoping people post what they think will happen or not happen.