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So for the past month I reworked my diet to kick off some weight. I usually keep my calories between 1600-1900. My workout consists of 4 sets, 2 warm ups and 2 working sets. I started off with 6 reps per set and increases 1 rep every week. 3 days a week with heavy, medium and last day being a light day. squats dead lifts bench press back rows military press shoulder shrugs calf raises on the weight machine. (Not sure what the name is) I've tried to get my macros to 40/40/20. Today was the first lift day of the week with 9 reps per set. Struggled on squats but made it through. Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Now my goal is to drop weight for now but maintain my lifts and once I get down to the 210-220lbs range increase calories again to try to put on some mass. My stats currently are 6'2 @ 275 squat 255 bench 195 dead lift 265 Mile in maybe 9-10 min... lol My question is even though I've dropped weight quickly this past month, I feel I might be doing to much with all those reps. Usually I hop on the thread mill to burn 300-500 calories per day 6 days a week too. I'm sure that large of a calorie deficit will has come into play on my lifts and I can probably increase my protein intake and lower fat a bit. Any advice on the areas I can improve on? Right now myfitnesspal has me set to lose 1.5 lbs per week at 2080 calories. |
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How is your recovery? 2 working sets is okay, but isn't ideal. What actual program are you following? I do 500-600 reps per exercise session 6 days a week when cutting, plus cardio. You aren't doing too many, even if you don't get to half of that. You def need to increase protein. Decrease fat a bit, keep carbs where they are. If in two weeks, you just don't get enough recovery, up the carbs by a little bit, and test again for 2 weeks. Find a balance between performance and recovery and sustainable, steady weight loss. It will take some experimenting to find that place. |
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so you're 6'2" at 275lbs severely under eating at 1600-1900 calories, and then doing cardio on top of lifting weights? I see you're already at 50g of fat roughly for 7 days a week, is there a refeed structured into this are the 16-1900 calories post deficit (cardio). Basically what you're going to do is make your metabolism suck undereating and overtraining. So when you need to remove more calories, you won't have shit to work with because you're already doing cardio and eating the bare minimum. |
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Originally Posted By: Silock How is your recovery? 2 working sets is okay, but isn't ideal. What actual program are you following? I do 500-600 reps per exercise session 6 days a week when cutting, plus cardio. You aren't doing too many, even if you don't get to half of that. You def need to increase protein. Decrease fat a bit, keep carbs where they are. If in two weeks, you just don't get enough recovery, up the carbs by a little bit, and test again for 2 weeks. Find a balance between performance and recovery and sustainable, steady weight loss. It will take some experimenting to find that place. Recovery I take 2 days off a week from lifting between the light day and heavy day. By the end of the 2nd working set im exhausted but only on squats. DL and bench I could probably fit another full set in. No way on squats. This is some program I found online a while ago. I was doing SS but I wasnt sure if the work load would be sufficient. On SS and eating my numbers on squats and deads were a good 60-90 lbs heavier. . |
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Originally Posted By: 137 so you're 6'2" at 275lbs severely under eating at 1600-1900 calories, and then doing cardio on top of lifting weights? I see you're already at 50g of fat roughly for 7 days a week, is there a refeed structured into this are the 16-1900 calories post deficit (cardio). Basically what you're going to do is make your metabolism suck undereating and overtraining. So when you need to remove more calories, you won't have shit to work with because you're already doing cardio and eating the bare minimum. 1600-1900 before cardio. No refeeds for now for the exception of that one day. I want a more controlled refeed. |
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5 hour window, once a week. That's fairly controlled, and gives you a set time to end the refeed. Keep the fats low, carbs high on it. As far as recovery, I meant how do you feel? You can keep that caloric deficit as long as you are either maintaining your strength or slightly gaining. When you start having to drop weight or go backward, up the carbs a bit. I would switch to something more like a Madcow Intermediate. It's roughly the same structure as what you have now, but with slightly more volume because of three more working sets. It should also help with keeping recovery up, because of the way it's structured. |
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I am impressed with the 9-10 minute mile [@275#], pretty good! for diet: no clue. Probably need more donuts. or less. Not sure |
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your calorie intake is retarded low for your stats... you'll quickly lose weight, but you'll likely feel like shit in short time... |
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I was thinking of bumping up my intake to 2100-2300 but still do a ton of cardio. Which would bring my totals down to some more sustainable ~1600 or so. I still get some much needed calories in and though the weight loss will be a bit slower I'm hoping my gains will still be there. I've definitely been feeling sluggish with that low of an intake. But, the goal of the first month was to knock out a good 10-15 lbs quickly and move on to a diet that is more sustainable. What are some cheap alternates to keeping my macros to 40/40/20? Another protein shake and some additional fruit/veggies? As it is I'm already consuming a shake with about 50g of protein a day with the rest of my day coming from either chicken or fish. |
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Adding another protein shake would probably put me at close to or at 300g of protein but it shouldn't matter as far I'm still in a deficit by the end of the day, correct? |
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you should be doing just enough cardio to hit your target loss for the week... 2-3lbs is plenty to lose in a week unless you're in a hurry to reach your goal... a guy your size could easily be dieting on 2500+ cals and not be feeling sluggish, and not killing yourself with cardio... |
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you don't need that much protein... and yeah the major factor in weight loss is a deficit... |
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You need more protein the higher the deficit, so 300g isn't completely insane, depending on how big the deficit is. But since he's feeling sluggish, the deficit is too much. Part of that is adjusting to the reduced intake, as well. I think I'm misunderstanding. You said you are currently eating 1600-1900, but you're going to bring the deficit down to 1600? I don't get it. Too much cardio is going to be counter productive, so I wouldn't add much, if any, especially if you're hitting your weight loss goal, as Diezel said. But as the diet goes on, you'll have to slowly start upping the cardio each week to maintain the loss rate. But you don't want to add a bunch of cardio because you're eating more food. That's a waste of time, literally. You'll be doing hours and hours of cardio each week just to burn off that extra 400 calories each day. |
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Yes im currently eating 1600-1900 a day minus whatever I do on cardio. Some days I do a lot and I'll have a 1000+ deficit (sometimes close to 1500). I want to lose the weight but im not sure if thinking i can accomplish a body recomp at the same time is possible.a |
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Are you a new lifter...? Are you on drugs...? |
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It's possible, but it takes longer, IME. I find it faster to just cut cals drastically while maintaining as much LBM as possible, and then slowly increase cals and build muscle from there. IIRC, Diezel has a much longer term strategy. How much LBM do you estimate you have? I think you could stand to eat more, but because fat isn't super-metabolically active, the rules are a bit different from leaner folk. There's a difference between feeling sluggish because you have simply cut some calories and feeling sluggish because you aren't eating enough calories to properly recover. For people that haven't done it before, it is hard to tell the difference. It's okay to feel a bit sluggish if your lifts aren't suffering. In that case, it's just "deal with it" sluggishness, and it's something that can be countered with a bit of caffeine. If you have a measurable performance hit (lifts going down, running time suffering *at the same intensity*, measured by avg. HR), then you need to eat more. |
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Originally Posted By: Silock It's possible, but it takes longer, IME. I find it faster to just cut cals drastically while maintaining as much LBM as possible, and then slowly increase cals and build muscle from there. IIRC, Diezel has a much longer term strategy. How much LBM do you estimate you have? I think you could stand to eat more, but because fat isn't super-metabolically active, the rules are a bit different from leaner folk. There's a difference between feeling sluggish because you have simply cut some calories and feeling sluggish because you aren't eating enough calories to properly recover. For people that haven't done it before, it is hard to tell the difference. It's okay to feel a bit sluggish if your lifts aren't suffering. In that case, it's just "deal with it" sluggishness, and it's something that can be countered with a bit of caffeine. If you have a measurable performance hit (lifts going down, running time suffering *at the same intensity*, measured by avg. HR), then you need to eat more. LBM... i can only go by when I was at ~210 I was around 21-24% body fat. That was back in 2007. At that time I never did lift. Ive been lifting consistently for the past 4 years. No crazy numbers until last year when I was consuming 3000-4000 calories and my lifts went up from s265/d265/b165 to 335/335/205 but I also gained fat. At my current weight I can see my legs and upper chest/shoulders have some size. Not much. So pretty much I have no idea now. Lol. I would like to get to 15-18% 210lbs or so. My current program like mentioned before im pretty ok completing my sets but I am struggling to hit 195for 10 reps with 2 work sets on squats. |
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This is what I'm working with. I know I have some weight on me but that's what im trying to work on. |
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Quote: I usually keep my calories between 1600-1900. Keep up that deficit, work-out but don't try and kill it right now going super heavy. Just get your form down, get a schedule down, get into some cardio. Your main goal right now should be shedding like 100 pounds. I'm not trying to be a dick but, you have very minimal muscle mass versus fat. You need to wipe the slate clean and start fresh. |
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^^ |
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Well looks like I got some work cut out for me. I'll keep you all updated. |
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100 may have been a little extreme. Aim for 50 and then see where you're at. |
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Had my bf % checked today and I'm at 27%. Bf 71lbs. Should I stay on my same routine now that I know these numbers or should I adjust? |
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Keep on it as long as you're making progress in fat loss. |
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Originally Posted By: Silock Keep on it as long as you're making progress in fat loss. My 100 pounds estimate was a little high, lose 50 of fat and you'll be another person then you can slowly add lean mass if you wish. I'm like 1.5 inches taller than you and about 222 pounds right now probably around 12-13% right now. Not nearly my leanest but about where I average. |
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Have still been dropping but today was the 2nd day that all my lifts suffered. Everything is feeling heavier. Mainly squats and bench. Might take off for from lifting for the rest of the week as I haven't had a break from it for at least 6 months or so. Take some time to rest but I will still be doing cardio and staying under my daily intake. |
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It's one day. Don't freak out and change something until you fail at making progress for three workouts in a row. |
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Tried Monday and today and I couldn't complete my reps on either day. Deadlift is still strong but squats and bench just feel heavy as shit. I'm going to give it another shot on Friday and go from there. |
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You can reset lifts individually as well. You don't have to reset everything. And you can deload one area while not deloading another. Just something to keep in mind. |
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if you can't complete your reps for an intended set, drop the weight. trust me you could lift half as much as you do on a shit day as you would lifting maximal on a good day, you will still progress. do nothing, you regress. |
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Originally Posted By: Silock You can reset lifts individually as well. You don't have to reset everything. And you can deload one area while not deloading another. Just something to keep in mind. Im going to reset my squats and work from there because I really didnt want to take some time off. |
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I found that taking a break from SS or Madcow too helps. For me, I go back to a routine of chest & tri's, back & bi's, legs, shoulders & calves for a month or two. Then retest and go back to Madcow for 8 weeks or whatever. Maybe I just get bored easy and it seems to help me. Everyone is different. |
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Keep it up OP. I started heavier than you jan 1 this year and I'm floating around 230 this morning and still have plenty left to lose. |
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Yeah chipping away at it slowly. Im hoping im down to 240 or less by Xmas. |
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I'm going to continue log my progress here. Down to 272 as of today. Hoping to dip into the high 260s by the end of the month. |
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Nice! |
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Cracked 268lbs!! Just breaking into the 260s does a lot of good for my motivation. Of course after 3 weeks of not eating above 2k calories I had a cheat meal. Brought me to about 4000 calories for the day. 350p/350c/200f. Still on track to be under my deficit for the week. Hopefully yesterday helped me out since I took 2 back to back rest days. Instead of only lifting 3 days a week ive bumped it up to go every other day. I'll see how that goes. |
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Ill post pictures in about 2 weeks to show progress. |
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I feel that I've gotten a pretty good understanding of my diet. As it sits I've been aiming for 225p/140c/40f @ 2000 calories per day when I lift and i do about 15-20 min of light cardio. On non lift days I do about 30min of cardio and 2000 calories or a little bit less. At this point im ok with dropping 2lbs per day. I'm going to roll with this for about a month or so and see what how it works out. |
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Still chipping away. Probably sitting at around 265 |
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please up your fat to 60g before you fuck yourself up hormonally. 50g minimum, 40 is way too little. |
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Ive been averaging about 55-60 for the past 3 weeks or so. |
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Keep it up. Very noticeable! Good work. Ps whatever you do don't listen to wayne about anything. |
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Originally Posted By: Art and Soul Keep it up. Very noticeable! Good work. Ps whatever you do don't listen to wayne about anything. yeah, don't listen to the guy stronger than Art about anything. |
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Originally Posted By: 137 Originally Posted By: Art and Soul Keep it up. Very noticeable! Good work. Ps whatever you do don't listen to wayne about anything. yeah, don't listen to the guy stronger than Art about anything. You're not stronger than me in any lift you chubby fuck. stfu. |
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Originally Posted By: 137 Originally Posted By: Art and Soul Keep it up. Very noticeable! Good work. Ps whatever you do don't listen to wayne about anything. yeah, don't listen to the guy stronger than Art about anything. ^ clearly a food expert |
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Good work OP, keep it up! |
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67 days since I started tracking my calories and going strong. But, I'm fucking tired of chicken. Lol I try to mix it up a few days and now that I have a better understanding of my diet I can get my protein from a variety of other foods. Still, fuck chicken. |
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I eat all sorts of meat. Pork is quite lean, bison is good, local butcher had some pretty lear sirloins, shrimp. Also, fish man. I'm allergic to fish, but I'd be all over fish if I could eat it. |
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chicken thighs > chicken breasts. |
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Chicken, turkey, lean cuts of beef like top sirloin, mahi mahi, cod, shrimp, scallops. Lots of tasty ways to have lean meat. |
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Another update. Progress from left to right. Lol |
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Ive done a few things differently this month. Im floating around 256-258lbs . This past month or so i cut cardio out and focused more on my diet. I raised my calories to 2000 and considering no cardio and eating not so great some days I think I did ok. This month im going to focus more on diet and cleaning it up from this past month along with introducing cardio again. |
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Looks like you are moving in the right direction! |
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looks like you're killing it bro! |
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Doing it right.gif |
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good job man |
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I can't get enough before/after! Awesome that you have the balls to document it. Congrats on the progress. |
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Thanks everyone. Hoping to hit 245 by Jan 1st. |
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Ok so I went to have my bf% checked again along with my weight. When I started this thread it was 2 months back I believe. Starting numbers 278 lbs @ 26.6% bf 209 LBM As of today 258 lbs @ 23.5% bf 201 LBM Now that's good that I've lost the weight but 8lbs of LBM? Is that normal? Now the first month I lifted and did cardio, the 2nd month I stopped doing cardio and upped my calories to 2000 or close to it. Anyway of avoiding losing that (little lol) muscle that quickly? macros are looking like 210p/160c/50f around 2000 calories |
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I'll let the CSI fitness experts chime in, but losing 2 lbs fat and 1 lb lean is pretty typical so to extend that to losing 20# total one would expect 13.3# fat loss and 6.6# lean loss You were 12 and 8 closeenough.jpg #note I am also skinny-fat, so my opinion is worthless [19.3% BF last measurement] |
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Your caloric deficit has little to do with losing muscle. You need to stay in positive nitrogen balance and get plenty of rest (sleep) while lifting. So, eat lots of protein. As far as losing LBM, that could be any number of things. Maybe it's muscle. Maybe not. I wouldn't be so worried about it that I put maintaining it ahead of losing weight. Lose the weight first. IF you lose any muscle, it will come back easily later. |
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Ok I think I got it. Sort of. I'll continue eating 2k for now but increase my protein a little more to maybe 225-250. At this rate I'll be around 235 lbs @ about 19-20.5 bf. Years ago when I weighed less 215 lbs I was at 21-23 bf. I'm curious what the difference will be now at that same weight after these past 3 years of lifting. |
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Here is an updated picture. |
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Nice! |
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W00t |
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Just came across this thread. Reminds me of my own journey about 6 years ago. Incredible progress man. Stick with it!! |
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dude is obviously killing it, congrats bro |
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just by chance, your bf tests could both be bullshit, and I wouldn't put alot of stock in them... if you aren't lifting, and lifting "heavy", you will lose LBM in a deficit and not eating enough protein... |
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Do you think that my bf is higher? Also I'm sure I'm still in a deficit and I've been eating 2000 a day with 200-250 protein. |
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My numbers are going up on my lifts. Not by much but they are going up. |
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as long as they are going up it's good... i don't have clients worry about body fat... the scale goes down, your lifts progress, you look better in the mirror, call it a day... |
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Thanks for the the advice! |
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no sweat... people just get wrapped up in bf numbers, and generally the tests are highly inaccurate... |
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Put about 5 lbs over the holiday and combine that with the flu the past week haven't made any ground. Went back today and damn did I feel a bit weak. Hoping the next couple of days are better. |