My 2 years progress, nearly 100lbs cut while fighting nerve damage/chronic headaches

[Znik]

New to bb.com so thought i'd chip inn with my progress.
Intro: Back in mid 2010 I got Occipital nerve damage which causes severe chronic daily headaches,dizziness,confusion,nerve pain all over etc.
Always been large (bout 110kg's) but when i got sick and went through tons of meds to try , ranging from heavy painkillers to strong anti-depressives etc. combined with the pain and inactivity my weight shot through the roof.
Peaked out around 130kg's/287lbs. Thats when I decided for to do a change and shred the weight. Started with cardio and introduced lifting later. For the first year and a half my exercise was pretty bad due to my pains.
2 years later docs basicly told me they cant do any more , meds dont work ,surgery not a option.

So thats when I decided not to let my condition take full control over me , and started doing more heavy workouts and lift routines. Basicly turned my headaches etc. into a competition to see who could affect me/body the most , the pains or me through my exercise goals, pains still in the lead but im gaining on em Now 2,5 years later i've learnt to deal with the pain and are doing heavy exercise , nearly 100lbs lost and soon ready to go on slow bulk , just trying to get rid of the last stubborn fat patches. Hopefully get the lean mass back , goal is to be upper 90's with 10'ish bf%

On to the progress pics!

Start march 2010: about 120kg's here , gained another 10-15 or so before i started cutting.



Currently oct 29:

Front: at 88.3 kg/194lbs


Back: at 87.3 kg/192lbs


Side: 88.3kg/194lbs after workout so pumped up some.


Probably lost alot of mass during the weight loss due to bad macros and lack of strength training before I got used to my headaches.
Hope this can motivate some, if your healthy theres nothing except yourself holding you back!

[plshrk]

Fantastic results! Great job.

[Brandon0172]

Amazing job ! Keep up the good work.

[Znik]

Thanks for the encouragement , ill post a update after my bulk and cut when I get to that point

[LarryAppleton]

You've done awesome! Tremendous change. I bet you're getting more girls, too..ha.

[mitt1984]

Impressive work dude. You are a true example and role model to others in similar situations. I have not posted up on this forum before, but I have been keeping tuned with others results and have been following this forum for quite a while in the last 3 months, nearly every day!

I have just started out, and look similar to your pictures back in 2010 and my aim is to get to where you are today.

I am interested in what your diet was like whilst shedding the fat to get to your lowest BF%, and what was your activity like, a lot more cardio or resistance built in and what kind of exercises did you do?

Your help would be much appreciated.

[Znik]

For the first year and half it was mostly cardio (I regret this alot) so I lost quite a bit of lean mass at the start. Worked as a builder for 5 years before I got sick , so while I had alot of fat I also had alot of muscle.
Now for the last month i've had a big focus on weight lifting , thankfully it seems like theres some muscle memory from my builder days as beginner gains has been pretty good (50kg increase on deadlift sets etc. in 3 weeks)

The first year and half was mostly due to eating less and healthier , and doing cardio (love my stationary bike) while keeping a eye on the weight scale. But it was fairly slow for me, as I was still trying to figure out ways to cope with my pain levels from the nerve damage (taken me 2 years to manage it somewhat) since on the worst days I basicly needed to support myself on the walls to be able to walk around, so I missed out on alot of exercise back then.

My best advice , would be to read up on the stickies on the forum and learn your nutritional needs, find a eating way that works for you , either small meals several times, IF etc. and cut calories.
And start weight lifting as soon as possible to keep most of the lean mass and cardio.
Also a big factor for me that helped was actually realising I was really fat and that I could actually do something about it! Its really easy to disguise yourself as just "big" or big boned etc. instead of telling yoruself you are really just a tub of lard, and since being obese is still kinda a taboo in social circles people will help disguising it instead of telling you that you are just fat

I never realised untill now that I could make such a change as I have, didnt think it was possible. But after going through the change myself and seen all the other insane progress people have done here I now know that it is possible. I can actually see a 4 pack now, never ever done that before. And set a goal to get six pack for christmas, never thought that would be possible

Long post cliffs:
Cardio and eating less for the first 1,5 years (regret not doing weight lifting sooner)
Learn nutritional needs and base diet around that find eating pattern that works for you.
Do weight lifting as soon as you can and some cardio.
Realise anything is possible.

[TrikkyRik]

Incredible progress Znik!! Very motivating. Keep it up buddy!

[Znik]

Incredible progress Znik!! Very motivating. Keep it up buddy!

Thanks, definetly going to keep it up. Working on convincing the wife that vascularity is not a bad thing now, she dont like all the veins popping out

[dougefresh93]

congrats OP, good hard work, and diet paying off. Cheers