I’ve been following a routine and diet, for the past 6-8 weeks that isn’t working and not sure why. Tested my bodyfat this morning, and i’ve lost muscle mass and not as much bodyfat as i would like. Please can you give me some advice, i want to maintain or gain muscle (obviously) and lose bodyfat,
Routine
Upper Body
A1 - Bench Press 3x15
A2 - Bent over rows 3x15
B1 - Lat pull down 3x15
B2 - Lat raises 3x15
C1 - Preacher curls 2x15
C2 - Individual tricep extentions 2x15
Ab Crunches
1 min rest betweeen sets
Lower Body
Squats 3x15
Deadlift 3x15
Leg ext 2x15
Leg curl 2x15
Leg raises 3x30
1 min rest between sets
Usually train 4-5 times a week, depending on work, switch between these 2 workouts, also go running in the evening twice a week, 25mins and moderate pace
Diet
6am - 2 weetabix, banana, protein shake (phd synergy)
7.30am - Train
8.30am - Protein shake (phd synergy)
10am - homemade protein bar (oats, raisins, banana, peanut butter, whey protein)
12am - tuna and wholemeal pasta, apple
2.30pm - chicken, fruit (salmon and potato, fruit, if going for a run that evening)
5pm/6pm - chicken and veg
9pm - protein shake (myprotein bedtime extreme)
im 5ft 11, currently approx 15-16% bodyfat. weigh 71kg
Tired of 3x15 yet? God that must be boring Why not try some sets in the 6-12 range?
You say you “tested your bodyfat this morning”, does that mean you tested it yourself? Which method did you use? Not sure how you can be certain that you lost lean body mass at your weight without a biosignature test.
About your diet, you’re not eating enough protein I’d say, especially meat. Switch one of your chicken meals for beef, and also add 4 whole eggs to your breakfast.
How much chicken and veg is “chicken and veg”? Make sure you eat like 8oz at least with a sweet potato and one or two cups of veggies. At your size, you should be more serious about gaining muscle than losing fat. You can do that later.
Overall your setup is decent, I’m not sure how you can lose muscle. Are you half-assing it or really pushing hard on every workout?
Good luck
EDIT: Your “home-made protein bar” is making me hungry
Thanks for the reply, i’ve tried alot of different programs, and just felt that 3x15 was good for burning fat, i do find it hard to cut down and bulk up, so seeing as though all the guys at work are doing a charity calender soon, thought i’d start early and get as ripped as poss!
I used a tanita bioelectrial scales, which calculates bf, weight, muscle mass etc, and from my last reading it said it dropped quite alot of muscle mass and only 0.5% of bodyfat, which was abit de-moralising,
if i hit the 3x15 easily, then i put the weight up, im aiming to fail on the last few reps, with 1 mins of rest between sets, it is intense,
just couldnt understand how i lost so much muscle when my protein intake is still quite high, thats why asking for advice
Well I couldn’t understand either lol. Never heard of that bioelectrical scale, so I’m pretty reluctant but let’s say it’s accurate… There’s three easy things you can do right now to gain more muscle:
Those scales are the worst way to measure body fat. I’d stop doing 3x15 with every single lift and go for lower reps. The suggestion of 5x5 that was made is probably the one you should consider most.
EDIT: Hands down take the advice of adding fish oil to the diet.
Everything looks pretty good. Just make sure your servings of chicken and tuna are big enough. You should definatly consider having some animal products in your breakfast (eggs).
Looks like you’re taking a lot of shakes. I’m guessing you’re only using one scoop don’t be afraid to knock yourself down to 5 meals a day and just have 2 of those meals be larger shakes with 2-3 scoops. I like that you’re making homemade protein bars. Eating lots of meals throughout the day is really important. It’s great to see that you’re doing that.
If you’re doing 3X15 on Deadlifts, I hope they’re Romanian Deadlifts. You’ve got a pretty good split right now. Try using lower reps and heavier weights on Squat, Bench and Deadlifts. Really push the weights on those and go for reps between 6-12 (alternate). But keep the higher reps for everything else.
You also don’t need to do 3 sets if you’re doing 15 reps. 2 or even 1 should be fine with that many reps. Usually if you can do 1 set of 15 reps with a weight, it’s time to move up in weight. But do whatever works for you. I’ve found that I get the best trap growth from doing 4X15 but I get the most out of Curls from doing 1 rest-pause set.
For shoulders, do some sort of overhead press instead of lateral raises. If you still feel like doing lateral raises after that, do them. But do some Barbell, Dumbbell, or even Machine overhead work first.
I also think you’d be better off doing Lunges instead of Leg Extensions if you have the energy after doing Squats and Deads.
Doing Squats and Romanian Deadlifts in the same workout is a good idea, but doing heavy Squats and Conventional Deadlifts in the same workout can be killer. If both these numbers are suffering, you might want to alternate between Squats and Deads instead of doing both in the same workout.
But your program looks pretty solid and if you haven’t seen results yet, it’s only a matter of time.
Every workout does the same thing bro, it breaks down your muscle tissues. The only thing you have to play with to either gain mass or lose fat is your diet. 5x5 will allow you to push much more and stimulate new growth.
Dude. You’re 5’ 11" and 156 lbs (71 kg)? And you claim to be at 15% body fat, which means you have 132 lbs lean body mass. Unless that was a typo and you meant 171 kg, the last thing you need is to be on a diet.
Don’t worry about your body fat percentage. Even if you somehow managed to diet down to 8%, which would put you at about 145 lbs (66 kg), you’d end up looking like an escapee from a concentration camp.
Eat. Lift. Grow.
And forget about the Tanita scale. Get a body fat measurement at a gym or clinic if you really want to know what your body fat is.
[quote]Growing_Boy wrote:
Give lower reps a shot. Nothing lower than 6 IMO. Go in there and lift some heavy ass weight and go heavy and eat a big ass meal. [/quote]
except on deadlifts. I feel they are best in the <4 reps.
Why not try some sets in the 6-12 range?