It sure would’ve been nice to thank the people who told you to eat more for free.
Hey op just out of curiosity how did you go from 6’1 to 6’2 ?
[quote]CargoCapable wrote:
It sure would’ve been nice to thank the people who told you to eat more for free.[/quote]
So true, but then again maybe everyone here should get paid to tell someone to eat more 
someone make it happen!!!
3500 still seems low for someone your size. I’m smaller than you and eat more than that.
Updates from today.
6’ 2", 28 years old and 192 pounds @ 10-11% (7 site skinfold)
Still pushing to gain about 12-15lbs which is coming slowly but teaching 2-3 fitness classes a day to Navy Sailors on top of my 4 weekly workouts each week is killer on the calorie balance. I have managed about 3900 over the past 6 weeks based on my Fitday log. I will note that I do no voluntary cardio of my own given the nature of my daily job as it is.
I do not really cheat in the formal sense as I am one who suffers from bad spells of hypoglycemia any time I have even mild intakes of sugar or flour. When I do cheat its on burgers, steaks and burrito type gigs.
I have been using the “4 Weeks to Big Arms” plan by Dan Trink for the past 3 weeks with 1 week to go. For the 8 weeks before that I was doing a 4 day upper/lower 2x a week program based on max strength in bench, dead squat and push press movements. Hoping this 4 week plan does a little some some to spark some growth in these arms for once!
[quote]La Crosse Grad wrote:
Not sure why the pictures did not load…? Links available here:
http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z210/oregonpanthers/rearrelax1118.jpg[/quote]
The great thing is, you’ve ignored this whole ‘eat shit loads, lift loads’ horse shit, and done your own thing, and you can see progress, and personally if your progressing why change anything ?
Keep doing your thing!
Appreciate the feedback bro but I have only changed going from 4 day/week max strength split for powerlifting to a 4 day/week arms hypertrophy program. No cardio then, no cardio now. 4000kcal diet then, same now. Id eat more “crap” but I HATE how lethargic I always feel when I eat anything with any significant amount of sugar or flour in it. I thus get picky with what “crap” I do consume. I also budget as best I can by rarely eating out and making all my own meals from home and bringing them with me pretty much 7 days a week as needed. Trust me though, if I could afford to eat out more, I would in a heart beat! Seattle has no shortage of amazing food that run the gammet of cuisines!
Bottom line is that when you teach 3 hours of fitness classes 5x a week from spin to tabatta to “cross-fit like” conditioning circuits, its going to make gaining a bitch and a half for an ecto. I have accepted this an wont let it stop me. Just gotta keep trucking and let what gains I do make count.
Rereading this thread has led me to see so much shit in here, it’s hard to know where to begin…
The advice given is far from “horseshit” and your comment leads me to believe that you are an even bigger noob at this than the OP.
OP, follow that advice and you will probably put on 10-15lbs and a little bit of strength and plateau indefinitely, until you actually learn how the basics of how training works, develop a solid plan, and stick to it. I’ve seen it happen to many people, myself included. Then I took that “horseshit” advice and spent some time learning about how this shit works, and it paid off. By spending some time to get my shit together, I gained incredible amounts of strength and weight (which was mostly muscle), so much that I got stretch marks and many others began to think that I was juicing.
Your weigh-ins seem to be fluctuating a lot. Water weight and how full you stomach and intestines are can drastically alter your weight. I like to weigh-in first thing in the morning, after doing my business. It stays fairly consistent that way. There will still be some fluctuation, so weigh yourself daily at a set time in order to get a fairly accurate idea of where you’re at. Gaining approximately 1.5lbs a week would be a very good place to be.
In order to gain that weight you will probably have to eat a good deal more. You’re an ecto (so you probably have a naturally high metabolism) and your job involves a lot of cardio, a double whammy. Which means… YOU WILL HAVE TO EAT A HELLUVA LOT MORE if you want to overcome that. If you start gaining more than 2lbs per week, dial down the calories gradually until you are in the right place (1-2lbs/week). The diet coach is probably an insane waste of money. At this stage, it’s probably not what you eat as much as the quantity you eat that’s limiting you. Make sure you’re getting enough protein, but I wouldn’t worry about specifics of the diet too much yet. Work on getting to the right amount (which you can tell by weight gain) before fine-tuning the specifics.
I wouldn’t worry about the arms too much just yet. Pick a beginner strength program and stick with it. STICK WITH IT. STICK WITH IT. Did I emphasize that enough? You have to look at your training as a long-term goal, not a short term one. Short cycles might work for more experienced athlete to bring up a lagging part quickly, when it is needed, but your goals should all be long-term for the time being. I know it looks attractive to be able to bring up a lagging part quickly (especially when the lagging part is as showy as your arms are), but resist the urge, and remember what you are working towards.
Finally, I facepalmed as soon as I saw 10.1% BF. You CANNOT measure BF % to within a tenth of a %. The best measuring devices have about a 1.5% BF measure of error. So round the measurement, or you will look like an even bigger noob. I am also suspect of the BF measurements. Your pics look higher than that, though it is possible, since we don’t all hold fat in the same way.
This is probably much more useful advice than a diet coach would give at this point. For writing all this shit out, I think I deserve some monetary compensation…
[quote]Apoklyps wrote:
Rereading this thread has led me to see so much shit in here, it’s hard to know where to begin…
The advice given is far from “horseshit” and your comment leads me to believe that you are an even bigger noob at this than the OP.
OP, follow that advice and you will probably put on 10-15lbs and a little bit of strength and plateau indefinitely, until you actually learn how the basics of how training works, develop a solid plan, and stick to it. I’ve seen it happen to many people, myself included. Then I took that “horseshit” advice and spent some time learning about how this shit works, and it paid off. By spending some time to get my shit together, I gained incredible amounts of strength and weight (which was mostly muscle), so much that I got stretch marks and many others began to think that I was juicing.
Your weigh-ins seem to be fluctuating a lot. Water weight and how full you stomach and intestines are can drastically alter your weight. I like to weigh-in first thing in the morning, after doing my business. It stays fairly consistent that way. There will still be some fluctuation, so weigh yourself daily at a set time in order to get a fairly accurate idea of where you’re at. Gaining approximately 1.5lbs a week would be a very good place to be.
In order to gain that weight you will probably have to eat a good deal more. You’re an ecto (so you probably have a naturally high metabolism) and your job involves a lot of cardio, a double whammy. Which means… YOU WILL HAVE TO EAT A HELLUVA LOT MORE if you want to overcome that. If you start gaining more than 2lbs per week, dial down the calories gradually until you are in the right place (1-2lbs/week). The diet coach is probably an insane waste of money. At this stage, it’s probably not what you eat as much as the quantity you eat that’s limiting you. Make sure you’re getting enough protein, but I wouldn’t worry about specifics of the diet too much yet. Work on getting to the right amount (which you can tell by weight gain) before fine-tuning the specifics.
I wouldn’t worry about the arms too much just yet. Pick a beginner strength program and stick with it. STICK WITH IT. STICK WITH IT. Did I emphasize that enough? You have to look at your training as a long-term goal, not a short term one. Short cycles might work for more experienced athlete to bring up a lagging part quickly, when it is needed, but your goals should all be long-term for the time being. I know it looks attractive to be able to bring up a lagging part quickly (especially when the lagging part is as showy as your arms are), but resist the urge, and remember what you are working towards.
Finally, I facepalmed as soon as I saw 10.1% BF. You CANNOT measure BF % to within a tenth of a %. The best measuring devices have about a 1.5% BF measure of error. So round the measurement, or you will look like an even bigger noob. I am also suspect of the BF measurements. Your pics look higher than that, though it is possible, since we don’t all hold fat in the same way.
This is probably much more useful advice than a diet coach would give at this point. For writing all this shit out, I think I deserve some monetary compensation…[/quote]
Much appreciated bud! Really I mean that. Let me clear up a few things first though.
The planI was on before was indeed a very basic 4 day strength split all about bench, dead, squat and push press. Its a adjusted 5/3/1 plan I was on for 10 weeks prior to (yes giving in to the hatred of my small arms) so when I saw the article posted for a 4 week arms plan I jumped all over it coming off my last deload week of the prior plan. Most the plans I follow are very similar to the 4 day 10 week plan I was on prior to this, always have been as well.
I can certainly try and eat more yet but trying to slam over 4000 a day with my work week schedule is easier said then done. I eat 5x a day most every day (6 on weekends when I have the time). As much as I hate using shakes thats still an option of going with whole food high calorie shakes between meals to amp up calories sure…I look into that.
As far as a nutrition coach, I am not paying anyone at the time. I worked with Marc for about 8 weeks to get me rolling on the food/supps side of things and he did. I then sprung off that and his advice to keep on going for the past 2 months.
Weigh Ins are done just as you said, 1x a week, same day, same time of day, same scale, always nude, same BIA device on the same settings etc…controlling for all variables other then actual objective changes. I just list what the scale and the BIA say, that simple.
Yes I do have a double wammy hill to climb with work cardio and being an ecto I know this and have known it. Its hard to eat big meals often when your leading or teaching a spin class for an hour, a TRX class for an hour or doing sprint drills for an hour without loosing your lunch (and then some!) I try and go 2 hours without eating before leading a class or doing my own workouts as well. I just need to given the size of my 4 meals I eat during the day (5th is before bed).
Are these excuses?? Yes they are but I feel there justified as well. Not impossible to overcome but difficult indeed. I’ll work on small steps of using the whole food shakes during the day as mentioned above and see where that goes for now.
I wrapped the 4 week arms plan yesterday. Today I took off. I start my next 10 week cycle with the 5/3/1 modified program tomorrow.
I feel almost stupid asking this but since you are a straight shooter it seems…I have to assume you would NOT suggest I even give a go at Mens Physique Competition in spring 2013 then hey?