15 Dec Tucker: 15lbs in a week

Holy guacamole. Up 15 lbs since a week ago right before the show. I was 192 last Friday morning, and 207 this morning. Some of its fat because I’ve been indulging probably more than I should and I haven’t touched a weight this week, another chunk is sub-q water, and then some gains friendly glycogen to round it out.

Just goes to show how depleted I was during a lot of the prep. This wasn’t Noel’s fault or really anything we could help. He didn’t change any sodium or carbs the week leading up and I didn’t start doing any water loss until Friday evening. I was eating hamburgers and all that every 3-5 days for the last week or two as well because I kept going even flatter.

A lot of it had to do with how the whole prep went in general and it shows how much external stress can affect your body both in strength and appearance. With the move, finding jobs and paying double what we were for rent in LA, stress was high and there wasn’t much we could do about it besides search for work. I got sick again with that mono flaring up sometime in late August, so I had to take two full weeks to lay around and do nothing, and then another couple weeks of light training and I was being careful for the whole prep. I could still feel my lymph node swell pretty much daily or every other day leading up to it, and my body trying to fight that off as well as get lean and maintain or build a little muscle was a lot to handle. Something had to give, and my body would rather fight off a catastrophic illness than get big and full and hold glycogen… Can’t really blame it haha.

Now that a lot of the stress is off me my body feels better, my throat isn’t bugging me and my body is happily taking this opportunity to recuperate and fill out. Some of it is water bouncing back too, so once I start lifting again in the next few days that’ll squeeze out some of the water under my skin and tighten me up.

Besides feeling puffy it’s been a good week and I’ve enjoyed some of the finer things in life – some cookies, donuts, pop tarts, ice cream, cereal etc. I didn’t think I’d be having any cravings after all the food noel was having me eat the last few days of the show, but cravings are your body talking to you, and especially after a show it’s the right time to listen. I ate more than I should have, but I’ve made my way through the junk we had in the house and I’m mentally feeling ready to eat clean again with a cheat meal here or there and basically go into a very clean off season.

I’ll be taking the rest of this month to go light and possibly a few more weeks in January depending on how I feel, and then get back to it with more intensity. For now it’s down time and time to enjoy the holidays and living a normal-ish life.

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Tucker Loken

Tucker Loken is a Bodybuilder turned Powerlifter turned Powerbuilder from Eugene, Oregon. He did his first bodybuilding show when he was still in high school, and has been training male and female competitors for shows since 2011. Several years ago he decided to take a step away from his normal routine and learn how to get strong. He worked with Brian for 9 months, added 200 pounds to his raw total and qualified as an Elite lifter in the 220 pound weight class. He returned back to bodybuilding much stronger and now incorporates the 10/20/Life philosophy into his training to keep himself healthy and making continual progress in the Big 3 as well as adding size and shaping his physique. Now part of Team PRS, he brings his unique expertise of nutritional knowledge and how to balance Bodybuilding with Powerlifting to help athletes achieve their best potential.

Latest posts by Tucker Loken (see all)

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