From fat to muscular in 6 mos!

Saw some amazing transformations and seriously huge dudes on this site, which inspired me to post my own pics for criticism, feedback and training/diet/posing advice.

Basically, I was a fat boy with a herniated disk who got fed up with the pain and sloth, began lifting and lap swimming, and rehabbed within 6 months from 228lbs at 5'10" with a 42" waist to 177lbs with a 31" waist. What began as a step towards pain management evolved into a serious quest for muscle. I didn't expect to get this buff so quickly and now want to go more hardcore, blow myself up and get a lot stronger. I still don't quite grasp the mindset of actually competing in a bodybuilding competition, but the challenge of progressing to that level and overcoming my inhibitions are compelling. I'm taking baby steps - I posed for assessment pictures both privately and poolside, and now I'm posting those pictures on the internet. Perhaps in a year or two I'll have the balls and the bod to compete onstage against serious bodybuilders - here's hoping!

Aside from some mental hurdles, I feel hampered by my bad back precluding much heavy lifting, sorting through the flood of information out there, and training without a partner to kick my ass.

I lost the weight forcefeeding myself tons of grilled tuna and chicken breasts, egg whites, and dry salads. My only supplementation was a morning and evening half serving of Isopure protein powder. I like being lean but want to add more mass without much fat but am not sure how to properly clean bulk. Plus, I have to contend with not getting enough rest to recuperate properly, and I can't cat-nap.

Now I'll try to post the pictures.

Lets see em

Welcome to the board

Welcome to mc

Welcome bro, I'm anxious to see the pics!

welcome! I can't wait to see them either!

welcome

Welcome

Welcome blender. You have come to the right board to get good advice. There are ways to work around a back injury, so don't be too concerned about that piece.

If you are a natty, as I suspect, you will need to add in some good carbs to your meals to promote muscle growth. Without the carbs you won't be able to gain muscle. Great job on your transformation!

Most of the mods can help you post your pics, if you run into trouble send one of them a PM.

where are the pics?

Welcome and post the pics we are anxious to see......

After months of trying (and being logged in, registered for and subscribed to this forum, with the Forum Rules stating I MAY post attachments) I'm still unable to post my pictures or get any response from any of the moderators. (I've even emailed the pics directly to the mods.)

Just so you guys know...it ain't me!

blender,

if you have your pictures on your hard drive and they're in the right format, you should be able to just hit the "Browse" button below and upload them that way. You may want to make them a little smaller as well. The max uploadable size is; 102400 bytes.
PM me if you continue to have problems and I'll take care of it.

Chuck

Try opening it in a photoshop and 'crop' the picture to select exactly what you want in it. That will help reduce the size. You can email the pics to either chuck or myself and we can fix the prob for you.

We have new mods here to help you so you won't have the probs like you may have had in the past.

Why can't you sleep? How much sleep are you getting? Try ZMA to get better sleep and a better spike of GH which is what you want to heal faster.

Also, you said you want to bulk...You may want to try something such as creatine/glutamine/whey and some type of sugar such as dextrose or plain sugar post workout along with ALA to help force the stuff into your muscles to help restore glycogen levels and increase protein storage.

A mix of: 10g glutamine powder, 5g creatine, 30g (protein) Isopure, 30g high glycemic carb (dextrose or glucose) along with maybe 300-500 mg ALA would definitely help you recover faster and put on size faster and easier.

Don't eat carbs b4 bed, carbs should be complex (potatoes, oatmeal, etc) with exception to after your workout and maybe start doing some cardio postworkout if worried about fat (or prone to it). 1.5 g of protein per lb of bodyweight and lift heavy so 8-12 rep range and no more unless you're going for the Richard Simmons look!!

I appreciate the feedback. Chuck resized a few pics for me and put them on his chucksgym website.

I've also posted in the "Post your Pics" forum several times on bodybuilding.com, and you can see all photos at a glance in the picture gallery of that site (search username "Blender"). Never got much helpful feedback from that site tho, mostly compliments, which are definitely nice but not necessarily helpful. Since I've pretty much had to accomplish my gains alone and bodybuilding can be a lonely pursuit, I guess I was hoping to be "adopted" by a bodybuilder and groomed for eventual competition, but perhaps that's expecting too much. But the musclechemistry site seems helpful.

Check out my pics on the bodybuilding.com site, and feel free to post any or all of them on this site if you wish.

However, I've news which I thought was a little heavy for bodybuilding.com (but perhaps I'm mistaken). In the interest of full disclosure, the medical setback which kept me from training (with the exception of some rehab training) Sept-Dec was cancer. Got built like a bodybuilder within several months and then got slammed with cancer, a rare incurable one at that - life ain't fair! A splenectomy (spleen removal) put me into what was supposed to be a minimal two year remission. The surgery couldn't be performed lapriscopically because the spleen had to be biopsied post-op, so it was removed via a six inch incision, so I had to rehab from that. Now, training hard for 4 months to bank muscle for the future I've largely regained my physique and am bigger and stronger than ever. Unfortunately, I learned yesterday that I'm out of remission (two years early!) and will likely begin a combination of chemo and antibody therapy within the next few weeks. Not that my priorities are off, but I hope to continue to bodybuild because keeping my relative size, strength and power up has helped my recovery in the past and may help it in the future. Since I'm pretty organized and have already made arrangements with respect to insurance, paperwork, etc., I can concentrate on recovery and hope to continue with bodybuilding throughout the process. Guess now I have to research bodybuilding, cancer and chemotherapy. Any inspiration, motivation or help you can provide would be appreciated!

Sorry to hear that blender. I'm not sure what motivation I can give you nor advice in that area. The best in my opinion is to keep your head up and fight this thing into remission. Getting down and out won't help your immune system any so you're best bet is to act like nothing is wrong and most of all carpe diem.

I'll check your pics out on bb.com. Take care~

Sorry to hear that Blender. Keep us updated on your situation. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Chuck

Thanks, guys. I start an antibody therapy regime this week. If that fails, drug clinical trial. If THAT fails, chemo.

Keeping mindful that this is a bodybuilding site, rest assured that I'm still managing to grind 'em out at the gym.

Now if this pic actually attaches, THAT'D be something!

I'm so amazed the pic actually attached, here's another one.

Holy mackeral, my pics attaching after several months. This HAS to be a good sign.

Here's a side chest after lifting only 5 mos and losing 60lbs (probably over 60lbs of fat as I gained a lot of muscle).

Still haven't figured out how to resize the better pics, so I'm making do. Here's a side tri after lifting 7 months and bulking up 7 lbs. I credit lap swimming (sprinting nonstop 45 minutes+) for not only the weight loss but for the absolute absence of any loose skin, even though my waist dropped from 42" to 31" in 5 months. Of course, here the waist's probably 33", and I'm trying to suck it in (can you say...no muscle control?).

Yep, the stomach's a bit hefty, but still, this is after going from 230lbs to 175lbs in 7 months!