If your going to be putting rice in your diet keeping carbs bellow 100g will be a bitch. If you want to keep carbs bellow 100g just stick to meat and veggies. Also cut the fruit out. Pics look good no reason to be extreme. Cut calls maybe 500 bellow maintence or up your cardio. Personaly as long as protien stays around 1-1.5 per lb things seem to work out

Thanks for the info. I don’t need rice haha I just want to lean out and get shredded and then go gain lean mass. My “bulk” made me hate how much BF i gained. I was barely getting a noticeable pump because of all the extra fat lol. I was always the skinny kid now I want to be the decent sized kid with abs and cuts esp on the legs… Currently when I go to the gym Im about 215-216, so taking out shoes clothes and tons of water, I’d say I’m about 206-207 in the am.

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Breakfast Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
Whole Egg - Large Egg, 250 g 350 2 25 32 350 2
Bread - Whole-wheat, toasted, 2 slice 139 26 2 5 296 11
Add Food Quick Tools 489 28 27 37 646 13
Lunch
Costco - Boneless/skinless Chicken Breast, 6 oz 165 0 2 38 300 0
Kroger - Frozen Stir-fry Vegetables, 88 g 30 5 0 1 20 3
Rice - White, medium-grain, cooked, 3 cup 725 160 1 13 0 0
Add Food Quick Tools 920 165 3 52 320 3
Dinner
Costco - Boneless/skinless Chicken Breast, 6 oz 165 0 2 38 300 0
Rice - White, medium-grain, cooked, 3 cup 725 160 1 13 0 0
Add Food Quick Tools 890 160 3 51 300 0
Snacks
Lucerne - Greek Nonfat Yogurt - Vanilla, 12 oz 200 24 0 22 160 20
Salad - Spring Mix and Baby Spinach, 2 cups (85g) 20 3 0 2 55 0
Add Food Quick Tools 220 27 0 24 215 20
Totals 2,519 380 33 164 1,481 36
Calories Carbs Fat Protein Sodium Sugar
So my copy paste may be confusing but the bottom macros should be accurate and y’all should be able to see what I’m eating. I think I’ll start with this diet as a baseline and to see if I can maintain weight while cutting fat. What do you guys think about this?
update:
Im at about 196-197lbs and I still have some stubborn lower belly fat, and I’m not as cut as I thought I would be. Since my last update my diet has been:
Breakfast: 5 whole eggs scrambled, 2 pieces of wheat
Lunch (PreWO): 8oz chicken, 3/4 cup uncooked brown rice, 1/2 avocado
PostWO: 8oz chicken, 3/4 cup uncooked brown rice
Dinner: 8-10oz chicken, 2 cups of veggies
I havent checked my macros but I thought this would be decent. In the gym my lifts are staying constant but this BF I can’t get rid of on the belly. My waist went from 34-32 and my arms lost 1/4 inch but the belly is stubborn haha. Advice on what to do?
I didn’t read every post, but have you tried low carb (and do you tolerate it well)? Keeping cals the same going from HC/LF to HF/LC always seems to work well for me. You’ve made some good progress based on the pics. Stubborn fat is called that for a reason (gd lower abs and love handles for me). ![]()
Edit: read through some of the more recent comments. I see “cardio” referenced (by you and others), but no details. What’s your whole routine like (high-level, like “Lift MWF, cardio T Th”, etc.). Doing any HIIT?
I feel like what I’m on is fairly low carb haha. I could lower it more and I feel pretty good I just feel very flat! And I lift Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday and do cardio after all my workouts. I’ll do like stair master, or play with the ropes, or sprint/jog etc for about 10 mins. I switch it up everyday. Nothing more though!
You look rather long limbed.
I would also quit weighing every day.
Dustin: there’s a number of things you could try here. First, if it’s only been a week or so where you’ve seen no progress, you may just ride it out and see if things change. Fat loss, like muscle gain, is not always linear. If it’s been over two weeks or so, you may want to try one of the below.
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Go low carb: replace carb calories with fat, but keep cals the same as they are now. Try to get down under 100 (at least). Steak and natty peanut butter are your friends. (You may be one of those types that feel like absolute shit on LC or it might just not work well for you. But if you go this route, give it an honest try. Adaption takes time).
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Reduce calories further: self-explanatory, but don’t go crazy here.
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Increase activity: also self-explanatory and don’t overdo it here either. Based on your post (and I could be wrong), it sounds like you are kind of “winging it” with regard to cardio/HIIT. My boss always told me: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. So if you don’t know exactly how much you’re doing each week, it’s going to be hard to tweak it.
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Introduce a thermogenic. No magic bullet but can make a difference.
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There are a ton of other things you could do: Intermittent Fasting (IF), carb cycling, LC with carb ups, lower cals but introduce cheat meals, etc. You may also want to check out this article if you haven’t already: How to Burn Stubborn Body Fat
If you are truly stuck, you should try out one of the above. But sometimes it just requires patience. And I don’t think there is a problem with weighing yourself every day provided you are not changing things based on one or two readings. I do it, but only to gauge weekly progress and will usually give it a couple weeks to make sure there is a pattern before altering anything.
[quote]jp_dubya wrote:
I would also quit weighing every day.
[/quote]
I don’t have a scale so I weigh every few weeks
[quote]Tyler23 wrote:
Dustin: there’s a number of things you could try here. First, if it’s only been a week or so where you’ve seen no progress, you may just ride it out and see if things change. Fat loss, like muscle gain, is not always linear. If it’s been over two weeks or so, you may want to try one of the below.
-
Go low carb: replace carb calories with fat, but keep cals the same as they are now. Try to get down under 100 (at least). Steak and natty peanut butter are your friends. (You may be one of those types that feel like absolute shit on LC or it might just not work well for you. But if you go this route, give it an honest try. Adaption takes time).
-
Reduce calories further: self-explanatory, but don’t go crazy here.
-
Increase activity: also self-explanatory and don’t overdo it here either. Based on your post (and I could be wrong), it sounds like you are kind of “winging it” with regard to cardio/HIIT. My boss always told me: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. So if you don’t know exactly how much you’re doing each week, it’s going to be hard to tweak it.
-
Introduce a thermogenic. No magic bullet but can make a difference.
-
There are a ton of other things you could do: Intermittent Fasting (IF), carb cycling, LC with carb ups, lower cals but introduce cheat meals, etc. You may also want to check out this article if you haven’t already: How to Burn Stubborn Body Fat
If you are truly stuck, you should try out one of the above. But sometimes it just requires patience. And I don’t think there is a problem with weighing yourself every day provided you are not changing things based on one or two readings. I do it, but only to gauge weekly progress and will usually give it a couple weeks to make sure there is a pattern before altering anything.
[/quote]
Thanks for all the help. I think I’ll lower my carbs more and I will be more consistent with my cardio. And I was all the way up at 238 and now I’m 196 so I’ve lost a lot of weight but it’s been a few weeks now and the belly fat is pretty stubborn haha. I’ll post up some pics tonight so you guys can see where I’m at
And I was thinking about getting some yohimbine. What do you think about that?
How have your lifts been since you lost the 20 lbs?
[quote]thefreshmanverve wrote:
How have your lifts been since you lost the 20 lbs?[/quote]
They dropped pretty dramatically considering I lost a lot of weight and didn’t lift as much because it was during finals but now, a lot of my strength is pretty much there.
For example: I was squatting 365x4, and 225x17. I haven’t gone really heavy but yesterday I squatted 225x15, and 275x8 pretty easily. As far as bench I was hitting 335x2, 275x10 and again I haven’t really maxed but i hit 275x7 or 8 times the other day.
I am curious though. My chest has always been small, genetics apparently aren’t there. Even when I was benching 315x4 i had a pancake chest at like 42 in i think. Now that I’m about 195 my chest is even smaller… I’ve tried literally all I can think of and I’ve researched for years haha, any new plans for chest growth? Currently I’m on a Max effort upper body, repetition lower, rest, repetition upper, max effort lower. On both upper body days I start with chest so I can push it the hardest, but still its a pancake. Currently between the two upper body days I’ll do flat bb bench, incline db, floor presses, and machine flys. I try switching up volume, reps, etc and I just can’t seem to do anything.

current pix

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do you do any decline movements for your chest? I neglected them for years but since adding them in my chest is way thicker. Might want to give that a try.