well, those v-diet pics are actually from different years… the bulkier me is from 2 and a half years ago, before my FIRST diet… and the cutter pics of me is from this past summer… i couldn’t find any of the pics from post-diet 2 years ago… i DID indeed listen to every single detail that the v-diet entailed… i actually lost hardly ANY strength and gained the little that i lost back in no time… the reason i lost so much size was because of the fact that like i said i retain LOTS of water and am constantly “puffy” looking and NOT FLAT… the pic of me bigger may look solid but i was way toooooo soft to ever be considered a big and strong dude…
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Cthulhu wrote:
If you cannot stay on a strict diet - I know what it’s like when you finish bulking. It is hard sometimes to come off of a bulk when you’ve been enjoying pizza, etc. - then try doing cardio five days a week while lowering your overall calorie intake by 300. It really isn’t that hard. I could never get my abs to show until I reached a lean 210. Now I’m leaning out from 250 to 235.
This guy clearly rushed any dieting he was doing. Most people shouldn’t jump into this from no cardio…to doing cardio 5+ times a week. The majority of the change should be from diet alone. Even then, jumping onto a diet before you have even held that heavier weight long enough for your body to accept that as “normal” is going to result in losing nearly all of any muscle you gained.[/quote]
I agree. He didn’t hold onto it long enough. I was maintaining mine for 5 months before I slowly starting cutting back my calorie intake. But, as far as cutting goes, if he is too lazy to follow a strict diet or count calories, then he can do some cardio for 30 minutes 4-5 times a week. It’s all about your diet though. The reason why he lost all that size along with his fat was because, like you said, he never maintained it, not because he did cardio a few times a week. He rushed it too much so he could get his “beach body” by summer. It’s sad how many people will sacrifice quick fixes for their hard-earned size these days.
[quote]metalmuscle wrote:
well, those v-diet pics are actually from different years… the bulkier me is from 2 and a half years ago, before my FIRST diet… and the cutter pics of me is from this past summer… i couldn’t find any of the pics from post-diet 2 years ago… i DID indeed listen to every single detail that the v-diet entailed… i actually lost hardly ANY strength and gained the little that i lost back in no time… the reason i lost so much size was because of the fact that like i said i retain LOTS of water and am constantly “puffy” looking and NOT FLAT… the pic of me bigger may look solid but i was way toooooo soft to ever be considered a big and strong dude…[/quote]
I hate to break it to you, but “all that size” you lost wasn’t just water weight.
Hey, there, metalmuscle! You’re pulling/pushing some good numbers, there!
As far as someone putting together a diet for you, it generally doesn’t work that way unless you hire someone and pay them. That’s not to say that if you do some reading here on the site (start with Berardi and Lowery) and put together a rough draft, that we wouldn’t help you tweak and adjust things and share our thoughts based on our personal experience.
While you’re reading and researching and getting up to speed, my recommendation would be that you think about the type of diet (way of eating) you want to adopt as a LIFESTYLE. Going on diets and then falling off the wagon and gaining it all back again (and then some?) has a really bad affect on your metabolism and health, not to mention your body composition (the ratio of lean to fat).
I might actually suggest that as a LIFESTYLE, you adopted clean eating during the week (5 days) and then maybe allowed yourself to loosen up a bit over the weekend (2 days) so that you could have some fun with your friends.
You’ve always got the V Diet to fall back on if you need it, but that’s a 2 to 4-week type of deal, and when you go back to your old way of eating, you’ll regain the weight. Put some thought into that LIFESTYLE thing I’m talking about. Example, for me, I never drink a regular Coke or Pepsi. If I can’t have a Diet Pepsi, I have water instead. That’s something I do automatically and without thinking. It’s a LIFESTYLE change I made years ago. Another LIFESTYLE change for you might be saving pizza for the weekends only.
A few things I’d like to see you focus on re the LIFESTYLE changes would be:
- Eating every 3 hours, five or six meals a day
- Quality protein every meal, enough that by the end of the day, you’ve taken in 1g of protein per pound of body weight
- Fresh fruit or veggies in every meal
- Optimized PWO nutrition
We all are creatures of habit. You’re young. Even now you’re struggling with the “fluffy” stuff. Unfortunately, it’s only going to get worse as you grow older. Give some consideration to whether you’re willing to make the sort of changes that will give you the physique you’re wanting.
Questions? (grin)
[quote]Professor X wrote:
Cthulhu wrote:
If you cannot stay on a strict diet - I know what it’s like when you finish bulking. It is hard sometimes to come off of a bulk when you’ve been enjoying pizza, etc. - then try doing cardio five days a week while lowering your overall calorie intake by 300. It really isn’t that hard. I could never get my abs to show until I reached a lean 210. Now I’m leaning out from 250 to 235.
This guy clearly rushed any dieting he was doing. Most people shouldn’t jump into this from no cardio…to doing cardio 5+ times a week. The majority of the change should be from diet alone. Even then, jumping onto a diet before you have even held that heavier weight long enough for your body to accept that as “normal” is going to result in losing nearly all of any muscle you gained.[/quote]
I’m really interested in learning more about this. Once you bulk up its better to stay at the higher body fat percent, in order to keep the new muscle?
Would that also effect your “normal” for body fat? Such as making the new, higher body fat also your normal? Would this permanently create more fat cells?
Thanks.
[quote]chrisrodx wrote:
Professor X wrote:
Cthulhu wrote:
If you cannot stay on a strict diet - I know what it’s like when you finish bulking. It is hard sometimes to come off of a bulk when you’ve been enjoying pizza, etc. - then try doing cardio five days a week while lowering your overall calorie intake by 300. It really isn’t that hard. I could never get my abs to show until I reached a lean 210. Now I’m leaning out from 250 to 235.
This guy clearly rushed any dieting he was doing. Most people shouldn’t jump into this from no cardio…to doing cardio 5+ times a week. The majority of the change should be from diet alone. Even then, jumping onto a diet before you have even held that heavier weight long enough for your body to accept that as “normal” is going to result in losing nearly all of any muscle you gained.
I’m really interested in learning more about this. Once you bulk up its better to stay at the higher body fat percent, in order to keep the new muscle?
Would that also effect your “normal” for body fat? Such as making the new, higher body fat also your normal? Would this permanently create more fat cells?
Thanks.
[/quote]
The body fat percentage isn’t the main focus. The higher weight is. If your body has only recently made it to 220lbs and you immediately jump into a diet to get rid of any extra body fat, you will be less likely to keep that extra muscle mass. Your body wasn’t at that weight long enough for it to be normal for you; for you to regularly need an increased caloric intake to support the extra mass built.
Your body creates new fat cells at birth. The other possibility is during adolescence. Other than that, outside of extreme weight gain related to obesity, your body doesn’t just create new fat cells. It fills out the ones you already have. There was one author on this site who posted an article making it seem as if anyone who gains weight needs to be worried about the creation of new fat cells and there is no science supporting that.
As far as creating a new higher “normal”, that is the goal. It is less likely that someone will start weighing 150lbs, jump up to 170lbs in two months and hold onto that new size gained by immediately starting a diet.
I also wanted to add a couple things.
1.) In my opinon you were well on your way to something special in that first pic and bailed to quickly and it seems like you did in fact lose alot of muscle with your dietings. But I do understand with wanting to be lean, a slow moderate bullk is best where you are not wilding out on food.
I would reccomend next time getting your BF% done so you can see if what you are doing is effective, how effective, and if its counterproductive at all. You can track your progress with real numbers instead of the mirror. That helped me alot to actually see the hard data of how certain things effect my body.
2.) Listen to TT she really knows her stuff. And like X said don’t be so quick to switch gears from an all out bulk to extrem dieting.
3.) another thing if you are going to diet make sure you really keep the water intake. If you are on restricted calories, and doing cardio,etc. that’s a double negative meaning you will be sweating alot and you are undereating so please make sure you keep the water intake up, that along with a good protein intake like TT said, will help you hold your muscle better.
4.) as far as not being able to stick to dieting, etc. I understand where you are coming from but you are going to have to really think how bad you want this and you are going to have to make long term life changes. Not merely, bulking for a few months, then crash dieting. Make better food choices, whole food. Not packaged instant oatmeals and american cheese.
I pretty much eat the same thing or same types, amounts of foods, day in, day out, week in week out.
Figure out how carb sensitive you are. That also helped me alot.
For the most part that Berardi article 7 habits to long term leaness (or something like that) is pretty much how I eat every single day. That is the definitive way to get lean and stay lean thru carb control. If I want to gain more I make it 2 post workout carb meals instead of one and maybe another one at breakfast.
Thats about it.