Cardio and diet

[gingernut]

Hi

I am 5'4" and 26% b.f. at 158 lbs.I have built up a lot of muscle over the past few years, lifting heavy and now want to remove the fat mass covering them - I am aiming to lose 14-20 pounds and just want an idea of kcal level and cardio volume I should start at. I have a good cardio fitness base. I know the sort of foods I should be eating (I have competed once before) but just need a few ideas for diet and cardio to get me back on track after a year of eating and lifting heavy.

Thanks

Rebekah

 

[Radical Ice]

As a rule of thumb, just to get started, you can multiply your weight X 11 to maintain, or X 9-10 to lose slowly. In your case, you could probably start by getting your bodyfat % checked and then diet at 1400-1500 calories a day spread out over 5-7 meals a day... and document everything you eat. You probably already know most of this, but check your bf again after 10 days or so and see if you are making progress. You'll read and hear of various ideas as far as hi-intensity vs. lo-intensity cardio, how much cardio, carb-loading and depleting, etc, and they will all sound great, but I can only say what worked for me was about 100 carbs a day, sometimes 50, and only in the morning/noon meals. Otherwise, the other meals were protien/vegetable meals. Do your normal cardio/training routine as you sound like you've gotten great results from it (any pics?) . You can adjust your calories if necessary and check again in 10-15 days. The problem with going simply by the scale is that you can make drastic changes to your physique (add 10 pounds of muscle, lose 10 pounds of fat), and the scale will not show it, but calipers or bf measurements will. So start slow, keep records (at least at the beginning), and stick with it!

 

[JJFigure]

I'm with Radical Ice - keep a diet log and an eye on the kcals. I use 11xbodyweight when cutting, but I also start out at a fairly low bodyweight (135 lbs.), and try to not eat less than 1500 kcals/day. I'm a cyclical low carber - currently use the anabolic diet (Di Pasquale) and also like the Natural Hormonal Enhancement (NHE) diet. Basically, I eat very low carb (<20 g), ~55% protein, ~40% fat Mon - Fri and very high carb (300-400g), low fat, low protein Sat and Sun. When cutting for contest, I was eating 1500 kcal Mon - Fri, 2000 kcal Sat, 1750 kcal Sun. This worked quite well for me - it was enough of a change both in composition and kcals to keep my body constantly guessing. Of course, low carb diets aren't for everyone.

Spatts also has a great cutting diet she wrote up, similar to what Radical Ice was talking about.

 

[gingernut]

So, if I am on 1500kcals per day and lifting 4 times a week, how much cardio should I do?

 

[rez]

at least 5 x p/w... mix it up. 20mins post w/out and 30-40mins on non training days. Low intensity post w/out, and interval training on alt. days.

g'luck

 

[BrickGirl]

If I were you, I would totally wait on cardio until your diet gets you down as far as it can, THEN add in cardio after you hit that plateu, don't use all your ammo at once, use one thing at a time until it doesn't work anymore, THEN add in other things one at a time

 

[JJFigure]

I totally agree with Brickgirl. I hold off on bumping the cardio until I'm no longer losing bodyfat from kcaloric restriction. Then, I start increasing the number of cardio sessions per week, 30 min sessions. Once that stops working, I start doing the occasional multiple session, still 30 min sessions though. Other competitors increase the duration, but I'd rather keep the sessions shorter and spread them out over the day.