My Diet! Please Critique

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Edit: There’s another longish post of mine down there, please be patient and give me some feedback, it’s very important :>

So this is my carb cycling diet. I have a couple of problems with it. First, it seems like a ton of food, according to that formula I burn 3k cals a day, but what if I don’t? I’ve never eaten so much…

I will add the occasional fruit here and there, and it says cucumbers but it would be other veggies… I thought that maybe 170g fat is too much, even though I did it with the forumla. I don’t want to make any mistakes and end up with a higher BF%.

My stats:

20yo
180lbs
6’
18-19% BF

I work by the TBT program with very little aerobics (I intend to start doing HIIT 3 times a week)

I would very much like to get as much criticism as I can, so don’t be shy :smiley:

Thanks alot!

Here it is:

To gain:

3400 calories
270g protein
170g fat
Carbs:
High - 337g, moderate - 270g, low - 200g

3 workouts per week

Sunday: High
Monday: Low
Tuesday: Moderate
Wednesday: Low
Thursday: High
Friday: Low
Sunday: Moderate

4 workouts per week

Sunday: High
Monday: Moderate
Tuesday: Low
Wednesday: High
Thursday: Moderate
Friday: Low
Sunday: Low

Meal 1 (upon waking up): 82.5g/67.5g/50g or 67.5g/55g/40g Carbs

  • 45g protein meal

1 yogurt - 10.2g p, 10.2g c, 3g f.
1 tuna can - 21.6g p.
100g oats - 12.5g p, 67.5g c, 7.5g f.
80g oats - 10g p, 54.g c, 6g f + 1 eggwhite
60g oats - 7.5g p, 40.65g c, 4.5f + 2 eggwhites

Meal 2 (10:00) 82.5g/67.5g/50g or 67.5g/55g/40g Carbs, 20g

protein, and green veggies

1 yogurt - 10.2g p, 10.2g c, 3g f.
100g oats - 12.5g p, 67.5g c, 7.5g f.
80g oats - 10g p, 54.g c, 6g f + 1 eggwhite
60g oats - 7.5g p, 40.65g c, 4.5f + 2 eggwhites
120g cucumbers

Meal 3 (12:30): 45g Protein, 35g fat, and green veggies

75g walnuts - 12g p, 29.6g f
125g cottage cheese - 12g p, 2g c, 3.75g f
2 Flameout caps - 2.6g f.
50g flax - 9g p, 18.5g c, 17g f.
Metabolic Drive 1 serving
120g cucumbers

Meal 4 (15:30): 45g Protein, 35g fat, and green veggies

50g walnuts - 12g p, 29.6g f
125g cottage cheese - 12g p, 2g c, 3.75g f
2 Flameout caps - 2.6g f.
50g flax - 9g p, 18.5g c, 17g f.
1 tuna in oil can - 24g p, 16g f OR 4 eggs (4g fat 6g protein
each) OR 3 egg omelete
120g cucumbers

Meal 5 (18:30): 82.5g/67.5g/50g or 67.5g/55g/40g Carbs + 45g

protein meal

100g chicken breast - 33g p, 5g f.
2 slices of bread - 4g p, 6.5g c, 1g f each.
100g Quinoa - 13.4g p, 69g c, 5.6g f
80g Quinoa - 10.7g p, 55g c, 4.5g f. + 1 eggwhite
60g Quinoa - 8g p, 41.25g c, 3.3g f. + 2 eggwhites

Meal 6 (Post-workout, around 22:00): 45g Protein and

82.5g/67.5g/50g or 67.5g/55g/40g carb drink

1 serving Surge Recovery - 33g p, 49g c, 4.5g f.
65g brown rice - 2g p, 18g c.
120g brown rice - 3.6g p, 33g c
eggwhites as needed.

2

Anyone? :X Should I post this on the Nutrition forum? :X

3

Nothing? not even a pat on the back for good luck? :<

4

Try it and let us know how it works.

5

Yeah, you really have to try it first, because you might get sick of all that oatmeal and tuna everyday hahaha so you’ll have to change some things around a little. But yeah, just try it for a couple of weeks see how it works.

I am a little confused on your goals though, are you trying to burn fat or gain muscle, because at 19% bodyfat i would try to cut down first and then start adding mass.

6

If you’re trying to cut bodyfat I think you’re carbs are way too high. CT did a really good article a few months ago about transformation change and I think he suggests .25g of carbs per pound of body weight per day. So at 180 that’d be 45g per day I believe.

In order to offer you criticism though we need to know what your goals are. Honestly at 6’0 you don’t weigh that much and have a high bodyfat percentage. How long have you been training?

7

Finally replies :smiley: Thanks alot.

I’ve been doing it for a week, and I can handle the taste, I’m really into this fitness thing, not having any problems yet. I’m doing Thib’s Carb Cycling Codex, and was told by many that since I’m a beginner, I will gain muscle and loss fat anyway… And I have, I guess. I was told I would be better off just eating more and training hard than cutting then starting to train.

I’m not completely sure about the bodyfat, just used some calculator on the web. I will go get it properly checked. I’m not fat or anything, but I’m not thin either, but not skinny fat :stuck_out_tongue: I have some size and muscle, and I think that lots of my fat is in the legs.

I also have these love handles that I’ve been dying to get rid of. My goals are to be stronger and to look better ofcourse, with looking better being on top at the moment. I’ve been training on and off for a few years, but have only very recently started doing so seriously.

45g carbs a day? That seems like a really low amount of carbs, ar you sure on that? I have the deficit side of the carb cycling codex ready as well,

2500 calories
270g protein
70g fat
Carbs:
high - 280g, moderate - 225g, carb low - 170g

Should I try this to lose BF or are the carbs still too high? I really can’t see myself eating 45g carbs, that sounds like atkins or whatever killer diets are out there.

BTW, about cardio, wouldn’t it be counter productive to burn lots of calories if I’m trying to gain weight? shouldn’t I just eat less if I wanted to lose weight? I ride my bike about 5 miles a day, and wanted to start doing it in the gym for about an hour 3 times a week.

Edit: I’ve just finished reading that Transformation article, and it sounds good, thought I’ve already made my order (I live far :P) and it didn’t include HOT-ROX or BCAAs, I could get what they sell here thought I guess. I can’t find Leucine anywhere as well :X

Could I use this diet with Total Body Training, and Lactic acid training, so that’s 3 days of TBT 1 hour a day and 3 days of Lactic acid training 20 minsish a day. Would this work? I’m tired of reading I want to become focused.

Edit2: I’ve calced my diet for this as well!

45g carbs
270 protein
140g fat

1 serving Surge Recovery - 33g p, 49g c, 4.5g f.
250g cottage cheese - 24g p, 4g c, 7.5g f
3 tuna can - 64.8g p.
100g walnuts - 24g p, 60g f
2 Metabolic Drive 40 g p, 8 g c, 3 g f
200g chicken breast - 66g p, 10g f.
4 Flameout caps - 5.2g f.
2 tbsp olive oil - 28g f.
100g eggs - 13g p, 10g f

That’s a bit more carbs, like 60ish, but I would hate to not use my new Surge. Would this work well for me? I will use HOT-ROX, BCAA, anda couple of amino acids in seperate, as detailed in the program. I don’t mean to rush it, but I can afford it so why not go all out? I’ve never been lean in my life and would like to start :stuck_out_tongue: I know it’s a loooong read, but please read it and tell me what you think :slight_smile:

8

Alright, well first of all you need to decide what you consider good looking. For instance if you consider someone who looks powerful but is carrying around a decent amount of fat on them to be good looking my advice would be much different than if you consider a lean, muscular look to be good.

Right now I’m gonna assume that you’re thinking the lean version. If not that’s fine, but most beginners are all about that Brad Pitt Fight Club look. Having said that it’s wise to bear in mind the guy was about a buck sixty at 6’. He was shredded but I doubt his biceps were much more than 13 inches.
The problem with eating more and training hard is that unless your blessed with good genes you’ll still retain most of the fat you have currently. You will lose some fat and as long as you’re training properly you won’t gain any more but you’ll still have that inital layer there.

My experience has been that as a beginner you can still build muscle while cutting body fat because your body probably doesn’t have all that much muscle on it. That’s pretty controversial tho as some coaches will insist that you can’t cut body fat while building muscle and others will say that you can. Personally I’m 5’7 and I dropped from 180 down to 160. My biceps grew almost two inches and my chest grew more than that. Additionally my lower body got noticeably larger as well. Right now I’m at about 155ish and can see my abdominal wall and a faint four pack. So I’m not quite where I want to be but I’ve definitely put on muscle whilst dropping considerable poundage.

As far as your situation goes just be aware if you’re not muscular by the time you get to 10% body fat you’re just going to look like a sickly, skinny guy, but you can at least build cleanly from there while maintaining that asthetic look.
I would suggest doing a total body work out 3x a week that works compound movements. Right now you’re a beginner and compound movements such as dips, chin-ups, deadlifts, sqauts, bench press, etc. give you the most bang for your buck. They also help work a lot of different muscle groups in addition to the main ones being targeted which will develop your overall appearance. Especially if you’re carrying around a lot of lower body fat.
Total body work outs tend to burn high rates of fat as well, I would suggest checking out some of Chad Waterbury’s routines as he has many 3x a week for four week programs that I can personally reccomend.

The work out though is really only about 20-40% of the battle. The rest is nutrition. Your carb intake levels are way too high in your first post. Your last one looks much more reasonable. Read up on Thib’s articles and his locker as well as Shugart’s articles as they both deal with the reasoning behind lowering carbs to cut body fat. Surge as long as it’s post workout really doesn’t count against you because your body is gonna suck those carbs and protein up right away to replenish itself. It’s the carbs when your body isn’t doing that that kill you.

IN addition if you’re starving at some point munch on some celery, broccoli, or the like as greens really don’t count against you either.
Finally, cardio is neccessary if you’re trying to cut body fat. Hill sprints or incline sprints on a treadmill actually help develop your hammies which will help solve your lower body fat problem. As long as you keep the times reasonable though, it won’t hurt you. Long, steady state cardio on the other hand will destroy muscle.

Ultimately it’s on you to decide what your goals are and how you want to go about achieving them. SOme on here will disagree with me I’m sure and insist that you just need to eat a lot of clean foods and lift heavy. Others will probably agree with me on some points but disagree on others. That’s why it’s on you. Good luck with your decision and congrats on finding T-Nation.

9

Thanks alot man! Great detailed reply. I guess I’ll start doing HIITs… is cycling with tabatha good? What about the lactic acid training?