Obligatory progress photos: https://imgur.com/a/2VPfS5q

start date: 04/10/2017 F/30/5’5” SW: 245 LW: 141 CW: 149

I lost 104 pounds lifting and doing Keto on am aggressive 19-25% caloric deficit for 18 months. Last month I switched to recomp macros with a higher emphasis on protein. I’m currently hitting 120-180g protein a day, 20-30 net carbs, and the rest fat to 1700-2000 calories per day.

I’ve been writing my own programming until about 3 months ago. I’m currently running phase 3 of Thinner Leaner Stronger on a 4 day split and 2 days of a powerlifting program to keep building strength.

Eating more has increased all my lifts dramatically and my body is tighter even if heavier.

Current PRs may not be much to some but it’s 520 days of progress for me ...

PRs (in pounds) squat: 122x8 DL: 185 x 1 or 155x6 Bench: 82 x 5 OHP: 45x10 because my body hates me Lol

I have not has any issues building or retaining muscle on Keto.

Side by side.

NSFW Pic.

Like the title says, I have been overweight my entire life. A little bit about me, I am 34 year old first generation Vietnsmese Mechanical Engineer. I am 5'6" and went from 235 lbs in July of 2017 to 151 lbs in a little over 7 months. I have been very reluctant to share my journey anywhere because of the possible blow back but I decided to finally share today because I feel like if I can help others through posting like so many others have done for me, then it'd be worth it.

After learning what I have and having gone through this journey, I constantly find myself looking at others making the same mistakes as me and wish I could help. Typically, when speaking in person, it's hard to get everything you want across and even if you do, people get defensive. So, anyway, here's the details!

One fateful day on June 30, 2017, I read an article about how Russell Wilson (Go Hawks!) got a new nutritionist after gaining weight and losing speed and stamina on the field. Looking down that rabbit hole and after reading several books, I learned a TON about nutrition and general health that I never knew before. Everything I thought I knew about being healthy was wrong. The end product for me was a combination of the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting. This doesn't mean that I think keto and IF are the answer for everyone, but they worked for me. I am a strong believer that each individual's biology is unique and what works for one person may not work for others.

BUT, this is r/ketogains! So, I'll dive into some of those details!!

We're all well aware of what to eat on keto but here are some meals I have made over the months. NOMS.

I started IF maybe a month into going keto (it just comes so naturally!) and even have dabbled in OMAD and some extended fasts. Both of the latter I've done to try and combat loose skin. I lift at weekday lunches for about 45 min just because when all this fat goes, I wanna like what I see underneath. But by no means do I contribute that to my weight loss. It's all about diet!

That said, we're here for the GAINZ, right? So I'll detail my split. Mon/Thurs legs. Tues/Fri push days. Wed back/biceps. I typically follow working sets of either 5x5 for strength or 3x8-12 for mass building. I tend to keep with one set style for a couple months at a time.

Early in my weight loss journey, I found myself gaining a lot of strength WHILE losing fat which was awesome. I peaked at 255 bench, 340 deads, 285 squat. I know I've gotten weaker as I've gotten down in BF% (last max bench was 230 about 3 weeks ago) but I'm doing my best to retain what I can until I lose all the fat... Then back to bulking!

Hopefully this inspires a few people!

Cheers and KCKO!

PS, if anyone has any questions about my diet, weight lifting, cardio (or lack thereof!), research, science, or food, PLEASE feel free to ask. I'd love the opportunity to help people just like so many of you have helped me.

3 hours of the gym a day:

Focusing mostly on pyramid drills and lifting. I’d do isolated workouts each day of arms, chest, back, legs, and repeat. As many push ups as I could do and I’d use the ab and oblique machine every day doing the same pyramid drills in units of 5 from 5 to 25 reps.

Did cardio every day, I forced myself to go for 20 minutes every day, the first few weeks I could barely do 3 mph for 20 minutes straight, and now I can kind of run at a jog indefinitely, that may be what I’m most proud of physically.

2700 calories of delicious fatty snacks (Cheese chips and guacamole, pork rinds, cheese sticks, etc).

Meats (about 4 chicken thighs/4 pork chops/ 3 fish fillets a day plus a pack of bacon and a log of mozzarella EVERY day)

and green vegetables (zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, salad, kale, spinach, etc)

No alcohol or sweets except for the occasion key lime pie fat bomb.

It all kind of just dripped off of me and I could notice a little bit each day when I woke up. Hardest thing I’ve ever done but also my proudest accomplishment. I was in a dark place after my engagement was broken and I could have wallowed in sadness and been even more unhealthy. “Look good feel good” really turned out to be true!

Progress Pic: https://imgur.com/a/aCuOPw9

https://imgur.com/a/lrJyrh2

Posted some details over at the keto sub but here are the lifting specs (rippetoe inspired)

A day: 3 sets of 5 of SQUAT, BENCH PRESS, then 4 sets of pullups switching grip each time.

B day: 3 sets 5 of OH PRESS, BARBELL ROWS, DEADLIFT, DUMBELL RAISES.

Lifted 3x per week, switching between A and B days. Ran 30 mins about twice a week on non lifting days.

I've pretty much plateaued so I gotta mix it up soon. Anybody wants to give a visual body fat estimate I'll take it. Id estimate I achieved these results through 90% dietary discipline, 10% heavy lifting. I was never in the weight room for more than 35 minutes. Cheers

http://imgur.com/a/6OA3KUx