Need Advice on Cutting Up

Training Bodybuilding
1

Hi, im relativly new to T-Nation but not to lifting, ive always done a lot of weight training while i played rugby and think i prefered it to the rugby itself and now its all i do. Ive been training for about 5/6 years(thats training seriously), im 22 years old and i currently weigh 196lbs and am 5’9, i havn’t actually taken my BF in quite a while, ill check it and try and post it up.

Im currently trying to shed body fat and was hoping people who have competed or have a lot of knowledge on the topic might be able to help me make some changes just to get it as fine tuned as i can. I started it 5 weeks ago and weighed 216lbs. Im training everyday doing 3-4 weights sessions a week with 3-4 cardio sessions. My sessions are split into

Monday-Chest and Back
Tuesday-Cardio
Wednesday-Arms(Bi’s Tri’s)
Thursday-Cardio
Friday-Shoulders/Traps
Saturday-Legs and some cardio
Sunday-Cardio

While cutting im using a high volume system doing about 3 different excercises per muscle, i do 3-4 sets with about a 9-12 rep range and i always lift as heavy as possible. For my cardio im switch it up between interval training (HITT) for about 30 mins or slow cardio for 60 mins.

My daily food intake looks something like this:

Breakfast-40g porridge oats made with water, protien shake with 2 scoops whey made on water. (I do weights after breakfast)

Post work-out meal- 1 slice of white bread, 2 scoops whey protein made on water

Meal 3- 140g chicken/turkey breast, 100g broccoli

Meal 4- 1 scoop whey, table spoon of natural peanut butter

Meal 5- 140g chicken/turkey breast, 100g broccoli

Meal 6- 1 1/2 scoops whey, table spoon of natural peanut butter

Im taking a multi-vitiman and 3 tabs of fish oils for omega 3 fatty acids with my last 3 meals.

Although i’ve lost about 20lbs so far which is pretty reasonable i feel like in the last 3 weeks i’ve been gaining more size than been cutting weight. With my carbs so low i dont know why im not just losing fat and maintaining muscle mass. It feels a bit stagnated with the fat loss at the moment. I know my body composition is changing and im not complaining because im in better shape everyday but i just want to completely focus on cutting my body fat down to a very low level and to be as lean as possible, when i achieve this ill try to gain more size. I know it may sound a bit strange and im not saying i dont want to be bigger its just that i want to focus as much as possible on maintaining muscle mass and burning fat, i feel like it only makes sense to focus on one of these goals at a time. I was thinking of upping my cardio and maybe dropping the weights to 2/3 sessions per week to focus on burning more fat. Ive been taking a bit of ephidrine as well and drinking a few cups of green tea and coffee to boost my metabolism to help out with the whole deal.

What im really wondering is if anybody has any suggestions as to what kind of changes i could make to my diet/training that can help me specifically burn fat and get as lean as possible, feel free to point out any mistakes you think im making or share any advice you have that might help me along.

Cheers in advance guys.

2

No white bread!!
Eat some fruit with breakfast and post workout.
You don’t seem to be getting very much fiber in there.
I wouldn’t cut the Weight training sessions down, but you may want to consider lower rep ranges like a 5x5 and heavier weight.

But essentially don’t make any big changes 20 lbs in 5 weeks is GREAT. Keep up the good work!

3

[quote]G-men27 wrote:
No white bread!!
Eat some fruit with breakfast and post workout.
You don’t seem to be getting very much fiber in there.
I wouldn’t cut the Weight training sessions down, but you may want to consider lower rep ranges like a 5x5 and heavier weight.

But essentially don’t make any big changes 20 lbs in 5 weeks is GREAT. Keep up the good work![/quote]

Cheers bro, what fruit would you reccommend, ill eat anything that will help me so whatever is best. Ill cut out the white bread too, had been told by a lot of people that white bread was ideal for after training, maybe not. Whats the reasoning behind the 5x5 reps while cutting, must be to do with the fact that ill carb depleted pretty much all the time. Ill try some fruit anyway, cheers for the help.

4

You have dropped 20lbs in 5 weeks, that is like 16lbs of fat, great job. It isn’t likely that you are putting on much size during this period, more than likely it is an optical illusion; you look bigger while shrinking.

Keep this up, maybe try cycling your carbs and cal a bit when the fat loss stagnant s, or try a structured refeed to help return you metabolism to baseline.

Keep up the good work.

5

[quote]Zagman wrote:
You have dropped 20lbs in 5 weeks, that is like 16lbs of fat, great job. It isn’t likely that you are putting on much size during this period, more than likely it is an optical illusion; you look bigger while shrinking.

Keep this up, maybe try cycling your carbs and cal a bit when the fat loss stagnant s, or try a structured refeed to help return you metabolism to baseline.

Keep up the good work.[/quote]

Cheers man, i thought that alright but ive cut before and didn look the way i do now, it could be that im a bit sharper with my food than i was back then. every week or so i increase my calories to about 2400 for one day for a maintenance day to keep the metabolism from stagnating but i mightn’t be doing it often enough as ive heard every 4-5 days works well.

Really appreiate the help bro, cheers.

6

[quote]therev wrote:
G-men27 wrote:
No white bread!!
Eat some fruit with breakfast and post workout.
You don’t seem to be getting very much fiber in there.
I wouldn’t cut the Weight training sessions down, but you may want to consider lower rep ranges like a 5x5 and heavier weight.

But essentially don’t make any big changes 20 lbs in 5 weeks is GREAT. Keep up the good work!

Cheers bro, what fruit would you reccommend, ill eat anything that will help me so whatever is best. Ill cut out the white bread too, had been told by a lot of people that white bread was ideal for after training, maybe not. Whats the reasoning behind the 5x5 reps while cutting, must be to do with the fact that ill carb depleted pretty much all the time. Ill try some fruit anyway, cheers for the help.

[/quote]

Repping between 9-12 is ideal for putting on Size, and Repping from 4-6 is ideal for increasing strength (Obviously these 2 are not mutually exclusive). Since you want to keep your muscle mass while cutting, you have to give your body a reason to keep the muscle mass you’ve built over the last 5 years, the way to do that is to continue lifting heavy weights while on a calorie deficit.

Blueberries are great mix em into your breakfast, I like apples after my workout.

But like I said before, you’re doing great and moving at a torrid pace. I’d keep most things constant, maybe just add the fruit to the diet, but wait till you hit a plateau and then you’ll have something to tweak.

There’s tons of little things you can do to help supercharge your program when it begins to stagnate…Instead of adding weight to the bar each workout, shorten the rest periods. Or you can try an EDT style split (not for the faint of heart). But for now keep on keeping on!