Hello all -

Been lurking for a while. Just hit 9%BF - YEAH! This is week 10 of a 12 week cut. Eventual goal = visible abs. Today = just psyched to be at single digit bodyfat.

Sat 2/12/05 start of cut stats = HT - 5'11", WT = 158, BF = 13.5% (Tanita First thing AM pre meal/post pee - 6:20am measurment)

Sat 4/23/05 current stats are: HT - 5'11", WT = 149, BF = 9%
(Tanita First thing AM pre meal/post pee - 6:20am measurment)

I feel awsome. I weighed 220 pounds 4 years ago. :bow:

Looking good. Also, the chest tattoo rules.

Good work! That's a fairly solid 149. You look bigger. What are your future goals after more visible ab definition?

awesome work for such a short amount of time! You must be thrilled!

5'11" and only 149 lbs? You look 170lbs to me, easily.

Regardless, excellent work! You sure did a good job in a short time. Care to share what your weekly lifting/cardio routine was and diet?

wow.. 4 % a big difference. Good work man :tu:

I agree with Karatetricker, you definately look bigger than 149 (in a good way). In the before picture, you look a little soft, but now you look solid. Also, down from 220? Damn, nice job!

On another thread awhile back, I opined quite stridently about my distaste for tattoos, but I gotta admit, yours look pretty cool! :cool:

5'11" and only 149 lbs? You look 170lbs to me, easily.

Regardless, excellent work! You sure did a good job in a short time. Care to share what your weekly lifting/cardio routine was and diet?

My cut was 100% Tom Venuto "Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle." I didn't even know what a cut was until I read that book (I swear I'm not an affiliate or associated : ) I prepared 490 consecutive meals from the beginning of my cut to today. Today was actually my first meal in a restaurant for the last 10 weeks. Kinda intense, but totally worthwhile. Here's my workout and nutriition (grocery list):

DAY >>NUTRITION>>EXERCISE
SAT:REFEED DAY>7AM 40min FASTED MODERAtE CARDIO >>12 PM Back/BIcep (2 workout day)
SUN:MODERATE CARB>7AM 40min FASTED MODERAtE CARDIO >>11:30AM Bar Method Pilates/Core class (2 workout day)
MON:MODERATE CARB>7PM 30min NIGHT MODERAtE CARDIO & CHEST TRICEP WEIGHTS
TUE:MODERATE CARB>7PM 30min MODERAtE NIGHT CARDIO & LEGS WEIGHTS
WED:REFEED DAY>7PM 40min MODERAtE NIGHT CARDIO
THUR:MODERATE CARB>7PM 40min MODERAtE NIGHT CARDIO
FRI:MODERATE CARB>7PM 40min MODERAtE NIGHT CARDIO

Nutrition wise here's my shopping list per month (some stuff lasted longer than a month. It's give or take)
28 pounds chicken breast
8 pounds ground turkey
7lbs Protein Powder
12 lbs bananas
4 pounds Whole Wheat Bread
2 pounds Peanut Butter
2 Pounds Almond Butter
10 Pounds Dry Oats
12 pounds Brocolli
180 Eggs
16 oz Bottle Flaxseed Oil
30-40 pounds of Sweet Potato/Yams
Also some Multivitamins and Calcium Pills

That's it. Average consumption was 2200 calories on moderate carb days and 2700 calories on refeed (higher carb) days. And NO CHEATS.

Also, COSTCO RULES.

Hahaha, I bet you wrote down the entire food you've written, prepared and consumed over the past 12 weeks, huh? :lol:

But anyway, great, and I mean really great progress there... You're abs are more visible, your size seems to increase and you face looks thinner too! Congrats man! :tu:

Wow man. That's one of the best and quickest transformations I've seen on here. Nice work! :tucool:

Dude, with a ripped physique, that hair and tattoos, you could easily score some film roles. Or maybe reality TV. Serious.

Dude, with a ripped physique, that hair and tattoos, you could easily score some film roles. Or maybe reality TV. Serious.
:nod: Canadian films come to mind. You look mean in the first photo, and downright scary in the second. But in a good way. You definitely look like you have the movie star attitude. If you have no acting talent, you could look into modelling too. Fantastic physique. :claplow:

Maybe I should start lurking.

Great work.

-R

good job
you look great now.
you must feel like a million bucks!

That is a SWEET tattoo with the heart and the ribcage...never seen anything like that before.

It is even cooler that now you have the physique to really show off the tats and your great progress! Congratulations!

You look great!

Great transformation. Good work.

That's a sweet transformation. I can see that the tattoo has become taller as your pecs have grown-you're stretching the tat out.

That eating plan sounds intense but it seems to be what works, lots of successful people on this board consume a hell of a lot of chicken breasts so I better head over to Costco.

You do have visible abs now-at least the intercoastals and the upper abs. The lower and middle ones are tough to bring out but another few pounds of fat loss should do it.

Good work! That's a fairly solid 149. You look bigger. What are your future goals after more visible ab definition?

Thanks. I have two weeks left in the time that I allotted for this cut so I'll just continue until time runs out. Maybe get to 8.5%. Then maintain for summer and figure out a bulking routine for winter. I'm shooting for 160 pounds at 8% to 9% BF in about two years.

Awesome progress dude...I cant wait to cut this summer and hope to have the same results you did.

Fantastic!

Very encouraging. I also learned everything mostly from Tom Venuto's BFFM, nice to see someone else on his program and having success.

220lbs? Not keen to show the pics from that time I guess? Well 7 months ago I was 200lbs, and I'm shorter than you. I'm 165lbs now. It's very motivating to see your change. Thanks.

Vincent.

The two best indicators of great commmitment I see are:
1. Having went through long-term weight loss (4 years to get from 220) and expectation to move upwards while maintaining a leanness over the course of 2 years. It's not "I want to lose 2 lbs every weeks for x weeks and then add y lbs by z time."
2. The fierce dedication involved in making & eating such planned meals and doing such planned workouts.

What I wonder is how you went from to such a low weight, was it without attempts to preserve muscle or were you carrying a low amount of lbm to begin with?

Those tatoos are badass, Good progress man. It seems like your abs are almost fully visible you don't have much farther to go.

any pics from 4 years ago?

any pics from 4 years ago?

All I could find is an old ID pic from 2000. I was 200 pounds then and subsequently got 20 pounds heavier by 2001. It's a blurry jpeg.

What I wonder is how you went from to such a low weight, was it without attempts to preserve muscle or were you carrying a low amount of lbm to begin with?

Good observation Hyoogeness. I thought about that during the cut and the best I could come up with is that years of working out hard without proper nutrition eroded a lot of lean body mass. Until this cut, I literally didn't know there was a difference between losing weight and burning fat. I was probably in starvation mode for whole months while working out for years. No idea at the time. Oh well, time to build back up.

All I could find is an old ID pic from 2000. I was 200 pounds then and subsequently got 20 pounds heavier by 2001. It's a blurry jpeg.


Wow, that is quite a difference. You don't even look like the same person!

You look AMAZING!!!!

Hey 1esotericguy. I wonder how your looking now. The reason I ask is because I finally put everything in action from Tom Venuto Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle book. What an awesome transformation BTW

Real nice job man. Very cool tats also!! That chest piece is quite unique. :tucool:

You've got an awesome look, and a fantastic body. Top-notch work, man!

Pretty good, especially noticeable by the face.

I'm not a fan of tattoos but those ones are really original. The anatomy on your skin is definitely neat. I hate to think about having to keep the color up on them, though. ouch :D

Kick ass body! Kick ass tattoo! You just totally Kick ass! :nod:

Awesome transformation! It looks like you have the right genetics for some massive arms too! How's the lower body?

Pretty good, especially noticeable by the face.
:D

Pretty good??????? C'mon man. :confused:

Hey 1esotericguy. I wonder how your looking now. The reason I ask is because I finally put everything in action from Tom Venuto Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle book. What an awesome transformation BTW

Hello Sam - Thanks for bringing this thread back to life...good for my ego :D . I'm currently on a bulk and am at 161lbs @ approximately 12.5% B/F (measured by Tanita - I'm too lazy for Accumeasure Calipers right now). I'm using Venuto theories for the nutrition and MAX OT for the workout (no cardio). I'm going for 170lbs overall weight at 15% b/f by the end of the 2005 and then cut for 14 weeks to get to 160lbs at 10%-ish b/f by April 15, 2006. Good luck with your Burn the Fat/Tom Venuto quest. If you haven't looked in the appendixes of all the PDF's yet, make sure you look. He did some really cool charts that are sort of buried in the back of the documents. Really useful stuff.

You've got an awesome look, and a fantastic body. Top-notch work, man!
John, Door, Larry - Thanks for the kind words. Hopefully my 2006 update will have me ten pounds heavier :eat: !

Chicanerous - To be honest, lower body isn't anything to write home about, but coversely I'm pretty sure it doesn't look like I just got out of a cast or anything either :p. I'm reallly concentrating on getting good compression on my leg exercises for this bulk.


Skoorb - the chest tattoo actually is about 4 years old. The color looks to be pretty stable so far. That's why I get them big, they hold better. I also sunscreen like crazy - I'm basically gray colored when I go to the beach. :cool:

Here's my workout and nutriition (grocery list):

DAY >>NUTRITION>>EXERCISE
SAT:REFEED DAY>7AM 40min FASTED MODERAtE CARDIO >>12 PM Back/BIcep (2 workout day)
SUN:MODERATE CARB>7AM 40min FASTED MODERAtE CARDIO >>11:30AM Bar Method Pilates/Core class (2 workout day)
MON:MODERATE CARB>7PM 30min NIGHT MODERAtE CARDIO & CHEST TRICEP WEIGHTS
TUE:MODERATE CARB>7PM 30min MODERAtE NIGHT CARDIO & LEGS WEIGHTS
WED:REFEED DAY>7PM 40min MODERAtE NIGHT CARDIO
THUR:MODERATE CARB>7PM 40min MODERAtE NIGHT CARDIO
FRI:MODERATE CARB>7PM 40min MODERAtE NIGHT CARDIO

Nutrition wise here's my shopping list per month (some stuff lasted longer than a month. It's give or take)
28 pounds chicken breast
8 pounds ground turkey
7lbs Protein Powder
12 lbs bananas
4 pounds Whole Wheat Bread
2 pounds Peanut Butter
2 Pounds Almond Butter
10 Pounds Dry Oats
12 pounds Brocolli
180 Eggs
16 oz Bottle Flaxseed Oil
30-40 pounds of Sweet Potato/Yams
Also some Multivitamins and Calcium Pills

That's it. Average consumption was 2200 calories on moderate carb days and 2700 calories on refeed (higher carb) days. And NO CHEATS.

Also, COSTCO RULES.

Wow... that's one of the most interesting and informative posts I've read on JSF lately...

The grocery list is absolutely amazing... it really quantifies how much food you consume in a month. I bet if you told the regular Joe that you can eat an average of pound of potatoes and a pound of poultry every day and STILL lose "weight" they would never believe you.

Your workout plan seems to be pretty useful too... what's the meal timing like on a given day? Any theory behind when the "refeed" days fall in terms of what kind of workouts you are doing on those days?

Hey 1 Esoteric, good to see you posting again! I remember your original post earlier this year and being very impressed...keep us posted on your bulk and new pics at some point so we can admire/comment your progress...

Take care

Nutrition wise here's my shopping list per month (some stuff lasted longer than a month. It's give or take)
28 pounds chicken breast
8 pounds ground turkey
7lbs Protein Powder
12 lbs bananas
4 pounds Whole Wheat Bread
2 pounds Peanut Butter
2 Pounds Almond Butter
10 Pounds Dry Oats
12 pounds Brocolli
180 Eggs
16 oz Bottle Flaxseed Oil
30-40 pounds of Sweet Potato/Yams
Also some Multivitamins and Calcium Pills

That's it. Average consumption was 2200 calories on moderate carb days and 2700 calories on refeed (higher carb) days. And NO CHEATS.

Also, COSTCO RULES.

That's a great diet! I love all the real food. No wonder you had such great results.

Don't know how I missed this thread when it first came out, but that is an awesome transformation. ESPECIALLY considering the timeframe! Nice work!

Your workout plan seems to be pretty useful too... what's the meal timing like on a given day? Any theory behind when the "refeed" days fall in terms of what kind of workouts you are doing on those days?
The only thing I did with regard to meal timing was to get up an hour earlier than neccesary in the morning such that my meals would align with my commute/workday schedule. No more than 3 hours between meals and never skipped a meal. As far as macronutrients go, I just always had a protein with a complex carb at every feeding and set my overall daily carb intake to whatever % burned fat. I think my magic number was 34% on moderate carb days and 42% on high carb days. And as far as certain eating to coincide with certain workouts...I believe in it, but didn't do it because that would have crossed my already stretched "convenience threshhold."

Hello Sam - Thanks for bringing this thread back to life...good for my ego :D .

Lol! Your welcome bro. Thanks for the update.

looking awesome bro. i just started cutting recently and will try to do as well as you did. curious as to what your cardio lifting training was?

looking awesome bro. i just started cutting recently and will try to do as well as you did. curious as to what your cardio lifting training was?

Hello Dfresh -
Scroll down about 7 posts down on the 1st page of this thread for the per week workout and nutrition detail. My cardio was done on any machine avail when I got to the gym. I think the most effective aspect of my cardio routine during that cut was utilizing a heartrate monitor. With the monitor I realized that I frequently was huffing and puffing and sweating , but not really cranking. Basically wasting time. The monitor let me meter INTENSITY and time instead of just time. That way I could create a constant (intensity) and use time (I'll do 40min, 30min, 1 hour whatever) to burn more or less cals/fat. :gl:

I feel awsome. I weighed 220 pounds 4 years ago. :bow:

Nice cut! (both the body AND the hair ;) ). Somehow long hair and tats works great on your 'type', that just looks plain cool. I agree on the Hollywood comments, you have a look that could be a realistic Indian (which I would guess you are), but you could pull off a believable south-east Asian as well, and with your tats, maybe even Japanese Yakuza. :cool:

I'm sure some more muscle will look great on you, but I'd stick with the muscular lean look, it fits you well! :D

Look good bro, congrats :)

again.. congrats.. this is one of my motivation threads I need to look at .... AWESOME PROGRESS!

Amazing cut my man. I cant believe you were ever 220lbs. Thats where I was about a year ago. Now holding steady at 175 but still have a LONG way to go before i look as good as you do. I'm sold on the BFFM and will be maintaining through the holidays, and then Jan 02, 2008 I'm gonna hit that routine hardcore.

Thanks for even more motivation!

Son, that is one WICKED transformation. Way to effin go (high five). You have anything recent? I'm impressed, seriously man way to go. Keep it up.

AWSOME progress ..nice tattoos. VERY motivational. CONGRATS:tu:

omg thread from the dead

Your chest tatt KICKS BUTTOCKS

FCken Amazing. Not only do you look great but your Tat makes me want to get a TAtoo. And You look very good for 149lbs. Again gratz on the amazing transformation

omg thread from the dead

^ LOL, totally true. But a cool one none-the-less.

Awesome tat, awesome figure, gorgeous hair. You look great! I am curious to see what you look like now. :)

Amazing cut my man. I cant believe you were ever 220lbs. Thats where I was about a year ago. Now holding steady at 175 but still have a LONG way to go before i look as good as you do. I'm sold on the BFFM and will be maintaining through the holidays, and then Jan 02, 2008 I'm gonna hit that routine hardcore.

Thanks for even more motivation!

Holy SH*& - This thread is BACK?! Awesome. I'm around the same weight as you right now and am about to fire up a lean out phase in January. If I get it together, I'll start a fitness challenge thread or at least a journal. I think this thread got bumped last year too. Once a year...It's like an annual reunion for me with my former chunk self. :D

^ LOL, totally true. But a cool one none-the-less.

Awesome tat, awesome figure, gorgeous hair. You look great! I am curious to see what you look like now. :)

Thanks for all the cool words from everyone. No current pictures, but I do have a funny JSF related story.

I had to go to Hong Kong and China a few months ago and my passport picture is pre-body change. Probably about 200lbs-ish. I totally forgot until I landed in Hong Kong. You can kind of guess how the story goes...I ended up in a room where they shake you down and make sure you're not a threat to the country etc. I got quizzed for about ten minutes on fun facts about myself. I got all of them correct (surprise). But the Hong Kong official still just could not believe it was my passport. He even asked for second opinions, and I speak just enough Chinese to understand that no one in that little detention center believed that I was me. I was actually getting a bit nervous until I remembered that I hand carried my Laptop. Guess how I got into Hong Kong....I showed the border dude THIS EXACT THREAD FROM JSF!:D Luckily they pump out free WIFI at the airport. :tu:
It gets better - he showed me his official ID picture. Turns out he is leaning out; looked like he lost about 20 lbs. He asked me for some tips and I told him to eat yams and lift weights and do deads and squats.

I ended up going in and out of China about 6 times on that trip and EVERY time I had to say the same thing in Chinese (which I memorized)..."No, it's really me. I lost about 70 lbs. I used to be really fat in 2001." Then I told those border dudes to eat yams and lift weights. Serious. So funny. I'm getting a new passport photo soon. ;)

I was actually getting a bit nervous until I remembered that I hand carried my Laptop. Guess how I got into Hong Kong....I showed the border dude THIS EXACT THREAD FROM JSF!:D Luckily they pump out free WIFI at the airport. :tu:
It gets better - he showed me his official ID picture. Turns out he is leaning out; looked like he lost about 20 lbs. He asked me for some tips and I told him to eat yams and lift weights and do deads and squats. :D:lol: That's a great story! Good thinking! :tu:

I told him to eat yams and lift weights and do deads and squats.


:lol: Brilliant!!

I do have a funny JSF related story... That's a jewelry story. JSF helps people in more ways than you can imagine. :lol:

Thanks for all the cool words from everyone. No current pictures, but I do have a funny JSF related story.

I had to go to Hong Kong and China a few months ago and my passport picture is pre-body change. Probably about 200lbs-ish. I totally forgot until I landed in Hong Kong. You can kind of guess how the story goes...I ended up in a room where they shake you down and make sure you're not a threat to the country etc. I got quizzed for about ten minutes on fun facts about myself. I got all of them correct (surprise). But the Hong Kong official still just could not believe it was my passport. He even asked for second opinions, and I speak just enough Chinese to understand that no one in that little detention center believed that I was me. I was actually getting a bit nervous until I remembered that I hand carried my Laptop. Guess how I got into Hong Kong....I showed the border dude THIS EXACT THREAD FROM JSF!:D Luckily they pump out free WIFI at the airport. :tu:
It gets better - he showed me his official ID picture. Turns out he is leaning out; looked like he lost about 20 lbs. He asked me for some tips and I told him to eat yams and lift weights and do deads and squats.

I ended up going in and out of China about 6 times on that trip and EVERY time I had to say the same thing in Chinese (which I memorized)..."No, it's really me. I lost about 70 lbs. I used to be really fat in 2001." Then I told those border dudes to eat yams and lift weights. Serious. So funny. I'm getting a new passport photo soon. ;)

I normally don't post, just lurk. But I had to say that this is one of the coolest stories I've read on JSF. Seriously, awesome transformation! :madpimp:

JSF in China...:tucool:

Look forward to lean-out updates. Awesome work by the way at losing the weight/looking fit.

How much did you spend a month of food and supplements?

How much did you spend a month of food and supplements?

Hmm - I just had to calc it...estimated at $275/per month-ish

:eat:

So I'm starting that lean out phase I referenced a few posts back. I just built a nice tracking calculator in excel. Here it is if anyone wants to use it. The variables are TOTAL WEIGHT & BF%. Everything else auto calcs! :claphigh:

It's set up for 12 weeks. The CALIPER and CALIPER BF% columns are just to check against the Tanita figure.

Sorry for any formula errors - I did it quick. :gl:

Any updates?

Awesome transformation!

"Nutrition wise here's my shopping list per month (some stuff lasted longer than a month. It's give or take)
28 pounds chicken breast
8 pounds ground turkey
7lbs Protein Powder
12 lbs bananas
4 pounds Whole Wheat Bread
2 pounds Peanut Butter
2 Pounds Almond Butter
10 Pounds Dry Oats
12 pounds Brocolli
180 Eggs
16 oz Bottle Flaxseed Oil
30-40 pounds of Sweet Potato/Yams
Also some Multivitamins and Calcium Pills"

Can you tell me what a typical day looks like on that schedule? Also, 6 eggs a day... are you eating all those yolks too?

Surely you didnt buy it all at once each month?

"Nutrition wise here's my shopping list per month (some stuff lasted longer than a month. It's give or take)
28 pounds chicken breast
8 pounds ground turkey
7lbs Protein Powder
12 lbs bananas
4 pounds Whole Wheat Bread
2 pounds Peanut Butter
2 Pounds Almond Butter
10 Pounds Dry Oats
12 pounds Brocolli
180 Eggs
16 oz Bottle Flaxseed Oil
30-40 pounds of Sweet Potato/Yams
Also some Multivitamins and Calcium Pills"

Can you tell me what a typical day looks like on that schedule? Also, 6 eggs a day... are you eating all those yolks too?

Surely you didnt buy it all at once each month?

Working from memory...I think it went something like this:

5AM - 1/2 cup oats, 1/2 Banana, 5 egg whites, 2 tbls Flax Seed Oil

730AM - 1 piece whole wheat bread, 2 tbls Peanut Butter, 3 egg whites , 1/2 banana

9:30 - 1/2 cup oats, 1 serving protein powder, 1/4 cup berries

12noon - 7OZ chicken breast, 8OZ Yams

2:30 - 4OZ turkey Patty, 8OZ yams

5:30 - 7OZ chicken, Some Brocolli

8PM - 1 serving Protein Powder