Hey, I been asking this question to some of the coaches. Would love to get some advice from forum members. I’m trying to lose about 12 lbs of fat so I can get down from 16% bodyfat to single digits. I’m not doing any cardio and train 6 days a week on five-day cycle. I take friday’s off. I try to stay in the 8-10 rep range.
Well, if you’re trying to lose body fat, that should be done through your diet. You need to be getting a caloric deficit. You should calculate your calories needed to maintain mass, count how many calories you’re getting, and plan accordingly. So if you need 3000 calories to maintain, you should plan to get around 2700-2800 calories a day.
If that isn’t making you lose weight, drop a few more calories. Or you could add in a little bit more exercise but I’d recommend dropping some calories. As one author once wrote, I think maybe Berardi? Which seems easier: Not eating that bowl of cereal or spending an hour doing cardio to burn it off?
I don’t care what anyone says, weight training alone won’t help you lose fat unless you’re naturally gifted to be lean.
I’ve never been able to get lean with diet and weight training alone. I’ve had to add cardio/conditioning to make it possible. And there are many ways to do it (sprints, bodyweight circuits, HIIT, etc.).
The idea behind a weightlifting routine when dieting is so that you can monitor your own strength levels while losing weight.
What I mean by that is, you want to be aware of what you’re able to lift in your main exercises, and make sure your strength levels in those stay the same. If your strength begins to go down, it means you may be losing too much muscle during this diet and need to pay close attention to your diet.
A plan very high in protein will help to achieve this, while carbohydrates would be low or cycled, and fat would be in moderate amounts.
Also… cardio is pretty useful for losing weight. I would recommend doing 30 minutes after each workout, personally.
But these are just what I consider to be the basics as far as “cutting” goes.
So, as far as my routine goes, no complaints except:
Either add cardio
Or cut calories
I am keeping my diet in check and actually have planned both: gradual increase in cardio, and gradually cutting certain foods out. In terms of calories I’m going by instinct.
I’m actually finding that since I’ve began to train intensely, I’ve been eating a lot more, mostly due to hunger, and have noticed a slight decline in my bodyweight. Will keep everyone updated. Thanks.