My Workout/Diet Advice Needed

[sodomojo]

Okay, I have hit a platue, so I have cleaned up my eating even more and upped the intensity of my workouts. I am 5'10, 177lbs, and haven't moved weight in the past month or so. I started at 210lbs a year ago. I am 17.4% BF. And desperately want to get down to 10%. Here is what I do:

Monday: Lift (40 minutes), 20 min HIIT, 10 min moderate paced cardio
Tuesday: Lift (40 minutes), 45 minutes moderate/high paced cardio
Wednesday: 20 min HIIT, 10 min moderate paced cardio, abs.
Thursday:Lift (40 minutes), 20 min HIIT, 10 min moderate paced cardio
Friday: Lift (40 minutes), 45 minutes moderate/high paced cardio
Saturday: 45 minutes of moderate paced cardio, abs.

Breakfast: Oatmeal, and maybe a yogurt
Snack: Protein Shake
Lunch: Homemade burrito on whole wheat low carb, low fat tortilla with beans and a small amount of cheese, and fat free sour cream or a sandwich on whole wheat Sara Lee Bread
Snack: Protien Shake or a handful of nuts
Dinner: Peice of Chicken or Fish, baked potato with fatfree sour cream, green beans , flax seed oil on potato.
Snack: Cottage Cheese.

Is it just a matter matter of time before this extra fat comes off? I figure I need to get to about 165lbs to be at 10% BF. Maybe I'm wrong, who knows. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[SlimShady]

How is your strength holding up? If you start to see a big drop in the numbers you can lift, then I would start to get concerned that the body is losing muscle instead of fat. Remember, if you don't use the muscle, the body will try to get rid of it before fat, so keep your lifting intense. I also feel that you are doing probably too much cardio.. 20 mins of HIT everyday should be more than enough, if you are lifting and your diet is good.

I personally think your diet could be a lot better, but Jodie and Emma are the ones who really can set your straight there. Post your diet in the nutrition section and ask them for some help.

 

[AZNracerx1989]

you take protein twice a day??? i thought ur supposed to take it only once a day

 

[titans1854]

you take protein twice a day??? i thought ur supposed to take it only once a day

you must be new here

 

[ThaOne]

you take protein twice a day??? i thought ur supposed to take it only once a day

seriousley


whey is taken about 4-5 shakes a day by me i got this week to go then im using Creatine

 

[crazy_enough]

I used to LOVE HIIT...Almost demonstrated strapped in a sandwich man suit in favor of HIIT.Then I hit a plateau in fat loss, accompanied by lethargy, and a reduction in strenght.I was freaking out and stumbled onto this article from the Canadian "Tremblay" study analyzed by a knowledgeable member of another forum and it made complete sense...Sorry, its kinda long, but Im trying to say I think HIIT isnt so beneficial for fat loss...And I m just wondering if ur eating enough, since u also lift 4 X week, u may be overtraining...Anyway, heres the article:

QUOTE
"What About Fat Loss?

Angelo Tremblay, Ph.D., and his colleagues at the Physical Activities Sciences Laboratory, Laval University, Quebec, Canada, challenged the common belief among health professionals that low-intensity, long-duration exercise is the best program for fat loss. They compared the impact of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise and high-intensity aerobics on fat loss. (Metabolism (1994) Volume 43, pp.814-818)

The Canadian scientists divided 27 inactive, healthy, non-obese adults (13 men, 14 women, 18 to 32 years old) into two groups. They subjected one group to a 20-week endurance training (ET) program of uninterrupted cycling 4 or 5 times a week for 30 to 45 minutes; the intensity level began at 60% of heart rate reserve and progressed to 85%. (For a 30-year-old, this would mean starting at a heart rate of about 136 and progressing to roughly 170 bpm, which is more intense than usually prescribed for weight or fat loss.)

The other group did a 15-week program including mainly high-intensity-interval training (HIIT). Much like the ET group, they began with 30-minute sessions of continuous exercise at 70% of maximum heart rate reserve (remember, they were not accustomed to exercise), but soon progressed to 10 to 15 bouts of short (15 seconds progressing to 30 seconds) or 4 to 5 long (60 seconds progressing to 90 seconds) intervals separated by recovery periods allowing heart rate to return to 120-130 beats per minute. The intensity of the short intervals was initially fixed at 60% of the maximal work output in 10 seconds, and that of the long bouts corresponded to 70% of the individual maximum work output in 90 seconds. Intensity on both was increased 5% every three weeks.

As you might expect, the total energy cost of the ET program was substantially greater than the HIIT program. The researchers calculated that the ET group burned more than twice as many calories while exercising than the HIIT program. But (surprise, surprise) skinfold measurements showed that the HIIT group lost more subcutaneous fat. "Moreover," reported the researchers, "when the difference in the total energy cost of the program was taken into account..., the subcutaneous fat loss was ninefold greater in the HIIT program than in the ET program." In short, the HIIT group got 9 times more fat-loss benefit for every calorie burned exercising." end QUOTE

tango again here:
Ok, To make it short, they took a group that did steady-state cardio, and compared their fat loss to a group that did HIIT. They found that HIIT people did better.

Here is the kicker, the FIRST group that did the steady-state cardio was SKEWED..here is why:

(see the following from that article

QUOTE
"l They subjected one group to a 20-week endurance training (ET) program of uninterrupted cycling 4 or 5 times a week for 30 to 45 minutes; the intensity level began at 60% of heart rate reserve and progressed to 85%" end QUOTE

If you do steady-state cardio at that level of intensity of 60-85%, you will have people working out at too high a level a nd they will proiduce lactic acid. Remembre...lactic acid inhibits fat burning, doe snot stop it...but inhibits fat burning from reaching a maximum potential.
So..this will SKEW THE FAT BURNING abilioty of that steady-stae cardio grup to be LESS than the HIIT group. They even STATE this:

QUOTE
"(For a 30-year-old, this would mean starting at a heart rate of about 136 and progressing to roughly 170 bpm, which is more intense than usually prescribed for weight or fat loss.)"
end QUOTE

...The steady-state cardio group did NOT do lower intensity, but rather the medium-intensity (as stated they did in the article), so the HIIT people won out.

IF they had done LOWER INTENSITY steady-state cardio vs the HIIT group the results would have been drastically different. THAT is why the results are skewed.

This was explained to me by my coach who has a Masters degree in human physiology. He, and his cohorts, train elite athletes (Olympic and otherwise) at their center in my city. He also trained ELITE Olympic athletes in Canada's foremost Olympic training center, located in Calgary.
Those elite athletes do NOT train at a HIGH intensity such as HIIT to the degree that many of us have been doing. Did you get that?! It was important.
MOST of their training is "Low Threshold Training" which is done with a lower heart rate (steady-state cardio). It does not release lactic acid and OPTIMIZES fat burning in the individual. Exactly WHAT speed and WHAT heartrate everyone should be at is VERY individual, and thus the required VO2 testing and lactic acid testing that are done on athletes while working out at different thresholds of intensity.

ANOTHER AMAZING PIECE OF INFO:
I asked him this
"Ok, if HIIT does not fire up my metabolism WHY am I SO hungry the day after". (as many of us are in here, from what
has been written in past posts from many of you/us)

The reason this hunger happens the day after HIIT (or right after), is because doing INTENSE intervals like that uses up glycogen VERY fast, and we deplete our body's carb supply ...but NOT our fat fuel supply like we would have preferred. That leads to great hunger, and if one trains properly you do NOT have that hunger the day afterwards. How interesting!

If you do an intense interval of about 10 seconds , or longer, you deplete your ATP (adenosine Triphosphate) and CP stores. THIS leads to lactic acid being released which, once again, inhibits the full fat burning potential of the body. Those stores do, however, replete themselves very quickly BUT ONLY if you wait 2-5 min's. If you are doing fast intervals of 10 sec's, then wait 2-5 mins going slow...you will be fine. BUT who is doing THAT?! I certainly was not. Phew! Heavy stuff right?

We also talked about how HIGH intensity training effects the neural system. It leads to that neural system being deprived and that can lead to illness. How many people workout with intensity and when they take a week off feel AMAZING? Their bodies were run down by too much intense training.

I will say it again, ELITE athletes do not train with HIIT like we do (well...a couple of sport-specific do but THEY are finely-tuned athletes).
I wanted to ensure that you ALL see that HIIT done as we do it with 30 sec's fast/30 sec's slow or the 1 min fast/1 min/slow is NOT as good for your body, and MOST certainly not as good for optimum fat burning as solid old steady-state cardio. Indeed it is the opposite and leads to carb depletion inte body.

I was VERY skeptical about his. But after MANY many many discussions with my coach and his team, I see now that the internet has a plethera of misinformation. Most articles on the net dont refer to any real studies about HIIT, but the ones that do, cite the "Trembley" study that I pasted above and it was faulty.

I know this is pretty dry reading...please rethink HIIT in your workout as you may very well be draining your neural system and most certaily are not optimizing your fat burning potentiall.
From someone who was VERY into HIIT, I was taken aback by all of this and tried very hard to prove this wrong. I was VERY skeptical.
I thought I was totally on top of the HIIT info out there, I was wrong and I admit it.
I look forward to all comments and discussion about this.

tango

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Knowledge is Power.