Mission 1, Day 17: Setting goals
I spent alot of time driving again today and I came up with a plan for my goals. I am not really sure if my goals are achieveable and I'd like to get everyone's opinions on my goals.
Ultimately, I want to reach 200 lbs of LBM and 13% body fat by the end of my 100 day mission. I have set up the following plan to achieve this:
| Date | 11/17 | 11/24 | 12/1 | 12/8 | 12/15 | 12/22 | 12/29 | 1/5 | 1/12 | 1/19 | 1/26 | 2/3 |
| Lbs. | 234 | 232 | 231 | 231 | 230 | 229 | 228 | 227 | 228 | 229 | 230 | 230 |
| LBM | 190.71 | 190.24 | 190.58 | 191.73 | 192.05 | 192.36 | 192.66 | 192.95 | 194.94 | 196.94 | 198.95 | 200 |
| BF % | 18.5 | 18.0 | 17.5 | 17.0 | 16.5 | 16.0 | 15.5 | 15.0 | 14.5 | 14.0 | 13.5 | 13.0 |
I know it is possible to drop 0.5% body fat each weeek. That doesn't worry me that much. What I'm concerned about is my LBM goal. Am I going to have to sacrifice some LBM to get to the body fat percentage I want? What do you all think?
Saturday and Sunday were my first two "double cardio" days. I'm focusing on the intervals. I am going to take Tom Venuto's advice and not do intervals every day. I will do intervals on the days I don't lift weights and will do steady cardio on the days I do lift weights. I have two issues that I need to pay attention to: (1) fat loss; (2) increasing LBM. I am aware that those are pretty exclusive issues. You either cut or you bulk, but you can't easily do both together.
During my long drive today I also came up with a plan for an eBook. I can't talk too much about it, but something Christy said in a comment got me thinking about the idea. I've spent some time thinking about my target audience and a problem they have that I can address. Now I have to decide how I am going to approach the topic I have in mind.
Tomorrow I will go back and post the pictures for each of the past 3 days. I would do it tonight, but the driving has me exhausted and I don't want to take the time. I plan to go to bed very soon.
Until tomorrow...
Posted by Michael Mahony at 11/11/2007 6:41 PM 
Categories: Accountability, Exercise, Fat Loss, Goals
Categories: Accountability, Exercise, Fat Loss, Goals
Wow Mike that's a really detailed plan. You can most certainly burn fat while increasing LBM because they go hand in hand - more muscle means your metabolism goes up, therefore burning more fat. For men that is why fat loss is usually easier, because you naturally have more muscle. Plus, you really aren't trying to lose "weight" like you said, so that makes it all the easier I think. You only have to sacrifice some LBM when you want to weigh less overall I think. Anyway, just my amateur opinion. The only thing I would be careful of would be restricting yourself to those weekly goals too much. Be careful not to be too hard on yourself because it doesn't usually work out exactly even like that - you might not lose much one week and then a lot more the next, you know?
So I'll catch up with you soon!
P.S Thanks for the shout out!
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Joni, thanks for the comment! As for restricting myself to my weekly goals, I don't worry about that because I'm going to achieve those goals!
Thanks again for stopping by. I'm going to keep an eye on your progress as well. Good luck!
Mike
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Hi Mike, been following your adventure as part of the RTP-Group Shred. I think that you might have to sacrifice some of that LBM number in the end. By no means does that you mean you won't be able to get there eventually, but I think a gain of 4-5 lbs of LBM over this time period is much more reasonable. If you're going to be doing double cardio and lots of HIIT, I think you might find that you'll drop the fat a lot faster than you think, and then you can concentrate more on putting on that last bit of muscle.
From my own personal experience, when I tried to do both at the same time, my weight never budged, and my body composition barely changed. It was just losing a bit of fat (like 1 or 2 lbs) and gaining a bit of muscle (the same 1 or 2 lbs) over about the same period of time (12-16 weeks). My cardiovascular health did get a lot better though.
Only since I made the fat loss a priority have I managed to get rid of the extra fat. Also, by making it a priority and thinking of any muscle gain as being incidental, I hit my fat loss goals ahead of schedule.
You could do it maybe in a mini cut/bulk phase. Dropping 2 lbs/wk of fat for the first 7 weeks and then adding 2 lbs/wk of muscle for the last 5 weeks would put you at roughly your goal numbers.
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Raiden,
Thanks for the comment. I tend to agree with what you are saying. Everything I read says that when you cut, you lose LBM and then when you bulk, you gain body fat percentage. I think what I need to do is what you are suggesting. I need to focus first on cutting and then on bulking. Thus, if I focus on the fat loss goals, I might be able to drop 1% a week instead of the 0.5% a week I've currently set as a goal. That would get me to my body fat percentage goal alot faster and then I could focus on bulking. As you said, it would also be alot easier to drop any extra fat that was picked up while bulking.
At the same time, I am looking back at my current stats and from 10/14/2007 through 11/11/2007, my body fat percentage only decreased 1.1%, but my LBM increased 3.26 lbs. I'm thinking that this means I can definitely focus on dropping the fat to my goal level (and maybe a little below) and then work on building LBM and not end up too high on the body fat percentage. I did notice that I'll need to gain 9.41 lbs of LBM during the next 12 weeks and I'm thinking I might not make that.
Honestly, I think if I focus on the fat loss and get that down, even if my LBM is a little lower at the end of the 12 weeks (say 195 lbs of LBM), I can then have a short bulking phase to bring up the LBM at that point. What do you think?
Mike
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honestly, all this lean body mass and body fat % stuff just drives me crazy just thinking about it. it all just confuses me really. all i know is that i want the "fat" gone and i want to be "smaller". i guess that shows that i am not a numbers person!
will keep watching! talk to you soon.
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I'm an extremely analytical person. The numbers keep me moving forward. If I can't measure it, I can't manage it. That's how I live my life and how I run my business. The one place I disagree with you, Suzette, is that I want the fat gone, but I want to be bigger
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Your attention to detail is awesome Mike. If using stats is what gets you moving and motivated then go hard I say!
BTW, an eBook! Sounds coll mate, let that drive you as well.
Adam Waters
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Mike, how are you? I think you are going to struggle to build that kind of mass on what is essentially a cutting program. I feel you should focus on losing the fat, get to your goal and start building from there with a good quality Hypertrophy program. For now, worry about your fat loss first and when you relate it to your LBM you may be pleasantly surprised, but certainly don't focus on it as it will confuse your meal planning. You can eat to grow or to lose, not both at once as you know.
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Dougal! Nice to hear from you. I'm doing very well, thanks! It really is confusing because there are those who have said I can achieve the goals I set and others who don't think it is possible. I tend to be on the side that thinks it isn't really possible for the very reasons you mention. It is my understanding from all the reading I've done that I would need to eat more to increase mass. So, my current plan is to aim for the body fat percentage goal of 13% by the end of Mission 1. I will then plan a Mission 2 that will have 2 parts to it: (1) dropping down to 9% body fat through a futher cutting phase and (2) increasing my LBM to 200 lbs. through a bulking program. Mission 3 will then likely involve cutting out the fat that was added during Mission 2.
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