GUIDE TO CUTTING UP

[reyalp]

double up, unh, unh

 

[OrioleMagic]

I've been trying to lose weight for over a year. College really interfered with proper dieting. Now I'm back on track since school is out for the summer. I was up to 285 last summer, at 5'9" (I know I was a fat F**k). Now I'm down to 257. It seems for me, that it is easier to stick to a diet if I am eating small "snacks" all the time. Does this burn off more calories, also? Since I'm already have a lot of muscle, I'm just trying to conserve muscle mass as I lose fat. I usually do treadmill 4-5X/week, plus lift weight about 2x/wk. I can't really say I have lost any strength or muscle.

From my experience lifting weights for almost 20 years, I would advise against working out over 1 hr at a time, especially if you are under about 20. When I was 16-18, I worked out 2-3 hrs/day, 6 days/wk, but I never put on muscle. You have to give your body time to recover. If you work out 4x/wk, 1 hr/workout, at high intensity, you won't have energy to work out longer. If you are working out 2-3 hrs, you are either sitting around bsing, or you aren't working out that hard.

 

[dopexile]

Yeah, eating small meals intermediately will cause your body to burn more calories. Your body will compensate by giving your metabolism a boost because it thinks it get getting more meals. It will also cause your digestive system to use more energy to process food which means your caloric intake is lower.

 

[Disconnect]

I've been trying the lower-carb diet (under 100g/day carbs, 70g/day fat) repeatedly, but seem to make no progress. I get a bit of definition in the first 2 weeks, but then hit a plateau. Also, it seems that I lost more water than fat, since it takes only one high-carb meal to set me all the way back. Wtf?

Anyways, I'm going to give Diesel's program a shot. Could someone in the know tell me whether it (a low-fat diet) works? Why?

Also, he recommends eating 1.2g/lbs of carbs a day. Is that every day, or on training days only? It seems like alot if I'm not training that day.

Thanks!

 

[DJinTraining06]

My workout tip

I think they key to working out that alot of people don't seem to beleive is that u gotta get plenty of rest. I'm not talkin bout sleep, which is also important. I mean rest between workouts. I only started workin out a month and a half ago, and the first 2 weeks i worked out 1 day a week! the third week i did twice, and since 3 times a week. Doin just about nothin in between maybe a day of cardio here or there. But lemme tell u by the 4th week i was already looking great. havent't lost any weight im 5'6'' 162 and still am, but my body looked totally different after the 4th week, hell even the third week. i was flabby looking with no muscle at all. I was really sore those first two weeks so i had to rest the the whole week. And i think it allowed my muscle to repair fully. all the experts say to rest a sore muscle or else ur not gonan build muscle.

 

[Dee-Zy]

4. NEVER GO BELOW 1600 calories.

That's what cardio is for. Start at your baseline, then progressive cut 200 calories each week til you hit somewhere close to 1600. Once in that 1600 range you start to add cardio.

[This message has been edited by DIESEL (edited 11-19-2002).]

I'm not sure I understand this, are you saying to not burn more than 1600 more than you intake in a day or week? Or are you saying to burn atleast 1600 daily?

 

[Throttle]

neither. never eat less than 1600 calories.

 

[Dee-Zy]

neither. never eat less than 1600 calories.

So how many calories a day is suggested to burn?

 

[Throttle]

focus on doing it regularly, and pick a style (20 minutes of intense interval training or 40 minutes of more moderate cardio) to stick to for a while, and forget how many calories you need to burn. all machines calculate it differently (some try to include your base metabolic rate, etc.)

 

[Hydroblunt]

6. Low-carb diets are bullshyt, unless you are on the juice (specifically the cutting drugs) .

They leave you flat, and your workouts/strength will suffer... The carbs to avoid like the plague are the starchy carbs like pasta, white rice, and potatoes

8. Suggested macro nutrient ratios:

Carbs: 1-1.2g / # body weight
Protein: 2g./ # body weight
Fat : as little as possible, take one tablespoon of flaxseed oil with protein and no carbs before bed.

[This message has been edited by DIESEL (edited 11-19-2002).]

These are the only two I disagree with, otherwise great post.

Low carb does work, a pure protein & fat diet is actually exercised by the Eskimos, one of the toughest & healthiest people on the planet. Truth be told, your body does not need carbs, EVER.
Problem with a low-carb diet in modern society is the quality of your food. And you will mal-nutrition. But it works, like a charm.

Also, these juiced bodybuilders & freaks completely took the protein reqs out of whack. It's 1.7g of protein per KILOGRAM, not POUND. And this is for ACTIVE PRO ATHLETES, Olympic Gold medalists to be exact.
Everything over that is excess stress on your liver with minimal additional gain.

Fat is vital to your body, animal fats are actually responsible for the ability of the human brain to evolve back when man was not fully man. Replace carbs with fat, and you train your body to use fat as fuel, as nature intended. Get some virgin coconut oil and cook with it, it's the most stable oil on earth and goes direct to the liver, instead of storage. Raises metabolism significantly. The rest of oils, like flaxseed, cod liver, olive, try to consume raw without cooking. Even butter, if it's from grass fed organic milk, is very healthy.

Carbs by itself are worthless, while protein & fat are vital building blocks. Only reason humans consume carbs is because vegetables & fruits have micronutrients. Plus, prior to modern society, there was a shortage of calories. Hence the domination of grains as a staple food, which are simply the most economical.
Hypothetically, if you could get all those nutrients in another natural way, you would not eat carbs. Like Eskimos, they get their micronutrients from eyeballs and whale fat.

 

[MyOwnKryptonite]

Give some reason as to why cardio sessions lasting for over 20 minutes are, as u put it, "bullshyt."

A good cardio session on a tredmil should be like 15 minutes, what you do is you mix up the speed and incline, it causes your body to work harder at times and slow down at others, so when you go back to the harder times you work harder

 

[DerekRake]

If you're doing high intensity running, you need not spend more than 15 minutes on the treadmill.

 

[Azmodan]

Great guide.

I must say I disagree slightly with the macronutrient levels you suggest. Some people may need to eat that many calories and grams of protein in particular, but I don't think some of us do.

I am a broad-shouldered 225 lber, and your suggestions would have me grubbing out to the tune of 225 grams of carbs (at a minimum), 450 grams of protein, and probably say 30 grams of fat. That would have me grubbing to the tune of 2930 calories.

In the average day, I'd say I only eat about 2300 cals and 100g of protein, and I obviously sustain a lot of mass with those numbers. I'm just saying, a blanket suggestion for macronutrient levels may be a little over the top. I would actually suggest keeping track of what you eat in a given week and finding some average number, then scale back the caloric intake from there.

In any event, I'm squabbling over a minor detail. It really is a great guide.

 

[Gaz]

a few road bumps....

Hey there Diesel

A couple questions, i, last year tipped the scales at 130kg, i dropped that through diet and exercise to 74kg (i'm just over six foot) and am now climbing my way back up in muscle, now at 84kg. I've done fat% checks at two different gyms (one with the calipers and the other using bio-impedance) and both put me at about 5%, the problem is i have next to no six pack. Could it be i have done damage to my body that only surgery can fix? i can see the top two of the abs but from there defenition drops off. The rest of my body looks great, showing good vascularity but the mid section(th MOST crucial part is letting the team down... here's what i do.

Training 4 days per week, no cardio, just weights
I eat 6 meals per day (2 of which are protein shakes)
I take fat burners, creatine and BCAA's
I get my full 8hrs sleep

ANY suggestions would be welcome

Gaz

 

[Quiksilver]

Diesel won't be responding man, he left years ago.

You said you eat 6 meals per day... What exactly do you eat? Be detailed.

Ps. Congrats on the weight loss, dropping over 50kg is mighty impressive and I tip my hat to your dedication.

 

[MrS]

congrats on the massive weight loss.

NO WAY do you need surgery to get abs after that sort of weight loss.
Don't worry about it, just up your cardio a bit mate

 

[Gaz]

Thanks for the encouragement and for writing back, here's my basic day

4:30 - wakeup and take 3 x fat burners

5am - 1 hour training i sip a creatine mix during training BCAA's directly after training

6:15 - Breakfast - 1 green apple, one cup cooked oats + 1 serving whey protein and 2 x CLA tabs

9am - protein shake/bar/ hanful of nuts or biltong (jerky) and fruit

11:30 - 3 x fat burners

12:00 - 2 grilled chicken breasts, 1 cup broccoli, 1 medium baked potato/rice + 2 x CLA

15:00 - same as mid morning snack

16:00 - 3 x fat burners

17:00 - 2 grilled chicken breasts (or fish), broccolli and a salad

19:30 - 96% whey protein shake

20:00 BEDTIME!!!!

I'm gonna give the cardio a shot and maybe focus a little on the midsection a little harder.

Hope the extra info gives you a better insight

Gaz

 

[The Message Boy]

I'm bumping this up, I have my "Need to Lose 30 Lbs Thread" up and I wanted to bump this one as well.

For same reason, I've really already implemented alot of the strategies in this thread into my procedure but I still need to get down below 200lbs I believe.

 

[DjVita]

see? this thread says GIUDE TO CUTTING UP not GUIDE TO LOSE WEIGHT

cutting is also reviewd in these renowed trainers
lose the fat, feed the muscle (Tom Venuto)
the truth about six-pack abs (Mike Geary) www.truthaboutabs.com
the truth about muscle (Sean Neajwaliky -er) www.truthaboutmuscle.com

they all cover D´s posts (and his are free)
LIFT, PROGRESS INTENSITY
CUT BY HIGH INTENSITY CARDIO

and all in all DIET IS ALL