Workout to lose weight and get form - please review

[aldoctor]

Hello,

I am starting a new workout this week, the main goals are :

1- Lose 10 Kg (22 pounds) of weight during 4 month period
2- Achieve a "V" shape with muscular look (i know i cant build muscle while losing my weight , so its a "form")
3- get a flat belly (or very little fat on the belly)

Stats :
Age : 32
height : 188 cm
weight : 100Kg (220 pounds)
Body fat : 24%

most of the fat is concentrated in my thighs .

I will have two main workouts , alternated sat/mon/wed :

Workout A : Squat / Bench press / Pull-ups (3x8)
Workout B : Squat / Shoulder press / Chin-ups (3x8)

Before any workout ill do 15 min cardio, then during the workout between exercises I'll do more cardio (such as calf raises or running 2 laps)

in addition, Tuesday and Thursday will be normal 45 min Cardio or 20 min HIIT .


Diet :

Clean food , daily less than 2000 calories (my maintenance calories are 2500)

Questions :

1) will this regime help achieve my goals ?
2) should i go with 1 gram of protein per pound of body for this exercise ? or is it not needed ?
3) how can this be tweaked, what additional supplements will help ?

Thanks .

 

[_cato_]

Overall, good plan. A few points, not responding directly to your numbered questions:

1. You may want to switch up one of the pullups/chinup for a row movement instead. Or perhaps deadlifts. Alternatively, or in addition, you could substitute one of the squats with deadlifts. I say this just from the standpoint of getting more complete development/stimulus.
2. Is everything 3x8? Or is that just the pullups?
3. I'd suggest limiting the pre-workout cardio to 5 minutes and keep it light. At the very least, keep it light because you don't want it interfering with your weights workout. Also, I wouldn't worry about running around in between exercises, though doing a few sets of calf stuff would be ok.
4. Decrease the length of your cardio to 20-30 mins and do it 3 or 4 days a week, instead of two, if you can. More days for less time gives better results than more time on less days.
5. Your maintenance at that weight is probably closer to 2800 calories even assuming a sedentary lifestyle. At those activity levels the maintenance level would be closer to 3500 or more. If you want to keep activity that high (3 days of lifting and 2-4 days of cardio), then you want to keep your calories 2500 which gives you a deficit of 1000 per day, equating to 2 lbs of fat a week. Alternatively, you can decrease the cardio a bit and reduce calories to 2000 for the same effect. At a deficit of 1000 per day you'd easily be able to lose over 22 lbs of fat in 4 months. You may even gain a bit of muscle if you're a beginner.
6. You need 0.9g protein/lb body weight per day to maximally prevent lean tissue loss while dieting. Definitely get at least 150g per day.
7. Get a multivitamin and fish oil if you aren't otherwise eating fish. Protein powder will help get in the necessary protein. Drink water.
8. Monitor your weight loss and adjust things as necessary.

 

[aldoctor]

Thanks Cato, very valuable info ! find below my response :

1- As i am trying to reach a "V-shape" , shouldn't i concentrate more on Pull-ups / Chin-ups instead of Dead lift ?
2- 3x8 is for all exercises, actually i cant reach 3x8 on pull-ups thats my target, after that ill go for 3x as much as i can for pull-ups .
3- noted
4- noted
5- noted
6- noted
7- noted
8- noted

Thanks !

 

[_cato_]

Sorry, bit of a long post.

I suppose technically you're right that focusing ONLY on pullups/chinups will tend to make your lats bigger, which in turn will give you a v-taper. Rows, however, also primarily work your lats. You are probably thinking of the whole "back thickness vs wideness" idea. This is something of a myth because if you are working your lats they are going to grow, period. You could do only rows and your lats will get wider. Conversely, you could do only pullups and yet your lats will also be "thicker."

I suppose the same idea applies to you doing or not doing deadlifts. Doing deadlifts will make your traps/upper back grow, your lats grow, and your spinal erectors grow. I suppose its also possible that your obliques could grow a bit from stabilizing the load, but this will likely be even more the case from doing squats. Regardless, most people who start doing deadlifts and squats see their waist size shrink, not grow. The main reason I recommended throwing in the rows and deadlifts is for balance and overall fitness. To be specific, you otherwise wouldn't really be doing any work at all for your upper back/traps or your hamstrings, and you aren't really hitting your lower back hard, besides incidentally from the squats. While at the same time, you're doing substantial work for the antagonists for those areas (ie chest/shoulders, quads). Generally its a bad idea to develop large strength imbalances in antagonist muscles. It tends to result in various injuries.

In sum, if the v-taper is of the utmost importance to you, then yes, I suppose you could avoid doing exercises which have any chance of making your obliques/lower back/abs grow. But to be honest, in my own experience, and going by everything I have read, adding in deadlifts and rows aren't going to substantially inhibit your v-taper. That said, there's no need to do direct oblique work. What you could also do is just replace the chinups/pullups with rows and deadlifts, and then also do unweighted pullups/chinups every day and try to add 1 rep each day. There's a thread about this type of work somewhere on this forum.

If you're going to be including the pullups/chinups in the 3x8 scheme and you can't currently do 8 straight then there's several options: You could just do as many sets as necessary to get 24 reps. You could use the assisted pullup machine. You could get an exercise band of some sort and loop it under your feet and up around the bar.

 

[_cato_]

That thread I referred to above is here:

http://www.elitefitness.com/forum/w...ne-trying-lose-weight-gain-muscle-739721.html

 

[red head]

whats your training history and experience since you didnt say ill presume youre a begginer (appologies if im wrong) . at your weight n body fat you have about 75kg(165 lb) lbm so use this figure to work out cals/macs . so for cals start at 12 x lbm (lbs) ,pro at 1,25 g per lb lbm , fat at 30% of total cals and the rest of cals from carbs . split the carbs into 3 so if you have for example 150g per day have 50g at b fast, 50g pre w/o n the other 50g pwo the rest of the day all other carbs to come from veggies only and dont bother counting the carbs in those . as for training keep your cardio n weights seperate reason being when you train with weights you want all 200% of energy ,focus n concentration on lifting the max weight you can with form and control save the circuits , cardio n complex's for non training days but if you want to do cardio on lifting days do it fasted in the morning (low intensity)start with walking then after have your pre work out meal rest n lift a bit later . SL 5x5 works well with fat loss and to start with do minimal cardio use diet and weight training as the main factor for fatloss and gradually introduce/increase cardio as weight loss stalls . too many people start out at 45min cardio n when weight loss stalls theyve got no room for progression . good luck man its a long road to fatloss city

 

[aldoctor]

@ Cato : Thanks, I have researched more and dead lifts / rows are indeed very important exercises, I will try to put dead lifts on workout A & Rows on B (or vice-versa) ?
@ Red head : yes i am a beginner, regarding the diet, you mean 12xlbm is the amount of calories i should have ? also how do i protect my body from such high protein intake (1.25g / pound of lbm or 0.99/pound as per cato) ?? is drinking a lot of water enough ?

One more question, is the use of amino acids even needed here ?

 

[_cato_]

I'd stick rows on A as your third exercise and deadlifts on B as your third.

0.9g*bodyweight is enough to maximally prevent muscle loss. Feel free to eat more. Even though it sounds like a lot, its only, for example, 8 small chicken breasts spread out through the day. Or 4 chicken breasts and 2 protein shakes. Incidentally, this works out to ~40% of your total intake if you eat 2000 calories, which is about the minimum you should go (for now at least, you can continue to adjust downward as you lose weight). 40% tends to be the number most people on here will suggest for macro protein intake while dieting.

Just drinking water is sufficient. High protein diets are used clinically and by athletes without serious issue. You don't need to supplement with amino acids.

 

[bgbay]

I don't have time to read al of cato's posts so I'm sorry if I repeat something he already said...but.

That split looks good, I do a similar type split for MMA. Look into Wendlers 5/3/1 on T-Nation, it's similar to what you do now just a bit more structured on what to lift and how much to lift, it gives some assistance exercises too. If I were you I would throw in a nice ab routine as workout C. Mainly just to work the mid section too although I know the compound lifts do work your core to a certain extent i would be fun. Also, I know CARDIO can get boring for some people, have you any boxing or mma clubs aroun your area? Not sur if you like this stuff but a boxing workout twice week woul be amazing to lose some of tha stubbrn fat. AS far as your diet, make sure you eat enough, you have a lot on your plate there as far as workouts/cardio goes so you do not want to be fatigued and sore all the time. don't be scared to take a day off to heal/recover. ALso, lift heavy, remember, muscle burn fat.
Good luck bro.

 

[red head]

yes 12x lbm not total body weight . SL 5x5 is an excellent program for beginners . at 25% bf you will probably lose weight just by starting lifting and cutting out all junk sugar and processed foods . its been proven time and again that hi pro diets are not harmful as long as you dont have any underlying health problems and you should drink at least 2 ltr min water a day aim for 3