Critique My Health Routine

[rjmaiorano]

Originally Posted by juliank

From what I have researched it seems the general consensus seems to be that if I am lifting more weight and getting stronger as the weeks pass that I am not losing muscle. I have lost 2lbs a week (no more no less) for 10 weeks straight now. My macros are on point.

That said, these last 8 weeks I do plan on upping the calories just a hair so that I only lose 1.5 lbs a week. The main reason I am doing this is not because I think I am losing muscle but because I want to maintain a low bodyfat % as a lifetime thing. Obviously I am well aware that for many people on here what I am doing sounds like I am right on the line, but honestly I haven't felt this good in over a decade. It's a crazy feeling and one that I don't want to sabotage by overplaying my hand but at the same time by not capitulating to naysayers on message boards.

For sure. When all is said and done you know your body better than people on a message board. And if you are feeling great then good on you.

 

[gungadin25]

You just need to maintain muscle, while you lose fat, not continue to build muscle. I would say lift 2x a week with compound lifts, eat a little more and do cardio 3-4x a week. You should be fine.

 

[endersjeesh]

I figured I'd get in on the fun. Longtime lurker, 1st time poster. I've fenced since middle school and that always kept me in lean shape 5'10, was 135, now up to 141lbs. Now that I'm in grad school I'm looking to add mass/strength. Mainly I want to physically look like an adult male. Goal is a lean, athletic look. Here's is my current routine, been doing it for 6 weeks now. Seen some gains (6lbs), but wondering if I am doing too much too often. I just feel that taking a week off seems excessive since I am not doing much heavy lifting or power lifting. I am currently working up to BW in the BP and squat. I've done the dietary calculations for protein, carb, fat balance and I'm eating a about 3500Cal/day. I'm in medicine so finding time to consume 5k+ is tough (not into powders). My main concern is maximizing the efficiency of my routine given my stated goals. Every other day, I vary order of exercises. I'm looking to build a pull up bar in my gym so I can add those. Exercise Sets Reps Current Weight (lbs) BP 3 12 110 weighted dips 3 7 25 Cpt Chair raise 3 30 10 Incline Pushup 3 12 n/a Squat 3 12 70 Curls 3 12 30 Shoulder press (dbell) 3 12 25 Side bends 3 25 25 Oblique twists 3 25 25 Bicycle crunches 3 30 10 forearm curls 3 12 20 All told it takes me about 2hrs from stretch, warm-up exercise cool-down. Thanks for any input + or -.

 

[juliank]

Hit my goal of 8% and surpassed it to land at 7% BF at 130 lbs. I'm done losing bf. It's weird because I am still increasing with half of my lifts, but with the other half I've plateaud. I look and feel amazing. Then again, I've never seen my body like this before, like ever. I was always thin to moderate weight throughout my teens and chubby throughout my late 20s so this is probably why I am so pumped about it. There is no way in hell I am going back to the way I was before. This was a complete lifestyle change for me and I love it; basically at this point, sports and going to the gym is fun for me and I look forward to it every day. Also, I enjoy the foods I eat and I never feel deprived. I live in the Bay Area so I am a bit of a food nerd so I just tailored my food nerdism to my goals.

It's incredible how fat hides everwhere on your body haha. I kept losing and losing and I was losing everywhere but my stomach grr. The last 5-6 lbs were the hardest to lose, but I didn't come this far to not have respectable abs. All in all, I lost 37.5 lbs and I started in January. All I have to say is macros, dialed in diet and rock solid persistence is 90% of the game. So the last 6 weeks of this I started to get bored and since I knew I would not want to bulk (very happy with the current size and strength of my muscles and if they got any bigger I would just look douchey) so I started doing yoga. I took to it like a fish to water and honestly I could see myself doing it for the rest of my life. I know it sounds cliche but I don't give a ****, yoga seriously can change your mental and physical life. Maybe I just have a good teacher who knows. Anyways, now I do yoga 3 days a week and lift weights 3X a week to maintain. Sorry for this long rant but I don't talk about this with anyone ( not even my roommate who has seen it all) and I just had to get all my thoughts out.

 

[roryben]

pics or it didn't happen

in all seriousness, congrats buddy. Great work and interesting to follow.

 

[indesertum]

Originally Posted by juliank

Stats

I started at 5' 6 167 lbs on 12/29

Currently 158 lbs

Goal 140 Lbs or whatever 10 % or less BF looks like

To make a long story short I have been lifting weights on and off for 5 years and now I am totally committed to getting lean. Luckily I have well developed muscle all over my body from my weight lifting, unluckily I have the fat that comes from never properly applying caloric science to my daily routine.

Right now I am doing cardio 45-90 minutes 6 days a week.
HIIT on off days and low-medium intensity on days I lift.
Currently lifting HEAVY 5X5 compound lifts 3 days a week, with a couple isolated lifts thrown in.

Blind Spot: Abs
I have always hated doing abs and since I wasn't doing a diet that put me under 10% BF I simply skipped them. Now that I am working to get under 10% BF through cardio/diet/weight lifting I need an ab routine that will help my abs to be visible when I hit that under 10% zone.

Diet

5 small meals a day
1500-1700 Calories
50p/30f/20c on off days
40p/30c/30f on lifting days

Multi Vitamin, Fish Oil, Whey Protein, Flaxseed Oil, Green Tea Extract

1 Cheat day a week where I eat more carbs but I still keep it under 2000 cals

According to the Mifflin Equation my RMR is 2471 Calories

Thanks and would appreciate any tips or pointers !

I think your mifflin equation might be off. you might have put in pounds instead of kilos


anyways congrats on your success!

 

[juliank]

thanks guys for the kind words. i will have to echo the other people who originally chimed in on the thread about upping my cals. i was able to get away with a 1000-800 cal deficit in the first 2 months, but the last 2 months i dropped it to 500, then to 300. i plateaud in my weight loss only one week, and thats when instead of upping crazy amounts of cardio or dialing down my calorie deficit, i maintained my 300 cal deficit, lowered my carbs a bit, and just waited it out. instead of dropping 2 lbs a week, it was taking 10 days to drop 1.5 lbs and i was fine with that. i had got to 10% bf and i was most concerned with not losing any muscle. made sure to take plenty of casein before bed and not do crazy long amounts of cardio.

 

[Hartmann]

Sounds like you figured out exactly what you wanted and how to get there, and then went out and got the job done. Awesome.

Looking back, Scrumhalf made a lot of useful suggestions while me and a lot others were mostly negative, so kudos on ignoring our (my) dickishness and sticking with it.