I'm Fat - I Need Help

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

First off, I apologize if this is the wrong section, not really sure where else to post.

My stats:
height: 5’-10"
weight: 260lbs
bf: not sure, but obviously high. I will get a measurement soon.
squat: 395
deadlift: 445
bench: 245 (very low, I know)

I feel like I am decently happy with my lifts, but not at all much my cardio fitness level and body composition. I get out of breath sometimes going up long flights of stairs. I’ve made many attempts to lose a significant ammount of weight in the past, but never succeeded, and my next attempt will begin in a couple of weeks for the spring semester (I co-op this semester, so in the spring I will have more time to prepare food and do cardio, and continue on during the summer).

My previous attempt (I was about 240lbs at that time) went like this:

-steady state cardio 20 to 30 min early AM (in form of jogging or cycling) along with fairly intense lifting later in the day.

-2200 cals, spread over 4 to 6 meals daily.

That’s about it, and I actually ended up gaining weight. I think my major weakness here is my diet and the type of cardio. I’m going to start doing some sort of HIIT, but I’m not exactly sure how to go about doing this. I’m extremely bad at running, so I need to get my physical fitnes up a bit before I can run an ammount to make it worthwhile. What other things can I do since I can’t seem to be able to run/jog much right now?

Nutrition/diet is a big issue for me. I understand the whole deal about no simple sugars except post work out, no trans fats, and how to keep your metabolism high. Other than that I have to admit I’m fairly clueless. Can anyone recommend some good resources?

I’m pretty serious about changing my body and improving my overall health, so I really, really appreciate any help you guys can give me.

Thanks,
Simon

2

2200 calories for 4 to 6 meals… Sounds like a ballpark to me. Are you actually keeping track of your calories or are you just simply ballparking it? Basically if you’re not losing weight, eat less. There’s no special way to lose weight. If your getting more calories than you’re using, you gain weight. If you get less calories than you’re using, you’ll lose weight.

3

Here’s a basic diet I’ve been working on for the past couple of days. Please critique, if possible.

Early AM before cardio:
Apple

Breakfast post cardio:
3 whole eggs
1 piece wheat bread

Snack:
Metabolic Drive Protein bar (I kind of want to stick to a bar cause they’re easy and I can just eat it really quickly in between class, i got a sample of these when I bought something and they didn’t taste too bad, either).

Lunch:
2 roast beef sandwiches (deli meat, whole wheat bread)
Salad (these are hard for me to eat without dressing, is there a good one I can get or should I just avoid salad dressing all together?)

Snack 2:
banana

post work out: (i’ll probably lift between snack 2 and dinner)
40g whey

Dinner:
2 chicken breast (cooked on foreman grill)
.5 cup brown rice
1 cup frozen mixed vegetables

Before bed:
1 cup low fat cottage cheese

I’m using fitday.com and it looks like this will be abotu 2400 cals per day. Any input?

Thanks again!

Simon

edit:
Tony,
I was keeping track of my calories then. I had my diet saved in an excel sheet, but my computer has since crashed. I thought my calories were slightly low for me to not gain weight, so i assumed it was the type of food I was eating that caused the lack of success. Thanks for the input!

4

More protein. Less carbs. More fats.

Find Berardi’s “7 healthy habits” and make sure your diet fits those.

Early AM before cardio:
20g Whey, Apple

Breakfast post cardio:
3 whole eggs, 3 oz. lean meat, Apple

Snack:
Metabolic Drive Protein bar

Lunch:
8 oz. lean meat
Salad with olive oil and vinegar

Snack 2:
Nuts/jerkey/small serving of lean meat

post work out:
Surge (would be best) if not 40g whey/20g malto or dextro

Dinner:
2 chicken breast (cooked on foreman grill)
2 cup frozen mixed vegetables with olive oil

Before bed:
1 cup low fat cottage cheese

That’s at least 200 g protein. All your carbs from veggies and fruit (except post workout). healthy fats.

Good luck.

5

PozzSka,
thanks a lot for the response! My only concern with getting ride of the whole wheat and brown rice is the lack of fiber in the diet. Should I supplement that, or should I just not worry about it?

Also, this is probably a dumb question, but what kind of scales do you guys use to measure something like 8oz meat?

Thanks again.

6

Sorry for the excessive questions, I was serious when I said I was kind of clueless about nutrition.

I entered PozzSka’s plan into fitday including whey, Surge, and the bars. It’s at 2835 cals with 86g fat, 182g carbs, and 347g protein. This seems a little high. What do you guys recommend I cut down?

7

[quote]simon308 wrote:
PozzSka,
thanks a lot for the response! My only concern with getting ride of the whole wheat and brown rice is the lack of fiber in the diet. Should I supplement that, or should I just not worry about it?

Also, this is probably a dumb question, but what kind of scales do you guys use to measure something like 8oz meat?

Thanks again.[/quote]

Eat the nuts for your snack, and eat the apples as outlined, and you should be alright, I’d think.

You could always throw in a little flax seed. Adds a few calories, but loaded with fiber.

8

I don’t mean to be a dick but… read.

7 habits of highly effective Nutritional Programs
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459493

T-Dawg Diet version 2.0

G-Flux
http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=909183

Then pick a training article. There are tons here

Escalating Density Training
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459765

Optimized Volume Training
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459276

Bustin Ass 101
http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=459759

Every link I posted above is shamelessly stolen from Vroom’s post in the beginner’s section : http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=640350

If you have any questions at all about just about anything training, nutrition or supplement-related question, that’s the place to go.

I wish you a great deal of luck.

9

If I was your trainer you would be doing the following.

Diet-(high protein moderate fats lowish carbs)
For most meals
1st Protein source first(lean steak, chicken, protein powder)
2nd Healthy fat source(fish oil, natural peanut butter, olive oil, almonds)
3rd As many vegetables as you need for hunger purposes, think green and fibrous vegetables

I would have you eat 5-6 times a day spaced out as evenly as reasonably as possible, so likely 2.5-3 hours between each meal.

Your last two meals of the day would only be protein and veggies, no added fats.

You can have one carb meal but ONLY after you train with weights, then it’s back on the protein+veggies+possibly fats train.

Eat like this Monday-Friday. Saturday or Sunday(but not both) take your first 3 meals of the day and eat like a normal person, have pancakes with syrup for breakfast, go eat junk food. 3 meals like that and go right back to the normal layout.

If something like this sounds reasonable and you would be interested in more then let me know. I’m very lazy haha, so if you don’t want to hear more I won’t type more.

10

As long as you are eating plenty of veggies (some authors here (CT) don’t count veggie carbs because they are loaded with fiber and such low impact) you’ll get enough fiber.

If you want more, no sugar fiber powders are easy.

A little kitchen scale is cheap. 10 bucks. Try TJ Max or HomeGoods.

11

I’d ditch the apple before your AM cardio. If you can, drink some coffee or take a thermogenic and do your cardio on an empty stomach. Its much more effective. You could take some BCAA’s to prevent muscle loss.

Dieting while trying to hang on to your strength can be very tricky for some. I don’t freak if my lifts go down a bit.

12

Thanks everyone for all the responses! I got very sick recently out of no where, so I haven’t been on the computer much. I’m doing a lot better now, though. :slight_smile:

I’m still a little confused about cardio. I was thinking about doing something very high intensity, like HIIT, for about 20 minutes or so. But reading the physique clinics, it seems like the guys there are doing lower intensity cardio for a longer time period. Which is the way to go and why?

13

[quote]Scott M wrote:
If I was your trainer you would be doing the following.

Diet-(high protein moderate fats lowish carbs)
For most meals
1st Protein source first(lean steak, chicken, protein powder)
2nd Healthy fat source(fish oil, natural peanut butter, olive oil, almonds)
3rd As many vegetables as you need for hunger purposes, think green and fibrous vegetables

I would have you eat 5-6 times a day spaced out as evenly as reasonably as possible, so likely 2.5-3 hours between each meal.

Your last two meals of the day would only be protein and veggies, no added fats.

You can have one carb meal but ONLY after you train with weights, then it’s back on the protein+veggies+possibly fats train.

Eat like this Monday-Friday. Saturday or Sunday(but not both) take your first 3 meals of the day and eat like a normal person, have pancakes with syrup for breakfast, go eat junk food. 3 meals like that and go right back to the normal layout.

If something like this sounds reasonable and you would be interested in more then let me know. I’m very lazy haha, so if you don’t want to hear more I won’t type more. [/quote]

Very good reponse. I like the 3 early meals on saturday being cheat meals. Interesting layout.

One point i would add, that CT and Poliquin both seem to recomend and that i personally have had great success with is fish oil. During periods of intense fat loss i think anywhere in the ballpark of 20-30g helps if you have the cash flow for it.

one point too, ALWAYS noticed greater results making sure i dont skip on the carbs post workout. Alot of endomorhpic guys tend to be shy on carbs when attempting to loose weight. This helps preserve the muscle that youll need to continue burning fat, so follow a good postworkout regimine. I like 40g protein 80g carbs, vit C and asprin. Find what works for you.

also i have seen vince gironda recomend this and CT, i take alot of kelp to improve thyroid function. I have always liked this, may work for you, or it might be a little advanced for where your at. Good luck buddy

14

Tey don’t recommend HIIT for the untrained individual because wat too many people will go out there and sprint their asses off. You know what happens to non-runners that sprint a lot? They get hurt, often quite badly.

Do some solid, lower intensity cardio for a while to build up the connective tissue in your legs. Try doing the HIIT after a year or so.

Also, if you really suck at running don’t do it. You’re going to hurt yourself. Use the bike or even, heaven forbid, the eliptical until you get that connective tissue built up and have some form of a cardio base.

Knock out 30 minutes a day of soemthing cardio related and the weight will come off.

15

That definitely makes sense. I haven’t really run much before (aside from occasional cardio) and I don’t really have the intent on becoming a runner, so what you said definitely does make sense.

My concern with lower intensity cardio is will there be too much muscle loss? Also, what if I did higher intensity in the form of cycling instead of running? Would that still hold a high risk of injury?

I really appreciate all the help!

Simon

16

If low intensity cardio really broke down much muscle we would have never survived as a species. Do you break down muscle if you take the dog for a walk? Ronnie Coleman used to do two hours of cardio a day leading up to a contest, he seemed to hold onto his muscle just fine. Let the diet and some cardio burn the fat off you, don’t over complicate it if you don’t have to.

17

[quote]simon308 wrote:

Also, what if I did higher intensity in the form of cycling instead of running? Would that still hold a high risk of injury?

I really appreciate all the help!

Simon[/quote]

The answer is yes and no. The chnaces of you doing anything are lower with cycling than running but there is still good potential. Seriously, just try something that isn’t as extreme and work up to the more advanced stuff. You would be amazed at how many fewer people would get hurt in the gym if they didn’t try to do advanced stuff before they had mastered the basics.

18

I will most likely do 30 minutes of lower intensity cardio in the mornings in the form of cycling. I do suck a lot at running, and I don’t want to hurt myself, so I probably won’t push myself too hard on running. I don’t really have any desire to become an avid runner, either.

Thanks a lot for the input guys, I really do appreciate this. As you can tell, I’m generally clueless about fat-loss stuff.

19

[quote]simon308 wrote:
I will most likely do 30 minutes of lower intensity cardio in the mornings in the form of cycling. I do suck a lot at running, and I don’t want to hurt myself, so I probably won’t push myself too hard on running. I don’t really have any desire to become an avid runner, either.

Thanks a lot for the input guys, I really do appreciate this. As you can tell, I’m generally clueless about fat-loss stuff. [/quote]

30 min Low intensity is a good place to start. If you stick to LIC then progress in time out to 45 min or even an hour. Or pick up a the pace a little at a time. You can progress lots of different ways. even though it is LIC you can still push yourself.

Same with walking, Walk faster, walk longer, walk up more hills, jog a little, jog a little more, jog faster. I try to improve every or every other cardio session on something. Keeps it less boring when you have little goals.

Scott M, I can’t believe you said that about coleman… Come on man you can’t compare anything we do to Coleman. Putting the drugs asside his genetics are hands and fists above any of us mortals.

20

Agreed on Colemans genetics being superior for bodybuilding(he is a freak of the freaks here) but last time I checked he is still made out of the same stuff as you and I, proteins water fats etc. I could say Joe Bodybuilder who works out at my gym who just prepped for a show not too long ago, but nobody knows who the hell he is. It’s easier to use a common name. Should I say Dorian Yates who was a high believer in low intensity cardio in the mornings, his genetics are great as well but not as great as Ronnies. Or maybe I’ll say Justin Harris who isn’t even pro yet, his genetics are geat, but not as great as Dorains. I could keep going on down the totum pole of who got the best genetic handouts for bodybuilding, but at some point nobody(at least on this site) knows who the hell they are haha.

The point was, how obsessive compulsive can we get that we really think 30-45 minutes of WALKING is going to turn us into a catabolic mess that shrivels up like a grape in the sun. We could argue that the miniscule amount of aminos broken down by cardio could be rebuilt and supercompensated with a carb and protein rich meal by the fact that we are more depleted of glycogen at this point and set up for a mini rebound, but then that gets too complicated right? It’s just cardio haha.