I’m 45 years old, and I had felt half dead for years.  The passion and excitement for life that used to define me had slowly drained away over the past half-decade.  My passion seemed to wane in proportion to the expansion of my waistline.  It was a downward spiral that fed upon itself.  As I gained more fat, I had less passion.  The less passion I had, the more fat I gained.

 

It wasn’t always like this for me.  I fell in love with weightlifting when I was 17 and had been doing it on and off for almost 27 years.  Physical fitness and healthy eating had been paramount to me through my 20's and into my 30's.  I had prided myself on taking care of my body, and I had done a good job of it up until my late 30’s.

 

It is the natural progression of a maturing life for it to become more complicated, more responsible, and more demanding.  Raising kids, owning a home, volunteering at church, and taking on more responsibility at work are all common milestones of adulthood.  These are all good things and they are not to blame for my poor health.  I am to blame for choosing to use food and television as my way of unwinding from the stress and cares that came with more responsibility.  One show at a time and one bite at a time, I sat and slowly ate myself into my pathetic condition.

 

It took three health scares to finally wake me from my TV and food induced coma.  Heart disease runs in my family.  I’ve known that for many years, but during the past 14 months it has become very real to me.  The first incident was in late 2012, when I passed out at home and was taken to the ER by ambulance.  During the many diagnostic tests, an abnormal EKG reading was detected, so I was admitted for further testing.  All the other tests came back OK, so I returned to my old ways of working out sporadically and pretty much eating whatever I wanted.

 

The next scare came in the summer of 2013 when I started feeling chest pains and went to the ER on my own.  Again, all the follow up tests at the hospital came back OK, so I was referred to my cardiologist for further evaluation.  After several weeks of more testing, the only problem they found was an autonomic dysfunction that can affect my blood pressure and cause me to pass out.  Well, that's not so bad.  No need to change anything.  I'll be OK, I thought.

 

The final scare was when my Dad had to have a heart valve replacement in December 2013.  My parents have always been very active and health-conscious.  I remember vitamins and supplements in our house in the late 70's, way ahead of the curve.  Growing up, my Mom routinely fed us a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and salads were commonplace in our home.  The point being, my Dad had taken better care of himself than I was taking care of myself, and HE needed a heart valve.  Additionally, all my aunts and uncles and both grandfathers had heart related issues, and most died prematurely.  It suddenly became very real that a heart valve replacement was likely in my future, and I would probably need one at an earlier age than my Dad, based on how poorly I was taking care of myself.

 

As I was staring down my own mortality, I was also struck by the overwhelming realization that being so unhealthy was utterly selfish.  My lack of energy and desire to experience life was robbing my wife and children of quality, joy-filled time with me.  I was holding them back because I was tired and depressed.  And ultimately, if I kept going the way I was going, I would steal even more years from them by dying way too early.

 

Most people that know me would be surprised to hear how unhealthy I was.  I still worked out on and off and didn’t look overweight, mostly because I wore clothes that hid my gut and a lot of the fat was distributed over my whole body, which made my chest, shoulders, legs, and arms look bigger when I did work out, which was really the only upside of carrying all that fat.  I used to joke that it was just easier to make everything else bigger than to actually get my waist smaller.  I never did cardio and I ate whatever, and however much, I wanted.  When I did work out, which was sporadic at best, I was consumed with gaining strength and size.  I was so obsessed with feeding my muscles, I would even set an alarm for the middle of the night so I could wake up, drink a protein shake, and then go back to sleep.  My muscles grew, but so did my gut.

 

The 2014 BodyBuilding.com $100,000 Dymatize Transformation Challenge was the final piece of the puzzle for me.  I knew I needed to change, I knew why I needed to change, I knew what I needed to change, and as soon as I saw the Transformation Challenge email, I knew when I was going to change.

 

The Official Transformation Challenge Rules say I should be explaining why I should win the Challenge and what makes me stand out from the other contestants, but I must say I am very uncomfortable with the prospect of doing that.  There are so many deserving contestants, and we have all worked so hard and sacrificed so much to accomplish our transformations, I just bristle at the idea of saying I am more worthy of winning than someone else.  With that being said, I will do my best to answer the questions posed.

 

I think I should win the Challenge because my transformation is so astounding.  I am amazed by the difference I see in my before and after pictures.  The look on my face in the before picture says more than any words I might conjure up now ever could to describe how I felt.  It is the look of defeat, of quiet resignation to the inevitable ravages of time and gravity.  The ‘me’ in that before picture never dreamed I could be so fit and lean, and I certainly never thought I could do it in 12 weeks.  Yesterday, my wife and kids and I were looking through the pictures of my transformation, and when my daughter saw my before picture, she said, “Wow, you look miserable.  I’d be miserable too if I looked like that.”  But then my daughter and son both said that I look like a superhero now.  That’s pretty cool.

 

I love the way I look now, but I am actually more proud of what I accomplished internally.  I set out to get healthy for my family, and was able to drop my cholesterol from 208 to 136, my blood pressure from 136/90 to 103/73, and my resting heart rate from 80 to 62.  I am energetic and optimistic again.  I have the stamina to do more activities with my wife and kids, and I have a positive attitude that makes me want to do more.  I had let my passion for life fade, and it was dragging down my whole family.  I had accepted the lie that all these things (low energy, aches and pains, expanding waistline, etc…) were just part of getting older.  It’s just the way it goes.  It’s a natural part of life.  I had lost hope that things could be different.  Well, it IS a lie, and things CAN be different.  And for me and my family, they are.  I would love to win the Challenge so I could inspire other middle aged men and women to get up once more and fight on, and as the poet Dylan Thomas wrote, ‘Do not go gentle into that good night.  Rage, rage against the dying of the light.’

 

I think what makes me stand out from many of the other contestants is that I’m old enough to be their father.  I’m sure I’m not the only old guy in the Challenge, and I would even bet there are a few old enough to be my dad.  My hat’s off to them.  They deserve extra credit.  But for the most part, this transformation process is a young person’s game.  The first two male winners of the BodyBuilding.com Transformation Challenge were in their late 20’s and last year’s male winner was 32.  I would love to see an older guy take the title.

 

Another thing which might make me stand out is that many of the other contestants are getting back to where they have previously been physically, while I have broken new ground for myself at the age of 45.  I have never in my life, even as a teenager, been below 10 or 12 percent body fat, and here I am at 5 percent.  I am demanding more from my body now than I ever did as a young man, and it is responding with results I never imagined possible.  I had no idea what I was missing out on.  I cannot wait to see what my body is capable of in the future.

 

Although I already mentioned it above, one more thing that might make me stand out from the other contestants is that my primary goal was getting healthy and not just changing the way I look, and I have data to back it up.  Since I’m an engineer and I like numbers, I made sure to get some reference points prior to starting.  I did my annual checkup and blood work shortly before the Transformation Challenge began.  Here are my before and after health indicators:

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                            Before         After

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Cholesterol:        208             136

Blood Pressure:  136/90        103/73

Heart Rate:          80 bpm      62 bpm

Weight:                213 lbs       173 lbs

Body Fat:             26%            5%

Fat Mass:             55 lbs          9 lbs

Lean Mass:          158 lbs        164 lbs

Waist:                   43"              30"

Waist/Hip Ratio:  1.05             0.77

 

I am especially proud of getting my cholesterol down to 136, since my previous best was 146 back when I was 30 years old, and working out and eating healthy consistently.  The other one I really like is that I lost more than an Olympic plate worth of fat!

 

Describing how I accomplished my transformation has to begin with my wife, Candice.  Without her, I would have gotten nowhere.  It was her encouragement that prompted me to even begin the process.  She helped with meal prep on a daily basis.  She talked me through all the different nutrition/schedule/cardio/supplement decisions, and then talked through them all again when I wanted to change something a few days later.  She gave me ab exercises.  She took all my progress photos throughout.  She encouraged me to work out as much as needed.  And she celebrated all the little victories with me along the way.

 

When the Challenge started, I was in pretty sad shape, so I knew I needed to ramp up slowly.  I focused on going through the motions the first week or two, establishing the habits of lifting, cardio, meal prep, getting to bed earlier, etc...  If I felt up to it, I would push hard on a particular lift or during a cardio session, but I avoided putting any extra pressure on myself by expecting every workout to be great or every meal to be perfectly healthy.  Just get it done and do what you can was my mindset.

 

There were three critical turning points on my transformation journey, each of which was prompted by a different question that occurred to me. The first question came about 10 days into the Challenge.

 

How many calories are in a pound of fat?  The answer is 3500, which was quite a shock to learn.  I was hoping to lose at least 35 lbs of fat, so I did some quick math and was once more shocked to discover that I would need to burn 122,500 calories more than I took in over the remaining 74 days to reach the goal of losing 35 lbs of fat.  That worked out to a calorie deficit of 1655 per day!  Adding in some cardio and making healthy food choices was not going to get it done.  I needed to drastically slash my caloric intake if I was going to lose that much fat in such a short period of time.  I cut my calories to approximately 800-900 daily.  I also mixed in quite a few no carb days here and there.  I found a few techniques helpful in keeping hunger pangs at bay.  I drank lots and lots of water, up to 2 gallons daily.  Exercise also proved to be a great hunger suppressant.  I would do cardio up to 3 or 4 times a day.  Each session would buy me another hour or two of reduced hunger.  I also found it very helpful to get to sleep earlier, before I got hungry again. Severely restricting calories allowed me to go from 26% body fat down to 13%.  This approach served me well until the end of week 7, when the next question presented itself.

 

If I’m getting healthier and feeling more energetic, why am I so much weaker?  In my quest to answer this question, I discovered the wonderful power of carbs and protein before and during weightlifting.  This was new to me.  I had been doing post workout shakes with protein and carbs for years, but the only thing I used before and during weightlifting was some BCAA’s (Branched Chain Amino Acids).  My muscles responded very quickly to the added protein and carbs, and my strength began to return.  At the same time, I decided to increase my overall calories to 1400-1500 daily.  Still a deficit, but compared to where I was before, it was like feasting every day.  Two weeks on this protocol helped me to gain some lean mass, while still dropping my body fat from 13% to 10%.  With only three weeks left, I began to be very concerned about whether I could get to 8% body fat and how difficult it might be, which prompted the next question.

 

How do bodybuilders get really lean?  I was expecting to find advice on how to manipulate carbs, salt, and water.  And there certainly is an abundance of information on those topics, but what really caught my attention was a completely unexpected approach to getting lean and actually maintaining it long term.  It is called Intermittent Fasting and I learned about it from a website called leangains.com.  In a nutshell, the basic idea is that all calories for the day are consumed during an 8 hour window, and the other 16 hours are spent fasting.  Fasting appeals to me.  It is a Biblical concept and I have always felt it has a place in a healthy, well balanced life, so I was quick to jump on board when I discovered Intermittent Fasting.  After only one week, my body fat was down to 8%, so I set my sights on achieving 6% by the end of the challenge.  The last two weeks I was able to lose another 3% to achieve the formerly unfathomable goal of reaching 5% body fat.  The best I had hoped for when I started was 8%, and realistically I thought I would be lucky just to get below 10%.  So far, I am very impressed with the Intermittent Fasting technique, and I absolutely intend to stick with it for the foreseeable future to find out where it takes me.

 

Throughout the Challenge, I also had a few re-feed (AKA cheat) days.  I tried to listen to my body, but it was often difficult to discern between what was a real nutritional need and what was my old gluttonous habits rearing their ugly head.  I probably averaged one re-feed every ten days or so.  And even on re-feed days, I probably never exceeded 1800 calories.

 

Insert shameless suck-up here: Although it was completely unexpected by me, BodySpace proved to be very helpful in my transformation, especially early on.  I became addicted to tracking workouts, and there were quite a few occasions where I felt like skipping a cardio session, but didn’t just so I could track it.  Uploading weekly progress photos and posting my weekly fit status were also very motivating.  I was inspired by the many amazing transformation stories of other BodySpace members, especially the over 40 guys.  Sharing daily updates with my BodySpace friends was also unexpectedly helpful.  I don’t do Facebook or have any other online presence, so this was a totally new experience for me.  It was pretty cool.  Yes, I have email.  I’m not THAT old.

 

With only a few days left in the Challenge, what seemed like disaster struck.  And it was once again Candice, my wife, who was there to help me through it.  On April 3rd, near the end of a fantastic workout, I badly injured my lower back. At first I remained positive, thinking a little heat and some ibuprofen would have me back on my feet by the next day.  But as the hours passed and my back got worse and worse, I began to despair.  Will I be able to work out?  Could I even pose for pictures?  And what will I look like if I lie on my back and do nothing for four days?  I was distraught, and angry!  Candice let me stew for a few hours, but then she came to me and gently, but firmly, explained my options, and quitting was not one of them.  She got me medicated back patches, two new Velcro back support belts (I wore both, one on top of the other), and pain relieving muscle cream.  With these treatments and the extra support, I was able to grind through the last four days without losing much ground.  I still spent most of the time on my back with a heating pad, and I did miss a half dozen cardio sessions and three gym workouts, but I was able to get in enough good workouts to maintain where I was.

 

Thank you for taking the time to read my transformation story.  I know it was long, but this process has literally transformed the lives of me and my family, and I had a great deal to say about it.  Many thanks to all the employees at BodyBuilding.com and Dymatize Nutrition for making this Challenge possible.  Thousands of us are now remarkably transformed because of you.  Thank you!

 

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My workout, supplement, and nutrition schedules are detailed below:

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Cardio Schedule:

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There are strongly differing opinions on fasted vs. non-fasted cardio.  I prefer fasted cardio when possible, but I do it both ways.  It makes sense to me that the body would start burning fat more quickly if it is in a fasted state.

 

Every Day: 1 to 3 cardio sessions (varied between HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), LISS (Low Intensity Steady State), and High Frequency HIIT)

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I did not have a consistent schedule for cardio workouts.  I usually did a cardio session in the morning before work.  And then I usually did 1 or 2 cardio sessions in the evening.  I didn't burn a ton of calories with my cardio.  The evening sessions were a good way to quell hunger pangs and make it through a rough part of the day for me.

 

 

Weightlifting Schedule:

      

Monday:

  Heavy Shoulders

  Light Chest

  Triceps

  Abs

  Calves

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Tuesday:

  Heavy Back

  Rear Deltoids

  Biceps

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Wednesday:

  Heavy Legs

  Abs

  Calves

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Thursday:

  Heavy Chest

  Light Shoulders

  Triceps

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Friday:

  Heavy Back

  Rear Deltoids

  Biceps

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Saturday:

  Light Legs

  Abs

  Calves

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Sunday:

  Off

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Supplement Schedule:

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Upon Waking:

  Caffeine

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With Meal 1:

  Dymatize Super Amino 6000

  Dymatize Creatine

  USPlabs Prime

  Multi Vitamin

  Fish Oil

  Flax Oil

  B-Complex Vitamin

  DHEA

  Saw Palmetto

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Post-Workout:

  Dymatize Creatine

  Optimum Nutrition HMB

  Vitamin C

  Chromium Picolinate

  Alpha Lipoic Acid

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With Last Meal:

  Dymatize Super Amino 6000

  Optimum Nutrition HMB

  Fish Oil

  Flax Oil

  L-Lysine

  Folic Acid

  Selenium

  Saw Palmetto

  CoQ10

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Bedtime:

  Dymatize GABA

  Isatori ISA Test

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Nutrition Schedule:

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This is the trickiest area to document.  I had three different approaches to my nutrition during different phases of the Challenge.  Here is a quick summary of the first two phases, and then I will detail my final phase.  For the first 7 weeks, my approach was drastic caloric restriction.  I ate approximately 800-900 calories per day.  The next 2 weeks, I upped my calories to 1400-1500 with much more protein and carbs.  For the final 3 weeks, I used a brand new approach I just recently discovered, called Intermittent Fasting.  That is what is detailed below.

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Meal 1 (8:00 AM):

  1 Scoop Whey Protein Isolate

  ½ Cup Oatmeal (whole Oats)

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Meal 2 (10:00 AM):

  1 Scoop Whey Protein Isolate

  ½ Cup Oatmeal (Whole Oats)

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Workout Shake (11:30 AM to 12:30 PM):

  1 Scoop Whey Protein Isolate

  2 Scoops SciVation XTend

  1 Scoop BSN NO-Xplode

  12.5g Dextrose

  12.5g Maltodextrin

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Post Workout Shake (12:30 PM to 2:00 PM):

  1 Scoop Whey Protein Isolate

  2 Scoops SciVation XTend

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Meal 3 (3:45 PM):

  Large Salad:

    2 Cups Spinach

    2 Cups Lettuce

    ¼ Cup Red Onions

    ¼ Cup Green Peppers

    ½ Cup Tomatoes

    ~38g Meat (Fish, Chicken, or Beef)

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Totals:

  ~1350 Calories (190g Protein / 110g Carbs / 13g Fat)