I Need Advice

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

I’m 21 this Friday. I have been working on my body since Dec. 2006 when I had balooned to 310 lbs, I decided then, that was it! I was tired of being fat. I started researching how to eat better and I lost 60 lbs by July 07. Since June I have only lost 10 lbs.

I am 6’8" and very active, I play college basketball. What can I do to get rid of my belly fat and get my pecs hard.

Also I want to not feel hungry!!!I just started lifting regularly after this past season, the diet I just recently started last week.I am using a lifting program similar to “body for life” for my upper body. For my lower body I do 5x5 on squats and then again something pretty close to “BFL” . I do these lifts 4-5 times a week.

My diet now

breakfast 3egg whites 1 egg omelet + snickers marathon low carb, a fat burner, 3 fish oil pills

snack 2 scoops protein shake

lunch 1 stick of celery with all natural PB in it and 2 servings of cottage cheese, a fat burner

snack2 2 scoops protein shake

dinner 1 grilled chicken breast (interchangable with can of tuna or 2 premade all natural turkey burgers, grilled), 2 servings of black beans, 3 fish oil pills

snack3 2 servings of almonds 1/2 all natural 1/2 smokehouse salted :frowning:

any tips would be great!!!
becoming very unmotivated! (no results)

2

my display picture is in mid January 2007…

3

Wow. That shit sucks. It looks like you’ve been dieting so long, you’re body has adjusted it’s base metabolic rate downward so that you’re no longer losing fat.

My diagnosis could be off- it could be that you’re training too hard (weights 4-5 times/week? Your body can’t recover from that on 2000kcaol/day). So take what I say with a grain of salt.

My recommendation is to slowly (over the course of a month) raise your daily kcal by 1000. Keep your diet the same, but add an additional 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil (or peanut butter, or some type of fat) into your diet, preferably in the morning.

Do this each week. After 4 weeks of raising it 250kcal/day/week, your metabolism should have upregulated itself without a noticable fat gain (weigh yourself once a week, if you must. No more. Otherwise you’ll freak out).

Stay at this point for a month (4 more weeks). This will solidify your Base metabolic rate at 3000kcal/day. During this second month, get off the thermogenic. You want your body to naturally burn hot. It’ll adapt to doing this if you feed it enough quality fats and let it.

I also recommend dropping any HIIT you’re doing (if you’re doing any) during this month, and only lift 3x/week. Have some fun in the gym, work on getting stronger while you’ve got the surplus calories.

After both months have gone by, start cutting again. Start by reducing your calories, then by adding in HIIT, THEN by adding the thermogenics. Progression is key from preventing this from happening. Often, trainnees do too much too early and burn out. Sometimes trainees do the same thing for too long, and burn out (this is what you did).

The idea is to do just enough to promote steady fat loss, and then increase your activity/decrease calories only when fat loss slows for a two consecutive weeks.

I hope you got something out of this. Sorry it’s so long.

Good luck.

Oh, and dude, don’t ever post a picture of a naked man in the beginner’s forum ever again. Keep that shit to the SAMA, or PM’ed to renton or something.

4

thanks i appreciate it…

5

I agree with Otep, your metabolism has slown down. You might want to read some of Bernardi’s articles on G-Flux. Take a couple of months and get your metabolism back to a normal state and then keep cutting.

6


does it really slow in just two weeks though i guess i forgot to mention that I have just been eating this new diet maybe weeks now… during the season i was eating alot differently not really watching what i was eating but actually eating smart…

so how long can i cont. to eat this way? or can i? should i still lift less?

how soon can i look like above…

7

Yeah, it changes things. Two weeks is not usually enough time to drop your metabolism. Which means something else is the culprit.

You can’t really complain about not acheiving results when you say things like [quote] I can’t stand being hungry[/quote] and [quote] I didn’t eat like this in season I wasn’t really watching what I was eating but was eating smart[/quote] because what I hear is [quote] I tried to make better food choices, but I can’t remember what they were, so I’m not sure how to make better ones. [/quote]

So I’m going to assume that a while back you lost a significant portion of weight, took some time off, and now you’re back on the wagon.

Your diet and training look pretty good, actually. You’re eating a bunch of protein, 6 times a day, low carb, everything. I disagree with the snicker’s bar, because I’m pretty sure it’s not all that good for you, but I’m not sitting in front of it’s nutrition facts, so I could be wrong. Chances are, you’re not seeing results (in the two weeks you’ve been doing this) because

  1. You’re going by scale weight, and the drop in fat is being replaced by an increase in LBM (usually good).
  2. You’ve been cheating on your diet and cancelling out a week of good work with a day of shitty eating.

It could be either. Or both. Or neither. Usually though, it’s one of those two.

What I recommend:
Not sure if you’ve read these articles. If you haven’t, do.

Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength
forum.dutchbodybuilding.com/f141/mark-rippetoe-
s-starting-strength-routine-63770/
T-dawg Diet 2.0

Starting strength is perhaps the best beginner’s program there is. What you’re doing isn’t bad- but it isn’t really optimal. The BFL template doesn’t really allow for great gains in strength, and I personally think HIT shouldn’t be used by beginners. Rippetoes is better.

The T-Dawg diet 2.0 is pretty similar to what you’re already doing, but you’ll find it a) allows for PWO nutrition and b) ups your calories a little bit (so you don’t cry yourself to sleep at night in hunger- not mocking you, it happens).

In addition to this, on days when you’re not lifting, add in some HIIT, or wind sprints. Straight up running or playing basketball isn’t intense enough. You want all out sprints for 30-60seconds, followed by some resting (90-60 seconds), and then more sprinting. For 8-10 sets.

Also, DON’T CHEAT ON YOUR DIET. I know the T-dawg diet allows for a cheat meal once a week. That’s cool, but try and keep it as clean as you can. Often trainees blow out a week of healthy eating on their cheat meal. Don’t do this. Have a cup of ice cream, don’t have the half-gallon.

Do this for two weeks, then come back and post whether or not it’s working.

Oh, one other thing- You could diet the ever-loving christ out of your body and still not look good, because you don’t have any muscle on you. It’ll probably take 8-12 weeks of busting your ass to drop you down to from ‘kinda pudgy’ to ‘skinny’. You probably still won’t have a six-pack though. After you diet down, get some results and show yourself you’ve got what it takes to see something through to the end, give some thought to gaining some mass- specifically in your legs (because it’s more functional :slight_smile:

I realize I just threw a lot at you. Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough. Post any questions you have.

8

how long should i do this diet for 12 weeks???

9

Two answers:

  1. Yes, for 12 weeks.

  2. Until you hit your goal.

Whichever comes first.

Every two weeks, step on the scale and tape-measure your circumference around the belly-button line. You should see progress, although not necessarily a whole lot, each time. If not, find the reason (too much calories, missed workouts, alcohol) and address it.

Maybe 6-8 weeks in, you will probably need to drop your calories overall to continue seeing results. Hopefully not.

In general, dieting should take less than 16 weeks. After 16 weeks, you start to lose LBM. If you hit the 16 week mark without hitting your goal, stop, up your kcals slowly, take a two month (8 week) break, and try again. Some people don’t get it right on their first try. I didn’t. But it’s an important journey, and it’s worth it in the end.

Good luck.

Post more questions in this thread when you have them. You also may wish to start a training/diet log in the log forum.

10

ok so here is the deal i am seeing improvements in my body but mostly just strength and i cheat almost everyother day for atleast 1 meal so do you think i need more calories???

i am 6’7 1/2" and about 238lbs have been as low as 230

im doing HIIT everyday but only 6 sets of 30 sec. i lift 4 times a week am doing a mix between what i was doing and what you suggested on the lifting

w.o cheating on my diet i believe im getting about 2200 calories… am i wrong???

i know that i am mentally strong but i feel i NEED food sometimes

maybe im just a puss

11

Do you realize what you just wrote?

Let me show you something.

[quote]follow2lead wrote:
i cheat almost everyother day for atleast 1 meal…i know that i am mentally strong but i feel i NEED food sometimes… maybe im just a puss[/quote]

By cheating on your diet, you’re destroying your gains.

So, here’s two ideas.

  1. You’re mentally burned out. You’re not able to commit to dieting down with any seriousness. Take a month off to eat back at maintenance levels (probably around 3000 kcal/day) and make sure to eat HEALTHY. A sample meal plan would look like
    Breakfast: Oatmeal and Whey protein
    Snack: Four servings of fruit, protein shake
    Lunch: Turkey sandwhich
    Snack: 2 oz nuts, protein shake
    Dinner: BIG ASS salad with 8oz chicken.

Stay full on HEALTHY foods. Engrain the ability to eat healthy without starving yourself. In a month, when you feel you can again, go back to cutting.

  1. Add more veggies to your daily meals. You can’t actually FEEL your metabolic requirements, you can only feel hunger. Trust me, if you’re eating a healthy 2200 kcal, you’re not dying. You may feel hungry, at which point you can either do something about it and increase your veggie intake, or just suck it up and not give in to hunger. Your choice.

If you’re looking for someone to tell you ‘it’s okay, you probably need that extra snack because you’re not eating enough’, you’re in the wrong place. Go back to momma’s house.

12

Hi, I kind of wrote about this in another section…but what you can do is start riding a bike. Not the stationary bike but a real one Then do high rep work outs at the gym. It helps a lot when you do about 5-6 sets with your final set being a burn out.

I do work outs of 3 days on and one off, then repeat.

Hope it helps.
Maria Dee

13

thanks again…

i feel like a candy ass

i am not looking for you to say it is okay but i “hear” from internet sites that i should be getting like 3500 calories at least to maintain weight… and then i read that you should only cut that by 200 to lose at a “healthy” rate so i was just dbl checking that you didn’t over look my size and all that

maybe i should go back to getting some more fiber… broccoli and that…

14

It’s good that you’re reading enough to be confused. Yeah, I realize how weird that sounds, but it’s true.