12 weeks on F1, HS1, and a leangains cut

Hello all.

I just completed 12 weeks where I began F1 (and H1 when it came out) and a leangains cut at the same time. I was doing the cut under the guidance of a nutritional consultant.

Prior to these 12 weeks I had been eating a more or less paleo/primal diet for 1.5 years. I had also been doing GST following the program from the BtGB book (usually some form of the kilroy template) for about 3.5 years. I had never done leangains or any form of IF before. I have never attempted to loose weight before as well.

I worked out 3 days a week doing the F1 split, and H1 either before or after on the workout days.

I'm a 41 year old dude, by the way.

And the results:

14 Feb 13:

Weight: 77.6kg

Chest: 109cm

Right arm: 35cm

Left arm: 34cm

2" above navel: 90cm

Navel: 91.2cm

2" below navel: 91cm

Hips: 94cm

Right Thigh: 54.4cm

Left Thigh: 52.6cm

Farmer's Tan: Negligible

 

 

12 May 13:

Weight: 73.1kg

Chest: 103.8

Right arm: 34.4cm

Left Arm: 33.5cm

2" above navel: 82.8cm

Navel: 84.9cm

2" below navel: 86.5cm

Hips: 91cm

Right Thigh: 53.1cm

Left Thigh: 53.5cm

Farmer's Tan: Moderately dorky

Looking at the photos there is very little changes visually. But the numbers are clear, and despite it not showing in the photos can see that I'm leaning out. As far as I can tell I lost fat and almost no muscle mass, and I have been getting stronger. I lost 6.3cm from my belly, and 5.2cm from my chest (I didn't even realize how much fat I was carrying there).

For my strength results, I began each exercise at week 1 (except for RC/PE2 which I started at week 5):

FL/PE1: pass

sPL/PE1: pass

HBP/PE2: pass (but will repeat week 9 micro cycle to clean up form)

RC/PE2: pass

MN/PE1: fail (pass for reps, but need to increase ROM, week 9 micro cycle)

SL/PE1: pass (but will repeat week 9 micro cyle to clean up form)

SLS/PE1: pass

also I supplemented these 3 exercises with the following improvements:

Front Lever straddle: 11sec > 19sec

Back Lever Flat Tuck: 18sec > 39sec

XR false grip Pull-ups: 5reps > 11reps

I will follow up with another post detailing (a little bit) on how I ate, how I tracked progress, etc...

Overall, I feel satisfied. I didn't undertake this as a crash diet to get ripped quickly, I wanted to establish a sustinable foundation to continue from. Overall, my health has been fantastic, I will detail that in the next post as well.

Anyone else doing leangains or IF?

I do IF for 1 year. For me, it works well.

I'd say you have a little more tone than before. Keep in mind though that these things take time; it'll be several years of consistent hard work before you look 'jacked' or 'ripped'. 

Either the lighting is WAY different in the second set, you forgot to flex, or you lost a lot of leg muscle.

The upper body is more defined, for sure.

Keep eating good food and keep training, and good things will continue to happen!

IF? Lean gains? Meh. I'd rather just eat all the things all the time.

A bit late on the follow up, end of semester here, etc...

Regarding the photos, always took them non flexed, as well as with soft natural lighting and a telephoto lens... now I know why that's not a good set-up for being able to visually guage body composition. But, the body measurements I made tell the true tale. I was very consistent with them: took them on the morning after a rest day after having coffee. I'll continue with my cut until I lean out more, I'm guess a few more months, then switch to a slow bulk.

Some background on what took me here: I've been working out with GST for close to 4 years now (after almost a decade of being completely sedentary). It's been a slow gradual process to step-by-step change my lifestyle. After wotking out for 2 years I finally decided to look seriously at my nutrition. The main reasons for this were: 1) seeing I hadn't made the gains I think I should have over those 2 years (concerning my strength and a change in my physique), and 2) (more importantly) want to get rid of the biggest complaints I'd had about my health for most of my adult life: a constant state of fatigue and low energy, weak immune system, digetive problems, insomnia. I'd always thought (as most people probably do) that I was "eating healty".

My diet for most of my adult life had been fresh cooked food mostly, never any junk food (don't drink soda, eat chips, etc...)... therefore I thought I was doing okay. So, 2 years ago, for the above reasons I finally started to look at nutrition (based alot on what Joshua was posting about in these forums... thanks man!) and this led me eventually to Paleo. I get the feeling that alot of people take my route in that Paleo becomes the gateway in to nutrition. It seemed to make sense in that when I looked at my diet at the time, I saw that it was mostly processed carbs, quite low in protien, and very very little vegetabes, lots of bad fats... no wonder I felt like crap and was getting sick all the time. An average dinner for me would be a huge plate of noodles with some butter on it, breakfast was something akin to a few bagels, etc... So, the paleo explaination seemed to make sense: I was way too high in processed carbs and far too low in protien, vegetables, good fats. So, when I switched to Paleo, I very quickly lost about 4kg in a month and began to see many changes: my fatigue was going away, digestive issues disappeared, skin cleared up (no effect on insomnia, though). However, after about 6 months of eating standard paleo, my weight crept back up, and my energy started to go back down, immune system weakening. So, I looked again at my nutrition, and saw that I had done what I promised myself I wouldn't do: become a paleo-convert-carbaphobe. So, I started again looking more into nutrition, and that brought me to IF and ultimately leangains. I had never ever tried to loose weight before in my life, nor had I ever fasted. The idea seemed as appealing to me as taking a vow of celebacy. But, looking into it more it seemed to make sense, so I finally decided to hire a dude to give me some concrete specific advice and guidance.

The results are that finally I've seen changes in my body I haven't seen in I don't know how long. The leangains plus F1 has brought me almost to where I was when I was 18 and finishing boot camp in terms of strength, health, energy, physique. I finally have no fatigue issues, great energy, my immune system seems normal and I don't get crippling chronic infections as I used to, and my sleep seems to finally be evening out. Now, I don't want this to turn into an extended ad for leangains, this is just what has happened to me and I make no claims that it will be so for others. And by no means is the journey over, I just think I finally have a basline to work from. I think going paleo is a great expereince in the start (and I've moved past it, I see that carbs are not evil, I eat rice and potates all the time now and handle them great), but getting stuck and becoming identified with any one school of eating (be it paleo, leangains, whatever) is the trap to avoid, and I'm doing my best to not do that. How? Well it comes down to what I think Joshua, and many others have said many times here: make sure you eat a (insert appropriate large unit of measurement based on crap and tons) of vegetables with each meal, eat a variety of vegetables, get enough good protien and fat, avoid processed crap. A simple answer, yes, but one that seems to work. All that I added to that with leangains was a fasting window, and getting specific macros of those carbs, fats, protein, and a methodology for how to adjust them depending on how my body responds.

Whoo, that ended up being an extended TMI post, but just wanted to share a bit more about my 4 year journey in working out and nutrition. Perhaps I'll check back in with more stats (and better photos) in another 2-3 months. For now, back to F1/HS1 and the evil twins of sPL/PE1 and MN/PE2.

That's great to read about your explorations into getting back in shape, and recomposing your body; these are good results you are having after listening to the feedback your body was giving you, and adjusting in consequence.

Well done, please keep us posted on your progress every 3 months.

Well done!

Patience is key!

Thanks guys! I will check in again with stats in the next 2-3 months. For now, on the last day of a 2 week diet break.

One other factor I'm going to look at will be how the nutrition effects my recovery. Over my 4 years of GST, I reached a point where it was clear that this 41 year old dude can work out 3 days a week, and needs 4 days a week for recovery. But now that I'm feeling different after easing in all of these changes, I may soon see if I can now move up to a 4 day workout schedule and be okay, which would be really cool.

AJ. said:

I do IF for 1 year. For me, it works well.

How are you doing IF? A leangains style daily 16 hour fast, or 24 hour fasts (like Eat Stop Eat), or something else? Do you work out fasted?

HamdiC said:

How are you doing IF? A leangains style daily 16 hour fast, or 24 hour fasts (like Eat Stop Eat), or something else? Do you work out fasted?

Fasting 16-18h daily. I workout when I can, fasted or not.