Hey guys, I posted in the beginners forum a while back on how I was starting the Men's Health Bellyoff. Well, I'm 3.5 months and it's been working well. The original thread can be found here:

http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=40967

Basically I've dropped about 40 lbs since December 15th, I started at 245 and am now at 206. My routine and basic diet can be found in the thread above. Basically a 2000 calorie diet with strength training 4 days/week to minimize muscle loss.

My goal was to be "ripped" by the summer and I have no idea if I'm still on track to do this. I just want some suggestions on what to do now. Id love to have defined abs by June 1st, but dates aren't really that important for me. I just want to reach my goal one way or another. Basically I just want to know where I should go from here, and how you guys think I've done so far. I think I minimized the loose skin and muscle loss but ill let you guys be the judges.


Here I am at 232 January 8th

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v394/gasior/Front01-12-2008.jpg

And there were taken yesterday at 206 lbs.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v394/gasior/Front03-15-08.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v394/gasior/Side03-15-08.jpg


then a comparison shot

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v394/gasior/Side01-12-2008.jpg

Awesome work, and yes, you can be ripped by summer.



I'd like to offer suggestion, but I'm not clear on your diet. You posted one in the old thread that appeared to be about 1600 kcal, and people said up the calories. And you said here that your diet was ~2000 calories. Did you take the suggestions? What did you add to the diet? Could you please post exactly what it is you ate?

Very impressive, glad to see pics as it reminds me to keep at it!

great work buddy!!

You did a good job of losing weight. I suggest once again that you need to start a weight training program. To become ripped, you need muscle. Without muscle, you just become a smaller edition of your old self.

What do you plan to do for exercise. Suggest a full body weight program 3 days a week, 8-12 reps, no more than 12 exercises. There are plenty of programs covered in these forums.

Awesome work, and yes, you can be ripped by summer.



I'd like to offer suggestion, but I'm not clear on your diet. You posted one in the old thread that appeared to be about 1600 kcal, and people said up the calories. And you said here that your diet was ~2000 calories. Did you take the suggestions? What did you add to the diet? Could you please post exactly what it is you ate?

Hey thanks for the kind words, basically I upped it to 1800 kcal. Near the end maybe for the past week it was 2000kcal because I was getting lazy...but for the most part 1800, i added a yogurt of lowfat string cheese throughout the day to go from 1600 to 1800. My typical diet consisted of

-3/4 cup oatmeal w/ skim milk added splenda

-light yogurt OR 2 lowfat string cheeses for snack

Lunch: PBJ on whole wheat w/ almonds or Turkey Sandwich with tomatoes and dijon mustard on whole wheat......either sandiwiches with 24-28 almonds...and a fruit

-snack was one once light yogurt or low fat string cheeses

-Dinner was 8oz. boneless skinless chicken breast on the george foreman grill with BBQ sauce and a heaping portion of veggies.

rtestes....I have been lifting four days a week with a basic routine I saw on teh stickies. I didn't notice any strength gains however due to the fact I was on such a calories restricted diet. I also did NO cardio, but I do a lot of walking to classes during school.


So basically I need to know where to go from here to get that cut look. I personally think I have about 20 more pounds of cutting to do to get to about 185...then up the cals and lift harder. But I really have no idea and would like to hear what people think. Thanks.

But I really have no idea and would like to hear what people think. Thanks.

I, or anyone else here, could go through your meal plan meal by meal and add or make substitutes. But it would be hard because your meal plan isn't that great, and major substitutions might be hard for whatever reason (your lifestyle, etc).

For example, I started to do this, and thought switching the yogurt for cottage cheese would be good, but some people can't stomach cottage cheese AT ALL. I personally need protein powder, splenda, and PB to make it palatable.

I would take a read of the stickies again. Fortunately for you, there's a lot of room to clean up the diet without having to cut calories. THIS IS A GOOD THING. You've made progress on a plan, and there's still room to make the plan better.

Generally, you want more protein with every meal (well, the chicken and veggies sounds like a pretty good meal, minus the bbq sauce). You have a lot of dairy, but dairy may have less protein than you'd think.



A few suggestions:

Switch yogurt for cottage cheese (less sugar, more protein)
Add in a protein shake
Add in meat or fish somewhere to a non meat meal
Switch the breakfast milk for an egg and some egg whites, and cook the oatmeal with water (a bit of splenda and it's really not that bad!)

But again, the best changes will be the ones you can stick with.