New member looking for solid advice

[Cem88]

Just joined the forum today and am very impressed at the knowledge of the users on here. Little history on myself leading to the knowledge I'm looking for. Started working out at 19 Bc basically I was fat. 200lbs at 5"10 at about 30%bf. once I started seeing results, like every other DA kid, I tried gear. Didn't know a thing about dieting, ( still a bit confused), etc. long story short, stopped working out for about two years Bc of personal problems.

Well I've been back in it now for about 6 months and remember why I started in the first place. I love it! But on too my problems that I need advice on.

1) diet: I work offshore and I'm kinda at the cooks mercy on what we have to eat. I try to eat at least 6 times a day. Well, 3 meals are basically protein shakes Bc of work. I could stand too loose some body fat for sure in my core area but would like to keep my size in my upper body. Basically I'm worried about cutting Bc I don't want to be small, but don't want to bulk and it get out of hand with bf%. Is there any kind of diet that's a in between kinda deal where I could cut some fat but keep building muscle in the same process?

2) supplements: with so much being out there, it's hard to choose and determine which supps are legit and which are crap. I would like to do this naturally at first and find out what my bodies natural potential is before even thinking about AAS again. So many proteins, vitamins, amino acids, pro hormones, fat burners, etc etc, it's hard for someone just coming in to this world to know what works best and what is bunk so any light that could be shed on this subject would be greatly appreciated.

I pretty much have my routines planned out. I keep a log on an app I have and switch it up every four weeks. I just can't seem to get everything else down to a science to get the final result I'm looking for. All the talk about esters, glycogenes, etc just blows my mind. A good straight forward, this is what you need to understand, this is what you need to do answer can ho a long way with me!My goal is to be about 185 at 8-10%bf. so any info you guys can shed on this dark tunnel I'm traveling down would be greatly appreciated!

 

[hmmoreno]

Welcome

 

[benmayro]

Welcome brother, Ill try the best i can to help you out with all your questions!

 

[MidwestBeast]

As long as you're cutting, slowly, and not trying to "lose as much as possible, as fast as possible" then you'll be fine in terms of not losing (much) size.

My advice would be, if you haven't already, use a program like fitday.com (or something similar as an app on your phone) and track your caloric intake and the breakdown of the macronutrients (protein/fat/carbs) over the course of a couple weeks and keep that in line with your weight. It's kind of a pain at first, but you should be able to figure out pretty quickly what your caloric maintenance level is and at that point, it just a matter of putting it at a slight deficit (300-500 calories/day) by means of eating less or being more active to burn off more calories.

Eventually, you'll get to a point when you'll be able to eyeball things and just know from experience how many calories are in this or that, etc. Like I said, it can be tedious at first, but it's one of the best things you can do for yourself.

As far as supplements go, I like your approach -- see what you can do without anything. A solid multivitamin is never a bad idea and creatine monohydrate is cheap and effective, too. Outside of that, just research each thing individually and see what you come up with, but you're right in that they're generally not necessities.

Good luck, man.

 

[Cem88]

Preciate all the welcomes and advice. I just downloaded the app you were talking about and it's pretty legit. Never knew something like this was out there. It will for sure help out a lot in my training!
As far as burning calories vs intake, they will differ from day to day. Reason being is some days, we are balls to the wall but others, consist of Xbox and cards so I will just have to play with the numbers from there. Is there a good rule of thumb to go by as far as burning calories vs intake and body weight? Example, my welder on shift has to take in around 5k calories a day to gain a pound a weak. How would something like this be added up and vise versa for loosing as well? All answers are greatly appreciated!

 

[MidwestBeast]

Preciate all the welcomes and advice. I just downloaded the app you were talking about and it's pretty legit. Never knew something like this was out there. It will for sure help out a lot in my training!
As far as burning calories vs intake, they will differ from day to day. Reason being is some days, we are balls to the wall but others, consist of Xbox and cards so I will just have to play with the numbers from there. Is there a good rule of thumb to go by as far as burning calories vs intake and body weight? Example, my welder on shift has to take in around 5k calories a day to gain a pound a weak. How would something like this be added up and vise versa for loosing as well? All answers are greatly appreciated!

You can check out some of the BMR (basal metabolic rate) calculators that are out there (they all seem to vary in what they suggest). Remember that a pound is 3,500 calories, so if he's eating 5k/day and gaining 1lb/week, his maintenance (with whatever his activity level is) would arguably be 4,500 calories/day.

 

[OrganicShadow]

Welcome. BMR is roughly (100)BW + 10%. For me that's about (100)175+18=1750+18=1768. But I eat around 2200-2300 on training days during a phase of maintenance.

Basic Energy Expenditure (BEE) has a lot more factors to consider and a more accurate method of determining caloric intake necessary but I can't post that from my phone.