TL;DR Album to all pictures
DEMOGRAPHIC AND SUMMARY STATS
30 M 5'2" 115 lbs.
Started at 137 and finally got down to my goal weight of 115. Weight 114.6 this morning/one week later, so I'm pretty confident I'm truly at my goal weight.
Not sure where my body fat percentage is. Waist measurement says about 11%, but the 7 site calipers say 7.2% but I don't think that's right because I cut all the way down to 103lbs for wrestling when I was 18 and my body fat % was 8%. But then again, that was mostly water weight so who really knows.
Back in 2018, I dropped from 126 lbs to 115 lbs. Bulked up to 125 lbs. Stopped tracking for a year and eventually found myself at 130. Got down to 119 lbs before I had a kid and stopped working out for a while and found myself back at 130 lbs. Got down to 123 lbs in March and then the pandemic happened so I couldn't work out and ended up just sitting at home drinking Yoo-Hoo and eating Cereal all day.
So in September, I looked in the mirror and noticed I could see my gut bulging out through my shirt and decided enough was enough. I went to the gym near my house, signed up for a membership, and got back into the routine of things. At an average of 1.06 lbs/week, I eventually got to 115 lbs. I decided on this weight because this is where I was my senior year of high school. I was pretty fit, in wrestling, and consider this a good weight for my size. Sure enough, I feel way better, my pants once again require a belt, and I look good in the mirror. Now I can say I accomplished something during quarantine.
PICS
I am an idiot and forgot to take a starting picture at 136.6 lbs. Only comparison is a picture where I was at 125 lbs and the day I hit my goal weight. Crazy how much of a difference just 10 lbs of fat makes!
Before-ish and After comparison. Forgot to take a before picture
Chart of my progress! Only a couple days I wasn't able to weigh in, but nothing chart breaking. I love this chart because it shows how much your day-to-day goes up and down and why you should focus on your weekly averages, measurements, and progress photos. Those plateaus near the end were making me nervous, but I remembered to trust my calorie count and exercise. Sure enough, it caught up in a major way at the end!
Link to my TDEE Tracker. Fantastic spreadsheet all around. Not only does it show your weekly and monthly averages, but is great for finding your TDEE, tracking trends, and finding out when you can expect to hit your goal weight. I even added a sheet to chart your progress. Feel free to download and use for yourself!
BONUS! Me at 126 lbs January 2018. Before any kind of weight loss or exercise.
DIET
Diet was 1,200 calories/day (but it was probably closer to 1,500 due to me grazing on grapes throughout the week). M-F ate high protein ~110 grams. On weekends ate whatever as long as I stayed in my calorie count.
Men are generally discouraged from going below 1,500 calories, and I agree. The only reason I went with 1,200 is because I am in the bottom 1% in terms of height and, therefore, had a low enough TDEE that 1,200 would be just fine. Even at the end, losing 1 lb a week is 0.8% of my body weight which is well in range of healthy weight loss.
MY MONDAY-FRIDAY MEALS
Meal 1/Breakfast - 674 Calories / 21.6g Fat / 65.1g Carbs / 56.3g Protein
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Denver Omlette ~ 327 calories / 21.1g Fat / 5.3g Carbs / 25.7 g Protein
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Apple ~125 Calories / 0.4g Fat / 33.8g Carbs / 0.6 g Protein
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2 Oikos Greek Yogurts ~ 220 Calories / 0g Fat / 26g Carbs / 30 g Protein
Meal 2/Lunch - 563 Calories / 22.9g Fat / 36.6g Carbs / 53.6 g Protein
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Quick Tuna Salsa Wrap ~ 361 Calories / 7.9g Fat / 26.4g Carbs / 46.6 g Protein
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2 Sticks of Celery ~ 12 Calories / 0.0g Fat / 0.2g Carbs / 0.0 g Protein
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Peanut Butter ~ 190 Calories / 21.1g Fat / 5.3g Carbs / 25.7 g Protein
Total: 1237 Calories / 44g Fat / 101.7g Carbs / 110g Protein
These, of course, are estimates. Could be more or less as I traded out my original wraps for a low-carb wrap to save on calories. Tuna in water was traded out for buffalo flavored tuna to make it edible as I was gagging on the straight tuna for some reason. Might have raise the calories and lowered the protein just a bit, but I consider this a much, much better alternative. Peanut butter was switched to Honey flavored to make it smoother and tastier. Calories were about the same give or take 10.
Snacks For snacks, I usually just grazed on grapes. Didn't really track them but I usually went through a 3 pound bag a week. So about 130 calories/Day. Weekends I probably snacked on whatever was around so it's hard to tell. My weekend calorie count was definitely higher than what is shown on the graph. I know this is probably bad, but taking things a bit easier on the weekends really helps make the diet easier to stick to and since I was still losing weight at my target rate, I don't suspect I was over-indulging. If that strategy amounted to one or two extra weeks, so be it.
EXCERCISE
Worked out M-F using the PHAT (Power Hypertrophy Adaptive Training) program.
I'm lazy so I didn't change anything out with the exception of doing standing calf raises in place of Donkey Calf Raises because I, for the life of me, cannot figure out how to do Donkey Calf Raises with anything more than one plate. Or even how to do that excercise correctly.
I made sure to drag myself to the gym every day. Even if there were days where I had something to do in the afternoon, I still made sure to go if that meant I could only do just two excercises. Very rarely did I have to miss an entire day.
Monday - Upper Body Power
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Bent over or Pendlay rows - 3 sets of 3-5 reps
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Weighted Pull ups - 2 sets of 6-10 reps
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Rack chins - 2 sets of 6-10 reps
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Flat dumbbell presses - 3 sets of 3-5 reps
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Weighted dips - 2 sets of 6-10 reps
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Seated dumbbell shoulder presses - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
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Cambered bar curls - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
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Skull crushers - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
Tuesday - Lower Body Power
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Squats - 3 sets of 3-5 reps
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Hack Squats - 2 sets of 6-10 reps
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Leg extensions - 2 sets of 6-10 reps
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Stiff legged deadlifts - 3 sets of 5-8 reps
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Glute ham raises or lying leg curls - 2 sets of 6-10 reps
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Standing calf raise - 3 sets of 6-10 reps
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Seated calf raise - 2 sets of 6-10 reps
Wednesday - Back & Shoulders Hypertrophy
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Bent over or Pendlay rows - 6 sets of 3 reps with 65-70% of normal 3-5 rep max
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Rack chins - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
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Seated cable row - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
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Dumbbell rows or shrugs bracing upper body against an incline bench - 2 sets of 12-15 reps
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Close grip pulldowns - 2 sets of 15-20 reps
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Seated dumbbell presses - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
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Upright rows - 2 sets of 12-15 reps
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Side lateral raises with dumbbells or cables - 3 sets of 12-20 reps
Thursday - Lower Body Hypertrophy
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Squats - 6 sets of 3 reps with 65-70% of normal 3-5 rep max
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Hack squats - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
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Leg presses - 2 sets of 12-15 reps
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Leg extensions - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
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Romanian deadlifts - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
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Lying leg curls - 2 sets of 12-15 reps
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Seated leg curls - 2 sets of 15-20 reps
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Donkey calf raises - 4 sets of 10-15 reps
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Seated calf raises - 3 sets of 15-20 reps
Friday - Chest & Arms Hypertrophy
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Flat dumbbell presses - 6 sets of 3 reps with 65-70% of normal 3-5 rep max
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Incline dumbbell presses - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
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Hammer strength chest press - 3 sets of 12-15 reps
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Incline cable flyes - 2 sets of 15-20 reps
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Cambered bar preacher curls - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
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Dumbbell concentration curls - 2 sets of 12-15 reps
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Spider curls bracing upper body against an incline bench - 2 sets of 15-20 reps
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Seated tricep extension with cambered bar - 3 sets of 8-12 reps
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Cable pressdowns with rope attachment - 2 sets of 12-15 reps
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Cable kickbacks - 2 sets of 15-20 reps
Saturday & Sunday
- REST [Normally, you would rest on Day 3 and 7, but I decided it was more convenient and I would be better able to stick to a M-F workout]
NEXT STEPS
Going to try and maintain for a few weeks and find what my TDEE is. Then slowly bulk up until I'm at a comfortable spot for the summer. Going to shoot for just 0.5lbs/week due to my size so I don't gain a lot of fat.
Any questions, feel free to ask! I love talking about this stuff.
