The old man skin problem I had going on last week - actually a few weeks but it seemed to be the worst last week - is much better after I figured out what the hell the problem was. Yes, I have been losing a lot of weight over the last couple of months but that wasn't the entire issue, though it seemed the most obvious reason before I looked deeper.
Over the last few weeks or so I have been increasing my calories - specifically carbs - because I have been dropping weight so quickly. I certainly don't want to bottom out my metabolism so I have been careful to be sure that I am getting enough calories but still dropping body fat as efficiently as I possibly can. I also have increased my Skiploads to the point where this last weekend I actually loaded for almost 2 full days. There was one more thing I changed, though, and then my look drastically changed. I stopped the glucophage.
I had been so happy with the results over the last couple months of using it consistently that I was blind to the fact that it wasn't allowing me to not only fill out from Skiploads but had me flat pretty much all of the time. I am so focused on getting leaner that I wasn't paying much attention to my overall look as much as the scale weight and just feeling better due to getting so much leaner.
The old man skin issue sucks, though, and I had to take a long hard look at how I felt about my look. Yes, getting leaner is great but even though I am not competing anymore, I still want to look like a badass and hold as much muscle as possible. That isn't a very good look when you are flat as hell. I basically looked fatter even though I was getting leaner because of being so "soft" due to flat muscles.
Before I loaded for almost 2 days this last weekend I stopped the glucophage (though my doctor wasn't terrible excited about this decision) and by Monday I was looking not only leaner and tighter but so much fuller that I looked 15 pounds fuller and larger. As this week has progressed I have held a lot of the fullness ... and the weight from the load but that is ok. I look 10 times better and all of a sudden I have had a surge of strength in the gym this week, as well. I still hope to baseline by this weekend but it is possible that I might not. I will be ok with this given my completely different look and I am certain I am actually leaner but the scale simply won't reflect it. The scale isn't always right, though, and it certainly isn't the last word.
I am not against the glucophage as it has worked very well for me but I am going to change my protocol to using it only the day before my Skipload to help with making sure I am more insulin sensitive when I load on Sundays. If I was in an experimental mode I would keep the glucophage in and keep taking my carbs higher and higher and see how large I could get my carb intake before I started gaining weight but ... I have a cruise to go on in 7 weeks and I have to have my sexy on. This is something I may play with after I get to my goal condition for the filming of the DVD, though.
I still have fat to get rid of and it is looking like about 10 to 13 pounds in the next 7 weeks. I am still currently doing 4 sessions of cardio a week (only) so that may get ramped up starting next week depending on how I finish this week. Diet will remain the same as my calories and carbs are pretty low right now. Any lower and my workouts likely will suffer quite a bit.
Next week I get my annual finger bang from my Doc and blood work the following week. A lot of riding to do this weekend before we run out of warm Colorado weather for the season. I hope you have a great weekend, as well!