Need some advice

**Scythe** · 04-20-2004, 11:55 AM

Hello

Alright, about 5 months ago I started on a diet and excercise streak that went around 3 months. Originally I was about 165 and cut down to about 134 (I'm a 5'7" male), and am now staying stagnant at about 155

The thing is I lost the size-mass and numbers on the scale, but my overall 'shape' stayed the same. Still have fat on my stomach, under the arms/sides of the chest and the like. The diet I was on was about 1600 calories a day, excercise was mostly cardio. I am getting the impression that I lost more muscle mass then actual fat due to neglicance on the carb/protein ratio and no real weight lifting (like I said was mostly cardio)

So I am wondering what I should go about doing now to get into a good body shape? Some people are telling me to eat more and do weights to bulk up muscle wise, others are telling me to eat less and continue on a fat-loss plan to lower my body fat % (which I think is at 19%). I'm no nutrition/excercise expert so I'm asking on a few forums, anyways what do you guys think my plan should be? I'm 21 and a guy. I actually have a 31 waist but I still have that 'gut'. Please let me know if you need any more info or if I was too vague in explaining something. I'm going to be searching/reading up here as much as I can as well as there seems to be a ton of good info

Thanks!

**BabsieGirl** · 04-20-2004, 11:59 AM

IMO, I feel you're skinny/fat.

You need to eat more and increase the weights. FORGET ABOUT CARDIO. You need to build muscle.

You look the same because you've lost muscle during the process.

**atherjen** · 04-20-2004, 12:01 PM

sounds to me like you lost alot of muscle! wasnt eating near enough and all that cardio...

I would suggest maybe not bulking, but not necessarly hard dieting either.. a balanced maintenance plan to help gain back some of the lost muscle.. in return that can help speed up metabolism and loose the extra fat at the same time as well.

**Scythe** · 04-20-2004, 12:50 PM

I suppose that's it. I was doing 1600 calories but not really watching what I ate too carefully (besides avoiding junk food/fast food). My concern was "keep it at 1600 calories". Then I did cardio about 3-4 times a week in the morning

I don't really care about bulking up big time or getting abs or anything, my primary goal is to lower my body fat % (which I believe is around 19-23%) and get some muscle (I have skinny forarms etc. bleh). It's mainly my abdomen and chest area that's pissing me off

Thanks for the responses so far, I'm going to try and get an idea of what to do for my diet/workouts and how many calories I should shoot off the other threads here. Am I going to be looking for a huge calorie deficit in my diet?

**BabsieGirl** · 04-20-2004, 01:06 PM

You need to increase your calories to about 1700. 1700 is what your body requires for energy alone. If you exercise, you need more food. I would like to say if you're exericing, increase your calories to about 1900 to 2100 calories per day. THIS MEANS EATING HEALTHY.

If you want to add muscle, you have to lift weights.

**Scythe** · 04-20-2004, 10:20 PM

Got it

I'm going to do weights MWF and cardio TTHS. I have a question on diet though- I was reading some other posts/journals on here and I see alot of this carb cycling thing, is that typically better or should I try and stick to the same thing everyday for my situation?

**atherjen** · 04-21-2004, 04:47 AM

it really depends on how strcutured you want the diet to be and WILLING to follow it.. its not hard but takes preperation. Carb cycling would defintly help you to perhaps gain a bit of lean muscle(as some have on this diet) and loose fat at the same time... it seems to be a great diet for recompostioning.

**Scythe** · 04-21-2004, 01:33 PM

Mmm well I was messing around a little with some possible diets, I don't think I could afford the things really needed to do carb cycling like I've read on the other posts here (I'm a very poor college student

)

I think I'm going to try around 1800 calories, try to do a 40/40/20 split and get my workouts in and see how that works out for a little bit first

**Jodi** · 04-21-2004, 01:40 PM

Afford food? That's all carb cycling takes for bulking - Lots of food. But if your bulking any diet requires lots of food.

**Scythe** · 04-21-2004, 05:37 PM

Sorry, I meant the fish and things like that

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