bran987's Diet Journal with Pics: Must Get In Shape.

[bran987]

Beginning Of Week 3 Pics:

NO NOTICABLE IMPROVEMENT

 

[The Shadow]

bran......be patient byut work hard....I guarantee you will see results in a week in terms of how your muscles feel and another week to see visable results

 

[Clean]

yeh bro, 3 weeks you shouldnt be seeing a huge change, but as far as feeling different you should be experiencing that.

Just keep it up. It takes TIME.

 

[pintoca]

yeah I'm only 5'6" 160 lbs. 15-16% BF

Ok, first Jen, what I meant is that there are 2 ways of creating the deficit:

1. reduce caloric intake, which will eventually backfire if you drop cals too much.
2. Increase activity levels

I feel that for Bran to eat at 1600 cals that will backfire, so he should increase to the 1800 range and increase the activity level to create the deficit.

Now, back to the numbers.

what I would do in your case Bro is:

Mon-Tue-Wed-Fri-Sat
1.833 Kcal
45% 206 gr Prot
25% 115 gr Carb
30% 61 gr Fat


Thu-Sun
2.226 Kcal
195 gr Prot 35%
278 gr Carb 50%
37 gr Fat 15%

Implement carb-tapering during the day (if you work out at nights, it is ok to have THOSE PWO carbs in the evening).

My recommendation for a PWO shake to you are:

40 gr Prot (whey Isolate)
40 gr Carb ===> 20 gr Dextrose
20 gr Maltodextrin
750ml water (take half inmediately after the work out, the rest some 30 mins afterward).

Training wise, you can do as you want, 5 days split, 3 days split, etc... in my experience, I have the best results by training legs once a week, and then a 2 days split, repeated twice, so it looks like this:

Sun: Legs
Mon-Thu: Back, Biceps, Traps, Forearms
Tue-Fri: Chest, Triceps, Delts

I throw abs on Mon-Wed-Fri. Notice this schedule is actually matched to the diet, so you will be training large muscle groups on the days you have your carb-up days.

The idea of not training only once a week is that since you are dieting , you will lack the strenght to train the muscles hard enough to grant them 1 week pause... I always felt "under-utilized" when training only once a week.

for cardio, here is the catch... 45 min 6 times a week @ 75-85% MHR

Before you all blast me into oblivion, this is what I do and what I have followed for the past 9 months... this has been my recept to drop 50 lbs in 5 months, 60 in 7 months and 65 in 9 months... (after a bulking pause).

Notice that the food is kept at a relative sane level, relying on the insane cardio schedule to create the deficit.

take it or leave it Bro, this is my opinion, based on what I know worked and works for me and others (ask MM107 for non-biased results)

 

[bran987]

ok guys, I'm up for cardio at 7am for the first time in years, let's hope it's worth it.

pintoca I'll read that in a bit thanks

EDIT:

OK I'm finished. I feel extremely nauseus. I can barely drink my shake. I only did like 6 intervals of 30 seconds max effort and 60 seconds medium effort SH********T I am out of shape ugh I feel awful.

 

[jenscats5]

Bran -- I felt the same way when I first started am HIIT. Eventually you'll get used to it & now I even sort of like it......Also, not to sound like a commercial -- try Cardio Breeze from the AF Store --> really helps to get you going for that mroning HIIT.

Pint -- always love your input However, if Bran keeps his cals approx in the 1600-1800 range or even in the lower range, then he'll have plenty of room to ADD in more cardio when the fat loss stalls. If he does insane amounts of cardio now, there won't be anywhere to add it in later cuz he'll already be doing insane amounts.....Make sense??

I kept my cals around the 11x my bodyweight range & only did 2-3x morning HIIT a week (plus my usual walking) & in 3 months I could see abs......

 

[jenscats5]

The idea of not training only once a week is that since you are dieting , you will lack the strenght to train the muscles hard enough to grant them 1 week pause... I always felt "under-utilized" when training only once a week.

Under Shadow's guidance, I never lost strength -- I gained strength, increasing weights & TUT......so I don't believe this is necessarily true....

for cardio, here is the catch... 45 min 6 times a week @ 75-85% MHR If you/he do this much cardio now, where & when will you add it when you plateau?? I think this much Cardio is just unnecessary

Before you all blast me into oblivion, this is what I do and what I have followed for the past 9 months... this has been my recept to drop 50 lbs in 5 months, 60 in 7 months and 65 in 9 months... (after a bulking pause).

Notice that the food is kept at a relative sane level, relying on the insane cardio schedule to create the deficit.

Again, if Bran doesn't eat the food, he won't have to do an 'insane cardio schedule' to burn it off.....

 

[The Shadow]

Ok, first Jen, what I meant is that there are 2 ways of creating the deficit:

1. reduce caloric intake, which will eventually backfire if you drop cals too much.
2. Increase activity levels

I feel that for Bran to eat at 1600 cals that will backfire, so he should increase to the 1800 range and increase the activity level to create the deficit.

Now, back to the numbers.

what I would do in your case Bro is:

Mon-Tue-Wed-Fri-Sat
1.833 Kcal
45% 206 gr Prot
25% 115 gr Carb
30% 61 gr Fat


Thu-Sun
2.226 Kcal
195 gr Prot 35%
278 gr Carb 50%
37 gr Fat 15%

Implement carb-tapering during the day (if you work out at nights, it is ok to have THOSE PWO carbs in the evening).

My recommendation for a PWO shake to you are:

40 gr Prot (whey Isolate)
40 gr Carb ===> 20 gr Dextrose
20 gr Maltodextrin
750ml water (take half inmediately after the work out, the rest some 30 mins afterward).

Training wise, you can do as you want, 5 days split, 3 days split, etc... in my experience, I have the best results by training legs once a week, and then a 2 days split, repeated twice, so it looks like this:

Sun: Legs
Mon-Thu: Back, Biceps, Traps, Forearms
Tue-Fri: Chest, Triceps, Delts

I throw abs on Mon-Wed-Fri. Notice this schedule is actually matched to the diet, so you will be training large muscle groups on the days you have your carb-up days.

The idea of not training only once a week is that since you are dieting , you will lack the strenght to train the muscles hard enough to grant them 1 week pause... I always felt "under-utilized" when training only once a week.

for cardio, here is the catch... 45 min 6 times a week @ 75-85% MHR

Before you all blast me into oblivion, this is what I do and what I have followed for the past 9 months... this has been my recept to drop 50 lbs in 5 months, 60 in 7 months and 65 in 9 months... (after a bulking pause).

Notice that the food is kept at a relative sane level, relying on the insane cardio schedule to create the deficit.

take it or leave it Bro, this is my opinion, based on what I know worked and works for me and others (ask MM107 for non-biased results)

you are recommending a diet too high in cals and then requiring a lot of cardio to burn it off..doesnt make any sense at all.


That much cardio will ramp up cortisol which we know is an extremely powerfull CATAbolic hormone.



If you analyze the amount of cardio you are suggesting, and factor in the loss of those cals form his diet...you are recommending the same basic amount of utilizable cals as I am....but Im not killing him with cardio


Dextrose and Malto is overrated for recovery......NO ONE on my plan used it, EVERYONE gained LBM AND DROPPED FAT EVERYWEEK


http://img268.echo.cx/my.php?image=abs16gv.jpg


^^Recent pic of me...NO CARDIO FOR OVER A MONTH - NO FAT BURNERS - NO GEAR.....NOTHING BUT A TIGHT DIET AND THE INTENSITY ON THE WEIGHTS

 

[The Shadow]

too low. Generally accepted min caloric intake for men is 1800 cals.

No offense but that is a ridiculous statement....


By your logic, a man who weighs 250 pounds should eat 1800 cals to lose as well as a man who weighs 180.

 

[pintoca]

The problem is the following:

if you cut cals too much below a certain threshold you will lose fat/weight... that is a given. The issue is how sustainable that is. I have done this with no breaks for 9 months straight. Any reduction in cals below BMR will create a decrease in metabolic rate. Bran's BMR is about 1600 already, why risk it going down to that level when he can stay at a easier BMR+100 or 200 cals?

The plan seems adequate, but I still have a problem for a man to drop to 1600 cals/day. Hell, women are in this caloric range and you cannot compare that.

Having said that, we also need to take into account that everybody is different and the 2 extremes (no cardio or cardio 6x/week) will not work for most people. I decided for the all out cardio cause I wanted results fast (more than wanted them, I needed them...).

Would the diet have worked with no cardio, probably yes, since diet is accountable for most of the results. but for sure it would have been slower

Ultimately a diet is something so personal, that any recomendation we make should only be taken as that, is up to Bran to try and see what works best for him.

About the Cortisol, I'm an advocate of steady state cardio ( not HIIT, which is the biggest cortisol-inducing and carb-burning form there is) at a higher pace... so far, the lost of LBM in my case is really insignificant (over 95% of weight lost is fat).

Seems we have here 2 plans that work, albeit following different roads.

I enjoy eating, so I wouldn't really enjoy a too restrictive program, I prefer to be able to have my oat with milk in the morning and not with water (that is about 200 cals diff) and be done with it... at the end, I know I can burn it off and be happy.