Cutting diet.

[BBAddict]

I have started cutting and am now thinking that it might be tough for me to make my goal weight/bf% by my target date. I've read a bunch on this board about training and diet for cutting (which I'm gonna do 100% naturally). I'm gonna try to post what I propose to do and ask for a few clarifications. Any and all input is very much appreciated cause I'm stressing out about this already and I just started a couple days ago!

Right now I'm 28years old, 6', 180lbs at about 10%bf and want to get down to 5% by 4/15.

I intend to do cardio every night before bed as well as 4-5 mornings/wk. Sometimes this will be after lifting for 45minutes. On morning that I only do cardio I plan to not eat before the cardio. If I'm lifting, I plan to have some whey protein and (first point of clarification) some carbs. I do not know if I should have my usual 60gms or so of carbs or should I cut this down to more like 20-30gms. I will have a PW shake consisting of ON Pro Complex with maltodextrin and dextrose.

5:30 45gms whey protein, 1/2c rolled oats--skip this meal on cardio only days.
Workout: Lift 45minutes, cardio 40-45minutes
7:30 56gms whey protein w/ maltodextrin and dextrose (amount of carbs?)
10:00 8egg whites, one egg yolk, broccoli, 1/2c brown rice, flax seed
1:00 7oz. chicken breast, veges, small sweet potato (25gms carbs), fish oil
4:00 7oz. chicken breast, broccoli, 1/2c brown rice, fish oil
7:00 7oz. chicken breast, veges, small sweet potato
7:30-8:30 taekwondo workout 4x/wk
8:45-9:15 cardio
9:30 Casein protein shake (35gms protein) or 1.25cups cottage cheese and 1T PB

My workout split for mornings is basically:
Monday: Hams, abs
Tuesday: Chest, triceps, calves, cardio
Wednesday: Biceps, forearms, abs
Thursday: Shoulders, calves, cardio
Friday: Quads, abs
Saturday: Back, calves, cardio
Sunday: extended cardio - ~90minutes

I am also supplementing with SAN V12Turbo, glutamine, amino acid pills, ZMA, multivitamins, glucosamine/chondroitin, calcium, Omega-3,6 vitamins.

That's basically it-let me know if I left out any pertinent info-my mind is kinda all over since I started carb cutting.

Does it matter what kind of cardio-I've been trying stationary bike, running (steady at 8.0mph), hill intervals, walking at 4.0mph at 10degree incline. Is there one that is better than another at burning fat while preserving lean mass?

[Curls4dGirls]

Diet is on target. I'd like to see the total cals / pro / carbs / fat. The only things I'd change would be to replace one chicken meal (early in the day) with lean ground beef and to replace your caesin protein before bed with tuna fish.

As for cardio, there are two schools of thought. One school says to train at 65 - 85% of your max heart rate. In theory, exercising at a lower heart rate allows your body to burn fat without resorting to burning muscle. The other school believes in burst training / HIT. Here are a few links.

http://www.superiormuscle.com/vbulle...get+heart+rate

http://www.superiormuscle.com/vbulle...get+heart+rate

[YellowJacket]

Four things:

1. 5% bodyfat is unhealthy and probably impossible (I will venture to say completely impossible) naturally.

2. 7 days a week of cardio is uneccessary and not recommended, especially pre-sleep cardio.

3. Youre going to get very tired of chicken and i know you will say you wont, but you will and you will not stick to this diet.

4. Glutamine is useless.

[BBAddict]

Originally posted by YellowJacket
Four things:

1. 5% bodyfat is unhealthy and probably impossible (I will venture to say completely impossible) naturally.

2. 7 days a week of cardio is uneccessary and not recommended, especially pre-sleep cardio.

3. Youre going to get very tired of chicken and i know you will say you wont, but you will and you will not stick to this diet.

4. Glutamine is useless.

1. What bf% is possible naturally? I've been to 7% without trying hard and figured another 2% wouldn't be impossible. I don't plan on staying there-it's just for the experience and finding out for future experience what it takes for my body to get there.

2. I guess you're right there-I could probably cut back to 6days/wk.

3. I've been eating chicken that much for over a year and I am sick of it but i still eat it the same amount. I do mix in some salmon and lean red meat a couple times a month. The part of the diet I question is the low carbs-I've never tried that before. What part is the part you don't think is feasible?

4. I expected no less of you, but I still have some left and figured it wouldn't hurt to finish it off while cutting. Those that believe in it think it helps prevent lose muscle mass, so I'm just gonna use what I have left until its gone.

One other thing looking at the diet, the 10:00 meal is actually usually egg whites, not chicken.

[JACKAL]

yeh, youre eating an awful lot of chicken. switch up your protein source and eat some tuna or like Curls said, eat some lean beef. (if you dont want lean beef then try ground turkey breast)

[BBAddict]

Originally posted by JACKAL
eat some lean beef. (if you dont want lean beef then try ground turkey breast)

Yeah, I just put chicken there cause that would be a typical day. Obviously I'm gonna rotate in some other protein sources but they will be the exception--just a couple times a week I'll use tuna or salmon or some lean beef.

I'm having a hard time finding out what the leanest beef sources are. I am guessing that it is eye of round and round top steaks, but I am not positive. If somebody has info on that, it would be great. As far as ground turkey breast, it seems like all the stuff I see is about 7% fat-I would like something a little leaner. Do you know of anybody that makes really lean ground turkey or do I need to buy turkey breast and grind it myself?

[SloppyJo]

i get my ground turkey at walmart and i think its 97% lean... it with all the steaks and stuff... sometimes i'll get turkey sausage too... both are pretty good

[BBAddict]

Originally posted by YellowJacket
you will not stick to this diet.

:madfu: Thanks for the support and encouragement bro!

[YellowJacket]

Originally posted by BBAddict
:madfu: Thanks for the support and encouragement bro!

Dont get your panties in a bunch, your meal choices are simply mundane, which usually leads to failure.

[BBAddict]

Originally posted by YellowJacket
Dont get your panties in a bunch, your meal choices are simply mundane, which usually leads to failure.

It may lead to failure for some or most but its gonna take more than mundane meals to stop me. I eat for function not for flavor.

[YellowJacket]

At 6 180, I think you can get away with both function and flavor.

[redsquirrel]

Originally posted by YellowJacket
Four things:

1. 5% bodyfat is unhealthy and probably impossible (I will venture to say completely impossible) naturally.
2. 7 days a week of cardio is uneccessary and not recommended, especially pre-sleep cardio.

3. Youre going to get very tired of chicken and i know you will say you wont, but you will and you will not stick to this diet.

4. Glutamine is useless.

1/2% of BF per week is what is average and possible when dieting for a contest. With men, it's sometimes even more. With the amount of time you have, youshould be able to lose anywhere from 4-6% between now and then.

7 days of cardio right now, is unneceassry. But the closer you get to contest, it will be increased to 7 days, then you will probably have to add some AM cardio in as well. Don't start out with that much, you have to constantly challenge your body to lose th fat. You really need to have someone checking your BF weekly to make sure you are losing fat and not a lot of muscle.

The other option you have over chicken is turkey tenderloins. In fact, that's all I ate when I dieted for my comp. They taste really good if you can smoke them! I think I ate chicken like twice. LOL.

Glutamine is useless for cutting, as a lot of it is sugar

[redsquirrel]

Originally posted by BBAddict
Yeah, I just put chicken there cause that would be a typical day. Obviously I'm gonna rotate in some other protein sources but they will be the exception--just a couple times a week I'll use tuna or salmon or some lean beef.

I'm having a hard time finding out what the leanest beef sources are. I am guessing that it is eye of round and round top steaks, but I am not positive. If somebody has info on that, it would be great. As far as ground turkey breast, it seems like all the stuff I see is about 7% fat-I would like something a little leaner. Do you know of anybody that makes really lean ground turkey or do I need to buy turkey breast and grind it myself?

The turkey tenderloins by Perdue are really good. I usually slice them in half and grill them. They are 99% fat free.

Your leanest beef sources are: 93% lean ground beef, flank steak, eye of round, and filet.

[redsquirrel]

Re: Cutting diet.

Originally posted by BBAddict


5:30 45gms whey protein, 1/2c rolled oats--skip this meal on cardio only days.
Workout: Lift 45minutes, cardio 40-45minutes
7:30 56gms whey protein w/ maltodextrin and dextrose (amount of carbs?)
10:00 8egg whites, one egg yolk, broccoli, 1/2c brown rice, flax seed
1:00 7oz. chicken breast, veges, small sweet potato (25gms carbs), fish oil
4:00 7oz. chicken breast, broccoli, 1/2c brown rice, fish oil
7:00 7oz. chicken breast, veges, small sweet potato
7:30-8:30 taekwondo workout 4x/wk
8:45-9:15 cardio
9:30 Casein protein shake (35gms protein) or 1.25cups cottage cheese and 1T PB

My workout split for mornings is basically:
Monday: Hams, abs
Tuesday: Chest, triceps, calves, cardio
Wednesday: Biceps, forearms, abs
Thursday: Shoulders, calves, cardio
Friday: Quads, abs
Saturday: Back, calves, cardio
Sunday: extended cardio - ~90minutes

First off- you are overtraining right now; especially with the amount of cardio you are doing. You're not giving your body nearly enough time to recover. I know you're only doing one bodypart/day, but you need at least 2 days off a week. As for the cardio, you are going to need to tone it down a little bit to begin this diet. I know we all want results overnight, but this is a 10-12 week process. And if you start doing tons of cardio in the beginning, you will only end up burning off too much muscle and end up having to do even more in the later weeks of the diet. For right now, stop your evening cardio session.

You already have taekwondo, and you're working out, and doing cardio at the gym. Its way too much activity right now. Most of this is the diet and the manipulation of fats, carbs and calories. The cardio is there to help your body along. Keep you cardio at 6 days a week right now. Don't do the Sunday cardio yet, either.

Secondly, as for your diet:

Meal 1: 8 whites, 1 whole.
1/2c. rolled oats.
4oz lean ground beef.
Meal 2: PWO shake
Meal 3: 4oz turkey, chicken or tuna
Meal 4: same as your 1pm meal, but add 1c green veggies
Meal 5: same as your 4pm meal, but add 1c green veggies
Meal 6: same as your 7pm meal, but NO sweet potato
Meal 7: shake w/ 3 strawberries after Taekwondo. NO cottage cheese or PB. Dairy has no place in a cutting diet, and the PB has way too many fats and calories. And again- no evening cardio yet.

Fasting time needs to be 9 hours, so space your meals accordingly

[YellowJacket]

Originally posted by redsquirrel
1/2% of BF per week is what is average and possible when dieting for a contest. With men, it's sometimes even more. With the amount of time you have, youshould be able to lose anywhere from 4-6% between now and then.

Incorrect when you get to a certain percentage bodyfat... going from 22% to 17% is much different than going from 10% to 5%. Remember, this is being done naturally, I seriously doubt its possible.

7 days of cardio right now, is unneceassry. But the closer you get to contest, it will be increased to 7 days, then you will probably have to add some AM cardio in as well. Don't start out with that much, you have to constantly challenge your body to lose th fat. You really need to have someone checking your BF weekly to make sure you are losing fat and not a lot of muscle.

I agree, I would venture to say 7 days of cardio, even pre contest is too much,

Glutamine is useless for cutting, as a lot of it is sugar

Glutamine is useless both during bulking and cutting. Its conversion to glucose during a hypocaloric diet makes it useless while cutting.