Macro Help

A few stats:

6’5, 240 lb, 15% body fat, 36 inch waist.

Looking to cut down to 220 and a 32 with a six pack. Right now I weight train with a trainer 4 days a week, play basketball usually 4 - 6 hours a week, usually lift on my own on weekends for smaller ego muscle groups, and my macro ratio is about 40% protein, 20% carbs, 40% fats. I take in roughly 2600 - 2900 kcal a day, take fish oil, l-carnitine, hot-roxx, bcaas, and a multivitamin. I haven’t been able to lose the body fat that I’m trying to shed. I used to be 340+ lbs way back when, but am at a sticking point. Foods are as follows:

proteins:
eggs, cottage cheese, chicken, 96/4 red meat, 99% fat free turkey, whey protein, beef jerky

Fats:
natural peanut butter (skippy natural), fish oils, Almonds, Almond Butter, Salad Dressing

Carbs:
carrots, oats, apples, tangelos, bananas, peas, broccoli, spinach, asparagus, very occasionally brown rice.

Help me please!

Thanks.

First of all, what does your specific diet look like? i.e., daily caloric breakdown, meal timing, what you eat at each meal, etc.

Please give some lifting stats and your specific training as well.

-dizzle

Sorry, here’s an example of a higher kcal day, what I ate yesterday:

7:00 am 1/2 cup oats, 1 cup cottage cheese, 3 tbsp natural pb
supps: fish oil, carnitine, Hot-Rox, vitamin, cla

11:10: 1 egg, 5 whites, 1/2 package asparagus
supps: fish oil, carnitine

12:00 workout

1:30 pwo shake: 2 scoops whey, apple

2:30 1 scoop whey, 1 cup strawberries
supps: bcaas

4:30 spinach salad, broccoli, carrots. 1 package tuna (180 kcal), 1 can white meat chicken (60 kcal), 2 tbsp ranch, 1/2 banana
supps: fish oil, cla

6:00 2 scoops whey, 2 servings natural pb, 1/2 banana
supps fish oil, bcaa

8:00 5 oz 99% fat free turkey, 1 package asparagus
supps: fish oil, vitamin

10:30 80z 2% cottage cheese, 1 tbsp flax seeds

total kcal:2963
protein 324 grams, 42%, 1292 kcal
fat 129 grams, 40%, 1164 kcal
carbs: 173 grams, 18%, 534 kcal

Lower Kcal Day:

7:30 1 scoop whey, 1/2 cup oats, 2 tbsp almond butter
supps: hot roxx, carnitine, cla, vitamin, bcaa, fish oil

9:50 pwo shake 2 scoops whey, glutamine, 1 tangelo

12:15: bridgeford beef jerky 280 kcal, ostrich jerky stick 80 kcal

3:00 salad with tuna packet (180 kcal), 2 tbsp ranch
supps: fish oil, cla, Hot-Rox

5:15 2 eggs. 4 whites, 1/2 package asparagus
supps: fishoil, vitamins, canitine

7:00 2 scoops whey, bcaa, glutamin

8:00 - 10:00 basketball

10:00 1 scoop whey, 1 cup strawberries
supps: bcaas, glutamine

12:00 8 oz cottage cheese, 1.5 tbsp almond butter, 1 tbsp flax
supps: fish oil

total Kcal: 2592
Protein: 47%, 290g
carbs 18%, 154g
Fats 98g, 35%

Workouts consist of supersets of lower and upper body workouts and include various types of squats, lat pulldowns, dumbell presses, hamstring curls, lunges, crunches, press moves, skull crushers, etc etc. Where am I going wrong?

Cardio??

4-6 hours of basketball sure qualifies as cardio

How long have you been doing this program?

My vote is to switch to a diet containing:
65% Fat
30-35% Protein
0-5% Carb

…for two weeks. Carb sources should be green vegetables only. Cut out the whey shakes during the day and get whole foods, saving the whey+glutamine+BCAA for pre and post workout. Cut out all dairy.

After about two weeks of this, drop down to a diet containing:
45-50% Fat
50% Protein
0-5% Carb

Again, carb sources green vegetables only, and don’t go crazy, because if you can eat as much broccoli as I can, it WILL add up.

The only thing that concerns me is the basketball which might not jive that well with a low carb diet - however, provided the fat is high enough I still think you’ll be ok, and of course your calories are where they need to be.

Your diet is ok, to get in decent shape, but I think its time to pull out the big guns and refine it for the home stretch.

Also, since you’ve been dieting for a while (or so I gathered from your large weight loss) it may be time to slowly increase your caloric intake for a few weeks (I’d still do the low carb route) and then drop it back down again.

These are just my recommendations though, based on what has worked well for me. Your results may vary. Good luck to you man.

[quote]NewDamage wrote:
My vote is to switch to a diet containing:
65% Fat
30-35% Protein
0-5% Carb

…for two weeks. Carb sources should be green vegetables only. Cut out the whey shakes during the day and get whole foods, saving the whey+glutamine+BCAA for pre and post workout. Cut out all dairy.

After about two weeks of this, drop down to a diet containing:
45-50% Fat
50% Protein
0-5% Carb

Again, carb sources green vegetables only, and don’t go crazy, because if you can eat as much broccoli as I can, it WILL add up.

The only thing that concerns me is the basketball which might not jive that well with a low carb diet - however, provided the fat is high enough I still think you’ll be ok, and of course your calories are where they need to be.

Your diet is ok, to get in decent shape, but I think its time to pull out the big guns and refine it for the home stretch.

Also, since you’ve been dieting for a while (or so I gathered from your large weight loss) it may be time to slowly increase your caloric intake for a few weeks (I’d still do the low carb route) and then drop it back down again.

These are just my recommendations though, based on what has worked well for me. Your results may vary. Good luck to you man.[/quote]

This is real good advice.

If you have been on a restricted calorie diet for a long time you should probably come back up to maintenance for a week or two, then drop back down using low/no carbs (exception is PWO). Also, after you lift try to get some fast digesting carbs in, white rice works great for this, or you can buy a tub of maltodextrin and mix it in with your whey. You can always go the easy route and buy Surge, too, I love the stuff.

Maybe try to work in some red meat every once in a while, too, get those good animal fats.

During your basketball sessions I’d try to take in a scoop of whey and 5-10g of BCAA, too. If you’re going to be doing a real low carb diet you want to prevent catabolism at all costs (or on any diet for that matter), and 2 straight hours of cardio is a good way to eat up muscle quick.

Can you post your lifting routine?

-dizzle