Thread: Cheat meals on cut? How much food intake? Keeping the muscle, losing the fat.

For one thing I'd post your whole workout routine in the training section. There are a lot of people there who will help you out with that. From what I can tell it look horrible. As far as your diet goes people are going to need to know your diet before they can help, but I will post my last diet. On a cut cheat meals are about once a week, I'd say. It just depends.

Meal 1:
1 whole egg
4 egg whites
2 slices of sprouted grain bread
1 multi vitamin
2 Fish Oils
Green Tea

Meal 2:
1 banana or 1 cup sugar free apple sauce
2 scoops of whey
½ cup oats
2 fish oils

Meal 3:
½ can of tuna
½ cup Oats
4 fish oils

Meal 4:
½ can of tuna
2 slices of sprouted grain bread
1 cup of brown rice
1 cucumber
2 fish oils

Pre Workout:

Meal Replacement Shake (Usually Muscle Milk)


Post Workout

2 scoops of whey
½ cup of pineapple
½ cup of yogurt
½ cup of oat bran

Meal 5:

Chicken Breast
1 cup of broccoli
1 cup of whole wheat whole grain pasta
1 serving olive oil

Meal 6:

1 cup Cottage Cheese
1 serving natural peanut or almond butter

Total Calories = 3208
Fats = 83 g / 24%
Carbs = 330 g / 38%
Protein = 289 g / 38%

• Meal #1: 8 oz. top sirloin or 8 whole eggs, plus 1 cup of oatmeal

• Meal #2: 3 scoops Real Gains combined with 1 scoop Ultra Iso Whey plus 5 grams of creatine and 5 grams of glutamine

• Meal #3: 8 oz. chicken breast, 10 oz yam

• Meal #4: 3 scoops Real Gains combined with 1 scoop Ultra Iso Whey plus 5 grams of creatine and 5 grams of glutamine

• Meal #5: 8 oz. chicken breast, 10 oz yam

• Meal #6: Eat about 75 grams worth of protein and 75 grams of carbs. Keep the fat down and add a salad. You have flexibility with this meal.

Im turning into a monster !

Quickly browsing through your extremely long post, 8mins HIIT three times a week is NOT enough cardio.

Originally Posted by Beejis60

Quickly browsing through your extremely long post, 8mins HIIT three times a week is NOT enough cardio.

Yeah wow. And all of those crunches are a waste of time. Lifte weights and do a lot of compound lifts and most importantly clean up your diet if you want ab visibility. There was a period I was doing a lot of core work but it was to strengthen my core. I could care less about ab visibility.

I'm a middle aged woman who weighs 145 lbs soaking wet and I eat more than 200g protein daily. Most of us here aim for over a gram per pound LEAN MASS, not per pound bodyweight. You're carrying about 200 lbs lean mass, so your protein needs to be at least 200g daily - and quite frankly, while cutting, I'd aim for at least 300g daily.

What calories are you running currently? How many grams of protein, carb and fat to you take in? And for your workouts, what kinds of lifts do you perform, what rep ranges and what kinds of weights are we looking at?

try adding in Need2slin to your supplements. Will help youlean out and on cheat days

Originally Posted by vortrit

Yeah wow. And all of those crunches are a waste of time. Lifte weights and do a lot of compound lifts and most importantly clean up your diet if you want ab visibility. There was a period I was doing a lot of core work but it was to strengthen my core. I could care less about ab visibility.

Ya, that's my absolute favorite is when someone thinks doing crunches will make you ripped :facepalm:
That means my chest, quads, and back should be pretty ripped from all the benching, squatting, and chins/pulldowns I do.... Moreso than my goddamn abs

Originally Posted by Built

I'm a middle aged woman who weighs 145 lbs soaking wet and I eat more than 200g protein daily. Most of us here aim for over a gram per pound LEAN MASS, not per pound bodyweight. You're carrying about 200 lbs lean mass, so your protein needs to be at least 200g daily - and quite frankly, while cutting, I'd aim for at least 300g daily.

What calories are you running currently? How many grams of protein, carb and fat to you take in? And for your workouts, what kinds of lifts do you perform, what rep ranges and what kinds of weights are we looking at?

I'd say.. a rough estimate.. between 2000-2800 calories a day.

I try to get at least 200g of protein a day. I don't watch carbs, although I should. Honestly, I'm not educated enough on carbohydrates to know what I'd be watching for.

I focus on triceps, forearms, chest, bi's and back.

I can hammer curl 100lb dumbells, I can skullcrush around 140 on a straight bar, can bench around 315, my tricep pressdown is at around 200lbs right now max, my row is at about.. ehh, 300 on a machine, mabey 315

Everything I just mentioned (hammer curls, skullscrushers, and bench) I do 5x5..

I like to curl 12x4, 12 reps, 4 sets to get cut up.. Some days I'll throw in 5x5 for size.. I curl around 140 max when I'm going for strength (5x5)

I also do some wrist/reverse wrist curls 25x4 for vascularity

andd.. I like to do high rep low wieght on the decline and incline bench for definition.

Lowerbody I squat every three days (5x5), and max out at about 315.. I'm 6'5'' so don't hate!!!

I'm actually doing 4-5 days of HITT and it varies between 8-14mins. Sorry for the false statement above.

I'm doing the crunches strictly to burn fat off my stomach, and it's working for me.

I also do high weighted cruches (45lb plate) for core strength.

Originally Posted by pask3r

I focus on triceps, forearms, chest, bi's and back.

andd.. I like to do high rep low wieght on the decline and incline bench for definition.

Lowerbody I squat every three days (5x5), and max out at about 315.. I'm 6'5'' so don't hate!!!

I'm doing the crunches strictly to burn fat off my stomach, and it's working for me.

If you're going to focus then focus on back, legs, chest and shoulders. Focusing on bi's and forearms is a waste of time.

Incline and decline won't build definition. Cutting fat builds definition. Overstressing your chest isn't doing anything but maybe cutting gains.

Don't use height as an excuse! A bad craftsman blames the tools, a good craftsman blames himself when things go awry.

Crunches aren't going to "burn fat" anymore than walking would. If you want to burn fat do HIIT and focus on deads, squats, presses. Oh and diet of course

Originally Posted by pask3r

I'm at about... ehh.. 16% BF right now.. it's probably closer to 12ish but I'm going to be hard on myself and play it safe.

just as an experiance about guestimating... i thought for the longest time i was around 17-18% bf and just found out recently im packing a awesome 24%. i knew i was a little on the chubby side but not near that.

Maybe you should actually get it checked

Tall like you are, a 5x5 squats with 315 lbs is not at all shabby - long levers do indeed make this exercise a real bitch for tall guys.

Your workouts and your diet appear to be working for you, at least for now, so how about this: start tracking your intake on FitDay - Free Weight Loss and Diet Journal, and weigh yourself daily. When your weight starts to plateau, post up your average intake (fitday lets you run an average) and your current stats and we'll help you from there.

The ab work won't cut up your abs, but it won't hurt you either so ignore the haters and keep doing what you're doing. I will offer a small suggestion of reducing your training volume a bit while you cut (if you don't, you'll get smaller muscles and you don't want that) and make sure you add deadlifts to your routine. I'm very glad to see the squats in there three times a week. You could easily add deads in there twice a week as well. Maybe conventional one day, and RDLs on another. Keep your cutting workout volume low - for example, perhaps two 5x5 heavy compounds and two 3x8 concentration movements per workout. Follow this with the HIIT you're doing, and a 20-minute walk at the end while you sip a post workout shake could be a nice way to do it.

Good luck.

5x5 hammer curls with 100lbs in each hand? That sounds interesting to say the least.

Originally Posted by Built

The ab work won't cut up your abs, but it won't hurt you either so ignore the haters and keep doing what you're doing.

Saying abs won't cut him up doesn't make me a hater.