· weightlifting · 9 min read
The Ruminations Of An Aussie Trying To Get Shredded
By February I had figured out that Red Rooster did delivery, and I began ordering absolutely chaotic amounts of food, several times a week, sometimes twice a day. I’m talking 5000+ calorie days multiple times a week without the muscle mass or training regimen to even remotely justify it.
My Story Starts In December of 2016
I had just finished high school in December of 2016. With no plans to go to university, I applied for any and all jobs that had entry level openings. One of which was an apprenticeship at the local Bakers Delight.
After smoking everyone else in the group interview by doing what I thought was the bare minimum, I started my trial period and was signed up as an apprentice shortly after.
Something worth mentioning is that I didn’t have a job at any point throughout high school, and I lived at home, so my parents paid for everything. Food, utilities, you name it.
This apprenticeship was the first time I had my own money coming in, so I hadn’t developed any financial discipline at this point.
Where The Problem Begins…
If you’re not built for shift work, you quickly find out that it’s a rough way of life. The hours are abhorrent, your sleep schedule is cooked, and you spend a lot of time outside of work alone because you’re at home while your family are working.
So quite often I found myself alone, bored, and with a lot of disposable income for an 18 year old with no bills or responsibilities.
By February I had figured out that Red Rooster did delivery, and I began ordering absolutely chaotic amounts of food, several times a week, sometimes twice a day. I’m talking 5000+ calorie days multiple times a week without the muscle mass or training regimen to even remotely justify it.
In plain English, I developed a binge eating disorder out of sheer boredom.
To me it was normal to eat that amount of food in one sitting, as I wasn’t eating with friends or family (eating at the dinner table never was a thing unless my grandparents came over) so I had nobody to check me.
Despite eating all of these calories, I managed to remain fairly lean as I was walking for 9~ hours a day at the bakery, likely clocking in 30k steps minimum 6 days a week.
Not long after I discovered Red Rooster did delivery, I also started getting Dominos delivered.
Finally, Uber Eats went live in Perth around this time, giving me access to every fast food chain in my area.
This habit of eating a lot of fast food continued all the way through from 2017 to the start of 2020.
New Year, New Me
I qualified as a baker in November of 2019, and quit in January 2020. I figured I’d grinded for 3 years to complete a qualification for a safety net trade, and I’d reward myself by beginning a diploma of music.
By the end of February, several countries were in lockdown and rumours about Australia going into lockdown were becoming more feasible by the day. Our lecturers assured us that it was unlikely that we would go into lockdown as we had very few cases at the time.
So Anyways We Went Into Lockdown
Yep, an 8-week lockdown. Other countries still laugh at us for this, and rightly so. But that’s a story for another time.
New Environments, Old Habits
Despite being stuck at home for 8 weeks straight, I was still eating mostly the same way as I was when I was working at the bakery, now with maybe 5% of the daily step count.
In July 2020, I started a new job where I still work to this day. I was already fairly chunky by this point, but I was getting more steps in as I was walking to work from Tafe, averaging maybe 10k steps a day, maybe 15k.
I was making even more money at this job, and being in the city, I had burger shops, cafes and more within walking distance, so I continued eating like a child.
Moving Out Of Home
In October 2021, me and some friends moved out of home and rented a place together which was 15 minutes from the city. Living out of home for the first time felt similar to having my first job and making my own money; it gave me even more of a sense of freedom.
Surprise, surprise; we ate like shit.
Maccas, Dominoes, KFC, entire pints of Ben and Jerry’s in a single sitting, most days of the week. It was truly a case of us being too lazy to cook, and Uber Eats being convenient enough to justify the marked up prices, delivery, and service fees.
It was appalling, but to us it was normal.
Hitting Rock Bottom
At the end of 2022, our company had a photoshoot. We’d had a bunch of new staff join, and a few people leave, so we needed to update the photos on our website.
When I saw how round my face was, I was disgusted.
“How am I the fat cunt in that photo?” I thought to myself.
I had a major ear operation in December of 2022, and once I was fully recovered by February 2023 I got myself a smart scale to assess the damage.
Height: 5’7” Weight: 84kg Body Fat %: 30%
What. the. Fuck.
This was enough to inspire me to start meal prepping and tracking calories, but I wasn’t going hard enough because I didn’t know how hard to push myself.
The Transformation Process
At the end of June I found an online coaching company based in Australia, and I hopped on board their program.
Between July and December, I dropped from 30% body fat to 13% body fat. It was a process of training to failure 4 days a week (5 days in the later training blocks), eating progressively lower and lower calories, and doing several cardio sessions a week.
It pushed me to my absolute limits, but it was an enjoyable ride overall.
I left the program in February as finances got tight with the prospect of another potential corrective operation on that ear I mentioned previously.
Post-Diet Rebound
Again I found myself with a binge eating disorder, but this time it was a much darker type. My hunger signalling was completely fried after dieting down for so long. My appetite at this point could only be described as animalistic, feral even.
I told myself that I was going to reverse diet back up to maintenance calories, but I ended up having several cheat days where I ate 5000-6000 calories.
In an attempt to figure out what the fuck was going on, I started watching a ton of videos from fitness influencers and professional bodybuilders alike all saying they experienced a similar post-diet/post-show rebound.
So I knew I wasn’t alone in this, which was a relief.
By the end of February I found myself at 19% body fat.
Where We’re At Now And My Current Routine
At the time of writing, I’ve come back down to 18% body fat, and my hunger signalling is healed, and my relationship with food is at a level I would consider healthy.
My current routine isn’t all that different to my previous diet routine. It looks like:
- Running another mini cut to get back down to 15% body fat
- Training 4 days a week, PPLA split (4th day for shoulders and arms)
- Eating 5 times per day
Typical Week of Eating
Pre-Workout Snack: Cereal, or 2 LCMs bars (Rice Krispy bars in the US)
Breakfast: Eggs, or Greek Yoghurt with blueberries and a scoop of whey protein
Lunch: Beef mince, white rice, and black beans
Dinner: Chicken breast, white rice, and black beans
Dessert: Greek yoghurt, blueberries, and macadamia nuts (unless I had eggs for breakfast).
The core of my diet revolves around fruit, white rice, eggs, greek yoghurt, chicken, beef, and beans. A good blend of high–protein foods, healthy fats, and fibre.
Typical Week of Training
Monday: Push Tuesday: Pull Thursday: Legs Friday: Shoulders and Arms
All training is tracked with none other than MyLiftLog of course!
Future Plans
Once I’m back down to 15% body fat I’ll assess where I’m at mentally and figure out if my diet fatigue is low enough that I can try to push for 10% body fat.
I’d like to see how I respond to eating at maintenance at 10% body fat and seeing how my sleep, hormones, mood, etc., are.
By the time I was at 13% body fat during the diet, I was a miserable sleepless zombie. I rebounded too quickly away from 13% post-diet, so I don’t have a reference for maintenance at that body fat.
What Keeps Me Motivated Going Forward
Part of my decision to go through the initial physique transformation was to become a better dating prospect. It didn’t seem fair to me that I would reject overweight women whilst being extremely overweight myself. Pretty standard stuff for a guy in his mid-20’s.
Nowadays I have a few reasons for continuing to train and be mindful of what I eat:
The Fear Of Becoming What I Used To Be
I do not want to become a fat fuck again. People treat me better, I’m more confident than ever, and I have more energy not carrying around an extra 20kg.
Becoming A Jacked Dad On X
I love the message that guys like The Dad Aesthetic and BowTiedDad put out: Be a jacked Dad to be a good role model for your kids, be desirable for your wife, and mog other dads at your kids sporting events.
The mogging other dads part is a bit of banter, but is a lot of truth to it. The overall idea of being a fit role model for your family and community aligns with my personal philosophy on how men should develop themselves for the betterment of society, and I want to make sure I do my part.
It’s Routine Now, And I Enjoy It
Simple as that. I’ve trained 4-5 days a week for almost a year now and it’s become part of my routine and identity. I don’t wake up thinking “am I going to the gym today?”.
I wake up and check the scheduled workout for the day in MyLiftLog to remind myself of what weight/reps I need to do that morning to beat last week’s logbook entries.
Some weeks I may add an extra rest day if I’ve tweaked something, but over a 7-day period I’ll always hit 4 workouts per week.
That’s All For Now!
I’d like to thank Isaac for the opportunity to write this article.
Relative to a lot of the guys in the Wi-Fi Money/Bodybuilding intersection of X, I’m super fresh. I’ve been lifting seriously for just under a year now, so my physique still has a long way to go.
For those of you reading this who have been lifting for years and are peeled: I hope this was an entertaining read, and thank you for being an inspiration to me.
For those of you reading this who are new to lifting ( with as little ego as possible to make a statement like this): I hope this inspires you to stick to your programs and learn to love the process of training and nutrition.
For everyone: WAGMI
Yours Truly,
Jakeb Munn
