You are looking great! Can you definitely give us yur macro breakdown?

and for natural gains, they will come quick. You should see results in about a month easy man!!

Lets see those macros!

Matthew,

You look great. Leaner than before. Just keep at it and in 3-4 more months you will be noticeably leaner and defined. Remember that the onion thin skin you see on many bodybuilders and fitness models is the result of taking GH and other drugs like diuretics. It is normal to be able to pinch a sizeable amount of skin. The thickness of the skin is what matters.

John

Nice man! I think you are looking leaner and more defined!

Hard work pays off! #HTH

You don't look bad at all. you can even see the lower hip definition below the abs. You don't have too much of a pouch going on either.

When you bulk you might always keep a tad fat in the skin. It#s all about not having it go overboard.

The Models - as John already said, are mostly having a cutting run, often with diarrhetic medicaments and other really unhelathy methods. To get all water out of their body and cut down extremely to loose some % of last fat. This is not how they run around 24/7 of the year and also not how they look when they try to put on some muscles with a slight bulk.

Food will always bring water into your body which is also kekp partially in the skin and around the belly and hips, as well as fat. You need to keep it in the right amount and not let it go overboard, so you can basically stay at where you are now and build muscles on that.

And as john also already said, if you keep going the fatlayer will become thinner, the muscles more visible and all is good. Just really have to keep an eye on your diet and also make sure you aren't overeating because you maybe don't really actually have enough volume or stress produced to *use* those calories that you eat =)

Matthew,

You don't have any body disorders and you are doing fine. When you shake your arms, unless you are flexing them the muscles will "flap" which looks like it is the skin when in fact it isn't :-)

Don't be too hard on yourself. Considering over 50% of the U.S. population is obese I would say you are in a league above them.

John

Hey :) no problem, anytime! you are very welcome!

to answer your other question:

quote: "When you say the water is stored in those areas, as you "release" throughout the day, does that not mean we are releasing that water consumption?"

not completely no. Water cycles through our system and the body needs it in many spots, in the muscles, in your blood, skin, your brain, and it's vital to us, so it's being stored to 'serve' you at any possible time.

As weird as it migth sound, when you don#t drink much, water retension also happens. The body stores it as it thinks you are dehydrating and doesn't know when the next water will come. So when you drink a healthy amount of water per day this can actually also help the body to let go of some of it.

Some things like carbs also lead to water storage in the body, simply because it needs it to process said carbs / sugars. And that's just natural.

So the more healthy you live and the more you give your body what it needs, the more "relaxed" it becomes with it's storage behaviour. (Just like it doesn't need to store much fat anymore when you eat the right amount, instead of starving half of the time like many people and then wodnering why they keep fat storage and become so called 'skinny fat')

Interesting article about retaining water here: http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water_health/health1/1-stop-retaining-water-by-drinking-more-page2.htm

So you see even with "releasing" (peeing) you don't flush it all out - which should answer that question.

Just go on and everything will be falling in place on it's own - and when in doubt we all are here ! :)

Hi Matthew, you are looking great and the gains are coming!

I won't repeat what others have stated, since you've already received great answers! However, I noticed the part on cravings - Rarely buying snacks takes away temptation and the odd “cheat meal” is fine assuming it increases focus to maintain the lifestyle overall – when dining out opt for grilled or boiled instead of fried.

Read labels to check nutrient content. And replace a sweet tooth with healthier alternate cravings, or make them using protein powder and moniter ingredients. If you need a sweetener honey, molasses, carob or high cocoa are better, but I recommend it kept to a minimum. As insulin sensitivity increases, less sweet tastes seem that much sweeter. Fructose from fruits or low sugar smoothies has other nutrients, and fibre slows absorption and blunts insulin spikes.

Mind over matter: To reduce a craving imagine how you feel eating too much – depending on focus, this can be vivid and satisfy hunger to the point you’d feel sick to “eat another”. You can also do the opposite, where say eating plain Greek yoghurt and have a sugar craving – Simply add fruit and fiber bran flakes to allow your mind to imagine the raisons as chewy toffee to mentally satisfy a craving whilst you eat healthily.

In the end occasionally is fine, but overall do you prefer short-term satisfaction or long-term reward?

Hi mate

You've got some great tips and advice from some really great people above, but I just wanted to say that you're looking great. You should be really pleased with yourself and you should look forward to even more progress and gains as long as you keep your focus on what your goals are!

Well done and keep it up!

Cheers

I have my coffee every morning after I workout and not before I workout and it usually consists of 3-4 cups with a tbsp of french vanilla in it.  <-- i assume you meant 3-4 spoons??

3-4 cups is defenitally overboard. Recommended 'healthy' max per day is 1-2 cups.

Have a few really good documentaries on that matter that will open your eyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxPMgTPfzT0 (<-- really good documentation)

and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OecTZBjFvw (part 1 ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qncmE7O7wg4 (part 2)

Caffeine makes addicted, and has also health risks when not consumed within reason.

Putting on weight can be one, due to stress on the system, water retension and hormonal distribution by the brain as result to drinking coffee.

Don't get me wrong i enjoy my 1-2 cups per day as well. But that's the absolute max - and some days none at all.#

Scott's video was about the fact that some people have a genetic tendency to react even stronger than the rest, and have an even higher risk to react to caffeine that way, and might even put on weight. If you are falling into that category - probably only a gene test or closely watching yourself ( how are you when being weeks without coffe, and how do you look 'with' coffe - but that needs several weeks to see any differences).

If you drink that much coffee, first step - no matter the genetics - drop that amount. You are making your brain and body addicted and reliant on a substance, which makes you feel bad when not having, and you want to feel good on your own - and not depend on a substance :)

For the cravings.. as Dave already said..

this is (just as with quitting coffe too) mind over matter. And on top of that: the less you cheat the less cravings you will have.

If you are in a carbohydrate cut. Certain cravings are normal - but can end when the carbs are low enough - for many sugar cravings only start when you eat too many carbs. So you could try to lower them a tad more (depending on how low they are in your cut)

Having other addictive substances in your live - such as caffeine - can also increase your general issues with other cravings and addictions (and yes sugar is an addiction for the brain too - and it needs about 2 month to be rewired with absence of any refined sugars)

I have learned from my self the following things:

- once i stopped eating refined sugars all the cravings stopped - it took me 14 days to get over the main addiction - and about 2 month until my system adapted and i didn't even think of choclate or cola anymore. It even felt very artificial and not good when i consumed some.

- once i stopped eating cheatmeals, and interrupting - by doing those cheats - the actual process of getting 'away' from such foods (its like with alkohol - drink one drop again - and the whole withdrawal process starts from the beginning) - i finally stopped craving them as well.

and your body adapts to healthy food the same way and even better. In the end you feel even somewhat terrible after gulping down a fastfood burger.

But yes, invest some time and willpower - get over it - and you are "free"!

PS a little tip that helped me: everytime when cravings appeared i went to make me a cup of tea (unsweetened of course!) - it distracts the brain and body and rewires you slowly over time :)

I hope this all helped !

Cheers

Awesome! way to go!!!

Hey bro,

for the caffeine thing... I guess the best thing to do is gauge your reaction. Do you spike in energy and then crash after when you drink caffeine? IF so, then you might be AA and need to give it up.. if not.. then you should be ok. If you experience elevated levels of stress/anxiety when drinking coffee, that is a clear indication of AA as well... at least in my opinion.

So if you don't experience those things, you are ok!

As for cravings.. what do you crave and when do you crave it?

Hey bro, it's lucky you only need wait out until the end of the year!

Although if possible, try to make your own meals since it doesn't need to be fancy - use the barbecue if required, but only healthy lean meats alongside salad as it's all macro/micro-nutrients. And as I say, use protein powder for occasional baking and ingredients like high cocoa dark chocolate - there are tons of recipes online to create high protein healthier snacks. Consistency is key with exercise and nutrition - Remember the mind over matter rule and best of luck man!

No worries dude, enjoy and let us know how you get on!

haha no question ever is stupid :) don't worry

- unsweatened tea is of course better than coffee :P 1) little to no caffeine, 2) not addictive 3) it actually gives you fluid (coffee pulls fluid from your system)

And we want to rewire your brain to just think of something else, be occupied / distracted from the cravings. And not replace it with a new addiction :P

- and yes for many people when they get above a certain carb level their cravings start again. But it will fade over time when you rewire your brain (hence the tea and healthy alternatives)

200 carbs all over per day is not really a lot and still considered 'maintain' level. So it's probably really most your brain's addiction to certain foods that you really need to overcome. I did the tea thing because it made me get up, boil water, do 'things', get your brain to forget what it was on about, and you still get some sort of "input" and at some point your brain will adapt to 'cravings = no cheat meals delivered i only get tea' makes sense no?

you can try finding something else, but this is a really helpful method :)

Get rid of all of them step by step, over time, and you'll succeed and feel free. Just tell yourself, it's like with alcohol, everytime you fall back into old habbits, it will interrupt the cycle of getting away from it.