Critique my diet/food -Long & Detailed (Pics included!)

[Brian22]

Hey everyone.

Ive written out in excrutiating detail my current eating and work out schedule in hopes that some of you can point me in the right direction on anything that im doing wrong. So with out further ado, here we go!


STATS:
----------------------------

Age: 22
Gender: Male
Height: 6'
Weight: 166 lbs
Waist : 35" via tape measure. Pants are 34"
Phase : Cutting cycle
Goal : drop BF% to 10 or under & waist size. Estimate current BF% to be 17%. Waist goal around 30-32".
PICTURE: Me! Yes i was sucking my tummy in

FOOD & SUPPLIMENTS:
-------------------------------------------

Vits & Supps:

a) Generic Multivitamin, 1 pill once a day: Pic1 Pic2
b) ThryoCut, similar to Hydroxycut but they were out. 4 pills twice a day. Pic1 Pic1
c) Ephedrine, added energy boost in the morning, one pill once a day. Pic1
d) Perfect Whey Protein brand chocolate flavoured powder. One scoop in after evening work out shake.
e) Flax SEED. Not the oil. Usually sprinkle it over my food. 1 - 2 table spoons a day. I keep it refridgerated

That's it! Not sure what else to take. I do take one 40mg ACUTANE pill once a week to control my NATURALLY occuring acne that i have been suffering through since i was 12.


Food:

Drinks: 1 litre of water every day, plus a glass or two of skim milk. The water isnt 100% water, its lightly improved with a bit of watermellon concentrate frozen juice mix, maybe two or three large table spoons to a 80 oz jug of water.

Morning - 8:00am
Usually im lazy so its almost always a bowl of Rasin Bran cereal or that Vector marketing bull shit cereal Add a sliced banana, a sprinkle of flax seed and skim milk. Picture of nutritional info on the rasin bran Here.
If i have time, i try and prepare egg white omlettes. Throw in some diced tomotoes, white onion, ham or any other lean meat available, sometimes mushrooms and curry powder for flavour.

Lunch - 12:00pm
Tuna fish sandwiches on light rye bread. Consume 2 sandwiches and 2 sliced apples. The tuna fish sandwiches are made with 1 table spoon of ultra low fat mayonaise per 1 can of tuna fish, some relish and 2 stocks of celery cut up into bits to add texture.
Each slice of light rye bread has 9 grams of carbs, more info Here. A pic of my sandwiches are Here too.

Dinner - 5:00pm
A combination of chicken, veggies and potoates.
1x medium sized skinless chicken breast with seasoning.
2.5 cups of mixed frozen veggies with seasoning.
1 cup of diced baked potatoe bits lightly flavoured iwth a garlic powder type seasoning.
A picture of my dinner is here, and the chicken/veggie seasoning is Here. I usually sprinkle some flax seed over the plate of food too.

Post work out Shake - 9:00pm
1 scoop (35g) of Perfect Whey Protien chocolate powder. Throw in a sliced banana, some ice cubes and almost always skim milk. Water just makes it taste... well... watery
Here is the nutritional info on this protein powder. Let me know if its any good.
1 scoop = 35 g
Energy: 133 cals
Protein: 25g
Fat: 1.5g
Carbs: 4.9g
Each serving contains:
1450 mg Isoleucine
3550 mg Leucine
2870 mg Valine
4650 mg Glutamic Acid

Go to bed around 11pm, wake up at 5:30-6:00am

WORK OUT SHEDULE:
----------------------------------------

Morning -
Wake up around 5:30, take my vits & supps with a large glass of water and usaully half a sliced apple. Do a 60 min cardio work out around 6 or 6:30am for a full hour. Machine is almost always a nordic track/cross country style machine. Average calories burnt are 600-700. Low intensity on a random setting (increases and deacreases intensity).
Come home, shower and eat breakfeast around 8 or 8:30.

Evening -
go to Gym around 8 or 9pm. Ate dinner a few hours before that, around 5pm. Consumed 4 throxycut pills half hour before going to the gym.
10min intense high intensity cardio warm up & burn around 150 calories in that 10 min time. Then follow my 5 day schedule, ie: monday arms, tuesday back/shoulders, wednesday legs etc...
Sunday is my day off.

Come home and drink my protein shake. Then get ready for bed.


QUESTIONS:

For a cutting cycle, am i consuming too many carbs? The rasin bran cereal and the potoatoes and everything else i eat give me a carb count of well over 50. Is this too much? I know i should do the egg omlette instead of cereal, but time/lazy factor comes into affect here! hehe.

I also love my milk, its hard to give up, but would a complete shut out of milk in a hardcore cutting cycle provide a big boost? Or is it only marginally detrimental like using milk instead of water in my shake?

30 min post cardio after my weight training? Yay or nay? I was thinking after my weights, just jump on the bike for 25-30 mins and burn another 200 calories. Is this a good idea?

Flax Seed. Is it pointless? I mean i have the seed, not hte oil, is the seed just as effective as the oil or should i just dump the seed and add the oil to my shake at the end of the day. Does blending or heating the seeds affect their "bonds" and protein strands yadda yadda?

Any other suppliments that could be effective in a cutting cycle? Am i missing anything important?

Am I eating too little? I only really have 3 meals a day, id ont have time other htan for a couple apple slices or a fruit cup between breakfast and lunch and lunch n dinner. Is this okay, or is it detrimental? Any quick food ideas to suppliment? Can't afford to eat 4 chicken breasts a day.

Am I getting enough sleep? I usually get at least 6, sometimes 7 hours of sleep during the week. More on the weekends. Could this be detrimental?

Hmmm i guess that's it If anything isnt clear, let me know. I applogize for the shitty quality of my pics. If you cant read anything let me know.

Thanks!

 

[BigAndy69]

I haven't read all of it, but looking at your pic why would you wanna cut? If you would train hard, your muscle mass whould increase, and your bodyfat and BF% would decrease. You look overtrained to me, and maybe working out too hard or not hard enough...

 

[MS]

Well I gotta say "props to you" Brian22 for posting the best and most comprehensive summary of who you are, what you goals are, etc.... newbies take note that all the info Brian has given us if good stuff.

It's hard for me to know where to start. The biggest part of me agrees with BigAndy, in that I think you could hit the gym and protein etc.....and gain some LBM before a full on cutting cycle. But to address your specific goals, there is a lot that I think you should reconsider.

First I think you need more protein and more meals. Yes I think you should drop the milk, add lots more protein into breakfast, have a high protein midmorning snack instead of fruit. Cut the bread and relish from your lunch, and instead use un-processed carbs such as brown rice or fresh veggies. Forget about the spuds, peas, corn and other starchy vegetables for dinner. Flaxseed is not the same as flaxseed oil so don't try to substitute. Don't bother taking your multi vitamin on and empty stomach. Drink, like, a huge amount more water and I mean that very seriously. 1 liter is a joke!. Ummmm keep the carbs in your post workout shake. Have a high protein midafternoon meal. This is a hodge-podge of responses, but I hope at the very least this will generate more feedback for you.

I really really really think you're under weight and under muscle for you age/gender/height. But that is a mere value judgement and the ball is in your court in terms of your body and sense of well being. Good luck.

 

[Brian22]

Woo hoo resposnes!

Yes that was a very detailed first posting, however i seem to be that way in real life for everything. Should see my tax return, right down to the very last 0.01 haha the IRS loves me...

Anywho, the reason i am in a cutting cycle and on the weight loss kick is to reduce my body fat and waist size. Right now no matter what i do, i cant see any sort of 6 pac, despite the fact that i could 1,000 crunches in the morning, but whats the point if there is fat covering it up? The thought behind the madness was if i got my layer of fat down enough to a resonable level that i could then concentrate very hard on abs and other muscle areas that would be otherwise masked by my current fat.

I suppose i should really go to the doctor and get him to use the calipers to get as accurate a body fat reading as possible. Anyone here able to guess BF% by just looking? I took a pic
Here i am pinching my waist
(gettin pretty good with these pics huh? lol)

Okay so things to change

a) drop the milk. Maybe down to just one glass a day?
b) no vits on empty stomach. Okay. I can move the vitamins to after i eat breakfast.
c) the relish makes it TASTE SO GOOD! lol
d) what vegitables should i avoid? The bag of mixed veggies has corn, green beans, carrots & peas. Nutritional information on the mixed vegies is:
Energy 59 cals
Protein: 2.8 g
Fat 0.4 g
Carbs 11g
Sodium 72 mg
Potasium 158 mg
thats for a 1/2 cup serving (89 grams) I have about 2 and a half cups.

So roughly adding up my carb count we get somthing alone the lines of
Breakfast cereal 39g
lunch 36g
dinner 55 g (not including potatoes)
thats 130 right there for a whole day.

What should i substitute in replace of those meals/items?

keep the advice coming

 

[Belial]

Hey bro. Awesome intro, I gotta say. Here's something for you to consider, though. I know you want to cut and get that muscle showing, but according to my calculations (snort snort 8) ) you've got about 137.78 pounds of lean muscle. If you were to cut down enough to get your abs to show (say, 8% bf max) you'd only weigh about 148-149, assuming NO loss of muscle mass. That's FAR too little at 6'0". What you want to do right now is focus on gaining some muscle. MS had some very solid guidelines. Bump up that protein and complex carbs. Eliminate the "junky" stuff.

I'd say bulk first. What you're lacking right now in muscle mass, but you're still young, and we grow fast at this age.

Dont' worry about the flab. Sure, you've got a bit you can pinch, but that'll come off easily enough, and it'll drop much easier if you've got some muscle under there. Think about it; if you cut right now, what would you have left to show off? not a diss, just something to think about.

So yeah, my advice: Train HARD, add some LBM, and then worry about cutting a bit. If you cut too much now, it'll be that much harder to gain later. Just my $0.02. Good luck, bro!

 

[JB3]

Again, props on the comprehensive post.

From your pic, I'd say roughly 15-17% BF is a good guess.

However, I think you're drastically underestimating your carb intake. 59g in your breakfast? I think not. A banana has 25g alone. And cereal hads up FAST. Have you ever measured your "bowl" of cereal? I'd be willing to guess it's at least 2 servings. Cereal is a killer.

Also, 36g at lunch? I doubt it. One slice of that rye bread has 9g of carbs? (Most breads have about 15g/serving.) If you're having 2 sandwiched, 4 pieces of bread, that's 36g... plus those two apples, plus other hidden/forgotten carbs.

Starchy veggies = corn, legumes (peas, beans), and potatoes. Potatoes are so starchy they are actually in the bread group in the Mediterranean Food Pyramid. 5 servings of starchy vegetables is excessive. Try to incorporate more fresh, leafy, green veggies. The are better for you.

There's absolutely no reason you cannot incorporate 5-6 meals into a day. Pack some snacks for throughout the day. It's not difficult if you get inventive.

Don't worry about the protein shakes (unless you're using them for convience only). Eat real protein sources. Real food is more filling and satiating.

Overall, carbs aren't the enemy. They are simply the easiest to overeat. Using an isocaloric or zone type split of 40% carbs, 30% protein, 30% fat works well for almost everyone. It provides adequate protein and fat while keeping carbs in check, but not at zero. Make sure you're eating roughly 1g of protein per pound of bodyweight split throughout the day and go from there.

Hope I could help.

 

[VarixBro]

There are good tips and advice here already. Basically, cut down calories to about 10 X BW, and have a pig out day once a week or every 5 days or so to raise metabolism/leptin. Get enuff protein and essentail fatty acids and you are good to go. Some morning cardio is good too.

But I want to chime in on your bodyfat level. Ive seen tons of bodyfat percentages, you are NOT 17%. More in the 13% range if I had to take a guess..although I could be wrong.