Trimming Down In Size

[Rabid_Goose]

Starting my new journal, this one is going to be mark my path from 200 pounds down to 180. My original start weight in April I think it was, or late Febuary was 255 pounds and now I'm going to shoot for losing 20 more. I'm 5'7" and 22 years old. My lifting routine will be a small one, just the 5x5 with a minor tweak in it, instead of military press I'm going to add in Power Shrugs, for some reason MP seems to bother my neck, no idea why.

My diet will be 2500 calories, take or give a little. Going for a 40protein/30carb/30fat Macro Nutrients for those of you that were curious. My fats will be coming mostly from ANPB and Almonds, will add olive in there I believe and when I can find a nice Omega 3 Supplement.

Monday/Wednesday/Friday will be a standard Intermediate 5x5, minus MP for Power Shrugs. Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday will be HIIT Cardio for roughly one hour.

Tomorrow I start, anyone having any suggestions please post.

 

[Snitz]

Isn't the 5x6 a mass-building strategy? Maybe I'm not thinking through this too well, but wouldn't you be better off, to lose weight, with a low-weight high-rep method with the weights? An hours worth of cardio 3x a week sounds like you'll be shredding the fat in no time, but why bother with 5x5?

 

[Rabid_Goose]

Just something to stay in routine with. My last time I lost a lot of weight I did managed a few small gains here in there. That and to keep my muscles in shape and working, don't want to lose pure lean muscle mass.

 

[Svetislav_aka_Waczlaff]

3 days per week HIIT about "ONE" hour ??? and that beside a 5x5 Template 3 days per week incl. 3 times Squat per week ???

That seemed that you want to loose you fat with impatience... that is not very clever....

1. ) HIIT Cardio about "ONE" hour -> that is definitely too long that you train really INTENSIVE - normally HIIT Session can't take longer than 20-25minutes otherwise you train not high intensive enough...!

2. ) Also when you would only train about 20-25 minutes HIIT - for tree times per week is too much when you also train a 5x5 template beside it incl. 3 times Squat per week, your CNS and also your knees will be not very lucky about it... Give you max. 10-14 days until you are burn out or will get injuiries in your legs or calves like strain or rupture of the muscle fibers...

also when you started with small weights at the 5x5 to reach your records in week 3 or 4 you will never arrive there....

 

[Lifting N Tx]

Snitz, I've seen reports from various people reporting good success in cutting with 5x5, as the heavy weights seem to allow good preservation of muscle mass even with a caloric deficit.

I don't do HIIT, but suspect that Svetislav is right in that this may need to be scaled back some or most of the hour comprised of slower cardio.

Good luck, Rabid Goose, I'm interested to see how it goes for you.

 

[Rabid_Goose]

Well, the HIIT cardio is an introduction to it and will be a slower pace for the first week or two. I'm going to go at a 60-70% HR for Four minutes, full out speed one minute.

This stuff isn't set in stone, I'm still kind of new to all this stuff and just going and learning from my mistakes. Each week I move my time frame down until I'm barley able to handle it.

 

[al420]

I agree w/ Svet on HIIT for 60 min - that is over kill, is deff catabolic, and is overkill....wait, aready said that.

On the 5x5...I have read several articles about the benefit of low rep, heavy weight for fat loss in certain body types. I'm no expert on eso/eco/meso/morpho or any or that, but I am what is called stocky - always have been - I lost weight (245-208) and got a smidge stronger doing 2 5x5's back-to-back and on 2500'ish cals per day and 3 cheat meals a week.

I just got done w/ 10 weeks at 4500 cals per day and put on 30lbs and got much much stronger so keep at it. Good luck to you.

 

[Rabid_Goose]

What type of cheat meals did you have? I was thinking a cheat meal like Ruby Tuesday's burger or something and a snack like a brownie as my two meals.

I think what I'll do is 30 minutes at a high incline walking then followed up by my HIIT cardio for 15 minutes. I think I'll do like 2 or 3 minutes jog then 1 minute sprint pace. Or should I take that lower?

I'm hoping the power shrugs will still take effect, I already have decent sized traps and would like to see em grow a bit more.

 

[Svetislav_aka_Waczlaff]

I think what I'll do is 30 minutes at a high incline walking then followed up by my HIIT cardio for 15 minutes. I think I'll do like 2 or 3 minutes jog then 1 minute sprint pace. Or should I take that lower?
QUOTE]

2-3 minutes of jog followed by 1min sprint is good !!! But why do you want to start with 30minutes of Incline Walking before ? Think warmup up 3-5 minutes and stretching is enough not to loose to much power for the HIIT Sprints (you must be a 100%)... the Incline Walking if you want to do that should be done at the end !

 

[Rabid_Goose]

Alrighty, then I'll do that tomorrow. We'll see how long I last with the HIIT and my breaking point. I'll probably lose 4 pounds in water and the gym will have to mop up after I leave but screw em.