[MikeB]

Vital Stats (before and after)
Before:
Oct 1 2006: Weight 310lbs, BF over 40% Waist 58 Hips 52 Bench/Squat/Deadlift/Pullups ? who you kidding? none of the above. I could bang out 10 pushups with a Herculean effort but it killed me for days after. Cardio was non-existent
After:
Oct 25 2006: Weight 235lbs, BF Approximately 17% Waist 36 Hips 39
Bench 335x4, Squat 305x6, Deadlift 405X3, Widegrip pullups 5 sets of 8 bodyweight
I run 20 bleacher sprints in 15 minutes at least once a week.

Why You Got Started?
I started for a variety of reasons, after going to my 20 year high school reunion, only 1 person recognized me as I graduated at 6?4? 165lbs and showed up at 310lbs. I want to make sure I can be around for my kids, my blood pressure was terrible, cholesterol was 240+ and my blood sugar was all over the place. I also wanted to be a better father now, I never wanted to play outside with my kids and coaching wrestling or baseball consisted of yelling orders and if I did participate it was so embarrassing to me and I would hurt for days often weeks after any kind of physical activity.

How You Did It?
I started by doing some basic things, removed white bread and white flour from my diet and replaced it with whole wheat/whole grain products. I have never been a soda drinker or a coffee person but I switched to water only and at least 1.5 gallons per day. I was doing cardio at least once if not twice a day but at the beginning 3.5 miles per hour at a 4-6% incline was brutal for me, I gradually moved up to high intensity intervals and continue to push myself as hard as I can every week. After a couple of months I realized I was going to lose muscle mass too and as I educated myself I realized that weight lifting was going to be very important and introduced that into my routine as well. I?ve been lucky enough to have a gym on site at work and use it every day. Counting calories also became important as I wanted to build muscle and watch my macro split.

What Supplements Did You Take?
Glucosamine/msm/chondroitin is super important as I?ve fractured both knee caps when I was young. Creatine for building muscle and recovery, Vitex to help keep hormones balanced and Cissus for tendon/bone strength and it?s supposed to help with abdominal fat according to a recent study. I also take ZMA which helps me get a deeper sleep or at least I think it does. I?ve dabbled with a few others but those are my main supplements.

Give Us A Sample Week Of Your Diet.:

6:30 Wakeup
Protein Nectar - 26g of protein in water

7:30 Breakfast:
1/2 cup (pre-cooking) Quaker Oatmeal
4tb all natural peanut butter
2 cups skim milk
1 large banana
MetRX protein (for now until I buy some more ON vanilla Pro Complex)

9:30 Snack
1 can tuna
1/2 package of Uncle Ben's 90 second rice

11:00 pre-workout
50g whey protein
1 slice whole wheat bread
1 handfull of almonds

11:30 workout

1:00 post-workout
1 tub of cottage cheese

3:00
1 can tuna
1/2 package of Uncle Ben's 90 second rice

3:30 Pre-workout 2
50g whey protein
1 slice whole wheat bread
1 handfull of almonds

5:00 post-workout
1 tub of cottage cheese

6:30 Dinner
Misc - chicken breast or pork steak or steak etc with whole wheat spaghetti or whole grain rice

9:30 Pre-Bed
1 tub of cottage cheese


What Did A Sample Week Of Training Consist Of (exercises, reps, sets)?
Right now I?m doing a split day training session Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Also wrestling season has just started so an hour a day I coach and participate in practice. I?m on the 2nd of 5 parts prescribed by BodyHard in the over 40 section consisting of 8-12 Medium weight, 4-6 Heavy weight and 15-20 for 2 sets of light weight. I vary my exercises always but the breakdown is:
Monday evening Chest
Monday after work Back
Tuesday evening Quads
Tuesday after work Hamstrings/Calves/Abs
Thursday evening Shoulders
Thursday after work traps/Abs
Friday evening Tri?s
Friday after work Biceps

I?ve found that separating into smaller workouts has helped a ton as well as removing biceps/triceps from chest/back day.

Suggestions For Others.
The biggest thing is to remove the white flour and high glycemic index carbs from your intake as well as the empty calories from soda etc. Make sure you not only do cardio but lift weights. My suggestion is weights first and cardio second. Also stick to a 45-60 minute max weight routine and then do a 15-20 minute high intensity interval cardio session after.