Stats as of January 30, 2008 (after four weeks):
Morning temperature: 36.8 C / 98.24 F
Resting pulse: 65 BPM
Morning weight: 70.6 kg / 155.3 lbs (down 0.4 kg / 0.9 lbs since last week)
Chest/Back measurements (across nipples): 110.4 cm / 43.46”
Waist (widest area, across navel): 78.2 cm / 30.79” (down 0.6 cm / 0.24” since last week)
Upper arm: 41.8 cm / 16.46”
Thigh (middle): 58.2 cm / 22.91” (down 0.5 cm / 0.2” since last week)
Calf: 41.1 cm / 16.18”

Caliper measurements:
Chest: 2 mm
Abdominal: 3.0 mm (-0.5)
Thigh: 4.5 mm (-0.5)
Bicep: 1 mm
Triceps: 2 mm (-0.5)
Subscapular: 5 mm
Suprailiac: 2.5 mm
Lower back: 4.5 mm (-0.5)
Calf: 1 mm (-0.5)
Midaxillary: 2.5 mm (-0.5)

Body fat calculations:
Parrillo 9-sites:
Body Fat percentage: 4.43 % (last week 4.84 %)
Lbs/Kgs of Body Fat: 6.88 lbs / 3.13 kg (-0.31kg / -0.68 lbs)
Lean Body Weight: 148.42 lbs / 67.46 kg (-0.1 kg / -0.22 lbs)

Jackson/Pollock 7-sites:
Body Fat percentage: 2.72 % (last week: 3.06%)
Lbs/Kgs of Body Fat: 4.23 lbs / 1.92 kg (-0.25 kg / -0.55 lbs)
Lean Body Weight: 151.07 lbs / 68.67 kg (-0.16 kg / -0.35 lbs)

Let’s start with reviewing the body comp measurements. Those of you who’ve been in the game for a while know that caliper skinfold readings become quite unreliable when body fat levels are very low. Parrillo has a good formula, but it’s far from perfect. If you look at my measurements and readings, you’ll notice that I lost 0.5cm / 0.2” of the circumference in my legs, while the caliper reading shows a loss of 0.5mm. Did I lose muscle mass? Hardly! The caliper reading of the thigh is a vertical fold taken midway between the knee cap and the top of the thigh. There are no caliper measurements taken on the inside of the thighs, nor on the hamstring. And there lies the problem. I’m significantly leaner in those areas this week than the week before. In the last two weeks my veins has really popped up in those areas and I can feel the skin getting thinner and tighter.
When you’ve never been in contest condition before, you have some interspersed fat between your muscle bellies and you’ll probably have some minor problem areas, like the lower back and the glutes. The lower back is covered in the Parrillo formula, but glutes, hamstrings and upper hamstrings (where the glutes attach) is not. And these areas are usually the last ones to get ripped. When you can see muscle fibers in your glutes and lower back, you’re ripped all over for sure.
As for myself, I still have some fat around the glutes and upper hamstrings and this is where I lost some fat in the last week. This simply means that the readings are getting more and more inaccurate, but knowing the skinfold readings of these areas are still important to track your progress.
And as far as body fat percentages go, you should be aware that these are subcutaneous readings. The actual body fat percentage is a lot higher as your body also stores fat within the muscle bellies and between and around your organs. Only a bodypod (under water body fat reading) would give somewhat accurate readings at this point. But that’s irrelevant. The important thing is that the skinfold readings are getting smaller, the trouble areas are getting leaner (you can take your own control skinfold measurements to check this) and that your morning body weight either decreases slightly or stays pretty much the same; as this means that you’re losing fat and are keeping or even increasing your lean body mass.

Well now. From today I will bump up my calories somewhat by adding some more protein, greens and carbs during training and post workout (where they’re needed.) I will also do some moderate cardio two to three times a week to increase my energy flux. The goal from now on is to continue losing fat while encouraging my body to re-gain muscle mass by slowly introducing some carbs to the diet. You could call it a transition period into a low/moderate carb diet.
Now, there’s a downside to this. Adding carbs (more than 30 to 50g daily) means that you’re getting out of ketosis. The diet isn’t ketogenic anymore, it’s just low carb. While you’re in ketosis your insulin levels are super stable and thus all your cravings for carbs are gone. Once you’re out of ketosis these cravings will usually come back, especially if you’re not used to a low carb diet. Even if you only take carbs after your workout, it will probably throw you out of ketosis for a few hours. This makes the diet much harder mentally. This is also why you should be cautious with carb re-feeds during a diet, especially if you’re above 8 to 10 percent of bodyfat (the more body fat you have, the worse your insulin sensitivity is.) Fortunately, I’ve been pretty much on a low carb diet since June 2007 and even before that I usually wouldn’t get more than 30 E% from carbs. Actually, every diet I ever done has been either ketogenic or very low carb. I did my first ketogenic diet back in 1998 (Body Opus). So I’m very used to it, even though I never gone this low I body fat before. Anyhow, protein and fats are essential, carbs are not. I’m also somewhat immune to any kind of cravings, so even though I no longer will be in ketosis, cravings shouldn’t be a problem.

The diet will now look something like this:

Training days:
About 2000 kcal (a 400 kcal increase)
Protein: 280 grams (60g is BCAA taken before and during training (not included, only kcal) and 40g whey post workout)
Carbs: 105 grams (25g during training and 50g post workout, the remaining from veggies)
Fat: 45 grams (20 g fish oil, the remaining from vegetable oils and the fat in meats and eggs)

Rest days:
About 1500 kcal (a 200kcal increase, but still a lot below maintenance)
Protein: 210 grams
Carbs: 30 grams (veggies)
Fat: 60 grams (20 g fish oil, the remaining from vegetable oils and the fat in meats and eggs)

As you can see, I keep it pretty simple. The diet is pretty much the same on all days with the exception of added protein and some carbs during and after training. The fat intake is also somewhat lower on training days, which simply is achieved by eating a regular meal on my off days where I would normally be at the gym and having my recovery drink (which contains no fat at all.)

My training for this period will shift from my regular upper- and lower body split to a more bodybuilding oriented 4-split. It will look like this:

Day 1: Chest, back and abs
Day 2: Legs and calves (and light/moderate cardio)
Day 3: off
Day 4: Biceps, triceps and abs (and light/moderate cardio)
Day 5: Shoulders and calves
Day 6: off (and light/moderate cardio)
Day 7: off or repeat

The progression is built on blocks, where one week equals one block and the mesocycle is four blocks in total (with the fourth block being a de-loading week.)

I’ll give you more details on the workouts as the journal progresses.

Quick update on February 1st: here’s a pic from my first biceps and triceps workout in ages:

I just finished two alternating cluster sets of hammer curls and lying french presses.