How to Cycle This Diet for an Endo-Meso?

Nutrition
1

Hi everyone, I’ve been cutting for quite some time now since January and have lost alot of weight since that period. I haven’t checked my weight, but I’ve dropped from size 40+ jeans to 36 size. Since the weight loss I’ve switched between diets in order to change things up. I started off with an low carb diet (less than 80-100 grams) given to me by a bbing friend of mine that helped me shed most of the weight, and am now on another diet with more carbs.

I was on the first diet for a period of 3-4 months, then ate at maintenance for about a month or two, and am now on my current one. I changed up the diet because I felt like I was looking more softer due to the reduced glycogen stores and had less energy. The new diet I’ve been on has helped me quite a bit, but I’ve noticed that I’m looking more softer again and not lean and defined as I’d like to be.

I realize that I’m an endo-meso that holds water like crazy and is carb sensitive. Is there any way to mitigate this factor? I really want to be lean and live a manageable lifestyle that isn’t just all chicken breasts and non stop cardio all the time. I train atleast 3-4 times a week with weights and do HIIT cardio 2-3 times a week, primarily after weight training for 15-20 minutes. During this period I do atleast 6-10 sprints nonstop for 30-40 seconds, followed by 1 minute or so rest breaks. This is my diet so far:

Meal 1: 8 egg whites scrambled with chopped spinach, slight shredded mozzarella, 1/4 cup of ground chicken and water

Meal 2: One scoop of whey

Meal 3: 4 1/3 cups of oatmeal, one tbsp of peanut butter, 1 tsp of brown sugar, and one scoop of whey

Meal 4 (Pre-workout): 1.5 scoop of whey and one scoop of BCAA’s

Meal 5 (Post-workout): One scoop of whey with 125 ml of juice

Meal 6: 8 oz. Grilled chicken breast. 6 oz of brocolli. 1 and 1/2 cup of dry rice. Water

Meal 7: 8 oz. of wild pink salmon. Green leafy salad with 2 part vinegar, 1 part olive oil chopped garlic and pepper dressing.

So yeah this is it. I’m not good at cycling diets, so if someone could explain to me how I can work with this and increase/decrease macros in the meals to help me maintain lbm and a get harder physique that would be great. Thanks!

2

Your meal 3 sounds like a mass gainer shake. I’d get rid of that.

3

Thanks for the response. Do you think you could explain to me how I could carb cycle using this meal plan? Is it necessary? I’ve read articles on it but it seems tough to put into practice. Just giving me an example on what meals I would change up in a given week using this plan would be great. My workouts are broken down as follow:

Mondays: Quads and calves
Tuesdays: Chest and bis + HIIT training afterwards
Wednesdays: HIIT training on treadmill
Thursdays: Back and tris
Fridays: Shoulders and hamstrings (includes romanian deadlifts) + HIIT training afterwards

4

if that’s really what you eat in a day then it looks pretty good to me (with the exception of the mass gainer). If you’re not losing weight on that then you simply need to reduce the quantities.

5

Overall it doesn’t look bad. Personally, I would rather have 8 egg yolks than whites, since that is the healthiest part of the egg. Also, you don’t seem to be getting any true quantities of healthy fats. Definitely keep meal 3 as is, since most of your other meals are protein only. Broccoli, peppers and stuff like that give you nutrients but not any quantifiable amounts of calories for energy. Eat some red meats instead of all that chicken.

As to your workouts, since you only listed bodyparts, and not reps, sets, etc, that is all I can comment on. I personally would recommend more total body days, or something of a push/pull/legs split. It doesn’t make much sense to pair chest and bi, then back and tri. Most do chest/tri and back/bi since those tend to work together more anyway. shoulders and hamstrings? Makes no sense whatsoever.

6

These are the exercises that I’m currently doing:

Monday Quads and Calves

Front squat 4-5x8-10 reps
machine hack squat 4x8-10
dumbbell lunges 3x10-12 (5-6 reps per leg
plate loaded calf raise 3x15-20
seated calf raise 3x15-20

Tuesday Chest and Biceps

Flat BB bench press 4-5x8-10 reps
Incline DB press (less than 45 deg angle) 3-4 6-8 reps
incline hammer strength press 3 x 8-10
dumbbell flys 2x8-10
Barbell curls 4x6-8 reps
DB hammer curl over preacher bench 3x10

Thursday Back and hamstrings

Wide grip lat pull down 4-5x8-10
seated cable row with v-bar 4x8-10
two-handed dumbbell rows 3x8-10
Lying hamstring curls 3x12-15
romanian deadlifts past knees only 3-4x8-10

Note-since I have a pull up bar at home I do my pull ups every other day for a few sets, so I haven’t included them in here for that reason.

Friday- Shoulders and abs

Seated military press-4 x 8-10
Standing military press- 3 x 8-10
DB lateral rows-3 x 8-10
Face pulls using rope pulley-3-4 x 12-15
Plank- 2x1 minute
weighted situps with 45 lb plate pressed to chest 4x8-10
flutter kicks 3x1 miinute (every 15 seconds I alternate between foot kicks, leg kicks, and crossover kicks)

7

I disagree with Ecchastang about keeping meal 3 the same; I just don’t think it has any utility in getting lean.

He’s right that you could do with some healthy fats though.

But really, if you’re eating like that and not getting leaner then something weird’s going on

8

[quote]ProphetofDoom wrote:
These are the exercises that I’m currently doing:

Monday Quads and Calves

Front squat 4-5x8-10 reps
machine hack squat 4x8-10
dumbbell lunges 3x10-12 (5-6 reps per leg
plate loaded calf raise 3x15-20
seated calf raise 3x15-20

Tuesday Chest and Biceps

Flat BB bench press 4-5x8-10 reps
Incline DB press (less than 45 deg angle) 3-4 6-8 reps
incline hammer strength press 3 x 8-10
dumbbell flys 2x8-10
Barbell curls 4x6-8 reps
DB hammer curl over preacher bench 3x10

Thursday Back and hamstrings

Wide grip lat pull down 4-5x8-10
seated cable row with v-bar 4x8-10
two-handed dumbbell rows 3x8-10
Lying hamstring curls 3x12-15
romanian deadlifts past knees only 3-4x8-10

Note-since I have a pull up bar at home I do my pull ups every other day for a few sets, so I haven’t included them in here for that reason.

Friday- Shoulders and abs

Seated military press-4 x 8-10
Standing military press- 3 x 8-10
DB lateral rows-3 x 8-10
Face pulls using rope pulley-3-4 x 12-15
Plank- 2x1 minute
weighted situps with 45 lb plate pressed to chest 4x8-10
flutter kicks 3x1 miinute (every 15 seconds I alternate between foot kicks, leg kicks, and crossover kicks)

[/quote]
I don’t want to completely pick your routine apart, but you might not be getting enough volume and intensity for what you are trying to achieve. Also, your muscle groups aren’t really broken up into what you think they are.

First Monday, is there a reason you are doing machine hack squats instead of regular squats? Also, 2 of your 5 exercises are useless. Unless you are a super lean bodybuilder, don’t waste 40% of your leg day on calves. Just squat more, or more lunges or bulgarian split squats or pretty much anything. Mix up your rep range. Sometimes 4-6, sometimes 6-8, sometimes 10-12, or even 15-20.

Tuesday, You claim chest and bi, but your chest work is hitting your triceps also. Still, not a lot of volume if you are just hitting those things once per week.

Friday, you are doing seated AND standing OHP. Why? Same as above, not a lot of total volume for the week. Your legs are your biggest muscles and your biggest calorie burners, yet you hit them the least over the week. Are you getting stronger? Do you have a plan of progression?

9

My arms are kind of small and have seemed to be lagging for some time, so I’ve decided to put triceps and biceps on seperate days. For legs, I figured since I’m already doing front squats and lunges which target the quads heavily, there was no sense in throwing in back squats, so I opted for machine hack squats to isolate them better. Plus, back squats have always put too much pressure on my lower back, while front squats don’t, which is why I avoid them now. I don’t use a lot of volume because my body can’t handle it, especially in my legs.

Every time I go heavy on my leg days (do 6 reps or less for all exercises), I get DOMS that last for practically an entire week, and I just feel tired and have low endurance doing day to day activities. So I just focus on going for a pump using moderate weight, which seems to work since my legs look thick, although not very lean. For shoulders, I didn’t know how else to include standing overhead press so I decided to do it along with seated overhead press. That way, I get the benefits of both. What would you recommend I change in my routine?

10

Forget ‘endo-meso.’ Forget ‘water retention.’ Forget ‘carb sensitive.’ Forget ‘reduced glycogen stores.’ The fact is, you’ve been dieting for almost a year, and have only dropped a couple of pants sizes. To lose fat efficiently and in substantial amounts, you have to track your bodyweight, as well as the caloric content of your food. It’s the relation between these two factors that will determine your weight.

/tough love