OcUK Health Seekers: Post your progress pics

Other people's perceptions are worth much more over your own - you see yourself every day and it's hard to notice a difference, even with pictures.

The biggest thing that made me realise I had changed was the reaction from female friends but also from my friends and peers around me. It gave that confidence boost to put the effort in and carry on. I do miss being "big", but I have been described as "built" which is good enough - I can still shift big weights around, and to be honest I feel healthier.

IT's so easy to be self critical though - when I was striving for size and strength I just was never happy. Constantly looking at the scales, constantly forcing food down my throat and spending so much time in the gym that whilst the results paid for themselves, I spent most of the time in the gym and not enough time going out and enjoying myself.

Dedication is important, but so is having a life. I've actually found it easier to lean up and maintain the muscle mass than trying to strive for size.

In fact, I've done everything I always say you need not do - bulk, then cut! :D Hypocrite! :p

I do still have sessions where I will spend 2hrs in teh gym just grinding myself into a pulp of sweat, blood and pain - I do like that a lot. However, not every session.

I will start on some more serious strength training soon, but whilst I've got about 10% off my totals at the moment, I can live with that, as my power:weight has improved.
 


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Just back from having my back waxed after being talked into it by a mate so you can finally see a bit of shape from my back.
Also it's no where near as painful as some people seem to think.
 
tom_e said:
Just back from having my back waxed after being talked into it by a mate so you can finally see a bit of shape from my back.
Also it's no where near as painful as some people seem to think.
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yeah getting some shape there m8 for sure had a look through your thread you have done very well. How tall are you? You look very thick set.
 
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That is me at 5 ft 7 in, 187lbs (13st5lbs) giving me a BMI 29.27 = overweight just out of the obese range.

Need to get my weight down fast, hitting cardio big time, its strange because now I am fit enough to push myself and have goal but its not obsessive more of a challenge, aiming to lose 24lbs to get into healthy BMI range, getting down to 159lbs (11st5lbs) puts me in BMI healthy range, its going to be hard to get down to that, if its even possible but going to give it a go, always seen the BMI as sceptical at times but I want to give it a ago, no harm in trying imho. Some times I think I am bigger than I am.

Stopped upping the weights just keeping steady want my body keeping the metabolism up without putting on extra weight from muscle, going for a hard fully body work out once a week, don't want to be sore for my cardio doing push ups, sit ups, planking, low body resistance stuff daily, hammering the cardio, get the heart pumping, muscles hurting, long runs, long cycles, diet eating lean meats/protein, complex carbs and nuts/bananas. Finding out I need to eat a lot from the cardio I am doing, 3 hours and my stomach is rumbling and feeling weak/shaky, awful but not taking any of these drinks/pills to boost me (caffine/energy drink) its water and and some food for my body end of, no time for that ****

I know I am posting in the wrong thread but no where else to post this, sort of in between thread for fat lose and yet keeping fitness and strength . Maybe I should start one?
 
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cheets64 said:
I know I am posting in the wrong thread but no where else to post this, sort of in between thread for fat lose and yet keeping fitness and strength . Maybe I should start one?
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Do it mate, all of us have a lot of time for people wanting to improve themselves and it's a fascinating journey watching it all unfold and seeing the progress

One thing I will say mate, is don't give up on the weights. Keep upping them, and keep pushing yourself. You're not going to look like Arnie over night, and if you're eating to lose weight, you're not going to put much mass on anyway. But upping the weights and pushing yourself all the time will keep your body working at it's hardest.

If you do the same weights every week your body gets used too this and it's not as strenuous as it once was, so in effect you end up burning less calories and working up less of a sweat
 
Cheets, may well be teaching you to suck eggs here, but cardio is good for fitness. If you want to lose weight, I'd say 75% of the battle is diet, diet, diet. You admit it yourself that you've got a problem with hitting the lager every weekend. Well cut it out. Try it once a month. Even once a fortnight is a 50% reduction! It will make a difference :)

Other than that, maybe post your regular diet so that we - the kind fold of OcUK SA - may nit pick it :D

Edit: Might be worth doing it in the Gym Rats thread though ^^,
 
Thought I might aswell put up a small pic, so I can atleast reference it in a few months and (hopefully) see a difference. This is a crappy picture of me, have been going to the gym about 2 months now although the first was a bit of a waste as have only been properly following diet guidelines and freeweights rather than machines for about a month.

Started at 9 1/2 stone and am just over 10 3/4 now, still small I know but I'm happy with the progress so far.

My (currently) small self:
photo.png
 
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Good going on the weight gain Searching, how tall are you? You look of reasonable height.

As a few others will probably say, EAT! I need to do the same, however, it will all fall in to place in the next few months as long as you keep at it :)
 
Delvis said:
Good going on the weight gain Searching, how tall are you? You look of reasonable height.

As a few others will probably say, EAT! I need to do the same, however, it will all fall in to place in the next few months as long as you keep at it :)
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Thanks - to be fair I was very small before I started and had hardly any muscle structure. I'm about 5ft 10 - which is about average I guess.

Yeah, I've seriously been trying to eat as much good stuff as possible, here's an idea of roughly what I eat in a day (any critique would be much appriciated):

Breakfast 7.00am - 2x Eggs + 2x Wholemeal toast
Mid-morning 10.30am - Protein Shake with 1/2 pt. semi-skimmed milk
Lunch 12.30 - 1 Set of sandwiches (usually ham, chicken or tuna)
13.30 - Another set of sandwiches (ditto)
Mid-afternoon 3.30 - Tin of tuna/mackeral or another shake (depending on funds and work)
Post-Gym 6.30 - On gym days I have another shake with water immediately after workout
Evening Meal (7.30 - 8 pm) - Homecooked meal such as chilli con carne with rice, chicken with rice, tuna pasta bake, meat and salad, etc...

I'm then also usually a bit bad in the evenings and will have a few buscuits with a cuppa :p

I find there isn't a moment really where I'm hungry and often have snacks of nuts, tuna, etc. If anyone can see any flaws or recommend any improvements to my diet that'd be appriciated! :)
 
cheets64 said:
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1) Doing weights is very good for fat loss. It both burns calories during the activity and for a significant amount of time afterwards. Also, having more muscle on your frame will increase the amount of calories you burn at rest.

2) Long bouts of steady state cardio can be counter productive. You generally only burn calories during the exercise because of the low intensity, and over time your body gets more and more efficient at doing the exercise so you burn less calories. Do HIIT, it just works.

3) You will see the biggest change from fixing your diet. If you aren't eating fat in your main meals this will cause you to get hungry faster. But generally, if your progress has stagnated, it's because of diet.

4) There absolutely IS harm in arbitrarily trying to lower your BMI. You are measuring your progress with something that doesn't care how you look or how much muscle you lose. From this point you could lose only muscle mass (likely with your approach to exercise, steady state cardio is catabolic) and you would still be measuring good progress. I'm guessing that your goals are somewhat aesthetic, so this should be important to you.

5) You would do well to sort out your internally rotated shoulders, for both aesthetics and injury prevention.



tom_e, your back is looking immense!
 
Didn't know that, cheers.

Is it not easier to be catabolic with SS cardio than with other types of exercise? What would you class as a sensible amount of time and a good intensity or heart rate?


edit: I knew I was probably at least stretching the truth, I'm mostly trying to put Cheets off focusing on SS cardio so much.
 
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Steedie said:
Spot on post mate, except this point. If done in the right heart rate range and for a sensible amount of time, steady state cardio is no more catabolic than any other form of exercise really
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What’s a rough guide to heart rate and time needed Steedie old chum? :)
 
icecold said:
Didn't know that, cheers.

Is it not easier to be catabolic with SS cardio than with other types of exercise? What would you class as a sensible amount of time and a good intensity or heart rate?


edit: I knew I was probably at least stretching the truth, I'm mostly trying to put Cheets off focusing on SS cardio so much.
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Just do HIIT. That's, High Intensity Interval Training.

Works good for fat loss and increasing anabolic hormones. Though if you are unfit prob best to work up to it.

For example, one I like to do is 5-8 max effort sprints off 20-30seconds. After each sprint I just walk/jog at slow pace for 60-120 seconds. Off course I like to jog for 3-5 mins for warm up 1st.

Its a short workout but very effective. Off course you have to sprint at full intensity.
 
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