Slimming workout

[drizzt3117]

I will preface this with a little personal information. I have been lifting weights for about 12-13 years or so, since early in high school, and am currently 6'1 and about 220 lb, with about 13% body fat. Just for reference, on the bp, I rep (8-10 reps) at about 325 and my 1-2 rep max is about 385, and on squat about 455/575 respectively.

Anyways, I have started a new workout, that I'm going to try for about 1-2 months, to try to lose about 8-10 lb of fat, and lower my bf percentage to about 9-10% and get some more definition.

Here is the workout that I have started, and my diet. Do you think this will be effective in meeting my goals?

Diet:

Breakfast (after cardio): 1 glass orange juice, scrambled eggs with either bacon, sausage, or turkey breast.

Lunch: Chicken Caesar salad

Dinner: 16 oz Chicken, Beef, or Salmon, 6 oz steamed vegetables

Pre-workout drink: 1 glass orange juice

Post-workout meal: 2 eggs with turkey, bacon, or sausage.

Workout:

Monday:
Morning: 18 minutes cardio (1.5 miles on treadmill)
Evening:
4 sets bench x 15 reps @ 185
4 sets incline bench x 15 reps @ 185
4 sets decline bench x 15 reps @ 185
4 sets fly x 15 reps @150

Tuesday:
Morning: 18 minutes cardio (1.5 miles on treadmill)
Evening:
4 sets x 50 pushups
4 sets x 10 dips
4 sets x 15 pullups
4 sets circuit dumbbell workout

Wednesday:
Morning: 18 minutes cardio (1.5 miles on treadmill)
Evening:
4 sets squat x 15 reps @ 315
4 sets deadlift x 15 reps @ 185
4 sets straight leg deadlift x 15 reps @ 155

Thursday: same as tuesday

Friday:
Morning: 18 minutes cardio (1.5 miles on treadmill)
Evening:
4 sets curl x 15 reps @ 80
4 sets shoulder press x 15 reps @ 135
4 sets tricep pull down x 15 reps @ 150

Saturday/Sunday: same as Tuesday/Thursday

Do you think this will be an effective workout/diet for reducing bodyfat while maintaining muscle mass?

 

[faustian bargain]

what i've heard is, and this may be old or disproved knowledge, if you do your cardio first thing in the morning, BEFORE eating anything, you get more benefit in terms of metabolic rate. to do this you should also NOT eat for ~1hr after your cardio workout. someone correct this if i am providing outdated information.

i think you should do more like 25 min of cardio.

i'm a believer in progressive sets, but you may have a different idea happening there.

i would stay away from bacon and sausage. you want lean meats...bacon and sausage are mostly fat. salmon has fat too, but it's the 'good' kind, with omega-3 acids. anything fish (including skin) is good, and turkey/chicken breast (no skin) is good too.

eat only the whites of the eggs, unless you really can't stand the taste or something. the yolks are mostly fat.

i would try to have 5-6 meals per day, to maintain higher metabolic rate. also you want to eat enough protein so that you don't lose muscle as well as fat. i would consider doing a shake or a protein bar after your weight training. you have to get enough grams of protein per day to maintain muscle mass. otherwise your muscles start breaking down. (the rule of thumb is, goal weight in grams = total grams protein daily intake.)

you might consider having a day off to allow muscles to recuperate. remember that increasing your strength increases the effectiveness of aerobic exercise.

finally, if you're not getting the results you like from this regimen, try doing more of an alternating schedule, cardio one day, weights the other. it's possible you've got too much workout, not enough recovery, in your schedule there.

(last but not least, i have to suggest trying some metabolism boosters, but only if you're okay with that. metabolift was one of my favorites, but it could make a person jittery.)

hope that helps,
andrew

 

[drizzt3117]

my diet is ketogenic, it has about 30-35g of total carbs, so having a large percentage of fat shouldn't matter too much... that is the reason behind all the foods containing higher percentages of fat, but I could easily substitute a lower quantity of ***** foods. My only source of carbs in this diet are the two glasses of orange juice.

 

[faustian bargain]

oh, ok - i never tried a ketosis-inducing diet before, it seemed like it required more discipline and attention to detail than i was willing to muster.

funny, the popularity now of the atkins diet. i bet it makes more people fat than it helps people lose weight, simply because it's so easy to screw up.

/andrew

 

[Oltmann]

The diet is good, but I agree that you should avoid ***** meat. You say you have 30-35g of carbs, but OJ has like 25g per cup (and a "glass" is 2 cups generally.) The vegetables have some carbs too. I would guess you have around 90g; so you won't really be in ketosis.

I'm not recommending you cut that stuff out though. Atkins is for people who are too lazy to follow a low calorie diet.

Also, use the same lifting routine that you would use for bulking. Higher reps while cutting is garbage IMO.

I would easily lose 2lbs a week on this diet.

 

[banksmiranda]

Agree on the egg whites only. I like 4 egg whites (sometimes boiled, sometimes scrambled, sometimes omelet with some vegetables and maybe a little chicken - little variety). Also favorites of mine:

skim milk
skim unflavored yogurt
orange juice I squeeze from oranges I buy
homemade bread which my mother and I make

 

[drizzt3117]

I guess I'm not so concerned about the fat in this diet, this is about 1/2 my normal calorie consumption, so I think it will be a non-issue.

Oltmann:

Since I am halving my normal intake of calories, I was concerned doing the same heavy workout I usually do may cause difficulty in quick recovery?

 

[banksmiranda]

Drink plenty of water as usual...can you get someone to give you a massage?

 

[Kai]

Your work-out seems a bit low on cardio to me. I do a minimum of 1 hour of cardio each session, alternating cardio days with lifting days, but even on my lifting days, I do 1/2 hour of cardio.

I can lose weight pretty easy on such a routine, dropping pounds pretty steadily so long as I control my diet. Lots of other benefits of cardio too, besides losing weight.

 

[Oltmann]

I should have added; I am a big time ectomorph. My advice has worked for me but things may be different for you. Some people may need more cardio than I do to lose weight. Diet is the best way to go, but the lowest you generally want to go is around 1600 calories. If you aren't losing weight at that point then I suppose you should up the cardio. With that said, I have found that cardio eats into your muscle mass big time. Above 10% bf it isn't that big a deal, so maybe this is outside the scope of your current diet. It becomes a bigger and bigger deal with every point past that. All you are left with then is key fat reserves that your body considers very valuable, and your body will only burn them off very slowly.  When you do cardio (and I count high-reps lifting as cardio) and your body is scrambling for calories it will start to eat into your muscle. I say stick to short intense cardio and heavy 6-8rep/set lifting. Would you rather look like a sprinter or a marathon runner? Edit: Dug up a link on this here. "This study gives more  evidence to support the idea that high-intensity interval  training is a more optimal program for fat loss than  moderate-intensity, continuous endurance exercise. "

 

[drizzt3117]

Oltmann,

I think that could work for me, I will try lifting the same workout with the lower calorie diet, I don't think it's that low calorie though, probably around 2000 calories. For snacks I am just eating slices of fat-free turkey breast, so I guess I am getting sufficient protein. Shouldn't the high-rep lower weight lifting act as a form of cardio though for fat burning purposes?

 

[RatPacker]

In the spring when I want to get ready for summer I just add 30 minutes cardio in the morning and 30 minutes at night. I also cut back about 200-300 calories a day. It always does the trick.

 

[Debaser]

If those are your stats, do you really think this board is going to help you much? I just registered after trying to find a men's fashion board for awhile. I participate quite a bit on the elitefitness message boards. Anyway, in terms of diet, it depends on how much effort you can put into it. If you can be pretty devout, Lyle MacDonald's Ultimate Diet v2.0 is optimal. I prefer a more simplistic approach myself, since I go to school 15 hours a week and work nearly full time. HST's website tells you just about everything you need to know. Your training could use a serious overhaul.

 

[marc37]

Best way to lose weight is a healthy diet. Check my other postings.

 

[marc37]

Your diet appears very extreme, by this l mean highly acid [to the blood-stream]. Your diet is highly nutrient depleting. Your current diet is causing yoiur body to use large amounts of valuable minerals [like Calcium and magnesium] to neutralize all the acid in the bloodstream so you don't burn to death. (Note: the higher the acid in the bloodstream the higher the RDA for vitamins and minerals. lts really that simple). You are living on a very hazardess diet and would be advised to change it. lt is highly unbalanced. You need chlorophyl son. Try adding quantities of sprouts and wheatgrass to you meals (highly alkaline V's acid) so the strain is taken off the body. Your body is a precious temple; you must preserve and look after it so it will carry you painlessly into old age. Don't play the disease game, it sucks.