Hi,

Today, I achieved my first goal !:tucool:
I started in May 2007, and my goal was to drop 20Kg in 6 months.
Okay, it took me 9 months instead of 6, but finally I did it !

This morning, I passed under the 90Kg bar (89.8 :D) for the first time since long long years ... (in may 2007, I started at 110.6 Kg).
(actually, it's even more than 20Kg down, but let's say the goal was the 90Kg bar!).

I'll post progress pictures in the media galery soon.

The question is: what's my next goal ?

Initially, my objective was to be lean, not specially big, but I became addicted to lifting, and now, I'd really like to start to bulk, because I lift very hard since May, and I know that the results (in term of muscle gain) are limited by the hypocaloric diet.
So I'd like to lift to gain now :bb:

The problem is that despite the 20Kg loss, I think I'm still too fat for starting a bulk.
According to my impedance weigher, I'm around 25%BF (90Kg, 21Kg of fat mass). This figure might be wrong (I know that impedance weigher are not really accurate.).

So my plan is to define a new goal, in term of BF%, and then, start bulking once I reach this goal.

What BF% would you target, and in how many months?
I calculated that to have 15%BF, it means dropping 10Kg of pure fat, which sounds a bit weird to me, as I would weigh 80Kg (I am 1m87cm).
I've never weighed that few since I'm 14 yo ! (but I've never been in shape ...)

I will post the pictures tomorrow, as I know they are important to get a better idea of where I am now and where I could go.

Matthieu

Salut Mathieu et Felicitations :) yes Pictures will help us enormously in giving advice on your next step ;)

Personally speaking I think your next goal should be drop to 15 percent body fat levels then review the position.

Basically eat very clean, minimise booze, weight training programme which includes all the big compound moves 3-4 times a week and as much cardio exercise as you can fit in 3-4 times a week.


Re diet - read the stickies, diet will have to be at an appropriate calorie level for your weight, height, etc.

89.8kg at 187cm... that's 198lbs at 6'1". I am not buying 25% body fat, that seems way too high. Can you post a picture?

OK I'll post the pictures tomorrow, but I just realized that I definitely can not trust my impedance scale (not sure the word weigher exists):

In the very first day, it was announcing 33KG of fat mass.
Today, 21KG. So it means I should have lots 12 KG of fat mass, but I lost 20 Kg so I would have lost 8 Kg of muscle, which is not possible !!
I have bigger chest, bigger arms, I lift more than the double than in the beginning !

The Tanita scales don't work all that well - they weigh you just fine, but the impedance BF measurements are all over the place.

I decided to go with the Omron HBF-306 hand-held BF meter. (Note: I do not work for Omron, and yes, this is the second post today where I am talking about it, but both posts were about BF measurements).

Works great for me - variance is usually under 0.5% on a given day.

Kevin

ne vous fiez pas sur ces mesures electoniques... mais plutot les pinces, ils sont beaucoup plus precis...

Here are my progress pics.
Definitely I have to cut more before I can bulk...

very impressive Matthieu.. well done. why don't you get a journal running? It's great to tell us what plan you've been following!

Cheers -
Mo

Thanks.
In March, I'll be in a new Gym with a personnal coach.
I will post all my programs and diets on a journal !

So, does somebody can estimate my current BF% ? (my guess is 25%)
And give me a reasonnable goal to achieve in 6 months, before I can start to bulk ?

Cheers
Matthieu

I guess 16-20% maybe. It's hard to tell for sure though. You don't have that much fat to lose - just the bit around the waist :)