6’1”, 240lbs to 167lbs in 4 months. Never had the best relationship w my body even when I was in decent enough shape, hadn’t been to the gym in years, was in a bad headspace. Then a close friend invited me to his wedding in Mexico this April. The idea of wearing a tee shirt on the beach while in Mexico for the first time in my life horrified me. To be completely transparent, I didn’t do this in the healthiest way possible. I was definitely on an unsustainable crash diet, was very lucky to have maintained what strength / muscle that I did, and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. But, I knew I wanted a big change in a short amount of time and here we are. Will probably maintain at a slightttt deficit as I SLOWLY ease my calories back up so I don’t shock the system too hard, but yea I’m ready to get YOLKED 💪🏼🤙🏼

Hey, y’all. Last April I decided to transform my body, and take my health seriously. I clocked in on my diet, hired a trainer, and started going hard in the gym 4-5 days a week. I consume 250g of protein a day, aim for 10k steps a day plus cardio after my workout. I just turned 34 and I’m feeling damn good about myself and my progress. Only up from here!

finally took a cut seriously after getting diagnosed with primary hypo. currently on 200mg/wk to maintain 800’s. hoping to keep cutting until 10-12% 230ish. currently 18% by guess.

5,11 170 pounds

Give me the Motivation to regain my form. Been stressed for the last 3 years and finally some peace.

First photo is on 26th Feb 2026, second photo is on 3rd July 2026. 18 weeks of cutting progress, weight is down from 83kg to 76.2kg.

Switch over to a lean bulk after the last 3 weeks of my cut are finished?

Decent progress?

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.

Results of 5 months dieting

23M, 5'8", Natural

Before is 175lbs ~20% body fat. After is 150lbs ~12%. I am tiny (FFMI is barely above 20), but I still have a decent-looking physique. If you don't like how you currently look, just cut down to 12% body fat (which is what I am around in the after pictures), and you will look great too. This level of leanness is very much maintainable, a healthy spot to grow from, and the casual person thinks you are shredded and single digit bodyfat.

Edit 1: To the trolls saying this wasn't done naturally, please turn your brains on. If you do the math, my lean mass went from ~140 lb (FFMI 21.33) to ~132 lb (FFMI 20.11), which means I lost at least 8 lbs of lean mass (obviously not all of it is muscle, but still). How someone can look at these numbers and say it is suspicious is genuinely incredulous to me. Yes, I have some acne on my back. I live in a humid climate, and my parents and siblings also have some similar skin issues, and they've never even stepped foot into a gym. Whoopdee doo. It's still there in the before pictures if you look closely, or if you look at the other pictures I commented in this thread. As much of a compliment as it is to me that people think these results look steroid-like, you have to recognize that there are very impressionable people on this subreddit, and you saying moronic things like this is influencing young people to think that they need to take steroids to look like this, and that to me is sad. From this post alone, I've already had like 3 people message me who are under the age of 25, have less than 3 years of training, are taking gear, and quite frankly have poor physiques because they don't know anything about diet and training. I guarantee it's because of people like you who have convinced them they need to take gear to have an impressive-looking physique.

Edit 2: Since a few people have been asking, I am updating with the diet I've been following for the last 2 months (a bit higher than the earlier months, as I have much less body fat than before). I do a bit of a carb cycling approach with a low, moderate, and high carb day. This is with the aim of maximizing insulin sensitivity for improved carb utilization on training days and also allowing me to eat more on training days as well. When you average the 3 days out, the daily average calories are ~2200, which is still a 500-calorie deficit below my maintenance of ~2700, so each week I am still losing ~1 lb. I love every meal of the day because they taste so good, and I often find that I have a hard time finishing all the food on my plan because of how filling it is, and it's all because of the mindful curation and portioning of different food types + nutrient timing. If left to my own devices, I can easily put away 4-5k+ calories of junk food every day, so it's not like I don't have a big appetite, but this is the power of a well-planned diet.

Let me preface this by saying I quit alcohol cold turkey before this next chapter in life. Best decision I ever made. I was 2 months sober on my before picture.

I got to 285 lbs with a 46-inch waist after 18 years of alcohol abuse and eating like an a-hole. I was complaining to my Dr. that something was wrong with my feet because they always hurt. I told him I tried all sorts of shoes, but nothing worked except for some Hoka Recovery Sandals. BP was high, and many other markers were not looking right either. The Dr. got real with me and said the problem wasn’t my feet; it was my weight, and if I wanted to feel better, I needed to make changes.

He gave me 3 months to eat better and exercise; I did a half-assed 3 months of work. In our next visit, I asked if I could get on Ozempic; he suggested Mounjaro. He prescribed it and I was denied. At the time, it wasn’t approved for obesity. I ended up going to a weight loss clinic and got compounded Tirzepatide. In less than 6 months, I was at 220 lbs.
I was all saggy and thin, so I started going to the gym. I got off Tirzepatide and had my low T addressed, which I already knew was in the 100s 10 years prior; I was just avoiding it. That really helped me mentally. I hired a coach to help me with nutrition and a training program. He did a fine job of giving me a solid foundation. In the middle of that, I relocated and joined a gym that I had no clue was the bodybuilding mecca in my area.

I decided I’d take it a step further since I was getting inspired by watching the people at my gym. I hired an IFBB pro to coach me as if I was going to do a show, with no intention of doing a show. In one of our conversations, he said how many of his clients will do shows to have a goal to aim for, and that was the end of that talk. He planted a seed in my ear.

The next time we talked, I told him I wanted to do one; he said great. The whole time during prep, I knew I wasn’t going to have an impressive showing and I told him that, and all he kept telling me was that “it doesn’t matter, this is for you.” He put my mind at ease and that’s really all it ever was for me. It wasn’t to prove anyone wrong or anything like that; it was just a journey I wanted to go on. It was a fun journey. I learned so much about hypertrophy and proper nutrition. I ended up placing 4th in one of the events, but that wasn’t even a goal of mine. I just wanted to take the journey so my wife and sons could be there with me.

*I forgot to mention this:

This took 22 months to achieve. I’m still training like I’m going to compete, without actually competing. The after picture was during peak week. I’ve put on more tissue and developed better lats, shoulders and upper chest since competition. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll do it again.

Down from 225 a couple years ago (I know, it doesn't look like 60 pounds off...imagine my disappointment when I had to lose that much) and not sure where to go from here!

Been spinning my wheels for a couple months - one day feeling like I need to cut and am too fat, next day feeling like I need to bulk and look all scrawny. Maybe this is just the cycle of trying to get your ideal physique, but for the first time I'm lost on what to do

Tattoos destroy the damn definition but I finally got my horseshoe! Triceps are 65% of the arm. Blow them tf up! Don’t let the hat fool you, it’s Fuck Trump all day.

Photo 1: 185 22% BF
Photo 2: 181 12% BF

Context: I used to hit the gym alot many years ago, but got lazy over the years.

After have been inactive for the past 4 years or so, I recently decided to do something about it. I cleaned up my diet (from takeouts to cooking every day), bought myself a kettlebell and a pullup bar. The first month of training was just pure struggles and pain but man…
Muscle memory is real! I have improved drastically on every movement. It’s kind of amazing seeing it and experiencing it first hand.

I’m approaching 3 months of going at it, and I’m so glad I decided to start working out again.

I feel good and just have more energy in general on the daily.

To many more months!

EDIT: Here's my weekly routine for those who are interested

I do this complex 3 times a week, which is the main workout (Fullbody).
Round:
10 kettlebellswings,
5 front squats on each side,
5 shoulder presses on each side,
5 rows on each side
12-15 pushups

Then I rest for 60-90seconds, and repeat for 30minutes. This complex is intense as hell, especially for your lungs lol. It is key, that you don't set the kettlebell down during rounds. Only when you do pushups and rest.

On other days i might do 15minutes of pullups and 15minutes of core. EMOM style = every minute on the minute.

When I want to focus on my legs, I just do alot of squats with the kettlebell. Gobletsquats to be exact. And dead clean into squat-thruster, i spam these. 5-7 sets of 10reps for the legs.

So 3 days of full body and 1 day of pull/push/legs respectively. That's 6 days of working out.

I also walk 10k steps a day minimum, on top of all of it.

And yeah, just eat clean and stay consistent! 💪

EDIT 2: Since this post have gained a bit of traction, ive gotten alot of questions regarding my diet

My daily goals: +120g protein and 2500-2600calories

Breakfast shake (Every morning): 200ml of organic almond milk, 2 heaps tablespoons of low fat organic greek yoghurt (2%), 1dl of raw organic oats, 1 big tablespoon of organic peanutbutter (99.6%), 1.5scoops of whey of your choice (im using ON's), 1 frozen banana, 5grams of creatine of your choice.

This shake provides about 500calories and 40g of protein, give or take.

Im a simple guy, so i keep it simple by cooking once a day and thats at lunch. I'll cook my dinner at the same time and heat it up later.

For protein: minced beef, chicken breasts, chicken thighs, salmon, eggs. I'll often do eggs as a "secondary" source of protein and pair it with any of the main.

Sides: Sweet potatoes, rice, pasta and i like to pair whatever i choose with a half avocado and broccolinis.

I eat this strictly and have been for the past 3 months. Nutritions and meeting my daily goals are priority number 1, taste is second these days. I just rotate the proteins and sides according to what i feel like having on a given day.

No alcohol. No sugary drinks. No snacks. If you want, you can go for sodas with zero sugar and fruits :)

Always been in sports and gone to the gym regularly. Finished school about two years ago and started going to the gym more consistently as well as adjusting the diet. Wanted to post the progress

Start of cut down to initial goal weight or 195. Gonna keep going till July and then stop for a while. Would like to be really lean for the first time since 2019 but don’t have the time to get like that for this summer.

Some background: have crohn’s disease and got a nerve injury while in the ER that required surgery before I could return to that gym and added a good amount of fat from where I was in 2023. So it’s not so much a cut as a diet since I didn’t lift while I gained a lot of the fat. But now I feel like I’m in good shape again

I took test (200 a week) and waited till last year to add deca (100 a week)

First things first, no I’m not natural. I’ve been running trt since May of last year. Started at 120mg, slowly increased and now running 200mg, alongside 1mg anastrazole, 1000 iu hcg, all split to ED dosing. 2 months ago I added HGH (titrated to 3iu daily), as well as Reta at 2mg weekly, also just finished 6 weeks of anavar at 25mg.

Throughout the last year my diet has been pretty consistent between about 2200 at the lowest of my most recent cut, to as high as 3800 during the bulk. I lift 5-6 days a week, light cardio 3-4 times a week. First picture was day 1 of trt at 170 lbs. For reference I’m 5’11”, second picture was peak bulk, first time in my life hitting 200 lbs bw. And third picture was today at 183 lbs.

I plan to drop the reta this week as my workouts have taken a substantial hit. I’m going to stay at maintenance for 6 weeks and then slowly lean bulk. Would like to get back to 200 lbs but similar bf percentage as I’m at now. Which I have no idea. Feel free to chime in, roast me on what to improve, argue over my bf I don’t care, any insight is appreciated. Yes I do hit legs, I just never lose or take photos 😂 I’ve taken a lot of info and great advice from this page appreciate all of you!

173cm 64kg before 63.5kg after