Keeping A Lean Appearance

Nutrition
1

Hi T-members.

I’ve just decided to stop stalking from the sidelines and actually become a member of this great site.

My question is mainly; How can i stay lean as long as possible?

  • When bulking I have a tendency to eat too much, so that I’ll gain to much fat, and actually only be happy with my appearance a month or two after my ‘summer cut’. What’ll have to do to stay leaner - longer? - I know I should eat a bit less food, basically.

Should I eat only healthy foods? - Which foods should I then mainly eat? Go fore a mainly protein/fat diet, where carbs should only come from veggies? - Other hints?

  • I’m not interested in measuring my meals (tried this).
  • Shouldn’t be to expensive (I’m a student).

Hope to hear from you guys!

2

I used to be in the same boat as well. I thought the only way to be lean was to have 6-8 small meals a day. Unfortunately, I really like eating big satisfying meals. I was always pretty good at dieting, but I could never maintain it because eventually I would want to start eating big meals again and I would go way overboard after a long summer cut and fatten up again.

Long story short, I’m pretty convinced that eating small meals is not the only way to maintain a lean body. The most important thing is calories in vs. calories out, and of course getting the right macro-nutrients. I eat 2-3 big meals a day and it’s way easier to maintain a sub-10% body fat profile all year round.

Just because this works for me doesn’t mean it will work for someone else, but I thought I’d share my opinion. Now, if you are trying to put on muscle, I think it’s a lot easier to do so eating more meals because you need to get more calories in, and it’s hard to do that with just 2 or 3 meals a day. But I don’t think there is any need to eat small meals just for maintenance.

3

Option 1)Find out what how many calories you need per day. Use an online calorie counter, there are some articles on here with some formulas you can use, there are many out there. Play around with your daily calorie intake and find what works for you, this takes some time as you might guess. However finding a baseline to where you can gain a slow amount of muscle over time is what you are looking for, over gaining the fat.

Option 2)You can try cycling your carbs. Research and read. But generally carb cycling I think is a pretty cool thing. You can adjust your low/high days or whatever for your needs.
Option 3) Just control your carbs.

You shouldn’t really worry about counting your leafy greens and what not, I consider those freebies. Bread, pasta, beans, fruit, etc.-- that is the stuff to be counting. Check out a book about dieting and how your body uses food if you want to know more about carbs, it is actually pretty interesting stuff.

Other things, do a little cardio in the morning, masturbate 12 times a day, etcetera. I mean… not sure if this is what your looking for, but not being a fat ass isn’t that hard, but for some it may take a little extra work. There is a ton of info out there, and you have to STICK TO A PLAN and figure out what works and what works for your lifestyle and body. Something that you can stick to is the most important.

Just to add, I have no idea what your body fat is or what you are looking to get at it in regards to your BF. Personally for me, I stay around 12% through most of the year, and drop to 9% during the summer. I do that mainly out of it is nice to be leaner, but I perform a lot better with a little body fat and I gain it uniformly over my body-- so I just lose a little definition-- big deal. My workouts are more intense, make better gains all around, and I have more energy with the added food, but that is me. I quickly reach 9% with a little carb cycling if that helps any. Good luck with figuring it all out.

4

[quote]DanishButter wrote:
My question is mainly; How can i stay lean as long as possible?[/quote]

The answer is simply; carry as much LBM as possible, as much as your genetics/lifestyle allow

And here’s when we ask for your training history, stats, current setup etc

5

[quote]chillain wrote:

[quote]DanishButter wrote:
My question is mainly; How can i stay lean as long as possible?[/quote]

The answer is simply; carry as much LBM as possible, as much as your genetics/lifestyle allow

And here’s when we ask for your training history, stats, current setup etc[/quote]

Am I correct if I think what you’re saying is that a high degree of LBM will result in it beeing easier to stay lean? - if so, there are now to different oppinions in this thread?

6

Eat a lot of clean food… Meaning lots of protein, healthy fats, and place your carbs in the morning and before/during/after your workout. Carbs: fruits (mainly berries/apples), Ezekiel bread, sweet/white potato, brown/white rice, oats. Eat enough carbs for you to stay lean, but do not deprive yourself of them.

Sample: http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/training-logs.asp?qid=123609&tid=163

You don’t need as many meals as that. Experiment with how much food keeps you full but not stuffed, and eat that much.

7

[quote]DanishButter wrote:

[quote]chillain wrote:

[quote]DanishButter wrote:
My question is mainly; How can i stay lean as long as possible?[/quote]

The answer is simply; carry as much LBM as possible, as much as your genetics/lifestyle allow

And here’s when we ask for your training history, stats, current setup etc[/quote]

Am I correct if I think what you’re saying is that a high degree of LBM will result in it beeing easier to stay lean? - if so, there are now to different oppinions in this thread?[/quote]

Increasing LBM increases your metabolism, meaning you need to eat more just to feed your muscle, so you can eat more, while maintaining the same level of leanness. Also, the more LBM you gain, the high % body-fat you can carry and still look lean, i.e. a skinny 140 pound guy at 10% body-fat will likely look less ripped than a guy of the same height weighing 200 pounds @ 15% body fat.

8

[quote]DanishButter wrote:

[quote]chillain wrote:

[quote]DanishButter wrote:
My question is mainly; How can i stay lean as long as possible?[/quote]

The answer is simply; carry as much LBM as possible, as much as your genetics/lifestyle allow

And here’s when we ask for your training history, stats, current setup etc[/quote]

Am I correct if I think what you’re saying is that a high degree of LBM will result in it beeing easier to stay lean? - if so, there are now to different oppinions in this thread?[/quote]

He asked you for your stats.

9

Be careful he might think you mean a/s/l

10

What is your hypertrophy training like? What is your diet like? You can’t get away with such a loaded question like that on this forum without breaking down your programming and meal plan for us. If you’re ordering pizza every other night, we’ve found your problem. Maybe your rest intervals are too long because you’re talking to cute girls at the gym. We just have no way of helping you without knowing.

11

Okay, here comes the stats, sorry for the misunderstandings.

Height: 6,3 ft.
Weight: 174,3 pounds.
Body fat: 9,2 (measured with body fat caliber (the pair of tongs) with 3-point-metode, so properly not so accurate).
BMR * activity level: roughly 3100-3200 kcal daily.

Iâ??m currently doing the V-Diet, but with a normal diet (only exercises and the walks from it).

Iâ??ve been on the diet for nearly 5 weeks, and Iâ??ve lost around 11 pounds and gone down from 12,6 % of body fat. I think that the current amount of body fat is above 9,2, though I think that the 3,4 % of body fat that Iâ??ve shredded is correct.

A sample of a day in the diet looks like this:

Wake:
0,75 l of water

1 hour of walking.

Meal 1:
1,55 ounce of Rolled oats
4,7 ounces of Skimmed milk
6 g of Raisins
17 g of Cheese
3 g of Fish oil
1 big cup of Green tea
2 big cubs of Water

Meal 2:
4 tablets of Anabolic Amino Tabs
1 l of water

Meal 3:
2,3 ounces of Brown rye bread
12 g of sliced chicken (all that was left)
2,75 ounces of Tomato
5,6 ounces of Cottage cheese

Work out.
1 l of Water

Meal 4:
Work out shake:
1,2 ounces of Whey 80 %
20 g of â??fastâ?? Carbs

Meal 5:
2,5 ounces of Cottage cheese
1 big cup of Green tea

Meal 6:
5,6 ounces of Chicken
10 g of Pesto
12 g of Peanut butter
3,5 ounces of maize/corn

Meal 7:
3,6 ounces of Chicken
6 g of Pesto
1 big cup of Green tea

Meal 8:
4,8 ounces of Cottage cheese
3,5 ounces of Broccoli (hope itâ??s spelled like this)
3 g of Fish oil

Iâ??m also drinking some water in between meals.

This leads to a total of 1788 kcal for the whole day.
A total of 177 g of protein (39,8 %).
A total of 139,6 g of carbs (31,3 %)
A total of 57,9 g of fat (28,9 %)

Iâ??m pretty committed to keeping a clean diet when Iâ??m cutting, but the problem is in the bulking phase, where it kind of gets out of hand.

When Iâ??m satisfied with what I see in the mirror (whit my cutting), Iâ??m going to start on the I,Bodybuilder program. Iâ??m not going to follow the Anaconda Protocol, since itâ??s way to expensive (We have a duty and VAT in Denmark + delivery which makes the price more that twice of the regular price in the US).

Donâ??t know if I should add more details, if so please tell me.

My apologies for any errors in the grammar, I did my best though.

Cheers guys!

12

[quote]DanishButter wrote:
Okay, here comes the stats, sorry for the misunderstandings.

Height: 6,3 ft.
Weight: 174,3 pounds.
Body fat: 9,2 (measured with body fat caliber (the pair of tongs) with 3-point-metode, so properly not so accurate).
BMR * activity level: roughly 3100-3200 kcal daily.

[/quote]

Yeah…what someone like you needs is the V-Diet.

13

[quote]DanishButter wrote:
Okay, here comes the stats, sorry for the misunderstandings.

Height: 6,3 ft.
Weight: 174,3 pounds.
Body fat: 9,2 (measured with body fat caliber (the pair of tongs) with 3-point-metode, so properly not so accurate).
BMR * activity level: roughly 3100-3200 kcal daily.

Iâ??m currently doing the V-Diet, but with a normal diet (only exercises and the walks from it).

Iâ??ve been on the diet for nearly 5 weeks, and Iâ??ve lost around 11 pounds and gone down from 12,6 % of body fat. I think that the current amount of body fat is above 9,2, though I think that the 3,4 % of body fat that Iâ??ve shredded is correct.

A sample of a day in the diet looks like this:

Wake:
0,75 l of water

1 hour of walking.

Meal 1:
1,55 ounce of Rolled oats
4,7 ounces of Skimmed milk
6 g of Raisins
17 g of Cheese
3 g of Fish oil
1 big cup of Green tea
2 big cubs of Water

Meal 2:
4 tablets of Anabolic Amino Tabs
1 l of water

Meal 3:
2,3 ounces of Brown rye bread
12 g of sliced chicken (all that was left)
2,75 ounces of Tomato
5,6 ounces of Cottage cheese

Work out.
1 l of Water

Meal 4:
Work out shake:
1,2 ounces of Whey 80 %
20 g of â??fastâ?? Carbs

Meal 5:
2,5 ounces of Cottage cheese
1 big cup of Green tea

Meal 6:
5,6 ounces of Chicken
10 g of Pesto
12 g of Peanut butter
3,5 ounces of maize/corn

Meal 7:
3,6 ounces of Chicken
6 g of Pesto
1 big cup of Green tea

Meal 8:
4,8 ounces of Cottage cheese
3,5 ounces of Broccoli (hope itâ??s spelled like this)
3 g of Fish oil

Iâ??m also drinking some water in between meals.

This leads to a total of 1788 kcal for the whole day.
A total of 177 g of protein (39,8 %).
A total of 139,6 g of carbs (31,3 %)
A total of 57,9 g of fat (28,9 %)

Iâ??m pretty committed to keeping a clean diet when Iâ??m cutting, but the problem is in the bulking phase, where it kind of gets out of hand.

When Iâ??m satisfied with what I see in the mirror (whit my cutting), Iâ??m going to start on the I,Bodybuilder program. Iâ??m not going to follow the Anaconda Protocol, since itâ??s way to expensive (We have a duty and VAT in Denmark + delivery which makes the price more that twice of the regular price in the US).

Donâ??t know if I should add more details, if so please tell me.

My apologies for any errors in the grammar, I did my best though.

Cheers guys!
[/quote]

WTF? I thought you just said you weren’t interested in measuring meals, then you post this? This does not compute.

14

Don’t know if this works for everyone but I did it to lean out from being a fatass… I ate meat (lean or not) including ground/roast beef, steak, chicken, turkey, tuna, dairy (skim milk, eggs) and colorful (lol) fruits and veggies. This went on for almost a year and it brought me down to 150 lbs. Keep in mind that I was only obese prior, and had no training experience whatsoever.

If you want to try to stay as lean as possible while stile gaining muscle mass, your going to be one of those guys who 10 years from now, still looks relatively the same. Good luck!

15

[quote]solidkhalid wrote:
Don’t know if this works for everyone but I did it to lean out from being a fatass… I ate meat (lean or not) including ground/roast beef, steak, chicken, turkey, tuna, dairy (skim milk, eggs) and colorful (lol) fruits and veggies. This went on for almost a year and it brought me down to 150 lbs. Keep in mind that I was only obese prior, and had no training experience whatsoever.

If you want to try to stay as lean as possible while stile gaining muscle mass, your going to be one of those guys who 10 years from now, still looks relatively the same. Good luck![/quote]

Right…because at 6’3 and 170lbs, this guy needs tips on losing weight.

Do some of you even bother reading threads before responding?

16

Prof, most of my response was geared to this question of his:

“Should I eat only healthy foods? - Which foods should I then mainly eat? Go fore a mainly protein/fat diet, where carbs should only come from veggies? - Other hints?”

Last sentence of my post was my actual opinion based on his topic/OP, I don’t think looking the same in 10 years time is a good thing but apparently thats the mental makeup this guy seems to want. My good luck was sarcastic.

17

[quote]solidkhalid wrote:
Prof, most of my response was geared to this question of his:

“Should I eat only healthy foods? - Which foods should I then mainly eat? Go fore a mainly protein/fat diet, where carbs should only come from veggies? - Other hints?”

Last sentence of my post was my actual opinion based on his topic/OP, I don’t think looking the same in 10 years time is a good thing but apparently thats the mental makeup this guy seems to want. My good luck was sarcastic.[/quote]

Understood.

I am more wondering why so many gave this guy advice earlier without ever asking and waiting on his stats.

Too many here are just fine with trying to be the first to post a response whether that actually helps or hurts someone.

18

Yes, its the same crap on retarded forums too… i.e. “First!!” and all that nonsense, just under the shroud of “helpful advice”

19

[quote]Professor X wrote:

[quote]solidkhalid wrote:
Prof, most of my response was geared to this question of his:

“Should I eat only healthy foods? - Which foods should I then mainly eat? Go fore a mainly protein/fat diet, where carbs should only come from veggies? - Other hints?”

Last sentence of my post was my actual opinion based on his topic/OP, I don’t think looking the same in 10 years time is a good thing but apparently thats the mental makeup this guy seems to want. My good luck was sarcastic.[/quote]

Understood.

I am more wondering why so many gave this guy advice earlier without ever asking and waiting on his stats.

Too many here are just fine with trying to be the first to post a response whether that actually helps or hurts someone.[/quote]

Excellent point and exactly what I was thinking when trying to picture the TS’s situation.

20

Not to be an ass, but you are 6’3" 170 lbs. Ditch the fasted cardio and start lifting heavy and eating a lot of good food. That’s all there is man. don’t eat crappy foods if you want to stay lean, and don’t eat 10,000 cals a day if you want to stay lean. You are gonna have to gain some fat though, it will happen