Louise Ivan / Musclemaxxing with Lou← Home

LOUISE IVAN / MUSCLEMAXXING EDITION

Musclemaxxing with Lou

I was doing a little bit of everything, from weightlifting to CrossFit and calisthenics, without a proper plan to bring it all together. Even though I was training, I kept gaining weight and reached my heaviest recorded weight of 63.9 kg in July 2025, and I wasn’t happy with how I looked.

By March 2026, I decided it was time to invest in myself, find a coach and become a gigachad, so I started documenting how my body changed along the way.

Full-on training since March 2026Chapter 001 / In progress
Compare body regions
01 / EARLIER CHECKPOINT6 JUL 2025
BODY / STUDIO
Loading model…ILLUSTRATIVE MODEL＋

LOUISE IVAN

THEN

INBODY 570 / MEASURED STATS

02 / LATEST CHECKPOINT23 SEP 2026
BODY / STUDIO
Loading model…ILLUSTRATIVE MODEL＋

LOUISE IVAN

NOW

INBODY 570 / MEASURED STATS

The studio models are generic illustrations, not scans or reconstructions of Louise. Both use the same model; the recorded measurements show the actual differences. Radar labels show kilograms, using a shared scale for each body region across checkpoints. These are display scales, not InBody reference percentages or health ratings. The earliest training-period scan available is June 11.

01 / MARCH–JUNE 2026 · FINDING STRUCTURE

Finding the right coach for this side quest

I found Chris on Instagram and sent him a message asking him to transform me, which led to our first call on 26 March 2026 and joining his Everfit program on 5 April. My first completed assignment is recorded that day, while my weekly weight comparison starts with the week of 6 April. Looking back through my notes, the check-ins covered everything from managing hunger to knowing when to change direction and start building muscle.

Instagram exchange with Chris on 26 March 2026: Louise asks to be transformed
26 MAR 2026It started with a message: “Maaaaan transform me”.
Chris and Louise on a coaching video call
APRIL 2026Our check-ins gave me someone to talk through the plan with.
Chris, Louise and the group on their June coaching call
2 JUN 2026Chris talked us through focusing on the daily actions we could control.

26 MAY / MAKING IT REPEATABLE

I was losing weight but needed a better way to manage my meals

I reported 57.8 kg, down about 2 kg at that check-in. Eating twice a day was leaving me hungry, so we talked through a more structured approach to meals, with protein, carbs, vegetables and fruit.

3 JUNE / A CHANGE IN DIRECTION

We agreed to start a lean bulk.

Before the lean bulk, the aim was to lose about 5 kg and get down to around 56 kg. My 3 June note records our agreement to start a lean bulk the following week. The saved weekly weights show 56.1 kg in late July; that weigh-in is a later checkpoint.

8 JULY / WHAT WAS HELPING

Having someone to check in with helped me stay accountable

I logged 58.1 kg and wrote that I was probably the leanest I had been in quite a while. What helped most was accountability, regular check-ins, and learning how macro- and micronutrients fit into my training.

SEPTEMBER 2026 / SEEING THE CHANGE

After five months, I could finally see my body changing

September was the first time, after five months, that I could see the change in my body, and seeing that progress made me more motivated to keep going.

Highlights from my written coaching notes. Check-in weights and personal observations are separate from the InBody scan records.

02 / THE ROUTINE AND THE PROGRESS

Following a plan and tracking my progress made such a difference

With Chris’s guidance, I followed a structured program of weightlifting, running, core work and conditioning, while tracking my macros and weight as consistently as I could. I didn’t log every meal, but having a plan helped me stay focused, and my InBody checkpoints show the change: between July 2025 and September 2026, my weight went from 63.9 to 59.4 kg, body fat from 16.1% to 7.8%, and skeletal muscle from 30.3 to 31.2 kg, amounting to 5.7 kg less fat and 0.9 kg more muscle.

THE FOOD THAT FITTED INTO MY ROUTINE

These are the meals I kept coming back to while training

In May, Chris and I talked about putting more structure around my meals. These are the common meals I’ve since shared from my food diary: quark, granola and whey for breakfast, then combinations of fish or beef, eggs, rice, vegetables and sweet potato.

MY REGULAR BREAKFAST

Quark, granola, berries & whey

My regular breakfast combines 150 g low-fat quark, ¾ cup protein granola and 30 g blueberries, and I also take at least two scoops of grass-fed whey protein.

608 kcal · 73 g protein Displayed breakfast total

A FISH LUNCH

Mackerel, rice & eggs

Two mackerel entries totalling 280 g, 200 g rice and an egg entry with a serving of two eggs.

768 kcal · 58 g protein 10 September · lunch

A BEEF DINNER

Beef, beans & vegetables

150 g ground beef, tomatoes, 150 g peppers, kidney beans, black beans and corn, plus an egg entry with a serving of two eggs.

660 kcal · 44 g protein 7 September · dinner

ANOTHER DINNER

Steak, sweet potato & three boiled eggs

My steak dinner combines 210 g flat iron steak with 200 g baked sweet potato and three boiled eggs, as logged on 26 August.

674 kcal · 68 g protein 26 August · dinner including three eggs

Food images are AI-generated illustrations of my meal combinations, not photos of my actual plates or exact portions. These are my common meals, as described by me and shown in the supplied MyFitnessPal screenshots. Portions and nutrition reflect the app entries. They are examples, not a complete daily menu or a frequency ranking.

HOW MY FOOD TARGET CHANGED

01 / INITIAL PHASE

Starting with weight loss

1,800kcal per day

I started with a target of 1,800 calories a day to work toward losing about 5 kg before moving into the lean-bulk phase.

02 / LEAN BULK

Eating to build more muscle

I increased my food target to support building muscle while gradually gaining weight, with different targets for training and rest days.

I try my best to stay close to these targets, although I’m not perfectly consistent with tracking and some days are a best guess. My food diary reflects what I remembered to log, so it doesn’t always capture everything I ate.

MYFITNESSPAL / SELECTED WEEK · 22–28 JUN 2026

This logged week gives me a reference for my targets

Daily logged averages · compared with training-day targets

Calories
1,798 kcalTarget: 2,275 kcal
Protein
143.8 gTarget: 170 g
Carbs
142.2 gTarget: 230 g
Fat
76.6 gTarget: 75 g

Sometimes I wasn’t able to log my food, so these numbers don’t capture everything I ate. I try my best to stay close to my targets. This selected week is closest overall to my training-day calorie and macro targets among Monday–Sunday weeks with entries on all seven days, from 8 June through the export date. Selection gives equal weight to the percentage difference from each of the four targets. It is not my overall average or proof that I met my macros, and it does not account for different targets on rest days.

A CLOSER LOOK AT MY BODY COMPOSITION

The scans helped me see how my body was changing

Between the July and September 2026 scans, my weight rose from 57.4 to 59.4 kg while recorded muscle mass increased from 29.9 to 31.2 kg and fat mass fell from 5.0 to 4.6 kg. Seeing those measurements together gives me a better picture of the progress I want to keep tracking.

By body region

Segmental lean mass is distinct from skeletal muscle mass. Bars show the latest scan; values read selected checkpoint → latest, with the change alongside. Missing measurements are marked as not recorded.

InBody 570 · Latest scan 23 September 2026, 09:17

THE RECORDS BEHIND THE ROUTINE

This is what I recorded while following the program

My WHOOP, Everfit and MyFitnessPal records from April to September bring together the training, movement and food logging behind these body measurements, including days I recorded in only one app.

06 APR — 23 SEP 2026

TRACKED WEIGHT PROGRESS · EVERFIT

Weekly displayed weights. Your first tracked April week is the baseline; an exact first-day weigh-in is not available.

Skeletal muscle INBODY
+0.8 kg
30.4
31.2 kg

11 Jun 2026 → 23 Sep 2026 · InBody 570

First available training scan → latest scan.

Days with workout records ALL THREE APPS

WHOOP activities, completed Everfit assignments and synced activities, plus MyFitnessPal exercise entries. Each date counts once.

Nutrition logged MFP
163 / 171 days

95% of days have meal entries

A logged day may still be incomplete.

Every kind of movement ALL THREE APPS
WorkoutsWalksSteps

THE PROGRAM BEHIND MY TRAINING / EVERFIT

I can now look back at the sessions Chris assigned and what I marked complete

I’d say I stick to the program about 80% of the time, but sometimes I swap a weightlifting session for a HIIT or HYROX class to switch things up. My Everfit history shows the sessions I marked complete in the app, while those classes are also part of how I train.

Explore my assigned workouts and exercises

These are exercise prescriptions. A completed workout status applies to the assignment as a whole; it does not confirm every prescribed set. Actual weights and reps performed per set are not available in this export.

THE TRAINING BEHIND MY SEPTEMBER CHECKPOINT

Following this routine is how I got to the body changes I can finally see

These exercises were part of the program I followed while paying more attention to my food and tracking how my body changed. By September, I could finally see the difference, and my latest scan gave me another way to look at that progress alongside the training I’d been doing.

11 JUNE → 23 SEPTEMBER 2026 / INBODY

From my first available training scan to my latest checkpoint

These are changes across my overall routine, including training and nutrition. The scans don’t tell me how much any individual exercise contributed.

See my body checkpoints ↑

EXERCISES IN MY COMPLETED WORKOUTS

The movements I kept working on along the way

This is a selection of the exercises listed in workouts I marked complete in Everfit. I’d say I followed the program about 80% of the time, sometimes switching a weightlifting session for HIIT or HYROX to keep things varied.

AI-generated exercise illustrations, not photos of my workouts.

Everfit records completion for the whole workout, so these entries show the exercises in that plan rather than confirming every set was performed.

How consistently I followed the program each month

Assignments marked complete, divided by assignments dated through 23 September 2026. September is a partial month.

WHOOP / EVERFIT / MYFITNESSPAL

My movement across all three apps

I don’t always log in the same app, so this calendar brings together my WHOOP activities, completed Everfit assignments and synced activities, and MyFitnessPal exercise and step records. Each day counts once, even when it appears in more than one app.

No record Steps only Workout recorded

6 April–23 September 2026, using the calendar dates recorded by each export. This counts days with evidence of movement, not unique workouts or exercise intensity. Positive step totals count as movement; calorie adjustments alone do not count as workouts. Planned or uncompleted assignments are excluded. Empty cells mean no record, not necessarily a rest day. Hover or focus a day to see its sources and entries.

FOLLOWING MY WHOOP AGE ALONGSIDE THE BODY CHANGES

My latest WHOOP Age is 27.9, and I’m keeping track of how it changes

For the week of 20–26 September, WHOOP shows my age as 27.9, which the app reports as 4.3 years younger than my chronological age. I’m following this alongside my body measurements, sleep and recovery as I continue training.

WHOOP AGE27.94.3 years younger

20–26 September 2026

Pace of Aging−0.3×

25 MAR–20 SEP 2026

How my WHOOP Age moved over six months

29.8six-month average
WHOOP Age · approximate trendChronological age

The curve is a visual reconstruction of the screenshot, not exact historical readings. The labelled endpoint of 27.9 and average of 29.8 are reported by WHOOP. Its six-month average is 9% higher than the prior six months.

I was changing time zones constantly during that stretch of travel

From what I remember, I was travelling back to back and changing time zones so often that I associate that stretch with my WHOOP Age shooting up. Looking at the graph now, I want to understand how those trips lined up with my sleep and recovery, alongside everything else that was changing in my routine.

This is my recollection, not a confirmed explanation of the spike. The saved flight records establish some travel dates, but the full itinerary and exact historical WHOOP Age readings are still incomplete.

How I’m reading this alongside travel and recovery

I noticed changes in my WHOOP Age around my trips and want to follow those alongside sleep and recovery, although these screenshots don’t establish what caused the changes. The current screen reports a weekly increase even though the broader graph has been trending down since its peak. These are WHOOP’s app-reported metrics. The native graph reproduces the overall shape approximately; original screenshots are preserved in my private records.

05 / WHEN I COULD FINALLY SEE IT

After five months, seeing my body change made me want to keep going

September was the first time, after five months, that I could see the change in my body, and that made me more motivated to keep training. Following a plan, paying attention to my macros and having someone to check in with had made such a difference from doing a little bit of everything on my own.

I’m still not perfect with tracking, but I’m trying my best and want to keep documenting how my body changes from here.

06 / FOUR-WEEK TRAINING PLAN

Training with ChatGPT Astra

PLANNED TRAINING · FOUR WEEKS

I’m using this five-day plan to focus on chest, shoulders, back and arms while keeping one leg day. Each session is about 105 minutes: 7 minutes warming up, 45 minutes lifting, 8 minutes of abs and 45 minutes of cardio. The sets below are working sets; warm-up sets are extra.

4 weeksBuild a repeatable baseline
5 daysPush, pull and legs
105 min60 min training + 45 min cardio
01 / THE WEEK

Five sessions, two rest days

Schedule at a glance

  1. MonPush A
  2. TuePull A
  3. WedLegs
  4. ThuRest
  5. FriPush B
  6. SatPull B
  7. SunRest

Open a workout

Move sessions to other days as needed while preserving the push–pull–legs–push–pull order. Open a day for its working sets and two-round abs circuit. “Each” means each side.

Monday · Push A
Tuesday · Pull A
Wednesday · Legs
Friday · Push B
Saturday · Pull B
02 / HOW TO FOLLOW IT

Progress and session timing

How I’ll progress

Add reps first. Increase weight when every set is ready.

Week 1Find a repeatable weight

Record reps and finish each set with about 2–3 good reps to spare.

Week 2Add a few reps

Keep the same weight; add 1–3 reps in total per exercise.

Week 3Increase only if ready

Use the smallest increase only when every set reaches the top of its rep range with about 2 good reps to spare.

Week 4Compare with Week 1

Improve clean reps or control. No max test is required.

“Reps to spare” means how many more good reps I could have completed before form slipped.

When to adjust

If reps fall below range or technique worsens, return to the previous weight. Hold steady if fatigue persists. The calendar alone never triggers an increase.

How I’ll pace it

60 minutes of training, then 45 minutes of easy cardio.

0–7 minWarm up

Prepare for the first lift.

7–52 minLift

Complete the working sets with full rests.

52–60 minAbs

Do two rounds of the day’s circuit.

Then 45 minEasy cardio

5 minutes easy, 35 conversational, 5 easy.

Big lifts · rest 2–3 minSmaller lifts · rest 60–90 sec

Don’t rush or pad the clock. Use a treadmill, bike or elliptical. A 15% incline is optional; choose a sustainable pace and ease off or shorten cardio when recovery calls for it.

Keep comparisons consistent

Record pull-up assistance. On one-sided lifts, start with the weaker-performing side and match its clean reps; arm size alone does not determine that side. Keep exercise variations, setup and load convention consistent, track substitutions separately, and compare Push A with Push A and Push B with Push B.

03 / WHAT I’LL MEASURE

Results and starting point

AFTER FOUR WEEKS

What I’ll look for

The starting chest measurement is 88 cm, self-reported on 28 September. There is no reliable centimetre forecast for four weeks. I’ll look for steadier technique and more clean reps at comparable loads; a visible chest-size change may or may not appear.

Follow-up chest measurementNot measured yet

I’ll remeasure at the same tape site, relaxed, at a consistent time and breath state, without a workout pump. Chest circumference can also change with back size, body fat, posture and measurement method. Early muscle-size changes may include temporary swelling; this study ↗ does not provide a personal chest-growth rate.

Starting measurements and historical lifts

Starting measurements

Self-reported · 28 September 2026 · centimetres

Chest
88
Right biceps
32.5
Left biceps
30.5
Waist
75
Hips
91.5
Legs
53

The leg side and tape site were not recorded, nor whether the arms were flexed. The 59.4 kg InBody reading is from 23 September, not a new weigh-in. Measure at the same tape position, time of day and flexed or relaxed state, without a workout pump; record left and right thighs separately. Arm circumference alone does not establish strength or predict gains.

Historical lifts · September 2026

Earlier notes for load context; these are not completed sessions in this four-week plan.

DateExerciseRecorded workContext
26 SepUnilateral chest press20 / 25 / 30 kg × 10 eachSame exercise; per-side work
26 SepSide-lying raise4 / 6 / 6 kg × 10 eachPer side
28 Sep45° incline press50 kg × 13; 60 kg × 6; 60 kg × 650 kg is a trial starting load
28 Sep70° press50 kg × 10; 60 kg × 6; 60 kg × 6History only; not in this plan
28 Sep90° press50 kg × 8; 50 kg × 10Third set unconfirmed
28 SepAlternating curl16 kg · 3 setsReps and per-hand convention unknown
28 SepUnilateral chest press25 kg · 3 sets eachReps missing
28 SepRope pushdown17.5 / 20 / 22.5 kg × 10Three recorded loads
28 SepOverhead rope extension17.5 kg × 10 × 3Three sets
28 SepPull-ups10 / 10 / 5 repsAssistance unspecified

Use the 50 kg 45° incline press only if current reps and technique support it. Establish a fresh load for unfamiliar exercises or unclear past setups.

Further reading: ACSM resistance training guidance ↗ · Concurrent cardio and strength review ↗. These are general references, not validation of this personalised plan or the pictured technique.