“I reached 168, all the way from 147, so like 20 pounds. I should take more time to like be proud of that.”
Federico did not need motivation. At 5 feet 9 inches and 147 pounds, he was already lean and already training. What he needed was a structure that would turn consistent effort into real, proportional muscle without simply piling on fat. On his own, the size he wanted stayed just out of reach, and his chest in particular lagged behind the rest of his physique. The frame was there. The system to fill it out was not.
What changed was not a single magic workout or a crash diet. It was data-driven health coaching: a periodized plan with clear macro targets, a training program built and then evolved over time, and a coach who decided when to push calories up and when to pull them back. Over roughly a year, Federico did not just gain weight on a scale. He built twenty pounds of muscle, got measurably stronger, and learned to read his own body well enough to keep going on his own terms.
For a long time, adding size felt like a guessing game. Federico was doing many of the right things, but without a deliberate framework he could not tell whether he was building muscle or just spinning his wheels. The turn came when the work became a system rather than a hope. Andrés mapped out the phases, set the macros, and dosed the training to what Federico could actually recover from. When the bulk finally finished and the number came in, even Federico was struck by how far he had come:
“That’s a huge accomplishment.”
The transformation on the scale was unmistakable. Federico climbed from 147 pounds all the way to 168, a full twenty pounds of bodyweight built over close to a year. Crucially, this was not a soft, sloppy bulk. He got stronger throughout, and the muscle landed where he wanted it. The chest that once felt disproportionate caught up with the rest of his frame, to the point that he no longer felt out of balance.
What mattered as much as the gain was how it was earned. The plan was deliberately patient. Andrés let the bulk run longer than originally targeted rather than forcing it, because a slower rate of change meant more of the new weight arrived as muscle rather than fat. For someone who started lean and wanted to look the part, that patience paid off. By the end, Federico could say something he had not been able to say before: “I feel comfortable where I’m at.”
If the bulk told the first half of the story, the cut is telling the second. With the size built, the goal shifted to revealing it. Federico moved into a controlled cutting phase and is already down from his 168-pound peak to around 163, with the muscle staying on. Measured from where he began, that still leaves him roughly sixteen pounds heavier than his 147-pound starting point, only now leaner with it.
The cut follows the same principle that made the bulk work: rate of change. Andrés set a slow, deliberate pace of about one to one and a half pounds of fat per week, paired with high protein near 180 grams a day and carbohydrates that flex with training. The aim is not to lose weight for its own sake. It is to strip fat while protecting every pound of muscle that was earned. Done right, leaning out this way even improves insulin sensitivity, setting up future gains to come on with far less fat.
“I feel like I got to the point where it was intuitive.”
Recovery was where the coaching quietly handed the controls back to the athlete. Early on, the numbers built the habits: when to train, how much to eat, how to balance lifting with paddle tennis, yoga, and genuine rest. Over time those habits became second nature. Federico reached a point where his macros and his recovery ran on feel rather than constant measurement, and he set his wearable aside once the data started to add pressure instead of insight. That was not a failure of the system. It was the system succeeding. The goal was never to make him dependent on a screen. It was to teach him how his own body responds, so the structure keeps serving him long after any single phase ends.
Federico’s story is not a quick fix. It is a system he can keep running, a sequence of phases where each one is built on top of the last and the rate of change protects what came before. He is still building: cutting toward a leaner look while holding his hard-won muscle, then setting up the next surplus to grow again with less fat. But the throughline is simple. The plan was never the hard part. Following it patiently, phase after phase, with someone adjusting the dials, is what made twenty pounds of muscle stick.
That is the promise of data-driven health coaching: you stop guessing, and you start running a system built around your own physiology. Book a call with the Know Your Physio team to see what your data says about you.
Medical Disclaimer: This case study is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Individual results vary based on numerous factors including genetics, adherence, starting point, and medical history. Always consult with a qualified physician or healthcare provider before making any decisions regarding your health, nutrition, training, or supplementation. The results presented reflect one individual’s outcome and should not be interpreted as typical or guaranteed results.
