My cutting diet...

wesley90 said:

Current weight: 240
BF: 23%
Intensity: 4 times a week/cardio 2 times 20 mins
Age: 18
Goal: BF 10% in 3 months

I did all the food calculations as posted above in the first post of this thread.
I already have a scale.

Thanks.

Click to expand...

OK, I will write this post so that it can be used by other people, since this kind of question gets asked a lot.

First off, there are three things I will address:

Diet, Weight Trainining and Cardio.

1. Diet:

Current weight: 240 equals: 109 kilos
BF: 23%
LBM (everything whis is not fat): 240 - 240*23% = 184,8lbs = 84 kilos ( I needed in kilos for the BMR calculation)

The preferred formula for calculating your BMR is based on LBM ONLY, not on total weight, since fat is not metabolically active. The formula is:

BMR = 370 + 21.6 x LBM in Kilos

370 + 21.6*84 = 2184 cals. (this is what you need just to be alive).

now we need your daily expenditure. Based on the amount of excercise you do (4 days WT+2 days cardio) that falls in the 3 ~ 5 days, so the multiplier is 1.55

TDDE: BMR * 1.55 = 3385 cals. This is the amount of cals you need to MAINTAIN with your current activity level.

Now, a not so radical program would call for a 20% decrease of TDDE for cutting, paired with 2 days refeed at some 10% below TDDE.

I did my cutting with -30% and -15%, so I will propose those. Remember, you need to try and adjust according to results.

On that basis we have:

Low Carb days: 2370 cals (-30% below TDDE). The ratios that work wonders for me (because I am a bit carb-sensitive are: 45% prot, 25% carb, 30% fat).

High Carb days: 2878 cals (-15% below TDDE). The ratios for this are: 35% Prot, 50% carb, 15% fat

since

1gr prot = 4 cals
1 gr carb = 4 cals
1 gr fat = 9 cals
1 gr alcohol = 7 cals (you don't need this, but just so you know)

we then have:

Low carb day: 2370 cals with a split of 45%P 25%C 30%F

267 gr Prot
148 gr Carb
79 gr Fat


Now, for your High carb days we are going to drop the fat (since you don't want all that fat to mix with the carbs, right???)

High carb day: 2878 cals with a split of 35%P 50%C 15%F we have:

252 gr Prot
360 gr Carb
48 gr Fat

Now, how you get these numbers in, that is your business, depending on the things you normally eat. What I eat is:

Carbs:
Oats, Whole grain bread, Dextrose, Maltodextrin, Brocolli

Protein:
Chicken Breast, Tuna, Steak, Salmon, Whey

Fat:
Olive Oil, Flax Oil


The Post Workout shake rewuires special mention. When cutting, the formula is 2.5 gr carbs per evcery 10 pounds of body weight. THe protein should be the same quantity as the carbs. Moreover, split the carbs 50-50 in dextrose and maltodextrin

Your PWO should look like for your weight like: 60 grs Whey, 30 grs dextrose and 30 grs maltodextrin, all in 1 ltr water.

If this is too much sugar, you can try cutting the carbs in half or until you find what gives you the best results.

Final thing with the diet: Make sure you implement Carb Tapering and Calorie Tapering during the day.

Your schedule could look like this:

Mon: Low Carb
Tuesday: Low Carb
Wednesday: Low Carb
Thursday: High Carbs (never go over 3 days in a row low carb)
Friday: Low Carb
Saturday Low Carb
Sunday: High Carb

A clever thing to do is train your large muscle groups (like legs and back) on the day (or the day after) your high carb days. (I used to do Legs on fridays and back on Mondays)

2. WEIGHT TRAINING

Not much to mention here, if you are training 4 days, I hope you are doing a 4 days split. Make sure every muscle group gets at least some 12 ~ 18 reps (normally 3 sets) and stick to compound movements. Also, keep your rest time short.

3. CARDIO

Major work here. The reason why we burn fat is because we BURN it with cardio. I do cardio 6 days/week, after weight training, so I cannot compare the eficiency with early morning fasted cardio, but it would be damn hard that fasted cardio would give me better results, since I am doing my cardio already on a glycogen depleted state.

What I do is 6 times per week, 45 minutes @ 75~ 85 % of my MHR (which in your case is 202 bpm). Meaning you should aim at keeping your heart ticking at aprox. 152 ~ 160 bpm. If it sounds easy, try doing that for 45 minutes straight. (if you feel ill, take it easy, cardio at this intensity needs some getting used to, the heart is another muscle that needs to be trained)

A lot of people will say: "that is way over the fat burning range"... I am firm believer (and walking proof) that what it really matters is Cals in vs. Cals out. If you do 45 min at 65% you will burn a higher % of cals from fat than when you do it at 80%, but the TOTAL number of cals burned will be higher when you do your cardio at 80%.

so, get your butt in that threadmill and leave the books/mags home.

OK, think it is enough to get you started in the right direction.

10% in 3 months is relative. for you In my experience, I was dropping .2 kilo of LBM for every 800 grs fat. Meaning, that if you were to be around that, you would weight some 205 lbs with 13% BF. That is 35 lbs less. I would aim for 5 months so as not to be so maniac about this (we all need have a life to live!!!)

Oh yeah, almost forgot: Save the gear... you are way too young for that, you are risking, being 18, messing with your own endocrine system. Your own hormones are still raging. Problem is we are living in a world that teaches us that instant gratification and reward is the norm. Some things take a little time, but the feeling when you get them and you look back and say " I did this on my own, with no additional help" is worth it.

OK, enough said.

Let the green roll

Pintoca

You must spread some around before giving to Pintoca again. Ah well. Excellent post. Everything you need to know right there so get going. And forget the drugs your to YOUNG.

So evander1972, do you now agree that 3000 cals ISNT too much?

evander1972 said:

You must spread some around before giving to Pintoca again. Ah well. Excellent post. Everything you need to know right there so get going. And forget the drugs your to YOUNG.

Click to expand...

Don't worry. Intentions count also.

wesley90 said:

So evander1972, do you now agree that 3000 cals ISNT too much?

Click to expand...

Actually, 3000 per day, everyday, would be too much for my taste. You would be pretty much around TDDE; which will cause you to drop BF VERY VERY VERY slowly.... which is not what you want. That is only 400 cal deficit per day...

as a carb up day, it is ok, as it bumps metabolism... but for everyday...big nono

Pintoca

wesley90 said:

So evander1972, do you now agree that 3000 cals ISNT too much?

Click to expand...

Go and read the thread again, I wasnt talking about calories.

ack I see...my bad heh.

Well 1 week has been completed...must say its been quite a ride...a lot of cravings...cheated maybe 3 times and substituted a bunch. Would sometimes use this whole grain bread instead of oats and have mostly chicken.

Also, I have been drinking a lot of diet coke...do you think it may hinder my progress?
Thanks.

Preferably water than coke... but I drink also coke (the light one without caffeine), maybe 3 ltrs in a week... and honestly, I think I don't care if it would hinder... (I don't think so either). Mostt likely, the chemicals in it are not good for you, but there are no carbs, no proteins, no nothing... just a little bit of different taste to wash down the particularly bland chicken breast.

As for the substitutions, if you are not substituting for empty cals, you should be OK, as long as your Macros are good.

Try to cheat less on the diet, as soon as you start seeing the results, you won't want to cheat. (Did you see my upgrade on the 5 months cutting?)

I am since Friday down with the Flu, and totally mortified for not being able to do my weekend cardio... also I am eating very little...shit... the Flu sucks big time.

good luck this week.

Well I did 35 minutes of cardio of the treadmill for a total of a bit over 3 miles today. According to the calories burned calculater on the machine, I burned 600 calories.