Cutting advice ex football player

[drejb]

Hey guys.

I have been strength training and using weights for about 12 years now. I started playing football competitively at a young age, I am now 27 and have decided I want to get rid of some fat (specifically the love handles and stubborn areas) and get back to my lean physique.

I have 18% body fat, my genetics have always been good enough that now matter how big or heavy I get, I always have abs. But I store all my fat in my face / hips and love handles and can't seem to ever get rid of it.

I have been as heavy as 230lbs sitting around 18-20% and as lean as 200lbs at 9% (when I was a teen)

Here are some stats

Height: 5'11
Weight: 195
Lean mass: 158
Body fat: 18%

BMR: roughly 2000 cals
Training: 5-6 days a week

Cardio: 40min fasted cardio daily for 6 days each week. Sunday off

Tabata row following each resistance day (HIIT)

Workout splits:

Day 1: chest tri
Day 2: back bi
Day 3: legs abs
Day 4: chest tri
Day 5: back bi
Day 7 and 8 rest

Typical diet

After 40 mins fasted cardio:

1/3 cup oats + scoop of protein

Meal 2: 3 whole eggs, 2 whites, 2 cup spinach (about an hour after shake)

Meal 3: can of tuna, 6 oz sweet potato

Meal 4pre workout): scoop of whey + 1/3cup oats

Meal 5: (post workout) scoop of whey + 30g dextrose

Meal 6: 6 oz lean meat (chicken / turkey etc), 1/2 cup brown rice / broccoli

This puts me at roughly:

140g carbs
85g fat
200g protein


Supplementation:

Fat burner (pre fasted cardio)
Whey
BCAA
Stim free pre workout
kre-alkaline
Dextrose (post w/o only)
ZMA before bed


I have been doing this routine for about 3 weeks now with a 300-400 calorie deficit

I'm not really noticing anything fat loss wise, or any changes on the scale. I build mass VERY easily when I'm bulking. I am a mesomorph, always have been.

Any advice or critiques would help.

Thanks!






Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[flexdaddyraf]

I'm not diet expert I've only cut once about two months ago for 6 week just a mini cut and lost a good 15 pounds just wondering if you knew your macros before your cut because I noticed that when I went from a high carb diet to low carb diet it slowed my metabolism down and i really didn't notice anything

 

[flexdaddyraf]

I would say start slowly with the caloric and carb deficit and just keep working your way down

 

[flexdaddyraf]

And sorry 8 weeks and I lowered the calorie by 50 every week and did cardio around 3-5 times a week

 

[drejb]

I would say start slowly with the caloric and carb deficit and just keep working your way down

This is advice I've heard before. At first my approach was drop right to 40-100g of carbs a day from a high carb diet. I was losing a ton of weight but gained it all back real quick. Now I have most days at 100-150g of carbs and a re fuel high carb day on Sunday usually.

 

[flexdaddyraf]

Damn dude you went straight down to 40-100?

 

[drejb]

Damn dude you went straight down to 40-100?

Yeah, only for about a week or so. Because I saw some diet that was pretty much keto while manipulating your water intake. And then re feeding with high carbs 2 days out of the week for 2 weeks and it's supposed to change your insulin sensitivity or some ****. I don't know, I was experimenting with some strategies. Lol

 

[john.patterson]

Your diet setup looks solid. I would recommend trying to carb cycle to keep your fat loss going. You mention that you have a high carb/refeed every Sunday, so you're already cycling carbs a bit. I would stagger your carb intake a bit more, pick 1-2 high carb days, 2-3 moderate carb days, and 2-3 low carb days throughout the week. I feel that carb cycling helps me a ton when I start stalling out during a cut. You could also lower your fat intake a bit to get your calories lower. Removing 10-20g of fat from your diet would increase your deficit and hopefully keep the scale dropping.

What fat burner are you currently using? If you're only using it pre-cardio in the morning, I think you could benefit from caffeine or another stimulant a bit later in the day. I would recommend checking out Oxymax XT as your next fat burner. Its a great product to take before fasted cardio, and you can also take another cap 6-8 hours later to help with energy, mood, focus, and appetite suppression throughout the day. Oxymax XT also contains forskolin, which has been studied to help increase/maintain lean body mass while decreasing body fat. Definitely a product worth looking into

 

[drejb]

Your diet setup looks solid. I would recommend trying to carb cycle to keep your fat loss going. You mention that you have a high carb/refeed every Sunday, so you're already cycling carbs a bit. I would stagger your carb intake a bit more, pick 1-2 high carb days, 2-3 moderate carb days, and 2-3 low carb days throughout the week. I feel that carb cycling helps me a ton when I start stalling out during a cut. You could also lower your fat intake a bit to get your calories lower. Removing 10-20g of fat from your diet would increase your deficit and hopefully keep the scale dropping.

What fat burner are you currently using? If you're only using it pre-cardio in the morning, I think you could benefit from caffeine or another stimulant a bit later in the day. I would recommend checking out Oxymax XT as your next fat burner. Its a great product to take before fasted cardio, and you can also take another cap 6-8 hours later to help with energy, mood, focus, and appetite suppression throughout the day. Oxymax XT also contains forskolin, which has been studied to help increase/maintain lean body mass while decreasing body fat. Definitely a product worth looking into

Thanks for the reply! Few questions


When cycling carbs, do I keep my calorie deficit the same and just manipulate the fat intake?

I am just taking hydroxycut right now because I had a bunch left over. Do you have a link for what you're recommending?

Cheers

 

[drejb]

Let me clarify.

If day 1-2 are 150g carbs at 1900 cals a day, on day 3-4 when my carbs are 250' do I lower the fat to stay at 1900? (Not exact numbers, just example purposes)

 

[RugbyBaller91]

Apple cider vinegar ?

 

[john.patterson]

Thanks for the reply! Few questions


When cycling carbs, do I keep my calorie deficit the same and just manipulate the fat intake?

I am just taking hydroxycut right now because I had a bunch left over. Do you have a link for what you're recommending?

Cheers

You're welcome man. I would maintain your deficit and adjust fats to maintain a consistent caloric deficit. Some people do it differently, but I find this to be the easiest way to track progress so you know when to adjust and lower calories. If your calorie intake varies throughout the week it'll be tough to assess progress.

Here's a link to Oxymax XT: http://www.nutri-verse.com/oxymax/

You can grab it from Nutriverse for 20% off on their current sale

 

[AntM1564]

Cut that dextrose. There is zero need for it and will take up kcals you can use for satiety

 

[drejb]

Cut that dextrose. There is zero need for it and will take up kcals you can use for satiety

No need for immediate glycogen replenishment post workout? The carbs in the dextrose still fit within my macros and caloric deficit and are only taken immediately post. Can you elaborate as to why this would be a detrimental approach?


P.s not challenging you, just digging deeper for my own benefit


Dre

 

[AntM1564]

No need for immediate glycogen replenishment post workout? The carbs in the dextrose still fit within my macros and caloric deficit and are only taken immediately post. Can you elaborate as to why this would be a detrimental approach?


P.s not challenging you, just digging deeper for my own benefit


Dre

You're not going to deplete your glycogen stores unless you're an endurance athlete. This is old bro science.

 

[drejb]

You're not going to deplete your glycogen stores unless you're an endurance athlete. This is old bro science.

Dang good to know. Any literature backing this up?

 

[Lynks8]

Dang good to know. Any literature backing this up?

From: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3577439/

Despite a sound theoretical basis, the practical significance of expeditiously repleting glycogen stores remains dubious. Without question, expediting glycogen resynthesis is important for a narrow subset of endurance sports where the duration between glycogen-depleting events is limited to less than approximately 8 hours [31]. Similar benefits could potentially be obtained by those who perform two-a-day split resistance training bouts (i.e. morning and evening) provided the same muscles will be worked during the respective sessions. However, for goals that are not specifically focused on the performance of multiple exercise bouts in the same day, the urgency of glycogen resynthesis is greatly diminished. High-intensity resistance training with moderate volume (6-9 sets per muscle group) has only been shown to reduce glycogen stores by 36-39% [8,32]. Certain athletes are prone to performing significantly more volume than this (i.e., competitive bodybuilders), but increased volume typically accompanies decreased frequency. For example, training a muscle group with 16-20 sets in a single session is done roughly once per week, whereas routines with 8-10 sets are done twice per week. In scenarios of higher volume and frequency of resistance training, incomplete resynthesis of pre-training glycogen levels would not be a concern aside from the far-fetched scenario where exhaustive training bouts of the same muscles occur after recovery intervals shorter than 24 hours. However, even in the event of complete glycogen depletion, replenishment to pre-training levels occurs well-within this timeframe, regardless of a significantly delayed post-exercise carbohydrate intake. For example, Parkin et al [33] compared the immediate post-exercise ingestion of 5 high-glycemic carbohydrate meals with a 2-hour wait before beginning the recovery feedings. No significant between-group differences were seen in glycogen levels at 8 hours and 24 hours post-exercise. In further support of this point, Fox et al. [34] saw no significant reduction in glycogen content 24 hours after depletion despite adding 165 g fat collectively to the post-exercise recovery meals and thus removing any potential advantage of high-glycemic conditions.

It's a lengthy, but very eye-opening analysis. Well worth the read, imho. Alan Aragon is a highly-respected authority on these subjects.

 

[drejb]

Interesting. So essentially a shake of whey with blended oats would be more beneficial than whey with pure sugar

 

[AntM1564]

Interesting. So essentially a shake of whey with blended oats would be more beneficial than whey with pure sugar

You don't need whey post workout or a shake either. Whole food, not blended is just as effective. A protein blend of whey and casein has also been shown to be more effective than straight whey.

Here is a good read on post workout nutrition myths.

https://biotest.t-nation.com/articles/the-top-10-post-workout-nutrition-myths