The Cutting Mission: Improvement

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

Background info:

Im 18 from England, have been seriously training for the past 6 months bulking, whilst been “casually” and been un-educated in the gym for the past 12 months before that. I would basically like the readers of T-Nation to check my diet, make adjustments and as i believe i have the personal motivation i can make the changes happen.

Personal Stats:

Height: 5foot 11 inches
Weight: 190 pounds
edit: body fat% ~19%
Workout: Chad Waterbury’s total body training (on the second week). I also go for an incline walk after each work out for ~20 minutes.

However, previous to this i had been bench pressing (free weight)132 pounds (8-12 reps),

deadlifting 240 pounds (4-6 reps)

squats 200 pounds (6-8 reps).

So, the diet:

Breakfast (8am): Bowl of mixed muesli (oats/dried fruit/nuts), chopped fruit, semi-skimmed milk.

Snack (11:00am): Piece of fruit

Lunch (1:30pm) : Meat / fish with veg. Often some form of carbs such as rice, but a relatively small plate full.

Snack (4:00pm): Handfull of mixed un-salted nuts. On pre-training days, also a banana.

Post-workout shake.

Dinner (6:00-7:00pm): meat / fish / veg. No carbs (other than trace).

Snack (10:00): few spoonfuls of skimmed milk cottage cheese.

Please feel free to rip the diet/workout apart completely if i am doing the wrong things. I haven’t got at this like a headless chicken, i have been researching into food choices and what to/not to eat, but i do feel as an amateur it is important for me to make sure i get things spot on.

Thankyou for any advice you can give.

Fenix

2

It’s also worth adding that i have ordered the supplements: Flameout and Metabolic Drive Surge recovery into my diet.

Are there any other key-supplements that it would be well worth implementing into my diet so as to help boost fat loss.

Body fat% is currently: ~19%.

3

How many calories does your diet total per day?

From looking at that it seems you’re cutting yourself short on protein - you need to add more especially for breakfast. Carbs in the first meal after your workout might be a good idea too. But in general carbs in the AM, fats in the PM.

As far as supplements, HOT-ROX is good for fat loss but avoid anything for now until you get your diet down. If anything, BCAA’s will help you keep your LBM while you reduce fat mass on a calorie restricted diet.

4

Did you just drop from bulking into this low calorie diet? It sounds like you could be eating as little as 1000 calories a day, which is way too low for you, even for cutting.

In my opinion, you should be getting more protein and fats.

5

Ok concerning eating more proteins for breakfast, what would you suggest. So far what i can think of is:

wholegrain bagel with thick layer of peanut butter.

Ideally, i realize i could do with some eggs, but due to the limited time in the morning i seem to face on work-days, this becomes increasingly difficult. Although, im sure i can implement this on holidays and weekends.

What would you suggest?

6

Screw the incline walk - sprint it instead or sprint every 10-15 seconds out of 1 minute, the rest of the time a nice strong ground-eating pace. Do more the the cardio time your using now. If you want something more enjoyable bike/swim as your hmm ~ tedious cardio :slight_smile:

I’m pretty sure you will drop some bodyfat% as your building muscle just by a cleaner healthier diet and higher quality cardio.

7

oatmeal + protein powder o.O

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oatmeal + protein powder o.O

Try this thread : great place to learn and Chef Lisa Marie and the other participants are always willing to share a recipe if you ask! Great thread you won’t regret it!

Also you can search for recipes, t-recipes in the search function under forums to the left in the index.

9

[quote]Fenix wrote:
Ok concerning eating more proteins for breakfast, what would you suggest. So far what i can think of is:

wholegrain bagel with thick layer of peanut butter.

Ideally, i realize i could do with some eggs, but due to the limited time in the morning i seem to face on work-days, this becomes increasingly difficult. Although, im sure i can implement this on holidays and weekends.

What would you suggest?
[/quote]

Try Egg Beaters. They don’t taste as good as real eggs, and you still have to cook em, but they are a lot easier and convenient.

Also, I wanted to ask…does anyone know of a cutting articles/guides on this site? And has anyone read Precision Nutrition by Berardi? Do you reccommend it? Might want to check that out too Fenix.

10

Im not a big fan of thinking X amount of positive calories equals X amount of muscle gained. Ive been able to gain muscle at many times in my life without being in a caloric excess. Sometimes just maintenece, and somedays an instinctive deficiet based on what my body is telling me to eat.

For the guys who have all their number in line on their diet but still have weak lifting numbers I would say you got it backwards.

Things that have helped me is
consistently getting a good large protein breakfast that is solid not a shake.

favorite being steak and eggs with a grapefruit.

Then after training make sure to take a PWO shake, and then have another large protein carb meal 1 hr later.

finishing the day with waht your craving, if Im sore and tired more protein and carb meals. If my body is saying eat more steak and salad I do so and divi up the next meals accordingly.

what Im saying is
build your Deadlift,
your squat,
and your chin and work on increasing your work capacity, the muscle will follow.

Your not gonna have much size squating 200 for six, build

11

You could also try boiling your eggs the night before - or even a few days in advance. I used to boil eggs for the whole week at one stage when I was pressed for time.

Another thing is if you increase your energy expenditure vs calories in you definitely don’t have to go very low - you could probably lose weight on a maintenance diet. But dropping just a few hundred below maintenance is the lowest you should go in general.

For some articles on fat loss & supps, I can think of the following by Berardi:

The Hard Body Manifesto Part 1
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=524962

The Hard Body Manifesto Part 2
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=526744

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Eggs shouldnt take much longer than 5 minutes to make and eat.

You cant get up 5 minutes earlier?

13

Cheers guys, really good advice. Have started to taking eggs in the morning with my mixed muesli/nuts/fruit to up my protein.

One t-member posted i should include some HIIT which is a very valid comment, supported by Alwyn Cosgrove’s recent article concerning
“The Hierarchy of Fat Loss”
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=1526539

Considering i am doing Chad Waterbury’s TBT http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=508031&pageNo=0

When would you recommend that i include doing some HIIT, after my weights workout or on the following day?

Thanks for the advice and any following advice.