Dieting made simple

I see a lot of diet/cutting questions. I am going to post some ideas/tips that have helped me and many others.

1- WORKOUT- Hit the big compound movements with minimal isolation movements. The compound movements burn more calories, help the body produce more natural test and gh, speed up the metabolism, etc.

2- REPS- why go with lower weight higher reps??? You lift heavy to get big and strong so continue to lift as heavy as you can while dieting. To maintain muscle while dieting I have found it more of a benifit to lift heavy than light.

3- SETS- I normally have to cut my sets down to 2-3 per exercise while dieting because of engery levels and the fact that overtraining is easier when on a low calorie diet.

4- EXERCISES/SETS PER BODY PART- I usually do 1-2 exercises per bodypart@ 2-3 sets per exercise.

5- TO FAILURE OR NOT- I push myself to the point where I DO NOT FAIL but one more rep would probably not go. I always keep some gas in the tank because going to failure isnt good for me personally.

6- DAYS PER WEEK OF LIFTING- I try to make my split a Mon/Wed/Fri or a Mon/Tue/Thu/Fri

7- REST BETWEEN SETS- When cutting I rest 45 sec to 1 min 15 sec, depending on how I feel.

8- CARDIO- Ideally I like to hit 40 min of low intensity cardio in the AM on an empty stomach 4 to 6 days per week. For the first two weeks I stick to 4 days, then up to 5 days for 2 weeks, then I increase to 6 days for the remainder of my cutting cycle. Usually after two weeks of doing cardio 6 days per week I start to add one day per week of post lifting cardio for 20 min at the same intensity as I do my AM cardio until I am doing cardio after each workout.

9- DIET- I usually take my bodyweight X 12 to start with. Then as I feel stagnant I start to drop 200 calories from my daily intake, this every time I feel I am stalling I drop 200 cals.

10- PROTIEN- Every person is different when it comes to this but IMO the rule of thumb should fall between .8 to 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight per day. Remember Protein has 4 cals per gram when figuring up calorie intake. Fast acting when should be used in the AM post cardio, post workout, and pre bed. Protein preserves/heals muscle.

11- FAT- I personally try to keep fat at a minimum and the fats I do take in are usually EFA's. I try to take in around 40-50 grams of fat through EFA's while dieting. This type of fat helps the body burn fat and also raises natural test levels. Also they make you feel full. Remember fat has 9 cals/gram when figuring up calorie intake.

12- CARBS- After you figure up your cals from fat and protien make up the rest of your calories in carbs. IMO you should time your carbs around the critical times of the day. Personally I like to eat 7 meals per day, out of the 7 meals only 4 of them contain carbs. I eat carbs in the AM after my cardio, then I eat them pre workout, post workout(in a shake), and the meal after working out. Try to keep your carbs FIBEROUS because they take up space in your stomach and make you feel full. Also try to stay away from simple carbs except post workout.

13- FLUIDS- Try to drink 1 or more gallons of water per day, nuff said.

14- TAKE IN A MULTIVITAMIN EVERY DAY.



Thats about as basic as it gets but it is sound advice that works really well. You will have to tweak the calories as you go, you will have to adjust your protien, carbs, fat according to what works for you but this is a good starting point.

ALSO, some supps that may help with fat loss are r-ALA or ALA(these are for carb control), ECA, CLA, Yohimbine products.

Some products that may help retain muscle while dieting are Creatine(5 to 10 grams per day) and Glutamine(10-40 grams per day).

Looks pretty good. I like it, I give it 2 thumbs up. You put in that everyone will have to tweak it a little and that is the most important thing!!!

Pain

Good post......

great post!

diet is the key to everything, fat loss or lean mass gains.

eat right, work hard and the results will come.

Yes, very good post, very well thought out!

Thanks guys.