Are These Good Goals for Me?

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Been reading for a long time and trying to formulate a lifestyle change for myself. It’s motivating to observe folks with many years of lifting experience give each other advice and support, so I’d like join the crew some day.

My stats:

5’7"
160 lbs
~ 18-20% body fat
Exp Level: Beginner (been out of the gym for 2 years)

Goals: (hypertrophy and fat loss)
170-175 lbs @ 8%
Correct posture - have slight kyphosis in upper back and lordosis in lower back

5-6 meals per day, lean meats, vegetables (I already eat a lot of salad), and healthy fats.

Drink plenty of water already and green tea.

Questions:

I have read much of Berardi’s wisdom and training articles by CW and CT. Can I setup a diet for myself that allows me to drop fat and gain muscle? I know that question has been rehashed to death, but I ask because my BF is currently high and I thought my body could adapt to using fat stores to gain mass so I could keep my caloric intake slightly lower than what would be recommended to someone with lower BF trying to gain mass.

I was thinking of following Thib’s advice of eating maintenance plus 10% for hypertrophy. If I want to drop some fat while gaining muscle, how much carbs should I intake per day not including my PWO serving of Surge? I was thinking of only having one P+C meal (breakfast) and no more carbs throughout the day until PWO Surge. Should I still have carbs for my PWO MEAL or should I cut that out since I need to drop some BF?

Should caloric intake by cycled based on training and non-training days?

Finally, I tried to use CT’s Carb Cycling Codex and wound up with some insane grams per day of fat that I should intake. It came out to something like 40-50g of fat per meal (if I have 3 P+F meals only). I have the calculations in an Excel sheet and also a TBT style training routine in another Excel file (de loading and exercise variation have been accounted for). I could send that to someone to check out if they like. Do I need to strat off with lighter weight so my joints/tendons adapt to the stress? Was thinking 5x5 or 6x4 for the big lifts.

Any advice would be helpful, guys. Mainly looking for the right diet and workout routine to start off with. Thank you.

2

I think there has been an article on T-Nation addressing the way you are starting off. You are looking for TOO MANY answers before you get started. And no matter how many people respond to your post with the way they did it when they were beginners, it doesn’t mean it will work for you.

You need to start experimenting. Don’t over analyze what you need to do. You will begin to learn as you go what works and what does not work. Then more of the articles on this site will make sense and you can better judge for yourself what you should be doing. Focus on compound lifts, and if you are doing a split, one of the easiest up front is upper body vs. lower body.

3

Just get to work.

Nobody gets it perfect the first time.