Six Weeks from Goal, Need Advice

Nutrition
1

I have ready bodybuilding forums long enough to know how annoying these posts get… however I hope mine is well-informed enough that it isn’t too bad to the forum vet.

Basically I am about 6 weeks out from my goal (the local Navy[me] versus Marines bodybuilding comp), I have been dieting and increasing my cardio exponentially over the last 3 weeks.

I use egg’s international egg whites for all my shakes and meals as they have been pasteurized to remove the risk of salmonella and this also, as you know, breaks down Avidin and allows your body to actually process the egg-white protein.

My day usually looks like this.

4am Wakeup,
4:05 first meal:

8 egg whites
1 scoop optimum whey
10g creatine

4:30am 2-3mile run, at 7min/mile pace.

515am second meal

8 egg whites
1 scoop optimum whey
10g creatine

545 lift weights
7am swim 1 mile (20 minutes)

745am third meal

8 egg whites
1 scoop optimum whey
1/2 cup cottage cheese

10am fourth meal

2 cups romaine lettuce
1/4 cup fat free mozz cheese
2 tbsp fat free italian dressing
1 tbsp bacobits
6 oz smoked chicken breast

1pm 5th meal

2 cups romaine lettuce
1/4 cup fat free mozz cheese
2 tbsp fat free italian dressing
1 tbsp bacobits
6 oz smoked chicken breast

4pm 6th meal

8 egg whites
1 scoop optimum whey
10g glutamine

6pm lift again
645pm swim 1/2 mile
715pm run 2 mile

830pm last meal

8 egg whites
1 scoop optimum whey
10g glutamine

9-10 pm, sleep.

My stats:

6’3"
282 lbs
Bench:550
Squat: 705
Dead: 600

BF= 19%
BMR= 2377 cal/day
Maintenance = 4279 cal/day
Approx calories burned from exercise = 1432
Caloric intake approximately 2010
Protein intake approximately 370g
Carbohydrate intake approximately 83g

Chest: 52"
waist: 40"
Bicep: 18"
Forearm: 14"
neck: 20"
thigh: 30"
Calves: 18"

Basically I’ve been told my calories are too low to continue succesfully peeling off the weight. Is this true? If so, what changes do i need to make to my diet?

I’ve tried to include everything I think you could possibly need, but let me know.

Thank you for everything in advance.

2

Holy egg whites Batman…why no variety in the diet?

3

You have six weeks till contest time, and you are at 19% bodyfat. That dosn’t look good.

Your daily caloric intake is below your BMR which is a recipe for metabolic damage and mucle loss especially when the copious amounts of cardio are factored in.

I would bring your calories back up to at lest 3000, but that depends on how your body has adapted ot this stressor. How much weight have you lost in how much time.

Theoretically you should be losing roughly 2 lbs every 3 days kept up for 6 weeks is 28 lbs. By my calculations, if everything stayed as is and there was no down regulation of your metabolism you would only come in at 10-11% bodyfat. My recommendation is to bring your calories back up ant prepare for the next year.

4

[quote]Rach2784 wrote:
Holy egg whites Batman…why no variety in the diet?

[/quote]

I don’t need variety. I like routine.

by your calculations at 6 weeks I could be down to 10%, is that at my current rate, or is that if i found a way to get up to 3000 calories?

Using the calculator for the V-diet, I am right at where I should be for caloric intake. However, I do more cardio than that diet calls for.

So even if i don’t make the show, but still want to act as if I have a contest coming up soon, should i continue on my current course of diet? or alter to increase my caloric intake?

5

Add either fat or carbs NOW!

You will not get ripped by going low fat and low carb. You will stall and get pissed.

I would add a tblspoon of fish oil to every meal other than pwo. That’s about 7 or 8 tblspoons at almost 1000 cals.

Get some Flameout so you can take it with you.

Do intervals! NO long distance running!

You can swim but it would be better to do 400m sprints.

just mo

Bill

edit You can also add a salad with olive oil and cook your eggs in coconut oil. Doesn’t taste bad.

If you are going to do intervals I would take in carbs around the workout…

6

that’s a great idea about the fish oil. The problem with non-long distance running is there is a good chance i’ll be going to duds this coming summer. Navy Seal School. I need to be running distance. Otherwise i would never run that much.

7

Well you would be surprised at the level of aerobic conditioning you will achieve by doing anaerobic work (sprints).

If you are afraid of this, do the sprints and once a week or every other week go for a long run. If you notice a decrease in your aerobic capacity you can then adjust. I doubt this will happen though.

If you do this could you please pm me your results? Results are all that matter.

bill

8

[quote]Adam6923 wrote:
Rach2784 wrote:
Holy egg whites Batman…why no variety in the diet?

I don’t need variety. I like routine.

by your calculations at 6 weeks I could be down to 10%, is that at my current rate, or is that if i found a way to get up to 3000 calories?

Using the calculator for the V-diet, I am right at where I should be for caloric intake. However, I do more cardio than that diet calls for.

So even if i don’t make the show, but still want to act as if I have a contest coming up soon, should i continue on my current course of diet? or alter to increase my caloric intake?[/quote]

My calculations were using your current diet. A modified approach where you increase your daily caloric consumption is needed. Since you don’t need variety, I would recommend some. The simplest solution would be to add 2tb natural peanut butter(if you don’t have an allergy) to 5 of your meal, or the addition of some other nut. Olive oil is great, even goes well in a shake.

Either way if you want to keep it low carb, your will need to increase your daily fat intake. Some green veggies will add a filling value, provide nutrients, and reduce the acidity of your diet without adding calories.

I didn’t mean to recommend that you stop dieting, just that your goal of competing in six weeks is not very doable and would set you back months. Increase your caloric consumption, but continue to diet. It may take twelve weeks to get down to roughly 10%, but then you will be able to “bulk” up to the 15% range and be all that much closer to your goals. That and you will look better to boot.

The V-Diet is also a 28 day diet which involves Fish Oil supplementation, intentionally reduced cardio, fiber supplementation, and is short term. The reason it is short term with reduced cardio is to preserve muscle mass. You have been on a drastic diet for an unknown amount of time and plan on continuing for 6 more weeks. This will lead to more muscle loss than you want to except on a schedule.

9

[quote]Zagman wrote:
Adam6923 wrote:
Rach2784 wrote:
Holy egg whites Batman…why no variety in the diet?

I don’t need variety. I like routine.

by your calculations at 6 weeks I could be down to 10%, is that at my current rate, or is that if i found a way to get up to 3000 calories?

Using the calculator for the V-diet, I am right at where I should be for caloric intake. However, I do more cardio than that diet calls for.

So even if i don’t make the show, but still want to act as if I have a contest coming up soon, should i continue on my current course of diet? or alter to increase my caloric intake?

My calculations were using your current diet. A modified approach where you increase your daily caloric consumption is needed. Since you don’t need variety, I would recommend some. The simplest solution would be to add 2tb natural peanut butter(if you don’t have an allergy) to 5 of your meal, or the addition of some other nut. Olive oil is great, even goes well in a shake.

Either way if you want to keep it low carb, your will need to increase your daily fat intake. Some green veggies will add a filling value, provide nutrients, and reduce the acidity of your diet without adding calories.

I didn’t mean to recommend that you stop dieting, just that your goal of competing in six weeks is not very doable and would set you back months. Increase your caloric consumption, but continue to diet. It may take twelve weeks to get down to roughly 10%, but then you will be able to “bulk” up to the 15% range and be all that much closer to your goals. That and you will look better to boot.

The V-Diet is also a 28 day diet which involves Fish Oil supplementation, intentionally reduced cardio, fiber supplementation, and is short term. The reason it is short term with reduced cardio is to preserve muscle mass. You have been on a drastic diet for an unknown amount of time and plan on continuing for 6 more weeks. This will lead to more muscle loss than you want to except on a schedule.
[/quote]

i’ve been on this diet for a little less than 3 weeks and have lost around 20lbs thus far. I plan to add 1 tbsp of fish oil to all of my meals, this will get me up to about 3k, as bill suggested. I plan to get down to about 10%, as you said, and then I would maybe… bulk to 15%. I never want to go above 15%… I prefer the old school arnold/franco method where they stayed relatively low all year round.

My goal now is to get to 10% as fast as I can and then worry about the muscle. I’ve never had trouble adding muscle mass, only with keeping my bf down.

edit I’m also considering adding just a bit of red meat in, maybe every other day, or something along those lines.