My 12 Weeks with SideSteel
_benjammin
Posts: 1,224 Member
I feel very fortunate that SideSteel selected me to participate in his online consulting project.
During my first meeting with SideSteel he listened to my background and current goals while explaining his background and thoughts for helping me achieve my goals. My goal was purely aesthetic, I wanted to see my abs. Last year I lost nearly 50 pounds but didn't have much muscle. I started barbell weight training about 6 months before meeting SideSteel. I had made some strength gains but wasn't happy with my physique. At 40 years old I had never been "lean" and asked SideSteel for help.
With SideSteel's advice and recommendations I adjusted my diet and exercise plan and was able to meet my goal. He recommended honest/accurate food diary logging with a slight calorie deficit and additional accessory exercises. Through weekly Skype sessions after his review of my diet, weight, and lifting videos he provided thoughtful insight and proposed direction for continued progress. After 6 weeks I lost about 8 pounds and began increasing my calories. Also thanks to SideSteel's review of my lifting and tips I had made form improvements that resulted in more confidence with adding weight to the bar. At this point I was very grateful to have SideSteel's help and encouragement because I was feeling insecure with what to do.
After 12 weeks I was in the best shape of my life. SideSteel taught me so much not only about diet and exercise but also about myself. He provided me with the tools and guidance to continuing living a healthy and happy life. I am forever grateful and would recommend anyone wanting to make healthy lifestyle changes to utilize Patrick's expertise.
Here's a little more about me:
I turned 41 on March 30. I'm 5'10.5", after Thanksgiving 2012 I weighed 192, my highest ever. I've always had chicken legs, at 192 I had moobs and a muffin top. I decided before I turned 40 (March 2013) I would be damned if I was going to be in the worst shape of my life.
A little "back story": I was very active and fit up to my early 30's, played college football (@160lbs) in Ohio and moved to the beach after graduation. Gradually I started to gain a little weight in the winter but always lost it in the summer. Lifted weights off and on, never worried about what I ate. Moved off the beach and got married in 2005 and bought my first house in 2007. That's pretty much when my weight just kept creeping up and muscle disappeared. Additionally, my cholesterol had slowly crept up to "unhealthy".
My wife knew I was miserable with my body and mentioned a friend lost weight with Medifast. I googled it, bought it and dove headfirst on 12/2/12. I stuck to it for 4 months including no alcohol (except one Xmas/New Year binge and one or two glasses of wine near the end) and by 4/1/13 weighed 144 but had little muscle, no idea what my BF% was but had no visible abs. Thankfully my cholesterol was/is now fine. I was happy to have lost the weight but needed to gain some muscle. During my transition from Medifast to regular food my Medifast coach had me start an account here so she could see my food diary.
I started to piece together a modest home gym and did some body weight exercises. Through reading here and associated links I decided to try intermittent fasting and immediately fell in love with skipping breakfast. Finally in August 2013 I found a home-made squat/power rack and olympic weight set on my local craigslist.
I started Strong Lifts 5x5 8/1/13 but struggled to figure out my macro and calorie needs. Fast forward to earlier this year, I'd made some strength gains but had questionable form and had not made any "lean gains", weighing ~160-165.
I applied to SideSteels's group offer and hoped he could help me see my abs, help my compound lift form (specifically Squats and Deadlift), and establish reasonable macros and calories for my goals.
I started with SideSteel on 2/18 with the following stats:
Weighing 161.2lbs
~12-14% body fat
Waist @ navel =32", below navel =32.75", and Hips = 35.25"
And this is worthless without pics right?
Here's my "Before's"
My low weekly average weight was 150.7 after 9 weeks.
And After 12 weeks (with 5 of those weeks reverse dieting up to maintenance) my measurements:
151.2 lbs @ ~9% Body Fat
Waist at Navel 30", Waist below navel 30.5", and Hips 35.25"
For the last 3 weeks my goals have been 2,800 cals (315g Carbs, 75g Fat, 215g Protein) but my daily average intake has been closer to 3,000 cals/day due to weekend "binges" but my average weekly weight has stayed ~154. I'm trying to bulk so I'll be upping calories.
I could go on and on about all the things SideSteel did to help me. Feel free to ask.
During my first meeting with SideSteel he listened to my background and current goals while explaining his background and thoughts for helping me achieve my goals. My goal was purely aesthetic, I wanted to see my abs. Last year I lost nearly 50 pounds but didn't have much muscle. I started barbell weight training about 6 months before meeting SideSteel. I had made some strength gains but wasn't happy with my physique. At 40 years old I had never been "lean" and asked SideSteel for help.
With SideSteel's advice and recommendations I adjusted my diet and exercise plan and was able to meet my goal. He recommended honest/accurate food diary logging with a slight calorie deficit and additional accessory exercises. Through weekly Skype sessions after his review of my diet, weight, and lifting videos he provided thoughtful insight and proposed direction for continued progress. After 6 weeks I lost about 8 pounds and began increasing my calories. Also thanks to SideSteel's review of my lifting and tips I had made form improvements that resulted in more confidence with adding weight to the bar. At this point I was very grateful to have SideSteel's help and encouragement because I was feeling insecure with what to do.
After 12 weeks I was in the best shape of my life. SideSteel taught me so much not only about diet and exercise but also about myself. He provided me with the tools and guidance to continuing living a healthy and happy life. I am forever grateful and would recommend anyone wanting to make healthy lifestyle changes to utilize Patrick's expertise.
Here's a little more about me:
I turned 41 on March 30. I'm 5'10.5", after Thanksgiving 2012 I weighed 192, my highest ever. I've always had chicken legs, at 192 I had moobs and a muffin top. I decided before I turned 40 (March 2013) I would be damned if I was going to be in the worst shape of my life.
A little "back story": I was very active and fit up to my early 30's, played college football (@160lbs) in Ohio and moved to the beach after graduation. Gradually I started to gain a little weight in the winter but always lost it in the summer. Lifted weights off and on, never worried about what I ate. Moved off the beach and got married in 2005 and bought my first house in 2007. That's pretty much when my weight just kept creeping up and muscle disappeared. Additionally, my cholesterol had slowly crept up to "unhealthy".
My wife knew I was miserable with my body and mentioned a friend lost weight with Medifast. I googled it, bought it and dove headfirst on 12/2/12. I stuck to it for 4 months including no alcohol (except one Xmas/New Year binge and one or two glasses of wine near the end) and by 4/1/13 weighed 144 but had little muscle, no idea what my BF% was but had no visible abs. Thankfully my cholesterol was/is now fine. I was happy to have lost the weight but needed to gain some muscle. During my transition from Medifast to regular food my Medifast coach had me start an account here so she could see my food diary.
I started to piece together a modest home gym and did some body weight exercises. Through reading here and associated links I decided to try intermittent fasting and immediately fell in love with skipping breakfast. Finally in August 2013 I found a home-made squat/power rack and olympic weight set on my local craigslist.
I started Strong Lifts 5x5 8/1/13 but struggled to figure out my macro and calorie needs. Fast forward to earlier this year, I'd made some strength gains but had questionable form and had not made any "lean gains", weighing ~160-165.
I applied to SideSteels's group offer and hoped he could help me see my abs, help my compound lift form (specifically Squats and Deadlift), and establish reasonable macros and calories for my goals.
I started with SideSteel on 2/18 with the following stats:
Weighing 161.2lbs
~12-14% body fat
Waist @ navel =32", below navel =32.75", and Hips = 35.25"
And this is worthless without pics right?
Here's my "Before's"
My low weekly average weight was 150.7 after 9 weeks.
And After 12 weeks (with 5 of those weeks reverse dieting up to maintenance) my measurements:
151.2 lbs @ ~9% Body Fat
Waist at Navel 30", Waist below navel 30.5", and Hips 35.25"
For the last 3 weeks my goals have been 2,800 cals (315g Carbs, 75g Fat, 215g Protein) but my daily average intake has been closer to 3,000 cals/day due to weekend "binges" but my average weekly weight has stayed ~154. I'm trying to bulk so I'll be upping calories.
I could go on and on about all the things SideSteel did to help me. Feel free to ask.
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Replies
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Dude this is really incredible, you look great. Guys don't seem to post their success stories as often, so it's good to see. I joined this group hoping I could get some tips as well. From your success it looks like the mods know their stuff!0
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Badassery0
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Excellent work!0
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Thanks for posting the results sir. You definitely got lean -- be sure to keep in touch and let me know how the bulk is going! It was a pleasure working with you and this got me better in-tuned with Madcow too, even though I had to ask you how to read the spreadsheet every damn day.
LOL0 -
awesome job0
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Damn fine work...yourself and SideSteel.0 -
Thanks for sharing this! Very inspiring.0
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Wow! Awesome!0
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Amazing progress! :drinker:0
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Wow, amazing!0
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Great job!0
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Incredible! ♡0
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Total awesomesauce!0
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Excellent!!!0
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Incredible! You look amazing!0
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Thanks everyone.0
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Friday will be 2 months of "bulking" after reversing up to average daily calories in the 2,800-3,000 range and about 5 pounds gained. So far so good...I think.
Still looking pretty lean, I'll take some pics this week at some point.0 -
this post is full of awesome. Your results are incredible.0
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I was linked to this last night and all I can say is OUTSTANDING! I am sitting at a spot similar to where you began and seeing your progess is really inspiring. Way to go!0
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Thanks!0
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No pics but fun with excel. Weight and calories vs time.
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Dat hair!!!!!0
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That's not hair.Dat hair!!!!!
This is Hair!
Wigs 4 Kids donation.
I've done it twice, going for a 3rd.0 -
@Benjammin - :drinker: (Can't find an emoji tipping my hat so a drink is next best thing!) Congrats on a totally inspiring transformation. I am looking to do something similar over the next 6 months as I head for the big 50! I will come bnack to this time and again during this period I am sure. Thanks for sharing and again - congrats!!!!
@SideSteel - congrats to you too for your part!!0 -
Awesome progress! Thanks for sharing and keep us posted on your bulk.
Are you still doing stronglifts?0 -
Thanks.Awesome progress! Thanks for sharing and keep us posted on your bulk.
Are you still doing stronglifts?
I quit SL5x5 after about 16 weeks (started 8/1/13), did 3x5 for a few weeks and started MADCOW 12/30/13. I'm still doing MADCOW now and slowly bulking, ~2 pounds per month. I've gotten 7-8 weeks out of each round of MADCOW before deloading/resetting. I'm going to take progress pics this weekend, which will be 12 weeks since reversing into a surplus and about 6 pounds gained.0 -
12 weeks of bulking, up 6 pounds from ~151 to ~157:
Taking slow, obviously. Still doing MADCOW. Squat and DL have increased but I've got something going on with my right shoulder, bench an OHP are stalled. I want to stay relatively lean during "beach season" (I go a couple times a week) but may try to gain a little faster over the winter.
Thanks again to SS for guiding me through this.0 -
different lighting
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That's really solid. Great bulk so far.0
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Another thing SS taught me was to look at rolling averages to identify trends. During my cut and reverse I was only looking at daily weights and weekly averages. Since then I've created a spreadsheet to calculate rolling 7 day averages. Here's the last 3 months weight and calories:
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