Note: This is a reprint of an answer I posted in the comments section of my article on Bodybuilding.com.
Question: Incredible results and I really like your mentality on the whole thing. You really are an inspiration!
I have a few questions, I hope that is OK, 1. How did you overcome the mental battle during this aggressive deficit? 2. Did you take anything to reduce appetite? 3. What kept you accountable? 4. Did you have some really tough moments, where you just wanted to stop? If yes, how did you power through? 5. Did you have refeeds? If yes, how much calories did you eat and how often did you have them? 6. Did the diet "mess" a lot with your daily life? For example with your mood and relationship with people or just normal functioning? 7.And the last important question. How did the transition from such a big deficit into maintenance calories go? Did you just up the calories from one day to another, or gradually (in what steps? Did you have a huge appetite when reintroducing more calories back? One would think the body would go crazy and primed to make you gain fat, after dieting down so much. Phew, that's a lot, but I'm really curious, since I want to try the same thing. A lot of the questions were on the psychological mindset, which I find very important, and I guess I'm a bit "afraid" of this diet, because everybody seems to say you should have a smaller deficit. Any advice is appreciated and the best to you in the future!
Answer: Thank you for your questions. I appreciate your interest. I am truly gratified that anyone might be helped and inspired by my experience.
(Reader's questions reprinted for clarity)
1. How did you overcome the mental battle during this aggressive deficit? My motivation for getting healthy was so I could be a better husband and daddy. My poor condition was dragging down my whole family. I was missing out on life and I was causing my family to miss out on time with me because I was so tired and depressed most of the time. My family was the motivation to get healthy, but the Bodybuilding.com Transformation Challenge was my motivation to do it quickly. Without the Challenge, I would have taken a much slower approach to my fat loss. The hope that I might win the Challenge was a great motivator to be aggressive, and it made dealing with the unpleasantness of hunger much more tolerable. But even with that hope, it is still no fun to be hungry. So, I used various techniques to deal with the hunger. I drank lots of water. I did cardio 2 to 3 times a day to make the hunger pangs subside. It doesn't take much exercise to reduce hunger. Sometimes it was just a quick 5 or 10 minute HIIT cardio session. I would find projects to do around the house. And I would go to sleep as early as I could before I started to get really hungry again. I would occasionally drink tea to help with hunger, as well. Black coffee is another good way to deal with hunger, although I did not drink it during the Challenge. I just started drinking it a week or so ago. I am no longer cutting calories, but I am still doing Intermittent Fasting, so I do get hungry during the fast period, and I occasionally use coffee to help with that. 2. Did you take anything to reduce appetite? Food! No seriously, I just used the techniques I mentioned above. 3. What kept you accountable? It all starts with the person transforming. I had to get to the point where I was determined to change. It had to come from within. But once I had that internal motivation to start, there were things I did to help hold myself accountable on my journey. My wife was a huge help during the Challenge. She took all my progress photos before, during, and after the Challenge. She had a huge salad waiting for me every day after work, and she was always searching and trying out some new healthy meal for me. She encouraged me to work out as much as needed, and there was much more she did. So, knowing that she was fully committed with me was a great motivator, because I did not want to let her down and waste the effort she had put into this. BodySpace also proved to be a good way to hold myself accountable. Setting a goal and posting it for all to see was a good first step. I became addicted to tracking workouts. There were many times I really, really wanted to skip a cardio session, but didn't just so I could track it. Weekly progress photos were a good motivator, as well. It helped me stay on track over the weekends knowing that Monday I was getting my weekly progress picture taken. I didn't want to mess up all the work I had put in during the week, by binging over the weekend. 4. Did you have some really tough moments, where you just wanted to stop? If yes, how did you power through? Absolutely! I had really tough moments about every 7 to 10 days. I called them re-feed days. I am actually being serious. I didn't pre-plan any re-feed days during the entire Challenge. I would just stick to my schedule and plan, and go as long as I could, until I snapped and ate something that wasn't part of the plan. It usually turned into a mini-binge, but not like candy bars, pop, ice cream, or anything like that. It might be tortilla chips and salsa, or peanuts, or a sweet potato, or some bread. So even when I snapped, I was still under control, and the total calories consumed for any re-feed day never exceeded about 1800. I never had a moment where I wanted to stop completely, so I didn't really have to power through. I don't recall ever wanting to quit, but I do recall needing a break many, many times. I would just find a way to give myself a mental break, by either having a re-feed meal/day, skipping a cardio session, or going to bed early. Every once in a while, I would just let my wife know that it had been a rough day and I needed this day to be over so I can start fresh tomorrow, and she would say it was OK and that she would take care of things. She is so awesome! Sleep is a wonderful elixir for many problems. I would almost always be right back on track the next day. 5. Did you have refeeds? If yes, how much calories did you eat and how often did you have them? See answer above. 6. Did the diet "mess" a lot with your daily life? For example with your mood and relationship with people or just normal functioning? Yeah, it did. I am a pretty even-tempered person, so it wasn't that bad for my family, however they definitely could see a difference in me. I personally felt pretty good throughout, but my wife told me that my moods were definitely affected, but it was fairly mild. Someone else may have a very different experience. I have mentioned this many times throughout the thread, but I really don't think anyone should be as aggressive as I was. While I don't think I did anything unsafe, I just think it is unnecessary to be in such a hurry. A 4, 6, or 8 month transformation is totally amazing as well. In a year, it won't matter if it took 3 months or 8 months.
7. And the last important question. How did the transition from such a big deficit into maintenance calories go? Did you just up the calories from one day to another, or gradually (in what steps? Did you have a huge appetite when reintroducing more calories back? One would think the body would go crazy and primed to make you gain fat, after dieting down so much. Well, it hasn't been that bad, but I would attribute that to the Intermittent Fasting. IF is not a fat loss technique. You can bulk, cut, or maintain all while doing I.F. Intermittent Fasting is a technique for getting and staying lean. The day we took my final pictures, I just started eating more (I took my wife to Olive Garden to celebrate). My daily average is about 2500-2600 calories. It varies day to day, based on how I'm feeling or what is going on that day. Some days, I pig out (4500 cals), so I have to balance it with a lighter day. But most of the time, it is all done within the structure of the Intermittent Fasting protocol. I really believe that is the key to my getting so lean and staying lean. I just posted a progress photo 3 weeks after the Challenge and I think I look just as lean, or leaner, than the end of the Challenge. I cannot recommend Intermittent Fasting highly enough. It is amazing! I learned about it on leangains.com. I hope some of this is helpful. I often feel like I'm just rambling on and on. I wish you nothing but the best. I really don't recommend anyone follow the same approach I took. I didn't learn about Intermittent Fasting until the last three weeks of the Challenge. If I had it to do over, I would absolutely start with I.F. and I would probably eat more calories daily. Take a look at leangains.com and see what you think. It is where I would start if I were starting over. Have a great day! And thank you for your positive feedback. It gets me fired up to keep working hard! Thanks!
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