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  #1  
Old 10-18-2007, 03:15 PM
Tidus Tidus is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: The Gym.
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Default Pictures + A Ton of Questions

First things first, I owe everyone here an introduction. Hey guys, my name is Tidus, I'm a 19 year old who started body-building because I was sick of being a fat-ass.

I've been lifting for over 3 years, but never seriously. Rarely have I stuck to a weight lifting program without skipping workouts. The only regime I've stuck to is cardio. Die hard cardio, to burn the enormous amount of fat I had accumulated over the years. Now, I've taken a week or two off from the gym to re-evalute myself and my goals.

I'm a long time reader here at BBforums and have gotten to admire the community and successful members.

As far as my knowledge goes, I think I know my basics. My diet is and has been super-clean for the past six months or so. I don't do cheat meals.

Sadly, I'm not a topless chick. I suffer from gyneacomastia, so I can't show off a brilliant chest like all of you (yet - surgery is early next year), hopefully I won't be ridiculed for it around here. I was debating whether or not to post pictures, eventually I decided to.

Anyway, enough about me. Here are my stats, followed by my questions.

Pre- working out (Sorry, no pictures)
5'6 - 220 lbs.

Currently
5'11 and 1/2 - 168 lbs.

Now, I have a series of questions, hopefully they all fit and I can attain answers to them through other members.

0.5) Based on the pictures below, what would you say my BF % is?

1) Because of my gyne, I have always been ridiculed because of my chest. It's mentally exhausting how much I do to try and correct it, I recently learned I had gynecomastia, and I couldn't correct it, I'm scheduled for surgery early next year but what I do now is push - ups. I do a lot of push-ups. I've given myself a chest workout due to them. I average about 300 a day. When I wake up in the morning I'll do 40. Every-time I walk out of a room, I'll do a set of 20. At the end of the day, I'll do a set of 60. Do the people around here with the massive chests do push-ups to that degree? Should I continue or cease?

2) I want to get abs, but don't know how to go about it. I've been cutting this past summer, really cutting. I've lost a lot of fat and I want to show off my abs. Right now, I have a Chuck Liddell thing going on. I wanted to know whether it was possible to achieve abs through heavy weight training? Or is cutting the way to stay?

3) My body type is that of an endomorph. I constantly worry about putting on weight / gaining fat. It scares the **** out of me. Is this out of my control? Does my body type dictate the way my body gathers fat? Could I get some advice on how to balance cardio / weight training? Can lifting heavy and doing cardio achieve abs for an endo-morph?

4) Food break-down. I mentioned earlier I have a super-clean diet, but I don't count calories. Nor do I break my food down into any portions for macro-nutrients. Should I start if I wish to achieve optimal results? I heard 40 protein / 20 carbs / 20 fats was a good place to start?

5) I stop eating at 6 pm every-day, and go to bed around 11pm. I used to do that when I cut. I cut during the summer, since school has been back, I haven't changed my ways. I'm scared ****less about putting on fat if I start eating after 6 again. Should I continue eating my last meal of the day at 6pm? Because of this I get only 4 meals a day.

6) A lot of guys on the boards here are skinny dudes. I'm clearly not. I currently take Optimum Nutrition Whey 100% Gold Formula for my protein supplementation needs. Is there anything else you recommend, I heard Cell-Tech (Or something along those lines) was beneficial, but I always thought it would make an endomorph like me, become fat again?

7) Based on the pictures, what would you say I should strive for for goals? More muscle-mass? Lift heavy? Cut more? Any specific body parts I should work on?

Thanks a million guys. It feels great to be able to ask people questions and get answers. I plan to start a workout journal to keep myself committed to going to the gym. Hopefully everything works out. Any responses would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
Attached Images
File Type: jpg FB-10-18-07.jpg (264.3 KB, 432 views)
File Type: jpg FBSCF2-10-18-07.jpg (189.8 KB, 430 views)
File Type: jpg LFS-10-18-07.jpg (231.4 KB, 423 views)
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  #2  
Old 10-18-2007, 03:52 PM
EricT EricT is offline
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1) Congragulations on your upcoming surgery. I hope all goes well and wish you the best with it. There's is not one person here who will ridicule you and if someone does I or someone else will have something to say to them and it won't be pretty. Pushups are a great exercise but no, doing all those pushups won't give you a massive chest. At this point you are working on endurance not hypertrophy. You have to increase the challenge in some way.

2. I feel that you definitely need to put on some muscle. Showing abs is about having a low enough bf% but it looks like if you try to "cut" anymore your just going to be dropping muscle also and that will make it harder in the long run to ever drop that stubborn fat.

3. It is true that your body might have a certain set-point but it is certainly not out of your control. It is possible to undo some of that and sort of re-set your body. It won't happen overnight. The term endomorph is not a very good term. The reason is is that if someone looked at your pictures right now without any info from you they would not label you and endomorph. It doesn't really take into account body structure very well, but even given that you don't have the build of an endomorph. It's more like you are a slim guy who just had a lot of fat on from the looks of it and your body structure seems more like that of the ectomorph. But I think the terms are nothing more than a way for people to make excuses or discourgage themselves. Drop the labels and work on being who you want to be. In general I think that the ecto, meso, endo bodytyping thing is somewhat worthless as a way to predict long term outcome.

6) Dude, right now you a skinny guy with a gut and some gyno. You don't need cell-tech.

7) Diet is not something I like to get into since there are other much better than me at it. I feel you should lift heavy and gain mass. Focus on full-body compound movements. Not specific body parts. Do lots of lower body and back.

Welcome and good luck. Once you become addicted to iron you'll find everything coming into perspective
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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.
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  #3  
Old 10-18-2007, 04:11 PM
Tidus Tidus is offline
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Thanks so much for the reply, bro. I wasn't getting one anywhere.

So you think I should put on muscle? I think I'll go for a clean bulk. Is there any way to ensure I'm not putting on any fat while bulking? After being such a huge dude, I think it would mentally drain me if I put the fat back on.

Also, I have my last meal of the day at 6 pm and go to sleep around 11 pm. (Since I started cutting this summer), should I start taking in a later meal?

Thanks again, I'm so glad someone replied. I'm starting fresh next week, so I could use all the advice I can get.
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  #4  
Old 10-18-2007, 04:21 PM
EricT EricT is offline
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I wouldn't even worry too much about the term bulk. If you don't want to put on too much fat then that implies that you will try to maintain your bodyfat percentage within certain levels. Bulking implies cutting. You don't want either for now but of course in the future you may want to "cut" to drop stubborn fat. Right now if you play your cards right you can make body composistion changes slowly but surely without putting on a lot of fat in the process. If you maintain bf& around 10 to 12% but don't let it go over 15 (I doubt you would let it go that far) you should be able to put on muscle. You should find slowly that your body rearanges itself in a favorable way.

You'll need to figure out your maintenance levels for calories and then start with something just a little bit over and adjust according to what is happening to your body. I don't personally believe that eating after 6 will make you fatter if the calories aren't in excess but many feel vehemently that it does make a difference. Regardless many like to get in some slow proteins before bed.

I know you can get better help with the dietary details. Sorry, when I think too much about diet my brain goes to sleep. I'm sure others will reply soon.
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  #5  
Old 10-18-2007, 06:48 PM
Tidus Tidus is offline
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Thanks again for the reply man.

What do you guys think I should do?

Bulk or cut some more?

I really want to see some abs before I bulk... I don't think I did my muscle definition justice in those pictures, I'll upload more pictures soon to give you guys an idea of what my muscle definition is really like.

To cut for the fastest results, do you guys power-lift or high rep range?

I really want to see my abs this summer... it's a mental thing. I've never had abs my entire life. This is the closest I've ever been. I feel like it's in my grasp. What do you guys think?
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  #6  
Old 10-18-2007, 07:08 PM
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Cradler Cradler is offline
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Hey, first of all, thanks for posting here, man. Welcome, and +1 on what Eric said - congrats on the upcoming surgery, and you're asking some good questions, all of which Eric hit so for the most part I won't beat a dead horse there.

Like Eric, I'm not great with the details of diet but just as a basic outline, I'd shoot for 5-6 meals daily as opposed to 3, and obviously they'll be smaller. I eat about every 2-3 hours, and it might just be as small as an apple or something (I'm in a cutting phase, but you get the idea). Eating like that allows you to get your macronutrients in but it also keeps your metabolism running at a high pitch, something that heavy lifting will also help with. If it were me, from your pictures, I would focus on heavy compound lifting like Eric said to fill out more. If you want, you can add in some cardio like an HIIT (there's a sticky on that one in the fatloss forum) program to be shedding some of the extra fat.

Something like 3000-3300 cals per day should be okay for building muscle mass without much risk of putting fat back on. Make full use of things like tuna, cottage cheese, etc., that have relatively low calories but carry most of their calories in protein. Also, as far as late-night eating, consider some kind of fibrous, watery vegetable (celery being a prime example) as a pre-bed snack, it'll do wonders for your metabolism overnight. And don't be afraid to have certain kinds of fats - olive oil, for instance, is really good for you in moderation. You need certain fats and from what you've said I doubt you're going to make hasty decisions in that vein.

Again I'm not a dietitian (yet ), but that's just some basic stuff I've picked up from here and from experience. Good luck with everything, report back here and tell us how it's going!
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  #7  
Old 10-19-2007, 06:18 AM
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hrdgain81 hrdgain81 is offline
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Congrats on all the progress so far, your dedication to bettering yourself is to be commended. I wont get into suggestions as eric has you covered already, but welcome and I hope you stick around, I'm sure you can teach us a few things about fatloss.
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Old 10-19-2007, 11:55 AM
Tidus Tidus is offline
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Thanks for all the support, guys. I'll try my best to keep a workout journal around here. I think I'll try and shed body fat before going going into a clean bulk. Thanks again, guys.
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  #9  
Old 10-19-2007, 01:09 PM
Tidus Tidus is offline
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Sorry to double post, but I have a question.

Do you guys lift heavy to cut or go for higher rep range to cut?
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  #10  
Old 10-19-2007, 01:20 PM
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Pitysister Pitysister is offline
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i think the lifting stays the same...the only thing that would change is the diet...and the cardio.
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