Exactly. As long as you eat everything you need and/or are prescribed in the diet, there wont be any noticable difference in the results because of meal timing. Do your best to spread em out but dont shoot yourself in the leg by obsessing about things that maybe dont even matter…the best diet approach is the one you can maintain. You can eat breakfast and train or you can skip breakfast and eat after.
@SkyzykS is right, i am not the author of the diet but keep in mind that people who write and/or sell diets sometimes make them a bit more complicated than needed just to differ from others…everyone wants to make his thing look good. Follow the diet to your best ability and you will be good - that is a guarantee.
Based on what is written, that does not seem to be the case. Berardi lays out macros and some essential recommendations pretty clearly.
But what I’ve seen about a gazillion times is “I’m doing Xyz yadda yadda…with a modified so and so, and a such & such finisher to blah blah blah…”
Then it turns out that the person isn’t doing what was originally stated at all, they’re doing their own thing peppered with a dozen other inputs under the banner of a named lifting protocol or dietary strategy.
Then they don’t get the results and end up saying “I tried that. It sucks, and that guy is full of shit.”.
Are you sure that’s the best plan for you? It’s intended for people who are already pretty lean. If you’re not already seeing some ab definition, you’d be better off with a different approach.
What’s your current height, weight, and bodyfat guesstimate (or pic, if you’re up for it)?
It’s also not meant for people who’re already in a fat loss phase, which I’m pretty sure you are. “The Get Shredded Diet Isn’t For Everyone” section of the article explains why.
I’m definitely overweight , I have just finished the v diet went well but still alot to lose so was thinking about starting this for 4 -6 weeks before doing a month maintenance and back onto something not so aggressive. .
Like the article explains, the Get Shredded Diet is absolutely not the right plan for you.
The GSD is designed as a 6-12 week plan, like it explains. So you’d barely be doing it justice anyhow.
Your current height and weight will still give some context, but since you’re, admittedly, still overweight with plenty more to lose, your best bet is to stick to a steady fat loss phase for 12-16 weeks straight, not 4 weeks of one thing and 4 weeks of something else. You’ll get much better results that way.
It sounds like you don’t really need anything aggressive, you need consistent.
Depends on a bunch of variables like your size, training plan, maintenance level, recent macro split, how long you’ve already been in a deficit and the results seen, etc.
Generally speaking, you want as little a deficit as needed to get results, so that you have room to make adjustments if needed down the line.
I havnt dieted properly since beginning of covid so around 2 years of not eatingproperly. The v diet was the beginning of dieting so I’m 1 month into a diet. I lost 16lbs and a fair few inches from my waist and hips .
I’m 37years old 6ft '1 259lbs I don’t really know what my maintenance calories are Iv never yried to find out.
I always train fullbody circuit style x3 a week with mainly low level bodyweight exercises , possibly a 4th
I was looking at starting at a 20% deficit with 35% protein, 35% carbs and 30% fats (2640cals)
I don’t know whether to eat the same on off days and just keep it simple or do a carb cycle on non training days ?
Is there a reason you didn’t follow the training program that accompanies the V-diet?
How can you know what a 20% deficit is if you don’t know what your maintenance calories are?
It’s absolutely possible to diet without knowing maintenance calories but there’s no way you can take an unknown number (your maintenance calories) and subtract a percentage of it. 20% of an unknown is also unknown.
A carb cycle isn’t something that is done on a specific day. Carb-cycling means adjusting your carbs every day based on what you are doing on those days.
I’d guess your probably in the “clean up my habits” stage. You don’t need to try to carb cycle or anything like that, unless it makes you feel better. Just daily activity and good eating choices are going to take you far.
Sorry if I confused you, I did follow the v diet training program I just had to make adjustments to the exercises due to injuries.
I make you right about guessing knowing maintenance calories I have always gone off a rough estimate on my lean body mass which I always start around 15stone .
I’m pretty good when my mind is set on something pretty tunnel vision during , its when it comes to trying to change my new bodyweight set point I don’t know how to do it so I yo yo back up to where I started .
I usually have an event like a holiday to help reach my goal but once that’s over I slip back into eating
I just mean it’s not necessary, not that you aren’t man enough to do it. As you just noted, consistency is the 99%, so do what makes that easier. If you like counting every macro and adjusting daily and carb cycling (and I get it!), do it. If that’s going to create an obstacle, I just don’t think you need to get in your own way.
I agree with this 100% by the way. With your stats you don’t need numbers and percentages, you need to overhaul your habits. I think that any “6 week blast” at this stage is counterproductive because it creates this mindset that this is something that will be fixed quickly, and it won’t. If you assume the timescale you’re looking at is more like years than weeks, it makes the first 6 weeks seem pretty meaningless.
Yup. Focus on gym progress and just getting your diet to where you are eating reasonably. When you are just in the “clean up your diet stage” I’d recommend focusing on the positive, not restricting the negative. That means setting goals for SLOWLY adding in good fuel and nutrition to your diet, not restricting the crap. When you focus on adding in whole food proteins, fruit, etc. (or whatever foods fit your chosen diet paradigm, don’t make it your religion) you’ll naturally eat less junk without mentally focusing on the negative aspects of restriction. Same goes for the Gym. Chase small incremental performance progress (more reps, more weight, est) not the punishment or the burning of calories or the bodyweight on the scale. It’s a much more positive headspace and that’s critical for getting where you want to go LONG TERM. Once you have the big general nutrition and general training down to automatic lifestyle habits without really thinking about it, you can start pushing a little, if you want. Good habits are far more important than finding the perfect strategy. When you decide to push a little, you can then work to add new habits.
I agree with what everyone’s saying about just setting up a general clean-up plan and letting the consistent habits do the work. Couple things to watch though: Since you’re coming off the V-Diet which is lower carb, you might want to ease into re-introducing a bunch of carbs to avoid blowing back up with water weight. One common approach is to basically wean off the shakes by introducing more HSMs per day over the course of a couple weeks.
I do like the “no training/no carbs” approach as a super-basic carb cycle. It’s not necessary, but it can be helpful. Just having animals and veggies on days you’re not working out can help nudge things in the right direction. Again though, the main thing is getting a plan you can stick to for months to let the results happen.
If you’re tracking calories, a general rule of thumb is to not drop below bodyweight x 10 to avoid running into issues (hormonally, energy-wise, progress-wise, and other). 2600-something is already basically there, so I’d expect to be a good bit above that number to start. But really, I’m not sure tracking numbers is useful or necessary at this point. DoubleDuce’s approach of just focusing on plain ol’ good choices is a pretty time-tested, self-correcting, no-brainer way to go.
Last thing is activity/exercise. 3, possibly 4, days of basic bodyweight training is a start, but working towards increasing your output will only help things. That could mean a daily walk and/or figuring out a more challenging training program you can do.
