Thread: Here Is What I Ate Today.... Please Critique

You need to choose what you want to do cut fat or gain muscle

Thats the hard part for me. I'm not obese, I just have fat on my stomach and chest. At the same time I want to lose the fat, I want to get bigger. I dont' know. Its too hard to choose.

But I guess at this point, I came so far, I should just finish up and lose the rest of the fat, then pack on the muscle.

Twenty Six years ago, my mentor told me I couldn't lift weights till I was around 10% body fat. I leaned out over the next three months and I already had a six pack! I did play soccer, rugby, motocross and chase girls. Anyhoo, the reason it turned out, was so I could seeee my results as I lifted. Granted, my mentor was a contender for Mr. state, but he was cutting edge at the time. By todays standards it was way over training, but seeing every ounce of muscle put on on almost a weekly basis was killer. I had, yes, a polaroid camera. My six months of photo's on the fridge, one per week was amazing. You could flip through them like a deck of cards and it was a movie of total transformation. So, I say lean out, see what you have for reeal, don't guess whats under that belly and chest, and build from there keeping it tight to ten percent all the way. Maybe one time in the next year or two try cutiing to four or even three percent if you can, dehydrate yourself, like you were getting ready for a competition, or better yet, do one. Take a picture in "contest" shape and put it on the fridge. It may help you from grabbing a snack between snacks, and in a year do it again. I know you may be younger than I (41) but time will start flying by soon, and bodybuilding is not just a sport, it's a way of life.

So what are you saying, I should cut now???

And what do you think about my diet???

What are your proportions? It sounds like you are an endomorph, in between an ectomorph and a mesomorph. Do your claves match the size of your arms at bicep? How much bigger is your waist than your thighs? How big is your chest? What goal do you have, freaky, or fank Zany? Any way, you have to visualize exactly what you want to look like before taking the journey there. In any event, drop the fat down to less than ten percent, while working out if you like, just realize you won't get much muscle while dieting and still working out, you'll just keep more muscle while you loose the fat. I really like your diet. Any time you can keep the carbs low and the fat low and the protein high it's good. You look like you have a good handle on that. I usually try and get 2grms of protein when maintaining, three grams while dropping or dieting and four when building per pound of body weight. Despite all the magazines and countless contradictory advertisements you've been saturated with, red meat is the best protein source, especially rare. The more rare the less the bcaa's have been broken down and the better for fueling muscle growth. However, protein is protein and the more the merrier. You can get ketoses (noticeable bad breath is a good sign) from an over active protein diet, just ask any of my previous girlfriends. When you hit lethargy you know you have gone too far in dieting and don't be afraid of getting a few carbs back in the mix. But, yes; carve the fat off, assess what you have, measure, increase calories bit by bit, and, since you want to gain muscle, work out heavy, and short. Max OT is a good program. Heavy as you can for four to six reps, three to five sets. If you’re close to HEAVY as you can be this is more than enough. Make sure you don't train each body part more than once every five days. The exception being biceps and calves, I hit them every time I go to the gym (eod). Good luck!

How much cardio should I be doing???

I like to do cardio first thing in the morning on a empty stomach, I only take a BCAA shake before and thats it.

drop the fat down to less than ten percent

If EFA's make up than 10% of your diet im sure that isn't good for you seeing as EFA's promote fat loss

For a start i would drop that oz steak and replace it with a chicken breast or similar protein source and i would drop the muffin

Post when you eat the food as timing is also crucial

The exception being biceps and calves, I hit them every time I go to the gym

nice way to overtrain

None.
With a calorie restricted diet you need to put on lean muscle, cardio would be counter productive at this point. Lift like a powerlifter, make your mind think it needs every calorie to build muscle, not cardio. For instance, you burn about 450 cals in an hour doing the tredmill, only burn about 300 lifting. Sounds like cardio is better, right? NOpe, it takes aproxomatly 50 calories per pound of muscle to just maintain that muscle, more if you use it. So keep the calories for building muscle, the more muscle the faster the fat drops off. If you put just five pounds of muscle on, that's 250 extra calories you metabolism must come up with just to exist, so 300 lifting plus 250 maintaining is 550, so it's actually faster to loose fat by not doing cardio and just lifting when a restricted calorie diet. Also, our damn bodies adapt to what we are doing. If you run in the morning what does it want to do? It wants to save energy for endurance, carry less weight, ie muscle, and make your metabolism more efficient. If you just lift, it's going to use those calories to build muscle for what it considers survival, so it will concentrate on putting on the beef. Mind you, cadio has it's place, but it's down the road for cutting up and such. I can lose 10 pounds in less than a week. Unfortunatly it's half beef and half fat, but the illusion in the mirror is that I put on 20 lbs of lean beef. It's all illusion. I'm actually surprised you have much fat on you at all only eating 2500 cals a day. I eat about 5-6K a day just to maintain without any cardio, just lifting heavy. When I want to get down to contest weight I'll eat about 2k then two days of dehydration and cardio. Huge ten day difference.
Anyone else have a say? Welcome more advice, I'm just letting you know what works for me, through trial and ERRORS in the last two decades.
PS sex calories don't count.

I can lose 10 pounds in less than a week

you'll be loosing muscle mass most likely

I eat about 5-6K a day just to maintain without any cardio

You must be a HUGEGEEEEEE guy then

Is it me being a *%$# or does some of this sound like bull?