Hey Youall… been training for +6y consistently, ate like crap and lots of booze for the first 2.5ish… That me is dead (not literally, thank God), and nutrition/alcoholism are under control now.
Goals are to get huge, but never wanna be fat 400lbs again.
6’2"
265lb
27-29% bf (according to impedance scale & Handheld)
Training for hypertrophy primarily, but eating in a calorie deficit cause… I’m still too fat…
Body re-comp is coming along nicely… slowly but surely… just looking for opinions on training/nutrition…
What would you do…?
1… switch up training to accelerate fat loss before trying to add mass (shooting for 230-240)
2… Switch up nutrition to start adding gainz (wanna get as big as possible, but who doesn’t)
3… Just keep on keepin on and let the recomp continue to work itself out, albeit agonizingly slow…?
Although the pictures aren’t the best, you’ve obviously made great progress! I’d say leave it alone if you’re still progressing, but I’m not the most qualified around here
You should do whatever motivates you most while you continue your journey. Changing up training is useful here. For example, while the notion of ‘fat loss’ training seems to get a good whipping these days, if you’re not use to it then those lactate-inducing, high rep sessions can serve a purpose - and keep you keen and eager. Four weeks later, your weight is down and you’re still motivated. Time to try something else, etc.
The issues you need to manage are:
Dietary relapse (tell me something I don’t know)
Developing a false sense of security and convincing yourself you can afford to gain, bulk, without any consequences. You probably already know this but given your history, you know you will need to manage your metabolism for the rest of your life. Those adipocytes are not going anywhere and just waiting to be fattened up given the chance.
A quick calculation suggests you are carrying about 76 lbs of fat mass. If you shed half of that (circa 15% BF) you would probably have some abdominal definition. As others have stated, at your size you will look like a beast. Surely that’s motivation to keep going.
Like everyone’s said, you’ve obviously been putting in the work and you’re on the right track for sure.
What, exactly, does this mean? Make a more concrete goal because at 6’2"/265, you’re already “huge”. Keeping a vague target is basically not having a target at all and that’s when trouble pops up.
So, what’s your actual endgame? 230 with defined abs? 250 with no moobs? Use the S.M.A.R.T approach to determine exactly where you’re going and how and when you’ll get there.
Dude, it’s not really that slow at all, all things considered. You’ve really been at it for just three and a half years and you’ve dropped 33% of your total bodyweight. That’s a pile of fat the size of a not-small human being.
Patience and a good goal-focused plan will deliver results. Rushing the process and shotgunning a vague target will spin your wheels.
Keep recomping. You have enough fat mass to do so easily. Remember you can only gain so much muscle at a time. Upping up calories won’t change that much here, and visually, you’ll be much more happy
I know vague goals are no good, but it’s just easier to write “GET HUUUGE”
I wanna be “that guy” people see and say “Dam, that dude is Jacked!”
Starting at 400lbs, loosing fat has been primary goal since the beginning. I worked down to 250 and then decided to “clean bulk” and got back to 280 with QUICKNESS (2-3 months)! So stopped that and back to cal deficit.
Number 1 goal is still fat loss. I have been achieving this mainly through intermittent fasting, which I understand is no good for gainz, but has cut fat well so far. I am so dam tired of IF and just want to eat ALL THE FOOD, ALL THE TIME.
That said, I think the “S.M.A.R.T.” thing to do would be…
(S.M.) Continue IF until I reach 240lbs
(A.R.) I hit 250, I can hit 240…
(T.) By the end of 2020… If I kick shit into overdrive,
Then in 2021, I will drop the IF, increase cals slowly until maintenance level but not surplus… eating multipul meals a day to add lean mass and as little fat as possible.
Thanks all for the words of encouragement and wisdom. It has been a hell of a road so far, I just never wanna be that fatass I used to be again, and hopefully I will get to be the “Jacked MF” handing out the encouragement and wisdom.
If it helps as you transition, just remember IF doesn’t have to be either every day or no days - you can get a deficit with fasting on some days and not others. Whatever is sustainable.
I mentioned this in another thread. In August, I decided to blow up from 174lbs (fairly lean) to 191lbs (fat pig) mainly on junk food as part of a ‘fit to fat to fit’ experiment. I did this in less than 6 weeks. In response, using a combination of carnivore and 6 x 48-hour fasts (and modest exercise), I reversed this in 18 days. After hovering there for about 6 weeks, I upped the ante again by doing the 48 hour fasts 3 times a week (Sun/Tues/Thurs). I trained on the other days and stuck to the carnivore approach. After 18 days, I had dropped to 166 lbs. Did it suck? Yes, the last 10 days or so was tough but it truly is short term pain for longer term gain. I admire folks who slowly slim down but it’s simply not necessary; there is also metabolic slowdown to consider but that’s a whole other thread.
Can’t quite follow the text friend. Where were you hovering for six weeks? Second @aldebaran s question. Having never fasted more than twenty-four hours, how lethargic and slow do you feel after 48? I find that by hour 20 I’m starting to feel cold and slowing down. Do you receive a second wind or does it stay perpetually tough? What about impact on sleep?
Also, what do you mean by moderate exercise? If memory serves you were talking a lot about HIIT on CTs forum but maybe this wasn’t during that time?
Parsed as begin fast Sunday, break fast 48h later on Tuesday (one meal?) begin fast anew 48h break fast Thursday (one meal?) begin fast anew 48h break fast Saturday - eat Saturday. How big were the meals?
I just couldn’t help myself but to try and understand this. Obviously this is a fairly naive calculation.
Let’s say the following is true,
lbs to loose
calories per lbs
calories to lose
25
3150
78750
Calories per lbs is derived by assuming one pound of body fat is 3500*0.9 (10% water) calories.
Then it follows that,
lbs lost per day
remove water (10%)
calories to lose per day
1.388888889
1.25
3937.5
Then if we use your bodyweight and assume you manage to lose it linearly and we assume maintenance calories to be between 13xlbs-15xlbs then you had to remain fairly active.
BW
x13
x15
191
2483
2865
189.75
2466.75
2846.25
188.2222222
2446.888889
2823.333333
186.8333333
2428.833333
2802.5
185.4444444
2410.777778
2781.666667
184.0555556
2392.722222
2760.833333
182.6666667
2374.666667
2740
181.2777778
2356.611111
2719.166667
179.8888889
2338.555556
2698.333333
178.5
2320.5
2677.5
177.1111111
2302.444444
2656.666667
175.7222222
2284.388889
2635.833333
174.3333333
2266.333333
2615
172.9444444
2248.277778
2594.166667
171.5555556
2230.222222
2573.333333
170.1666667
2212.166667
2552.5
168.7777778
2194.111111
2531.666667
167.3888889
2176.055556
2510.833333
166
2158
2490
But we have 6x48-hr fasts, that’s 12 days without eating. I’m guessing I’m too tired to do these computations properly because it seems to me as if you’d have to stay really active to lose the remainder of 78750 calories
x13 AVG
x13 AVG * 12
x15 AVG
x15 AVG * 12
2320.595029
27847.14035
2677.609649
32131.31579
What do you reckon your deficit was on an eating day?
To piggy-back on the other guys’ questions I’d be interested to see more of a detailed write up of this. Does one exist? If not and you wouldn’t mind, it might be nice to create your own thread about it.
Oh and while I’m here - great job OP. You already looked pretty jacked.
