Need Help: Looking for advice on getting cut in a 3rd world country

[Unlucky]

Hello everyone -

I am new to the site and I have read all of the stickies and a lot of the posts as was suggested by the dozens of threads that turned into a troll and flamer battle

The reason I am posting and not just following one of those guides is because I think my situation is a little different and I am looking for help on how you guys think to make the best of it.

I am tired of not being in the best physical shape I can be, or at least much better. Currently I am 22, about 5'10 and about 165lbs/75kg (i120.photobucket. com/albums/o185/tracker3k/photo-6.jpg). I would like to get more lean and cut rather than to bulk up a bunch. Some bulking is desired, but mostly I just want to be leaner, healthier, and stronger overall (I know, simple goals, huh?).

Here's the rub: I am currently studying in China, and so many of the suggestions/guides are much more difficult if not impossible to accomplish here. The food sources are different, the availability of quality gyms and equipment is different, almost everything is different and I hope I can outline a few of my problems and where I would like your advice. I am a lengthy writer so I will write postscripts after each paragraph if you don't have time to read it all

Food:
So, the food here in China sucks. I'm sorry if this offends anyone, but, I feel like a walking corpse after eating the **** in this country. So much oil, so much crappy quality, so many disgusting things that shouldn't be eaten by anyone, anywhere, ever, not to mention there are enough simple carbs in every meal to kill a horse - white rice and noodles/weird bread crap, anyone? As a result, I have almost entirely stopped eating out and I have been cooking all my own meals. Here's the deal though: meat is almost impossible to find in this country. I know, 90% of you probably just closed the browser and decided there was no hope. The meat you can find here is absolutely disgusting, no semblance of actual meat, it's just gristle and innards and skins and...yeah, I'll stop. Finding a chicken breast is like finding the lost city of Atlantis. SO, keep this in mind if you can help comment on what I should be eating. Eggs are more readily available, albeit disgusting (never refrigerated, left out for days, etc), can find milk pretty often. Luckily, I can find fruits/vegetables okay. I have looked at the Fibrous vegetable list and a lot of the veggies here are on that. Protein supplements are probably a no go as well. They are here, but I question the authenticity and they cost close to 5-6x US prices and I can't afford paying $150 US for a 2 week container of whey protein.

Postscript for FOOD:
1. Meat nearly impossible to find, need alternatives (if they even exist >,<).
2) Eggs / Milk more readily available.
3) Fibrous vegetables more readily available.
4) Nuts (mostly peanuts, but some others) available.
5) Protein powders / supplements not available.
6) Rice obviously available, but only the bad white type (I am trying to find Brown Rice/Barley supply). Beans not so available, but I will try to find them.
7) Water is available, but it is all bottled of course. I hate drinking dead water, but, it'll have to do. Is tea good to drink? All sorts of teas totally available here.

Exercise
I am in a particularly poor area of China and so there aren't Gyms, and I can't even find weights, so, this might require some creativity. I know, I have probably lost the remaining 10% of you guys at this point, but surely there's some way I can be healthy in this crappy country. I do love running and, although it destroys my lungs running in such pollution, I try to get in about 20 miles a week.

1) Gym not available.
2) Weights not available.
3) I run fairly often.
4) Need advice: what floor exercises, self-weight exercises, etc?

Game plan
So, after reading all of the stickies and a lot of posts, I think this is my game plan at the moment. Any and all advice is so greatly appreciated. Also, is it unrealistic to want to see results in 3 months or less? I would like to see or feel some noticeable difference by the end of Feb.

• Eat 5-6 meals a day. Include lots of fibrous vegetables in my cooking. Avoid excess use of oil, and avoid sugar. Drink lots of water. Use eggs/oatmeal/milk for proteins. Shoot for 40/40/20 or 50/20/30 protein/carb/fat ratio.
• Continue running for exercise. Follow regiment of pushups/situps/planks/pistol lifts/core exercises/stretching/anything not requiring weights.
• Get the frek out of China...

I know that 90% of the battle is dedication and determination to be healthier, and no one here can make that happen but me. I guess what I am asking from people here is advice on how to adapt the workout/diet guides on here for getting cut/healthy without the availability of gyms or meat.

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated. Sorry if my post was a long one.

-Zach

 

[Built]

Diet:

• I suggest you investigate intermittent fasting. 5-6 meals while cutting can be rather unpleasant. I've been fasting until at least one PM and eating most of my food in three fairly substantial meals between 1 and 10 PM for this cut - it's NICE feeling full a few times a day while dieting!
• Ditch the "ratio" approach. Read the link in my sig on getting started to set up your diet.
• Watch it with your planned workouts - you'll get lean, but you'll get skinny too.

 

[Unlucky]

Thanks

Hey, thanks for the advice man!

Whether I was trying or not, I think I was already doing some intermittent fasting just because of the availability of edible foods here. I will look into it more as you suggest.

Not sure I get what you're saying about the planned workouts? Do you mean the running or what I was saying about floor/body weight exercises? I definitely have a lot of softness to lose, so I wonder if I am really at risk of getting skinny I definitely need to get leaner, but I want to know what you mean so I don't do nothing dumb.

Thanks again, any more help from anyone is appreciated!

 

[Built]

I'm just concerned that you're doing too much activity while dieting. This can - and will - lead to muscle-loss unless you're running anabolics.

 

[Unlucky]

Oh

Ah, I get what you mean now. I'm pretty sure i'm not at risk of being too active though. It's exceptionally difficult to stay on any type of consistent workout plan here where I am at. Some weeks I can't run at all or even do much floor work, etc. Plus, there are no weights or gyms here and so all my workouts are exceptionally light.

Like I said I am new to this, so maybe this is a dumb question, but, is it not possible to both get lean/cut and build good muscle definition at the same time?

 

[Built]

lean/cut MEANS muscle definition. You won't be able to build much - if any - muscle while cutting; at best, you hope not to drop any. That being said, a novice can often accomplish some muscle-gain while dropping weight. You'll need some heavy stuff for that, though.

Say, what are your thoughts about sprint-work? Sprinters have muscular legs. I'd ditch jogging entirely and do some sprint work and some walking.

 

[Unlucky]

I gotcha. I'm definitely a novice and so I would think I would have some muscle-gain just because there's not much room to go down Definitely hard to find heavy stuff though, at least until I get back to the US.

I'd be game for sprint-work. I do sprint-work occasionally (fartleks, ladder workouts, etc), but the majority of my running is distance/endurance work. I've never really focused on sprint work though, in part due to my naivety i'm sure in thinking that you just don't get the same benefits from a sprint workout as I would from an hour of running, etc. I've got decently muscular legs, due to my body type and all the running I do I suppose. I know (now) that the legs are the biggest muscle group in the body and working them out has huge residual effects on the rest of your muscle development, so yeah I would definitely be up to trying a sprint-work program.

Running is hard for me here because of all the pollution, I really feel crappy after an hour of sucking wind. Perhaps sprint-work would be better anyway just because it wouldn't have me puffing pollution for so long.

 

[Noghri73]

Sounds like you will have to rely on your own body weight for resistance training.

Start doing Chinups

 

[Merkaba]

I'm getting depressed from reading this. I'm gonna go eat something now on general principle....

 

[Unlucky]

Hah

Hah, yeah man I know. This country blows major donkey balls. I dream nightly of biting into a big giant texas burger with bleu cheese and enough bacon to kill a normal human being. I want my BBQ back...

I wish I could find a place to do chinups. The ****ing chinese nazi guards that are posted EVERYWHERE don't let you do anything. I tried doing pullups at 2 different bus stops, one street corner, and in a park, and EVERYTIME I would be like 3 reps in and then boom, some jackass chinese guard comes running over out of no where yelling his ass off at me like i'm desecrating some national monument. They think I can't understand them, which is funny, but it's nonetheless annoying I can't find anywhere to do a dam pullup.

Freakin' guard yelled at me for doing pushups in the park, too. It's like working out is illegal. Gotta do all the stuff in my crappy closet of a room.