It’s been a great week.  Despite cutting my typical caloric intake in half (from around 4,000/day to around or slightly below 2,000/day), I’ve been able to maintain a pretty high level of energy.  I enjoyed my two week break, but it feels great to start training seriously again.

I’ve been pretty shocked at the results so far.  Anytime you start a low carb diet you can expect to lose a significant amount of weight.  According to my friend and colleague Brian St. Pierre, most people store around 500 grams of glycogen.  Each gram of glycogen stores 3-4 grams of water with it (1500-2000 grams).  So if you are training hard (depleting your glycogen levels) and not replenishing them through carbohydrates in the diet, you could lose 2000-2500 grams (2-2.5 kilograms or 4.4-5.5 pounds) within a few days, for the average person.  The more muscle you have and the better trained you are, the more glycogen (and therefore more water) you can store.    

So I expected to lose a couple pounds, quickly.  But not this:

Jan 4: 180.5 lbs
Jan 5: 176
Jan 6: 173
Jan 7: 172.5
Jan 8: 172
Jan 9: 170
Jan 10: I woke up to find that my scale was broken, probably due to some violent jarring during the house-cleaning the day before.

That’s over 10 pounds in one week!  I have no doubt I’d put 6-8 of that back on if I loaded up on carbs and water, but I was still surprised at how quickly that much weight came off.

As promised, here’s my training for the week:

Jan 5:
A1) Hang Clean: 135 x 5, 155 x 3, 165 x 3, 175 x 3
A2) Med. Handle Low-Pulley Row: 120lbs x 1 x 6, 190lbs x 4 x 4
B1) Deadlift: 225 x 5, 315 x 3, 365 x 3, 385 x 3 x (5 x 1) w/ 10-15s between reps
B2) 1-Leg Glute Bridge Hold: 3 x 15s each
C1) BLR SS Iso-Hold: 1 x 30s each BW, 2 x 40lb DB x 2 x 30s each
C2) Glute Ham Raise: 3 x 10 

Jan 6:
A1) Bench Press: 135 x 8, 185 x 5, 225 x 3, 275 x 1, 290 x .6, 290 x .7, 285 x .3
A2) Scap Wall Slides (Facing Wall): 3 x 10
B1) Chin-Up: BW x 5, BW+45 x 2 x 6, 1 x 5, BW+25 x 1 x 5+Help for 6
B2) Incline DB Triceps Extension-to-Close Grip Press: 2 x 35 DB x3 x 8, 2 x 40 DB x 1 x 8
C1) Standing Pallof Iso-Hold from High Pulley w/ Rope: 60lbs x 1 x 30s each, 50lbs x 2 x 30s each
C2) Face Pull w/ External Rotation: 3 x 10 w/ 100lbs

Jan 8:
A1) Back Squat w/ 3s Negative: 135lbs x 3 x 8
A2) Front Plank: 3 x 60s
B1) Alternating DB Reverse Lunge: 2 x 65 DB x 3 x 6 each
B2) DB Swing: 1 x 15lb DB x 3 x 10
B3) SB Hamstring Curl: 3 x 12
B4) 1-Leg Squat: 3 x 8 each

Jan 9:
A1) Kettlebell Shoulder Press: 4 x 10 w/ 12kg and 16kg KB (1 in each hand)
A2) Blackburn Hold (I, Y, T): 1 x 30s each
B1) Chin-Up: 3 x 8 BW
B2) KB Swing: 3 x 8 each w/ 16kg KB
B3) Push-Up: 3 x 10 BW
B4) KB Clean-to-Curl Eccentric: 3 x 8 each w?  12kg KB
B5) Bird Dog: 3 x 6 each

The last two days weren’t exactly what I planned, but my gym closed for those two days so I had to make due with what I could at a gym in my office building and at my apartment.  All things considered, I’ll take it for a first week back.  It looks like my weight measurements will be less frequent now, but that’s fine.  I don’t anticipate losing another 10 pounds this week.  I’ll try to weigh in once a week on a reliable scale to keep monitoring my progress.  

Feel free to email me (kn@kevinneeld.com) with any questions you may have about this.  As always, I’ll do my best to get back to you as soon as possible. 

Alright, I gotta get back to the Eagles game!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

-Kevin Neeld