July 28 – maintenance week:
This week was a re-feed and maintenance week. During the first two days I got about 3000 kcal with roughly 280g of protein and 280g of carbs and the rest from fat. The third and fourth day I got about 2500 to 2600 kcal with roughly 270g of protein and 250g of carbs and the rest from fat. On the fifth and sixth day I stepped down to about 1800 kcal with 250g from protein and 100g from carbs and the rest from fat. And finally, on day seven, I returned to a regular dieting off-day with about 1400kcal and 180g protein, 30g carbs and 60g fat. By lowering the carbs (and calories) towards the end of the week while training I burned off most of the stored glycogen and thus lost some water weight before this week’s weight-in.
 

July 28 – after seven weeks (and four re-feed days)
Morning weight: 161.5 lbs (73.4 kg)
Morning weight difference: +1.8 lbs (+0.8 kg)
Waist measurement: 32.6” (82.8 cm)
Waist measurement difference: +0.12” (+0.3 cm)
Body fat percentage by Parrillo 9-sites: 9.53% (-0.53%)
Body fat percentage by Jackson/Pollock 7 sites: 7.44% (-0.32%)
Weight of body fat by Parillo: 15.39 lbs (6.99 kg)
Weight of body fat by J/P: 12.01 lbs (5.46 kg)
Body fat difference by Parillo: -0.68 lbs (-0.31 kg)
Body fat difference by J/P: -0.38 lbs (-0.17 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by Parillo: 146.11 lbs (66.41 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by J/P: 149.49 lbs (67.95 kg)
Lean body mass difference by Parillo: +2.48 lbs (+1.13 kg)
Lean body mass difference by J/P: +2.18 lbs (+0.99 kg)

The re-feed/maintenance week did add some muscle to my bones. I gained about 2.48 lbs while I lost 0.68 lbs of fat. Some of that gain may still be in the form of glycogen and intracellular fluids. We’ll know for sure next week.
 

August 4:
This week was tough. Most of Sweden is covered with mugwort pollen, which is something that makes my allergies go haywire and my asthma to kick in to overdrive. I also switched to a new and somewhat harder training routine this week. That was maybe not the best planning in the world, but I made it through – with a lot of asthma medication.
The training routine spans over four workouts with one heavy upper body workout and one heavy lower body workout where the rep-range is 4 to 6 reps. Each heavy day is followed by a full body workout done in circuit fashion (five exercise in a row) with a rep-range of 15 to 20 reps. These are lactic acid workouts and they’re pure hell. My lungs gave out during the second circuit so I had to split some exercises into regular supersets just to be able to finish the workouts. Allergies sucks – and so does my lungs.
 

August 4 – after eight weeks
Morning weight: 161 lbs (73.2 kg)
Morning weight difference: -0.5 lbs (-0.2 kg)
Waist measurement: 32.40” (82.3 cm)
Waist measurement difference: -0.2” (-0.5 cm)
Body fat percentage by Parrillo 9-sites: 8.89% (-0.64%)
Body fat percentage by Jackson/Pollock 7 sites: 6.95% (-0.49%)
Weight of body fat by Parillo: 14.31 lbs (6.5 kg)
Weight of body fat by J/P: 11.20 lbs (5.09 kg)
Body fat difference by Parillo: -1.08 lbs (-0.49 kg)
Body fat difference by J/P: -0.81 lbs (-0.37 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by Parillo: 146.69 lbs (66.68 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by J/P: 149.80 lbs (68.09 kg)
Lean body mass difference by Parillo: +0.58 lbs (+0.27 kg)
Lean body mass difference by J/P: +0.31 lbs (+0.14kg)

Okay, I lost about a pound this week and gained a tiny bit of muscle mass. Not bad since most of my workouts sucked. This also shows that I did gain a lot of muscle mass during the previous maintenance week. That’s cool.

And here’s finally a new comparison photo. Unfortunately it’s not exactly shot in the same perspective as the previous ones. And the lightning really sucks. I’m still planning on buying some studio lamps in the near future. But until then, this will have to do.

 
And here’s a comparison of the photos I’ve had taken. They’re from day one, after two weeks, after three weeks and after the eight week.

 
And here’s a bad shot of my back from my training session on August 2nd.

There’s still a lot of hardened fat to lose. My caliper reading at the subscapular reading point was about 6mm this week.
 

August 11:
There’s still a lot of mugwort pollen in the air and the weather has been really warm with a high humidity. However, my heavy lifting days have gone really well. I’m increasing the weight or the number of reps in each and every workout. The lactic acid workouts are still a bitch though. But I manage.
 

August 11 – after nine weeks
Morning weight: 160.82 lbs (73.1 kg)
Morning weight difference: -0.18 lbs (-0.1 kg)
Waist measurement: 32.09” (81.5 cm)
Waist measurement difference: -0.31” (-0.8 cm)
Body fat percentage by Parrillo 9-sites: 8.48% (-0.41%)
Body fat percentage by Jackson/Pollock 7 sites: 6.63% (-0.32%)
Weight of body fat by Parillo: 13.63 lbs (6.19 kg)
Weight of body fat by J/P: 10.66 lbs (4.84 kg)
Body fat difference by Parillo: -0.68 lbs (-0.31 kg)
Body fat difference by J/P: -0.54 lbs (-0.25 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by Parillo: 147.19 lbs (66.9 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by J/P: 150.16 lbs (68.25 kg)
Lean body mass difference by Parillo: +0.5 lbs (+0.23 kg)
Lean body mass difference by J/P: +0.36 lbs (+0.16 kg)

Although I lost about 0.3” of my waist this week, the fat loss was only about 0.6 lbs. It’s getting tougher. Beginning next week I’ll throw in some yohimbe HCL at 7.5 mg (three capsules) twice a day. Yohimbe seems to help in breaking down fat, especially old hardened fat, so I might as well give it a try. I haven’t used yohimbe since 1998 and back then, the only available form of yohimbe was the yohimbe bark capsules. The week after next week I’m planning to add some interval training if my lungs can handle it. If they can’t, well, then I’ll have to settle with walking at quick pace wearing a weight vest or a backpack.
 

The results after nine weeks:
Morning weight difference: -6.82 lbs (-3.1 kg)
Waist measurement difference: -3.03” (-7.7 cm)
Body fat difference by Parillo: -13.44 lbs (-6.11 kg)
Body fat difference by J/P: -11.3 lbs (-5.14 kg)
Lean body mass difference by Parillo: +6.61 lbs (+3 kg)
Lean body mass difference by J/P: +4.48 lbs (+2.04 kg)

To be continued.