We’ve covered a whole raft of body transformations here at DMARGE, each with its own little unexpected tips and tricks for losing that extra weight. Take the mid-forties American who unveiled the ‘toothbrush trick’ to the world or the man whose little toe inspired a revelation.
However, people around the world continue to hit the gym, boost their workouts, fix their nutrition, and come out looking more muscular, healthier, and happier than ever before. This week, it was the turn of Redditor ‘i-spam-hesi‘ to take to the platform’s Progress Pics subreddit and show off his recent hard work.
WATCH: Starting Your Fitness Journey? Try This Brutal Exercise.
You only need to look at the poster’s pictures for a split second to realise how far they have come. The 22-year-old who stands at 6’1 tall has lost 89 lbs (40kg) over the course of 11 months, going from a starting weight of 283lbs down to a current weight of 194lbs. How did he do it? The same way everyone does it: a better diet and more activity.
Regarding his workouts, the poster responded openly and concisely to commenter questions explaining how much of his program was inspired by one very famous bodybuilder:
“I just ran a basic Arnold spilt.”
u/i-spam-hesi
According to the experts over at Hevy, the details of what exactly comprises an Arnold split are hotly contested, with history having consumed some of the finer intricacies. broadly speaking, however, it revolves around six days in the gym per week, focusing on high-volume training targeted at different muscle groups each day.
However, as anyone who’s even remotely interested in fitness will know, you can’t out-train a good diet, and this poster’s journey was no exception. Further down the feed flooded with questions from others on a similar journey, the poster offered this advice regarding his nutritional regimen:
“Overall, make sure you track everything you eat and prioritize your protein, fruits, and veggies… My maintenance at this time was like 5k because I was so big so I was eating about 3500-4000 calories for a majority of my journey. After I lost the majority of the weight I had to cut my calories more.”
u/i-spam-hesi
However, there was one particular aspect of his diet that we felt a lot of books out there were sleeping on. Rather than constructing himself purely to the aforementioned protein and veggies — which, as anyone who has ever dieted will know is a bloody hard regimen to stick to consistently — he embraced the ‘IIFYM’ approach.
M/22/6’1” [283lbs > 194lbs = 89lbs] took me just under a year to get here, Im really pleased with the results
byu/i-spam-hesi inprogresspics
IIFYM stands for ‘If It Fits Your Macros’ and is a dieting technique embraced by those who are decidedly embracing weight loss for the long haul and accept that they may not have the (almost impossible) levels of discipline required to eat clean all day every day.
Instead, the IIFYM approach works as follows…
“‘If It Fits Your Macros’ is a way of making your diet sustainable. You get to enjoy foods that aren’t considered “diet-friendly” and are still able to enjoy life while losing fat.”
u/i-spam-hesi
In case you’re still unsure, this approach basically means that you can eat whatever you like so long as it fits your measured and tracked macronutrients; if you have 300 ‘spare’ calories for the day and have already hit your protein goal, there’s no harm in enjoying a small bar of chocolate or even a glazed doughnut — you’ll still reach your goal as long as your intake meets your macro needs.
In addition to this, the poster also has a highly active job that helps them average around 20,000 steps a day, which is probably part of the reason why his maintenance calorie intake was so high and left him with a little more room to manoeuvre when it comes to enjoying treats.
However, even if you don’t get to move quite that much during your day, there’s no reason why this approach can’t work for you; just be sure to accurately set your macros up (you can use an online calculator or enlist the help of a personal riane to do this) and then get to work, knowing there’s a sweet treat in it for anyone who sticks to the plan.