Note: From now on, I’ll post updated statistics and photos on Fridays, with regular blog posts at the end of every month.
Day 365 – front
| Measurement | Sept. 1 | Aug. 30 | Change |
| Weight (pounds) | 121.8 | 140.8 | +19.0 |
| Body fat percentage | 23.5 | 26.8 [Aug. 28] | +3.3 percentage pts. |
| Fat weight | 28.6 | 37.7 | +9.1 |
| Lean weight | 93.2 | 103.1 | +9.9 |
| Total inches | 113.6 | 125.8 | +12.2 |
•
| Exercise | Start* | Aug. 30 | Change |
| Kettlebell swing | 32 x 20 lbs. | 58/17 x 50 lbs. | +150.0 percent |
| Myotatic crunch | 6.5 x 2.5 lbs. | 8.0 x 20 lbs. | +700.0 percent |
| Single-arm kettlebell swing | 25 x 15 lbs. | 12/10 x 35 lbs. | +133.3 percent |
| Isolateral dumbbell incline bench press | 2.4/3.0 x 30 lbs. | 0.3/1.2 x 40 lbs. | +33.3 percent |
| Yates row | 7.0 x 55 lbs. | 3.2 x 165 lbs. | +200.0 percent |
| Reverse drag curls | 6.0 x 25 lbs. | 1.2 x 55 lbs. | +120.0 percent |
*I started these exercises on different dates.
I made it.
And I have 10 pounds more muscle to show for it.
Project Bulk has given me a focus for exercise and for eating. It gave me direction on how to reshape my body over time.
I didn’t know how long it would take me to add 10 pounds of lean mass. I thought it might take 3 months, but instead it took 11.
I didn’t know if it would make me “fat.” While I added 9 pounds of fat, it has been evenly distributed.
If you don’t see it, that’s OK. I don’t see it either, and I pore over the photos very closely. I do see most of the change in my upper arms from the side; to me, my arms are clearly bigger.
My upper legs are bigger, too, though I didn’t consider that when shooting the photos, which all show me from the waist up.
And I do see it in the numbers. I’m nearly 20 percent heavier than a year ago, and 12 percent bigger in total inches.
I feel it in subtle ways. A better posture. More confidence in taking on tougher projects. More power in lifting heavy objects. Liking my body image a little more.
It took very little effort on my part. I worked out for 51 hours and 28 minutes total for the year, averaging out to under an hour a week. If anything, far more time went into shooting my daily photos and counting calories for every meal and snack.
(Some people have asked me why I don’t work out more. By doing this bare minimum, I know I can sustain a routine of lifting 60 to 90 minutes a week far into the future. Can you make time for exercising 1 hour a week if it makes you look better?)
I was never certain it could be done until a few months in. Even then, I wasn’t always sure I was on the right path. I still had options on how much to eat and which exercises to focus on. I went through trial and error several times.
Self-doubt can be a killer. You wonder why you spend all the time exercising and measuring food portions. You step on the scale wondering if the numbers are gonna go your way. You find yourself struggling with whether it’s ever going to happen.
Self-doubt will kill your dreams and your momentum in a heartbeat. That’s why we have exercise and diet partners. That’s why I charted progress in numbers and photos. That’s why I made adjustments when I wasn’t satisfied with results.
I wrestled with that doubt from time to time. I will continue to wrestle with it, but I know the outcome.
The end isn’t really the end. After a year, I’m ready to focus harder on dropping my body fat percentage. My Bodpod test on Wednesday revealed my current level to be 26.8 percent, nearly the same as it was in April.
I increased it by 3.3 percentage points over the past year, and it remains in the poor range for men my age. My goal is to drop it by 10 percentage points into the excellent range while maintaining or increasing my lean mass.
I don’t know how long it will take. It might take 5 years, it might take 5 months. Once again, I am exploring the unknown.
I strongly encourage you to read “The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon |iTunes aff. links] by Tim Ferriss. It offers unconventional advice on not only gaining weight, but losing weight. If anything, you’ll at least get a laugh out of it.
In talking with friends and strangers over the year, I have seen the skepticism on their faces and heard it in their questions. I can offer only one man’s limited experience, one that is still in progress.
But in reshaping yourself, all I can suggest is that you try, and keep trying. You hold yourself accountable, or do it publicly and let the world hold you accountable. I made mistakes, but they weren’t fatal. When you screw up, keep going.
I never thought I’d be anything more than a 120-pound scrawny weakling. I imagined that as I got older, I might get paunchier at best. Instead, I have set myself on a lifelong journey to make me as vigorous and bulky as possible on a lazy course of action.
I hope you will chart your own course and smile whenever you look in the mirror, too.
•
August’s average workout time was 26 minutes and 18 seconds.
I averaged 2,144 calories a day in August. I also had 136 g protein a day on average.
The project has cost me $668.67 so far. I spent $12.25 more on food in August compared to previous monthly averages.
You can see all the numbers updated in real time on the Measurements page.
Day 364 – side
Day 1 vs. Day 365 – front
[Click image for a larger version.]
Day 1 vs. Day 365 – side
[Click image for a larger version.]
I believe in self-help.
I’ve worked on myself for a very long time. Project Bulk is easily the most visible, both in outward appearance and in sharing it online.
But I have spent years getting better at communication, relationships, finances, leadership, listening, diet, emotional health and physical health. I push myself forward all the time.
I can’t say why I do so. Ginny would argue that it’s the Tiger Mom in our heads that forces us to keep going beyond all reason.
It has served me well, keeping me from remaining in my comfort zone for too long. I like to tinker, to make things better, even if that thing is me.
I read books, I work with others, I practice, and I maintain an absurd level of dissatisfaction. I study, meditate, plan, work and repeat.
I’m not quite done. I’ll never be quite done.
I am forever a work in progress.
This will take some research, or some lazy crowdsourcing, but I’ve noticed an important thermostatic shift in my body in the past year of Project Bulk.
I’m hotter.
Not in the “I’m too sexy” sense, but in the body temperature sense.
When I started Sept. 1, the weather was getting cooler. What I noticed was that I wasn’t walking around the house freezing as lower temperatures settled in. As a skinny person, I used to bundle up because I felt cold all winter long (and I didn’t necessarily want the thermostat to be set at 85 degrees).
Winter temps didn’t get to me — I felt rather comfortable indoors and outdoors.
But summer has been even more telling.
Usually, I find a sweltering Alabama summer to hit the spot. I loved 90-degree days, and driving with the windows open, skipping the full-blast AC. The rare moments I would feel any sense of humidity is coming off a hot shower, and continuing to sweat even after toweling off and getting dressed.
Now that I’m 20 pounds heavier, I am sweating. I am sweaty. I am a faucet of perspiration. Summer has tried to wring me dry through my upper body and head.
No one told me I’d endure male menopause this year.
I am assuming that the change to my physiology has wrought this sweaty problem. I used to sweat profusely after working in the yard or running on the treadmill, naturally. But nowadays, I sweat in a T-shirt driving in my car, or sitting still on my couch.
I take comfort in that today marked an unusually cool day for August in Alabama, some 20 degrees lower than normal. Sweet relief.
But as my forehead glistens through the rest of summer, I wonder if I’ll ever be cool again.
Day 344 – front
Looking ahead to post-Project Bulk, I’m intrigued by the concept of “cheat day.”
I need to read up on this in “The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon | iTunes aff. links].
My days have been spent keeping on the straight and narrow of rigorous calorie counts and protein intake. Without it, I would’ve failed at gaining any weight.
But it can be tiring to monitor every bite, every meal nonstop.
In some of the weight loss chapters, I know author Tim Ferriss talks about cheat days, where once a week anything goes. I believe it’s to add some variety and fun to the diet, but for me, it could be a break from number crunching.
I have some reading to do on cheat days, as well as finding shortcuts to reducing fat. As I’ve mentioned before, while I’m satisfied with my muscular gain, I want to have a healthier body fat percentage. At last check in April, it was at a very unhealthy 26.7 percent.
While I’ve enjoyed the challenge of going a year straight in tracking my food consumption, I wouldn’t mind having Saturdays off in the near future.
Day 343 – side
Day 334 – front
| Measurement | Sept. 1 | July 31 | Change |
| Weight (pounds) | 121.8 | 139.0 | +17.2 |
| Body fat percentage | 23.5 | 26.7 [April 19] | +3.2 percentage pts. |
| Fat weight | 28.6 | 37.1 | +8.5 |
| Lean weight | 93.2 | 101.9 | +8.7 |
| Total inches | 113.6 | 124.5 | +10.9 |
•
| Exercise | Start* | July 31 | Change |
| Kettlebell swing | 32 x 20 lbs. | 57/18 x 50 lbs. | +150.0 percent |
| Myotatic crunch | 6.5 x 2.5 lbs. | 11.0 x 20 lbs. | +700.0 percent |
| Single-arm kettlebell swing | 25 x 15 lbs. | 9/10 x 35 lbs. | +133.3 percent |
| Isolateral dumbbell incline bench press | 2.4/3.0 x 30 lbs. | 0.3/1.2 x 40 lbs. | +33.3 percent |
| Yates row | 7.0 x 55 lbs. | 5.0 x 135 lbs. | +145.5 percent |
| Reverse drag curls | 6.0 x 25 lbs. | 2.2 x 55 lbs. | +120.0 percent |
*I started these exercises on different dates.
I have had ups and downs these 11 months. Each time I veered off course, I steered back to the middle.
I admire the paleo dieters and the CrossFit warriors. They are spending the time and money to reach their goals efficiently.
I am cheap and lazy. I like working out in my home, near my home office. I like figuring out the least possible amount to do and still make some kind of measurable progress.
In comparing notes with others who started working out in the past 11 months, I see their ups and downs. Ups in terms of visible success: pounds lost, muscles gained, stamina improved. Downs in terms of injuries, depression, setbacks, weight gain, binges, time crunches.
I took away my excuses. I like to eat. I like to measure. I can squeeze in 70 minutes of exercise a week. I don’t mind smelling like the gym in my own home.
I did the absolute bare minimum. It’s more than I did before, but not so much that my busy schedule can’t accommodate it.
I took each down and pushed myself back up. I believe I had strong self-discipline before Project Bulk, but this has renewed my faith in it.
And the end result has been many more ups than downs in these 11 months.
•
July’s average workout time was 25 minutes and 59 seconds, shorter than June and May.
I averaged 2,175 calories a day in July. I also had 133 g protein a day on average.
The project has cost me $541.98 so far. I spent $176.08 more on food in July compared to previous monthly averages.
You can see all the numbers updated in real time on the Measurements page.
Day 329 – side
Day 1 vs. Day 334 – front
[Click image for a larger version.]
Day 1 vs. Day 329 – side
[Click image for a larger version.]
For the first time in nearly 11 months, I missed a workout.
The streak is dead.
I knew it was likely to happen this week, the busiest week for me this year. I was in the throes of putting on a business conference, so I knew something would likely give. Even now late at night, I’m trying to catch up on protein and calories missed earlier in the week.
That isn’t to say I didn’t get exercise running around a convention facility keeping things moving along, but clearly it’s not the same.
Usually, my schedule is flexible enough to allow a day or two of leeway in working out. But I had to let this one go, with just having two workouts this week instead of the usual three.
Fortunately, I was able to slip right back into my routine. I could make up for a missed workout, but that defeats the purpose of doing the minimum. I can however eat my way back to 140 pounds.
At least I made it almost a year in my workout schedule.
We may be in a golden age of superhero movies. I didn’t grow up reading comic books, but I do enjoy the steady flow of Batman, Spider-Man, Superman and Avengers movies of this century.
However, the origin story is being beaten to death. “Man of Steel” fills in the backstory no one was clamoring for on the Kryptonian political battles. Spider-Man gave us two Peter Parker origin stories in only 10 years.
Even Bane had his origin story in “The Dark Knight Rises.” Do we care that much about the villain’s humble upbringing during a 2-hour action flick?
I mention all this to say that my own origin story needs work. I tend to forget the details on how puny I was starting out and how far I’ve come.
• Starting weight: 121.8 pounds. Now: 140.0 pounds, with 9.4 pounds of additional muscle and 8.8 pounds of additional fat.
• Wild swings in daily calorie intake at the start, gradually settling in to a strictly regulated amount.
• Poor accounting of protein intake, eventually corrected and on track.
• Fighting a lifetime of lactose intolerance, I have been drinking 3 cups of milk almost every day. I’ve gone through roughly 55 gallons so far. Most of the side effects are gone.
• Ten reps of cat vomit to 100 reps a week.
• For most lifts, I’ve doubled the weight since starting each routine.
I was boring a fellow party guest Thursday night with my updates, struggling to remember the names of the exercises I’ve done many times for months. It was a sloppy narrative with a bad finish.
Flabby, out of shape. I guess I need to tone up my origin story, too.
Day 316 – front
Each day, I wake up raring to do one thing.
Nothing.
I can be a lazy sack, and if not for the Tiger Mom voice in my head, I would be sprawled on the couch, eating chips and watching television every damn day.
Not working, not writing, not making calls, not going to meetings, not working out.
Nothing is very easy to accomplish and is often a part of our routines.
Doing something appears difficult and not worth the effort. Doing nothing is familiar.
Doing something can appear even more difficult when bombarded with choices. Experts, friends and family all have suggestions on the very best ways to get fit.
They’re all wrong. And more important, they’re all right.
My way of bulking up isn’t the best way. It may not even be the best way for me, though I’ve made changes throughout the past 300 days. But it has worked, and for me, that has kept me going. Even when I don’t want to work out at 11 p.m.
But you can get fit. It will probably not be easy at first, but change can be difficult. That’s why I enjoyed reading and using “The 4-Hour Body” [Amazon |iTunes aff. links], because it gives readers ways to combat backsliding:
Arnold Schwarzenegger commented on a Reddit Fitness thread on Friday, emphasizing that he wanted more people to start exercising, no matter which method they picked:
“Do me a favor. Try to focus more on expanding the fitness community as a whole than protecting your little corner of it.”
My inspiration has come from peers who went out and did their thing, even if each one had a completely different approach.
Inspire me: Do something.
Day 315 – side
I am not prone to mistakes. That’s the upside to being a nutty perfectionist.
So last week, when I passed out from exhaustion, I awoke to a horrifying realization: I skipped my protein shake. Oops.
I have skipped the shake on many days, but always made up for it with extra food. Now, I was in the hole by 83g of protein and some 1,400 calories.
Usually, when I miss my daily targets, it is by minuscule amounts. This was the first time in nearly 300 days that I had come up short.
It took 4 days to make up the deficiency. I just couldn’t let it go until I got it to average out.
I am a slave to the numbers. Keeping a daily record of my diet has been one of the key factors in Project Bulk, the other being regular workouts of increasing intensity.
All mistakes can be fixed. Some simply take longer to correct than others.
