Skip to main content

Finally broke 130 lbs

I have not been updating my blog for some time now, mostly because I had nothing to update. I am still doing the same exercises and still trying to gain weight irrespective of my fat %. The good news is that I have finally reached a weight of 130 lbs. This has been my dream ever since I started working out some 2 years ago. The journey has not been easy at all. For some time I was stuck at 125 lbs (which was my previous high before I decided that I had to lose fat before I start gaining again). My body seems to have some kind of resistance at my previous weight set point of 125. I could not break it no matter what I did. But before going into more details, take a look at my graphs first.


Weight Chart

Fat % Chart

Lean Mass Chart


As you can see, I was trying to break 125 since early June. But no matter how much I tried, I could not break it. I was about 125 for a full 2 months. I got really frustrated. I was eating the same kind of food and about the same amount every day. I did not change my workout in those 2 months either. Progress in weights was also not going well. I was stuck at the same weights or was going down. Noticing how my the effort is going down the drain, in late July I decided to change the exercises a bit hoping that the muscle confusion might help me gain some weight. This is after nearly 2 months of wasted effort.

Suddenly it looked like the change in exercises have done something. I was able to break 125 and it looked like I was gaining weight albeit slowly for the next 3 or 4 weeks. The gains were very slow and mostly came from gain in fat. As a result, I was still where I started 3 months ago when it came to muscle mass. I gained some fat and so my weight went up. I thought about this hard. For some reason my body type just wants to sit at some preset weight. It is like stocks. There is a resistance point beyond which my body resists moving to. But once you break the resistance, it becomes the support. So you don't normally go below it unless some measures are taken to lose weight.

Having turned the knob on one of the variables, I set about tuning the other variable in weight gain, which is diet. I decided to increase my calorie intake by another 300 calories. I hate diet changes because then I am always bloated and always feel like I am gaining too much fat too quickly. Moreover I have to force myself to eat more and I feel like throwing up. But you have got to do what you got to do. And there in was a pleasant surprise waiting for me. I finally started seeing very quick weight gains. I was gaining both fat and muscle at an accelerated rate. In 3 weeks after increasing my calories, I went from 126.6 lbs to 130.2 lbs. A full 3.6 lbs weight gain. About 1.2 lbs/week. Of course my fat was gaining pretty quickly too. But as I mentioned in one of my previous post, I decided to not worry about fat. The most important thing for me is to move my weight set point from 125 to 135. Which is my next goal. At this rate I should be able to reach my goal in 4 weeks. But of course I know this will not last long. As soon as I gain muscle that can eat away the extra 300 calories, I will again stop growing.

What is sad about this whole exercise is that I wasted a full 3 months not knowing what to do. All I had to do was increase my calories intake. Hope I can remember this moral for the next time.

Comments

  1. Hello, my friend. I was like you, and i started with p90x first. The before-and-after pictures convinced me that p90x was the solution to getting the girls. As you can guess, I was not even seeing much results, and i came across one post in your blog, which directed me to stronglifts.

    I have since used stronglifts 5x5 and i have been gaining mass steadily. I have gained about 16pounds since i first started till now for 3 months, but my bodyfat rose from 8% to 13% and have since steadied itself at there for a month. However, i am still growing stronger and stronger.

    I am eating clean like you, but i find it really difficult to get a high calorie intake by eating clean. I understand your frustration too. Having no choice, i just indulge in some fast food such as the double quarter pounder burger from McDonalds. None of their fries and their soft drinks of course. It contains a lot of fat, but its the easiest way to get calories. But i do it once a week.

    I also drink 1 litre of milk a day and eat loads of chicken breast. I try not to remove the visible fat on it because the extra calorie would serve to benefit me instead. I also eat a pack of nuts because of the high amount of good fat in it. Beef is better but due to cultural reasons is it not available in many stores here.

    I thought i would just share with you what i did because of one post from your blog. I hope that post would convince others that p90x does not build mass, and compound movements with weights is the better way to build slabs of muscle your body.

    Thank you and good luck for your future endeavours. Lets get ourselves from skinny to strong!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey monkey reaper, it is always nice to hear stories about people like me.

    I think commercials have a strong impact and almost every ectomorph I talked to said that they started with p90x, which is completely useless for the skinny folks.

    Glad to hear that you switched to stronglifts. I routinely alternate between high intensity 5 reps with medium intensity 8 reps, just to make sure I am don't hit the dreaded plateau and also to keep my motivation up.

    Eating clean and eating the number of calories that we ectomorphs need is really hard. I am eating some unhealthy stuff too to maintain my calorie count. However it seems like you are less concerned about gaining too much fat than me, which is a very good trait to have for ectomorphs, because you gained a lot in 3 months. On the other hand I keep trying to lose fat once I cross 12% BF and by doing so tend to lose a lot of muscle too.

    Thank you for sharing your experiences and I wish you all the very best for you continued progress.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Stats for Oct 2009

So it has been a month since I started bulking up. How am I doing so far? Here are the raw numbers Exercises Squats: 170 lbs, 8 reps Deadlifts: 185 lbs, 10 reps Bench Press: 110 lbs, 4 reps Pull ups: Body weight + 25 lbs, 7 reps Overhead Press: 75 lbs, 6 reps I am doing well in all exercises except bench press. The exercise that is already closest to my goal for end of december is my pull-ups. I can already do 7 reps with 25 lbs hanging off my waist! You can check out my previous post for the goals I have set. Body weight and fat Weight: 120.8 lbs Fat %: 12.2% I am able to add weight as expected. But my body fat % shot up too much. My goal for end of december was to weight 125 lbs at 12% body fat. But I am already over the limit for my body fat %. So I have to lower it and at the same time increase my weight. Very unlikely. I might have to revise my goals, but I will see how it goes and hope to make better predictions for my next bulking phase. It is not at all easy to ke...

Updates for 2012: Part II - It comes at a cost

If you missed my previous post , you might want to read that first . Like I mentioned in my previous post, the goal for the year 2012 suddenly took a U-turn. Instead of continuing on with weight gain phase to reach 154 lbs, I decided to start a fat cutting phase, just for the simple reason that I am unable to gain any more weight no matter how much I eat. It is now June 2012 and I have decided to lose fat. I cut down on my forceful over feeding and went back to good old 3 square meals a day with a snack in the evening. All the meals were regular sized ones, i.e. when I felt full, I stopped. Unlike before when I had to force feed. I felt way better with the normal diet. No more feeling of full all the time. My stomach was also feeling great. No more ahem, flatulence. I was gradually losing weight and fat. As is always the case with cutting down phase for me, I was losing a healthy dose of muscle as well. Come July, I had to do another US trip for 4 weeks this time. And again I to...

Workout Update: August 2010

Image via Wikipedia Last few weeks have not been very fruitful. Even as I was working out as hard as I used to, I kept losing weight. Adding insult to injury was my fat gain. In any case I decided to change my workouts yet again to "fix" the weight loss program that I got myself into. I intend to do only 2 whole body workouts per week. Each one consisting of 4 to 5 exercises depending on my motivation. I also decided to go with 3x8 for all exercises like I usually do every other 3 months. Here is my new routine Monday (back and biceps affinity) Incline Bench Press Squats Rows Bicep Curls Calf Raise Thursday (chest, shoulder and tricep affinity) Bench Press Deadlifts Shoulder Press Tricep Press Leg Raise I have been doing a lot of lower chest exercises in the last few months including decline bench press and dips. I have a feeling that my upper chest is holding me back. So I removed dips and decline bench press and added incline bench press. That should...