Diet Critic please: Looking for suggestions options.

Uso

New member
Goal is to get to 5-6% BF, While maintaining maximum amount of weight.

Current Stats:
  • Bf% 8.1-8.3
  • LBM apx: 180lb
  • Total weight: 205
  • Height: 5'9"


Endo prescribed: Test cyp 400mg/wk, Oxandrolone 50mg/daily. Vit D3 at 50,000iu

Cycle:
  • Drop test, continue one dose of arimdex at 1 mg to drop E2(current at apx 30-35)
  • Tren E: 400mg 6 wks, 2wks in
  • Masteron: 400mg 6 wks, 2 wks in
  • Oxandrolone: 50mg/daily
  • Winstrol: 50mg/daily 4wks


Fasted cardio 3-5x weekly
Take 10g BCAA, 10g glutamine, 2g L-citruline
Clen: 40mcg
Lantus: 10iu to stop protein degradation and stay full with lower than normal carbs
Gh: 2iu for increase in lipolysis and decrease protein degradation

Diet

CAL: apx 2,500cal
PRO: 290g
CARB: 252g
FATS: from lean meats


Meal 1: post cardio
Whey Isolate 48g with 1/2cup cream of rice, 1 tbsp of cinnamon

Meal 2:
5 egg white, 4oz lean beef, 1 cup basmati rice, 2g leucine

Meal 3:
7oz chicken breast, 1 cup basamati rice, 1g leucine,

Meal 4:
7oz chicken breast, 1 cup basamati rice, 1g leucine,

Pre weight training:
10g Bcaa, 20g dextrose, creatine, N.O., ARA(awesome for pumps and also beneficial for cell wall/nutrient uptake)

Post:
48g whey isolate, 10g glutamine, 10g glycine, can of pineapple 30g

Meal 5(before bed):
2 cups 0% greek yogurt plain, 12g whey isolate(flavor), cinnamon,

Other:
  • Nac
  • Bcomplex
  • selenium
  • curcumin
  • magnesium
  • krill oil 4g due to low hdl
  • Vit d3



Notes:
Obviously I am a bit concern with losing LBM, every time I have cut or even carb cycled I have dropped a significant amount of weight. I am shooting to stay at 198-200lb.

I would normally have more fats, but the Lantus could prevent lipoysis if too much fat is in the diet. I have decided to use lantus in hopes to optimize amino acid transport for anabolics and stop any protein break down.

I do have experience with insulin. I am a tad resistant, endo never seems to be too concerned with this though but it is something I will want to improve and I feel will certainly help with maintaining weight.

Gh I am hesitant on, solely on the fact it could be fake, I have hygetropin. It seemed to keep me a bit leaner last time I took it and certainly feel carpel sides. I'm just always skeptical.

Schedule:

MON
  • Fasted Cardio
  • Chest/Shld/BI

TUE
  • Fasted Cardio
  • Back/Tri

WED
  • Legs

THUR
  • Fasted Cardio
  • Shld

FRI
  • Fasted Cardio
  • Bi/Tri

SAT
-Off & Re-feed day cheat meal before bed

SUN
  • Fasted Cardio
  • Legs
 
so i dont know why, if your stats are correct, you would start cuttingat 2500 caloires
 
As in too low?
If I had my normal level of fats this would be around 3400cal

Which they were dropped due to lantus
 
I am currently on:
  • Tren: 400mg for the last two weeks
  • Mast: 400mg for the last 4 weeks.
  • Test: my trt dose
  • Var: my trt dose


With tren
I feel it almost immediately. Certainly after the first week. Which is why I dont run ace, it hits a little harder but not enough for me to pin ed.

Next few days
I dropped test to 200mg, yesterday. I will stay here until I have finshed planning this cut then drop completley and add (winny/clen/lantus/gh) with fasted cardio. Hoping to start Monday. At that point I will probably run for 4wks only. I like short blast cycles. They work great for me and are easier on health especially when I have to explain why my hdl sucks again to my endo haha.

I honestly don't think I will need much longer either. That would be conservatively dropping 1lb of fat a week. If I drop 4lbs of fat my total fat weight will be at 10lb. If I maintain a 200lb total weight then I will be at apx 5% with apx 185 lbm. At that point I feel I have dieted to the point that I look show ready. Which is the goal.
 
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Maybe my math is off, but aren't you 188LBM? Not 180? 8%*205=16-205=188? Nice stats btw

Both results I was only on test c and anavar.

24 weeks prior. Dexa

Weight: 194lb
LBM: 174lb
Fat: 14.**lbs
BF % 7.8

8weeks prior Dexa
(relocated for work: stress, lack of weight training and adderall killing my appetite)

Weight: 188lb
LBM: 168
Fat: 13.**lb
BF % 8.3


Some other tissue weight is there. About 6-7lbs, maybe this is bone/organs/fluid/etc not entirely sure. Good question for my endo or maybe the scan results gives a more specific answer. Never paid much attention to it. Both times I have always gotten caliper testing as well, which actually puts me lower by about 1/3 - 1/2%
 
Training Adjustment:
Cardio will still be fasted but HIIT instead of LISS. Better for muscle retention, and suits me more coming from an athletic background.


Edit going to do a mix.
 
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So as promised heres what I think. And like we talked about I dont claim to be a guru of anything especially diet. I have found what works for me and I have ideas of the way I think things should be done and thats what I do. Are they right? Who knows. Are the wrong? I dont know nor do care. But if they are anything, hopefully they will be thoughts that someone will take SOMETHING from and use it to make it work for them.

With that said. And I am by no means trying to offend anyone or take anything away from people who do believe in them but macros, and counting them, if in tune with you body are a monotonous, painful way to eat your food and not the best way to achieve goals, except maybe for a top level Prep or something of that nature.

The reason why I think this is because it is all based on TDEE right? Well who the hell has a TDEE that exactly the same from one day to the next? Nobody I know. So now that a person has figured out their TDEE, which probably isnt accurate anyways they based their caloric intake on that and eat this on a day in day out basis. So now what if one day you burned 500 more cals than your calculated TDEE and what if the next you burned 100 less and maybe the day after that you hit it bang on. So out of three days you hit a bullseye only once because this is what you HAVE to eat. Fuck that!

You look like a guy, judging by your avi who knows something about your body and is pretty in tune with whats going on. Youve mentioned you competed in the past and also mentioned you havent counted macros before. So if you were so successful in achieving this muscular physique doing things one way why change up what isnt broken brother. Dont sit there one day and force feed and gag down food because it tastes like shit or your just plain ol not hungry and dont sit there and starve yourself because you are only allowed to eat X amount of cals. The body is pretty damn good at telling you what it wants, so listen. Look at all these old pros, you think they counted macros or were as nerotic as bodybuilders today, I doubt it. And they looked better too.

You wanna put weight on EAT. You wanna lose weight eat cleaner and less carbs. Clean up your diet, play around with carbs and see what works for YOU. Not some cookie cutter template that is said to get everyone in shape.

I believe in a balanced healthy diet that suits your personal needs not cramming down food when I dont want to or not eating when Im starved. Add some drugs into that mix that suit you needs as well and you have a good recipe.

As far as the drugs go how long do you plan to run the Tren and Mast for man? I personally like my Mast a little higher than that but thats just me.
 
So as promised heres what I think. And like we talked about I dont claim to be a guru of anything especially diet. I have found what works for me and I have ideas of the way I think things should be done and thats what I do. Are they right? Who knows. Are the wrong? I dont know nor do care. But if they are anything, hopefully they will be thoughts that someone will take SOMETHING from and use it to make it work for them.

With that said. And I am by no means trying to offend anyone or take anything away from people who do believe in them but macros, and counting them, if in tune with you body are a monotonous, painful way to eat your food and not the best way to achieve goals, except maybe for a top level Prep or something of that nature.

The reason why I think this is because it is all based on TDEE right? Well who the hell has a TDEE that exactly the same from one day to the next? Nobody I know. So now that a person has figured out their TDEE, which probably isnt accurate anyways they based their caloric intake on that and eat this on a day in day out basis. So now what if one day you burned 500 more cals than your calculated TDEE and what if the next you burned 100 less and maybe the day after that you hit it bang on. So out of three days you hit a bullseye only once because this is what you HAVE to eat. Fuck that!

You look like a guy, judging by your avi who knows something about your body and is pretty in tune with whats going on. Youve mentioned you competed in the past and also mentioned you havent counted macros before. So if you were so successful in achieving this muscular physique doing things one way why change up what isnt broken brother. Dont sit there one day and force feed and gag down food because it tastes like shit or your just plain ol not hungry and dont sit there and starve yourself because you are only allowed to eat X amount of cals. The body is pretty damn good at telling you what it wants, so listen. Look at all these old pros, you think they counted macros or were as nerotic as bodybuilders today, I doubt it. And they looked better too.

You wanna put weight on EAT. You wanna lose weight eat cleaner and less carbs. Clean up your diet, play around with carbs and see what works for YOU. Not some cookie cutter template that is said to get everyone in shape.

I believe in a balanced healthy diet that suits your personal needs not cramming down food when I dont want to or not eating when Im starved. Add some drugs into that mix that suit you needs as well and you have a good recipe.

As far as the drugs go how long do you plan to run the Tren and Mast for man? I personally like my Mast a little higher than that but thats just me.

you make a decent point here and there schredder..

but there is a science to your tdee.. and if you burned an extra 500 calories a day you know your activity level has gone up.. 500 calories isn't exactly a walk around the block
 
you make a decent point here and there schredder..

but there is a science to your tdee.. and if you burned an extra 500 calories a day you know your activity level has gone up.. 500 calories isn't exactly a walk around the block

First of all, both yourself and Zilla came to mind as I was writing and I have respect for both you guys so dont forget that.

I am just a firm believer in listening to ones body, provided you know how to. Ive managed to put on 100lbs of muscle but just simply eating. I have counted macro a little bit and I have force fed myself but at the end of the day, for me at least, I just need to eat man and thats what works best. Of course I would never tell someone to do that, this is more of a this is what I do and maybe you might take a thing or two from it type thing ya know.

So answer me this because I am actually interested now that Ive brought it up. Let just take a guy who cutting because this is whats actually going on here.

Lets say TDEE has been figured out and Macros have been set but this individual likes to do different things on different days. One day hes lazy and doesnt do anything, next day he trains, next day he trains as well but has to help his friend build a fence then he train again the next day but for two day after that he rests. How in the world could an accurate TDEE be figured out for this individual and actually structure a typical cutting diet around this lifestyle. His activity levels are almost impossible to figure out.

That might me kind of an elementary example but I think youll understand what Im trying to get at.
 
Training Adjustment:
Cardio will still be fasted but HIIT instead of LISS. Better for muscle retention, and suits me more coming from an athletic background.

I don't think fasted HIIT (if your doing it properly, as in going balls deep) is a good idea and certainly isn't better for muscle retention.

Either go with fasted LISS or non-fasted HIIT.


As for diet, here are some general views:

- 2500 cals sounds fine to me since its equal to a 20% deficit, which is about what single digit bf% guys cut on.
I suppose you could afford to bump the cals higher due to your cycle but this depends on any time limits you may have.

- Since muscle maintenance appears to be a concern for you, protein intake could go up to 360g if you wish. That's around 2g/lbm, which is suitable for lean individuals like yourself.

- Leucine, glycine and glutamine are a complete waste of money since your getting more than enough of these from your high protein intake (and whey isolate).
- Creatine muscle uptake is better post, rather than pre, workout.

- I was going to go against carb cycling based on your athletic background since most athletes tend to cut pretty well on higher carbs but then I noticed you mentioned your slightly insulin resistant, which is weird.

- Cheat meal and refeeds are not the same thing.
Cheat meals have no real macro limits while refeeds are high carb, low fat with calories above maintenance and without these macros it is NOT a refeed.
IMO you should stick to a full day refeed 1x week since this will help keep this ticking along for fat loss - I see no benefit to cheat meals for someone as lean as you, especially with your competition experience.

Slightly long post but meh...just my overall thoughts :)
 
Either go with fasted LISS or non-fasted HIIT.
Think 3x fasted liss and 1x hiit should be a good balance

As for diet, here are some general views:

- 2500 cals sounds fine to me since its equal to a 20% deficit, which is about what single digit bf% guys cut on.
I suppose you could afford to bump the cals higher due to your cycle but this depends on any time limits you may have.
As for time I am looking to drop 1lb fat a week

- Since muscle maintenance appears to be a concern for you, protein intake could go up to 360g if you wish. That's around 2g/lbm, which is suitable for lean individuals like yourself.

I'll make the adjustment, any opinion on whole food vs whey isolate? Majority will of course be whole food but appetite and of course a busy schedule has always conflicted
Guess I'm asking if I miss a meal better to get a shake then nothing?


- I was going to go against carb cycling based on your athletic background since most athletes tend to cut pretty well on higher carbs but then I noticed you mentioned your slightly insulin resistant, which is weird.

To be specific I will post bw


- Cheat meal and refeeds are not the same thing.
Cheat meals have no real macro limits while refeeds are high carb, low fat with calories above maintenance and without these macros it is NOT a refeed.
IMO you should stick to a full day refeed 1x week since this will help keep this ticking along for fat loss - I see no benefit to cheat meals for someone as lean as you, especially with your competition experience.

Clean carbs or just overall add more carbs to each meal however I prefer?

Slightly long post but meh...just my overall thoughts :)

feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you

Blood work on Insulin

Glycemic control:
-All optimal

Insulin resistance:
-Adipronectin 7: range >14

Beta cell function:
-Insulin 12. Range 3-9
-Pro insulin 20. Range <8
-Proinsulin cpeptide ratio 9.5 <3.6

Everything else is at optimal health.
 
So as promised heres what I think. And like we talked about I dont claim to be a guru of anything especially diet. I have found what works for me and I have ideas of the way I think things should be done and thats what I do. Are they right? Who knows. Are the wrong? I dont know nor do care. But if they are anything, hopefully they will be thoughts that someone will take SOMETHING from and use it to make it work for them.

With that said. And I am by no means trying to offend anyone or take anything away from people who do believe in them but macros, and counting them, if in tune with you body are a monotonous, painful way to eat your food and not the best way to achieve goals, except maybe for a top level Prep or something of that nature.

The reason why I think this is because it is all based on TDEE right? Well who the hell has a TDEE that exactly the same from one day to the next? Nobody I know. So now that a person has figured out their TDEE, which probably isnt accurate anyways they based their caloric intake on that and eat this on a day in day out basis. So now what if one day you burned 500 more cals than your calculated TDEE and what if the next you burned 100 less and maybe the day after that you hit it bang on. So out of three days you hit a bullseye only once because this is what you HAVE to eat. Fuck that!

You look like a guy, judging by your avi who knows something about your body and is pretty in tune with whats going on. Youve mentioned you competed in the past and also mentioned you havent counted macros before. So if you were so successful in achieving this muscular physique doing things one way why change up what isnt broken brother. Dont sit there one day and force feed and gag down food because it tastes like shit or your just plain ol not hungry and dont sit there and starve yourself because you are only allowed to eat X amount of cals. The body is pretty damn good at telling you what it wants, so listen. Look at all these old pros, you think they counted macros or were as nerotic as bodybuilders today, I doubt it. And they looked better too.

You wanna put weight on EAT. You wanna lose weight eat cleaner and less carbs. Clean up your diet, play around with carbs and see what works for YOU. Not some cookie cutter template that is said to get everyone in shape.

I believe in a balanced healthy diet that suits your personal needs not cramming down food when I dont want to or not eating when Im starved. Add some drugs into that mix that suit you needs as well and you have a good recipe.

As far as the drugs go how long do you plan to run the Tren and Mast for man? I personally like my Mast a little higher than that but thats just me.


First off, I appreciate you posting up and taking a look.

For anyone curious this to is how I've always feed myself. Whenever I followed macros I seemed to stress out more than seeing results I wanted; which previously was always weight gain.

I do feel that the goal I am trying to achieve now will take a more dialed in approach. I've built a decent body, but I would like it bring it to an extreme, to test myself if we're being honest. Though I have no clue if the cals I'm using as a guideline will work its a starting point with exactly what you said... Just cleaning up the diet.

I feel the drugs and exercise will drop my bf, I'm planning these meals so I don't lose ten pounds again. But I've never been too much below 7% so it will be a journey into unknown territory.

I don't plan on walking onto a stage, this is just for me.


As far as drugs I am considering bumping masteron up, but with winstrol/anavar/mast all put me at 1100mg. Throwing the tren in puts me at 1500mg. Tren has always made me harden like crazy and the cals I would have to put in became unreasonable for me. With added gh and slin, I feel if I lose LBM with all of that than cals are probably way off.

If I bump up AAS it would be adding in some test again 200mg then back to 400mg. But 800mg of masteron is tempting haha
 
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Whole food vs whey:
- Obviously whole food is preferred but shakes are fine if your schedule doesn't permit it.
I personally prefer casein to whey because it helps keep you full while dieting - whey doesn't but whatever your comfortable with.

Carbs on refeed:
- Please don't use the word "clean" lol.
- Limit fructose to 50g max (a few pieces of fruit here and there).
- Limit sucrose to 100g max (sugar treats, cookies, etc).
- The rest of your carbs should come exclusively from starchy sources like potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, etc. It doesn't matter if its white, brown or whatever, as long as its starchy. I personally feel like shit with pasta but that's a personal thing.

Remember to limit fats to a MAX of 50g but honestly, the lower the better.
Its also a good idea to schedule a workout on refeed day to help with nutrient partitioning if you can (placing most carbs pre/post workout, etc).


Blood work on Insulin

Glycemic control:
-All optimal

Insulin resistance:
-Adipronectin 7: range >14

Beta cell function:
-Insulin 12. Range 3-9
-Pro insulin 20. Range <8
-Proinsulin cpeptide ratio 9.5 <3.6

Everything else is at optimal health.

Your results pretty much confirm what I thought originally - all very weird.
For example, adiponectin tends to be sky high the leaner you get (making you more insulin sensitive) and yet yours is the opposite. I suppose the exogenous compounds you've used in the past may have something to do with it (especially if you uses slin previously).

Those numbers suggest that cycling carbs is probably a good idea, using a TKD type approach might be even better.
For example, rather that limiting your carbs even further you could simply time them to go pre/post workout where your body will be in a prime hormonal environment anyway. Of course your cycle will help with all this partitioning stuff anyway so...
 
Whole food vs whey:
- Obviously whole food is preferred but shakes are fine if your schedule doesn't permit it.
I personally prefer casein to whey because it helps keep you full while dieting - whey doesn't but whatever your comfortable with.

Carbs on refeed:
- Please don't use the word "clean" lol.
- Limit fructose to 50g max (a few pieces of fruit here and there).
- Limit sucrose to 100g max (sugar treats, cookies, etc).
- The rest of your carbs should come exclusively from starchy sources like potatoes, pasta, rice, bread, etc. It doesn't matter if its white, brown or whatever, as long as its starchy. I personally feel like shit with pasta but that's a personal thing.

Remember to limit fats to a MAX of 50g but honestly, the lower the better.
Its also a good idea to schedule a workout on refeed day to help with nutrient partitioning if you can (placing most carbs pre/post workout, etc).




Your results pretty much confirm what I thought originally - all very weird.
For example, adiponectin tends to be sky high the leaner you get (making you more insulin sensitive) and yet yours is the opposite. I suppose the exogenous compounds you've used in the past may have something to do with it (especially if you uses slin previously).

Those numbers suggest that cycling carbs is probably a good idea, using a TKD type approach might be even better.
For example, rather that limiting your carbs even further you could simply time them to go pre/post workout where your body will be in a prime hormonal environment anyway. Of course your cycle will help with all this partitioning stuff anyway so...


Hmm, I have used lantus and both Humulin/humalog.

Anyway to improve adipronectin? I had improved from previous blood work. But not by much. (12wk)


TKD, is similar to carb backloading? Eat majority of carbs pre and post workout(at night for me)
I will say every time I reduce carbs or do a back load style I feel extremely depleted/flat. But I guess that might just be apart of cutting.

Would the carbs be dropped or still sit around what I have them now?
 
Hmm, I have used lantus and both Humulin/humalog.

Anyway to improve adipronectin? I had improved from previous blood work. But not by much. (12wk)


TKD, is similar to carb backloading? Eat majority of carbs pre and post workout(at night for me)
I will say every time I reduce carbs or do a back load style I feel extremely depleted/flat. But I guess that might just be apart of cutting.

Would the carbs be dropped or still sit around what I have them now?

Lower salt intake and fish oil supplementation helps.
But honestly, being insulin resistant is a good thing when dieting (less "storage") but isn't good for when you decide to bulk again -basically don't worry about it too much for now.

TKD is a keto diet with carbs placed pre/post workout.
Carb backloading is complete nonsense spewed by Keifer suggesting that taking carbs at night rather than during the day will somehow help fat loss.

Keep your macros the same, just make sure to get the majority of your carbs around your workouts.
 
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