|
2004/09/20, 04:44 PM
I was wondering if there is a way to anticipate when to decrease calorie intake or calorie output. I have figured out my calorie intake in order to loose 1 pound a week. I was wondering if there's a way to avoind reaching my maintence level and continiously loose weight. Next Monday will be week 2. This week i plan on taking my cardio from 30min. to 40min. 3-4 days a week. Any ideas?
|
|
|
|
2004/09/21, 11:14 AM
Probably the best way is every 2 weeks. Usually an intelligent calorie reduction scheme(about 200-250 per day), or something along the lines of 10% will result in a 2 week or so weight drop, and then another cut is in store. You will have to monitor the scale here. One word of advice, after about 7-8 weeks of doing this, your body will start to "catch on" to what you are doing so to speak. You may actually need a caloric increase at this time to sort of "fool" the body. This may in fact keep your body from slowing down metabolism in reaction to the reduced caloric input. Save some of your cardio to add later, as you cannot cut calories forever, you will get too low at some point. So you can add to your caloric deficit by adding more cardio for instance. The diet can get really tough no matter how well you eat if you cut calories too much.
--------------
If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
|
|
2004/09/22, 07:24 PM
I only plan to cut for about 8 weeks then i will go to maintenance for a week or two as to prevent too much of a fat accumulation when i increase my calorie intake(That's the correct way to do it right Ron?) just curious if you could explain why that is. Then go on my bulking cycle for 8-12 weeks. Is 12 weeks too long for a bulkking cycle? So if i'm only going to be cutting for 8 weeks can i just up my cardio and cut my calories slightly maybe 100-150 a day?
|
|
2004/09/22, 07:56 PM
The choice is yours. You are going for a purely asthetic reason, not a time date for a contest or anything, so in fact, the slower the loss the better. What you propose is fine...as mentioned it is your choice, you are the one who has to be pleased with how you look. Your calorie deficit can come from any form of less calorie intake(cardio will do this as you well know). But as mentioned, too much cardio too soon leaves you nowhere to turn but to cutting more calories and this can get tough. I would start with a calorie cut, and then add in some cardio to keep it going.
As for your time length, from my personal experience, I have found the longer I go on bulk, usually the longer I have to follow with a cutting phase. I think this would be true for anyone. This may be 3 weeks, it may be 6 weeks, it depends on how far I want to take it...to what bf percentage or just until I "like" the way I look again.
--------------
If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
|
|
2004/09/22, 08:01 PM
Just as a passing note, I am doing a cutting phase right now myself. I am in my 6th week, interrupted by a weeks vacation, where I did not do bad, but was a little off my diet. I have dropped approximately 4 lbs., even with the vacation. I feel I have 2 more weeks to go till I am happy again, and then I will go back to an increase in calories. I am doing a carb cycling diet by the way in case you are interested.
--------------
If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
|
|
2004/09/23, 03:32 AM
What exactly is carb cycling? I am on the diet that you gave me.
Breakfast-1 cup oatmeal 5 eggwhites 1 sc. protein
PWO protein drink simple carbs
PPWO meal-52g. cooked chicken, 1 cup broccoli with 2 fish oil capsules adn 1\2 cup baked bean baked beans(check sugar in these if they are the canned type)black eye peas will work well.(Post cardio meal is ground beef baked beans,broccolli and fish oil)
Lunch-3 1\2 oz. steak 2 oz. whole wheat pasta 1 cup veggies
snack-6 oz. Tuna with 1/2 cup brown rice 1 cup veggies
dinner-6 oz. chicken 2 cups veggies 1 tbsp. flax oil
Before bed- 1/2 c. cottage cheese 2 tbsp. flax meal 1/2 sc. of blended protein containing casein protein
So far this has been working great and only on week 2 i have noticed great improvements and i have been trying to figure out how to drop 200 calories from this diet while still feeling full and not getting hungry. Is it correct that you should never drop calories from your breakfast meal? Could i skip the 2 week maintenance then if it's not for contest? I would like to compete one day. My plan now is to keep my BF at a decent level and bulk till i am at my desired size then cut my BF down to where my abs show which realistically i'm thinking will take me 2 years to do it right. getting to about 210-215 with 10-12%BF. At which time i would really like to get into personal trainging with the experience i will gain along the way. One more thing, is the sample diet you gave me a good meal plan for bulking with the addition of more protein and carbs of course probably more brown rice and some yams or such(I'll cross that bridge when i get there, just curious)
|
|
2004/09/23, 11:00 AM
Glad to hear things are working for you. For your next cut I would go to the whole wheat pasta, cut 1 oz. there, and change the steak to 5 oz. chicken, which is still less calories than 3 1/2 oz. steak. This should give you a decent cut with no noticeable hunger effects.
A carb cycling diet is just another way to go. For instance 2 days very low carbs, 3rd day high carbs, follow with medium carbs, then start cycle over. On low carb days increase your protein and fats, etc. By introducing high carbs after a short period of low carbs, the theory is that before any muscle damage can be done due to this, glycogen is reintroduced, while your body is forced to burn fat on the low carb days. I just mentioned it, what you are doing is excellent and will work fine also, and not quite as tricky. There are many diets, like CKD or TKD for instance. All will work, as you go later you may try different approaches. For now, stick with what you are doing, it is straightforward and proven to work well.
The diet you are following is also fine for bulking, a very "clean" bulk. Simply add calories in an intelligent manner. All the foods you are eating are great bodybuilding foods. Keep up the good work. Sounds like you are doing great.:big_smile:
--------------
If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
|
|
2004/09/23, 03:25 PM
Sounds good Ron, I think i'll give carb cycling a try when i cut after my bulking cycle sounds interesting. I like to experiment with all kinds of things so that i can see what works best and what doesn't work so well. There really are endless possibilities when it comes to BB whether it's diet or exercise. A year ago when i started i thought i'd have it figured out in a week, but as i've come to understand you never stop learning. Thanks again
|
|
2004/09/23, 03:30 PM
One more thing while i'm cutting should i be doing more isolation exercises? I really don't know the difference so i couldn't say what i've been doing. I'm going more for the bodybuilding aspect. I pretty much just try to do something different every two weeks and vary the order everytime i go to the gym. And then when i bulk should i do strictly compund?
|
|
2004/09/23, 11:50 PM
Changing your workout too much may have adverse effects. I would continue on for now with what you are doing, as you get to the point where you can't cut too many more calories, some supersets in your workout will be nice along with cutting down on your rest time. When dieting, it is very hard to improve in any of the ways you like, such as strength or more reps with the heavy weight. One area we can improve is rest time though. But keep the weights heavy.
--------------
If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything....
bb1fit@freetrainers.com
|
|
2004/09/25, 09:43 PM
Monday will be week 2 exactly on the diet you gave me I have been loosing one pound a week(It's amazing how well this is working for me good feeling to see just 1 pound come off, That's all I wanted gradual weight loss.) I weighed myself today and I lost 1 more pound now, should I go ahead on monday and cut 1oz. pasta and replace the steak with chicken or wait and see how the scale goes or maybe just cut out one of the two on monday then next monday cut the second out? I want to keep this continuous as I am planning this around my surgery and only looking to cut for 8 weeks I figure another four weeks and my abs will be showing slightly as i can see them wanting to poke thru now. What do ya think? I've also slighty increased my cardio by about 5 min. if that just pushing a little harder not much but enough.
|
