My diet needs an adjustment - muscle growth/fat loss

[ddzc]

Hi all.

I'm thinking about a test cycle (first), but I want to ensure my diet is in check (which it's not) and I want to lower my bf% a bit before I start. I've read on here, getting down to 15% is ideal before starting any cycle, so that's my goal.

Hope you can help out. I'm originally a skinny toothpick and I've been working out and training for over 8 years. I've bulked, cut, had trainers, coaches, etc throughout the years and I've never been able to reach any decent goals and look good. Every time I bulk, I put on a lot of fat at the same time and not so much muscle. When I've cut, I looked like a lean thin toothpick with no muscle or size at all. I can never find a program or routine which gives me quality muscle and size with at a lower bf%. I've been at this for almost a decade now.

Anyways, I can usually drop my bf% quite low only when I hit around 160lbs...but I look like a stick so I hate the look. I've tried slow bulking for the past year and I've hit 190lbs but I put on a lot of fat and look like crap. I'm 5'11".

I want to keep my weight or not drop much and I want to keep the mass which I have and pack on lean muscle and lower my BF%. I did a test with the digital machine and self tested with my calipers and both showed me 24%. I would like to drop to 15% and pack on some lean muscle and look better. I can show you pics if you want. My gym routine is pretty solid..I've increased weights significantly for all body parts and exercises in the past year. The only supplement I've been taking in the past few mths is creatine and l-glutamine with my PWO shake.

Below is my diet. I usually follow it 6 days a week and the 7th day is clean food but not 100% of what I eat regularly. With the below diet, my weight fluctuates from 190lbs-195lbs. If I'm busy and don't follow it or skip a meal here and there, I drop weight fast due to my genetics and high metabolism. Diets have been given to me throughout the years by trainers and nutritionists and I never broke it down in to calories/protein/carbs/fat until today. I believe it may be off. Should I follow the 40/40/20 rule when it comes to dropping bodyfat% and keeping/adding size/muscle?

With regards to my diet, the chicken and beef is stir fry cooked with low sodium soya sauce, oyster sauce, sesame seed oil, olive oil and vegetables (carrots, broccoli, celery). I usually cook a batch, weigh it and freeze it for work. I then cook my rice with nothing in it and mix the stir fry meat with it and there's my 2 meals per day...it's just enough flavor which makes it all taste good.

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. Here is my diet:

Meal 1 – 8:00am
1.5 cups Egg whites - 180 Calories, 42G Protein
1 whole egg - 70 Calories, 6G Protein, 1G Carbs, 5G Fat
1 cup oatmeal (measured dry) - 360 Calories, 60G Carbs, 12G Protein
1 tbsb olive oil - 120 Calories, 13g fat

Meal 2 – 12:00pm
120g Chicken - 107 Calories, 24.6G Protein, 1.6G Fat
1 cup long grain rice (measured dry) - 680 Calories, 148G Carbs, 12G Protein

Meal 3 – 4:00pm
No-Fat Cottage Cheese (1 cup) - 200 Calories, 16G Carbs, 32G Protein
1 plain large rice cake - 35 Calories, 7G Carbs, 1G Protein, 0.4G Fat

Gym Workout – 5:15pm – 6:30pm

Meal 4 – 6:35pm
2 scoops whey protein - 240 Calories, 48G Protein, 8G Carbs, 2G Fat

Meal 5 – 7:00pm
120g lean beef - 220 Calories, 36.7G Protein, 6.9G Fat
1 cup long grain rice - 680 Calories, 148G Carbs, 12G Protein

Meal 6 – 10:00pm
2 scoops whey protein - 240 Calories, 48G Protein, 8G Carbs, 2G Fat
28g almonds - 165 Calories, 6G Carbs, 5G Protein, 13.5G Fat

Total:

3297 Calories
279.3G Protein
402G Carbs
44.4G Fat

Thanks,
Dan

 

[Diced]

couple of things, im sure ur aware that trying to bulk/cut at the same time is counter productive so choose one and go at it ! as far as ur diet goes i would bump ur protein up a little also look into carb cycling/rotation another thing always take a simple carb with ur creatine/glutamine pwo ! post up ur training program , if ur a true ectomorph u should be lifting hard and heavy for short periods of time then gettin out of the gym and eating/recovering ! might sound strange but i would add in a small amount of cardio x2-3 a week i found adding cardio in actually helped me build muscle george farah has some good videos on the science behind it on youtube !! so summing it all up either bulk or cut dont be indescicive,look into carb cycling,bump up ur protein intake and always have a simple carb(grape juice works well or any post workout shake with dextrose in it)with ur creatine/glutamine , round ur cals off to 3,500 (bulking) majority of extra cals coming from PROTEIN

DICED

 

[Docd187]

A post I made in another thread about diet:

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT use the calorie calculator from myfitnesspal. It's horrible. Google the Katch-McArdle formula for calculating your BMR if you have an accurate bod fat % estimation. Take your BMR and multiply it by an activity factor for how active you are during the week including sports, extracurricular activities, work, gym etc: ~1.2-1.3 for fairly sedentary, 1.4-1.6 for moderately active, and 1.6+ for highly active. When you multiply activity factor and your BMR you will get your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure). This is how many calories it requires to maintain your weight. Add or subtract 10-20% of that TDEE depending on whether you want to cut or bulk. That's how many cals you should take a day (its a good estimate but might need some tweaking). Your daily MINIMUM requirements are 1-1.2g of protein per lb bodyweight and 0.45-0.5g of fat per lb body weight. These are just minimums. The rest of your calories can come from more protein, more fat, carbs, or any combination of the 3. Try to stay away from ratios bc they can be misleading, here's an example:

If you take your 2000cal number from myfitnesspal and use a ratio 45/35/20 C/P/F, that means 20% of your cals come from fat. That means you're only alotted 400cals to come from fat, and at 9cals/g, that means you'd only get ~45 g of fat a day. You weigh 193lbs which means you need around 90g of fat a day minimum for proper hormonal and bodily functions. You'd be taking in half your minimum need. The same goes for protein, at 35% of total cals, that would mean you'd only get 175g of protein a day and at your bodyweight that's acceptable but could be much more beneficial if it were higher.

 

[Docd187]

Also as diced said already, pick one goal at a time and work towards it 100%. Switch tracks when you're ready. Recomps are difficult to accomplish without cycle assistance and take a very long time, almost like one step backward for every 2 steps forward. Also like diced said carb cycling can be beneficial if you have an intolerance to some carbs or tend to hold a lot of water weight/bloat from them. Low to medium intensity cardio a few times a week can help build your appetite if that's an issue but it also helps your cardiovascular system and there is SOME evidence it helps keep the body's fat burning pathways active even during a bulk making it a little easier to cut fat when coming off a bulk. Hope this helps you a little bit.



Oh another thing I noticed is that you are WOEFULLY DEFICIENT IN DIETARY FAT. The minimum recommended is around 0.5g/lb bw of dietary fat. You're at about 1/2 you're minimum which will adversely affect you in the short and long term. I suggest you drop some carbs or protein (you're protein intake is more than adequate and carbs are not an essential nutrient) and get more fats in your diet. Try to get around half your bodyweight or ~95g + in your case