Hi everyone I have just joined T-Nation as was hoping you all could answer some of my questions. I am 16 about 175 lbs and I am 5’10. I have following upper/lower body splits and full body workouts and enjoyed them both. My goals are to lose some fat and get around 160-165 lbs.
My question is does it really matter what kind of training program you do as long as your diet is intact? Is it all about the diet when losing weight? If not what kind of program would be best and how much cardio is really needed?
Sorry for all the newbie questions but I want to get fit the right way.
165 isn’t really a lot of weight for someone 5’10". Is there a specific reason beyond the generic “getting fit” that you would rather drop fat than add muscle?
You aren’t going to be that well defined if you drop 10 pounds of fat because there’s very little muscle beneath the fat you currently have.
[quote]AgentOrange wrote:
Since you’re new, you will soon find out that nobody on this site will support a 5’10" kid cutting to 165lb.
I can’t imagine you even having any fat to cut. Even at my height/weight, I would be stupid to start cutting.[/quote]
lol…Thats what I was thinking I knew that many people on here would probably not support someone getting thinner when they aren’t already that heavy…But what I thought is dont a lot of people bulk and then lose all the fat so that they can be really defined and lean? I was thinking that I can just lose fat and weight to about 160-165 and then gain lean mass to get back up to 170. Am I wrong in thinking this?
[quote]Defender wrote:
165 isn’t really a lot of weight for someone 5’10". Is there a specific reason beyond the generic “getting fit” that you would rather drop fat than add muscle?
You aren’t going to be that well defined if you drop 10 pounds of fat because there’s very little muscle beneath the fat you currently have.[/quote]
Well it’s not really that I want to drop only fat and get no muscle but I am a swimmer and a soccerplayer so bulking and then losing the fat to be lean would make me slower at first I would think…so I thought I could lose weight to about 160 and then gain about 10 pounds of lean muscle so that I could get lean and thin with out ever have had to bulk first. I don’t know if my beliefs are correct
Well it’s not really that I want to drop only fat and get no muscle but I am a swimmer and a soccerplayer so bulking and then losing the fat to be lean would make me slower at first I would think…so I thought I could lose weight to about 160 and then gain about 10 pounds of lean muscle so that I could get lean and thin with out ever have had to bulk first. I don’t know if my beliefs are correct
[/quote]
Your goals will define your approach. Since you’re looking to participate in sports, lifting is a secondary goal and not a primary one. It’s there to supplement and support your athletics.
Given that, and the fact that you are relatively new to lifting, you’re probably going to find that following a healthy diet and lifting routine that incorporates sport-specific training will probably build your muscle to a desirable level while cutting the fat at the same time.
At your weight, there’s little point to trying to cut and then bulk. Just follow a good dietary plan, making sure you’re getting enough calories to cover all your daily activities plus a little extra to build muscle. The sport-specific activity should take care of the fat without you having to risk sacrificing muscle just to cut.
well right now I am not really training for swimming and I am just playing soccerpick up games.
For the last couple of weeks I have been doing full body workouts and running for about 30 min which adds up to about 3.5 miles. AS for my diet I eat really clean no junk food and the only bad habit I have is drinking diet soda.
It is really easy for me to follow a good diet plan but I can’t really set one up to allow me to lose around 1-2 pound a week. I either eat to much or to little. Another question I have is when following a lifting routine like 10x3 or TBT can you add cardio or is it better to just do the 10 min of jump rope that most of them ask?
I think you’ll be surprised how much adding some muscle will help your sports, especially since you aren’t training for athletics right now. Besides, the more muscle you have the more fat you’ll burn without having to do any more work. What could be better?
Just look at someone like Michael Phelps. His lats are disproportionately developed (as most swimmers’ are). You could easily add 10-20 pounds of lean body mass which would lead to improved performance. And what better time to do it than now when you don’t have the demands of the actual sport to take you away from lifting?
I’m not sure about the cardio. I’ve found that there are more than enough programs written here to suit just about every situation. If one doesn’t give you what you want, you could probably find another.
But I still wouldn’t worry about losing the fat. You’re going to lose some muscle when you cut, and you really can’t afford to lose any right now. If you pack on some muscle now, you can toy around with losing fat at a later date. The increased muscle will make that task much easier for you.
Thats what I was thinking the simple fact that I am following a good training routine and eating clean will add muscle which will in turn burn fat. I think I am going to read a couple of the training programs and then post my training and diet plans. thanks
so I am in the process of making my training program and my question is should I do deadlifts and the same day as squats? If not what other king of leg workouts can I do when doing deadlifts so that I don’t over work my lower back?
As for my diet I was thinking of following some thing like the carb codex or the t-dawg diet most likely I will do the T-dawg because it seems simple yet efficient. Should cardio be kept to a minimum when doing a diet like t-dawg?
