This is primarily to John, but anyone else with info and advice please contribute!

I know you dont say how much you lift, etc, but when you started your weight loss program, for those first six months, how much stronger did you get? That is, if you started your exercises with x pounds, when you finished your fat loss stage, how much bigger were your lifting ranges? Did they double or triple, or was it more gradual?

I'm just trying to plan out long term goals and make sure I'm challenging myself. Any info and advice would be appreciated! :bb:

Even though I was cutting, I was considerably stronger after the first 6 months compared to when I started. I was so out of shape when I started, it was a little scary how little I could lift back then. My strength improved rapidly as I began to eat better and continued to train hard.

You asked for my advice, and now I'm going to give it to you. :)

Some may disagree with this, but unless you are a power lifter I don't think you should make long-term goals involving lifting certain amounts of weight. As far as I'm concerned lifting weights is a means to and end, and nothing more. Your goals should be stuff like "I'm going to add 10 pounds of lean mass" or, "I'm going to get down to 8% body fat" or "I'm going to run a 4-minute mile"... not, "I'm going to bench 300 pounds by July". Don't get me wrong, to continue improving you should always challenge yourself in the weight room and try to push past your previous best. I always try to add more reps and/or weight every single workout. You can challenge yourself every day by always giving an honest 110% effort. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply John.

I don't have any specific lifting goal, I'm just getting excited at the prospect of, for example, being able to do a pullup. I was just hoping for a timeline of sorts from your experience to gauge my progress. I'm all new to lifting, and while your gain in muscle mass was obviously visible, You don't have the data posted to back it up in numbers like you did for your weight, etc. I guess I'm just more data oriented, and that's why your site is so inspiring.

My arm muscles are all sore now (and my legs will probably join in after I do them on thursday!), and its a good kind of sore, so I'm pretty sure I'm doing OK. I'll just try to increase my reps or weight every week and see where it takes me.

I'll tell you what. I'll let YOU know in a couple months how much stronger I'VE gotten :tu: Thanks!