Not Losing?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Ok so I have been attempting to eat healthier, my goal is to not to gain mass but to cut fat. I am going to start eating more meals but I really need some advice on how to cut the fat, I gain weight pretty easily. So it has been very difficult. Right now I am 6’ and about 190. My body fat isn’t probably the best but I work hard on losing it. I lift at around noon 6 days a week for about 1-1.5 hours. Then do cardio for about 1 hour at night.

here is what I eat right now.

meal 1
banana(or soe fruit) w/ protein shake
or
3 eggs w/ whole wheat toast(2 slices)

meal 2
apple(or some fruit) w/ protein bar

WORKOUT # 1

meal 3
tuna fish sandwich w/ protein shake
or
PBJ sandwich w/ protein shake

meal 4
banana(or some fruit)

WORKOUT # 2

meal 5
Chicken breast with veggies
or
Fillet of samlon with veggies

I usually have small snack throughout the day of dried banana slices or oranges.

Thanks any advice will be appreciated.

JR

2

Calculate your caloric and macronutrient intake. Once you post this people will be able to offer better suggestions.

3

You’re really not eating that much. You are probably starving yourself and it’s forcing your body to hold onto the fat.

And training with weights six days a week is too much, especially for more than an hour each time…and an hour for cardio too?

Dude. Go read the FAQ’s and the “beginner’s thread” posted by vroom.

4

renz

no way you are eating enough to sustain that bodyweight and that workout level.

I would ditch the snacks of dries fruit and eat another one or two protein shakes.

You may not believe this, but I think you need to up your cals with some quality protein and good fats. The reason I would drop the dried fruits is they may be causing some insulin spikes with their high sugar content and this could be thwarting your fat loss efforts.

But really 6–1-1.5 hr weight workouts + 6 one hour cardios is just too much.

3-4 weights and 3-4 cardios spread about will serve you better. And in all honesty, I think you need to eat more(the good stuff) to help lose some fat and maintain or even gain a little muscle

Did you expect to hear that? Back off and eat more to go towards your goal.

5

I expected to hear something of that, I have been reading on here for quite some time but all the diets I read, aren’t what I am looking for. I am more looking for a healthy way of eating not something that will cause me to drop weight fast.

I have been gaining quite a lot of muscle mass, just not seeing a reduction in BF. I guess my reasoning behind me gaining muscle is the huge increase in all of my lifts.

I will take out the dried fruit but I really have a hard time just having a protein shake it really doesn’t last long and I am hungry with in an hour, I always when I feel hungry not trying to starve myself.

I will start my log again and calculate my kcal.

thanks
JR

6

[quote]renzema wrote:
I expected to hear something of that, I have been reading on here for quite some time but all the diets I read, aren’t what I am looking for. I am more looking for a healthy way of eating not something that will cause me to drop weight fast.[/quote]

Why not have both? You’re definitely not eating healthily right now. Healthy foods, yes, but healthy amounts? Nope.

I mean, you consider a banana to be a full meal? And look how many protein shakes you have each day? A big key is VARIETY.

Go back and re-read John Berardi’s article “7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs.” Here they are (I’ll put my comments in caps):

  1. Eat every 2-3 hours, no matter what. You should eat between 5-8 meals per day.

FAIL. YOU’RE GETTING 4 PER DAY (REMEMBER, A BANANA ISN’T A MEAL)

  1. Eat complete (containing all the essential amino acids), lean protein with each meal.

PASS, BUT YOU STILL NEED MORE MEALS

  1. Eat fruits and/or vegetables with each food meal.

FAIL. MEAL 3 CONTAINS NO FRUIT

  1. Ensure that your carbohydrate intake comes from fruits and vegetables. Exception: workout and post-workout drinks and meals.

PASS, BUT YOU NEED SOME HIGH-GI CARBS POST-WORKOUT

  1. Ensure that 25-35% of your energy intake comes from fat, with your fat intake split equally between saturates (e.g. animal fat), monounsaturates (e.g., olive oil), and polyunsaturates (e.g. flax oil, salmon oil).

LOOKS GOOD, BUT I DON’T FEEL LIKE ADDING UP FAT CONTENT, SO I’LL SAY PASS.

  1. Drink only non-calorie containing beverages, the best choices being water and green tea.

NOT ENOUGH INFO

  1. Eat mostly whole foods (except workout and post-workout drinks).

FAIL. DON’T HAVE A PROTEIN SHAKE AT EVERY MEAL.

So, you got a 3 out of 6 if you leave out #6. Not so good. But still, take the time to read the full article. The biggest thing you need to worry about right now is more meals, and less reliance upon your shakes. Shakes have a place, definitely, but not in every meal.

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459493

Also look at T-Dawg 2.0, which I haven’t tried but it looks solid (I’m actually starting it tomorrow). Lower carbs, yes, but it isn’t a ketosis diet. And the foods you’ll be eating are healthy, WHOLE foods. And you still get a few shakes in. :wink:

I’ve only posted here a few times, and I know it’s going to look like every post of mine will contain “read Berardi,” but you need to READ BERARDI. Put his principles to use. The man knows what he’s talking about, and you won’t find a healthier eater anywhere.

7

Thanks for the help, I will read those articles asap.

thanks again for the help

8

One eye,

Excellent post. Most people over-estimate how much they eat. Young females are the worst offenders. They think 1300 for a teenage athelte is alot of food. Mom will say, “she eats alot.” Yeah, right.

On a busy (heavy) day, I can manage about 3600 cal. of quality food, but it takes some serious work .(BWT 147 lb). One needs to implement “food preparation strategies”.

And also, READ BERARDI!

TNT

9

Ok how does this look.

Since I am a poor college student choices on foods are very limited. Also I can’t cook, that makes it a lot harder. Also my liquid intake is water, I carry around a 1 gallon jug every where, finish that about once a day and usually drink a bit more on a second gallon.

Meal 1
3 eggs w/ 2 slices of whole wheat toast. Small amount of ketchup and butter, no cheese. (440 kcal)
or
Something equal(going to have my family help me with variation, just want to be sure I am making good choices)

Meal 2
Banana(or some fruit) mixed w/ Cottage Cheese. (296 kcal)

Workout(being either lifting or cardio, changing each day.

Meal 3
2 tunafish sandwichs.(whole wheat bread w/ dry tuna, I actually like this) (496 kcal)
or
1 tunafish sandwich and one PBJ(small amount of jelly)

Meal 4
Salad w/ 1/2 chicken breast cut up(small amount of dressing) (121 kcal)

Meal 5
Banana w/ protein bar(trying to stay away from them because of the sugar)
(350 kcal)

Meal 6
BBQ’ed Chicken breast w/ veggies(1.5-2 breasts) (402 kcal)
or
Fish Fillet w/ veggies(large fillets)

That is about 2100 kcal. I haven’t added in protein shakes, I was hoping you could advise me on where to include them to get the best benifit, being that I really don’t want to waste them, since I am barely able to afford them.
Also these are easy food that I can prepare and usually already do, just not this many in one day. I have read those articles and they are very helpful.

thanks again

10

Number 1: Learn to cook some simple meals. Have someone teach you. Or, buy a cookbook and follow the directions.

Number 2: You still need to eat even more than that. Getting 2100 calories is still far below what you need, probably for maintenance as well.

Number 3: More variety in your food choices.

Number 4: Cut back on all the cardio and limit weight training to 3-4 days per week.

Number 5: Read more articles on T-Nation, especially nutrition articles by John Berardi and Lonnie Lowery. Follow some training programs like Chad Waterbury has written. They work.

11

Your new meal plan looks alot better… 6 meals spread out through out the day with a decent protien source in each meal

If you want to add protien shakes a good time obviously would be post workout with some simple carbs added, and before bed with some healthy fats

12

[quote]Nate Dogg wrote:
Number 1: Learn to cook some simple meals. Have someone teach you. Or, buy a cookbook and follow the directions.

Number 2: You still need to eat even more than that. Getting 2100 calories is still far below what you need, probably for maintenance as well.

Number 3: More variety in your food choices.

Number 4: Cut back on all the cardio and limit weight training to 3-4 days per week.

Number 5: Read more articles on T-Nation, especially nutrition articles by John Berardi and Lonnie Lowery. Follow some training programs like Chad Waterbury has written. They work.[/quote]

I don’t think you can say 2100 is below his level w/o some more info. When I used JB’s don’t diet calculations I came up with 2200 calories @190 lbs and 18% BF. I sit on my ass all day in front of a computer so my caloric needs outside the gym are minimal. In fact I probably expend more calories from all that protein digestion than from my job. Although as a college student you are probably getting alot more walking in than I do. I second Nate on the cooking thing, until you learn how to cook reasonable food you are in trouble.

13

I also haven’t include protein shakes, if I have a few of those per day, counting they are 110 kcal each, that should bring me up enough.
Also in my last post I think I included that I will be changing to a workout of once a day and lifting one day, then cardio the next.

Also really going to try variation, my GF is a good cook so she is going to help me out. She is very health consicious but really didn’t want to rely on her, I would prefer to learn from her.

thanks
JR

14

[quote]lothos wrote:
I don’t think you can say 2100 is below his level w/o some more info. When I used JB’s don’t diet calculations I came up with 2200 calories @190 lbs and 18% BF. I sit on my ass all day in front of a computer so my caloric needs outside the gym are minimal. In fact I probably expend more calories from all that protein digestion than from my job. Although as a college student you are probably getting alot more walking in than I do. I second Nate on the cooking thing, until you learn how to cook reasonable food you are in trouble.[/quote]

Well, this guy doesn’t really need to go by the “Don’t Diet” recommendations, as he has been eating too little and training too much (six days weight training and six days of cardio?). He must be burning up a ton of calories (far more than 2100) per day. That’s why I said that the 2100 isn’t enough. He will probably see better results by eating more.

However, if he’s been eating only 1500 calories a day, then he should [b]slowly[/b] increase calories each day for the next several weeks (add about 200 calories per day = 1400 calories more per week, do this each week until he is consuming about 3000 or more per day).