I’m doing my first diet. I’m 21 years old. I plan on competing in a bodybuilding show in the next year. I’m worried that I don’t have enough quality mass yet to diet down and cut. Any help on weak points and tips?
Need more information about your body and the type of competition you want to do. Also you need a picture where the lighting doesn’t manipulate your definition so much, and back pics.
[quote]tuttle wrote:
Also you need a picture where the lighting doesn’t manipulate your definition so much, and back pics.[/quote]
Spot on. OP, if your goal is make your current physique look as good as possible, then the sort of photo you posted–severe overhead lighting, thighs covered, standing relatively far from the camera–is exactly what you should do. However, if your goal is to get specific feedback concerning your strengths, weaknesses, and potential, you should post the opposite sort of pics–that is, brightly lit from the front (use a flash if necessary), thighs exposed, and close enough to the camera so that you fill the frame.
Posting proper pics is very hard on the ego, because they expose one’s flaws for the whole world to see. But if you truly want useful feedback, it’s what you have to do.
I agree I do need better pictures. These pictures are the only ones I have right now due to me working out by myself after the gym closes. Ill update in a week with some better ones
A couple more pictures of where I stand. 3 weeks into diet it’s been a slow approach at first just to get the body started.
Still need back and legs, likely side pics too, also how tall are you and what do you weigh?
I will get some side shots tomorrow or Tuesday. I am 5 foot 10 (barely) 200-205 is where I usually stay around
Looks like you’ve got quite a bit of fat to shed, but most on here would encourage competing, I think. You can tell you’ve got some muscle under there. My suggestion would be to go ahead and start cutting and see where it takes you. There’s no harm in that. You don’t need to be walking around with that much fat in the first place.
If you cut a bit now, you’ll be in a better place to pack on additional muscle moving forward. I’d try to get down into the 10% range or so and see how things look. Maybe get to the level my own picture is at. That’s not near contest level, but it’s close enough to give a reasonable impression of what stage-ready would end up looking like. You can make a better decision from there.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Looks like you’ve got quite a bit of fat to shed, but most on here would encourage competing, I think. You can tell you’ve got some muscle under there. My suggestion would be to go ahead and start cutting and see where it takes you. There’s no harm in that. You don’t need to be walking around with that much fat in the first place.
If you cut a bit now, you’ll be in a better place to pack on additional muscle moving forward. I’d try to get down into the 10% range or so and see how things look. Maybe get to the level my own picture is at. That’s not near contest level, but it’s close enough to give a reasonable impression of what stage-ready would end up looking like. You can make a better decision from there.[/quote]
X2.
It’s also kind of hard to tell what your weak points are unless you’re fairly lean.
I agree my goal is around 10-11 percent. I had it tested its at 17 now. I’m been on a bulk for a couple of years. I was a hard gainer (graduated high school at 152 pounds) and now the years of eating mass amounts of food caught up to me
[quote]bbaker1943 wrote:
I agree my goal is around 10-11 percent. I had it tested its at 17 now. I’m been on a bulk for a couple of years. I was a hard gainer (graduated high school at 152 pounds) and now the years of eating mass amounts of food caught up to me [/quote]
lol. I was 25 lbs less than that at the same height when I graduated high school. I’m pretty sure I’ve got an old picture from back then in my rate my physique thread.
So far diet has been going pretty well. (For it being my first diet lol) . Stomach is down two inches. Weight is down from 205 to 194. I stopped creative so I would say majority of weight is water. Only on week 4 so I still have a ton of time. I’ll update with pictures in a couple weeks to see if any one had any tricks or tips