mrbuttchee

I really need some help here... I've been working out for years and toying with many routines many of them have gotten me only so far... and it's much more confusing trying to decide what to eat and allow me to explain why:

I have always been obese. I lost much of the weight through improper training (starvation/cardio/lifting). And some of it through proper training with a good diet. Here is my dilemma... No matter what I do I cannot seem to lose anymore fat or gain anymore muscle... I've tried high rep routines, pyramidding high rep routines, strictly high rep routines, pyramidding low rep routines, supersetting, circuit training, and many different combinations of body groups per day...

Right now I am attempting, possibly quite naively, to do this split:
heavy chest/light tris
heavy back/light bis/forearms
shoulders/abs/calves (which I rarely have time to even do abs/calves)
heavy quads/light hams

I will go 3 days on 1 day off repeatedly... then after one week of this I switch to
light chest/heavy tris
light back/heavy bis/forearms
shoulders/abs/calves
light quads/heavy hams
(approx 1:30-2min rest time between sets)

When I say heavy I mean a pyramidding scheme upwards in weight...
I do sets of 15x 12x 10x 8x for heavy exercises.. Sometimes I will try to up the 8 set to a 10 set to volumize - I normally try to push out at least 1 more rep for each set than it says above but usually can't anyway. I do a circuit training of either pyramidding or the same # of high reps and weight without rest in between sets of all exercises in the superset and then rest after 1 circuit
I usually do light back and light chest before I'll do heavy bis or tris respectively (to warm them up). And if I do heavy chest or back it goes without saying that light bis and tris are last...

My problem has always been this: When I put on weight I put it on everywhere and in every form... most prominently the jiggly cellulite kind that nobody wants. My metabolism is something of a paradox it seems. But the bottom line is this - I am 5'8 and weigh about 190 lbs (my heaviest point was about 265 of pure fat approximately 4 years ago when I started improper starvation/diet/exercise techniques, which I suspect has injured my metabolism). I do not look cut and I'm not nearly as strong as I should be or have been in the past (as when I was doing a slightly lower-rep scheme; to me this implies that I would be lifting the same weights if I decided to move them up and lower the reps which further implies that I have been wasting my time lifting for 5 years because I'm essentially putting identical workloads into lifting but simply doing it in different forms - ie-->high weight/low rep vs. low weight/high rep---> equivalent workloads by varying the method of work. I do understand that the two schemes work different energy systems [like muscles' local energy storage vs. aerobic respiration] of the body but perhaps not thoroughly enough.) For instance once I do 205 for 8 reps on bench press for my first exercise on heavy chest it annihalates any strength I have for other sets thereafter. And it's always been this way - I've tried 12 10 8 6; 12 10 10 8, 15 15 12 10 8 6, I mean everything for every exercise... I want to put on 25-35 lbs but of MUSCLE. And to do that I have to lift heavy and eat a lot but when I eat a lot it goes to my gut.

I eat 5+ meals/snacks daily and drink plenty of water. These meals include vegetables, oatmeal (rolled/unprocessed whole-wheat oats) apples, chicken, tuna + fish, milk, pasta, meat, shakes, etc... My post-workout meal is almost always approx 45g protein powder and 25g sugar from "Glyco-load" which is basically dextrose and a blend of quickly-metabolized sugars to be quickly absorbed for recovery; and if not from glyco-load, then some other high simple sugar is usually consumed afterwards.

Perhaps, now my protein or carb intakes are too low...? I slightly reduced protein intake over the past year because of liver worries; as I'm sure you know, excess amino acids are metabolized by the liver and used for respiration which produces the waste product, urea. Taxing the liver is something I'd like to avoid if and when possible.

Regardless... I am very confused about how to really lose the fat that I have and get more defined (because as I've said, I've tried high-rep routines, sculpting routines, mass then cut, etc) but at the same time, add on muscle? I'm open to any advice here...

Should I do these independently? Meaning, cycle mass/strength, then cut down, cycle mass/strength, cut down, etc, etc? I ask because when I've done that not only have I lost strength but I also have gained weight. I don't know how to accomodate my diet to the different routines with the metabolism I have (a terrible, "obeseness-factory" of a metabolism). I know that without proper diet for fuel (and here I omitt the obvious protein and water, etc), ie - high complex carbs - I will have no energy to lift. Yet, when I eat these same types of fuel and meals I see mass and weight gain but exactly where I want to lose weight - in my midsection. When I do higher reps I have lost strength and have seen little to no definition benefit. When I do lower reps and eat a lot, I gain strength and slight mass but then immediately hit a wall through which it is impossible to pass. My max bench has only ever been 225 that I could do for reps (6x reps at the most and 1-ad/dbol did not help this much).

Beings that when I was pyramidding/mass/str training I was eating sufficiently, why did I stay at that bench for such a long time (gee I think it was about 2-3 years before finally completely changing my routine and losing strength to then have to lower bench even further...)? Additionally, I weighed almost that much when I was benching it! Thus it seems utterly futile and impossible for me to gain muscle and lose fat, especially at the same time. Everything I do that seems to work for other people in gaining strength and MUSCLE mass seems to either bring me to a plateau, gain weight but lose strength (which my appearance negatively reflects), or lose weight and strength but gain no definition... I have stacked 1-ad and D-bol in the past and it was the best kick in my lifting ever... and then as soon as it was over with my pump was also ended... I have tried creatine and I'm about to start M1T with 4-ad, as I read on this site.

What the heck should I do? Should I try to cut more first? Should I just go all out mass and str beings that I gain weight so easily and then cut it down later (but keep in mind the exponential rate at which I seem to lose muscle mass and strength when cutting... perhaps a flaw in my training but I doubt it... especially after having used Muscle&Fittness Magazine and their interesting and helpful routines)

Please suggest a workout or workouts to cycle with these PHs that I will soon be intaking and, more importantly, cycles/workouts for afterwards when I will be going o'natural and relying strictly on food and shakes.

Thank you sincerely to whomever replies to this looongg post...
-mrbuttchee-

Pirate!

You are trying to tackle way too much in one post. Post your diet in the diet forum and seek training advice in the training forum. Don't focus on supplements. Your diet is the key to lossing the fat. Good luck and welcome to IM.

topolo

I agree way too much!

gococksDJS

yeah bro, shorten that bitch and post your supplement questions in here