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

MomiTia · May 2014

Congrats....amazing job...bump for later

roverrowe · May 2014

Hi Vismal

Congratulations on an amazing transformation and thanks for this post and responses ... the best MFP thread I've seen!

My question:

I started putting on weight and fat when I was about 10 years old and stayed overweight (BMI 30ish) and unfit for the next 30+ years until I started using MFP 16 months ago. I've now shed about 45lbs and am 1lb from my (three times revised) goal weight of 168lbs. My problem is that I've hardly done any lifting as I've really been bitten by the running bug, so I'm now in the skinny/fat mode and I don't have any natural musculature like you didn't your middle photo (I'm not into bulk, so I'd have been very happy if I'd achieved your picture 2 after I'd lost my excess weight). My manboobs still stare back at me and taunt me in the mirror! Body fat is now somewhere around 22% down from 30%. So my question is do you really think I can get ever get firm pecs and abs without gym and weights taking over completely from the running that I love. Feeling disheartened now I've discovered I have no significant muscle or decent physique underneath the fat?

FR sent, btw. Thanks again.

fknlardarse · May 2014

I think it would be to lose the last 5-10lbs then work towards gaining muscle. I would still like to continue on the same routine as I like weight training combined with cardio, I just know that I do have a few more pounds to shed. I am also recently learning more about macros and right now mine are set to 50% carbs, 30% protein and 20% fat, Im not sure if that is reasonable for a weight lost goal, I believe that with my daily calorie intake is a .8 lb per week loss, which is fine for me, I'm not in a rush, im just unsure if I am going in the right direction. It seems that it is much harder now that I am closer to my goal. I am 34yrs, 5ft5 and currently flucuate between 132-134lbs. I had a goal in mind of 125-127lbs.

Thank you so much for taking the time to respond, really appreciate the help!

^^^^this! This is my situation in a nutshell thank you! I'm 42 female, weigh 148lbs, want to be 130lbs, I'm 5ft 6 and doing my second day of stronglifts today. I've set my calories at 1600 according to scooby with 15% deficit which would give me .8lb per week loss. Is this going to give me weight loss but build a bit of strength while I am losing?

fknlardarse · May 2014

Brilliant thread by the way! Thank you, and you are inspiring!!!

Love2lift72 · May 2014

Wow! Great job. And it's super that you are offering to answer questions. Thanks so much.

darrensurrey · May 2014

Holy cow!

veredit · May 2014

[/quote]I accepted the fact that the journey is never ending. I can always be better. When there is no end point, there's no rush to get there!
[/quote]

The greatest answer, this is what I've learned since on MFP. I am not that young (49), was big all my life since a toddler, but now my bmi is 19.5 and bf is 19.7, I have beautiful (for me) muscles and am happy and energetic. I am struggling though to maintain what I achieved, and I wonder how important the macros are, especially the protein intake, which I found to be more difficult.

MamaFunky · May 2014

Great job OP!!! You look awesome!!

handyandy9x · May 2014

awesome job, will bump for more great answers.

kcasey155 · May 2014

Anyway - I have ~100 more lbs to lose. I'm super scared of loose skin, and I saw you said heavy lifting helps?
The thing is, I unfortunately don't have enough money for gym membership, and I only have 2lb dumbbells at home. :P Are there other exercises that I could do at home, maybe work out using my own body weight?

I'm not the OP, but I love this body weight exercise site: http://www.startbodyweight.com
It has progressions for the body weight exercises, so you have a good starting point if you can't do a push-up or a pull-up, or a . . .

This might be the place to start for me too. After having five kids I cannot even hold a plank for ten seconds

Love2lift72 · May 2014

Do you think working night shift has affected you at all? I work nights and find it difficult to get enough sleep and to eat regularly.

V0lver · May 2014

Seriously awesome work there!

What was your total calorie intake when you started losing? Did you cut your calotes further when thr weight loss
slowed down?
How much time did the last 30lbs took to lose to gett to the 2nd pic?
Do you have weeks/days where you fall off track and put on weight? If not, what part of your routine would you hold respponsible for such a great run?

ramyad1 · May 2014

I checked your food diary for your first year but could not find out what you ate or what exercise you did etc.

Could you provide a day's diary of what you typically ate and your macro nutrient amounts.. Also could you provide a weeks worth of exercise routines that you did for the first year or would recommend?

Thanks.

vismal · May 2014

Ok, 12 hour shift in the books, let me catch up before I go to bed!

another question

What are your goals from here?
weight
lifting
fitness
etc

Currently I want to get to around 190-195lbs. That should leave me the leanest I have ever been. As far as lifting goes, I don't really have set goals other then to keep getting stronger in all the lifts I do. I would one day like to do a 90 lb weighted chin up, don't ask me why...

I'm having big issues with getting rid of my extra stomach fat. How did you get results?

Nothing you can do to spot reduce. You must just keep losing fat and it will eventually come off from your stomach.

You are very inspiring and wise.
I have a few questions.

1. Did you eat at a caloric deficit? I want to lose 10 lbs but more than that I want to be fit and strong. I am doing The New Rules of Lifting For Women and plan to switch to 5x5 after I'm done. I am unsure my daily calorie goal is correct. I feel pretty good about it but wanted to hear from someone who managed to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time.

2. How much can you lift now for squats and deadlifts? Just curious.

In order to lose fat you must eat in a deficit. I ate in a deficit for a very long time to lose the majority of my weight and then began bulk/cut cycles to but on mass then remove fat. I can currently squat 405x5 *kitten* to grass and deadlift about the same. I rarely do 1 rep maxes because I feel like form always degrades on a 1rm.

vismal · May 2014

You are very inspiring and wise.
I have a few questions.

1. Did you eat at a caloric deficit? I want to lose 10 lbs but more than that I want to be fit and strong. I am doing The New Rules of Lifting For Women and plan to switch to 5x5 after I'm done. I am unsure my daily calorie goal is correct. I feel pretty good about it but wanted to hear from someone who managed to lose weight and gain muscle at the same time.

2. How much can you lift now for squats and deadlifts? Just curious.

I ate in a deficit for a very long time. After I lost the majority of my weight, I switched to bulk/cut cycles where I focused on muscled building phases followed by fat loss phases.

I can currently sqaut 405x5 *kitten* to grass and deadlift about the same. I rarely do 1 rep maxes because I feel like form degrades and the potential for injury is high. I lift to look and feel good not to compete so what I can lift doesn't matter a great deal to me. So long as I can lift more weight as time goes on, I'm happy.

Are you doing strong lifts 5x5? that's what i just started after 6 weeks of insanity...
[/quote
]I prefer the ice cream fitness 5x5 to stonglifts but both are good.

Wow, congratulations on your huge success!!! :drinker:

I hope to lose my last 10-15 lbs soon, but after reaching my goal weight I would like to build more muscle.

Would you recommend lifting to a female (I've always thought of it as a "guy thing")?
Is it the best way to get stronger muscles and maintain them?
I'm still recovering from what might have been tendonitis/tennis elbow/shoulder/nerve injury in one of my arms (doctors' opinions vary on what it actually is), is lifting likely to aggravate it?

Thanks! I'm sticking around to read all your other answers. They have been very informative and inspiring!

I think skipping on lifting is one of the worst things females trying to get fit can do. I always advice periods of muscle growth with small fat gains (bulks) followed by periods of fat loss with minimal muscle loss (cut). The net result is more muscle with less fat. As far as your injury, I would talk to your doctor about what lifts are safe for your condition.

vismal · May 2014

You don't want to stay at 1200 calories.. that puts the body into starvation mode, and it will hang on to all the fat it can. Have MFP figure out what your MBR is for a day, then subtract 500 calories or so from that. That should give you a weight loss projection of a pound a week, which is very doable. If your body is used to eating 3000 calories, going to 1200 will shock it in bad ways.

Starvation mode is basically pseudoscience. There is very little scientific research to support it. It takes eating an extremely low amount of calories for an extremely long amount of time for the adaptations you are talking about to occur.

Im pretty sure I seen you on bodybulding.com. Checked out a youtube vid even. Pretty sure its you, lol. If not, either way an amazing transformation and dedication!

I post on BB.com and YouTube as well!

Ur awesome. That is all.

ETA: Oh I forgot we are supposed to ask a question. I do have one. How does it feel to look like a f'king Adonis?

Well I've never had anyone use the term Adonis to describe me! lol. I'll just say I feel great!

vismal · May 2014

To answer all the people asking about gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time. First lets start by saying fat will not be lost unless a caloric deficit is present (eat less then you burn in a day). Muscle generally isn't built without a caloric surplus (eat more then you burn in a day). For most people you simply will not be able to do both. Some select groups of people can gain a little bit of muscle while losing fat but it's not massive and its not for a long period of time. Newbies to weight lifting will do it for a short while, the obese can do it as well, but know that not a ton of mass will be gained. Teenagers can accomplish better then most people. People who take PEDs can do it as well.

All that being said, no matter what you goal is, YOU SHOULD LIFT! When in a caloric deficit the body must burn something for fuel. It can burn fat, glycogen, muscle, etc. If you lift weights and get in adequate protein, you give the body much less of a reason to burn muscle. This is why the obese should lift. When you are losing all the weight, some of it will be lean mass. If you lift, much less of it will be lean mass then if you don't. You will look better when the weight is off if you lifted throughout the process. Trust me on this.

ssaraj43 · May 2014

Great work and great thread OP! Real solid advice :drinker:

vismal · May 2014

^^^This question! A lot of the advice I see out there about lifting doesn't sound like it applies very well to those of us who are still obese. I keep hearing / seeing people say that you can't build muscle and strength at a deficit, AND I also see people say that we obese folks shouldn't wait until we lose weight to start lifting. Those of us with a LOT to lose often may feel skeptical of the advice I've seen to lift with no greater a deficit than 200-500 calories (which sounds like advice for people with maybe 20 lbs of fat to lose).

OP, you obviously have this sorted and I'd like to know your perspective. Did you have a small deficit and lose fat slowly? Did your strength progress at a decent pace or did you feel held back by a bigger calorie deficit while you were losing fat?

I had a pretty aggressive deficit at first. If you have 50+ lbs to lose, getting the fat off is your main concern. If you can build strength while doing it, great! If you can't, focus on maintaining strength and just get the weight off! I usually shoot to lose between 1-2 lbs a week. The obese can lose more, maybe 3-4.

I like this mind set. I always wonder if it will be worth it. Will I be happier when i lose the weight but still have the saggy skin.

It's worth it. Trust me!

I'm 6'5 and was 395lbs and now 310lbs. I am having a hard time with all of the BS that I'm cutting through! The more questions I ask the more completly different opinions I get. Any ideas on articles, websites, etc.. that would help "find the truth"?

It says in the rules we can't promote websites so I won't. Just make sure what you're reading is not an authors opinion, or an anecdotal finding, but something back by peer reviewed research data. Anyone can say eating 6 times a day will help with fat loss, the data however proves that to be 100% false.

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

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