In my new attempts to revamp my body, I am looking towards T-Nation (i.e. you guys) as my new partners during this journey.
I started working out seriously in January 2006 when I realized that I had gained a lot of weight due to my year long daily binge on extra cheese pizzas from the corner take-away. I embarked on a misleading nutritional campaign that lost me about 10 pounds in body weight (fortunately, mostly fat since I hardly had any muscle to begin with). In September 2006, after I changed cities, joined a new gym and got my first post-studies job I decided that I was tired of leading my life as a scrawny bastard. I upped my daily food intake to include almost everything in sight. Within months I was the envy of all new comers at my gym since my clothes started to fill in nicely with broad shoulders, bulging biceps and disproportionately large traps. Little could anyone see that underneath my clothes, my waistline expanded by about 3-4 inches with most of the fat accumulating around my love handles. After the first year, my progress came to a complete halt except for strength gains and minor visible improvements.
With a static weight of about 76-77 kgs for over a year, I finally decided 2 weeks ago to give my body another overhaul. I upped my diet using Dr. Berardi’s Massive Eating articles to about 3,200-3,600 calories per day.
I’ll be using this forum to keep tabs on my progress and hopefully get some comments from T-Nation veterans on improvements that could help me achieve my goals better. So here goes…
Info:
Age: 27 years and 6 months
Weight: 78.2 kgs
Height: 5’8"
Body Fat: 18.5% (estimated on those electronic devices)
Goal: My ultimate goals are basically to look good and feel healthy. In order to achieve them I feel that I need to increase muscle mass and reduce my body fat to around 10%. I was always scrawny as a kid - I hated it then and I hate it now!
Routine:
Monday: Chest
Tuesday: Bi’s and Tri’s
Wednesday: Back
Thursday: Shoulders
Friday: Off
Saturday: Legs and Lower Back
Sunday: Cardio and Abs
Nutrition:
Meal 1: 10 egg whites+2 whole eggs+spinach+tomatoes+onions+2 brown bread slices+3 seven seas cod liver oil capsules
Meal 2: 2 frankfurter sausages+1 cup carrots
Meal 3: 200 grams chicken breasts+spinach+tomatoes+mushrooms+1 slice cheese+2 cup carrots
Meal 4: (Pre/During Workout) protein shake+1 cup milk 1%+1 banana
Meal 5: (Post Workout) protein shake+1 cup milk 1%+1 banana+2 apples
Meal 6: 2.5 cups Kellogg Corn Flakes+1 cup milk
Meal 7: 0.5 cup lentils+125 grams ground beef+spinach+handful almonds
This makes about 3,500 calories per day. I’ve been trying to follow this as much as possible and as difficult as it has been, I always try to ensure that any replacement meal that I’m having has the same caloric breakdown as my original meal for that time.
Next post:
For my next post, I will be looking at:
- A new training regime. I’ve been at this for about 4 months now so I want to change. The reason I did not change this with my diet was because I want to be able to measure the effects of each change that I make. Recommendations are most welcome! I will also post details on the exercises that I was doing each day.
- Get a measuring tape and post body stats.
- Determine 1RM for different exercises.
I’ve been cataloging my progress over the past 2 weeks and since starting I have managed to gain 1 kg and have kept my body fat at 18.5%. My problem areas include my chest and lats. I always feel like my shoulders do most of the work during my exercises, especially during my chest workout. Therefore, by the time I get to my shoulders’ workout, they’re mostly burnt out and it gets very difficult for me to try to get any work done. My lats are lagging, but I think that was mostly due to poor form, which I’m working on now.
Looking forward to comments/suggestions…
