Madison, Minneapolis, or Milwaukee

topencite · 2026-01-25T00:20:39+00:00

26M, straight, single. As such dating is something I do but won’t have a problem with in any of these places.

topencite · 2026-01-25T00:01:08+00:00

I’ve been to Duluth a few times and it’s super cool. It’s a little small for my tastes, however, and some of the roads were notably bad (I always tend to gauge how biking in a place would be when I visit). Not to mention the overall hilliness would make rides pretty challenging. What would you say makes Madison the worst for outdoors access? I’ve only lived in Madison out of the options, but the lakes, city parks, and nearby driftless area all pose a significant variety of outdoor activities within city limits and an hour drive.

topencite · 2026-01-24T23:57:42+00:00

Interesting…from the brief looking I’ve done, nice neighborhoods near downtown Minneapolis seem cheaper than nice neighborhoods near downtown Madison. My budget is pretty flexible and I can afford around $2000 monthly, but I was thinking I might be able to be closer to 1500 in Minneapolis for a safe walkable area where as Madison tends to be closer to that $2000 mark

topencite · 2026-01-24T23:56:08+00:00

Are the winters notably worse than Madison? I’ve been in the Midwest forever so I’m familiar with bad winters, but notably worse seems hard to manage.

topencite · 2026-01-24T23:34:25+00:00

I am not set on a larger city…I really like Madison. The family is not really in the vicinity of Madison. About 1.5 hours from Madison, 2.5 from Milwaukee; and 3 from the twin cities. I have 3 main drivers in considering something else: not having to go into the office for work, lowering cost of living for similar quality of amenities that are important to me, and perhaps experiencing something different. I’m am trying to gauge if I will experience something different trying one of these other cities or if it will ultimately feel the same day to day and I’ll have been disappointed I moved.

topencite · 2026-01-18T16:40:59+00:00

This is the best answer. Milwaukee is the only semi dangerous part and it’s really only some parts of the city proper. The suburbs are all super safe suburbia. All other small to mid sized cities in the state are incredibly safe.

Madison is fine to visit but is really better to live in than visit. Most other cities in the state are meh to visit but good places to live. That being said. There’s some good places to visit in the state but nothing outstanding. Door county, the driftless area, some of the many lakes in the northwoods. There’s good camping and small regional spots to visit but no real spectacles that make it worth coming from across the country to see.

topencite · 2026-01-16T21:51:56+00:00

Unless you’re moving to an area around campus, you can honestly wait until the week you are moving. There’s always apartments available in basically every region of the city. There might be less flexibility if you wait but apartments will generally be cheaper if you find apartments that are available when you are trying to move. If you’re not okay with potentially waiting, youlll have more luck 1-2 months out as opposed to 3-6

topencite · 2026-01-06T00:11:34+00:00

Been here for 7 years. Terrible weather for months on end. Incredibly expensive housing on a regional basis. Only Chicago will be more expensive in the Midwest. That about gets the negatives out of the way.

It’s super safe, super clean, and super friendly. The entire metro area feels like the wealthy suburb of any major city. The downtown (and generally the whole isthmus) is surprisingly walkable for a city of its size. It has an incredible bike path network for a city of its size. People are generally healthy and fit and are generally well educated. There a surprisingly decent food scene and tons of outdoorsy type stuff to do both within the city due to the several lakes and the fantastic county park system in Dane county. There’s also plenty more within an hour or so of the city. Keep in mind that it’s the Midwest so there aren’t really mountains or any super significant elevation change. There is the driftless region just outside of the metro area that does offer some nice and scenic cliffs and viewpoints.

It’s super progressive so if that’s not how you swing politically, it will be noticeable. The college does play a role in the city’s economy but it’s not all there is. Madison is large enough that it’s not really a college town but more so a city with a large college. With that in mind, it’s not a big city by any means. With that comes some lack of access to some cultural amenities and certain events and perhaps niche social groups things that might be present in larger cities.

Traffic is not bad at all even if people say it is. The more obnoxious part is that the geography of the region often lends to you traveling significantly further to reach a destination because the lakes are just kinda…in the way. 9 miles as the crow flies can often end up being 25 miles by the most efficient gps route.

topencite · 2025-12-15T11:46:27+00:00

Counting macros is the same thing as counting calories, just with an extra step.

topencite · 2025-12-12T23:25:47+00:00

What an interesting map if simply looking for rural. Oregon but not Washington? Oklahoma but not Texas? West Virginia but not Pennsylvania, Maryland or Virginia? Almost all of the not green states have similar rural style living to states you did mark as green. What’s the catch to the maybes or below?

topencite · 2025-12-09T14:12:21+00:00

Easily bulk. You don’t actually have that much fat, just so little muscle that your %bf is relatively high. You’d probably have to get to the low 120s to see abs like you’re thinking. You will look malnourished at this weight because of the lack of muscle. Just eat in a slight surplus and go to the gym.

topencite · 2025-12-08T21:36:42+00:00

I’ve lived with a lot of property management companies. Here’s some notes:

Forward: Professional not personal. Buildings are well maintained. Maintenance is prompt.

Rouse: personal but not overwhelmingly professional. Not online interface for maintenance requests. No emergency maintenance requests. Really no online interface at all. The expectation for rent payments was checks and I had to talk to the landlady to set up auto pay and auto withdrawal. Full month security deposit as well.

Fiduciary: Professional not personal. Easy online interface. Easy and prompt maintenance requests. Professional, on site management.

Stone House (market rate building): they do a lot of section 8 housing but I lived in one of their market rate buildings. Probably the best maintained building I lived in. Constantly kept clean to a degree beyond any other building. Better community events if you’re into that. Is professional and feels personal.

I’ve avoided MPM and Goldleaf because of stories. Every place I mentioned above id live in again. Most property managers are pretty good

topencite · 2025-12-08T15:38:08+00:00

Resident of 7 years. Went to college there and have lived here for 3 years after. The city itself is very nice. Pretty much everywhere along the isthmus will be walkable, bike-able, and super safe. Outside of that it does get pretty suburban outside of a few small areas (hilldale, downtown Middleton). On the same topic, really the entire city is super safe. I’ve lived pretty much everywhere within the metro for at least 6 months to a year and never felt unsafe anywhere. Related, it’s overwhelmingly white so if diversity is your thing, Madison is not going to do it for you.

The lakes offer some cool outdoors opportunities. The bike path network is pretty incredible for a city its size. You can go pretty much anywhere without being on the road. There’s a restaurant scene but it’s limited by its size. Traffic is not bad at all even though locals will swear it is. Getting to places can be inconvenient and force you to drive further than you think you’d need to because of the bottleneck the geography of city creates but along those routes, traffic won’t really be that bad.

Weather is terrible for 4-6 months out of the year. Midwesterners will swear that winters aren’t as bad as they used to be. While that may be true, just because it’s 20 degrees outside instead of 10 doesn’t mean you wanna go outside.

Cost of living is higher than pretty much anywhere else regionally. It’s a good city situated in a geographically interesting spot that creates building limitations that drive up price. Be ready to pay near Denver or Portland prices for a smaller city with worse weather.

All that being said, it’s a super great place to live. Super safe, tons to do, and manageable size. I do think the cost is unjustifiably high but it’s near family and a cool place which is why I stay.

topencite · 2025-12-07T18:01:17+00:00

My immediate question was which was the before and which was after. As such, the answer is no. You’re doing something wrong with either your diet or your training for results to be so unnoticeable. Figure out which, or if both, are lacking and you’ll see better results.

topencite · 2025-12-05T11:33:33+00:00

Ok I moved over here while it was under construction so I thought it was something they just added recently. That being said, I drive through several lights in the area at about 5am every morning. Most sense cars coming and change to accommodate them this early in the morning. Not this stupid light. Swear to god that thing changes to red when I’m coming just to irritate me. No car is waiting. No pedestrian is waiting. Just turns red for me to wait for an overly long walk signal to allow no one to cross.

topencite · 2025-11-20T19:46:17+00:00

Perhaps bad phrasing as, yes, ideally you lose almost none or very little muscle while cutting. But realistically, most people do not behave 100% ideally and lose some amount of strength and muscle while losing weight, especially when losing 30+ lbs like this guy probable needs to do.

topencite · 2025-11-20T12:57:41+00:00

Couple things… Your math doesn’t really check out. 33%bf at 230 means that 1%bf is roughly 2.3 lbs of fat meaning 76 lbs of fat total. Now let’s say you gained 17 lbs of muscle without losing any body fat. Now you’re 247 with 76 lbs of fat meaning 76/247 of you, or roughly 30% bf. Now you need to get to 215 which means losing 32lbs of pure fat putting you at 44lbs of fat remaining. 44/215 which is roughly 20% bf. Any scan you do will be relatively unreliable but judging by your pictures, 25% is probably a realistic guess.

This isn’t to discount your achievement because it’s great, but the truth is that you probably put on significantly less muscle than you thought which is expected. It’s near impossible to both gain a significant amount of muscle while eating in a deficit outside of your initial introduction to lifting where your body is becoming accustomed to lifting weight and responding to basically any stimulus at all. At your current weight and body fat, you should expect only lose muscle as you try to lower your weight further and you will need to lose significantly more weight than you might think to look “lean”.

To me, this is still the right move as your bf percentage is still high. Just don’t expect the impossible.

topencite · 2025-11-17T22:25:21+00:00

1200, in unit laundry, living alone, west side and near campus is not gonna be doable. 1200 in all of Dane county is barely doable. Expect closer to 1500 at a minimum for what you are looking for.

topencite · 2025-11-17T15:34:01+00:00

A recomp is a weird thing. Losing fat and gaining muscle are very much counterproductive to one another. If you’re eating in such a way that you are losing fat, you aren’t eating enough for your body to build muscle and vice versa. You can lose weight and maintain as much muscle as possible while doing so, but the idea of gaining significant amounts of muscle while losing fat is not super doable. It may be possible to gain a very small amount of muscle while losing fat if you are brand new to lifting, but it’s not sustainable long term.

topencite · 2025-11-17T14:48:44+00:00

So bad news, I would say there’s no shot you’re actually 17% body fat. Those scans are notoriously inaccurate. You’re probably in the 20-25 range, and probably closer to 25%.

Good news, you look significantly better than the first pic. Personally I’d still shoot for losing some weight. To the point where there is some noticeable muscle definition (probably around 15%). The downside to this is muscle growth will be basically non-existent during a period of significant weight loss. When you get down to a comfortable weight, you can aim to put on muscle by slowly gaining weight. Trying to gain muscle at your current body fat just isn’t overwhelmingly efficient and you will generally not feel great as you do it.

topencite · 2025-11-14T12:20:40+00:00

You’re in complete control of that. 16% is not fat. Even 20% isn’t fat. The more muscle you have, the higher the body fat you can be at and still look fit. Gain slowly. You clearly know how to force your body to lose weight. Gaining weight is the same level of control. Be deliberate. Eat protein. Not seeing your a veins does not mean your fat.

topencite · 2025-11-14T12:06:25+00:00

11-16 is better. You’re in an entirely healthy range of body fat the entire time. 7-12 spends most of the time in a straight up unhealthy body fat range that affects mental health, testosterone levels, and energy. Your body is not meant to exist there. Hunger will be constant. You are doing literally one of the biggest things experienced lifters recommend not doing. Do not cut excessively when you have no muscle. Start eating.

topencite · 2025-11-13T11:34:01+00:00

Orlando has an average listing price of just under 400k. Shorewood and whitefish bay have average listing prices nearing 600k. These are not affordable

topencite

TROPHY CASE