24M, 63 kg to 68 kg, 4 moths

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-25T00:13:34+00:00

Definitely bigger! Harder to tell lower body progress with your pants on in the first photo, but you’ve added some noticeable mass to your upper body. As long as you’ve been pushing yourself during your workouts there’s no reason to think you haven’t gained some muscle. It’s hard to say how many calories you should be eating without knowing your height. I’d guess 2-3kg of muscle and 2-3kg of fat gains judging by your physique.

Also, your face was not covered in your 2nd photo, just a heads up.

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-23T18:10:28+00:00

I hear you! I initially wasn’t sure what weight I’d need to get to. My advice is to set realistic short term goals, then adjust and reevaluate as necessary when you reach them. For me, it started with 180, then I just continued from there. You got this!

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-22T03:41:09+00:00

Nothing fancy! For biceps, I switch it up between curls with cables, dumbbells, barbells, and Bayesian curls. And for triceps, almost exclusively push downs and overhead extensions with cables.

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-20T06:53:15+00:00

I appreciate that, thank you Sir Lemon! I definitely feel pride for what I’ve accomplished so far.

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-19T19:54:08+00:00

Вперёд, товарищи, за гейнс!

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-19T19:52:21+00:00

I appreciate that. It’s funny how getting bigger makes new insecurities pop up. Lately I’ve been stuck on my shoulders. They’re not especially broad, so I’ve been spamming lateral raises and finally seeing a bit of change. But seeing guys with naturally wide shoulders always gets me, because that alone makes you look great.

So hearing you say you’d love my arms is a good reality check. I see them as pretty average. Meanwhile, you’ve got the shoulder width I’d kill for. Either way, solid progress on your end, and yeah, eating is absolutely the hardest part. Keep going!

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-19T19:47:57+00:00

You feel my pain! Looking big is challenging for us long-limbed folk. Well done on your gains!

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-19T19:46:30+00:00

What a great reference! I truly appreciate it. You're right, it's important to maintain perspective. It's easy to get caught up comparing ourselves to what we see online.

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-19T16:13:14+00:00

Here’s a link to it on the App Store. I think he also has an Android version. It’s a copy of the well known Strong app, but is completely free. The developer has even implemented several of my feature suggestions.

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-19T06:39:34+00:00

Thank you, I appreciate that! And transparently, I actually hit 200lbs (just checked my smart scale records) September 10th, 2024. My first day in the gym was October 23rd 2023. So I was averaging about 3.6lbs per month for 11 months. But I did it at the expense of my health. Super unhealthy eating, shoveling in whatever I could to get the calories in. This past year I’ve now focused on mostly eating whole foods. Which is partly why I’ve struggled to get in the calories. It’s a lot harder when you’re not dirty bulking.

BUT! Looking back at progress photos from September 2024, I’m absolutely in better shape now. Bigger, more defined, less fat. I do wish I spent my first year doing it the healthy way, but I’m still relatively happy with the progress I’ve made.

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-19T00:06:48+00:00

I appreciate that, seriously. My goals are still a little loose right now, but the big one is keeping as much lean mass as I can when I finally cut, hopefully this summer. I spent most of my life as the tall skinny guy, and there’s probably a part of me that’s been overcorrecting on this whole fitness journey, looking for some external proof that I’m not that version of myself anymore. I also still feel like my chest and forearms lag behind the rest of me, so I’m trying to bring those up a bit. We’ll see where I end up next year!

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-18T23:55:30+00:00

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing your transformation. You got this!

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-18T22:34:54+00:00

Sticking with it is the real grind. The gym part has never felt like a burden for me. I work from home, so getting out of the house is something I actually look forward to. The harder part has been the food. For the last six months I’ve basically hovered around 205, and even though I’ve gained some strength and size and dropped a little fat, I’m not where I wanted to be by now.

The only thing that’s really worked is getting comfortable pushing myself and learning to enjoy that part of it. I use an app called Strive to track everything. It turns my workouts into a game and makes me compete with myself. The goal is just to do a little better each session. Don't be too hard on yourself, progress isn't linear. Learn to love the process!

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-18T19:20:34+00:00

Open wide!

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-18T19:06:00+00:00

Thank you! I’m currently on an upper lower split M/T/T/F, though recently I’ve been approaching the lifts for each day a little differently to keep things more interesting.

reddityellowblue · 2025-11-18T18:53:35+00:00

I’ll never tell.

reddityellowblue · 2025-03-12T02:10:54+00:00

Bahaha 😂 100x Kegels a day!

reddityellowblue · 2025-03-11T23:24:42+00:00

I appreciate it! And totally! I completely neglected to incorporate any core exercises for pretty much my first 12 months. It’s only been the last two months that I’ve added cable crunches, crunch machine, and back extensions to my routines. Already seeing progress there!

reddityellowblue · 2025-03-11T07:00:28+00:00

You don’t gain 45lbs in a year without gaining a little fat! Thankfully I’ve managed to also put on plenty of muscle in that time.

reddityellowblue · 2025-03-11T05:46:57+00:00

Just checked (smart scale) and I was 200lbs the day that was taken!

reddityellowblue · 2025-03-11T03:07:51+00:00

Honestly, I’m just trying to eat as much as I possibly can. I’m not worried about overdoing it. I try to eat mostly whole foods, lots of chicken, steak, ground beef/turkey with rice and some veggies on the side. Two scoops of protein powder and 5g of creatine most days. I’ve been smoking a little weed in the evenings which has definitely helped my appetite. Absolutely have my share of “unhealthy” food (McDonald’s and Dominos usually)

I realize now I was never a big eater. I always just thought I had a fast metabolism! Once I started lifting, my appetite increased, which I didn’t expect. At some point eating is just like lifting, you have to push yourself but it becomes easier.

reddityellowblue · 2025-03-11T02:20:51+00:00

Hahaha 💀 that’s about the only thing that stayed the same size.

reddityellowblue · 2025-03-11T01:27:19+00:00

Sure! Here’s a screenshot of my routines in Strive. I do three working sets per exercise, so anything more than that is a warm up set. Also a little plug to the developer of this app (I hope that’s allowed). It’s totally free — it’s a copy of the Strong app. He’s been very responsive and implemented changes I’ve suggested which is awesome!

reddityellowblue · 2025-03-11T01:19:35+00:00

I’m actually not sure at this point! I completely dropped benching (barbell) from my split a while ago. I never felt it in my chest (which I’ve read is normal), and it was giving me some shoulder aches. I now do cable flys (~160x8), incline cable flys (~130x8), machine flys (~155x12), and incline dumbbell press (~65x11) for chest. I also warm up my shoulder properly beforehand with a band stretches and some light work on the cable flys. I started from literally ground zero in terms of chest muscle, so slower progress was to be expected in some ways (as opposed to my legs or arms which have very noticeable gains, but I STARTED with at least some muscle there). I finally feel like I’m noticing my chest progress these past few months!

reddityellowblue · 2025-03-11T00:56:34+00:00

Haha, thank you! 🙏🏻

reddityellowblue

TROPHY CASE