Well, I finished the first part of my experiment. I ate, and ate a lot. I tried to count the calories, but I probably missed some here and there, and ended up recording less calories than I actually consumed. My main goal was to hit 225g per day of protein, which is about 1.5g per pound of bodyweight.

That part of the experiment was a success, but the eating was just as difficult as the lifting, if not more so. Forcing yourself to eat when you aren’t hungry never feels good. And many times, I ate junk food just to up the calorie count a bit.

As far as calories burned, that was even tricker to calculate. I definitely had to estimate there. I can’t wear a heart rate monitor when playing soccer (for safety reasons), and recording your heart rate during weight lifting sessions rarely produces an accurate calorie burn count.

So, both my calories consumed and calories burned were off. However, it is abundantly clear from the before and after photos and measurements that there were definite changes.

On to the numerical results:

My measurements changed a lot in the upper body, but hardly any in the lower body. That was a bit unexpected, I must say, considering I ended up moving a lot more lower body weight than I usually do. However, I suspect that the relatively high weights I was using in my previous program on just one leg helped build a lot more muscle than I knew.

Chest:

Started at 38 inches around, ended at 40 inches around. That’s significant gain not only in the pectorals, but also in the back muscles.

Waist:

Started at 32, ended at 34. Ouch.

Shoulders:

Started at 46, ended at 47.

Arms:

Started at 14 inches, ended at 14.5.

Legs:

Started at 25, ended at 25.5.

Calves:

Started and ended at 17. No change.

So, there were some fairly good increases in some areas, while others remained unchanged. However, as you will see from the percentage increases below, the gains in inches did not correspond with the gains in strength. Even though my squats and deads went up the most, there was no change in muscle mass for the corresponding muscle groups.

Now, keep in mind that I calculated my starting “max” weights extremely conservatively, so the poundage and percentage increases might be a bit overstated. However, they definitely exist and went up significantly.

Bench:

20% increase, +30 lbs

Squat:

25% increase, +42 lbs

Row:

22.5% increase, +35 lbs

Military Press:

22% increase, +25 lbs

Deadlift:

26% increase, +60 lbs

What now?

Well, now I’m going to take a week or so off from lifting to let my body recover a bit. I’m a little beat up from all the heavy lifting. I’ve already begun to significantly cut my caloric intake. I will keep the calories to a reasonable level, and cut my daily intake of protein to around 120g per day.

Then, I will continue on the program to see if I can continue to gain strength and size on fewer calories and less protein. Hopefully, I will cut out all this excess fat I gained. Looking good for summer starts early! Plus, competitive outdoor soccer starts in just a month and a half. Time to up my power to weight ratio.

-Drew

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