Thread: Newbie to cutting, please give advice

Please post your diet and we can make recommendations.

As far as cardio, if you stick with HIIT moreso than traditional there is a lot less chance of muscle loss.

To be honest, I really don't have a set diet. Lately I've been conscious of having to eat 5-6 meals a day, and so I've been trying to do that. For breakfast I usually have waffles or something quick like pop-tarts, then after that I have some fruit like bananas, then for lunch I either eat a salad or a hamburger, I take whey protein and creatine on days that I workout, usually eat a yogurt before dinner, and dinner is subject to anything.

I don't drink soda or eat junk foods like candy or chips, and I try to stay away from fast food places; however, my girlfriend likes to go out to eat at pizza restaurants.

So how should I change my diet? What is a good calorie maximum to set? Also, how long should the HIIT sessions be for, and how many times each week?

"then for lunch I either eat a salad or a hamburger, " - there is a big difference between the two. It might help to have a set "cutting" meal plan to start off with. A baseline number for cutting I read on this forum was 17.5 * lbs bodyweight.

17.5 seems high to me, thatd mean I'd be taking in 4200 cals, which seems like a lot. I think closer to 12 is more realistic.

I agree 17.5 is far too much for cutting. for most that would be near or above maintenance.

start at 12x bw to begin with and adjust from there.
do 3 HIIT cardio sessions per week. 25-30mins each(including warmup).

as for what foods you should be eating-please read the stickies at the top of the forum. I really think that is a good place to get some ideas for you.

I don't want to start a new post for this but what does HIIT mean thanks

Personally I start off slow, 13x with no cardio (I maintain at 15x. Subtract 250 calories from daily caloric intake when fat loss stalls, and when I hit around 10-11x I start doing cardio, HIIT twice a week. I'm doing carb cycling this year though, SO much easier than calorie counting.

HIIT= high intensity interval training

Peace.

Originally posted by Jodi
Please post your diet and we can make recommendations.

As far as cardio, if you stick with HIIT moreso than traditional there is a lot less chance of muscle loss.

Jodi, would you still suggest doing interval cardio even when going as long as say 30 mins? I don't want to overwork legs.
(And usually I do the eliptical, tread mill is way to slow when it comes to burning calories, and in my case, that is where my entire defecit comes from.)

Originally posted by mwman
11-12% bodyfat.

I should just get rid of as much fat as possible ..

Yeah I know I am not fat and really don't need to be cutting... but all of the fat on my body seems to be concentrated on my mid-section, and this summer I want to be proud of my chest when I go to the beach; hopefully I'll be able to see some abs.

So with 12x I would be having 1980 calories a day. Does this seem to be a decent amount? So if I keep my calories low to make a deficit, and I do 30 min of HIIT sessions a week, how much fat can I expect to lose?