Thread: Critique me..

Currently around 190lbs (this has come down within the past month), and stand at about 5'11", perhaps a half inch taller

Training

Started going to the gym every night to run on the treadmill about a month ago..been VERY dedicated to this..

Just started HIIT last night

Diet

Really started to change my diet a few weeks ago..

I'm always evolving, learning, adapting, tweaking..right now my diet is something like:

Breakfast - Carnation Breakfast energy shake
Lunch - Chicken salad/crackers
Dinner - RANDOM..could be Korean food, could be a sandwich. But it's usually what is at home and I eat a moderate portion. I used to eat large portions
Protein shake after the gym

I'm going to guess I was eating 2000cal maximum..but I may not have been hitting that on the days I didn't have much of a dinner..

I'm tweaking this week and trying to have my chicken breast/green beans/rice meal for lunch, and hope to be doing this on a regular basis once I make it routine. (I'm going to go home and cook this all up tonight and have it in the fridge for lunch for the remainder of the work week)

Supplements:
Multi-vitamin
EC stack 3x day (This week i started Tight+Vasopro to finish off a fairly full bottle--once finished I'm going back to the Vasopro+Caffeine)

Goals?
SLIM DOWN. I'm starting to look a looooooot better..stomach is getting flatter, you can actually see my biceps, etc.
For now, it's really to just lose this fat, look real good with my clothes on, pretty much. And once I achieve that, I want to look real good naked.
So ultimately..I want to have a fit physique, definition. Perhaps once I get there I may want to get REAL defined, REAL cut, etc...but that is more of a long-term goal.

Thoughts/ponders/questions

I'm following this HIIT:

Each cycle consists of a 30 second sprint followed by a 30 second recovery period (if in example you are running, do a sprint followed by 30 seconds of jogging). If you are in excellent shape or are used to doing long periods of cardio you can probably up the time spent for a cycle (save my @$$ from lawyers disclaimer: always consult a physician before starting a workout program). I would suggest though that anybody that has never done a HIIT routine start at the bottom and work your way up. This program can be adapted to pretty much any form or cardio excercise such as bike, stair climber, elipitcals, etc.

Week 1 -
4 minute cycle x 2 days
5 minute cycle x 1 day

Week 2 -
5 minute cycle x 2 days
6 minute cycle x 1 day

Week 3 -
7 minute cycle x 2 days
8 minute cycle x 1 day

Week 4 -
8 minute cycle x 2 days
9 minute cycle X 1 day

Week 5 -
10 minute cycle x 2 days
11 minute cycle x 1 day

It's suggested to follow this formula until you have done it for 8 weeks then take some time off ( 1-2 weeks +) and start over. At the 8 week mark you should be at 2x 14 min cycles and 1x 15 min cycle. HIIT programs have shown to burn more fat than long endurance cardio sessions which tend to end up causing greater muscle loss.

So, I did a 4 minute cycle last night..and to be honest, I underestimated it! It was a great workout! I didn't think 4 minutes would even take any effort

But according to this..two 4 minute cycles and one 5min cycle in week 1.

Someone want to advise me to not do 4 minute cycles Mon-Fri this week? Because that is what I want to do...

--

Lean body mass..so we know that the more LBM you have, the higher your metabolism should be, the more defined you will look, etc.
Should I be weight training as well? In accordance to my short-term goals?

Originally posted by joey
RMR? I'm guessing you are referring to my maintenance calories--what I need to nourish my body, right?

yes...

RMR= resting metabolic rate, so if were to just lay in bed for a 24 hour period 1550 cals is what you would have to ingest for your metabolism to remain normal and to feed your muscle tissue.

I would start at 2,500-2750 cals a day and start dropping from there...