First, I just want to point out that progress has been great and I am still basically on cruise control. What I mean is that it isn't "easy" right now, but I am not having to torture myself to make progress.
The challenges of the last 12 weeks (I still have 11 in front of me) have been extraordinary as they have been for everyone. I have been fortunate to be able to not have missed even one training session or one diet meal. As I have stated over and over, I am locked in and it has been easy in that sense. However, the stress of everything that is going on is rough and I know I'm not the only one. I take it one day at at time and so far it has worked well.
I am down 26 pounds and have about 12-14 more to go, give or take. I have still done zero cardio and I have been PRing leg exercises for the last 5 weeks. Now, I don't usually break my arm patting myself on the back, but I want to be clear that being down 26 pounds, deep into a cutting phase, is not usually the time to be hitting PRs. I have increased my weights every single week on leg press, squats and pendulum squats, as well. And I NEED as much leg progress as possible due to losing so much leg mass for the years that I had chronic lower back issues.
What I wanted to point out in this coach log is the pattern for RHR over the last 12 weeks.
You will notice in the chart that it is all over the place but when I explain it, it should make sense.
I started the cut phase heavier than usual and I had not trained in about 2.5 weeks. I was sick coming back from the holidays in Michigan (personally, I think my entire family had been hit by COVID at that time) and I was not training for those 2 weeks.
I started my supplementation and as soon as I did, my RHR jumped up to roughly 67, took a bit to adjust to the supplementation and then dropped back down.
The next spike is when I started 4 weeks of a fat burner. The highest peaks on the graph are from the fat burner which is to be expected. I just recently (earlier this week) started the fat burner again so that spike is noted on the chart, as well.
Notice how after I came off of the fat burner the first time, my RHR dropped well below even my starting RHR to about 59. This is due to my body becoming acclimated to my supplementation and also coming off of the first run for the fat burner. Of course, in predictable fashion, my RHR went up again earlier this week due to starting the fat burner again. I anticipate that the RHR will drop considerably again after this 4 week run with the fat burner.
I was going to superimpose my weight-loss chart over the RHR chart but there is no real patterns that I needed to point out. I also checked my strength gains and the only correlation was that I was off of the fat burner when the strength gains started to take off for my leg training. This could be due to increased recovery from having the lower RHR but at the same time, as my RHR was climbing this last week (while losing 4 pounds in a week on the scale), my weights were the highest I have used in a long time so there seems to be no relationship.
I expect my RHR to become lower over time due to losing bodyweight but I wanted to show how this has trended for me during the last 12 weeks to give you some insight.
My supplementation will change again tomorrow so it will be interesting to see if the RHR is impacted briefly by that, as well.
One thing that does stand out this last week is that my sleep was the worst it has been in 12 weeks. This is my fault and due almost entirely to poor scheduling on my part. I am not having any sleep issues, but I am not getting to bed at the same time every night and it has impacted my sleep considerably. At the same time, it has not impacted my progress but it will if it keeps up. My goal for this next week is to get my sleep back to where it has been for this entire cutting phase with the exception of this last week.
I am still on track to break the 210 mark by the end of the month and that will likely happen by this time next week. I have not been this lean in a long time so it's fun and motivating.
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