Best shape of my life @ 29

Dr1nkbleachndye

Down 45 lbs since Feb 13', 166 this morning due to water rention which is typical over the weekend. My record for putting on the most water weight from friday night to sunday night was 12lbs, i set another personal record the two days after that by dispelling almost all that water weight. This was less a month ago

I've always been a weight lifter. But I never had my diet dialed in. I decided realistically that in late march, it was time to get serious. My strength base was always pretty good, I had figured I would end up losing a lot of strength when going on such a drastic cut, but I haven't! I'd say my strength is down about 10 percent compared to what it was when I started at 208lbs, and that's a trade off I will take any day. My squat and Deadlift has gone up though even though I'm on a cut because I was no where near my peak for those lifts when I first started cutting.

It's not an easy road dieting down from probably over 20 percent bodyfat, to where I am at right now (in my best guess I would say somewhere between 9-11% bf). For a long time on this cut I would be very strict m-f with what I ate, and on the weekends I would eat greasy foods, comfort foods, basically anything high in carbs. Unfortunately I have the disposition of being an extreme eater. I can eat a huge amount of food, so my choices for meals have to be consistent so I don't end up consuming too many carbs/saturated fats/cals. Getting down from 168-163 has meant that I have had to eat clean on the weekends and if I am going to cheat, I make sure to only do it with something that's under 1k cals and I only will cheat once. The easiest thing I have done so far is make sure I eat the same foods from m-f during the hrs of 7am-5pm. Dinner may vary once in a while from m-f but for the most part it's the same foods 5 days a week as I usually eat grilled chicken , broccoli, white rice. Routine is what I've found has helped me be successful with weight loss, as well as anything in life in general.

Dr1nkbleachndye

I wrote the above on my way to work while on the train. I wanted to add some more.

All 45lbs was lost so far without doing any cardio. I wanted to prove a point to people who I am friends with, family, and people at my gym who don't seem to understand that cardio isn't the key to losing weight. Dieting, and choosing the right foods are what will make the weight fall off.

I've always pushed myself when it came to lifting weights, and the typical rep range for me on practically every exercise I do is 3-6 reps. Gaining strength has always been my focus. But it wasnt until these last 5 lbs or so that I have actually noticed a huge difference in my physique. I actually went today to get a bunch of my clothes tailored, some are either too big, or just make sense to have resized. It feels good getting an XL button down shirt resized to what you are now.

I figure with where I am at now, I am probably about 3-5lbs away from my goal bf percentage

The gym is the easy part, the dieting is the challenge