Manorexic No More... My Journey

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
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Short history:

  • 1: Summer 04: Cut down, removed my belly, got skinny
  • 2: 8/04: Joined a gym, started reading building and nutritional stuff immediately
  • 3: late 04: Flailed around with various programs and stuff
  • 4: 9/12/04: sample mid-flail
  • 5: 12/31/04: Discovered T-Nation
  • 6: 1/19/05: Started Waterbury Method with first throw-away week to get oriented
  • 7: 1/24/05: sample start of first real week Waterbury Method
  • 8: 1/20/05: Started eating regular calories “plus”
  • 9: 2/ 1/05: Started bulking (massive eating lite)
  • 10: 2/ 8/05: sample after bulking a little
  • 11: Right now: Mid-Waterbury Method and bulking

~146 lbs - (1) lowest weight after cutting, summer 04, before building
~150 lbs - (4)
~150 lbs - (5) weight at 1/1/05
~156 lbs - (7) start of Waterbury Method for real
~162 lbs - (10)
~166 lbs 12% bf - (11) now

OK, so the vital stats:
Bicep:
( 4) 12.00 in
( 7) 12.75 in +0.75
(10) 13.00 in +0.25 +1.00
(11) 13.25 in +0.25 +1.25

Forearm:
( 4) 10.00 in
( 7) 11.50 in +1.50
(10) 11.50 in +0.00 +1.50
(11) 11.88 in +0.38 +1.88

Chest:
( 4) 36.00 in
( 7) 36.50 in +0.50
(10) 37.25 in +0.75 +1.25
(11) 38.25 in +1.00 +2.25

Shoulders:
( 4) 43.00 in
( 7) 43.00 in +0.00
(10) 44.25 in +1.25 +1.25
(11) 45.00 in +0.75 +2.00

Waist:
( 4) 32.00 in
( 7) 32.25 in +0.25
(10) 33.75 in +1.50 +1.75
(11) 34.00 in +0.25 +2.00

Hips:
( 4) 35.00 in
( 7) 35.25 in +0.25
(10) 35.50 in +0.25 +0.50
(11) 36.00 in +0.50 +1.00

Upper Thigh:
( 4) 20.50 in
( 7) 21.75 in +1.25
(10) 22.25 in +0.50 +1.75
(11) 22.63 in +0.38 +2.13

Lower Thigh:
( 4) 15.00 in
( 7) 15.50 in +0.50
(10) 15.50 in +0.00 +0.50
(11) 16.25 in +0.75 +1.25

Calf:
( 4) 14.00 in
( 7) 14.25 in +0.25
(10) 14.25 in +0.00 +0.25
(11) 14.25 in +0.00 +0.25

Goals
Short term:
Continue hypertrophy program with massive eating:
Get to 160 lbs LBM (currently around 145), or
Get to 180 lbs total weight (currently around 166), or
Reach end of April

All of April:
Do lots of ab work, while maintaining elsewhere
Ramp down to normal calorie intake

All of May:
Cut to less than 10% bf, probably Velocity Diet
Switch to strength program
Start working seriously on endurance conditioning

June through summer:
Maintain with hard work on strength program
Keep bf% low on normal calories
Maintain high endurance
(Lots of motorcycle and car racing all summer long,
combined with rock climbing, backpacking, etc.)

Fall through winter:
Start another hypertrophy/bulking phase
Attempt to exceed 180lbs LBM by spring 06

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Hey, where did those lats come from? Didn’t have those six months ago…

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Decipher this!

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All photos taken today, not pumped. Last time I went to the gym was two days ago. And leaving for it in about 15 minutes!

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Alright, ProfX, get it over with!

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mike,
Here is what your next conversation should look like.
Mike: Hi
FOOD :…
Mike: How do I get bigger?
FOOD:…EAT ME!!!

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Yeah, no kidding. My biggest problem right now is just finding the time and the food to eat truly massive. It’s really weird realizing later in the day that, in spite of not restricting my calories, I haven’t eaten enough, again!

It still seems surprising to me how much planning is required to eat truly massive.

The reason it says “massive eating lite” above is not because I’m trying to eat less calories; it’s because I’m struggling with keeping enough food around me, especially at work, to eat truly massive. Planning better should help with that.

8

Forget cutting man. You need to bulk, untill next summer. In 2 months you aren’t going to put on much muscle, and I see no reason for you to cut as it is, their isn’t much fat on your frame. More muscle will make you look better than less fat at this point IMO. EAT!!!

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[quote]michaelv wrote:
All of April:
Do lots of ab work, while maintaining elsewhere
Ramp down to normal calorie intake

All of May:
Cut to less than 10% bf, probably Velocity Diet
Switch to strength program
Start working seriously on endurance conditioning

June through summer:
Maintain with hard work on strength program
Keep bf% low on normal calories
Maintain high endurance
(Lots of motorcycle and car racing all summer long,
combined with rock climbing, backpacking, etc.)

Fall through winter:
Start another hypertrophy/bulking phase
Attempt to exceed 180lbs LBM by spring 06
[/quote]

This is retarded. If you look in the mirror and see someone who needs to even THINK about going on a 3+ month long diet to get “cut”, there is no help for you. I truly can’t beclieve you think that over the next 2 months, you will gain so much size that it will then be time to DIET.

The good news is, your post inspired me to go eat now. Thanks.

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Well thats just one more strike against vegetarians. My advice eat… and eat meat. That would make it a hell of a lot easier to get what you need to grow. Sorry that everyone is cutting you down but you should not be dieting at this stage and you need to eat meaat. Yup I’m going to get attacked by a bunch of vege’s for saying it but whatever you want more meat on your bones eat more meat. nuff said.

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Everyone gave you a lot of flak, and I agree that you need to eat more and bulk but you still deserve some congratulations for getting this far. I can see that you have built a lot from where you started, and you have a good lookin back, but work on your shoulders and triceps some more, and some benching to firm up your chest. The Waterbury Method should be doin ya right, maybe try to emphasis more deadlifts or olympic lifts (start with powercleans, read everything you can about them or get videos, and then try with a broom or 45lb bar until you feel you have it down… work up from there) to hit those traps harder, and any type of heavy compound pressing will do your physique some good (weighted dips maybe?).

Anyways, I recommend you eat more!!! Don’t cut for 3 months, it will probably only take you 3 weeks, and then get back to bulkin during the summer… if you reach a point where you think you are too fat (don’t worry so much) then cut for a week on the velocity diet and you will be skin and bones again.

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Oh. My. God.

You weigh 166lbs and you are talking about cutting? To what? Do you want to be a mean and edgy 150lbs? Eat some friggin food, boy, and lots of it.

This is for all of you skinny kids out there who are talking about “cutting”. Cutting is for showing muscle definition, so get some friggin muscle BEFORE you start cutting. I guarantee you that without muscle mass, you could lose 20lbs and still look like a 12 year old boy.

Next point. Who the hell spends the entire month of April concentrating on abs while only “maintianing” their other lifts? I’ll tell you who - spastics. For the love of God, please go and find a mass building program by CW or CT and do it like a mad man for twelve months. Then think about cutting if you weigh more than 200lbs.

Rant over.

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[quote]Massif wrote:
Oh. My. God.

You weigh 166lbs and you are talking about cutting? To what? Do you want to be a mean and edgy 150lbs? Eat some friggin food, boy, and lots of it.

This is for all of you skinny kids out there who are talking about “cutting”. Cutting is for showing muscle definition, so get some friggin muscle BEFORE you start cutting. I guarantee you that without muscle mass, you could lose 20lbs and still look like a 12 year old boy.

Next point. Who the hell spends the entire month of April concentrating on abs while only “maintianing” their other lifts? I’ll tell you who - spastics. For the love of God, please go and find a mass building program by CW or CT and do it like a mad man for twelve months. Then think about cutting if you weigh more than 200lbs.

Rant over.[/quote]

Along with that, I just don’t understand the trend on this board of giving people compliments and “good job” pats on the back when they have clearly been slacking and are turned around about what they need to do. This guy didn’t even start going to the gym until last August, basically stagnated and took up space until this past month and NOW is talking about cutting down in April. Why would someone say, “great job”?

The reality is, you wasted half a year. It is great that you lost some body fat, however, since you weren’t in the gym, there is no doubt that you lost equal parts of muscle AND fat. To then look in the mirror and think you need to lose even more weight as if muscle isn’t important at all leaves you lost and turned around…especially on a bodybuilding forum. That doesn’t exactly deserve compliments. It deserves a wake up call. Most people who lose weight that way with absolutely no weight training gain it all back even faster because you now have LESS overall muscle mass to utilize those extra calories.

That means, the goal now should be to gain some muscle. That means expect to give this a year or two to put on some decent size. If you aren’t up to that, you may want to mentally prepare yourself before you waste another half-year in the gym not making much progress. I’ll pat you on the back in 24 months.

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Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever replied to anyone’s pictures/stats before, but I can’t help it here…

With the exception of an inch on the biceps and several inches on the waist, your measurements are all smaller than mine!!! For reference, I am a 5’1" female who wears a size 4.

I’m really not trying to be harsh, but seriously- think about this and ask yourself if you need to be cutting any time soon!

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I am not cutting now. I’m bulking. Though, admittedly, I need to eat more. The challenge is getting enough. I’m currently eating around 3000~3500 calories. I’m going to have to push that up to around 4000. But finding the time to eat that much during a very busy work day, and get that much food close to me, will take some more deliberate planning. In fact, I think I need to plan massive eating more than I ever did dieting.

Three month diet? Who? Where?

I’m not cutting until I hit 180lbs body weight (aim for 160 LBM). At that point, I’m going to have some fat, and I will remove that for summer. The cutting wil l last four weeks max.

Summer is not going to be a 3-month diet. It’s going to be a maintain. Cut once to get the BF down, then maintain. And hell, if I still put some muscle on during the summer, that’s great; I’m not trying to avoid it. I won’t be eating massive, but I will be hitting the gym and eating more normally (probably 2500~3000) calories.

Besides looking good in nothing but running shorts, here is the more important reason: I am going to be doing a lot of racing, both car and motorcycle. I cannot have my body size constantly changing. Not only because I’d have to constantly tweak the suspension, but also I need to my $700 Alpinstars one-piece leather to fit me all summer long. If I have to replace it after this summer, fine. But I don’t want to replace it mid-summer.

Will I hit 180 TBW/160 LBM by end of April? I think it’s possible, and I’m sure as hell gonna try.

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[quote]BuckeyeGirl01 wrote:
Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever replied to anyone’s pictures/stats before, but I can’t help it here…

With the exception of an inch on the biceps and several inches on the waist, your measurements are all smaller than mine!!! For reference, I am a 5’1" female who wears a size 4.

I’m really not trying to be harsh, but seriously- think about this and ask yourself if you need to be cutting any time soon![/quote]

AAAHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Sonny, you just got OWNED!!!

Use this as motivation and start training hard and eating properly.

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[quote]BuckeyeGirl01 wrote:
With the exception of an inch on the biceps and several inches on the waist, your measurements are all smaller than mine!!! For reference, I am a 5’1" female who wears a size 4.[/quote]

That being said, do you ever date younger men?

JMB

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[quote]michaelv wrote:

Three month diet? Who? Where?

I’m not cutting until I hit 180lbs body weight (aim for 160 LBM). At that point, I’m going to have some fat, and I will remove that for summer. The cutting wil l last four weeks max.

Summer is not going to be a 3-month diet. It’s going to be a maintain. Cut once to get the BF down, then maintain. [/quote]

Listen, we understood you the first time. WHAT, pray tell, are you maintaining? I would throw in a “where’s the beef” line if I didn’t think it was played out. You are skinny as hell. You don’t look like you lift. I have friends who don’t lift who carry about 30lbs more muscle than you and all they do is play basketball. I knew you didn’t get it before which was I wrote that last response to you. You are one of those kinds of people who will mistake one of those “great job” remarks and run with it thinking you are actually doing a great job. You aren’t. You wasted half a year and are getting ready to waste more and, worse yet, you think that we don’t understand what you are saying.

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[quote]JMB wrote:
That being said, do you ever date younger men?

JMB[/quote]

Hey, how old do you think I am?? :o)

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[quote]Professor X wrote:
Next point. Who the hell spends the entire month of April concentrating on abs while only “maintianing” their other lifts? I’ll tell you who - spastics. For the love of God, please go and find a mass building program by CW or CT and do it like a mad man for twelve months. Then think about cutting if you weigh more than 200lbs.
[/quote]

I know it’s hard to grasp, and I know it’s not even really popular, because this is a muscle-building forum. But, I have other priorities during the summer.

Building will be very high, but racing comes first.

But, I’ll also seriously take your advice and skip the abs thing, and just cruise on CW/CT until May 1.

Here’s my challenge to you, then. If I bulk until May 1st, I’ll set a goal of 190 total body weight. How much do you (ProfX) want to bet I won’t make it?

As much as I respect you, your expectations are unrealistic if you expect me 1) to have gotten serious about bodybuilding before I even stepped in the gym – I started when I started; that’s my starting point – 2) if you expect me to have known I needed to start on Waterbury Method and massive eating the minute I stepped in the gym, and 3) if you expect me to start Waterbury Method and massive eating the first day I read an article on this site.

Let me tell you something. I have gone from wondering how I should start putting some muscle on to deeply understanding building nutrition and the theories behind Waterbury’s programs in six months. I spent a lot of freakin time reading and reading and reading trying to figure out how get here. Knowledge isn’t instantaneous. I don’t expect you to pat me on the back, but at least acknowledge that this stuff isn’t figured out overnight.

So, I read, I learned, I found a program, I found the nutrition and supplements, and I put it into action. Note that flailing around above wasn’t because I had no direction or desire. It was because I had no freakin clue what I was doing at the beginning. That was all learning time.

Probably true. But as I said, I had no idea what I was doing yet. And probably the fact that I did lose muscle and fat is what clued me in that I needed to do something about building muscle. So indirectly, doing that actually caused me to get serious about muscle gain.

But I never said that. Anywhere.

I am not cutting now. I am bulking and building.

True. Then.

But what does this have to do with now? I won’t ever do that again. My goals don’t list any period where I won’t be doing weight training.

[quote]
That means, the goal now should be to gain some muscle. That means expect to give this a year or two to put on some decent size. If you aren’t up to that, you may want to mentally prepare yourself before you waste another half-year in the gym not making much progress. I’ll pat you on the back in 24 months.[/quote]

Although we disagree on some points, I think your advice is sound. Especially if someone wants to build first priority (which I will in the racing off-season). I will take this advice with one modification: I will not concentrate on massive building during the summer. I will still be hitting the weights hard, but I will not be massive eating. I will resumve massive eating in the fall.

Prof, I don’t think you and I will ever see eye to eye. That’s fine. Your world is centered around getting people huge. In spite of that, I really do listen to your advice. Here’s proof: I am not afraid to put on some bodyfat while bulking. I have already done so, and I’m going to put on more before May. I’m ok with that. Right now, my main goal is to build and bulk. Well, except where work (too frequently) interferes.

Anyway, I don’t expect a pat on the back from you. Frankly, I expected much of what you said. In fact, I don’t even expect your empathy. This thread isn’t here to show off what I’ve done. This thread is here so that when I HAVE done something substantial, THEN I can point here and say “wow, look how far I’ve come”. This is the beginning.