27 year old novice looking for feedback

sdguy90

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Hi all,
I'm for any advice regarding supplements, diet and training. I'm 27 years old, 5-11, about 175 lbs and based on a visual guess, about 18-20% body fat. I have more difficulty keeping weight off than I do gaining. Outside of the gym, I'm a pretty sedentary person, I walk maybe 1-2 miles/day on average. I've been steadily lifting 2-3 days/week about 2-3 months now and have seen gains, but want to get more consistent with training, supplements, and my diet.

My overall goal is to shed about 8-10 pounds of fat (get down to 12-14% BF) while adding on 5-6 pounds of muscle. Hoping to be close to this goal within 2 months, but more than anything I just want to come up with a solid plan and see results, even if it'll take longer than that.

Right now the tentative plan I have in place is:

-Lifting 3 days on, 1 day off.

-Each day of lifting, focus on 1-2 muscle groups (day 1: back/biceps, day 2: chest/tris/shoulders, day 3: legs).
Complete 3-4 exercises per muscle group with 3-4 sets of 7-10 reps.
Leg day will have 5-6 different exercises with 3-4 sets of 7-10 reps.

-At the end of each lifting session, complete a sprint cycle on a treadmill or elliptical. 30 seconds full sprint, 30 second recovery, repeat for a total of 10 minutes (5 min full sprint, 5 min resting/walking)

-Supplement wise, I'm starting with 25mg of cardarine daily to try and jumpstart the fat burning process. Today was the first day. Each workout I also will have a 25g whey protein shake after working out. No other supplements right now, but open to any suggestions.

-Diet wise: lots of eggs, vegetables, lean chicken/pork/turkey, some cheese, protein smoothies (broc****/frozen berries/flax seed/scoop of protein powder/almond milk), greek yogurt based tuna salad and egg salad, green tea, diet soda, fiber and vitamin c gummies for my sweet fix, and high fiber/high protein whole grain toast. Avoiding high sugar fruits, most starches, anything breaded or fried.

Right now, my plan is to keep calories at about 1900/day with approx. 200g of protein. Trying to keep carbs to a minimum, but realistically I know I'll have have a cheat meal probably once a week and will go above the 1900 threshold on certain days. If calories seem way too low to gain any muscle, please let me know a baseline number you'd suggest.

I'm a newbie with a lot of this, so looking for any feedback/critiques on any of these spots.

My main questions are:
1. Does my training schedule and reps/set seem like a good amount for making solid gains?
2. Should I be doing more/less cardio?
3. What other supplements would you suggest? Not interested in anything that has a big effect on hormones or can create mood swings.
4. Diet wise--any target number for calories and amount of proteins/fats/carbs based on my current size and goals?
 
john.patterson

john.patterson

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My main questions are:
1. Does my training schedule and reps/set seem like a good amount for making solid gains?
2. Should I be doing more/less cardio?
3. What other supplements would you suggest? Not interested in anything that has a big effect on hormones or can create mood swings.
4. Diet wise--any target number for calories and amount of proteins/fats/carbs based on my current size and goals?
Welcome to the forum! SOLID first post.

It really looks like you've done your homework and research on this - your setup looks awesome. Here's my suggestions to your questions.
1. Training layout is on point. Push/Pull/Legs is a great split, and your volume and rep scheme looks great. Just make sure you are pushing yourself with your sets, don't just stop at 7-10 reps because you counted. if you can push more, do more.

2. I think this might be a little too much cardio for starters. 5-6 days per week of HIIT after training is a lot, and it may be challenging to sustain. I would consider trading 1-3 days per week off and either doing LISS (low intensity) cardio to help create a calorie deficit and help with recovery.

3. I would commit to your diet and training above for a few months before adding in any supplements. At 18-20%bf and a solid eating/training schedule, you won't need supplements to see your body begin to change. If you wanted to add in anything I would suggest a preworkout to get your energy and focus elevated. Something like Hypermax might be a good solution to help you push through your workouts. But for now I would keep it simple and don't fall into the "more is better" when it comes to supplementation.

4. Calorie intake looks good, possibly a little low for starting out. 1900 doesn't give you too much room to go lower if you plateu. I think 200g of protein per day is a good starting point. I usually stick to 20% of my total calories from fat, and the rest from carbs. So in your case, 2000 calories would break down to 200g pro/45g fat/200g carb. This would be a great place to start, and slowly taper carbs back as needed if you begin to stall.
 

Biomeddood

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OP..are u actually following a lifting plan (Fierce 5, All Pro, etc) or just formulating your own? If the latter, I'd stick to a proven program first (I love AllPro) .

Secondly, why Cardarine? It's just another snake oil hyped by by the people making a profit out of it. Replace it with a quality pre workout and u'll be golden. You don't really a controversial product at 27 yrs of age with 20% body fat. Keep it simple ...whey/creatine and a quality pre workout is all that's needed and these are proven staples.

Thirdly, calculate your maintenance calorie macros and go from there. If cutting, go in slight deficit. Unfortunately, for us noobs, to build muscle and loose weight is a fine thin line and most of it will come right down to nutrition (and carb timing). Just keep in mind that that the law of the body is ==>Carbs first, fats 2nd, protein last. If trying to loose fat, you have to be careful of carb feeding (perhaps reserve carbs for pre and post workout). And during this, try to keep your lifts heavy and all the proven lift programs will require to keep increasing the weights week after week.

Nobody can really tell you whether you are overdoing cardio or not. Everybody's recovery is different.

If I were you, get on a proven lifting program, get your target macros in place and run it for a month. Then review your stats and adjust as needed. A lot will be trial-n-error but you have to adjust/learn as you go.

Source: Myself. Ex fatty here and I dropped from 235lbs to 157lbs mainly by running EC stack with chitloads of 5 days/wk HIT cardio (didn't care for muscle or lifting). Then did dirty bulk..made some noob gains but gained fat at the same time and now back to 180lbs. I started AllPro program again 2 weeks ago on a slight cal deficit and been averaging 2lbs loss/week but strength is haywire (some good days and some terrible days). As of this week, I've gone to eating maintenance to keep my strength up.

Like I said ...it's a long haul journey which requires experimentation. Good luck mate!
 
Whisky

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Welcome to the forum! SOLID first post.

It really looks like you've done your homework and research on this - your setup looks awesome. Here's my suggestions to your questions.
1. Training layout is on point. Push/Pull/Legs is a great split, and your volume and rep scheme looks great. Just make sure you are pushing yourself with your sets, don't just stop at 7-10 reps because you counted. if you can push more, do more.

2. I think this might be a little too much cardio for starters. 5-6 days per week of HIIT after training is a lot, and it may be challenging to sustain. I would consider trading 1-3 days per week off and either doing LISS (low intensity) cardio to help create a calorie deficit and help with recovery.

3. I would commit to your diet and training above for a few months before adding in any supplements. At 18-20%bf and a solid eating/training schedule, you won't need supplements to see your body begin to change. If you wanted to add in anything I would suggest a preworkout to get your energy and focus elevated. Something like Hypermax might be a good solution to help you push through your workouts. But for now I would keep it simple and don't fall into the "more is better" when it comes to supplementation.

4. Calorie intake looks good, possibly a little low for starting out. 1900 doesn't give you too much room to go lower if you plateu. I think 200g of protein per day is a good starting point. I usually stick to 20% of my total calories from fat, and the rest from carbs. So in your case, 2000 calories would break down to 200g pro/45g fat/200g carb. This would be a great place to start, and slowly taper carbs back as needed if you begin to stall.
Absolutely this ^^^^

Nothing I can add other than say consistency is key bro. You just gotta keep turning up (even the days you don’t really fancy it) and you’ll get there. Enjoy the journey.
 

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