My long-term cutting/progress log

[MidwestBeast]

I don't want to do a full copy/paste all the time, nor do I want to pull everything I'd already posted, but I'm going to link to my current log that started just over a week ago. I only feel some may find interest since I'm utilizing DNP (all explained in the first post of the log).


I'm trying my best to get over to FG more often (I love this board; just get lazy and don't branch out as much as I should lol), so I'll pop back in here.

[guns01]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

that's some freaking awesome progress man. a few tips on dnp. if you are going to come off for a little while give this a go. start it off at peak dose, say for example 400. run that for 3-5 days. then back down to 300 for 3-5 days. then drop it to 200 for the remainder. i learned this from a dude that gets into crazy nasty shape in a very very short period of time with crap genetics. something else he told me he tries to avoid is sugar of any kind. he says that sugar makes it almost unbearable heat wise. he told me that he sticks to sweet potatoes, red potatoes and various rice during his runs. oh and the idea behind the front load is that it builds up and peaks out so you can go with a maintaince dose and get the same effect while keeping the sides to a minimal

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

MIDWEST Beast long-term log

For those who know me or have been around for a while, you may know of my health/medical history. There are some very lengthy threads on it (the most detailed are probably over on AM; I go by the same s/n on every board), but this is the short version. I learned that I starved myself through a chunk of my high school years through college after the fact. Didn't realize it at the time, but I was always kind of chubby, so I always wanted to lose weight. My senior year of HS, I was running either 7 or 9 miles every night (depending on the day) in addition to my weight training and whatever games/practice/training I had for baseball.

Fast forward a few years and obviously my metabolism was clearly screwed up. I held between 205 and 225 most of college and grad school (not at all fat, but that stupid layer of flub over my abs). In 2010, I cut down to 208 and was in great shape. And then, over the course of a year, I went up to nearly 300 pounds. I kept lifting, so I was gaining some muscle at least, but it was predominantly fat. I even did the hCG diet during that stretch, knowing fully how unhealthy it was. 2 weeks into 500 kcal/day and I PR'd on deadlifts clearing over 500 pounds for reps. Oh, and I was still gaining weight.

Between 2010 and 2014, I went to about a dozen different doctors including specialists in endocrinology at 2 different top tier D1 university hospitals. No one could figure anything out. I have a small tumor (microadenoma/prolactinoma) on my pituitary that may be part of the problem, but it's not enough to operate on and caber seems to be working well enough on keeping the size down and prolactin down, too. I never ran a cycle until the Fall of 2010 after all this happened and I thought maybe that would help me cut weight (I was desperate). It didn't help. Neither did clen. Neither did ECA (which worked amazingly well a couple years prior). Diet and training were on point and had been. I tried ketogenic diets, eliminating gluten -- you name it.

Finally at my peak of hitting 300 pounds, I broke down and one Sunday morning at church I just went down to the front steps during worship and prayed. I cried my eyes out. It was only a week or two after that that I was able to get my hands on some DNP. A friend of mine who is in med school mentioned it in passing a while before. He said "you know, I bet DNP would work really well for you. But don't whatsoever take that as advice to go use it." Well, I was tired of getting fatter and fatter and more and more depressed, so I started researching. Just like anything else, I don't just toss things into my body without understanding how they do what they do.

DNP can be really scary. It doesn't operate on a feedback loop like virtually everything else (e.g. if you take too much clen, your body can adjust for it and keep you alive). If you take too much DNP, you die. It doesn't matter if you go to the hospital; all they can do is make you comfortable while you prepare to die. So yeah, it's serious and kind of scary. But, like most things, if you're not an idiot, it can be used safely and effectively. I got my own powder and capped it myself (no way I'm trusting someone else to be right when it comes to something like this). I had the scale, caps, everything. I started off with only 50mg/day and stayed there for a while while I assessed sides. I slowly climbed up by 25mg and no more. I eventually got to the standard 200mg dosing and even played around with 250mg for the most of the time and even did a few days at 400mg. The sides were AWFUL. I can't even stress that enough. The sweating, the inability to sleep, waking up in a POOL of sweat in the bed; rashes, dry mouth, headaches, muscle flatness, appetite crushed, etc.

But it worked.

It was the one thing that actually worked.

I went from 300 pounds down to 260 over the course of about 2 months. And from there I got down to 240 over the next 3 months -- before my wedding. I still had to wear a pretty big suit coat because of my shoulders and back, but I didn't look like a complete slug. I'm able to look back at those pictures and think fondly on that day, which is all I could ask for.

From there, I got down to about 233 at my lightest since all of this. I ran 2 cycles during that time to help hold onto muscle while losing all that weight. And since then I climbed back up to around 245 most of the time. I wasn't as lean as I wanted, but I was active and happy (and was sick of the miserable DNP sides). I ran one bulk cycle at the start of this Fall and went up to 260; and over the next few months I stayed right around there and got up to 268. It was higher than I wanted and I was ready to get back down.

This time I'm going for gold. I'm going for the long haul. This isn't a quick fix because I'm enormous. I don't have a wedding to prepare for. I'm not where I want to be, but I'm very happy, so fast isn't the goal. Slow and steady to win this race.

I outsourced my DNP to a friend of mine and he used ALCAR as a filler (2:1 ratio DNP:ALCAR). I started off slow and my plan was to dose 3 days a week. Well, what I've realized is that with this filler, the sides are SIGNIFICANTLY less; almost non-existent compared to what I previously experienced. So, I've been dosing nightly because of this and have already started losing weight much more rapidly than was the plan. However, my strength continues to increase, so as long as that doesn't fall off, I know I'm good.

My plan isn't in stone and there's definitely some flexibility in it, but so far the only difference I've made in anything is adding in the DNP. No dietary adjustments from where I was, no training changes, no supp changes. That 8 pounds lost so far is all DNP. And that just goes to prove that there is something wrong with my body; likely at the mitochondrial level. There's good and bad. The bad is the getting fat and not being able to lose weight. The good is being able to DL 500 pounds on 500kcal/day. If I got stranded somewhere for an extended period of time, I'd be able to survive a loooong time as long as I had water.

Anyway, back to the plan.

As of right now, I'm planning on no more changes at all until I hit 250. Once I hit 250, I plan to add in EvoMuse Abliderated topical and apply every night before bed. Once I run out of that bottle, assuming I'm lean enough, I'll switch over to Eviscerate and continue.

The only other thing that's really in the mix is that I'll be adding in GW at some point and I'm waiting on blood work to see where all my hormone levels are to figure the rest out (all drawn before starting).




I swear there's a post on here somewhere where I've laid out my specific training routine, but I couldn't find it today. The short version is this:

Week A: Max-OT (via AST)
Week B: High volume (e.g. 4x25 or 6x15 on ~3-4 lifts per muscle group)
Week C: High intensity (60 seconds rest between sets and 4x12 on 3-4 lifts per muscle group)

Pattern:

A
B
A
C
Repeat

Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Back
Wednesday: OFF
Thursday: Arms
Friday: Legs
Saturday: Delts/Traps
Sunday: basketball

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

Day 1

Feb 15

Weight: 268.0 lbs.

PM dose ~200mg DNP

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

Day 2

Feb 16

Weight: 266.0 lbs.

PM dose ~260mg DNP

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

Day 3

Feb 17

Weight: 265.6

PM dose ~245mg DNP

Been snowed in since Sunday night, so I missed the gym yesterday, but 2-3 hours of shoveling a foot of snow was a solid workout. I'm gonna finish the rest of the driveway later today to get in and lift (I sadly have about 2/3 left -- our driveway is ridiculously long).

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

2/17

Felt dead, sore, flat out exhausted (after all the shoveling, not eating much, and even the slightest bit of DNP adds to it). Managed to make it into town and got my high volume chest session in. Actually increased on weight for all reps/sets on 3 of my 5 exercises. Led off with 205x15 for 6 sets on bench -- great way to start.

Pretty sure I'll take another small dose of DNP tonight and not sure if I'll hit back tomorrow or skip it this week from all the shoveling -- I'll see how I feel when I wake up and if I can leave the house (more snow expected tonight).

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

Day 4

Feb 18

Weight: 263.0 lbs.

PM dose ~265mg DNP

Not sure if I'll get to hit back or not. Still getting more snow and have to clear our driveway and not sure we can get out of the neighborhood though.

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

2+ hours shoveling snow again and just killed a high volume back workout after it, too.

Had a nice 16oz ribeye for dinner. Planning on DNP again tonight and heavy arm session tomorrow as long as the roads are okay.

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

Day 5

Feb 19

Weight: 260.4 lbs.

PM dose ~260mg DNP

Gonna hit a heavy arm session in a couple hours. Was not at all expecting to drop weight this quickly. I'm using a very moderate dose of DNP and knock on wood, I haven't had any of the negative sides at all -- just a slight increase in temp and mild headaches. Nowhere near as bad as what I've felt in the past at the same dose. So hopefully that will continue and allow me to keep dosing it daily instead of my original plan for 3x a week.

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

2/19

Killed arms today. Gains across the board on my bi exercises. Rude awakening come tris, though. The outsides of my forearms are shot after yesterday's back sesh and the 7 hours of collective snow shoveling. So my numbers went down just slightly on tri pushdowns, held steady on low incline skull crushers and went up slightly on cable ring tricep reverse curls.

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

Day 6

Feb 20

Weight: 261.8 lbs.

PM dose ~280mg DNP

Hit a heavy leg session today and made some nice gains across the board. Weather permitting, I'll go in tomorrow for delts and traps.

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

Day 7

Feb 21

Weight: 262.4 lbs.

PM dose ~300mg DNP

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

2/21

Another 1.5 hours of shoveling today. Some if it wasn't bad since it was just soft ice almost slush, but other parts were packed down and I basically had to chisel them out (and clear the ice from the downspouts). Went straight to The gym after I finished. Killed my heavy delta/traps session and made increases on all lifts. Highlight was my Smith shrugs at 575x6, 580x6 and 585x6 (and fyi, the only weight calculated is that which is loaded on -- so 6+ plates on each side). DOMS are miserable in my legs from yesterday's workout, too. Weather permitting I'll be playing ball at church tomorrow afternoon on my "off" day.

[BABY1]

Re: My long-term cutting/progress log

Day 8

Feb 22

Weight: 261.6 lbs.

PM dose ~290mg DNP