[BLOG] My struggle with body fat
Some three years ago now I decided to get serious about my personal health. I had always been fat, and had always been unhappy about it. I also knew it was nobody's fault but my own. I ate too much and moved too little. The dorm life got to me as I moved into my lone year of college, and I began to pack on the dreaded Freshman 15. My weight crept from 205 (at 5'10" or so) to 212. I have a good sense for when I have gained weight in body fat, and my suspicions were validated when my scale at home reported the weight gain over Thanksgiving break.
I knew I had to do something about the direction my body was going. Considerable ensuing research left me calculating my daily calorie burn, my basal metabolic rate, and got me counting calories. I discovered that my average daily burn was 2700 calories and my basal metabolic rate was about 1830. I reasoned that if I would lose weight if I ate approximately 2000 calories per day. As the year slipped into 2005, I had dropped from 212 down to 155. But there was a problem: I was still very doughy. I was "skinny-fat" as they call it.
Skinny-fat occurs when someone is at a healthy weight for their height without the right body composition, in effect: too much body fat and not enough lean muscle. From 2005 until 2007, I lived with my skinny-fatness. It was also an eternal disappointment. Imagine the frustration of carefully plotting out your diet every day for three years and simply looking like a smaller version of the fat kid you once were.
In the early summer of 2007, I started working out with a rudimentary plan I developed for myself that included body weight exercises. At this time, I knew nothing about proper diets for muscle-building, but I had noob gains and managed to bring myself up from 155 to 165 in muscle mass. Because I thought it would help me lose body fat I was still eating carelessly, but in the confines of a 2000-2400 calorie diet. My idea was, in hindsight, quite stupid. Muscle-building and fat loss are 100% exclusionary outside of the first 30-60 days, or in the obese.
By August of 2007 I had fallen off the bandwagon again and lapsed into laziness. A sedentary job that delivered delicious lunches every day helped me gain a few percentage points of body fat again. Once more, I grew irritated with my appearance and lost a lot of self-confidence. Come January, the damage that began in August with my new job had slowed to a stop, but I was still pretty unhappy. I kicked my own ass and again returned to watching my calories and nutritional breakdown.
In January of 2008, I was laid off from my firm and began seven miserable months of endless job searching. As March rolled around, I felt I should be doing something more with my new-found and unwanted free time. Despite keeping active with resumes, cold-calling employers and my contributions to Icrontic, I was unable to shake a consuming feeling of restlessness.
I figured that perhaps my restlessness could be aided by returning to exercise. I simultaneously realized that my primary demotivator was a lack of direction to my fitness plans. Research since late 2007 had equipped me with the physiology of weight loss but finding concrete guides to building new muscle had always eluded me. In March I ran across the fantastic and inspiring "How to Be Ripped Like Brad Pitt From Fight Club in 12 Weeks or Less" program which I have since given out to several people. The guide told me, week by week, exactly what to do. It was light on nutritional advice, but it was a damn good start.
I followed the plan from March until July. It was the first time I'd ever been truly optimistic about building lean mass. Every time I fell off the boat (which happened two or three times) I began anew from my best week. I still have not gotten to the end of the plan because I had not exhibited the necessary discipline to complete it to my satisfaction. The last week of the program I executed to my satisfaction was week six, and that was in early August. Throughout my time on the program, I found out how to eat right. This meant good carbs, a preponderance of protein, and care in choosing healthy fats. I meticulously tracked my diet and have more or less abandoned my love of beer in pursuit of Self.
My first paycheck upon being reemployed coincided with the realization that I was not accomplishing much from home any more. As I could do squats, lunges, decline/incline/flat pushups with 70 pounds on my back and did not have heavier free weights for other exercises, my abilities to improve my performance plateaued. I knew I needed to go to the gym, and my paycheck let me enlist for four months at $100.
My brother, an impressive strength-trainer two years on and a big source of my inspiration helped me assemble a program. My ultimate goal is one of aesthetics, not strength, but since appearance is the product of strength (and what you eat), it's going to be a long, steady haul to health victory.
I began my progress on August 23, and I am now in my seventh week, here's how my lifts compare to when I started:
Bench press: 3x8 @ 135lbs (+20 lbs, *TERRIBLE*)
Incline bench: 3x8 @ 100lbs (No change, *TERRIBLE*)
Barbell Shoulder Press: 3x8 @ 90lbs (+25 lbs)
Dips: 3x8 @ Body Weight+10 (+6 reps per set, +10 lbs)
Lateral Dumbbell Raise: 3x10 @ 15 (+5 lbs, but this is fine)
Cable Crossovers: 3x10 @ 45lbs (+15 lbs)
Deadlift: 2x8 @ 175 (+65 lbs)
Barbell Row: 3x8 @ 115lbs (+40 lbs)
Pullups: 3x4 (Up from 0x0)
Lat Pulldowns: 3x10 @ 95lb (+55 lbs)
Barbell Curl: 3x8 @ 70lbs (+10 lbs)
Dumbbell Curl: 3x8 @ 35lbs (+15 lbs)
Squats: 3x8 @ 180lbs (+60 lbs)
Incline Situp: 3x8 @ 55 lbs (+35 lbs)
Leg Curls: 3x8 @ 100lbs (+60 lbs)
Leg Press: 3x10 @ 215lbs (+115 lbs)
Romanian Situp: 3x12 (no change, deliberate)
Plank: 2x80 seconds (+20 seconds)
In the scheme of things thus far, I am disappointed in the progress of my upper body as compared to my lower. I am not sure if this is weakness, poor form, or a psychological block. All I know is that I will push my body to the limit to overcome my obstacles, and I will come out better for it.
One thing I have learned is that you can't really pay attention to the appearance of your body on a program like this as it's the fastest demotivator there is. Eating 3000+ calories a day is a caloric surplus that simply will not burn body fat, and even tends to create small amounts of new fat each week. Therefore any muscular development I have obtained is only known by touch, and I am otherwise just bigger with the same (if not higher) body fat percentage as ever before. Knowing that I will be able to burn this off at the end of my journey to reveal my efforts is the light at the end of the tunnel.
For a closer look at my nutrition, my Fitday food log is religiously updated: Here.
For anyone looking to develop lean mass or train for strength: Here.
My name is Robert Hallock, and I was once just shy of an obese body mass index. When this momentum-building phase is complete, I will be the muscular and disciplined man I have always wanted to be instead of the pudgy and unfocused man I once was. This is my promise to myself, and my message to the world: You can do this.
I knew I had to do something about the direction my body was going. Considerable ensuing research left me calculating my daily calorie burn, my basal metabolic rate, and got me counting calories. I discovered that my average daily burn was 2700 calories and my basal metabolic rate was about 1830. I reasoned that if I would lose weight if I ate approximately 2000 calories per day. As the year slipped into 2005, I had dropped from 212 down to 155. But there was a problem: I was still very doughy. I was "skinny-fat" as they call it.
Skinny-fat occurs when someone is at a healthy weight for their height without the right body composition, in effect: too much body fat and not enough lean muscle. From 2005 until 2007, I lived with my skinny-fatness. It was also an eternal disappointment. Imagine the frustration of carefully plotting out your diet every day for three years and simply looking like a smaller version of the fat kid you once were.
In the early summer of 2007, I started working out with a rudimentary plan I developed for myself that included body weight exercises. At this time, I knew nothing about proper diets for muscle-building, but I had noob gains and managed to bring myself up from 155 to 165 in muscle mass. Because I thought it would help me lose body fat I was still eating carelessly, but in the confines of a 2000-2400 calorie diet. My idea was, in hindsight, quite stupid. Muscle-building and fat loss are 100% exclusionary outside of the first 30-60 days, or in the obese.
By August of 2007 I had fallen off the bandwagon again and lapsed into laziness. A sedentary job that delivered delicious lunches every day helped me gain a few percentage points of body fat again. Once more, I grew irritated with my appearance and lost a lot of self-confidence. Come January, the damage that began in August with my new job had slowed to a stop, but I was still pretty unhappy. I kicked my own ass and again returned to watching my calories and nutritional breakdown.
In January of 2008, I was laid off from my firm and began seven miserable months of endless job searching. As March rolled around, I felt I should be doing something more with my new-found and unwanted free time. Despite keeping active with resumes, cold-calling employers and my contributions to Icrontic, I was unable to shake a consuming feeling of restlessness.
I figured that perhaps my restlessness could be aided by returning to exercise. I simultaneously realized that my primary demotivator was a lack of direction to my fitness plans. Research since late 2007 had equipped me with the physiology of weight loss but finding concrete guides to building new muscle had always eluded me. In March I ran across the fantastic and inspiring "How to Be Ripped Like Brad Pitt From Fight Club in 12 Weeks or Less" program which I have since given out to several people. The guide told me, week by week, exactly what to do. It was light on nutritional advice, but it was a damn good start.
I followed the plan from March until July. It was the first time I'd ever been truly optimistic about building lean mass. Every time I fell off the boat (which happened two or three times) I began anew from my best week. I still have not gotten to the end of the plan because I had not exhibited the necessary discipline to complete it to my satisfaction. The last week of the program I executed to my satisfaction was week six, and that was in early August. Throughout my time on the program, I found out how to eat right. This meant good carbs, a preponderance of protein, and care in choosing healthy fats. I meticulously tracked my diet and have more or less abandoned my love of beer in pursuit of Self.
My first paycheck upon being reemployed coincided with the realization that I was not accomplishing much from home any more. As I could do squats, lunges, decline/incline/flat pushups with 70 pounds on my back and did not have heavier free weights for other exercises, my abilities to improve my performance plateaued. I knew I needed to go to the gym, and my paycheck let me enlist for four months at $100.
My brother, an impressive strength-trainer two years on and a big source of my inspiration helped me assemble a program. My ultimate goal is one of aesthetics, not strength, but since appearance is the product of strength (and what you eat), it's going to be a long, steady haul to health victory.
I began my progress on August 23, and I am now in my seventh week, here's how my lifts compare to when I started:
Bench press: 3x8 @ 135lbs (+20 lbs, *TERRIBLE*)
Incline bench: 3x8 @ 100lbs (No change, *TERRIBLE*)
Barbell Shoulder Press: 3x8 @ 90lbs (+25 lbs)
Dips: 3x8 @ Body Weight+10 (+6 reps per set, +10 lbs)
Lateral Dumbbell Raise: 3x10 @ 15 (+5 lbs, but this is fine)
Cable Crossovers: 3x10 @ 45lbs (+15 lbs)
Deadlift: 2x8 @ 175 (+65 lbs)
Barbell Row: 3x8 @ 115lbs (+40 lbs)
Pullups: 3x4 (Up from 0x0)
Lat Pulldowns: 3x10 @ 95lb (+55 lbs)
Barbell Curl: 3x8 @ 70lbs (+10 lbs)
Dumbbell Curl: 3x8 @ 35lbs (+15 lbs)
Squats: 3x8 @ 180lbs (+60 lbs)
Incline Situp: 3x8 @ 55 lbs (+35 lbs)
Leg Curls: 3x8 @ 100lbs (+60 lbs)
Leg Press: 3x10 @ 215lbs (+115 lbs)
Romanian Situp: 3x12 (no change, deliberate)
Plank: 2x80 seconds (+20 seconds)
In the scheme of things thus far, I am disappointed in the progress of my upper body as compared to my lower. I am not sure if this is weakness, poor form, or a psychological block. All I know is that I will push my body to the limit to overcome my obstacles, and I will come out better for it.
One thing I have learned is that you can't really pay attention to the appearance of your body on a program like this as it's the fastest demotivator there is. Eating 3000+ calories a day is a caloric surplus that simply will not burn body fat, and even tends to create small amounts of new fat each week. Therefore any muscular development I have obtained is only known by touch, and I am otherwise just bigger with the same (if not higher) body fat percentage as ever before. Knowing that I will be able to burn this off at the end of my journey to reveal my efforts is the light at the end of the tunnel.
For a closer look at my nutrition, my Fitday food log is religiously updated: Here.
For anyone looking to develop lean mass or train for strength: Here.
My name is Robert Hallock, and I was once just shy of an obese body mass index. When this momentum-building phase is complete, I will be the muscular and disciplined man I have always wanted to be instead of the pudgy and unfocused man I once was. This is my promise to myself, and my message to the world: You can do this.
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