On June 17 I began yet another journey to shed some unwanted pounds. It was time for the fat bastard to get lean.

But before I throw in my stats, pictures and the diets I’ve used during these weeks and the results I’ve achieved, I’ll start out with some background info on myself.

It’s been a few years since I wrote about my training on the Internet, at least to the international public. Since a lot have happened, I’ll try to give you a short sum up of the last couple of years.
In 2003 I worked as Editor in Chief and designer/layout man for a sports and bodybuilding/fitness magazine. I also helped with starting up two gyms, supporting a supplement distributor, arranging a fitness festival and the Bodybuilding and Fitness Nationals. It was a crazy year – and I worked close to 500 hours overtime with periods of five weeks without a day off.

I early 2004 I paid the price and my body collapsed. I was burnt out and I catched tonsillitis followed by a double sided pneumonia. The latter lasted for six weeks and leaved me with even more scar tissue in my already damaged lungs (I suffered from severe asthma and allergies as a child and was near death on several occasions.)
I spent the larger part of 2004 to rehabilitate. During the first weeks in the summer I couldn’t even walk a flight of stairs without getting winded and cramping from lack of oxygen – and my head and vision was literally spinning.

In late 2005 I could finally weight train at almost full capacity again. I was doing upper and lower body splits since I couldn’t handle full body workouts. Still, the lower body workouts were a bitch with cramping and shortness of breath. At that time I managed to climb back to about 194 lbs (88kg) with 12% body fat. This is what I looked like at the start of 2006:

In February 2006 I started a new business (presented on this website) and also teamed up with Fredrik Carlsson and his Team reFORM (Sweden’s largest competition team for bodybuilders and fitness athletes). I moved from Eskilstuna to Västerås and opened a new office in the same building as reFORM Supplement Store. It was a couple of hectic months and in March disaster struck again.
I woke up with some kind of nettle rash, a sore throat, a light fever, heavy water retention and itching eyes and lips. After three visits to different doctors and several tests later, they still couldn’t figure it out and it was “labeled” as some kind of viral infection. My vision blurred and I couldn’t read for weeks. This is what it looked like after a week on antihistamines (May 20th):

I could hardly move at all for about eight weeks, and we all know what that can do to a body. Yep, that’s right Bubba; acute muscle loss and some fat gain. It’s the worst combination of them all.
It actually took close to 13 weeks before I could start exercise lightly again. That was in late May. After a few weeks of playing around in the gym I’ve had enough. It was time to get lean and into shape again. I needed to prioritize my health over re-gaining all my muscle, which at that high body fat percentage only would be a strain on my body due to more tissue to oxygenate. My goal is sub 6% body fat, and to tell you the truth, I haven’t been there since early 2000 (when I was about 6.5% BF).

This is how bad I looked on June 17:

My stats as of June 17:

Age: 32 years young
Height: 5′8″ (172 cm)
Morning body weight: 184lbs (83.4kg)
Body fat percentage: 14.8%
Fat weight: 27.2lbs (12.3kg)
Lean body weight: 156.8lbs (71.1kg)
Waist measurement: 36.8” (93.4cm)

During the first three weeks I rotated my carbs with a small carb load every third day.

A regular day looked like this:

278g protein (57E% and 1140 kcal)
87.5g fat (39E% and 770 kcal)
17.4g carbs (4E% and 71 kcal)
Total: 1981 kcal

This was divided into four regular meals and four separate supplement feedings between meals of BCAA (5 grams) and Creatine (3 grams).

Load days looked like this:

301g protein (44E% and 1234 kcal)
97.1g fat (30E% and 854 kcal)
177.4g carbs (26E% and 727 kcal)
2815 kcal

The extra carbs were added to my breakfast (before training) and directly after my training session as a post work-out shake.

I did this diet for about three weeks as a “gentle break in” to get my fat metabolism going and to bring me down close to 10-11% BF.

Training regimen:
Since my lungs are in bad shape I’m currently doing a classic “pull and push” 3-split. When I get better, I’ll go back to a upper- and lower body split. And no, I don’t waste time on isolation exercises or machines.
I will train 4-5 days a week. I will not do any direct cardio work. That’s right! NO FRIKKIN’ ENDLESS CARDIO!
Cardio doesn’t really burn that many calories to begin with. And worst of all, cardio have no EPOC (afterburning due to raised metabolism) to speak of. Weight training can lead to a 4 to 7 percent increase in the metabolic rate over a 24-hour period. Cardio will, well, do nada, my friend. And since my plan don’t include steroids, cardio would only chew my muscle mass away (and thus lowering my metabolic rate.)

The results after almost three weeks (20 days), July 7:

Height: 5′8″ (172 cm)
Morning body weight: 174.2lbs (79.2kg), a loss of 9.8lbs (4.2kg)
Body fat percentage: 11.2% (from 14.8%)
Fat weight: 19.5lbs (8.9kg), a loss of 7.7lbs (3.4kg)
Lean body weight: 154.7lbs (70.3kg), a loss of 2.1lbs (0.8kg)
Waist measurement: 34.8” (88.5cm), a loss of 2” (4.9cm)

Since my first measurement at the beginning of the diet measured me at a normal glycogen-filled state, and this measurement three weeks later measured me at a depleted state, the lean body mass measurement is a bit off. The loss is mostly due to glycogen and intracellular fluids.

This is what I looked like after three weeks:

At this point, since I was about 11% BF and it tends to get harder to keep the fat melting off once you go below 10% and approaching 6%, I changed the diet.
This time I tossed the carb rotation and threw in a re-fill day once every other week (my usual regimen). I also lowered my calorie intake and changed the macronutrient breakdown.

Since my basal (resting) metabolism is about 1690 kcal (derived from Harris J. & Benedict F. biometric study of basal metabolism in man), I will stay above that figure during the entire diet. In order to calculate a good target calorie intake I use my own formula of; 25 x Lean Body Weight in Kilograms (that’s roughly 11.4 x Lean Body Weight in lbs.). For me at this point, that is about 1759 kcal.
Remember, this is extreme dieting; it’s not for the beginner.

This is how the breakdown looked like:
Protein: 150g (35E%)
Carbs: 43g (10E%)
Fat: 110g (55E%)
Total: 1759 kcal

Since almost all of the carbs comes from veggies, a large part of it is fiber and thus lowering the total calorie intake a bit further.
The fat intake was split into roughly 40% saturated fats (to keep my testosterone flying), 30% polyunsaturated- and 30% monounsaturated fats.
I still divide my daily food into four meals. More than that is unnecessary in order to keep the body going, even though I prefer six meals. Also, on a low calorie plan like this, each meal would be too small anyway.
I also continued with my BCAA and creatine mix for four servings a day. That is a must at this low calorie and protein intake.
My re-fill day (every 14th day) is limited to about 4000 kcal from mostly clean foods (some sugars are allowed since I’m totally depleted).

Supplements I use:
Multivitamin/mineral formula: one in the morning and one in the evening.
Omega-3 capsules: 2 with every meal for a total of 8 a day (8 grams).
BCAA (5 grams) and Creatine (3 grams): four servings a day between meals. On workout days, 1 serving at the beginning of the training session and one in the middle (after about 30-35 min).
Ergogin (Ginko Biloba och Rhodiola Rosea): one dose in the morning and one in the afternoon.
Zink and Magnesium with B-6 and B12, before bed.

That’s it! No ephedrine, caffeine or any other kind of worthless “fatburner”.

The results after 13 days and a total of almost five weeks (33 days), July 20th:

Height: 5′8″ (172 cm)
Morning body weight: 169.4lbs (77kg), down another 4.8lbs (2.2kg) and a total of 14.6lbs (6.4kg).
Body fat percentage: 8.9%, down from 11.2% and 14.8% at the start.
Fat weight: 15.1lbs (6.86kg), down another 4.4lbs (2kg) and a total of 12.6lbs (5.5kg).
Lean body weight: 154.3lbs (70.14kg), down 0.4lbs (0.18kg).
Waist measurement: 33.9” (86cm), down another 0.9” (2.5cm) and a total of 2.9” (7.4cm)

Pretty good results if I may say so myself. No cardio except for 1 or 2 short brisk walks a week for 15 min directly after a workout. It all comes down to nutrition and weight training. Losing 4.4lbs and going from 11.2% BF to 8.9% BF in 13 days is pretty good. And if my clients complain about low carb days, I’ll smack them in the head with loaf of bread. I’m doing fine at only 30 to 40 grams a day. It’s easy if you keep the fats pretty high.

So, this is what I looked like after close to five weeks (33 days), July 20:

And here’s a little comparison (click it to open):

To get the body fat percentage we use Jackson, A.S., Pollock, M.L Fat Caliper equations with 7 sites. This is not entirely accurate. But one thing is most certain. I still have a lot more fat to loose!
I’ll continue to update once a week on Saturdays. New photos will be taken every other week.