My Weightloss + Muscle Gain program

[andre patton]

Backstory:
Sometime between the middle of November and the end of December I put on 15lbs...and I stopped goin to the gym in like September so it wasnt muscle. I clocked in at 202 lbs and lookin way too fat (like 23% body fat) so I said fukk that. January 1st I'd have a new membership to a gym.

Couple that with the fact I found out a couple of my niiggas was headed to Miami for spring break in mid march. I wanna look my absolute best. Back in August I weighed about 195lbs with 13 percent body fat. You could see the outline of my abs, but I didnt have a pack. I wanna get back to that, if not better so I got back on my grizzy.

January 1-21
I pretty much spent these first 3 weeks reintroducing my body to weightlifting. I didnt lose any real fat in this time, but my muscle memory did its thing and my body started to transform into the mold its most used to. My diet was pretty much the same calorie wise, but I upped my protein intake.

January 22-February 1
I fine tuned my diet. My intake is 2700 calories a day (average per week) 40 percent carbs, 35 percent protein, 25 percent fat. I keep track of this by using fitday.com and counting EVERYTHING I consume. At my current size thats still a caloric deficit, albeit slight. I dont want to eat less then that because I want to retain, and even add as much lean mass as possible and that takes calories.

I structured my workout to 5-6 days a week. 3 days I based my lifting routine around compound lifts. 2-3 days a week were based around cardio and some secondary lifts.

As of right now, I weigh 197lbs at about 17-18 percent body fat. So far I've been getting stronger, looking more muscular, while losing fat so I know my program is working for me. These results arent typical, but because I'm bringing my body back to a state its most used to I'm getting there quicker then your average joe would.

The point of this thread is to give niiggas a mold on how they can achieve similar results. I'll go into more details if people have more questions.

I'll update this thread every 2 weeks with my progress or any changes to my program.

[Multi]

How do you find out your body fat %? You know just by looks and an educated guess or do you have one of the machines (that you hold in both hands straight out in front of your face)?

[andre patton]

How do you find out your body fat %? You know just by looks and an educated guess or do you have one of the machines (that you hold in both hands straight out in front of your face)?

those machines are terribly inaccurate. they will vary wildly depending on so many factors.

if you had a trained professional w/ calipers it would be cool. his numbers might not be exact, but at least he would be consistent that way you could track your weight loss.

in my case, i've seen hundreds of pictures of shirtless men (no homo) with professional judges givin their estimates of their body fat. its based on visible abs if 12% or lower, and muscle separation from the higher percentages.

so essentially its an educated guess. the actual accuracy of the number isnt that important. consistency is most important so a person can track their results.

[andre patton]

February 2 - February 14

Nothing really new to report. My body has stayed around the same bf% and I weigh about the same. I expected to lose at least a pound or two, but nope. I have been getting stronger though, so at least I know I'm not under-eating. I just started an ECA stack on Sunday. I'll probably stay on it for 2 or 3 weeks. I should lose a bit of fat from that. My cardio workouts have been better (cause of the ephedrine) I'm still slow as ****, but I jog about 2 miles in 20 minutes. I need to get to 2.5 miles before I'll consider myself "in shape" cardio-wise.

Here's how my intake breaks down on fitday:
Average Calories
grams cals %total
Total: 2364
Fat: 86 775 34%
Carbs: 207 768 34%
Protein: 152 609 27%
Alcohol: 18 126 6%

No real glaring problems on this. I would like to decrease my fat by 4-9 percent, and increase my protein intake 8-13 percent. I would also like to up my average daily calories by about 200.

In other news....looks like my March trip to Miami might be in jeopardy. Tickets from LA are like 500 bones and I'm not even guaranteed the time off work. Regardless, I'll be hittin the beaches in March, plus I got a trip to Boston at the end of April, too. So I'll keep motivated.

[andre patton]

February 15 - February 27

It's been about 4.5 weeks and I definitely lost fat. I'd say Im leaner then I've ever been. The funny part is I still weigh 200lbs, but now I can see the outline of my abs again, and I have decent definition in my upper abs. This means I've put on a nice amount of muscle in the mean time. My bf% is around 15% and I look slightly better then I did back in August cause I have a little more muscle.

I remember I stopped dieting last time because I looked "good enough" which is where I'm at now. But I dont want to stop. I want to have a well defined 6 pack. Starting next week I'm going to start my adaptation of the Velocity Diet (http://www.t-nation.com/findArticle.do?article=05-009-diet). Its pretty much a low carb, low fat, high protein diet. Its pretty extreme...but extreme times call for extreme measures.

Here's what I'll be doing. I'll consume 1500-1800 calories a day. 200-250g of protein (800-1000 calories), 80-90g of carbs (320-360 calories), 35-45g of fat (315-405 calories).

All my protein will come from a casein/whey mix of protein shakes. I'll mix it with non fat milk. PWO I'll add oats and glucose for more carbs. Most of my fats will come from fish oil capsules and some from the protein shakes. I'll also be taking some type of fiber supplement (possibly greens+ or maximum greens, or maybe just a straight up fiber pill). I'll also take a multi vitamin.

We'll see how it goes. I dont even know if I'll have the willpower because as you can see, I wont be eating any solid food. Just protein shakes all day. Hopefully I can do this for 2 weeks.

[Soulytrack]

you're ****ing crazy homie. No solid foods!? serious?! i wouldn't be able to last more than 2 days but more power to ya.

I've been dieting for the last 3 weeks to a month now, and it's working very well.

Basically the same thing as you, except that I eat solid foods.

High Protein, Low Fat, extremely low carbs. I've also been tracking my carb's Glycemic Index as best as I can.

My protein is basically Grilled meat (Lean Beef, Lean Veal, Chicken breasts, Salmon, Trout, Sole, Tuna) and i've completely cut off bread (well 99% of the bread I eat) and no potatoes/rice. Steam some vegetables with a little olive oil, or a nice green salad with Olive Oil and a little balsamic vinegar.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=fr&q=Glycemic+Index&meta=

in case you need more info. Good luck though! I booked my trip b! im leaving to cuba on the 11th. It's too bad ive been letting go on my diet/exercice over the last few days :sad: