Needsize, I needhelp!! Other BB's welcome also.

[CobraUTAH]

Been doing your 5x5 for about 10 months now. I've done it in two steps with a half assed diet in between. Anyway I started at 200 pounds I weigh 245 now. I've gained a ton of strength and size in this time. I need help with a diet. I'm just looking for recommendations. I'm leaning towards CKD, but is this what you did to get ready for competition. I'm not looking to know all the details or all your secrets just a basic direction. I'm not going to be competing I'm just wanting to cut all the fat out now. I'm 245 like I said and 15% b.f. If my bodyfat measurement was accurate I'm roughly 208 pounds lean. I'd like to stay above 200 pounds of lean mass ultimately. I'd also like to stay above 215 pounds total. Is this a realistic goal? 220 would be preferable. I'm very confused as to dieting. I'm very afraid of loosing lean mass. I don't mind loosing strength while dieting but I'd be very upset with loosing hard earned lean mass over these last 10 months.

 

[Lord_Suston]

Cobra- evaluate your diet and see where the calories come from, then slowly adjust them to reach a point where your body is burning fat.
I really like going no carbs but this is not for everyone, some people lose tons of muscle, I on the other hand do not (seems to be a family thing). it is a simple game of math, just clean up the diet a little here and there and add some interval cardio and you can get some good result, try for 225 at 7-9%

 

[CobraUTAH]

How do I know whether or not a low carb diet like CKD will work well for me? I'm naturally a very thin person. I graduated H.S. at 130 pounds and 6'1", I'm now 6'3" at 245 only through hard work and dedication. I have to eat like a total freak still to keep adding weight each week. It's truly disgusting how much I eat in a day. Usual day is this.

Breakfast - oatmeal yogurt banana
brunch - yogurt oatmeal bar snack
Lunch - Fast food combo meal, or home for a big sandwich and chips and veges
LIFT AT FIVE
After Workout - Big shake 2 cups milk 2 scoops protein 2 servings peanut butter mixed
Dinner - Eat out Fast food combo meal or sit down dinner somewhere biggest thing on menu usually.
Bedtime - Another of the big shakes.
I also eat random things that I can get my hands on throughout the day.

I know I eat plenty of garbage but it's always high in calories and high in protein.

Cleaning it all up will help a bunch I'm certain.

I'm not sure if I want to try and drop fat as fast as possible with an extreme diet or just slowly clean up my diet while adding in a good steady cardio routine. Any suggestions??

Suston 225 at 7% would be a dream come true!!

 

[Lord_Suston]

I don't recommend dropping fat cause they are need to burn fat in your metabolism, by dropping them your body goes into a mode where it turn carbs into fat, basically it thinks you are not gonna get anymore fat in your diet so it starts turning everything into fat (An insulin mechanism if you really want to know). Try to slowly drop some of the carbs or change the type of carbs, go from chips to a Baked potatoe ect..

slowly change the diet and your body won't crash and eat muscle too badly. I did this last year and went from 197 to 181 at about 8-9%.

 

[needsize]

my diet, which brought me from 13% to almost 4% was nothing fancy, just super clean. First thing I would say would be drop all the obvious sources of fat, especially the saturated ones. Like suston said, you need fats, but I got all mine from essential fatty acids(Udos Choice). Also, like he said, after cutting out that stuff, slowly start to adjust your calories, slowly cutting back on carbs. The slower you do it the less likely you are to drop mass.
The low carb thing is a disaster for me, even on juice I drop mass like crazy if I dont have enough carbs. On my contest diet I never went below 150-200 carbs per day

 

[CobraUTAH]

6'3" at 220-225 and around 6-8% would be a dream come true for me. I'd be the happiest lifter alive if I could get there. I do understand the concept behind not eliminating or reducing fat as your body then tends to store it instead of burn it and I know it needs it for the many functions of the body.

I'm pretty sure that I want to loose fat as fast as possible because I hate to diet. If I do it fast then I can workout a maintenance diet and be happy with that. I'm very confused with the CKD though not because of the ratios or the carb-up but because of who to determine BMR and how to adjust or if I even need to adjust the BMR when including lifting and cardio.

 

[CobraUTAH]

my diet, which brought me from 13% to almost 4% was nothing fancy, just super clean. First thing I would say would be drop all the obvious sources of fat, especially the saturated ones. Like suston said, you need fats, but I got all mine from essential fatty acids(Udos Choice). Also, like he said, after cutting out that stuff, slowly start to adjust your calories, slowly cutting back on carbs. The slower you do it the less likely you are to drop mass.
The low carb thing is a disaster for me, even on juice I drop mass like crazy if I dont have enough carbs. On my contest diet I never went below 150-200 carbs per day

So you wouldn't recommend a really low carb diet then. I've read several articles and one in particular by Christian Thebaudeau(spell) at testosterone mag said a similar thing that to few carbs made the lifting very very tough and that if he were to do it again he would not go as low as he did on the carbs. It really makes sense to me. Another question is did you modify your 5x5 training much or at all during the diet to contest time? Did you do cardio at all, either regular running, or HIIT?

Can you recommend a calculation or a site that will help me figure out my BMR? Currently I'm 245 and 15% like I've already said. If I use the basic CKD calculation my BMR cals are 2940 12x245. Seems very low?? With lifting and cardio it seems like I'd be in way to much of a defecit each day?

This is how I understand loosing weight. If my BMR is 3000 calories that means that without doing a damn thing all day I'd need to eat 3000 calories to maintain my 245 pounds. So if I want to workout then I'd need to increase my calories or I'd start to loose weight at only 3000 a day. Example if my workout burned 1000 calories I'd need 4000 a day to keep perfectly maintained right?

Now here's my question how accurate do I have to be with the calories watching to have success? Should I try to find a way to calculate exactly how much I burn lifting or doing a cardio or HIIT session?

 

[Toozee]

bump-o