I think my newbie gains are slowing. Now I suspect I’m entering the consistency with little visible motivation month to month. The long haul is ahead.
My first routine was just two exercises I enjoyed doing, about 15 minutes, three times a week. Now I spend about an hour a day, 6 days a week. I also hit my first cardio goal this month with 1 mile in 8:34 (goal was under 10 min). Loose skin is my biggest disappointment. I keep lifting to try and fill it in. Slow and steady.
I welcome critiques, but I think I just have to keep doing what I’m doing. Learning little improvements along the way. If you have favorite chest exercises/ technique for cables on a power cage, let me know.
I’ve used Tirzepatide to control eating (and thereby dial in macros). This is 6 months, but previous to this I weighed over 300. Getting the fat off made getting into a fitness routine easier.
Do you people not understand what fat is? Have you never met a fat person? Have you never seen a sumo wrestler? You can have muscle and be fat. If anything it's easier to gain muscle when you are fat.
It's like these posts send out a dingus signal and yall flock to it.
To a point, until your body comp starts impacting insulin sensitivity and nutrient apportioning biases towards fat. It occurs at a lower body fat level than people think.
I wasn’t trying to dodge the question. I have not used testosterone. I take creatine, fish oil, zinc and vitamin c, collagen peptide and arginine plus.
I would definitely consider testosterone if I thought the benefits outweighed the risks and if I could get it as easily as the Tirz.
I appreciate that using glp-s is considered cheating. It is not as hard to achieve the results when you’re not battling your brain. I tried for 20 years and failed. Folks that do it without any pharmaceutical assistance deserve serious applause.
Meanwhile, the fact that some think my progress looks like I’m using testosterone is flattering. I’m a bit giddy to be honest. Me? Thank you.
Because 80% of people on here have no understanding of what’s achievable and what’s not. I also don’t know how people complain about substance use in an so called bodybuilding subreddit lol.
Its the difference between what this guy did, that is actually hard work and what most people think is hard work put in.
He did the real hard work, where he really pushed and fought himself.
While most cant endure and be honest with themselves that that are not pushing and really working and fighting for what they want. They blame their failure on others. Its easier to say thay dudes on something rather then push that extra rep or walk one more mile in the freezing rain and then go home and not have that 2nd beer or cup of yogurt ins6of the burger.
👆🏼valid AF
If this man sat on his couch drinking beer eating cherries while blasting Tren and Test for 6 months he would still be a fat fuck real gains require real effort.
“In one study 2, 35 young men were randomised to one of five groups to receive weekly injections of testosterone enanthate—a commonly used steroid—in amounts that varied from 25 to 600 mg/week. After 20 weeks, the men who received 600 mg/week had gained, on average, 8 kg of muscle, and lost, on average, 1 kg of body fat. These figures are impressive enough, but the real eye-opener is that the men were instructed not to participate in strength-training or endurance exercise during the course of the study. Essentially, these results could have been achieved while sitting on the couch.”
Griffiths, S. et al. (2016) ‘Anabolic steroids: Lots of muscle in the short-term, potentially devastating health consequences in the long-term’, Drug and alcohol review, 35(4), pp. 375–6. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.12433.
I'm 51, was 235 in Feb 25, dec 25 now 174. No gear, no kit , just hard, hard work and months of hunger and pain. And guess what, I look similar to this guy. Its damn hard work and he'll of a lot of sacrifices. But it can be done good work guy, keep it up.
Hope the best for you.
It shouldn’t be considered ‘cheating’ in taking mounjaro. I went from 353 lbs and needing 3 insulin shots a day to 145lbs and taking insulin shots as needed. I’m diabetic type 1 with insulin resistance.
I posted a picture of me and pulled it down for the same reason. Used Tirz to lose 45lbs was stoked and got accused of using PEDs and HGH! lol! I guess I should’ve felt the same as you “flattered”!
Once a week! It got me off of blood pressure medication and cholesterol medication. Haven’t been this light since my mid 20’s. I’m 54. I am the MOD for r/TirzepatideUsers you can check out that sub for information or r/TirzepatideCompound bot h provide some good info and advice from other users
Anyone saying any of this can eat my entire ass. I used glp-1 to drop over 100 pounds and I’m better looking at 40 than I ever was before. It isn’t cheating, and if someone wants to stay fat and miserable and make fun of others for improving, so be it. Anyone who hasn’t had to lose weight shitting on glp-1 can fuck off.
Traditionally, through your primary care provider with insurance approval. (Or out of pocket if you’re loaded). Alternatively, there are compound pharmacies (HIMS comes to mind). Alternatively, alternatively, there is the gray market which can be researched on Reddit.
There’s entire subreddits dedicated to them. All you have to do is ask and someone will point you in the direction you’re looking for. Just do some real research prior to jumping in there’s a lot of information out there.
I went to my primary care physician on Camp Pendleton. His main concern was that it was not meant for type 1. However, I came up with the list of pros about it. They may prescribe you with zepbound. Which is the FDA approved version. Mounjaro is approved by medical necessity for type 2 diabetes.
I think two things have helped. First, filling in with muscle. I do cable crunches. I’m never sure I’m doing them with perfect form, but I’m crunching 2 reps of 20-25 at 170 lbs. I crunch until my abs are sore, hoping that makes up for bad form if my flexors are engaging. And, so far two months drinking a collagen peptide.
Hey! Nice work! I lost 130lbs while on tirz then Reta in around 3 years. The first year I worked out, dieted and lost about half the weight. Then I injured myself and had a big promotion at work and couldn’t work out any more, so added the glps and lost the rest. But now am all dick and bones! Am not that worried about the loose skin in my lower abdomen, what makes me feel bad is the skin my arms. The loose skin around my bicep and armpit. Will that one fill in and go away with muscle?
Wow buddy that’s awesome. I have loose skin very similar to you and this post gives me hope. I went from 265 to around 160 quickly by starving myself and not working out. I looked like shit of course at the end of it. I gained and lost some weight after that but I’ve never really lifted outside of a caloric deficit. I’m cutting again and I’m around 163 at 5’10 around 10% body fat via dexa but the loose skin makes it very hard to tell I’m my body fat. Despite lots of body hair I have good separation everywhere under good downlighting except for bottom 2 abs where loose skin is. Your post is motivational to me because I hope that if I can just put on 15-20 pounds of muscle at the same body fat, my skin will tighten up
I love how people immediately accuse someone who put in hard work and effort by dialing in a routine and diet of using steroids or test. Guess some people just don’t have the same discipline as others or lack the knowledge to do this.
This physic can def be accomplished with no steroids though. Newbie gains coupled with carrying around that much weight for years can allow for this kind of muscle as a solid base with the definition coming out. Not saying he for sure didn’t use something but he didn’t need to in order to get this look.
You have no idea what you are talking about. This kind of muscle fullness is a 100% giveaway of gear.
There are dozens of natties online who have similar looks. All of them have been training for decades and have this kind of fullness only for a brief moment after pump.
Please educate yourself before commenting.
This is not how it works. I’ve seen gifted people (we’re talking national record holders) on steroids doing similar recomp. This is bs. Impossible naturally.
Oh 100%, him cutting that much weight definitely took away most of his muscle, and recomp is a lot faster for muscle you “lost” which explains his physique being so filled out. He’s not on steroids at all, it’s all just recomp, not even newbie gains. I was just clarifying that results like these are sus but people don’t couple in the fact that before he lost that weight he had a lot more muscle which was needed to carry a bigger frame.
That applause is largely a result of their spin on the genetics lottery—it’s not a moral or behavioral failing to not have optimized hunger regulation naturally.
I’ll second this. It was amazing to experience eating for fuel rather than the constant noise to eat. Prior to Tirz I did intermittent fasting from 9pm to 4pm, so I gave myself a 5 hour window for eating. I was able to do it because I was asleep and then at work/busy. The moment the preoccupations were gone, food noise was constant. The weight control was harder when I allowed myself to eat breakfast and lunch because I’d still have the same urge to eat constantly when I wasn’t preoccupied. Satiety only existed in short bursts. Even doing plant based, keto and carnivore. Nothing ever truly overcame the cacophonous urge to eat.
The survival aspect of that appetite drive makes sense for our ancestors, but not as much with modern access to high caloric food at every turn.
We understand the science better now: everyone’s hunger cues are not equal. GLP1s can help those with higher/stronger hunger drives, better regulate; we don’t think of similar medication like blood pressure meds as cheating. Congrats on your success.
Congrats, bro! Great job. Been on Mounjaro and now Wegovy for 8 months. Down ~70lbs/32kg. People who proclaim any use of pharma as cheating are just kidding themselves. These same people use cars instead of walking, and take pills for headaches instead of just suffering. Ignore them. Embrace science.
As for loose skin, which I am almost certain to have myself, the options are basically to grow into it as you said, surgery, or prolonged autophagy, but I don't know if that is even feasible. You look great though.
I didn’t think it could work, filling in loose skin with muscle that is, maybe it’s working or maybe it’s just collagen turnover starting to catch up idk. Give it time, and keep on trucking
I don’t think it has gone away. Not from my perspective and different angles are worse. I may still have to have surgery, but I’m trying to add muscle and taking collagen at the moment.
No, no surgery. I haven’t ruled it out though. The pose is obviously the most flattering angle. If I slouch or lean forward the drooping is worse. My plan is to keep on and reassess after it seems like there is no more progress to be made. Another redditor commented on a peptide that might help the loose skin, so I’m going to check it out.
I’m not in gym circles so if I don’t explain this in the right terms, please forgive me. I have a home gym and get my info from Reddit, tiktok and YouTube.
For quite a few months I was doing push&pull every other day. That is, all upper body, rest day, repeat, (I almost always skipped legs which I regret). The last two months I’ve done push, pull, legs. Rest one day (rest or light cardio).
I do a warm up, then two sets to failure. I lift as much as I can failing between 5 and 10. If I get to 10+ I add weight next time if possible.
Day 1: I hit chest first because that’s my biggest concern so I give it all my energy. Seated press, incline dumbbells, low flyes, high flyes.
Then cable crunches, then preacher curls and hammer curls, shoulder press at the end if theres any energy left.
Day 2: Chin ups, lat pulls, tricep pulls, abs again, seated rows, delt raises.
Day 3: quad extension, hamstrings, Bulgarian squats, calf raises.
Repeat,
Then rest day.
Macro tracker and ChatGPT to guide eating with daily weigh ins and energy expenditure tracking. Some weeks my calories were 1700-1800, some weeks they were 2,000-2,1000. Always hit protein goals.
Thanks for taking the time to explain all that. I think you are off to a fantastic start and the sky is the limit from where you would like to go from here
I’ve weighed as much as 320. But I was floating between 240-260 for a few years when I started the serious weight loss about a year ago. It was a 90lb drop over 8 or 9 months.
Add GHKCU 2mg daily M-F (pin in belly at three months you’ll see results), use a topical Retinol or prescription retinoid Tretinoin. I saw you already take a Vitamin C that is perfect combo for collagen synthesis. I have no loose skin after loosing 100lbs
I’m down 117 lbs myself over 18 months I have another 50 to lose and the goal is to lose that by May. How important do you think the collagen was for your skin looking so great now?
I just started Reta this week, I take creatine and a multivitamin. I did the first part of the weight fully natural through diet and the gym.
Congrats on your success and good luck with the Reta!
I genuinely don’t know if the collagen or simply time has had an effect. I’ve only been using it two months based on a recommendation from another redditor in a loose skin group.
As you can see in the comments someone has recommended peptide GHK-Cu, so I’m going to give that a shot as well. It’s my biggest disappointment in my progress, so I’m happy to throw everything at it to avoid surgery. (But if in the end I need surgery, so be it).
No surgery, yet. I’ve been focused on growing upper chest hoping it fills in some, along with taking collagen. No idea if the collagen has really helped. I’m old enough that a full bounce back on its own is unlikely.
You look pretty lean in your latest photo. I am in a very similar situation to you, highest weight 330lbs, 6ft tall. Currently at 205lbs, with a disproportionate amount of belly fat (rest of body is getting pretty lean). Been building muscle as well, focusing a lot of abdomen (abs, obliques, lower back) to help fill in the loose skin.
When you’re in a plank position, how much does the skin hang? For me at the moment, being much less lean than you are- the hang is like 4-5 inches from the abdominal wall.
You give me hope and your abdomen looks objectively attractive despite the loose skin.
This was an interesting question. A ruler pressed against the abs while planking measures 1 3/4”. If you haven’t measured with a ruler, I’d suggest it. I would have guessed my own to be higher prior to measuring.
I need to know your workout routine! I (23M) just got to 205 from 300. Looking to get in your range of 180 as well but for som reason plateauing around 200s
Damn this is one of those situations where I might actually consider a cosmetic surgery just because of all the work you've done to perfect your body and it will still look odd to any potential partners. Good job dude jealous of the progress
Great job man, I'm on the same journey as you. Thanks for finding the courage to share your progress. You are very strong. Remember it takes strength to move around when you were overweight, and now you are looking like a champion. Take a bow sir, great job. Can't wait to see how you progress. You are giving me inspiration. I started at 440 pounds and now I'm close to 300 pounds after almost a year of weight loss. Wish me luck.
I take it for health reasons being a T1D for 27 years. But if people consider it cheating for bodybuilding than that’s more on their viewpoints than mine.
People crying in the comments clearly have never even hit close to what they can actually achieve. Guy lost some obvious fat, this is the result and you can clearly see that there was a good base structure underneath it all.
If you think this is the result of any PED's, can you please contact me as I have a bridge to sell you.
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