First Post: Needing Help

Diet and Nutrition
1

Hey guys I heard about this site from the maxout fitness pod cast. I came hear to find some real answers. I have been working out for 5 years and each sumer I try to get lean for lifeguarding. I want to look cut with my shirt off. I am by no means a novice I know a lot about fitness and nutrition. Each year I try to stay reatively lean while gaining size.

I have gained around 35 lbs of muscle in the past 4 years. I started cutting(at 16% bf)in february this time so that I would for sure have a ready 6 pack by july, but have been stuck at 12% since April. I started slowly and gradually got down to 2000 Kcal a day.

I have tried cardio in teh morning ,HIIT, after workouts,adn all other types of cardio in teh past. I have tried moderate carb, low carb, the cut diet, and a keto diet. i have used refeeds adn carb ups. But still nothing works. I am 6’1, 190, 21 years old ,and stuck at 12% bf. i want to have a cut hard body with plenty of muscle please help.

P.S. I am pretty sure my woekouut is up to par so I do not think it is that.

2

[quote]matt_t2004 wrote:
Hey guys I heard about this site from the maxout fitness pod cast. I came hear to find some real answers. I have been working out for 5 years and each sumer I try to get lean for lifeguarding. I want to look cut with my shirt off. I am by no means a novice I know a lot about fitness and nutrition. Each year I try to stay reatively lean while gaining size.

I have gained around 35 lbs of muscle in the past 4 years. I started cutting(at 16% bf)in february this time so that I would for sure have a ready 6 pack by july, but have been stuck at 12% since April. I started slowly and gradually got down to 2000 Kcal a day.

I have tried cardio in teh morning ,HIIT, after workouts,adn all other types of cardio in teh past. I have tried moderate carb, low carb, the cut diet, and a keto diet. i have used refeeds adn carb ups. But still nothing works. I am 6’1, 190, 21 years old ,and stuck at 12% bf. i want to have a cut hard body with plenty of muscle please help.

P.S. I am pretty sure my woekouut is up to par so I do not think it is that.[/quote]

I do not think your height and weight makes you that big,or even slightly muscular, but then I do not care what your idea of physical beauty is.

If yu di weightraining, HIIT and cardio together, you are usin pretty much all ways to burn fat.

So, your problem is probably diet. If you were on a diet more than 12-16 weeks your progress sometimes stalls.

get slowly back to maintenance, 250 cals each week and stay there for a while.

afterwards you can cut down the rest.

3

[quote]orion wrote:
matt_t2004 wrote:
Hey guys I heard about this site from the maxout fitness pod cast. I came hear to find some real answers. I have been working out for 5 years and each sumer I try to get lean for lifeguarding. I want to look cut with my shirt off. I am by no means a novice I know a lot about fitness and nutrition. Each year I try to stay reatively lean while gaining size.

I have gained around 35 lbs of muscle in the past 4 years. I started cutting(at 16% bf)in february this time so that I would for sure have a ready 6 pack by july, but have been stuck at 12% since April. I started slowly and gradually got down to 2000 Kcal a day.

I have tried cardio in teh morning ,HIIT, after workouts,adn all other types of cardio in teh past. I have tried moderate carb, low carb, the cut diet, and a keto diet. i have used refeeds adn carb ups. But still nothing works. I am 6’1, 190, 21 years old ,and stuck at 12% bf. i want to have a cut hard body with plenty of muscle please help.

P.S. I am pretty sure my woekouut is up to par so I do not think it is that.

I do not think your height and weight makes you that big,or even slightly muscular, but then I do not care what your idea of physical beauty is.

If yu di weightraining, HIIT and cardio together, you are usin pretty much all ways to burn fat.

So, your problem is probably diet. If you were on a diet more than 12-16 weeks your progress sometimes stalls.

get slowly back to maintenance, 250 cals each week and stay there for a while.

afterwards you can cut down the rest.[/quote]

I never said that I was huge or anything. I of course would like to be bigger, but I want a lean body for the summer. I am doing this naturally, and gain muscle as fast as I can, but that is no reason for me too be fat during the summer months. Does any one have any diet suggestions?

4

[quote]matt_t2004 wrote:
orion wrote:
matt_t2004 wrote:
Hey guys I heard about this site from the maxout fitness pod cast. I came hear to find some real answers. I have been working out for 5 years and each sumer I try to get lean for lifeguarding. I want to look cut with my shirt off. I am by no means a novice I know a lot about fitness and nutrition. Each year I try to stay reatively lean while gaining size.

I have gained around 35 lbs of muscle in the past 4 years. I started cutting(at 16% bf)in february this time so that I would for sure have a ready 6 pack by july, but have been stuck at 12% since April. I started slowly and gradually got down to 2000 Kcal a day.

I have tried cardio in teh morning ,HIIT, after workouts,adn all other types of cardio in teh past. I have tried moderate carb, low carb, the cut diet, and a keto diet. i have used refeeds adn carb ups. But still nothing works. I am 6’1, 190, 21 years old ,and stuck at 12% bf. i want to have a cut hard body with plenty of muscle please help.

P.S. I am pretty sure my woekouut is up to par so I do not think it is that.

I do not think your height and weight makes you that big,or even slightly muscular, but then I do not care what your idea of physical beauty is.

If yu di weightraining, HIIT and cardio together, you are usin pretty much all ways to burn fat.

So, your problem is probably diet. If you were on a diet more than 12-16 weeks your progress sometimes stalls.

get slowly back to maintenance, 250 cals each week and stay there for a while.

afterwards you can cut down the rest.

I never said that I was huge or anything. I of course would like to be bigger, but I want a lean body for the summer. I am doing this naturally, and gain muscle as fast as I can, but that is no reason for me too be fat during the summer months. Does any one have any diet suggestions? [/quote]

I gave you a diet suggestion.

After a while your body refuses to lose weight.

You can A) force your bodly to lose weight, i.e. to lose a lot of muscle

or you can

B) get your metabolism going again and let your body get ready for the next round.

You cannot force it.

5

A little insight to a diet and training routine would help trouble shoot your situation. Can you give me a rough idea of what your meal plan looks like and how you’ve been training? It would also help to see how you’ve changed your approach over your diet and training since beginning.

Cheers,

Sasha

6

[quote]SashaG wrote:
A little insight to a diet and training routine would help trouble shoot your situation. Can you give me a rough idea of what your meal plan looks like and how you’ve been training? It would also help to see how you’ve changed your approach over your diet and training since beginning.

Cheers,

Sasha
[/quote]
At the start of this cutting phase I had moderate carbs. About a 3/4 cup of old fashioned oats for breakfast. Then 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats for pre workout, then a bowl of Kashi go lean crunch after workout.

all other meals had lean protien and good fats with them. I started with 2500 kcal with the ratio of p/c/f 40/30/30. The next step was to take out the pre workout oats and instead of cereal had 1/2 to 3/4 cup of quick oats (depending on the day)(with some strawberries after my workout workout. Everything else basically stayed the same.

I eventually got down to 2000 kcal (which is my rmr) and only around 100 carbs a day including veggies and everything. Finally I started the cut diet by scivation, and that is what I am on now. It is basically stayin in a state of mild ketosis, with carb ups on every 18th meal. My workouts are as follows.

Mon: chest, lats, triceps.
Tues: Legs and lower back
Wed: Shoulders, biceps,mid back, forearms
Thur: repeat day 1
Fri: repeat day 2
Following Mon: day 3 and I keep rotating.

My sets are usually from 6-10 per body part with each week varying in reps. They are either in the 8-10 range or the 10-12 range. I started low intensity cardio just after training for 20 min. When I eventually reached 30 min cardio sessions I added 20 min in the morning on an empty stomach.

I eventually got up to 1hr a day of cardio for about 4-5 days a week. I was burning any where from 600- 1000 kcal a day. I have been at a stall since April.

Since then I have cut out the cardio in the morning because I figured it was not good on a low carb diet so instead I just make a seperate trip to the gym for 30 min of cardio.

7

I have decided to do the t-dawg diet after a week of maintenance calories. I want to either use lactic acid trianing by Charles Poliquin, or the ripped rugged and hard workout. I have not really done low reps in a long time because I like the feel of higher reps. What do you huys think of these 2 options.

8

Great diet chioice and Id do whatever you normally dont to get the biggest benefit ie low reps

phill

9

thanks a lot for the opinions guys.

10

Matt,

So sorry for not getting back to you yesterday . . . I meant to but did not get the chance.

While I think the T-Dawg diet and Lactic Acid training programs are great, given that you have been dieting for a little while now, I worry that you may be in a depressed metabolic state. What I would like to do is perform a thyroid test that will help enlighten us on whether you are in an optimsed state for fat loss. So do this:

Pick up some tinc iodine (the brown liquid) from the drug store. Take some and paint a 1" by 2" little patch on your upper arm (by your arm pit works well). Now what you want to do is figure out when it disappears and is absorbed into your body. If it’s gone in 8-12 hours your thyroid is severely depressed and we need to reset it. 12-24 hours, it is mildly depressed and over 24 you’re cool.

While a week of maintenance is a good idea if you are in a depressed state, if you are not it will contradict your fat loss goals.

In terms of training, I am a HUGE fan of the workout that CT put together about 4 weeks ago called war-room fat loss strategies. I dropped 8-10 kgs in about 4 weeks while maintaining a good deal of musculature.

Once we get a gauge on where your body is I think we can make a solid push to get you under 10% without sacrificing too much muscle.

Let me know if you’re up for it.

Best,

Sasha