diet advice?

[Neo]

Hey guys! I'm rather new to the board. First off, just wanted to say hi to everyone! Ok...here's my situation. I'm 21 years old. 5ft 8in 176lbs 10% bf...bench 315lbs. When I started working out I weighed in at 157lbs. I've been working out now for about 16 months and seeing good results. I'm more pumped than ever before, but I don't feel that I'm anywhere near where I want to be. My abs are coming through but my lower abs are being stubborn because of some fat.

After researching and checking out a lot on AR, I know that I need to clean up my diet. I read that I should be consuming around 360 grams of protein a day. 2x my body weight right? Normally, I have a protein shake post-workout of about 50grms of whey protein. Now, I also know that tuna and chicken have a lot of protein. How much should I be eating daily? Should I start having 2 shakes a day? Also, I have a weakness for pasta....what should I limit myself to? Any advice on how to make this transition smoothly would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!!! Rip it up!!!

"She has me wrapped around her finger.....too bad it's the middle one...."

[beenie]

Wow, you lift 305. Very cool.

it is very hard to go below 10%. If you want to try, diet is probably the easiest way as I assume you already do a lot of cardio. Try eliminationg the pasta, and limiting your intake of carbs, particuilarly late at night and see if it helps. Given your excellent condition already on what sounds to me to be a tenuous diet, I bet you will see improvement after only a few weeks.

Try it and let me know.

[dumbells101]

You don't need 360 grams of protein each day. 1.5-2 grams per lean lb is plenty and at 10% bodyfat you'd have (rounded about 18 lbs of fat so base your protein need on your lean mass of 158 which is between 237 and 316 which is still a lot. Figure a can of 3.5 oz. tuna has about 34 grams of protein. If you had 10 egg whites(figure 5 grams ea.) per day, 2 4 oz. chicken breasts (about 40-50 grams of protein) and 1 shake with 50 gms of whey then you're at 184 grams per day. That's way short of even your minimum so yes you'll need more than one protein shake. As for your pasta, if you plan it after your workout when your body needs the glycogen you can have a cup them, but otherwise stay with the low GI carbs like yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice etc. and consume plenty of fibrous veggies too.

And finally you have to do the cardio to burn the fat. Until your body has a need to use it then it won't leave!

[Neo]

Thanks guys! I'm printing this out now. I really appreciate the advice! I just hope I can stay strict with my diet!