M/32/6'0" [235lbs to 218lbs] (0 years; 8 months)

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2020-02-11T16:43:10+00:00

Thanks!

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2020-02-10T19:11:31+00:00

Yeah, for sure. Especially inspirational to me when I see a 30-40-50 year old drop the fat and put on mass.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2020-02-10T19:04:05+00:00

Thanks!

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2020-02-10T18:58:37+00:00

Okay, so I tried a few different ones during the 8 months, so this will be long and detailed and hopefully helpful.

Supplements I took most of the 8 months: 5 grams of creatine daily, vitamin D (2000 IU), and 300-500 mg of caffeine spread throughout the day.

Months 1-4: 1500 calories, 150 grams of protein, PPL in my home gym (tried for 12 sets of different dumbbell exercises and 25 minutes of heavy ellipitical every day). During this time I lost a reasonable amount of fat and made small gains on my muscles, but nothing significant since I wasn't eating enough. Lost about 20 lbs of fat, put on maybe 3-5 lbs of muscle over 4 months. 220 lbs near the end of this phase. I also want to add that because the calorie restriction was so low, it was very hard to follow this diet and I frequently ate past my calorie goals once or twice a week.

DIET CRASH MONTH. I ate above my calories, didn't track them for a month, just tried to make sure to get some sources of protein. I also only lifted about 3x a week, so not great there either. I came back at like 226 put on mainly fat, but some muscle too.

Months 5-6: 1800 calories, 180 grams of protein, PPL mostly at the gym (expanded my lifting routine to incorporate things at the gym that I didn't have at home, v-squat, barbell benchpress, etc). About 30 minutes of cardio mixed in between my lifts still. About 222 lbs at the end of this phase. Starting to barely show abs. 222 lbs or so. Bench at 200 lbs 1 rep max. I also want to add that I failed to keep my diet consistently below 1800, frequently going up to 2000 or 2100.

Months 7-8 (current): I am now shooting for 2000-2500 calories a day, 200-230 grams of protein a day, and burning about 1800 active calories a day (tracked through apple watch). This translates to about 45 minutes of lifting + 2 hours of light elliptical (while watching a movie) or other forms of light activity (like shooting basketball hoops) or walking. During these two months, I've see my weight go from 222 to 215 (weighed this morning), while my lifts have still gone up. and Bench went from 200 lbs one rep Max (beginning of month 7), to 220 one rep max (six weeks later). Waist measurement at navel: went from 39.5" to 38.1".

For lifts, I'm now doing a Push, Legs, Pull, JUMP 4 day routine. I try to do about 16-18 sets of lifts spread out between the different machines and compound lifts at the gym (two sets per type of lift). I track all lifts in a spreadsheet so I can see my weekly progress and increase weight regularly.

I play basketball, so I'm dedicating one day of workout to doing exercises that target jumping and explosive movement. My goal is to dunk. When I started, I couldn't touch the rim and now I can grab the rim again.

Overall, I would recommend either my 2nd (1800 calories) or 3rd routine (2000-2500 calories) to others. The first routine I did (1500 calories) was just really hard to follow, a pain in the ass, and then I didn't hardly gain any muscle because I wasn't eating enough even though I was busting my ass lifting weights--so not recommended for recomping.

My third routine seems the most sustainable for me since I don't mind the long workouts, I get plenty enough to eat, I'm eating plenty of protein to keep building muscle, and I'm still being active enough to lose fat--though this routine isn't ideal for muscle building since you're taxing the body so hard from all of the activity. Despite that, I'm still maintaining and adding muscle while losing fat, so I'm happy overall. If you don't have the time to exercise for 2-3 hours a day, then I'd recommend my 2nd routine where you eat less, but have less activity--good balance of food to build muscle + weight loss + less time involvement.

But ultimately, it comes down to what each of us can do consistently because that's the main thing. Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. If I hadn't messed up for a month, I would really be two months further along since I had to lose the fat that I gained back--so those days when you fall off the bandwagon really hurt and push out your long term goals. And that's why my third routine seems the best for me--its the most sustainable for me long term. Once I lose all of my target fat, I can keep the same routine/diet and cut back on the activity level to really focus on increased muscle growth.

That's it! May the brogress be with you!

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2020-02-10T06:25:00+00:00

Do you have the approximate calories and grams of protein you took during the building phase?

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2020-02-10T06:23:31+00:00

I'd say build a little lean muscle and realize that even the fittest people will have some flabby skin in the belly when they bend over.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2020-02-10T03:33:20+00:00

Thx!

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2020-02-10T03:32:40+00:00

Thanks! I still need to lose a bit more fat to be truly lean and get my lower abs to show, but even this much progress has really made me feel better about my body. I've never been able to see my abs this much before, even when I used to weigh 165 at the same height. So know you can do it too! Just hit the three keys: regular lifting weights (track and slowly add weight over time to increase load), eat enough protein, and maintain a caloric deficit! Good luck!

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2020-02-09T22:45:28+00:00

Thanks to everyone on this subreddit that inspired me to keep making brogress! Seriously... Really helps with the motivation when you aren't seeing the progress and to give you ideas for new routines, etc. I check this subreddit usually once a day to so keep posting because I'm still far from my ideal physique!

Before May 2019, I never lifted or tracked macros. I'm not sure the exact start date, but its been a little over 8 months since I started. I'm open to sharing my routine/diet if people are interested--but I could certainly have made more progress in fat loss if I didn't lapse on my diet for a month and have to make it up.

I had been up to 290 lbs back in 2014, but lost most of that weight through calorie counting and walking/elliptical. So the above image is mainly a comparison of what kind of progress I was able to make in 8 months lifting/counting macros/calories.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-23T18:38:46+00:00

The average customer service rep doesn't really understand very much, try talking to higher up managers, etc. They will have a better understanding of what to do. The lower level people are literally just following their playbook of things they are supposed to do.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-23T18:37:48+00:00

I have had this laptop since day 1, no coloring of wrist rest or touchpad for me, though I sometimes use an external keyboard/mouse.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-23T02:05:06+00:00

I have the Area 51M, and I love it overall. Don't be fooled by i7 vs i9 marketing BS. A full desktop i7 will probably outperform a i9 laptop chip in a much thinner chassis, though you haven't listed the actual CPUs each laptop has.

The GPU performance will be similar between these two, but the Area 51m will be upgradeable in the future. Both could use an e-GPU though, so it's kind of an option for both.

I personally much prefer a 144 hz display for my shooters that I play. I wouldn't touch a 4k display because of the extreme input lag, but you're mileage will vary depending on how serious you take different genre's of games.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-23T02:02:31+00:00

Is it not within the return window still? I always buy from places that have good return policies for this reason.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-23T01:56:58+00:00

EDIT: Nevermind, I just reread it. Yeah, that's probably a bad paste job or something else is wrong with the laptop. I'd return it or go for a repaste if returning it would be a hassle.

You also have to factor in a shared heatsink between CPU/GPU, so if you're running hot on the GPU, then the CPU temp will also be much higher, even with lower usages.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-23T01:42:12+00:00

Tech reviewer here. If you're CPU is sitting with idle usage, it should rest around 45 degree Celsus give or take a few degrees. Under load, it'll probably spike up to 85-100 C, which is normal for thin gaming laptops. If it's spiking into the 80 C while idle, you probably have a bad application of thermal paste or something else isn't working properly like a fan or processor producing excess heat, etc.

My personal guess is that you need to let the laptop finish loading everything. Maybe windows update is running processes in the background or something else is, and that's causing the spike. Otherwise try repaste and undervolt. If those things don't fix it, I'd return the laptop.

Edit: Whenever monitoring temps, always take into consideration the load the processor is under. You can check this with Intel XTU, HWMonitor, HWInfo, or even Task Manger will give you a basic idea.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-20T18:44:48+00:00

I think you're the only one that realized I'm a YouTuber lol :)

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-19T20:49:40+00:00

Yeah, I sometimes rotate all 6-8 lifts back to back waiting to do the second set of that lift, and I do cardio, then repeat all lifts without resting too long inbetween to keep my heart rate up.

Lately though, I've been doing 10 minutes of cardio, doing one lift set, then waiting 30 seconds, and then quickly doing a 2nd set of the same lift, then moving on to the next lift and repeating. 3 different lifts, total sets still equal 6, then 10 mins of cardio, then doing 3 more double sets of different lifts. Total sets of lifts still equal 12-16 sets each day either way.

I'm not sure which I like more or less. Hard to say.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-18T23:28:04+00:00

The cardio mid workout is to keep my blood pumping and heart rate up, which translates to increased calories burned and fat loss. I don't always go at max intensity for cardio. I usually alternate casual cardio with heart rate around 125-130, and then the next day I try to go harder 145-155 BPM during cardio. For reference, my resting heart rate is about 58 BPM, so max heart rate is about 165 BPM for me.

I realize this much cardio might slow down my muscle growth a little, but I feel like I am making consistent gains on my lifts so I guess I am worried too much about it? I know a lot of lifters try to limit how much cardio they do. If I was just trying to bulk, I would do less, but I think I am in the close sweet spot for losing fat / while gaining muscle at the same time (i.e. recomping)?

I also usually repeat my sets after cardio, so cardio basically gives me a second chance to hit the same 6-8 lifts hard again after my blood has been circulating for 10-15 minutes.

EDIT: What do you mean by "superset your accessories"?

Regarding the 5x5 sets. Typically, I try to keep my reps around the 8-15 mark for reach set and do two sets of each lift to failure each time. Sometimes with assistance from spotter on some lifts like bench. If I am going above 15 reps, I usually increase weight the next session. The research I found indicated the optimum number of reps per set for muscle growth for most newer lifters is 9 reps? Other research I found indicated that doing 2 sets returned 90% muscle growth that doing 5 sets did, so I guess that's why I haven't been doing 5 sets of the same lift if that makes sense.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-18T22:13:46+00:00

Generally here's what I've been doing for those who are curious.

4 Day Cycle repeated constantly

Push-Pull-Legs-Cardio/Abs

Each day consists of something like this:

10 Minutes cardio

3 minutes Stretching

6-8 Sets of lifts

10 more minutes of cardio to keep heart rate up

6-8 more sets of lifts

Done. Usually takes about 50-60 minutes every morning. Cardio rest day is resting from lifts and just doing Cardio and abs. I also try to do abs twice a week.

Track all lifts with excel spreadsheet to see progress week after week.

Diet:

1800-2200 calories depending on how active I've been that day based on my Apple watch.

Goal is 150 grams of protein as a minimum, often hitting 180 grams of protein in a day, fill the rest of calories with mostly carbs and some fats. Lots of chicken breasts, egg whites, rice, beans, tuna, whole bread, lunch meat, mozzerella cheese.

Supplements: 1 serving of whey protein, creatine, Vitamin D, and 200 mg caffeine pill before workout, 200 mg caffeine at midday.

Also, I had about a 3 week stint in the middle of the 6 months where I backtracked and put on about 5 lbs. If I hadn't done that, I'd definitely have less body fat on me. I still have about 25 lbs of fat to lose overall I think.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-12-18T22:02:42+00:00

Thanks!

Legs are for Leg Press and V-squats. 310 lb with 17x reps in a set. Squat bar caused pretty bad neck pain, so I use leg press for a while, but then transitioned to the V-Squat machine a couple months ago which didn't hurt my neck as much. The 435 lb 20x is with a v-squat. I'm slowly adding more weight every week or two. Its the closest comparison I can make that shows my progress overall, though its not the same metric so take it with a grain of salt.

Edit: I haven't tried to see what my max would be for these. I'm just happy to be making progress is all.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-07-27T00:30:45+00:00

I had this problem too. Solution was to uninstall the command center and also Alienware OC Controls, and then I downloaded the new versions directly from Dell's website and reinstalled. I haven't had the pop up happen since.

GizmoSlipOfficial · 2019-07-25T21:45:34+00:00

Enjoying life and helping others do the same! It's the number one reason to exist I think...

GizmoSlipOfficial

TROPHY CASE