I guess I'll start off by intro-ing my myself since this is my first post. I'm 19, 6'1", and generally feel like I'm bigger than other kids my height since I got a big head (size 8), big feet (14), etc.

Anyways, I been overweight since I was probably 14. Here's a pic of me from february of 07.



I was overweight from basically living on fast food and had also been smoking atleast a pack of cigs everyday. I weighed somewhere around 250. All of a sudden I got motivated for some reason and decided to live healthier. Halfway through June I quit smoking cold turkey and started hitting the gym for cardio every day. I cut my calories drastically and weight started flying off, probably at an unhealthy rate. By September, I weighed 200 lbs. At this time I still wasn't eating too great, I just had been drastically cutting calories to lose the weight.

Halfway through november I joined a different gym and started doing weight training while trying to eat healthier. Since then I've dropped some more weight and am currently around 180 but am still pretty unhappy with the way I look, but my problem is I'm not sure where to from here. I still have enough fat that I'm unhappy, and am especially not too fond of the fat under my armpits lol. Here's pics of me now





I don't eat a lot of meat except chicken, and from what I understand protein is a very important factor in losing fat but preserving muscle so I have been taking a whey protein shake in the morning, after my workout, and before I go to bed for a couple months now. Even with this supplement I'm not really even coming close to taking in my bodyweight in grams.

My diet, besides the supplement, is something like this.

Morning - 4 pieces of toast
Noon - apple and a yogurt
Dinner - footlong subway sub, chicken cutlets, or sometimes just elio's pizza :P
9pm snack - a cup fool of carrots with peanut butter

I drink just 0 calorie flavored water with every meal and am usually taking in about 2000 calories a day.

And my workout routine is
sunday - 25 minutes of regular cardio
monday and thursday - 20min high intensity cardio and work out upper body
tuesday and friday - 20min high intensity cardio and work out lower body and abs
wednesday and saturday - off

In the gym I usually do 12 reps with 2 sets of each excercise, and do so at a weight that usually my 12th rep of the second set is failure or close to it.

Now for the past 3 weeks my weight has stayed the same. I've been told it's because my body has been building muscle but losing fat so they're offsetting eachother. Others have told me I need to take in a ton of calories, build muscle, and then burn the fat off again. I'm stuck and not sure where to go from here. I feel like what I'm doing now is fine, personally, but don't want to be wasting my time, you know. I'm looking to just get a nice defined body.

Any advice is greatly appreciated! So thanks in advance to anyone who helps me out.

Start lifting heavier with lower reps and start eating for gods sake..lol.

Whats your routine like??? Are you doing these lifts: Squats, deadlift, pull ups, bench press???

You need to eat more protein so your body can recover from your workouts and add muscle.

Read these and ask questions:
http://training.fitness.com/weight-t...rst-34522.html

http://training.fitness.com/nutritio...1-a-32846.html

http://training.fitness.com/nutritio...ist-19098.html

T-Nation.com | Bulking Tips for Newbies

I'll probably come back later to give you advice, but I have an appointment to keep.

Just wanted to say excellent job, especially quitting smoking. Before and after pictures are fantastic.

I have a tough time taking in protein. Only main protein I really eat is chicken. Hate seafood, beef, etc. Other than through chicken and the supplement, I'll have some lowfat yogurt, peanut butter, nuts, or milk which all help with it but nothing drastic. On a good day I might take in 140 grams max.

As far as exercises I have been doing pull ups and bench press, but not squats and dead lifts. After reading more about the workout I'll definitely be adding them to my routine.

my routine looks like this

upper body- pull ups, dumbell shoulder shrugs, dumbell chest press, dumbell incline, dumbell curl, lat pulldown, fly machine, chest press machine, and bench press.

lower body- calf raise, leg curl, leg extension, leg press, and then an ab machine.

And as far as the links, I read through'em but am not so sure I want to bulk up. My main goal was/is to lose as much body fat as I possibly can and then try and build some muscle. If I did build more muscle wouldn't the bodyfat just sit on top of it anyways?

thanks for the tips so far tho. appreciate it.

great job on your success so far!!!

Agree with the others, nice progress so far! Check the stickies and links wesrman offered up, and you should be in real good shape! Good luck!

You look pretty lean allready imo. Adding some muscle doesnt mean you have to get "bulky". Either wayy it will help if you add some extra protein. And dont forget about fiber, its very important.

As far as routines, you might want to try one of the proven routines in the link i posted above.

What ever you choose to do i wish you the best of luck.

Dude...your transformation thus far is BAD ASS!!!

You are a GREAT example for others.

The first thing that really jumped out at me was your example of your diet. It is really lacking in protein and if you wanna add muscle that is an absolute must.

How would I tweak it? Only some suggestions...

Breakfast:
-3 eggs, 1 slice canadian bacon, wheat toast, 8 oz. skim milk (or)
-3-4 egg omelette with veggies, 8 oz. low-sodium V8 or OJ (or)
-Portioned out high-fiber, low sugar cereal with skim milk (or)
-Steel-cut or instant low-sugar oatmeal made with skim milk, blueberries, sliced almonds.

Mid-morning Snack:
-Small piece of cheese and an apple
-Berries and yogurt
-Handful of almonds and a glass of skim milk

Lunch:
-Grilled chicken, Tuna/Salmon, or Steak salad
-Turkey wrap
-Tuna salad sandwich on whole grain bread
-Whole grain pasta with lean beef and a salad

Mid-afternoon snack:
-Pre workout shake
-Milk and some fruit

Dinner:
-Salad, Lean fish, chicken or beef
-Steamed veggies
-High-fiber starches (small portion)

Workout-wise I'll echo what a previous poster said. Start using heavier weights and lower reps...like the 6-8 rep range. You could also consider doing a heavy day and a lighter day since you work out each body part twice a week. Also, take a look at how long you've been doing the same or similar routine and maybe start changing some stuff up with different types of exercises and your overall training split.

Still though...absolutely AMAZING thus far. Very inspirational!

Thanks for the kind words.

Hit the gym this morning and did some squats and deadlifts for the first time. Felt akward since I have never done either before but I think I was doing both with good form from what I've read and seen. I think I'll be switching up my workout to fullbody 3 days a week after reading some of the stickie'd topics.

And thank you for the nutrition tips charlie golf. I am very aware my diet is lacking in protein lol. I've been eating tuna whenever I can, hoping I can force myself to acquire a liking to it haha. But yeah, as I said before, on an average day including the protein from the whey supplement 3 times a day, I usually take in between 90-125 grams. Guess if I wanna get the results I'm looking for I'll need to really learn to eat healthier.

A couple things to keep in mind. If you are trying a new exercise for the first time, go with a lighter weight than you think you can handle and use EXACTING form. Do 12-15 reps giving your "new" muscles time to adjust and build the endurance to tackle heavier weight lower rep mass and strength sets.

As far as the protein goes, since you are already pretty lean, make your target 1 gram per lb. of body weight for your TARGET weight. If you are 180 lbs and consuming 130g of PRO you need to kick it up to about 180g. Otherwise you are short-changing yourself and quite possibly your body does not have enough PRO to repair muscle tissue which starts a cycle of losing muscle mass, decreasing metabolism, loss of energy, addition of fat.

Good work thus far.

Looking at your lifting routine, you are hitting your chest with 5 exercises. This is excessive. I also notice that you do not have military press or horizontal row. Personally I would drop flys and chest press machine and maybe either barbell bench or dumbell bench.

You aren't hitting the back or shoulders enough as it is so I would advise adding those excersises in. You might also want to add romanian deadlifts to the lower body to really hit the hams and the glutes (look them up on youtube).

Otherwise, keep up the good work

Great job thus far.

What do you want to do? Gain muscle, right? If that is the case, you will have to train your mind to get out of cutting calorie mode. It's the reverse of what you did before and feels arkward. You will need to consume more "clean" food and 1g protein per bodyweight to gain good muscle mass. Unfortunately, you will gain some fat along with the muscle so everyone is right. You will need to put on some "bulk" and then trim it off afterward to gain muscle. Trying to Gain muscle and lose fat at the same time is extremely difficult to do with working out and diet manipulation.

good luck man. Great transformation and keep it up.

I have switched up the workout routine to every monday, wednesday, and friday morning.

routine now looks like this, in this order..

cardio - 15 minutes of moderate running on treadmill
pull ups - 5reps x 3sets
bench press - 7reps x 3sets
squats - 7reps x 3sets
dead lifts - 7reps x 3sets
lat pulldown - 10reps x 3sets
dumbell shoulder press - 8reps x 3sets
dumbell curls - 5reps x 3sets
ab machine - 8reps x 3sets


Good? Bad?

Attached a pic from today, at a current weight of 178...

Attached Thumbnails

 

If you are working out 3 times a week, I would do body splits instead of fullbody workout. Maybe

Mon = chest + tricep + abs
Wed = Back, bic, shoulders
F = legs + abs

The one you posted is pretty good for a full-body though.

I like full body workouts for beginners (i dont like more than a 2 way split ever, but thats just my opinion).

Good routine, but id get rid of lat pulldowns, and take the sets down from 3 to 2 for each exercise. You might also want to add an exercise for your triceps.