Is my diet and exercise correct for gaining muscle and losing body fat?

[blazzerm]

Hi and thanks in advance if you read my post

I'm new to this forum but I have done a fair amount of reading on muscle building and losing body fat. I would just like to ask some people who have more experience if they could check over my routine and diet and provide me some feedback.

My goals...
To become very strong and have a low body fat percentage. I would like to be able to see a 6-pack and have a very good deadlift, squat, bench and curl. I have always been lean but at 24 years old I feel it's time to become musclar.

My stats...
Heigh = 6ft2inch
Weight = 200lbs (I started at 192lbs in January and have gained weight in muscle).
Bench = 3x5 190lbs
Squat = 3x5 154lbs (Squats are difficult as I do not have a squat rack at my gym - I think I could lift a lot more with a proper rack, i power clean the bar up to squat at the moment)

My exercise...
I have been training since the start of January. My New years resolution was to get into shape for 2011. In January I wondered around the gym doing 3x8 sets of anything I felt like coupled with 20 minutes of cardio after a sessions. This worked for a while but didn't provide structure.

In February I started a programme called starting strength which I have just completed the 5th week of 12 weeks. My routine is as below. I cycle between these days every time I visit the gym. I go three times a week and rest for two days on the weekend. I also usually add some other exercises onto the end of a session. Like 100 sit-ups, maybe some BB curls. This is just to keep exercising fun, I don't want to do exactly the same thing everytime I go. But the structure is moreorless the same.

Day 1
10 minute cardio as a warm up
3x5 Bench
3x5 Deadlift
3x5 Squats
3x8 Dips

Day 2
10 minute cardio as a warm up
3x5 Shoulder press
3x5 Power clean
3x5 Squats
2xfailure chin-ups

My diet...

I track my diet at http://caloriecount.about.com/ it's a free site and gives you calories and nutrition for just about everything.
I have been recommended to eat 3000Kcal daily and 180g-200g protein as my body weight is 200lbs.
I am eating 2300Kcal - 2500Kcal a day through monitoring my diet and recording it at the website above.
I take a Whey Protein supplement shake. This helps me to eat approx 180g of Protein every day.
I also take 1x multi vitamin daily.
I am avoiding all sodas and junk food. I am also trying my best to avoid white bread sweets, chocolate.


My question...
Will eating 500Kcal less than my recommended amount (so 2500Kcal rather than 3000Kcal) allow me to lose body fat?
I want to lose fat around my stomache. This is really the only place on my body that I have noticable fat, would this plan allow me to lose approx 1lb fat a week and see me lose fat on my tummy?
Will eating this amount of food allow me to make gains through weight lifting as I am eating 180g of protein.
Should I add cardio into my routine?
What would you recommend me to do once I finish my 12 week programme of SS?


Big thanks if you read this and even bigger thanks if you reply to my post.

Regards

[Off Road]

Starting Strength is NOT a 12 week program. But since you aren't squatting "for real", then you really aren't doing Starting Strength. Since you have no place to squat, I would recommend finding a new gym, or have your routine focussed on deadlifts and leg press.

As far as the diet goes, as long as you are gaining a little weight each week, then all should be good.

[blazzerm]

Starting Strength is NOT a 12 week program. But since you aren't squatting "for real", then you really aren't doing Starting Strength. Since you have no place to squat, I would recommend finding a new gym, or have your routine focussed on deadlifts and leg press.

As far as the diet goes, as long as you are gaining a little weight each week, then all should be good.

How many weeks is starting strength? I was told it was 12 weeks, or when progression stops.

[Off Road]

I would recommend buying the book, I'm sure it will answer all your questions.
But in a nut shell, it ends when progression stops THREE TIMES. That could take a long time for some people. Definitely way longer than 12 weeks.

[blazzerm]

Thanks i'll check the book out.

But getting back to my main concern regarding losing my tummy fat whilst building strength... Is my Kcal intake correct?

[f=ma]

your kcal intake is correct if youre burning fat. dont expect to gain muscle and lose fat for long

[blazzerm]

your kcal intake is correct if youre burning fat. dont expect to gain muscle and lose fat for long

what do you mean by don't expect to gain muscle and lose fat for long?

[Behemoth]

what do you mean by don't expect to gain muscle and lose fat for long?

He means exactly what he said - you shouldn't expect to gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously for very long while on a diet.

[blazzerm]

Why not?

As i understood I am eating enough Kcal to lose fat but eating enough protein to gain muscle?

What am i doing wrong?

[Behemoth]

If people could gain muscle while losing fat regularly why would professional bodybuilders ever look bulked up in the offseason?

When it comes to gaining muscle, the gains are pretty limited and short lived unless you eat an excess of food. And it's not possible to direct all of the weight gain solely to muscle.

[blazzerm]

Okay thanks.

So on my current exercise regime with this diet do you think i'll lose BF whilst keeping a musclar defined body. I understand I will not really build a lot of new additional muscle.

[f=ma]

its better than nothing. youre not doing SS though, being that you are not squatting. def better than nothing though. you could start doing bb lunges. that basically doubles the weight you will be doing per leg

oh and also, if you went from 192 to 200 in 2 months, you did not gain weight in the form of muscle alone nor are you burning fat

[blazzerm]

its better than nothing. youre not doing SS though, being that you are not squatting. def better than nothing though. you could start doing bb lunges. that basically doubles the weight you will be doing per leg

oh and also, if you went from 192 to 200 in 2 months, you did not gain weight in the form of muscle alone nor are you burning fat

I am doing squatting. I squat 155lbs with a BB. It's just not easy to get into the squat position. I powerclean the BB into a front squat position, put in a final push to get the BB behind my neck, balance myself and then squat 3x5. So I think I am doing SS properly. It will be difficult in a few weeks though. I also do some squats on the smith machine but it's uncomfortable due to lack of flexibility.

I'm not 100% sure of the accuracy of my weight gains. Looking at my stomache and chest though I can 100% tell my chest has improved and I think my tummy has got a little smaller (fat wise).

All i really want to know if it is it possible to loss fat whilst gaining strength through weight lifting. I am eating 500Kcal less than my recommend daily amount whilst making sure that the foods I eat are high in protein.

Surely this will result in fat loss whilst maintaining my muscles as they currently are, at the least?

[f=ma]

what i am trying to say is the following:

- you have gained 8lbs; this is not all muscle. in fact, not even 1lb of this is muscle if it was done in 2 months
- if you have gained 8lbs, youre not burning body fat
- starting strength involves squatting progressively increasing weights, not 155 each each, that is meaningless
- ....... make sure youre counting calories correctly. this kind of ties in with the second item.
- burning body fat and gaining muscle are different goals. you should pick one and stick to it until you are satisfied

[f=ma]

just to elaborate...

this is a really good read on setting up a diet.

http://www.wannabebig.com/forums/sho...n-initial-diet

[Off Road]

I'll second all the things the other guys said. Plus, I would like to add that you are working on a calorie average which is nothing more than a guess. You may need to eat even less to lose weight, everybody is individual.

[blazzerm]

So would you say this would be a good process for me...

Bulk with eating 3000Kcal daily and 200g Protein. Continuing SS for 3 to 6 months (until gains stop).

Cut back to 2000Kcal daily still consuming 200g Protein. Exercise on cardio and weights to lose my tummy fat, keep going with this until abs show.

Then lastly back to perma bulk & weight lifting eating 3000Kcal daily and 200g protein?

[GazzyG]

That's a better plan.

And the reason people are ragging on your squats, is that they're meant to be one of your heaviest (read hardest to do) exercises. If you can press that weight over your head, then it's not heavy enough for you to be squatting.

Find yourself a gym - it doesn't have to be anywhere spectacular, but it needs to have a squat rack. Once you load up a heavy weight on the squat rack and have a go with it, you'll see what everyone means by the difference.

Good luck!

[nhernan1986]

So would you say this would be a good process for me...

Bulk with eating 3000Kcal daily and 200g Protein. Continuing SS for 3 to 6 months (until gains stop).

Cut back to 2000Kcal daily still consuming 200g Protein. Exercise on cardio and weights to lose my tummy fat, keep going with this until abs show.

Then lastly back to perma bulk & weight lifting eating 3000Kcal daily and 200g protein?

What you have now is a starting point already. Read that article and the others in the Diet and Nutrition section of this site. They will tell you the same = to either increasedecrease by 300-500 cals depending on your goals and current results. This means that you should be weighing yourself everyday as soon as you wake up and after you go to the bathroom and record. At the end of each week take an average (all weights added up and divide by 7). Do this for 2 weeks and see if your gaining or losing and then adjust from there. Also, a better way to monitor where your weight gain/loss is coming from is get yourself a set of calipers. They are easy to use and you can also monitor body fat (bf) % to better track your progress. I've seen it mentioned a couple times that a diet is different for everyone which is absolutely right. Additionally, if there was a possible way that someone could tell you exactly how much to eat, it would change as you progress... Nutrition for a 215lb person is different than a 225 person... Do some research and you'll understand.

[baja_stx]

Blazzerm,

Your objective should be to cycle between cutting and bulking. Bulking is when you'll gain all your muscle, but you'll also gain a decent amount of fat as well. Cutting is to drop fat, but you'll also loose muscle and strength. As you can see, gaining fat is a necessary evil to gaining muscle. You can minimize the amount of fat you gain during a bulk by eating extremely clean; I done clean and dirty (McDonalds, etc.) bulks and sometimes almost find it easier to bulk dirty and then just drop the fat in your next cut... of course the overall health factor of doing this isn't as great, so I usually find a happy medium. You can also minimize the amount of muscle you loose during a cut by eating clean, maintaining high protein macros, and lifting heavy (you may have to drop the poundage of your lifts a little because you're going to loose strength too). The main objective here is to have less fat and more muscle each time you complete a cut/bulk cycle.

The ability to loose fat and gain muscle is referred to as beginners gains. When you first start working out you'll be able to accomplish this, but this will start to slow down as time goes on and you'll eventually plateau. At that time you'll need to bump your calorie intake up to continue to build muscle, but that means more fat too... hence the need to cut... a viscious perpetual cycle.

[sharonbaker]

Hi and thanks in advance if you read my post

I'm new to this forum but I have done a fair amount of reading on muscle building and losing body fat. I would just like to ask some people who have more experience if they could check over my routine and diet and provide me some feedback.

My goals...
To become very strong and have a low body fat percentage. I would like to be able to see a 6-pack and have a very good deadlift, squat, bench and curl. I have always been lean but at 24 years old I feel it's time to become musclar.

My stats...
Heigh = 6ft2inch
Weight = 200lbs (I started at 192lbs in January and have gained weight in muscle).
Bench = 3x5 190lbs
Squat = 3x5 154lbs (Squats are difficult as I do not have a squat rack at my gym - I think I could lift a lot more with a proper rack, i power clean the bar up to squat at the moment)

My exercise...
I have been training since the start of January. My New years resolution was to get into shape for 2011. In January I wondered around the gym doing 3x8 sets of anything I felt like coupled with 20 minutes of cardio after a sessions. This worked for a while but didn't provide structure.

In February I started a programme called starting strength which I have just completed the 5th week of 12 weeks. My routine is as below. I cycle between these days every time I visit the gym. I go three times a week and rest for two days on the weekend. I also usually add some other exercises onto the end of a session. Like 100 sit-ups, maybe some BB curls. This is just to keep exercising fun, I don't want to do exactly the same thing everytime I go. But the structure is moreorless the same.

Day 1
10 minute cardio as a warm up
3x5 Bench
3x5 Deadlift
3x5 Squats
3x8 Dips

Day 2
10 minute cardio as a warm up
3x5 Shoulder press
3x5 Power clean
3x5 Squats
2xfailure chin-ups

My diet...

I track my diet at http://caloriecount.about.com/ it's a free site and gives you calories and nutrition for just about everything.
I have been recommended to eat 3000Kcal daily and 180g-200g protein as my body weight is 200lbs.
I am eating 2300Kcal - 2500Kcal a day through monitoring my diet and recording it at the website above.
I take a Whey Protein supplement shake. This helps me to eat approx 180g of Protein every day.
I also take 1x multi vitamin daily.
I am avoiding all sodas and junk food. I am also trying my best to avoid white bread sweets, chocolate.


My question...
Will eating 500Kcal less than my recommended amount (so 2500Kcal rather than 3000Kcal) allow me to lose body fat?
I want to lose fat around my stomache. This is really the only place on my body that I have noticable fat, would this plan allow me to lose approx 1lb fat a week and see me lose fat on my tummy?
Will eating this amount of food allow me to make gains through weight lifting as I am eating 180g of protein.
Should I add cardio into my routine?
What would you recommend me to do once I finish my 12 week programme of SS?


Big thanks if you read this and even bigger thanks if you reply to my post.

Regards

Hey....


Yes its perfect for your body muscle and fat loss..... Good job! Keep it up.... Infact i would like to suggest these tips to my friends also... Good luck.... If you will apply some other tips for your body muscle please share with us.....

[Mercuryblade]

I think your workout routine and diet plan need some improvement.
you must consult instructor of a gym for the best routine and diet sheet.

Everyone knows the last instructor of a gym lives in an one room hut in the remote mountains of tibet. He's very hard to get a hold of, and doesn't make diet sheets anymore. Looks like OP is stuck with the sheets he got at Target.

[susiehaynes]

a great plan.continue doing it.keep up the good work.you also give tips to those who are also planning.you're indeed a big help to them.

[JT111]

oh and also, if you went from 192 to 200 in 2 months, you did not gain weight in the form of muscle alone nor are you burning fat

Just curious why is this? Would you expect more of an increase? For example I've gone up 14-16 lbs in 2 months. I expected 4-6+ could potentially be fat.. Care to elaborate i 'm interested?

[Behemoth]

Just curious why is this? Would you expect more of an increase? For example I've gone up 14-16 lbs in 2 months. I expected 4-6+ could potentially be fat.. Care to elaborate i 'm interested?

He is saying the same thing as you, when you gain weight outside of an extremely slow pace some of it is usually fat.