Bodybuilding Forums

Hi All,

Most (not all) of the testimonials and before/after pics I've seen seem to come from people who were, in one way or another 'big' to begin with. Either looking relatively well built with muscle or carrying reasonable amounts of fat.

So, in the hope of reassuring any other really skinny people out there that it's possible to change the shape of your body, I thought I'd share this.

I'm 6'4" tall, 35yrs old and weighed 177lbs four weeks ago and had 14% bodyfat

I now weigh 179lbs with 12.6% bodyfat and see a noticeable change in my physique

The pictures showing my progress are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/hardgainer

I've been following Mark's MANS diet and the THT programme described in his free e-book Total Anabolism 2.0 (though adapted for dumbbells as that's all I've had access to until this week).

Questions, feedback, comments, suggestions welcome

Great work man, keep it up and you will be ripped just in time for summer!

Awesome progress! I'm pretty much the same 6'1" 160. Gives me a lot of hope, I've been working out on a off for the last few years and have never really seen great gains.

Are you following the diet to the T?

lblizzie wrote:Awesome progress! I'm pretty much the same 6'1" 160. Gives me a lot of hope, I've been working out on a off for the last few years and have never really seen great gains.

Are you following the diet to the T?

Sorry lblizzie, didn't see your post and haven't been on the forum in a while. I've switched to GLAD diet and have been eating that for four or five weeks now with great success. Yes - stuck 100% to MANS before and GLAD now.

Great work!

As one of the aforementioned "big" guys, you'll find my advice on the site mostly tailored to those who are in a similar boat to me: likely somewhat insulin-resistant mesomorphs or endomorphs who've over-eaten most of their adult life and want to get slim and build muscle. The reality is, for most of us, it's pretty easy: eat enough protein, hit the gym hard, watch to not over-eat the carbs or fats, and the pounds peel off and we start looking really big really quickly.

I have a ton of respect for the guys who have trouble building any muscle or even gaining any fat, because they have to work harder at it than we do. Their body has a lot fewer energy reserves, so they have to watch their diet even more closely to make sure they're never catabolizing muscle for energy!

Great job! I am about to start a similar program, but I don't know how to modify it for dumbbells. What did you do?