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

@heartsrose74 This might be long, sorry.

I was always thin in highschool. At 5'0" and 105lb, I looked good. I didn't have to do anything to maintain that. I wasn't in sports, and my only activity came from marching band. We did have to do a lot of running and pushups, so I joke about it being my sport.

Fast forward to my first child at 22 years old. It wasnt until after he was born that I though I needed to do something. I joined my first gym when I was 24 or 25. I had no clue what I was doing. The trainers there show you a few things so I mostly stuck to machines and cardio. I had no idea what to do with dumb bells. I managed to get into better shape anyway just because it was something instead of the nothing I had been doing.

Fast forward to 30 when I had my second child. This time I didn't bounce back at all. After losing the initial baby weight I was stuck at about 124-125lb. I had two kids, a career and a crappy marriage. I stayed in that rut for a few years. I would go to the gym a couple times a week which probably prevented me from totally blowing up, but I wasn't progressing either.

Fast forward to age 35. For whatever reason that age hit me hard. I was so sick of how crappy I felt and looked that I wanted to change. I dont know why turning 35 was so traumatic, but knowing that every day I would be closer to 40, really kicked me in my ass. I had remarried and my new husband wanted to get in better shape too. We were both tired of being tired.

We started with P90x. I cannot say enough great stuff about it. I LOVE Tony Horton. We did the whole program all the way through and I lost 6 pounds that I managed to keep off. I decided I needed another challenge to keep me going so my husband and I did a Spartan Sprint. It felt SO amazing completing it. We felt so strong and motivated.

At that point I felt better than I had before but I had plateaued. Mostly because of what I had originally posted. I still didn't have a good diet and I wasn't really focused at the gym. I was still just going on random machines, never used the dumbbells. I knew that was where I was failing.

For me personally, I had to hire a coach. I needed to have someone create the diet, tell me what and when to eat, show me new exercises with proper form. There is a lot of information out there and a lot of people can do that on their own, but I couldn't. Once I started working with him, I wasnt so intimidated when I would go to the gym on my own. I knew what I was doing and I knew I wouldnt look stupid. I never had anxiety that people were ogling in a sexual way, I just didn't want people to look at me like "She has no clue what she is doing".

My advice, if you cannot hire a coach, is to go with a partner who knows what they are doing. My husband didn't know much better than me, so (as much as I love him) he wasnt a help in the gym. Maybe your co-worker can help you? He sounds supportive and like he knows what he is doing. The diet is so key though. I can tell you that I gained muscle from lifting weights, but the fat fell off from better diet and cardio.

I know what you mean about wanting to be in better health for your kids. Not only can I do more, and want to do more for my kids, but they can see that eating healthy, drinking water and staying active can be fun.
 
@lawranick Sorry to see weirdos on the other sub, don't take it personally. I was going to comment there that I plan on showing this to female friends of mine who are afraid to start lifting as inspiration.
At first when I briefly saw the pictures I thought you were early 20s at most and audibly said "holy shit" as I started reading your post.
Amazing work!
 
@instruggles12 Thank you! PLease do show them. I stepped foot in my first gym at 25 years old. I had no clue what I was doing. Fast forward 10 years and I still had no clue as I didn't bother to find out. Plus I, like a lot of females, thought I needed to starve myself to be thin. I wish I had made these changes years ago. I had to see other women's progress to show me how wrong I was, so if I can inspire someone else, that's awesome!
 
@lawranick Oh I certainly will. You can only tell people facts so much - your actual story will help them see they can also look great without getting "too huge". Thanks for the great story, stuff like this inspires me to keep going too! I, and I'm sure many others, really appreciate it.
 
@lawranick I was trying to work out your calorie expenditure, because I wanted to see if there is any way I could change things up to get like 25% of the way to your result, which is AMAZING.

Other than for contest prep, you were at ~85% of TDEE for intake, plus had 1 hour of cardio most days (LISS? Moderate cardio?), plus sounds like at least some of your resistance workouts were metabolically challenging, plus general leisure activity. Estimating (conservatively) - that must have taken you down another 500 calories a day or so?

For food, you were at something like 1.25 or so grams of protein per pound, right? (Remembering someone else's math). And lots of carbs (veg and brown rice mostly sounds like) and very little fat. But, a typical bodybuilder's diet, chicken and veg and stuff.

I doubt I could do all that, but it does sound like the cardio + super high protein are things I could maybe borrow. Thank you for sharing your transformation!
'
edit: also - i'm sorry i didn't take it down sooner, but i was the one who put up a black and white version of one of your afters. i thought it would help people see past the contest look and not be jackasses. you didn't respond (too many posts, i imagine!) so i took it down, apols for not asking first!
 
@joyalton I couldn't respond anymore because they locked the thread. i didn't mind the photo at all! I actually want to thank you for trying to help :)

I can give you a better idea of they types of things I was eating.

Protein: meat/fish were either in 4 or 6 oz portions. I buy the single 5.3oz 80 cal greek yogurt. I know its cheaper to buy in bigger sizes, but those are already calculated for my macros. light cottage cheese in one cup portion.

Carbs: brown rice in 1/4 cup uncooked. oatmeal in 1/2 cup uncooked portion. ricecakes. 1 slice bread for breakfast on low carb days! Veggies and fruit have none or little protein but more carbs so ill put those here. Veggies like broccoli, green beans and asparagus were in one cup portions. Blueberries or strawberries in half cup portions. one apple or banana was one portion.

Fat: i used light olivio on bread and veggies, 1 tbl peanut butter for portion size, 20 almonds for portion size.

If I could make any suggestion, it would be to create a the diet first and then work in the cardio to see how your body responds. At one point I didn't change my diet but just increased the cardio to lose the bodyfat. You don't want to cut carbs too low when trying to build muscle.
 
@lawranick Whew, that's a relief :)

This is excellent, excellent information, thank you so much for taking the time to share!!!

And congratulations on your progress!!!
 
@joyalton Thank you! If you have any other questions, please dont hesitate to ask. I know that the same things don't work for everyone, but if I can help at all, I will.
 
@lawranick This is super inspiring and it's a bummer to see that the trolls over at r/fitness got your post locked. Kudos for all the work you put in and good luck on your future fitness endeavors. Do you think you will continue to compete in the future?
 
@brotherenoch Thank you and Yes! I know all the mistakes I made and look forward to at least one more show this season. I will probably take off the fall to continue to lift and perhaps compete again next spring.
 
@lawranick That's awesome! I did my first NANBF show last June (figure) and I'm gearing up for another this June. Time off was great - built some good muscle and I feel like I am mentally more prepared for this year's cut due to not derailing too much in the "off season" (which my coach refers to as "pre-season") and having a better starting point this time.

Anyway - good luck on your next show!
 
By request: I can't really list weights/ reps because I do slot of drop sets, pyramid sets, etc. for example: for a leg press I might do 10 reps at 210lb then 15 reps at 190lb then 20 reps at 170lb.

Shoulders/back on same day:
Upright rows, bent over rows, seated cable rows, scarecrows, overhead dumbbell press, shrugs, 4 variations of pull ups/chin ups (wide grip/close grip), Lat pull downs (if I have a spotter, I have them pull down heavy and I do the negative slowly). Front and side deltoid raises, back flyes with cable or Dumbbells, dumbbell pullovers

Chest/ arms: 3 variations of floor push-ups, decline push-ups, dumbbell curls, hammer curls, bench dips, tricep kick-backs, cable curls, cable tricep push downs, concentration curls (single arm and seated close grip), skull crushers, straight arm dumbbell pull overs, chest butterfly's, tricep extensions (lying and standing), dumbbell flyes, bench press.

Legs/butt: SQUATS lots and lots with heavy weights and different kinds (traditional ATG, sumo or goblet, split) weighted lunges, curtesy lunges, weighted and curtesy lunge step-ups on a bench as well. Leg extensions, sitting leg curls, supine leg curls, weighted glute thrust, weighted glute kickback (on machine), calves (3 variations to target different muscles), bench sprints, lying cable hip adductions, pop squats (goblet squat with a kettle bell, but jumping up each time)

Abs: full sit-ups, ab roll outs, cable crunch, decline crunch/ sit- up, exercise ball pull in, flat bench pull in (weighted if possible), hanging leg raise, hanging pike, pallof press with rotation, plank on medicine ball, Russian twist, scissor kick, seated leg tuck, straight legged hip raise
 
@lawranick What weight are you at for the traditional back squats? I'd love to have your muscle definition! You look amazing both on and off the stage. Also, besides the protein are you supplementing at all? Creatine or multi vitamin or some such.
 
@dekkiw Thanks! I started taking a multivitamin when I was cutting hard. Other than that, and protein shakes, nothing. I have tried a couple pre-workouts but I dont like how they make me feel. Good old caffeine works for me.

My PR for traditional squats is 175lb.
 
@lawranick Thanks for the reply. :)

Right now I'm powerlifting for a competition. I was thinking about trying a bodybuilding phase for the summer and your post is so inspirational.
 
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