Maintaining Weight And Losing Gut

[Young Scrappy]

I had a little goal to get to 200 lbs by the end of the year and I reached it eating cleanly. My strength has increased but I also developed a small gut. In my pursuit for 200 lbs, I cut out cardio for 2 months and kind of ignored abs although I do core exercises.

I still want to maintain strength gains, cut my gut and stay at 200lbs. Possible? I still have strength goals like I got my bench to max at 225 but I'd like to rep it 6 - 8 times. How should I add cardio? What intensity, lengths, times a week? Reps, I keep them low because I'm going for strength. Can I stick with that?

Some side facts:
I do plyometrics twice a week and plan to join bball league in the spring so I'm going to start playing pick up games twice a week. I'm trying to start dunking again also.

I'm a vegetarian but I do eat dairy.

I take creatine and three protein shakes a day.

 

[jov777]

lost 115 lbs about 6 years ago and have put back on about 15, not bad for 6 years...

the key is this. cardio at least 3 days a week. i've done a lot of research and most studies show that people who kept off their weight kept up with some kind of cardio/excersise routine. even if their diet wasn't 100% great, the excersise alone helped them keep off the weight.


also, even more important than that advice, don't beat yourself up about getting a little gut. as you get old it happens no matter what.

 

[Young Scrappy]

Thanks for the advice. Maybe my post was a little too long-winded. Basically, how do you maintain your weight and lose a small gut?

 

[ken]

Congrats on reaching your goal. And kudos for not trying to get big and lean at the same time.

I wouldn't doubt that the basketball league will take care of the gut. If it doesn't, you can try adding a 15 or 20 minute walk on a steep incline on non-weight-training days.

Do you eat eggs?

 

[Young Scrappy]

Yea, I eat eggs. At what intensity should I do that cardio?

My workout is (no cardio):

Monday - Chest
Tuesday - Back/Plyometrics
Wednesday - Legs
Thursday - Shoulders
Friday - Arms
Saturday - Plyometrics

Plyometrics only takes 30 min so basically off Saturday and Sunday. When should I fit in the cardio? And do abs exercises help with gut? I'm not really concerned with a six pack, just bringing down my waist size.

 

[Johnnyscans]

Ab exercises do not help with your gut. I've heard that doing abs while not focusing on body fat (aka the gut) can actually make the gut appear bigger than it is.

 

[bkk]

I was in a similar position a year ago. I was doing the 5x5 workout for size and strength, but added too much fat to my body because of the amount of food I was eating. I've switched to more of a traditional workout with great results in terms of cutting. Check out something like HIIT or HST. I haven't gained nearly as much strength or size, but I feel and look 100x better.

 

[Young Scrappy]

Originally Posted by bkk

I was in a similar position a year ago. I was doing the 5x5 workout for size and strength, but added too much fat to my body because of the amount of food I was eating. I've switched to more of a traditional workout with great results in terms of cutting. Check out something like HIIT or HST. I haven't gained nearly as much strength or size, but I feel and look 100x better.

How did your weight change?

 

[upnorth]

If you say you are eating cleanly from this point onwards, you might see some changes even without changing your training.

That said, you might want to include a session of higher intensity sprints. Also, how long have you been on the current routine? It sounds like it's in need of a major revision. Personally, I would never include a day specifically for arms. I will rather fit triceps on a "push" day and biceps on my "pull" day. Take a day off weight training on one of the weekday.

Ab exercises do not help with waist size reductions much.

 

[Flambeur]

Ok, let me get this straight.

You can barely bench 225 yet, but you have separate days for chest, shoulders, arms? What's the point. Arms day? What do you do, 5 billion curls and extensions? Complete overkill.

This is purely my own opinion. I'd cut down your weight training to three days a week, concentrating on squats, deads, press. That's really all you need for a long time. Well, throw some dips and pullups in there too. And stay away from the machines, free weights only. And then throw in 2 days of conditioning in there when you do some cardio, plyometrics, maybe some heavy bag work, cycling or something, to keep up your overall conditioning.

Done.

 

[why]

Originally Posted by Flambeur

Ok, let me get this straight.

You can barely bench 225 yet, but you have separate days for chest, shoulders, arms? What's the point. Arms day? What do you do, 5 billion curls and extensions? Complete overkill.

This is purely my own opinion. I'd cut down your weight training to three days a week, concentrating on squats, deads, press. That's really all you need for a long time. Well, throw some dips and pullups in there too. And stay away from the machines, free weights only. And then throw in 2 days of conditioning in there when you do some cardio, plyometrics, maybe some heavy bag work, cycling or something, to keep up your overall conditioning.

Done.

+1

 

[globetrotter]

Originally Posted by Flambeur

Ok, let me get this straight.

You can barely bench 225 yet, but you have separate days for chest, shoulders, arms? What's the point. Arms day? What do you do, 5 billion curls and extensions? Complete overkill.

This is purely my own opinion. I'd cut down your weight training to three days a week, concentrating on squats, deads, press. That's really all you need for a long time. Well, throw some dips and pullups in there too. And stay away from the machines, free weights only. And then throw in 2 days of conditioning in there when you do some cardio, plyometrics, maybe some heavy bag work, cycling or something, to keep up your overall conditioning.

Done.

+2

 

[bkk]

Originally Posted by Young Scrappy

How did your weight change?

I dropped to ~180lbs at first. This was mostly from losing fat. I've since been bad about eating enough and going to the gym and have dropped to <170lbs.

 

[Lear]

Originally Posted by Flambeur

Ok, let me get this straight.

You can barely bench 225 yet, but you have separate days for chest, shoulders, arms? What's the point. Arms day? What do you do, 5 billion curls and extensions? Complete overkill... (SNIPPED)... .

Flambeur, I agree with everything you say.

Away from this forum and into the real world; benching even 200 pounds is considered pretty strong. I reckon that the OP is probably stronger than 99% of the people he passes on the high street.

Many of you guys here are SERIOUSLY strong. It's impressive, takes discipline and hard work. However, it's not common.

Lear

 

[Young Scrappy]

Originally Posted by upnorth

If you say you are eating cleanly from this point onwards, you might see some changes even without changing your training.

That said, you might want to include a session of higher intensity sprints. Also, how long have you been on the current routine? It sounds like it's in need of a major revision. Personally, I would never include a day specifically for arms. I will rather fit triceps on a "push" day and biceps on my "pull" day. Take a day off weight training on one of the weekday.

Ab exercises do not help with waist size reductions much.

About 2 months on this routines. I think I do need a change. It's just when I combine 2 muscle my workout are 1 1/2 long. Do you combine legs & shoulders?