lesson's learned.

this is going to be a long one. i will likely post it in stages.

my friend had been told to take chromium picolinate to help with body fat reduction. since i'm in bb and lean mass is paramount to bb she asked me what i knew about chromium p. i had heard of chromium p but i didn't know anything about it.

a google search told me that it was a natural supplement and it wasn't likely to injure anyone who took it. it was reported to control the bodies insulin response. but here's the kicker... there was no scientific evidence to support the products effectiveness. tests were done and apparently the data was somewhat inconclusive.

the last time i saw george i told him what i had read about chromium p and he explained why the data was inconclusive. chromium p is a valid product that does indeed help control the bodies insulin response PROVIDED the user actually HAS diabetes!! in a diabetic body it controls insulin and that in turn does help some diabetic patients lower their body fat. however if your not diabetic, then there is no need for insulin control.. your bodies is already doing that and subsequently your body fat is not magically lowered.

the same he said, could be said of ALA, alpha lipoic acid. again if you have diabetes it's probably going to work. if you don't it's not. well guess what was on my shelf at home? ALA. why? because i was told to take it to help control my offseason body fat. did i not look up ALA before i bought it? i did. but the only information on it that i could find, that i could understand was that it was not harmful.

i also want to mention another product that was recommended to me. again, i attempted to research it but i was unable to find any more information that i could understand, beyond that it wasn't harmful. i just don't speak medical-ese.

GABA, gamma-aminobutyric acid. because i wasn't sleeping i was told to take GABA. it was supposed to hlep me sleep and have the added benefit of increased growth hormone production. thus i was going to sleep like a baby and i was going to grow bigger muscles. well i can't say that my sleep improved. on nights that i wasn't going to sleep, i still didn't. on nights that i was... well getting up the next morning was a challenge.

when my offseason weight became more of an issue than i could bare, i went to see george. i mentioned taking GABA to help me sleep and he told me something pretty fascinating. GABA, in his opinion, is not the best product to recommend to improve sleep. it's best application is to patients with depressive disorders. it can be very calming and can help those patients sleep. well what about the growth hormone production? as a natty i might be looking at a percentage of a pound of lean muscle growth. however... and this piece of knowledge was huge. GABA can trigger depressive responses in patients who are not depressed!!!!

so likely the GABA was helping me to feel even sh!ttier about my weight issues, upping my cortisol production (one of the stress hormones that hinders fat loss) and possibly even helping me feel the need to binge eat.

so we add that all together with the overindulgent 4000 calorie a day diet and it is really no wonder that i had weight issues.

and who do i think is at fault for all of this? me!!! i went looking for the 'secret' to bb. i was somehow convinced that there was something that i wasn't doing or was doing incorrectly. in 6 years i've added a fairly decent amount of muscle mass to my body. and i managed to do it without getting fat.

i'm not being overly dramatic. i normally offseason at 22-23% bodyfat. which is a decently athletic look, soft enough to encourage muscle gain but with enoght muscular definition to look athletic. this offseason i hit 30%!! which is soft enough to be soft with the muscular definition of a coil of kolbassa!!

as far as i know, i'm currently between weigh-in's, i'm down about 13 lbs. i would guess around 23% and i am now just starting to get compliments. people have noticed the weight loss. my face is leaner, my legs, stomach and arms have all come down. i've lost two inches off my chest and waist and another inch off of my hips.

i'm hoping to be down another 10lbs by ohio. that might be a lofty goal but i might be doing a photoshoot down there and i would prefer to be considerably leaner.

these lessons i won't soon forget.