Can I get to 8% with this diet/routine?

[nmartinez12443]

How long you think it will take? I went from 182 to 165 fron December 21st to the current date 2/12/2012, 45 days, going 2000 cals, 150 carbs, 60 fats, 235 protein. I am about 11-12 percent bodyfat now.

Now (last 12 days) I eat
2,800 cals, 3114 maintence, so i'm 310 under daily.
36 carbs- fiber subtracted,
170 fat,
265 protein.
what i eat spaced out daily. I am currently in ketosis, haven't done a refeed yet.

1/2 cup egg whites
6 cups spinach
3 tbspoons black beans no salt- major source of carbs (i could eliminate)
44 almonds- major source of carbs
10 walnut halves
2 scoops low carb whey protein
5 whole eggs
1/2 lemon
20 shrimp
10 oz chicken breasts
1 pickle spear
2 cans tuna
5.5 olive oil
12 fish caps
10 blue berries
5 table spoons of salsa
4 mozzarella sticks
2 gallons of water

Supplements
3 ON multivitamin
6 glucosamine caps
5 scoops recoverpro BCAA during workout
5 gram monohydrate
fat burner in am
no carb preworkout

 

[nmartinez12443]

My workout

Day 1- chest/shoulder- bench/incline dumbells/barbell shrugs/ overhead barbell press/ pek dek/ dumbell flys with push ups/ lat raises.
(generally I run 35 minutes low intensity like 3 hours later with 200 situps)

Day 2- back/arms- dead lifts/bent over row/t bar row/ bent over lat raises
weighted dips/tricep pull down/barbell curl/ dumbell curls.

(generally I run 35 minutes low intensity like 3 hours with 200 situps)

Day 3- legs/abs- squats/lunges/leg press/ leg curl/ leg ext (light weight)
(i usually don't run)

Day 4- either I take this day completely off or sometimes I walk at 7 incline with 3.2-3.5 speed.

Repeat

 

[nmartinez12443]

Any thoughts from real lean guys

Is anyone around 8-10% bf, wanna share your thoughts on this/tips/strats

 

[DanZy]

Use intermittent fasting, it's the best way to cut in my opinion. The results are pretty awesome

 

[Jariel]

Nobody can really predict how long it will take or if your diet is working because everyone has a different metabolism and body type.

Like Espi said, it's better to judge yourself in the mirror. If you're looking more toned from week to week, then your diet is working, otherwise you might need to make a few cuts.

Personally, here are the things I would look to cut or reduce:

6 cups spinach - lower to 1 cup.
44 almonds- major source of carbs - reduce to around 10.
10 walnut halves - cut completely or cut your almonds.
10 blue berries - cut completely.
5 table spoons of salsa - reduce to 1 or 2

I wouldn't necessarily drop all at once. Try dropping or reducing a couple of these from week to week and see if you notice any difference. The main thing I would drop are the blueberries as the sugar will spike your insulin levels and make it hard to drop the bodyfat, and possibly cause water retention.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jariel]

Use intermittent fasting, it's the best way to cut in my opinion. The results are pretty awesome

I've not tried this so I won't say it doesn't work, but generally any period of fasting will send your body into emergency mode causing it to feed off muscle tissue and store calories as fat.

 

[DanZy]

I've not tried this so I won't say it doesn't work, but generally any period of fasting will send your body into emergency mode causing it to feed off muscle tissue and store calories as fat.

Your body only begins to do that after 36 hours of no nutritional intake. Do some research. Intermittent fasting is completely safe and effective.
Leangains.com is great
Also look into "Eat, stop, eat" by brad pilon (I think that's him)
Also your nutritional advice isn't great (other than the bit about blueberries, that's fairly correct and he is taking in too many almonds.
Keep the spinach, the caloric density is minimal and it's full of iron etc
Keep the nuts but reduce them a little. There's minimal carbs, what you want here is saturated fat. Will boost testosterone, leading to greater muscle gain and fat loss.
Depending on what's in the salsa (if there's added sugar and such) you don't need to drop it. If there's sugar added, get a new brand without sugar.

Now relating directly to what OP said:
12 fish caps in a day? Quit wasting your money, 2-4 is just fine.
Your cardio is ineffective. Do some interval training post-workout 3-4x a week.
And I'm not going to analyze the workout.

 

[nmartinez12443]

you guys are awesome

I agree some carb sources need to go. I will go to one tablespoon of salsa, only one scoop of whey per day, and cut my almond intake in half. Fish caps helps me keep the fat/low carbs.

That will make my intake be:
2,601 cals (500 def) 167 fat 28 carbs 253 protein

Meal one: 6 Eggs_1/2 scoop whey_multi_5g creatine_fat burner_4 fish oil
Meal two: 18 almonds_cheese slice
Meal three: Tuna_hot sauce_1/2 cup egg white_fat burner
Meal four: Chicken breasts_2 cups spinach_1 tbsn beans_cheese slice_olive
Meal five: Cheese slice_10 walnut halves_8 almonds
Meal six: 20 shrimp_10 blueberries_cheese slice_spinach_olive oil_lemon
_1 tbspn salsa_multi_4 fish oil
Meal 7: Chicken breasts_spinach_cheese slice_1/2 scoop whey
Meal 8: Tuna_cheese stick_pickle spear_multi/4 fish oil

 

[jax871]

I found the fasting approach can work quite effectively, especially if you are stuck for time and dont want to be preparing meals constantly.

However, if you do have the time eating your 6-8 small meals a day and keeping your metabolism firing seems to work just as, if not more, effectively.

Different goals to the same outcome.

My advice to the OP wouldnt be to start fasting as he has allready achieved considerable results with his current program, completely changing it at this point would be counterproductive as he wouldnt know what to expect, id say stick with it and keep slowly lowering cals until his happy with his bodyfat levels.

 

[nmartinez12443]

jax

thanks brah,

I looked at fasting, but can't find any good meal plans/principals/guides. Keto diet have tons of information for free. Plus how could you possibly workout fasted if thats the idea. Can you fill me in on the meal plan in terms of what you should eat and how many cals? My BMR is about 1,805. If I am correct with the fasting routine, you don't eat for 16 hours and eat all your cals/food for 8 hours.

I work from 7:20-5:00 Monday-Friday. I work out around 6-8.

Can you/someone let me know your routine/typical meal?

 

[nmartinez12443]

Also

I wouldn't probably start this until I work with the Ketosis diet for another 2 months or results start tapering off.

 

[DanZy]

Eating 6-8 meals is in no way more effective or easier at all. Also it doesn't make your metabolism any faster whatsoever. In fact I've found it made me eat too much because those tiny meals are in no way satisfying. That method only works because you're cutting calories. It doesn't affect your hormones positively or anything. Fasting like this positively affects testosterone levels etc and actually brings results faster and better. Show me any sort of proper scientific studies backing up your claims and i'll show you an entire book of them supporting mine

For a cut I'd recommend the "eat, stop, eat" approach. Twice a week you fast for 24 hours. So you don't eat from dinner the one day to dinner the next. That dinner after the 24 hour period is of normal size. You can eat at maintenance or less the rest of the time, it doesn't matter but the caloric deficit does not need to be as large due to the 2 fast days. Also working out fasted is greatly more effective than working out after eating, hormone increases etc.

 

[nmartinez12443]

Danzy

Can you get more specific in terms of your weight/height/bf% and what you eat specifically on this fast and when you train. I am interested in your proposed cutting idea.

 

[user43770]

I can vouch for intermittent fasting. I've lost about 10 pounds of fat in 6 weeks. I know it's fat because I've increased all of my lifts in that time. I'm currently at 5'8", 158 lbs and close to 15% bf. MikeBrown, a poster on this forum, gave me some very good info on IF. I eat a surplus of calories on workout days, about 500 calories above maintenance level, and plenty of those being carbs; on off days, I eat at a calorie deficit of about 500 calories, only around 50g carbs. Protein is always high. I train with only amino acids in my system and I've never been more focused.

 

[user43770]

On workout days, I eat a lot of chicken, whey protein, potatoes, oatmeal, bananas, fish and vegetables. You want to keep fat low on these days due to the high carb intake. On non-workout days, I eat ground beef, whey protein, eggs and vegetables. You want fat intake to be higher on these days. I only eat from around 4-12 daily. I typically train around 2 or so. My bmr is around 2200 - I take in 2700 calories on workout days and about 1700 on off days.

 

[user43770]

I would like someone here on SS to post a thread about the benefits of intermittent fasting.

So do you fast on workout days?

You fast for 16 hours every day. Espi, check out the leangains website. Nobody on SS knows as much as that guy.

 

[EvilAgenda]

I judge my bodyfat levels by mirror: low bodyfat simply means that I have a lean and toned midsection. The leaner and more toned, the better.

Right on, Espi!

 

[marmel75]

At 165 lbs, you would likely be better off bulking to build muscle, and you likely will lose fat at the same time. The reasoning is that you don't have enough muscle right now to justify doing what essentially is a "cut". I am 5' 8" tall at 206 lbs and a shade under 14% bodyfat(13.7-13.9%, caliper measured). Taking my Lean Body Mass alone, I still outweigh you by over 10 pounds.

Trust me on this, you don't want to do a "cut" when you don't have the muscle yet to compensate. You will end up looking what I call "fat/skinny", where your body fat will be low, but you will still look kind of fat because you will not have the muscle. Much better to put on 10-15 pounds of muscle, see where your body fat is and then go from there.

Also, what bodytype are you? Very important in knowing what type of macronutrients you should be taking in for optimal results. Before you started working out were you tall/skinny(ectomorph), athletic/naturally muscular(mesomorph) or squatty/fat(endomorph). Most people are usually a combination of these(Ecto/Meso, Endo/Meso, Meso/Ecto, Meso/Endo) and not purely one or the other. Learn your body type and do things accordingly for best results.

 

[marmel75]

I've not tried this so I won't say it doesn't work, but generally any period of fasting will send your body into emergency mode causing it to feed off muscle tissue and store calories as fat.

Completely wrong and misinformational. The body releases bursts of growth hormone that protects muscle and shuttles fat for energy. In fact muscle breakdown wont occur until at least 48 hours pass but may actually be 72 hours in a lot of cases.

Go to LeanGains and read the various articles by Martin Berkhan talking about this. It also increases insulin sensitivity, optimizes hormonal profiles, reduces bad cholesterol and triglycerides and helps reduce inflammation. In fact staying in a constantly fed state leads to chronically high insulin levels and problems losing fat. The body cannot burn fat with insulin in the system.

 

[marmel75]

I've not tried this so I won't say it doesn't work, but generally any period of fasting will send your body into emergency mode causing it to feed off muscle tissue and store calories as fat.

Completely wrong and misinformational. The body releases bursts of growth hormone that protects muscle and shuttles fat for energy. In fact muscle breakdown wont occur until at least 48 hours pass but may actually be 72 hours in a lot of cases.

Go to LeanGains and read the various articles by Martin Berkhan talking about this. It also increases insulin sensitivity, optimizes hormonal profiles, reduces bad cholesterol and triglycerides and helps reduce inflammation. In fact staying in a constantly fed state leads to chronically high insulin levels and problems losing fat. The body cannot burn fat with insulin in the system.