END OF WEEK 4, HALF WAY POINT FOR STAGE ONE! 09/05/2025
Bodyweight at 79.35Kg
Can you guys believe it? We're ALREADY HALFWAY THROUGH THE FIRST STAGE OF OUR PROGRESS PHASE! Here's a general summary of what happened so far
- I'm up a good 9/10 Kgs from my pre-carb load/end of last diet weight. I do feel pretty heavy and my heart rate is definitely up a good bit, but Ivabradine is doing a great job of managing this particular symptom.
- Bodyfat is at a similar point; I do feel that I didn't actually gain much bodyfat as of yet (if any at all); the puffiness is probably all due to the 6-10kgs of water that I'm holding.
- FBG isn't the best, but it doesn't seem to be climbing either; I notice it's quite a bit higher on days I don't get enough sleep or feel stressed out. Normal seems to be around 85-95, which is pretty good for what I'm currently doing.
- ALL lifts are going up nearly every session
- Weight doesn't seem to be shooting up too quick, which tells me my calories are probably exactly where they should be at the moment (3800-4000 on training days).
More detailed summary of specific areas
Insulin/Humalog
- Amazing pumps and power/endurance during training; this alone is enough to make this a must on training days.
- I was initially fine at 13.5g of carbs per iu, but once I increased Retatrutide to 4mg/wk I had to go back to 15g/iu otherwise I'd go hypo at around the 2 hour mark.
- The extra weight gain I experienced on week 4 is likely a result of upping Humalog 2ius pre/post. I went from 10ius to 11/12.
- Insulin packs on a TON of water VERY quickly, unlike anything else I have experienced. That aside, a lot of it seems to go straight into the muscle, as opposed to just turning you into a balloon.
- We'll see how this affects insulin sensitivity (at this current protocol of pre/post x4 a week) over the next few months.
Ivabradine VS Nebivolol
- Ivabradine doesn't affect blood pressure at all, so no more nearly blacking out on every leg press set
- Nebivolol, even at 1.25mg/day, seems to affect my energy levels (it causes extreme lethargy) and even my strength. I DRAG ASS all day on this stuff
- Nebi limits my ability to do Z2/Z3 cardio as it makes it very difficult to hit my target heart rate zone (despite being a Z2 zone) without pushing myself to a level that no longer feels like Z2, but then it's really hard to do that when my legs and arms feel like jello BECAUSE of this drug
- Ivabradine doesn't seem to have ANY of those negatives. However, at 7.5mg/day it does have a "soft" limit on my ability to hit a higher heart rate, but since it doesn't mess with my legs I can still do Z2 just fine, although with more huffing and puffing (feels like Z4, honestly). In other words, Nebi makes my legs unable to do cardio, but Iva makes it harder to breathe during cardio. I'll happily take the latter.
- Ivabradine is FAR more effective at lowering my RHR at 5mg (0 sides) than Nebi at 2.5mg (maximum dose I can barely tolerate), and at 7.5mg Iva lowers my RHR by a good 15+ points (RHR dips into mid 60s during sleep, and averages mid 70s to low 80s at rest).
- If I wasn't using Retatrutide I would've probably never had to ever go beyond 5mg/dose, maybe not even 2.5mg.
Retatrutide
- Significantly increases my heart rate (15+ BPM)
- Total control over cravings, but unlike Tirz it doesn't seem to significantly affect my ability to eat. Reta is allowing me to treat this progress phase more like a dieting phase in terms of being structured and sticking to the plan.
- I'm always VERY HUNGRY as soon as I wake up, which was never the case pre-Reta, even off GLP-1s.
- Definitely having a positive effect on insulin sensitivity, but I'm still suspecting that it's actually significantly raising my FBG. We'll see how this plays out in the long run.
- I'm ALWAYS COLD, FUCK.
- Definitely feels like it has an effect on metabolism. It's also making me crave sweets more often, which I never did before GLP-1s. In fact, I never liked sweets unless as a "taste" breaker after a savoury meal.
- Overall loving this drug
- It started giving me heart burn at around 3mg/wk, it's not BAD yet, but I definitely don't like it. Might start using Nexium.
Progress photos (I'm not a bodybuilder, so bare with my lack of posing knowledge)
- Visibly thicker overall
- Arms seem to have made some progress; they've always been a weak point of mine because they're freakishly long. In fact, I have the wing span of someone who is 6'2" (187), despite being 5'6" (168cm).
- Chest also seems to have improved a bit
- Now, one month isn't enough to grow a load of muscle, I know it's mostly water, but it feels like a step in the right direction, no?
- Calves still need a lot of focus, which I feel I can give them now since most of my ankle issues from before are resolving
Quick run down of week 4/journey so far
Nutrition
Current calories at 3800 on training days
- I have decided to lower protein to 250/260g/day. 280 is unreasonably high and it's definitely replacing more important macros like carbs, which I could always use more of on training days.
- I'm currently at 650/660g of carbs, but I see this quickly breaking the 700g/day barrier within the next month.
- Off days will ALWAYS remain at maintenance (or slightly below, barely above if I must), which is around 3000 on off days where I only do 30 minutes of Z2 cardio.
- Still doing virtually zero fats for all meals on training days; I'm liking this approach a lot so far so I'm going to stick to it for a while, possibly through this entire phase.
- Initially had a structured plan for off days, but now I'm only concerned with hitting my protein and getting some healthy fats here and there, but I've been eating whatever I wanted as long as I don't excceed my 3000 calorie cap.
- I obviously also eat foods other than those listed on my training day plan, but I always make sure that they fit in the same way as to not alter the plan too much.
- I''m consuming a liter of skim milk a day, but I don't feel to experience any ill effects from this, with the exception of a few deadly farts here and there.
- EAAs seem to make my sweat smell like PISS/AMMONIA, FUCK.
Updated Rx list
I was going to try and cut my Ezetimibe in half and run it for a month then retest to see if it's any less effective, but the way my pills are shaped makes it very difficult to cut evenly, so meh. Keeping it all the same.
Getting lipids done (maybe more bloodwork) tomorrow.