From reading the various posts here and in a few of the articles in the e-zine, it seems like there is a bit of a recurring theme… alot of us used to be fat bastards! I definitely fall into this category, and actually have alot of regrets for not becoming enlightened until about 30 yrs old. So, how fat was everyone, and what age did you start excersizing? What made you decide to change (and please don’t tell us it was BFL)?
I was a fat bastard throughout my early teen years. At around 15 or 16, fed up with the way I looked, I took things into my own hands and changed. It was sparked by my father taking up a walking campaign to lose his small gut. He didn’t stick with it, but that’s how I got into the fitness game. I ate a crazily low fat diet, but I did up my protein intake and started weights around 3 to 5 times a week at school. Stupidly, I never squatted or deadlifted, and benched around 3 times a week. That said, I transformed my physique from fat to a Brad Pitt Fight Club look - mainly function of a very low fat and low cal diet inconjunction with lifting. I kept this up for about 2 years. Christmas time this year, I discovered T-Mag and I’ve completed another “transformation” of sorts. The biggest change I made was counting calories and tracking macros, along with starting the big-lifts. Since then, I’ve packed on about 15 pounds of muscle with a bit of fat gain, but that fat is now sliding off nicely. I never pro-actively bulked either. I can’t wait to start a full-blown bulking phase next year (say April, given I’m in Oz). That’s my story =)
I was fat but it was because i was a football player. Now most people wouldnt have considered me fat but i was. I was around 20% at 262. Now im 9-10% at 245.
Slightly of topic, but I’ve never been a fat guy, but I’ve used to be a skinny guy. I started lifting weights when I was 15 (I’m 19 now) when I was at school. I had these two york dumbells and I would do high volume training with all my sets of about 15-20 reps. I dibn’t put on much muscle but I was lean as hell. My BF must have been around 7-8%, I was quite pleased with myself. I started for the same reason as most peole start, self-confidence and the opposite sex. I even got some admiring glances from Lydia Thomas, the 2nd best looking girl in the year in our swimming classes. Now that’s an acheivement.
Yes, when i was 17 years old i weighed in at 236 pounds at about over 30% body fat. In about 18 months i dropped down to 163 pounds at 11% body fat. Now i am 20 years old and am 175 pounds at 9% body fat.
i was a very athletic kid/teenager with an average build and played every sport i could enroll in. developed many bad dietary habits during these early years, but was able to get away with it. upon graduation the activities ceased, but my diet remained. 10 years later i looked in the mirror and said, “what the ?, how could i have not noticed this disgusting transformation ?”. that was 3 long years ago. thank God i woke up from my slumber. it scares me to think of where i was headed. what a dark time that was…kevo
I’m 30. I started out at 36%bf, and got down to 12-14%. Now I’m massing up again, and since I add fat easily I look large right now, but at least I know what works. I used mostly MD6 as a fat burner, and diet/workouts from here and Men’s Health (moreso the online forum than the published magazine–the forum is closer to T-mag in terms of the approach to food and exerise).
I’ve been fat all my life except for a brief stint as a wrestler in high school. Add in some various physical problems and you have a total fat slob. You can pretty much copy Aikicita’s post onto mine except that I only started getting serious about my body this April. I’m 29 and about 19% BF right now and dropping.
Measurements taken two nights ago show I’ve lost 12 3/4 inchess off my ass alone. How the HELL did I carry around that much FAT. Thank god it’s almost gone though.
I was 5’7 220lbs at about 30 % bf.that was around age fourteen. I’m 19 now…have been 164lbs @ Close to 7%. Still didn’t look great because of my previous fatness. I’m trying to put some weight on now 175lbs close to 9%
In high school I was about 285# and athletic (swimming team, baseball), and had already discovered my lifelong passion, lifting weights. Then my appendix burst, and long story short, I became quite fat. Dieted it off using high protein and protein-only diets, continued lifting, got into biking, went down into the 180s again. Got married young, moved to Detroit, became unhappy quickly, and as a young rock’n’roll journalist had mucho opportunity to eat, drink and smoke all night, so I did. Worked out haphazardly for a few years, grew to a svelte 305# or so sloppy pounds. Moved to Wisconsin, cleaned up, got divorced, began running and dieting. Weight went down to 171#! Too skinny. Got smart, slowed down from running 50 miles per week, got back into bodybuilding nutrition and working out. Fifteen years later I’m in the 210-215# range (just down from 225# and a mass cycle), single digit b.f., and in better shape than ever before in my life. Have shown pics of myself “big” to the Testosterone staff last year and nobody even recognized me “then”! Cool.
I was really heavy in elementary school, in part because of arthritic hips from rheumatic fever. It got so bad that my family doc recommended I get fitted with leg braces. My dad–a real T-man!–adamantly refused, and immediately put me on his regimen of karate and lifting.
It took a while, but eventually fat went away, and thirty-five years later I’ve never felt a recurrence of the arthritis.
What’s cool is when I pick up one of those 45lb weights and I think, “this weighs the same amount as the fat I’ve lost since I started lifting!”
I was fat beginning at the age of 9. In high school I started lifting weights and lost a lot of fat but I never got lean(probably around 15-18% body fat). I didn’t know any thing about nutrition.I just lifted and hoped I would get big. Well when I got to College I blew up. I was 185 when I got there and after a year there I balloned up to 242. I finally got fed up and read up about nutrition. I lost fat but muscle also. I ended up getting to 153 and around 8-9%, 5’7 at age of 22. Now I’m in a bulking phase and at 165. I can’t go all out on the bulking because I tend to gain fat easily especially in my waist and lower stomach.
WOW! We’ve all made some very impressive progress… I guess I should have posted my own story a bit more - I steadily gained weight throughout my life - my family doesn’t exactly have the best eating habits, and they unknowingly was following the typical fat-free, high-carb diet (yes, let’s get fat free dressing, but eat 1/2 lb of pasta). I lifted on and off (mostly off) for quite a few years, but knew nothing about nutrition, and really didn’t know what I was doing in the gym. I got to 30, bought a house, and my roommate was interested in going, but could only go in the morning. We lifted together for a while, and after about 3 months I was seeing some progress, which motivated me to keep going. I guess when I started I was about 186, pushing about 30% BF, and a 36 inch waist. I’ve been down to a 30" waist before, but I was really not making any progress (I was starving myself, chasing after a goal that I just don’t have the genetics to achieve, and not really even knowing how to do that correctly). I started working with a sports nutritionist about 3 years ago, and now I’m 34, up at almost 200 lbs, and around 7%, although my waist has gone up a bit while I’m trying to bulk up for the winter. I owe alot to the guys on this board, and the articles posted in the e-zine by all of the writers. There’s still a bit of emotional scarring from not getting into this earlier, and missing my 20’s because of it, but as they say, time heals all wounds, and I’m in better shape now then all of the guys I was jealous of back then. I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one who has overcome! Good job everyone! Keep it up!
I’m 52 YO, 5’8" and was fat all my life. On 7/23/00 I weighed 240. On 1/2/01 I was at 159, where I am now. I started out with 42% BF, 27% on 11/15/00, am now 19% and headed south to a goal of 10%. Muscle gain has been very tough, mainly due to losing about 30 # of muscle in those 80#s dropped (lost too fast) , and age as well. I just keep on working, now with a trainer, and am doing great and will never go back. ZMA, Tribex, Nandro.