Beck hit 200.8 pounds in bodyweight ten days ago. He contracted a cold that I attributed to the radical change in weather in his Northern Virginia neighborhood. His preferred cardio mode of choice is outdoor power-walking up and down the steep hills in his suburban neighborhood. What often happens in the east in mid-November is one day it is fall-like and the next day it is winter-like: the problem for the outdoor walker/jogger is the frigid air.
Here is a Purposefully Primitive tip: wear a scarf wrapped around your mouth if you are doing outdoor cardio in cold air. Sucking frigid air into warm lungs in an accelerated fashion while exercising causes problems; all of which can be avoided by wrapping the scarf around the mouth.
Beck ended up catching a cold and needed to cut back on his cardio. He needed to up his calories to fight the cold. I took all of this as a sign that we needed to "solidify gains."
The human body has a bodyweight regulating mechanism in the master endocrine system; the hypothalamus gland tries to maintain a constant bodyweight and works like a 'body fat thermostat.' Hormones and enzymes are required to mobilize and oxidize stored body fat. Beck's endocrine system had changed its metabolic set-point: when we started this journey he was a biscuit shy of 230 pounds. After losing 35 pounds of body fat and adding 5 pounds of muscle we had created a new homeostasis.
Homeostasis is bodily status quo. Beck's downward bodyweight has sent his hypothalamus gland into a freefall. Now it was time to stop trying to shave off fat. Instead the game plan is to have him seek to maintain his 200-205 pound bodyweight between now and January 1st 2009. The idea is to allow the body to solidify the resetting of his bodyweight set-point. Experience has shown that this takes 4-6 weeks.
Once the new homeostasis is firmly established, once his self-regulating bodyweight control set-points solidifies for a protracted period at the 200-205 pound level, then we will be able to "hit it" once again and whittle him down to his ultimate goal: a 170 pound bodyweight.
This approach is timely in that rather than attempting to bang our collective head against the weight-loss wall over the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, his new goal will be much more humane and sensible: just don't go food crazy; stay at the 200-205 pound range from now until the beginning of January.
Create an entrenched metabolic reality - then we'll get serious again come the New Year.
This approach ties into an old time concept used since the 1960s called 'softening up for gains.' This approach was first codified by muscle scribe John McCallum: the strategy recognizes that humans are not robots and progress is not like a bullet shot straight up into the air. Factually, the best we can hope for is ten steps forward, two steps back. By recognizing reality and syncing up Beck's retrenchment with the oncoming Holidays, we soften up for gains, create a new homeostasis status quo and position him perfectly for the winter campaign beginning in the New Year.
In the interim, Beck will place the Lion's share of emphasis on his weight training. Because he is not cutting calories, this is an ideal time to add muscle and become stronger. He will cut his winter cardio back (note I did not say he would cut his cardio out - cardio is critical to keep the metabolism from turning sluggish) to three times a week for 30 minutes per session. He'll walk outside; weather permitting, with the scarf. Otherwise he will resort to using the dreaded cardio machines. Deep winter is the only time we Purposeful Primitives use these hateful devices. Beck loves his current weight training split: it blasts one or two muscles per session and allows seven full days of rest before blasting those same muscles yet again. His food intake is purposefully loosened up a tad; normally verboten nutrients are allowed into his diet during this six week time period. Again there is a method to this madness; increasing the height of his caloric ceiling makes it easier to 'get underneath' when it is time to head the other direction. Loosening up the food selections provides us with foods to cut out when its time to crack back in the opposite direction.
The success of the entire strategy depends on Beck not going "hog wild" and ballooning back up to 215-225 pounds.
Yes we allow some looseness, yes we cut back on the cardio, but the softening-up-for-gains approach is not a license to go completely food berserk. He will check his bodyweight daily and when he exceeds the 205 weight limit it is incumbent on him to cut back the calories and get back down into the acceptable 201-204 pound range. I am expecting to see him make significant strength gains between now and January 1st - all of which is kind of amazing considering this is a soon-to-be 60 year old man coming off decades of inactivity....
Anyone wanting to become a 'phone-train' client of Marty Gallagher can contact him at MGSO@embarqmail.com.
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