Dieting Down from 196 lbs.

At the beginning of the summer I was weighing around 196 lbs. (http://declarationofstrength.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-im-looking-like-these-days.html) and actually decided to start dieting down instead of trying to "bulk up". I was quite successful, reaching a record low of 178 lbs. while getting stronger in my big four lifts. So, how did I do this?

Here I am at my leanest, weighing around 178 lbs. in early July

When it come to dropping fat, I like to use a super-low to no-carb diet. Though those kinds of diets seem to be growing in popularity lately, I originally got the idea from Jamie Lewis' Apex Predator diet (http://chaosandpain.blogspot.com/2012/02/predator-diet-in-glorious-detail-part-1.html). I followed that diet pretty strictly when I made my drop from 207 lbs. to 190 lbs. at the end of the summer in 2012. This second time around, I made just a few changes (which is encouraged) and added a ton of vegetables and re-loaded on carbs more often, but in far lesser of quantities. I added the vegetables (mostly broccoli and spring mix salads) to aid in digestion and lower the availability of whatever usable carbs I had eaten and started re-loading on carbs every 4-5th day because I was losing a little too quickly and feared I may be losing some muscle.

If I wasn't eating carbs, what was I eating? I would eat a ton of meat and fat: simple as that. I ate mostly ground beef (the fattier the better), along with chicken, protein shakes and bacon. At night I would also eat a ton of tradional, bone-in wings, which only have about 1 g carb In order to get enough fat and calories in my diet I took to adding vegetable and coconut oil to my protein shakes. I was shooting to get around 2,800 kcal/day, though in all honestly I would frequently miss that get around 2,400 kcal/day.

So, to sum it all up, I:

• Was eating around 2,400-2,800 kcal/day
• Was ating almost all protein and fats
• Was shooting for 300 grams of protein/day
• Ate a lot of salad and broccoli
• Would "reload" on carbs every 4-5th day
• Lost a total of 18 lbs. while gaining strength

Here I am as of today, August 4, 2013, weighing 182 lbs.