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.





My Workout, Part A

22 02 2012

As promised, my post today is a video of my workout (one of two), which comes from Stronglifts.com.  The entire thing from warm up to being done is only 37 minutes.  People complain working out takes too long, does 37 minutes sound long?  And, only 3x a week.  If you’re doing a workout that takes longer, you might want to reconsider.  In the future I’ll do a post on the kind of results I have gotten.

http://youtu.be/jzw8kP0CKWk

All that’s needed for this workout: Barbell, weights, squat rack, some plywood and rubber for barbell row and deadlifting.  And somehow modern gyms spend tens of thousands of dollars on useless equipment.

Oh yeah, and you can see my workouts for 2012 in my Gdoc here.