my pics!

[taffer]

here are some pics of mine, right now im 6'4 and 188lbs, trying to lose some fat

i just finished 8 weeks of carb cycling, which gave me some good results, but i think its time to go back to a regular diet (which i will plug here )

i probly have little muscle, but as you can see i got more fat and i really wanna get rid of it cos i've been working hard all year to lose tons of weight (i've come down from 280 or so, maybe a littler higher)
but now i just wanna take it slow, and get rid of that last layer of fat and maybe get some ab-action happening

right now according to bf calipers my bf is 12.3%

[taffer]

here are some more pics of me 4-weeks ago...

and 1 "before" shot

[DieTrying]

Looking good bro! Diet is key!

[kwyckemynd00]

Your back and arms look really tight and lean Check PM...

[taffer]

got your PM, i would have replied earlier but i've been a bit busy!

anyway, i know i have alot of loose skin, and it sucks, but i still have fat, which sucks more, and what sucks the most is that i have alot less muscle than what i would like, so i figure i will just cut down as much as i can, then bulk up at least 20lbs next year

i started at about 280lbs or so, (i remember weighing myself at 130kg, thats when i thought "oh ****")
i was REALLY unhealthy, all i did was sit on my pc all day playing games, staying up till 5am drinking soda, eating crap, doing nothing but play games, i wasnt very social (i still arent but thats just my personallity! however im tons more confident now )
i was never really wide, my waist wasnt really big, but i had ALOT of fat stored in my gut and other places, probly why i have so much loose skin

as for how i did it...
about a year ago now, i really wanted to lose weight, but i had no idea how to, so i went on the good 'ol starvation diet with walks 3 times a week, then every few days i would eat a bag of dorito's or something unhealthy, i tried to stay away from carbs too because my friend had success on the atkins diet (which he modified, so its really just a sarvation diet with alot of alcohol)
so yeah, i was eating less, doing more activity, and people noticed i was losing weight, obviously i was finding this very hard to sustain, and sorta gave up, but i never really did the whole binge thing and gained back the 5-10kg that i lost, rather, 2 things changed my life
i stumbled upon bodybuilding.com, complete fluke, i was looking through a computer site, and they had a healthy and fitness section, and the bb.com address was there, so i had a look, read a few things, it looked crazy, 6 meals a day, vegies, all very new to me! the first thing i read was no more soda, and drink tons of water, after i read that, i have NEVER touched another soft drink, not even on cheat meals (which i've only had 3 of in the past year, although i did binge a bit in those meals ) and i went and got a huge cup of water, from then on i drank tons of water, giving up soda and all the crap in my diet easy for me, i guess i just got good willpower
i also found johnstone's website which was VERY helpful!
also my mum got me a gym membership for christmas, which was completely unrelated to be getting on bb.com, so i guess it was pretty lucky, because at the time there was no way i had enough confidence to ask for a gym membership, i was very embarrassed about the whole thing (even going to bb.com)
my brother signed up to the gym with me, and i decided i would go every second day, to let my muscles recover, so i did a full body workout and 20mins of cardio every second day, as well as starting to write diets for myself, although they were lacking, i kept on learning, improving my diet, the people at bb.com were very helpful, and i got some good meal idea's from john stone's website, so you know how it goes, i added calories, and kept on adding calories untill i got to about 2100calories a day which i stuck to for AGES and lost most of my weight on, my goal was 2.2lbs per week, and 99% of the time i hit that goal, i stayed 100% strict to my diet, never cheated, never missed a workout, woke up early in the morning to train, cooked my meals at night, no excuses, i did everything 100%, it was probly driven by the fact that i wanted a john stone like transformation, but now im kinda bummed cos im not going to get it due to loose skin (i can always hope though)
well umm i've rambled on enough, as for my brother, he went to the gym about 5 times in 3 months, then we canceled his membership cos it was costing too much, he got my dad to get him another one, which he uses once a week he eats like a woman, and anything he does eat is crap, he aint fat thought, although i dont think he is healthy, he always leaves a damn mess on the toilet seat, its disgusting!

[chasec]

he always leaves a damn mess on the toilet seat, its disgusting!

too much info for my tastes their bro...

[TheUsual]

too much info for my tastes their bro...

lol! That is really cool that you've taken an interest in health and turned your life around... in 5 yrs you will be so happy you made that choice.

[dushebag]

damn i looked at the first picture and thought you were an ectomorph!!! lol!!! then i saw the loose skin and was like, wow... thats odd. but for someone with your natural build, you sould be able to fill up that skin with some nice hard muscle if you work at it. good work sofar very impressive my friend.

[MaDmaN]

The skin will tighten up but it will take time.This is what happens on a starvation diet,fat loss has to be slow or loose skin will happen.Good job and keep the faith,keep those good calories up and forget the low carb eat whole grains veggies and low fat protien..

[taffer]

The skin will tighten up but it will take time.This is what happens on a starvation diet,fat loss has to be slow or loose skin will happen.Good job and keep the faith,keep those good calories up and forget the low carb eat whole grains veggies and low fat protien..

trust me i lost the bulk of my weight on a healthy diet losing only 1kg per week (2.2lbs)

i think its just that i stored ALOT of my fat in my gut, i never really had a big waist line (i was always like a "stick" although i was very wide and had alot of fat around me, i'll see if i can get some more before pics up if i can get my scanner to work!)

[exnihilo]

The loose skin isn't going anywhere bro, gotta get it chopped off. If you put a crapload of muscle on the loose skin will not be as much of a problem... but honestly if you wanna look killer with your shirt off you are gonna need to get the surgery.

[Buc4Life04]

Yea true on the surgery that sux. Unless you put alot of mass on em and get like hgh roid bellie then that will fill it out but once if you do have surgey you will look good.

[taffer]

well im going to keep cutting untill i get some definition at least in my upper-abs, im only 19, so who knows it may shrink back over the year, im not sure if i can afford the surgury, i dont think it would be covered by health insurance

i'll add as much muscle as i can, maybe next year, i'll aim for at least 20-30lbs of mass, i dont think i will use drugs though, i dont like the side-effects, or the risks

[Steve_W]

The loose skin will go eventually bro, it'll just take time and patience.

[taffer]

here are some new pics as of today - 186lbs

been about a month since i took the old onces, i didnt make any progress for 2 weeks, so really these are only 2 weeks of progress however 1 month apart

[exnihilo]

Realistically, having a loose skin problem like you do, you're going to have to either get used to it or get it cut off. I was in your shoes at one point, cut down to 180 and leaner than you are in those pics, and the loose skin drove me nuts, I literally rebounded to like 250-260... Now I'm within the normal healthy range for bodyfat, and the skin doesn't bother me as much, but it's still annoying and it hangs down when I bend over.

Your best bet is to find a surgeon at a reputable clinic in mexico (this may take some work ) and get it chopped there, much cheaper. You can recouperate on the beach with a margarita

[taffer]

1 problem... im in australia

did you get surgury??
when you got really lean, did you find that you still had a "gut" like mine?
i think i will speak to my GP again about it, see what she says

also even if im at low (like sub-10%) bodyfat, how come i cant see my top abs easily?

heres another couple of pics, first one is me at like 240lbs back in feb(i think i was pushing my gut out a bit there hehe ), the other is in june or july (whatever the 6th month is... the date is in the image name! )

also i dont know if i could rebound... i love eating helathy and working out, if i was to binge, it would be on oatmeal, sweet potatoes and peanut butter

[exnihilo]

I haven't gotten surgery (yes it still bugs me incessantly - I'll get it at some point) I look pretty good with my shirt off unless I bend over, then the skin sags down. When playing sports with my shirt off the skin "jiggles" too, which is annoying. As far as seeing your abs, in my avatar pic I'm like 16.5% but I have hyooge core muscles, because I powerlift heavy, which has helped fill out my loose skin a little bit. Packing on about 80+lbs of muscle will help you a lot man, but you'll always have the loose skin Get a good job and start saving...

[taffer]

80lbs huh, easy job...
i think i'll need bobo's help for that one (hey its cheaper than surgury!)

i would love to bulk up tons, however i look at myself and still see a gut, and its psychologically hard for me to say "ok im no longer going to lose fat, but im going to be adding more!" while i know its only going to be like 1/4 of my gains, it still bugs me

also when you say you "powerlift" do you mean exercises like cleans? all i know about powerlifters is the saying "why have a 6-pack when you can have a keg"

thanks for your help, im just feeling a bit lost now, i figure i will cut for another month or so, then start my bulk, i cant wait to show all those idiots at the gym how to GROW! i see them there every week, talking about how they take like 4 protien shakes a day, meanwhile following arnies bb'ing guide to the letter and only using the smith machine (im serious!!)

[exnihilo]

Yeah, honestly I'd get started bulking now man. Bobo will probably help you a lot, especially since you're just getting into the game. Do whatever he says, learn why you're doing it and keep doing it till you hit ~250. Then come back and ask about drugs

Oh, when I say powerlift, I mean like the sport of powerlifting, the three lift competition: bench press, squat and deadlift.

Go to www.irongame.com, they've got videos (the garry frank 932 deadlift always gets me hyped up to go work out)