Fitness Progress Report #5: Beginning Fat-Loss Phase

I'm 6 weeks away from the WBFF Fitness Modelling Competition on June 23rd, 2012 and my coach has just this last week instructed me to start lowing my daily calories to commence my fat-loss phase. After my last Fitness Progress Report two weeks ago, I was weighing in around 152.9 lbs. The highest my weight has peaked was around 155 lbs last week, and now it's slowly starting to come down around 154 lbs. My goal for the competition is to be around 147-148 lbs and 4-5% body fat.

Since my very first Fitness Progress Report on February 18 to May 1, 2012, I've been focused on gaining muscle and adding a little bit more size, while keeping body fat very minimal. During that time (2.5 months), it looks like I've gained about 6-7 lbs. I was 148 lbs on February 18 and on May 1 I'm about 155 lbs. 

Pretty cool. I'm positive some of that weight gain is muscle mass, while a portion of it is glycogen/water storage, and almost zero of it is fat gain. I've been very consistent with my dieting and tracking my meals during the last two and a half months, and so it's been very interesting to see how added carbs to my diet increases glycogen storage and water retention. On some days I would fluctuate 3-4 pounds, depending on my carb intake.

Anyway, below you will find my latest detailed Fitness Progress Report to see where I'm at today.

Previous Fitness Progress Reports

If you want to see comparisons of my progress on a bi-weekly basis, check out the links below:

February 18, 2012 – My Journey To The WBFF Fitness Modelling Competition
March 5, 2012 – Fitness Progress Report #1: Putting On Size
March 19, 2012 – Fitness Progress Report #2: Gaining Muscle Mass
March 26, 2012 – Bill Phillips Transformation Spring Forward Challenge
April 11, 2012 – Fitness Progress Report #3: Getting Bigger While Staying Lean
April 24, 2012 – Fitness Progress Report #4: Final Stages Of Mass Gain

Progress Report: May 9, 2012

(Click here to see my pictures from two weeks ago – April 24, 2012)

WEIGHT: 152.4 lbs. (– 0.5 lbs.)
BODYFAT: 13.2% (+ 0.7%)
FAT-MASS: 20.01 (+ 1.2 lbs.)
FAT-FREE MUSCLE: 130.81 (– 1.6 lbs.)

NECK:  14.25″ (+/- 0″)
CHEST:  37.5″  (+/- 0″)
SHOULDERS:  45″  (+/- 0″)
RIGHT ARM:  12.5″  (+/- 0″)
HIPS:  31″  (+/- 0″)
WAIST:  29″  (– 0.5″)
RIGHT CALF:  13.25″  (– 0.25″)
RIGHT THIGH:  21″ (+/- 0″)

NOTE: Body Fat, Fat-Mass, and Fat-Free muscle is measured on a body composition scale and isn’t 100% accurate. I may be using Body Fat calipers in the future, but for now it’s good to use the same form of measurement for consistency.

As you can see, there's not much of a change statistically from two weeks ago. Measurements are about the same, but I'm happy that my waist has gone back down to 29″. That's primarily due to cutting down a bit on my calories.

You can basically ignore the body fat levels, along with fat-mass and fat-free muscle. All that stuff was taken on the body fat composition machine at the gym, and it's massively inaccurate.

One thing I will say is that when I look in the mirror and flex my stomach, it's definitely much more defined. That's not something you can really see in the pictures or my measurements, but it's a big sign of progress that I've noticed. In the next coming weeks, you will see my stomach getting tighter and tighter.

My Workout Routine And Diet

This last week there's been some changes to my workout routine and diet, now that I'm transitioning to more fat loss.

As for my workout routine, I've now switched things up from heavy lifting to more higher reps, with drop sets/supersets, and lower rest time. This will help build the striations and endurance of my muscles, while still maintaining the size. Not only that, but I'm also getting a fat-burn during these workouts since my heart-rate is elevated for the entire workout with low rest periods and the drop sets/supersets.

For my ab routine, I'll still be hitting them 6 days a week, but am switching from doing a heavy/weighted ab workout to more higher reps and toning the abs. I recently bought some gravity boots and so far I've been loving them, they've definitely helped my abs develop.

I'm also making sure right now I'm doing 15-minutes of HIIT 3 times per week. This usually involves sprinting on the treadmill for a minute, then resting a minute or two, then sprinting again. This is boosting my metabolism for the entire time, which will help with a fat-burn as well.

Finally, my diet has switched from 225 grams of protein, 300-325 grams of carbs, 50 grams of fat to now being 225 grams of protein, 300 grams of carbs, and 40 grams of fat. Small drop in calories with the fat and carbs, but so far it's been working as my weight is slowly lowering and getting rid of the stored glycogen in my body, thus tightening up.

I assume there will be more adjustments the next few weeks as I send my progress reports to my coach.

That's it for now – 6 weeks to go and lots of more work to do. I'm looking forward to those next few weeks and sharing more pictures and Fitness Progress Reports for how I'm coming along.