first post - with another cutting diet critique question

[johnstonvt]

I've been on here a few weeks now I think, but havent posted anything until now.

A brief history. I've always been a bit overwieght (ok...obese) I'm a 5'8" male and at my biggest I was 285lbs...all fat. About 14 months ago I was around 262 and decided I was going to change my eating habits and exercise and now I am currently 180lbs. Ive been lifting and have added decent muscle and strength gains but still at around the 16 - 18% BF range. (At least that is what the digital bodyfat scale says) Anyway the gut I still have hanging over the belt tells me its not where I want it to be.

I lost most of my weight just by eating clean and every couple months or so I would drop carbs significantly to get a boost. I'm kind of stuck now, mainly b/c I get bored when I go on the low low carb diet and end up cheating. Ive come up with a diet but I'm still a bit hungry so I'm worried that maybe I'm not eating enough. I have seen results with diet similar to what is below but the holidays have gotten me cheating on Alcohol, suger...other s*** I shouldn'y be putting in my body. Starting now I'm cutting all that out.

My workout is as follows: Mon - Total Body circuit training, Tues - morning cardio, Wed - Weight Train Upper Body, Thursday - morning cardio, Friday - Weight Train Lower Body, Sat-off, Sunday- cardio

Right now here is a typical training day of eating:

5:30 AM - 1/2 cup (dry measurement) Oatmeal with 2 tbls peanut butter
6:00 AM - Train
7:30 AM - Muscle Milk or Myoplex Shake
10:00 AM - Large Apple and 1/2 cup cottage Cheese
12:00 PM - Chicken Breast, 1 cup green veggie, 1/2 cup brown rice or sweet potato
3:00 PM - Muscle Milk or Myoplex Shake
6:30 PM - Fish or Lean Steak, Green Veggies
9:00 PM - Whey and Casien Protien Shake (very low carb)

On non-training cardio only days:
7:00 AM - 1 egg, 5 egg whites, 1/2 cup oatmeal with 1 tbls peanut butter
10:00 AM - Muscle Milk or Myoplex Shake
12:00 - The rest of the day is the same as training day.

Other than that I also have a cup of coffee with half and half and splenda during the week around 9:00Am when I get to the office. I drink water all day long. Not sure exactly how much but at least a gallon. So how does it look? Any suggestions. My thoughts as of right now is that maybe I'm not eating enough. I try to cut carbs out later in the day so I think I may need something to add to the 6:30 meal but not sure what. Cheese?

Any advice would be great. I've been really pleased with my transformation so far. Seeing definition in my arms and chest is something I never thought I would have. I'm still seeing gains but I'm most concerned now with losing the belly before the spring.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Burning_Inside]

Your situation is probably a common example of people making fatloss harder than it needs to be, and that's to be expected in a world of miracle plans in the media and the general populace's bad traits of eating up everything the media says without question.

But to make things as super simple as they need to be for you, here's some honest guidelines that should give you enough of a base to go on and if you want more detail, you can do what i am a big fan of, and that's doing further research on your own to educate yourself more on the topic. It's a great feeling to ingest enough wisdom to know what is up and not be as lost as you once were.

1: if you're already under 15% bf, unless you can genetically get away wiht it, you're going to need to go low carb and discipline yourself to being strict. When you start getting that lean, there' simply not enough bodyfat on you anymore that the body can readily use, so you have to tweak diet and exercise to make use of some biological tricks that get your hormones to better free up fatty acids into your blood for fuel. Otherwise your body likes to eat up protein stores, aka, your muscle. Genetics determine how much or little fat to use for fuel during dieting, this is known as a P-ratio. (protein ratio). If you CAN get by on not going low carb, then rgeat, but if that were the case you probably wouldn't be asking for dieting help to begin with cause the fat loss would come easy. Seriously, buck up and beat yourself up emotionally over the fact that low carb is most likely an inevitability to get into single didgits.

2: Take dieting breaks. Check into cyclical keto diets. The longer you diet the harder hormones crach, and the less fat youre going to be burning. The best thing to do I have found for myself is something along the lines of low carbing and very low calories for 7-10 days with half hour cardio or so daily, full body workouts (not done to failure on any set) every 3 days or so, and then a carbup period for 2 days after the dieting phase with a power type muscle retention workout, then repeat the cycle. That's not the exactness of it all but I don;t have time to go into detail about it, you can find programs all over the web that are sufficient anyways.

That's really it. Expend more cals than you consume, diet hard and smart , periodically overfeed strategically...You'll get there.

 

[SaladFork]

Isolate your lower abs by doing leg raises, lots of them that will help with the belly (keep your legs strait while doing them). And what are you doing for cardio? I suggest running, when I started running consistantly I watched the fat shed from lower ab area and lower back.

Don't give up man, 100lbs is alot to lose you got that far, you almost there!!

Good luck.

 

[Burning_Inside]

Don't give up man, 100lbs is alot to lose you got that far, you almost there!!

Good luck.

I lost 60 lbs this past year alone without using any steroids, and I am not the most genetically gifted of people, believe me. No loose skin or stretchmarks. But yea just go and dont look back and dont care about the time fame, cause before you know it a year will have gone by and youll be like gee that was quick.

 

[johnstonvt]

Thanks for the replys everyone. The encouragement is great. "Just buck up and do it" Sometimes you just need to hear that. I'm now pumped up to go fix a clean meal and push on.

Thanks..

 

[lacoste]

Isolate your lower abs by doing leg raises, lots of them that will help with the belly (keep your legs strait while doing them). And what are you doing for cardio? I suggest running, when I started running consistantly I watched the fat shed from lower ab area and lower back.

Don't give up man, 100lbs is alot to lose you got that far, you almost there!!

Good luck.

Doing leg raises wont reduce the size of your belly. In fact without a loss in bodyfat, working your abs and causing them to grow will just push the layer of fat out further. Im not saying dont do abs. Its great to stregthen your core, especially for your back. But doing abs will not reduce the size of your belly. Only diet and exercise. Everyone has abs they are just stuck under a layer of fat for some people.

 

[SaladFork]

Doing leg raises wont reduce the size of your belly. In fact without a loss in bodyfat, working your abs and causing them to grow will just push the layer of fat out further. Im not saying dont do abs. Its great to stregthen your core, especially for your back. But doing abs will not reduce the size of your belly. Only diet and exercie.

That's why I said for him to add some running along with the leg lifts.

 

[lacoste]

Sorry then I misunderstood. Whatever you are doing is obviously working well for you man. Looking lean.

 

[SaladFork]

Sorry then I misunderstood. Whatever you are doing is obviously working well for you man. Looking lean.

Thanks bro, I love core workouts. I removed my couch and replaced with a roman chair =)