Started this 12 weeks ago weighing 84.3kg, the plan for the 12 weeks was never to really cut weight too much as the focus was mostly on strength. The first 6 weeks I focused on weight gain and ate A LOT, the weight went up steadily to 86.7kg. Then with 6 weeks to go and with my work pants getting too tight round the waist and the butt it was time to cut the weight a bit. I cut out a lot of carbs from my diet for the last 6 weeks and steadily list weight to finish on 83.5kg.
So here is the good the bad and the ugly:
The good: I was happy with my consistency in terms of training and diet, I only get in the gym 2 times a week but didn’t miss a session over this 12 weeks and I kept the food clean and hit my protein numbers every day. My strength went up over the period and I hit deadlift and bench PR’s.
The bad: I didn’t do anywhere near enough cardio and conditioning sessions, especially over the last 6 weeks. For someone who used to run 5 to 6 days a week, I just found it really hard to do the cardio work. This meant I didn’t lose weight over the last 6 weeks like I wanted too.
The ugly: For that just go to the pics thread and see for yourself
One thing I have learned over this time and monitoring my training and weight is that at my age (42) adding weight through eating seems to be a lot easier than losing it again. This was never the case for me when I was younger and in fact it was probably the other way round, I lost weight easy and it was hard to put it on. Off on 2 weeks holiday now and then will do another 17 week cycle of focusing in adding some muscle and trying to keep the fat off.
Really enjoyed doing this and thanks to the other guys on here for getting stuck in and keeping me accountable.