OK, nobody has responded to my last post about Meltdown so I was wondering if the experts out there could critique my current meal plan. I’m currently 200lbs at 20% bf and am using Meltdown training. I frequently substitute my 4th meal (Grow Bar) for 1.5 cup of tuna & chicken salad mixed. This adds 400 cals, 40g protein, 40g fat and subtracts 30g of carbs. I have also been having one cheat meal on Wed evening eg. burger and fries. Saturday is a free day consisting of two or three meals including pizza, pasta, garlic bread, ice cream, etc., totalling around 4000 cals. I have been using Meltdown 1, 3-4 days per week plus 30 mins of cardio 3 days per week. My goal is to lose fat while keeping my sanity at the same time. Please provide suggestions, criticism, or feedback in general on the sample program below while taking the aforementioned into consideration.
Hi, BigMike. Sometimes messages slip through the cracks. If it’s been a couple of days and you get no response, either “bump” it or re-post, which gives people a second chance.
I find your food log a little hard to read. I can’t identify what are calories and what are carb grams, protein grams and fat grams. The good thing is that it’s obvious you’re keeping a food log and tracking your macronutrients. Could you try re-posting with line breaks? A line break is an open angle bracket, the letters BR, and a close angle bracket.
One thing I see is that you’re not eating before your 7:00 am workout. Is that a cardio workout or a weight-bearing workout? If it’s 30 minutes of cardio, no problem. If you’re lifting weights without breakfast, that’s a no-no.
I ran the numbers two ways. Based on BW, your maintenance is 3,000 calories, less a 500-calorie deficit = 2,500 calories. However, at your BF% you may have to drop calories a little more. The other way that that number is calculated is to take LBM x 15, which is 2,400 calories per day, less a 500 calorie deficit, which would bring your caloric intake while dieting to 1,900. All I’m saying is if you don’t lose weight, you may have to go a bit lower.
Also, I’m really seeing a problem with your refeeds. 6 days x a 500 calorie/day deficit = 3,000. Yet you’re taking in 4,000 on your free day?!?! That doesn’t even take into consideration how many calories the burgers and fries are. Sounds to me like you’re running dead even and not creating a deficit. Are you losing weight? How long have you been dieting, and can I assume you’re doing T-Dawg 2.0? A little more information would be helpful.
Tampa, thanks for responding. I’ll try it again.
7am Powerdrive {br}
7:30 Surge - 1 scoop during workout, 1 scoop after {br}
9:30 Meal Replacement Shake {br}
12:30 Salad with chicken {br}
3:30 Grow Bar {br}
6:30 40g Protein, 1 tbsp Udo’s {br}
9:30 Salmon with greens (spinach or other green vegetable) {br}
The above totals 2220 calories, 147g Carbs, 228g Protein, 57g fat {br}
I hope those line breaks work. I was hoping to have the cheat day (sat) and work off the extra calories by putting in some extra cardio sessions. I’ll probably stop the Wed cheat meal. I’m going to have another look at the T-Dawg 2.0. It seems that most people are having good results with this.
Hey, there. The line breaks didn’t work, but I’ve got a better idea of what you’re doing.
So, yes, absolutely, give T-Dawg a good look. You’ll have to cut your carbs by a bit, but your food choices on your regular days look good.
Here’s the important stuff you need to know. One, you canNOT go to the gym and lift weight on an empty stomach. It’s highly catabolic, meaning you break down muscle. The challenge with dieting is to preserve all the muscle you can while dropping BF. If you lose muscle and BF, your caloric requirements for maintenance drop correspondingly. This one is a biggie. What I’d recommend, possibly, could you set your alarm clock for about 5:00 am and chug down a protein shake with about 40g of protein? For one thing your protein intake per day, based on your BW, is low. You should be taking in 1.5g of protein per pound of BW to preserve lean muscle mass. If that would work for you, you could still do your PowerDrive and Surge and your first “meal” of the day after working out.
You know, Mike, if you were to drop the cheat meals (and I know what I’m asking, here), I think you would make very good progress. You probably wouldn’t even have to go to T-Dawg. T-Dawg allows you to take in 100g of carbs (this includes Surge) on workout days and 70g of carbs on non-workout days. Either way, you need to stop the cheat meals for two weeks, and then you and I could have another discussion on how to carb up, how much to carb up, the types of carbs you should take in, how often, etc.
Give your program a go as it is (with no cheat meals), and check back in with me in two weeks. I’d like to see how much weight you lose, and that way we can make any necessary adjustments.
BTW, have you read Berardi’s articles on P+F and P+C food combining? The other article I’d like you to read is “Foods that make you look good Nekkid.”
Just thought of a couple of other things. Please limit cardio to four 30-minute sessions. Any more, and it’s the law of diminishing returns. Actually above that, the catabolic negative outweight the fat loss benefits. Also, what program are you following in the gym? Something here off T-Mag? I’d like to get an idea how long you’re in the gym, how often, and the type of exercises you’re doing.