I’m a 220lb 32 year old guy with a current body fat % of 28-30% (not been measured that’s just my approximation)
I’m looking to reduce my body fat to between 12-15% over the next however long it takes me. But would like to retain as much strength as I can
I have been training for 6 years but lifting seriously for the last 2 in which time I have made good gains in my strength but also added to my body fat due to shit diet.
I have been following a 3 day a week full body program (stronglifts) but instead of 5x5 have been doing reverse pyramids for 4 sets of each of the big lifts.
Don’t know my 1RM but my current numbers are:
Bench 235 for 5
Overhead press 140 for 5
Deadlift 395 for 5
Squat 280 for 5
My diet has been shit to be honest and I know that is the biggest thing I need to change. I am planning on reducing calories to between 2200 - 2400 a day with 40%protein 30%carb 30%fat
I am also planning to carry on lifting as heavy as I can with the reverse pyramids.
I don’t know if I should stick to the 3 day a week full body routine and add some cardio or if I should maybe go to a upper lower split and reduce the total amount of work sets keeping the same weight on the bar…
Any advice/criticism is most welcome I am just looking for as much info as I can get to help me achieve my goal.
[quote]Martimroll94 wrote:
At 30% bodyfat, diet has to be the main focus in the short term.
What is your diet like through the day?[/quote]
Yes diet for sure up to now it’s been very poor at best but I have just changed it to be very clean and 2200 calories a day split as mentioned in my first post so I’m confident I can make the change needed there I’m just not sure as to what direction I should be taking my workouts
[quote]Jarvan wrote:
lifting seriously for 2 years, and you’re 30% bf…
[/quote]
I’m not sure why this is so surprising. It’s not THAT hard to get strong-but-fat if your diet isn’t properly dialed in or if you make size/weight the priority instead of leanness. I was a moderately successful college football player at 5’11" and 250 pounds, had been lifting from age 9 onwards, with lifts marginally higher than OP’s (box squat 10x2x315, bench 315x5 and 365x3, power clean 315) and probably had a bodyfat percentage in the mid-20’s, easily. I ate a ton, just always focused on gaining weight and strength without much regard for leanness or body composition.
[quote]Jarvan wrote:
sure, I remember Dave Tate used to sport the most disgusting pop belly, but Tate is all PLer, not just someone whos looking to gain a little strength.
I just want to know what kind of poisonous shit and how much you have to consume of it to be lifting seriously and be that fat[/quote]
Well, I can’t speak for OP, but I fell victim to a classic “college kid on a meal plan” idea. I could get an enormous bacon cheeseburger with fries from an on-campus location of The Original Hot Dog Shop (Pittsburgh institution) for one measly meal block. Having one of those for lunch every day, and then an all-you-can-eat dinner in the dining hall after football practice, made it surprisingly easy to get pretty chunky even while practicing football 2+ hours daily and lifting 3-4 times a week.
Later in college, I realized that I had gained a bit too much lard during the season, so after my sophomore and junior seasons, I dropped some weight for the spring semester, then rebuilt the mass over the summer entering the next season. The summer before my senior season I drank a gallon of chocolate milk a day, lifted Sunday-Monday-Wednesday-Thursday, did plyometrics Tuesday and Friday, and ran stadium steps or sprints on Saturday. I was plenty strong and in pretty good shape - I rarely got tired during practice or games - but I was still a bit on the soft side.
Yea, you were obviously focusing on performance rather than aesthetics at the time. Granted it could have helped if you ate healthier, I’m sure having a linear focus and not having the additional burden of caloric restrictions made it easier for you in football. Which reminds me, there are plenty of fat all star linemen in football. lol.
My diet has been shit to be honest and I know that is the biggest thing I need to change. I am planning on reducing calories to between 2200 - 2400 a day with 40%protein 30%carb 30%fat
[/quote]
Have you tried going Ketogenic?
Also, are you doing any fasted conditioning / cardio work first thing in the morning? If you have time for it, an hour of incline walking first thing in the morning while you’re fasted can increase fat burn.
[quote]Jarvan wrote:
lifting seriously for 2 years, and you’re 30% bf…
Just curious to know what your ‘shit’ diet is like. And/or if you have thyroid issues or a missing gall bladder
Or perhaps you just had a gym membership for two years and didn’t really go?[/quote]
Thanks’ to everyone for all the comments.
Yes indeed I have been using my gym membership
Up until now my focus has been entirely on strength with little to no cardio involved at all. Its hard for me to give a break down of my diet up to now as its basically been a see food and eat it kind of deal and I haven’t kept track of anything just ate what and when I wanted (which I realise has been my biggest downfall) On top of that my bf was high when I started, and also I’m saying 30% but I have not confirmed this in any way its just an estimation which I was trying to be conservative with.
However I have made gains in strength and although I would like to continue to do so I am at a point where I want to get the body fat in check before I try go any further. I would like to do this whilst maintaining as much strength as possible. I am confident I can now get my diet in check to do this but I need advice on how to structure my workouts and how much cardio to add in to cut the body fat without loosing to much in the way of strength
Adding cardio might help but is probably not necessary if you’re 30 percent body fat. Diet alone can get you well under that.
If you add cardio, you can go either with low-intensity steady state like incline walking a few mornings per week, or HIIT (sprints, hill sprints, exercise bike) 1-2 times a week.
I don’t think that’s required for you though. Keep up your lifting as is and improve the diet.
How do you do that? Well, start by eating mostly eggs, meat, fruits, and vegetables, llimit your alcohol intake, cut your intake of bread and cereals, limit things like pizza and pasta and takeout Chinese. Quit drinking any liquid calories with the possible exception of a peri-workout drink. Time most of your carbs to be before/after your workout. Make those changes and a lot of things will fall into place.
Rampant, have you seen anyone have success with this? It sounded appealing when I first read it, but it also seemed unrefined and that a v2 would work better.
Rampant, have you seen anyone have success with this? It sounded appealing when I first read it, but it also seemed unrefined and that a v2 would work better.[/quote]
I’ve had good success doing westside-ish for the main lift(always picking full ROM moves) and then 5x20 for assistance.
Just looking over that plan again I would definitely NOT recommend doing 2 dynamic moves.
Nothing wrong with dropping dynamic day altogether now and again and just doing hard HIIT conditioning
[quote]ActivitiesGuy wrote:
Adding cardio might help but is probably not necessary if you’re 30 percent body fat. Diet alone can get you well under that.
If you add cardio, you can go either with low-intensity steady state like incline walking a few mornings per week, or HIIT (sprints, hill sprints, exercise bike) 1-2 times a week.
I don’t think that’s required for you though. Keep up your lifting as is and improve the diet.
How do you do that? Well, start by eating mostly eggs, meat, fruits, and vegetables, llimit your alcohol intake, cut your intake of bread and cereals, limit things like pizza and pasta and takeout Chinese. Quit drinking any liquid calories with the possible exception of a peri-workout drink. Time most of your carbs to be before/after your workout. Make those changes and a lot of things will fall into place.[/quote]
That sounds like sound advice and I appreciate it thanks.
I’m actually going to get my bf measured tomorrow if I can as I’m curious as to what it actually is now (rather than my guesstimate) and I think it will be good for motivation and I can also go back in 6 months or so and see what I manage to achieve.
So I’m going to keep my workouts the same and keep the same weight on the bar do I need to reduce volume in any way to compensate for the reduced calories or just play that one as it happens?
