Skinny to Strong

After a long time, I am writing about my body stats. Since I follow a 3 months cycle, I will compare my weight and fat% with my March numbers. March 27, 2010 Weight: 122.2 lbs Fat %: 9.77% Fat: 11.94 lbs Lean Mass: 110.26 lbs June 26, 2010 Weight: 125.4 lbs Fat %: 9.46% Fat: 11.86 lbs Lean Mass: 113.54 lbs The difference Weight: 3.2 lbs Fat: -0.8 lbs Lean Mass: 3.28 lbs For the first time ever (in any given 3 month cycle), I gained weight while keep my fat about the same. Of course there could be some measurement errors too. But all in all I gained at least 3 lbs of muscle. Still keeping in line with my 1 lb per month gain. This is good enough for me. Trying to gain too much, too quickly is causing my fat to shoot up really quickly. I did not achieve this gain constantly over the period of 3 months. Sometimes I gained a lot and at other times I lost a few pounds. Here is the weight graph to show just that More graphs and correlation between them in my next post.

In my last post , I mentioned about the big switch from strength training to a more balanced muscle mass training and strength training. In this new program, I attempt to keep my weights in 80 to 90% 1RM instead of the heavy 90 to 95% 1RM, I used before for strength training. I used to do 2 workout per week during my strength training regimen. Usually it was on Mondays and Thursdays. Occasionally I would do another workout on Saturdays, time and motivation permitting. On Mondays and Thursdays I used to do 4 exercises. One for each body part Chest and triceps (bench press or dips) Back and biceps (rows or pull-ups) Quads and Hamstrings (deadlifts or squats) Calves or Abs They are mostly concentrated towards bigger muscle groups. On the occasional Saturdays I used to do these exercises Shoulder press Barbell Bicep curls Close grip bench press After switching to the new program and doing a couple of sessions with the lighter weights, I felt like I was not doing enough per w...

It has been a while since my last post. I got pretty busy at work fitting into a new role. But truth be told, I am just lazy :). Reality aside, I have been very strict with both my diet and exercise. Never missed a meal or workout in the last couple of months. Eating clean and often has become second nature to me. I have almost no craving for bad food. In the past month, I only had dessert just once. Given the amount of tasty free food we have at work (I routinely pass by 6 to 8 yummy desserts in a day), that is quite an achievement. I am still eating white rice several times a week, lots of fruits and a ton of milk everyday. Which may not be ideal for most people, but for ectomorphs like myself, it is not a problem at all. Yet I barely gain 0.5 lbs a week. I shake my head in disappointment. There were times when I ate as many as 10 meals, but routinely it is more like 6 to 8 meals. Other than eating some junk food, I am not sure how I can eat any more calories than that. Weight in...

I was having trouble believing the fat numbers using my omron fat monitor, so I analyzed my numbers using the measurements taken with the body fat calipers. There is a world of difference. These numbers are more believable. Makes me think if I should just stop checking fat % using omoron body fat analyzer. It will be an expensive body weight scale then. I take fat caliper measurements every weekend only. As a result I cannot show the pretty graphs that I usually have in my posts because there will only be 4 data points per month. Anyway here are the numbers again but with body fat calipers. October 1, 2009 Stats Weight: 118.51 lbs Fat %: 8.74% Fat: 10.64 lbs Lean Mass: 108.15 lbs December 31, 2009 Stats Weight: 126 lbs Fat %: 11.6% Fat: 14.62 lbs Lean Mass: 111.38 lbs Change in 3 months Weight: 7.49 lbs Fat %: 2.86% Fat: 4.26 lbs Lean Mass: 3.23 lbs Those are much better numbers. When I set the goals I wanted to gain 3.75 lbs of muscle while limiting the fat gain to...

Here are the weight and fat graphs for December 2009. Body Weight Graph Since I reached my goal of 125 lbs for the end of december I tried to maintain the same weight while I tried to reduce the fat. So I started eating the right number of calories that I need. As can be seen from the graph I was maintaining my weight for a while but then it started dipping for no apparent reason. I increased my calories a bit and it stared going up quickly. It is quite hard to keep track of the exact amount of food to eat. Body Fat % Graph While I maintained the same weight I started to see an increase in body fat. I was not sure why that would be the case. Am I losing muscle so quickly? A small increase in weight causes the fat to shoot up quickly while a stable weight still increases it slowly. The only option left to loose fat is to loose weight? I don't like the idea at all. I am also doubting the fat monitor. It tends read the fat changes a while after the weight has changed. So if ...

Time for some numbers now that december 2009 has come to an end. Not just the month, but the year and decade as well have come to an end. In december again I have gained a lot of fat while I gained very little weight. The reason mainly is because I reduced the amount of calories to a more "maintain weight" level. Body weight and fat gain for the month of December, 2009 Weight: 126.00 lbs Fat %: 15.51% Lean mass: 106.46 lbs Weight gain: 1.46 lbs Fat % gain: 1.48% Lean mass gain: -0.61 lbs It is indeed strange that I have lost muscle. Unfortunately since I am doing slow tempo reps I am using lower weights so I cannot be sure if I really lost muscle or it is just an error in the body fat analyzer. I have a theory that my body fat analyzer has a lag in noticing the fat% change. When I gain weight I usually don't see a quick gain in fat. It comes after a few days of the weight increase. So I am assuming I will see the fat reduction will come a little later after ...

I have been wanting to record what I eat and how much I eat for a while now and I was finally able to do it for 1 day. So this is what I ate on Friday, December 18, 2009. Early morning snack I had a glass of 2% milk early in the morning at around 7 am. Calories: 122 Fat: 4.81 gms Carb: 11.42 gms Prot: 8.05 gms Breakfast For breakfast I had a bowl of cereals. The cereals is a mix of raisin bran and cheerios. I ate this around 9 am. Calories: 175 Fat: 2.19 gms Carb: 34.58 gms Prot: 4.95 gms Morning Snack For my morning snack I had a cup of pineapple and a cup of cottage cheese. This was around 11 am. Calories: 272 Fat: 4 gms Carb: 26 gms Prot: 31 gms Lunch Lunch consisted of chicken burger and fries at 1 pm. Calories: 498 Fat: 20 gms Carb: 51 gms Prot: 27 gms Afternoon Snack Chicken tandoori with a glass of 2% milk at 4 pm. Calories: 253 Fat: 11 gms Carb: 13 gms Prot: 23 gms Dinner Chicken dum biriyani at 7 pm. Calories: 410 Fat: 11 gms ...

I have made some good progress so far as my strength and weight goals are concerned. Although I did not reach any of my strength goals I am very close to achieving them. Almost a week into December and I already reached my weight goal of 125 lbs. That means I gained a whopping 6 lbs in 3 months (for an ectomorph that is a big deal believe me). However along the road I gained a huge amount of fat too. A full 3.5% to be precise. In the past 2 months and 1 week I have only concentrated on increasing the strength. Always performed the exercises with quick bursts of energy when lifting and quickly bringing the weight down in the negatives. So the time under tension was very low. Perhaps around 2 to 3 seconds per rep. Total time under tension for a set was around 10 to 30 seconds depending on the reps. As a result I could keep adding weights more often and kept going. Now that I have reached a certain point in my strength I want to concentrate more on form and letting my central nervous sy...

Here are the weight and fat graphs for November 2009. Body Weight Chart For the first few days the weight gain was slow, but after a couple of weeks the weight went down. Clear indication that I was not getting enough calories. That was when I increased my calories from 1800 to 2000. See my previous post for more details about it. As soon as I increased the calories I saw a sudden and quick weight increase for a couple of weeks and then it started dipping. I am not sure of the reason, but it could be because I was over training. I rested for the first week of december so that should give enough time for my body to recover. Body Fat % Chart The flip side of gaining weight is the fat. I have been constantly gaining fat. Even during the time when I could not gain any weight I was still getting fat. Perhaps over training, muscle loss and calorie deficiencies could be the reason. I have to take better care of my body. We will see how december goes.

It is past end of November and time for some more numbers. Over all this month went well. I did gain a lot of weight, however I far exceeded my fat % limit. I know for sure that I will reach my weight goal but at the same time I will fail miserably in my fat % goal. Anyway here are the numbers for my weight and fat % at the end of November Body weight and fat gain in 1 month Weight: 124.54 lbs Fat %: 14.03 % Lean mass: 107.07 lbs Weight gain: 3.74 lbs Fat % gain: 1.83% Lean mass gain: 1.01 lb I was able to put on 4 lbs of weight, but at what cost? I added 2.73 lbs of fat just to gain a mediocre 1 lb of muscle. At least my body does prove that a gain of 1 lb of muscle a month is about the right rate at which I can gain muscle. Not everything is gloomy though, I am very close to reaching my weight goal of 125 lbs by the end of December! I will have to do something about the fat % though. My weights have also steadily increased, albeit very slowly. Here are the numbers for my l...

For the sake of posterity, here are the weight and fat graphs from last month Body Weight Chart Body Fat Chart The graphs start from my lowest weight and fat points which was on September 23, 2009. I was about 117.3 lbs at 10.2% body fat at the time. I started eating more calories from there on and now after 5 weeks I am 120.8 lbs at 12.2% body fat. After about 2 weeks of eating a lot I started seeing that my body fat % was moving faster than my weight gradient. So I decided to cut back a little bit, but then I lost weight (and fat) quickly. And then again I increased my calories. Here are the gains I have made last month: Body weight gain: 3.5 lbs Body fat% gain: 2% Body fat gain: 2.8 lbs Muscle mass gain: 0.7 lb I fell very short at my muscle gain, adding just 0.7 lb of muscle while putting on a lot of weight.

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...

It was sometime in early January of 2009. It suddenly hit me. While I was getting stronger doing P90X, I was also feeling that I was gaining weight. All the exercises are making me more hungry and since I was still eating junk, I basically ate more junk. I could see my gut project out ever so slightly for the first time. I did not like what I saw. That is when I decided to invest in some body fat measuring device. After a thorough search on the internet and reading about pros and cons of various devices I decided to buy 2 of them. I initially bought a body fat calipers that was recommended by many experts from body building forums. It was easy to use, but I am not sure if I am taking the readings properly or not but when I measured at the location mentioned in the booklet I always got less body fat. Something like 12%. I was sure I was not at that body fat percentage. So I went ahead and brought myself a body weight and body fat measuring scale . This was very easy to use. In addi...