Cutting Diet Critique please

[wallstreet1]

Im having difficulty cutting fat.. strength and muscles are comming along great but fat loss is happening very slowly. its happening but just veryyy slow. Breakfast is toughj for me and veggies are also tough to eat, i do my best.

Age: 25
Weight: 200
Height: 5'11
BF: ?? 15-18%?
Goals: Cut Fat while maintaining muscle.. maybe add some lean muscle if possible

BMR 1999.72 (@17% bf)
TDEE 3099

Current Cycle: - Test E 500mg/week (250mg monday morning, 250mg thurs night)
- .5mg Adex eod
- 500iu HCG/Week (same injection as test)
Training : I weight train for about an hour.. hour and 15mins 5x per week hard and heavy 90sec rest between sets, 1 muscle group per day (usually 4 exercises, 4 sets each) Cardio usually 3 times after work out for 20-30mins. low intensity.. walk on treadmile (heart rate at 130) or stairmaster. Abs every other day usually

Diet:
7am: - All Natural Darrells Bar (https://www.darylsbars.com/all-natural-energy-bars/chocolate-elite) 25/4/288/38

10am: - 2 scoops ON's protein, glutamine, bcaa 48/2/240/6
- multi vitamin, B5, 1000mg green tea extract capsules

12am: - 8oz Chicken Breast 54/2/260/1
- 1cup Sweet Potatoe 4/0/180/41

345pm: 8oz Chicken Breast + salad 54/2/260/1

5pm: Workout

630: - PWO Shake 2 scoops protein, glutamine, bcaa 48/2/240/6
- 2 tbsp of dextrose 0/0/40/10
- tbsp natural peanut butter 5/8/100/3

9pm: - 8oz Steak (Top Round) + salad 49/10/320/0
- 22 almonds 6/14/164/5
- 1 scoop casein 24/1/120/3
- tbsp natural peanut butter 5/8/100/3

Total: 297/49/2024/79

any suggestions?

 

[Docd187]

Im having difficulty cutting fat.. strength and muscles are comming along great but fat loss is happening very slowly. its happening but just veryyy slow. Breakfast is toughj for me and veggies are also tough to eat, i do my best.

Age: 25
Weight: 200
Height: 5'11
BF: ?? 15-18%?
Goals: Cut Fat while maintaining muscle.. maybe add some lean muscle if possible

BMR 1999.72 (@17% bf)
TDEE 3099

Current Cycle: - Test E 500mg/week (250mg monday morning, 250mg thurs night)
- .5mg Adex eod
- 500iu HCG/Week (same injection as test)
Training : I weight train for about an hour.. hour and 15mins 5x per week hard and heavy 90sec rest between sets, 1 muscle group per day (usually 4 exercises, 4 sets each) Cardio usually 3 times after work out for 20-30mins. low intensity.. walk on treadmile (heart rate at 130) or stairmaster. Abs every other day usually

Diet:
7am: - All Natural Darrells Bar (https://www.darylsbars.com/all-natural-energy-bars/chocolate-elite) 25/4/288/38

10am: - 2 scoops ON's protein, glutamine, bcaa 48/2/240/6
- multi vitamin, B5, 1000mg green tea extract capsules

12am: - 8oz Chicken Breast 54/2/260/1
- 1cup Sweet Potatoe 4/0/180/41

345pm: 8oz Chicken Breast + salad 54/2/260/1

5pm: Workout

630: - PWO Shake 2 scoops protein, glutamine, bcaa 48/2/240/6
- 2 tbsp of dextrose 0/0/40/10
- tbsp natural peanut butter 5/8/100/3

9pm: - 8oz Steak (Top Round) + salad 49/10/320/0
- 22 almonds 6/14/164/5
- 1 scoop casein 24/1/120/3
- tbsp natural peanut butter 5/8/100/3

Total: 297/49/2024/79

any suggestions?

You're cutting on almost an 1100calories deficit so I'd say adding lean muscle is out of the picture. I'm personally a fan of cutting slowly and steadily at a 10-20% deficit, for you a 20% deficit would put you at 2400-2500calories a day. You're almost doubling that so it is a very aggressive cut. Mrrippedzilla and I had a discussion about this a while back, and he's a fan of aggressive deficit cuts ONLY IF YOU CAN HANDLE IT PSYCHOLOGICALLY. It's tough on the mind and body. I'm not a fan of most supplements so I'll not talk about them but besides that your macros aren't too bad and you've kept protein intake high to help prevent catabolism. I will tell you this though, the more aggressive your cut, the harder it will be to maintain strength and lean body mass. You're training 5x/wk and doing cardio, this is going to be very tough if not counter-productive with such a large deficit. As the size of the deficit goes up, the training volume and/or intensity must go down with it to some degree. If not you'll either break mentally and physically from your diet, you'll lose strength and lbm, or you'll start to hit overtraining. All of which are unwanted consequences.

 

[Mrrippedzilla]

First of all, nice to see someone give their bmr and tdee stats - makes giving advice alot easier
As docj said, gaining muscle isnt going to happen on a calorie deficit, your already above 15%bf so lets get you into single digits asap & then you can start bulking again.

You are following an aggressive cut, which I admire & I'll advice on how to handle it. Your weight training is fine but dont go over an hour per session - unnecessary on a cut. Also well done on the cardio, low intensity helps maintain your strength on weights, avoid overtraining & it makes following an aggressive deficit ALOT easier.
Where you need to make some changes is your diet. The macro's & calories are fine but the choices should be improved.


7am: avoids fats here, you want something quick an easy to digest such as a protein shake and a fast carb source

10am: protein shakes should be limited to morning, post workout and maybe casein before bed. All your other meals should be natural food sources, believe me when I say that on a large deficit you wont last long if your relying on protein shakes all day. No need for bcaa supplements since your protein shakes already have them. As for green tea extract, its effect of fat loss is minimal, natutal synephrine would be better, but I'll leave that up to you.

12&3.45: swap these two around so the sweet potato becomes your pre workout carb. You want to keep carbs for 1st morning meal, pre & post workout only - veggies can be used anywhere. Also, avoid eating the same thing (chicken) twice in the same day - venison (low cal red meat), turkey (more protein), tuna etc are all good alternatives.

6.30: again bcaas are unnecessary, fat post workout will slow everything down so either put the peanut butter in another meal or swap your chicken salad for salmon salad.

9: same as above for the fats, the rest is fine.


As well as those changes I highly recommend a structured refeed every 7-14 days where everything stays the same but you add around 500 cals of carbs to your diet. This will help replenish glycogen stores, give your thyroid a boost & help other hormones involved in fat loss recover. This is absolutely vital on an aggressive cut to avoid a metabolic crash and fat loss "plateau".

Good luck bro

 

[wallstreet1]

your also saying avoid fats in the am, in my pwo shake and my 9pm meal... when should I take my fats? I also have fish oil and I like incorporating almonds

 

[Mrrippedzilla]

Your having 6 meals, so get your fats in at 10, 12 & 3.45. Personally I took fish oil supps just to make sure I've got my efa's covered. From food sources, as long as it fits your macros its up to you - oily fish, most nuts, almonds are all good. Almonds would go nicely with your chicken salad but thats up to you.