Things That Are Bothering You, Got You All Hibbeldy-Jibbeldy, or just downright pissed, RIGHT NOW!

[Piobaire]

If he was 30 I'd completely agree, but early 40s with no discernible serious athletic history? Imma lean towards some chemical help. The vascularity in particular makes me think that.

 

[otc]

And The Rock literally has a team move his gym wherever he goes so that he can always have access to an optimal training environment.

Booth is ultimately right that at the end of the day everything is just calories in vs calories out and that calories in is much more controllable than calories out...but what I've learned over the years is that most people can't actually take that information and use it.

Exercise has plenty of other longer run benefits over just burning fat now (which, yeah, going for a 30 minute run every day ain't gonna help much), and most weight loss diet plans ultimately work to address behavioral issues. They put you on a plan so you don't eat mindlessly, they give you specific foods so you don't end up downing high-calorie/low-value items, they give you foods that fill you up so you don't feel hungry, etc.

 

[imatlas]

If he was 30 I'd completely agree, but early 40s with no discernible serious athletic history? Imma lean towards some chemical help. The vascularity in particular makes me think that.

Don’t make me post a shirtless selfie!

 

[otc]

If he was 30 I'd completely agree, but early 40s with no discernible serious athletic history? Imma lean towards some chemical help.

Eh, maybe, but if it essentially becomes your job, you have a personal trainer at all of your workouts and a nutritionist not only providing you a menu but probably also sourcing and/or cooking all of your food? Seems pretty reasonable to get to where he is.

Keep in mind that after photo is shot in studio lighting in optimal conditions. You can do a lot of cutting/dehydrating and then careful lighting/oiling to get that look.
And he wasn't super pudgy before--he probably did get some level of exercise and they picked a bad before photo.

I don't think it would be hard to turn that body into the After photo with full-time paid effort.

 

[Piobaire]

Eh, just my opinion...but I'm sticking with it.

 

[Texasmade]

Eh, maybe, but if it essentially becomes your job, you have a personal trainer at all of your workouts and a nutritionist not only providing you a menu but probably also sourcing and/or cooking all of your food? Seems pretty reasonable to get to where he is.

Keep in mind that after photo is shot in studio lighting in optimal conditions. You can do a lot of cutting/dehydrating and then careful lighting/oiling to get that look.
And he wasn't super pudgy before--he probably did get some level of exercise and they picked a bad before photo.

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I don't think it would be hard to turn that body into the After photo with full-time paid effort.

If that was over a 2-3 year period that would be believable but he said that was in under 6 months. To get that kind of build and definition would mean he would need to essentially be like a top .0001% genetically gifted. Somehow I doubt he's that genetically gifted. Even for noobie gains, putting on 10 lbs of muscle is seriously hard.

 

[imatlas]

The thing is I’d say I achieved at least 75% of this, at age 50, over 2-3 years of working out 5 hours a week or less. That’s why I think it’s within normal range.

 

[otc]

If that was over a 2-3 year period that would be believable but he said that was in under 6 months. To get that kind of build and definition would mean he would need to essentially be like a top .0001% genetically gifted. Somehow I doubt he's that genetically gifted. Even for noobie gains, putting on 10 lbs of muscle is seriously hard.

But like, don't forget the pro photo shoot aspect. I've seen photos posted by his wife of him just sitting around home and he looks very fit but not like the studio shots.

And like, I've just finished a p90x cycle and have pretty big changes after 3 months. And that's just with resistance bands, probably not pushing myself that hard, not following a diet plan, etc.

Double the length, triple the daily workout time, use real weights, have a trainer pushing you, and eat a focused diet?

Just doesn't seem far fetched when it becomes you job.

 

[Piobaire]

Either way he did a great job and wish I could get paid to do nothing but eat right and train.

 

[Van Veen]

Setting aside fitness considerations, weight loss is about 85% diet and 15% exercise. For me it’s probably more like 95%-5%. No way I can lose weight (fat) by just exercising and still eating crap. I’ll gain weight because the exercise makes me hungrier. But I can lose fat easily by managing my diet whether I exercise or not.

It disturbs me that I’m agreeing with pB here, but I’m comforted to be disagreeing with Ed.

I agree with that, but I think people underestimate the psychological effects of exercise. It's an important part of the lifestyle change that leads to lasting weight loss.

I think that adopting some sort of physical hobby (competitive sports or even something like hiking) is the best thing people can do for weight loss. It adds a short term motivator. ("If I lose weight, I'll be faster/better/be able to hike harder trails.") A lot of people aren't motivated by abstract, intangible goals.

If he was 30 I'd completely agree, but early 40s with no discernible serious athletic history? Imma lean towards some chemical help. The vascularity in particular makes me think that.

Maybe some clen.

 

[Piobaire]

I subscribe to the thought raising your basal metabolism is the best way to keep weight off long term, and the best way to do that, is to put on some muscle.

 

[mhip]

But like, don't forget the pro photo shoot aspect. I've seen photos posted by his wife of him just sitting around home and he looks very fit but not like the studio shots.

And like, I've just finished a p90x cycle and have pretty big changes after 3 months. And that's just with resistance bands, probably not pushing myself that hard, not following a diet plan, etc.

Double the length, triple the daily workout time, use real weights, have a trainer pushing you, and eat a focused diet?

Just doesn't seem far fetched when it becomes you job.

I'm sure he went through an intense pump up session right before the camera started clicking.
When I'm done working out, I'll look in the mirror and shout YOU KNOW IT!
But an hour later after two beers, I'm like, where did it go?

 

[jbarwick]

I used to road bike when in Ohio and would do a lot of charity rides and such of 50+ miles with my group. We would see the same people riding and always run into guys do the full 50+ mile rides and carrying a ton of extra weight. It always made me chuckle.

Similarly I now trail run and there are quite a few bigger guys out there. Also if you can't go for an hour run without sucking down a few GUs, something is wrong.

 

[otc]

Now that we're done with p90x, we've switched over to a non-video workout program from some Instagram girl

 

[Texasmade]

But like, don't forget the pro photo shoot aspect. I've seen photos posted by his wife of him just sitting around home and he looks very fit but not like the studio shots.

And like, I've just finished a p90x cycle and have pretty big changes after 3 months. And that's just with resistance bands, probably not pushing myself that hard, not following a diet plan, etc.

Double the length, triple the daily workout time, use real weights, have a trainer pushing you, and eat a focused diet?

Just doesn't seem far fetched when it becomes you job.

You can't just say I workout 1 hour a day but now if I do 4 I'll get x better results. It doesn't work that way. Anyone who's done seriously weightlifting will tell you those results in that short amount of time isn't realistic without some enhancers.

When I was in my early 20's at Texas Tech, I was lifting and running 6 days a week with a 3 day upper body and 3 day lower body split consuming like 4500+ calories a day and my weight barely moved at all. I would guess I added about 1lb of muscle a year. My last year I did a 6 week cut diet and dropped about 10 lbs. I was about 80% of what Kumail is in those pictures. Granted I wasn't a noob so I had no noobie gains.