Weight Loss Progress – November 22

The primary focus of this first stage of competition prep is weight loss and getting my weight down to 75kgs.

For context, I think the last time I was 75kg I was in my 20s.

How am I approaching my weight loss?

Changes to Diet

This is the biggest change as the biggest component to weight loss is being in a calorie deficit while maintaining a healthy macro balance. For example, I still need to eat 180g of protein per day, which at times feels like I am eating too much. The key is to balance it with 180g of carbs and around 90g fat.

The biggest changes I made were:

Cutting out alcohol – I allow myself a small glass of wine if it is a very special occasion.

Weighing breakfast cereal – There are so many carbs in cereal and portion size can be deceiving.

Protein supplement – Essential if you are going to hit the required grams per day. Add it to breakfast cereal to get 25% of your daily intake in.

Changes to Weight Training

No major training changes from a weights perspective. It is important to keep the weight training up to avoid going catabolic and losing muscle tissue which is a real risk if losing weight too fast. At the same time, it is impossible to build muscle when in calorie deficit so no need to go for hypertrophy techniques all the time.

2 main changes to weight training:

Increase rep count in some sets – kept my primary movements around 10-12 reps but moved into 15-20 reps for some exercises (e.g. seated leg curls, straight arm pulldowns).

Focus on muscle contraction – working through the full range of motion under control with peak contraction has helped me learn how to flex every muscle which will be essential on stage.

Changes to Cardio Training

For the first 6 weeks, I didn’t include any actual cardio training machine work, but did focus on reducing rest time and trying to keep my heart rate higher. Reduced rest time helped me increase the volume of work in the workout which burned more calories too. To help keep the heart rate up, I’d do some farmers carries in between sets with some kettle bells.

In the past few weeks, I’ve added 10-20 mins stepper or incline treadmill to spend a bit more time in the fat burn zone to help accelerate fat loss without impacting muscle mass.

How often am I looking at the Weighing Scales?

I checked the scales every weekend, first thing in the morning, ideally after initial bowel movements (sorry if TMI!). This helped control the variables and give me a consistent point to compare to the previous week.

I did measure myself at times during the week as well, but found that there were a lot of fluctuations during the week that could either be demotivating (weight went up) or encourage complacency (weight went down more than expected).

What happened there?

My weight loss was pretty steady for the first couple of months, but that week I went overseas with my family. I have a gym membership for when we are away, but I hadn’t prepared fully for the diet aspect, and so didn’t have as much lean meat, sugar free options and low-carb solutions available. I hadn’t planned enough for the trip, assuming I could adapt on the fly. However, with a busy week of work, I didn’t have the chance to do my usual shopping and meal prep and it resulted in me going back a week from a weight loss perspective. I got back on track when I returned, but an important lesson learned for future trips.