Post AF ablation surgery - getting waist back under 100cm/40" - how fast & how far?

Nutrition Q&A [Moderated]
1

Hi Jordan

I’ve recently returned to lifting following catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation late August 2018. For ~2 years prior AF utterly ruined lifting and sleep and pretty much everything else too. I re-ran a modest LP for a couple of months starting a few weeks after surgery. Just happy to be lifting again, but it soon started to get a bit grindy and it wasn’t doing much for my seriously under par conditioning. I stumbled upon your video where you said something like the answer to any question about LP is to stop doing LP - so I stopped doing LP! Bought a few templates and just hit week 7 of 4 day hypertrophy and it has been a revelation! I’m enjoying the variety of lifts and rep ranges and above all the volume - and I wish I had given RPE a chance years ago.

Anyway, during AF I packed on the weight: 47 male currently: 110kg 114cm waist vs 88kg 93cm waist 3.5 years ago before AF had progressed so much.

When I returned to lifting, being so poorly conditioned, I didn’t want to change too much in one go, or crash into a wall by dropping calories right at the start, so I didn’t try too hard to lose fat immediately. Over the last 3-4 months weight is up 4kg, waist down 1cm.

My plan now is to run the 4 day hypertrophy a second time, focusing on fat loss on the second run through.

I’ve seen plenty of your stuff, and I understand that I ought to get my waist back under 100cm/40" for mortality/morbidity outcomes. So my questions are:

1) How quickly should I do this? I’m not asking for a specific time frame, more how high of a prioritisation I should give it. Gradually, while continuing to re-gain strength? Or do the risks of actually being 100+ justify forgetting any other goals (but still lifting of course!) and dropping calories extremely low to get under ASAP? (maybe even a few RFL-like weeks to jump start it?)
2) How far under 100cm should I sensibly aim before reassessing my goals? Obviously dipping just under only to go over again wouldn’t make any sense. I’m thinking something like 90?

Cheers,
Mark

2

MJL,

Thanks for the post, kind words, and hats off to you for taking matters into your own hands.

As far as your question:

  1. I would do this immediately. From a health perspective, I can think of no circumstances where the presumed benefits of a calorie maintenance or surplus on strength improvements outweigh the risks of carrying too much body fat.
  2. I would aim for 96cm first and reassess.
3

Thanks Jordan. I’ll aim for 96cm which according to my old logs would put my weight around 91-92kg

Just to clarify, I’m definitely planning to focus on fat loss. Where I was unsure was whether I should drop calories extremely low or moderately low. Had a re-re-relisten to your VLOG 20: How fast should YOU lose weight… which was very helpful. My overall takeaway is that:

  • I can and should definitely be aggressive with the rate of fat loss. I’m thinking ~2kg/week to start. Aiming for 3-4 months total to get to 96cm.
  • Since I’m not remotely lean yet, LBM loss won’t be too significant.
  • Optimally I probably should have started fat loss sooner - however I do feel for compliance reasons, regaining some strength first was the right choice for me.
  • I’ll rerun 4 day hypertrophy as planned, rely on RPE to get through the volume but not get caught up in what my strength does.

Thanks again!

4

2kg a week is quite a bit- not that it’s dangerous, just feel like that might set yourself up for failure. Otherwise, carry on!