Skinny and hangry 2019 thread

[polishedball]

Continue to drop, this week in at 228. Think the extra loss was from going off the predisone teh doc had me on, felt like I was retaining water.

Anyway getting closer to my goal....

[dazlittle]

I'm hovering around 205Lbs at the moment, and feeling pretty decent at this weight.

Caught some favorable elevator lighting in a hotel last night!!

[tblodg15]

I'm hovering around 205Lbs at the moment, and feeling pretty decent at this weight.

Caught some favorable elevator lighting in a hotel last night!!

Looking great daz, what is your height? Must be fairly tall because you are looking lean at 205.

[induced_drag]

Wow. I'm not as lean as you so I don't see such an immediate response, but if I've been dieting for several days and then have a big Big BIG carb-up, the next morning I'm noticeably bigger and still lean. The second morning I can see where some of the excess has been converted to fat

I have been getting lower and lower on my 'set point' of composition. I gave up true cutting or bulking for that matter. Since I have very little if any progress that I can expect, my new goal has shifted to just finding a new every day place for my body to stay. My goal is to get as lean as I can and stay there without giving up much quality of life or being overly obsessed with getting there. I want my cake and eat it too,...so to speak (and literally as well ). I still weigh protein, but just to stay aprox of where I want to be. I am not regimented about anything diet wise the past 2 years. If I eat 'bad', I just balance out with good eating. Getting leaner, is just a gentle nudge of my carbs....but my 'cuts' last 4-6 months

The leaner you get, the more impact you see from large infusions of carbs (if you have been restricting to any degree). There does come a point where bro science of 'nutrient timing' can really have an effect. When it strikes me to carb binge, I try to time it after a heavy workout. Sometimes this does not work out, but then my second choice is about 2 hours prior to working out. Worst case....I hit it on the weekend, I just roll with it, knowing it is not ideal.

Did a great job controlling calories on my last refeed.

Not sure you belong or need "refeeds" at your level. Just resolve yourself that you are extending your deficit by doing so and you are not lean enough to really need a 'refeed'. If your deficit runs over 12-14 weeks, by all means take a FULL DIET BREAK, and eat maint for 2 weeks and return to your deficit.

Dont kid yourself by calling it a 'refeed'. All you are doing is cheating on your diet.

Continue to drop, this week in at 228. Think the extra loss was from going off the predisone teh doc had me on, felt like I was retaining water.

Anyway getting closer to my goal....

I have never taken prednisone despite Dr's wanting to prescribe it several times over the past 10 years. It is a rough thing on the body and even with double pneumonia, I did not take it. Yes you will gain all kinds of water. It is also systemically catabolic. Depending on time and dosage, you can lose significant muscle.

I'm hovering around 205Lbs at the moment, and feeling pretty decent at this weight.

Caught some favorable elevator lighting in a hotel last night!!

Looking great man! You have made a TON of progress over the last few years. Great job!

[blue9steel]

Not sure you belong or need "refeeds" at your level. Just resolve yourself that you are extending your deficit by doing so and you are not lean enough to really need a 'refeed'. If your deficit runs over 12-14 weeks, by all means take a FULL DIET BREAK, and eat maint for 2 weeks and return to your deficit.

Dont kid yourself by calling it a 'refeed'. All you are doing is cheating on your diet.

For me, I've found that having set length cutting cycles has a strong psychological benefit over just "diet till I'm done". It's one of the main behavior changes that I made that really works for me. My old pattern from years ago was to diet for long periods then give up. I've experimented with different length cycles along with various diet, volume and cardio levels to try and find the right balance of effort / restriction to make good results while not driving myself into the ground or getting to the point where I want to say the heck with it. I don't claim I've figured everything out, but each year I've been doing a bit better. To be clear when I say refeed, I'm talking about a 2-3 week period where I eat more calories (generally a small surplus). I don't like to use the word diet break because for me that has all kinds of bad connotations around not tracking or eating whatever I feel like, both of which are not good plans for me.

On the plus side, I was under 200lbs this morning for the first time since November so that holiday weight is starting to come off nicely.

Current BF probably about 18% or so. I likely need to drop another 25lbs to hit 10% which is my goal. Not sure if I'm going to make that this year, but last year I managed to get down to the 14% range, which is the lowest I've seen so far. Nothing to shout about in bodybuilding terms but I was pretty happy since originally I was somewhere around 30% when I started this whole journey.

Current lifts (I don't do singles in my routine):
Overhead Press 3x3x155.25
Squats 3x3x288.5
Flat Bench 3x3x226.75
Pullups 3x3x40.25
Bent Rows 3x3x231
Deadlifts 3x3x443

No earth shattering records there, but for me it's the strongest I've ever been. If I hit 3/4/5 in a few years I'll be pretty satisfied, but no particular rush since I'm doing this for the looks and health benefits.

[dazlittle]

Looking great daz, what is your height? Must be fairly tall because you are looking lean at 205.

I'm 6"4, so yeah pretty tall!! on vacation in 3 weeks so I've been trying to drop a bit of fat ready for the beach!!

[OldFartTom]

BUMP

gained weight a little too fast after stopping my cut, clearly my fault for stopping tracking so time to start another cut, a mini cut this time so I'll be rejoining the ranks of the hangry folks again

[Payton1221]

171 this morning. I think I've finally gotten a handle on a bad cycle of way toooo many cals on Fri & Sat and then eating at a deficit on Sun-Thurs. I think I'll get to 168 then just keep it below 170 through the summer. I did manage a legit 17 pull-ups at the gym the other day which is either a personal record or ties a previous record. As much as I'd like to get a 20 rep set, I don't see that happening ever.

[polishedball]

Surprised jumping on the scale today saw 220.5 so the trend continues downward.....

[dazlittle]

back from vacation and my weight jumped back up by 6Lbs!!! who cares though it was great fun.

I'm pretty sure its water weight and will be gone by the end of the week.

[polishedball]

I have never taken prednisone despite Dr's wanting to prescribe it several times over the past 10 years. It is a rough thing on the body and even with double pneumonia, I did not take it. Yes you will gain all kinds of water. It is also systemically catabolic. Depending on time and dosage, you can lose significant muscle.

Luckily I didn't notice any loss of strength. It was done high dose quick tapper starting at 50mg. It relieved some of the AC joint pain to just make the RC more noticeable lol Finally got insurance to approve the MRI without 5 weeks of PT. Time will tell just working around it, I can close grip bench with no issues, but it I open up at all I can't even do the bar. Still nothing overhead.

[ajdahlheimer]

Figured I would also jump aboard this thread since I am about 2 months into dieting myself. I'm down about 11-12 pounds thus far, sitting at 218 (or slightly less). Snapped this pic post-workout yesterday. I had a much better starting weight this time around for this cut, so it's been good.

-AJ

[blue9steel]

Figured I would also jump aboard this thread since I am about 2 months into dieting myself. I'm down about 11-12 pounds thus far, sitting at 218 (or slightly less). Snapped this pic post-workout yesterday. I had a much better starting weight this time around for this cut, so it's been good.

And now we finally know what Grizzly Adams would have looked like if he got serious about lifting. Looking at your previous pics I have to say the beard works.

Definitely looking beefy, should be really solid once you cut down.

[ajdahlheimer]

Looking at your previous pics I have to say the beard works.

I've rocked some type of beard/facial hair since the 90's, but this is the first time I've ever put this kind of effort into it. The bottom part will be 1 full year on the 4th of July.

[ectoBgone]

Figured I would also jump aboard this thread since I am about 2 months into dieting myself.

Fawkin beast mode! It suits you man, great build!

[Christopher1313]

162 with a paunch, skinny really just like my pops was, I feel too old to bodybuilding now, I, m 56 so build up my arms and calves then I, m done

[polishedball]

Figured I would also jump aboard this thread since I am about 2 months into dieting myself.

-AJ
[/IMG]

How tall are you?

[ajdahlheimer]

How tall are you?

5-10

[polishedball]

5-10

crazy size looking strong

[induced_drag]

Snapped this pic post-workout yesterday.

Solid man. I think you will be pleased if you decide to take it further. There are a lot of guys who in my opinion who waste too much time 'cutting' and have zero foundation. You have a solid VERY solid build. I think even you will be surprised.

I can say this from experience. Many of the areas that I used to think where my "weak" spots (visually) look totally different now that I have dropped weight. It has been a satisfying journey the past few years. If you decided you want to do it, just screw the voices in your head that tell you that you are shrinking. Check your ego, and dont freak when you strength starts to tank. (if you take it that far). FWIW, cutting lean over and over WILL have a permanent negative impact on overall strength as you diet out off the intramuscular fat (my theory). You look denser and harder by far, but lb for lb you are significantly weaker.


I am still on track informally cutting. I look absolutely freaky from the waist down. Torso is still the last hold out. Lower ab veins are in. Seeing a few new upper ab veins so I know progress is being made. No tracking and no scale. Just going as I go.

[induced_drag]

My freeform diet is headed in right direction.

Was catching some sun today and snapped a reflection in the window. Rib cage veins starting to show up. Middle abs still stubborn but everything else thinning ever so slow. Legs are always pretty lean, but even they are 'popping' more these days.

Going to keep going....

[Hooverville]

Damn near ready to post a shirtless pic for the first time in over a year. 199 today, first time sub 200lbs in over a year as well.

Diet is finally drilled down and paying off. Eating a boatload of veggies every day. Have 28lbs of fresh asparagus I’m working on now, going to have to can some I’m sure.

Cheers folks.

[blue9steel]

Had to cut weekend cardio due to school, ended up replacing it with evening cardio and I think it's actually working better. Daily weight was 198.4 today and trend is continuing down. Front squats are progressing nicely, overhead squats are going up slow as molasses but I'm continuing to work on them.

[jademonkey]

Only a week and a half into my first attempt at a cut and already hangry enough to see wtf this thread is. Double workout days (gym+bike) aren't bad cuz I can eat 3000 calories and still come in over 1000 short. But rest days like today suuuuck.

How do you guys know how long to cut for? I had a 3d scan say I'm at 19.6% but I look more like 16%. So say I wanna get down to 10% what should I aim to lose? Basically I wanna get to a decently cut but still normal/sustainable level before going back to putting on mass. And if I am able to keep momentum it might be nice to not stop short (delay next required cut as long as possible).

Also, how long into a cut, if ever, does strength decrease or stall? Ftr I'm 6 months into lifting and still improving on lifts (except my last squat session was a tad worse but I had a slight cold so that's expected).

[Hooverville]

Only a week and a half into my first attempt at a cut and already hangry enough to see wtf this thread is. Double workout days (gym+bike) aren't bad cuz I can eat 3000 calories and still come in over 1000 short. But rest days like today suuuuck.

How do you guys know how long to cut for? I had a 3d scan say I'm at 19.6% but I look more like 16%. So say I wanna get down to 10% what should I aim to lose? Basically I wanna get to a decently cut but still normal/sustainable level before going back to putting on mass. And if I am able to keep momentum it might be nice to not stop short (delay next required cut as long as possible).

Also, how long into a cut, if ever, does strength decrease or stall? Ftr I'm 6 months into lifting and still improving on lifts (except my last squat session was a tad worse but I had a slight cold so that's expected).

Use the mirror to determine when to stop. When you are happy with your body switch to maintenance. It takes far longer than you think. Do not neglect fat and protein minimums and sleep as long as possible. Good luck!

[induced_drag]

I keep saying every year, I am going to get in good shape for summer and then I quit for one reason or another. I think this time I might actually make it. I got a little sun yesterday. Pic is cold and "relaxed" except for I am flexing my abs. If I flex upper body, striations have come in nicely through chest and shoulders.

I still have a way to go, but I am on the path to reach it I feel. (if I dont screw up and can stay on path).

[jademonkey]

^ damn how do you get such yuuge rear delts?

Maybe I just need more time. On back day I'm doing pull ups, rows (elbow in so maybe doesn't hit rear delts hard), and supersetting reverse flys with EZ bar curls. (Or maybe I just can't get a good look at mine in the mirror).

[induced_drag]

^ damn how do you get such yuuge rear delts?

Maybe I just need more time. On back day I'm doing pull ups, rows (elbow in so maybe doesn't hit rear delts hard), and supersetting reverse flys with EZ bar curls. (Or maybe I just can't get a good look at mine in the mirror).

I can only say that I believe that training to be strong in large compound movements is the best way to gain mass naturally. (I also believe it is the best way to train non-naturally without being overly reliant on external things...but that is another story).

Most of my build has remained unchanged for the past 6-7 years. It is just getting leaner that brings them out. I never did much direct shoulder work. To me delts are built with heavy benching, heavy rows, and heavy OHP.

I have almost 20 years of training (most of it purly strength based. Building up to a 420 bench, and rowing 405 and OHP 225 means your shoulders have to work in the process.


Now a days, I just do stupid 'bodybuilding' type workouts. I know any real growth it not happening at this point, so I just 'stay in shape'. My isolation work I do now and the silly volume based workouts which make up my most of my training now, I dont feel would have ever built the thickness and density I have.

This pic of me was taken almost 9 years ago at the point where I hit the milestone of being back training just over a year. This taken from the time when "I have low-t and dont know it pic". (srs) Working out at home, I just had barbells and a few cable machines (which I really did not use much). Put weight on the bar and lift it from 5-12 reps.



For a point of reference, the pic below was taken about 8 months ago. So not all that much "progress" in 8-9 years. But steady improvements in desnsity and quality over time.

[ajdahlheimer]

Big unexpected drop on the scale for me this week. Last Friday weighed in at 216.8. This morning 213.2!

Seems like an odd thing at 9 weeks into my cut when I had steadily been losing 1 to 1.5 pounds per week consistently thus far. I'll take it though!

One subtle brag I can't resist, how many peeps out there can say they got up and ran 3.5 miles at 5:30am on their 39th birthday? THIS GUY!

-AJ

[blue9steel]

One subtle brag I can't resist, how many peeps out there can say they got up and ran 3.5 miles at 5:30am on their 39th birthday? THIS GUY!

-AJ

Great dedication and happy birthday!

I'm not a natural morning person, but I find morning workouts work well for me as it makes it really likely I won't get side-tracked by work or social activities.