X-post from /r/fitness: 5 Month Transformation

lawranick

New member
Firstly, I want to start off by dedicating this post to all of the females who are afraid of "lifting too much" because they "will be too bulky".
Here are my before and after: Stats: 37 y/o. 5'0". My starting weight was only 119lb but (as you can see) I was not in good shape at all. My show date weight was 109lb and my maintenance weight is 111lb. The before pic was 9/21/2015, show date was 3/13/16.
You can clearly see that I am much leaner despite the muscle I put on. I want to be clear that I lift AS HEAVY AS POSSIBLE. In fact, my coach sometimes loads the bar or machine over my normal weight and he spots me while I do the negative. In those cases, I am lifting 25-50lb than I would on my own. I cannot stress enough that you will not get big and bulky from weights. My increased muscle mass actually helps me burn more fat. So anyone (especially female) who is afraid of weights, Please please don't be!

My background: prior to training with a coach, I was your average gym goer. I went about 3 times a week, not really focusing on much, did a few random exercises I had learned over time. Did a little cardio. I was afraid of doing leg exercises because I didn't want big thighs. I had literally never done a squat in my life. But even though I wasn't in bad shape, I wasn't in good shape either. I got tired easily and didn't have the energy or desire to do much outside going to work and hanging out with my kids. I knew my diet wasn't helping. Even though we don't have "junk food" in the house, I was a very mindless eater and never kept track of what I ate. I would often eat out of boredom. I knew I needed a change. My personality is very extreme, so I made a goal of competing in a bikini competition and set out to find a coach.

After meeting my coach and him creating a diet and workout plan, I made such rapid progress that we decided I would compete in Figure and Fitbody instead. I genetically seem to grow and show muscle. I spent 5 months working to get on stage. The photos above were literally taken right before I started training and the others are the day of the show. I won 2nd place Fitbody as a novice in an open class. I plan to compete again as I learned a lot about myself in the process. I want to share those here:

1.) Don't be afraid of weights! I explained that above.
2.) Food is fuel. Yes, it is sometimes fun to eat stuff that tastes good, or splurge on occasion. But after measuring and writing my food for 5 months, I can't even imagine going back to just putting a random amount of food on my plate or just grabbing handfuls of stuff and eating it.
3.) Eating right and being physically fit has given me more energy in other areas of my life. Yes! Even when I'm physically exhausted from training, I still have the energy to play and do activities with my kids, go for a hike, try something new like cross-country skiing. Things I would not have had the energy to do before, I want to try. My mind is more energized for work and school. It has permeated all aspects of my life.
4.) No excuses. For a long time I felt I didn't have the time, resources, etc. to get into shape. Yes, I had the luxury of hiring a coach, but I now know all of the things I need to do to continue without him (if I choose). I know I can do this on my own, but I needed him to kickstart my journey. I also blamed genetics for a long time as to why I couldn't achieve a certain look. Again, no excuses, now I know that hard work is all it takes.

Diet: my coach created a plan from day 1 after reviewing what I ate normally. He bases his diets on macros, so for the last 5 months I literally have had no idea what I was eating calorie-wise. This really works for me because in the past I have obsessed about calories which isn't good. I started at: Protein:171g Carbs:177g Fat:30g.
Over time my carbs were cut so I could continue to lose body fat and grow/retain muscle. The week before show I was at 3 low carb days Protein: 190g, Carbs: 86, Fat: 35g, to one high carb day (to keep my metabolism going) Protein: 172g, Carbs: 175g, Fat: 31g.
Suffice to say I ate a lot of chicken, broccoli, Greek yogurt, fish, green beans, rice cakes, brown rice and drank 2 protein shakes a day.

Workout: Cardio started at 5 hours a week. After a couple months I was losing weight too quickly so we cut it back to 2.5hours a week. Close to show date we picked it back up to 5 hours. I hate traditional cardio, like a lot of you, so I would mix it up. Running outside or treadmill, Bike, elliptical. On top of that, we stay active as a family: ice skating, hiking, trampoline parks, Ariel park (where you get strapped in and climb in the trees), are only a few examples.
On top of cardio, I lift 4-5 times a week for about an hour. I see my coach twice a week to do one lower body day and one upper body. On my own I would usually do one leg day, shoulders/ back day, chest/arms day. We focused a LOT on my butt/hammies and back/shoulders. I have learned dozens of new exercises that target different muscles in each body part. If you want to see an actual list of exercises, I can post that in the comments. (If anyone is wondering, I work on-call nights. I have my days free. I get on average 6-8 hours of unbroken sleep a night even with my job.)

In conclusion: It was a lot of hard work and without the support of my husband and kids, as well as my coach, I would not have been able to do it. I don't want to discourage people and have them point out "But you had the time, money, resources to do it". Yes, that is true. Working out 10 hours a week isn't feasible for everyone. Not everyone can hire a coach. I can't deny that. But you can make diet changes and improve your workouts on your own. You can make changes that will benefit you for a lifetime. Your health and fitness goals aren't a race. I still had to wake up one day and decide I was going to change my life. There is plenty of great inspiration and advice right here on /r/fitness!

EDIT******* I am sorry if I came off deceptive or confusing with the "heavy lifting" promotion. I want to be clear that my goals were to compete. Therefore, I only achieved my look with the help of a second person spotting and training with me. My stage BF was 10% which is not sustainable and helps create the muscle definition. My maintenance BF is 14-15% BF which obviously adds fat and softens the look of the muscles. If I worked out on my own and changed my diet, I still would have needed to lift heavier weights to have leaned out and have any definition which is what I think a lot of women are aiming for. Maintenance:
 
@lawranick Wow, I just read the responses to your post in /r/fitness and people are so unbelievably shitty. I can't believe how negative people in that sub are. I never liked that sub to begin with, but this seriously just reinforced my dislike of it
 
@christiangirlchristian Yes. I have learned there are better placed to sub. /r/xxfitness, /r/bodybuilding and a very entertaining sub, /r/swoleacceptance.

I was even sent nasty private messages after the r/fitness thread was locked. One just said "you are a piece of shit. Go to hell". What does that even mean? Lol
 
@lawranick I saw this over in /r/fitness as well. I was like "Damn, she looks awesome!" It was already locked though. But ya, awesome transformation!
This morning I decided to set up my mirrors so I could see what my back looked like when doing the "jazz hands!" :D
 
@irishfn1 Jazz hands. I'll remember that one! I actually do have two mirrors set up in my living room to practice. If you didn't know me or why, it looks really weird. lol
 
@lawranick Holy dream goals! I love your transformation and envy and appreciate your dedication. I would love to compete one day. Congrats and thank you for the inspiration!
 
@lawranick Wow! Impressed & inspired. We are the same starting stats & it can be so difficult when you are 5ft. Yay for lifting! I see you focused on macros instead of calories for your transformation. Did this help you not stress about calories?
 
@harrymctavish Oh my gosh, yes!!!! In the past when I was trying to create my own diet, I was never quite sure how many calories I should be eating based on my activity level. I would use the TDEE calculator, come up with a number, try to find foods that fit into that. It always just seemed like such a big number.

When my coach said he worked with macros instead of calories I was excited and curious to see how I would feel. I can't explain it, but not having to see such big numbers for calories made a huge difference. I also liked how I could see how exactly I was fueling my body. More carbs for energy, more protein for muscle building.
 
@lawranick You should try r/bodybuilding we love this in that sub. Sorry r/fitness was so shitty :/

BTW, great transformation. I know you put the most work in the past 5 months, but it's clear you have a history of fitness. I think it's great reminder to so many people that just because they are not 10% body fat doesn't mean they couldn't be. As long as people know their potential, that's all that matters.
 
@lawranick As a first time mom who used to run 5 miles a day and several races throughout the year of various mileage, well done. I am basically back to my pre-preg weight with a 6 month old but boy do I hate what I look like. I'm skinny fat. I am slowly getting back into running but stuff just isn't where it used to be anatomically. Bones have shifted places. I'm hurting way more than ever.

You're an inspiration when you mentioned kids plural. Kuddos.

I would love to get half as cut and realize especially as you put it, the diet is crucial. I just wonder is there a way to approximate what you did using your own body weight like for instance tricep dips. I'm sure there's a proper term for the type of exercises I'm talking about, so please excuse my ignorance. I do lots of push-ups, step ups, tri dips, the kids of exercises not needing equipment, just me. I think that can probably only get me so far.

Thank you for sharing. I've saved your post to refer to whenever I get my butt back to a gym which won't be for a few months yet. I agree with your candor that women should not be afraid of weights. They are so ultra important especially as we age.
 
@heartsrose74 I was not fit before my kids. I was always thin. Skinny fat. That was actually bad because I was well into my 20s (after my first child) before I realized I should even go to a gym. I was a cardio bunny doing a few machines here and there until I had my second child. I was 30. I started a new career as a nurse, my mom died and soon after got a divorce. Needless to say, fitness wasn't on my mind.

It wasn't until the past couple years that I even started thinking that I needed to really change up what I was doing. 2 years ago I did P90x. It helped kickstart everything. I did a spartan sprint and that felt great. I then decided I wanted an even bigger goal and settled on competition. I began working with a coach and for various reasons I was not making much progress. I was then in a car accident that broke my hand and sprained my ankle. It was only after I was all healed and strong enough after that to begin to work with a different coach.

Long story short, you are already ahead of me because you were active BEFORE you had kids. And, I don't know if this helps, but I had a lot of residual back and pain issues after my second child. I had developed an umbilical hernia during the pregnancy. Once I had that repaired, the hip and back pain went away. My hip and back were compensating for my shitty core.
 
@lawranick When I was a kid I hated food. It just didn't taste good. So I was always underweight and super small. I ran in high school but I wasn't competitive really cause of my short stature and broke my leg from repetitive stress fractures. Apparently the podiatrist said for some reason I should have had scoliosis thanks to an extreme unbalance in my femurs' length but somehow the rest of me compensated. It wasn't until I was 21 and just got tired of being tired when I decided to exercise again. I made a goal of completing a marathon before I was 30 and at 25 I blew out my knee running again from some patellar issue thanks to my anatomy, apparently.

I biked for a few years and then I moved when I was 28 from a city to a suburb in another state. I tried biking and popped my tires each time. I hate mountain bikes so I just stopped exercising. And for the first time I started to actually get "fat" cause not living in a city I just stopped walking. Get up. Drive. Go to work sitting in front of a computer for 8-10 hour days. Walk 50 feet to the car. Drive home. Eat. Sleep. Repeat. I was 30 when I decided ok. Where was that marathon goal.

I basically did free running for a while, modified and found with patience using 0-drop shoes rectified my gate and I was able to run again. I decided I had to get fit if I was going to have a baby. And that was my new goal. I began lifting weights but not being dedicated plus, I used a gym that was free for me.... And only super jacked dudes used it and I just felt ogled each time. I hated it. It's a military base gym. So I'd always just do more cardio basically if too many guys were there. Kinda dumb but I just hated using free weights that were never in the right spots and finagling with the machines that these dudes would never reset and I'd struggle trying to get the weight from 300 lbs down to whatever I was at. No one was around to help and folks that were were oblivious mixed with my anxiety.. Stupid excuses really.

Anyway. I was anxious and paranoid throughout the pregnancy of not getting back to shape while balancing whatever I needed to be for the health of the baby. It's been six months and I feel like I'm back at 30 with extra pudge and atrophied legs. I feel like I survived 3 months of nursing and 30 mins - 2 hour naps before baby let me breath long enough to do a set of push-ups. By then all my cardio training was gone.

I'm 34 and not like my confidence is peaking but more like I just don't care. I want to be a inspiration to my daughter and institute a healthy lifestyle at home. Plus if I want another baby I'll already be considered high risk thanks to my age so being fit lowers all those complications.

I guess what drove you? Did you have anxiety using gyms or didn't mind the ogling? Felt more supportive? If I saw you at the gym as a female I'd feel more inspired and grateful just for your presence. I just want to thank you for that.

I have a coworker who is an amateur body builder who is the sweetest guy despite being a human bear and has always told me to just silence that critic in my head when at the gym to lift weights. He often goes out of his way to be supportive of unfit people who ask him how to get fit especially at the gym. Just wish there were more women like that I guess. So even if it is just on the Internet, thank you!
 
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