Introduction/Newbie Here @ T-Nation

[WantAbs]

Ok, I’ve been lurking and have posted a couple times but I wanted to introduce myself, and give a little background about me. Here it goes.

I became interested in fitness in High school where I was on the swim team, I swam 3 years and was in what I considered top physical shape. I was around 5% body fat and 150 lbs @ 5’8".

I joined the Marine corps and entered boot camp 1 month after graduating from high school. Boot camp really put some muscle on my bones, I left boot camp at 162 lbs and ripped, even more so than after years of swimming. My PFT was 20 dead hang pull-ups, 110 sit-ups, and a 19 minute 3 mile run. I kept that up for the first 2 years I was in the USMC.

Then I injured my knee had some surgery and it’s never been the same. Needless to say I gained a bunch of weight and didn’t really have any motivation to get it off. Let’s fast forward to present day cause I’m sure most of you fell asleep back there.

January 2, 2006 at 210 lbs,5’8", and I would say at least 25% body fat I started the Body For Life program, I had done this program in the past with some sucess and knew that it worked for me. Now I’ve been reading here and I know a lot of people here do not like the BFL program but honestly without I would not have even started working out. I half assed the program didn’t do hardly any of hte workouts but ate pretty clean and lost about 17 lbs of fat.

Now I started my offical BFL challenge on March 26 at 195 lbs and around 20% body fat, I have 5 weeks left and I’m down to 185 lbs but my body fat is not really dropping which kinda irks me. I was trying to track my calories but being married with 4 kids and working full time it was hard to find time.

My goals include finishing this 12 weeks,getting down to 10% body fat and losing 25 lbs of fat. I thought this was acheivable but like I said my body fat is just stagnent even with my weight loss. I’m still happy with my progress though after reading articles here, I have had some good muscular gains in my arms,back,shoulders,and legs.

I plan on starting Chad Waterbury’s TBT AFTER I finish my 12 weeks of BFL. I know I’m gonna get the start it now but finishing the 12 weeks is a goal and I will finish. I’m not so much concerned with my weight loss goals anymore as long as I get ripped.

I eat clean and have at least 6 small meals a day, I usually get in 7, 3 of which are protein shakes. Supplements I am using are Spike (WOW great supplement, better than any EAS puts out), NO-Xplode,Cell Mass, ON Whey, multi vitamin, and CLA. I am averaging about 1500-1700 calories a day and about 180g of protein a day. I feel great and will look great.

Any advice and tips are very welcome, and I will post some photo’s of my fat ass when I get home from work. I know the visual references are great and I’m not ashamed to share them.

Semper Fi,Brent

[eengrms76]

[quote]WantAbs wrote:
Ok, I’ve been lurking and have posted a couple times but I wanted to introduce myself, and give a little background about me. Here it goes.[/quote]

Welcome.

I became interested in fitness in High school where I was on the swim team, I swam 3 years and was in what I considered top physical shape. I was around 5% body fat and 150 lbs @ 5’8".

Get it out of your head that you were in “top physical shape”- you were skinny. I’m glad to see you have different goals now.

I joined the Marine corps and entered boot camp 1 month after graduating from high school. Boot camp really put some muscle on my bones, I left boot camp at 162 lbs and ripped, even more so than after years of swimming. My PFT was 20 dead hang pull-ups, 110 sit-ups, and a 19 minute 3 mile run. I kept that up for the first 2 years I was in the USMC.

Not bad. Hopefully you have some muscle memory from this and can get back to that.

Then I injured my knee had some surgery and it’s never been the same. Needless to say I gained a bunch of weight and didn’t really have any motivation to get it off. Let’s fast forward to present day cause I’m sure most of you fell asleep back there.

zzzzzzzzzzzz…

January 2, 2006 at 210 lbs,5’8", and I would say at least 25% body fat I started the Body For Life program, I had done this program in the past with some sucess and knew that it worked for me. Now I’ve been reading here and I know a lot of people here do not like the BFL program but honestly without I would not have even started working out. I half assed the program didn’t do hardly any of hte workouts but ate pretty clean and lost about 17 lbs of fat.

BFL is a decent program. Anything that gets you up off your ass is a good thing in my book.

Now I started my offical BFL challenge on March 26 at 195 lbs and around 20% body fat, I have 5 weeks left and I’m down to 185 lbs but my body fat is not really dropping which kinda irks me. I was trying to track my calories but being married with 4 kids and working full time it was hard to find time.

You have time to eat but you don’t have time to track it? How is it later in this post you know how many calories you eat per day then? I can agree that 4 kids takes time, I have two and barely have any time. But you need to make the time.

As for your bodyfat- don’t expect it to drop exponentially. You are losing muscle along with that fat, hopefully slowly though. So as you lose weight your bodyfat may not drop as quickly as you hope. More on this later.

[quote]My goals include finishing this 12 weeks,getting down to 10% body fat and losing 25 lbs of fat. I thought this was acheivable but like I said my body fat is just stagnent even with my weight loss. I’m still happy with my progress though after reading articles here, I have had some good muscular gains in my arms,back,shoulders,and legs.

I plan on starting Chad Waterbury’s TBT AFTER I finish my 12 weeks of BFL. I know I’m gonna get the start it now but finishing the 12 weeks is a goal and I will finish. I’m not so much concerned with my weight loss goals anymore as long as I get ripped.[/quote]

Good. Stop looking at the scale altogether and start concentrating solely on body composition. Hopefully you’ve been taking measurements to track your progress. How have you been calculating BF%?

I eat clean and have at least 6 small meals a day, I usually get in 7, 3 of which are protein shakes. Supplements I am using are Spike (WOW great supplement, better than any EAS puts out), NO-Xplode,Cell Mass, ON Whey, multi vitamin, and CLA. I am averaging about 1500-1700 calories a day and about 180g of protein a day. I feel great and will look great.

Good attitude. Cals seem really low though. Could be why your BF% is not dropping- you are losing too much muscle. Re-evaluate how much you should be eating to make sure you are taking in enough. At your height and weight you should be more around 2200 to prevent muscle loss (LBM*15). There are other calculations out there, but I always found this one easiest to remember and “close enough”.

As for supplements- 3 shakes a day is a lot. Do you not have time for real food? It looks like you are getting less than 1000 calories from fat and carbs. Not good. It also appears from your calorie count that almost all of your protein is from those three On shakes, or at least 144g of it. That leaves less than 40g from real food. Do you not eat meat? At all?

No-Xplode is shit and not worth the money. I’ve heard the same for Cell Mass- but can’t attest to that specifically. On Whey is ok, but not as good as others. The calories are high for the crappy whey that’s in it. It is cheap, but still. Metabolic Drive is much better. Specifically why are you taking CLA? Not that it’s a bad thing, but you should know why you are taking it.

[quote]Any advice and tips are very welcome, and I will post some photo’s of my fat ass when I get home from work. I know the visual references are great and I’m not ashamed to share them.

Semper Fi,Brent[/quote]

It’s good to have you aboard. You have the best resource at your fingertips now and hopefully you will use it. Get your diet in check. You eat clean, which is great, but I honestly just don’t think you eat enough. Try slowly upping your calories some. This may make your weight loss stagnant for a while- but you should still be losing some fat. Slow and steady progress is what you want, not lightning fast. Your bodyfat% will start to drop only after you can get the right balance between training, calories, and protein.

Good luck!

[WantAbs]

[quote]eengrms76 wrote:

Welcome. [/quote]

Thanks.

Get it out of your head that you were in “top physical shape”- you were skinny. I’m glad to see you have different goals now.

Completely understand that now! I like my current weight just want to be leaner.

Not bad. Hopefully you have some muscle memory from this and can get back to that.

I hope so as well.

zzzzzzzzzzzz…

Just as I expected.

BFL is a decent program. Anything that gets you up off your ass is a good thing in my book.

That’s what I was thinking as well, GET OFF MY FAT ASS!!

You have time to eat but you don’t have time to track it? How is it later in this post you know how many calories you eat per day then? I can agree that 4 kids takes time, I have two and barely have any time. But you need to make the time.

I tracked for two weeks and since I pretty much eat the same things, I guestimated.

As for your bodyfat- don’t expect it to drop exponentially. You are losing muscle along with that fat, hopefully slowly though. So as you lose weight your bodyfat may not drop as quickly as you hope. More on this later.

This is kind of what I expected.

Good. Stop looking at the scale altogether and start concentrating solely on body composition. Hopefully you’ve been taking measurements to track your progress. How have you been calculating BF%?

I have been taking measurements, weekly. Weight and size, not that I’m concerned with the weight but it does come into play with the calculation of body fat. I have been using a web site that you enter your measurements into for body fat calculations. I believe it’s mybodycomp.com I do not have calipers yet but do plan to buy some for more accurate body fat readings.

Good attitude. Cals seem really low though. Could be why your BF% is not dropping- you are losing too much muscle. Re-evaluate how much you should be eating to make sure you are taking in enough. At your height and weight you should be more around 2200 to prevent muscle loss (LBM*15). There are other calculations out there, but I always found this one easiest to remember and “close enough”.

I thought I might need to eat more and up my calories to build more muscle.

As for supplements- 3 shakes a day is a lot. Do you not have time for real food? It looks like you are getting less than 1000 calories from fat and carbs. Not good. It also appears from your calorie count that almost all of your protein is from those three On shakes, or at least 144g of it. That leaves less than 40g from real food. Do you not eat meat? At all?

I eat egg whites,tuna,salmon,steak,and chicken all the time. I do one shake after my workouts on lifting days and one with breakfast on cardio day’s, then one before bed every night. And the ON is only 24g’s of protein per serving. I do need more fats in my diet, I know I’m lacking in that area, cabs tend to make me hold weight on, and I would honestly like to stay where I am so I wasn’t sure how to manage the carbs. I really want to drop more body fat and stay at my current weight, I think if I go any lower in weight I’d be skinny and I don’t want that.

No-Xplode is shit and not worth the money. I’ve heard the same for Cell Mass- but can’t attest to that specifically. On Whey is ok, but not as good as others. The calories are high for the crappy whey that’s in it. It is cheap, but still. Metabolic Drive is much better. Specifically why are you taking CLA? Not that it’s a bad thing, but you should know why you are taking it.

I will look into getting some Metabolic Drive but I just bought a bucket of the ON Whey so I need to finish that first. I am taking the CLA to help with getting some good fats and help with weight loss. Good to know about the NO-Xplode and Cell Mass, I read good reviews about it so based my purchase on that.

[quote]It’s good to have you aboard. You have the best resource at your fingertips now and hopefully you will use it. Get your diet in check. You eat clean, which is great, but I honestly just don’t think you eat enough. Try slowly upping your calories some. This may make your weight loss stagnant for a while- but you should still be losing some fat. Slow and steady progress is what you want, not lightning fast. Your bodyfat% will start to drop only after you can get the right balance between training, calories, and protein.
[/quote]
Thank you for all the info and the welcome, it is very much appreciated.

Good luck!

[vroom]

There’s plenty of excellent advice and articles around about these parts… which I’m sure you already know.

Welcome, read up, ask specific questions that show you’ve been reading up, get answers, get results, post results, be happy.

Woohoo.

[eengrms76]

[quote]WantAbs wrote:
I eat egg whites,tuna,salmon,steak,and chicken all the time. I do one shake after my workouts on lifting days and one with breakfast on cardio day’s, then one before bed every night. And the ON is only 24g’s of protein per serving. I do need more fats in my diet, I know I’m lacking in that area, cabs tend to make me hold weight on, and I would honestly like to stay where I am so I wasn’t sure how to manage the carbs. I really want to drop more body fat and stay at my current weight, I think if I go any lower in weight I’d be skinny and I don’t want that.[/quote]

Oh… you’re shakes are only one serving. Typically when someone says they drink a shake it’s a two scoop shake (hence the 144 - 3*48). Three of those smaller shakes a day are ok.

Carbs, if you don’t eat a lot of them that is, will hamper your training performance. You need carbs to grow. You need to grow to build muscle that you will use to eventually burn fat. Yes they do have the nasty side effect of making you hold on to weight- but it’s just water weight.

The easiest way to fix this is to increase your calories in all three categories- fat/carbs/protein. Your balance will be the same, just more food. Or at the very least- have some more protein and a little extra fat if you are really afraid of carbs.

I will look into getting some Metabolic Drive but I just bought a bucket of the ON Whey so I need to finish that first. I am taking the CLA to help with getting some good fats and help with weight loss. Good to know about the NO-Xplode and Cell Mass, I read good reviews about it so based my purchase on that.

Funny thing about reviews… Seriously though I’ve just never heard anything good about it except from the manufacturer and the sites/stores that sell it. Do some searching on this forum about it and you’ll read many varied opinions. Go ahead and finish up what you have, but I would do much more research on it before considering buying any more.

[WantAbs]

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. It’s some solid advice. I am working my calories up slowly this week, I did notice that I was getting hungry faster and I didn’t like it so I know I need to eat more,larger servings to be exact. I make sure to try to have a serving of vegetables or fruit with every meal now so I think I will try to track my eating again next week to see what my intake is at.

From what I figured tracking my protein/carb/fat intake, I am getting about 180g of protein a day. Is 180g of protein enough to maintain my weight,get lean, and gain muscle? Or do I need to increase my protein intake as well?? Which I figured would happen when I increase my food daily food intake. One last question, I have been lifting in the morning but have had the occasion where I need to lift at night.

Now I have noticed that when I lift at night I can lift more and lift more intensly, if that makes sense. In the mornings I seem to be weaker and my intensity levels are not as high. Should I try to do all my lifting at night? I’ve been researching and reading articles as often as I can here, there is sooo much good info I get lost reading it all.

Semper Fi,Brent

[T_Ham]

[quote]eengrms76 wrote:
Good to know about the NO-Xplode and Cell Mass, I read good reviews about it so based my purchase on that.

Funny thing about reviews… Seriously though I’ve just never heard anything good about it except from the manufacturer and the sites/stores that sell it. Do some searching on this forum about it and you’ll read many varied opinions. Go ahead and finish up what you have, but I would do much more research on it before considering buying any more.[/quote]

Yep; Have you ever read a BAD review?

The only places I’ve read bad things about stuff is:

-from competitors
-from professional 3rd parties, like magazines (rare, especially in supplement industry)
-and from people on forums either totally trashing it without proving real reasons why X product absolutly sucks, or somebody who said It just didn’t work for them.

[WantAbs]

[quote]Nomancer wrote:
eengrms76 wrote:
Good to know about the NO-Xplode and Cell Mass, I read good reviews about it so based my purchase on that.

Funny thing about reviews… Seriously though I’ve just never heard anything good about it except from the manufacturer and the sites/stores that sell it. Do some searching on this forum about it and you’ll read many varied opinions. Go ahead and finish up what you have, but I would do much more research on it before considering buying any more.

Yep; Have you ever read a BAD review?

The only places I’ve read bad things about stuff is:

-from competitors
-from professional 3rd parties, like magazines (rare, especially in supplement industry)
-and from people on forums either totally trashing it without proving real reasons why X product absolutly sucks, or somebody who said It just didn’t work for them.[/quote]

When you put it that way, I guess you could say no I have not read a bad review, but like you said, either it’s this product didn’t work for me or give me the results I wanted or brand X saying use our stuff not theirs. I want to know what people have experienced using these different supplements before I buy them, you know what I mean? I want to know if it’s a quality product or if it’s something I’m just gonna waste money on, I really wish you could sample some of this stuff before you were forced to buy a 40 buck tub of it, just to find out that it doesn’t work for you. That is the only reason I read reviews of different products, to find out the pro’s and con’s of using the supplement.

[eengrms76]

[quote]Nomancer wrote:
Yep; Have you ever read a BAD review?

The only places I’ve read bad things about stuff is:

-from competitors
-from professional 3rd parties, like magazines (rare, especially in supplement industry)
-and from people on forums either totally trashing it without proving real reasons why X product absolutly sucks, or somebody who said It just didn’t work for them.[/quote]

Technically no I’ve never read a bad review- but I have also never read about anyone who truly noticed a benefit from it. Or at least a true measureable benefit, psychological benefits are misleading and very subjective. If anyone has who is reading this- pipe in with your experiences.

[eengrms76]

[quote]WantAbs wrote:
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. It’s some solid advice. I am working my calories up slowly this week, I did notice that I was getting hungry faster and I didn’t like it so I know I need to eat more,larger servings to be exact. I make sure to try to have a serving of vegetables or fruit with every meal now so I think I will try to track my eating again next week to see what my intake is at.

From what I figured tracking my protein/carb/fat intake, I am getting about 180g of protein a day. Is 180g of protein enough to maintain my weight,get lean, and gain muscle? Or do I need to increase my protein intake as well?? Which I figured would happen when I increase my food daily food intake. One last question, I have been lifting in the morning but have had the occasion where I need to lift at night.

Now I have noticed that when I lift at night I can lift more and lift more intensly, if that makes sense. In the mornings I seem to be weaker and my intensity levels are not as high. Should I try to do all my lifting at night? I’ve been researching and reading articles as often as I can here, there is sooo much good info I get lost reading it all.

Semper Fi,Brent[/quote]

180g a day of protein should be sufficient to maintain your muscle mass while trying to lose fat. You probably won’t be able to gain as much. You are smart to try to increase that intake.

As for training in the morning vs. evening. Common sense would tell you that your training would be more intense later in the day because you have ingested a buttload of calories by then compared to the morning. However, I’ve read numerous times that 10am is the ideal time for training. Can’t tell you why, that’s just what I’ve read.

I personally train in the early evenings (~5pm) on weekdays and around 9am on weekends. For me, my saturday workout is always the best, especially if I eat a good solid meal Friday night. It’s the best for me for a couple reasons- one I’m more rested and two I have more time available. Not sure how I would feel about this subject if I always trained in the mornings.

Bottomline - do what works best for your schedule and structure your feedings around it appropriately.

[Arioch]

WantAbs,
Welcome to the site. Keep readin and keep working. You will get there if you put in the effort, but you know that.

Semper Fi,

Arioch

[WantAbs]

I know that I stated one of my original goals was to finish my 12 week Body for Life challenge, but after reading more here I am seiously considering starting the Waterbury’s TBT program next week. I believe I will get more from this workout. Now if you had officially entered the BFL competition would you change your workout or stick with the program laid out by Bill Phillips? I do not think that anywhere in the rules does it state that you have to follow the program to the letter but I wasn’t sure if starting this program would benifit me anymore than the BFL program for the next 5 weeks. I believe it would but you all here have been doing it longer so any input would be appreciated.

Semper Fi,Brent

[Arioch]

I’m not an expert so take this with a grain of salt.

I would stick with your program. You entered with the intentions of seeing where you would be after 12 weeks and you should be fair to the program.

You have your whole life to try out a bunch of different programs that will help you in reaching the goals you set for yourself.

Prove to yourself that you can stick to a program instead of jumping from one to another because ‘this’ one looks better than the one you are on.

But thats just me.

What part of AZ you in? I’m down in Tucson. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat about stuff sometime.

[WantAbs]

[quote]Arioch wrote:
I’m not an expert so take this with a grain of salt.

I would stick with your program. You entered with the intentions of seeing where you would be after 12 weeks and you should be fair to the program.

You have your whole life to try out a bunch of different programs that will help you in reaching the goals you set for yourself.

Prove to yourself that you can stick to a program instead of jumping from one to another because ‘this’ one looks better than the one you are on.

But thats just me.

What part of AZ you in? I’m down in Tucson. Feel free to PM me if you want to chat about stuff sometime.[/quote]

I’m in Casa Grande, so we’re practically neighbors. And the only reason I want to switch it to gain more muscle, like I said this is my second 12 weeks of BFL, but first official entry and first challenge that I have actually buckled down didn’t skip workouts, ate clean every day except free day and am really making muscular progress not just weight loss. I think I will take your advice and finish with the program the way it is and pick up after that with the TBT.

I’m kinda excited right now though cause my brother in law has a friend that wants to get rid of 300 lbs of plates, I’m gonna pick them up this weekend! Free weights you can’t go wrong there!

[eengrms76]

[quote]WantAbs wrote:
…Free weights you can’t go wrong there![/quote]

Was that a play on words? Are they free “free weights” or just free weights?

[WantAbs]

[quote]eengrms76 wrote:
WantAbs wrote:
…Free weights you can’t go wrong there!

Was that a play on words? Are they free “free weights” or just free weights? ;)[/quote]

You nailed it, free “free weights”. I only have about 150lbs of free weights that I use right now. That a flat bench,swiss ball,and a bench that can incline,decline, and has leg attachment and preacher curl attachment. It was cheap but I can do all the basics with it and that’s all that matters to me.

[Arioch]

Up in your area you can find a lot of used equipment. Check out craisglist.org and look in the sporting goods section as well as the yard sales. I got a power rack for dirt cheap from a yard sale.

You can also get more weights, belts and a whole mess of other useful stuff.

[WantAbs]

[quote]Arioch wrote:
Up in your area you can find a lot of used equipment. Check out craisglist.org and look in the sporting goods section as well as the yard sales. I got a power rack for dirt cheap from a yard sale.

You can also get more weights, belts and a whole mess of other useful stuff.[/quote]

Thanks for the tip , I have searched freecycle before, but not craigslist.

[WantAbs]

Ok, here we go, as I said I will attach some progress photo’s here.

Here’s my starting point, January 2,2006

210lbs @ 5’8" approx. 28% bodyfat (no calipers so not an accurate measurement)

[WantAbs]

Here’s one of me 3 weeks ago.

190lbs approx 20% body fat.

I will be taking some new progress photo’s tonight. I hope to see some improvements. My progress photo’s from last week were not any better than the ones I just posted. I’m having a hard time loosing the belly fat, which I know will be hard and last to loose. I’m working it off though!