I've posted before a while back on my initial progress, but I just thought i'd throw some photos back out there to maybe help somebody out there who is struggling right now. I was once nearly 250lbs (manlet, 5'8"ish) and probably close to 40%. Now i'm close to 160lbs and around 13%ish BF. Still have some work to do and really want to get down to 10%, but looking back at where I started really helps keep me focused. Hopefully by May or June I can be 10%, then spend the summer/fall recomping before a clean bulk over the winter.
Keep at it my friends, good things will come.
at the beginning:
3 weeks ago
Just my abs, this morning:
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Thread: Progress Photos
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02-22-2013, 05:28 AM #1
Progress Photos
Most Recent Progress Photo thread:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=152062853
brb putting down the fork til 10%
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02-22-2013, 05:35 AM #2
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02-22-2013, 05:36 AM #3
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02-22-2013, 05:38 AM #4
Holy fak yiou just motivated me op nice freaking progress wow dude comgrats
***Foam Roller Crew***
++ Positive Crew ++
*MFC*
+8/10 in mirror 2/10 in pictures crew+
"Any posts made by me are purely fictional in nature and by no means is anything I say to be taken seriously. Any and all pictures I post are pictures widley available on the internet and any discussions I am involved in are purely hypothetical or are commentary in nature and should not constitute advice or be considered advice to assist in activities that are deemed illegal."
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02-22-2013, 05:42 AM #5
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02-22-2013, 05:43 AM #6
Strangely enough I just saw you post in another thread and went to your transformation thread. Great job buddy. How long did that take you?
R.I.P urukhai29, sentinel3, AncientYouth.
"Eating chips and cookies and drinking soda is just like wandering through life. These are the agents of a purposeless existence. Avocados, turkey burgers, brown rice and eggs etc are the agents of a purposeful existence." - orderoutofchaos, The Internet, 2014
2 Kings 2:23-24
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02-22-2013, 05:47 AM #7
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02-22-2013, 05:50 AM #8
If you look at my bodyspace, I have some photos up of the first couple years.
My initial photo was almost summer of 2009. I was nearly 250lbs with no muscle to speak of. So, its been nearly four years since that initial photo, though most of the weight/fat loss occurred in the first 12-14 months.
One year later, May 2010, i literally dropped nearly 100lbs. I think i saw the scale hit as low as 153. While I lifted that first year, i was doing TONS of cardio and typically at about a 1000-1200 calorie deficit everyday.
I then spent the following year to year and a half recomping/relaxing a bit. I was eating around maintenence and really just lifting 3 times a week. While i gained muscle, i also gained a bit of fat, though not much.
I hurt my back and went out of the gym for about 3 months, all during football season (no, not playing, watching/drinking/eating football season lol ) ended up gaining about 30-40 lbs back over those 3 months plus about another 3 months even after lifting again.
That put me to about a year ago, weighing in at about 190 lbs. I decided I really needed to re-focus myself and shed the fat. I've really focused on a more moderate deficit, 500-600 calorie deficit most days. While i hit a small speedbump over the fall again, i'm down to about 164lbs this morning and all my lifts are up.
So, moral of the story. This was not a linear trip at all. Its been full of ups and downs and roadblocks.
I'm still not close to being done......Most Recent Progress Photo thread:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=152062853
brb putting down the fork til 10%
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02-22-2013, 06:02 AM #9R.I.P urukhai29, sentinel3, AncientYouth.
"Eating chips and cookies and drinking soda is just like wandering through life. These are the agents of a purposeless existence. Avocados, turkey burgers, brown rice and eggs etc are the agents of a purposeful existence." - orderoutofchaos, The Internet, 2014
2 Kings 2:23-24
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02-22-2013, 06:13 AM #10
honestly, my biggest enemy has been complacency and peer pressure. Once you hit a certain weight/size, people really come at you from both directions to slow down and to 'relax'. After a while, you start to listen and believe what they are saying. Then all of a sudden, you have put back on 10lbs. feelsbadman.
Over the past 5-6 months, i've tuned all my doubters/closet enemies and have focused on what I WANT and what I WANT to achieve.
If there was one thing I would like to convey to anyone who considers themselves bodybuilders and are just starting out.....this sh!t is 95% mental and you need to be doing this for yourself and nobody else. Because, fact of the matter is, your biggest success's will not come externally (friends, attention from opposite sex, etc) but internally.Most Recent Progress Photo thread:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=152062853
brb putting down the fork til 10%
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02-22-2013, 06:19 AM #11
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02-22-2013, 06:22 AM #12
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02-22-2013, 06:27 AM #13
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02-22-2013, 06:32 AM #14
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02-22-2013, 06:33 AM #15
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02-22-2013, 06:33 AM #16
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02-22-2013, 06:34 AM #17
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02-22-2013, 06:48 AM #18
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02-22-2013, 07:23 AM #19
Awesome work and very inspirational.
2/14: 218
7/7: 183
"The poison is in the dose." ~ Brad Pilon
"What matters is actually doing something. You usually won't find out if something is right for you ahead of time unless you just hunker down and try it. So stop worrying and start hunkering." ~ Lyle McDonald
" 'Why' is one of the most powerful words you can put in your vocabulary." ~ Alan Aragon
"I'm lucky because I can eat whatever I want and I just get really, really fat." ~ Louis C.K.
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02-22-2013, 07:47 AM #20
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02-22-2013, 08:00 AM #21
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02-22-2013, 08:11 AM #22
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02-22-2013, 08:44 AM #23
"honestly, my biggest enemy has been complacency and peer pressure. Once you hit a certain weight/size, people really come at you from both directions to slow down and to 'relax'. After a while, you start to listen and believe what they are saying. Then all of a sudden, you have put back on 10lbs. feelsbadman."
This is so true. It's easy to become content with fantastic results, with coming 90% of the way. I am trying to keep a steely resolve and go just as hard from 30% to 10% as I did to go from 50% to 30%.
Dem abs, man; that's what I need to build so I'll actually look okay when I've lost most of the fat. What do you do for them?Started 2012 at over 410lbs (that was as high as my scale went) and I ended the year at 260lbs.
Still going strong while eating whatever I want - whenever I want; I just keep it to under 2000 calories a day.
TEAM IIFYC (if it fits your calories)
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02-22-2013, 08:53 AM #24
I'm 100% serious about what i said though. People will come at you like you wouldnt believe. "Oh, but look how far you've come, enjoy this cake!!" "You are wasting away to nothing!!! Eat something" etc etc. Block them out. Period. They say those things because they are jealous and do not want you do be that much more successful than them. You are the only one that you have to answer to. Nobody else matters. That last 10% of the journey is where the sweet spot is. I'm just now approaching it, and let me tell you.....#feelsgoodman
Honestly, I don't feel like i've done much straight AB work compared to maybe what others have done. The past few months, i've been doing my share of AB work esp once they started to show a bit, but anytime that I was above 20% or so BF, i didn't bother doing much AB work really.
Now, I have used a BOSU ball for balancing on while doing certain exercises for the better part of my entire training. Curls, shoulder work with dumbbells, etc, all done occasionally on a bosu ball. I think this has helped my overall Core which has probably helped build some decent abs, but for the most part I feel like i've neglected them until the past 6 months or so.
I will leave you with this question.....if the only way to get muscle to grow, is to be eating at a calorie surplus.....then what is doing crunches going to do to make your ABs grow? :-)Most Recent Progress Photo thread:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=152062853
brb putting down the fork til 10%
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02-22-2013, 09:23 AM #25
For sure; I have been preparing myself, for months, so I don't succumb to the people who say, "You've lost enough!" or "You are starting to look sickly!". The way I see it is, yes, my face may become too drawn in but once I get down to 10% - and I put on a few pounds over a few weeks, that weight will go straight to my face. I see it like getting down to 10% is a free, cheap, safe alternative to skin removal surgery; it's not about vanity, it's about helping your body heal from the devastating weight problem you developed. You get rid of all of the fat (until you are sub-10) and then you allow yourself a few, new healthy lbs to fill out your face and get to a nice, sustainable 15% BF. But I already get those comments; since I was over 400 a year ago, I have people telling me all the time that I'll be fine at 230, 220, 205. I always tell them that I would be "fine", but I need to get rid of this fat to help my skin heal; 230lbs after having lost 100lbs+ is very different from being your heaviest at 230lbs - but most people don't understand that.
Well, that's great; you've really done a fantastic job. I don't do ab work (outside of boxing class when we do abs at the end), I just try to keep my core engaged when I lift because I think that can actually make for a better ab work. As to your question, I don't believe we can only get it to grow at a surplus. I believe it grows much faster and the growth is far more robust (as well as easily obtained), but the body certainly adapts by adding muscle regardless of your caloric intake.Started 2012 at over 410lbs (that was as high as my scale went) and I ended the year at 260lbs.
Still going strong while eating whatever I want - whenever I want; I just keep it to under 2000 calories a day.
TEAM IIFYC (if it fits your calories)
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02-22-2013, 09:38 AM #26
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02-22-2013, 09:43 AM #27
Good stuff man. Awesome job on your loss so far. Just keep your head down and keep moving forward. I'd like to tell you its only going to get easier, but its not. I will get harder. Exponentially harder. There will be several days where you will start to doubt what you are doing. (i have them almost everyday) But don't listen to those thoughts...
Somebody asked me the other day, if i had to give one tip, practical and applicable tip, what would it be? I thought about it for a minute, and i said "make sure that no matter what kind of slip up you might have , or mistakes you might make, always make sure you are progressing. I make sure that when i look in the mirror every friday, get on the scale, or look at my weekly calories, i'm better than i was a week ago. No matter how small of the progress, its one day closer to my goal instead of one day farther away."
I think there is a lot to be said for that. A lot of people will have one bad cheat day, turn into 2, then 3......always keep in mind the bigger picture and know that one bad day, cannot kill your progress for the week.
As i used to say after a day where i slipped and ate waaaaayyy too much: "Get in the gym, put those calories to work and ride that anabolic wave!!!!"Most Recent Progress Photo thread:
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=152062853
brb putting down the fork til 10%
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02-22-2013, 09:44 AM #28
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02-22-2013, 10:35 AM #29
Nice Job man! Congrats on the progress so far!
LBS - BF Date Comment
185.2- 23.8% 02/01/2012<started cardio/ate better
175.4- 19.9% 04/04/2012<added weights 2/w
168.6- 18.6% 09/04/2012<added extra day. Now 3/w weights
166.6- 18.5% 10/02/2012<started IF w/Cal deficit and BCAA's+FastedTrain
165.4- 18.0% 10/09/2012<started All pro - Simple Beginner's
159.2- 16.4% 11/01/2012<dexa scan at 18.3%
140.4- 12.9% 02/21/2013
137.5- 9.9% 03/01/2013 <dexa scan at 6.7%!
155- 12.0% 07/07/2013<slowbulk/recomp/maint?
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02-22-2013, 10:50 AM #30
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