I’ve been following the T-Dawg 2.0 diet for some time now and combined with HOT-ROX, gotten some pretty noticeable results. Yet now, I seem to be stuck at around 11% bf. I currently do BJJ 2-3x per week, as well as lift 4x per week. My diet consists of:
I thought the 3 classes of BJJ per week would be enough cardio and calorie burning to keep shedding the pounds, but I guess not. Do I need to add some cardio after lifting sessions too? And if so, how often? Run 4x per week? More? Less? Thanks.
Oh and I’m not taking any supplements besides some Glutamine, Mulitvitamin & fish oils.
Your diet and exercise regimen look good, seems like you’ve just hit a plateau. I’ve certainly been there a few times. You may find that upping your carb and calorie intake for 10 days or so, just to maintenance levels, then dropping back down to a deficit will be the fastest way to get the BF% dropping again. I can never lose fat for more than 5-6 weeks without hitting a plateau like you’re experiencing and this is the best method I’ve found so far.
if i were to nit pick, i would say consolidate the 530 and 630 meals and take the extra protein before bed instead. in fact i would consider eating only tuna and taking 3 scoops of grow before bed. also veggie content seems lacking severely and you may consider switching the oatmeal for berries while you are trying to get cut.
if you are interested in supps, BCAA between meals works wonders (5-10g), other than that you are set.
the above are my recommendations based on what you did right: eat animal protein every 3 hours, fat seems relatively balanced; and what you can improve on: postworkout/prebed meal - need more food to drive recovery and maximize fat loss, perhaps one more meat meal/snack, more veggies and fruit.
regardless of how you decide to tweak it, write it down and stick to it for at least a week or two before assessing results.
if nothing else, i would take the oatmeal and grow and move it all to before bed. this would be the most optimum time for you to eat those carbs, even more so than the morning.
Too much protein powder, not enough real food. Call me old fashioned, but supplements should SUPPLEMENT, not make up the bulk of your diet.
You’re not doing calorie or carb cycling, so your metabolism has probably dropped. Increase calories by 20% for 30 days, then start doing some form of cycling.
How’s your water intake?
You may want to add green tea and creatine.
Your cardio looks fine, why not post your lifting routine so we can take a look.
Too much protein powder, not enough real food. Call me old fashioned, but supplements should SUPPLEMENT, not make up the bulk of your diet.
You’re not doing calorie or carb cycling, so your metabolism has probably dropped. Increase calories by 20% for 30 days, then start doing some form of cycling.
How’s your water intake?
You may want to add green tea and creatine.
Your cardio looks fine, why not post your lifting routine so we can take a look.[/quote]
I use 3 shakes a day to help boost my protein intake. I’ll try eating more chicken/beef/fish, but I find it easier to chug down shakes and a lot less time consuming.
Ok. So I guess on weekends, should I start bumping up my carbs/calorie intake? If so, by how much and how would you recommend doing so?
I usually get at least 1 gallon of water per day (sometimes upwards of 1.5 gallons).
I’ll pick up some green tea mix next time I go shopping.
I use a 4 day split. Tue/Fri upperbody. Thurs/Sun lowerbody.
Upperbody:
Bench (angles & barbell/dumbell vary from week to week)
Dips (weighted)
Pushups
Pull-ups (weighted)
Incline Barbell Rows
Seated/Dumbell Rows/Cable Pulldowns
Seated Military Presses
Barbell Curls & Close-grip Benches
I try to rotate doing 5x5 6x4 or 8x3 as my reps/sets (from week to week) with more rest on the lower rep ranges & less rest on the higher rep ranges. With this workout, I’ve maintained my weights and added maybe 5-10 lbs on bench/squat/deads.
Also, I’ve incorporated the Staggered Ab Training into my lifts and do that with the Tues/Thurs/Sun lifts. Also, I do my primary lift (bench/squat/dead) on its own and superset the following exercies (dips&pushups, rows&pulldowns, legpresses&lunges, etc…)
Thanks for the feedback from all you guys. It’s much appreciated. Thanks again.
[quote]srm522 wrote:
2) Ok. So I guess on weekends, should I start bumping up my carbs/calorie intake? If so, by how much and how would you recommend doing so?
[/quote]
I find calorie cycling easier, so I usually use that. I use a weekly cycle, with weekends being about 20% higher. So for me personally right now it looks like this:
2374kcal M-F 3050kcal Sat-Sun
32 Exercises a week is quite a bit, and 8 a day is a long routine, do you honestly feel like you recover well from all that?
I remember reading an article by Ron Harris a couple of years ago. It was all about the interval training, and losing a lot of fat in 4 weeks. It involved doing 2-60 minute sessions daily, 7 dpw, for 4 weeks, incorporating weights 3X a week to maintain as best you can, and obviously with a fat burner/clean diet…
I’m sure this would leave the person in an overtrained state by the time it was finished. But, once the body healed, it would probably make for some easy cardio-free fat loss…something like this has to make the rmr go through the roof…
I’m gonna throw some ideas out there, and you can take them or leave them. First of all, to summarize, I think you need to be a little more dialed in with your diet. Meaning I think you should eat meals at scheduled times that are composed of either protein and carbs or protein and fat, and get rid of these mid-meal “snacks.”
In addition, and this should go without saying, make sure your calories are in line with what you re trying to do. What concerns me is the BJJ may require more carbs otherwise put your muscle mass at risk, so I would opt for some sort of carb cycling diet whereabouts you perhaps have 50-100 grams more carbs on the days you practice your BJJ, and pretty much stick to a low carb, high fat, moderate protein diet on your non-BJJ and your lifting days. On these days, get your carbs from post workout. The rest of your meals make them protein and fat.
Below is how I would change your diet.
[quote]srm522 wrote:
I’ve been following the T-Dawg 2.0 diet for some time now and combined with HOT-ROX, gotten some pretty noticeable results. Yet now, I seem to be stuck at around 11% bf. I currently do BJJ 2-3x per week, as well as lift 4x per week. My diet consists of:
4 eggs, 1 bowl of oatmeal - 6:00 AM
[/quote] LIFTING DAY
50 grams protein
25 grams fat (5-10 coming from fish oil)
BJJ DAY
40 grams protein
50 grams carbs
negligible fat
[quote]
handful unsalted cashews ~ 9:00 AM
[/quote] Nix this. Replace with a protein and fat meal like breakfast.[quote]
Grilled chicken salad ~ 12:00 PM[/quote]
Make sure you’re getting as many fat calories as protein calories. Some olive oil, fish oil would be good here. [quote]
2 Scoops peanut butter ~ 3:00 PM[/quote]
Have some more protein with the peanut butter. Low Carb Metabolic Drive if available [quote]
1 scoop Grow! & 2 cans tuna ~ 5:30 PM[/quote]
I’d take it down to one can of tuna.[quote]
1 Scoop Grow! ~ 6:30 PM
Lift/BJJ - 8:00 PM (1 serving Surge with lift)
1 scoop Grow! ~ 10:00 PM[/quote]
Perhaps get some Low Carb Metabolic Drive and replace the last Grow! meal of the day with that, but it still looks ok.
Perhaps taking a week or two to slowly increase your calories, in the form of more carbs post workout and in the morning and fat during the day will help bump your metabolism back up again. If you can do this without regressing, then drop into a slight deficit again and you should start losing. I hope I was coherent typing this post, I’m kinda tired. Good luck and remember, if you’re not already, be extra precise with your diet now that you’ve made good progress, so as to be sure you’re not simply overeating.
[quote]
Oh and I’m not taking any supplements besides some Glutamine, Mulitvitamin & fish oils.[/quote]
Ok. I’m currently reworking my diet and I’ll post what it is tomorrow. I’m taking about 10g fishoils in the morning w/breakfast & about 15 in my before-bed shake.