Hey guys 36 here wanted to introduce myself I am 6’2 240lbs right now about 6 years ago I was 320lbs was always overweight growing up finally got to a point I could even walk with out feeling like I would pass out, so got into the gym and lost a little bit but was not losing much because I never changed my diet this went for about 3 months. I found a nutritionist to help me out got on a good meal plan and 9 months later I got down to 191lbs not sure of bf% but I looked good and felt great. So I held this for about 6 months and had a terrible motorcycle wreck went down at 120 mph couldn’t go to them gym due to injuries at least this is what I told my self and ended losing interest and now I have gained some back not near as badly but still there.
So now it’s time to get back to where I was before but even better I don’t just want to cut I’m looking to build better than before I’ve been putting my home gym together now for a couple months and will continue adding as I need.
I will be taking some pics of me now soon before I begin and I have some of before when I lost any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated I have been reading on this forum for a while and decided since I’m getting back into it it might be good to get some insight from more experienced lifters when I need it.
Congrats on the weight loss, surviving the spill, and getting back at it.
I’ll ask you the question I was asked when I came here for advice: What are your goals? The more specific u are the better help you’ll get. If i understand correctly, you want to add muscle and get lean? Doing those simultaneously would be very difficult.
I’d suggest you do a powerlifting type routine like Jim Wendler’s 5/3/1 to add muscle for a while and then switch to more of a physique cutting program.
Also, I’m assuming you’re over 35? For my purposes, Christian Thibideau is the resident expert for those of us who are “seasoned.”
You’ve obviously observed how diet impacts results. There are different ways to eat depending on those goals I mentioned, and they’ll relate to the program you choose.
My first goal is to get back to a being more lean trying to hold on to as much muscle as I can so I plan on doing 4 day push pull routine and doing something around a 40-40-20 ratio on food.
I figure when I get back to the way I look in this picture I’ll try to bulk up I would like to be more around 220 with 10-12% bf I know it’s going to be a long road which is fine with me this was my original plan and I was around 10 lbs before starting my bulk last time I know it’s hard to lose fat and build muscle at the same time which is why I’ve decided to approach this at two different times instead I really enjoy compound movements except now I have to be careful my left should does not do well with incline bench any more and my left knee is good for squats until I put more than 150 on my shoulders.
Would I be better off trying to eat big but clean and just lift heavy or would I only add fat if I could accomplish losing fat while doing this it would be nice but I have always read to lose you have to be in a defeciet and to gain you have to be in surplus
Glad you’re here @chewy81. I’m the same height and weight as you are with the same goals so it’ll be interesting following your progress. Losing fat and putting on muscle at roughly the same time is doable, in that over the course of a month or year you go into a surplus on some days and a deficit on others. It’ll affect your lifts and recovery though. Your strength gains and weight loss will be slower but by the time you reach your goal you’ll have a healthy metabolism and be a lot stronger than somebody who just dieted or did a bunch of cardio, not that cardio’s bad for general health.
I will do cardio I love running however I will limit my cardio now more than before due to my job I deliver for FedEx to apartments and all the stairs I run for 8+ hours a day I don’t have any cardio left lol. This is one worry I have with left day I will come to hate the stairs at that point.
I will be getting all my protein and food this Friday coming up I plan to start lift first thing tomorrow
As a FFB (former fat boy), IMO you need to strike this word from your vocabulary and never, never attempt to ‘bulk’ again. When you lose weight, all those fat cells don’t go away----they merely shrink in size (unless you have liposuction surgery, of course). Thus, they are always lurking, ready to re-fill with triglycerides the moment you go into a sustained caloric surplus.
Instead of ‘bulking,’ play the long game. Focus on re-comping–eating at maintenance while working hard in the gym. You will lose bodyfat (albeit slowly) while gaining muscle (ditto). Or better still, diet back down to 190#, and recomp there. And forget about unrealistic arbitrary numbers (‘I want to be 220# @10-12% BF’). Unless you’re willing to become a serious juicer, it is very, very unlikely you could ever get to 220# with only 10% BF–that would require gaining at least 30# of muscle (probably more), which is simply not going to happen for most nattys in their late 30s-40s.
I have to say if Christian is near our age he has a really nice build something I’ve never felt that I could achieve.
I looked up the 5-3-1 routing I like that will have to get some more plates if I plan to try this one have not got enough for some of my lifts to hit 90% mainly my deads.
So before I was taking in around 1500-1800 Cal a day depending on what I was training that day should I go back to this plean or change it to something different.
Example of meals.
Meal 1 4 egg whites one whole egg one cup of milk and a slice of dry whole wheat bread.
Meal 2 8 oz turkey or chicken baked with corn oil and a serving of fruit
Meal 3 protein shake syntha6
Meal 4 either 8 oz of turkey chicken or tuna with some greens
Meal 5 post work out shake 2 Serv syntha 6
Sometimes I would ad here and there if I became hungry I did not touch any sweets candies or soda for nearly a year which did suck.
This was pretty much every day meals for me which I didn’t want to change because I saw that it worked really well.
I’ve never tried to bulk before it will be the first which is going to be a while from now because I need to get to a healthier size.
When I do plan to start adding size I’ll do it slow I’m not going to eat garbage it will stay strict I’ll only eat aprx 300-500 Cal. Surplus daily which will come from healthy carbs and protein only. I realize it might be unreleastic for a Natty and that fine I will push as far as I can I will to reach my full potential if I want more at that point I will go from there but for now we will see how it goes.
