Sup brahs. Warning: long post incoming.
So, Ive been lurking this thread somewhat in conjunction with the Weight Loss thread, and figured Id tell my story as well as ask for some suggestions going forward. I recognize, like, one person in this thread (sup Vinny Mac). BTW, Im gonna post pics, but without my face; Im still not comfortable sharing my face with strangers lol, dont be offended! Maybe in due course
Anyway, heres a quick background. Id always been a straight up fat ass for most of my life. In my youth, I was the kid that ate like shit. Doritos, Snickers, Gatorade, sodas, trash like that for lunch everyday. Also, being Indian, even home cooked food was pretty shitty for me, just fried foods and white rice all the time. I was also super inactive, inside on the computer (Ive been on GAF for 10+ years! Think I joined when I was 14?) or playing vidya games for hours on end. No wonder I was a butterball. I think my peak was something like 180-185 lbs - being 56, thats pretty damn bad.
Anyway, over junior/senior years of college, I got fed up with being fat and got pretty serious about eating healthy and working out. Over the course of 6 months or so, I got all the way down to 139 lbs by following a rudimentary workout plan that was a total body circuit 3 days a week combined with 30-45 min of cardio the other 3 days a week (1 day rest). But then I graduated, got a desk job, stopped working out, started drinking and eating like shit again, and before I knew it, I was back up to 170 lbs. This is where my new story starts:
February 18, 2013 - 28 days into Get Fit lifestyle (never did take Day 1 pics, a shame)
Woof. Anyway, on January 21, 2013, I started my new journey. For the first 4-5 weeks, I followed the same plan I did in college. The weight circuit went like this:
- squat
- lat pulldown
- bench press
- overhead press
- upright row
- triceps pushdown
- leg extension
- bicep curl
- leg curl
Using weight where I could do 10 reps per set, 1 set per exercise, 30-45 sec rest in between exercises. Doing that circuit twice.
I had some semblance of success, but nothing amazing (keep in mind I wasnt tracking my macros or anything at this point, just eating healthier).
One of my coworkers at the time, who is really in shape, is more into bodyweight workouts / metabolic conditioning / crossfit type stuff (I can already picture all the :rolleyes lol). He gave me workouts to do for 6 weeks along with a pdf guide that had over 200 variations of metcons/crossfit routines. I had a lot of fun doing these and basically did that for the next 7-9 months, bringing me to early February of this year:
February 9, 2014
At this point, I was ready to switch up the routine and really change my body. So I started scouring bodybuilding.com (see the :rolleyes again lol) and came across Greg Plitts MFT 28 program (
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/mft28-greg-plitts-4-week-military-fitness-trainer-by-met-rx.html). Now, I didnt actually follow this program to a T (lol one solid meal a day, 2 weight workouts a day, pretty much all liquid diet, etc.), but I ripped the workouts from it and created a modified 10- week plan that I did which was basically:
- Fasted cardio + abs in the morning (20 min stairmaster (speed intervals)/20 min elliptical (resistance intervals)/ab circuits from above)
- Weights in the evening (ripped straight from the trainer above)
- And followed a meal plan where I ate basically the same foods everyday and roughly broke out to 1,800 cals (200g protein/60g fat/100g carbs)
That led to this:
Mid-April 2014 (took this pic after a workout when I caught my reflection in the kitchen window and was mirin lol)
For the past 2 months now, Ive been just doing the evening workouts (dropped the fasted cardio in the morning) and have relaxed the meal plan (I generally get about the same amount of protein but prob more carbs and fat, somewhere more like 150g/75g if I had to guess).
I dont really have a specific goal in mind except to cut more body fat (Im obsessed with getting more visible abs!). Im not really looking to set any PRs with crazy weights or anything, which truth be told has made me a bit hesitant to post in this thread (maybe this is better suited for the Weight Loss thread?). Ive been reading the OP and thinking about checking out some of the plans listed there though.
Also, I checked out that nutrition calculator and it freaks the shit out of me lol. Ive always been of the mindset that carbs are the devil, and that calculator is telling me to take in 330g of carbs on workout days! Seems like wayyy too much. I've probably averaged somewhere between 100g (low end) to 175g (high) carbs/day for the past 4 months. Thoughts?
Heres my stats:
- Age: 26
- Height: 56
- Weight: ~145 lbs (fluctuates between 142-148); also according to the calculator in the OP, Im somewhere between 11-12% body fat? I doubt its that low.
- Goal: Cutting body fat; I wanna get cuts and more visible abs! Im narcissistic
- Current Training Schedule: see above, but basically a circuit style 5-day split (Chest/Back/Legs/Arms/Shoulders)
- Current Training Equipment Available: pretty much everything at my gym
Sorry for the long-winded post! I know Im a total noob, but just reading through the OP and the posts here have been really helpful and I look forward to hearing what people have to say!
Bonus pic I took yesterday cause striations!
