I am attempting to transition from a beginner exercise program to an intermediate program. the first day of the new program is tomorrow. I reviewed all the intermediate programs that are popular and attempted to synthesize the common elements. I tried not to stray too far from an established program that has worked for lots of people, so I chose the one closest to my goals and tried to only tweak the non-essential bits or make changes others have successfully made.

I believe I was successful as the program looks very good to me and had positive reactions when showed to more experienced lifters. I'll have to evaluate my own recovery over the first 4 weeks of course.

With lifting being a major project for me right now of course another one has to be nutrition. Here I have a problem: I still don't have a good model of how much macro manipulation matters. The scientific literature suggests it isn't very important, but the anecdotal evidence suggests it does start to matter for very lean individuals. I'm unsure as to how much effort I want to devote to this as I am continuing to have great results with a fairly loose paleo diet and intermittent fasting.