The Lean Lyfe of Bran, the Former Fatty

[brandonbourgoin]

~ Leg day today ~

5 Minute Stationary Bike Warmup

5 Sets Squats
3 Sets Walking DB Lunges
4 Sets Quad Extensions
4 Sets Hamstring Curls
4 Sets Calf Rises

Abs

4 Sets Weighted Knee Raises
4 Sets Ab Crunch Machine

Cardio - 20 Min Incline Treadmill (10 incline, 3.5 speed)
^ Didnt have to do and normally dont. Just wanted to watch some Netflix and do cardio. Why not..

[namechange2]

Sp?

sweet potato bro!

yeah I do the same thing with my meals. bake a few lbs of chicken at a time, refrigerate until needed. same with broc usually...

can't wait to see those pics this weekend (no homo of the utmost extent). you look pissening already!

[brandonbourgoin]

sweet potato bro!

yeah I do the same thing with my meals. bake a few lbs of chicken at a time, refrigerate until needed. same with broc usually...

can't wait to see those pics this weekend (no homo of the utmost extent). you look pissening already!

yes i precook everything, then just put in my container for work, weigh it out and log. Same goes for my other meals. And thanks so much man i cant wait to post them! im unaware of my weight since my vaca tho. waiting till monday to see where im actually at. thats why no matter what im going to cut for at least 1 more week. but if everyone thinks my BF is still to high im gonna tough it out and finish this the right way.

[brandonbourgoin]

Here we go. Still a little bloated from vaca. But besides that. This is true lighting/no filter/no flex/no pump/PM bloat/non-empty stomach. Thoughts. Comments. Insight. Whatever. Critique.

[Ondle]

Man u and I have similar issues with the binging. I ruined my 4 month cut after I lost close to 25 pounds. I decided to take a diet break which led to a 2 month binge. I gained all the weight back. Eventually I started dieting and did a 5 week cut and lost 4 pounds and started binging again. Now im on day 2 of my cut and having urges to eat massive amounts of food. It doesent help that my mom cooks cakes and sweets every week and there is always good food around. But I feel like I regained some mental strenght and feel like I can push through this cut and get to 10-12% bf this time around. I have a family gathering this Sunday and this is gonna be my first real test. The goal is to eat normal portions and not overdo it. Sorry for a long response man. Ur thread really motivated me to really start cutting and achieving my goals. Im glad I saw ur thread I was in a big mess.

[Ondle]

Here we go. Still a little bloated from vaca. But besides that. This is true lighting/no filter/no flex/no pump/PM bloat/non-empty stomach. Thoughts. Comments. Insight. Whatever. Critique.

Im being honest here u have already made it. Its up to u if u want to continue cutting or ease into a bulk. Great job and great progress.

[dwill094]

Bro, from look at your pics I'd say you are very close to being able to start a lean bulk. At your height and weight measurements I'd say a week or two more dieting and then start your reverse diet. You will still lose a little bit reverse dieting, if done correctly. You are still holding onto a bit of fat on your midsection, so I would say it definitely wouldn't be out of the question to try and shred a little more though.

The only reason I say this is because I don't think you should rush into a lean bulk until you are at a BF % that is going to be comfortable for you to start gaining again. You will gain fat on top of what you have now. Is that ok with you? Just take my words with a pinch of salt, the choice is yours buddy.

[brandonbourgoin]

Man u and I have similar issues with the binging. I ruined my 4 month cut after I lost close to 25 pounds. I decided to take a diet break which led to a 2 month binge. I gained all the weight back. Eventually I started dieting and did a 5 week cut and lost 4 pounds and started binging again. Now im on day 2 of my cut and having urges to eat massive amounts of food. It doesent help that my mom cooks cakes and sweets every week and there is always good food around. But I feel like I regained some mental strenght and feel like I can push through this cut and get to 10-12% bf this time around. I have a family gathering this Sunday and this is gonna be my first real test. The goal is to eat normal portions and not overdo it. Sorry for a long response man. Ur thread really motivated me to really start cutting and achieving my goals. Im glad I saw ur thread I was in a big mess.

good luck with your goals man! get out of that binging habit. its terrible. train yourself to stop binging. Diet CORRECTLY and the urges to binge should subside to a bare minimum. And thanks for the pic comment!

Bro, from look at your pics I'd say you are very close to being able to start a lean bulk. At your height and weight measurements I'd say a week or two more dieting and then start your reverse diet. You will still lose a little bit reverse dieting, if done correctly. You are still holding onto a bit of fat on your midsection, so I would say it definitely wouldn't be out of the question to try and shred a little more though.

The only reason I say this is because I don't think you should rush into a lean bulk until you are at a BF % that is going to be comfortable for you to start gaining again. You will gain fat on top of what you have now. Is that ok with you? Just take my words with a pinch of salt, the choice is yours buddy.

thanks for checking in man! and i hear you brother. Im still a little bloated from vaca and i dont really know where im at with my weight right now. I shouldnt be more than 146. I will be checking monday. Im going to take more pics this weekend. SUcks having so much loose skin, any water weight is extremely noticeable. and no its not ok with me, i dont want to bulk knowing i have to cut for another 20 weeks after . i want my next cut to be no more than 4-8 weeks

[brandonbourgoin]

First thing this AM. Less bloated lol. No food. No water. Fresh out of bed.

[brandonbourgoin]

Im going to put more pics up this weekend tho once i shed some more water weight. Even a couple LBS of water makes a big difference in my loose skin.

[namechange2]

brandon you look fantastic man. dwill iterated my would-be comments. 1 more week of shredding and you are on your way to a glorious lean bulk my brother. cant wait to see you gain some mass (ah, no homo).

[brandonbourgoin]

brandon you look fantastic man. dwill iterated my would-be comments. 1 more week of shredding and you are on your way to a glorious lean bulk my brother. cant wait to see you gain some mass (ah, no homo).

thanks so much man! you dont know how much i appreciate you checking ITT! I have a bunch of pics im going to post for you guys this weekend. I have 3 days off so i will have some time to post some pics from my cut from morbidly obese to my first bulk / cut , and now. I have a bunch so pepper your angus! I think youll like them!

[brandonbourgoin]

*OFFICIAL NEWS*
-After seriously mind-phukin myself all day long thinking about this and looking at my old pictures and where i was happy/satisfied with my weight i have made a decision to RD starting October 19th.

-I went back on some pics and noticed that i still have that solid 4 pack and and happy with how i look at 155. Which is 10 LBS more than right now.

-I also figured in (if all goes perfect, which IK it wont lull) that from that date to the End of Feb is 15 weeks, which is only 7.5LBS. That will still leave me under 155 and i will start my next cut which will go much easier, on March 1st.

-As i did last bulk i have a set MAX weight. This way i wont go dumb. Even tho for some reason i didnt think 170 was dumb last time..

[brandonbourgoin]

Heres some Dave, if you didnt see them in the SCC

start-218LB



After crash dieting/unhealthy dieting to 150



After learning nutrition and bulking for 3 months followed by another cut

[sonnydfrizzy]

Holy **** man you look awesome!! I honestly think you are way leaner than you see and part of the issue is the loose skin. You must be getting all dem HBBs haha In all seriousness though I would consider starting to add calories NOW in the form of fats and some carbs. Get those hormones rolling 100% again. Also, you say you want to bulk and then cut again and then bulk and then cut and yadda yadda yadda.. Do you have plans on competing? Is bulking and cutting really all you want to do? Think about this for a second... why not just hit a goal number like 155... and then just stay there for a few months? The constant overfeed/underfeed is probably not the best thing for our bodies, especially if you are not a competitor. Maybe consider just hitting a number and maintaining so the body and all its hormones and functions can sort of normalize and chill out for a bit. Plus, that should allow that excess skin to slowly go away. It would be a legit time for you to focus on strength gain, lower your training volume, and give yourself some time to take a mental break from the "grind."

Just my $.02... Seems that the fitness industry puts things in black and white that we never see the grey area..

Your health > Being a bodybuilder

Amazing job as always man and poverty reps for life.

[sonnydfrizzy]

^^^ To finish out what I am saying above, I don't mean maintain forever either but give your body a time to hang out and normalize at a certain weight for a few months. Take a break from tracking macros, eat moderately, and adjust your food intake as necessary with the scale. It would do wonders for you in my opinion.

[brandonbourgoin]

^^^ To finish out what I am saying above, I don't mean maintain forever either but give your body a time to hang out and normalize at a certain weight for a few months. Take a break from tracking macros, eat moderately, and adjust your food intake as necessary with the scale. It would do wonders for you in my opinion.

Great post man! One of the best I've seen! And like I posted above I have set a date to start my RD which is Oct 19. I just want some better weigh ins right now. But no I don't plan on compete ting and yes I know the loose skin makes things look a lot worse. I just want to be leaner and leaner every year. My problem is self image. I always see myself is a fat faurk no matter what I weigh, it's bad but it's one of the things I'm working on. Right now my main focus is never binging again.

Today is actually 5 weeks binge free .

I dint think I'll ever binge again in my life, and I have a good min set right now after dieting for 16 weeks so things will be even better once I get to reg cals

[brandonbourgoin]

Rainy day here in CT. Going to hit arms and a decent amount of cardio since theres nothing else to do today. Do a little grocery shopping after and get some pizza supplies. Not sure what i want to use for the dough though. Will probally just use a pita or something. Reg dough is too messy for me. Macros will be the same this coming week. Im starting my RD on the 19th so im hoping i get some decent weigh ins this week. I didnt weigh at all last week. Will be posting how i compare to 2 weeks ago. 1 more week of cutting folks. Hopefully this will be the case for at least 4-5 more months.

[brandonbourgoin]

Just took this pre cardio with ab pump.

[namechange2]

Rainy day here in CT.

i can confirm, went home to CT last night and got woken up by raindrops lol

what will be your RD cals?

[brandonbourgoin]

i can confirm, went home to CT last night and got woken up by raindrops lol

what will be your RD cals?

I'm going to do 150 cals a week and drop around 20 min of cardio a week. So first week will be 2100 cals 60f/150p. Considering starting a week early idk

[brandonbourgoin]

Im about 80% certain that i will begin my RD tomorrow. I need to get things back in order here. I have to be satisfied with how i look. Im starting to realize that i will never be happy with how lean i am until it gets dangerous. I srsly think i could be 100 lBS and not be happy. fml

[Bh44]

IN...good work on the progress! time to get some more mass

bulking is always more fun. Out of curiosity, and may seem weird, but do you get your binge urges more on a bulk? I personally don't have the problem (except when I had been starving myself), but I would think the fact that you can allow yourself (more calories is what I mean), it would turn the ability of say 1 cookie, into 3-4 etc. (not necessarily binge #'s, I was just trying to get the point across).. Here for support!

[brandonbourgoin]

IN...good work on the progress! time to get some more mass

bulking is always more fun. Out of curiosity, and may seem weird, but do you get your binge urges more on a bulk? I personally don't have the problem (except when I had been starving myself), but I would think the fact that you can allow yourself (more calories is what I mean), it would turn the ability of say 1 cookie, into 3-4 etc. (not necessarily binge #'s, I was just trying to get the point across).. Here for support!

you would suggest i start my lean bulk as well??

also i only had a real bulk for 3 months last year. so my expierences werent in my best mind set because i was just coming off my weekly binge eating/purging diet. so when i allowed myself more cals i dont think i even binged once because i was so amazed on how much i could eat and stay around the same weight. what i did do tho was not back down calories when i noticed me gaining too fast. which ended up being a 1-2LB gain a week. more towards the 2. This bulk i wont ever go over 250 cals over my maint. Its not worth it.

i also think that once your at a decent amount of cals for some time the urges also go away because your body isnt craving food. your natural instincts arent pushing you to eat more anymore.

if you truly have a binge ED. i would highly suggest a book called "Brain Over Binge" i just read it about 2 weeks ago and i honestly think ill never binge again in my life. Im currently going on 6 weeks without a binge. I think theyre done for good

[determined4000]

just increase cals consistently so you are gaining .5lbs/week on average
rainy here in MA too

[brandonbourgoin]

just increase cals consistently so you are gaining .5lbs/week on average
rainy here in MA too

Do you feel im lean enough to RD at this time?

i have to start reverse dieting first to find my new maintenance. im not really sure what it is ATM. Once i think i found it i will be very careful this time around. I found some errors with my food logging that has been effecting my cals by 100-300 daily. Also with my new weight.

[determined4000]

i have to start reverse dieting first to find my new maintaince. im not really sure what it is ATM. Once i think i found it i will be very causous this time around. I found some errors with my food logging that has been effecting my cals by 100-300 daily. Also with my new weight. Do you feel im lean enough to RD at this time?

yes

[brandonbourgoin]

yes

i mean.. putting all my issues aside ? lol

[Bh44]

IMO yes... however it is you that needs to make the decision, the only problem is you will never be as lean as you want. you need to realize this, and know that you will always see yourself as bigger than you truly are.

and no I don't binge, I only did (i did a couple of times, years ago when I was starving myself)

[Gxp23]

Amazing weight loss, well done! I also agree that it is time to RD, you have a solid base to add some real lean mass.