I just wanted to express appreciation to this group for motivating me to improve myself in ways I didn't think were possible for me. Ways I didn't think were possible because I lacked self-confidence and blamed my body. Here's what I mean:

I'm 42 years old. I was a skinny kid who got a sedentary office job, didn't exercise for decades, and became skinny fat: fat belly, fat butt, skinny arms, skinny legs.

God I was pathetic.

I had knee problems because my leg muscles were so fucking atrophied from years and years of disuse.

I had no pecs whatsoever. An ant could have strapped on skis and jumped off my protruding collar bone, slid down my perfect J-shaped chest, and launched off my fat pointy nipples like a ski jump. I was constantly embarrassed of my protruding nips any time I wore a T-shirt.

If you'd seen my back alone, the complete lack of muscle and sharply defined shoulder blades might have made you mistake me for a 14 year-old girl.

I always had a ready excuse for why I couldn't exercise, work out, or otherwise take care of myself. Worked long hours. Too sleep deprived. Too tired in the mornings and at night to work out. Excuses, excuses.

Finally, about seven months ago I became thoroughly disgusted with myself and decided to start working out. I found this place a couple months later.

For the past seven months I've been religiously lifting 3-4 days a week, cycling 3 days a week, pounding protein shakes, and eating better.

Slowly, gradually, my body has been transforming. It's been gratifying to see progress, but also a source of anger toward myself for squandering what I didn't know I was capable of becoming.

You see, back in high school, I'd go months where I'd lift every day, but I'd see little to no progress, so I'd give up. I figured I'd just inherited skinny genes--like I was locked into a body type I couldn't get out of--and I was literally convinced my body was incapable of building muscle mass. I carried that self-defeatist attitude into adulthood.

In hindsight, I was doing two things wrong in my youth: by lifting every day, I wasn't giving my muscles time to rebuild themselves; and also (this is a big one) I wasn't getting anywhere near the amount of protein in my diet that I needed to build muscle mass.

Now that I've been doing it smarter (lifting 3-4 days a week, plus tons of protein), I've actually been seeing results for the first time in my life. Again, I'm 42, so how fucking pathetic is that? But better late than never.

When I started seven months ago, I could only bench 3 sets of 8 reps with 120 lbs. Seriously. Fucking pathetic. Last week, I went for a personal record and did two reps with 250 lbs. This is so far beyond what I was ever able to bench even in my college days.

For the first time in my life, I actually have pecs. I actually have deltoids. I actually have biceps and triceps. My back is now covered in layers of muscle. My quads stretch my boxer briefs. My t-shirts squeeze my arms and shoulders. And those fatty pointy nips? Gone.

I've been getting IOIs in public and especially from my wife's friends, who have never been so flirty and touchy. My wife has been giving me compliments on my transformation, commenting on how broad my chest and shoulders are, and she says I now look like I could "kick anyone's ass". I know that isn't anywhere near the truth, but still it's nice to hear her say it.

I also seem to be getting more respect from random dudes I interact with. I didn't ever know this was a thing. Like, getting a higher level of respect from other guys because of my physique.

For the first time in my life, I don't have a skinny fat body--I have an actual masculine male body with muscles.

I still have a long ways to go. I still have fat I could lose and more muscle mass to put on. I remain motivated and curious to discover what my best body looks like. But I had to come here and say "thank you" to this group for helping keep me motivated to get me where I am so far.

Another benefit: I now feel so much better--mood-wise--ever since I started exercising every day. I used to be prone to being a moody bitch. Probably too much estrogen stored up in my fatty man boobs. But now my mood is way up, stress level down, much better at reacting to and handling stressful situations. Flooding my body with endorphins every morning has been a game-changer for my overall mood and happiness level.

I used to hate and be embarrassed of my body, but now for the first time in my life I'm starting to like it. I've always had a good frame (6'3" and broad bone structure in the shoulders) but I fucking squandered it for decades by being a self-defeatist pussy-boy who believed he was genetically cursed when it came to the capacity to build muscle.

So, thank you, Red Pill. Thank you for helping me discover that there actually was a man's body waiting to be developed beneath the decades-worth of muscular atrophy and accumulated fat of my disgusting skinny-fat body.

TL;DR: I have a boner over my noob gainz and had to share and thank you for it.