301lbs to 180lbs

[andymcguinness]

Hi all!

About 5 years ago I was 20 and 21 and a half stone+, when I decided enough was enough, with an extremely strict diet and exercise plan. No fad diets no starving myself just honest hardwork in the gym, in 18 months I had lost 8stone, fast forward a year I had went back up to 17stone+ just being complacent and letting old habbits back in!

Earlier this month I got married which was my target date, so I got back hitting the iron, planning and prepping meals and exceeded my targets, my final measurements were 13st and 10% body fat, at the moment I'd feel I'm too light, some body areas could do with some work & my PBs (squat pb of 150kg is first on the list) need beating and plan to put on a bit more mass again!

But thought I'd share my experience to anyone who's maybe about to start a transformation or have hit a deadend, the only things you need to make it happen are drive and determination, there's no secret formula just hit the iron get the work in!

Profile picture is the before and after!

Good Luck

Andy

[ElrondHubbard]

You look great, Andy! Congratulations. Now comes the part about sticking with it!

[Reaper_One]

Awesome transformation! Hard work and consistent effort pays off!

[Tumsinmuhbelly]

Great to see that drive paid off! Keep it up, OP. You got this!

[Steron99]

Congrats on the great job !!!! I am really happy for you!Keep up the great work !

[andymcguinness]

Thanks guys! It's been a long road, with a separated shoulder and torn calve muscle in there for good measure!

Currently I work as an IT Consultant but I'm Looking at getting some PT qualifications under my belt to help & motivate and pass on the knowledge I've gained over the last 5 years onto others in my spare time if anyone can recommend any courses! I'd be grateful for the advice!

Regards

Andy

[80203]

Hi all!

About 5 years ago I was 20 and 21 and a half stone+, when I decided enough was enough, with an extremely strict diet and exercise plan. No fad diets no starving myself just honest hardwork in the gym, in 18 months I had lost 8stone, fast forward a year I had went back up to 17stone+ just being complacent and letting old habbits back in!

Earlier this month I got married which was my target date, so I got back hitting the iron, planning and prepping meals and exceeded my targets, my final measurements were 13st and 10% body fat, at the moment I'd feel I'm too light, some body areas could do with some work & my PBs (squat pb of 150kg is first on the list) need beating and plan to put on a bit more mass again!

But thought I'd share my experience to anyone who's maybe about to start a transformation or have hit a deadend, the only things you need to make it happen are drive and determination, there's no secret formula just hit the iron get the work in!

Profile picture is the before and after!

Good Luck

Andy

That is great transformation Sir.

I am at 294lbs and depressed and can not even get myself to gym due to anxiety/depression.

Can you tell us more about how you did it and pictures?

[andymcguinness]

Hi,

For me, this was the god only knows how many times I had tried to lose weight, I remember standing on the scale expecting to see maybe 16-17stone so when I seen the number stated with a 2 I knew something had to change, sounds cliche but it was a penny drop moment!

I think to keep motivated, I've kept changing up goals, making them more achievable rather than an overall I want to get to x weight, although ultimately I knew my university graduation was in 18 months at the time & I think the thing they drove me on in the first instance was not wanting to have my graduation photos where I wasn't happy with them!

In the early stages you are right i felt abit apprehensive about going into the gym at the size I was, I overcame this by training in a hoodie most of the time, hood up music on tuning out everyone around me! But generally when I got over that and started speaking to people around me and what I was trying to do I found everyone generally really supportive!

In terms of workouts I used a mix of cardio and weight training in the height of it I was 2 times a day cardio in the morning and weights late at night, I was lucky enough that the student lifestyle allowed for this, I tried to avoid going out for a jog etc as I could
Imagine the impact this would have on the knees! I suppose in a sense the best way to keep motivated is To develop an obsession with the gym and more importantly the gym lifestyle, the healthy habbits, eating drinking getting enough sleep. I have mainly trained at the same gym for 5 years and the amount of people who have been there the same time as me and make no progress is interesting, I often get asked what the secret is but as I said in the OP it's all about hard work and what you're willing to put in to get out of it!

One interesting bit of motivation I found was when I discovered Kai Greene a good few years back, his mentality of training the mind as well as the body seemed to hit home, mainly as there were foods etc. I would happly eat all day long but when you take the time to educate yourself on the nutrition behind what your eating you start to see where you could make improvements! So definetly YouTube videos are always a good source of motivation, Eric Thomas is also another guy I would recommend! His how bad do you want it philosophy is really quite encouraging!

I wish you all the best my friend, any questions or if you just want a bit of a motivation boost drop me a message, sometimes the best motivation is just talking about it!

[KaHud23]

Hard work pays off!

[darmstrong266]

What did you change your diet to? Any kind of supplementation?

[EjnarKolinkar]

Great work, hope you have continued success in your fitness goals.

[andymcguinness]

I revamped my whole diet, and ate regularly. Before I would often skip breakfast and binge out several times a day, and ate a lot of processed food, frozen pizza and the like!

To this day however I've never eaten a salad! I am not a huge veg fan carrots and cucumber is about all I'll go for haha! I am not one to get bored of certain foods easily, so a lot of my diet (lunch/dinner/snacks) consisted of chicken/turkey with rice, cous cous or carrots and cucumber, breakfasts were generally egg whites, lean turkey bacon! I began to realise that for that bag of crisps or chocolate I could have a much more substantial snack like chicken, turkey or a ton egg whites but then I'll be the first to awknowledge that for most people that's easier said than done! And I've never been much of a chocolate fan anyway!

Supplement wise I was using whey protein as a snack to fill me up when out and about or when I had ran out of food away from the house, I was taking CLA, Omega3, vitamin C tablets daily along with Maximuscle thermobol or grenade (whether this works or not is up for debate, however it atleast gave me personally the mental drive is nothing else!)

Ive said to to countless people over the years, one day, if your open to it, something someday will change your mind set instead from the poor me attitude but no other person can change that but yourself! It could be something significant or something insignificant at the time but when that comes, the road ahead will still be difficult your still going to want to give in at certain stages, but your vision in your minds eye will be set that you'll find the strength to over come the things that get in your way! I have a saying "even superman got his ass kicked at least once" keep going and eventually you'll get there!

[andymcguinness]

Thank you Sir, I appreciate that

[Cupofether]

That is great transformation Sir.

I am at 294lbs and depressed and can not even get myself to gym due to anxiety/depression.

Can you tell us more about how you did it and pictures?

If you want it bad enough you will do it. Right now you're at a point where you don't want it bad enough.

Posting on this internet forum and asking people how they became a success is the extent you will go, and maybe cut out a few (of many) bad foods? I'm not trying to give you **** man but I was 290 lbs as well and I've had anxiety and depression all my life.. If you get anxiety at the idea of other people seeing your fat in the gym and seeing how badly you struggle that's totally normal. What isn't normal is if you let that anxiety stop you from changing yourself. Where's the human spirit in you? You need to want to be fit more than you want to avoid strangers and what they might think. No one in the gym will even notice you unless you are ripped. You'd be a bug on the wall, like everyone else who is out of shape in there.

"Many do not overestimate their abilities so much as they overestimate their desire. They don't understand what true burning desire is. Their desire only seems intense to them because they are ignorant of levels of desire beyond their own. And their ignorance exists because they're sane. The sane will never sympathize with the insane."

The concept of losing weight is a little insane. One of the true primordial drives of living things is to take in energy, expending energy unnecessarily is insane. You just gotta get mad and ****ing go to the gym dude.

good luck with it

[WeakToBeast]

Great job OP, keep up the great work! You're look awesome.

[DaveRVD]

Awesome, great job! Good to hear that you got back on the wagon a second time (currently in a similar situation here) - congrats on the latest transformation man

[JohnButz]

Great Job!

[Robs77]

Great job, man! Really glad for you! Keep on training!