Starting back in the gym - BF%?

[topegur]

This will probably be the most long-winded request for a body fat estimate ever. Sorry in advance.

Today, I'm 25 years old, 6'0" and 262 pounds. I've attached a few pictures of me taken about an hour ago. I'm estimating that I'm at about 35% body fat, but I'm not sure because I have no idea how much muscle I have under my fat-sweater.

I started lifting weights seriously in January or February 2006, getting a lot of information from another forum that completely blows now, apparently. I started at about 250 lbs of pure fat, because I was a completely sedentary little **** all through high school. After almost two years of seriously hard work, and following a dirty dirty dirty bulking diet the whole time, I found myself at 220 or so and about 20% body fat. For me, that was fairly impressive - it was literally the first remotely athletic thing I'd ever done in my life.

By the end of 2007 I was starting to see my gains slow down just a little. I refused to accept it, though, and kept adding weight at the same pace as ever. It wasn't long at all before I injured both my right shoulder and my left calf. I tried to lift again after a week's rest, which proved to be a mistake that would keep me out of the gym for several years.

Of course, I didn't change my diet at all, and by the summer of 2008 I was up to 300 pounds. It was around this time that I met the little lady of my dreams - and when I look back at pictures from that time, I can't believe she ever even looked at me. I'm 6'0" but she's under five feet tall, so I tower over her anyway. When I weighed 300, I looked like...

Well, as one of my friends put it when he saw a picture of me and her at her niece's birthday party, "It looks like you've broken into a child's birthday party, ate the cake, and now you're eating the kid."

I went on a crash diet and lost 70 pounds in just under four months. This is the period that I kick myself for over and over again - I can't imagine how much muscle I lost from those stupid damn 500-kcal days.

In summer 2009, I found myself weighing about 250 again and decided to get back into the gym. Guess who didn't learn his lesson? Within two months I had torn both biceps. It was horrible - I had chills, couldn't stop shaking, my pee turned dark brown, I had a fever, and I couldn't move my arms. I couldn't even dress myself for the first few days - thankfully, by this time, I was engaged to the girl I ate at the birthday party. She could help, even though she did have to stand on a stool because she's so short.

After that I gave up until a few months ago. My brother-in-law (hey, I got married even though I was a fatty!) and I started playing racquetball together, and I was shocked at how out of shape I was. We kept playing and I quickly started feeling better and better. Soon, he and I got to talking about lifting weights. I mentioned that I was into bodybuilding in college, and we agreed to start lifting a little.

We started lifting, but there wasn't much intensity to it until just the other day. We were just sort of lifting to say we were lifting - sets to failure were a foreign concept.

One day, we decided to give the leg press machine a shot. We loaded up a whopping 300 pounds (considering at this point I weighed 275 and he weighed 260, this is less than impressive to say the least) and run through a set of twelve. I made an offhand comment about hitting a personal goal in college of leg pressing higher amounts, and it soon turned into a "how much can we do" contest.

By the time we hit 500 I was completely addicted again. I felt the same way I used to feel five years ago, lifting heavy five days a week. It was incredibly fun, and I immediately stopped so that I could keep doing it for more than one day. I finally learned my lesson and didn't injure myself!

That was six weeks ago, and I weighed 275 pounds. Today, as these pictures show, I weigh 262. Like I said, at 6'0" I am guessing about 35% body fat. My ultimate goal is to get to 220 and 9% body fat, but that's a heck of long way off.

So, sorry for the way long-winded post, but what do you think my BF% is? Interesting fact: this is the first time I've had my picture taken with my shirt off since before kindergarden. That also explains my farmer's tan.

[robertk232]

nice work so far... I'm curious though, how did you tear both your biceps in one day? Some sort of freak accident?

I tore my calf about 4-5 weeks ago playing basketball. MFer just snapped after about an hour of playing when I planted my foot. feelsbadman.jpg.

[cyco85]

You don't look that bad for 260+ at all. BF probably ~30%

[topegur]

nice work so far... I'm curious though, how did you tear both your biceps in one day? Some sort of freak accident?

I tore my calf about 4-5 weeks ago playing basketball. MFer just snapped after about an hour of playing when I planted my foot. feelsbadman.jpg.

I did it on my back/biceps day. I refused to accept that I had lost some strength, so I was forcing myself through a routine with too much weight and compromised form. I was doing deadlifts with shrugs to finish them off, and was involving my biceps way too much in trying to cheat the bar up. I could feel them straining then, but I ignored it.

Then I went to do some barbell curls, and three or four reps into my first set I just could not move the bar past half a rep. I held it there, straining as hard as I could to complete the rep for three or four seconds, then gave up. I went to rack the weight, and as soon as I leaned forward and the angle of the weight changed both of them just gave way. It didn't even hurt like you'd think - it just felt like all of the blood in my body suddenly got ice cold, and then a really deep aching set in.

You don't look that bad for 260+ at all. BF probably ~30%

Thank you sir!