Arch0wl's Balls-to-the-Wall Weight Loss Method

[Arch0wl]

NEW VERSION AVAILABLE HERE:

https://alfredmacdonald.com/2017/02/...-remedial-fix/

[dragonmegaXX]

I actually started doing something like this last week.

I'm 5'10", and this time last year I weighed around 150lb, and I honestly still thought I was overweight. Around that time my ITG machine broke, along with my job offering a shit ton of free food, I ended up around 195lb until last week.

I finally said enough is enough and I started keeping a journal of everything single think I eat and drink. I use it at home, I bring it to work, I bring it everywhere. I went from eating easily 3000+ calories a day, to around 1300-1500 for the last week at so. My job is very physical so I have some help from that, and I play so much ITG at a high level(2-3 hours 2-3 days a week of mainly 13-16 ITG scale songs) that since I started last Thursday, I've already lost around 7 pounds.

I've changed my diet slightly, incorporating more protein and healthier snacks(I tried pistachios for the first time yesterday and I fucking love them) but I still eat a fair amount of whatever I feel like. I just eat a hell of a lot less of it now. And I write everything down. I've estimated the calories in a single bite of some stuff and written it down. It's satisfying to go to bed at the end of the day and see that I've eaten a third of the amount that I used to.

I already feel better than normal physically, and I cant wait to get back down to around 145-150 and try to put on some muscle at the gym.

Amusing fact, getting better at ITG is one of the main reasons I want to drop the weight.

[Arch0wl]

ITG can be amazing cardio since it's effectively HIIT. I recommend it for cardio over doing cardio at the gym if you have a good home setup and a bar or bar-like support you can use. The best cardio IMO is HIIT sprinting on a track, but not everyone has a track right next to them that they can use.

At the 11-footer to 13-footer level I'd guess you're burning anywhere from 15 to 35 calories in 2 minutes. That is an insane amount of calories to burn in a 2 minute timeframe, all things considered.

[dragonmegaXX]

I have my own dedi in my basement, and I try to play even small 30 minute sessions daily. And stamina 14-15's typically get my heart rate between 180-190 for however long the song is (5+ minutes) and Im just dripping sweat after 3-4 songs.

[FF_rules]

Originally Posted by Arch0wl

- coffee with cream (50 calories)
- bland chicken (200 calories)
- bland tuna (140 calories)
- banana (120 calories)
- bland chicken (200 calories)
- spinach (75 calories)
- bland chicken (200 calories)

Talk about a diet; I replace all my drinks with Tea or water and having over a 100 ways to cook chicken breast really helps. I notice you don't have carbs in this... like 0 carbs, I can't comprehend this style of eating for myself since I literally eat 70% of my entire food by weight as rice. As for the type of rice I eat, white + brown + black (7-2-1 ratio).

Rice is on the high end for the glycemic chart; I have a basic understanding of what that means but honestly all starch is like that so ehh.
This isn't about helping with blood sugar but losing weight.

[Arch0wl]

the logic is:

- protein maintains muscle
- lean meat is dense and keeps you full

carbs like rice are digested VERY quickly and don't help you feel full for very long

note: it's okay to eat carbs on refeeds. actually really it's okay to eat carbs whenever, as long as your calories are low, but high-protein low-calorie is the easiest, and you'll maintain muscle that way.

[Arch0wl]

IF YOU ARE VEGETARIAN/VEGAN, LET ME KNOW (ALSO WHICH ONE), AND I WILL RECOMMEND A TAILORED PLAN FOR YOU

it is very much possible to lose weight this way on a vegan diet, it's just slightly more difficult, since the protein you'd take (soy protein, rice protein, etc.) digests more quickly than meat and you need more of it for muscle maintenance

[FF_rules]

Low carb diets are one thing but I've maintained myself with pure will power. I can maintain staying hungry for extended periods... this probably isn't a health hazard but people have different tolerances for hunger.

What are your thoughts of Light/Heavy meals (I believe it was light in the morning/afternoon and heavy during the night) -or was it heavy in the morning, I can't remember-
I remember seeing a small study for it but I forgot it's contents.

[Arch0wl]

best strategy:

eat one meal in the morning, like 1-2 hours after waking up

then eat another meal like 2 hours before going to sleep

eat nothing in-between that time period

it's essentially very short-term fasting and works well

[Reach]

All great advice here.

I'll provide a life hack for people though with respect to the calorie counting problem.

Once you've established a relatively consistent diet via food log at a caloric deficit that is causing you to lose weight (consistency is something that helps tremendously once you've decided to do this), one way to save you the hassle of actually counting calories is simply portion management. Decreasing portion sizes on a consistent diet is an easy way to lose weight.

What I usually do when I go on a cut is first of all establish total caloric intake (which is vastly different for me than most people, beginners should just use a TDEE calculator), and then get daily protein and fiber goals. After that, I basically figure out how much food that is, in terms of portions I can work with in things that I eat regularly.

From there, I don't really count anything. I haven't counted a calorie (other than to double check my intake a few times) past the first week of my cut. Using only portion sizing I've gone from 204 to 192 in 6 weeks.

Mind you, you obviously still need to pay attention to what you're eating and be mindful of portion sizes. However, it's a more intuitive way of eating that is effective without having to do the math every single day.

Once you get good at it you can pretty much look at any food that isn't a junk food and immediately know how much of it you can eat and maintain a caloric deficit / maintenance/ surplus.


An alternative simplistic approach for beginners to avoid macros all together is simply establish a consistent diet and then simply decrease the portion sizes of everything you eat without changing anything else. That alone is usually more than sufficient to lose weight. Based on how fast you're losing weight you can adjust the portions as well. This will usually work just fine until you want to build muscle, at which point you'll need to be more conscious of the types of foods you're eating.

[Red Blaster]

Can you make a 'get fit in little to no time with minimal effort' guide?
Because that's something I could get on board with.

[FF_rules]

Originally Posted by Arch0wl

it's essentially very short-term fasting and works well

My diet in a nut shell; I sometimes do a small 200 calorie snack for lunch. (Using the term diet to describe my daily eating, not as a term to lose weight)

[Arch0wl]

Originally Posted by Red Blaster

Can you make a 'get fit in little to no time with minimal effort' guide?
Because that's something I could get on board with.

- get fit in a long period with minimal effort

- get fit quickly with a lot of effort

Pick one.

There is a third option, technically: get fit in a short period with moderate effort and lots of drugs. But you don't want to go down that route unless you're extremely committed to the lifestyle, and if you're asking questions about effort, you aren't.

[Red Blaster]

:(

[Deadlyx39]

Arch0wl this is great stuff, but how long do you take each day posting these long threads?

[Arch0wl]

I dunno, an hour?

I don't feel comfortable posting this stuff on my website -- because other than being unlike the typical subject matter, I would be competing with people I regard as leaders in the field (literally, I would be in the same sphere as Jim Wendler), *but* my friends ask me for information quite a bit and posting stuff here allows me to organize this information without considering myself in competition with monolithic figures

that said, I often take stuff I write on here and rework it for other places. this is just a central place for me to organize information in an informal way.

[Arch0wl]

I got this feedback from Hakulyte and it sincerely made my afternoon:

Just wanted to say that I've read your "Arch0wl's Balls-to-the-Wall Weight Loss Method" and I was like, "haha, look at this prick putting random numbers and stats together like it would magically work or something. Then for laughs I swapped what I eat for more fat/protein/carbohydrate and less random stuff and guess what, I had the energy to get the weight down so, I got it under 200 lbs which I have never been since forever. I don't think it would have happened without reading your thread and following what it says. Very happy to see that once in a while, simple but life-changing things can be found here, on a "mere rhythm gaming website". TLDR; Thanks for sharing knowledge that affect others positively.

Thanks for writing that. :)