r/fitness30plus

M/41/6’1” 285lbs to 179lbs over 19 months.

Regimen:

Cycling between cutting and maintenance to ensure muscle growth / retention while losing fat.

Metrics:
I measured my strength, waist, weight, daily steps, mood, sleep, resting heart rate, caloric intake and macros. If I noticed I was losing weight, waist was shrinking and my strength was going up, I continued cutting. Once my strength started to dip, or my recovery was suffering, I would swap to maintenance x 4 weeks before resuming the cut. I could cut roughly for 3-4 months then 1 month maintenance, rinse and repeat.

Calories / macros
Cut: 2100 calories, 185g+ protein, 50g fat, rest into carbs
Maintenance: 2700 calories, 185g+ protein, 50g fat, rest into carbs

Routine: workout 6x weekly, 9-10k steps daily, no cardio
- Push
- Pull
- Upper A
- Legs
- Upper B
- Abs
- Rest

Rep ranges: 8-12

Stack:
Multivitamin
Legion pre-post workout (with creatine)
Fish oil
Zepbound 15mg every 10 days

Im finishing up my final cut phase over the next few weeks to try and remove as much of the remaining stubborn lower fat before transition ton maintenance x 3 months, followed by my first lean bulk phase this fall.

Being a dad with a full time job and business I fell into a less than ideal pattern of eating whatever, inconsistent training, not prioritizing good sleep and recovery.

Finally end of last summer I just said enough is enough and locked in. It hasn’t been a linear path but I have a much better baseline now and all around feel amazing compared to the first photo.

I’ve had considerable experience in training in various modalities throughout my teenage years and 20s so muscle memory helps a lot.

Training:

Training of varying intensity with minimalist tools like calisthenics, bands, isometrics and kettlebells, all done at home.

In the winter I was doing more strength and hypertrophy days usually full body days or upper lower splits.

Right now trying to lean out more so I do 1-2 high strength days per week, rest is more moderate circuit work. The some light days. I train daily for the most part.

Higher intensity strength would be weighted dips with like 110lbs on belt and pull-ups with 60lbs or so, around 5-8 rep range and Bulgarian split squats holding 90lbs as kettlebells, maybe with an added band around my body

Lower intensity some high rep band work, just using bands alone full body combined with isometrics with a strap I’m designing. Or some general full body movement with a steel mace.

For circuits I’ll pick something like bodyweight feet elevated pushups on parallettes, pull-ups, kettlebell swings, banded rotation chops, and do that for 5-6 rounds, usually ends up being like 20 - 30 min workout and feels amazing after.

Diet:

Aiming for 1g/lb protein with eggs and leaner steak as main drivers, also focusing on nutrient dense and high polyphenol foods so I'll eat greens like arugula, avocado, sardines, some beef liver, high quality olive oil, berries, oranges/kiwis, fermented foods like kimchi, sauerkraut, yogurt, kefir.

Almost no ultra processed foods and zero alcohol.

Typical day: 8am - 5 eggs, kimchi, green tea 9am - Coffee with some cream and honey 10am - Cocoa drink with some milk and honey + beet juice + collagen and lemon (Preworkout for blood flow and collagen and lemon for connective tissue)

around 1-2pm my biggest meal - 1ish lb lean steak (sirloin tip usually as its cheaper), avocado, greens, fermented veggies, sometimes sardines or beef liver, salmon occasionally as well. Once a week or two I like to roast and slow cook ox tail, lambshank and bones together for broth and that gelatinous meat to help more with connective tissue.

Then optional snack in the evening around 5-6pm yogurt + berries and maybe some pumpkin seeds, wallnuts, plus some dark chocolate.

That's sort of a perfect day, sometimes less strict, but if I start to drift too much I just hone it in again.

I started working out for the first time since highschool a year ago and what a fantastic ride it has been! From slowly building my dumbbell home gym to calorie counting to cardio to meal prep, every month I just learned more and more and changed my lifestyle steadily. Health and fitness is honestly just like leveling my World of Warcraft characters xD

I didn't stick to any sort of plan for a while as I wanted to try everything out first but ended up on PPL twice a week on a very lean bulk for 6 months and then cut for 2 months with 5+ miles jogging almost daily before the photo. Counted my calories, hit my protein, ate healthy, and stayed very active! I can't wait for the next 12 months, going to try to actually build some significant muscle mass, if possible!

I cook my own chicken breast, lean ground beef, haddock, salmon - white rice, sweet potato, baked potato - broccoli, asparagus, peas, corn, carrots, sugar snap peas - lemon, ketchup, hot sauce for added flavor - sometimes a turkey sandwich on wheat/rye with pickles and quest protein chips

I'm 5'11", fully natural all my life (currently I supplement generic allergy medicine, multivitamins, creatine, chia seeds, and hemp seeds), ate very very poorly until now, work as a cook so that was my exercise all my life but played video games during ALL of my free time. Recently I tried out skydiving, indoor rock climbing, and mountain hiking and love them all a lot! Cannot wait for what the future holds!!!!

My butt flattened like a pancake during pregnancy. I’m 9mo pp and 5 months into my very consistent strength training routine. I’ve seen great gains posterior wise and it’s no longer flat as it was, but my butt is soooo square still.

I hit Lower body 2x per week and have a dedicated glute day.

Any advice is much appreciated

Bulked from November to mid April. M36 5’7”. Started at 170lbs and got all the way up to 212lbs at my heaviest. Held maintenance for about 3 weeks. Now about 4 weeks into a cut. Currently sitting at 195.2lbs and already seeing hints of abs. The bulk wasn’t perfect but results are better than I thought. Aiming for 180-185lbs lean.

Disclaimer: enhanced

1st 2 pictures was pre bulk (170lbs). The rest are current weight (195.2lbs)

Bulk macros
250p
550c
60f

Bulk Training split
Mon- Chest
Tue- Back
Wed- shoulders
Thurs- Arms
Fri-legs

Daily zone 2 cardio 20-30 minutes

Cut macros
300p
200c
60f

Cut split
PPLPP
Lower volume more frequency to change things up

For the past year, I’ve been prioritizing strength training, as I’ve always wanted that “deep back line” and a muscular back in general. The other day, I decided to record myself doing a lat pull down to compare to another video from a year before. I was stunned by my progress so far!

For those curious, my back routine includes:
* Lat pulldowns (of course)
* Seated cable row
* Barbell deadlifts
* Reverse fly
* Cable rope pulls
* Straight arm lat pushdown

I go to the gym 4-5 days a week, doing 20 minutes of Zone 2 cardio followed by 45-60 minutes of strength training.

Any other lat exercises I should add? Always looking for new exercises to change it up!

Edit: Typo

I sorta accidentally gained 20 lbs in 6 weeks trying to do a “controlled bulk” after losing a ton of weight in 2025, and it honestly messed with my head way more than I expected.

For context:

43 years old

Went from 200 lbs down to 167 last year

Used a GLP-1 during the weight loss phase

Kept lifting 4x/week throughout

Decided to test whether I could maintain/build without the medication. So on January 1st, I came off the GLP-1 completely and started a lean-ish bulk:

3300 calories/day

200g protein

400g carbs

lifting 4x/week

Peloton cardio every morning

The plan was to gain 8 lbs in 8 weeks. Hopefully 2–3 lbs of muscle, then cut back down and end up leaner and stronger overall.

Instead, by February 10th, I weighed 187 lbs. Up TWENTY. At first I genuinely thought I had completely screwed up my entire transformation.

However the performance in the gym was unbelievable-

strength exploded, energy was insane, muscles looked fuller constantly, and recovery improved dramatically.

But are the same timeabs disappeared fast and I looked noticeably softer. Mentally I was spiraling a little watching the scale climb. What I underestimated was how aggressively my body would hold glycogen and water after living in a caloric deficit for most of the previous year.

I know now that a big chunk of that weight was not fat tissue, but psychologically it still felt terrible watching the scale jump that fast.

By Valentine’s Day I pulled the plug and started cutting early because I no longer trusted the original plan.

Curious if other people who’ve done a real bulk after a long cut phase experienced the same thing psychologically.

Because honestly, the physical part was easy. Watching myself get softer again after working so hard to get lean was the hard part.

Not many to share this with so sharing with my old homies.

I'm 42M and within 4 months able to get these strength gains. I'm very proud of the results and just joined the 250lb gang in my lifts! New goal 315 gang!!

Had a month off for a neck injury otherwise all consistent 3 days a week routine.

I avoided deadlift unfortunately due to core issues(diastasis recti) but otherwise pretty standard stuff.

Diet 0.8-1g protein of body weight daily. And doing maintenance mode for calories roughly 2300-2500

Started a slow cut in January and made a lot of mistakes. I initially didn't track foods and increased my step count. I saw some progress then tried intermittent fasting. I still didn't track but began gaining weight due to binge eating during food window. Now I use myfitnesspal and track foods. I lift 2-3 times per week and incline walk on treadmill 5-7 times per week 10-15k steps. I'm still going and sleep is hard to come by with a toddler.

Bulked for all of 2025 to get to a weight PR of 180. Roughly 2800-3k cals a day with 1-1 lbs to gram of protein. Then filled the rest with mostly carbs and some fats. Stuck with the same PPL routine the whole year to track progressive overload, made some decent strength gains. Started cut back at the end of January and took it pretty slow. Generally 1800-2200 cals a day, again 1-1 lbs to protein. The original goal was to get to 160 but I just can't without drastic calorie reduction at this point. Still running a PPL routine, but lowered weight for some compound movements.

Going to maintain this for summer and then decide if I've got one more bulk left in me.

In full transparency mid 30s and been cycling gear the past decade or so. For the past 4-5 years I've just been on TRT almost exclusively and a lot of that time deprioritized training and diet.

This year decided I was sick of looking like a washed out middle aged gymcel and decided to get serious again. Diet, training, supplementation all back on point.

I cut down from around 195-200 lbs and a very inflamed and somewhat out of shape 16-18% bodyfat in my before pic (taken in late December) to a lean 177. Since then I've been on a leaner bulk/recomp and currently sitting around 185 lbs and 9-10% bodyfat.

Training:

Ive always trained pretty high intensity. I used to do a lot of heavy power lifting style training in my 20s. These days my training follows more of a bodybuilding approach mostly though.

I still go as heavy as possible but tend to be in a higher rep range (8-20+ depending on exercise) and I incorporate a lot more machines rather than a high focus on heavy free weight compound lifts. I still do free weights but it tends to be focused around higher reps and more mind muscle connection rather than just lifting the most weight I can now.

My training is generally 3 days on 1 day off and I'll do chest/arms, legs, back/delts with some light cardio/tennis or mobility work on my off days.

Diet and supplements:

My diet has been pretty terrible the past few years. This year me and my wife have made an effort to start cooking more rather than ordering Uber eats all the time. I've also been focusing on fixing my gut health with daily kefir and high fiber intake which I think has helped my overall bloat and inflammation.

I still don't follow a very strict diet but eat more intuitively. I am pretty good at estimating my caloric intake and will tend to aim for 2000-2500 calories with at least 150g of protein. Trying to eat more whole foods and fruit rather than filling up on processed junk. I'll do a refeed day with higher calories once a week.

This has been what I've been following to lean out, my maintenance calorie intake is probably around 3000.

Supplement wise, I've been running a lot as I've been focused on not only improving my body but my overall health this year. Especially anything that can help with mitochondrial health and efficency. Some of the staples though are

Thorne multivitamin (hit all basic nutrients, especially b vitamins)

Vitamin d3/k2

NMN/TMG for NAD+ production

NAC/Collagen peptides for Glutathione production and reduced inflammation

Magnesium glycinate

Omega 3s

Urolithin A, Ubiquinol and PQQ for mitochondrial support

Creatine/Taurine for gym performance

Besides that here's what I've been running in terms of gear and peptide use:

200 mg test (no need for more, I'm a high responder)

25 mg var cycled 6 weeks on 6 weeks off

Titrated up to 4 mg reta

Mots c 3x/week 5-10 mg (cycled) for mitochondrial efficiency

SLU (cycled) for same as above

Klow for joint and tendon health

3 iu HGH (added in March)

The goal right now is to continue working off the last bit of fat I have and see how shredded I can actually get. The only other time I've been this lean was briefly in my mid 20s so I want to see if I can push it even further.

After that, the long term goal is to slowly put on a little more size while keeping bodyfat 10-11% max. Getting lean has been great for my mental and physical health and I feel holistically I'm in the best shape I ever have been. Don't want to fall back into the lazy habits I formed over the last few years. Especially as I keep getting older I think it's even more important to keep fitness, health, and diet as top priorities in my life.

Happy to answer any questions about training, diet, gear, peptides, supplementation, etc..

Got a bit bread happy on my most recent bulk in the pursuit of strength 🤣
Male
6”1
34
Compounds/peps used
Reta, tesa and mots-c from newgen labs
300mg test a week
I’m not interested if you don’t like peps or test im happy for you
For me they where a game changer
Food wise calories was on 6000 now 2800 per day
Train 5 days a week mainly to failure
Cardio I don’t incorporate much as I’m quite active with work anyway
Eat clean
Chicken, rice, sweet potato, berry shakes, steak eggs and mince meat pretty much the same everyday bar weekends
Pros are insane and helped me continue with increasing strength but also eating a relatively large amount without the gain in fat
Managed to not only retain strength, but increase to new pbs
111kg Feb 2026
96kg may 2026

505 x 1.5 & 1. Heaviest pulls I've done on this bar.

385 x 6 deficit pulls!