Holy god. What a transformation. Keep up the good work. I do not by any means wish to discourage you but keep in mind that losing the weight is the battle. The "war" is keeping it off.
Luckily, the wind is at your back.
well done. you look terrific. keep it up. now that you've made your goal, what's your next goal? remember just because you completed one goal doesn't mean you're through. you can always make up a new one to keep your motivation.
haha yeah squats are draining.I was doing 5 x 6 a couple of months back, recently ive dropped the weight but doing 5 x 12 to try and build muscle mass
I owe it all to my friends for keeping me dedicated all this time.
Great work. Doing this now is a great thing for you and will make your college experience a lot different (100% better) than it would have been. Now keep at it, make use of the hormone surge you're going to enjoy through your early 20's, and get bigger and leaner.
Starting Strength is a good program, if for no other reason than it is simple and fun to stick with as the weight on the bar goes up steadily. And more importantly it has periodization built into it and makes you work with a frequency and rep range where you will make gains, unlike idiot bodybuilding-style splits where you work a muscle one time per week, with too much volume, waste time with dinky isolation exercises, and plateau more quickly.
I wouldn't do GOMAD if I were you. Your bodyfat is still probably high teens, even 20%. GOMAD is better suited to stick boys who "can't gain weight" because they eat like little girls. You obviously have never had that problem (me too). Yeah, you need to eat to gain strength and size, but throwing down 2400 liquid calories every day would be flirting with disaster IMO. Dig around the SS forums and read some of Rippetoe's articles, they definitely don't recommend it for everybody.
Getting super-fat is generally bad hormonally and practically. 10-12% is a pretty good place to bulk from. If 20%, you probably should think about cutting down some.Congrats, man!
This thread brings an interesting question to light: "For someone who's overweight but also wants to build a lot of muscle, is it better to cut, then bulk, then cut again or bulk and just have one cutting phase?"
As I mentioned in another thread, I've been doing "idiot bodybuilding-style splits" for 10 years with good results. Different strokes for different folks; both types of routines (bodybuilding and starting strength) can lead to significant gains.
To the OP: excellent job; keep up the great work.
There's a difference between a BB split, and the ones that 90% of people do in the gym:
M: Chest / Abs
T: Arms
W: Abs
Th: Chest
F: Arms / Abs
That's cool. SS is not the be-all and end-all. Your bodybuilding splits must not be "idiot style" to have made progress for 10 years, unlike all too many people that we've all seen in the gym, spinning their wheels for months/years.
I'm fairly well convinced that once-a-week frequency, high volume, go in the gym and pound the hell out of your chest/tri's on Monday, back/bi's Tuesday, etc., is sub-optimal for a substantial majority of natural lifters, especially young lifters who can lose focus with micro-managed splits and have no idea how to periodize their routine once the beginner gains are gone. SS takes care of most of that (and the book is a pretty good resource), hence my suggesting it to a 17 year old. Of course YMMV.
Haha true, true. We must also point out that, in general, with the above split, "arms" typically means bicep curls. Lots and lots of bicep curls.
There's a difference between a BB split, and the ones that 90% of people do in the gym:
M: Chest / Abs
T: Arms
W: Abs
Th: Chest
F: Arms / Abs