cutting diet - advice

[triggernigha]

could any guys out there who compete post a basic outline of what their diet looks like when they are cutting?

i would like to see how someone else has done it successfully and the levels of carbs/protein/fat you consume for your body weight on a daily basis and the kind of foods you eat

personally i weight 190lbs, consume around 350g protein - chicken, lean beef and fish (split btwn 10 meals); 250g carbs (split between breakfast (low GI+fruit/youghurt), pre- (shake(high GI)) and post-training (shake+2/3 meals within 3 hrs of finish(all high GI))  rest of the day its just protein with trace carbs, some sat fat from red meat but mostly mono and poly from fish and avocados - approx 40g/day

i eat the same things everyday, dont eat sweet things, no junk, always home made and clean, dont ever skip etc etc

main goal, get leaner and retain the muscle (livin the dream........)

would like to know whats worked for you, if you have the time to share

[p.s.]

This is pretty easy to assist ya with as your diet is very good to begin with. I would suggest that you cut your carbs back to 100-150 per day, increase protein to compensate for the cals lost, and use EFAs as your main fat source (I use flax oil and no not those stupid gel caps, but oil I can measure into my shakes). Also no more preworkout high GI shakes save that for post workout only. Instead just have a regular protein shke and you're good to go. Oh and no fats for at least 3 hours post workout!

I would every 5th or 6th day have a junk day to give your metabolism a jump start or your body will adapt to the diet and start holding BF and using muscle for energy. So an all you can eat junk day will work wonders for maintaining BF loss on a diet, as well as holding all that hard earned muscle you've created.

Add in some some cardio at say 20 mins per day (I'm a huge HIIT fan for this purpose, as I hate cardio so the less time I have to spend on it the better).

[triggernigha]

Legendary p.s.

thanks

[Bad Bob]

Damn Trig.... you single? got kids?

er... that sounds bad..... What I mean is that that diet, and the one p.s. outlines, is very strict.
you guys are awesome, and that's why I like this site. I can live vicariously through you "cutters".

Me? I'm addicted to carbs            and chocolate.
I'm weak.....
But I have a good time!

[triggernigha]

Bad Bob, your such a sweet talker, are you asking me out??

LOL

truth is, i have a g/f, no family; but she understands how important this is to me. the diet i stated is my normal daily diet, not cutting.

p.s.'s advice is well appreciated, you just have to check his pic to know he knows his shit.

once you get in the swing of it and tell yourself you dont need the sweet stuff, its easier.

when i crave a sweet thing now and again, i just eat some meat or a p-shake, i guess when your mind knows it aint gonna get that fix, it stops asking for it.

i feel that there is no point me going to the gym if i dont eat right to maximise my effort.

but hey, i still got way too much fat, going by the magazine cover stories (which i dont read by the way) i should be a m&f cover guy by now...........

keep it real man, as long as you are having fun, thats all that counts

[BEEF]

Just read this thread, good information and thanks for pointing me this way

p.s., when you say about an all you can eat junk day I presume you still have to be reasonable and have your protein and carb intake from good clean sources? I'm a little confused, Thanks for helping out so far.

[p.s.]

Just read this thread, good information and thanks for pointing me this way

p.s., when you say about an all you can eat junk day I presume you still have to be reasonable and have your protein and carb intake from good clean sources? I'm a little confused, Thanks for helping out so far.

NO a junk day is just that a JUNK day! Pizza, pancakes eggs and bacon (Mmmmmmmmm!!!) hamburgers, fries etc just don't eat so much that you make yourself sick.

[BEEF]

I was hopeing you'd say that So that just kick starts metabolism again then? Still eating every 2-3 hours or whenever you want? 21 Questions here for ya, I'm just trying to understand. Cheers

[p.s.]

I was hopeing you'd say that So that just kick starts metabolism again then? Still eating every 2-3 hours or whenever you want? 21 Questions here for ya, I'm just trying to understand. Cheers

Yes it's a HUGE kick start, as far as eating times I will make sure that I have a shake every 2 hours no matter if it's a junk day or not, but I won't add flax as I'm getting more than enough fat, and the actual eating times are as needed, so as an example a huge breakfast, maybe a burger and fries for lunch and pizza for dinner and snack on the other pizza throughout the evening.

If you've been dieting hard then part way through the day you'll see not only your muscles begin to fill out but the veins will be VERY evident, and the next day you'll have energy to spare (this will last a couple of days), and you'll pump up like you've never pumped up before.

[BEEF]

Wow, thanks for all the information I'm actually looking forward to cutting, not for the fun of it but just purely for the experience and working out exactly what works for me.

I've started adding some cardio in yesterday just a simple 11KM ride which seems to work out for me, I just want to develop a certain level of fitness before hitting the cardio harder and getting fit and ready for summer.

Is it best I do my 'fat-loss' cardio first thing in the morning before I have anything to eat or a shake or anything basically?

Thanks again p.s. I wouldn't be able to do this without your help

[triggernigha]

As far as makes sence to me (i aint no expert) doing cardio on empty stomach will promote muscle to be burn to fuel your extra energy expenditure. Significant Fat loss doesnt actually happen during your cardio, but the purpose of the cardio is to elevate your metabolism for a few hours after helping you to burn more cals in that period (including the food you ingest within that period). Personally i have a whey shake before and after morning cardio to protect against muscle breakdown. sure you will burn some of this shake as fuel and not the stored fat, but its better than losing muscle. the fat los will come.

but hey, thats just what i subscribe to. It maybe different for proper pre contest prep to get shredded but we are only doing it for the ladies..........

[p.s.]

As far as makes sence to me (i aint no expert) doing cardio on empty stomach will promote muscle to be burn to fuel your extra energy expenditure. Significant Fat loss doesnt actually happen during your cardio, but the purpose of the cardio is to elevate your metabolism for a few hours after helping you to burn more cals in that period (including the food you ingest within that period). Personally i have a whey shake before and after morning cardio to protect against muscle breakdown. sure you will burn some of this shake as fuel and not the stored fat, but its better than losing muscle. the fat los will come.

but hey, thats just what i subscribe to. It maybe different for proper pre contest prep to get shredded but we are only doing it for the ladies..........

I also have a shake prior to morning cardio, as I tend to suffer with hypoglycemia and I would crash hard if I didn't at least have a whey shake prior to cardio. Also triggernigha hit the nail on the head when he pointed out that cardio stimulates the metabolism for a number of hours (lifting will also do this for a much longer period of time), so really you could do cardio in the AM or PM or even post workout for that matter. QOD right now does cardio after her morning coffee, and then again before bed at night.

[BEEF]

I would suggest that you cut your carbs back to 100-150 per day, increase protein to compensate for the cals lost

Would this mean increasing the protein to match the level of calories you were consuming on the bulk, but decreasing the carbs so the calories are coming from protein or would it mean cutting the carbs back and increasing the protein but having less overall calories.

[p.s.]

Would this mean increasing the protein to match the level of calories you were consuming on the bulk, but decreasing the carbs so the calories are coming from protein or would it mean cutting the carbs back and increasing the protein but having less overall calories.

Remember Beef we're talking diet (fat loss) here so the cals one was consuming on a bulking program are going to be FAR higher than on a cutting diet. Therefore the amount of carb cals to protein cals I was refering to were diet related and had nothing to do with bulking. However IMO one should always be aware of their carb intake even when bulking as carbs have a detrimental effect on fat levels, and one should not get to fat even on a bulking diet.

Don't forget that carbs and protein are the same on a gram to cal ratio, so if one is taking in say 3000 cals on a diet but the carbs are to high then one must drop the carbs back, but to keep the cals consistant the carbs must be replaced by protein on a gram for gram basis.

[BEEF]

Well I'm preparing to start the cut within the next couple of weeks, and basically would like to know how I'd roughly work out my RMR or basically how many calories I'm going to need simply to maintain and then obviously how many to cut.

I'm 170lbs right now and am not particulary active apart from weight training 5 times a week, maybe playing football(soccer) once a week and that's about it whilst I'm in between jobs.

Any help on this one would be excellent, once I've done my first cut it should be much easier next time