Hi y’all. Ever felt like you could see the writing on the wall, and you knew that if you acted now you might be able to avoid some inevitable, and upcoming, medical issues. Or at least put them off for a few decades. Well that’s me. I’m a big fat 40 year old who has lifted off an on most of his life. A little more off than on as of late. I’m creating this log to keep me accountable. It’s so easy to be gung-ho for a month or two, until life gets busy or other work piles up. Then you do the slow fade away from the gym… But enough of this. Down to business.
This march I weighed in at 315. And at 5’10 I was tons of fun. Thru diet and a little perserverance I was able to drop down to 280 as of last week. Had my body fat tested by a good friend of mine who owns a gym in Scottsboro, so I could get a grip on caloric intake. Because If I’m going to do this I need to be doing the right thing outside the gym as well. I’m 18% bodyfat with just a smidge under 230 lbs of lean body weight. So I’ve set my intake at 3100 calories since I have a pretty active life for a fat guy.
Started a little cardio this weekend. And started the gym this morning.
LOG:
11/7/16
Fasting cardio -20 min.
Banana and a shake on the way to the gym right after.
Bench:
bar x 20x2
135x10x2
225x10x1 - paused the last three.
Stopped there cause I know I’m going to pay for it this week.
Dumbell shrugs:
100s x 12x3
Face pulls:
40x12x3
If that were the case, you would be stage-ready shredded at ~240-245#. To put that in perspective, Arnold was ~6’2", and competed at ~230-235#. So unless you are an absolute tank–we’re talking bench/squat/DL in the 500/600/700 neighborhood, and a massively muscled individual–I’m afraid you are not carrying anywhere near 230# of LBM. In fact, at 5’10", if you are carrying ‘just’ 180# of LBM (which would translate to a shredded stage weight of ~190#), that would be very impressive.
To give you a sense of the sort of physique I’m talking about, have a look at @bulldog9899’s log. I don’t know how tall he is, or how much he weighs, but he’s a huge strong guy. If you are 18% BF at 280#, your physique will be akin to his–massive and very ‘solid looking.’
I’m not trying to discourage you; I just want to give you a more realistic impression of what you’re dealing with, and of what’s in store for you vis a vis the body composition changes you can expect as you lose weight. (I know from personal experience how disappointing it is to hit a BW goal, only to find your physique looks nothing like what you expected it to at that weight.) Best of luck reaching your goals.
Bare with me here, since I’m not sure how to get a pic on here yet. I can see why you would be skeptical of my lean body mass. The fat thing is true, but is also a running joke. I do have a little bit of gut,though I can see 2 to 4 abs at the top most mornings, and I do have 50 pounds of bodyfat that I would like to peal at least half of that off. But, I am a tank. And years of powerlifting on a team, even though that was years ago now, have made me so. Let me try an figure out this photo thing.
You fooled me with the 225x10 benching–which is of course perfectly respectable, but not tank-ish. I shoulda paid more attention to the 3 sets of 100s x 12 shrugs.
No problem man. I had left out, not intentionally it was late in the day, a handful of things would probably make this log more understandable. This is my first week back since April. So I’m going to keep things light for a little while so I don’t wake up in the fetal position. The main reason I started this log is to fight off some medical issues that popped up earlier this year, that I will do everything in my power not to experience again. I have horrible leg circulation. Have for a while. Never did that much about it in the past. This year I got a superficial blood clot in my left leg, which also caused some skin ulcers, which are extrememly painful, due to lack of circulation. Couldn’t walk much for a couple of weeks. Missed work etc. Now I know cardio won’t fix damaged valves in your veins, but increasing your circulatory system and dropping a few pounds will help deal with some of the problems. An if I have to do cardio a couple times a day (even though I’ve always hated and been horrible at cardio) so be it. On the plus side, I will be in the gym 4 days a week too, so of course I’m going to be lifting.
Log:
11/8/16
Fasting cardio 20 min.
Squats: Wide stance
bar x 10
135x10 - heh heh heh - left ham and quad cramped on first rep. Stood back up and pulled stance in about 4 inches, then did 9 more really slow an really deep.
Hobbled into the cardio room and did 10 quick minutes on the cross ramp to try an work some of that out.
If you don’t mind my asking (I’m a physician, so this is of particular interest to me), to what does your doc attribute the poor circulation/valve damage in your legs?
Will certainly understand if you don’t wish to discuss it, and apologies in advance if the question seems intrusive.
Went to gym. Not much time so supersetted these 3 exercises with no breaks to speed things up.
T-bar pulldowns:
100x20x1
150x10x2
Seated close grip rows:
100x10x1
150x10x1
Upright dumbell rows:
20x10x1
25x10x1
30x10x1
That was all the time I had. Tomorrow will be cardio and driving t-posts an digging holes, before I go to my job job. It’s hard to balance farm life, work life, gym life, and life life. But I will make it work.
Bench:
45x20x2
135x10x2
225x5x1
275x3x1
315x3x1 - everything felt really heavy today. So I stopped there.
Part of it has to do with stacking hay and not eating much all weekend. Part of it, is just out
of shape.
Thanks for the compliment