Hello!

[Daverin2112]

New trol... I mean recuit here! (For those who do not get the reference... older computer games are your friends.)

Not much to say about me. I am a college student who after being overweight for the past 4 years, and out of shape for ALL of his life, I want to fix it. I only have two real physical attributes right now: I am strong enough to be the one relied on in my group of family and friends to do the heavy lifting type of work (in spite of not having all that impressive of actual weight lifting numbers.) I also am quite tolerant of pain and am durable (found out by a rather large myriad of circumstances, no small portion of which is from being a massive klutz.) What does that mean for my goals? Not sure, other than it more or less contributes to the mentality that makes me value the type of goals I do. I also found this site recently, and immediately fell in love when I saw the article regarding making my physical fitness an RPG. Nerd Fitness indeed!

To address the former, I am curently doing the LeanGains approach, which is basically pushing back or skipping breakfast, the idea being to encourage a metabolic boost, contrary to common wisdom towards any amount of fasting (the belief is similar to the Paleo Diet in calling back to evolutionary neccesity, which is to push the hunter to be more efficient to find the next meal, with starvation mode only happening after a long time without food.) It has already been making significant improvements in my physique and weight in fat. That, plus developing a Paleo Diet seems to be helping my dietary habits greatly.

So then, what do I want to do with my body? Well, once I get past my obesity, and have a healthier BF%, I intend to devote myself to weightlifting and bodybuilding (bodybuilding in the general sense of developing my body to the best of what it can be, not so much worried about competitions or "cutting" or anything like that.) Mostly, I just want to make my body as strong and as massive as feasible, while hopefully tempering it to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible (although I would rather have what satisfies me than what others think looks good.)

So, here are a set of goals:

Current:

Height - 5'8"

Weight - 181 lbs, from 193 lbs since I started

BF% - I have not really checked yet. Before the new push to reduce it, it probably was about 20%; I would like to think it has gone done a percentage point or two,

Bench Press Maximum - I haven't tried actually pressing my 1RM, but given what seems to be my limits and what I can press in the 3-6 Rep range, I would say about 100-110.

"Benchmark":

5'10" (I can dream, right?)

170 lbs (by this point, though, this is probably a rather variable stat)

At most 16% BF

Able to press my own weight

"Far Flung":

Not even sure of BF%, but enough to get respectable definition without going overboard; about 8-10% range?

And my BP and all other exercises are as high as I can push them.

Also, just because I found it awesome, my RPG race and desired class:

Race: For lack of a better choice, a Dwarf. I am average height, but otherwise I am rather stout and stocky, durable, and not all that flexible (which I will also want to work on, if more for practicality's sake than any real concern for it.) I value labor for labor's sake, and enjoy carrying the heavy load, both because it lets me prove myself to myself and it can ease others' burdens.

Class: I'm going to be creative and "make one up": Barbarian. Like the warrior, these guys do the lifting and are strong. Unlike the warrior, they are a bit more graceful, and most importantly also maintains concern about the physique as well as the strength. Why just look like you can lift a mountain, or why just be able to lift a mountain, when you can do both?

MY REQUEST: I have only one request of all the members of this awesome community. And that is to keep my responsible, motivated, and accountable to myself. I don't necessarily have a lot of support in my circle, due generally to being the only one who feels the need to be the "tank". Advice is always appreciated, encouragement is rewarding, but most importantly that guy who will ask "did you work out today" and then chew me out when I say no. Nobody, even my friend who is in this with me, really is willing to be that person. And I think that no matter how motivated or determined, people could always have the whipcracker.

I hope to be a active and helpful member of this community!

[Steve]

Welcome Daverin!

Awesome intro...seems like you'll fit in quite nicely around here!

I'll tell you that you could start to see definition in your stomach as low as 13-14%, which them really popping out around 10%. Anything below that and you might start to sacrifice strength gains and happiness - but it depends on each person!

lifting and lean gains - win. lifting and lean gains and paleo - even better if your goal is dropping that BF% as quickly and as low as possible.

Good luck brother, you're in the right place. Welcome home.

-Steve

[Cinda]

Welcome to the Rebellion!

[Laney]

Welcome! Great progress so far! We're totally here to keep you motivated!

Just a thought, you might want to pick one of the classes we have here because they are guilds for the challenge. You can do a hybrid though, lots of folks do

[Calimor]

Impressive post! I hope you can stay on track. Finding a friend to keep you accountable can be difficult. Having a shield-brother by our side is one of the most important factors in winning our battles! Good luck!