It's hard for me to tell because I see myself everyday and even when I put these two pictures side by side, I still think my perception might be a bit altered because I know it's me. So I figured I'd get some outside opinions. Do the two most recent pics show any difference? I do notice a difference but what I want to know is this: is it a subtle difference that you'd have to really look at to see or does it jump out at you right from the get-go? And if you do notice a difference, would it be more leanness or more muscle?

Thanks folks!

it's subtle but you look leaner and more muscular in the more recent picture. And there is a HUGE difference between the two more recent pictures and the june '06 photo. Clearly you are doing something right.

Are you sure you havent plateaud in your training or diet?

It looks that way doesn't it?
I wouldnt say I've totally plateau'd but it has REALLY slowed down... I was about 160 in on the left and 153 on the right.. I'm losing at a rate of about .5lb per week... do you have any suggestions? I recently started talking atrophex by bsn.. about a week ago.. we'll see how it goes. thanks for the input.

Whats your training like now? It seems guys in your spot benefit best from 2-3/day/week full body compound movements, HIIT, and Timed Carb Diets.

Fill us in a little more on diet aswell.

Make sure that your lighting is the same in your photos, too. Frontal/flash lighting (like in the Oct 07 pic) tends to flatten things out.

[quote name='Tron' post='467532' date='Mar 22 2008, 04:50 Do the two most recent pics show any difference? I do notice a difference but what I want to know is this: is it a subtle difference that you'd have to really look at to see or does it jump out at you right from the get-go? And if you do notice a difference, would it be more leanness or more muscle?
[/quote]

There's an appreciable amount of fat loss and you look a bit more muscular between the second and third pics with most of the positive changes more readily discernable from the first and third pics.

I'd say you put some LBM on and lost a chunk of fat from pic 1 compared to pic 3,also dropped the ghey wrist bands

Good work on all counts.

WRT metabolic slowdown,it's going to happen for most unless an agressive diet like UD 2.0 or Carb Cycling is employed.Intermittent fasting also looks very good but Carb Cycling would work best for you,at this time,I'd think.

http://www.mindandmuscle.net/articles/twin...hydrate_cycling

SyntheSIZE with 2 grams of glucosamine with each serving would help to address the metabolic slowdown as well as act as a meal potentiator.I'd also look into high dosing fish oil along with moderate dosing of Sesathin to further fat oxidation.Carlson's or NOW brands are both reputable and cost efficient fish oils.Avoid caps as they are cost prohibitive to adequate dosing protocols.

I work at a gym so I get there a little early before work and do about 15-20 minutes running on the treadmill, usually tues-sat. I change my speed in the following manner:
I'll start by going at 6mph for two minutes. Then I'll keep raising the speed by .5 every minute. Once I reach 8 or 9, I'll go back down to 6 and repeat the process for about 15-20 minutes. But I've been waking up unrested lately so I've been bitching out by either stopping after 5 minutes, or going on the elliptical which is like a walk in the park compared to the running.

As far as resistance, it hasn't been too consistent in terms of a set plan but I've been doing it at least 3 days a week. I work out w/my boss and another co-worker at around 2:30 when it's dead time at the gym. We normally would do some kind of 4 day split such as:
Mon/Thurs- Chest, Tri, Shoulders
Tues/Fri- Back, Bi, Legs

We would change the workouts up every 6 weeks or so. Sometimes we'd just change the exercises.. Some times we'd superset a heavy exercise in a stable environment with a lighter set in an unstable environment e.g. Dumbell chest press on a bench followed by alternating arm chest press on a stability ball or push ups w/hands on a ball. Sometimes we'd switch to mulitiple movements geared more towards maximal calorie burning like lunge to curl or a squat to shoulder press or dumbell deadlift to curl. But for the past 2 months, my boss has been kind of random and over-worked so we've been doing our workouts on the fly meaning that we'll decide what to work on that day as we're stretching and warming up as oopposed to having a set plan like before.

As far as diet, Mon-Fri I take in about 2200-2500 calories. [I'm only 5'8, 154lb but Iaccording to my bodybugg which is 92% accurate, i burn 3000-3300 calories on most days]
My calories usually consist of about 40% pro, 40% carbs and 20% fat. Sometimes I have a lot of greens, sometimes I have none.I eat at least 6 times a day if not more.

Now, saturdays and sundays are a different story. On saturday I'll generally eat the same as mon-fri but I'll get another 1000-1500 calories from alcohol. On sundays I normally dont drink but I'll eat fast food or some other kind of high calorie food at least twice. I generally only eat about 3 or 4 times on sunday. As far as calories, a worst case scenario would be 4000.

For the last few weeks I've been getting a tad more disciplined. I really HAVE to party on saturday nights but I've been making sure that I keep track of how much I drink so that I'm at about maintenence for that day or at a very small surplus. On sundays I havent been logging my food and I'm still eating fast food but I'm making sure that I don't go over 3000 calories for the day... But this is a fairly recent thing.

plus one for trying either IF or some kind of carb cycling such as http://www.ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3398. Personaly I've gotten leanest on IF but it doesn't suit everyone's lifestyle. Have you tried lowerring your carbs in the past, if so how did you respond.

Your arms and soulders do look more muscular in the second picture, but it's difficult to tell with the lighting.

What are your goals?

Fit? or Jacked up?

Hows your strength, of your strength has plateaued then I guarantee your cross sectional muscle gains will.

Go heavy for a while, consult the holy trinity of Deadlift , squat , bench. In that order. Multiple reps , 80-90% of 1rm . DO like 15-20 singles for a workout, with 1-2 min rest between each.

Or just keep working out with your balls.

oh yeah, and nice progress so fa. I an definitely notice a difference.

My eventual goal would be to have single digit bodyfat with about 20 or 30 more lbs of lean mass.