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Full Day of Cutting and the Importance of Self Image

Transcript:

In this video I’m going to show you the fastest full day of eating you’ve ever seen and I’ll share the importance of your self-image in achieving your fitness goals.

First of all let me give you an update on how my cut is going. In short, it’s going great. I’ve been cutting for a week now and I’m already looking leaner and I dropped a ton of weight. This morning I weighed in at 79.3 kg which means I’m down 3 pounds.

That’s something you should know and expect. In your first week of cutting you’re going to drop a lot of weight and most of it will be water, glycogen and reduced food content in your GI. Don’t adjust your caloric intake after the first week. Wait until the second week and if you see you drop weight too fast or too slow adjust your calories as needed.

In my case, from now on I expect to lose 0.5 to 0.8 kg per week which would mean 1 or 1.5-2 pounds a week. I’ll keep you posted.

Now, in this video I’ll show you all my meals from today but first I’d like to answer a very good question I got on email.

*transition

Of course I fast in the morning so I’ll have a cup of black coffee to blunt appetite and improve concentration. Reading the email: our friend named Florin asked a very good question.

He says that he’d really like to have abs this summer but everytime he tries to get a 6pack he gets to a point where he looks too small so he decides to stop his diet. The problem is at that point he’s unhappy with both his size and definition and he just bulks back to his starting point.

His question: I’d really like to have abs, what should I do?

I think the reason you can’t make a real change in the way your body looks is because of your self-image. Let me explain.

The self-image is the way we see ourselves; it’s what we consider true about ourselves and the world around us. For example if someones states “I can’t be productive in the morning” or “I gain fat easily” or “I have a bad memory” they are stating something they believe about themselves. And all these believes put together make the self-image.

Modern psychology has shown that we literally cannot do something that contradicts the way we see ourselves. In the 1960’s dr Maxwell Maltz proved that our self image regulates our behavior in the long term exactly like a cybernetic mechanism. That statement probably didn’t make any sense but stick with me.

An example of a cybernetic mechanism is the autopilot on a plane. As soon as the plane reaches a certain altitude the pilot sets a certain trajectory and activates the autopilot to keep that trajectory.

Now, if along the way the plane is hit with some turbulence and it deviates of course, the autopilot senses the deviation from the set goal and adjusts the flaps and the engine to bring it back to the set destination. A plane flying on autopilot is actually of course 97% of the time because it always makes small adjustments to stay on course.

Your self image is also a cybernetic mechanism. If you see yourself a certain way and you start to get results that deviate from that image your self image will adjust your behavior to correct the deviation. For example if someone sees themselves as fat, when they lose weight without changing the way they see themselves, they will shortly go back to where they started. Or if someone sees themselves as weak and they try to build strength, they will plateau all the time and when they will make some strength gains they will miss some gym sessions or something and they will go back to being weak.

How does this happen?

Through the inner dialog, our thoughts. When a person with a fat self-image starts to lose weight they will start finding reasons to stop the diet. In your case it’s the idea that you’re getting too small. For other people it may be things like “Oh I lost a lot of weight, I deserve a cheat day.” or “Why the hell am I doing this, I was happy before”. This is the false voice of reason; it’s the self image trying to maintain your current situation.

Also the way you see yourself in the mirror is very subjective because you actually see yourself in your mind. Even if you look awesome, if your self-image is bad, you’ll think you look really bad.

So what should you do?

Well, the first step is becoming aware of those thoughts when they appear. Recognise them as the false voice of reason and don’t follow them. You will feel uncomfortable because you’re changing the very foundation of your personality but stay true to your goal.

Next, start seeing yourself as the person you want to become. Start visualising yourself the way you want to be and through repetition that image will become your self image. And everyday take at least one step that will get you closer to your goal, it doesn’t matter how small it is. It reinforces a good habit.

So that’s my answer that question. I really hope it helps and I’ll address this self-image subject in a future as well.

A Full Day of Cutting:

Morning: Water and a cup of Black Coffe

11.30 AmBeef and Salad macros

3 PM

Beef and Cheese Sandwich

6 PM

Low Fat Cheese and Apple

9 PM

Shawarma macros cutting

What did you think about my meals? What are your favorite recipes when cutting? Have any questions? Let me know in the comment section below! 


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28 Comments

  1. andrei on June 23, 2015 at 5:36 pm

    poza din roll up este de acum? de aici vrei tu sa slabesti?

    • Radu Antoniu on June 23, 2015 at 10:22 pm

      Salut, nu e de acum poza aia. E pusa in thumbnail si pe banner ca sa atraga click-uri. I know I’m bad.

      Conditia mea actuala e aratata la inceputul video-ului.

  2. John on June 24, 2015 at 6:40 am

    SO unhealthy though!

    • Radu Antoniu on June 24, 2015 at 8:31 am

      Why? All those foods were highly nutritious. Even the shawarma is made of healthy ingredients (except the sauce and fries).

  3. Jacob on June 24, 2015 at 8:25 am

    Hey Radu!

    Your posts are getting more and more intresting. I started to wonder a little, how is it possible you weight 79 kg, train most likely every other day with not much cardio and tend to loose up to 0.8 kg a week? I guess ur maintenance is arround 2500-2600 kcal a day, the menu you presented is 2200 kcal. I am asking since ive been having much worse fat loose results with 2000 kcal, a little bit more than your weight and 1 maintenance kcal day a week. Your protein intake is usually arround 1 g/lb like here or slightly lower/higher? Cheers and keep up good work!

    • Radu Antoniu on June 24, 2015 at 8:33 am

      Hey Jacob!

      My maintenance is actually around 2900 kcal. I found through experimentation that it’s higher than predicted by the formulas.

      The key to dropping 0.5-0.8kg a week is to have a deficit around 700-800 calories. I eat 600 kcal less than maintenance and I burn about 200 calories a day by walking more than usual.

  4. Johnson on June 26, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    Hi Radu
    How to you do calculate your maintaince ? You are 73.9 this means 162 lbs
    If you follow Greg protoco 162×15 = 2430 cals but you say 2900 :/ im a little confused if you can explain your calculate maintaice i will be very happy
    Thanks

    • Radu Antoniu on June 27, 2015 at 8:13 am

      Good question Johnson

      I’ve been tracking my macros for almost 2 years now and I realized that my maintenance is slightly higher than the formulas would predict.

      15 calories per pound is a starting point and for most guys it’s actually very precise. But the way you discover your true maintenance is through experimentation.

  5. Tracey on June 28, 2015 at 6:38 pm

    How did you calculate the macros for the shawarma? Btw: Keep the meal ideas coming 🙂

    • Radu Antoniu on June 29, 2015 at 9:49 pm

      Good question haha!

      It was an approximation but here’s how I did it. The restaurant didn’t give the nutritional information on the menu but they did provide the quantities for each ingredient. So I added each ingredient individually in the app and got the full macros 🙂

  6. Elena on May 13, 2016 at 6:54 pm

    Buna Radu. Am o problema cu greutatea de ani buni. Am atins “performanta” de a ajunge la 180kg la 1,75 m. Am 35 de ani si incerc sa schimb atitudinea delasatoare avuta pana acum. Intrebarea mea este: un regim de 1200 de calorii este indicat? Mentionez ca am inceput sa fac si miscare cardio in genere intre 30 min si 1 h 20 min aproape zilnic.

  7. Dale on May 14, 2016 at 4:12 am

    Hi Radu, I just discovered your YouTube videos and website and I’m really liking your approach and the information you’ve been sharing – it all seems relatively easy to do and sustain. My question is also about maintenance, because I’m confused how you calculate in the calories you burn during your workouts. Does the 2900kcal maintenance you have for yourself include calories to replace what you burn on all your workouts and walking? Or would you eat that much even if you didn’t work out or walk that day? So in other words, if you hypothetically suddenly stopped all physical activity would you need to adjust your maintenance down to account for the lack of calorie burn?

    My confusion comes in because I’m not really losing fat. I’m 6’1″ and 210lbs but at 24% body fat – even though for the last 3 months I’ve been combining boxing with weight training 3 times a week with a trainer and I typically eat between 2300-2500kcal a day of a pretty balanced diet of 40% carbs, 30% fat, and 30% protein.

    Any guidance you could provide would be most appreciated!

  8. Joel Linderos on June 8, 2016 at 6:47 pm

    I have an awesome pizza recipe that I try to always have the ingredients available for at home. The base recipe is a piece round white lebanese bread (called “Liba Bread”) as crust, some tomato sauce and low fat cheese. I always keep these stacked in my freezer and put them in my fridge the day before use. The pizza base is 378 kcal and already consists of 20g protein. With a lean protein source and some vegetables on top it’s both an amazingly tasty and healthy meal! 🙂

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