[47M] 3 months leangains: This shit works (even for older people)! -8.7kg (19.2lbs) / -7.7% fat / +4.5% muscles

[rylez98]

https://imgur.com/ml21qHu

4 months ago I asked here at r/fitness30plus what to do because everything I tried before - and that was not few - did not work.

I even did interval fasting (but without logging cals and macros), did not smoke, no alcohol, rarely sugar a lot of weight training and some cardio but nothing changed - except getting a bit stronger - and I was stuck with 84kg (185.2lbs), 19% fat and around 37% muscles.

So some of you motivated me and recommended to do Leangains including calculating my TDEE and logging my calories and macros.

What have i done since then:
a) Nutrition: I calculated my TDEE with this calculator: http://www.lgmacros.com/standard-leangains-macro-calculator/
and then take the TDEE and macros that the calculkator tells you. For cutting you eat your TDEE on trainingsdays and on restdays you eat 875 cals less.

I used myFitnessPal to log calories and macros. I did intervall fasting before, but logging (not eyeballing) the calories and macros was the key. At the beginning it's getting annoying sometimes but it becomes easier and you learn a lot about the cals & macros in nutritions. The first month i never exceeded the calories but i often exceeded one macro and undercut another. Still there was nice progress and i got better with that week by week.

b) Training:
I started with Phrak's Greyskull LP what means I had to reduce (!) my trainingtime but it became more intensively (less repititions, more weight). At Greyskull LP there are only 2 workout-days.

Day1: Bent Over Rows, Bench Press and Squats
Day 2: Chin Ups, Shoulder Press and Deadlift
All exercises were done with a barbell and always 5 sets with 5 repetitions (3 reps at chinups and the deadlifts).

First I trained every second day, later when the weights got higher 3 times a week.

After a month i had no more progress with some exercises so i switched to reverse pyramide training (the one that Martin Berkhan is recommending). That helped.

So I lost 5kg (11lbs) in the first month and around 2 in the 2nd and the 3rd.

Now I have the best body I ever had in my life. After 3 months I had 75.3kg (166lbs), 11.3% fat and 41.5% muscles. (In the meantime I am trying to lean bulk so I am right now at 48.5kg, 10.5% fat and 42.2% muscles.)

But the best of it all is, that I feel so good. This is much more than only fat loss or building some muscles.

So I want to thank Martin Berkhan for his amazing work and all those guys that gave me that kick in the ass to start leangains in this thread / especially @that1geek, @blogmehameha and @soulsearchingservant ! THANK YOU!

As i said I am now trying to bulk and use nsuns 5/3/1 LP as training routine.
I did not yet considered if i take the "lean bulk" or "recomposition"-TDEEs of the lgmacros-calculator.

Do you have a recommendation for me?

 

[veganbro4]

@rylez98 How exactly did you use Leangains? When you say it works what aspect. You used Greyskull and eat in deficit. Did you do intermittent fasting? Calorie cycling?

 

[rylez98]

@veganbro4 Yes, i even did 16h/8h-intermittent fasting before and did not change this except that i stopped eyeballing and startetd logging.
I wanted to cut, so at trainingsdays i ate calories around my TDEE, at restdays TDEE -875 cals. Means this calorie cycling?
What do you mean by what aspect worked? I wanted to cut and lost almost 9kg (19lbs). I am especially surprised how much of my stubborn fat vanished. Really thought i had to take this to my grave.

 

[person721]

@rylez98 Well you also started counting calories accurately rather than eyeballing so that could be a confounding factor. I’m a fan of IF though

 

[pnku002]

@person721 Why? Calories count with leangains.

 

[heartx144]

@person721 That is the big difference.

 

[blakelloyd]

@rylez98 Excuse my ignorance but do you mean you fasted for just 8hrs or fasted for 16hrs and only ate during an 8hr window? I'm guessing the latter?

 

[rylez98]

@blakelloyd 8h eating / 16h fasting

 

[jesica1014]

@rylez98 Great progress, but I’m not sure you can attribute it to the intermittent fasting. You say you previously tried IF and didn’t get great results. You then combined IF with calorie tracking and a net caloric deficit and it worked. It would be interesting to see how those results compare to the calorie tracking/deficit but without the 16/8 restriction. Would your results be any different? Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, great progress.

 

[dawn16]

@rylez98 Nice how it always tans people as well.

 

[rylez98]

@dawn16 I had to relinquish on so much that I did not also wanted to avoid the sun especially not in such a summer.

 

[discipleduchrist]

@rylez98 Congrats on your progress. But just FYI, what worked for you was the tracking of your calories and macros more so than the leangains program being a magic bullet, that makes or breaks pretty much any program you do. There are a ton of programs put there and they all pretty much work if you get your calories and macros straight.

 

[rylez98]

@discipleduchrist Thanks and yes, i would agree to that, BUT if you like you could say leangains is nothing else than a combination of cals-tracking, short weight-intensive routines and IF. All together is extreme effective.
I made greyskull instead of the usual reverse pyramid, so the routine absolutely does not matter as long it is weight-intensive and you have enough restdays. There is a lot of fuckarounditis that do not help to cut.

 

[abutoma]

@rylez98 I'm a bot, bleep, bloop. Someone has linked to this thread from another place on reddit:

• [/r/leangains] [47M] 3 months leangains: This shit works (even for older people)! -8.7kg (19.2lbs) / -7.7% fat / +4.5% muscles

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[ben77]

@rylez98 Awesome progress!!

 

[that1geek]

@rylez98 Hey, I got mentioned! Glad it worked out for you. Looking great!

 

[tinywonderland]

@rylez98 Hi, great physique!

I've a question though,

Why do we put the weight excluding the fat in to calculate the TDEE?

 

[rylez98]

@tinywonderland EDIT: Sorry, i told bullshit. I checked my TDEE in MFP and i took my full bodyweight to calculate TDDEs.

 

[tinywonderland]

@rylez98 So, as per this, I'm close to 66kgs (removing fat weight) and TDEE on workout days in 2k and non workout is 1100.

I workout 5days a week and a deficit of mere 1800 for the entire week. How will such a small deficit help me with the cutting?

I've learnt that weight loss happens only when there's a calorie deficit.

 

[rylez98]

@tinywonderland You train too much. On training days you don't have a deficit, so you should always have a rest day after a training day. You can do some cardio at rest days but that can be hard.
BTW: "Note - If your rest day intake is under 1,300kcal (1,200kcal for women) in the Cut (0/-875) macros, use the Recomp (+20%/-20%) rest day macros."