Final weigh-in!
Here we are on the last day! New photos, measurements, weigh-ins, and another DEXA scan. Photos can be found below, detailed numbers here, DEXA scan here, and here’s a quick summary of the numbers:
All told, based on the scale, I gained 10.4 lb and ended up with a body weight of 174.2 lb. This was composed of a 4.5 lb increase in fat and a 3.1 lb increase in muscle.
As for the DEXA scan results, final weight came in at 177.5 lb which is an 8 lb increase since the start. Based on DEXA, there was a 4.5 lb gain of fat and 3.5 lb gain of muscle. The DEXA scan also showed a few other interesting results including:
My visceral fat went from very low to virtually nonexistent. This could be due to the fact that I basically cut out all sugar and alcohol from my diet, or this could be just an error on the DEXA scan given the numbers were already so low to begin with.
Based on the DEXA scan, nearly all my muscle was gained in my legs (2.8 lb) and pretty much all of my fat was put on in my torso.
My arms actually became more symmetrical after these four weeks, going from a 1.5 lb difference to only a .5 lb difference. This could potentially be due to the slow reps making sure I recruit from both arms evenly throughout the training.
Bone density increased marginally, as to be expected with weight training.
Total body inches again did not increase for the second week in a row. Overall total body inches increased by 4 inches since the start, moving from 138.75 inches to 142.75 inches.
Progress photos align with the results. Nothing earth shattering here. I certainly look bigger (especially around the upper chest and legs) and it is clear that I have put on some fat (which is easily seen through the change in definition around the abdominals).
Overall, I think the program went very well. Here are a few key takeaways to move forward with, both in terms of what went well, and what could be improved:
What went well:
Sticking to my macros. This was really the first time I’ve ever stuck to a particular diet and tracked and met my macros consistently over the course of a month, and I’m proud to have stuck with the diet and more proud of hitting all the macros. It goes to show how powerful a consistent diet can be. More or less two lbs per week like clockwork, and I was pretty much in a 1000 calorie surplus each day. In addition to following the diet closely, I learned the importance of eating all day long (especially protein), which includes right when you wake up, and right before you go to bed
Training hard to failure. Only doing 1 set of each exercise and doing them at the slower cadence of 5/5 really pointed out some important things about lifting weights for me. For one, when you drop the weight and focus on form you are increasing the ability to recruit the right muscles and consequently bring a stimulus to the appropriate muscles. For example, I don’t think I’ve ever properly used my chest until this program, actually making sure that it’s my chest and not my deltoids or arms moving the weight during an incline press. Additionally, going to complete failure with a slow cadence showed me exactly how much I was leaving in the tank. When you are moving slow, you know your form is dialed in so you aren’t afraid of injury and you know truly when your last rep was. No bouncing the weight or using momentum to cheat reps so you don’t actually know where failure was. Now that I’ve gone to failure with proper form, I know where my limits are and what it feels like to push to them. And holy shit, is it hard! I was mailing it in way too much before.
What didn’t go well, and can be improved upon:
Not training enough volume each week for each body part. Even though I didn’t gain the 10-15 lbs of muscle I set out to, I have to say I was really surprised to grow so much muscle with such little effort in the gym. I mean, I did only 44 working sets over the course of the entire month, and still put on 4 lbs of muscle. So, why was I so far away from the goal I set of 10-15 lbs? First, I was already pretty fit going into the program having trained weights seriously for the past year, and having a very active and fit lifestyle dating all the way back to grade school. In addition, my starting weight was not far off from the biggest I’ve ever been (175 lbs) and I think I may have had the largest amount of lean mass I’ve ever had in my life when beginning the program. I think these two things mattered, because often times bigger or quicker gains are seen in more novice lifters, or major gains are made when someone is detrained and moving back towards a former version of their larger self. Also, because I was pretty fit going into it, I think I definitely left gains at the table by only working out each muscle once a week. For next time, I’d try to train each muscle twice a week, or once every 3 to 4 days.
Water. I really don’t think I ever drank enough of it. There was a spike in weight increase during the first week, and part of me thinks this is just my body being shocked by the change in calorie intake and storing all the carbs and water, but another part of me wonders if I gained more because of I was drinking more water. During the first five days I was doing the glycogen load, which meant drinking about 10 ounces of water every 2 hours like clockwork, easily putting me at the gallon marker by the end of the day. Ultimately, water was the one area where I couldn’t keep up the discipline and it’s still unclear how much it impacted the program. Moving forward, I think getting a large gallon water bottle and filling it up at the beginning of the day and making sure I drink it all by the end would likely help keep me motivated.
Eating until I couldn’t eat anymore, and then eating some more. The diet was hands down the most difficult part of this whole program. This pointed out to me two things. One, I am not, and have never been, a big eater, hence my small frame. I know there’s a hefty amount of genetics at play there as well, but after really dialing my diet in, and seeing (and feeling) what it was like to consistently eat food each day, I realized how over time I’m likely just living in a calorie deficit with my high metabolism. Moving forward, I know if I want to gain I need to focus on my diet and protein. I also learned though that it’s ineffective to shovel food into my face even after I’m full. I spent many days during this program feeling like shit because of how full I was and that’s just not sustainable (especially if I had a full time job). Additionally, given all the fat I put on during the program, I think it’s safe to say I can be in a much smaller calorie surplus and still see solid gains. On top of that, I learned that if I do need to eat a lot, I can do it, but I need to split it up across 6 or 7 meals a day. I can’t eat a lot in one sitting, but I sure as hell am hungry every 2 hours like clockwork.
