skaminista
New member
Hi everyone,
I have been reading here for a while before posting, so let me finally introduce myself properly.
I am 36, based in Germany, married with two kids under five and a dog that probably gets more structured exercise than I do. Professionally I co-own and run a group of gyms and a restaurant. Yes, I am aware of the irony. My working life happens somewhere between squat racks and kitchen pass-throughs.
That combination is basically my backstory. I have trained seriously for most of my adult life and I am not new to nutrition, but the last few years of building the business took their toll: long days, meals whenever there was a gap, a lot of stress eating, and hospitality food permanently within arm’s reach. I could always out-train a bad week. I could never out-train a bad year. I ran several proper cutting phases, got the weight down each time, and watched it come back every single time once the next crisis at work hit.
Timeline so far: I started sema last December at 106 kg. In May I switched to reta, and I have been holding 10 mg for the past two weeks. I am at 92 kg today, so 14 kg down overall. Target is 83 kg, and I will be honest about the motivation: I want to see abs for the first time in about a decade. What changed for me is not willpower. It is that the constant background noise around food finally went quiet.
Two honest observations since the switch. First, the appetite suppression subjectively feels weaker than it did on sema, even though I understand the mechanism is not the same and the scale is a better judge than my hunger signals. Second, my sleep has gotten noticeably worse. I am tracking my resting heart rate now and reading up on whether the glucagon component is the likely culprit.
Training and composition matter more to me than the number on the scale, so I keep resistance work at 3 to 4 sessions a week and push protein hard, currently aiming for 250 to 300 g a day, which is its own logistical problem on a suppressed appetite.
What I am hoping to learn here: how people handle sleep disruption, what the last stretch looks like when you are already reasonably lean, how lean mass holds up, and what maintenance actually looks like afterwards.
What I can contribute: a solid practical background in training programming and gym operations. Happy to help on anything training or habit related.
I have read the rules and the new member guide. No source talk from me. Looking forward to the discussions.
I have been reading here for a while before posting, so let me finally introduce myself properly.
I am 36, based in Germany, married with two kids under five and a dog that probably gets more structured exercise than I do. Professionally I co-own and run a group of gyms and a restaurant. Yes, I am aware of the irony. My working life happens somewhere between squat racks and kitchen pass-throughs.
That combination is basically my backstory. I have trained seriously for most of my adult life and I am not new to nutrition, but the last few years of building the business took their toll: long days, meals whenever there was a gap, a lot of stress eating, and hospitality food permanently within arm’s reach. I could always out-train a bad week. I could never out-train a bad year. I ran several proper cutting phases, got the weight down each time, and watched it come back every single time once the next crisis at work hit.
Timeline so far: I started sema last December at 106 kg. In May I switched to reta, and I have been holding 10 mg for the past two weeks. I am at 92 kg today, so 14 kg down overall. Target is 83 kg, and I will be honest about the motivation: I want to see abs for the first time in about a decade. What changed for me is not willpower. It is that the constant background noise around food finally went quiet.
Two honest observations since the switch. First, the appetite suppression subjectively feels weaker than it did on sema, even though I understand the mechanism is not the same and the scale is a better judge than my hunger signals. Second, my sleep has gotten noticeably worse. I am tracking my resting heart rate now and reading up on whether the glucagon component is the likely culprit.
Training and composition matter more to me than the number on the scale, so I keep resistance work at 3 to 4 sessions a week and push protein hard, currently aiming for 250 to 300 g a day, which is its own logistical problem on a suppressed appetite.
What I am hoping to learn here: how people handle sleep disruption, what the last stretch looks like when you are already reasonably lean, how lean mass holds up, and what maintenance actually looks like afterwards.
What I can contribute: a solid practical background in training programming and gym operations. Happy to help on anything training or habit related.
I have read the rules and the new member guide. No source talk from me. Looking forward to the discussions.
