Sorry to be too confusing but really, to get fat loss right it is dependent on a lot of different factors. It’s hard to synthesize it all into a ready template over an internet forum without developing an understanding on where you’ve come from and what your body composition looks like.
What I would suggest is read Berardi’s tailor made nutrition series and model a program after that - it will answer a lot of different questions.
I would then take a look at Thibs’ War Room fat loss strategies and model a program after that. Between those two you will be set.
Unfortunately even with a site as strong as T-Nation it is quite difficult to cherry pick the right program without understanding the whole picture.
Eat 1.25 x or more 1 gram protein per 1lb in your body. Those going for more mass eat 1.5 and higher ( multiplier ).
course you should know the rest if you have read all the reply posts, and or pay attention to all the educational posts as written under the articles section
Sleep, recommendation is 8 hours a day
without rest you won’t accomplish anything and don’t expect your body to rapidly shift in one day unless your doing a lot of active work.
ie - wildland firefighters, humping through the moutains 10-12 hours a day cutting brush, clearing trees etc -
Cardio/Sprinting/HIIT
2 schools of thought, heart rate maintainers, and total calories burned. Either way calorie burning is key.
Weightlifting :
the primary factor here is that when your burning more then your consuming. Calorie = Energy. You will put muscle mass in jeopardy. Usage of HRX, and lifting heavier and pushing your limits are recommended to maintain LBM.
** also ask yourself are you giving your muscles a reason to grow after each workout? Lift so you come out stronger in someway shape or form your next workout!
The end.
Since it looks like your eating right, or have the knowledge to further improve your eating…
I think the variable to look at mainly is how much cardio you are doing on a weekly basis, and/or how intense is your cardio. I rate it as cardio burned per hour or divided into 20 minute portions.
Depends on how much time you have available in a day and how often you do something to break a sweat, and/or employ multiple body parts at the same time over a constant period of time.
How would I explain it to a beginner?
You need to burn more energy then you eat.
Muscles will help you on a hourly by hourly basis but unless you have spent 3-6 months really gaining a lot of muscle you still are reliant upon eating, sleeping, and energy burning.
don’t know about the super low carb thing but it seems reasonableto me. afterall the get shredded diet is all about being under 100 for a few weeks.
3000 is perhaps a bit much. i’m on 2000kcal and my maintenance is the same as yours. im not feeling too hungry, not taking any fat burners yet either nbut my progress is quite good. lost like 5 pounds in all so far. (approx).
If you are moving slowly in the right direction, then that’s just the right amount. If you’re not making progress (and not losing inches), then you need to make changes.
I really recommend that you go through the exercise of looking up what you’re eating and keeping a food log for a month. Find out what maintenance calories is for you. Find out how far you have to drop calories to lose weight at a pound a week. Find out how many calories you need to eat to bulk, so that you’re gaining a pound a week. You don’t have to do it forever, but for the time that you do, you’ll learn a bunch about what your body requires.
The people who get the best results (think of people who compete and have to get shredded so that they aren’t embarrassed when they step on stage) KNOW how many ounces of chicken or lean ground beef they need to eat to meet their protein requirements. They also know exactly how many calories they need to eat to bulk and how many calories they need to eat to cut.
Why don’t you check out www.fitday.com. You’ll have to create a free account, but it’s worth it because then you can keep an online food log.
We all tend to eat the same things over and over again. It’s a lot of work in the beginning, but after a while, you can put together a menu of what you’re going to eat the next day in less than 5 minutes.
Anything less than precision nutrition is just guessing.
PC, at the end of every week, when you weigh yourself and take your measurements, you do something called “Outcome-Based Decision Making.” If you are making progress towards your goals (in either your measurements OR scale weight), you stay put and continue to follow your plan. If a single week goes by and you’re not making much progress, it’s best to wait another week (keeping the same numbers) and see what your results are over a longer period of time. If you’re making progress, keep doing what you’re doing. If you’re not making progress, then you may need to make some adjustments to your plan (if you’re following it with precision) or tighten up in general (if you’re not following your plan with precision).
The end of week two is nearing. Right now, i feel the only thing i have done is stop my progress. Havent got any weaker, but i dont really look that much better either. Its very hard not to “overeat”. 3000 calories a day is like hell for me, and im not seeing any real changes so far. Maybe im thinking this too early?
I don’t really have a weight scale, so i dont know if i have really lost weight or not. Im just going by the mirror right now. I havent done the HITT i have suppsed to been doing, but i am going to start it this cycle. This is fusturating, someone help me!
If you’ve been averaging 3000 kcal per day, and your maintenance is about 3600, then in two weeks you should expect to have lost about 2 lbs of fat, maybe a little more than that in scale weight, due to water and glycogen depletion.
But not much more, because you’re not going low-carb (this is part of why low carb diets are popular, scale weight drops dramatically in the first few days, so people “know it’s working” even though most of what’s been lost isn’t fat.)
The point is, losing 2 lbs of fat isn’t likely to make a big difference in the mirror. Dieting works if you stick with it. If you are not going over your kcal target, and you are training hard, you will lose fat.
Oh, and you should definitely be doing your HIIT (or some kind of energy systems work.) It really helps.
PC, there are two types of people, those who get frustrated and quit or just complain about it, and those who decide they’ve had it and take it up a notch! How’d you like to take it up a notch and get more precise? (grin)
When you’re not seeing the results you want, you have no choice but to dial things in a bit. You’re probably doing a lot of things right, but without hard facts and numbers, I can’t help you fix what’s holding you back. What do I need out of you to help you achieve your goals?
I need you to keep a food log and plan out what you’re eating in advance so that you’re hitting the numbers you and I agree upon.
I need you to weigh and measure once a week, on Friday, right out of bed, after you’ve hit the restroom, sans clothes (or wearing the same clothes every time if that’s not possible). By measurements, I mean:
Chest
Right Arm
Waist
Butt
Right Thigh
Right Calf
If you’re willing to do those two things, and if you check in once a week to report your results after we’ve hammered out a plan, there isn’t any reason you can’t make slow and steady progress towards your goals, be they bulking, cutting or maintaining.
We can do it without a scale if we have to, but do you have access to a scale at the gym? Could you go in and weigh yourself on Friday or Saturday morning?
My gym has no scale… i wish i had access to one. im gonna have to nuy one this week. Im recording what im eating right not on FitDay. Its kind of annoying finding the foods, but it gives a better representation of what im actually eating. you want me to send you that every week too?
