changing my diet

[renjr70]

So I'm a newbie here and I've learned a ton in the last couple months about proper nutrition and diet, workout and cycles. I'm 40 years old 6'2" tall and 194 lbs and this weekend I achieved a personal goal and got my BF to 15% (granted 15.9% but I'm still in the 15's!). 3 years ago i was 260lbs so it's been a transformation for me. I've mostly stuck to the Atkins diet for the last few years going off and on it every couple months but now that I've gotten my wait to a point that I'm comfortable with I want to start eating more appropriately but I still want to lose fat. Ultimately I'd like to get between 10-12% BF. I've made great gains in strength while on Atkins and leaned out a bunch but size gains have always been minimal.
Now here is the kicker, I found out this week that I will be starting TRT next week. Had my test panels done and everything came back low so the Doc is going to put me on Testosterone treatments. My numbers came back as test 202 and free test was .87 / % free test was .4 , all low.
So I am going change my diet a little sooner than I expected. I was going to stay on Atkins till I hit the 12% BF mark. Today I started the Palumbo diet and added 40g waximaize to my pre and post workout shakes and holy cow what a difference. I couldn't believe how much stronger I was in the gym. My usual weights that i lift for a 8 rep set I was hitting 10,11 even 12 reps on them. Huge huge difference, I have to start bumping everything up. I want to have my diet in order when I start the TRT. But just to make sure I understand everything, I worked out my BF number and came up with a daily calorie intake of 2613, So I should run a 40/30/30?
1045 cal Protein
783 cal Carbs
783 Cal Fat
but if I still want to lose fat I should cut 500 calories a day correct? so 2100 a day for me.
I should leave protein high but cut Carbs and Fats by 250 calories each? This is where I'm a little confused. Where do I cut the calories from, I shouldn't cut protein any right? That should always be maintained.
My workout routine is an hour long workout 4 days a week
Monday chest and triceps
Tuesday Biceps and back
Wed Shoulders and forearms
Thurs Abs and legs
I do 15 - 30 minutes Cardio daily
Any advice plz?

[renjr70]

no help out there? could someone just tell me if I'm on the right track plz?

[bigcwithane]

Look no one on here is gonna just dell you what to do. From the looks of it you've been doing stuff right so far and you've made it to 15% and congrates on that. Since you did adkins is suggest slowly introducing carbs back into your diet to make sure you don't gain fat. But just take a look around, read some threads and post up a sample diet and I'm sure someone on here will help you out if you have everthing layed out how it should be, that means list you stats height, weight, bf. And enclude your macros for all meals.

[gbrice75]

Hey bro, firstly congrats on the major weight loss - I know the feeling too, and you should be very proud of your accomplishment.

I think you're at a point where reintroducing carbs back into your diet is a good idea. The key is to do so slowly, you can't just start flooding your system with this 'foreign' nutrient. Pre/PWO is a good starting point, with the added benefit of more energy in the gym, and PWO nutrition.

Do NOT go with the macro breakdown you mentioned! You can't have both carbs and fats high - that's a recipe for disaster. Yes, i'd keep your deficit at around 500 - or maybe to play it safe, drop it by 200-300 and let cardio take care of the rest. As for the split, i'd start with a 45/35/20 for a few weeks, then taper it to a 45/40/15 which will probably be a good place to stay for a while. My .02

[scotty51312]

GB has you on the right track. My personal thoughts would be to start by eating maintenance calories at a 40/40/20 ratio in your calories, and increasing your cardio in order to create the deficit. Then after 8 weeks or so at that slow steady weight loss you're body will start to adjust then go down to the 200-300 calories below maintenance. Its important not to start your calories to low or you're metabolism will slow then you'll try to drop them further and have a lot of time being catabolic

[gbrice75]

GB has you on the right track. My personal thoughts would be to start by eating maintenance calories at a 40/40/20 ratio in your calories, and increasing your cardio in order to create the deficit. Then after 8 weeks or so at that slow steady weight loss you're body will start to adjust then go down to the 200-300 calories below maintenance. Its important not to start your calories to low or you're metabolism will slow then you'll try to drop them further and have a lot of time being catabolic

Also a good plan, other then I have to respectfully disagree with a 40/40/20 right off the bat - I was hesitant to even suggest 35% carbs - but I didn't want to make fats higher then 20%, and didn't want to just bump up protein to fill in missing cals. I think 40% carbs right out of the gate is really pushing it when his body isn't used to a carb diet, ESPECIALLY after 3 years of keto (granted, not continuous) - it's not like this is a 2 month CKD.

[scotty51312]

True GB. Op It might be benificial to cycle the carb intake a little bit. Since you have a carb rich PWO shake your diet kinda does that all on its own assuming you don't up the carbs from other sources on non training days. I definitely agree with no more than 20% fats and thats if they are healthy fats. When i first came off a low carb, (not quite keto) I was amazed at the energy i had in the gym. Good luck and congrats on the progress so far. Check in often as people here are here to help and a diet plan to start is usually kinda rough and needs to be adjusted every few weeks to optomize.

[renjr70]

Thanks guys, exactly the kinda of advice i was looking for. I was afraid to add that many carbs and fats to my diet right off the bat. I'm gonna start the 45/35/20 tomorrow, it's gonna be tough because the fats have been a big part of my eating habits for a while. it's gonna be hard to cut them, but I will do my best to control them. I will post my progress.