Training with Conditioning for Weight Loss

Training
1

I’m trying to lose about 5% BF and get a little stronger. How does this programming look?

Strength

Monday
Squat- 3 x 5
Press 4 x 3
Clean- 3 x 5
Chin up- 3 x AMRAP Monday

Wednesday
Bench 3 x 5
Deadlift 1 x 5
Chin up 3 x 5

Friday
Squat- 3 x 5 or 5 x 5
Press 3 x 5
Clean- 3 x 5
Chin up- 25 total: sets as needed

Accessory work- when available
Dips 3 x 5
Back Extensions 3 x 10
Face Pulls 3 x 10

Worksets- Starting at 80% of my current lifts

The routine emphasizes pressing over the bench because that’s one of my deficiencies.

Conditioning

Monday
Sprints- 400m, 200m x 2, 50-100m x 2-3
Push Ups- 5 x 20

Wednesday
Jump Rope- 4 x 2 minutes
Push Ups- 5 x 20

Friday
Sprints- 800m, 400m x 2
Push Ups- 5 x 20

The sprints and jump rope are for weight loss, and if they overly affect recovery I will lower the volume. The push ups will progress to weighted push ups when I can finish 5 x 20 push ups with about 3 minutes of rest between sets.

Current Diet-
I supplement protein and fiber to offset dietary deficiencies. I eat vegetables and fruit when I can and I minimize refined carbs. I go into a caloric deficit by fasting for 16-23 hours once or twice a week at work. I fast because I think insulin resistance drives fat gain and fasting saves me some coin.

Goals by precedence
Get BF to 15% 2) >12 chin ups 3) 3 x 5 145 on the press 4) >80 push ups

Where I came from, training wise:
Insert excuse or random program here. I picked up starting strength on May 18 and here’s the progress:

Start:
Squat- 165 5 x 5
Press- 70 x 3
Bench Press 165 3 x 5
Deadlift- ??
Chin ups-2

Now
Squat- 250 3 x 5
Press- 115 3 x 5
Bench Press- 205 3 x 5
Deadlift- 305 x 1 x 5
Chin ups- 8
Power clean- 85 3 x 5

I was never really doing the program because I was a running fool (10 or so miles a week) and I was trying to go into a deficit. Now I’m trying to continue progression with a program that accommodates sprints and a twice per week caloric deficit.

2

Red flag is one paragraph on diet and the rest on training. Diet is the key to fatloss ESPECIALLY when you’re not already lean.

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3

Thanks for your feedback. You are 100% correct about diet. I believe my current diet is adequate for weight loss in conjunction with training, but far from optimal.

Here’s a sample.

Last Week’s Dinners
1- 4 tacos with hamburger, salsa, cheese, olives, and sour cream
2- half of a store bought pizza
3- one large salad consisting of spinach, eggs, imitation crab, garbonzo beans, corn, with oil and vinegar dressing, two (homade) cheese burgers
4- two leftover hamburgers and a hot dog
5- 16 hour fast
6- plate of pork chops and rice
7- some pork ribs with barbeque sauce and potatoes
Breakfasts
Eggs, scrambled, over easy, boiled, or oatmeal with peanut butter
Lunches- I haven’t kept track but last week I had a few sandwiches
Dinners are usually 35% meat, 60% carbs, and 5% vegetables if I was to guess.
Random foods/ drinks:
Spinach
Greek yogurt
Smoothies, prepackaged
Green Tea
Coffee (Lots)

My biggest dietary sins are usually beer or bordeaux, but I’ve toned that down in the pursuit of fitness. So it’s been a few weeks since I’ve drank. I’ve also given up energy drinks with artificial sweeteners completely (8 weeks so far). I will occasionally eat the fatty cakes though.
Does that look sound?

4

You would be wrong. It’s not just far from optimal. It’s downright bad. I will say, kudos on the honesty though. A lot of people get defensive or plain try to obfuscate when asked diet specifics.

Trite but true: you can’t out train a bad diet.

What I’m seeing is this:

  • plenty of meat, but generally meat that comes with a lot of fat. Fat isn’t bad, but when dieting it needs management.
  • quite a lot of processed carbs. Again, carbs aren’t bad (they’re actually awesome) but you want to have the right kind
  • nowhere near enough vegetables

Here’s what I’d suggest as a first step:

  • eliminate processed carbs and avoid wheat based carbs as they can bloat. All carbs should come from potatoes, white rice, plain oats, sweet potato, yam, etc;
  • ditch the burgers and sausages and get your protein from lean cuts of meat and fish;
  • ditch the booze. Completely;
  • limit consumption of cheese, yoghurt, peanut butter and other fatty foods so you know exactly how much fat you’re getting. Same goes for eggs, although whites are fine.

See how that goes for a couple of weeks. You should see decent progress from that alone. When your weight-loss stalls, then you’ll want to drop your amounts.

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5

Thanks for your help again.

I’m not going to get butt hurt when somebody is taking time out of their day to help me. I didn’t post my diet ‘plan’ because as bad as it looks, I have cleaned it up over time. However, just actively processing what I eat over a given period was a slap in the face, by knowledge. Stuff I should already know, but there’s room for a lot of return with a fair amount of effort.

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6

Good attitude @doyll32!

I used to have a similar diet to yours (although I was bulking) and found that it wasnt really working for me. My advice is to start slowly replacing one easy meal a day to something more nutritious that gets you closer to your goals.

It’s easy for us to sit here and type “scrap it all and eat veges and fish” but it is difficult to do that in one hit. But it is easier to go “ok, this fortnight I’m going to stop having random lunches with bread, I’m going to replace it with chicken caesar salad.”

Than the next fortnight, focus on your weekday dinners. And so on…

I’ve found doing it like that helped me stay consistent. And if there is one variable that is guaranteed to bring results, it’s consistency.

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