I went from morbidly obese to 6 pack abs! Ask me Anything

navya2674

Did you ever feel like giving up? If so,what did you do to motivate yourself?

rich41n

Your story is very inspirational! Thanks for sharing and helping others. So I started about where you did. February 2017 at ~305 lbs. I'm down to 270 lbs 18 months later. Should be more but I fell off the wagon a few times! Nov 2017 I started working out at a personal training gym 2x per week. I've been doing it for about 8 months pretty consistently. My sessions are 1 hr full body strength training workouts and different every time focusing on major muscle groups: quads, hamstrings, bi's/tri's, chest, abs, obliques, and upper/lower back. This is accomplished through machines, free weights, and body weight exercises. I've continually gained strength and probably built a little muscle (due to calorie surplus when i wasn't tracking very well i'm sure). I've also done cardio on off days.

My question is whether you would recommended I start to transition to a heavy lifting program at this point such as the Ice Cream 5x5? I still have alot of fat to lose for sure but with strictly eating at a deficit will I be able to do a 5x5 program like that?

adomingo426

Hi everyone, I have a question about my calories in and calories out. Here’s a little back story before I begin I’ve been yo-yo dieting for a few years now I get on kicks where I wanna lose weight then I crash. In middle school I had an eating disorder and basically stopped eating I’ve come out of that and am fine now. Now I am 21 5 feet tall and 138 pounds I am putting on weight like crazy and I’ve never been really
Consistent with my diets and that’s probably because I eat around 500 calories a day and then crash. But when I try to eat more the scale ends up going up and through research this has lead me to believe I broke or damage my
Metabolism having me need less than 1000 calories to lose weight. If anyone has any insight on this please let me know thank you !

TheFutureMrsLewis

Awesome job you look GREAT!

makkimakki2018

How many years does it take to build abs? Im fairly thin at this point and have started using an ab wheel i bought recently. I can feel my hard muscles under my last remaining belly fat but i want to know how long it should take. Im expecting 2 years even if i become super lean.

bsmock88

Great job man! I’m literally in the same boat you were originally, and just now starting my REAL journey, since I’ve fallen off so many times. Turned 30 last month and it’s time to get serious. Amazing transformation and I am planning to begin lifting like you mentioned you wish you would have began sooner.

sdancer2017

Hi! I was happy to see you were still answering our many questions in your thread. Thank you for your video you posted in June. Very honest & in terms I can understand.

When you think about what is realistic/long term (mainly related to measurements). Are there any ways you feel are reliable for measuring body fat? Between my home scale, the hand held one at my former gym & a hand held attached to the scale at my current gym I'm getting a little anxious about that number. I'd love to have accurate measurements, but I'm just not sure how.

Unknown

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grebber1

You keep mentioning about lifting early. So is it bs that you can't build muscle and lose weight at the same time? Besides noob gains at the beginning.
From someone who is morbidly obese all I hear is lose weight first then work on muscles. It's kinda disheartening

Millicent3015

adomingo426 wrote: »

Hi everyone, I have a question about my calories in and calories out. Here’s a little back story before I begin I’ve been yo-yo dieting for a few years now I get on kicks where I wanna lose weight then I crash. In middle school I had an eating disorder and basically stopped eating I’ve come out of that and am fine now. Now I am 21 5 feet tall and 138 pounds I am putting on weight like crazy and I’ve never been really
Consistent with my diets and that’s probably because I eat around 500 calories a day and then crash. But when I try to eat more the scale ends up going up and through research this has lead me to believe I broke or damage my
Metabolism having me need less than 1000 calories to lose weight. If anyone has any insight on this please let me know thank you !

I think an appointment with a registered dietitian might help you. They can discuss your nutrition and eating habits and give you suggestions on how you can get into a more stable pattern. You've gotten over your eating disorder but it sounds like your eating is disordered (undereating, yo-yo dieting), and you need to get into a pattern of consistent healthy eating. I don't know if it's possible to break one's metabolism, I would talk to the dietitian, and also maybe see your doctor for a check up and to maybe find some support to establish a healthier long-term nuteition routine so you're not undereating and then crashing. Scales can be your enemy as well as your friend. If you're becoming preoccupied about what the scales say, maybe it's time to think about using them a bit less.

bmaldo11

vismal wrote: »

I've always wanted to do an AMA so I thought I'd set one up here. The basics about my story are that I went from 315lbs to 195 and have been making small gains in muscles/losses to fat ever since. Ask me anything, anything at all!


Add me as a fr
Did you get issues with loose skin?

aU6FT3Rk

vismal wrote: »

Congratulations, that's an amazing transformation. What do you think are the top 5 things that led to your success?

1. Myfitnesspal of course. It wasn't until I began tracking my intake that my success really started to take off
2. Understanding that "eating clean" is meaningless and that in order to have true life long success I had to eat foods I enjoyed (ice cream, cookies, etc) on a regular basis but in moderation
3. Lifting heavy weights
4. Not listening when people say "you lost enough already" or "you are getting too skinny"
5. Learning as much about the science behind nutrition and dieting as possible. There is more pseudoscience and myths in this field then any other on earth! So much BS to cut through to find the truth.

aU6FT3Rk

Thank you so much for sharing that. I have struggled with Fad diets for years and they haven't really worked. I am getting ready to start this and be serious about it. I needed to hear that you can eat an oreo and still lose weight

mazurkiepolish

You look great. Good for you!!

corkygates

Very impressive on transformation! You look 😎 awesome.

vegasratpack

What an inspiration!

babybeast1

Congrats! You look pretty amazing.

Question: My trainer has me doing more weights than cardio. I gained a bit... like 5 lbs, I'm trying to lose weight and it kinda freaked me out. I know people have said they should have started weight training sooner but I wanna trim. Not sure what s the best approach

nutmegoreo

babybeast1 wrote: »

Congrats! You look pretty amazing.

Question: My trainer has me doing more weights than cardio. I gained a bit... like 5 lbs, I'm trying to lose weight and it kinda freaked me out. I know people have said they should have started weight training sooner but I wanna trim. Not sure what s the best approach

I'm not the OP (obviously), but if your calorie intake is appropriate to be losing weight, I wouldn't worry about the 5lbs gain. I can easily gain 5lbs with a good strength training session. Your body retains some water to help repair the muscles. It's a normal physiological process, and will even out with some time. Give it several weeks (4-6). I know it's frustrating to see it on the scale, but if you know it's water weight, trust the process and push through it.

How many calories are you eating?

babybeast1

I'm at 1,200 now that I started MFP. I dropped from 195 to 190 today (started the 17) so I'm excited about the results. I go over sometines to 1400 when I'm still hungry but it's working so far.

piddings1951

Did you ever experience fatigue when you lising weight?

brenn24179

My 58 year old husband is slim every where except his stomach. How does he get rid of that stomach?

imxnianne

How long was your journey?
How long before abs appeared?
How do you know when to rest?
How much protein are you eating?
Are you eating carbs?
Do you bulk?

12Sarah2015

I've got six pounds to go. How did you lose the last little bit?

placeboBL

brenn24179 wrote: »

My 58 year old husband is slim every where except his stomach. How does he get rid of that stomach?

“Spot reduction,” as it’s called, isn’t possible. He simply needs to reduce the number of calories he eats or increase the number of calories he burns for exercise to the point that he’s at a weekly caloric deficit, and his stomach fat will melt away.

His situation is no different than a person who isn’t lean anywhere. All people carry weight differently. It sounds like his goes straight to his stomach. This isn’t uncommon (or healthy) for men.

tthickens637

Bump to pick up later. Thank You Sooooo Much!!

xgxdxbx

vismal wrote: »

Congratulations, that's an amazing transformation. What do you think are the top 5 things that led to your success?

1. Myfitnesspal of course. It wasn't until I began tracking my intake that my success really started to take off
2. Understanding that "eating clean" is meaningless and that in order to have true life long success I had to eat foods I enjoyed (ice cream, cookies, etc) on a regular basis but in moderation
3. Lifting heavy weights
4. Not listening when people say "you lost enough already" or "you are getting too skinny"
5. Learning as much about the science behind nutrition and dieting as possible. There is more pseudoscience and myths in this field then any other on earth! So much BS to cut through to find the truth.

My five things, as well! In this order!
Awesome work! Congrats

sperouty

Great job on transforming yourself and helping others, keep it up. I am only 4'11" and already a healthy weight, so my story is different from the beginning, but I definitely agree with using weight training from the very start no matter what your goals are. I was successful with eating 1,200 calories per day and working out 3 days per week. I maintained for a while, probably 1 year, but then I ran into problems with slowly gaining weight after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. Part of it was the increase in alcohol and dessert. I am back to using MyFitnessPal to track everything and I know will be able to lose those pounds I gained.

Fight_with_discipline

Thats awesome! and good work!

My question is how to get enough protein while still in deficit, using the formula in the video you've linked put me in a protein goal of 560 calories, thats 32% of my total daily calorie allotment, did you aim for your protein goal when you started lifting and do you have to chug proteindrinks? I find it hard to meet my protein goals every day.

vismal

Hi everyone! I am still alive! I've been crazy busy since my last post. I'm going to try and catch up on some answers for everyone!

navya2674 wrote: »

Did you ever feel like giving up? If so,what did you do to motivate yourself?

I never really felt like giving up but did get discouraged many times along the way. One thing I always stress is that in addition to a long term goal (lose 100 lbs, get 6 pack abs, run a marathon...) you need short term, measurable, goals. Something like "log into MFP and track my calories consistently for 1 whole month" or "don't miss any workouts for the next 8 weeks". If all you focus on is a long term goal you might get discharged with how long that takes.

rich41n wrote: »

My question is whether you would recommended I start to transition to a heavy lifting program at this point such as the Ice Cream 5x5? I still have alot of fat to lose for sure but with strictly eating at a deficit will I be able to do a 5x5 program like that?

A 5x5 is hard to maintain on a deficit long term. You may find that you have to reduce the volume down to a 3x5. Also, while there's nothing specifically wrong with the ICF 5x5 program, the guy who wrote it turned out to be a person that I no longer have any respect for so take that for what it's worth. Stronglifts 5x5 or the greyskull lp are great too!

makkimakki2018 wrote: »

How many years does it take to build abs? Im fairly thin at this point and have started using an ab wheel i bought recently. I can feel my hard muscles under my last remaining belly fat but i want to know how long it should take. Im expecting 2 years even if i become super lean.

Everyone has abs and if you become lean enough they will ultimately show. That being said, to have visible abs at a sustainable level of body fat is something very difficult to achieve. Once you achieve a reasonable level of body fat (which it seems you have) 1 or 2 bulking cycles followed by cutting back to lean is usually what is required to see abs. Of course, everyone is different. Some people will have a much easier time developing abs than others. For training, I recommend training abs like any other body part. 2-3 times per week with progressive tension overload (increase resistance/repetitions over time).

vismal

sdancer2017 wrote: »

Hi! I was happy to see you were still answering our many questions in your thread. Thank you for your video you posted in June. Very honest & in terms I can understand.

When you think about what is realistic/long term (mainly related to measurements). Are there any ways you feel are reliable for measuring body fat? Between my home scale, the hand held one at my former gym & a hand held attached to the scale at my current gym I'm getting a little anxious about that number. I'd love to have accurate measurements, but I'm just not sure how.

I'm basically 100% over body fat percentage at this point. To me it's essentially a worseless number. There is no really reliable way to track it for most people and even if you had access to one of the more accurate measurements (dexascan) I still don't know that it's terribly useful. If you are losing weight over the long term, you are almost certainly losing fat. If while you are losing fat you are maintaining your strength you can safely assume that you are not losing significant muscle mass. At the end of the day, look in the mirror. Are you as lean as you'd like to be? If not then continue to lose body fat. I think too often people chase a number and when they finally hit that number they may not be as happy with how they look as they thought they would be. For instance, somehow between magazines, bro science, and internet groupthink the idea that men achieve visible abs at 10% bodyfat and women at 15% became "common knowledge". Problem is, it's very hard to know with any accuracy what your body fat % is, and even if you do, if your goal is abs then lose weight until you have abs. You don't need to know your body fat % to do that. As far as using body fat as another data point to track alongside weight, measurements, and the mirror that's fine. Just don't get too caught up with that number because it's likely to be one of the least accurate numbers you have to track.

grebber1 wrote: »

You keep mentioning about lifting early. So is it bs that you can't build muscle and lose weight at the same time? Besides noob gains at the beginning.
From someone who is morbidly obese all I hear is lose weight first then work on muscles. It's kinda disheartening

Morbidly obese, non-trained individuals, and teenagers are all capable of building muscle while losing fat much more efficiently than people who do not fall into those categories. The advice to "lose weight first than do weights" is stupid for 1000 reasons. First off, even if you don't gain a terribly significant amount of muscle mass you will maintain muscle mass you already have. You will also build strength. Finally, lifting weights does NOT inhibit weight loss. That's something people say all the time and it's complete nonsense. So in short, anyone who says lose weight first then lift weights is just wrong.