w00t ! I'm getting BIGGER !

[BillyGalbreath]

No, not in my pants (but I wish I was) - I am talking about my muscles ! I have gained 10 pounds and yet I look SOOO much skinnier than I was ! I lost almost all of my "gut". My arms are ****ing HUGE ! I can see the muscles popping out thru my shirt sleeves. And my chest is very nice - if I was gay I would want to **** myself. LMAO

No, but really... I have these pecks now that are there all the time. All muscly and shit. NO MORE MAN BOOBS !!! And I can make my pecks move now ! THAT IS THE COOLEST THING EVER ! I can make each one bounce up and down, same time or one at a time ! lol

My back is as strong as an ox ! I can bench press 225 pounds, and lift 1250 pounds with my legs ! WOW ! And I can run faster, which is really weird cause I never really worked on my legs and I've ALWAYS been a slow ass runner... ...

I think this is just too ****ing awsome ! All I need now is to lower my body fat so that my muscles will REALLY show themselves off ! And maybe I have a 6pack under this damn flab of a "gut" that will show also.

But yeah ! Thats my plan - to lower my body fat. Today is payday, so I am going to go buy one of those things that I've never used.. What's it called... OH YEAH ! a BOOK ! lol - I want to get a book that shows all kinds of different foods that I can eat/can't eat so that I will lower my body fat.

I prolly wont be as hardcore about it as Iron and I know for a fact I will NEVER look as goo das he does, but hell, if I looked as half as good as him I'll be happy.

[Ironliftr3]

Congrats Billy. Glad to hear you're making progress. It's amazing how you suddenly become super motivated when you start to see progress!

[Bonovox40]

What was your before/after weight/height and what has your workout routine been like? There's some good devices to measure your body fat index rather well like infrared meters or just plain calipers.

I'm finding it hard to gain weight since i'm basically forced to cut now that I run 1 and 1/2 miles 5 days a week to prepare for the running i'll have to do every day at the academy. I'd LOVE to gain some muscle but I don't see it happening. I still work out upper body a few times a week but i'm not gaining weight, just more tone I suppose. I hardly ever do strength training in my legs so perhaps that's why.

I'm actually considering getting some of that "1-AD" supplement. Pop a few pills a day and they basically gaurentee 10 pounds of muscle gain in a month. I could live with that. BUT...it's almost like a steroid hence, the muscle gain effect. I've been told once you're off it that you lose that edge, but perhaps my body could adjust to that gain and keep it.

I've been taking Creatine for about a month now, but haven't noticed that much from it. I've always been a skinny guy, but it seems as though i've hit some plateua I can't get over. I weigh 150# but the most I can bench is 180. I just can't get over that no matter how much I strength train my arms and chest. Kinda sucks currently because women I meet see me as a skinny dude, but they don't know i'm pretty fit otherwise. It just doesn't show through my clothes unless i'm wearing something way too small. (and even then it looks weird!)

What have you done to gain 10 pounds? I find that working out, I burn off more calories and my appetite doesn't increase at all. Only does if I do cardio and even then i'm usually only hungry enough to replace what I lost, never gain more then my usual weight. The only time I ever gained 10 pounds was '96 in college, and that was GOOD weight. Not the "freshman 10". I ate rice everyday and worked out in my room and took the 11 flights of stairs down to classes everyday. (Plus the fact that living on my own away from parents was a MAJOR stress reliever)

Just curious Billy on your success and how you've achieved that. With me, if I eat more, it goes to my stomach and that's it. If I don't eat, I get cut but lose weight/muscle. I don't know how to win a balance here. Been trying for years to get a six-pack but I can only see the upper abdominals and traces of obliques near my ribs. I've even taught myself to use a roman chair backwards for situps for a harder challenge but that still hasn't changed my midsection.

I did find that there are some ab excersizes on this page that kick your ass, but I don't always do them. Try doing multiple reps of the Air Bike, Heel touches and Side Bridges. If anything, they'll help you feel the isolation so you know where to flex. And everyone I talk to always says the same thing. "Abs are made in the kitchen, not in the gym." I've heard if you lower your BF index to less then 11%, you'll see them. (mine was 12% last time I checked but that was over a month ago and I run alot more now so who knows)

[BillyGalbreath]

Well, the weird thing is I dont really exersice... And I hardly eat anything at all.

I do play baseball alot and I go to the batting cages just about everyday. I prolly swing a bat at full strength maybe 500 times a day.

I dont run. Unless I am playing baseball and I am running to catch a ball or running the bases.

I do sit ups, but only 100 a night, right before bed. I also do pushups every other night. Only 50 of those. And not in reps - I do them all at once, vigerously.

I have a kid that is a lead ****ing weight. At least he feels like it to carry him. And I pick him up and carry him, and play with him in the air like he is supper man all the time, so that builds arm muscle too I guess.

And the food thing. I dont eat breakfast. I give away my lunch to a homeless guy, so I dont eat lunch either (I use my lunch our at the batting cages). And I eat a small protion of dinner. Maybe 1/4 pound total food - I dont know how many calories or fat, but I can tell you that my whole family is fat, so I know there is alot of unhealthy shit in it... And I don't eat sweets or snacks. Never. No desert, no cake, no cookies, no chips, nothin.

As a kid (up until 4th grade) I was a very skinny little boy. no body fat or muscles at all. Then my dad married this fat lady and she started cooking all those fatty foods for us all and we all gained weight big time. Even I did. I was a really chubby kid from 4th grade until about now.

During middle school (6th-8th grade) I was a size 36 pants. During high school, I joined the marching band. I was in percussion and we did alot more than the other band members. So I lost alot of weight, but I was still chinky. This is also about the time I started to gain muscle mass under all my fat.

The summer after my 10th grade year I became sexually active. And I was having sex like 2 or 3 times a day. So this gave me more arm, back and chest strength. Muscles started to get bigger, and my fat count started to drop (i dont know numbers, but you could just look at me and tell). I also started to grow taller again around this time. So I guess you could say I was thinning out some too.

12th grade - I was at a decent size, Arms were ****ing huge - I could punch through a wooden wall and I could crack cement walls with my fists. (yes I used to hit walls - thats why my hands are all ****ed up today). I had trumendous power in my upper body. I could lift a ****ing small car off the ground and move it over a few feet away.

My legs, well. They have always been strong as ****. I guess it was from holding all my damn fat up. lmao. But I was never a good runner. Always the last in gym class to run the mile, etc etc. took me 15 minutes to run a mile... But I could kick anything faster and farther than anyone else.

After I graduated I stopped the marching band and my strength started to go down. I spent more time on my computer instead of doing anything active. The only thing I did active was sex. If I wasn't driving or having sex, I was sitting on my ass in front of the computer... My weight started to come back drastically.

I was 6'0" at 210 pounds with no visible muscle. Then rough times hit. And they hit hard. I would go weeks at a time without anything to eat. manye times I went 2 weeks with no food at all. within 6 months of this I was 6'2" at 170 pounds, and still no visible muscle.

Then Destine left me. I moved back home with my dad. And I started to eat dinner everynight. Just still no breakfast or lunch. I cant fit more than 1 meal a day in my stomach. If I eat lunch I cant eat dinner... weird I know. If I do try, I will just throw it all back up half way thru my second meal of the day.

Then I started to play baseball with a few old friends. Started to get my muscles back rapidly. And my weight stayed down. but visible muscles were showing thru.

After about 2 months of this I was 6'2" at 180 pounds with visible muscle in my arms and back, and my chest wasn't visible, but you could feel it. This is when I decided to start doing pushups and situps.

Now today (two months later) I am 6'2" at 190-195 pounds and very visible muscles in my arms, back, chest, and legs. My stomach is flat, but still flabby. I could pinch about 3 inches of loose skin on my stomach. And there are no visible muscles there, but you could feel muscles there getting tight when I flex.

And seeing that I have come this far, I think it is time to start watching my fat and calorie intake. Maybe THEN I will be able to burn off this excess fat in my stomach. I still have some extra fat all over my body also, but its not as noticable as my damn stomach - thats what I am worried about is the stomach area.

This is all I have done. Nothing more, nothing less. I hope I helped you in any way, bono. But I dont recommend that you do what I do. About the eating once a day. It is not good for you at all, but I am so used to it, it has become my way of life. It is how my body functions now, and it cant hold any more food than that.

Good luck, bono !

And Iron, Thanks man !