Routine Help

Hi. I am after a bit of advice.
I have been training on and off for some time now, but i’m still far away from my ultimate goal.
I’m 5’9" 175lbs and have around 18% fat.

I have just finished reading gourmet nutrition and started yesterday eating according to the books rules (only fruit and veg carbs throughout the day and all other carbs after training).
I hope that I am correct as I have read about others eating the PW meals at other times of the day.
I am keeping at least a 500 cal defecit each day.

My training up until now consists of 2-3 whole body sessions per week, with 5-8 exercises, doing one set to failure and 2-3 cardio sessions.
I was planning to do 25 min of incline walking on the treadmill 4 days per week, and from advice that a friend gave me changing my weight sessions to the starting strength routine by M Rippetoe.

My friend is a powerlifter and has told me that I should gain some decent strength in the basic lifts and get a good foundation before moving onto bodybuilding routines.
I’m not really sure what I should do. My first priority is to lose around 15-20lbs of fat until i’m into single digits and then concentrate gaining lean mass. I realise that I will gain some fat aswell and will continue until I get up to 12% and then cut back down (I read this in a book that I have).

I’ve also been told that there’s no need for me to do the starting strength routine as I don’t want to be a powerlifter.
I don’t know if I should be continuing with HIT, going down the starting strength route or doing one of the fat loss weight routines on here.

I have been told to let the cardio and diet take care of the fat loss and the weights sessions should be for maintaining or gaining muscle, not fat loss.
I will be grateful for any advice.

Thanks guy’s

Pick a routine (any decent routine) with mostly compound movements and stick with it 8-12 weeks. Don’t just meander from one program to another (i.e. do a program for 2 weeks, become enamored by another and then go to that routine).

Stick with the diet. Chances are you will accidently cheat. If that happens just try not to do it again and get right back on the diet you were on (don’t skip meals thinking it will make up for the cheat, doesn’t work that way psychologically or physically). That’s not to say you shouldn’t ever tweak the diet a little.

The last thing you said, “I have been told to let the cardio and diet take care of the fat loss and the weights sessions should be for maintaining or gaining muscle, not fat loss.” is true to a large extent. I have seen people lose weight without resistance exercise and then balloon back up to a weight higher than before and faster too. It’s important to maintain or add muscle so you don’t slow down your metabolism by reducing the size of your engine.

You sound like a beginner (i guess i’m personally between a beginner and intermediate, just a guess) so i wouldn’t worry too much about which routine you pick. For example, there are people who do cuts very well with high intensity and low volume and other people need lots of volume and still others do better with the escalating volume density programs. Pretty much you gotta figure it out for yourself. Just be sure as i said earlier to stick with a program long enough to give it a chance.

I disagree Fletch. Resistance training is effective in fat loss and has a greater impact metabolically after your workout as well. Think about it, when your done cardio your heart rate will slow back down and you will be back into homeostasis rather quickly.

If your using heavy weight training, your body will have undergone a milieu of trauma and has to recover from that. Your body’s ultimate goal is a homeostatic state and the body uses a TON of energy to rebuild the muscle so that it no longer has micro trauma.

But, if you couplet the two yes it is extremely effective but at your weight and height I would opt for heavy lifting right now. You sound under trained and Ripptoe is a good starting point. His program is designed for beginners and is not solely a powerlifting routine. Stick with that program for 6-8weeks or when progress stalls then switch.

As far as nutrition goes, I would not be focused on losing any weight. You need to build a better base. If you eat clean and train hard over time your body composition will shift (a positive shift). You are on the right path with Dr. Berardi and Gourmet Nutrition so stick with it.

I see what you mean MUthrow94. My bad. Here’s a study about epoc for the OP (excessive post oxygen consumption). Although it still serves the important purpose of preserving/growing muscle while losing fat.

http://www.drlenkravitz.com/Articles/epoc.html

It says that interval cardio and anearobic exercise has a greater epoc than steady cardio. I’m sure you can find some articles about it on this site too.

Thanks guy’s for the advice.
Although I have tried quite a few routines in the past and yes, sometimes I do not give them a full test because I will not do them for long enough, I do tend to stick to HIT for the majority of the time.

I do like training only doing 1 set to failure as I can give all of my effort for just that one set. However iv’e read that training to failure does wear out the CNS and although my sessions are hard I feel exhausted for to long days after.
I do feel like I am undertraining and it is nothing compared to what I did when I was younger, but I just haven’t got the energy to do more.

I will start M Rippetoe’s starting strength today and concentrate on my strength in the basic exercises for the next 8-12 weeks.
I will eat according to the rules of gourmet nutrition. I understand what you mean about not worrying about cutting as I don’t have much weight on me anyway, but I will feel a lot better at a lighter overall weight and a lot less fat.

I will take it staeady to preserve as much muscle as possible, i’ll aim for 1.5 lbs per week, so hopefully I will be done within 2-3 months.
Ay other tips would be helpfull.