Multiple Questions..please help.

[honda4life]

Well ive been reading this forum for quite a while and Im VERY pleased with all the tremendous info on here and how helpful everyone is. Currently im trying to cut my BF percentage. I lost about 26 lbs and plateaud BUT then I learned that the scale is not a good instrument and I should worry about BF percentage instead. Im getting my Diet in check and modifying it based on the info I have recieved here. I am eating a plenty of lean protein, low fat low carbs BUT aparently NOT ENOUGH calories. I was not aware that you will burn fat by eating 2000 cals a day rather than keeping it at 1000 cals a day thinkin i was doing the right thing. I am changing my Cardio workouts to Morning on empty stomach as of now instead of end of the day. I dont have much time in my day to follow a 8 meal a day diet between work and other responsibilites BUT heres what I can do... 5 meals a day. Chicken breast is easily avail in as much as I need. grilled tilapia, almonds, brown rice, tuna in water, egg whites and spinach salad with vinegar for dressing. are the main components of my every day diet. I plan to introduce oatmeal this week as well from now on. trying to get my calories up. I dont have TONS of money either to spend on all these shakes and bars and supplements. please help me with the following questions so I can continue getting in the best shape ever.

1. I am Lactose and Whey protein shakes or bars make me SUPER sick. Do they make altenatives so I can intake good amounts of protein thru day and PWO times?

2. I have an addiction to Almonds now and Im aware they are great for you and provide good EFA. Is there a limit as to how many a day i can eat? I easliy can eat a can of 6 OZ thru a day handful here n there when hungry.

3. how important is it to keep your heart rate at the fat loss target rate? I keep finding myself feeling like im going WAY too slow and im not sweating as much and I feel like I need to be more intense ill do 45 min straight at 148 to 155 bpm but my target rate is supposed to be 123? and I actually hurting my fat burn by working out too hard?

4. If I go to the gym early morning on empty stomach and work out. should I do just cardio? then return after work in the evening for weight lifting and more cardio? I can go to gym 2 times a day 4 days a week my schedule permits it. m,t,t,f.

5. I never do much as far as really building my legs. they are proportionate to my body BUT will building my legs alot help with fat loss in all areas of the body or just the legs? I never understand the importance of legs. How will it help my cutting?

Im 31, now im 197lbs I started at 223 8 weeks ago and im about 14% BF.

Thank you for any help

[honda4life]

Bump. Anyone???

[gbrice75]

bold

Well ive been reading this forum for quite a while and Im VERY pleased with all the tremendous info on here and how helpful everyone is. Currently im trying to cut my BF percentage. I lost about 26 lbs and plateaud BUT then I learned that the scale is not a good instrument and I should worry about BF percentage instead. Im getting my Diet in check and modifying it based on the info I have recieved here. I am eating a plenty of lean protein, low fat low carbs BUT aparently NOT ENOUGH calories. I was not aware that you will burn fat by eating 2000 cals a day rather than keeping it at 1000 cals a day thinkin i was doing the right thing. I am changing my Cardio workouts to Morning on empty stomach as of now instead of end of the day. I dont have much time in my day to follow a 8 meal a day diet between work and other responsibilites BUT heres what I can do... 5 meals a day. Chicken breast is easily avail in as much as I need. grilled tilapia, almonds, brown rice, tuna in water, egg whites and spinach salad with vinegar for dressing. are the main components of my every day diet. I plan to introduce oatmeal this week as well from now on. trying to get my calories up. I dont have TONS of money either to spend on all these shakes and bars and supplements. please help me with the following questions so I can continue getting in the best shape ever.

1. I am Lactose and Whey protein shakes or bars make me SUPER sick. Do they make altenatives so I can intake good amounts of protein thru day and PWO times?

Throughout the day you should rely on real food as much as possible. PWO - look for an egg protein powder. It's obviously not going to be as fast as whey, but egg protein is an excellent source and still faster acting then alot of the alternatives.

2. I have an addiction to Almonds now and Im aware they are great for you and provide good EFA. Is there a limit as to how many a day i can eat? I easliy can eat a can of 6 OZ thru a day handful here n there when hungry.

Of course there's a limit. You're limited by your daily fat macro goal. i.e. you can only eat as much almonds as your diet will allow. If you are to get 50g fat/day, you don't want to eat all 50g in one sitting, and other meals will certainly add up, so you have to count everything.

3. how important is it to keep your heart rate at the fat loss target rate? I keep finding myself feeling like im going WAY too slow and im not sweating as much and I feel like I need to be more intense ill do 45 min straight at 148 to 155 bpm but my target rate is supposed to be 123? and I actually hurting my fat burn by working out too hard?

When are you doing cardio? AM fasted? PWO?

4. If I go to the gym early morning on empty stomach and work out. should I do just cardio? then return after work in the evening for weight lifting and more cardio? I can go to gym 2 times a day 4 days a week my schedule permits it. m,t,t,f.

2x a day is ideal IMO when it comes to cutting. am fasted cardio (in which case I answered my own question above) - I would keep it lower intensity even if you're not feeling it so much - you will risk burning LBM if you get too intense on an empty tank) then go back later for your weight session. Make sure that session is surrounded by 2 good complex carb and lean protein meals.

5. I never do much as far as really building my legs. they are proportionate to my body BUT will building my legs alot help with fat loss in all areas of the body or just the legs? I never understand the importance of legs. How will it help my cutting?

If you had to train anything at all, you'd want to train legs. Look at the size of that quadricep muscle group. It's HUGE. That means it takes a ton of energy to train, repair, and grow it. On top of that, training legs properly will help you to grow all over, not just your legs. Squats, Deadlifts, etc - these are your bread and butter.

Im 31, now im 197lbs I started at 223 8 weeks ago and im about 14% BF.

Do you know the bodyfat 8 weeks ago? Do you have pics you can post? Good job so far man!

Thank you for any help

[BUTTERYGOODNESS]

just listen to gbrice bro, he will set you right

[honda4life]

Gbrice I appreciate ya taking the time! My body fat was about 22% when I started. Ive been looking for egg powder BUT I came across a site for liquified egg whites and that looks like the money deal right there! here a link tell me what you think. www.eggwhitesint.com it would be VERY convenient to have liqwuid form high protein I could mix with virtually everything if this is really legit.

OK so legs are a MUST when working out and thats fine. I just have 2 horribkle knees after tearing both my ACLs and Im down to almost NO cartilage in them BUT I can do leg presses and extentions and curls if need be so Ill work hard om them.

When you say 2 complex carb meals before and after.. my diet has been slighty modified now that im learning more. thru the day I eat 1 full cup of oatmeal. split in 2 servings, 8 egg whites, 2 grilled chicken breasts, 2 servings of brown rice, 2 cans of tuna in water, and a salad with vinegar for my greens at night. along with random handfulls of almonds thru the day. what in that group of food should I eat just before I go to work out and what after? Right now im doing AM cardio fasted just water. and in the afternoon session im lifting then 30-40 min cardio as well. but from the gym to my house its a good 30-45 min from when i stopped lifting and is that too long to wait to eat my protein serving? Let me see if I can post some pics.

[honda4life]

Pre gym membership lol and my new pics as of last week and today. I think ya always feel better with what you see in the mirror rather than whats in pics. Im starting to feel real happy with myself then I see pics and I get depressed. especially after spending last weekend on southbeach haha. Oh well its only been 8 weeks. another 8 weeks and summer will be close then ill be feeling and looking great if I do this right!

[gbrice75]

Nice job on the changes so far!

When looking to reduce bodyfat, I like to keep carb meals at first meal of the morning, and around the workout window (pre and pwo) - pre workout should be your heaviest carb meal in order to fuel your workout. Maybe 1/2 cup oats in the am meal, both servings of brown rice pre workout, and the other 1/2 oats PWO. Something like that.

Would really need to see the diet layed out in the proper format to help further.

[honda4life]

6am wake up go to gym 45 min cardio empty stomach

8am half cup oats and 1 full egg and 3 egg whites

10 am banana and can of tuna

12 large grilled chicken breast and half cup brown rice

2pm can of tuna and half cup oats

4pm 1 egg 3 egg whites

5pm weight session and another 30-40 min cardio

Go home right after gym and eat another large chicken breast Or 8oz tilapia filet with baby spinach salad

Around 8 I have a natural peanutbutter on 100% whole grain toast with a little honey for sweet

In a nutshell that's my routine 5 days a week.

I'm attempting to stay natural I'm Not taking g any supplements at all right now. Nothing. If I chose to When would maybe a 6 week Clem cycle be realistic?

[honda4life]

Bump

[gbrice75]

Macros?

[honda4life]

What r macros??

[gbrice75]

What r macros??

Really? If you've read 2 threads in this section, you should know what macros are.

Macronutrients - protein, carbs, and fat. We need to see how much you're eating for each meal in order to help you with it. It takes some time and it's a pain in the ass, but very necessary. Look at my diet layout below:



GB's Current Diet:

PROTEIN/CARBS/FAT/TOTAL CALORIES

MEAL 1 - PRE-WORKOUT
4:30am

Premier protein shake - 30/5/3/160
1 cup oats - 10/52/5/280
1 Extra Large Whole Egg - 7/0/5/90
1/2 cup liquid egg whites - 12/2/0/60
1/2 cup blueberries - 0/10/0/40

TOTALS: 60/70/12.5/620

5:30am - WORKOUT, followed by 1 hour cardio

MEAL 2 - POST WORKOUT
7:30am

1 cup oats - 10/52/5/280
2 scoops Myofusion - 50/10/6/315

TOTAL: 60/60/11/600

MEAL 3
10:00am

6oz Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast - 36/0/2.5/165
7oz Sweet Potato - 3/35/0/150
1 Cup Green Beans - 1/4/0/20

TOTALS: 40/40/2/350

MEAL 4
1:00pm

4oz 95/5 Lean Ground Beef - 35/0/7/200
1/2 cup (a little over) Brown Rice - 5/40/1/180
1/4 cup tomato sauce - 0/3/0/12
2 cups baby spinach - 2/2/0/15

TOTALS: 40/45/8/415

MEAL 5
4:00pm

3/4 cup 1% Milk Fat Cottage Cheese, No Sodium Added: 20/7.5/2.5/135
1 scoop ON 100% Casein - 24/3/1/120
2tbsp PB2 Powdered Peanut Butter - 4/6/1/50

TOTALS: 50/15/4/300

MEAL 6
7:00pm

6oz Broiled Tilapia - 35/0/3/165
1 cup broccoli - 3/6/0/30
1tsp EVOO - 0/0/5/45

TOTALS: 40/6/8/235

MEAL 7
10:00pm

1 cup 1% Milk Fat Cottage Cheese, No Sodium Added: 26/10/3/180

TOTALS: 26/10/3/180 (could add more fats here but happy with totals as is)

DAILY TOTALS: 315/250/50/2700

46% protein, 37% carbs, 17% fat

[honda4life]

ok well as soon as i have an hour or so to kill ill go ahead and look up all my stuff and get her counted out. Thanks for the help man its appreciated.