Diet review - cutting

[Rya]

Heya, revised post - other one got deleted.

Stats :
Age : 28
Height : 5.7
Weight : 151
Bf : 20%

My aim is to get my bf % down to the 10-12% mark whilst retaining muscle mass.

Diet plan

Calories: 1800 - 50/25/25

All values are calculated based upon nutritional values found on the net and adjusting the values based upon the ammount that im having, id link the site but i think thats a no no.




Also taking 1 flaxseed capsule per day (not factored in above) havent factored in any calories/carbs for the veggies; should I?

Workout

Monday - shoulders + 30min cardio
Tuesday - back/ arms + 30min cardio
Wednesday- chest/tri + 30min cardio
Thursday - legs + 30min cardio
Friday - either a repeat session or things that I've missed + 30min cardio
Saturday - 1 hour cardio
Sunday - rest day

Poor quality pic of me as of 26/09-2011 - roughly 3 weeks into dieting.

[SlimmerMe]

Welcome Rya!

You came to the right place to change your body~

What is in your tuna salad? any mayo? what else? thanks
Can you do a fasted cardio?

GOOD LUCK!

[Rya]

Welcome Rya!

You came to the right place to change your body~

What is in your tuna salad? any mayo? what else? thanks
Can you do a fasted cardio?

GOOD LUCK!

Thanks!

The tuna salad is; 160g tuna (tinned -strained) in sunflower oil with lettuce/cucumber/tomato/mixed peppers and a bit of onion for extra crunch! No Mayo/sauce etc the fat is entirely from the tuna. Maybe that's a bad thing?

I don't think that i have the motivation currently to do fasted cardio mid week, I do intend on trying this Saturday though. Depending on how Saturday goes, I might give fasted cardio a try mid week in a few weeks. Would you be able to make a wild guess at how much fasted cardio would speed up my fat loss?

[Back In Black]

More than 50% of your meals are in the form of protein powder?!

Whey plus oats AFTER your workout is cool but what's wrong a bowl of porridge and some scrambles eggs at breakfast?

Your cals and macro's look ok, but you will need to monitor your bodyfat levels as the weeks progress.

Is your post weights CV low intensity?

Can I suggest you move Weds workout to Thursday and Thursdays to Friday. On Weds you can have a rest day or another cardio day.

What does Saturdays cardio consist of?

I like pre breakfast fasted cardio but feel that the same results can be achieved with post workout low intensity cardio and seperate HIIT training days.

[Back In Black]

And I'd swap your tuna for stuff packed in Springwater.

Get some fats from fish oil and EVOO/Flax/rapeseed.

[Rya]

And I'd swap your tuna for stuff packed in Springwater.

Get some fats from fish oil and EVOO/Flax/rapeseed.

Stem, thanks for taking your time to respond,i Went and picked up some tuna in brine today, a lot less fat in it! Will probably add some avocado in to make up the fat. I have flaxseed capsules, will start taking one of those each day also. Need to tweak my meal plan again in a bit this evening.

The cardio is low intensity, 125 hr for 30 min.

In regards to the protein from powder, it's mostly down to money/convenience.

On a rest day, should I spread the carbs throughout the day evenly?

Going to do a bf check on Sunday to know where I am exactly, or as exact as callipers are, I'll then either weekly or fortnightly to track progress.

I'm new to dieting "properly", so keep the feedback coming it's all appreciated

[Back In Black]

On non workout days you have the option of dropping carbs completely if you wish. Or just have 'em at breakfast.

As for your post weights cardio, at 20% b/f, you can get away with HIIT cardio in 30 mins. You'll burn through your fat much quicker. I normally start my weights session 90-120 mins after my pre workout meal, sip a mix of 10g BCAA's in my intra workout water and do my HIIT immediately after weights.

Rework your diet with some proper protein (meat/eggs/fish) with your new macro's and we'll take a look.

[Rya]

Revised diet plan posted, ive replaced the morning and pre workout shakes and this will comence from tomorrow morning. Replaced my afternoon shake this afternoon with chicken and it was much nicer!!

If i cut out carbs on rest day should i up my protein intake to get the calories up or just go with less for that day?

The recipie section is my new fav section of the site!!
My Oat pancaces are : 4 Egg whites + 60g Oats + 10g Blueberries
My Oat Biscuits are : 50g Oats + 10g Blueberries (will likely swap this to raspberries) with a bit of splenda sprinkled on top.

Couldnt find any sugar free sauce to go with the pancaces in the shop that i went to today, would it be ok for me to even have a sugar free syrup whilst trying to cut bodyfat?

Weighed myself this morning, came in at 146.8, lots of water gone and i sure have noticed it - pissing like a racehorse!

Need to add abs into my workouts, going to stick with the 30min low intensity cardio for next week and see what effect it has and then possibly replace or add in some HIIT cardio, would 30min low + 30min hiit be bad for me?

Going to turn this into a weekly progress log, going to do calliper check in a bit but im not too confident that i'll do it properly. im also going to check my BF via electronic whatsit at the gym and will likely use that to determin loss over a period rather than depend on possibly inconsitant calliper readings.

[Rya]

Weighed myself this morning and my scales said 20.2% BF, don't know how accurate they are though so I decided to order some new ones, went for omron bf508, anyone have those?? They're supposed to be pretty accurate, though I will laugh if they give the same reading as my current scales!

I had a reading a couple months ago with a handheld device that said I was 23% and prior to last week I had no focus on fat loss; was trying to "bulk" - I ate cleanly for the most part but nowhere near as consistent as I am now whilst cutting.

Replacing the shakes has probably been the most difficult part, the actual eating part I mean; preparation has been ok.

Does my diet look ok? I did 45min cardio yesterday; 30min low 15min medium? (alternated between 5/15 kph) I'm not the most muscular person but I'd like to keep what I have so I'm concerned about over doing it lol!!

[Back In Black]

You could add 2-3egg whites to your breakfast.

How much/little avocado are you having to get only 3g of fat? 20 grams?

Can you swap your pre workout oatcakes to a 150g sweet potato?

Post workout, drop the banana and add 50g of powdered oats. Is the protein in this meal solely whey or does it include egg and/or casein protein (it should).

1900 meal has 10g of fat in it, where from?

Bedtime shake – is it casein? Ideally a tub of cottage cheese here but a casein shake will do on occasion.

Preparation is key. Cooked meat/veggies will last in your fridge for 2-3 days as will boiled eggs.

I guess all the weights given for chicken are cooked weights? Ideally you should be working out your macro’s based on uncooked weights.

As for your workouts I think you should take my earlier advice and rest on a Wednesday. Just shift weds and Thurs workouts to Thurs and Fri respectively.

As for cardio I would go with either low intensity or HIIT. Moderate cardio is fine once in a while but really won’t help massively on a FAT loss programme.

Don’t do HIIT the day before, the day of, or the day after legs.

Do you supplement with anything? BCAA’s? Multivitamin? Fish oils?

[Rya]

I need to post a revised breakdown as the protein types have changed, I'll do that this evening.

You could add 2-3egg whites to your breakfast.

How much/little avocado are you having to get only 3g of fat? 20 grams?

Yeah, weighed out at roughly 20g - I don't particularly like it.

Can you swap your pre workout oatcakes to a 150g sweet potato?

ATM, no, but I will take it into consideration next time I go shopping

Post workout, drop the banana and add 50g of powdered oats. Is the protein in this meal solely whey or does it include egg and/or casein protein (it should).
Just whey, can change it to a scoop of whey/casein if that's better. I enjoy the banana quite a lot! Its like a reward after training, so would rather not, My understanding is that simple carbs post workout isn't a bad thing?

1900 meal has 10g of fat in it, where from?
The chicken, I'll double check the values this evening

Bedtime shake - is it casein? Ideally a tub of cottage cheese here but a casein shake will do on occasion.
Casein shake

Preparation is key. Cooked meat/veggies will last in your fridge for 2-3 days as will boiled eggs.

I guess all the weights given for chicken are cooked weights? Ideally you should be working out your macro's based on uncooked weights.
Values have been calculated based on info found online, I don't know if that's based on cooked or uncooked but the chicken I eat is cooked weight


As for your workouts I think you should take my earlier advice and rest on a Wednesday. Just shift weds and Thurs workouts to Thurs and Fri respectively.

As for cardio I would go with either low intensity or HIIT. Moderate cardio is fine once in a while but really won't help massively on a FAT loss programme.

Don't do HIIT the day before, the day of, or the day after legs.

Do you supplement with anything? BCAA's? Multivitamin? Fish oils?
I take a multivit in the morning/evening and 1flaxseed capsule (1000mg) per day

responses in bold

[Back In Black]

Ha, I don't like avocado either. So I don't eat it. There are alternative healthy fats. On a cutting diet it's much more sustainable to not eat what you don't like.

I would suggest you base your chicken macro's on uncooked weight. 100g uncooked will yield the same cooked macro's every time no matter how you cook it. If you eat 100g cooked it depends how AND how long it was cooked for.

Post workout I'd split your protein 50/50 whey casein as you are not eating again for 90 mins. If you eat within 30-60 mins just whey is fine.

Appreciate you enjoying your banana, but fructose isn't quite a simple sugar and reacts differently in the body to other sugars. It really doesn't help at all. Powdered oats are really what is recommended nowadays. Although I can see the use of a dextrose on a bulk. But, it's your choice. If you stick with the banana add some powdered oats anyway to bring the carb content of this meal to 40g.

Post revised diet later and we'll have another look.

[Rya]

SteM, thanks for the continued feedback

Ive posted a revised diet, I have increased the pancake to 6 egg whites (but i haven't yet added in the additional values). Changed PWO shake to Casein/Whey and added 40g oats also took off half a banana, my chicken is now also uncooked weight. I need to look to see how much EFA im getting for the daily capsule and factor that in to see true variance.

[Rya]

Descided to weigh the egg whites for the pancake this evening, values were slightly higher than i had previously calculated, instead of increasing to 6 white im just going to add a yolk.

going to either add some almods/fish oil for EFA or just change my macro and increase the protein content slightly or just stick with what ive got currently and see how things go!

My casein shake is bloody awful (unflavoured) if i can continue to drink that then nothing on any diet will phase me!! or i'll just give in a buy some better stuff.

[Rya]

Weigh day tomorrow, new scales have arrived, I had a look at my current ones and noticed that the settings were wrong (wrong height etc) so maybe the 20% isn't correct, will be interesting to what kind of variance there is between the two.

Is anyone able to give a reasonable guestimate of my bf% based upon a picture?

[Rya]

Weigh day tomorrow, new scales have arrived, I had a look at my current ones and noticed that the settings were wrong (wrong height etc) so maybe the 20% isn't correct, will be interesting to what kind of variance there is between the two.

Is anyone able to give a reasonable guestimate of my bf% based upon a picture?

Sunday Weigh didnt quite go to plan, was very hungover and my eating was crap too (i ate 1 meal) so i delayed it until this evening.

Weighed in at 144.8lb, so a loss of 1.6lbs for the week

Did the BF% check on both my old and new scales, below is the avg of 3 attempts.

Old said : 17.1%
New said : 15.2%

Might not be accurate but atleast i have a benchmark to compare against week on week.

[Back In Black]

Well, a loss of nearly 2lbs with a heavy drinking session?! Not bad bud not ideal on a cutting diet although we all need to cut loose ONCE in a while.

Have a good week this week and let us know on your next weigh in. Is the new diet manageable?

I reckon we can give you a better idea on bodyfat than your machine, if you post a pic?!

[Rya]

Well, a loss of nearly 2lbs with a heavy drinking session?! Not bad bud not ideal on a cutting diet although we all need to cut loose ONCE in a while.

Have a good week this week and let us know on your next weigh in. Is the new diet manageable?

I reckon we can give you a better idea on bodyfat than your machine, if you post a pic?!

Yea i think its manageable, im sticking to it which is good, i mix up the fruit with the pancakes a bit so that i dont get bored and i dont mind the taste of avacado anymore, a long way to go until i like it tho.

I'll do a pic when i weigh this coming sunday.

I should add that i will be trying an ECA stack from tomorrow morning, also considering increasing the cardio to 45min.

[Rya]

Weighed in at 140.0lb (empty stomach) this morning, BF% on old scales said 15.9% - havent weighed on my new ones i'll do it in the morning.

4.8lb in a week seems like a lot?, maybe i was a little less that 144.8 last week, either way im making good progress. I think im starting to see upper abs! ive started to encorporate ab workouts within my week too.

i still need to do a pic~

[Back In Black]

4.8lbs can be seen as a lot. Partly it depends how much you have to lose and what your diet was like previously. It will mostly be water loss but as you can see a difference already that would suggest some fat loss too.

Don't expect the same next week but 1-2lbs per week is enough. If you lose more than that next week you may need to up your cals a little, but we can visit that should the need arise.

A pic would be good. Even if you don't post it here it's good to have a record for yourself to see how you change.

Keep up the good work!!!

[SlimmerMe]

^^ exactly. That was the last we heard. BF was coming......so we await....

[Rya]

Added a pic to the first post, quality is pretty crap sorry, i'll try and do a better one at some point. I'll do a new pic each weigh day.

[SlimmerMe]

^^ thanks....want to also post this photo in your initial/ first post to help your thread so members get to know you asap while reading this? might help for more input...

kudos on posting a photo~

[Rya]

^^ thanks....want to also post this photo in your initial/ first post to help your thread so members get to know you asap while reading this? might help for more input...

kudos on posting a photo~

Let me know if the pic is clear enough to do a guestimate bf%, if not I'll take another this evening.

[Back In Black]

Kudos for posting. But alas, it's not very clear. You need your lighting source from the front rather than the rear. Try again but I'm thinking you may not be above 15%!

[Rya]

Kudos for posting. But alas, it's not very clear. You need your lighting source from the front rather than the rear. Try again but I'm thinking you may not be above 15%!

Yea, terrible picture is terrible. I'll try and take another this evening. What % are you in your profile pic if you don't mind me asking?

Can't wait to get to my target % so that I can start a lean bulk!! Dropping sub 10 stone is slightly depressing but it's all good in the grand scheme of things... Hopefully the next time that I'm 151lb it will be at 10% bf still!!

I'm not expecting to have as good a week this week, I'm away for 2 days with work and I'm not sure about gym facilities - I generally refuse to stay in hotels without a gym but this trip was prompted by me so I can't be so fussy. I don't expect my eating to be 100% these days either but I'll keep it as clean as possible.

[SlimmerMe]

If you want to get a lot of input on BF opinions? then post your photo ( like SteM mentioned with better lighting) in the "Members Pictures" forum and ask....

Good luck to you~ You came to the right place.

[yogiart]

This is a good thread to learn from. Very meaningful feedback.
let me get this straight, did you lose 5% bf already? when did you started your diet? Did you cheat?

[Back In Black]

Yea, terrible picture is terrible. I'll try and take another this evening. What % are you in your profile pic if you don't mind me asking?

Can't wait to get to my target % so that I can start a lean bulk!! Dropping sub 10 stone is slightly depressing but it's all good in the grand scheme of things... Hopefully the next time that I'm 151lb it will be at 10% bf still!!

I'm not expecting to have as good a week this week, I'm away for 2 days with work and I'm not sure about gym facilities - I generally refuse to stay in hotels without a gym but this trip was prompted by me so I can't be so fussy. I don't expect my eating to be 100% these days either but I'll keep it as clean as possible.

My avi pic is taken about 5 days into a holiday. I reckon it was about 10% at the start of the hol. Never had it checked but posted it in the member pic section with my 'before' photo too.

Work get's in the way sometimes. Just do your best, take what you can pack with you and eat as clean as you can when ordering. Then get back on the plan as soon as you can.

[Rya]

Hasn't been the best week for me, only went to the gym twice and the 2 days away weren't exactly healthy, no gym and mcdonalds after a night out doesnt help!! - a bigmac meal has a ridiculous amount of cal/fat in it...

Ohh well, weighed in at 142.8lb this morning; not great but not disastrous either, would have been happier with just maintaining though.

Back at it from tomorrow morning, no drinking for a few weeks and more focus at the gym, back on track in no time!!

[Back In Black]

Well done for being honest. But alcohol and cutting doesn't mix.

Back on it dude, commit the next 3 months of your life and you'll be amazed!

[Rya]

Back in the groove this week, having a poor week last week has made me more focussed than ever! No more alcohol until I have hit my goal...

I've never been "trim" before and I've certainly never had visible abs, I've been training for a while but I have never sorted my diet, which I now have and am starting to see the benefits, exciting times ahead!!!

[Back In Black]

Good news man. When is weigh in day?

[SlimmerMe]

Well done for being honest. But alcohol and cutting doesn't mix.

Back on it dude, commit the next 3 months of your life and you'll be amazed!

That is precisely the amount of time I spent on my challenge and it changed my life and I am amazed. So Rya, if you can commit to this time frame you will become a new person.... guaranteed....

[Rya]

Good news man. When is weigh in day?

"official" weigh day is Sunday, I do weigh mid week so this morning i weighed in at 142.0

I will do a fortnightly pic starting from a week sunday (16/10)

That is precisely the amount of time I spent on my challenge and it changed my life and I am amazed. So Rya, if you can commit to this time frame you will become a new person.... guaranteed....

I certainly intend on committing the time, I'm generally fine with the eating aspect it's just social drinking that screws things up!!

[Rya]

What would people recommend i do in the following situation ;

Just finished my workout and realised that I've forgotten my PWO shake, won't be home for another 30min or so (roughly 60-70 min after finishing at the gym) I did have the banana though - my PWO shake for quick ref is 1 scoop whey 1 scoop casein 40g oats + half banana (349/44.9/41.2/4.4) cal/pro/car/fat

Do I
a) just skip the meal
B) incorporate it completely with my evening meal
C) have the shake as soon as I get in and have my evening meal/bed time shake a bit later than normal?

Thanks in advance!

[Back In Black]

2 scoops whey plus the oats asap. Normal PPWO meal 30 -60 mins later. Done!

[SlimmerMe]

"official" weigh day is Sunday, I do weigh mid week so this morning i weighed in at 142.0

I will do a fortnightly pic starting from a week sunday (16/10)



I certainly intend on committing the time, I'm generally fine with the eating aspect it's just social drinking that screws things up!!

Well you are not alone on this one by any means. This is a challenge to say the least. When you figure this out let me know!

[Rya]

Another week done and dusted, had a cheat "meal" today, well a packet of crisps, had to pop into work and ended up staying longer than expected

Wales won the rugby today so im cheery! I've had a good week, been tempted lots but not succumb until today, hopefully my scales will reflect the effort, I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

[Rya]

Weighed in at 140.0 so im back to where i was 2 weeks ago, now i can get back to making actual progress!!