From Fatass to Badass - A Journal of Change

[Big_Turtle]

Those really are nice looking numbers for somebody new to lifting, that 240lbs of lean body mass is serving you well......whats your overall bodyweight goal? 280-ish? I can't remember what the original plan was.

My main goal right now is to get under 300 again. Once I get under 300, as long as I'm still lifting hard and eating healthy, I'll be a force. The ultimate goal, I go back and forth on. At times I want to get down smaller, try to keep my LBM in about where it is and just cut down as much as I can to get close to 255 or so. But, honestly, while that would be cool, I don't see it happening really. I would much rather be a big solid 290-ish guy that can be a little less strict with his diet than to be super strict with my diet just to have visible abs. Screw abs.

Let's say, 290 pounds and about 12 to 15 percent bodyfat. That seems reasonable.

 

[Big_Turtle]

Well, I bought pretty much everything that I'll need this week, food wise. Lots of ground turkey, my bell peppers, lots of rice and tuna. The only thing I will probably need to restock is eggs and possible a good protein source for dinner (chicken breasts, pork chops, etc). I'm going to try and stick as closely to my plan as I can this week and see how the BF% looks next weekend. I'm no expert, but I think this looks like a pretty solid diet for me. Even with a PWO protein shake, I'll be getting roughly 3200 calories and almost 400 grams of protein. Combine that with heavy ass lifting on the 5x5 and surely that BF% is going to start to change.

Speaking of heavy ass lifting, I've got some deadlifts to do in another hour or so. 285 tonight, and soon enough I'll break 300.

 

[Big_Turtle]

Week 4 Day 2


Squats
5 x 120
5 x 140
5 x 165
5 x 195

No problemo. Nice, deep, ATF squats.


Military Press
5 x 75
5 x 90
5 x 105
5 x 120

Another 15 pounds and I'll start feeling good about these again. I miss putting that big wheel on there and banging out some reps.


Deadlifts
5 x 180
5 x 210
5 x 245
5 x 285

Wow. Heavy ass weight. I really need to buy some freaking straps too. Getting to lockout and the bar beginning to slip is really starting to bug me.


Overall, great workout. I really enjoyed myself this evening. I think it must have been the new eating plan, with the tons of protein and the more evenly spaced meals, but I had a lot more energy tonight. Last week, I was kind of dragging through the squats and didn't really feel like I hit my stride until I was halfway done with the presses. I felt great from start to finish tonight. Definitely going to stick with this meal plan for the whole week. See what kind of results I get by Saturday.

 

[Big_Turtle]

I noticed something cool last night that I thought I would mention. I was doing squats and I noticed my reflection in the window infront of me. I was wearing a really oversized t-shirt (everything I wear is pretty oversized), and my stomach was actually beginning to hide a little more. I mean, standing there, I couldn't see the definite outline of my stomach because my shoulders and chest seemed. The shirt seemed to fall a little differently because of that and my stomach wasn't quite as noticeable.

370 again this morning. Will measure and check BF Saturday.

 

[Big_Turtle]

Week 4 Day 3

Squats
5 x 150
5 x 175
5 x 205
5 x 240
3 x 285
8 x 205

Holy friggin crap. My legs felt like jelly after this. Seriously, they were twitching and shaking and wondering what the hell just happened. These are the heaviest squats I've done in years. I don't remember what I got up to when I was younger, but I'm pretty sure that I never hit 315 for reps, so that'll be my PR moment. But damn, these were tough.

Bench
5 x 135
5 x 150
5 x 175
5 x 205
3 x 240
8 x 175

Usually, my legs feel like they are a lot stronger in any given workout. It's normal, these last few weeks at least, to feel like I can squat a dump truck, whereas my bench I've always felt a lot shakier on. I knocked these out no problem. I don't think I could've added any weight to it, and I'm not even sure if I could've gotten another rep, but I never had a sticking point at all. These were all smooth, touch my chest with the bar and back up. Felt pretty cool because there were a couple of guys next to me struggling with 105.

Rows
5 x 105
5 x 135
5 x 155
5 x 180
3 x 210
8 x 155

Heavy as hell, but I managed.

Decided to do a little bit of extra arm work tonight too. Not much though.

Standing DB Curl
8 x 35
8 x 40
8 x 45

Skullcrushers
8 x 45
8 x 65
8 x 65

Nothing special, just a little extra work to finish the week off with. This was definitely the toughest workout so far. I left the gym and felt like my entire body was toast. And I loved every minute of it too.

The scale is slowly moving down, finally. I've stuck to my eating plan almost perfectly so I knew that I had to lose some weight eventually. Hopefully I'm getting enough protein in to keep (or even grow) my muscle. I'm feeling smaller, hopefully it's not just wishful thinking. I'm going to make myself wait until this weekend before I have my wife measure my abdomen again. I don't want to "feel" smaller, then get a measurement that tells me otherwise and that just piss me off for the rest of the week. Speaking of my wife, I have to say that she is doing a really good job of eating a little healthier and making it to the gym. She hasn't lost much weight, but she's lost quite a few inches. The clothes that she bought recently are loose, and clothes that she hasn't been able to wear in a while are suddenly fitting again. Good job, dear.

I'm thinking of having some fun with my buddy that I have the bet with. He's very much into the chemistry experiment side of this. Last weekend he went and bought a 10 pound bag of protein powder, NO-xplode, ZMass, and two or three other things to help him in the gym. Well, last week I told him that I was benching 205 for 5 reps and squatting 225 for 5 reps. I'm thinking I'm gonna tell him that I went and bought some suppliment (haven't decided which one yet) and suddenly I'm piling on 30 or 40 pounds in my next couple workouts. Of course, with my luck I'll tell him that, he'll go and buy the crap and it'll actually do that for him.

Can't wait to check my BF on Saturday. I'm sure it's dropped a decent amount.

 

[Big_Turtle]

Son of a bitch! This is just not working out too well for me, and I'll be damned if I can figure out why. This just depresses the hell out of me.

Current Stats

Weight: 369 pounds, down 17 lbs
Bodyfat %: 36.6, down by 1.2% total, up .2% from 2 weeks ago
Body Fat pounds: 135 pounds, down 11 pounds
Lean Body Mass: 234, down 6 pounds total

I'm friggin pissed. I'm going out with my in-laws for breakfast, I'll be back on later. I'm going to post my diet on the diet board and see what kind of suggestions that I get. I mean WTF? 3000 calories, 350 grams protein, 175 carbs, and 95 fat. WTF and I dropping so much friggin LBM?

Damn it.

 

[ZGzaZ]

What kind of cardio are you doing? 3000 Calories is about my maintenance, I can see why you would be dropping LBM at your weight.

 

[fortunatesun]

I wouldn't worry about it. Sometimes after you start losing a bit of weight your body processes this information by saying "This guy must be starving himself. We're going to start clinging on to all our glycogen stores to make sure our brain and other vital operating systems have enough energy to continue functioning. Does this fool actually think he can make it through the winter this way?"
The easy solution is to up your intake of EFAs. This 'tricks' the monitors into relaxing their grip and the essential fats themselves will act to help in extracting stored tissue. I guess everyone has their favorite method, but IMO a good pharmaceutical grade fish oil works wonders, even if you are already taking some kind of EFA.

 

[BiggT]

You also may want to up the protein closer to 500g.....it sound like a lot, but you're a big motherfu*ker with a lot of LBM to support.....most 'diet' ideas you get are gonna be for guys who weigh a buck 80......you might also want to eat closer to 4000 cals, and up the EFA's.....don't be afraid to add more carbs in either.....your untimate goal of 290-300 is still a lot of person to maintain, 3,000 cals isn't a whole lot of food.

 

[fortunatesun]

You also may want to up the protein closer to 500g.....

Yep, now that you're active again your body just has different ideas than it used to about what is good for it.