My new old fashioned strategy for diet and body transformation

I'm embarking on a new fitness lifestyle that basically involves old fashioned eating, new fasioned exercise, common sense, and I expect it to work well.
This involves using absolutely no supplements, no cardio, and maybe a few minutes of lifting a week. My goal is to lose 40 pounds ( preferrably mostly fat, but I am sure some will be muscle. I will take that as I want to be smaller and more functional)

Background: I was fat from about age 13 to 17. Not obese but too fat for a teenage guy. Since I had a growth spurt when I was about 11-12 but didnt grow at all from 13-15 I was rathy pudgy for my height. But around age 16-17, I grew taller( to about 5'9 but I kept growing til age 21 to about 6'1) and weighed maybe about 160. I basically stayed the same weight but grew 5-6 inches in height. It was simple: I ate less and worked out intensely with weights.

My weight creeped up to about 190-195 by 18 but it was mostly thick muscle on my chest and shoulders ( I gained about 30 pounds and people were telling me I looked like I lost weight). Around this time I became obsessed with getting ripped. I took Hydroxycut ( NO ONE else knew what this was it the time), Ultimate Orange, Anotesten, Nortesten,Mesotech all that shit, you name it I took it. I also ran every other day. I got down to about 161 at bodyfat of 10% ( calipers) and a 31 inch waist, but I was not cut at all and felt really flat. I stopped running and stopped taking most shit and got up to about 185 at 15%BF(according to Tanita). and size 34 pants. This was my alltime best condition IMO.(This whole paragraph happened over about exactly a year 6/97 to 6/98).

Honestly I was always very motivated from being poor, a social outcast,etc so always had my edge. Then I got a girlfriend, stop being hungry, and got lazy as hell. My weight since then has fluctuated bewteen 195-230 but mostly around 205 or so.


But these days its just pathetic. Keep in mind I have done it all , every supplement, Atkins,etc with some success with everything but my health has really just drifted. This summer I found myself at about 225 with a 40 inch waist ( still struggling into 36 pants though). When I was 5'9 I could vertically dunk a basketall. Now at 6'1 I cant even touch the rim. I overreat at every meal, and found myself eating shit like Hardees Thickburger Meals, Double Whopper COmbos, Quiznos large subs ( all King sized meals with large soft drink of course)etc, at least once and sometimes 2-3 times a day. I was also lifting at a better and more disciplined routine than I had in years, but I just got fatter because lifting so much made me hungry. I stopped lifting because beyond my control I no longer have access to my equipment and workout space. So I just got even worse. Also from ahving SA and depression it is a lot easier for me to eat by going to drive thrus late at night,etc.

Here is my "plan" and I lost 5 pounds in a week (thanksgiving week and I ate a big meal).I am trying to get to 180. It may take me about 8 more months depending on how slow it goes ( 1lb a week avg) but I accept that.

I am trying to make rational conscious decisions and effort to be healthier and this does not involve any fad diets. From so much reading and research I have determined that a balanced diet ( yes, like the pyramid but slightly different) is best. I use a site called Fitday.com to track everything I eat and every activity. If you are on a fitness plan, YOU MUST KEEP A LOG if you are really serious. Its simple to do and I cannot stress this enough. My goal is simply to eat balanced and create a daily calorie deficit of about 500 calories ( will lose 1 pound a week). This lets me eat upto around 3000 calories and STILL LOSE WEIGHT. It really is a simple thing, anyway you twist it, to lost weight you need to take in less calories than you use. My maintenance at my weight is over 3000 calories. I dont starve myself, no low carb, and no protein supplements. My study has led me to believe that even bodybuilders need no more than 15-25% of calories from protein and soemwhere between 40-60% carbs with the balance from fat. The problem with carbs is not carbs but white bread and shitty carbs with no nutrients and no fiber that most people eat. Low carbs shrinks your muscle and can cause mental fog IMO and experience. Honestly you could eat 100% carbs and lose weight as long as its less than your maintenance calories ( though it would be bad nutrition). The fact is every nutrient you really need can be obtained at the grocery store and through a blanced diet. If any of these diets really were good diets they wouldnt require all these supplements. I was taking fish oils and multivitamin, but no strictly no supplements. Why take pills that IMo are unatural for the body to digest when you can eat fresh fish, spinach, fruits, vegetabes, almonds,olive oil,etc?

As far as working out, well I am using a very controversial plan that Id rather not say too much abotu until after the next six months to 1 year where I am a guinea pig. Lets jsut say this , even HIT/Heavy Duty Mike Menzter people spend a lot more time lifting than I do. And I sure as hell am not doing any cardio or anything else unnecesary that can strip my muscle and fuck my joints. I expect to be very successful. My utlimate goal is to actually gain strength and muscle size while losing 35 pounds of weight.

So there it is , I went from a diet and supplement JUNKIE to eating only food, drinking only water ( even fruit juice is a terrible thing to drink, eat the fuckin fruit), and living rationally. I plan to continue to apply these same "new" principles to my Penis Enlargement which I expect to blast through new levels of mass.

post more fucking pics of her

Cool, thanks for the input. I will probably update this once a week or so or maybe just a couple times a month since it does take some time to show progress. Also I dont want to weigh myself or take measurements more than once a week.

Sounds kinda crazy to expect more muscle lifting less than an HIT routine. I lift 5 times a week and eat less than 3000 cal. I've gained muscle and lost fat. I would like to see more details, but it doesn't sound like you wanna give em out right now.
I think you are on the right track with your diet. I would argue a little on the protein thing, but it isn't important. So give Atkins the finger and let us know how it goes. Good luck.

raffiki said:

Sounds kinda crazy to expect more muscle lifting less than an HIT routine. I lift 5 times a week and eat less than 3000 cal. I've gained muscle and lost fat. I would like to see more details, but it doesn't sound like you wanna give em out right now.
I think you are on the right track with your diet. I would argue a little on the protein thing, but it isn't important. So give Atkins the finger and let us know how it goes. Good luck.

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Thanks for the input. I should clarify that I expect I may lose some muscle. My goal is to keep my strength up though and keep any muscle I do have or at least most of it. I am what Mike Mentzer might call a recovery "moron" . meaning I need more recovery time than most and my gentics will limit my muscular potential but I plan on maximizing it as best I can.
Once I get the fat loss I need, I will probably alter both my diet and workout though incrementally and rationally so I dont gain fat mass.

Just an update. I weighed in this morning at 209. Thats down from 220 overall ( probably closer to 225 before I set my plan) and 215 the last time I weighed.

I havent worked out in this time. Over the last week my average intake is 2027 calories with 43% carbs, 38% fat, 18% Protein, 1% alcohol( 1 rum and coke). I have eaten some junk food such as Papjohns Pizza ( but I spread it out over several days) and Breyers Ice Cream. Im going to try to get the fat down a little more and the carbs and protein up a little. I dont plan on drinking anything except water.

Yesterday I was 38/38/25 C/F/P for 1805 calories. Here is a sample of my diet based on what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast:
2 Jumbo Egg Omelet with sauteed red onion, green and yellow peppers and Moz cheese
2 slices of large 100% wheat bread( with like 5g fiber and protein in eahc piece, not that bleached crap with only 1 or 2 gs of fiber)
This was cooked with a total of 2 teaspoons of olive oil

Lunch:
Papajohns The Works pizza-1 slice
8oz skim milk

Dinner:
Baked Salmon
3 whole wheat dinner rolls
salad made with 2 cu fresh spinach, 1 carrot, 4 cherry tomatoes
8oz skim milk

Snacks (total of what else I ate throughout the day):
7 Sunflower seeds
18 Grapes
10 Salted smoked Almonds

Okay, Update here. Still about 209. Good news is my arms, chest,etc are still about the same size. The last 2 days my diet kindof sucked. Mostly because I stayed up late (4am) and woke up late in the afternoon.

I ate fast food the last 2 dinners but still kept my calories under 2000. I was glad to see Wendy's now allows you to substitue a baked potato ( about 8gam protein, 8g fiber,almost no fat and quite a few nutrients) for fries( quite possibly the worst fast food you can eat). SO the last 2 nights I had a Mountain CHicken and a BK Angus bacon/cheese but Im still losing BF.

If anything I think I need to get my calories up. My goal was to get around 2500 on avg with a min of 1500 and max 3000. In the last 2 weeks Ive been under 1000 once and under 2000 the last 3 or 4 days.

As far as training, I lifted yesterday for the first time. Spent about 15 minutes doing a total of 6 exercises. I should be good for about a week. I might consider adding in some high intensity sprint or something once a week, but Im going to wait at least a couple months to make sure Im not losing too much.

Ok, im upto about 213 now. I attribute this to some water gain, some fat, and hopefully a little muscle. I have no reason to believe I have lost any muscle for the following reasons:

I just had my second workout, and all my lifts are up. In fact I do somethings like negatives and statics where the weight would require 2 people to lift and now I can full rep that weight. Also my pants are looser and my waistline is visibly slimmer.

I tend to subscribe to the belief if you are losing weight/fat and your lifts are going up, you are obviously getting stronger and have nothing to worry about as far as muscle loss.

addon: My diet has sucked the last few days, need to get back on track today. I will lift again next week.

Ok, Im down to 207, so that weight gain was water as I suspected. Not bad for about 2 weeks and no working out or extreme dieting.

Ok, I have analyzed my diet for the past 2 weeks. My nutrient breakdown has not been deliberate, just basically came out this way by eating balanced.

I have averaged almost exactly 2000 calories with about 200 carbs, 90 fat, and 90 protein. I have been meeting or exceeded almost every RDA with an exception of Vit. D. Since it is winter I will make more of an effort to get that D with a little more skim milk and dairy and perhaps some seafood and the like. my % of calories from fat is a little high but Im working on that by upping my protein SLIGHTLY from cleaner sources such as more chicken less beef. Also I consume a good amount of nuts and fish so that contributes to the fat total.

I eat very well and am satiated. My BathmateR is well over 2000 calories a day so I have aimed to reduce calories but not so much as to create a starvation mode. Also I gradually came down from around 4000 to 2000 calories in 500 per week increments.

I have not eliminated any specific foods and if anything eat more heartily than before. For example 2 nights ago for dinner I had a NY Strip in Jack Daniels BBQ, spinach, 3 rolls, and a baked potato. Ice cream for dessert. May sound like a lot, but compare that to for example a Hardees or BK Meal which would have twice the fat, less protein and almost no nutrition other than vitamin A, Iron, some C and Calcium. Also my daily calories were still under 1900.

Last night I was much leaner but ate well with Broccoli, baked potato with cheese, 9oz chicken breat cooked in olive oil and seasoned pepper. I only ate 25G of fat total for the day and 38g fiber ( a little too much probably).

Ok, what about workout? Cardio? Um, no. Honestly I barely leave my chair let alone my house.

What about Lifting?
Hm, so far I have lifted 3 times this month. My routine is basically a consolidated Heavy Duty with statics and forced negatives. My first workout I did only negatives. My only lifting goal is to at minimum maintain the same strength and maintain muscle as much as possible while losing a total of 45 lbs. I think i will lift again on Sunday or Monday.

I might add some high intensity sprint type work, but not unless I stall. If I can keep losing without cardio, I wont fix what isnt broke. I plan on doing the same as far as diet. If I stall I will actually INCREASE my calories for a week or 2 and then slowly drop back down. I dont think I would ever go below an 1800 calorie level for more than a week.

GOALS- Basically to be attained by 4/15/2005- a BW of 180LB while mainainting my same strength and as much muscle as possible.

Progress- Overall I am down from 225 to 207 ( Down from 215 since I really started tracking 2 1/2 weeks ago). My high weight since earlier this month was 213, low weight 207.

My strength on all lifts is the same or higher. Also my muscles appear as full, especially chest and back. Even though my bf is still very high I now see much more cuts, especially in back, shoulders,chest, and abs. my wasit is noticeable smaller. based on visuals I have not lost muscle size. If so I would be much flatter.

I will continue to monitor this.

Sounds like you're making good progress!
As a word of encouragement: if you're not trying to cut down to insanely low BF levels, then you might as well abstain from cardio completely. It should be relatively easy for most people to strip their BF down to around 13-15% (depending on genetics) without ANY cardio. Just stay hypocaloric (but not etremely so to avoid muscle wasting) for a little longer combined with weight workouts, and you should get there, no sweat. I have done several 'mini diets' in the past without any cardio, and met with great success.

The going only gets tough once your body starts to think you're starving, and goes into an extreme survival mode, which happens at around 12-14% BF for most people, regardless of calorie manipulation or cardio. Your thyroid- and leptin levels (among other crucial hormones which will start to crash when you reach a certain BF or stay on a restrictive diet for too long) will make it an uphill battle, where you are guaranteed to lose lots of LBathmate if you persist on pushing it. In fact, I'd dare to say that it is nearly impossible for at least 75% of the world populace (the genetic average) to get to a single digit BF and STAY THERE for any period of time without extensive manipulation and 'cheating your own body', such as with steroids/hormones, OR with a diet that mimics the processes of steroid users in the human body, such as Lyle MacDonald's UD2. I've heard a LOT of great things about the aforementioned program, which is supposed to be great at getting a person down to a single digit BF level very quickly without a gram of muscle loss, provided that he or she has a low enough BF when starting out (no more than 15% for men, or around 20% for women). Have you heard of this highly praised cutting up method BTW?
I'm going to buy the e-book shortly and try it out to see if it's all it's cracked up to be.

Shafty, Thanks for the words of advice and contributing to my thread. We agree on a lot of things and I can tell you are rational and well read on the subject.

My goal is just to get back down to where I was when I was 18, where I peaked around 11%. Though right now I would be happy with 15% because as I said before I felt well and think I looked my best overall then ( a little more muscular with no noticeable gut).
I have heard of Lyle and I go to the foums on his sute sometimes at bodyrecomposition.com

I agree on the no cardio thing- Im trying not to lose too much too fast and hope to preserve as much LBathmate as possible. I know I will porbably lose some muscular size, however at my bodyfat and waist size I just needed a real wakeup call. I have read some threads on the bodybuilding.com forums also and there are some great stories there as well as many men who think they are huge but are really just fat and kidding themselves.

What I will do is once I get to my initial goal, which I have scheduled for around April 15th, then I will re-evaluate where I am and possibly do a bulk, but only if I can bulk at around the same bf%.

Bro, good work so far...

But from what i've read you've only lifted 3 times this month?? and you don't want to do cardio?? Granted that diet is the most important component of weight loss but you're completely neglecting the other component and that is exercize. Weight loss is about burning more calories than you consume. Lifting and cardio allow you to burn a hell of alot more calories than just sitting at home. I understand that you don't want to lose muscle (no one does) but i personally believe that if you really want to get in shape, you should lift weights at least 3 times per week and do cardio 2-3 times per week. If you do HIIT type of cardio you won't lose as much muscle. And regarding muscle loss, so what?!? Yea if you train hard and cut calories you'll lose some muscle, but you'll also lose ALOT OF FAT. The fat loss is what's important because as you continue to train hard and slowly increase calories (after losing a bunch of fat) the muscle will come back pretty quick.

I'm not trying to flame you bro... i just think that you would see way better results if you trained more. Earlier this year i went from 220 @ 21% to 185 @ 14% in about 3-4 months and yea i lost some muscle, but i looked bigger and thicker. In fact, all my bros at the gym thought i put on more size.

sikdogg said:

Bro, good work so far...

But from what i've read you've only lifted 3 times this month?? and you don't want to do cardio?? Granted that diet is the most important component of weight loss but you're completely neglecting the other component and that is exercize. Weight loss is about burning more calories than you consume. Lifting and cardio allow you to burn a hell of alot more calories than just sitting at home. I understand that you don't want to lose muscle (no one does) but i personally believe that if you really want to get in shape, you should lift weights at least 3 times per week and do cardio 2-3 times per week. If you do HIIT type of cardio you won't lose as much muscle. And regarding muscle loss, so what?!? Yea if you train hard and cut calories you'll lose some muscle, but you'll also lose ALOT OF FAT. The fat loss is what's important because as you continue to train hard and slowly increase calories (after losing a bunch of fat) the muscle will come back pretty quick.

I'm not trying to flame you bro... i just think that you would see way better results if you trained more. Earlier this year i went from 220 @ 21% to 185 @ 14% in about 3-4 months and yea i lost some muscle, but i looked bigger and thicker. In fact, all my bros at the gym thought i put on more size.

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Thanks for weighing in. I see that you understand my reasoning, which is I dont want to lose muscle. It is my belief I can preserve more lean mass without doing the cardio or lifting too much. I am definitely lifting enough to miantain my strength and if I had a calorie surplus I would actually probably be gaining size.

Now, I agree totally if you are saying if I want to lose more fat faster. But my exact goal is only about 1.59 lbs per week and no more than 2lbs. But I am already losing more than that per week. i may even want to cut down the speed for awhile and try not to lose more than a pound a week for awhile. I will monitor it.

I lost 8 pounds in 16 days which is 3.5lbs per week. Anymore than this I fear would be mostly lean mass lost. I could be wrong though.

Anyway, I appreciate your input and you raise valid points,

BTW, I should add I just finished an intense leg workout. That is one bodypart I have no fear of overtraining. And I am going to go forward with my plans of adding some intense sprint work and plyometrics.

sikdogg said:

Earlier this year i went from 220 @ 21% to 185 @ 14% in about 3-4 months and yea i lost some muscle, but i looked bigger and thicker. In fact, all my bros at the gym thought i put on more size.

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Hey thats almost exactly what I am trying to do, get back to my 180-185 at ~13-15% or so from my 225 and 20+++%

So I had the Christmas feast and ate about 3500 Calories yesterday, averaging about 3000 the last 4-5 days, but Im still making progress.

I wouldn't worry about eating a bit "off the mark" for a few days. If anything, it might help you by refilling your glycogen stores and boosting your metabolism up a notch.
I trust your progress is coming along nicely other than this mandatory "Christmas lapse"?

Shafty said:

I wouldn't worry about eating a bit "off the mark" for a few days. If anything, it might help you by refilling your glycogen stores and boosting your metabolism up a notch.
I trust your progress is coming along nicely other than this mandatory "Christmas lapse"?

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Yes, yes. I thought this as well. If anything I look in better shape because my muscles feel fuller. I mean a few days ago I was feeling a little too flat if you know what I mean. My strength was up but my body just looked without any pump. Today I look more pumped but my waist and fat areas also look smaller and losing just like they have been. So I agree with your glycogen idea.

bigbutnottoo said:

BTW, I should add I just finished an intense leg workout. That is one bodypart I have no fear of overtraining. And I am going to go forward with my plans of adding some intense sprint work and plyometrics.

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I would do that once a week just for overall health reasons. Losing weight is only part of a healthy heart. You need to really get it pumping from time to time, especially when lifting is spaced out so much.

Good job on your diet also. Most people think its too hard to track calories let alone protien, fat, fiber, etc. You had me sceptical at first, but you are doing well. Congrats.

I tried to post this little update earlier but it kept timing out:

I just weighed in at 204 this morning. This is significant because I last weighed in at 207-Since then I have been eating a lot more and a lot of it wasnt the best quality food. I expected to either weigh the same or gain a pound or 2. In fact I did not weigh myself on Christmas as planned, so I just putin the same weight:207. I wasnt going to weigh myself again until New Years,but I was staring at the scale today and decided to go for it . Expecting to see somewhere between 207-209, I was a little shocked to see 204. I stepped off and repeated 3 times to make sure, each time 204. Not bad. Maybe I can hit 200 for New Years and the first time since 2003. That might be streching it but as long as i hit that mark by 1/15 i am on schedule.

I ate like shit since the 31st ( and I had the equivalent of probably 8-9 Rum and Cokes and something called a Red Death that I dont know what it was). On the 1st, I ate at Burger King and McDonalds, and followed up with nothing but 2 cups of broccoli for dinner.

Then yesterday I basically ate nothing but Gatorade and 1 slice of pizza. This wasnt really intentional , though after 3 high calorie days I wanted to rein in it some.

In a way I went high calorie on purpose for awhile because I was starting to feel flat after basically a month of lower calories. But I wish I had been cleaner with my high calories. Oh well, i think it was a good test as I am not falling into a junk food trap as a way of eating; it was just a temporary diversion.

I dont think I gained anything, except maybe some water. My waist is still the same or smaller. And I measured for the first time in a couple months. I have lost at least 2" there.

I ahve decided not to weigh myself again for awhile-just no need. Starting back tomorrow im gonna go on maintenance and then start a gradual deduction to about 500 below and try to get the rest slowly.