First cut in a few years.

[BP87]

Hello, I'm new to this board. Seems to me that you people know what you're doing and everyone is helpful in one way or another. So Im looking for any advice I can get. Senior year of HS I put on some weight, I was roughly 240lbs 6'0" at 18. About a year ago I started cutting down on the junk food and started running, which brought me to about 220 pounds around March of this year. I'm currently 22 years old, 6'0", and 170 pounds with a BF% of 17%.
In August I recently got a gym membership, and started cutting my calories. Before my daily calorie intake was probably around 2500 a day. The past 2 months I have cut my intake to no more then 1500 calories a day. I eat 3 meals a day, Oatmeal in the morning, 5 boiled eggs for lunch(no yolk), and white fish or chicken with salad for dinner. Cut off all drinks except water, lots of water. So my calorie intake has been 1200-1500 steady for the past 2 months. Unfortunately I do not have "before" pics but I do have the current pics of myself. I want to lose the love handles and get rid of my stomach, and slim down my thighs.

My gym schedule looks like this;

Monday - 30 minutes strenuous cardio
- Upper body workout routines (45 min-1hr)
- 200 situps
Tuesday - 30 minute cardio
Wednesday - Lower body workout routines (1- 1.5hrs)
Thursday - 30 minute cardio
- Upper body workout routines (45 min-1hr)
Friday - 30 minute cardio
- 200 situps
Sat/Sun - Off


**Note, I do squats, bench, dips, etc. I just do not record them on paper.. maybe I should? Sry for the lack of that information.

So, in March of this year I weighed 220lbs.
It is now mid October and I weigh 170, losing 50lbs since March.
Here is what I currently look like.


img213.imageshack.us/img213/5793/img00219a.jpg
img392.imageshack.us/img392/5115/img00225.jpg
img397.imageshack.us/img397/2387/picture0002h.jpg


Again sorry I dont have the "before" pics. But I was a flabby son of a ....
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Sean S]

At your age and size you are starving yourself with 1200-1500 calories a day. You have probably slowed down your metabolic rate to a slow crawl with the diet you have been following. You need to re-tool your entire dietary approach. Start by reading some of the dietary articles on this site for guidance, but for starters you need to drastically up your protein and calorie intake.

[BP87]

Thanks for the advice. I thought that it was low, i know my protein intake definately is, I want to try to find some protein mix. The weird thing about the calorie intake is I dont feel at all as if I'm starving. I snack a bit during the day but all low carb/calorie snacks. After I work out I dont even feel hungry, I feel full, oddly.. and makes me feel sick if I do eat. I'll look into those diets, thanks!

[Unreal]

Your workout needs help too. 200 situps is just silly.

[BP87]

Any tips?
What do you suggest for the situps

[Alyion]

You seem to have your cardio nailed, but not your weight training - focus more on lifts over cardio.

I'd suggest picking an established routine such as SS and upping your calories to a good 2k as well

[LuNa]

What im wondering is, how did you go from 240 to 170 and still are at 17% bf? To me this sounds like you have lost a lot of muscle, which is due to the low starvation diet and not having a proper training program.

In my opinion, i would up the calories, get on a decent program and build some of that muscle that you lost a long the way.

[Jayfive]

Are you doing your cardio before your weight routine? Or are you doing it in the morning?

[Unreal]

As for what to do for Abs, they are no different then any other muscle. Do you do 200 squats or 200 deadlifts for your legs/back? No. Keep the sets short and heavy for abs. 5x5, 3x8, 3x10 or whatever rep scheme you want and add enough weight to make them difficult. You can also do stuff like planks which work abs nicely.

[BP87]

You seem to have your cardio nailed, but not your weight training - focus more on lifts over cardio.

I'd suggest picking an established routine such as SS and upping your calories to a good 2k as well

Great I will do that, thank you.

[BP87]

What im wondering is, how did you go from 240 to 170 and still are at 17% bf? To me this sounds like you have lost a lot of muscle, which is due to the low starvation diet and not having a proper training program.

In my opinion, i would up the calories, get on a decent program and build some of that muscle that you lost a long the way.

Yes I'm sure I did lose muscle. I was huuuuuuuge lol. I will up my calories as well thank you for the advice !

[BP87]

Are you doing your cardio before your weight routine? Or are you doing it in the morning?

I'm only able to get to the gym in the afternoon, usually between 2 and 7pm. And yes I do cardio first right when I get to the gym, then I lift.

[BP87]

As for what to do for Abs, they are no different then any other muscle. Do you do 200 squats or 200 deadlifts for your legs/back? No. Keep the sets short and heavy for abs. 5x5, 3x8, 3x10 or whatever rep scheme you want and add enough weight to make them difficult. You can also do stuff like planks which work abs nicely.

Good point. I was only just doing plain situps because I've always had a bad neck since I was a kid, and adding weight seems to put more strain on my neck rather then helping. Maybe I was doing too much. I'll try adding a little weight today and doing more reps. Can you also explain what "planks" are?

[Unreal]

Typing "Planks" into google does wonders.
http://www.wannabebig.com/training/general-physical-preparedness-core-strength-and-conditioning/plank-progressions-for-killer-abs/
http://exercise.about.com/od/abs/ss/abexercises_10.htm

Do cardio after weights. You don't want to burn off all your glycogen on cardio then not be able to lift as much as you could. Plus lifting releases FFA that can be burned by doing cardio after.

[BP87]

Awesome advice, thanks a lot dude. I'll try those out tomorrow. And thanks for the advice with cardio, I'll do that after lifting. I thought it might affect lifting but wasn't positive on that.


Oh also I got my BF% numbers off of a scale at the gym... sooo Im guessing those arent very accurate. I think body fat calipers (is that what they're called?) are more accurate. If so I have never used one.

[Unreal]

Bio-impedance scales are a joke. Your better off eyeballing it in the mirror.

[BP87]

Thought so, gracias.

Another question. Protein mix's. I'm very lactose intolerant, are there any products that will not destroy my stomach? What about Soy Protein, Ive heard both good and bad so not really sure which way to go.