Long story short…
1 1/2 months ago, I came to a fork in the road to decide whether to cut or bulk. Being 176 and 18.5% body fat, I was advised to cut, as I was too fat to bulk. I’ve followed Beradi’s “Don’t Diet”, but am starting to see “feel” results decline. Right now I’m at 172 and about 17.5% body fat. I’ve found that the 50P/20C/30F works pretty good for me (and does sound very t-dawgISH), but I’ve just read a thread that “piques” my interest. The guy mentioned that he was on I THINK 2300 Kcals? Well someone said to gradually decrease from that to 1800-1500. With that in mind, my current Kcal level is 2660. Is mine way too high? Also, I was going to ATTEMPT Davies’s ESD Training while losing fat. Would this be a decent program for my purpose? (BTW, I’ve already done Meltdown, so I don’t want to do that again, yet). Thanks
Caloric intakes are highly individual, but if i had your stats, that would be “way” too high for me. You have to base things on how your body reacts; calculations will give you a guideline, but these guidelines are not etched in stone. Obviously, if your body is not reacting the way you want it to, then you have to make some adjustments.
Hey Kyle. At 172 pounds, 2660 calories a day equals ~15.5 calories/lb. of bodyweight. That’s pretty much a maintenance figure for most people, so it’s not too surprising that you’re not losing much fat. Try cutting back to ~12 calories/lb. per day (in your case that’ll equal 2064) and see what happens. I’m not familiar with the Coach Davies program you mention, so I can’t comment on that.
Your caloric adjustments sound “sound” 
Thanks for the info guys. I’ve mistaken the program. It was supposed to be Staley’s Escalating Density Training. My appolgies to both coaches for the error. Do you think THIS would be a good program for fat loss?
I’d rather do it on a bulking cycle, as it is such a glycogen demanding workout.
Normally, when on a fat loss cycle; individuals want are shooting for a tone, ripped look. I found it best to incorporate strength training with this type of dieting; as it puts a greater amount of tension on the muscle and is not very taxing on glycogen stores.
With high reps, you may get lean, but you're likely to look flat and soft. Wouldn't you rather look hard and full after all the discipline and dedication you put into a cutting cycle?
Kyle - on low carbs, you want to avoid high volume lifting which is what EDT is going to entail. As Joel said, focus on using lower reps, higher intensity and lower volume.
A M,W,F routine using a 5X5 program would be optimal. If 5x5 is too taxing, drop it to 3x3. Choose big compound exercises that work the whole body. On off days and after lifting, I would suggest adding in a decent amount of moderate to high intensity cardio (I prefer fartlek style training where the intensity of the session goes up and down but you never stop moving). Get creative.
A sample routine:
M - Squats, Chins, Incline Sit-ups (all done 5x5)
W - Bench Press, Bent-Over Row, Calf Raises (5x5)
F - Deadlift, Overhead Press (5x5)
Throw in the cardio as you see fit.
I agree with Jason. I am using a 5 x 5, 3 day split program right now and it is working quite well for me. Granted, I’m using Mag-10, but even with under 30 grams of carbs a day, I’m putting on strength.
You shouldn't have any problem with the 5 x 5 program. At only 25 reps per body part; I just can't see going much lower than this. Bare minimum would be 5 x 3, but I just can't see anyone having problems with 5 x 5. I used to do 5 x 5 training with 2 exercises per body part while on cutting cycles and had no problem. That's double the reps: 50, but can be rather time consuming.
bumping this up for a sample routine by Jason of the 5 x 5…you can find another 3 day split of mine on The Getting Ripped Support Group part II. The post is “Joel Marion, Re:”