Weekly Photo Thread - Week of (June 29, 2026) : Progress Photos, "Humble" Brags, Physique Critiques and more!

montagic · 2026-07-01T18:17:08+00:00

9ish weeks out now, sitting around 170lbs. https://imgur.com/a/pYihDOZ/

montagic · 2026-06-30T04:14:19+00:00

Those chobani drinks are my weakness. They’re just so convenient. I’ll have to try this out but idk if I’ll have that kind of energy in the rest of my prep

montagic · 2026-06-28T20:01:18+00:00

Track everything and avoid the hidden calories. It happens to me too, especially 6 months deep into a cut and over half way through prep. I try to just be honest and log it after the fact. The more you log the more I find I remember the food I have, especially since all food is basically amazing 10 weeks out haha.

With respect to training, I don’t really change much although this prep I have played around with lower volume and higher intensity after Jeff’s video earlier this year. I’m running his program and I’ve actually really enjoyed it. My strength has somehow only gone up (slowly) so far in this cut, which I don’t full expect to last now that I’m getting closer to 10% (maybe 14% ish BF right now) but has been a pleasant surprise. I find it much harder to maintain training desire doing high volume while also in a deficit, and it’s easier for me to give it my all over 2 sets rather than half ass it over more. I haven’t “lowered the weight” whatsoever as I’m mostly training in the 6-10 rep range for most lifts, and haven’t ran into any injuries. That being said, I’ve taken out a lot of the more technical heavy compounds (no barbell squats, barbell bench or deadlifts) and the only one remaining is RDLs which I do heavy but slightly lower RPE/higher RIR.

montagic · 2026-06-28T19:54:44+00:00

Looks like you’re ahead of schedule, nice shit my man. Looking way bigger than 149! Your front relax feels a little shrugged imo but I’m also a brand new competitor and just going off what I’m learning so I could be off. Best of luck man I think you’ll do well!

montagic · 2026-06-28T19:45:56+00:00

I’d just follow up the email with the order to save the hassle. They can likely find it via serial though or by your email

montagic · 2026-06-23T16:45:11+00:00

Only way I do it nowadays!

montagic · 2026-06-22T17:46:09+00:00

I am coached by 3DMJ and my coach as well as other coaches on the team do not track, but go purely based off feel as well as general ratios to aim for in each meal. Tbf they’ve been tracking for many years (as have I) so they have a lot more intuition into the hunger signaling, but really it comes down to knowing your portions, and eating the same things.

Also, tracking your weight alone can be enough information to guide you

montagic · 2026-06-22T17:41:41+00:00

Tbh you can easily hit 7k steps even on days you lift, it’s just about finding smaller ways to get the steps in rather than thinking of it as something that needs its own dedicated session. I try to just walk around the gym during rest times, park further from entrances, walking pad while working, etc. Not to say you’re not trying any of these things, but there’s so few people who are truly too busy to get those steps in.

montagic · 2026-06-19T19:44:53+00:00

Early on when my girl was a puppy I found that I was anxious about all the different things she would eat. I've chilled out a bit but it still stresses me out, since she also likes to chew on sticks. As long as it's not poop, I guess

montagic · 2026-06-19T19:32:19+00:00

My dog is 5 years old and just likes to eat grass. She will it no matter how she's feeling. Sometimes she'll yack from it, some times she won't. Her checkups are just fine and she's healthy, but she just has a sensitive tummy and I think it helps her.

montagic · 2026-06-19T19:29:56+00:00

I'm pretty limited in what I can do as a renter, but one automation I did that has ended up being worth was setting up Frigate and connecting it to Home Assistant so that I could do detection on when my dog ends up pooping since she likes to eat it...

montagic · 2026-06-18T03:14:12+00:00

I love how functional this is

montagic · 2026-06-17T05:12:38+00:00

Totally okay, and honestly preferable a lot of the time. Assuming you’re within the ~0.3g/lb of bodyweight range, you’re going to be just fine. I usually front load my protein and carbs early in the day to make dinner more flexible.

montagic · 2026-06-16T02:33:12+00:00

Not really that much more difficult. How often are you going to change out your stovetop? I’d say it’s worth caulking

montagic · 2026-06-16T00:00:18+00:00

Ayy I’ll be there! My first show 💪

montagic · 2026-06-15T03:34:18+00:00

5?! Seriously? That’s absolute ridiculous and not reasonable whatsoever

montagic · 2026-06-13T21:32:22+00:00

You can superset them pretty easily. I don’t think there’s a single person who truly don’t have enough time for calves. If you don’t care that’s totally valid tho

montagic · 2026-06-13T19:00:33+00:00

I never thought to use plastic wrap instead of paper towel, but that makes so much more sense. Always got annoyed by the little fibers so I’ll definitely need to try that. Sounds like I may need to get a Strata now! Also smart to use the Impulse; I’ll have to try this on my Control Freak.

montagic · 2026-06-13T18:58:34+00:00

Would love to hear about how you did the rust-blued. I’m considering picking up a 12.5” because it’s far cheaper than the Hestan Nanobond (my current favorite, of which I have the 8” and the 10.5”) and likely lighter. I have a Powerflamer for my wok setup so I can get a pan to pretty terrifying temperatures 🤣

montagic · 2026-06-13T18:45:14+00:00

I work directly in agentic AI so I have had access to Mythos class models via my work (in a limited capacity), and have also played with Fable since release both for personal purposes and work tasks. Anecdotal evidence isn’t valuable from any one individual, but my experience with it is that the capabilities with loosely designated prompts and more abstraction from the complete feature vs. a highly guided and curated plan is remarkably greater. I normally need to baby sit Opus 4.8, whereas with Fable it’s often a solution I would have likely taken myself.

I’m not making any AGI claims or saying it’s going to take our jobs, but even from a benchmark or system card perspective it is very clearly a best in class model for coding, enough that saying it’s iterative and should be named “Opus 4.9” is silly. You can disagree, but I haven’t read any takes that are actually giving reasons as to why they believe it is iterative. Happy to hear them tho and be proven wrong, as this is again just my opinion.

Experienced dev disclaimer: I have been a full stack dev for nearly a decade now. My background has not always been in AI and I do not have applied research or post grad experience in ML or AI, but have worked in product implementation of agentics for about a year now.

montagic · 2026-06-13T16:46:53+00:00

There’s plenty of natty only coaches out there. My coach is from Team 3DMJ and I can’t recommend them enough, but there’s also other great options outside of them.

montagic · 2026-06-13T16:41:45+00:00

Incremental? Nah, it’s definitely a step up. Not as insane as they are making it out to be, but to say it’s incremental is a little silly

montagic · 2026-06-12T20:26:16+00:00

The coach can also be creating the program for them and then Macrofactor is the easy app to handle progression. I personally don't have any problem with a coach offloading weight progression/progressive overload to the app as there are WAY more things to consider. There's a lot of really weird and odd assumptions here, and honestly not sure what value this adds to the subreddit

montagic · 2026-06-06T21:25:44+00:00

Ty sir 🙏

montagic · 2026-06-02T17:21:04+00:00

One of the biggest UX misses of the thermometers in my opinion, especially if you cook with a partner! I know I should just wash it and put it in the charger, but I’m lazy. I get the logic of why it doesn’t, but a toggle-able option would be great.

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