My journey out of obesity

Been a while since I updated this thread, in the 10weeks between January and the end of March I went on a strict cut for the MT shape up contest and went from 236lbs iirc down to about 205lbs.
My plan was then to stick to it and run through for another 12 weeks using the Fitforum contest as motivation.
Unfortunately real life got in the way and with all of my end of degree work needing to be done and a real lack of money to finance my gym visits this fell by the wayside and I went back up to around 222.5lbs.
As of 6th June I got back on the wagon and planned to do a gentle recomp, I haven't been going for all out weight loss and my diet is no where near as harsh as I have used before, which was normally the low carb approach at the moment my diet is probably still low carb compared to the average man in the street but pretty high for me when I'm trying to trim the fat.
I've been combining a Push/Pull/Legs routine with 20-40mins of cardio PWO and then another 40mins thrown in 2-3 times a week, so nothing massively time intensive or hardcore but I'm feeling much better for the extra cardio.
Now for the hard digits I started 6 weeks ago at 222.5lbs as of this morning I'm 206.6lbs with increased strength and stamina, those 6 weeks have included a couple of pretty heavy nights out, the hungover non eating or eating pure crap days after them and a good few takeaways basically I've let myself live unlike my usual all or nothing approach and it seems to be working beautifully.
I didn't grab any photos at the beginning but these are photos from the 30th June, 10th July and then today going from left to right.



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Done my last workout for a week this morning, it feels like I'm just about holding off a cold so I just had to get my head down and plough through.
On the plus side I'm off down to London for a crazy drunken birthday weekend and won't be back in the gym till next Wednesday so I'm giving my body some time off from its gym abuse and swapping it for some alcohol and bad food abuse :D
It also fits nicely in with a break after 7 weeks of 6 days a week at the gym.
 
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Well got back from my weekend away yesterday, I feel like hammered **** today but I was woken up by a pretty lady with chocolate cake so it's not all bad :D
6lbs on over the weekend :o If my bodies doing it's usual I'll have stripped all the bloat off by the end of the week so I'll be able to see how much of the gain is pure alcohol and take away fuelled fat.
 
It's been a week of firsts I've managed to crack the 100kg bench easily, and I finally found some 36" waist jeans that fit around my thighs and arse :D


 
Cheers :) Like I said in the gym ratz thread when you were asking about cutting or not, I'm quite happy just slowly recomping one day I might actually be in a position to really want to push a cut just to see how I could look.
 
Took some new measurements this morning.

Weight 203lbs
Neck 16"
Chest 44.5"
Waist 33.75"
Upper arm 15.75"
Thigh 25.25"
Calf 15.75"

Really chuffed with that, don't think I've had a waist under 34.5" in living history, only problem is my chest better start shrinking too or else my tent shirt problem is only going to get worse :o
 
Congrats mate. You'll find everything comes into line as you strip more fat away, you're certainly carrying a good amount of lean tissue underneath.

Having said that, tent shirt seems to be a product of just having the what I would consider normal masculine shoulders :/
 
This weeks measurements.

Weight - 199.8lbs
Neck 16"
Chest 43"
Waist 33"
Upper arm 15.75"
Thigh 25"
Calf 15.75"

Nice slow improvements coming on, I've been following the routine LiE posted in the gymratz thread a few weeks ago which goes along the lines of.

Workout A
Bench
Deads
Dips
Mil press
Cable x overs

Workout b
Squat
CGBP
BOR
Lat pull down/pull ups
Calf raises

I do 1 heavy day and 1 light day of each workout a week which seems to be doing well at keeping my strength and lean mass up along with 30-40mins on the bike PWO or I come home and spend 30mins on the heavy bag.
My diet at the moment is based around 3 proper food meals a day along with 2-3 shakes purely because it's cheap, I seem to be taking in just enough carbs to maintain performance along with plenty of protein and some healthy fats although I haven't worked out the exact macros or anything purely because I'm trying to stop myself over obsessing which always leads to me wanting big blow outs.
 
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Worked an event over the weekend with a couple of people I hadn't seen for nearly and year and a couple I hadn't seen since the start of September and almost all of them mentioned that I was looking bigger and leaner, there's nothing like a big black guy who's built like a tank telling you you look like a ******* unit to help make all the gym time worthwhile :D
 
What's your diet like Tom? You seem to be pretty much bang on a good recomp level. I'm getting fed up of cutting weight and not really getting stronger beyond my noob gains, no to mention the fact I fit into medium t-shirts which just makes me feel tiny :o. As such I'm considering upping the cals 10-20% and seeing what happens.

Calorie/Macro breakdown would be interesting :).
 
I'm going to be completely honest but I don't know my kcals or macro breakdown, I know that doesn't really help you but I find once I start to work all that out I end up getting bogged down and start to over think things.
This then causes me to stress out if I end up having to deviate from my plan and leads to me being really clean for a couple of weeks then binging, it's now something I'll only start to look at when I really hit a wall and have to start tightening things right up.

My typical days diet is:-

Breakfast
4 whole eggs scrambled
1 slice of burgen bread (2 on workout days)

Midmorning (PWO)
1 scoop whey (30g dextrose added)

Lunch
80g brown rice
200g chicken breast
veg
some sauce such as nandos

Mid afternoon
1 scoop whey
1 Tblspoon Peanut butter

Dinner
300g mince in tomato sauce
veg

All weights are very rough, this along with my workout that I posted above has been my routine for the last 6-8 weeks.
Before that I was eating roughly the same and doing a Push Pull Legs routine.

Just keep in mind sometimes keeping it simple and uncomplicated will lead to the best gains :)
 
Down to 197lbs today, had a good session in the gym.

DB Bench press 36kg 5x4
Deadlift 70kg x 5 90kg x 5 120kg x 3 150kg x 1 160kg x 1 120kg x 3
Dips 5x5
DB shoulder press 18kg 5x5
Seated row full stack whatever it weighs 3x8

Then came home and done 30mins on the heavy punch bag, really happy that my strength seems to be going up if anything.
 
Cheers, yea it's had a trim I got my hair cut the other day and it made me look like my head was upside down so it's now nice and short :D
 
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196.8lbs
Neck - 16"
Chest - 42"
Waist - 32.5"
Thigh - 24.5"
Upper arm - 15.5"
Calf - 15.5"

I was chatting to a girl last night who seemed really surprised that I had muscle up the back of my arms, bloody women! :D
Although I do do a lot more direct tricep work than bi work so maybe she had a point.

I'm also full of the cold so I'm taking the weekend as a rest period and hopefully I'll be firing on all cylinders again on Monday, even if I'm not it's a light day anyway so I'll head in and get something done at least.
 
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Still full of the cold, dragged myself to the gym yesterday but managed about half a workout before I had to come home and spend the rest of the day curled up under my duvet.
Then I destroyed a big bag of nandos crisps and a goodfellas pizza for dinner which I think was a much needed hit of Kcals considering my intake for the last few days has been really poor.
 
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