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

limelightcurse wrote: »

Hi!
I have one question I have not yet found answered here or on your youtube channel.
What do you know about cellulite? Will it go like fat goes in general or is there some kind of difficulties, tricks, to lose it?
Thank you for this amazing thread and all your advice!

sabowman93 wrote: »

Will you ever completely be satisfied with your body

abhisheksengupta wrote: »

Hello again Vismal,

Here's a quick run through of my journey again.
5'10 M, 21
July' 14 - 212 lbs (Absolutely sedentary, Roughly 40% BF, little muscle - did plenty of cardio, 1400 cal diet )
Nov'14 - 168 lbs (Roughly 25% BF, lower fat, started 1500 cal diet, quit gym for two months)
Jan'15 - 160 lbs (Roughly 22% BF, quite skinny fat, started mini bulk by increasing up to 2500 cals)

Jan '15 - March'14 - 167 lbs (Mini bulk for 2.5 months, started on SL 5x5 based workout, gained 7 pounds of muscle, fat reduced slightly, gained shape and definition on chest, legs and arms)
March 15- Today - 162 lbs (Roughly 17% BF (Started cutting again, at 1800 calories, SL exercises 3x a week, HIIT 2x a week (and one session for warm-up), LISS in the form of at-least an hour of walking everyday throughout the journey.


First of all thank you very much for answering questions previously, they have been a monumental help.
Now for a few new ones on this stage of my journey, I'll be glad if you could help.


1. I have been sticking to the big 3 (squats, DLs, BPs) heavily, focusing most of my energy in going progressively heavier. I started SL in Jan and have progressed to 110 lbs benchpress, 120 in squats, 155 in deadlifts, Do you reckon this is good progress? I did very little strength training while losing weight. As long as the lifts are moving up, the progress is good! Strength is very relative so the numbers themselves mean very little. It's the numbers compared to what they used to be that matter. So if you've gone up on everything, then I'd say progress is good.

2. As I was mostly skinny fat, the mini-bulk I did in a desperate attempt to get in better shape proved largely beneficial, however the growth of underlying muscle made the fat bulge out. It is literally sticking out now, isolated from the newly formed muscles underneath. I decided to to cut this off as much as possible before I bulk again. Your thoughts? Are mini-cycles pointless?Mini cuts have there uses but I am not a fan of a mini bulk. You can jump right into a cut and if it's short enough of a cut, you can resume bulking after maybe a week or two of eating maintenance. You should not jump directly from a cut to a bulk though. You should eat maintenance for a few weeks, then slowly up calories each week until the bulking calories are established. For this reason, I never bulk less then 3 months at a time. This year it was close to 9 months.

3. I still largely have uneven fat distribution throughout the body, the abdomen and upper but is high while lower chest is terribly low (I can see my ribs). I know you can't spot reduce, but will growing more muscle in these places
help the cause?This is largely genetic and there isn't a whole lot you can do about it. Over time, gaining muscle and losing fat systemically will help your overall symmetry but again, genetics will ultimately determine fat storage.

4. My thighs are BIG!. I spent an hour a day on the stationary cycle for cardio while losing weight, that coupled with the squats has left me with rather large and muscular thighs. There's still some fat there, but it looks really funny. I have thin calves, waist and big thighs in between. It makes my upper body look smaller than the lower.
Should I put brakes on leg exercises for a while? Let my cutting take away the fat from there first?Again genetics. I have giant calves and smaller arms relative to my overall body. I still lift calves on leg days but I don't put an extreme emphasis on them. I do a few extra arm exercises to try and "bring those up". As a beginner you should still just focus on doing your program. Once you enter the intermediate phase you can focus a little less on your genetic strong points, and a little more on your genetic weak points, but you never stop working all your body parts.

5. I am from India, and our normal diet, as well as the general food you get outside isn't really protein rich. An average man's here gets around 30-40g a day I guess, while rest of it is carbs. I have been hovering around the 100g-120g a day mark with plenty of egg whites and chicken. To make things easier I just bought some Whey and would like to know if you make dietery adjustments for it? How can I put it to best use on a cutting diet?Think of whey as food, not a supplement. Just work it into your diet as a way to meet your overall protein goal.

BuccaneersFan wrote: »

In your opinion/experience does it make a difference if each meal has the same macro ratio as the whole day. To clarify, if my macro breakdown is 30% carbs/40% protein/30% fat, should each meal be broken down that way?