Well, in the second picture you definitely look bigger, except for maybe your calves. 
It doesn’t look like you’ve gained fat, either.
Why not take more measures of your progress. Get a caliper and have someone pinch a bunch of skinfolds once a week, do the math, and calculate your pounds of BF and LBM. Tape measurements, too.
Also, IMO you NEED a massive PWO MEAL with protein and carbs, about an hour after the Surge. You have nothing fueling muscle growth all night after the workout.
I think the real question is this: Should your body look much different after just three months of working out? Maybe your expectations are too high and you need to be patient. Not sure. What do others think? Should be look different just after 3 months?
Don’t get down- I can see a difference. You do chest and upper back a fair amount. I say you probably like shrugs, lat pull downs, curls, with some benching.
Def set goals, and find a program. Stick to it for at least a month, then switch and try a new one. See how you feel after a month and a half of your second one.
Don’t pay attention to people you see in the gym. It is rare to see someone who works out correctly, whether form wise or even for their goals. Do lots of reading. Ill give you a hint, the number one thing you’ll see - do squats and deadlifts. And actually do them, don’t care about the weight. When you are breaking parallelon squats and doing proper deads, you’ll be glad you started slow.
Here is a goal: be able to properly squat your body weight 20 times, and dead lift it that many also. This is a realistic goal for anyone. Rep your weight at least 4 times on the bench. You can do these, and by the time you get to them ( I assume you can’t) you will notice change.
what do u do at the gym?
Only because I find half these replies annoying because they aren’t actually helpful but promote that you should be satisfied with 3 months of your life invested for the results as displayed. You shouldn’t be and sounds like your goal to be 200+ and lean is admirable enough to warrant an earnest response, instead of this carebear generic accept mediocrity bull.
Pick a definate goal, build muscle (dirty/clean bulk), lose bodyfat, or a combination of both but you will be faced with having a more difficult time building muscle because of your lack of experience; Therefore not advised unless you are willing to put more effort, discipline, intensity, and most importantly learn, apply, repeat x n.
look up beginner stickies in the beginner section, read on nutrition and eat according to your goal.
not that I personally believe in any one of the listed programs but search and look up rippetoe, dogcrapp training, w4sb, or look for other info and try it out.
– If you feel out of your depth, you can always just go with muscle&fitness and try one of their general workout programs ~
Now if what I am saying is too complicated, then this is where you need to stop reading and get a personal trainer or introduce yourself to the guys at the gym with the body you want.
You’ve probably packed on a little bit of muscle, but based on your calorie intake and your results you gained bodyfat too. Could you have done better? On the order of 2-3 times exponentially. If you can be consistent at eating then you can be consistent at the gym.
Honestly… your initial opinion is right and you are headed in the right direction.
Unfortunately :
The less factual info you post, the less likely anyone that knows anything will want to post.
The weaker the question, the weaker the response ~ as you can already see in your thread.
Therefore I recommend for free advice and to lure out some more knowledgeable posters that are actually your weight but a lot more muscular or heavier…
Answer the following questions in a clear, detailed, organized manner.
Final comments :
You have goals with your physique and that is great. Your honest with yourself and appear to be earnest and diligent in your nutritional habits. All your missing is knowledge, experience, and the where-with-all to chase after your target.
My key tips ~
Nutritionally a person eats differently based on what they are trying to do. The tried and true methods are calorie excess to gain weight, calorie deficit to lose weight.
Search BMR, Thib’s Bell Dieting, Carb Cycling, Carb Codex, John Berardi nutrition articles since your aim is to be leaner and gain muscle.
Now if you plan to lose bodyfat and gain muscle overtime, be aware this may take longer.
Also a person will train differently based on what their goals are. A girls field hockey player will not train the same way as an olympic ping pong player. The 130lb fitness tri-athlete of 10 years does not train the same as I do at my much heavier weight. His goals aren’t the same and his needs different. Keep this in mind.
The way you have been eating, if you had a good experienced training partner or any personal trainer worth a damn you would have gained muscle. Without seeing your workout, actual diet or knowing the validity of whether you are actually consistent is of course a factor. But will take you for initial posted value.
Anyways, good luck ~ keep that ability to be critical and honest with yourself so you never stop improving.
A more common response you may find is : Shuttup and lift and lose the bodyfat later when you have more muscle.
There is some truth to this. Works for me.
[quote]kinein wrote:
Is it the diet that’s the problem or that he didn’t push himself hard enough in the gym to justify the number of calories he was consuming?
[quote]Digity wrote:
kinein wrote:
I don’t get this part. Doesn’t the fact that he put on body fat mean he maxed out his muscle growth and the remaining calories ended up as fat?
[/quote]
Not necessarily. It could also mean that he doesn’t know how to eat (specifically how his body processes food). If he’s eating high amounts of carbs with fats, then his body is going to store the fat (due to insulin). That will happen regardless of whether his body has “maxed out” on muscle growth.
Or, conversely he may actually need some really high carb (low fat) days to kick start his metabolism again.
Could be a combination of both. We still haven’t seen what he is doing in the gym.
Not a bad question to ask Digity. Sento answers it perfectly for me tho so time to go run errands.
Though the idea of a beginner being able to max-out muscle growth on a day-to-day basis over the course of his first legitimate 3-4 months in the gym, with no real experience or guidance ~ is unfathomable.
The only way I could see myself being able to do that would be with 2 dedicated spotters to go with me everyday.
A personal cook ~ since I’ve only recently graduated from the George Foreman.
Time: to sleep 8-10 hours everyday.
Even then, probably a mini-clone CT to expound to me the virtues of tuning my diet and workouts over a bi-monthly/monthly period of time.
Hence, he shouldn’t sell himself short and say, " This is all he is capable of." Philosophically & Mentally limiting yourself has an impact on attempts, habits, and training over time, imo.
I can not tell you how much I appreciate the amount of help you guys are willing to put in to help a dude out.
In response to Kinein’s post which I believe will answer EVERYONE’S questions please see below.
I am currently 5’10, 189lbs, 22 y.o. (It may also help to note that I have a desk job. Not much exercise outside of the gym)
After reading some of the mentioned articles I can see clearly that my diet for the first 2 months sucked. I did not keep a food log so I can’t post any valid food logs. I am not going to try to recreate my crappy diet, i already know it sucked.
For 3 months I was following Chad Waterbury’s TBT. For those unfamiliar with the program it consists of 4 compound movements followed by 2 isolation moves. Parameters are switched about every two weeks. This program was most likely too advanced for my experience level. My consistency in the gym was excellent and I truly feel that I busted my ass.
An example of what I ate for about 2 weeks while I got weaker and then eventually got sick is as follows;
6:30am: 1 cup egg beaters, 1 whole egg, 3 strips turkey bacon, handful of cashews, fish oil cap. 515 cal, 42P, 14C, 34F
9:30am: Peanut butter shake (JB recipe) + fish cap. 412 cal, 35P, 17C, 24F.
12:30pm: Homemade turkey burger (1/2 lb) with olives and cheese (No Bun) fish-oil cap, Serving of Baby Carrots. 645 cal 78P, 15C 33F
3:30pm: Peanut butter shake (JB recipe) + fish cap. 412 cal, 35P, 17C, 24F.
6:30pm: Baked Salmon w/ pecan crust, Large Salad with olive oil & Vinegar. Serving of carrots. 715 cal, 58P, 18C, 48F.
During + after workout, 8:00PM Surge: 340cal,35P,46C,2F
Totals: 3039 cal 283pro, 126carb, 162fat
Day 2:
6:30am: 1 cup egg beaters, 1 whole egg, 3 strips turkey bacon, handful of cashews, fish oil cap. 515 cal, 42P, 14C, 34F
9:30am: Peanut butter shake (JB recipe) + fish cap. 412 cal, 35P, 17C, 24F.
12:30pm: Chicken Breasts, Veggies, Fish cap
3:30pm: Peanut butter shake (JB recipe) + fish cap. 412 cal, 35P, 17C, 24F.
6:30pm: Steak, Mixed Veggies 530cal 54P, 21C, 28F.
8:30pm: Surge: 340cal,35P,46C,2F
I averaged around 3000 calories a day.
Looking back, I don’t think these 2 weeks were really enough to tell if this was working or not. I ended up getting sick (didn’t eat for 2 days straight), and also made a few poor food choices too often.
After reading some of the articles mentioned, I have come up with the following plan. Please comment and offer your thoughts.
For the next month I am going to eat according to JB’s 10 habits while keeping calories around 2500-2800 (too little, too high???). I feel like I can’t really adjust anything or “diet” until I have down consistency with my eating. Once a week (friday night) I am going to have one cheat meal.(Not a fall off the wagon type binge, but something that doesn’t fit the habits.)
For a workout I am going to follow Rippetoe’s Starting Strength, with a goal of increasing each lift by 5lbs each week at a minimum. I am going to add in some light morning cardio before breakfast on a scoop of whey.
I am going to start a log like many others have in hopes that tracking what I am doing will help me (and others) catch mistakes. I don’t want to come back here a year later and look the same.
I am not bulking or cutting for the first month until I have my eating down correctly. I will then from there, try to lean out. In this time period I am hoping however that I notice some form of composition change and increase my strength.
Thanks to anyone who posted or was willing to lend a hand. I will be starting my log on Sunday so keep a look out if you are interested or are willing to help a newbie out. Please offer any advice you may have on what I have posted above.
Thank you!
Looks like your better informed now, keep learning and applying yourself.
Recommend you do the BMR calculation then use the Harris Benedict Equation to figure out your current maintenance needs ( calorie wise ).
Search BMR on these forums for threads and topics.
Rule of thumb is 15-20% off of that would set you at a healthy deficit, though others have been known to use more drastic percentage cuts.
Based on your caloric intake, your eating style was for gaining weight or maintaining your current weight. Combined with poor eating ~ as you noted with bad eating choices made more then once. Along with not eating for 2 days etc.
For everything you do with eating ~ you have to trade something in return. Deficit involves losing body mass of some type or another via not getting enough calories to maintain your body mass. Eating a bad meal every other day along with a few beers here and there will add to your body (example… I have no idea what your bad meals and little mistakes were). So if your constantly digging holes in quicksand your only going to be frustrated after you look at results over a certain period of time.
The moral of the story is : do not dig holes in quicksand.
Further topics of interest.
My mind is blank right now concerning your workouts. TBT isnt bad ~ I just am leery because I don’t feel like I get a good workout if I involve more then 2 muscles in a workout session. Let alone a total body session. I would use it to maintain my body or as a light exercise pattern for blood flushing… and hmm could use it to lose weight. But I tend to feel much better with volume.
When you post your next workout log ~ not that I’m saying you should bring a notebook to the gym. But if you can accurately remember the standard rest time between sets, weights used, scheme etc. Not only make a note of it for users to reply to ~ but note how you were feeling before during your workout and after, if there are any comments. If not then don’t make up stuff.
Or reverse the cycle. You drink a coke, You have to do 15 minutes of jump-roping. Have takeout chinese ~ 2 20 minute sessions of high intensity interval training. not including the 10 min. of warmup before and 5-10 min of cooldown after.
Sometimes you can simplify it with math, though this isn’t entirely applicable.
Negative Reinforcement has its merits. You’ll be less likely to cheat and if you do, you’ll pay for it immediately instead of wonder why you aren’t seeing results.
Thus sticking to scheduled cheat meals.
I prefer once a week 1 day : 1 meal whatever, buffet, pizza with the works and wings, the entire breakfast menu at mcdonalds. 10 fish-o-filets. Examples … -_-
Though 20 hard tacos 1 grilled stuffed chicken burrito and 5 chicken chalupas and 5 cheesy melts… tempting sin food hmmm I need to schedule a cheat meal.