Almost 1 year later

[MD792]

Hey all. I had initially updated a previous post I made of my 7 months progress but after realizing I'm coming up on one year of taking myself seriously and seeing that I have 12 pictures from start to current that more or less matched up I thought I would share my year long progress.

A little history that I've mentioned before, at the time of the top left picture I was doing very little of anything in terms of exercise and I didn't give much of a damn about nutrition. I was the guy who was always up to order Chinese food for lunch then grab half price appetizers the same night. Alcohol I'd down at least a loko or two, plus whatever I ended up drinking at the bar. Since then I've focused mainly on nutritional awareness, meal planning, and consistently hitting the gym at least 2-3x per week.

Prior to this year I would usually yoyo between 150 and 170, always skinny fat and shifting between terrible diets and excessive cardio. I looked flabby as heck at best and the stay puffed Marshmallow Man's cousin at my absolute worst lol. After a pretty ****ty event in my life I decided I wanted a change and for the first time decide that doing it slow and right was better than instant results. 12 months later, here I am.

http://imgur.com/a/M9nW0

Diet wise I track everything I eat with MyFitnessPal as well as weigh myself every morning and through that was able to find my maintenance level of calories and do some math to see what I would see results on both gaining and cutting. Over the course of 12 months I cut down from 170 to 145 then spent around a month building up to 150, a month at maintenance 145 and as of this morning am the leanest I've been at 140 even.

I basically try to make sure I hit at least a gram of protein for every lb of lean body weight I have (calc'd around 119lbs) and other than that look at it from a weekly standpoint. My approach to nutrition has changed a few times over the last year, but at this point 5-6 days a week I am eating the same old meals of oatmeal, chicken breast, greens, etc making sure to hit my macro and calorie goals. I also incorporate intermittent fasting due to the fact that I prefer larger meals and it allows me a greater deficit which I enjoy. This might sound all over the place but I am happy to elaborate if there's any interest.

From March until April I bulked up from around 142 to 150, sat around maintenance for the first half of May and then the past two weeks I've done a cut between 700-1000 cals under maintenance (2100) which has resulted in a large shedding of water weight and some not so obvious fat loss. I say not so obvious because at this point I rely on other people to judge my progress pictures since it's very hard when you see yourself daily, as I'm sure tons of others have experienced.

Pretty crazy to see such a drastic change but hey I'm not complaining. Right now I'm trying to cut down to 10-12% and after that I will reverse diet into a slow bulk with the ultimate goal of hitting a lean 150-155lb by next year.

I hope everyone else is doing well, I am happy to answer any questions anyone might have because reading other people's threads definitely helped me. Thanks for reading!

[Crooze]

great job man you look significantly better.

face looks leaner too (no homo)

[Kiop]

the bulge is missing in pic 6

[MD792]

Thanks dude! Also bulge update pics will be a separate update, I didn't want to distract from the other gains

[zee80]

Wow man! Thats just great!

My body is shaped just like your's in your first image and I'm trying to get to where you are at! Truly very motivated into getting to look like your body shape after 1 year! And yes, I love Chinese, Vietnamese, Burgers, etc, etc for lunch, I'd just say f it and order. This is something I have stopped for the past two weeks already and brought food from home.

I've downloaded my fitness pal, jetfit and some other apps to help me at the gym. Just did this yesterday and have not really messed around with it, but a lot of people have told me my fitness pal is really good to count the macros..I think this is what I'm having difficult figuring out how much to eat

I had a trainer last year, and I shed about 10 lbs, but then fell off after a few months. I'm just getting back into the gym and eating healthy again.

Can you please tell me the supplements you took. For now to start off, I have
BCAA's powder
Whey protein powder
Casine powder
Fish oil
pro biotics

Do you have an excel of what you ate that you could share with me?

Again, just amazing!!

[qball00]

Great job OP. Very similar to my time frame and results. Keep up the good work.

[AngusPeppered]

Good work. 80-90% of natty physique is sadly diet

[MD792]

Can you please tell me the supplements you took. For now to start off, I have
BCAA's powder
Whey protein powder
Casine powder
Fish oil
pro biotics

Do you have an excel of what you ate that you could share with me?

Again, just amazing!!

Hey, thank a lot zee. I would definitely recommend myfitnesspal, being aware of how much you’re eating is providing you is something I took for granted before. It’s so easy that I do it automatically for everything I eat and it is awesome being able to see exactly what changes led to progress.

Over the past 12 months I supplemented with whey protein (occasionally, mostly used whole foods to hit my macros), BCAAs in my intraworkout shake and occasionally in the mornings if I fast, fish oil and a multivitamin.

As far as what I ate, I really had everything. I focused mostly on making sure I logged everything and naturally followed “good” choices. Chicken breast and thighs and steak were my go to protein sources. Fish and shrimp as well, to a lesser degree. Potatoes and rice made up my carbs for awhile but I’ve since cut down on carby things outside of going out if I grab nachos or something on the weekend, during the week I mostly stick to oats and greens leafy vegetables as my only carb source (lower carb is part of my plan for now).

The biggest changes I saw results from were consistency, both in the gym and nutritionally. I go daily during the week unless I feel extra tired or achy in which case I’ll take a day to rest and make sure I get more protein and extra sleep that night. At first I kind of struggled with ****arounditis in the gym, not increasing the weight or reps or sets at much as I should have. Around November I started to get more serious and by January I really hit a stride. I would encourage you to take pictures at least weekly and definitely monthly and realize that looking at things over weeks/months is way better than day to day. Additionally outside of using the scale to track your weight over the weeks, it doesn't tell the full story. The bottom row of pictures is literally a difference of 3 1/2 lbs. 146 versus 142.5.

It’s hard to see the little changes in yourself but it becomes obvious looking back. Definitely just keep going, it’s more than achievable as long as you want it and are willing to implement the small changes (saying no to fast food or only grabbing an appetizer instead of full 3 course, pumping out that last set, getting enough rest to recover, etc). I think it’s important to add that in these 12 months I did essentially zero cardio, and all changes are sheer lifting and diet changes. I hope that covers everything, please let me know if I can help any more!

Great job OP. Very similar to my time frame and results. Keep up the good work.

Thanks a lot, to you as well!

Good work. 80-90% of natty physique is sadly diet

Agree 100%. Worth it when you stick through it and see the results.

[zee80]

Hey, thank a lot zee. I would definitely recommend myfitnesspal, being aware of how much you’re eating is providing you is something I took for granted before. It’s so easy that I do it automatically for everything I eat and it is awesome being able to see exactly what changes led to progress.

Over the past 12 months I supplemented with whey protein (occasionally, mostly used whole foods to hit my macros), BCAAs in my intraworkout shake and occasionally in the mornings if I fast, fish oil and a multivitamin.

As far as what I ate, I really had everything. I focused mostly on making sure I logged everything and naturally followed “good” choices. Chicken breast and thighs and steak were my go to protein sources. Fish and shrimp as well, to a lesser degree. Potatoes and rice made up my carbs for awhile but I’ve since cut down on carby things outside of going out if I grab nachos or something on the weekend, during the week I mostly stick to oats and greens leafy vegetables as my only carb source (lower carb is part of my plan for now).

The biggest changes I saw results from were consistency, both in the gym and nutritionally. I go daily during the week unless I feel extra tired or achy in which case I’ll take a day to rest and make sure I get more protein and extra sleep that night. At first I kind of struggled with ****arounditis in the gym, not increasing the weight or reps or sets at much as I should have. Around November I started to get more serious and by January I really hit a stride. I would encourage you to take pictures at least weekly and definitely monthly and realize that looking at things over weeks/months is way better than day to day. Additionally outside of using the scale to track your weight over the weeks, it doesn't tell the full story. The bottom row of pictures is literally a difference of 3 1/2 lbs. 146 versus 142.5.

It’s hard to see the little changes in yourself but it becomes obvious looking back. Definitely just keep going, it’s more than achievable as long as you want it and are willing to implement the small changes (saying no to fast food or only grabbing an appetizer instead of full 3 course, pumping out that last set, getting enough rest to recover, etc). I think it’s important to add that in these 12 months I did essentially zero cardio, and all changes are sheer lifting and diet changes. I hope that covers everything, please let me know if I can help any more!




Thanks a lot, to you as well!



Agree 100%. Worth it when you stick through it and see the results.

MD

Thanks for the response!

On myfitnesspal, I've been adding all the foods in so far, do you think its necessary to add in the exercises?

Regarding exercise, and weights and routine in the gym, did you follow a program that you could share? I'm using an app, well actually downloaded 3 apps,
Workout
ForMe/bodybuilding.com/Dymatize Transformation - using this right now on their 12 week routine
JetFit

I don't have a routine yet, so thats why I'm just following the one I mentioned above. Any other information is helpful to get me going!

Thanks again!

[MD792]

MD

Thanks for the response!

On myfitnesspal, I've been adding all the foods in so far, do you think its necessary to add in the exercises?

Regarding exercise, and weights and routine in the gym, did you follow a program that you could share? I'm using an app, well actually downloaded 3 apps,
Workout
ForMe/bodybuilding.com/Dymatize Transformation - using this right now on their 12 week routine
JetFit

I don't have a routine yet, so thats why I'm just following the one I mentioned above. Any other information is helpful to get me going!

Thanks again!

Not a problem at all, I'm happy to help if I can. I track my exercise through an app called "Strong" for iPhone, however I only use it to log the program I currently follow that I found on another website called n-suns 531. You can read about it here.

I began with ICF 5x5 for a few months then moved to a PPL for a few weeks and the past few months I've used n-suns primarily with a few free workouts when I felt like it. Anything you can stick to consistently is ideal as long as at the end of the day you're challenging yourself. Outside of that don't be afraid to start light and focus on form and feeling the contraction in your muscles, resetting every few weeks and having break days.

As far as diet make sure you're hitting a gram or so of protein for your goal weight per day and fill the rest of your potential calories with fats and carbs however you wish (I lean towards lower carb). I only started tracking my nutrition around January and cut between 1500-1900 cals on average since I've calculated my needs at 2100/day after tracking my intake and average weekly weight over 12 weeks.

[zee80]

So currently, my weight is 155, and my body fat is prob about 23% or so.

The programs that I input my data into says I need like 1600 calories a day.

I'm just going to stick to your first advice which is worth a million bucks and is the most consistent thing I hear from everyone!
to sum it up
-eat right and enough/track your foods
-take your supplements
-be consistent with working out
-cheat meal are ok, but not cheat days

again thank you!

[MD792]

So currently, my weight is 155, and my body fat is prob about 23% or so.

The programs that I input my data into says I need like 1600 calories a day.

I'm just going to stick to your first advice which is worth a million bucks and is the most consistent thing I hear from everyone!
to sum it up
-eat right and enough/track your foods
-take your supplements
-be consistent with working out
-cheat meal are ok, but not cheat days

again thank you!

I started at 170, probably 25% so you're well on your way. Definitely stick to those points and you'll be good. One last thing is that cheat days aren't even that bad. While I wouldn't recommend them, in the grand scheme a day is a day and it isn't going to kill your progress as long as you don't make it a regular thing. The real problem is (again) consistent cheating (fast food daily, extra snacks you don't need, etc.).

I used to struggle with eating out of boredom but once you get a sense of eating for nutrition versus eating for fun it becomes much simpler. I had a day in NYC this past weekend where my totals for the day with brunch, booze and dinner out had me hit around 5000 cals.

I had anticipated this and cut an extra 200-400 cals/day for the week leading up to it, even had chinese the next day for my hangover (as the only thing I ate that day) and right now my calories are averaged at 2140 for the past 7 days and I'm still on track to cut weight for this week. Everything in moderation.

Good luck, and don't be afraid to reach out!