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

gherring2014 wrote: »

I'm on page 38 and can't seem to find a couple of questions I have. How often do you change up your lifting routine? When you stop seeing gains? Or a certain amount of time? I understand with 5x5 you never change up your routine, just weight. But using like strong lifts for example? Also when you are doing cut/bulking cycles do you take any time to maintain between the 2 cycles or do you just go right into the next cycle with no breaks? Sorry if these are repeat questions. Thank you so much for such solid advice!!

I give any lifting program at least 3 months. Anything shorter is not enough to fully see the results. With a beginners routine, you should probably run it for 9 months to a year. After that, I would run a program for a long as a bulk or cut phase takes. For me, I usually run a higher frequency routine (5-6 day a week) while bulking and I do an upper/lower 4 day split or a 3 day total body routine for cutting as your body cannot tolerate as much volume in a calorie deficit. You do not need to transition from bulking to cutting slowly. You can literally pick a day and switch. Going from cutting back to bulking is different. You should spend about 2 weeks at maintenance before beginning the bulk; Then you begin slowly adding calories until you hit the optimal rate of weight gain which is 2 lbs a month for men and 1 lb a month for women.

mumblemagic wrote: »

rageginger wrote: »

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

#1 rings so true for me - it's been just over a month since I started truly tracking every single thing I eat and drink, and it's amazing to see the results of just being aware and making decisions based on that!

#2 is a bit of a revelation to me, because I've been avoiding "treat" type foods, since I've had trouble in the past with going from a tiny bit of a treat to the entire box/carton of whatever it is. Moderation is key, and something that I'm going to learn going forward!

Many people (myself included) struggle with the psychological side of this - learning to eat only *one* cookie rather than the whole pack, rationing out the Giant Chocolate Buttons etc. For this reason some people find it easier to lose weight by avoiding these things all together at first, sometimes slowly introducing them back into the diet later on, or not introducing them back at all. So while the clean eating thing is a myth from the point of view of physical health some people find it easier to maintain a healthy lifestyle by cutting out their food cocaine...

While I accept that at first, certain people need to avoid certain foods for a period of time, I disagree that they should ever ban a food forever. The problem with simply never eating cookies to avoid binging is that cookies will eventually show up. Even if you never buy them, you'll eventually be faced with them and if you have banned them for such a long time, you may end up binging. I think every single person is quite capable of learning moderation. It's difficult at first, but like all things, with practice you can become proficient with it. I think ignoring the problem by banning a food, rather than working through the problem, is a mistake.

trossk2 wrote: »

I read the first 30 pages or so (just until the same questions kept popping up), and I wanted to say thank you for doing this. I've learned quite a bit from your thread. Also, congrats on the phenomenal success you've had. It's very impressive.

Glad you found it useful!

es513 wrote: »

I'm a 5'6 1/2 female and my SW was 270. I am now 200. I am eating around 1500 calories per day give or take some here and there, and I am also doing mostly just walking on an incline as running makes my max heart rate in the 200s.. If I start following the IIFYM and I start lifting.. I would need to increase my calories drastically but wouldn't this cause a gain? I just feel like 2000 calories (according to the video you linked) is way too much food.

Also, did you track your HR during exercise? Did you ever feel like you were doing TOO much?

I believe I answered your first question on my youtube site. It's in the comment section of this video for anyone who wants to see: https://youtu.be/7cc18wLJW3k
As far as heart rate monitors go, I usually do not wear them as I don't really care what my heart rate is during exercise. I do primarily weight lifting and it's fairly irrelevant what my heart rate is. You can certainly do too much exercise! This is more true when you are in a calorie deficit. For beginners for weight loss I usually suggest 3 days a week total body lifting, then 2-3 cardio sessions. If you do hiit, only 1 of the cardio sessions should be hiit. If you feel you are not recovering from workouts well (low energy, low motivation, sick feeling, etc) I'd reduce the cardio or reexamine how large your calorie deficit is.