Joshua Cate
Contest 190lbs bf% 4.5-5 Off Season 205-210 bf 7-10 Height 5′ 10” Age 27 Home town: Knoxville, TN Motivation: I love fitness, meeting new people, and talking anything about to people eager to learn.I started out at a body weight around 135 lbs; I was always very lean and muscular growing up i just was very skinny. I started lifting weights in high school but never really had any solid advice on training or proper nutrition so i never gained more than 5 or 6 lbs of mass and that would fade away as soon as i lost interest in lifting. I got serious about training about 3 years ago and made the commitment to reach my fitness goals. After lots of reading and trying many different methods of training, i again reached a plateau only this time i managed to put on about 10 lbs of mass. I finally had enough and hired a trainer that was an seasoned in mass gain and bodybuilding. He managed to get me to around 220 lbs with very high caloric surplus and heavy training, though some of it was water and extra fat. Come to find out it wasn’t my training that was preventing me from getting bigger it was my crazy metabolism. I was consuming 5000 + calories a day just to keep the gains coming, some days even more. After 2 1/2 years of chronic bulking i decided i wanted to take it to the next level and compete in a bodybuilding show. So in February of this year i hired one of the best contest prep coaches in this area and we began our journey to the stage. He dieted me down and completely reshaped my physique over the next 14 weeks as we made our way to the stage. When i started contest prep i was a watery 220lbs at 14 % body fat. When i hit the stage i was around 4.5-5% body fat and weighed in at 190lbs and to my surprise i looked much bigger. I did two shows back to back; the first one i won the novice heavy weight at the NPC Battle at the River and the second i won the jr middle weight at the NPC Flex Lewis Classic. My very fast metabolism that had kept me from gaining muscle all the years became a valuable tool while i was dieting down for both shows, i was able to come in at the low bf % i was at with doing almost no cardio. It just goes to show we all have our genetic advantages and with enough determination and drive we all can reach our fitness goals. I encourage everyone to take the challenge and start your fitness journey today!