I just wrapped up my first mesocycle today doing my deload week. I have two low carb days before I start my 2nd mesocycle of training that will take me to about 4 weeks out remaining when that is over. I combine some of my easier deload workouts into 1 day so as to have the weekend off from training before the next mesocycle begins
My starting weight was about 235 lbs and after almost 5 weeks I am down to about 226 lbs, which is 9 lbs or so. That puts me right on target of dropping a little under 2 lbs/week so far.
To get to this point, all I really did was decrease my fat intake by about half on training days from 135g or soon my maintenance phase to about 75g (keeping protein and carbs relatively even) and on rest days I went from probably 180g of fat to about 90g or so. This was also helped along with adding some cardio of 30 minutes a day several times a week and 45 minutes on my rest day. The cardio was just low intensity with either walking outside or on the treadmill at a slight incline.
The plan for mesocycle 2 is to reduce those fats even lower throughout the mesocycle and most likely stop increasing my carbs as the volume increases throughout the mesocycle and keep it constant each week.
Strength was great throughout the first phase as I hit a new PR of cambered bench at 275lbs x 10 paused reps. I was able to get in some good leg workouts as well, something that has been lacking since a lower back injury. My squat emphasis leg workout I was able to hit 5x6 at 335 lbs and then 5x8 at 295 lbs. My hypertrophy leg day also went well as the last picture here in the post is the result of a massive pump!
My conditioning is coming along, nothing too crazy yet as I haven't gotten overly aggressive with dropping calories or upping the cardio (that will come later as the shows get closer and closer). Here are some recent pics from the last two weeks:
 