Hi everyone,
I've been posting on the dedicated threads recently, about my recent sense of achievement on my results, and I thought that I could create a bigger post with an overview of my progress so far. Brace yourselves, it's probably going to be a long post. Sorry in advance.
The beginnings:
I actually started weightlifting at the beginning of 2018. I was fresh out of my PhD, where I had gained 10kgs thanks to a burnout and anti-depressant medication. This was followed by a bad breakup where I lost those 10kgs in one month as I just could not eat. I went from 55kgs to 65kgs at my heaviest, back to 55 kgs. While in the end, I was happy to be back at what I considered my regular weight, I was very much skinny fat:
In April 2018, I enrolled in the gym next to my new job. Started with a short program for my back paired with a few cardio classes, then transitionned to weightlifting, following PHUL(power, hypertrophy, upper lower, 4 days a week). At the time, I had gone back to 58kgs after a month with my parents and wanted to go back to 55kgs, so I was cutting and eating 1600 cal a day.
I was kind of consistent, until mid 2019. Went back to 56kg at my lowest and looked like that:
Then, I suffered an overuse injury in my hip, and everything went to hell. Combined with Covid, moving to a different country, doing online classes and project to try to shift carreers, I neglected a bit the gym.
2022-2023: 11 months of treating the gym like a job
In July 2022, coming back from our holidays, I decided I wanted to focus again on weight lifting after weighing myself at 63 kgs, which was really close to my all time heaviest. At started back on a cut, aiming for 1500 cal a day and at least 100g proteins (but really aiming for 120g), going to the gym 4 days a week with my trusted PHUL, without being able to squats because of my old hip injury which never really healed and liked to flare up for no reason.
I tried to be cautious, but still injured my shoulders along the way, so I had periods where I focused more on legs, and others where I focused more on upper body, depending on which part of my body needed extra nursing. From july 2022 to end of september 2022, I went back to 58 kgs. At some point in the middle, I started to add stationary bike everyday and it really helped me shed the weigh faster.
In October, we moved to a different town. For one month, the kitchen was split in two apartments, so we ate out a lot of the time and I stopped tracking calories, still going to the gy, thinking that it would be a good opportunity to lean bulk.
It wasn't a lean bulk. It wasn't dramatic, but between this and the end of the year, I ended up taking a month out of the gym in December and went back to 61.5 kgs at the beginning of January 2023. I decided that to ease back into my routine, I would start by going back to the gym and count my calories, without restricting. Trying to go for 2 months of maintenance, before going for 3 months of cut for summer.
I was kind of disapointed at first as after 2 months of what should have been a recomp, I didn't really looked different, but I kept on going. Mid January, I invested in a fitbit watch, and it really helped me be more active in general by encouraging me to walk my 10 steps a day, logging my water and food consumption and be more mindful of my sleep hygiene.
I effectively maintained at 61.5kg in January and February, eating at 2100 cal a day. In March, I cut to 1500 cal a day, started doing 45 minutes of stationary bike after each gym session and the weight just dropped like a stone. I was thinking that it was a bit too quick, so Iauthorized myself to eat a bit more, upping at 1700 to 1800 most of the days for the 2 next months, and ended my cut a few days ago at 58 kgs:
Here is a summary of my appearance throughout the 11 months:
I now have:
I took a bit of time to find my preferred program and frequency for the gym, but ultimately, I settled down on a Pull/Push/Legs split, going to the gym 6 days a week. This one specifically.
Now, I usually spend 30 minutes warming up and doing mobility exercises to minimize the risks of injuries, then for the first big lift of the day, I would make a pyramide to work up to ny working weight to the day and warm up the joints for the specific moves. Except for a few occasions where the ego lift got the better of me, it's worked pretty well to help me lift injury free since I started doing that. However, I end up spending at least 2 hours just for the lifting session, which is followed then by my 45min to 1h15min (depending on the series I watch during my bike session) of cardio. Definitely too much time and I need to find a way to cut a bit of time. Now that I am not cutting anymore, I am cutting the cardio: not everyday, and not for as long.
My lifts have progressed, even thought I was cutting and I am now at:
Nothing really impressive, but I am quite proud and stronger than I've ever been.
What I learned/Impact:
Tracking my weights, calories and heart rate in addition to my menstural cycle haa been eye opening to me on the impact my cycle has on me.
For example:
Weight loss and period
Resting heart rate and period
When I started doing cardio, my resting heart rate dropped dramatically. However, when it started rising again, I was worried and thought that I was overtraining or something. Turns out, not only do I have water retention around my ovulation and periods, my resting heart rate is also very much cycling and is at its lowest at the end of my period and at its highest a few days before them. And I don;t even know why I was surprised. A week before my period, I am always plagued by fatigue and spend just so much time in bed! Turns out it's not just in my head, or me being lazy. I actually have physical symptoms that explains it.
I have also learned to work around my injuries to keep training, while leaving my problematic joints/muscles resting, which helped me be more consistent and i think it really helped with the results I can see now. I have lost of little painful things that are slowly starting to disappear:
Now what?
It's been a week since the end of the cut. I'm aiming to eat 2000 to 2100 calories a day, still going to the gym 6 days a week for 1h30/2h00 and scaling back on the stationary bike to only 35 minutes maybe everyother day. My weight is already up to 59kgs, but I'm guessing it's just the water retention of eating more carbs and more in general. If I maintain at 59kg for the next months, it will be good enough for me. At the end of summer, I'll try to bulk again until march of next year for a new cut and I hope bigger muscles for next summer
.
I hope this was interesting for you. If you have questions, dont hesitate. And again, sorry for the length of the post!
Edit: Struggles with others' perception:
I forgot to add a part that I also wanted to discuss: how people are perceiving my fitness journey.
For the most part, people have been supportive and why wouldn't they, right? It's always a good thing when you decide to tackle your lifestyle and decide to be healthy, right?
I have atually struggled with the reaction people have been having.
I've mentionned my mother on the subreddit who has been calling me to tell me to not defile my body because she doesn't wan ta muscular daughter with veins popping everywhere. I know she means well and have 0 idea of how hard putting on muscle is as a woman, so I'm not really mad at her, but oh boy! That's one of the most violent thing she's told me since I've been an adult. Fortunately, she's kind of the only one having had this reaction.
The ones that annoy me the most are the people that are taking my cut as an attack on them and how they eat somehow. Like people constently making notes of what I should or should not eat "since i'm on a diet". They're close family and I don't want to start a war, but it's okay: I'm an adult, I can take care of my diet on my own and it turns out, I have been budgeting my calories to be able to enjoy this nice family meal in peace. And even if it wasn't the case, I would still eat the nice family neal and enjoy the occasion. One day overboard is just that to me: one day. But well...
And finally, the most subtle of them all: my partner who probably doesn't even notice he's doing it. While he is very encouraging of me working out and putting on muscle, each time i mention maintenance or bulk, he always downplays the bulking part and "reminds me" that it's also okay to not eat too much. Which really infuriates me when I am negotiating with myself over adding half a tablespoon of oil on my salad when he is pouring half a bag of parmesan cheese on his pasta. I KNOW what he means. But he should also know by now that if I want to grow my glutes and hamstrings that he likes so much, I need to fuel the machine! And now that I have recomped a bit he has 0 filters to point out every part that used to look bigger and are now new insecurities that I didn't know I should have ( apparently, I am the reverse "fat girl with the nice face", I have a double chin before reaching the second half of the healthy BMI.
To finish on a positive note: Since eating more, I have been in a way better mood as I am not hangry anymore, so I really hope that this change will make him see that he doesn't need to micromanage my diet.
Edit 2: My approach to nutrition
I realised I could have been more detailed about how I approached nutrition.
My absolute priority has been to reach at least 100g of proteins a day while staying under my calorie goals. My go to were protein bars in the morning, just before my gym session (I am guilty of using this as a carrot to drag my as to the gym some mornings when I have no motivation XD), cottage cheese with blueberries as afternoon snacks, scoop of proteins in my porridges (savory or sweet) and hard boiled eggs.
It was easier for me to reach my calorie goals once it started to be warmer and I wasn't as tempted to go for the hot lasagnas in my supermarket on my way home.
I would say that I was loosely counting on the sense that I would weigh and count things that were calorie dense and not bother you for fruits and vegetables as I consider that the vitamins they provide is more important than the few calories over my limit. I was also counting on the daily cardio, mainly to be able to be more lax with my counting.
Since starting on this journey I have almost completely cut alcohol. I wasn't a big drinker before (only binging during night outs) and after a few months of not drinking, I was really not enjoying neither the taste, nor the awful recovery the day after. Now I'm just not interested anymore. Nothing pleases me more than enjoying a night out with friends and still enjoy my morning the day after.
I had 4 cheat days during the last 3 months : my sister in law's baby shower, my birthday, our 10 years anniversary and a weekend at a friends in the mountains. My philosophy was to enjoy the days and company. Count everything. Try to overshoot when I estimate. Acknowledge and move on.
If I was injured and knew I had to dial back the training for a few days, I would eat 2000 calories for a few days to help my body heal. Not sure if it was really necessary, but it was a nice change of pace.
I think the worst part for me was the last few weeks of May. As seen on the graph, my weight shot up more than usual between my ovulation and my periods which were late. It was really frustrating to see the weight so high while still in a caloric deficit, but the flush after that was all the more satisfying.
I've been posting on the dedicated threads recently, about my recent sense of achievement on my results, and I thought that I could create a bigger post with an overview of my progress so far. Brace yourselves, it's probably going to be a long post. Sorry in advance.
The beginnings:
I actually started weightlifting at the beginning of 2018. I was fresh out of my PhD, where I had gained 10kgs thanks to a burnout and anti-depressant medication. This was followed by a bad breakup where I lost those 10kgs in one month as I just could not eat. I went from 55kgs to 65kgs at my heaviest, back to 55 kgs. While in the end, I was happy to be back at what I considered my regular weight, I was very much skinny fat:
In April 2018, I enrolled in the gym next to my new job. Started with a short program for my back paired with a few cardio classes, then transitionned to weightlifting, following PHUL(power, hypertrophy, upper lower, 4 days a week). At the time, I had gone back to 58kgs after a month with my parents and wanted to go back to 55kgs, so I was cutting and eating 1600 cal a day.
I was kind of consistent, until mid 2019. Went back to 56kg at my lowest and looked like that:
Then, I suffered an overuse injury in my hip, and everything went to hell. Combined with Covid, moving to a different country, doing online classes and project to try to shift carreers, I neglected a bit the gym.
2022-2023: 11 months of treating the gym like a job
In July 2022, coming back from our holidays, I decided I wanted to focus again on weight lifting after weighing myself at 63 kgs, which was really close to my all time heaviest. At started back on a cut, aiming for 1500 cal a day and at least 100g proteins (but really aiming for 120g), going to the gym 4 days a week with my trusted PHUL, without being able to squats because of my old hip injury which never really healed and liked to flare up for no reason.
I tried to be cautious, but still injured my shoulders along the way, so I had periods where I focused more on legs, and others where I focused more on upper body, depending on which part of my body needed extra nursing. From july 2022 to end of september 2022, I went back to 58 kgs. At some point in the middle, I started to add stationary bike everyday and it really helped me shed the weigh faster.
In October, we moved to a different town. For one month, the kitchen was split in two apartments, so we ate out a lot of the time and I stopped tracking calories, still going to the gy, thinking that it would be a good opportunity to lean bulk.
It wasn't a lean bulk. It wasn't dramatic, but between this and the end of the year, I ended up taking a month out of the gym in December and went back to 61.5 kgs at the beginning of January 2023. I decided that to ease back into my routine, I would start by going back to the gym and count my calories, without restricting. Trying to go for 2 months of maintenance, before going for 3 months of cut for summer.
I was kind of disapointed at first as after 2 months of what should have been a recomp, I didn't really looked different, but I kept on going. Mid January, I invested in a fitbit watch, and it really helped me be more active in general by encouraging me to walk my 10 steps a day, logging my water and food consumption and be more mindful of my sleep hygiene.
I effectively maintained at 61.5kg in January and February, eating at 2100 cal a day. In March, I cut to 1500 cal a day, started doing 45 minutes of stationary bike after each gym session and the weight just dropped like a stone. I was thinking that it was a bit too quick, so Iauthorized myself to eat a bit more, upping at 1700 to 1800 most of the days for the 2 next months, and ended my cut a few days ago at 58 kgs:
Here is a summary of my appearance throughout the 11 months:
I now have:
- abs: https://i.imgur.com/f29WoiC.jpg
- big shoulders: https://i.imgur.com/Olw13IV.jpg
- big arms: https://i.imgur.com/1n51HNt.jpg https://i.imgur.com/igkfJmW.jpg
- big back: https://i.imgur.com/kcNRcNi.jpg
- kind of a booty: https://i.imgur.com/QXrdoJ9.jpg
I took a bit of time to find my preferred program and frequency for the gym, but ultimately, I settled down on a Pull/Push/Legs split, going to the gym 6 days a week. This one specifically.
Now, I usually spend 30 minutes warming up and doing mobility exercises to minimize the risks of injuries, then for the first big lift of the day, I would make a pyramide to work up to ny working weight to the day and warm up the joints for the specific moves. Except for a few occasions where the ego lift got the better of me, it's worked pretty well to help me lift injury free since I started doing that. However, I end up spending at least 2 hours just for the lifting session, which is followed then by my 45min to 1h15min (depending on the series I watch during my bike session) of cardio. Definitely too much time and I need to find a way to cut a bit of time. Now that I am not cutting anymore, I am cutting the cardio: not everyday, and not for as long.
My lifts have progressed, even thought I was cutting and I am now at:
- Benchpress: 42.5 kgs for 5*5 reps
- OVH press: 27.5 kgs for 5*5 reps
- Deadlifts: 75 kgs for 5*5 reps
- Squats: 40 kgs for 5*5 reps
- Pull ups: can rep 4 strict pull ups
Nothing really impressive, but I am quite proud and stronger than I've ever been.
What I learned/Impact:
Tracking my weights, calories and heart rate in addition to my menstural cycle haa been eye opening to me on the impact my cycle has on me.
For example:
Weight loss and period
Resting heart rate and period
When I started doing cardio, my resting heart rate dropped dramatically. However, when it started rising again, I was worried and thought that I was overtraining or something. Turns out, not only do I have water retention around my ovulation and periods, my resting heart rate is also very much cycling and is at its lowest at the end of my period and at its highest a few days before them. And I don;t even know why I was surprised. A week before my period, I am always plagued by fatigue and spend just so much time in bed! Turns out it's not just in my head, or me being lazy. I actually have physical symptoms that explains it.
I have also learned to work around my injuries to keep training, while leaving my problematic joints/muscles resting, which helped me be more consistent and i think it really helped with the results I can see now. I have lost of little painful things that are slowly starting to disappear:
- the sole of my left foot was really painful and prevented me to run for the longest of time: now that I do calf raises without using my hands to stabilize my self, my left ankle that I had strained a few years ago is getting stronger and this pain has disappear.
- my hyperlaxed wrists are finally strong enough for me to do push ups where i was previously able to hurt myself carying the laundry or brushing my hair.
- as mentionned. earlier, I can finally squat pain free after years of instant pain each time I would attempt a body weight squat.
- I used to have worrying chest pain where I would be unable to take deep breaths without pain, which looked to me like I had a pinched nerve in my shoulder that would run through my whole chest (medical exams didn't show anything): now that my chest and back have more muscles, i haven't feel this in months).
Now what?
It's been a week since the end of the cut. I'm aiming to eat 2000 to 2100 calories a day, still going to the gym 6 days a week for 1h30/2h00 and scaling back on the stationary bike to only 35 minutes maybe everyother day. My weight is already up to 59kgs, but I'm guessing it's just the water retention of eating more carbs and more in general. If I maintain at 59kg for the next months, it will be good enough for me. At the end of summer, I'll try to bulk again until march of next year for a new cut and I hope bigger muscles for next summer
.I hope this was interesting for you. If you have questions, dont hesitate. And again, sorry for the length of the post!
Edit: Struggles with others' perception:
I forgot to add a part that I also wanted to discuss: how people are perceiving my fitness journey.
For the most part, people have been supportive and why wouldn't they, right? It's always a good thing when you decide to tackle your lifestyle and decide to be healthy, right?
I have atually struggled with the reaction people have been having.
I've mentionned my mother on the subreddit who has been calling me to tell me to not defile my body because she doesn't wan ta muscular daughter with veins popping everywhere. I know she means well and have 0 idea of how hard putting on muscle is as a woman, so I'm not really mad at her, but oh boy! That's one of the most violent thing she's told me since I've been an adult. Fortunately, she's kind of the only one having had this reaction.
The ones that annoy me the most are the people that are taking my cut as an attack on them and how they eat somehow. Like people constently making notes of what I should or should not eat "since i'm on a diet". They're close family and I don't want to start a war, but it's okay: I'm an adult, I can take care of my diet on my own and it turns out, I have been budgeting my calories to be able to enjoy this nice family meal in peace. And even if it wasn't the case, I would still eat the nice family neal and enjoy the occasion. One day overboard is just that to me: one day. But well...
And finally, the most subtle of them all: my partner who probably doesn't even notice he's doing it. While he is very encouraging of me working out and putting on muscle, each time i mention maintenance or bulk, he always downplays the bulking part and "reminds me" that it's also okay to not eat too much. Which really infuriates me when I am negotiating with myself over adding half a tablespoon of oil on my salad when he is pouring half a bag of parmesan cheese on his pasta. I KNOW what he means. But he should also know by now that if I want to grow my glutes and hamstrings that he likes so much, I need to fuel the machine! And now that I have recomped a bit he has 0 filters to point out every part that used to look bigger and are now new insecurities that I didn't know I should have ( apparently, I am the reverse "fat girl with the nice face", I have a double chin before reaching the second half of the healthy BMI.
To finish on a positive note: Since eating more, I have been in a way better mood as I am not hangry anymore, so I really hope that this change will make him see that he doesn't need to micromanage my diet.
Edit 2: My approach to nutrition
I realised I could have been more detailed about how I approached nutrition.
My absolute priority has been to reach at least 100g of proteins a day while staying under my calorie goals. My go to were protein bars in the morning, just before my gym session (I am guilty of using this as a carrot to drag my as to the gym some mornings when I have no motivation XD), cottage cheese with blueberries as afternoon snacks, scoop of proteins in my porridges (savory or sweet) and hard boiled eggs.
It was easier for me to reach my calorie goals once it started to be warmer and I wasn't as tempted to go for the hot lasagnas in my supermarket on my way home.
I would say that I was loosely counting on the sense that I would weigh and count things that were calorie dense and not bother you for fruits and vegetables as I consider that the vitamins they provide is more important than the few calories over my limit. I was also counting on the daily cardio, mainly to be able to be more lax with my counting.
Since starting on this journey I have almost completely cut alcohol. I wasn't a big drinker before (only binging during night outs) and after a few months of not drinking, I was really not enjoying neither the taste, nor the awful recovery the day after. Now I'm just not interested anymore. Nothing pleases me more than enjoying a night out with friends and still enjoy my morning the day after.
I had 4 cheat days during the last 3 months : my sister in law's baby shower, my birthday, our 10 years anniversary and a weekend at a friends in the mountains. My philosophy was to enjoy the days and company. Count everything. Try to overshoot when I estimate. Acknowledge and move on.
If I was injured and knew I had to dial back the training for a few days, I would eat 2000 calories for a few days to help my body heal. Not sure if it was really necessary, but it was a nice change of pace.
I think the worst part for me was the last few weeks of May. As seen on the graph, my weight shot up more than usual between my ovulation and my periods which were late. It was really frustrating to see the weight so high while still in a caloric deficit, but the flush after that was all the more satisfying.