I was living in Germany in the late 1980’s when Keith Richards’ solo album Talk is Cheap was released. I loved it instantly and the song Big Enough would get stuck in my head for days. I’d go to the laundromat and tired of waiting for my clothes to dry, I’d start pulling them out of the dryer and sing, “hey, hey… dry enough. Hey, hey… they’re dry enough.” Today I’ve decided that I’m lean enough, although I’m too tired to sing it.
I’ve been dealing with crippling fatigue and getting lightheaded getting up from a chair for weeks now. I thought it could be lingering effects from my recent bout with the mysterious 4-day fever I had, but researching the symptoms of long term lack of energy availability, I think it’s more likely to be the lingering effects of my diet. There aren’t a lot of studies on male athletes, but there are some. The effects noted are:
- Fatigue
- Decreased performance
- Problems concentrating
- Low libido
I have them all in spades. Low energy availability seems to hit hard when caloric intake is around 30 kcal per KG of fat free mass. That would be <1937 calories for me, and I’ve been eating 1900 calories per day for 12 weeks as of today’s date. Besides the obvious symptoms, there are other, more dangerous symptoms that could occur, so I took a good hard look in the mirror, both literally and figuratively, and decided to call it here.
I have nothing but the utmost respect for competitive bodybuilders who can diet to the extreme levels of leanness required to get on stage and compete. I can’t even imagine what it would feel like if I had to cut calories further, or continue this diet for another 6-8 weeks.
I feel good about what I’ve accomplished, and in the dystopian nightmare that is 2020, feeling good about something is pretty special. I’d love to move right into a lean bulk, but I’m not ready to risk my health and return to the gym to really do it properly. So I will bring my calories up to what I think is maintenance level (around 2300) and continue to train at home as I have been. I still have my hypertrophy experiment after all.
Here’s a few pics from my photo shoot. Eddie photobombed my quad shot.
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