So I started out mid-September with the following:

http://web.mit.edu/tristan2/www/091906.JPG

After a month of eating clean and lifting hard, I was able to lose about 3-4 lbs, while gaining 5-10 lbs on my bench, 10-15 lbs on my military, and 20-30 lbs on my deadlift. Recently, though, those numbers have either been steady or dropped slightly. Anyways, here's the pictures from early-November:

http://web.mit.edu/tristan2/www/110806c.jpg

http://web.mit.edu/tristan2/www/110806d.jpg

I am pretty happy with the progress so far. My goal is to slim down a little more and then put on a few pounds of muscle before I go on vacation in January. Ideally I'd like to be around 8% body fat. Any ideas as to what body fat I'm at right now? Thanks for all the help and inspiration guys.

Wow! You have made quite a change in a very short amount of time,..Of course speaking as an over the hill, 45 year old. Things don't happen so fast for us old folks,...:D

>>>--->

Uh I think you are like 8% or maybe 9% already....

You look great!

holy crap, you did that in a month and a half? What kind of weight lifting/exercise regiment did you have?

Great Job by the way :tu:

Looking good son. Added quite a bit of quality muscle and virtually no fat in the process. Filled you out nicely.

Keep it up! :tucool:

Uh I think you are like 8% or maybe 9% already....


id say somewhere around 10.4 - 10.7%

Looks good. Do you mind posting your workout/diet?

Thanks for all the encouragement guys!

My workout pretty much consisted of a five day split:

Chest (BB Bench, DB Incline, BB Decline, DB Fly, Cable Crossover)
Back(Deadlift, Pullups, BB Rows, One Arm Rows, Shrugs)
Legs(Squats, Leg Press, Curls/Extensions)
Shoulders(Military Press, DB Press, lateral raises, front raises, rear raises)
Arms(3 exercises for biceps, 3 exercises for triceps)

As for nutrition, I didn't keep a really detailed food log or anything, I just logged onto fitday a few times to make sure I was staying 300 or so calories below maintenance. I found that about 500 calories below maintenance, I will tend to be hungry 30 minutes before one of my 6 meals, so I just went off of that most of the time. Also, I tried to keep my protein intake somewhere around 30-40 grams per meal.

It was weird, I saw some weight drop on the scale for a few weeks at the start, and my strength was pretty level. For a few weeks after that, though, my scale weight stayed pretty much the same while my strength boosted. Right now, I'm kinda noticing it drop a little, this week namely. I came within between 1 and 3 reps of where I was last week for a lot of my exercises (I usually go for 10 reps). Anyone got any input on what's going on here? So yeah I'm kinda bummed about that. Hopefully things will look up next week. But hey, I'm really glad with how things turned out. And thanks for all the compliments, guys!

actually, now that I think about it, I think my strength decreased because last week I was intaking a lot less than every other week of this cut. It was because I measured out the wrong portion sizes for my meals for a few days. You think this would have caused such a drop in strength?

It was weird, I saw some weight drop on the scale for a few weeks at the start, and my strength was pretty level. For a few weeks after that, though, my scale weight stayed pretty much the same while my strength boosted. Right now, I'm kinda noticing it drop a little, this week namely. I came within between 1 and 3 reps of where I was last week for a lot of my exercises (I usually go for 10 reps). Anyone got any input on what's going on here? So yeah I'm kinda bummed about that. Hopefully things will look up next week. But hey, I'm really glad with how things turned out. And thanks for all the compliments, guys!

Congrats on all your success so far! :tu: It seems as if you may be hitting the wall at this point in time. Couple a very ambitious workout schedule with a caloric deficit, and eventually you'll stop making progress with strength gains and lean mass. I would drop your workout volume substantially, maybe train 3x per week, and increase overall calories by 300 over maintainence. This will re-establish your metabolic setpoint and you should avoid any plateaus (which you currently seem to have come upon).

Another aspect I'd suggest is to pay more attention to your nutrition. Make it a priority, on par with your training. Keeping a daily food journal in my opinion is just as important as maintaining a training journal.

Hope this helped bud. :) Keep up the great work...you look great! :bb:

you really think bringing my calories to 300 OVER maintenance is the best idea right now? do you think I can still reach my goals in time if i do this?

you really think bringing my calories to 300 OVER maintenance is the best idea right now? do you think I can still reach my goals in time if i do this?
I sure do. :tucool:

You've made some excellent progress, looking great!

Yeah man, you're looking ripped.

Wow, great work!

~SC~

Congrats on all your success so far! :tu: It seems as if you may be hitting the wall at this point in time. Couple a very ambitious workout schedule with a caloric deficit, and eventually you'll stop making progress with strength gains and lean mass. I would drop your workout volume substantially, maybe train 3x per week, and increase overall calories by 300 over maintainence. This will re-establish your metabolic setpoint and you should avoid any plateaus (which you currently seem to have come upon).

Another aspect I'd suggest is to pay more attention to your nutrition. Make it a priority, on par with your training. Keeping a daily food journal in my opinion is just as important as maintaining a training journal.

Hope this helped bud. :) Keep up the great work...you look great! :bb:

you really think bringing my calories to 300 OVER maintenance is the best idea right now? do you think I can still reach my goals in time if i do this?

He wouldn't say it if he didn't mean it. ;)

Awesome work man, keep it up!

Ok, so I'm going to do this then. Go with 300 calories over maintenance. One thing though: how long do you think I should keep up with this? A week? As long as I feel like my fat levels aren't increasing? Until I am satisfied with my lifts? Thanks again!

Ok, so I'm going to do this then. Go with 300 calories over maintenance. One thing though: how long do you think I should keep up with this? A week? As long as I feel like my fat levels aren't increasing? Until I am satisfied with my lifts? Thanks again!

untill you either start gaining fat, which I doubt you'll do with all that great muscle or until you hit another wall... you may find that your maintenance level has gone UP because of the extra lean mass on your frame now :nod: ... GREAT progress by the way, you're looking really good :tu: