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bellinger8

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I am 6'4 245lbs at about 16-18% bodyfat and I am looking to get to 225-230lbs at around 10-12% bodyfat. I work out 5 days a week and over the winter I didn't pay a lot of attention to my diet and concentrated on putting on some size. Now I am starting to concentrate on my diet and I want to keep as much size as possible while still losing the fat. Any suggestions would be great.
 
Rosie Chee

Rosie Chee

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Tips on Diet for Fat Loss

I am 6'4 245lbs at about 16-18% bodyfat and I am looking to get to 225-230lbs at around 10-12% bodyfat. I work out 5 days a week and over the winter I didn't pay a lot of attention to my diet and concentrated on putting on some size. Now I am starting to concentrate on my diet and I want to keep as much size as possible while still losing the fat. Any suggestions would be great.
You've got it right; DIET is the key to your fat loss.

Just to help get you started in the right direction, here are some tips on diet for fat loss. (These are the general guidelines that I give to my clients who are looking to lose BF (and they can be adjusted to suit muscle and strength gain, since the only difference in the two is the AMOUNT of calories that needs to be consumed); otherwise I write them a personalized diet plan (that takes into account personal preferences, allergies, etc.) to meet their needs):

1. First, you need to work out what your MAINTENANCE calories are (There are various methods and equations that you can use to calculate this; most take into account current body mass, height, and activity level). Then, to lose fat, you need to make sure that you're having up to 500 calories LESS than maintenance. Depending on how fast or slow you lose the fat, you can adjust and tweak your calorie intake each week.
2. Eat every 2-3 hours after waking. This helps keep the metabolism going throughout the day, as well as keeping insulin levels stable.
3. EVERY meal should have complex carbohydrates [CHO] (i.e. kumara, rice, oats, etc.), QUALITY LEAN protein (chicken breast, fish, tuna, salmon, lean beef, egg whites, etc.), and FIBROUS CHO (i.e. vegetables, green ones in particular).
4. Drink 4.5 litres of water per day. This will help keep the system clean.
5. It has been proven that TWO servings of DAIRY per day helps lose MORE fat than if one avoids it altogether.
6. Do NOT avoid fat (The only fat you should be avoiding is Saturated fat and Trans fats). You NEED fat in your diet, as fat plays major roles in energy metabolism and other parts of your body (Wardlaw & Hampl, 2007). Make sure to have at least 30 grams of GOOD fats daily (60g would be best) (i.e. flaxseeds or flaxseed oil, fish oils, peanut butter, nuts - especially almonds and walnuts, hempseed oil, olive oil, etc.) per day (i.e. this is ~2 tbsp of flaxseed oil or peanut butter).
7. Don't drink tea or coffee. Try drinking GREEN tea instead; it helps with thermogenesis, and is especially good if you take it one hour before doing cardio first thing in the morning.
8. Don't drink alcohol. Alcohol has NO nutritional value and is full of calories.
9. Minimize adding salt to food. Instead, flavour a meal with herbs and spices (i.e. ginger, cumin, cayenne pepper, curry powder, chilli powder, and garlic all help thermogenesis a bit).
10. The only sugar needed on a regular basis is the NATURAL sugars found in food; these are mostly found in fruit. Too much sugar plays havoc with insulin levels and these should be as stable as possible throughout the day. The best time to be having sugar is straight AFTER a RESISTANCE workout, when the body is trying to replenish muscle glycogen stores (Burke, 2006).
11. Do NOT avoid CHO. You NEED at least 50-100 grams of CHO per day for your body to burn fat effectively. A good guideline is to have at least 1 gram of CHO per kg of body mass per day as a MINIMUM (Burke, 2006).
12. Eat most food as 'natural' as possible. This means fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, grains, etc. Try not to eat too much packaged food, as it is full of extra calories and sugar.
13. Most importantly, remember that it IS OK TO CHEAT every now and then. Actually the body NEEDS cheat meals and days (1-2 a week will get results; I have 3-4 8000 calorie days, and I am only 112 pounds right now!). By throwing all the guidelines I have just mentioned above out of the way and having a day where you eat what you want, it helps ; and it will also help prevent your body from going into starvation mode (where the body will battle to hold onto the fat as much as it can; and that's the last thing wanted). If you prefer NOT to 'cheat', then adding in 1-2 higher CALORIE days (i.e. go up to Maintenance, or even Bulking, or even slightly higher), with the extra calories coming from quality COMPLEX CHO, you should be ok.

Supplements should NOT be a big deal, as most fat loss can be done through simply eating the right food at the right time. And unless everything that you're doing is already done to ensure the maximum results in the timeframe that you want to achieve it in, and then supplementation should not be the focus. However, there ARE a few supplements that I think are important to any regime:
1. A multivitamin. (Although you should be eating as much of a variety of food as possible, in order to meet the RDI/AI of most nutrients from actual food).
2. Creatine monohydrate. Creatine helps the body to recover faster, as well as aiding in increasing strength levels and lean body mass [LBM].
3. Flaxseed/Hempseed/Fish Oil. This is the GOOD fats. Flaxseed or Hempseed oil is great with breakfast or in protein shakes.
4. Protein Powder. This just helps for the in-between meals, or after the gym, and to make sure that you get enough protein in (You should be having 1-1.5 grams of protein per kg of body mass per day; this is so that muscle loss is prevented, and can even assist in small gains in LBM).
Apart from these 4 'base' supplements, you don't need a lot, least of all fat-burners or thermogenics; they are a waste of time unless you're ALREADY lean (say 12% BF) and wants that 'extra edge' to lose the last few% bodyfat (i.e. to get to 10% BF).

I recommend that you make gradual changes over a few weeks, instead of trying to do it ALL at once, as it will make it more manageable and you will be likely to stay with it easier.

With a solid eating regime and planning on losing 0.5% BF per week (the slower that you lose the BF the more likely you are to keep it off), then it should take you ~12-14 weeks to get to where you want to.
 

bellinger8

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Thanks for the insight. I have decreased my rest time inbetween sets and have tried to speed my workouts up. Any other suggestions for cardio and workouts.
 
Rosie Chee

Rosie Chee

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Thanks for the insight. I have decreased my rest time inbetween sets and have tried to speed my workouts up. Any other suggestions for cardio and workouts.
Forget cardio. Or do it HIIT.

Look around the forums (i.e. logs, training forum), magazines, trainers, etc. for ideas on resistance training programmes. As long as you're lifting hard and heavy, almost anything will get you results.

Do some personal RESEARCH of your own and then EXPERIMENT!
 
faceman35

faceman35

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I would have to say that you need to focus on one or the other.
Losing body fat
or
Building muscle

Try taking a few months to focus on loosing your body fat. You need to have to your diet down to a science. Know what your body burns a day in calories. Then figure out what you need to be consuming under that.
Keep a log of EVERYTHING you put in your mouth.
It is very difficult to build muscle and loose body fat simultanously. Or atleast doing both effectively. So do a period where you loose your body fat. And also do a period where focus on muscle.
You will get where you want faster than trying to do both at the same time.
 

briancogs888

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He's got it, analyze your diet. Figure everything out. Take out 500 cals a day, keep up the healthy fats.
 
HarryManback

HarryManback

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How do you know your 16-18% body fat? Usually people guess low, so unless you actually know, go find out. I know i did. And if you do cardio, do it in the morning.

Also, do what Guejsn says. Thats a dang good write up. And as you can see she's Off The Chain.
 
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