All Natural Cutting Diet Critique

[forever]

Hey guys!

After putting this off for a week or so...I'm gonna through my current diet up in hopes of getting on the right track to achieve my goals. First off my goal is to cut my BF% down to about 15%. Here are my stats and pics. My current diet is very vague right now...I`m just thinking of a typcal work day for me.

Age:24
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 280lbs
Yrs Training: 5
BF %: Roughly 30% (mostly around my midsection)
Diet:
8:30am
-1 Bowl of oatmeal with milk
-4 Eggs
10:30
-ISO Protein shake with milk
11:30
-Handful of roasted almonds
-Coffee Double Double
1:00
-Cesar chicked salad or turkey sandwich
4:00
-ISO Protein Shake
6:00
-Pasta in Tomato sauce
9:00
-Post-Workout Shake
-Chicken Breast with steamed Brocolli

My Cardio Training:
60 Mins or Low Intensity Cardio on Eliptical at 130 heart rate
Mon-AM-Empty Stomach or Evening after work
Tues-PM-After work
Wed-OFF
Thurs-OFF
Fri-AM Empty Stomach
Sat-OFF
Sun-AM Empty Stomach

Weight Training:
6-12 reps
Mon-OFF
Tues-OFF
Wed-Chest and Biceps
Thurs-Shoulders and Legs
Fri-Back and Triceps
Sat-Abs
Sun-OFF

Thats what I got so far...like i said the diet is very vague compared to the diets ive been reading on this forum...I just dont understand alot of it yet. So any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Bertuzzi]

Glad to see you've posted the diet... you def. need some help with it.... Like I said, I am no diet guru by any means. The guys on here have great knowledge and will help a great deal.... be ready to take notes.

Good Luck

[scotty51312]

Hey guys!

After putting this off for a week or so...I'm gonna through my current diet up in hopes of getting on the right track to achieve my goals. First off my goal is to cut my BF% down to about 15%. Here are my stats and pics. My current diet is very vague right now...I`m just thinking of a typcal work day for me.

Age:24
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 280lbs
Yrs Training: 5
BF %: Roughly 30% (mostly around my midsection)
Diet:
8:30am
-1 Bowl of oatmeal with milk
-4 Eggs
Cut the milk, make that 1/2 cup of oatmeal. Put some berries in it if you have to. No sugar or milk. Make it 1 whole egg and 6 egg whites
10:30
-ISO Protein shake with milk
once again cut the milk. I'd prefer not to see a shake as a meal. Real food would be prefered. (maybe chicken breast and brown rice)
11:30
-Handful of roasted almonds
-Coffee Double Double
decent snack what's a coffee double double?
1:00
-Cesar chicked salad or turkey sandwich
caesar dressing is usually full of fat. Would be better to make this a field green salad with a fat free dressing. You haven't said whats on the turkey sand or what kinda bread. if its white bread you need to start over
4:00
-ISO Protein Shake
once again real food over shakes. Small balanced meal would be good
6:00
-Pasta in Tomato sauce
I'm assuming this is a pre workout meal. If so this needs to be whole wheat pasta. Possibly with a little bit of protien. I like to mix fat free cheese with my pasta and tuna to give it a little protien kick before working out
9:00
-Post-Workout Shake
need to know the macro's on this (cals/carbs/protien/fat) and this is true with every other meal. Use the search button to find my cutting diet on this forum and you'll see how we need it set up
-Chicken Breast with steamed Brocolli
if this is a pre sleep meel you need to have a more slow digesting protien. A lean piece of steak would be better. or cottage cheese and a tbsp of natty peanutbutter

My Cardio Training:
60 Mins or Low Intensity Cardio on Eliptical at 130 heart rate
Mon-AM-Empty Stomach or Evening after work
Tues-PM-After work
Wed-OFF
Thurs-OFF
Fri-AM Empty Stomach
Sat-OFF
Sun-AM Empty Stomach

Weight Training:
6-12 reps
Mon-OFF
Tues-OFF
Wed-Chest and Biceps
Thurs-Shoulders and Legs
Fri-Back and Triceps
Sat-Abs
Sun-OFF

Thats what I got so far...like i said the diet is very vague compared to the diets ive been reading on this forum...I just dont understand alot of it yet. So any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm not sure about your weight training, I don't know how many sets your doing of 6-12 reps, but at your size id say drop the weight and up the reps. 4 sets of 12-15 This diet needs macro's for the whole day and for each meal. Sit down and rewrite this with the input you get and then do the math and get your macro's down.

[Bertuzzi]

Scotty: You asked what a "Coffee Double Double" is.... that is a Canadian thing... fuken Tim Horton's drinkers.... they all need to learn to come to the world of Starbucks .

Double Double is normal coffee with Two shots of Creme and 2 servings of Sugar so as you see.... not a good choice for diet. I personally do not mind the cream at low amounts.... but gotta switch the sugar for Splenda.

[scotty51312]

Ahh i thought he was maybe talkin about a double shot of expresso or something. Yeah in that case the sugar needs to go. I've read a lot of articles on black coffee actually being helpfull in thermogenisis

[gbrice75]

I'm late to this one - and Scotty has you pretty well sorted out. From the looks of it though, you lack the basic knowledge to come up with a good diet. Use the info below to educate yourself on proper diet and nutrition. Come back and post up a decent diet. Be sure to include where your workout fits into the day, and also include macros for each meal.

BMR/TDEE formula:

Let’s start with BMR. This is your Basal Metabolic Rate. AKA – how many calories you burn each day by just sitting on your ass. In order to figure out your BMR, you need to know what your lean body mass is. In turn, you need to know what your body fat percentage is.

If you don’t know your body fat percentage, go to your gym and get tested (please don’t use electronic scales to get your bf % checked, they're horrible). If you don’t have a gym that offers this service; ask me and I’ll give you a pretty good estimate.

With your bf % in hand, here’s the formula:

BMR (men and women) = 370 + (21.6 X lean mass in kg)

Total weight x bf % in decimal form = total bf weight

Total weight - total bf weight = total lean body mass

For example:

I am 6'1 210 lbs at 10% body fat... so I would multiply 210 by .10 (converted from percent to decimal) = 21 lbs
210 – 21 = 189 lbs lean body weight

189 / 2.2 = 86.0 lean mass in kg

370 + (21.6 x 86) = 2227.6 BMR (this is high for the average person)

Now that we have a BMR figure, we can move on to TDEE. Total Daily Energy Expenditure. This is how many calories we actually use during the day via our BMR and activities such as work, exercise and various tasks. We can figure this number out with simple math but be honest because this figure is to be the cornerstone of your diet and healthy lifestyle. We need to determine your activity level. We’ll choose from a few levels:

§ If you are sedentary (little or no exercise): Calorie - Calculation = BMR x 1.2
§ If you are lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days/week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.375
§ If you are moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
§ If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725
§ If you are extra active (very hard exercise/sports & physical job or 2x training): Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.9

For example:

I train with weights 5 days for 90 minutes per week. I play hockey three times per week
for 90 minutes. I do 60 minutes of cardio training 5 times per week as well. I also practice my sport 3 times per week for 90 minutes. Either via skating or puck/shooting drills. All are high-intensity. I am between very and extra active. Let’s say BMR x 1.8. My TDEE is 4010.

In terms of food choices, here goes:

I love analogies. Let’s use a good one. Think of your perfect body as a house that you must build. You’ve figured out your BMR and TDEE, so you know the exact specs of the property you have to work with. You know how exercise affects weight loss and how much of a caloric deficit/surplus we must create to lose/gain said weight; so you know how to build - you understand architecture. You also know the pace you intend on losing/gaining weight at based on these other factors, so you know it will be harder to get your house built in weeks as opposed to months. The only thing left is the tools/building material you must use and because you don’t know how to eat, you still can’t build anything. At least, not well. Sure, you can starve yourself for a few months but you’ll just gain all the weight back in a couple weeks of binge drinking and shitty eating on a vacation – you’re house will fall down!

So, let’s talk tools baby. Let’s talk food. First off, there are only 3 types of foods/macronutrients. Protein. Carbohydrates. Fat. That’s it.

Protein – 4 calories per gram - Building material. Bricks. You can’t gain energy from protein, you can only use it to build muscle/skin/hair/nails. It’s basically just amino acids and it’s what our bodies are made of. As such, we need lots of it. 1g of protein per body lb is a good number to shoot for . Go as high as 2g per body lb if you’re lifting weights and trying to build muscle. For example, I am 207 lbs and I eat between 300-400 grams per day. Our body can only break down so much at one time however, so we want to eat 20-40 grams of protein in every meal, several times per day. Protein, being building material only and not energy/labor – the body can rarely find a reason for it to be stored as fat. If you must over-eat – make it lean meat/fish.

Carbs – 4 calories per gram - Think of these as human labor for your house. Think of sugar as dudes you pick up out front of home depot and oatmeal as a skilled carpenter. Both are carbs, both serve very different purposes. Carbs help transport essential nutrients to the muscles, create glycogen stores, and as such, increase protein synthesis but do not build muscle; they are simply an energy source. As such, they should only be eaten/used when we need energy. Any carbs we ingest before bed or before watching a movie, or something sedentary are not used as energy, and as such, are more likely to be stored in the body as glycogen (glucose/water in our muscles that we will use when doing high-intensity exercise). Once our glycogen reserves are full, they will spill over and be stored as fat. Yes, they will make you fat. Carbs can be your best friend or your worst enemy.

Fats – 9 calories per gram - Like carbs, fats are an energy source, not a building material like protein. They provide nowhere near as much energy as carbs however. Ask anyone who's on a ketogenic diet. With regard to our house, think of fats as the glue/cement. They provide much needed essential fatty acids, which are great for joint/organ health and increase our protein synthesis. Going back to our analogy, cement/glue increases the effectiveness of bricks! If we give our bodies the right fats, it will be able to burn stored body fat quickly as it won’t see any use in keeping it. Remember, like carbs – not all fat is good and ALL fat is high in calories so watch out. A tablespoon of peanut butter can be a good addition to a meal. Snacking on 5-6 tablespoons, however, means you’ve just eaten over your TDEE for the day.

Acceptable proteins for your healthy lifestyle diet:

The goal is to eat lean protein. Meats/other sources low in fat/carbs.

§ Ground beef (93% lean or better)
§ Lean steak (Flank, flat iron, or top sirloin)
§ Bison sirloin (the highest quality red meat)
§ Chicken breast
§ Turkey breast
§ Tuna (canned or sushi grade)
§ Salmon
§ Tilapia (mostly all white fish)
§ All shellfish
§ Venison
§ Whey protein (post-workout recovery purposes only)
§ Casein/Cottage cheese (before bed only)

Black-List Protein sources. Do not eat these because they are high in fat. And not the
good kind we find in nuts and olive oil – I’m talking about cholesterol raising saturated
fat!

§ Bacon
§ Sausage
§ Expensive fat-marbled Steaks (Ribeye, Strip, Filet)
§ Pork and beef ribs
§ Pork/Lamb chops
§ Restaurant ground beef (80/20 fat – most burgers)
§ Duck
§ Chicken legs/thighs
§ Chicken skin
§ Cheese

Acceptable Carbs for your healthy lifestlyle:

Complex carbs are now your creed. These are slower-digesting, natural, low on the glycemic index carbohydrates that digest slowly and provide us with sustained energy. They do not drastically affect our blood sugar and do not cause insulin spikes. Thus our body sees no reason to store them as fat, it would rather burn them for energy. Simple carbs such as enriched white breads/pastas/rice/potatoes/sugars (including most fruit) cause insulin spikes and are high GI foods. They should not be eaten when on a strict diet. Fruit can be consumed early in the day or pre/post-workout because of it’s high nutritional value but should usually be avoided due to being a form of simple sugar. Remember, healthy, low-calorie foods aren’t always the correct foods and such is the case with fruit.

§ Oats/Oatmeal
§ Grits/Cornmeal
§ Unsalted/non-buttered popcorn (great, low-cal snack)
§ Sweet potato (the best choice)
§ Butternut squash
§ Whole wheat pasta (not enriched)
§ Organic whole wheat bread (not enriched wonder bread crap)
§ Brown rice
§ Ezekiel bread
§ Swedish grain bread
§ Gluten free bread
§ Wheat couscous
§ Corn
§ Quinoa
§ Lentils
§ Beans
§ Many more, look up the GI (glycemic index) for healthy choices

Black List:

§ White pasta
§ White bread
§ Baguette
§ Bagels
§ Cookies, cake, muffins, cupcakes, all sweets basically.
§ White couscous
§ White rice
§ You get the idea…

Don’t get discouraged upon reading this list. I still make desserts all the time with whole
grain flour and splenda. I buy bagels and baguettes at the health food store that use
complex carbs as a base. If you’re dedicated, you don’t have to miss out 100%

Acceptable fats for your healthy lifestyle:

We look for fat sources that are high in omega-3, 6, and 9 fatty acids. Also, many are high in protein. We do not want saturated fats such as butter, cream, meat fat. We don’t want test tube fats like trans (the worst). We want mono/polyunsaturated fats that our body can use for something other than calories. Remember, even good fats are high in calories.

§ Natural peanut butter (no sugar added, just roasted peanuts)
§ Natural almond butter
§ Cashews
§ Almonds
§ Peanuts
§ Flax seeds
§ Flax seed oil
§ Salmon and Trout (great fatty proteins)
§ Fish oil
§ Extra virgin olive oil (should be used on all veggies/salads)
§ Chia seeds
§ Grapeseed oil
§ Macadamia nut oil

Acceptable miscellaneous foods:

These foods don’t provide much as far as macronutrients but are great for adding vitamins/minerals and taste. Notice some of these other foods are dairy. Dairy is another animal’s milk. We lack the enzymes to digest it as they do and it’s high in fat/sugar. It should only be eaten early in the day for nutrient purposes with the exception of whey and casein (cottage cheese).

§ Skim milk (Hood brand is only 45 calories and 3g of sugar per cup)
§ Greek yogurt (no sugar added)
§ Berries (all berries are much lower in sugar than other fruits and packed with fiber/nutrients – eat berries)
§ Green Vegetables. These are technically carbs but they are packed with fiber (a type of carb that isn’t used as energy or stored). In bodybuilding/nutrition – we refer to most vegetables as fibrous carbohydrates. While a serving of Broccoli may have 6g of carbs, 5 are from fiber. Meaning that it contains only 1g of storable carbohydrates. In addition, green vegetables are a calorie neutral/negative food (our body uses more calories to digest them than they contain – think celery). Veggies should be eaten with every meal. Every day. If you do this, you can become almost impervious to getting sick. Some vegetables are better than others for healthy diets.
§ Many non-green vegetables. Most are fine – just check labels, some have a good bit of sugar and should be eaten in moderation only (carrots)

[Bertuzzi]

Awesome Post Gbrice!

[gbrice75]

Awesome Post Gbrice!

Thanks bro! Can't take credit for compiling the info though - that goes to Damienm05.

[mulldog55]

awesome post, helps me out alot too!

[forever]

Thanks guys! Im gonna sit down tomorrow after my workout and figure this thing out...Ill post up my revised diet! Thanks gbrice for all the info thats gonna help me understand this thing alot better...i feel like the more I know the better choices I make...scotty thanks for the inserts in my current meal plan...those are things I could swap asap! Talk to you guys tomorrow!

[First6]

Welcome to the forum and the beginning of your new lifestyle.
gbrice will take good care of you. He will be hard on you when it's justified but it will be worth it if you listen.
Many of us have been in the shoes your in right now Bro. You can do it!

Go get him gb!

[gbrice75]

Thanks First! The OP has all the tools he needs above to get this thing off the ground. Luckily, he's starting with the support of this board which I imagine is a GREAT motivator. I wish I had found this board when I was 255lbs and 30% + bodyfat - it would have been much easier!

OP - let us know if you need anything clarified, I know it's alot to digest (no pun). =)

[Bertuzzi]

Forever.... haven't seen you around.... hope you haven't given up on us....

[gbrice75]

Forever.... haven't seen you around.... hope you haven't given up on us....

x2, where ya at pal?