New member here, dropped 77 lbs so far, and still going.

[ma_fighter]

I started out at 256lbs, and am currently sitting at:

6 ft tall
179 lbs

Goals
#1 for me is to cut down to a sixpack, but I'd settle for a 4-pack :P
#2 Sort my friggin impingement out, a.s.a.p.

Dont wanna overwork my muscles while I'm still dropping weight, resulting in my body not having the proper nutrition to rebuild damaged/withered muscles, so I'm basically just doing rubberband rehab exercises once or twice a week now.
Once goal #1 is sorted, I'll turn all my focus on building muscles, and first of all posterior delts, rotators, and shoulder stabilizing muscles. Then keep working on my back, cause I've got a serious imbalance in muscle-strenght back vs front. Resulting in my impingement.

#3 Muscles, muscles, muscles! Looooong term goal is to hit 220lbs, under 10%bf. That'd be 100kg's and tripple digit shredded bodyweight is always sweet! Though I'll probably be happy if I'll ever even hit 200
Perhaps I'll even be able to build up my pecs enough, so that my manboobs aren't so prominent :P

I'll see if I can find any before pics, I managed to break my old cellphone which contained most of my photos.
I used to be kinda camera-shy, for obvious reasons, so not many pictures exist outside of my own phone, and even then I dont think I ever had any when I were at my worst.
You dont really want to admit to yourself that you're a fat, lazy, slob! and not having pictures makes that much easier :P regtretting that now tho ^^

But here's a couple taken a few days ago.




And atleast one of my fat face when Im around 220lbs



If anyone wanna guess bf%, please feel free to do so! Images arent the best for the purpose, but it's what I've got at the moment.
I missplaced my calipers, except my digital which keep insisting I'm 0% bf no matter what readings they take, and would appreciate an estimate, so I know how much more I have to drop, cause weightloss is really starting to slow down now.



BUMP for a bf% guess or two Got some new pics for the purpose, not brilliant quality, but the best I could do.






Yay! I got one of my old cells working again, and found a before pic... sort of. At this point I was around 215-225 lbs, so that's still a good 30-40lbs shy of my heaviest weight.
What you cant quite make out in this photo however is my enormous backside. I tend to carry ALOT of fat on my hips and bottom, as well as the inside of my thighs, and not so much (proportionally) on my stomach.
The fat I DO carry around my abdomen however tends to be quite hard and firm for some reason.
My (step)brother is the complete opposite, every ounce of fat on his body is chest/abdomen, and its loose and floppy as heck.
Anyways, here's the pic.




Cheers!
/Maf

[OnTheSauce]

You've lost a lot of weight and I think u may have a problem with some loose skin, but I commend you on the progress. Well done. You definitely need to weight train and put some muscle mass on that frame, doesn't appear to be a whole lot at the moment.

[ma_fighter]

Thanks!

Yeah, there's not much at all in the way of muscles going on at the moment, but that'll change soon enough... I hope!
I actually found some of my very old logs when we moved a while back, I had 17.5 in/44.5cm arms when I was ~19 years old, now they're down to 14.5 in/ 37cm! Stuff like that really makes you feel like a useless old fart, haha :P

I figure that if I drop enough to get clearly visible abs, I'll have a visual indicator of when I'm starting to pack on too much fat again, so when its time to start bulking up I'll be able to make nice, lean, gains without relying on calipers, or some other measurement to tell me if all I'm gaining is fat or not.

A tape measure works poorly for me, cause most of my fat get stored on my butt, hips, and thighs, like some girl!
I'm guessing this is partly genetic, and partly low T.
Atleast thats my theory, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

Also, having worked my a$$ off to get abs, I'll be more motivated to keep in shape, always a bonus


/Maf

[fit2bOld]

Great on the fat loss, time to muscle it up

[snowman]

Damn bro, great freaking job.... how long did it take you, to loose all that weight?
Time to start building that frame with muscle.
I dont see a problem with loose skin...

[MickeyKnox]

Welcome.

[JohnnyVegas]

Congrats on the weight loss. I lost 75 pounds once...it is a life changer.

Welcome!

[martymcfly85]

Nicely done shredding the fat! Ive lost over 100 pounds i know what it takes to mentally and physically to loose that much body fat. Now the fun part, adding more muscle. Good luck to ya and again... good job!

[ma_fighter]

Damn bro, great freaking job.... how long did it take you, to loose all that weight?
Time to start building that frame with muscle.
I dont see a problem with loose skin...

Hey man, thanks.
Well, I did it in two phases, taking about a month off from cutting during vacation time just to keep sane! But I only regained about 3-4 lbs in that time, so apparently I still managed to stay fairly healthy.
And another two weeks around christmas, its bloody impossible to eat like you should when grannie does the cooking! Why do old people always make so damn tasty food?
But all in all it's taken me about a year. I've tried to average 1.5lbs a week, fast enough so I wouldn't get bored, but slow enough to atleast retain SOME muclemass.. that all went down the drain when my shoulder got all hinky on me tho.

I also developed trigger-finger in my thumb, so the doc ordered me not to grab anything too firmly (good luck holding weights) or do a up-and-down motion.. I don't know WHAT he thought I was doing to get my thumb locking up, and I relly dont care to speculate too much :P

Nicely done shredding the fat! Ive lost over 100 pounds i know what it takes to mentally and physically to loose that much body fat. Now the fun part, adding more muscle. Good luck to ya and again... good job!

Thanx! Wow, must have felt really good to hit tripple digit fatloss eh? Great job there m8!

Congrats on the weight loss. I lost 75 pounds once...it is a life changer.

Yeah! I'm practically bouncing up stairs now, using way more force then nessecery, just out of habbit, lol! :P
I have however had the opposite effect when trying to push open some doors while in a hurry, I dont quite have the same mass that I used to, so applying too little force can make you look quite silly walking straight into a half-closed door at the store, or where I work! :P


Thank you everybody!
I'm really looking forward to starting to pack some meat back onto my skinny-ass frame now

Cheers!
/Maf

[zaggahamma]

welcome and good luck with continued success

[ma_fighter]

Shameless bump! Added a few more pics up top, and I'm looking for a rough BF% if anyone can be bothered =)

Weightloss just stopped completely the last week and a half.
I've started lifting weights again, instead of only doing shoulder rehab like I've been doing lately, so I *might* be holding on to a tad more water and glycogen.

In the food department I've substituted my old breakfast and evening snack at work, which used to consist of two slices of bread with some salami or peanutbutter on, with the somewhat healthier: 250g of low fat cottage cheese, along with 50-100g flavored yoghurt, on both occations.
That would be: ~254kcal, P: 31g, C: 19g, F: 5,9g , less calories then the bread, so this shouldn't be the reason I stopped dropping weight either, unless I'm under-eating, and my metabolism is slowing down.. meh, I'll figure it out this weekend, too tired to do food calculations right now :P

[zaggahamma]

looks like u firmed up a bit bro...w2g

my guess 16-19% down from 20-24%(the original pics in first post)

just my amatuer opinion

take it easy with that shoulder

[TxIslandBum]

Very nice!

[ma_fighter]

looks like u firmed up a bit bro...w2g

my guess 16-19% down from 20-24%(the original pics in first post)

just my amatuer opinion

take it easy with that shoulder

Cheers mate!
Yeah, if I've tightened up any, then I'm holding water, and that would explain the stubborn numbers on my scale, cause the pics are taken only a week or two apart.

Taking it VERY easy on the shoulder =)
The only front delt, or pec, exercise I find that I can do completely pain-free is pushups with hands positioned very low, near my waist. Other then that, anything involving my shoulders are mostly rehab-stuff.
Still feels d*mn good to hit the iron again though!

Very nice!

Thanx!

[zaggahamma]

good to hear bro

slow and steady wins the race

how did u get the shoulder/injury anyway

carrying those cosco sized ice cream multi gallons home???

[ma_fighter]

Haha, I whish!

Well, I'll just do the short version here, cause I've abused my shoulders so much through the years! :P

¤Had a car crash, me and a buddy T-boned another car, going somewhere in the 100+kph range. Hard to tell really, but we were in my 300zx (him driving) and had a good 20s to get the speed up.
Even though it was a bit slippery, so we got a lot of wheelspin, 20sec in that car ammounts to quite a bit of speed.
The ZX's chassis crumpled in front of the front axle (of course) Behind the front axle, in front of the rear axle, and behind the rear axle!!? That means that the weight of my boot alone, at that speed, was enough to bend and fold the frame of the car.. which is kinda scary. Windshield shattered because the frame of the car deformed so much, and the doors wouldn't open. Also my backseat broke in half from the impact of the subwoofer that broke loose. No serious injuries, but my shoulder (the one where I had my seatbelt) felt fugged for years.

¤Dirtbike crash - I went over the handlebars and hit a tree, with my shoulder, at around 70kph.
¤Slipped while doing dips, and got the arm stuck in a weird way
¤Popped something while doing benchpress
I've also fallen off a snowmobile att 100kph+, had another couple of dirtbike crashes, and my posture friggin sux, which doesent help.
Umm.. yeah, I was also taken for a ride on the hood of a car by a drunk driver, whom I tried to stop from driving by standing in his way. Landed on my shoulder, and face, when he went into a slide going round a corner.

I'm sure I've done some other stupid crap as well, but thats all I can thnk of right now.
I never broke any bones, or got any cuts deep enough to bother stitching, so I never went to the doc :P
Well, I did when we crashed the car, didn't have much choice cause we got picked up by an ambulance, so had an x-ray, but nothing broken so they sent me on my way again.

....Writing this stuff down just made me realize how lucky I am to be alive and mostly well, and not dead or in a wheelchair! Lol :P

[Live for the PUMP]

77 lbs! Wow, you look great!

[zaggahamma]

ouch...yes..even through all that i guess u were lucky

[ma_fighter]

77 lbs! Wow, you look great!

Thanks

[LT33]

Impressive, keep up the good work!

[KeNXD]

I'm new to this forum and would like to say that's very impressive, good dedication you got there keep it up, I myself want to lose another 20lbs but feel like im been on it for awhile currently on 187lbs, any tips?

[ma_fighter]

I'm new to this forum and would like to say that's very impressive, good dedication you got there keep it up, I myself want to lose another 20lbs but feel like im been on it for awhile currently on 187lbs, any tips?

Hey mate, welcome to the board!

Well, I knew I wasn't going to be bothered counting calories, and weighing my food all day long, so the first week I practically lived off of cottage cheese (250g along with 1dl flavored yoghurt each meal), and I spent that weekend working out my TDEE on the days I work and work out, work and dont work out, days off, that I work out, and days off I dont work out.
Then I calculated calories of the food I usually eat, because I also knew in the long run I'd get fed up with cutting if I wasn't eating things I like.

After that it was just a matter of tweaking portion size, and making small adjustments to the recipes.
Once that work is done, you dont have to do it again. When your TDEE gets lower because you loose weight, you alredy know how many kcals (roghly) is in everything you eat, so you just adjust accordingly.

I tried to keep every meal at 400-500 kcal, and by doing that all meals are interchangable. Except my lunchbox for work which I put at 500-600kcal.

Once I knew *roughly* how many calories was in my breakfast sandwiches, I knew how many slices I could eat, without having to bother about what I put on 'em, they'll still end up in that 400-500kcal bracket.
I found a suitable container for measuring my oatmeal, an old coffee mug from work full does the trick. For when I feel like having oatmeal with milk.
I got much smaller lunch-boxes, and after cooking a few meals found that not quite filling them to the top put me at 450-600 kcal per meal.

Just take the time to do a little work at first, and make things EASY for you later on. That way it's never a hassle eating correctly.
Well, atleast getting the proper amount of calories, the macro-split IS a bit of a hassle, but I'm no macro-nazi. I just try to get atleast 100g of protein each day, then if the rest of the calories are below maintenance I'll be happy with that.

The first week I was hungry alot, but because I spent that week eating frequent small portions of mostly cottage cheese my stomach shrinked, and most of the hunger disappeared.

My tips for you would be.

#1 Weigh in EVERY day, first thing in the morning. And keep an easy to follow chart of your progress, or lack of progress. You'll go up and down a bit on a daily basis, but as long as the overall trend is weightloss, thats fine. Measuring your average weekly loss also helps determine how much less or more to eat. Decreasing calories by 100kcal a day, equals a weight loss of 100grams (or 0,1kg) a week. 500kcal equals 0,5kg a week, or roughly 1,1lbs.

#2 Start out with calculating just a few foods, so that you know what to eat the entire first week, spend that week doing more calorie calculations.

#3 PLAN what you eat, I only cook once or twice a week, but I cook two things each time, and put as many lunchboxes in the freezer as I can at each time, after a week or two I got lots of stuff to choose between.

#4 If restricting calories is getting tough, increase your energy needs instead. I do most of my cardio on days that I dont go to work, that way I keep TDEE up the days it usually would drop.

#5 Set up short term, and long term goals. And set up a timeline for those goals. If your goal is to loose 20lbs, then aim to do so in 20weeks.

#6 Mark what your weight SHOULD be on a particular day, every week, on your weight-chart. That way you know when you're falling behind, and you know when you're ahead, which you will most likelly be.

#7 Make maintaining the correct calorie intake as EASY AS POSSIBLE. If you don't you'll get fed up really really quickly. Find an easy way to measure your food, unless you're trying to go single digit BF, close enough is good enough.

#8 Dont forget your veggies, they fill you up nicely without hardly adding calories. And you get lots of healthy vitamins etc..

#9 If you're eating at a friends, or for some other reason dont know exactly how much you should eat. Make a portion the size of your closed fist, that generally suffices in a pinch.



Its getting kinda late over here, and my mind keeps drawing a complete blank when I try to think! :P I'll have a look at this post again tomorrow, and if I can think of something else, I'll edit it.
Best of luck!

/Maf

[zaggahamma]

[Thickyo_29]

Good job on your weight loss man .... im a big guy as well and ive loss 127 lbs myself ....still have a way to go though.....

[ma_fighter]

Good job on your weight loss man .... im a big guy as well and ive loss 127 lbs myself ....still have a way to go though.....

Holy cap!
That's alot of weight to shed, sweet job mate!
I know what kind of struggle it can be at times, but you'll get there eventually though, hell, you're alredy down 127lbs! That's massive by any accounts.

Found an "almost" before pic, and added it up top! It's before, but not at my worst, hence "almost".

/Maf

[ma_fighter]

ROFLMFAO! haha, this one is too good not to share. Bear with me here, circumstances needs to be properly explained :P

So my GF just came home, while I'm sitting at my computer, replying to Thickyo_29's thread.
I've just re-arranged some stuff, amongst other things I moved a closet to another room, but it was too tall to go through the doorway, and I couldn't lay it flat on the floor either, cause the first room was not deep enough, so I tilted it, and it started to slide, so now I was trapped in room #1, holding onto an evermore tilting closet, which I couldnt just stand up again because it slid far enought for the doorway to get in the way. Anyways, point being it was a friggin nightmare to move, so I was sweating all over, and pulled my nasty shirt off and threw it in the laundry.
I also missed a meal today, so I grabbed one of my GF's lunchboxes (she uses it for two meals) and put it in the micro before I started messing with the closet, which I assumed would be a quick move.. yeah, right.

I gobbled everything down in a fat-boy fashion, as soon as the bloody closet was in place, and subsequently got VERY full, having to undo my belt and top button of my pants to sit down.

So when my GF enters the room, I'm sitting there, still sweaty, barebreasted with my pants undone, she comes up to me and asks me what I'm doing, and I tell her I'm replying to a thread.
Then she starts yelling at me for no apparent reason, and I'm like wtf is her problem?! She points at the screen wondering what the f*ck "That" is, and I really dont get it.. till I notice this:


The next tab cut off half the "b" in Anabolic, lol.
Maybe I have a bad sense of humor, but I find stuff like that friggin hilarious! :P
Luckily I managed to click the tab and show my GF what it was really about before she ran off.

/Maf

[Thickyo_29]

Thts crazy bro .....im glad u cleared up...tht could've hsve s negative affect on ur relationship....lmao

[Armykid93]

Good job on your weight loss man .... im a big guy as well and ive loss 127 lbs myself ....still have a way to go though.....

Both of you are doing awesome. Its only going to improve your lives

[awol]

Incredible fat loss man, well done.

[madracer]

great job man.. alot of hard work loosing 77lbs

[ma_fighter]

Incredible fat loss man, well done.

great job man.. alot of hard work loosing 77lbs

Both of you are doing awesome. Its only going to improve your lives

Thanks! Yeah, it's been a bit of work :P
Getting any more to come off at this point is proving to be quite a struggle, but I'm getting there, little by little

[JayIsPumped]

that's incredible great inspiration