Fitness and Healthy Lifestyle thread

[musclefan21]

I have been busting my butt trying to be healthier and be in shape, etc. I finally decided to lower my bodyfat a bit and it has been absolutely horrible. I am not even sure if it is worth it but been doing it anyways. Lost quite a bit of size or so I think but managed to lower my bodyfat a bit.

I am 32, at 6'3" 195lbs. I was 205 just a couple or so months ago... I still have mixed feelings on being leaner at 195~ but small or being not so lean but bulkier at 205~

So what do you think? How many perfect am I you think? I am obviously flexing here. And let's see some progress pics of yours. No home, share your hard work proudly.

 

[Led_Zep]

I just ate a whole pizza and drank a 6 pack while watching walking dead, I don't fit in here.

 

[Troponin]

I was at my peak about 3 years ago. was competing in BJJ and Judo for a few years, then my knee got toasted and had reconstructive surgery on it, along with other things. I have been trying to reach my previous glory, but damn, I lost about 20lbs of LBM and couldn't exercise the way I wanted, then eventually lost the motivation to continue eating such a tight diet.

Before pic, at about 18 years old. Was 150lbs at 6'2"

At my biggest

and my current build...

I am getting there. Just have to keep reminding myself that it's a long journey, or a marathon, and sometimes you hit bumps in the road. If you give up, you WILL regret it down the road.

 

[CobraBob]

I was at my peak about 3 years ago. was competing in BJJ and Judo for a few years, then my knee got toasted and had reconstructive surgery on it, along with other things. I have been trying to reach my previous glory, but damn, I lost about 20lbs of LBM and couldn't exercise the way I wanted, then eventually lost the motivation to continue eating such a tight diet.

I am getting there. Just have to keep reminding myself that it's a long journey, or a marathon, and sometimes you hit bumps in the road. If you give up, you WILL regret it down the road.

That is the truth. It really is. I commend you for pressing on in your long journey.

 

[musclefan21]

I was at my peak about 3 years ago. was competing in BJJ and Judo for a few years, then my knee got toasted and had reconstructive surgery on it, along with other things. I have been trying to reach my previous glory, but damn, I lost about 20lbs of LBM and couldn't exercise the way I wanted, then eventually lost the motivation to continue eating such a tight diet.

Before pic, at about 18 years old. Was 150lbs at 6'2"

At my biggest

and my current build...

I am getting there. Just have to keep reminding myself that it's a long journey, or a marathon, and sometimes you hit bumps in the road. If you give up, you WILL regret it down the road.

Dude you still look solid. Having a consistent lean body is unrealistic anyways.

I 100% agree, you do regret if you give up. I have been there multiple times. I hope i dont give up this time, although I have my days lol

 

[alaskablkmach]

I am 32, 6ft and weight is 190 but I am 6.5% body fat and have been for a long time. The reason I stay lean is I can eat whatever the **** I want. AND THAT MY FRIEND IS WHY IT IS WORTH IT...lol.....I got hurt in Iraq and hurt my back and have been doing it ever since then in 2006. But it also helps my back if it is strengthened. So I maintain in the gym.

 

[alaskablkmach]

It sucks getting hurt and not been able to compete. I was doing MMA (Muay Thai and BJJ) and had to stop too...have not been able to get back into it especially BJJ I spare every now and again. But BJJ is out.

 

[white99stang]

I decided to do the same thing around this time last year. I am 34 about to be 35 and wanted a lifestyle change. I was never fat but what you would call skinny fat. When i started was just lifting 3-4 days a week, no mind muscle connection and my diet was kinda shitty. Decided to do a 7 week transformation challenge on bodybuilding.com and at the same time wanted to do a mens physique show. Of course only did a 4 week prep for that so lost most of the mass that I put on for the few months of lifting. After that i switched gyms and got a prep coach. I am doing my first npc men's physique show in another 6 weeks. I am 6'1 and got all the way up to 203 at my heaviest this winter. Now i am 182 and still cutting down. Keeping my size somewhat and just dropping body fat. here is the transformation pic from last year and then a few recent, one being a before/after cheat meal which was yesterday.

Oh and CARDIO SUCKS!!!!

 

[Coiled03]

Someone explain to me how you stay motivated when you're lifting 5-7 days a week. I don't want to live my life with constant DOMS pain from whatever muscle group I worked the night before.

I'm 43, and never had to lift weights to stay in shape. I was constantly in one sport or another, which kept me more than active enough to stay fit.

My job has been VERY sedentary the last 10 years or so, and I'm putting on weight. So, I'm going to start a bodyweight exercise program. But, if I'm constantly going to be sore, I don't know if I can manage long term, if it's just going to be a constant.

 

[MG0h3]

once you get into it you wont be terribly sore. Im usually happy when I wake up sore. Ive been lifting so long its pretty rare it seems.

Just start slow and work into it. Lift first, cardio after. Simplest plan is a 5 day breakup--chest/back/legs/shoulders/arms. Id aim for about 16 sets--4 exercises X 4 sets for each muscle group. I lift heavy throughout so thats about it and Im smoked. That takes about 45 min and then I throw in 10 min of moderate cardio.

 

[white99stang]

only time i get sore is on leg days since i only do them once a week. I workout 7 days a week and blast my muscle groups basically until I can't lift anymore and I don't get sore, or at least not a bad soreness, just if i am touching the muscles. I am also on alot of supplements that aid in recovery. I like my glutamine, protein isolate and BCAA's. All of them help with my recovery.

 

[Commbubba19]

How the eff do you guys get so damn lean?

I'm 5-8 and weigh 185. I don't drink pop or eat junk food. I limit my sugars and keep an eye on carbs. I lift tues/thurs/sun only because of time. Even with that schedule which is nothing compared to what I read a lot of guys do, my joints/ligaments hurt more than my muscles.

Tues is push day (3x10) to failure on the last set/rep.

Thurs is pull day (3x10) to failure on the last set/rep.

Sundays I do both the above again but 3x20 (less weight of course). I also throw in deadlifts and dumbbell squats to keep my legs in shape.

 

[white99stang]

cardio, you need to do at least a few days of like 20-30 moderate intensity cardio. I am carb cycling right now with 3 low carb days of about 200 then a high carb day of about 460. There are some joint support supplements that you can take also. I wouldn't go to failure all the time on the last set/rep. Would maybe just try that once every other week or even month. Go for more volume in the workout with a little lighter weight. And the most important thing is the mind muscle connection, which I didn't start really paying attention to till about after 6 months into working out. But the biggest thing for losing body fat is to be in a deficit in calories. My maint. calories is about 3100 to maintain my weight with me now all the way down to 2300 so i can keep losing. Try logging your food for a week in the myfitnesspal app, you will be surprised in what you are eating and the calories that you are intaking.

 

[13COBRA]

I am 32, 6ft and weight is 190 but I am 6.5% body fat

That's extremely impressive if it's accurate.

How the eff do you guys get so damn lean?

I'm 5-8 and weigh 185. I don't drink pop or eat junk food. I limit my sugars and keep an eye on carbs. I lift tues/thurs/sun only because of time. Even with that schedule which is nothing compared to what I read a lot of guys do, my joints/ligaments hurt more than my muscles.

Tues is push day (3x10) to failure on the last set/rep.

Thurs is pull day (3x10) to failure on the last set/rep.

Sundays I do both the above again but 3x20 (less weight of course). I also throw in deadlifts and dumbbell squats to keep my legs in shape.

You can "watch" carbs and what not, but that doesn't really matter. A rigorous training diet (carb loading, etc) would be extremely beneficial to you.

 

[MG0h3]

I went to get my T checked a couple months ago at a sports medicine facility. Figured what the hell at 37. Well, turned out I was good to go and doc said not to do anything. Came with a nutrition consultation. Guy didnt tell me anything I didnt know, but maybe because I paid to go Ive been following it.

Two days--basically straight protein with increased fat intake so you dont die--Im a fatass at heart. See below

1 day with carbs. Should be good carbs and we all know what those are. I drank a six pack, ate a lb of hambugers and had 6 hamburger buns last night.

Still leaner than I was a month ago.

 

[Troponin]

How the eff do you guys get so damn lean?

I'm 5-8 and weigh 185. I don't drink pop or eat junk food. I limit my sugars and keep an eye on carbs. I lift tues/thurs/sun only because of time. Even with that schedule which is nothing compared to what I read a lot of guys do, my joints/ligaments hurt more than my muscles.

Tues is push day (3x10) to failure on the last set/rep.

Thurs is pull day (3x10) to failure on the last set/rep.

Sundays I do both the above again but 3x20 (less weight of course). I also throw in deadlifts and dumbbell squats to keep my legs in shape.

After having tried a ton of diets, I finally went to IIFYM (If it fits your macros). I then decided to do the opposite of everything the nutrition industry tells us to do, because it's all a big load of chit. WHat IIFYM does is allows you to eat whatever you want, so long as, as the end of the day, you have gotten in your required fats, protein, and carbs, and no more! You can eat "clean" all you want, but if you are still over eating (Too many calories), you won't lose fat. Forget all that crap that "they" tell you about 6 meals a day, clean eating, taking this or that for metabolism, nutrition timing etc, it's all crap. I don't time anything, and I eat 3 meals a day. Hell, I didn't even do ANY cardio, it was all diet. I wanted to see just how big of a deal macros/calories made over all that stuff, and it was nothing short of amazing. What it all boils down to is this; what does ANY of that matter if you aren't hitting your macros/calories every day, but instead, going over?

So how do you apply it? Track everything you eat every day for two weeks. Now, it's time for an epiphany. Once you are looking at what you eat in two weeks, you will most likely want to slap yourself.

I laugh at people killing themselves over diet, especially the ones eating brown rice and chicken every day.

 

[white99stang]

After having tried a ton of diets, I finally went to IIFYM (If it fits your macros). I then decided to do the opposite of everything the nutrition industry tells us to do, because it's all a big load of chit. WHat IIFYM does is allows you to eat whatever you want, so long as, as the end of the day, you have gotten in your required fats, protein, and carbs, and no more! You can eat "clean" all you want, but if you are still over eating (Too many calories), you won't lose fat. Forget all that crap that "they" tell you about 6 meals a day, clean eating, taking this or that for metabolism, nutrition timing etc, it's all crap. I don't time anything, and I eat 3 meals a day. Hell, I didn't even do ANY cardio, it was all diet. I wanted to see just how big of a deal macros/calories made over all that stuff, and it was nothing short of amazing. What it all boils down to is this; what does ANY of that matter if you aren't hitting your macros/calories every day, but instead, going over?

So how do you apply it? Track everything you eat every day for two weeks. Now, it's time for an epiphany. Once you are looking at what you eat in two weeks, you will most likely want to slap yourself.

I laugh at people killing themselves over diet, especially the ones eating brown rice and chicken every day.

I like flexible dieting and somewhat believe in IIFYM but thats not always the case. There are different carbs and different peoples bodies react differently to them. I actually get tired and drag ass eating simple carbs, I do better with complex slow digesting carbs. But saying you can eat ding dongs and twinkies and fast food as long as it all fits into your macronutrients is not true. Cardio also comes into play when you are keeping your calories higher to you don't lose too much muscle. Yeah I can lose weight also just dropping my calories and being in a big deficit but will be loosing a lot of size also. It also depends on the size people are to start with. to get shredded and super lean IIFYM will not work, can you lose weight yes. Will it get me down to my 3.5% body fat that I will be at in the next 6 weeks, hell no.

 

[stangfreak]

I don't take pics of myself. Not into that. But I can tell you I was 150lbs and went to 225lbs in 3 years. stopped working out, dropped down to 190, then came back, hit it hard and from 190 I jumped up to 248lbs at 5'9.

I mixed H.I.T ( mike mentzer ) and high volume. It was ok. Then I went back to training one muscle, twice a week, but in a way that prevents over training. IMO a natural person, training one muscle group twice a week will grow faster. Not a huge fan of training them once a week. progress comes slow. Theres a line between over training and under training. You have to stay in the center.

I now have a torn labrum from inclining 3 plates and a 25 on each side. Hit my 405 flat bench goal for reps. Now I lost 30 lbs of weight and I go for fun bc of my injuries. Torn labrum and bad back.

I reached my goals, did what I had to do, and now im kind of retired lol. Body building is over. Take the right stuff off the shelf, eat, train smart without over and under training, and your body is FORCED to grow. No questions. My days are over though.

 

[Troponin]

I like flexible dieting and somewhat believe in IIFYM but thats not always the case. There are different carbs and different peoples bodies react differently to them. I actually get tired and drag ass eating simple carbs, I do better with complex slow digesting carbs. But saying you can eat ding dongs and twinkies and fast food as long as it all fits into your macronutrients is not true. Cardio also comes into play when you are keeping your calories higher to you don't lose too much muscle. Yeah I can lose weight also just dropping my calories and being in a big deficit but will be loosing a lot of size also. It also depends on the size people are to start with. to get shredded and super lean IIFYM will not work, can you lose weight yes. Will it get me down to my 3.5% body fat that I will be at in the next 6 weeks, hell no.

That is always the argument made against IIFYM, but the part you forget is that those foods are high in fat and carbs, therefore, you will have a ton of trouble hitting your macros with just those foods.

The rest of what you posted is absolutely not true and old school thinking. There are competitors using IIFYM all over the place now and doing extremely well. Alberto Nunez is one of them, and a very good friend of mine did it as well.

But I guess you can tell these guys they aren't ripped and that their IIFYM failed them. Also tell the judges they didn't deserve the pro cards they got during these shows too.

Here are some more in case you didn't get enough names...

Ryan Doris

Matt Ogus, the original Pop Tart fanatic

Kevin Riley

On a final note, why did I not get more shredded than I was? Because I was competing in physique, NOT bodybuilding, so I didn't want to go lower. I could have easily gotten lower, but it would have cost me. So in conclusion, I call bullshit on pretty much everything you wrote, and we have way too much evidence going against you entire post. As for 3.5%, I'd have to see those pics. Less than 4% and you are looking at possible kidney failure and most competitors don't go that low.

 

[starnsey]

I'm now throwing up