OLB II
Introduction
Seeing that my Operation Lean Bastard (OLB) back in 2006 inspired a lot of people to achieve their own fat loss goals, I’ve decided, after a lot of requests, to share yet another journey with you. If you read my first OLB, or if you used to read my online magazine Ironmag, you know that I’ve been struggling with health issues my entire life. To make a long story short; I’ve had asthma, allergies and immune system deficiencies since I was five years old. When I was a kid my lungs were partially damaged from withstanding 13 pneumonias in one year. I actually went in and out of the hospital during three years, never spending more than one or two weeks at home at most.
In 2004 I suffered from a double sided pneumonia that was misdiagnosed and mistreated, at which it lasted for six weeks (it took two courses of antibiotics to fight it off). This damaged my lungs even more.
In early 2006 I got a viral infection that threw me off for three months, which was the reason for the first Operation Lean Bastard. However, the virus was only dormant and re-surfaced at the beginning of January 2007 when I caught a cold during the holidays. This time around it caused several infections and triggered my asthma. I couldn’t go outside if the temperature was below zero, because my lungs would cramp within minutes. And when I could go outside, I didn’t get any further that a few hundred yards before my asthma kicked in and my leg muscles started to cramp from lack of oxygen. It wasn’t until late May that I could causally start to exercise again – after spending close to six months mostly in bed and on my ass in front of the computer. With close to six months of inactivity my body fell apart quite a bit, which leads us to OLB II.
The journey starts
As of early June I received a clean bill of health from my doctor. No symptoms of any Virus and no traces of bacterial infections. That sounded pretty good, eh? Well, that was the good part. The not-so-good part was that my lungs ability to oxygenate the blood was close to zero.
With these facts I had no other options than to prioritize fat loss and physical conditioning while actually trying to avoid re-gaining muscle mass – at least initially. Re-gaining muscle mass and increasing your body weight when you can’t even oxygenate what little muscle mass you have left isn’t such a good idea, so fat loss and conditioning it was!
Since my immune system had recovered well (pretty good white blood count) I decided to pretty much follow the same low calorie diet I used in 2006 and back in 2004. It’s a high fat, high protein diet with carbohydrates solely from vegetables. I’ve used this approach successfully for years on clients that want really fast results. It’s extremely effective, yet simple and rather basic in its layout. However, there are always individual adjustments, especially as you progress along the diet (as for example, slowly adding in carbohydrates as your carbohydrate tolerance improves). I’ll share these strategies with you as we go.
Training wise I started out with three to four weight training sessions a week. At the beginning of my comeback I followed a simple Push and Pull program. Since my lungs only could provide small amounts of oxygen, I had some problem training larger muscle groups such as the legs and back. During the first three weeks I alternated between a training day consisting of presses and one of rows and pull-downs. As my health improved and I could start training legs, I switched to a regular upper- and lower body split. More on that later…
Let’s continue with my body composition as of June 9, 2007.
June 9 – start of the journey
Morning weight: 167.64 lbs (76.2 kg)
Waist measurement: 35.12” (89.2 cm)
Body fat percentage by Parrillo 9-sites: 16.15%
Body fat percentage by Jackson/Pollock 7 sites: 13.1%
Weight of body fat by Parrillo: 27.07 lbs (12.3 kg)
Weight of body fat by Jackson/Pollock: 21.96 lbs (9.98 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by Parrillo: 140.58 lbs (63.9 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by Jackson/Pollock: 145.68 kg (66.22 kg)
Well, these numbers are not exactly flattering. And to tell you the truth, the Parrillo 9-sites equation, which yielded the highest body fat numbers, is probably a bit optimistic. Although I got pretty lean last year, I was far from ripped. Actually, I haven’t been fairly ripped since 1999. That means that I have quite a lot of hardened fat interspersed between muscle insertions. That fat is quite stubborn and also the last to go. I do however have a few tricks up my sleeve.
I should also point out that the readings above were taken after four days of pre-dieting on zero carbs and just below maintenance calories. I did that to get rid of some glycogen and water weight. This will also make the readings more accurate when you compare them to the new readings after one week of dieting.
Here’s the dreaded “before” picture:
Notice my pore posture. Sitting on your ass for six months tends to bring back old back and hip injuries since you get stiff as a board. I’m working on correcting that through stretching and naprapathy.
June 16:
The first week was pretty tough. I trained four times this week and each session took about 45 to 50 minutes. No leg training at all since I still get winded from walking for five minutes. Diet-wise I consumed an average of 1398 kcal a day this week, with slightly more calories on training days (about 1500kcal) than on rest days (about 1300kcal).
Body composition readings, June 16 – after one week:
Morning weight: 164.56 lbs (74.8 kg)
Morning weight difference: -3.08 lbs (-1.4 kg)
Waist measurement: 34.05” (86.5 cm)
Waist measurement difference: -1.07” (-2.7 cm)
Body fat percentage by Parrillo 9-sites: 14.35% (-1.5%)
Body fat percentage by Jackson/Pollock 7 sites: 11.57% (-1.27%)
Weight of body fat by Parrillo 23.61 lbs (10.73kg)
Weight of body fat by Jackson/Pollock: 19.04 lbs (8.65 kg)
Body fat difference by Parrillo -2.96 lbs (1.34kg)
Body fat difference by J/P: -2.48 lbs (1.13 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by Parrillo: 140.95 lbs (64.07kg)
Weight of lean body mass by J/P: 145.52 kg (66.15 kg)
Lean body mass difference by Parillo: -0.12 lbs (-0.05kg)
Lean body mass difference by J/P: -0.6 kg (-0.27 kg)
As usual, the results during the first weeks are pretty mind blowing. And keep in mind that the first readings were taken after four days of zero carbs to even out the glycogen and water issue. Burning close to 3 lbs of body fat in the first week with only four sad excuses of weight training sessions is pretty darn good.
June 23:
Yesterday, we celebrated Midsummer Eve in Sweden. Luckily I was able to stay on track with my diet and actually avoided any kind of alcohol. I could therefore have my measurements taken today without any nutritional or hormonal interference.
When you’re on the “tubby side” of the scale with a body fat percentage above 15 to 20 percent (or 20% to 25% for women) it’s almost impossible to lose muscle mass if you weight train during a diet – even if you cut your calories drastically. But when you go below 10 percent body fat (or about 14% for women) your body will become more and more susceptible to any kind of stress and there’s a growing risk of losing muscle mass as you struggle to get to a truly ripped condition (i.e. ready for a bodybuilding competition.) On a positive note, as you get leaner, your glucose tolerance will improve and your body will handle insulin better. This means that you can add small amounts of carbs to your diet as you progress and become leaner – preferable around your training sessions where they will be most effective. The best way to do this, and to combat muscle loss, is with carb-up days. The leaner you are, and the more muscle mass you have, the more frequent the carb-up days should be.
Anyway… This week I had five weight training sessions. Still no leg training except for some easy calf work. The training is pretty low volume and I alternate between heavy/low rep days and moderate/high rep days.
As for the diet, I consumed on average 1500 kcal a day, which was a bit more than during the first week. I’ll lay out the diet in detail later on. Now, let’s take a look at today’s body composition readings.
June 23 – after two weeks
Morning weight: 162 lbs (73.6 kg)
Morning weight difference: -2.56 lbs (-1.2 kg)
Waist measurement: 33.66” (85.5 cm)
Waist measurement difference: -0.39” (-1.0 cm)
Body fat percentage by Parrillo 9-sites: 12.83% (-1.52%)
Body fat percentage by Jackson/Pollock 7 sites: 10.27% (-1.30%)
Weight of body fat by Parrillo: 20.78 lbs (9.45 kg)
Weight of body fat by J/P: 16.64 lbs (7.56 kg)
Body fat difference by Parrillo: -2.83 lbs (-1.28 kg)
Body fat difference by J/P: -1.40 lbs (-1.09 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by Parrillo: 141.22 lbs (64.19 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by J/P: 145.36 lbs (66.07 kg)
Lean body mass difference by Parrillo: +0.27 lbs (+0.16 kg)
Lean body mass difference by J/P: -0.15 kg (-0.08 kg)
(changes are since last week)
Well, almost another 3 lbs gone and close to 0.4” off the waist. Considering five brief training sessions (a total of 3.5 hours of training) these results are really good. And I feel a lot better as I’ve shed about 6.29 lbs of dead weight in two weeks. My fitness have improved somewhat and I can now walk short distances without getting winded (or experiencing muscle cramps). It’s still too early to do any kind of cardiovascular work though. My health needs to improve a lot more before I’ll feel safe to add the extra stress from easy jogging and intervals.
Here’s a new picture after two weeks of OLB II:
The largest improvements are noticeable in the shoulders and the face, ha ha. I also believe that the stretching and training has helped my back and hips a bit, as my posture is somewhat better.
And yeah, I’m sorry for the poor quality of the pictures. They’re taken with a poor compact camera and only with some daylight as the light source. I’m however planning to build my own photo studio in August, but until then these pictures will have to do.
June 30:
At the beginning of this week I trained my legs for the first time since I got sick in early January. I had trouble breathing at the end of the workout and I felt a bit nauseated, but I managed it. And as you can imagine I was so sore I could hardly walk the day after, but it was a welcomed soreness.
As it comes to workouts I only trained three times this week before measuring my progress (actually I had my fourth workout of this week today – training my lower body again). Nutritionally, the only change this week was the addition of 5g glutamine before workouts, 10g during and 15g after workouts (combined with my previous BCAA and Creatine stack).
So, how did this week pan out in terms of progress? Well, I lost about a pound of fat and actually gained about a pound and a half of muscle. This is probably a combined effect from being able to train legs again and adding glutamine as a glucose mimicker to my workouts. You could speculate that some of the gain in lean body mass is because of fuller glycogen stores due to less training this week. But since I actually only reached about 1400 kcal on my off days this week, I doubt it. As I added the glutamine, I adjusted the calories accordingly and when you add up the week I got just above 1500 kcal a day on average – just as the previous week.
As it is now, I’ve lost most of the fat I gained since last summer (about a pound or two short). And that means that most of the fat that is left is old hardened body fat that I’ve carried around since about 1999 (when I previously was the leanest I’ve been at about 6 percent body fat). This fat can be a bit harder to burn off, which probably is the reason why the fat loss slowed down a little bit during this week.
June 30 – after three weeks
Morning weight: 162.4 lbs (73.8 kg)
Morning weight difference: +0.4 lbs (+0.2 kg)
Waist measurement: 33.38” (84.8 cm)
Waist measurement difference: -0.28” (-0.7 cm)
Body fat percentage by Parrillo 9-sites: 12.05% (-0.78%)
Body fat percentage by Jackson/Pollock 7 sites: 9.65% (-0.62%)
Weight of body fat by Parillo: 19.57 lbs (8.89 kg)
Weight of body fat by J/P: 15.67 lbs (7.12 kg)
Body fat difference by Parillo: -1.21 lbs (0.55 kg)
Body fat difference by J/P: -0.97 lbs (0.44 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by Parillo: 142.83 (64.92 kg)
Weight of lean body mass by J/P: 146.73 (66.7 kg)
Lean body mass difference by Parillo: +1.61(+0.73 kg)
Lean body mass difference by J/P: +1.37 (+0.62 kg)
Although I didn’t lose as much fat as the previous weeks, I did re-gain some muscle mass this week. And that’s something that’s makes an even bigger impact on your physique.
Here’s a new picture from June 30 – after three weeks of OLB II:
And a comparison picture from day one, week two and week three:
And a little picture where I’m finishing off my upper body session with some hammer curls (the only exercise I do for my arms. Except for chins and presses.):
The results after three weeks:
Morning weight difference: -5.24lbs (-2.4kg)
Waist measurement difference: -1.74” (-4.4 cm)
Body fat difference by Parillo: -7.5 lbs (-3.41 kg)
Body fat difference by J/P: -6.29 lbs (-2.86 kg)
Lean body mass difference by Parillo: +2.25 lbs (+1.02 kg)
Lean body mass difference by J/P: +1.05 lbs (+0.48 kg)
That’s it for this time. I’ll post the remaining weeks within a few days (where I will go into more detail).
Thank you for your interest and for reading!