Critique My Diet

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

I am new to this site but I’ve been long tired of my shitty body. Its time to kick this gut of mine into a hard six pack. I am overweight and tired of it. I am 5’11, 222 lbs. I want to get lean and muscular. Kinda like a Mens Health Cover model (I know…Im vain) here is my diet.

Breakfast: Half cup of Oatmeal, with hardboiled Omega Three Egg

Workout: Weights (Circuit Training) Full Body

Snack: 2 scoops whey protein, 1 scoop vanilla casein protein, 1 cup skim milk, 1 cup frozen rasberries, 1/2 cup fat free yogurt

Lunch: 1 can tuna/or 1 cup ground turkey, half cup baby spinahc, 1 cup romaine lettuce, some cherry tomatoes

Snack: Banana or Apple, with hand full of almonds

Dinner: Chicken breast fillet, with Cup of mixed veggies (consisting of Brocolli, carrots, and cauliflower0

Workout (Half hour of cardio)

Last snack :2 scoops whey protein, 1 scoop vanilla casein protein, 1 cup skim milk, 1 cup frozen rasberries, 1/2 cup fat free yogurt

All this measures out to be around 1600-1700 calories, over 220 grams of protein, around 60 some grams of carbs,

Tell me what you think.

2

The total calories seem a little low for a 220lbs guy. You would benefit from adding a few good fats like fish oil and maybe a little flax too. Just add enough to make up about 500-700 calories extra, leaving the carbs the same and bit more protein if you need too.

Don’t be afraid to have more calories though and just log your progress weekly then adjust it if you are not losing any fat. Aim for a loss of about 1-2lbs a week. Read everything written by Dr John Berardi on this site…Train hard and heavy too.

Cain

3

Thanks for the tips. I really want to keep the cals low so I see the best results weekely. For me, I have to have some progress or I get easily discouraged.

I forgot to mention that with this plan, I would consume a multivitamin and 2 fish oil capsuls in the morning. Thanks again

4

At 2500 calories you will still lose FAT quickly. The main thing is that you need to preserve all of your lean muscle mass, dropping calories too low you stand a good chance of having no energy to train and most importantly RECOVER from your weight lifting sessions.

How long have you been training?

How much muscle do you have now?

5

[quote]DavidAames wrote:
Workout: Weights (Circuit Training) Full Body
[/quote]

If you’re cutting (losing fat), you would you want to stay with lower rep, higher weight. A scheme like 10x3 might do you some good. Your body will already be under stress from not getting enough calories, lifting HEAVY will give it a good reason to keep those muscles, instead of losing muscles first.

[quote]DavidAames wrote:
Snack: 2 scoops whey protein, 1 scoop vanilla casein protein, 1 cup skim milk, 1 cup frozen rasberries, 1/2 cup fat free yogurt
[/quote]

This snack is your PWO “meal”. You would want something that consists of 2:1 ratio of STARCHY carb to protein. After an intense workout, your muscles are depleted of its stored glycogen. Starchy carbs will help your body to absorb the protein and replenish the muscle glycogen. This will prevent muscle-loss. Some good sources of starchy carbs are yam, sweet potato, brown rice, quinoa and amaranth.

[quote]DavidAames wrote:
Snack: Banana or Apple, with hand full of almonds
[/quote]

Make sure you have some protein with each of your meals. You might want to add something like a beef jerky here for your source of protein.

[quote]DavidAames wrote:
Last snack :2 scoops whey protein, 1 scoop vanilla casein protein, 1 cup skim milk, 1 cup frozen rasberries, 1/2 cup fat free yogurt
[/quote]

“Slow” proteins like casein is good as a pre-bed meal. However, you’d probably want to cut out the yogurt, and maybe even the raspberries. Generally, your body don’t handle carbs as well at night (doesn’t get used, tends to be stored as fat), so try to keep your carb intake at night to a minimum.

[quote]DavidAames wrote:
All this measures out to be around 1600-1700 calories, over 220 grams of protein, around 60 some grams of carbs,
[/quote]

[quote]DavidAames wrote:
Thanks for the tips. I really want to keep the cals low so I see the best results weekely. For me, I have to have some progress or I get easily discouraged.

I forgot to mention that with this plan, I would consume a multivitamin and 2 fish oil capsuls in the morning. Thanks again[/quote]

1600-1700 calories for someone weighing 222 is a bit on the low side. Generally for cutting, you’d start with something like body weight * 10 or body weight * 12. This would give you around 2200-2400 calories to start. The reason why we’d want to do that is make sure your keep your muscle mass.

You should aim for 1-2lbs of total weight loss per week to prevent losing much of the muscle mass that you currently have. It may seem hard to lose fat, but it’s even harder to build muscle.

In general, shoot for body weight * 1.0 in grams of protein (222g), and body weight * 0.4 in grams of fat (89g). For your fats, have an even distribution (29.6g) of saturated, polyunsaturated, and monounsaturated fats. Try to have three servings of fruits a day, more towards the morning, and different fruits if possible. A serving of fruit is 80-100 calories.

You can look up nutrition data at www.nutritiondata.com or www.fitday.com. Dial in your diet and lift HEAVY. You’ll get there!

6

I think you should get a little more protein for breakfast. If I read that correctly you have 1 omega egg… ?

7

I thought that I should have some sort of calorie defficiency to burn fat right? Additionally, I am eating over 220 of protein, wont that keep my muscle mass?

Ive been lifting for about 4 years now. Here is my workout

Monday and Friday: Circuit train
Squats: 2 sets* 10 reps(155 lbs)
Bench: 2 sets* 10 reps(115 lbs)
Lat pull downs:2 sets* 10 reps (105 lbs)
Military:2 sets* 10 reps (dumbell 35 lbs)
Upright row:2 sets* 10 reps (90 lbs)
Tricep pull downs:2 sets* 10 reps(105 lbs)
Leg extenstions:2 sets* 10 reps
Bicep curls:2 sets* 10 reps (30 lbs dumbells
Hamstring pulls:2 sets* 10 reps

At night: 30 min cardio

Wednesday: a different variation of circuit training, heavier weight, full body, and 3*10

At night: 30 min cardio

Tuesday and Thursday

2 sessions of cardio

Saturday and sunday: 1 session of cardio

8

[quote]DavidAames wrote:
I thought that I should have some sort of calorie defficiency to burn fat right? Additionally, I am eating over 220 of protein, wont that keep my muscle mass?
[/quote]
Yes, you’ll need to be at a caloric deficit in order to lose fat. However, you wouldn’t want to go overboard with the deficit or else you’ll start losing muscle as well, in addition to your body going into “shut down” mode to conserve as much energy as possible.

Your body doesn’t decide to keep muscle just because that it sees protein. It needs a reason to keep the muscle. The body adapts to the environment that it is in, and naturally, wants to carry as little muscle as possible to complete the current tasks. With the combination of you being on a caloric deficit and your muscles being a source of energy expenditure for the body, it makes a lot of sense to the body to minimize its energy expenditure in order to preserve you as a whole. That’s why you’d want to lift HEAVY, to give your body a reason to keep its muscle.

Again, by heavy, I’m referring to something like 10x3. Basically, something near your max in all the lifts. This is especially true for the big compound exercises that you would have at the beginning of your workout.

An example of a workout you can do is the one posted by Chris Shugart did when he planned the Velocity Diet:

https://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=538216

[quote]Chris Shugart wrote:
Day #1

Pull-up: 10 x 3 weighted
Bench Press: 10 x 3
Squat: 3 x 8
Hamstring Curl: 3 x 6
Calf/Biceps/Triceps exercises, 1 set each 6-10 reps
Ab exercise: anything goes

Day #2

Deadlift: 10 x 3
Rack Pull: 3 x 3-5
Flyes: 3 x 8
Overhead Press: 10 x 3 standing, cleaned from floor
Calf/Biceps/Triceps exercises, 1 set each 6-10 reps
Ab exercise: anything goes, but different than previous session

Day #3

Dips: 10 x 3
Rows: 10 x 3
Lateral raises: 3 x 8
Lunge variations: 3 x 6-8
Calf/Biceps/Triceps exercises 1 set each 6-10 reps
Ab exercise: anything goes, but different than previous session
[/quote]
This would cover all the big exercises, as well as some supplementary exercise to those parts that the compound exercises didn’t hit directly.

I hope this helps. :slight_smile:

9

Sounds like you’re following the Abs Diet. It’s good for overall fitness but muscle mass not so much. Stick with the 10x3 recommendation. Something like the Waterbury Method might do you good (search).

Your calories are too low. Undereating will halt your progress and you’ll probably lose some muscle.

Good luck!

10

[quote]DavidAames wrote:
I thought that I should have some sort of calorie defficiency to burn fat right? Additionally, I am eating over 220 of protein, wont that keep my muscle mass?

Ive been lifting for about 4 ye[/quote]

You need SOME sort of calorie deficiency, yes. Protein helps keeps muscle mass, yes. But it’s as much a matter of timing your protein intake as anything–you need more protein after an 8 hour fast. That means breakfast needs more protiein.

You also need MORE CALORIES. 1700 calories is hardly enough to feed a child. Besides, when fat loss inevitably slows down, what are you going to do? Cut calories to 1300 a day? Right. That’s a quick ticket to disaster. Up the calories.

As for training, as long as you’re consistent, many things can work for you. You can mix things up by trying different kinds of training. Someone’s already mentioned 10x3 for fat loss. That is but one useful option. You can use some heavy lifting for keeping your muscle, and some circuit style training to kick up the lactic acid. It’s all good.

The real key is to just train HARD at whatever you do, and keep changing things up every 4-6 weeks.