Which would you prefer to look like?

LastMantra

Very attainable. A proper strong fit body is much harder 

Dominic

Brio said:

And riding instructors and definitely the mega handsome mobile farrier I used to drink with. He had more trophy wives than I could count...

The discipline of the crop and the branding iron ...............can't beat it I say

WiresDreamDisasters

I literally just cracked open my 3rd can of Brewdog and ate a biscuit, so I'm a total wanker and a walking hypocritical cunt.

But it's yum. So fuck it.

Springywheel

Women will always go for fatty on the left for long term provision if he demonstrates higher social status...but she’ll probably be banging Popeye on the side. 

TTBZ

Obviously I'd prefer to be the one on the right but it's never gonna happen. I maybe could have been like that back when I was lifting a lot and eating really well. Problem is I was about 23 stone at my biggest, so I have loads of loose skin after getting down to a normal size. So even if I have muscle definition it's not really easy to tell and instead I still resemble a half melted snowman with my top off. Ultimately I decided it wasn't worth bothering with - I don't enjoy that lifestyle of constant exercise and maintenance. Found it was something I began to obsess over and was more damaging mentally. I prefer cardio to lifting so I just do something I enjoy 3-4 times a week to keep things in check - still eat too much chocolate though.

Iamnobody

AK99 said:

Iamnobody said:

AK99 said:

Teetonetal said:

 Getting to the guy on the right just looks like a lot of time, effort and not a lot of fun.

The guy on the right looks to me like a typical 'gym-bunny'. Too low a body fat content for comfort/health, over developed pecs, and not enough muscle round his core for any real  power or strength. Would look good in a t-shirt, but fk'all use if you needed him

The other chap does seem to look about 6 months pregnant though .. 

I’m curious what your needs are?

Do you have a specific use for strong powerful at the core young men?

Let's talk. You have pm ..

I’m not you type lad; not strong enough at the core I’m afraid...

hywelg

Let's put a bit of context to this. 

Get ill and the guy on the right is going to fade faster than the one on the left.

We are conditioned to build a store of fat as a buffer against lean times. I have always been chubby and I thank my lucky stars that I am.

When j was in my twenties I got seriously ill with a benign growth in the wall of my small intestine. I was in hospital to 6 weeks being fed through a fuck off big tube into a big vein near my heart. When I finally got fixed I weighed 7st 10lb. If I had started like either of those guys I wouldn't be here. I was 12-13st at the time. My body had devoured all the fat and was chomping it's way through muscle to keep me alive.

And then back in 2013 I got throat cancer. It was a miniscule little weed of a cancer. Pathetic compared to some. But having to have my tonsils out followed by 3 weeks of radiotherapy meant I couldn't eat. I lost a stone in a month. It barely affected me as I had some spare and I now justify carrying that spare as a necessary precaution. 

monquixote

From what I understand there is an optimal amount of body fat for health and performance at sports which is quite low, but higher than someone like the Athlean X guy so that really is a vanity thing.

From what I understand your body doesn't want to get that lean so it's quite a miserable experience to look like that for any period of time. I've known a few body builders and they only get like that for a show and stay at something a bit more sensible most of the year. 

I think Drew's example guy is achievable for someone who works out every day and cuts out sugar. At the start of lockdown I was doing PE with Joe with my kids every day and then doing a 5k while cutting out crap and I started to get pronounced muscles and abs etc (I'm 41). Back to a beer gut now

p90fool

As someone who's roughly halfway between the two purely because I like being active, love fresh food and don't really bother much with TV, I'm happy enough not looking like someone who munches Aberdare TicTacs in front of a mirror all day. 

Our physiques are not purely physical, they reveal a lot about our thought processes. 

WiresDreamDisasters

monquixote said:

From what I understand there is an optimal amount of body fat for health and performance at sports which is quite low, but higher than someone like the Athlean X guy so that really is a vanity thing.

From what I understand your body doesn't want to get that lean so it's quite a miserable experience to look like that for any period of time. I've known a few body builders and they only get like that for a show and stay at something a bit more sensible most of the year. 

I think Drew's example guy is achievable for someone who works out every day and cuts out sugar. At the start of lockdown I was doing PE with Joe with my kids every day and then doing a 5k while cutting out crap and I started to get pronounced muscles and abs etc (I'm 41). Back to a beer gut now

I don't even think you'd need to work out every day. 5 days a week would do it, with two rest days, good amount of protein, low-sugar and moderate carb intake, healthy fats moderately high too.

I know the theory quite well at this point, and I know to some extent it works for me because I have seen changes by going in that direction. But I'm lazy.

WiresDreamDisasters

hywelg said:

Let's put a bit of context to this. 

Get ill and the guy on the right is going to fade faster than the one on the left.

We are conditioned to build a store of fat as a buffer against lean times. I have always been chubby and I thank my lucky stars that I am.

When j was in my twenties I got seriously ill with a benign growth in the wall of my small intestine. I was in hospital to 6 weeks being fed through a fuck off big tube into a big vein near my heart. When I finally got fixed I weighed 7st 10lb. If I had started like either of those guys I wouldn't be here. I was 12-13st at the time. My body had devoured all the fat and was chomping it's way through muscle to keep me alive.

And then back in 2013 I got throat cancer. It was a miniscule little weed of a cancer. Pathetic compared to some. But having to have my tonsils out followed by 3 weeks of radiotherapy meant I couldn't eat. I lost a stone in a month. It barely affected me as I had some spare and I now justify carrying that spare as a necessary precaution. 

I don't know the specifics, but arguably guy on the right is less likely to get seriously ill than guy on the left in the first place ???

axisus

If I flex my biceps the mrs screws her face up disapprovingly. She's not into muscles at all. 

I remember an article in a women's mag I looked at once many years ago in the doctors waiting room, it said that womens no 1 thing with men was a flat stomach. No mention of muscles at all, just devoid of paunch.

ICBM

I looked carefully in the mirror this morning and to my surprise I'm actually closer to the one on the right than I thought. Not as symetrically perfect, but roughly the same overall. Still about as pale as the one on the left though...

I'm 53, I don't ever work out - although I do walk about five miles a day - and I'm on a restricted diet at the moment due to food allergies.

CHRISB50

One thing that is a bit of a ‘cheat’ in the picture on the right is that he’s probably just done some ab / pec exercises to get a pump on those muscles, before the picture was taken. Direction of the lighting makes a difference in these sorts of photos too. 

You obviously have to have the physique to begin with but there are definitely ways of accentuating it. 

With regards to health, it's true that it's not ideal to be shredded all the time. To maintain it you have to be training really hard, in a calorific deficit or taking in just enough maintenance calories, which is hard on the body. I've done it before and you feel like shite all the time. Especially when training (which kind of takes the fun out of it). Unless there's a defined end goal, there's very little point for most of us to do it. You're also a lot more likely to get hit for six by any illness you pick up.

AK99

WiresDreamDisasters said:

I don't even think you'd need to work out every day. 5 days a week would do it, with two rest days, good amount of protein, low-sugar and moderate carb intake, healthy fats moderately high too.

I know the theory quite well at this point, and I know to some extent it works for me because I have seen changes by going in that direction. But I'm lazy.

Don't despair dude.. there are other options y'know..

LastMantra

Do you guys shave your chest?

WiresDreamDisasters

LastMantra said:

Do you guys shave your chest?

LOL what??

LastMantra

WiresDreamDisasters said:

LastMantra said:

Do you guys shave your chest?

LOL what??

All the pictures here are of clean shaven chests just wondering if that's common. 

I had one girlfriend that said she preferred it but two after that said they preferred hairy.

CHRISB50

LastMantra said:

Do you guys shave your chest?

Nothing wrong with a bit of manscaping, but no, never. 

WiresDreamDisasters

LastMantra said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

LastMantra said:

Do you guys shave your chest?

LOL what??

All the pictures here are of clean shaven chests just wondering if that's common. 

I had one girlfriend that said she preferred it but two after that said they preferred hairy.

Done me balls before, never me chest.