Weekly Progress Report- Week 14 of 26 |

Weekly Progress Report- Week 14 of 26

By Brandon Cook

March 1st through March 7th

Progress Picture:

Brandon @ 165.4 lbs and 13.4% body fat

Week 14 of My Transformation Journey:

Another good week. I’m continuing to work on my diet and fully cut out dairy. I stopped drinking milk a long time of ago and was drinking soy milk. However, I recently stopped drinking soy milk and started to drink Almond Milk. Good stuff. I’ve also cut out all cheese and yogurt. This is a great move as milk is highly inflammatory.

I haven’t been eating any red meat either, so that’s another win. I still eat organic eggs, chicken, and salmon. However, I have cut out tuna from my diet.

I plan on making this a gradual progression into a vegetarian style diet. I still have more to learn and figure out replacements for the above. The hardest part for me will be eggs. Honestly, I’m not sure why these would be bad for you except that they are an animal product. I will have to look into this matter further as well. I also haven’t decided if I want to go fully vegetarian or eat meat only occassionally/rarely.

We’ll see!

Body Composition:

To determine my weight and body fat percentage I weigh myself four times at various intervals throughout the day on my weigh in day. I take the average of these and that becomes the numbers you see below.

This isn’t entirely necessary, but I’m trying to account for flucuations that occur in my bodyweight throughout the day. A simpler method would be to just weigh yourself on the same day and same time each week…. but that’s not as much fun!

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Weigh in Results:

Beginning Bodyweight: 157.3lbs
Beginning Body Fat: 11.0%
Beginning Lean Mass: 140.1lbs
Beginning Fat Mass: 17.2lbs

Current Bodyweight: 165.4lbs
Current Body Fat: 13.4%
Current Lean Mass: 143.3lbs
Current Fat Mass: 22.1lbs

Total Bodyweight Change: Gained 8.1lbs
Total Body Fat Change: Gained 2.4%
Total Lean Mass Change: Gained 3.2lbs
Total Fat Mass Change: Gained 4.9lbs

Summary:
Overall I have gained 3.2lbs of muscle and gained 4.9lbs of fat
(0.6 : 1 Ratio of Muscle:Fat).
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I will also be using the following charts to track my progress visually. The first chart represents my body compositional changes from week to week. My scale calulates muscle mass, bone mass, water percentage, and fat percentage. I’m not sure how accurate these results are so this represents my best guestimate based on the scales output.

This first chart uses this data to graph the changes in my body composition over the next 26 weeks. If all goes as planned you should notice the red sections (muscle mass) growing larger and the overall columns (total bodyweight) growing larger. If the yellow sections (fat mass) are growing too large… then we’ve got a problem!

This second chart simply shows my current body composition as a pie chart. Red (muscle) = 19%, Green (bone) = 5%, Blue (water) = 63%, and Yellow (fat) = 13%.

Maximum Muscular Bodyweight:

According to The Weight Trainer: Maximum Muscular Bodyweight and Measurements Calculator:

My estimated maximum muscular bodyweight at ~10% bodyfat is:
197.1 lbs

This calculator gives you an estimate of the maximum muscular bodyweight and measurements that a drug-free trainee of a similar skeletal structure is likely to attain. It is based on equations Casey Butt developed through over 6 years of research and analysis of data from drug-free champions both past and present. The article presenting the equations utilized by this calculator can be found here: Your Maximum Muscular Bodyweight and Measurements.

I’m using this calculator as a general guideline in determining my ideal body weight and measurements for what I can accomplish naturally. I’m not letting these calculations impose limits on what I can accomplish. The only limits are the ones we impose upon ourselves. Remember, limits were meant to be broken! I just think its a cool calculator.

Measurements:

As another means of tracking my progress I will be measuring my neck, chest, arms, forearms, waist, hips, thighs, and calves. My wrist and ankle measurements should stay pretty much the same.

I used The Weight Trainer calculator to determine my goal measurements and rounded up or down a little based on my own desires, but only buy a 1/4 inch or so.

More specifically I just made the goal for my neck, arm, and calves measurements to be the same. This is typical of the Classic Physique goals talked about by Steve Reeves and other bodybuilding legends.

Body Measurements	2/21/2010	Goal	Difference
Neck	15.00	16.50	1.50
Chest	43.00	46.00	3.00
Biceps (flexed	13.75	16.50	2.75
Forearms	11.50	13.50	2.00
Wrist	6.50	6.50	0.00
Waist	34.50	31.00	-3.50
Hips	36.00	35.00	-1.00
Thighs	20.00	24.50	4.50
Calves	14.50	16.50	2.00
Ankles	8.50	8.50	0.00

As you can see the biggest differences are apparently my chest, arms, and thighs, but everything will need to come up. Well except my waist, which should be slimmer. The ideal concept is to have wide shoulders tapering down to a thin waist to develop the classic V taper.

Of course these are more bodybuilding type goals and objectives and not necessarily a requirement for athletes or those who are more performance oriented. Personally, I desire form and function… so I’m aiming for the best of both worlds!

See you next week,

Brandon

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About the Author:

Brandon Cook is creator of The Awakened Warrior Blog, and co-creator of HardgainerMuscleBuilding.com, a website specifically designed to teach hardgainers how to build muscle fast using the laws and scientific principles of body transformation.

HargainerMuscleBuilding.com features a free email class covering the basic principles of training naturally, eating a nutritious, muscle-building diet, and understanding the truth about supplements. The website is filled with free articles, videos, and the programs you need to create your ideal body.
Please visit us at http://hardgainermusclebuilding.com

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