** UPDATE 28 Sep 2004 ** Added a fourth picture of me at 210 lbs and 20% bodyfat.

** UPDATE - 06 Jun 2004 ** Okay, I'm pulling the week five picture and replacing it with a week nine picture. So, from left to right, these pictures are April 4 (236 lbs, 33% bodyfat), May 2nd (235 lbs, 29% bodyfat), and June 6 (226 lbs, 27.8% bodyfat).

The funny thing is that while the pounds don't move much between the first and second pictures, the visual difference is dramatic. But there's only a very modest difference between the second and third picture, even though the pounds have started to drop.

I'm very glad I'm tracking my progress several different ways, because I always have something to be happy about.

** ORIGINAL POST **

I've spent more than an hour flipping back and forth between these two images, barely able to believe what I've been able to do in a month. I've still got a long way to go, but I'm pretty happy with how things are shaping up.

The first picture is from April 4th. I weighed 236 pounds (I'm 75.25 inches tall) and my body fat clocked in at 33%.

The second picture is from May 2nd. In it, I weighed 235 pounds and my body fat measured 29%.

Yep, a one pound loss.

That's supposed to translate to a 10 pound loss in body fat, and an 9 pound gain in lean body mass. I wouldn't believe it if I weren't wearing smaller pants already, didn't do the measuring myself, and didn't have these pictures to show for it.

Of course some of this is margin of error, etc., but fundamentally I think the body fat percentages are giving the true story.

I tried to do as John says, not as he did, and keep the calories up to at least 10x body weight. When the scale didn't move, I started getting pretty anxious about this strategy, but I'm finally getting comfortable with it. I'm sure the total weight will eventually come down once my lean body mass gains start to slow down.

Let's see, what else? I'm 34 ... been overweight most of my life except for a brief time around 18-20 years old. My peak weight was 272 about five years ago.

My recent effort to lose started at 248 pounds on December 23, 2003. I brought that down to 236 by late March with low-carbing and "Slow Burn". I eventually turned this into a TKD and was chewing glucose before each workout. It worked well, but I wanted to exercise more, and didn't want to keep munching on glucose, so I figured I needed to boost the carbs with real food.

I found John's site right around then, and eventually decided to just do Body for Life for 12 weeks and then reassess where I wanted to go from there.

I started eating clean on April 4, and started lifting again (after two weeks off) on April 12.

John's site has been hugely important to my commitment. It's taught me patience and attention to detail, plus all the important little things you pick up in the forums.

It's great to be here. Thanks for all your contributions. The folks who post here are all top notch, and I appreciate the time and energy all of you put into your posts.

Congrats! Pretty amazing results for only four weeks!

You should feel fired up to finish your amazing transformation! What your doing is working!!

Wish I could go workout, I'm stuck at work!

-Allen

Great progress Adam!
Here's the evidence that you can loose fat and gain muscle at the same time. Nice to see :)

Good luck to your future struggle!

You have made amazing progress in four weeks! The results are dramatic. Good job! :tu:

Welcome, adamc. You are on your way now! Keep up the hard work and keep us posted on your progress!

Thanks for the kind words and encouragement!

Wow! That's amazing. :) What a difference already!

Yea, look at your stomach especially. Instead of having an overall rounder appearance it looks like the sides have dropped off quite a bit. Looks like awesome progress. It's so motivating to see all that fat shrink away knowing that it's all because of your dedication! Definately keep us posted! Good job!! :tu:

Great job for 4 weeks. I see a big difference already in your mid section. Cnat wait to see you progress. You are gonna look GREAT. :gl:

Nice one Adam, you can really see the sides coming in from them two pics.

It's also nice to see someone else who's losing bodyfat and gaining muscle at the same time. I've been getting a little discouraged lately as the weight is hardly dropping but the bodyfat percentage apparently is.

I would just like to echo everyone else. THe difference is amazing in the side of your stomach. I know the feeling about looking between photos, the first time I uploaded mine I sat there for at least 10 minutes looking between the two and couldt believe the difference. Before i lost weight I didnt even se myself as fat but now the weight is dropping off I can see the body that was lying underneath it the whole time.

good luck with your progress

Great Job - you can really see the difference.

Thats great progress for only 4 weeks !!!!!!!!!
Keep it up !

Thanks, everyone! It's really great to get the feedback and encouragement.

Time to lift and keep this ball rolling. :bb:

Oh yeah, you're on the right track...great progress! :tu:

Bumping this up since I added a pic showing one more week's worth of progress. :db: :eat:

As I mentioned in my edit of the original post, I've removed the week five picture and posted a week nine picture.

My LBM gains stopped at week four, and for the last 4-5 weeks, I've been losing fat at a pretty good clip.

You can't really see it all that easily ... but my gut is a little less thick, my thighs are measuring smaller and I can see the veins in them a little more clearly, and my calves are trimmer and have much more definition.

I'm on track for 12% bodyfat by Christmas ... slow and steady. :bb:

Great progress! I too am new here so I thought Id add my 2cents. I can obviously see a difference in the midsection but also up around your neck area it looks as if your losing the double chin and your collarbone is starting to show as well. The legs are looking much better as well. Congrats and give us a rundown of your routine....


Brad

:tu:

Hi, Brad. For now, my routine is basically just Body for Life. I'm using it for at least 12 weeks while I figure out what I want to do next.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to keep using BFL's eating plan for at least the rest of this year ... maybe indefinitely. If my progress toward 12% bodyfat slows, I may switch to something a bit more rigorous. Also, once I hit 12% I'm going to come up with new goals. Depending on how I look, I may decide to cut further, bulk or perhaps maintain for a while.

For weights, I'm thinking about possibly switching to HST, but I'm also taking a close look at Max-OT. Sticking with BFL's weight training program is also a possibility.

For now, though, I'm doing BFL pretty strictly, with just a few variations.

(1) I eat fewer carbs in the evening than earlier in the day (I work out only in the morning, so this is doubly good for me, I believe);

(2) I add several more minutes of very light cycling to cool down. I've found I'm not comfortable getting off the bike until my heartrate is back down in the 120s. That used to take 4-5 minutes ... now it's just taking two.

(3) I do try to emphasize carbs on my free day. Watching my weight, I think I'm depleting my glycogen stores M-Sat. If I low-carb on my free day (Sunday), I'm wiped out early in the next week. But if I use Sunday to carb load, my weight skyrockets (glycogen + water), I have plenty of energy to get through the week (when my modest carb intake seems sufficient to keep me going), and I still see a net loss by weigh-in/bodyfat measuring/picture time first thing Sunday morning. Typically, I'll see about a five pound gain Monday morning, a couple pounds lost by Tuesday, and then about a pound a day lost until Sunday, when I'm one or two pounds down from the previous Sunday.

(4) I do supplement with glutamine (5 g. 3x per day) and creatine. I use 56g of All The Whey in each of my 2-3 shakes per day. I know this is a lot, but it's much more satisfying, and if it just goes to gluconeogenesis, hey, it's low glycemic index carbs. ;)

Hmmm ... there may be other things I do a little differently than BFL lays out, but that's all I can think of at the moment.