Start & Present pictures (not Before & After - I'm not done yet!)

[m00se]

Just wanted to post a little woot. I've been debating it for a while, but I thought what the hell. I've taken a picture every month, but have just posted the start one and the latest one here.

I started out mid-summer last year. The first picture was taken on the 26th of June 2011, when I decided it was time to buck my ideas up and start getting in shape.

At this stage I weighed 220lb and by averaging a bunch of body fat % calculators I put myself here at somewhere north of 25% body fat. I'm 29. male, and 6'3" tall.

For the first month and a half or so I mainly did steady-state moderate-intesity cardio and kept eating like I always had done (although a little bit less quantity, but still very carb-heavy). I didn't lose much fat and I didn't gain any muscle (duh). I lifted moderate weights from time to time, but there was no structure to my training program in this regard.

Sometime in August I discovered NerdFitness and cleaned up what I ate. A whole lot. I removed a load of high-GI carbs from my diet, went almost entirely primal, and started lifting weights. I bought 40-odd kilograms of vinyl weights and a cheap barbell and started lifting. On my first day of doing squats, I attempted to do 20 bodyweight squats and failed. I tried 10 with 20kg on my shoulders and failed. In short, I was a pathetic weakling.

As of August, I started to eat a lot, lot more. More than I ever have in my life. It was almost all primal, including a crapload of milk and eggs, with the occasional non-primal treat like a bit of toast or some cereal when I felt like it. No more than one cheat meal a week. I continue to eat like this to this day.

There still wasn't a lot of structure to my lifts, though, and it was only really in November that I bought a set of proper cast iron weights and a big fat chunky barbell and started Stronglifts 5x5. I stuck to the program fairly religiously and continue to progress today. At my last attempt I was (at 5x5) squatting 102kg, benching 78kg, deadlifting 130kg (1x5) and OHPing 52kg.

In the last few weeks I came to the realisation that I wasn't putting on much in the way of muscle, and switched to 3x8 instead of 5x5. It's too early to say whether I'm getting better results yet (especially as I'm currently in the middle of night shifts at the moment so I'm taking a week and a half out of lifting because I feel like crap when I lift while I'm on nights).

The second picture was taken on the 18th of February. I weigh 200lb on the button in this picture. By averaging the same body fat % calculations as I did when I started, I put myself at very slightly over 10% body fat. This looks about right based on other images I've seen on the internet.

From here on in my plans are to pack on as much muscle as possible over the next few months so as to get bigger and stronger. I also want to get better at endurance cardio as I'm planning on doing a Tough Mudder next year.

Thanks for reading

26th July 2011

18th February 2012

[aj_rock]

whewf. Very nice.

So in relevance to what else I've said, I think I actually rated you incorrectly NORTH of where you were. Like I said, atypical body fat patterns, combined with a 6'3 frame. First off, every inch of height you add gives you an extra 3-4 lbs LBM just because of bigger bones, heart, lungs, etc. Given my initial mis-diagnosis of lower LBM, this makes much more sense for your height.

I'd put that first picture closer to 21-22%. BF calculators would be thrown off by the tire around your tummy, but you were mostly just skinny-fat.

Second picture, I'd actually put you a little lower than 10%. With tire-type BF patterning, you HAVE to get below 10% to get the abs, and, well...

Anywho, 200 @ 10% gives you an LBM of 180, and with your most recent numbers, correcting for height, about 5 lbs would be muscle. You had most of the muscle base you see now in that first photo. But that gives you an old LBM of 175 (if you adjust that down to 165 for a 6', it makes sense), and 25 lbs of fat lost with 5 lbs muscle gained.

Analysis aside, that is a very very nice transformation. Look into IF or calorie zig-zagging to try and keep the leanness you achieved, and you'll be absolutely monstrous in a year or so.

[WizardTrip]

Great job!! Very impressive gains!

So, when you starting eating a lot more in August, were you still eating below your BMR or did you drop the 20lbs between your start date and when you started eating more to bulk? I too am 6'3" but started around 250-260. I haven't hopped on a scale for some time now, but would guess I'm in the 225-235 range, just a bit more than your first pic.

[Lachy]

Awesome work! Keep on slayin'

[CapN_Tommy_Sunshine]

Nice job! That's a pretty impressive change.

[oystergirl]

Dude! Stand up straight! TEASING...you look freaking amazing...love the new tat to go with the new rockin doc! Keep it up!

[ebm1224]

awesome job moose! my bf just saw your pics and was totally impressed as well. i love seeing the successes of my fellow nf-ers...in part because i love when my friends succeed but also because it makes me feel good about taking a "stranger"'s advice on the internet congrats, buddy!

[ETFnerd]

congrats... just wanted to say...

[aleg75]

Mate, that is fantastic!

[MegaCarp]

That is solid dude, nicely done!

[LRB]

Nice! (cue wolf whistle) Love the tatt, too. (pun not intended)

[scotticus]

Awesome work!

[Morrigainz]

WOW! Great progess! I hope I have similar pics in a few months! I'll have to read up on your thread too.

Ditto everyone else on the tat! (And I usually don't care for them.)

[Ashzombwee]

Super impressive progress! Congratulations!

[Moxie Hart]

Congratulations, great work!

[Hermione Gainser]

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice! Way to go!!! I enjoyed reading AJ's analysis, too. Can't wait to see what "after" looks like if this is still a work in progress.

[Timmy M]

daaayyum moose got ripped! i need to start paying more attention to my diet to beat ya (typed whilst eating this http://www.cheapcooking.com/blog/2005/09/ground-beef-and-spinach-joes-special.html for breakfast (minus the eggs!!!! i forgot +tomatoes though which is niiiiice) for breakfast)

[m00se]

Thanks everyone. Been away on nights for a bit :/

I like the analysis aj. I only gained 5lb of muscle in 4 months though: that's fairly shoddy progress. Which takes me back to my original post. Am I really not eating enough? I shovel at least 4000 calories down me every day, and about 1.50-2g/lb lbw of protein. Lifting heavy 3 times a week and eating like this only seems to be melting fat rather than adding muscle.

[aj_rock]

Hey m00se, it's like you said; you put a LOT of focus on losing fat. While you can gain strength on a calorie deficit diet, you won't gain mass really. It's just physiologically opposite reactions. If I recall correctly, you only really started focusing on the mass gain about two months ago. All the same, I'm basing my calculations on things said by people way smarter than me. So really, assuming newbie status, thats a pound over the first two months, and then when you started bulking, 2 pounds a month. Look over the models presented on that page and you will probably agree with the numbers I came up with.

This is just being realistic bud. At the same time, it's still awesome, awesome, awesome progress. Realistically, the best shape of your life would be weighing around 220 with 200 LBM. With my best guesstimate, another 10 pounds of lean mass will come 'relatively' easy, if you train properly and eat properly. You won't grow 'fast', but you'll grow. That'll take up another year or so, and then rates will slow down.

Now this is just me, but if you find yourself at a plateau already, you might want to consider adding a crapload of carbs back in. If your heart is set on primal/paleo, that's a lotta taters bud. But you need it to fuel the energy system typically used in heavy lifting.

[GreenEyesBright]

I'm impressed!

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[katscratch]

Hells yeah!!! Bet it feels damn good, and aren't you glad you took pictures last summer?

As someone who currently can press a small puppy, reading how various people are gaining strength/mass has been hugely inspirational in figuring out what will work for me. So thank you

Also another "sweet tat" here!

[katscratch]

AJ, thanks for the bodyrecomp link, good reading.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Dude, that's awesome. I wanna be you at the end of this year.

Second picture, I'd actually put you a little lower than 10%. With tire-type BF patterning, you HAVE to get below 10% to get the abs, and, well...

Please explain. I've seen below 10% posted a bunch of times around this site as where men tend to get abs, but I've also seen a bunch of pictures online of guys at higher %'s than this, up to about 15%, that have abs. I'd just like to know so I know when I can expect to see them as well as how to ballpark my BF% by the way I look so I can tell if my numbers I get form my measurements are near correct.

[m00se]

Thanks again everyone for the kind words The tattoo is a design tweaked by me from things I found on the internet and is a tribal inverse kokopelli design. First one, too. Go big or go home, right?

I have analysed my diet and eating patterns recently and have come to a couple of conclusions. First, I think that I was, without really realizing it, calorie zigzagging already. I tend to eat just a load more on my lifting days overall in calorie terms, mostly because im just so much more hungry. Secondly, I have found that I've been eating much less in the way of carbs than I maybe should have. In line with what etfnerd and yourself have both said, I think i need to be eating more starchy carbs to grow in size. Im not really hardcore primal because things like grains don't actually disagree with me that much, but they definitely slow me down and make me feel sluggish if i have loads of them. Still, eating a lot of potatoes and rice is easy for me to do.

Time to embrace the dark side to add mass!

*hums imperial march*

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[Oz.]

Beast.

Bacony Beast.

Keep up the heroic work Moose! Given me motivation to kick on hard with my diet/life.

Oz.