Starting My First Run Of Rfl Soon

adpowah

adpowah

Active Member
So I am planning on starting a short run of RFL on Monday, Nov 11th and I will do my first run throughout the workweek and end it Friday the 14th. If it isn’t too hard on me I may restart the following Monday. This will be my first time so any extra insight/suggestions/criticisms would be appreciated. From what I understand here will be my protocols/plan.

Stats/Diet:
  • At 188lbs, I am guessing I am about 16% BF, so my LB comes in at about 160lbs
  • I am a category 2 dieter
  • Protein will be 1.25g per lb of LBM putting me at 200g of protein a day
  • I will be sticking with meat/dairy as my protein sources and likely skipping protein powders
  • For vegetables I will be doing primarily broccoli, kale (cooked), cucumber, celery etc
  • Free meals and refeeds don’t seem to apply to me since I will only be on it for 5 days at a time
Supplements (I still have questions):
  • I have some fish oil capsules, but I am missing what the dosage is. It looks like he just says take 6 a day? What dosage should I take?
  • EC stack…I am not really comfortable taking ephedrine and I am pretty sensitive to caffeine. I was planning on doing black tea/black coffee when I need some caffeine and working up to a daily intake. Am I shooting myself in the foot here?
  • I wouldn’t be opposed to taking yohimbe but it seems like this is useful for leaner individuals. Thoughts?
For lifting:
  • I will just be doing a 2 x 5 for Front Squat (185lbs), Bench (165lbs) and Deads (300lbs) which is about 75% of my 1rm for the week, maybe some light auxiliary exercises for my arms (if I feel up to it) and I walk a mile a day
Ending the diet:
  • Since I started lifting in the last cycle I have been able to gain back my strength and gain little additional body weight. At my lowest the day of the 10k I was a high 186 and I am averaging 188 after about 7 weeks of training and increasing my food intake. I am guessing I won’t turn into a total pig over the weekend and destroy my progress.
 
I take 16000mg of fish oil per day.

EC stack is fine if it's legal where you are. Caffeine assists greatly with energy, if you don't respond comfortably to it though, then don't bother. At your size, I don't think the gains will be greatly affected. Yohimbine isn't necessary for your stats.

Your strength will drop significantly for bench, probably less so for lower body compounds.

I do not advise doing it on a 5-2 basis; those two days are going to undo a lot of the 5 days work.

The hunger will be hell for the first three days.

Celery/lettuce is your actual best friend for satiation.
 
Thanks Jester.

I live in California, I think Bronkaid is available here but I am going to do my best without it. For strength I am ready to lose it, I lost a lot when I dropped the previous 15lbs but gained most if not all of it back in a single lifting cycle (and I hit a new rep PR last night in deadlifts), but yeah my bench is still suffering. Thanks again.
 
adpowah said:
Thanks Jester.

I live in California, I think Bronkaid is available here but I am going to do my best without it. For strength I am ready to lose it, I lost a lot when I dropped the previous 15lbs but gained most if not all of it back in a single lifting cycle (and I hit a new rep PR last night in deadlifts), but yeah my bench is still suffering. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Deadlift PR = ?
 
10RM PR counts ... you just shouldn't expect to increase it by training in that rep range.
 
Well I went shopping tonight, 200g of protein seems like a lot and yet it will only be 800 cals plus whatever minimal amount I do from veggies. I weighed in at 186 this morning and I will take pics tomorrow, if the change is pretty noticeable I will share.
 
The 3-4 day change is extremely noticeable, the changes ongoing going to be more apparent over a longer time frame.
 
I would recommend doing some morning cardio on day 4. Read up on UD2.0 if you can get the book and pay special attention to what happens the 1.5 days before the carb refeed, specifically why Lyle recommends cardio on those days.
 
Thanks Tote, I will have to grab UD2.0, I just have RFL and his Keto book. I did have a question though.

Here's my log so far:

  • 11/10: Weighed in at 186.9lbs
  • 11/10: Coworker shares some organic treat, definitely had some carbs (2 small bites)
  • 11/10: Visited out of town friends, had 4 pieces of homemade pizza
  • 11/11: Weighed in at 186.9lbs again, pizza probably undid the day
  • 11/11: First work out on RFL, definitely towards the weak side. Lifted beltless doing 2x5’s; front squat 185lbs, bench 165lbs, Deadlift 315lbs. Deads were real hard, had to do singles for the 2nd set. Felt pretty good about half way through the workout and did some arms too.
  • 11/11: Getting the 200g of protein is tough; eating steak for breakfast is cool though
  • 11/11: Forgot to take fishoil, took 9
  • 11/12: Weighed in at 184.9lbs (down 2lbs)
With the first day not being as strict as it should have been should I do the cardio on my 4th strict day? Also how much cardio, 20mins on an elliptical?
 
  • 11/12: Easy day, ate London broil. Worked out again, since it was back to back I dropped the deadlift weight to 285lbs
  • 11/13: Weighed in at 183.6lbs (down 1.3lbs)
  • 11/13: Ate a bit of sausage which was likely above the fat content I am looking for
  • 11/13: Felt really dehydrated throughout the day (mild heart pounding), starting focusing more on drinking as much water as possible
  • 11/14: Weighed in at 182.8lbs (down 0.8lbs)
  • 11/14: Did some research on the heart pounding, could be a lack of potassium/magnesium/calcium (shame on me for not taking my supplements)
  • 11/15: Weighed in at 182.8lbs again (down 0.0lbs)
  • 11/15: It was a bit odd to weigh in here at the same weight, the factors that I think could have influenced this; 1) previous improper supplementation being corrected resulting in further water retention, 2) greater green food volume and 3)
  • 11/15: Had a good workout, went a little lighter in deadlifts at 275lbs but otherwise it felt good
  • 11/16: Weighed in at 183lbs, uh? (up 0.2lbs)
  • 11/16: I was really surprised here, I followed my protocols pretty well Saturday so I expected to see the needle move Sunday morning, I just expected it to go the other direction. Sunday is a busy day for me so I put the diet aside but ate "reasonably"
    • Breakfast: Starbucks Bacon Artisan Sandwich 350cals (18f/30c/17p), Double Dry Cappuccino 90cals (3.5f/9c/6p)
    • Late Lunch: Chipotle Burrito, double chicken 965cals (35.5f/85c/81p
    • Had some nice beers before Dinner: Affligem Blonde 221cals, Youngs Double Chocolate Stout 224cals
    • Something came up and didn’t end up eating dinner
    • Total cals 1850 (57f/187c/104p)
  • 11/17: Weighed in at 182.3lbs, yay? (down 0.7lbs)
  • 11/17: I figure I will go back to the protocols until Thursday and then take a break. I’m not sure I will hit my goal of 176 my first try
 
Well another day at 182.3, I am going to take a break from the diet for this week. I have a lot of other things going on and maybe my body is saying it's done for this round.
 
Honestly, I don't think 5-2 is a viable plan for RFL. It will take you 3 days to get rid of the glcoygen and water (or in that ballpark), so you're really only leaving 1-2 days for actual fat loss.

I would prefer to see at least 6 and then 1 (refeed period, not a whole day) or Totez' structure of 11-3/12-2.
 
To be honest, when I do a RFL, it seems like the real magic doesn't start happening until I'm about 5-6 days in. Then it is still hellish but each day, it seems like I'm visibly leaner. The main reason I stop after 11 days or so is due to sanity issues. I remember very vivid dreams about food that seemed almost like sex dreams but involved eating carbohydrates instead. My refeed meal is usually a huge mixing bowl of spaghetti. On the other hand, I had a female I helped with the diet before and she ran it for almost 30 days before she reached her goal weight/size, which was like a size 4 or something, whatever that means in female speak. So you can actually go longer if you really want/need to.

I would definitely not do a refeed sooner than 6 days unless you're doing depletion workouts the first day or two you go back on the diet. Also, you should be easily dropping 5 lbs at the very least within the first five days or so unless you aren't being strict enough on the diet. This loss will be from glycogen/water. Make sure you are getting enough hydration too.
 
Thanks for the feedback I will incorporate this into my second run which I will start 11/24.

@Jester your feedback made sense on the 5-2 issue. I ended up going 6 on-1 off-1 on, which wasn't ideal but that's how it worked out for round one. Next run, I plan on going for a two week stint in total and only using the minimum refeeds outlined in the book.

@Totentanz I may need to re-read RFL but I had next to no food cravings and generally felt good. I was a little more clumsy, a little more spacey etc. I wouldn't describe the feelings any worse though than the natural day to day ups and downs anyone may feel. I was absolutely abnormally thirsty and drank accordingly.
As far as strictness I felt I was doing pretty well particularly with carbs. Fats I was a little more lenient on so that I could have a little more fatty cuts of meat or use olive oil with my tuna. Maybe I should tighten it up here. Do you think this is really an issue? But unless I am missing some hidden carbs I am just using home prepared lean meats and veggies and occasional store prepared meats (sausage, rotisserie chicken, etc) that have low to no carbs listed on the nutritional info.​

In general I think one large mistake I made was letting the daily ups and downs weigh too much on my mind. Next round I will go the full 2 weeks regardless if I am losing day to day. I do appreciate all the help, even at this point (with room to improve) I am more effective at losing weight than I ever have been.
 
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