lickedbyadog
New member
I have been on and off of my workout routine and exercise since 2018, but this year's quarantine helped kick-start this journey. I started at 140 lbs in March 2020 and now I am at 125 lbs. I am proud of my progress and thought I'd share it with everyone.
History:
I started working out back in 2017, but never really got serious with it until 2018. I weighed around 125 lbs at the time and had little to no muscles. I did do tennis for three years in high school, but this was around 2015. I went on a really unhealthy diet for 3 months beginning of my freshman year of college back in 2016. I just wanted to lose as much weight as possible in a short amount of time. I was able to go down to 115 lbs , but my relationship with food became very toxic. I fell off that diet immediately and began to just eat whatever I wanted because I starved myself for too long. Fast forward to 2017, I started lifting weights at our school gym. I didn’t know too much about lifting weights, and did whatever exercise/workout my friend was doing at the time. The workouts I did for 2017-2018 were very inconsistent, and sometimes I would even take month long breaks. But within these workouts, I was able to dead lift and squat 135 lbs. After college (beginning of 2019), I went through a break up and basically threw my diet and workout out the window. I did this for a while until I reached my highest weight yet, 140 lbs. It wasn’t until I was stuck in quarantine, looking at a body I wasn’t proud of, that really kick started this fitness journey.
Here are my before and after stats:
Before (March 2020)
Height: 5’1
Weight: 140 lbs
After (October 2020)
Height: 5'1
Weight: 125 lbs
Diet:
Because I’ve gone through multiple unhealthy diets, I needed to make sure this next attempt was sustainable. I wanted to take it on slowly and not be too strict with my diet. I decided to start intermittent fasting with a 16:8 window to help reduce my snacking (especially midnight snacking). It was definitely hard at first, but eventually I was able to make it a habit. While doing that, I also did a calorie deficit of 300 under my maintenance calorie of 1500 daily. I can’t remember what my specific macros were, but I want to say it was 30% protein, 20% fats, and 30% carbs. Like I said, I wasn’t too strict on myself, so as long as I was within my daily calories I was still okay. I also made it a habit to only treat myself with junk foods and unhealthy snacks on the weekends, but, of course, still being within the 1200 daily calories. I would also experiment with 24 hour fasts every other week. I did this diet consistently for 5 months. These past two months, I haven’t been as consistent because of work, and once I was able to reach 120 lbs, I decided I wanted to bulk up. Right now my daily calorie intake is around 1700 calories with about the same macro percentages.
Routine:
My workout routine may be weird to some because I did the same workouts/exercise every time. I initially did this to make it easier on myself and not have to worry about thinking of new workouts and what not. I understand that I may have missed out on some crucial workouts that target other parts of the body, but I needed something that I could stick to. I will say that I barely did any lower body workouts because I hated any leg exercises that had to do with dumbbells. I preferred heavier weights. I also felt like there just wasn’t enough space inside my room for the movement it required. Or I could have just been giving myself an excuse. This was my M/W/F upper body workout routine:
Reverse fly 3 x 12 (5 lbs, 10 lbs)
Overhead Press 3 x 12 (20 lbs, 25 lbs)
Single arm Arnold press 3 x 15 (15 lbs)
Bicep Curls 3 x 12 (15 lbs)
Hammer curls 3 x 12 (15 lbs)
Overhead dumbbell triceps extension 3 x 15 (30 lbs)
Dumbbell Triceps Extensions 3 x 12 (15 lbs)
Push Ups 3 x 12
Dumbbell Shrugs 3 x 12 (30 lbs)
I would go into more details but this was basically how it was and because I’m running out of time trying to write this out. Occasionally, I would increase the reps of certain workouts like bicep curls or triceps extensions and try to push until I was tired. I would post my leg routine, but it was basically non-existent during this journey. I’ve just got back into doing leg workouts this past week after getting my weights all set up in the backyard. Here is what it looks like:
Squats 3 x 8 (95, 115, 135 lbs)
Traditional Dead lifts 3 x 6 (95, 115, 135 lbs)
Sumo Dead lifts 3 x 6 (95, 115, 135 lbs)
Romanian Dead lifts 3 x 12 (60 lbs)
Hip Thrusts 3 x 12 (115 lbs)
Bulgarian Split Squat 3 x 12 (15 lbs)
Calf Raises 3 x 12 (115 lbs)
I never did any sort of cardio during this whole fitness journey. I wanted to, but I just couldn't get into the whole treadmill, HIIT, biking, etc workouts. I'm trying to get myself to enjoy it more now, but we'll see.
Achievements
During this journey, I didn’t regularly check my weight every week because I didn’t want to be discouraged every time I saw the number on the scale. I only did monthly weigh ins and this is what it looked like:
March 2020: 140 lbs
May 2020: 135 lbs
June 2020: 129 lbs
July 2020: 125 lbs
August 2020: 121 lbs
September 2020: 117 lbs
October 2020: 125 lbs
Now:
What I’ve learned so far in this journey is that if you really want something, you gotta go for it. I know it’s cliche, but that was essentially what I had to do to get to where I’m at now. I couldn’t keep giving myself an excuse and putting it off. I knew that if I wanted to enjoy my youth the way I wanted to and in the body that I was proud of, I had to just start. I also didn’t think I would be able to do 24 hour fasts because of my love for food, but I surprised myself with that one. Right now I want to bulk up to gain more muscle mass, but also try to lean out. I’ve heard of lean bulking, but don’t know too much about it. If any one can point me in the right direction as to how I can go about this correctly, my messages are open. Hope this was somewhat helpful. If you have other questions, feel free to message me directly.
Before & After Pic
Edit: I wanted to be mindful of the subreddit's rules and guidelines. I am not too sure if I did this correctly. I was also in a time crunch so I apologize if I missed any other important details.
History:
I started working out back in 2017, but never really got serious with it until 2018. I weighed around 125 lbs at the time and had little to no muscles. I did do tennis for three years in high school, but this was around 2015. I went on a really unhealthy diet for 3 months beginning of my freshman year of college back in 2016. I just wanted to lose as much weight as possible in a short amount of time. I was able to go down to 115 lbs , but my relationship with food became very toxic. I fell off that diet immediately and began to just eat whatever I wanted because I starved myself for too long. Fast forward to 2017, I started lifting weights at our school gym. I didn’t know too much about lifting weights, and did whatever exercise/workout my friend was doing at the time. The workouts I did for 2017-2018 were very inconsistent, and sometimes I would even take month long breaks. But within these workouts, I was able to dead lift and squat 135 lbs. After college (beginning of 2019), I went through a break up and basically threw my diet and workout out the window. I did this for a while until I reached my highest weight yet, 140 lbs. It wasn’t until I was stuck in quarantine, looking at a body I wasn’t proud of, that really kick started this fitness journey.
Here are my before and after stats:
Before (March 2020)
Height: 5’1
Weight: 140 lbs
After (October 2020)
Height: 5'1
Weight: 125 lbs
Diet:
Because I’ve gone through multiple unhealthy diets, I needed to make sure this next attempt was sustainable. I wanted to take it on slowly and not be too strict with my diet. I decided to start intermittent fasting with a 16:8 window to help reduce my snacking (especially midnight snacking). It was definitely hard at first, but eventually I was able to make it a habit. While doing that, I also did a calorie deficit of 300 under my maintenance calorie of 1500 daily. I can’t remember what my specific macros were, but I want to say it was 30% protein, 20% fats, and 30% carbs. Like I said, I wasn’t too strict on myself, so as long as I was within my daily calories I was still okay. I also made it a habit to only treat myself with junk foods and unhealthy snacks on the weekends, but, of course, still being within the 1200 daily calories. I would also experiment with 24 hour fasts every other week. I did this diet consistently for 5 months. These past two months, I haven’t been as consistent because of work, and once I was able to reach 120 lbs, I decided I wanted to bulk up. Right now my daily calorie intake is around 1700 calories with about the same macro percentages.
Routine:
My workout routine may be weird to some because I did the same workouts/exercise every time. I initially did this to make it easier on myself and not have to worry about thinking of new workouts and what not. I understand that I may have missed out on some crucial workouts that target other parts of the body, but I needed something that I could stick to. I will say that I barely did any lower body workouts because I hated any leg exercises that had to do with dumbbells. I preferred heavier weights. I also felt like there just wasn’t enough space inside my room for the movement it required. Or I could have just been giving myself an excuse. This was my M/W/F upper body workout routine:
Reverse fly 3 x 12 (5 lbs, 10 lbs)
Overhead Press 3 x 12 (20 lbs, 25 lbs)
Single arm Arnold press 3 x 15 (15 lbs)
Bicep Curls 3 x 12 (15 lbs)
Hammer curls 3 x 12 (15 lbs)
Overhead dumbbell triceps extension 3 x 15 (30 lbs)
Dumbbell Triceps Extensions 3 x 12 (15 lbs)
Push Ups 3 x 12
Dumbbell Shrugs 3 x 12 (30 lbs)
I would go into more details but this was basically how it was and because I’m running out of time trying to write this out. Occasionally, I would increase the reps of certain workouts like bicep curls or triceps extensions and try to push until I was tired. I would post my leg routine, but it was basically non-existent during this journey. I’ve just got back into doing leg workouts this past week after getting my weights all set up in the backyard. Here is what it looks like:
Squats 3 x 8 (95, 115, 135 lbs)
Traditional Dead lifts 3 x 6 (95, 115, 135 lbs)
Sumo Dead lifts 3 x 6 (95, 115, 135 lbs)
Romanian Dead lifts 3 x 12 (60 lbs)
Hip Thrusts 3 x 12 (115 lbs)
Bulgarian Split Squat 3 x 12 (15 lbs)
Calf Raises 3 x 12 (115 lbs)
I never did any sort of cardio during this whole fitness journey. I wanted to, but I just couldn't get into the whole treadmill, HIIT, biking, etc workouts. I'm trying to get myself to enjoy it more now, but we'll see.
Achievements
During this journey, I didn’t regularly check my weight every week because I didn’t want to be discouraged every time I saw the number on the scale. I only did monthly weigh ins and this is what it looked like:
March 2020: 140 lbs
May 2020: 135 lbs
June 2020: 129 lbs
July 2020: 125 lbs
August 2020: 121 lbs
September 2020: 117 lbs
October 2020: 125 lbs
Now:
What I’ve learned so far in this journey is that if you really want something, you gotta go for it. I know it’s cliche, but that was essentially what I had to do to get to where I’m at now. I couldn’t keep giving myself an excuse and putting it off. I knew that if I wanted to enjoy my youth the way I wanted to and in the body that I was proud of, I had to just start. I also didn’t think I would be able to do 24 hour fasts because of my love for food, but I surprised myself with that one. Right now I want to bulk up to gain more muscle mass, but also try to lean out. I’ve heard of lean bulking, but don’t know too much about it. If any one can point me in the right direction as to how I can go about this correctly, my messages are open. Hope this was somewhat helpful. If you have other questions, feel free to message me directly.
Before & After Pic
Edit: I wanted to be mindful of the subreddit's rules and guidelines. I am not too sure if I did this correctly. I was also in a time crunch so I apologize if I missed any other important details.
.