Recently I've been eating healthier, more fruits and vegetables, and just less food in general. Plus, running and doing minimal ab and random excercises. I wasn't even too overweight to begin with, being 15 lbs over my average height's weight, and over about a month or two, I've lost the 15 lbs and now am average weighted. It's a good feeling to have lost that little bit of weight. Travz is definitely right, that just finding fun things to do and ways to motivate yourself really helps.
Maybe I'm not the best source of advice because my body is so low maintenance. I couldn't gain weight if I tried. But when trying to keep my tone I also am pretty bad about self motivation. So because my body is so low maintenance I just do about half an hour of some very basic workouts a couple days a week and am walking or jogging the others (though that is something I do get a lot of enjoyment out of. Let's me catch up on podcasts and stay fit) and lately I look great. Also, SPREAD YOUR MEALS OUT. So important, keep the carbs low and don't eat like, one or two big meals a day. You're body will think "Welp, this is all I'm getting, better store it." Not good.
current progress: http://pixsta.com/u/thekidrice/p/qvCnAvDBOl Left side: This was taken back in December 2013. I believe I was sitting at 184 lbs at 20%+ bodyfat. I loved it. I felt big, strong, and was lifting hard. Right side: Currently, I'm sitting at 173lbs with around 14 - 18% bodyfat. (The scale at my gym is barely accurate) Still lifting pretty big, but I've been training a lot more methodically after a shoulder subluxation back in late March, early April which put me out of commission for about one month, with an additional 6 weeks of physiotherapy and another 4 - 6 for my infraspinatus to heal up. I'm a pretty lazy bastard, so if I can creep towards my fitness goals, any one of you here can if you haven't yet already. Stay healthy.
Bingo. I see way too many people diving into the deep end too early. People always get far too focused on the short term. "I need to lose 20 pounds by October!", or something along those lines. So they automatically go on some super strict diet and start hitting the gym hard right off the bat. Then they wonder why they keep giving up. My advice? Start slow. Change your diet bit by bit. Go to the gym 2 or 3 times a week. Find out what you like. Have patience. Let your body acclimate to the changes you're making. I don't think small goals are entirely bad, but you should really think of it as more of a lifestyle change. And awesome work, Snail!
Just ran 5.1 miles. Gonna get 5 per day from now on. Especially with a sprint burnout for the last .25 miles.
So. Update from my previous posts.. I've actually started working out a bit now Aaand I'm eating less (not like skipping meals, just smaller portions) and I've managed to lose a couple of kg so far! Whoop! This is it! xD
Storytime! From 120 to 206: A Success Story Once upon a time, I was a very skinny but fit person due to martial arts and a high metabolism. At my heaviest, I was 120 square. [thumb]http://i.imgur.com/DEv5sIu.jpg[/thumb] I'm the one on the far right. It's okay, all Asians look the same. Then everything changed when corporate life attacked. [thumb]http://i.imgur.com/jAl2tli.jpg[/thumb] I'm the one on the far right. It's okay, all Asians look the same. I was lucky. 80-90 lbs. increase, but size small shirts still fit me comfortably. But my waist increased by 3-4 sizes (from size 30-31 to size 34) and my face swelled up like a lactose intolerant getting an IV of his mother's milk to the cheeks. A few years ago, I did something about it. Enter keto. Exit 40 lbs. [thumb]http://i.imgur.com/UUzkJvA.jpg[/thumb] I'm the one on the far right. It's okay, all Asians look the same. Then everything changed when I realized carbs were goddamned delicious. Re-enter 40 lbs. I'm the one on the far right. It's okay, all Asians look the same. Then everything changed (again) when I realized I can afford to start working out again. This time with lifting rather than literally kicking faces. [thumb]http://i.imgur.com/9RvaTwh.jpg[/thumb] I'm the one on the far right. It's okay, all Asians look the same. There are still issues. I'm at a waist size 33-32 still. My face is still ridiculously fat. My belly is still a belly and not washboard abs (working on it). I'm possibly going to have to switch to medium-sized shirts, but for a better reason than being fat. The sleeves on my shirts are not big enough anymore. But I can eat what I want. I enjoy working out. And I can pull pictures of me from 2 years ago and astound people when I say, "I'm actually lighter in THIS picture than I am now." Current Stats: Weight: 206lbs. Height: 5'8"-5'9" depending on who you ask Waist: 33-32 As an aside, I have not tested the waters on my one rep maxes yet. If I can't do a set of 5-8, I don't proceed any further. So these are not max numbers. 50 lbs. dumbbell bicep curls (all varieties) 55 lbs. dumbbell shoulder press (110lbs on barbell, obviously) 110 lbs. barbell upright row 110 lbs. tricep extension (with one dumbbell) 165 lbs. deadlift (Just started on this, don't judge me) 200 lbs. barbell bench press 250 lbs. squat (Just started on this, don't judge me) Can do 1-3 pull-ups a set.
Nice work, Minus. Squats and deadlifts are the most important lifts for general health, overall strength, and muscle-building. Technique is crucial as well since they can be really good for you if done correctly and really dangerous if done incorrectly. Here are a couple Youtubers that breakdown the squat and deadlift in a way that's pretty easy to understand. Just search their channel. OmarIsuf, CanditoTrainingHQ Regarding the weight issue, I was in a similar situation. I'm 5'10'' and was stuck at about 150 no matter what I did (or so I thought) between the ages of like 16-22. Then I started lifting for the first time ever. If you can call P90X lifting. I gained like 5 pounds of muscle in 3 months and was kind of discouraged even though I gained a ton of strength. Then I joined a real gym and started counting calories. I made myself consume 4000 calories a day to see if I could finally put on some size. The thing is, when you're that skinny it's hard to notice how much fat you're putting on when you're getting bigger. There's a lot of places it can go without being visibly noticeable. By the end of one month I put on 25 pounds and thought I was hot shit. I looked way bigger. I wasn't ripped at all, but you could still see muscle definition and my strength gains were absurd for one month. Then I did some hard research to determine what the body's limit is for how fast it can build muscle. Apparently it's only around 1 to 1.5 pounds per week. This shocked me because I didn't feel like I gained much fat, but I put on about 20 pounds of fat and water weight. Probably at least 12-15 pounds of fat. So here I am before this whole thing thinking that I can't gain weight, and here I go and blow my load and overshoot it by a mile. It took me quite some time to work that off and really hone in on what my actual caloric needs are (around 2600 per day), but now I'm pretty happy with the experience because it caused me to do a bunch of research about the human body and weight lifting that I otherwise probably wouldn't have delved into. The main thing to worry about is how many calories you're eating, not what kind of calories you're eating. My diet still has a bunch of fat in it like whole milk, beef, eggs, and peanut butter and I'm still losing fat at the same time. I also have a bunch of carbs. Just work out hard and make sure you're giving yourself the right amount of energy to accomplish what you want.
UPDATE! Current Stats: Weight: 206lbs. Height: 5'8"-5'9" depending on who you ask Waist: 33-32 As an aside, I have not tested the waters on my one rep maxes yet. If I can't do a set of 5-8, I don't proceed any further. So these are not max numbers. 50 lbs. dumbbell bicep curls (all varieties) 55 lbs. dumbbell shoulder press (110lbs on barbell, obviously) 110 lbs. barbell upright row 110 lbs. tricep extension 225 lbs. deadlift 225 lbs. barbell bench press 250 lbs. squat Can do 1-3 pull-ups a set. travz21, the reason my numbers are so low is because I'm focusing on form before moving up. If I'm not doing it right (which isn't often), I'm not going to move up. Filip: It's actually like 53 picometers.
The numbers aren't low. Those are big squats with correct form. Just checking, because if you're not going down below parallel it's putting a lot of stress on your knees and its ligaments.
Yeah I'm definitely going below parallel. Years of being forced to do body-weight squats in Tae Kwon Do as punishment engrained the form in my headbrain. And 265 is now my 5-rep max on squats. Woo!
235lbs on Deadlifts now! The unrealistic goal I've set for myself is 300 on squats and deadlifts, 250 on bench press.
Deadlifts will be heavier weight than your squats for most people. It's just a stronger lift. For me it's around 20% more weight than my squat. And bench press is way weaker than squat and deadlift. I squat 60% more weight than I bench. I find that's pretty normal even among competitive weightlifters that are benching 500 and squatting 800. So if you're benching 250 and still training legs a lot you'll probably be squatting around 400 and deadlifting 480. But there are guys that don't work legs who can bench 250 but can't squat 175. Gotta keep it all balanced bro!
I took many years of Tae Kwon Do so my legs are basically ungodly. I don't really get TIRED doing squats. It's more of being anal about form that's keeping me at 265. I'm basically just increasing my max by 10 at least once a week.
Not unrealistic. Try out a couple of methods, such as the 5/3/1 approach, or Candito's training on YouTube. I've been stuck at 275 for squats over the past two years, and that has jumped up to 295 easily within a month without even following the 5/3/1 method to the T, couple that with an insane summer of partying and drinking and I have no idea how I've been able to break that plateau. 315 is but a week or two away if I continue at this rate.