4 year difference (85Kg>~65Kg>69Kg). 5'9", 27yo M

Pics:
May 2014 (85KG) -
May 2016 (~65KG) -
June 2018 (69KG) - +
Story:
In 2015 I was drinking and eating to excess regularly. Combined with having never really exercised I was very heavy after leaving university (where I also became a massive stoner). One morning I came downstairs after a really heavy night, when my younger brother (who has been lifting since he was probably 13) saw me in the kitchen gorging on junk food and said "Brother, if you keep eating and drinking like this, by the time you are 30, you will be obese". I didn't really believe him at the time, as I thought I wasn't that out of shape. However I decided to get a gym membership because I thought it couldn't hurt. I started by following a really simple full body routine I found online 3 days a week, starting each session with either 5 minute intense rowing or 15 mins stationary bike. At this time I was not really paying attention to my food intake, just trying to eat less (basically living off salad and hummus + pitta). In 6 months I lost about 15Kg.

Around 1 year in I decided to buy a bike and cycle to work (about 7Km a day). During this time, I started using MyFitnessPal, I was still regularly drinking to excess and I was eating way under my TDEE (eating around 1200Kcal a day). This caused me to become very underweight and weak, as you can see in the second pic. I was constantly hungry, but not loosing any more weight. I had lost most appreciable lean mass, but because I was skinny and because I was not seeing any muscle definition, I kept lowering my Kcals and upping my cardio (more cycling, sometimes up to 100Km a week). I felt like shit CONSTANTLY and my numbers in the gym were staying the same or dropping. I didn't weigh myself at this time, but looking at the pic I'd say I was around 65Kg.

Around June 2016 (1 months after the second pic) I came off my bike and broke my collarbone. This prevented me from doing ANY exercise for 4 months, during which time I put some weight back on (all fat though), but was starting to look a little less sickly.

Once I could start working out again (around October 2016), I actually decided, "hey I'm gonna try do this thing properly" and so I started cycling again (a lot less though) and began my journey into calisthenics. I never actually went back to the gym, instead buying adjustable dumbbells and a free standing pull up bar/ dip station.

First I fixed my diet by making sure I was getting enough protien. Then I started following the RR. Progress came, and within the first year, I was hitting all the upper numbers and progressions in the RR (praise be to the RR). I also bought rings (best decision EVER!)

My progress started to stall around October 2017, at which time I stated adding more volume and doing a push-pull routine of my own devising. This actually turned out to be a really big mistake, as my volume was way too high for my recovery capacity, so I started to stall again and getting minor injuries. I was also neglecting core and shoulder stuff, in favour of more volume during my workouts, creating muscle imbalances and more injuries (my elbows and shoulders felt like shit ALL THE TIME).

Christmas last year was a big turning point for me. I discovered 3 athletes who became massive inspirations and decided to cut down drastically on drink and weed. Max True, Vadym Olenik and @michaelphemo were all massive advocates of training in different rep ranges with varying weights, so I decided to build myself a routine in which I could get my primary lifts up to a good weight in the 5x5 rep range, so in turn I could start training in different rep ranges. in late April, my lifts were up to reasonable weights (Pullups and dips were at +20kg 5x5), so I took a deload and now do the following

Current Routine:
As well as cycling to and from work 5 days a week (11Km a day), I stick to a high frequency routine, undulating the intensity and volume daily to suit my needs and recovery capacity. This basically means I train push-pull 6 days a week, but perform no more than 3 movements per day (plus 2 days a week I wake up early to do a core routine)

I love the freedom of this style of routine, as it allows me to perfom many movement variations throughout the week, as long as i log all my routines to make sure i'm progression in adding weight or reps.

The most important thing at this point for me is to work within my recovery capacity. I need to 'listen' closely to my body, and never going full tilt (undulating volume and intensity as dictated by my recovery). I like to work within rep ranges of: 3x3, 4x6, 5x5, 3x8, 4x10 & 4x12. Because I change my routine daily and the rep ranges and type of movement I do dictates what weight I add, It's hard for me to post an example routine, however I'll take a pic of my diary if it is of interest.

Food:
My food intake has varied massively throughout the past 4 years. Currently I do not track calories (stopped after I broke my collarbone in 2016) except protein. I use BCAAs in the morning, whey for hitting my protien goals and fish oil. One thing, I can usually feel if i've not had enough carbs, as my cycling suffers. My current daily food is the same 5 days a week, and varies a bit on weekends, but currently looks like this, which I prep ever morning:

8:30: 5g BCAA before cycling to work.

10am: Protien shake (banana, 150ml milk, 2 scoop whey, 1/2 tbsp chia seeds, 1/2 tbsp linseeds, 1/2 scoops oats)

12:30pm: 200g chicken, 200g quinoa, 50g frozen green beans

4pm: 2 hard boiled eggs, 2 sardines (co-workers hate me for this)

5pm: 170g low fat greek yogurt

5:30pm: an apple

6:30pm: 5g BCAA before working out

8pm: 1 scoop protein shake and a dinner equivalent to my lunch (changes daily)

10pm: big spoonful of pure peanut butter.

Tips/ things i wish I knew starting out

Food is more important than routines

Never work to full capacity (absolute failure) if you cannot take the time to recover afterwards

Frequency over volume

Working in different rep ranges for best results

Alcohol and smoking kills gains

The food you eat dictates you aesthetic results (eat garbage, look like garbage!)

Warming up your joints (especially your shoulders, wrists and elbows) is the most essential part of the warmup to avaid injury

DO CARDIO!

Bonus stuff

Current v-sit progress:
Random training from a few months ago when I was a bit heavier (75Kg): https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhze5rPlrEf/?taken-by=asherasherasherasher

Thanks for reading!
 
@dawn16 Tbh I wouldn't be surprised if a general improvement in fitness had some effect on beard growth. Probably not huge, but it would make sense for there to be some effect.

I've been fixing my diet but all I do for exercise is cycling, need to get off my ass and actually commit to a routine. My beard is pretty weak so that's another piece of motivation I guess.
 
@ibelieveinchrist damn dude, you looked like you started taking limitless pills. LOL, this is very inspiring. I am in the same boat as you. but the being obese part. Always wanted to do bodyweight fitness. lately, I started running again and doing yoga to get the body moving, but I still drink a lot of alcohol. I would really like to set up a solid plan on what I can do for routines and same as food plans. thanks for sharing!! ALSO: I am 5'9 27 yo male as well. damn I want to look like you bro haha
 
@luvj It took me 3 years of fucking about, learning what was best for me. Because I never followed a real program (apart from the time I did the RR), I actually think my progress has been kind of slow, apart from the last 12 months or so where I've really come to lear what works for my body in terms of volume and recovery.
 
@luvj This may not the best advice but I've gotten a lot more into shape since I switched from drinking to vaping weed.
I sometimes have a munchie problem but overall it works way better for me and doesn't harm my body as much. And if you keep it limited and keep working out there is also no struggle with it becoming a daily routine.
If you start doing nothing and smoke weed all day you have a problem though
 
@kebo12345 Therapy might be an even better suggestion. If you switch from drinking too much to vaping weed, you clearly feel like something needs to be suppressed, pushed out of consciousness.
 
@cwthomas The latter, sorry I should really clarify. But that is smoking weed (which I used to do with tobacco). I still vape weed, but no where near the amount or frequency i used to.
 
@ibelieveinchrist Your second pic reminds me a lot of my bf, who I find super hot as he is. But the impression of your third pic made the idea of linking him your post a bit tempting, so, congrats!

[sup](is this a jerk thing to say?[/sup])
 
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