No results!? A bit concerned...

sean9incher

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Okay... It's official... I AM A MORON!

I looked back a the originals, and I had copied one of today's pics to the 10-2 folder and thought it to be about the same.

Here is the rectified versions
sean-a6.jpg is from 10-2-07
IMAGE_0083 is from 11-08-07 (but I'm not flexing as much, which might have something to do with it)
 

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B_OtterJoq

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Have you changed your diet to provide for the protein you need to build muscle?

You can focus on body parts more. Do chest twice a week (three different excerises, 3 to 4 sets each for each body part) and legs once. Next week do back twice and chest once. Followed by legs twice and back once. Then shoulders twice and chest once. You get the idea. Biceps on back days and triceps on chest days, or you can do arms on your leg day.

Do abs every time you work out. Lots of reps, three different exercises. No weight, just crunches, leg lifts, etc.

You may be overdoing it on the cardio too. Use the cardio to warm up only for 7 to 15 minutes (or until you break a sweat) on the days you are lifting. Make sure to stretch a bit before and after working out.

Eat some protein (15 to 25 grams) and carbs within 45 minutes after working out.
Well said. My thoughts exactly. I was having problems building muscle mass until I 1) upped my caloric and protein intake, and 2) stopped taking Propecia, which was working to stem my hair loss, but was also preventing me from building muscle mass. Are you on any medications that might impede production of testosterone?
 

sean9incher

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yeah they look the same. that said, have three questions:

1) do you FEEL any different;
2) what are your goals for your regimen (lose or gain weight, endurance, size in various areas, etc...);
3) what are you eating? keep a log of everything you put in your mouth for a week, including fluids. most people are surprised...


1. Yes, I feel like I have more energy than I did.
2. My goals prior to 10-2 were to trim up and tone up. Now my goals have been to get mass to my muscles.
3. I have been eating a full bowl of ceral (raisen bran), banana, yogurt for breakfast. Usually leftovers (Lasagna or another type dish) for lunch. A good dinner with salad, soup a meat, starch. I usually eat two balance bars (13g of protein each) 45 minutes after working out. I drink about 4 - 20oz bottles of water throughout the day and a 16oz cup of coffee in the morning.
 

pleasureboy

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to grow you need to eat 3-4grams of protein for every pound of bodyweight everyday. You'll also need to be getting plenty of calories. So, start each morning with a protein shake, and go to bed with one.

Then eat every 3-4 hours throughout the day. You'll also need to drink lots of water.

As for the training, how much weight are you doing? If you're not doing enough, you won't grow. You may get stronger, but you won't get bigger.

Don't even worry so much about the cardio. Just concentrate on building muscle. Added muscle mass will cause your body to burn more fat naturally.

Finally, your diet should be 50-60% protein, next should be fat, and only 10-15% carbs.

Try working out 4-5 days a week, really high intensity for 45min- 1.5 hours...no more.
 

snoozan

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Don't even worry so much about the cardio. Just concentrate on building muscle. Added muscle mass will cause your body to burn more fat naturally.

Cardio is hugely important to any health and fitness regime. Any trainer worth their salt will tell you it's necessary.
 

killian

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You know what? You already are hot enough, Good luck on your workout, but I don't think you should be too concerned about it.
 

Not_Punny

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Dude, those photos are completely identical -- everything about them is the same -- arm/hand/finger positions, light/shadows, even a white glitch is in the exact same spot.

That aside, you look pretty good to me!

PS Oh Sorry -- didnt' read the posts on the second page. LOL. Well, you still look pretty good. ;-)
 

Hunt3ed

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I started Gym three weeks ago, and to be honest there hasn't been much change either. But, the mental health has improved 100 %.

After three weeks I am beginning to feel a little more toned, and I'm able to do a little more weights than when I started. I've got weak lungs, so the cardio shit is not for me. I warm up on the rowing machine, for 10 minutes, do few stretching exercises, and then do an all round work out with a step routine between each, muscle set work out, to keep the sweat up. and then I cool down for ten minutes on the cycle machine.

I lost 2 kg in the first week, then I put on 3 kg a week for the last two weeks. The plan being to build up muscle in order to have more muscle to burn fat. After that maintenance. But so far no out ward changes.. I know that will come .... I'm not planning to be a body builder, so yes , some cardio to keep the pulse and sweat up, but nothing stupid, resistance training to tone up. I'll be aiming for more sets, not necessarily heavier sets.

There is a saying here, that you can tell that diet coke doesn't work as only fat people drink it.. Its the same with the cardio nuts just look and see who is running for hours at a time, and look how skinny they are. Okay they are fit, but ....... Good luck with your training, and stop with all that photo comparasims, Eish! Narsacistic or what? Give it time........
 

buffbaldy

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I have been working out for several years now. I find it takes up to six months to really see a major difference, except for fat loss. How do you attach a pic to this file can show my build?
 

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Dazza

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I have managed to put on just over 5kg of mass (hopefully most of it muscle but there is probably a bit of fat in there too!) in about 20 weeks.
Actually it took about 3 and half months and my weight has kinda settled as I have been tailing it down a bit as going the gym all the time, doing a busy job and having a baby daughter is knackering.

Bit of background, i am (was) a skinny dude. Whatever I ate made no difference and whatever workouts I did made no difference. My starting weight was 69kg, now I weigh 75.4kg

How did I do it? Its actually fairly simple. heavy intense compound workouts along with eating a VAST amount of food.

checkout Bodybuilding.com - The Future Of Bodybuilding! Huge Bodybuilding Site.

Great website with tons of really helpful advice and videos

The compound exercises are exercises that use lots of different muscle groups at the same time. For example, squats, deadlifts, pull ups, dips, bench press. Its a very efficient way of working out as you can get a fully body workout in a short time. For it to work well you have to do low but heavy reps if you want to gain mass. I was using a 5x5 rep set.
I limited cardio to essentially warming up and nothing else as I tend to burn calories fast and it was preventing me from gaining weight.

You need to be eating 6 times per day. Thats right, SIX meals. Of course they don't need to be 3 courses each but the idea is to keep your body supplied with a decent amount of carbs and protein during the day. You need to be eating A LOT of protein as well (dependent on your weight). I took whey protein powder drinks as it was proving extremely hard to eat the amount of protein required to gain muscle.

An example of my daily diet was
Breakfast - Large bowel porridge + 2 boiled eggs
Mid morning snack - Protein drink + oat cakes
Lunch - Tin of tuna with pasta
Mid afternoon - 2 portions of fruit + Ryvita crispbread
Workout
Protein drink + 2 bananas post workout
Dinner - Whatever me and the wife chose to make that evening
1/2 pot cottage cheese before bed

So as you can see its a crapload of food. Literally, I was having to go for a dump 3 times a day with all that food! And the whey protein drinks make me fart something terrrible - just thought I'd warn you as it doesn't say that on the tin!

If you want I can post my starting workout which is based on 3 workouts a week. Its simple and easy to remember.
 

D_Roland_D_Hay

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Three weeks or even one month won't provide amazing results. If this were the fact, everyone would workout for a month and we would all be buff. There might be subtle differences such as the loss of a few pounds, feeling less tired, some slight definition, etc. When I first began working out, I noticed mental changes...I felt better about myself. I also slept better which allows the body to heal.

What worked for me is that I set goals. As someone mentioned before, I took measurements and wrote them down. My first goals were to increase my arms and chest. Once I reached the goal, I rewarded myself and realistically increased the goal. It is like losing weight...if you want to lose 30 pounds it is unrealistic to think you are going to lose it in a month. If you break it into realistic goals over a reasonable period of time you will be more successful.

Just keep in mind that although we live in a fast paced society, not all good results are achieved by going through the drive through window!
 

rob_just_rob

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You're asking too much if you want significant changes in a month. If it were that easy, the gyms would be empty except for the month prior to the start of beach season.

Put some time into it and you'll start to see results.
 

jerkitout

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get bulking, eat 500 more calories than your maintenance calorie intake and stick to fullbody workouts 2-3 times per week, heavy and intense lifting. squats, deads, bench presses and rows are a must. heavy weights at 5-7 reps for 1 or 2 workouts and then slightly lighter weights for 10-12 reps on the other workout. this way you are mixing it up and using different muscle fibers and you wont hit a plateau as quickly.
 

Jovial

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3-4 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight (as pleasureboy suggested) is excessive. That would put a lot of strain on your kidneys. I've always read 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. I eat about 60% carbs, 20-25% fat and the rest protein. One thing I find is good is to spread the protein out throughout the day and get some just before bed.

You should also be getting stronger which is a sign that the working out is working. It's not all visual. But even over one month you can't get too much stronger. Maybe just 10%...less than that per month if you've been lifting a while.
 

The Dragon

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don't be too hard on yourself, when you start out it can be hard to notice the change....weighing yourself you might notice less drop than you thought but rember muscle weighs more than fat.
My best clue that my body is changing is the way fav cloths are fitting...being able to do up the belt another notch, the seat of my jeans starting to feel baggy.
Also the way you eat reflects the quality of the workout.
Carb loading before you get to the gym is a good idea and eating a high protein meal within 45 mins for finishing.
Warm up and more importantly warming down after a workout, 10 mins on the tread mill at least..it will speed up blood flow to the muscles helping to remove latic acid ( the stuff that causes your muscles to feel that burning feeling when they are tired) This helps with your recovery and helps you to feel less sore in the next morning.
And please don't neglect leg work outs!!!
Too many guys work out only their upper body.
Sure they have great pecs and stunning guns, but then you look down and they have skinny little chicken legs which just spoils the whole picture.
I hope this might be helpful!
Dragonfly
 

JTalbain

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Rather than just having set days you work out, you might also want to add a few more physical activities if possible to your day-to-day life. Being more active in general will give you much more of a benefit than just a work-rest-work routine. Also, try splitting your workout in half and doing half at the beginning of the day and half at the end. This has been shown to achieve results faster, because you can work yourself harder than with a single continuous workout. I started getting into shape by just doing various exercises throughout the day. Any time I was waiting for a file to load on my computer or something to happen in the game I was playing, I'd drop and do push ups or start jumping jacks. Continuous exercise works much better. Military basic training is built on this principle, and it's not uncommon to see rapid weight gain (or loss for the obese) right from the start. My father for instance, actually gained 30 pound of muscle in his first two months. If you think you can do more without hurting yourself, go for it. But like most other things, you get out of it what you put into it.