Diet for off-season

Nutrition
1

I was hoping you could give me some advice about my diet. At the moment I play Australian rules football and am about to finish up for the season and was hoping to lose a bit of this fat that I’ve put on, while still building strength and power during the off-season.

Stats:
Age 25
Height 6?1
Weight 210lbs
Bodyfat about 15% can only see my abs in a bright light and even then it’s only slight lines.

Goals
To keep energy levels high while losing fat.
Maybe even build some muscle at the same time.

Training split for off-season
Tier system
Day 1: weight train
Day 2: sprint training/ upper body GPP
Day 3: weight train
Day 4: sprint training/ lower body GPP
Day 5: weight train
Day 6: sprint training/ upper body GPP
Day 7: off

OR

Typical Westside split
4 days per week train etc.

  1. I’m hearing so much conflicting advice, how many calories should I be eating?
  2. Would the t-dawg2 diet be good or to little carbs?
  3. What about carb ups are they good?

Regards Paul

2

Hey, there, Paul!!!

Good questions. As a general rule, I calculate protein and fat requirements based on LBM. And then based on a few different factors I’ll take a stab at carbs. I don’t particularly care about the calories.

At one point in my life I doubled my calories and STARTED LOSING WEIGHT!!! Even though my maintenance calories are 1600 kCal/day, when I cycle my carbs I can eat 1900-2000 kcal/day and LOSE WEIGHT!

Thinking in calories will drive you crazy. (grin)

So here’s some starting numbers and recommendations for you:

TBW = 210 pounds
LBM = 178.5 pounds
BF = 31.5 pounds
BF% = 15%
Protein Req./Day = 267g
Protein Req./Meal = 45g
Fat Req./Day = 70-75g

You can use the numbers above if you decide to follow T-Dawg 2.0. But honestly, considering the amount of LBM you have, I’d like to see you taking in some more carbs. Try taking in 200g on days you do resistance training and 100g (or lower) on days you don’t do resistance training. In fact, one of the games you could play is to take in 250g on days you do resistance training and 50g on days you don’t. If I remember correctly WS is a 4-day a week program. So that would be 4 days at 250g of CHO and 3 days at 50g.

As with any program, you need to be weighing yourself once a week. I recommend a digital scale that measures in tenths of a pound.

You also need a digital scale to weigh your food. Both scales are rougly $30 each.

You need to keep a food log IF YOU’RE SERIOUS! Track, weigh, measure, count…everything that goes into your mouth!!!

Purchase some AccuMeasure 2000 Calipers. They’re cheap and surprisingly accurate (or at least consistent). <$15 on the 'Net. It’s a one-point/one-pinch test you can do yourself. Be precise. Average 3 readings. Practice. You need to know if LBM is going up or down and if fat mass (FM) is going up or down. Measure every week.

Last thing you need is a nutritional desk reference to look up the breakdown of foods you’re eating; P/C/F/Fiber.

That ought to get you started. Let me know how it goes. Get back with me at about Week 2 or 3 if you need to make adjustments because you’re not seeing the results you were hoping for.

Questions? (grin)

3

TT - thanks for all that, a couple of questions:
On training days - Do you like to have carbs around the workout (post workout) or earlier in the day?

What about carbs for breakfast like oats?

Should the carbs come from fruit & veggeis? What about bread, pasta, oats etc?

Thanks

4

Very, very good questions! I can see you’ve been reading the forum and are nutriionally savy. (grin)

On training days - Do you like to have carbs around the workout (post workout) or earlier in the day?

Here are my recommendations (rules?) re carbs. Green veggies and salad up to the time you work out. Take 1/2 of your Surge during your workout. Take the other half immediately upon completion. 2 hours later have a starchy carb P+C meal. Draw from oatmeal, yams, sweet potatoes, brown rice, beans, maybe even a little whole-wheat pasta with spaghetti on occasion.

Take about 60% of your carb allotment in PWO (Surge and the next one or two starchy carb P+C meals). The other 40% should be of the green veggie variety unless carb intake is so high you can’t hit your numbers.

What about carbs for breakfast like oats?

Try switching to an omelet with veggies for the first meal of the day. Try and stick to green veggies until your workout and starchy carbs PWO.

Should the carbs come from fruit & veggeis? What about bread, pasta, oats etc?

When cutting, try to stay away from bread entirely. Get 3 servings of fruit every day. Pasta is allowed, but shouldn’t be your primary starchy carb source. Just rotate through the ones I recomnended and you’ll be safe and won’t suffer from a lack of variety.

Thanks

You’re welcome! (grin)

5

Paul,

Hows it going. I will give these a try and give my take on them.

First off all of these issue are very dependent on the individual and also your current goals. What isn’t though?

Anyway to get to your ?'s.

#1 On training days - Do you like to have carbs around the workout (post workout) or earlier in the day?

**** During all times, cutting, bulking, etc. it is always optimal to have Carbs during the PWO window. A PWO shake such as Surge should be a staple following training no matter what your goal is in my opinion.

****As far as the rest of the day. I perfer to take in my carbs early in the day, as well as tapering my K/cals down as the day goes on also.

****During most cycles excluding the final few LBS of a cutting cycle I also like to have my meal prior to training to contain a good amount of carbs as well. I seem to get better performance in the gym this way. This works out great for me though do to the fact I train in the AM so the carbs are once again early in the day.

What about carbs for breakfast like oats?

**** Oats are awesome for breakfast in my opinion. I am a big fan of a nice healthy serving of Oats, with some fruit/berries and Low Carb GROW! mixed in. This is a great way to start the day.

**** Also as I eluded to earlier, I like to make this one of my largest meals and taper the k/cals down as the day goes on. This is constant for me during all times as well. With breakfast and my 1st PWO meal being the largest.

Should the carbs come from fruit & veggeis? What about bread, pasta, oats etc?

**** This one is the most individual and goal dependent of your ?'s in my opinion. The veggies are ALWAYS a great choice.

****Fruit, I would say 90% of the time is also a great choice. Some ppl do find they need to limit their fruit intake when getting down to ultra low BF% but I would say that is the only time you should cut it completely.

****Oats, for me this is a staple year round. I cant get by without my oats and LC GROW!.

**** Bread and pasta. Bread I do eat quite a bit, usually sprouted breads or the wood chippiest appearing stuff I can find. I only (might)cut it out on the final few weeks of a cut iof needed. But I dont go over board on bread either a slice or two a day at most. Pasta, I really dont eat to much, but will add it in during breif Massive eating stages for some dense, quick K/cals. I perfer rice and other whole grains and such though. I am also a sweet potatoe freak. Usually eating one or two a day. Throw in a white potatoe every now anbd then, usually mashed with some cauliflower (great for making a large portion of mashed taters and lowering the carb & K/cal intake).

Well I guess that is about it for now. It is all about trying things out and recording how it personnally effects you.

Hope some of this helps,

Phill
,

6

Thanks both TT and phil, great stuff. I will take what you guys have said and will put it into play.
I really like Natural full fat yoghurt and sometimes cheese for a snack or part of a snack, thoughts on this? and also Dairy in general?

7

WOW Paul

Seems you have a nack a hitting on every single topic that is of the greatest amount of variance in opinion.

Once again I will give a suggestion that comes from my own experiences and those I am around. That is all we can do.

Dairy in general I do consume on a regular basis, during all times of year. Some ppl I know must cut it to get to low BF%, I may limit it a bit, but never cut it in totality.

I do however keep all my dairy sources fat free, or as near fat free as possible. This is mainly do to the fact that I use the whole P+C and P+F meal combos. By going with the fat free version my dairy sources are much more versitile and can be used with any and all meals.

That along with the carb content of dairy being preferential to restoring liver first and foremost I dont like that high fat content along side those carbs.

It also allows me to have greater control over my fat intake. I can pick and choose to get mono’s, sats, or poly’s along side my dairy this way much easier. I get plenty of sats. from my lean meats and such.

Once again though it burns down to your personal reaction, diet and goals.

Glad I could help earlier and I hope this helps in some degree,

Phill

8

TT and phil…you must be getting paid by tmag…haha good stuff guys…and gal :wink:

9

Duece,

I could only dream I was getting paid by anyone. I am scratching by on student loans for grad. school (thank you Uncle Sam), and the occasional odd job.

But really, (Shameless T-plug entered here)just being part of this comunity we have formed here is more than enough payment for the ocassional (hopefully) helpful tidbits I share. The T-nation has given more to me than I will ever hope to return at this rate. AAAHHHH how sweet!! (check please$$$)

Anyway, I am outa here once again. Glad you found the info. of some help.

Phill