Newbie in Need of Serious Advice

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

Hi all! I have been lurking around the site for a few months now, hoping to steal some ideas without having to ask any questions myself. I see now, I have to pony up and ask the Nation for advice. So here goes…

I am 26 yrs old, 243lbs, 5’11" with a bf of 27%. I have been lifting for 3 years and I have not made the progress I had hoped. I am probably a little more advanced than a beginner but I probably need as much help. I started out 3 years ago at 294lbs and 43% bf. Now here I am today trying to really change my soft flabby body into a piece of hardened steel. I need some, no; I need a lot of advice to make the changes and gains I would like.

First my diet, I am eating clean, taking in about 3000 calories with 225 grams of protein spaced out across 6 meals a day. I try to keep my carb intake up around 150 grams and my fat intake down around 60-70 grams. As a supplement I take in 5000mg (5g) of creatine/day for four weeks, followed by a creatine load of 20g/day for 5 days and then back to 5g/day for four weeks. This is a cycle that a sports nutritionist prescribed for me and it has worked in the past. Second the work out,

Monday: Chest and Back
Decline Bench 3x10
DB Bench 4x10
DB Flies 3x10

Bent over Rows 4x10
Lat Pull Down 3x10
Cable Rows 3x10

Tuesday: Active Rest (Light Jog)

Wednesday: Biceps and Triceps
BB Curls 3x10
Hammer Curls 3x10-12
Concentration Curls 4x10-12

Decline Close Grip Press 3x10
Kickback 3x10
Cable Ext. 3 x 10-12

Thursday: Quads and Hams
Power Squat 3x10
Front Lunge 3x10
Leg Ext. 3x10-12

Stiff Leg Deadlifts 3x10
Glute Ham Raise 3x10
Leg Curl 4x10-12

Friday: Active Rest (Light Jog, Full body, light weight)

Saturday: Shoulders
Military Press 4x10
Arnold Press 4x10-12
Front Raises 3x10
Shruggs 3x20

Sunday: Passive Recovery (I am lazy)

I feel I hit the iron with a fair amount of intensity. I try to keep my lifts around 60%-80% of my 1RM. I stretch and utilize warm-up sets before every lift to prevent injuries.

Third and what I feel is most important is the goal. I would like to get my body fat to less than 10% with my weight being around 200 lbs. As much as I would like it to happen, I know this isn’t something that I will be able to accomplish overnight. I would like to achieve this by January 2008. I did not hit the genetic lottery like some of my fellow T-Nation brotherin’ but I am willing to work at it.

I appreciate as much or as little criticism as you would like to provide. I am willing to her your opinions on everything from diet to workout to additional supplementation, etc. I don’t have any pictures of myself right now, but I hope to have some in the next few days for those of you who would like to see the train wreck.

2

I’m not sure why you would be on a body builder type program if your goal is to loose fat. Your priority should be on metabolic conditioning type workouts and basic compound lifts at lower reps for strength. Once you get to 10% and are as strong as you want to get, then start the body building if you want.

Start working your diet. Start zig zaging. Lower calories for 3 days by 500 cal, then return to maintenance for 1 day to raise your metabolism.

3

[quote]LiteWeight35 wrote:

First my diet, I am eating clean, taking in about 3000 calories with 225 grams of protein spaced out across 6 meals a day. I try to keep my carb intake up around 150 grams and my fat intake down around 60-70 grams…
[/quote]

This is a common thing among people that they think they are eating certain amounts but really aren’t. 3000 calories might be about right for someone carrying your weight around, but 3000 calories you are not getting.

225 grams of protein is 900 calories
150 grams of carbs is 600
70 grams of fat is 630

For a grand total of 2130. Eating low calories over long periods of time will severly slow down the metabolism which will make it harder and harder to drop the lbs. My suggestion is to bump the calories up in the form of protein and adding in healthy fats like fish oils olive oil and the like. Go up towards the 300-350 grams of protein range(DRINK MORE WATER!!!) and try to get a few grams of healthy fats with each meal in addition to whatever is found in your protein sources. Have carbs for breakfast and post workout only, 150 would probably be a good approximate number. Calories and especially protein due to the cost of digesting it should revamp your metabolism a bit.

After that I’d start doing some low intensity cardio after each gym session, 20-30 minutes at maybe a 3.4-3.8 mph walk. In addition to that every morning before breakfast(but after the cocktail listed in a second) go on a walk around the neighborhood or if you have it a treadmill/step climber in the house. 30-40 minutes should set you up for some decent fat burning and keep the metabolism hot all day. Before the morning cardio I’d suggest 2 cups of real green tea, 5-10 grams of BCAAs or a .25 scoop of protein, your favorite fat burner(HRX or ECA if you have it) and have at it.

Make changes as needed on a 2-4 week basis. A little more cardio here, little less carbs there etc until you are making steady progress. It didn’t take a couple weeks to get to your size so be patient with your efforts and be consistent.

4

[quote]stuward wrote:
I’m not sure why you would be on a body builder type program if your goal is to loose fat. Your priority should be on metabolic conditioning type workouts and basic compound lifts at lower reps for strength. Once you get to 10% and are as strong as you want to get, then start the body building if you want.

Start working your diet. Start zig zaging. Lower calories for 3 days by 500 cal, then return to maintenance for 1 day to raise your metabolism. [/quote]

I see two patterns developing already:

  1. Change the Diet
  2. Incorporate more cardio type workouts.

Stu - Any recommendations on actual workouts or even exercises? Would you recommend more of a full body workout, splitting the upper and lower body throughout the week.

This is going to be a complete overhaul of how my body works and how I think my workouts should go. I have become very accustom to isolation type movements. I am going to have to hit the books to re-develop a program with more compound exercises. Any advise or guidelines for a program developed around compound movements? Sets, Reps, Splits, Tempo?

Thanks again.

5

I don’t know how long you’ve been training so I don’t know how your recovery is. Start with something like “Starting Strength”. You will probably stall soon if your already strong so switch to Bill Starr’s 5x5. On you off days or later the same days, concentrate on barbell complexes, sprints, anything that will jack you metabolism. This should be your main effort. The weights are to maintain muscle and if you build some more or get stronger, that’s a plus.

Here’s the theory: AlwynCosgrove.com

For diet, read John Berardi and this: drsquat.com/articles/zigzag.html

Stu

6

Ok, a lot of questions so I will deal with ways of losing fat for you that are the easiest to do.

First, I would stop doing steady state cardio. Don’t walk on a treadmill or ride a bike for an hour. Start to do interval training and interval training only! You can accomplish much more with 15 minutes of interval work compared to riding a bike for an hour. I know this sounds weird because we live in a society that thinks more is better. In cardio it is not better.

Look at all the fat people around you in the cardio area of your gym. Are they getting any slimmer? Probably not. Interval work will speed up your metabolism which will mean your body burns more calories than it does now even when you are not working out.

Sample 15 Minute Interval Workout:
a)Warm-up 3 minutes
b)Bike as fast as you can for 1 minute
c)Slow down to 60RPM for 1 minute
Repeat b and c a total of 6 times (12 minutes total)

Second, you need to start doing full body workouts. Don’t split your body up like a bodybuilder (someone mentioned this already). Do Olympic and Compound exercises. Pick around 8 exercises and do 6 of them each day. I will give you a sample program that you could use. Just do 2 sets of each exercise (one warm-up set and one work set).

Olympic and Compound Exercises:
a)Bench Press
b)Push-up
c)Bent-over Rows
d)Deadlift
e)Squats
f)Single-Leg Squats
g)Power Cleans
h)Push Press

Notice that you don’t do any direct arm work (because that would be an isolation exercise). The exercises listed will STIMULATE your metabolism. My suggested routine would be to rotate exercises a and b for your upper body. For your lower body I would rotate exercises e and f.

I hope this helps.

7

I concur with this selection of exercises. You may want to add pull ups and dips but at your body weight they may be difficult. For For reps, keep in the 5-10 range. Sets according to your fitness level, at least 2 sets, preferrably total reps in the 20-30 range. Splits aren’t needed as you do full body. tempo is explosive on the way up, under control on the way down. Keep rests between sets to about 1 min for fat burning. Once you start focusing on strength, you can increase the rest between sets.

8

For your cardio workouts I would suggest that you find something you enjoy doing, otherwise it’s very difficult to keep with it.

I tried running, interval work, ect… for cardio but I could never stay with it. I started playing soccer a lot about a year ago and I’ve kept with it because I enjoy soccer. Remember that you are looking for a life long lifestyle change, not a quick fix.

9

Thanks for the advice. Is anyone familiar with the Body-For-Life program (BFL). A lot of the recommendation made really mimic what I have read on that program. I would like to consider using that program as a guideline for diet and HIIT. BFL doesn’t use compound movement, more isolation, but I would modify the program to include more compound movements. Similar to the ones recommended by Chris

From reading Stuwards recommended articles and the BFL it seems full body and HIIT training, along with proper diet, seems to be the fat loss mantra.

I have time, but, what is a reasonable time frame to expect to get to my goal of 10% BF from 27% BF? 4 months, 6 months, etc?

10

1% per week is max if you do everything right. Obviously you will make some mistakes along the way and it will get more difficult as you get closer. Just don’t beat yourself over set backs.

The Body-For-Life exercise plan is not that bad. It does have some good compound exercises in it and the cardio plan is good. Rep ranges are similar to what I recommended. You have control over the actual exercise selection. You will want to substitute the exercises listed here.

You should add some low-intensity exercise if you have time, like walks or hikes. it’s great active recovery and a good stress releaser.