4 month recomp progress (pics inside). Thank you, Leangains.

To see if you're interested in this post, look at this summary of my progress:

Dates: 7/7/12 - 11/13/12 (still ongoing)

Progress pic album (all pics taken right after waking):

http://imgur.com/a/AKEXo#0

(click the first pic to start; arranged in chronological order)

Body weight: Starting weight: ~132-133 lbs, 129 lbs @ end of recomp, ~131 now (slow bulking) Height: 5'4.5'' - 5'5'' (depending on time of day)

Top sets:

Squat: 5x135 -> 4x230 (did 5x225 last week)

Bench: 5x145 -> 3x200 (did 5x195 2 weeks ago)

Deadlift: 5x185 -> 3x275 (did 5x270 last week)

Overhead press: 5x75 -> 5x125

Dips: 10xBW+27 -> 8xBW+82

Chins: 5xBW+37 -> 5xBW+57

First, I'd like to thank Tkon for making his progress post on this subreddit (or did I see it on r/fitness?) a few months ago; it's the entire reason I started leangains and partly why I'm making this post.

Though this is my first post in r/leangains (and on reddit), I've lurked here for a while, so thank you to everyone who has posted here with helpful information.

I've been on a -20/+20 recomp since July and only recently switched to a -20/+30 bulk, so most of the progress from the album was from a recomp. RPT the whole way.

Some things I find to be noteworthy:

-I counted calories pretty meticulously for a few weeks or so when I started, but after that I mostly eyeballed food and estimated. I tried to get around 2200 calories on workout days and 1500 on rest days, +- 50-100. I still weigh food I'm not really sure about (unless I'm outside).

-I kept protein to about .82 g/lb bodyweight. I replaced the missing protein (according to ifcalc) with carbs.

-I didn't really worry about macros that much; I made sure I was eating enough protein and then just focused on eating a lot more carbs on workout days and a lot more fats on rest days. I didn't worry about hitting 300g carbs/70g fat/etc (though I was pretty close to those targets on most days)

-I eat 2 meals a day on most days, sometimes 1 on rest days. I consume ~60% of my calories post workout.

-I have a sweet tooth and eat a lot of snacks - cookies, cupcakes, piroulines, CHEESECAKE, etc.

-I made sure I ate a lot of vegetables and drank a lot of water every day (~128 oz). I recently started eating more fruits, but didn't really eat much for the first 4 months.

-Workout routine:

Tuesday - Squat (RPT), OHP (RPT), Accessory (Usually Inclined DB Press, BW Chinups)

Thursday - Bench (RPT), Goblet Squats or Turkish Getups (Not RPT), Weighted Dips (RPT)

Saturday - Deadlift (RPT), Weighted Chins (RPT), DB Rows (Not RPT)

I recently started doing 10 minute cardio sessions on Sundays (for health, not fat loss) - burpees and kb swings. I didn't do any cardio during my recomp.

All RPT exercises are done for 5, 6 and 7 reps (except dips - I try to do 8, 10 and 12 for those).

-Staple foods: naan, chicken, hummus, spinach, pomegranate seeds, cereal/milk, QUEST BARS (best snack), nonfat ham, low-calorie bagel thins/tortillas, variety of sweets. I eat fish about 1x/week.

-I drink green/black tea every morning. I don't take any other supplements (I need to start taking some vitamin d3, though).

-I usually get around 7 hours of sleep/night (at least 6).

-I've probably had about 1 cheat meal every two weeks on average, which includes eating almost an entire large Chicago deep dish pizza (in 2 hours). I see a lot of posts asking how to respond to an unexpected cheat meal; seriously, don't worry about them. They mean nothing.

Thanks again to this awesome subreddit/Martin Berkhan/Andy Morgan. I really appreciate all the free information. I mostly just wanted to provide further evidence that leangains works.