My first successful cut, 19% to 10% body fat, with before & after pic

[Duracell_Bunny]

Thought this might encourage a few peeps.

12th April - 12st 12 (180ibs) 19% bf
8th July - 11st 10 (164ibs) 10.3% bf

My height is 5ft 10.

Heres the before and after pic: http://oi56.tinypic.com/f3t37r.jpg

10 days ago I got to 9.8% but weirdly it went up on the last week of training even though I hit pushed harder with diet/sleep 100% spot on???

I was doing 15-20mins HIIT before breakfast and did not expereince any major muscle loss, even though I found people all over the internet going on about this myth.

I'm off abroad on holiday in a couple of days, I think this will be the first time I feel comfortable walking down the beach with my top off.

Didn't quite get the abs out enough as I would of liked but what the hell, I look way better than before.

Depending on how much fat a gain from my holiday I will start looking at gaining when I get back.

 

[TheMale]

great work !

 

[Nobody]

how tall are you

 

[Solomon]

DAMN taht's whats up in 3 months? bravo mate!

 

[Duracell_Bunny]

Cheers.

I think having a set deadline that could't be moved helped rather than a "goal".

The diet and sleep was what had the most affect, mainly cutting out all aspects of sugar and drinking water 24/7. I was drinking green tea, and then large amounts of naturally caffine free fruit/hurbal teas. Protien was kept very high. I found that it didn't really matter what time I went to sleep at night, it was the time I physcally got out of bed in the morning that mattered the most. If I slept in I felt tierd and lathergic for the rest of that day.

I went for no cheat meals leaving room for if I slipped, and when I did that once it really slowed down the result for that week. In the last few week I took a complete cut on the fruit, just eating eggs, white meat, fish, green veg and salards (with a small amout of red wine viniger and herbs for dressing). Just one handful of nuts per day.

Most of the time I did well to keep off cheat meals, more a less was having "Cheat nibbles", like one or two bits of something I shouldn't.

The only sups I took was branch chains (lots of them, even during workouts).
Fish oil
Post workout shake - 40g whey, 20g Glycine , 5-10g Glutamine all unflavoured.

how tall are you

5ft 10.

 

[Fuglydude]

Great work man! This is a prime example of how consistency discipline and smart training/dieting can give great results!

Keep it up!

 

[EvilAgenda]

Holy sht! Those are amazing results in 3 months. Way to go!

Did you take any supplements with your diet/workout?

 

[Colossus]

Very impressive results. There is no substitute for consistency and dedication.

 

[MikeBrown30]

Awesome work. What i'm more impressed by, is that it appears you kept all of your lean body mass.

 

[TheJuan]

Wow that's amazing progress mate! Keep up the good work.

Did your workouts only consist of HIIT in the morning?

 

[Duracell_Bunny]

Wow that's amazing progress mate! Keep up the good work.

Did your workouts only consist of HIIT in the morning?

I usually did morning HIIT 2-3 times a week as well as weights in the evening.

Cycled 4 days straight of morning sprints, evening weights then one days rest irrelavent to which day of the week it was.

If I had bad energy levels I'd miss a morning of sprints and do these on a rest day or leave it entirly. The weights workouts was where I found the real magic to happen.

Weight sessions consisted of super sets with low rest times.

The changed every 4 weeks, this is an example of a typical chest workout, although sometimes I'd superset with split muscle groups. Gets the heart rate going up. The intensity and number of exercises also increased each month.

4-5 sets of:
DB Flat bench x 6
BD Incline x 12
Pressups x 20 (placed knees on floor when failure reached)
1 minute rest

1 5x5 drop set bench

Leg workouts were very tough and extremely sweaty!!!

The whole plan was very intense and tiring, I'd certainly not do this long term.

 

[BobCarlton]

Wow, we have VERY similar stats.

I too am 5'10" and was 180 lbs at 20% bodyfat when I started cutting down in June.

It's now been 2 months and so far I'm down to 14% bodyfat and weigh 161 lbs. The only thing is, I seem to have lost a few pounds of muscle that I'm not happy about.

I've also noticed for me my strength has gone down A LOT. And I feel and am much "smaller". Despite looking better and having more energy, my clothes don't fit anymore and I fear getting under 160 lbs. It's been kind of frustrating. Did you experience this at all?

I lift weights 5 times a week and run 6 days a week for 40 minutes.

I also have been keeping a food journal and tracking everything that I'm eating, basically counting calories. I make sure my protein and fat intake is very high as well. I'm doing somewhat of the "Slow Carb Diet" related to the Four Hour Body.

I want to get down to under 12%... but any advice you could give me on what I'm doing?