I used to train with a Raiders Trainer and an Arena Football team. I also managed a gym on my off days and trained others specifically in nutrition. At my peak I was 250ish and I have been as lean as 6 percent give or take in the 225 range. When gaining or loosing body fat analysis needs to be a part of your weekly routine. The goal is 2 lbs a week gain or loss depending if your dieting or bulking and 1,5 needs to be muscle if bulking and 1.5 needs to be fat if cutting. I would also run sprints and sometimes would get on a treadmill at 20% incline and run 6 miles in a little over 36-40 minutes. The treadmills there go up to 20 percent incline unlike a lot of gyms for larger folks.
That said I have had a pretty severe injury where two discs collapsed and then I was hit by a car crossing a street. The car was doing 45 and I went through/over the windshield. I was fortunate that I am taller and slightly oversized and shattered one leg, some head injuries, broken nose, and some cuts/glass imbedded in my back and face. A few months ago I had what felt like a scab and it turned out to be a piece of glass working it's way out of my ear on the back side.
I am currently 210 and 15 percent fat I bet. My goal is to fully recover from both injuries and do a drop hunt for moose in AK in 2015-16. I am shooting for 2015.
My current short term goal is to regain as much balance and range of motion in my ankle/knee as possible. I suffered from Compartment Syndrome where the injury swells to the point of killing tissue. Both legs had to be sliced and I came hours from loosing them both. Needless to say the surgeon was as quick as he could and as a result I kept my legs but suffered foot drop and nerve damage.
I plan to bulk first since I need to recover the muscle as best I can on the shattered leg/Ti rod side so I can start to walk normally. I plan to hit 230 over the winter and start leaning out in the spring. Ultimately my goal is to be 220-225 at 10%. I know how to get leaner than that but honestly 10 percent is easy to maintain without a lot of extra steps for me. I am naturally not super cut anyway but am lean/skinny so I don't hammer away at the marathon stuff but I know my conditioning will have to be tip top to do the drop hunt so I will lean out more before hand.
The one thing a lot of folks get hung up on is gaining muscle while loosing fat. It is one or the other. If your trying to gain the formula is to eat more than you burn and you can train harder. If trying to loose stop trying to build strength and concentrate on keeping the muscle while shedding fat. You will loose muscle with the fat if going natural it is the basic facts. If your gaining but it is more fat than muscle adjust your diet. When I was training hardcore I would weigh everything and track down to the sugar and cream in my coffee. I once trained my mother who was in her early fifties before her wedding for a month and she dropped twenty pounds and had to have her dress altered twice. Remember the golden rule. There is no such thing as over training only under eating.
