Critque My Diet and Training

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I’m new to T-Nation, but I’ve been reading and learning for the past year or so. I’ve been lifting and dieting sporadically for 2 years. I am an endomorph, who was originally a big fat ass, weighing in at 272, until I began exercising and lifting, and I dropped down to 159 in about a years time.

My diet and training has been erratic due to a hand injury and a bizarre work schedule. I just recently finished a “bulking phase” and I am now working on slimming down.

Currently I am 5ft 11 inches, 213 Lbs, 14-15% BF (approximately). My diet right now consists of 2300-2600 calories per day (2600 on a workout day, 2300 on off-days). My diet macros consist of a 40/40/20 split (Protein, Fats, Carbs). Most of my carbs are complex, exlcuding a healthy daily dosing of fibrous vegetables, accept following a workout, my fats mainly come from fish, fish oil pills, extra virgin olive oil, and occasionally natty peanut butter, calories permitting. All of my protein derives from chicken, lean beef, elk, etc. and I only use protein shakes pre and post workout. I am trying a low carb approach.

I am currently taking the following supps: ON’s Optimen Multivitamin, Fish Oil pills, Liv52, Bulk BCAA’s intermixed with bulk leucine, Hydroxycut (one of the banned versions), Vitamins C, E, and D3, and waxy maize starch post workout.

My training schedule: I am lifting as heavy as possible and haven’t experienced much of a strength decrease so far with my current caloric reduced diet.

Monday- Shoulders, Upper Back, Biceps and Forearms (secondary)

Overhead Press 4-8 reps
Barbell Curls 6-8
Barbell Snatches 8
Pull Ups 10-12
Upright Rows 6-8
Zottman Curls 8
Lateral Raises 6-8 (palms facing behind)/ occasionally switching between lateral raises and Arnold presses*

Monday session followed by 18 minutes of going at the heavy punching bag, intense 5 minute rounds, 1 minute break (3 times)

Tuesday: 30-45 minutes low intensity cardio, usually jogging.

Wednesday Chest and Tris

Flat bench 6-8 reps
Close Grip bench (as close as I can grip) 8
Decline bench 6-8
Skull Crushers 6-8
Chest Flys 6-8
Overhead Tricep extensions 6-8

Wednesday session followed by 18 minutes of going at the heavy punching bag, intense 5 minute rounds, 1 minute break (3 times)

Thursday: 30-45 minutes of low intensity cardio, usually jogging. Ab work, consisting of weight crunches and Roman chairs.

Friday Lower Back and Legs

ASG Squats 8
Deadlift 6-8
Leg Presses 6-8
Hyperextensions 6-8
Calf Raise 8-10

Session followed by 15 minutes of HITT sprinting
Ab work consisting of weight crunches, roman chairs and oblique twists

Saturday: Off

Sunday: 30 minutes low intensity cardio

I put on some weight during my “off time,” and I am having one hell of a time getting rid of stubborn adipose tissue in my mid section, and now have “bitch hips.” Any advice anyone could give me would be most appreciated…

Thank you…

2

It’ll help if you state your goals/question/what’s happening. I’m guessing you’re after cutting advice and you’ve stalled?

3

At 213 lbs 2,300 to 2,600 cals seems quite low. Maybe 1,000 cals low.

Research g flux

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its_just_me: I’m not after cutting advice at all and I haven’t stalled, I am losing weight nicely. I was looking for a “critique” of my diet and training schedule, how does it look, can I switch anything around. When fat loss stalls, as it will and I will plateau I plan to carb/calorie cycle, etc.

dnlcdstn: thanks. I was worried that I dropped a few calories to low, my BMR and TDEE bring my daily energy expenditure up around 3200-3000 calories per day. I was hoping that with mega dosing lots of BCAA’s that this would perhaps halt some muscle depletion, whats your thoughts on this? I will look into G-Flux

5

I’ve never been a fan of lifting only 3x a week except MAYBE for absolute beginners for the first couple weeks. A 4-5 day split should yield you better results.

As far as your diet, I don’t like that you’re starting a diet after JUST finishing a bulking phase. You’d be better off eating maintenance calories (I’d say at least 300g of protein) and doing a recomp at the same bodyweight for a while before starting to diet to lose weight. Doing it that way you should still be able to make gains in the gym while shedding a bit of bodyfat as opposed to doing what you’re doing now and losing strength and muscle that you’ve worked so hard to build.

From there you could gradually start lowering calories so you can find a balance that allows you to lose fat at a faster rate without sacrificing intensity (and hence muscle/strength) in the gym.

6

KingBeef, you are looking like a Nordic god in your avatar.

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Usually it’s not a great idea to mess with something that’s working well (especially someone else’s routine), but a few pointers off the top of my head;

Since you seem to have decent time for training, maybe consider increasing frequency of exercises and lowering selection per workout. You will often find that workouts with 3 or 4 exercises (mostly multi-joint movements), done frequently enough, works 2x as good as high volume workouts done less frequently (as regards body composition).

Example:

Mon - Delts/Back/Biceps
Tue - Chest/Tris
Wed - Legs (Knee dominant - e.g. squats)
Thu - Delts/Back/Biceps
Fri - Chest/Tris
Sat - Legs (Hip dominant - e.g. deadlifts)
Sun - Off
Mon - Repeat

Do one exercise for a bodypart on the first half of the week, and another exercise for the same bodypart on the other half of the week. e.g. Mon - Barbell curls, Thu - Zottman curls.

I wouldn’t be too rigid with the rep range either. You could do say 6-8 rep range at the end of the week, and 10-12 at the start of it. This will help you last longer without burning out.

Since training volume has increased (if you do the above routine I gave), you may decrease HIIT sessions (e.g. boxing/sprinting).

As for diet, always start at the high end and work your way down (never go straight into an extreme reduction). This will ensure hormone levels/metabolism don’t get screwed up, and ensures you have something else to change later on without having to starve yourself.

If you are to keep all this high volume cardio in there, you highly likely will need to eat more than you are now (pretty certain of this even if you are ‘endomorphic’).

Macro-nutrient ratios aren’t as important as energy balance (just don’t do extremes). Keep carbs around high activity periods and don’t eat too many late at night.

8

[quote]anonym wrote:
KingBeef, you are looking like a Nordic god in your avatar.[/quote]

Lol. Thanks man, I’m in the middle of another spurt of growth I think, it’s crazy.

9

Kingbeef323: Thanks for the advice. I did maintain for a bit, but was very lax with my bulking phase and ate a lot of shit that I shouldn’t have, my training regimen was also lagging and infrequent, because of this I gained a disproportional amount of fat with my hard earned muscle. I should have stated this previously, I ran a maintenance routine for about 4 weeks, cycling between eating 100-200 calories more and less then my daily requirements, I also kept my protein intake high, as you stated. I did gain some nice muscle during my bulk and maintained it during the maintenance phase, but occasionally poor eating and training habits reeked havoc on my physique, particularly my mid section, giving my some horrid “bitch hips” and a slight “spare tire,” while my upper body, chest, shoulders, arms, look great, my mid section is complete shit. With this new info. do you still recommend a running a recomp?

its_just_me: Thanks a lot of the training advice. Basically you are suggesting that I increase workout frequency, incorporating fewer lifts, that are multi-joint/compound in nature, correct? I think that I will follow your advice, my body seems to be adapting, I am not as sore, well as sore as I should be from my workouts considering the previous calorie deficit, and its been 5 weeks since I’ve shaken things up. I am also going to up my calories,

I still want to continue cutting, unless someone can give me a legitimate reason not too, and I will cut back down on the cardio. I will formulate a new workout routine and post it on this posting, I would really appreciate your input on my “new regimen,” time permitting on your part.

Thanks guys.

NF

10

Kingbeef323: Thanks for the advice. I did maintain for a bit, but was very lax with my bulking phase and ate a lot of shit that I shouldn’t have, my training regimen was also lagging and infrequent, because of this I gained a disproportional amount of fat with my hard earned muscle. I should have stated this previously, I ran a maintenance routine for about 4 weeks, cycling between eating 100-200 calories more and less then my daily requirements, I also kept my protein intake high, as you stated. I did gain some nice muscle during my bulk and maintained it during the maintenance phase, but occasionally poor eating and training habits reeked havoc on my physique, particularly my mid section, giving my some horrid “bitch hips” and a slight “spare tire,” while my upper body, chest, shoulders, arms, look great, my mid section is complete shit. With this new info. do you still recommend a running a recomp?

its_just_me: Thanks a lot of the training advice. Basically you are suggesting that I increase workout frequency, incorporating fewer lifts, that are multi-joint/compound in nature, correct? I think that I will follow your advice, my body seems to be adapting, I am not as sore, well as sore as I should be from my workouts considering the previous calorie deficit, and its been 5 weeks since I’ve shaken things up. I am also going to up my calories, I still want to continue cutting, unless someone can give me a legitimate reason not too, and I will cut back down on the cardio. I will formulate a new workout routine and post it on this posting, I would really appreciate your input on my “new regimen,” time permitting on your part.

Thanks guys.

11

[quote]NorseFire wrote:
its_just_me: Thanks a lot of the training advice. Basically you are suggesting that I increase workout frequency, incorporating fewer lifts, that are multi-joint/compound in nature, correct? I think that I will follow your advice, my body seems to be adapting, I am not as sore, well as sore as I should be from my workouts considering the previous calorie deficit, and its been 5 weeks since I’ve shaken things up. I am also going to up my calories,

I still want to continue cutting, unless someone can give me a legitimate reason not too, and I will cut back down on the cardio. I will formulate a new workout routine and post it on this posting, I would really appreciate your input on my “new regimen,” time permitting on your part.

Thanks guys.

NF [/quote]

You’re welcome.

You don’t have to drop lifts (unless they’re not doing much), you’ve got plenty multi-joint movements in there which is good. Not sure why you do an olympic lift in your routine though? I know CT likes them, but it’s not very specific for BB.

Just train a bit more frequently and spread out the workout volume (exercises are more spread out and body parts are “hit” more often). So you could do say upper chest on one chest day 1, then lower chest on the other day later on in the same week. Or back thickness on back day 1, and back width on the other day in the week. You’ll have more energy/drive and can do all your exercises justice this way and will progress faster.

You may feel a little sore between training sessions with the increase in frequency, but this will pass in about 2 weeks, just train through it.

Keep us updated…

12

Oh, as for the “bitch hips”, this should iron out as you get your diet sorted (you already have exercise sorted). It’s usually caused by your insulin response and is common in people who’ve had quite a large quantity of fat in the past (high body fat screws up hormone balance). It’s also common in people who eat badly (e.g. large simple carb intake, like in sodas) - so make sure you drop anything like this if you haven’t already. Increase “wholesome” foods (veg/fruit/nuts/fish etc).

Another thing that causes fat deposits around the hips is cortisone (stress hormone). So make sure that every few weeks of training you have a “back off week” (e.g. lighter weights, higher reps, less lifting and cardio). In this week it would be good to eat slightly more. Being in a calorie deficit for long periods increases cortisone. If ever your lifts start to stall, swap them out for another if it’s just one or two, but if it’s most then take an easy week (deload/cruise).

Fish oil is great, you can never have too much of this (need plenty to see good results).

Incidently, I’ve often found that high intensity exercise (as apposed to slow paced cardio) is needed to really “dig out” the bitch hips (I used to have them badly believe it or not lol). So appart from HIIT, lifting is one of the best ways if done regulary enough.

Be patient, and most of all don’t get a complex over it. They will shrink a little when over-all fat levels go down, but ultimately your hormones have to be “steady” for a while before you start to see proper results. Lots of people have it (even the really active ones like bodybuilders) due to the crap available to eat/drink nowadays. For me, it took a good year for my body to get back into balance after a bad bulk (lots of high GI carbs/not enough protein).

13

Fish oil is great, you can never have too much of this (need plenty to see good results).

Not sure I agree. Read the thread on fish oil and lack of libido. I only take 5 grams every other day. I could prolly up it a little, but I’m doing good where I’m at.

14

[quote]dnlcdstn wrote:
Fish oil is great, you can never have too much of this (need plenty to see good results).

Not sure I agree. Read the thread on fish oil and lack of libido. I only take 5 grams every other day. I could prolly up it a little, but I’m doing good where I’m at.
[/quote]

Oh, it’s been a while since I read up about it…do you have a link to the thread you are talking about?

I was mainly speaking relatively (according to most people’s budget/diet). Also, if you followed the guide on most market bought bottles it’s usually very low.

15

dnlcdstn: That’s strange I haven’t read that particular thread on here, but I know that fish oil increases dopamine levels and circulation, including "circulation in “genital area.” I also thought that fish oil reduced insulin resistance, thus increasing test output? Doesn’t fish oil also help to reduce cortisol levels by causing a move to different receptors, particularly the receptors that cortisol and test compete for? I could be wrong about this, my of my information comes from others. Aside from that healthy fats, like fish oil, are essentially to maintaining a decent test level while on a calorie deficit (like I am); this is what I was told at least.

its_just_me: Thanks a lot of the good info. I am keeping many of my previous lifts, just splitting them up more often to “hit” more similar muscle groups more frequently, as you stated, great suggestion man! In regards to the Olympic style lift, I believe that you are referring to the “barbell snatches,” I do them because I enjoy bodybuilding, and achieving functional muscle, I occasionally throw in some Olympic style lifts into my routines, plus I was under the impression that the barbell snatch works the medial head, and as such was important to fostering shoulder growth; I actually usually do the snatch with a lunge, just to get my heart pumping a bit more. I usually eat 5-6 grams per day of fish oil, the only reason I don’t pop more is because it decreases inflammation, and inflammation is essential for muscle growth.

As for diet, its in check, I actually haven’t drank any soda in about 2 years, since I originally started my “healthy lifestyle”-- from fat ass to thin ass; I do occasionally drink Coke Zero, or Pepsi Max, but only sodas with “zero’s” the whole through the nutritional lineup:-) and I only eat complex carbs and fibrous vegetables (96% of the time;-).I think that my hips really came back after my falling off of the weight lifters wagon, that was during my recent injury when I ate healthy 50% of the time and shitty fast food the other half of the time, I did this for several months and pop-blamo the hips are back: I really do only eat healthy most of the time.

My main problem, as I see it, with my bitch hips is this, being of the “endomorphic phenotype” I have a larger bone structure in my pelvis region, I really do I wear a size 28-30 pant, but my hips are disproportionally huge, my shoulders are just now getting bigger then my hips, but this has come through a lot of hard work and effort. Even when I lost a massive amount of weight, more then 100 lbs, and I was in the 150’s I still had slightly larger hips, this was a low time for me I knew nothing of bodybuilding, and had that “sickly look”," family and friends were telling me that I looked like emaciated, and not healthy, yet my hips and some stubborn stomach subcutaneous stomach fat still remained fat. I believe that its my phenotype, and my previous “fatassness” coupled with my recent reversion to “fatassness” after my injury.

I’ll keep ya update, and I really appreciate the advice! I am working on a new routine, but works hectic, so less time I will post tomorrow morning.

16

Oh, it’s been a while since I read up about it…do you have a link to the thread you are talking about?

I was mainly speaking relatively (according to most people’s budget/diet). Also, if you followed the guide on most market bought bottles it’s usually very low.[/quote]

Page 3 of supplements and nutrition. I think too much of a good thing can be detrimental even with fish oil. I love it, but don’t use 20 grams a day like some guys do. That being said, everybody’s different. Some guys love peanut butter, some guys die from it…

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dnlcdstn - Interesting thread. Like you said, balance is everything (so yeah, I was wrong, you CAN have too much of it lol). I experimented a few times with dietary fat too - decreasing saturated fat to below a certain point also decreases sexual drive/performance.

It’s probably relative to each person too, as some said in that thread, if you are already lean it has a more negative effect. Tried cycling zinc before too; I find that taking Zinc continuously lowers it’s effect, so cycling it on for 3, and off for 3 days seems to work well. That’s completely anecdotal and what I’ve personally found though, haven’t found any studies to prove it…

NorseFire - Yeah your build may not be helping too much either. Even though I have a narrow waist, my hip bones stick out too. It’s even worse if you’ve been really lean in the past and never had them until a certain point; it can drive you crazy trying to get it back to what it was lol.

Like I said though, don’t get overly hung up about it: leaning up to extreme, losing muscle and going around in circles is not what you want - it’ll “iron out” in time…and at the end of the day, you have to work with what you’ve got (your build). Look forward to your progress/updates…