Lexx's HCT-12 trial

[Lexx]

After having tried the 5 day program for a week and liking it, I have decided to go whole hog, so here I am. This is possibly the first time I've felt delayed onset muscle soreness rather than a much faster-onset and longer-lasting excruciating joint stiffness and pain.

Current Stats:
Height 5'10
Weight 280lbs
Bodyfat % (impedance scale) 39% (it's probably much higher)

Desired Stats:
Weight 220lbs
Bodyfat % 8%

So by that logic I need to lose about 90lbs of fat and gain about 30lbs of lean mass. I'm setting an optimistic time frame of 18 months to achieve this, and hopefully I'll manage to get the cut done in the first 12.

I have more goals than just body recomposition, but they're not within the scope of this training program or journal so I'll post a log of that elsewhere.

My RMR is about 1900 cals/day (had myself tested) and my AMR is about 2300 cals/day (without hitting the gym). I'll be eating about 2200 cals/day and with the gym and biking to & from work (10km total) I'm hoping for a 1000 cal/day deficit.

After some experimentation I discovered that if I go more than 3 hours without food I crave so badly that I cheat, so my schedule is as follows:
0630 breakfast
0900 second breakfast (workout recovery drink)
1200 lunch
1500 afternoon tea
1800 dinner
2100 supper

(average day) 60% protein 30% carbohydrate 10% fat
(rest day) 60% protein 15% carbohydrate 25% fat
(high carb day) 45% protein 45% carbohydrate 10% fat

I'll be limiting high carb days to twice a week, on days I go swimming

My supplementation:
-multivitamin
-B100 complex
-fish oil capsules
-creatine (loading as of tomorrow)
-calcium supplements
-greens+ (I'll start drinking this crap only if I get so broke that I can't afford veggies anymore. It's...vile)
-I have two bottles of ATS that I'm going to save for when I really need it...

So as for training, I'm doing the 5 day rotation. For say 15 weeks I"ll go with:

Vertical Pulling: assisted chinup
Horizontal Pulling: dumbbell row
Horizontal Pressing: flat bench press (power rack)
Vertical Pressing: sitting barbell press (alternating front and behind body)
Triceps: assisted dips
Biceps: Barbell curls
Quad Dominant: leg press
Hip Dominant: rack pulls (I have incredibly weak back/core muscles and terrible flexibility, so I'm not going to push the weight on this just yet since I don't have a spotter to correct my form)
Calf: Standing machine calf raise (does anyone know how high you're supposed to arch your calves going upwards?)
Abdominal / misc:
-ab wheel rollout
-back extension (that superman thing)
-planks
-4 point bridge

I'll be doing a 15 minute cardio warmup (elliptical) and 15 minute cardio cooldown followed by 30 minutes of sauna cycling each time. three times weekly I'll be adding a 45 minute after-work swimming session with some jacuzzi relaxation afterwards :)

So...well, there's my plan. How closely I follow it will be interesting. I'll keep a journal here to vent my frustrations and track my progress. I'll record the following: daily weight, bodyfat% (impedance), food & hydration log, gym log, and monthly body measurements.

Wish me luck. Any suggests or comments are welcome.

[Off Road]

Second breakfast? Are you a Hobbit? :)
Glad you decided to start a journal. I'll look forward to keeping track of your progress. Good luck.

[Joe Black]

Your plan sounds really solid.

One word of advice, be careful you don't try and do everything perfect and go it at 100 miles an hour from day 1. Your plan sounds brilliant on paper, but carrying out a plan like that requires some serious dedication and will power and from your current numbers, you may not have this right now (just guessing) I made this mistake for far too long (years). It's hard to jump into the perfect plan and if you find yourself struggling, so consider being a little more realistic about what you can do, trust me there is time for that type of dedication when you get sub 20% :) You can progress from 40% to 20% with a much simpler plan. Best to be consistent than constantly going up and down.

If you are 280lbs and 40%ish bodyfat, just training consistently on HCT-12, cleaning up your food choices and sticking to your total calorie limits (try and keep to your macros, but as long as you hit total calories, don't beat yourself up) and purely being more active (cycling to work is just fine) and with that plan the weight will come off pretty quickly.

The calories also look a little low, again be careful not to try and create such a huge calorie defecit straight away. Whilst it might sound good cutting the weight quickly, eating such a low amount of food is tough mentally and physically and I reckon this is probably a bit low for you given your current bodyweight. For example I have a pretty slow metablism and I went from 215 to 200 without even counting calories, just cleaning up food sources and being more sensible with carbs and then from 200 to 180 eating roughly 2,500 and a couple of cardios.

Just food for thought, I'll be popping my head in from time to time - good luck!