[quote]jehovasfitness wrote:
veritas83 wrote:
I would also suggest that you drop your carbs by 100 g and increase your protein by 100 g and see how your body responds.
please stop giving advice like this to someone who has suffered from anorexia, and is possibly likely to relapse.
And, I hope no one makes a comment on his BF levels as well from the pics.[/quote]
I couldn’t agree more!!!
[quote]jzap624 wrote:
LankyMofo wrote:
You look like a typical skinny kid. Get over your fear of fat gain, train heavy, and eat a lot of (good) food.
There is your advice. Please follow it.
I got over the fear of getting fat a while ago, now Im just angery at it. Look, im not trying to get to 3% bodyfat or anything, I just want to see my abs again. Doesnt 155lbs @ 7% bodyfat sound acceptable?[/quote]
Look you COULD cut to 3% BUT all you would see is what you see now so it would be a gigantic waste of your time, effort, money and more hospital bills 
…
There is NOTHING behind there besides your organs ! So you need to put on MUSCLE to actually see any sort of abs !
Look what you need:
Protein contains ~ 9 Kcal/gram
There are 28.4 grams in an ounce.
16 os in a pound
so 928.416 = ~4090 cals in ONE pound of muscle !
Now thats just ONE, you need maybe 20lbs so START EATING ALOT !!!
Protein actually only has 4kcal/gram. Fats have 9.
[quote]jzap624 wrote:
LankyMofo wrote:
You look like a typical skinny kid. Get over your fear of fat gain, train heavy, and eat a lot of (good) food.
There is your advice. Please follow it.
I got over the fear of getting fat a while ago, now Im just angery at it. Look, im not trying to get to 3% bodyfat or anything, I just want to see my abs again. Doesnt 155lbs @ 7% bodyfat sound acceptable?[/quote]
If seeing your abs are all you’re worried about, leave the rest of us BODYBUILDERS alone. I’m through wasting my time with you.
[quote]LankyMofo wrote:
If seeing your abs are all you’re worried about, leave the rest of us BODYBUILDERS alone. I’m through wasting my time with you.[/quote]
no, seeing my abs is not what Im all worried about. I have always used a defined 6-pack as a barometer of great fitness. I’m clearly lacking in that respect. I dont feel fit or look fit. It sound like the majority of you are telling me to contiune to bulk up, another 20lbs or so, and then again persue a cutting phase. But that is what I thought 20 lbs ago. Now that Im 20lbs heavier, I hearing that I should gain another 20. when Im at 186lbs can I finally start ripping this fat off of me?
I won’t comment on your diet since I agree that you should involve your therapist.
But, if your goal is a lean “muscular” physique, the only way to accomplish that is to lift heavier weights.
You mentioned you were following the New Rules of Lifting fat loss program, switch to the strength and hypertrophy programs and focus on adding pounds to the bar.
The only way you will ever increase your metabolism is to add muscle.
I plan to get my RMR tested again at my university within the month. in july 2007 it read at “1380”, a month later, aug, it read “1584” this is when I weighted 146lbs. I also got my t-levels tested in May and they read at 5,796ng/dl. Now before you tell me I made a typo, I am taking Testim under doctors care. Years of anorexia shot my T to hell. Even after I gained most of the weight back, my T levels never returned, thus the Testim. After the results where explained to me, the doc told me to take 1/2 a tube every night for now on and retest in 2 months.
[quote]Ruggerlife wrote:
I won’t comment on your diet since I agree that you should involve your therapist.
But, if your goal is a lean “muscular” physique, the only way to accomplish that is to lift heavier weights.
You mentioned you were following the New Rules of Lifting fat loss program, switch to the strength and hypertrophy programs and focus on adding pounds to the bar.
The only way you will ever increase your metabolism is to add muscle.
[/quote]
to tell you the truth, I liked the stregth program in the book. I have tried part 2 and 3 and saw marked imporvements on my max lifts.
First, congrats on your discipline. You seem to have a great ability to plan and actually follow a diet/exercise regime. I’m assuming you’ve followed what you posted pretty strictly and consistently.
Where I see you falling short is in variation. Are you actually eating the same foods every day per the plan you posted? Or is that just an example of a typical day?
I think your body has adjusted to your plan and you probably have a low metabolism. Variation in both exercise and diet is critical to break through slump periods like this.
I highly recommend that you buy and follow Joel Marion’s Cheat to Lose diet. Your discipline will serve you well on this diet, and the variability built into the diet will give you good results.
The question is whether you have enough discipline and faith to actually follow a diet like CTL. Can you bring yourself to eat a bowl of chocolate ice cream on a scheduled cheat day?
[quote]jzap624 wrote:
LankyMofo wrote:
If seeing your abs are all you’re worried about, leave the rest of us BODYBUILDERS alone. I’m through wasting my time with you.
no, seeing my abs is not what Im all worried about. I have always used a defined 6-pack as a barometer of great fitness. I’m clearly lacking in that respect. I dont feel fit or look fit. It sound like the majority of you are telling me to contiune to bulk up, another 20lbs or so, and then again persue a cutting phase. But that is what I thought 20 lbs ago. Now that Im 20lbs heavier, I hearing that I should gain another 20. when Im at 186lbs can I finally start ripping this fat off of me?[/quote]
Alright, I’ll waste some more time on you.
You can start “ripping the fat off” once you have enough muscle underneath to have a lean muscular body. If you think you’d have a lean muscular physique if you cut up right now, then get to it. You’d be wrong, but get to it. I’m sure you’ll get that wicked 6 pack and impress all the chicks.
[quote]forlife wrote:
First, congrats on your discipline. You seem to have a great ability to plan and actually follow a diet/exercise regime. I’m assuming you’ve followed what you posted pretty strictly and consistently.
Where I see you falling short is in variation. Are you actually eating the same foods every day per the plan you posted? Or is that just an example of a typical day?
I think your body has adjusted to your plan and you probably have a low metabolism. Variation in both exercise and diet is critical to break through slump periods like this.
I highly recommend that you buy and follow Joel Marion’s Cheat to Lose diet. Your discipline will serve you well on this diet, and the variability built into the diet will give you good results.
The question is whether you have enough discipline and faith to actually follow a diet like CTL. Can you bring yourself to eat a bowl of chocolate ice cream on a scheduled cheat day?[/quote]
I’m sorry, are you telling this kid to lose weight? I cannot even begin to describe how assinine that is.
Read what I actually wrote. The CTL diet is appropriate for gaining muscle and will help him get the six pack he wants.
He doesn’t need a program built for muscle conservation while losing fat, he needs to stop eating two thousand calories a day. His cheat day is MAINTENANCE calories. That’s horrible for a person with his frame. It is truly possible that he just doesn’t have a 6pack to show right now, he was 94 pounds 3 years ago, that’s not an eternity.
[quote]forlife wrote:
Where I see you falling short is in variation. Are you actually eating the same foods every day per the plan you posted? Or is that just an example of a typical day?
I substitue some of the foods (chicken for tuna, veggies are usally different, fruits are various, oatmeal or high fiber cereal, almonds or other nuts, ect) so it is not exactly the same thing every day. But the diet I have shown is typical.
I highly recommend that you buy and follow Joel Marion’s Cheat to Lose diet. Your discipline will serve you well on this diet, and the variability built into the diet will give you good results.
The question is whether you have enough discipline and faith to actually follow a diet like CTL. Can you bring yourself to eat a bowl of chocolate ice cream on a scheduled cheat day?[/quote]
When I do cheat, it is just more of the same (1 cup instead of 3/4 cup of oatmeal). I could go without pizza and icecream for the rest of my life and be very happy. I dont want that junk food in my life, because I know what it can do to me. I used to eat a large pizza al by myself and still want more and I did eat more. I looked into the CTL diet and I dont know. A “real” cheat day were go just go crazy and eat anything “ice cream”, a low fat diet, a lower kcal diet, 18 mins of exercise but the manipulating of leptin sounds very interesting. I will do more research into it.
When you went low carb did u replace with more good fats? or did you just cut the carbs out?
Also, you cannot have that attitude with protein. Even though there are articles saying your body can still grow with .80 g/lb if it doesnt work for you IT DOESNT WORK FOR YOU, so go higher up to 1.5, and if that doesnt work, go up to 2. There are many people on this site who eat up to 2g/lb of protein.
If you have been doing the same routine the entire time you should change now. Stay basic, and work your way up to more complex as you heighten your protein intake. This is why I like Rippetoes, it gets you to do high sets of basic complex movements. One thing I noticed is you do front squats, why dont you do back squats? Back squats hit your abs harder - stuff like that.
If you want our advice, take in ALL of what T-Nation lauds, not just some of it. There is no point in mixing and matching recipes when you are going to missing an important catalyst or combination taste.
For example we at T-Nation think form in lifting is very important, if you post links to videos of your lifts we can help you improve technique etc.
Just think of T-Nation as a soup, rather than a library, there aren’t too many conflicting theories around here, and a lot less than other places.
[quote]forevernade wrote:
When you went low carb did u replace with more good fats? or did you just cut the carbs out?
Also, you cannot have that attitude with protein. Even though there are articles saying your body can still grow with .80 g/lb if it doesnt work for you IT DOESNT WORK FOR YOU, so go higher up to 1.5, and if that doesnt work, go up to 2. There are many people on this site who eat up to 2g/lb of protein.
If you have been doing the same routine the entire time you should change now. Stay basic, and work your way up to more complex as you heighten your protein intake. This is why I like Rippetoes, it gets you to do high sets of basic complex movements. One thing I noticed is you do front squats, why dont you do back squats? Back squats hit your abs harder - stuff like that.
If you want our advice, take in ALL of what T-Nation lauds, not just some of it. There is no point in mixing and matching recipes when you are going to missing an important catalyst or combination taste.
For example we at T-Nation think form in lifting is very important, if you post links to videos of your lifts we can help you improve technique etc.
Just think of T-Nation as a soup, rather than a library, there aren’t too many conflicting theories around here, and a lot less than other places.[/quote]
For me, low carb was more similar to the zone diet plan (33/33/33). So I did relpace those carb Kcals with protein and fats. the highest protein to lbs ratio I have ever went is 1.3g/lb. 2g per lb for me would look like 330g or pro. It is just another nutritional aspect I have not tried. I will have to go through a series of trials and errors, something that I did not want to do, but looks like I must to achieve the desired results. I change my entire workout routine every 5 weeks.
On week 4 I de-load, week 5 max out. Summers trim down, winters bulk up, Front squats, back squats, jump squats, quarter squats, 3x12, 5x5, 10x3, 3x10, rest pause, its never exactly the same program. I will look into Rippetoe’s program. I never want to do a workout program twice, but is this a bad or a good thing? T-Nation is the best source for information on bodybuilding, diet, nutrition, training, and supplements, that is why I came here and no where else.
The Cheat to Lose Diet should help in a few ways:
It will systematically manipulate Leptin levels, allowing you to gain muscle while staying lean.
Variation (both in diet and exercise) is important in moving to the next level in your fitness goals. CTL is something you haven’t tried yet, and is great for breaking out of a plateau.
You have been eating clean for so long, I wonder if you may have some psychological resistance to cheat foods. I honestly believe that strategic cheating not only allows for a more balanced lifestyle, but it can propel you toward your fitness goals more quickly than if you eat clean 100% of the time.
Just don’t make the mistake of going overboard and cheating to the point of gorging. Eat to the point of satiation as described in the book, but no more than that. Enjoy a variety of foods and indulge your cravings within reason.
Conversely, don’t undereat on cheat days with the idea that you are somehow accelerating your progress. To the contrary, that is “cheating” the cheat diet and will hurt you rather than help.
Good luck and let us know how it goes.
Well, I’m very surprised that no one seems to have commented much on your training schedule. For putting decent amount of muscle on fast, circuit training is not going to do the job. I know you have had issues regarding bodyweight / image, so you might find stopping cardio (for a couple of months) difficult so how about we leave that for now. What I’d suggest is that you train with weight, hard and heavy. Focus on big movements (e.g. Squat, deadlift, chins, dips, BB row, bench press, O/H press and shrugs) find a split you like, try not to add many other exercises (abs would be OK at the end of your workout though).
For example:
(obviously I’ve had to guess the weights)
Mon (A)
Squat, 100x12, 120x8, 135x6, 145x6, 145x6
rest ~2-3 mins between sets.
Chins / Pullups, B.wtx5, B.wtx5, B.wtx5
rest ~2-3 mins between sets, when you can add reps do it. Add weight when you can do 3x10.
BB Row (or DB row) 3 sets of 8 add weight each set, rest ~2-3 mins
Shrug 3x12, rest~2-3mins
Abs, short rests i.e. ~1min
Wed (B)
Bench press, 100x12, 115x8, 125x6, 135x6, 135x6 rest ~2-3 mins between sets.
Dips, B.wtx5, B.wtx5, B.wtx5, rest ~2-3 mins between sets, when you can add reps do it. Add weight when you can do 3x10.
Stiff leg DL, 3x12, rest~2-3mins
Calf raise 3x15, rest ~2-3 mins.
Fri do (A)again
next Mon do the (B) and so on.
The main point is to stimulate a large amount of muscle mass, rest long enough to allow you to recover strength so you can build more, more strength will also mean more muscle.
Think about it, if you keep the body fat you have (maybe even add a couple of pounds) BUT add 10-20lb of muscle (long term) your bodyfat% will go down.
I wish you every success.
I wish to thank all, I mean every single one of you who have responded and had input in this subject. During this time, I have been reading, researching and taking the commets to heart. I have been looking at my overall goal shorthanded. The goal is to be lean.
After reviewing everything, it seems best to gain some more quality lean body mass and then return to my final goal. I became inpatient. It seems it still have many months of hard work ahead of me. I will take the next week or so off. No cardio, weights, or my morning abs ritual.
Upping my protein will be one of my experiments, but eating �??cheat foods�?? will not. I will just eat more of the healthy stuff for additional calories. I�??ve had my fill of pizza during my life, I just don�??t want it no more.
I have gone without cardio before, it looks like I might do it again. It is very possible I will follow the New Rules of lifting power phase 3 as my routine. It did help me gain weight in the past. The preliminary goal is to get to a lean body mass of 170 +/- with out going over 10% bf. Currently my body mass is 151. By my calculations this process can take a year or more. I’ll keep reading all and everything from T-Nation. Thanks
Building some muscle before leaning out is a good strategy given where you are today.
I don’t think you have to eat junk food in order to fix your metabolism. Just don’t cheat yourself by eating liking a bird and then being shocked that you aren’t able to lose any fat. You need to heal your metabolism and raise leptin levels, which you can do by significantly increasing your calories at least one day each week.