Before stats... Height: 6' Weight: 240 lbs Waist 40" Arms 15" Thighs: 30"+ Calves: 17" Chest: 43"

After stats: Height: 6'1" Weight: 169 lbs Waist 29" Arms 14" Thighs: 23" Calves: 16" Chest: 40"

I've been reading around on bodybuilding.com for some time, and through it all, one thing always stuck out at me. It seemed as if the site was almost made by ectomorphs, for ectomorphs. Nearly all articles are written by people who were scrawny little kids wishing to put on muscle who could never gain weight no matter what, and any searches on my part to find stories by the fat kids were usually in vain.

My Way

So I figured I'd change that a little, write my articles, and hopefully give a little help to the more portly of us out there. And I figured I'd start out with an article that tells you all who I am, where I've been, and where I'm going.

That chunky kid in school, the one who couldn't even lift up off the ground to climb the rope, the kid who got winded during the first lap of the mile, the kid who stayed home sick on fitness day, the kid EVERYONE picked on during 'Duck Duck Goose.' That was me. From the beginning of my life, I was pretty big. On top of that, I was athsmatic as a young kid, so getting fit was hard.

I played little league baseball, but anyone who's been there can tell you quite easily. At age 6 I was around 100 pounds. By the time I was 12 I was nearly 180, and 5-foot-2. The 'slim' to 'normal' sizes in the jeans area of the store were not for me. I was husky all my life, as my mom put it. I did football, helped get me into shape, sort of, then wrestling. Wrestling got me down to around 155 pounds at 5-foot-10 so that was good, but then I quit sports entirely. Mostly because I wasn't any good, really. My body responded horribly to not excercising.

I ballooned up to a monstrous 240 pounds only two years later, standing around 6-foot even, the last 70 pounds of that happened within a year. I had a 40inch waist, stretch marks, and nearly NO muscle whatsoever, since my fat had come so quickly that I didn't get the benefit this time of fat guy muscle. I was a miserable wreck, and had no idea what to do with myself.

A Change of Heart

Enter the solution, or so I thought: Subway diet. I did that and actually lost 30 pounds. I ate two meals a day. One 6-inch turkey sub with nothing on it, and a small dinner. I did cardio like a madman, not leaving until I burned at least 1000 cals, but only eating around 900 per day.

My amazement with weight loss and diet quickly turned into anorexia. During school I didn't eat at all, and avoided dinner when possible. At the age of 16, standing 6-foot-1 tall, I weighed a gaunt 150 pounds. I hardly ever ate.

I didn't sleep more than 3 hours per night, because I refused to let myself go to sleep until my stomach was growling. I was only happy when I was hungry. I started getting dizzy spells, I had to go to the doctor, my body was disintegrating. I didn't care though, because in my mind I had to options: live life as a big fat-ass, or die skinny. I was more than happy to choose the latter.

My dad had an idea though. He had bought an olympic bench and suggested I try it, which I did. To my amazement I could bench 155! I didn't believe it considering my health. After a few weeks we had the bench press gym contest, and I got up 175. I was in awe of myself. I immediately started benching and curling every single day, but quickly tired of it. I got a little more fat on me at this time, not much, but I was terrified that I was getting fat as I always had done before without activity.

I was afraid of food, being a binger in diet. Then I stumbled across bodybuilding.com. It had big guys, HUGE guys, and I saw what I wanted to be. The one thing I missed from being fat was being intimidating. I had my goal in life. I read every single article I could find, bought magazines, read the message boards, and reluctantly discovered I had to eat again. Six meals a day seemed impossible, but I decided I had to, and started on my journey.

The Good Way

I bought clean foods, and started eating again, getting myself protein powder, and a 4-day per week training split. The weight started to go up, and to my amazement, my bodyfat went down. It's been three months, and I've gained at least 20 pounds of lean mass, and lost a few in fat, my waist is even a little smaller.

Bodybuilding (mostly bodybuilding.com) has saved my life. I knew I would have starved to death by choice without it. I never in my life thought I could avoid my history of being fat. I keep pictures of myself at my peaks (both fat and skinny) for inspiration. It is a constant reminder of what I used to be, and what I can never let myself become again. It also tells me one thing, if I can do it, so can anyone else.

If you're a little heftier around the midsection, don't get discouraged by all the articles by hardgainers complaining that they can't gain weight, there's always hope, and I'm (againts all odds) living proof. Be sure to check my articles every so often, I'll be laying out my dieting techniques, training methods, product reviews, any other kind of reviews, and little tips and tricks I've discovered along the way.

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Until next time,

ratpac03@charter.net