Pistonheads Transformation Contest!
Discussion
All,
So we have recently had a influx in folk looking to make large scale changes to their bodies in the pursuit of health and/or image. So we had the idea of doing some type of contest to keep motivation high and for us to share our experiences along the way.
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/xforums/topic.asp?h=0...
How to enter?
Start a posting in here detailing your current condition, reason for change and plan (exercise, diet etc). It's important you have a reasonable level of updates in here.
Before and after pictures are required for the prize element (clothing is acceptable as long as its tight enough to show figure, however topless for the guys is preferential).
Everyone entering should enter before 17th although its encouraged you enter as soon as possible! The sooner you enter the longer you have!
The contest starts today and goes until March 1st 2012.
Prize is TBD.
All in all though this should be fun and hopefully helpful for generating motivation and also as a way for us to share our experiences!
Lee
So we have recently had a influx in folk looking to make large scale changes to their bodies in the pursuit of health and/or image. So we had the idea of doing some type of contest to keep motivation high and for us to share our experiences along the way.
http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/xforums/topic.asp?h=0...
How to enter?
Start a posting in here detailing your current condition, reason for change and plan (exercise, diet etc). It's important you have a reasonable level of updates in here.
Before and after pictures are required for the prize element (clothing is acceptable as long as its tight enough to show figure, however topless for the guys is preferential).
Everyone entering should enter before 17th although its encouraged you enter as soon as possible! The sooner you enter the longer you have!
The contest starts today and goes until March 1st 2012.
Prize is TBD.
All in all though this should be fun and hopefully helpful for generating motivation and also as a way for us to share our experiences!
Lee
Edited by Ordinary_Chap on Sunday 9th October 09:27
Current Condition
About 10-14lbs over previous pictures due to sickness and not being able to train due to a wrist injury.
From this thread; http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=1&a...
Reason for Change
After having health issues get in my way I want to gain muscle and get a better body than I've had previously.
Plan
So I've previously done 4 day splits with cardio as required. Now I'm moving to a 3 day plan with more cardio and eating a lot more! I've previously bulked by eating lots of food and not always good food! I'm going to eat more food this time but good food! So essentially a high protein/moderate fat and low carb diet. I'm not going to post a very detailed plan due to the respect for my coach but I will answer directed questions.
Essentially I will be doing the same thing 3 days a week with small variations;
Bench Press
Deadlift
Squat
With additional's for other parts missing from here every other session.
Supplements (MyProtein)
Protein powder for recovery
BCAA's during exercise
Note; I'm coming along for the ride but I will not be entering a competition I started.
I'm also available for help if anyone needs any either on here or via PM
About 10-14lbs over previous pictures due to sickness and not being able to train due to a wrist injury.
From this thread; http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=1&a...
Reason for Change
After having health issues get in my way I want to gain muscle and get a better body than I've had previously.
Plan
So I've previously done 4 day splits with cardio as required. Now I'm moving to a 3 day plan with more cardio and eating a lot more! I've previously bulked by eating lots of food and not always good food! I'm going to eat more food this time but good food! So essentially a high protein/moderate fat and low carb diet. I'm not going to post a very detailed plan due to the respect for my coach but I will answer directed questions.
Essentially I will be doing the same thing 3 days a week with small variations;
Bench Press
Deadlift
Squat
With additional's for other parts missing from here every other session.
Supplements (MyProtein)
Protein powder for recovery
BCAA's during exercise
Note; I'm coming along for the ride but I will not be entering a competition I started.
I'm also available for help if anyone needs any either on here or via PM
Top work cerberaperv!
I said it in the other thread and I will repeat it here, the 3-4lb weight loss a week thing is complete nonsense and is based on the 3500 calorie to lose 1lb of bodyfat theory that has no scientific backing whatsoever yet is still actively mentioned by medical bodies in the UK.
When you think about it logically a larger man/woman can lose far more weight far easier than a far smaller person who isn't carrying half as much bodyfat.
I'm also a fan of unprocessed foods and find as I get closer to my ideal weight with good food and exercise I actually feel far better and full of energy which simply results in me enjoying the whole experience even more!
You'll find the speed of weight loss will naturally increase until you get very close to your ideal weight as your metabolism gets hyped up and you've purged your body of the junk it was using.
Keep up the good work,
Lee
I said it in the other thread and I will repeat it here, the 3-4lb weight loss a week thing is complete nonsense and is based on the 3500 calorie to lose 1lb of bodyfat theory that has no scientific backing whatsoever yet is still actively mentioned by medical bodies in the UK.
When you think about it logically a larger man/woman can lose far more weight far easier than a far smaller person who isn't carrying half as much bodyfat.
I'm also a fan of unprocessed foods and find as I get closer to my ideal weight with good food and exercise I actually feel far better and full of energy which simply results in me enjoying the whole experience even more!
You'll find the speed of weight loss will naturally increase until you get very close to your ideal weight as your metabolism gets hyped up and you've purged your body of the junk it was using.
Keep up the good work,
Lee
olly22n said:
Ok, I'm in.
I am 6', 27, and 14s 10lb. I have had a very poor diet, but never seemed to get too overweight, even with little exercise, likewise, I have always struggled to lose any weight. I only managed a 6lb drop when I had bird flu...
I joined the gym in April, and plodded along. No real gains or improvement.
2 weeks ago I decided enough was enough and I was going to do something about my weight, namely my beer gut, which I have never been without. I have toned arms, legs, but hold all my weight on my gut and chest.
I go to the gym between 3 and 4 times per week, doing 30 mins on the weights, and then always try to run at least 2km.
I have also changed my diet, from a free for all;
Wish me luck!
Not bad on the diet front, what does the training involve?I am 6', 27, and 14s 10lb. I have had a very poor diet, but never seemed to get too overweight, even with little exercise, likewise, I have always struggled to lose any weight. I only managed a 6lb drop when I had bird flu...
I joined the gym in April, and plodded along. No real gains or improvement.
2 weeks ago I decided enough was enough and I was going to do something about my weight, namely my beer gut, which I have never been without. I have toned arms, legs, but hold all my weight on my gut and chest.
I go to the gym between 3 and 4 times per week, doing 30 mins on the weights, and then always try to run at least 2km.
I have also changed my diet, from a free for all;
- 2 x bowls of cereal (ie weetos
) - Lunch: sandwiches, ham and cheese/tuna and mayo, crisps and at least one mars bar, sometimes more.
- Snacking on office biscuits/tea cakes.
- 2 sugars in my tea, x 3-5 per day
- Big evening meal, bordering on two portions and based usually on red meat and chips.
- Pudding, which was whatever I could get my hands on, and possibly another mars bar inbetween
- Drinking, not a huge amount, but at least 5-6 pints of lager per week.
- Breakfast: Either 5 eggs scrambled with red top, or 2 shredded wheat, no sugar, red top
- 11am snack, one drained tin of tuna.
- Workout
- 1pm ¡V 200g of oven cooked chicken breast, sometimes with whole meal wraps, but often just on own with some ketchup
- 4pm, Protein shake.
- 7pm, chicken with rice/wraps or omelette with chicken or ham
- No snacks, no sugar in tea. (ok, last night I had 3 chocolate buttons¡K
) - Alcohol, limited to 1, maybe 2 slimline g&t¡¦s. Only one last week!
Wish me luck!
Edited by olly22n on Monday 17th October 13:14
Lee
olly22n said:
Ordinary_Chap said:
Not bad on the diet front, what does the training involve?
Lee
Training.Lee
Today I did;
Flys 3x12
Chest press 3x12
Dips 3x10
Sit ups 1x 25, 1x 12, 1x 22
2.5km, 9.5speed, 2 incline
The next 3 days will be similiar, but change chest for arms/shoulder/back.
Here's a few exerts from my guide when I was very new to all this that I used to rapidly change my body in 60 days, the results are in this thread (with pictures). Now I've learn't a massive amount more and my understanding of training has evolved but much of this still stands true.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
After each weights session I do 20 minutes of high intensity interval training (HIIT) which I usually do on the bike or treadmill. The reason for focusing on weights is;
1. Doing CV for about 50 mins will burn about 500 calories, doing weights will burn slightly less, like 450 calories but heres where it gets interesting. After doing CV the body will return to its normal state after about an hour whereas with weights it will spend the next 48 hours burning up to 30% more calories.
2. The more lean mass you have the more calories the body will be forced to burn just to sustain itself, so in effect your metabolism will take a big leap up just to keep up with the bodies demands of having some extra muscle.
In terms of exercise, my exercise is geared towards vanity. I am relatively fit but I have chosen bodybuilding for looks but the added benefit is it has lowered my cholesterol, bloody pressure and body fat quite significantly which has massively improved my health and well being.
However training for other disciplines can do the same thing.
Nutrition
Diet equals about 70% of your body. It's also vital too for growth and recovery.
If you don’t get your diet right then you’ll not make any noticeable changes. For most people they will simply maintain their current size and not get any fatter with good exercise and poor diet.
So to start with to figure out how many calories you should be consuming you need to figure out your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) you’ll need to use a tool like this one;
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
Once you have the number (It appears in the bar above but it’s not very clear). You then need to work out your daily calorific rate.
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harri...
Once you have these numbers you can figure out what you’re using per day and if you track you’re diet you can figure out if you’re above or below the amount of calories you’re using a day.
Here is a good calculator; http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/nutrient.htm to track calories.
Both the Iphone and Android devices have some great calorie calculators so when you’re out you can input what you’re using on the move and also check if you want to before ordering something.
I love calorie counter on Android, it’s free and does everything from barcode scanning food to automatically capture what is in food too having the foods of all popular restaurant’s listed in its database.
On my diet I was aiming for less than 2500 calories a day, med/high fat/med carb and high protein.
If you’re looking to build lean muscle it’s generally recommended that you consume anything between 1-2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. I personally use the middle measure of 1.5grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. I do this through my diet and protein shakes from myprotein. I like it because they use good quality protein, are cheap and it tastes like a milkshake.
As for food itself, well below is my average meal plan but you can choose your own based on foods you like as long as you keep it low fat/low-med carb and high protein.
My meal plan
- Breakfast - (omlette, scrambled eggs on toast, porridge etc) + protein drink
- Snack (around 10am) - berries or almonds
- Dinner - Myoplex lite meal replacement drink – Now replaced with chicken salad/turkey and other lean meats. I doing this because I want to add extra calories to help me build more muscle
- Snack (around 3pm) before training like fruit or berries
- Tea - Lean protein meal, chicken, turkey based meals etc (AVOID high carb foods at tea since the energy from these meals will have nowhere to go and will turn into fat. High carb foods would things like rice based dishes and pasta among others)
- Before bed protein drink (usually about 11pm)
Again you don’t need to follow what I’m doing as long as you follow the low fat/low-med carb/high protein approach. How you get these nutrients in your diet it doesn’t matter and most guys do it differently.
Here are some good ideas of meals for 10!
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bbinfo.php?page=re...
But once you get more familiar with the principles you’ll just be able to choose food knowing roughly it’s nutritional value.
Top tips
- Weight doesn't matter, its all about form and carrying out the exercise properly. You'll grow far more by doing it properly as opposed to the crazy swinging you often see people doing in the gym. 3 months ago most exercises were less than half that weight I lift today. Also you'll injure yourself and get laughed at if you swing weights like a maniac.
- Have a cheat day, eat well 6 days a week then give yourself a day off. I used to allow myself two bad meals a week now I use a cheat day. Just don't go crazy otherwise you'll wreck your progress.
- Drink plenty of water, it helps with weight loss, flushes your system out and also helps with hunger.
- Avoid processed foods and drinks. Any packaged food that is claiming to be low fat is usually full of terrible chemicals and things like sodium. My general rule is, the fresher and the less processed, the better.
- If you're doing weights, if you're protein levels are not high enough you'll not give your muscles a chance to grow. Protein is essential for recovery. Most people cannot get the protein they need in their diets from weight lifting. Most believe 1.5grams of protein for 1lb of body weight. My solution is (www.myprotein.co.uk) protein powders.
- Watch out for drinks, sauces and dressings. These little things are often caked in calories and sometimes fat too. Always avoid Sugar and sweeteners, they are fattening and very bad for you.
- Avoid all fads in diets and exercise, they are nothing but junk and will not get you to your goals, its criminal the amount of bad stuff out there.
- It is impossible to spot reduce fat so if you’ve got some fat on your stomach it’s pointless doing 1000’s of sit up or crunches to try and get rid of it. You simply have to train and eat well and it will disappear from all over although if you’re anything like me depressingly the last place the fat disappears from is your stomach. It is worthwhile doing crunches to strengthen your core and if you want a great set of abs when the fat is going you’ll have the muscles there to see.
- Sleep! Sleeping is where we grow, most bodybuilders recommend at least 8 hours a night.
Anyway there’s plenty more stuff but its all dependent on what you’re trying to achieve and where you currently are. I tried to keep it generic so it can be used as a guide.
Training like this is about experimenting with exercise and diet. Listen to your body, never train tired or injured.
It's funny because a lot of this now appears quite rudimentary but it worked exceedingly well, simply principles combined with hardwork and consistency.
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...
After each weights session I do 20 minutes of high intensity interval training (HIIT) which I usually do on the bike or treadmill. The reason for focusing on weights is;
1. Doing CV for about 50 mins will burn about 500 calories, doing weights will burn slightly less, like 450 calories but heres where it gets interesting. After doing CV the body will return to its normal state after about an hour whereas with weights it will spend the next 48 hours burning up to 30% more calories.
2. The more lean mass you have the more calories the body will be forced to burn just to sustain itself, so in effect your metabolism will take a big leap up just to keep up with the bodies demands of having some extra muscle.
In terms of exercise, my exercise is geared towards vanity. I am relatively fit but I have chosen bodybuilding for looks but the added benefit is it has lowered my cholesterol, bloody pressure and body fat quite significantly which has massively improved my health and well being.
However training for other disciplines can do the same thing.
Nutrition
Diet equals about 70% of your body. It's also vital too for growth and recovery.
If you don’t get your diet right then you’ll not make any noticeable changes. For most people they will simply maintain their current size and not get any fatter with good exercise and poor diet.
So to start with to figure out how many calories you should be consuming you need to figure out your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) you’ll need to use a tool like this one;
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/
Once you have the number (It appears in the bar above but it’s not very clear). You then need to work out your daily calorific rate.
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/harri...
Once you have these numbers you can figure out what you’re using per day and if you track you’re diet you can figure out if you’re above or below the amount of calories you’re using a day.
Here is a good calculator; http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/nutrient.htm to track calories.
Both the Iphone and Android devices have some great calorie calculators so when you’re out you can input what you’re using on the move and also check if you want to before ordering something.
I love calorie counter on Android, it’s free and does everything from barcode scanning food to automatically capture what is in food too having the foods of all popular restaurant’s listed in its database.
On my diet I was aiming for less than 2500 calories a day, med/high fat/med carb and high protein.
If you’re looking to build lean muscle it’s generally recommended that you consume anything between 1-2 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. I personally use the middle measure of 1.5grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. I do this through my diet and protein shakes from myprotein. I like it because they use good quality protein, are cheap and it tastes like a milkshake.
As for food itself, well below is my average meal plan but you can choose your own based on foods you like as long as you keep it low fat/low-med carb and high protein.
My meal plan
- Breakfast - (omlette, scrambled eggs on toast, porridge etc) + protein drink
- Snack (around 10am) - berries or almonds
- Dinner - Myoplex lite meal replacement drink – Now replaced with chicken salad/turkey and other lean meats. I doing this because I want to add extra calories to help me build more muscle
- Snack (around 3pm) before training like fruit or berries
- Tea - Lean protein meal, chicken, turkey based meals etc (AVOID high carb foods at tea since the energy from these meals will have nowhere to go and will turn into fat. High carb foods would things like rice based dishes and pasta among others)
- Before bed protein drink (usually about 11pm)
Again you don’t need to follow what I’m doing as long as you follow the low fat/low-med carb/high protein approach. How you get these nutrients in your diet it doesn’t matter and most guys do it differently.
Here are some good ideas of meals for 10!
http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bbinfo.php?page=re...
But once you get more familiar with the principles you’ll just be able to choose food knowing roughly it’s nutritional value.
Top tips
- Weight doesn't matter, its all about form and carrying out the exercise properly. You'll grow far more by doing it properly as opposed to the crazy swinging you often see people doing in the gym. 3 months ago most exercises were less than half that weight I lift today. Also you'll injure yourself and get laughed at if you swing weights like a maniac.
- Have a cheat day, eat well 6 days a week then give yourself a day off. I used to allow myself two bad meals a week now I use a cheat day. Just don't go crazy otherwise you'll wreck your progress.
- Drink plenty of water, it helps with weight loss, flushes your system out and also helps with hunger.
- Avoid processed foods and drinks. Any packaged food that is claiming to be low fat is usually full of terrible chemicals and things like sodium. My general rule is, the fresher and the less processed, the better.
- If you're doing weights, if you're protein levels are not high enough you'll not give your muscles a chance to grow. Protein is essential for recovery. Most people cannot get the protein they need in their diets from weight lifting. Most believe 1.5grams of protein for 1lb of body weight. My solution is (www.myprotein.co.uk) protein powders.
- Watch out for drinks, sauces and dressings. These little things are often caked in calories and sometimes fat too. Always avoid Sugar and sweeteners, they are fattening and very bad for you.
- Avoid all fads in diets and exercise, they are nothing but junk and will not get you to your goals, its criminal the amount of bad stuff out there.
- It is impossible to spot reduce fat so if you’ve got some fat on your stomach it’s pointless doing 1000’s of sit up or crunches to try and get rid of it. You simply have to train and eat well and it will disappear from all over although if you’re anything like me depressingly the last place the fat disappears from is your stomach. It is worthwhile doing crunches to strengthen your core and if you want a great set of abs when the fat is going you’ll have the muscles there to see.
- Sleep! Sleeping is where we grow, most bodybuilders recommend at least 8 hours a night.
Anyway there’s plenty more stuff but its all dependent on what you’re trying to achieve and where you currently are. I tried to keep it generic so it can be used as a guide.
Training like this is about experimenting with exercise and diet. Listen to your body, never train tired or injured.
It's funny because a lot of this now appears quite rudimentary but it worked exceedingly well, simply principles combined with hardwork and consistency.
So today was the first day back after a few weeks off due to a chest infection and a broken car! I have been since but the sessions have been a bit of a wash out. I'm just not smart enough sometimes to not do it.
I used tonights session to just get the muscles working, everything was a fair amount less than I'm capable to do.
Squats 1 x 10 @ 60kg, 3 x 10 @ 90kg
Deadlift 3 x 10 @ 60kg
Bench press 3 x 8 @ 80kg
It felt good just working the muscles and push the weight.
I used tonights session to just get the muscles working, everything was a fair amount less than I'm capable to do.
Squats 1 x 10 @ 60kg, 3 x 10 @ 90kg
Deadlift 3 x 10 @ 60kg
Bench press 3 x 8 @ 80kg
It felt good just working the muscles and push the weight.
soda said:
Ordinary_Chap said:
Diet equals 70% of your body
This is going to be the killer for me. I work a 4 day week, typically 12 to 14 hours a day and it's hard graft in a refrigerated warehouse. Food is a case of what can be grabbed quickly and fill me up. I'm not sure any low carb meals are going to cut it on days I'm in work, I'll need to experiment with this.I've made a start by making packed lunches up this week, sandwiches and dinners I can microwave in work. No fast food has passed my lips.
As an example of were I'm starting from this is what I ate last Friday.
Breakfast - 6 Weetabix
Breakfast 2 - 3 sausage and egg McMuffins and 3 hash browns
Lunch - Footlong spicy italian, 6 inch steak and cheese plus 3 cookies
Dinner - KFC, big daddy meal and 2 salsa twisters
Dinner 2 - Lamb madras with fried rice and 2 garlic naans
I feel quite disgusted looking at that list now
My trick is to cook foods and take them work, otherwise I always end up eating rubbish!
You don't need to go low carb necessarily, it's my diet choice but there are more ways to do this and quite honestly given how bad your diet is, if you cleaned it up but kept carbs in it then you'd most likely lose a lot of weight!
Good luck!
Lee
RemainAllHoof said:
Get out of here! 
You're welcome to join my friend! What is your first name? We can't call you by a number.
The truth of it is, even average looking guys like me get an awful lot of offers by having a half decent body, it has a strange effect on women but then I guess we do exactly the same too!
Post pics, your diet and training plan and we will give you some advice!
Lee
The truth of it is, even average looking guys like me get an awful lot of offers by having a half decent body, it has a strange effect on women but then I guess we do exactly the same too!
Post pics, your diet and training plan and we will give you some advice!
Lee
43034 said:
Ordinary_Chap said:
You're welcome to join my friend! What is your first name? We can't call you by a number.
The truth of it is, even average looking guys like me get an awful lot of offers by having a half decent body, it has a strange effect on women but then I guess we do exactly the same too!
Post pics, your diet and training plan and we will give you some advice!
Lee
I'm known as Scryder but my first name is Scott! The truth of it is, even average looking guys like me get an awful lot of offers by having a half decent body, it has a strange effect on women but then I guess we do exactly the same too!
Post pics, your diet and training plan and we will give you some advice!
Lee
I sadly don't have any pics clear enough of my size pre July but let's just say I was scrawny (not short though), people could just about get their thumb & middle finger around my upper arms. My T-Shirts have have got tight around the arms now which I'm not complaining about
My plan in the gym is:
Mon: Chest and Biceps
Wednesday: Shoulders and Triceps
Friday: Biceps (only a small workout again, for the weekend out you see!
)Sunday: Just a quick round up of everything (excl Chest)& Abs because I haven't been since Friday and had a weekend of drink and s
t food.I'm all up to hear criticism. I don't really do legs or back but will be starting legs as my Sunday workout. I have read legs release growth hormones as they're a large muscle group (plus I dont want look all out of proportion!). As I said, I'm not really doing it to get fit, just to look better. Beach weights if you will.
Diet:
Quite simple, I dont have one. I eat what I like when I like and cant gain weight.
Typically (on a day when I am in college):
Brekkie: Nothing, not even a drink.
11am, sausage roll and a still lucozade.
Lunch varies, could be a baguette from the supermarket or a trip to the burger van for some bacon/sausage.
No afternoon snack
Tea is usually a sandwich/toastie. I don't know why but I haven't been eating a proper cooked meal (usually a pasta dish or something)
No evening snack
As you can see, I don't eat a lot but it's not healthy.
I have a protein shake after I work out.
I'll try to get some photos up soon!
I understand where you're at, how are you doing at the moment with muscle growth? Are you happy, have you gain much at all over the past 6 months?
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