What a difference 5 months can make! (Progress pics)

epmck11 · October 2012

Time for more progress pics! I did some after 3 months, and I was going to wait for 6 months, but I figured I'd share some now to show how lean I got because I'm planning on starting to bulk.

The lighting isn't great and I'm fair skinned so the pics aren't that flattering, but hopefully you can see that I've lost a lot of fat while I've also maintained, and probably even gained some, muscle over the last five months. It's hard to believe the first one was me only 22.5 weeks ago, and it's even harder to believe the current one is me now!

I appreciate any comments! I'd be happy to share what I've done if anyone is interested. Feel free to add me too if you want. :-)

Crying_In_Color · October 2012

Looking good!

emtjmac · October 2012

Nice bro!

Tiff050709 · October 2012

Big difference already! Great job

Phoenixchichima · October 2012

great job! do you feel as good as you look?

acuratlsd · October 2012

What all did you do to get this way... great job

Naomipal · October 2012

Wow!! Great job keep it up!

lindalee0315 · October 2012

Nicely done! What an inspiration for others. Good job.

Elif84 · October 2012

Wow!! You look great!! Keep up the great work.

jessicayoung82 · October 2012

Way to go. Looking great!

strawberrytoast · October 2012

Big difference, your a totally different shape! Well done

xxloveiswarr · October 2012

amazing!

surscheler · October 2012

That's fantastic!

blueskysunburn · October 2012

WoW! Great job!

Cmg7664 · October 2012

Nice job!

epmck11 · October 2012

Thanks for your great feedback everyone! It gives me great motivation to keep it up.

For those who've asked, here's what I've done:

- I follow a Lean Gains eating schedule, intermittent fasting for 12-16 hours a day. Normally Lean Gains calls for 16 hours, but I live a very active lifestyle so sometimes that becomes difficult, but still I think Lean Gains has helped a lot with shedding fat during the fasting state.

- I count calories and macros diligently and follow a high protein, moderate carb and fat diet plan. I don't "eat clean" or follow a "caveman diet" or anything like that. If you look at my diary, I eat ice cream almost every day. I don't eat fast food because it disgusts me or drink soda because I don't like it, but that was the same for when I was fat.

- I weigh myself every morning, first thing I do after I go to the bathroom, then I enter it in a program called Libra for Android, which tracks your weight fluctuations and trends. People say not to weigh yourself that often, but for me it helps to know my weight fluctuations to keep better track of it. Plus Libra creates interesting charts for it!

- I don't track exercise or "eat back calories" because I don't trust any source of how many calories I've burned other than what my weight says over the period of a couple weeks. I calculated my estimated calories on another website for someone who lives an active lifestyle, and I modify that to fit my goals as I see fit, but I don't rely on MFP to tell me how many calories I should eat or how many I burned on some exercise which they have no idea about. I think it's a mistake to rely on MFP to make calculations for you on how many calories you burned. Just use MFP for tracking your eating.

- I don't do any cardio, but I work in a warehouse, which is a physically demanding job. This helped me burn a lot of my fat early on during my diet, and lately it has allowed me to eat a ton of calories without gaining weight.

- I lift religiously three times a week. I never miss a scheduled lifting day. My routine is simple, I focus on the big compound lifts: squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, rows, pullups, etc. I don't waste my time with too many of the small isolation lifts. I lift heavy weights and keep pushing myself to go heavier. My workouts are extremely intense and that's why I make sure to have 4 rest days from lifting a week. I think people who want to see results fast think they'll get more improvements by going to the gym every day, and unfortunately that's not the case. You need those days off and just make sure the time that you're in the gym you're spending efficiently.