Before someone busts my balls who also reads my journal entries on IntenseMuscle.com, I purposely was evasive when I posted my last Skipload this last weekend. I did this because I didn't want to field questions about why I did it until I was sure of what the outcome would be.
Let me also be very clear for those that may be wondering (or who do not know me very well), I did not load for 2 days due to a lack of discipline or throwing my hands up and saying "fuck it, I'm hungry."
What has been happening is for the last 2.5 weeks I have dropped a lot of weight relatively quickly. My last coach log noted I was down 10 pounds in 2 weeks - 5 pounds a week for 2 weeks. I have not done more than 4-5 cardio sessions per week and I am not starving myself as I have laid out my diet a few log entries ago and since then, I have even added more calories (though not a ton, but some). And I kept dropping.
My workouts have been very productive for the first 4-day training rotation as I have been putting up PRs on quite a few exercises. By the second rotation, I am dragging ass and the workouts are nowhere near as productive, though they are still pretty good. I am not saying the workouts in the second rotation are shit - not at all. However, I have noted that stretching the Skipload to 3 training rotations would almost certainly make the 3rd rotation complete shit.
So, I loaded last Friday and I woke up the next morning knowing full well I wasn't filled out very much and had ripped through the food for the Skipload the previous day. I was only up 3 pounds and usually I am up close to 10. I was slightly fuller but nothing of what I usually am. I also had a sore throat and had been draining (sinuses) quite a bit the last few days and felt like I should probably take the day off from the gym to be kind of proactive and sleep more. I slept more for those 2 nights than I have in weeks, getting 9 hours each night instead of my usual 5 that I typically function on while prepping. A side note: I function very well on less sleep while prepping. The leaner I get (and almost every other person out there) makes me require less sleep. However, I knew I was getting run down over the course of the last week or so.
Taking the day off did not, at all, impact my decision to load for another day, though. It did afford me the opportunity but I would have loaded again even if I was feeling good and was going to train.
I went all day on Friday and all day on Saturday.
I woke up Sunday to the normal fullness that I have been getting after one-day loads so I was pretty pleased with the outcome. However, it was in the back of my mind that this might be one of those things that I might find didn't work out well as it could have pushed me well over the calories I needed and could have made the following week (this week) not as productive.
This is why I held off mentioning it because I wanted to see what the reaction was, first, and THEN detail what happened.
I have usually been baselining about 3 days after a load day. This week I didn't baseline until 5 days after the load. Yes, I likely lost a couple days of burning body fat due to this. However, and this is the kicker here: I am leaner than I was last week but 2 pounds heavier at this point (2 pounds over baseline). Not just a little bit but noticeably leaner.
Everyone has their "trouble" areas and mine are lower back and glutes/hips. This is where I hold most of my body fat and these are the areas that come in last while prepping. I am thinner skinned in my lower back, glutes and hips than I was last week and it is obvious. I won't say it is "dramatic" but it is certainly obvious. The fullness was pretty dramatic per the picture that I posted on social media as I was surprised at the amount of fullness I had without being more watery than a usual load.
Now, the question might seem to be: Skip, will you now load for 2 full days moving forward? I do not plan to, no. I cannot say that the 2-day load made me leaner this week. I may well have been leaner, anyway, and the results I have this week likely would have happened, anyway, because they are on par with the changes I have had for the last few weeks only loading for 1 day.
My analysis of how the 2-day load worked is this:
It was as effective as loading for 1 day. I gained more fullness and the workouts were insanely productive - more so than usual. Still, I know I lost a couple of days that I may have been able to cut into body fat more if I wasn't so damn full of glycogen. With it being equally as effective, I don't see any reason to load for 2 days moving forward unless I come into a situation again where my weight is falling so fast that I am so depleted that I can benefit from it.
You might also wonder if my calories are too low during the week but my response is that if I am able to load and fill out that much on 1 or a 2-day load, my strength is up after a load for almost a full training rotation, and I am getting leaner at a predictable and productive pace, I don't see any reason to add even more calories when I can simply fill out and reset my metabolism with the load days. Someone else may do it differently but I feel that the process is providing great progress and great workouts and my hunger is almost non-existent and I am not having to do very much cardio, at least to this point. That likely will change, of course, but for now I am going to ride it as long as I can.
I already detailed the Friday load in my last log entry so here is what the Saturday load looked like:
Meal 1:
Banana bread english muffins with butter and jam
2 bowls of cereal with almond milk
1 Noosa yogurt with granola
Meal 2:
2 scones from Panera
1 Panera cookie
3 granola bars
Meal 3:
Lamb and Beef burger
tator tots
Meal 4:
Pizza (the same pizza I always load with - dry crust, cheese pizza)
I only did 4 meals because I slept late and then went to bed earlier than usual due to wanting to get more sleep to fight off the sore throat.
I was 2 pounds above baseline yesterday and this morning I baselined so it took me 2 more days than usual to baseline.
Understand that I do not recommend this because that is a very long load and I had to be pretty depleted for it to work. I based this decision off of the signs that I was reading based on how I was responding. I know full well that this can't be something that is routine or it won't work. This time, though, I have to say that it worked quite well.
I am resting today (but doing cardio) and then starting my second training rotation so I tentatively plan on loading after this second rotation on Tuesday unless I feel I can benefit from stretching another rotation and loading the following Sunday.
Stay tuned...