Body Builders and Workout Buffs chime in please!

[thenexlevel]

Sorry guys this is a long post but since it seems like a lot of guys on SVTP are workout buffs I thought I can get some advice. Trying to build muscle while cutting down to about 185lbs.

Around 2-3 months ago I decided to hit the gym 2-3 times weight lifting (moderate lifting), 1-2 days a week for cardio. Back then I was about 212-215 lbs and I am 5'10" around 22-23% body fat according to measurements. I watched what I ate but I really didn't pay attention to how much protein I ate and didn't split up my meals into 6 meals. I hit a platue in my weight loss when I hit 209-210 lbs, body fat hit around 20% but I could not lose any more weight. My pants were looser and my upper body looked more toned but I could not lose any more weight and I am still quite fat in my opinion.

Last week I decided to get serious, I bought 2 gallons of liquid egg whites, a 5 gallon protein mix and went on a 1700 calories a day plan while eating 6 meals. My meal plan consists of the following:

5:30-6:00am (while driving to work): Protein shake (2 scoops, 1 cup of fat free milk, 2 cup of water) or (1 scoop, 3 egg whites, 1 cup of fat free milk, 1 c up of water)
7:00-7:30am (breakfast): Oatmeal or banana, or nat pb with wheat
9:00-9:30am (snack): Yogurt, fruit (grapes, banana)
11:00-11:30am (lunch): Chicken breast, lean steak, vegs
1:00-1:30pm (snack): Yogurt, fruit (grapes, banana), or mixed nuts
3:00-3:30pm (snack): Protein shake
5:30-6:30pm (dinner): Chicken breast, lean steak, vegs or protein shake

My exercise consist of 3 days of heavy lifting at the gym and 1 day of cardio, rest of the days is light cardio.

Lifting consists of the exercises below every other day, sessions last around 60-75 mins.

Bench (6 sets): 10x135, 10x155, 10x175, 5x195, 2x225, last set either 1x245 or 10x135
Shrugs (3 sets): 10x40, 10x45, 10x50
Curls (4 sets): 10x35, 10x40, 10x45, 10x25
Abs (4 sets): using machine 100 reps at 80bs total with 4 sets
Shoulder press: 10x40, 10x45, 10x50
Flys (3 sets): 10x125, 10x140, 10x155
Rows (4 sets): 10x85, 10x100, 10x115, 5x130
Lower back (3 sets): 10x115, 10x120, 10x130
Assisted dips (3 sets): 55lb help

The other 3 days when I'm not lifting, I do light cardio by working on my legs with this jumping program I'm on. It works the quads, calfs and hamstrings. Takes about 45-60 mins. And on Sunday I go play basketball for about 1:30-2 hours in the morning.

So there is my whole routine for working out and eating...I been using this app on my iPhone called Lose It where it keeps track of all the fats, carbs, protein and the calories with exercises. I been staying consistent at 1700 calories and my averages per day for fat, carbs, protein is below:

Fat: 57.4g (Saturated Fat: 15.6g)
Cholesterol: 359mg
Sodium: 2166mg
Carbs: 151.4g (Fiber: 9.8g)
Protein: 222.1g

So after a week of my new diet, my weight have stayed the same. It went down from 210 to about 208 but now its back up to 210.8, this is all within a week weighing myself early in the morning right when I get up. I would appreciate any advice or knowledge about how to go about this, am I doing a good job and on track or is there something I need to tweak? Something serious i'm doing wrong? I am getting stronger for sure, everytime I hit the gym i'm able to do more than the last time.

 

[stangin99]

That is way too many sets to do in one day. Stick to 4-6 exercises max per day. You should only be in the gym for 45mins to 1 hour.

Also, 1700 calories is nothing. You need to be eating more. And yes I know this is a "weight loss" plan, but you are not eating enough for the amount of activity you are doing.

But hey what do I know. I'm sure some roids/horomones will get you results much faster! SVTP steroid idiots FTW!!2241!!11!!!!

 

[lawdog302]

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water.

 

[97desertCobra]

energy in vs energy out. If you are not loosing weight its obvious, you are not burning more than you are taking in food wise. Are you measuring your food to know the exact amount of calories you are consuming right down to the single digit?

And for your hight and weight 1700 Kcals is a bit low. I'm on a weight loss regiment myself and I'm only eating 1600. But I'm 5'5 150 trying to get to 4% bf. My calorie deficit is only 500 Kcals from my normal maintenence. Do you know what your base level maintenence is? Who recommended 1700 Kcals?

Also you are working the same muscles every other day. That is a no no if you are trying to gain muscle. Actually thats not good at all unless your goal is muscular endurance. Only work out each muscle group 1 per week, at the least. Try to focus each day on 1 or 2 muscle groups per day. Try to give your mucle groups about a weeks worth of rest before you work them out again. As you gain more muscle and strength the rest time between workouts will increase. I need 2 weeks rest between workouts for each muscle group.

 

[thenexlevel]

I'm the type that always gains weight easily, if i'm eating 2-2.5k I'll be gaining weight for sure. I don't know what my baseline should be, I acutaly got the 1700 calories from the Lose It app on the iPhone and I do pretty much get my calories down to a digit since it allows you to enter foods you eat daily and it keeps track. I figure that with my workouts my metabolism should be speeding up but doesn't seem like it wants to...

 

[ChiSVT]

Diet looks pretty good, eat plain oats in the morning forget about the banana. You need some complex carbs, (brown rice, sweet potatoes, wheat bread, etc) after your workout. You should have 2 carb meals a day even if you're cutting, (preferably one in the morning and one post workout). Maybe replace one snack with fresh veggies and a can of plain tuna or a deli chicken breast, (you can bring them to work with you).

You're over-training if you do that split every other day. Here is a better sample split..

Monday - Chest / Triceps
Flat bench, incline bench, flies, skull crushers, extensions

Tuesday - cardio 1st thing in the morning on an empty stomach

Wednesday - Back / Biceps
Deads, rows, pulldowns, pull-ups, standing curls, preacher curls, hammer

Thursday - cardio 1st thing in the morning on an empty stomach

Friday - Leg / Shoulders
Squats, leg presses, leg extensions, lunges, shoulder press, lateral raises, upright rows.

Saturday - rest

Sunday - Cardio

repeat..

As said above 45-60 minutes a session.

 

[97desertCobra]

I'm the type that always gains weight easily, if i'm eating 2-2.5k I'll be gaining weight for sure. I don't know what my baseline should be, I acutaly got the 1700 calories from the Lose It app on the iPhone and I do pretty much get my calories down to a digit since it allows you to enter foods you eat daily and it keeps track. I figure that with my workouts my metabolism should be speeding up but doesn't seem like it wants to...

Well I ask because do you know the exact amount of ounces of chicken you are eating? The exact amount of oat meal etc. Those things make a difference. How is the chicken prepared? Grilled doesnt tell the entire story if its smothered in a sauce or marinade.

When I keep track of my calories I weigh my food and I write down the amount of calories on a small not pad and keep that durring the day. That way I have an exact count of what I'm eating. Pay serious attention to serving sizes on labels. Sometimes a package will state 150 Kcals per serving but there are 4 servings per bag. Nuts are also very calorie dense. I recommend staying away from nuts while trying to lose weight. just look at a small bag of nuts and calculate the amount of calories per bag. You would be surprised when you find a bag that contains roughly 3 hand fulls of nuts is over 1000 Kcals.

 

[ttk53]

Lift legs or your wasting your time!

 

[97desertCobra]

To give you an idea of a 1600 Kcal day for me.

Breakfast: 1 packet low sugar instant oat meal 120 Kcals, 1 medium banana 110 Kcals

Mid morning snack: Cliff bar 240 Kcals

Lunch: 2 5 oz cans of tuna with salsa 200 Kcals. 2 servings Hanover pretzels 210 Kcals.

Afternoon snack: 1 can no sugar added peaches 130 Kcals, 15 multi grain saltine crackers 180 Kcals

Dinner: 4 ounces oven roasted turkey 120 Kcals, 2 slices wheat bread 110 Kcals, 1 slice pepper jack cheeze 80 Kcals.


Grand total for the day is 1500 Kcals. I keep it around 1500 to give me some room before 1600 Kcals. I follow this EVERY SINGLE DAY in order to keep consistency while I lose weight. My protein, carbs and fat ratio is roughly 30% protein, 60% carbs, 10% fat.

I also calculate my cardio expenditure to be at least 500 Kcals per day, some days way more. That puts me at 1000-1200 Kcals deficit every day from what my base level Kcals are.

By staying at 1000 Kcal deficit I consistently lose 2 lbs of fat per week.

 

[eyellsac]

Try HIIT.

High-intensity interval training - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is a fantastic routine to drop off bf.

 

[rkomo]

That is way too many sets to do in one day. Stick to 4-6 exercises max per day. You should only be in the gym for 45mins to 1 hour.

Also, 1700 calories is nothing. You need to be eating more. And yes I know this is a "weight loss" plan, but you are not eating enough for the amount of activity you are doing.

I agree. You'll find it difficult to build any significant muscle on 1700 calories a day while on that routine IMO. Further, you should re-evaluate your reps to weight ratio. If anything, that diet & doing that may reps will only result in strain & injury. You are not taking in enough nutrients to repair damaged tissue.

Many people start a weight training program expecting to both lose weight & build muscle in a short period of time. While it can be done, this is a difficult concept for even an experienced trainer. Someone at your level should first concentrate on one thing like strength training with lower reps and relatively heavier weight. While your body weight may not change significantly, you will look better due to increased muscle mass with a slight reduction in body fat. Some people can actually lose a large percentage of their body fat through weight training alone.

Remember, it's 25 miles into the Forest and 25 miles to get out of the Forest. Meaning it took a long time to reach your present physical state & it's not going to improve greatly in only one week or even one month.

No matter what you decide, instead of looking for immediate results you should first concentrate on getting to the gym every day. Once you have commited and are showing up every day without fail for a solid 6 months, the rest will surely follow.

Good luck :thumbsup:

 

[thenexlevel]

I agree. You'll find it difficult to build any significant muscle on 1700 calories a day while on that routine IMO. Further, you should re-evaluate your reps to weight ratio. If anything, that diet & doing that may reps will only result in strain & injury. You are not taking in enough nutrients to repair damaged tissue.

Many people start a weight training program expecting to both lose weight & build muscle in a short period of time. While it can be done, this is a difficult concept for even an experienced trainer. Someone at your level should first concentrate on one thing like strength training with lower reps and relatively heavier weight. While your body weight may not change significantly, you will look better due to increased muscle mass with a slight reduction in body fat. Some people can actually lose a large percentage of their body fat through weight training alone.

Remember, it's 25 miles into the Forest and 25 miles to get out of the Forest. Meaning it took a long time to reach your present physical state & it's not going to improve greatly in only one week or even one month.

No matter what you decide, instead of looking for immediate results you should first concentrate on getting to the gym every day. Once you have commited and are showing up every day without fail for a solid 6 months, the rest will surely follow.

Good luck :thumbsup:

I agree with you guys, I just expected to see more results after a few months of training. I think I am getting to the point where I have too much too do every session and its starting to hinder my progress. I will try to divide up the exercises up and yes I will be consistent with my training.

In terms of calories count, not sure what I can do about that, there were times I cut it down to around 1200 a day but that was extremely hard and I didn't think that was very healthy. I think I will have to go more intense with my cardio then to cut down.

 

[cobra_4]

Like everyone else has said that has over training written all over it. Less is more.

 

[TourEnvy]

You need to start at a higher calorie diet because you will need to reduce calories when you plateau. If you start too low, you will be starving yourself and killing your metabolism. Your metabolism is not revving up because you are not eating enough at 1700 calories. Keep you health fats, but spread them out to each meal. They will control the absorption rate of the protein and carbs, in turn control insulin levels-reflect fat storage. Dairy is okay, but will make you feel bloated and doesnt really added any nutritional advantage other than digestion.

You need animal protien at each meal as well. Keep the green veggies going as well.

 

[MUSCLEMACH]

Diet looks pretty good, eat plain oats in the morning forget about the banana. You need some complex carbs, (brown rice, sweet potatoes, wheat bread, etc) after your workout. You should have 2 carb meals a day even if you're cutting, (preferably one in the morning and one post workout). Maybe replace one snack with fresh veggies and a can of plain tuna or a deli chicken breast, (you can bring them to work with you).

You're over-training if you do that split every other day. Here is a better sample split..

Monday - Chest / Triceps
Flat bench, incline bench, flies, skull crushers, extensions

Tuesday - cardio 1st thing in the morning on an empty stomach

Wednesday - Back / Biceps
Deads, rows, pulldowns, pull-ups, standing curls, preacher curls, hammer

Thursday - cardio 1st thing in the morning on an empty stomach

Friday - Leg / Shoulders
Squats, leg presses, leg extensions, lunges, shoulder press, lateral raises, upright rows.

Saturday - rest

Sunday - Cardio

repeat..

As said above 45-60 minutes a session.

You need to start at a higher calorie diet because you will need to reduce calories when you plateau. If you start too low, you will be starving yourself and killing your metabolism. Your metabolism is not revving up because you are not eating enough at 1700 calories. Keep you health fats, but spread them out to each meal. They will control the absorption rate of the protein and carbs, in turn control insulin levels-reflect fat storage. Dairy is okay, but will make you feel bloated and doesnt really added any nutritional advantage other than digestion.

You need animal protien at each meal as well. Keep the green veggies going as well.

Listen to both of these. You need additional help pm me...chris

 

[Sny714]

Not sure if it was mentioned but Fitday.com is great to track Cals/carbs/fat and protein. Honestly for me when I lower my carb intake I lose weight.

Doing a Keto diet(which I no longer do since the negatives kinda outweighed the positives) I lost 17lbs in 3 weeks. Went from 191 down to 174 then tapered down to 171 after that. The negatives though were without carbs you really have no energy, not to mention without carbs I lost my water weight and my muscles werent as full, making me look smaller than I was. I learned to keep carbs around 100g a day, rather than the <30g the keto diet required.

 

[DARK GEARS]

Ask BubbaBFP, his work outs work really well. I've noticed a huge improvements in muscle gains and strength. I would post the work outs but I don't remember the names of about half the works outs lol. Maybe he will chime in and post up.

 

[GBNFG 03 DSG]

Agree. Way to many sets.

 

[kirks5oh]

work out consistently, and you'll make gains--that's my advice. never mind all the crap you've listed to eat---just eat healthy, and work out on a regular basis.

don't be too 'serious' about lifting weights---buying all kinds of supplements, magazines, protein shakes, lifting shoes, 2 gallon water jug, giant duffle bag to take to the gym, etc. etc won't do crap for you if you don't put in the time.

i've been lifting at least 2-3 times per week (as much as 6-7 times/week in college/grad school) for over 15 years, and i've NEVER used any supplements. consistency is the key my friend. when i was a freshman in high school i couldn't even bench 95lbs (olympic bar with 25's on each side).