help needed for last 5 lbs of fat...

[travis0712]

45% protien, 40% carbs, and 15% fats. all carbs from complex sources via whole grains, beans, fruits/veggies, protiens from lean meats, chicken/fish. fats from olive oil/almonds and other nuts.

I had been eating about 2000 calories per day, but decided to drop to 1600 per day to see if it would help.

I weight train mon, tue, thur, friday and light cardio two days per week and HIIT two days per week (consisting of 60 second sprints - 60 second rests - per set, and I do 3 sets).

No fat burner, but I do drink a cop of green tea around noon - hurts my sleep if I drink it later.

I have been really struggling losing my last 5 lbs... any help would be greatly appreciated!

I weight 166 at about 14% body fat - at 5ft 9in tall.

Do you think my calories are too low?

 

[Skeetopunk01]

dude.... you need to bulk up before you lose anymore weight. At 166... if you cut you will be a toothpick. I might suggest eating clean and bumping your cals up to 3500 a day. If you seperate your fats and carbs with protein in every meal you should lean out a bit. I'm not genetically gifted and I eat 4000+ cals a day to maintain. I'm 10% bf so it does work. Lift heavy bro.... compounds and dumbbells!

 

[travis0712]

I am in my 6th week of lifting. My strength is going up. Example, on chest day, I start with a warm up then hit 5 sets of 5 reps. Each week I have been going up 5 to 10 lbs.

I eat clean protien, but not sure what you mean by seperating carbs and fats... only fats I get are very low in saturated and carbs come from oats and whole wheat bread and beans.

My last 5 lbs sits right on my belly... I am lean everywhere else....

 

[travis0712]

I strive to take in 160 to 200 grams of protien daily, with only 3 protien shakes used as post work out meals and snacks.... my main meals have lean meat or beans.

 

[Doug8796]

consistency... keep at it man

 

[Skeetopunk01]

Travis, When I say seperate fats and carbs I mean exactly that. Example:

Meal 1 (1 lean chicken breast and 2 tablespoons of flax oil)
Meal 2 (1/2 cup brown rice and large can of tuna)

Read every label and pay attention to what has carbs and fat. Try to get most of your carbs in the fist half of your day. My last 3 meals are fat and protein.

 

[EasyEJL]

I'm half with and half against skeeto

Definitely agree you should stop worrying about the fat on your belly for a bit, and ignore the scale and work towards putting on some muscle. it will make the fat easier to loose

the part where i'm a little against him is in the separating fats + carbs. I think that is mostly voodoo i've tried it, and noticed no significant difference. I think the only reason it seems to work is that carbs can be calorically dense as well as fats, so a meal that has both could end up very dense calorically and so create a short term surplus even if for the day you are in defecit, and thus store some as fat. still not too likely.

Add 10-15lbs leanly by eating really healthy and clean at 2500 cals or whatever you need for 1lb a week over the next 3 months, then go back to loose the rest of the belly fat. Also don't be afraid of healthy fats, 15% is kind of low. Flax + fish oil directly, but all natural peanut butter, other nuts are really good for you.

 

[Doug8796]

1lb a week? the human body can only put on 3lb muscle a month max. any more will be bodyfat. 3lb is going a limb too, most studies say 1-2lb.

 

[EasyEJL]

as a new lifter, and having come off weight loss, he should be able to hit pretty close to that. even if 3 lbs out of 12 is fat, it will be worth it to have added 9lbs of muscle.

 

[Distilled Water]

1lb a week? the human body can only put on 3lb muscle a month max. any more will be bodyfat. 3lb is going a limb too, most studies say 1-2lb.

The kids still looks like a newbie and (I believe) Easy was just giving a general guide line. At his size and weight I'd say if eating correctly he could add 3-5lbs of goodness to his frame in a month.

 

[Distilled Water]

as a new lifter, and having come off weight loss, he should be able to hit pretty close to that. even if 3 lbs out of 12 is fat, it will be worth it to have added 9lbs of muscle.

beat me to it :lol:

 

[EasyEJL]

hehehehe yeah, at 166 for 5'9 and still 14% bf, there isn't a ton of muscle there, so adding just a bit could definitely help the effort to remove the belly fat.

 

[Distilled Water]

hehehehe yeah, at 166 for 5'9 and still 14% bf, there isn't a ton of muscle there, so adding just a bit could definitely help the effort to remove the belly fat.

fo sho, kid sounds like me as a sophomore in HS. I gained like 10lbs in my first month of getting after it and my diet wasn't grood but I'd stil venture to say it was probably 6 muscle 4 fat

 

[EasyEJL]

yeah, I guess worth mentioning too that even if currently more fat is hanging around the belly while other has left, with CLEAN eating the new little bit of fat added would likely be added more evenly, not making it signficantly harder to loose the belly

 

[Markio]

I love the way everyone asumes his main goal is to get big despite the fact the only goal he has mentioned is to lose fat.

Imo the op should tell us exactly what his goals are, then people can make educated replies which are most likely to help him.

 

[Distilled Water]

I love the way everyone asumes his main goal is to get big despite the fact the only goal he has mentioned is to lose fat.

Imo the op should tell us exactly what his goals are, then people can make educated replies which are most likely to help him.

What Easy and I are saying is "If he added more muscle, it should be easier for him to lose fat in the future" and given his current stats that would be a good option. Since muscle burns calories.

 

[Markio]

What Easy and I are saying is "If he added more muscle, it should be easier for him to lose fat in the future" and given his current stats that would be a good option. Since muscle burns calories.

Totaly agree, but he maybe a budding marathon runner or even 800 runner for all we know. If he states exactly where he wants to be and what he wants to acheive then he's more likely to get tailord advice.

Easy did hit it on the head with consistency though, the biggest pain about improving yourself phsyically whatever your goals is the amount of time you have to wait and invest to see a return on your work.

 

[Skeetopunk01]

There are two reasons to separate your carbs and fat. One is too mitigate Fat storage caused by an insulin spike from your carb meal. Adding fat to carb meals is not always a good idea.


Example: You go to Chipotle (you have 2 choices)
option 1- Burrito bowl with rice, chicken, black beans, cheese, salsa
option 2- Fajita burrito with black beans, chicken, peppers/onions and salsa.

Option 2 is the way to go hands down for a guy trying to lose the last 5lbs. I rest my case.

Reason number two is alternating can make it easy to keep track of what have eaten already. For many people, reading labels, scrutinizing carbs, fats and sodium is too hard. Keep it simple works for most.

 

[Distilled Water]

Totaly agree, but he maybe a budding marathon runner or even 800 runner for all we know. If he states exactly where he wants to be and what he wants to acheive then he's more likely to get tailord advice.

Easy did hit it on the head with consistency though, the biggest pain about improving yourself phsyically whatever your goals is the amount of time you have to wait and invest to see a return on your work.

Good call. I agree that if he said exact what he wanted he could get an almost exact answer

 

[Markio]

There are two reasons to separate your carbs and fat. One is too mitigate Fat storage caused by an insulin spike from your carb meal. Adding fat to carb meals is not always a good idea.


Example: You go to Chipotle (you have 2 choices)
option 1- Burrito bowl with rice, chicken, black beans, cheese, salsa
option 2- Fajita burrito with black beans, chicken, peppers/onions and salsa.

Option 2 is the way to go hands down for a guy trying to lose the last 5lbs. I rest my case.

Reason number two is alternating can make it easy to keep track of what have eaten already. For many people, reading labels, scrutinizing carbs, fats and sodium is too hard. Keep it simple works for most.

This topic has been done to death by many vastly knowledgable people (several of them on this board). Without even getting involved in whether it is correct or not as there isn't a difinitive answer that will please everyone, I would say two things...

1] The op is 6 weeks in. Consistency and getting the basics right are essential, fine tuning (if this eating fats and carbs thing are indeed fine tuning thats for him to decide after doing some proper research imo) can come later. Always leave yourself somewhere to go.

2] Stating "I rest my case" rarely has any merit, especialy when you haven't made a case, indeed in this case vaugly a point. You repeated a line or two that has been repeated by others ad-nauseum without anything to back it up, and just before you bring the gavel down you put forward two recipies - Perry Mason can sleep safely.

 

[Skeetopunk01]

I have gone from 139lbs at 5'9 to 206lbs at 5'9 in 4 years by doing what I'm doing. All the while maintaining 10% bf. Something is working and it may work for others. No pun intended.

 

[EasyEJL]

thats some nice progress for sure.

 

[Skeetopunk01]

Thanks Easy... I hardly ever post in forums because it seems that people bicker and fight over dumb ****. I felt like I could add my 2cents on this one and what do you know, :hammer:.

 

[EasyEJL]

yeah I know what you mean

the "carb + protein/carb + fat" idea doesn't hurt, but doesn't seem to hold a significant advantage. too like anything its really more about individual body chemistry.

really tho too, the dieteray fat intake level bothers me (15%). I think that the push we had from nutritionists (probably paid for by the baking industry) to go with lower fat in the diet is a part of the cause of US men having lower testosterone at the same age than they did 50 years ago. you need the saturated fats to create hormones.

 

[travis0712]

Thanks so much for all the replies. I am not a newbie to eating lean. I was at 215 a couple of years ago and lost most of it in just three months.

My goal now is just to look good and get a six pack, and be very healthy.

I ride, run, lift, and have fun.

I just can't get that last 5 lbs off.... I am lean in the legs, back, arms, just the belly. GRRRR...

I started lifting heavy weights six weeks ago. Today's work out ends week six.

I go heavy for about 10 reps of 3 sets. Just basic stuff. If I get all 3 sets up, I go up in weight next week.

I am gaining muscle. My arms, chest, legs, all getting bigger.

I was just hoping someone could help me get my six pack, then I can focus on gaining more weight, 3k calories of lean eating will do that.

Again, thanks so much for all the help - you guys have been great and I am glad I found this board!!

 

[travis0712]

Yesterday was my first day of HIIT. I ran sprints for 30 seconds, resting 60 seconds, for 3 sets. Felt great. I will work on increasing that as I get better fit, to 60 second sprints with 60 second rests. I heard this is an awesome way to burn some serious fat.

 

[Skeetopunk01]

The six pack is tough to get and keep, if your not genetically gifted. I have to work for everything. 3k should be good, your definitely active so you ned the cals to build muscle too. My abs started showing more when I started doing heavy squats and deadlifts. Lot's of stabilizers involved with those lifts. You will build a good core by doing those two lifts regularly with good form.

 

[travis0712]

I currently only use fish oil, calcium, and carinitine for indirect fat burning. I am sure this is a newbie question but, what fat burner is best? I drink two cups of hot tea, one at 9am and one at 11am.

 

[travis0712]

Hey Easy, do you have any data backing up the data you mentioned about saturated fats are needed by the body to create testosterone? mono and polys won't suffice? don't we get enough sats from lean beef, chicken, other meats to satisfy this need?

 

[EasyEJL]

i'm looking for a good article on it. From what i've read the few healthy saturated fats (coconut oil, palm oil, theres one or two more) are much "handier" to the body for creating cholesterol than say peanut oil would be. But 15% of intake of fats is too low to support high hormone levels regardless of makeup of saturated vs unsaturated.

Additionally, reviews by the American Heart Association led the Association to recommend reducing saturated fat intake to less than 7% of total calories according to its 2006 recommendations

The Department of Health recommends that no more than a third of calories come from this nutrient, while most weight loss plans rarely recommend less than 20% of calories come from fat.

Public health recommendations for the US population in 1977 were to reduce fat intake to as low as 30% of calories to lower the incidence of coronary artery disease. These recommendations resulted in a compositional shift in food materials throughout the agricultural industry, and the fractional content of fats was replaced principally with carbohydrates. Subsequently, high-carbohydrate diets were recognized as contributing to the lipoprotein pattern that characterizes atherogenic dyslipidemia and hypertriacylglycerolemia. The rising incidences of metabolic syndrome and obesity are becoming common themes in the literature. Current recommendations are to keep saturated fatty acid, trans fatty acid, and cholesterol intakes as low as possible while consuming a nutritionally adequate diet. In the face of such recommendations, the agricultural industry is shifting food composition toward lower proportions of all saturated fatty acids.

this one is "funny" because it shows the problem. We shifted from a higher fat diet cause in the 70s the heart attacks were climbing to instead go higher carb and end up with more diabeties + obesity...

take a look at this too if you have a chance

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolithic_diet

its worth thinking about what our evolution has built us for...

 

[Markio]

Thanks Easy... I hardly ever post in forums because it seems that people bicker and fight over dumb ****. I felt like I could add my 2cents on this one and what do you know, :hammer:.

There you are with that gavel again... I wasn't bickering if that is what you are suggesting. Maybe you would like to mention something which I have said is either "bickering" or "dumb"

You may be the most knowledgeable person in the world on health and nutrition - but look at what you have offered, some stats that may or may not be true and two recipies followed by a cocky "I rest my case".

I'm not doubting anything you say, I am however saying that adults discuss things by adding detail rather some oft repeated sentance and then declaring that nothing can be added.

I'll leave this thread now as it seems you have it all coverd.

 

[travis0712]

today is a non lifting day, as I lift mon, tue, thur, fri.

today is abs and a light jog for my light cardio session before breakfast. I guzzed 16oz of cold water, downed my no-explode, while I wait 20 min for that to kick in, I am reading this board and drinking a cup of coffee

right after, I will consume my cellmass and make breakfast. I am thinking one serving of oatmeal with a scoop of whey.

I am going to follow the advice of getting my protien and carbs for the first half of the day and protien and fats for the 2nd half. I try to eat 7 or 8 meals, so this will help get more "food feeling" and keep my calorie count low.

I have 4 more days left of my testing of 1500 calories per day. I wanted to see what that would do for a week since my 2300 wasn't doing much for losing weight.

I think I have the metobolic syndrom and my BMR is way below most.

 

[travis0712]

Since monday starts my 7th week, should I come off my split routine and mix it up to shock my muscles, or should I just continue? My 5 sets of 5 reps on my bench press, the start of my chest/tri routine, has consistantly been going up. I have added 10 lbs each week to my bench. I am working out with 175 now... and although I completed 6 reps on the 5th set, I think I will only add 2.5 lbs to both sides of the bar next week - as I barely got that up and my low calorie diet, I could feel a loss of energy.

 

[EasyEJL]

definitely switcheroo time. look at any prebuilt workout structure. doesn't matter which 5x5 madcow, GVT, Body for life, westside for skinny bastards, whatever. do em for 6-10 weeks and flip to something else. after you get to a good year of lifting and trying a bunch of different structures you will be better able to build a routine from scratch. until then its valuable to try different variations and get a feel for them, but using a preset structure so you aren't reducing your gains.

 

[travis0712]

adding strength and mass is the only work out I know... so if I were to switch it up... I think I would go with a full body workout using just 5 excerises mon, wed, fri. I would increase rep range to 12 and 3 sets. this would build more enderance. I would only want to do that for 2 weeks though, because my strength gains are coming along so nicely now. And since you said 6 to 10 weeks... I think I could wait a bit longer before I switch.... as heavy weights also helps prevent the breakdown of muscle for food for the body.

 

[travis0712]

Well, after 3 weeks, I haven't lost any BF%, that the machine and calipers show anyhow. I thought I was at 14%, but I had "athletic mode" on the biometric scale set. I went to the local gym and had my skin pinched - I am at 20% BF...

That sucks.

But, anyhow, I can start to see my obliques and center vertical cut on my abs. I can tell my shoulders, chest, arms, legs are all getting bigger (mirror and tape readings).

So, last week I dropped from 2000 calories per day to 1500... after seven freakin days of that, eating 6 meals per day - didn't lose any BF%...

My body is just freaking stubborn.

Any guru's out there with some serious help to offer?

 

[EasyEJL]

well, pick 1

Size Gains
Strength Gains
Fat Loss

Its very difficult to manage all 3 at once, and pretty hard to manage 2 well. So work on 1 of the 3 for a while, then shift to one of the others. 1500 cals a day doesn't help with strength or size, so using a workout structure that is meant for gaining strength and size doesn't work that well for the fat loss

 

[travis0712]

my only goal right now is to lose this 5 to 8 lbs of fat and keep as much muscle as I can.

From what I have researched, as long as I am pushing my muscles hard, I will be doing what it takes to keep as much muscle as possible.

So, if you could help me with my work outs, I would be appreciated.

I am doing mostly 3 sets of 10 on most exersises.