Hi All!

Here's my sitch. Short, fat guy for most of my life—335 on a 5'7" frame at my heaviest. Finally developed some real will power after several years of trying, and got down to 158 last year after 3.5 years of work through diet and exercise alone (back up to 175, though most of those gains have been muscle).

The good: I've always loved lifting and my body takes to it. I continue learning how to eat, but am not too concerned about a relapse. Being heavy left me with giant legs, and I'm pretty sure I'm between a meso/endo build.

The bad: 172 pounds is a lot to lose, and my body, while fairly muscular, has loose skin in a lot of places, most noticeably the lower belly, chest, and lower back. Some of this is clearly skin, some are still fat deposits.

The ugly: I'm not interested in surgery if I can avoid it (cost, recovery time, scars, etc) and at the very least want to get as far as I possibly can before even entertaining it.

The plan: I bulk up easily. I just need to eat and lift. I tested a "bulk" last fall and gained 20 pounds in 8 weeks without even trying. This scared me. I don't mind growing a lot of muscle (duh), but I want to get as lean as possible (sub 8% bf) before trying to bulk again. I think I safely cut another 30 pounds, but the balance of nutrition for that and energized workouts is killing me. I noticed that while I have some more weight on me right now, and honestly, I look better with it, but it's a slippery slope, and I want to see the definition from my hard work, even if it's a bit droopy here and there. I figure those fat deposits go away, I can grow and fill in some of that space, and then even out the fat distribution. After 2-3 years, I get to say, "ok, here's the surgery I need to get."

Why I'm here: HELP! Everything I've accomplished I've done alone. Haven't found any trainers locally that understand enough to help. My doctor is a dick, and I don't have many gym friends (SF gym goers are mostly in the gym to look good and hook up). My nutrition is good and I workout like crazy, but am not sure where to go from here.

Thanks!