How to drop down that extra 3% body fat cardie

[kennygg]

Hi Guys,
I need a little help here.
Im currently 75kg/ 165lb
I have reduced my body fat from 16% to under 10% approx in the last 8 months while keeping my
muscle mass.
I am finding it difficult to get down to my 7% body fat goal.
My weight training is a 3 day split routine Monday/Wednesday/Friday
Tuesday and Thursday are cardio days.
My daily eating plan is as follows.
Breakfast - Water - Oatmeal (low fat milk), 2 x wholemeal toast- coffee
Mid Morning - 4 scrambled egg whites, fat free cottage cheese, or bagel and peanut butter
Lunch - Wholemeal pasta, chicken and salad and protein shake
Mid afternoon - almonds and mixed nuts
Main evening meal - it varies from pasta/potatoes/rice - chicken/beef/fish - green veg
Evening snack - Oatmeal or wholemeal cereal or wholemeal toast with cottage cheese or penut butter.



I try to avoid sugary snacks but sometimes have a small chocolate bar with afternoon coffee.
I also have a few beers at the weekend- 4 maximum, nothing excessive.
I stay away from takeaways and fast food.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks

[kennygg]

Typo on the title, dont know what "cardie" is lol

[pux888]

First thing I would do if your satisfied with your diet would be to add some extra cardio. The leaner you get the more difficult those last few percentage points are to loose. I would add 20-30 min after your lifting days for a few weeks starting off to see how that works for you.

[ketsugo]

What you will find is the closer you get the more difficult it gets, but what you really need is to keep the faith in yourself, hard work and determination- and patience. Just carry on- Do some cardio like pux said- If you dont like the low intensity stuff, Try HIIT - google or ask someone at the gym, its very easy. As far as the diet is - continue- I stay away from all Flour - that includes wheat flour - so no flour products and no sugar. If your progress levels off - cycling your macros will hold off the bodies ability to adjust. The few days of higher macros will keep your metabolism running.

Ill bet if you surf around here there is plenty of posts to give yo some more ideas. Feel free to ask anything more specific- you may need to provide more details about yourself too- like how long you have been training, age etc- that way we can have more insight and give better advice

[kennygg]

Thanks for the advice Guys,
Some more detailed info about myself, I'm 35 years old and have been training for years and years, I was always bulky and lifted heavy, last year I decided I wanted to be
leaner. I changed my eating habits and added cardio, the results have been very good
but I want to be more vascular. Based on my diet do u think I am eating too much
carbs? and also is it better to eat less carbs in the evening?

Again Thanks

[ketsugo]

Well you sound like you have been in the game long enough to answer that question, because we all have different reactions. Im one of the anti-keto advocates- So im always recommending carbs - to me you need them for a pump, but then again you may be sensitive to insulin and carbs will have a different affect. I think if you lower your BF% and you continue to train hard and maybe add some volume you will naturally become more vascular. Many advocates say you should eat little to no carbs after 3pm when trying to lose fat, I have but I know many swear by that.

[ajdos]

One of the glaring problems I see right away is your diet.

(1)Breakfast - Water - Oatmeal (low fat milk), 2 x wholemeal toast- coffee (this meal is basically all carbs with a dash of protein you need more protein with this meal)

(2)Mid Morning - 4 scrambled egg whites, fat free cottage cheese, or bagel and peanut butter(this meal is better, dump the damned PB)

(3)Lunch - Wholemeal pasta, chicken and salad and protein shake (now this meal isnt so bad, but how much pasta? sounds like too much carb to be losing fat)

(4)Mid afternoon - almonds and mixed nuts(no offense but unless your a vegan this is NOT a meal, add some protein)

(5)Main evening meal - it varies from pasta/potatoes/rice - chicken/beef/fish - green veg (again not a bad meal but unless this meal follows training its probably going to contain a bit more carb then you want at this time of day)

(6)Evening snack - Oatmeal or wholemeal cereal or wholemeal toast with cottage cheese or penut butter(ok as far as a pre bedtime snack or meal this one has to be done with, you should be having very little carb pre-bed time zero if it can be helped it should be a protein meal, something like red meat or slow digesting proteins like casein-retool this meal completely)

If you want to lose bodyfat, 2 days a week of cardio will not do it. Try 4 and maybe even more.
Try to do it pre- meal in the morning on an empty stomach (and please let someone talk shit to me for suggesting empty stomach cardio, Im begging you) or post workout.

[ketsugo]

kennyg- Adjos is a very experienced bodybuilder and knows his shit, Im actually embarassed that I didnt notice all that He did, but he brings up some very important points.
Adjos- Only someone who dont know you would talk that shit LOL, the rest of us been around, One of the first vets I began to follow way back in this community was Adjos- If you seen his pix hes a ****ing ripped to shreds monster, he has a ton of practical knowledge . I still think youre Batista my favorite WWE star LOL

[ketsugo]

Ken , Im one that has found success in using a cycling of macros - heres a link illustrating this but understand there are many apporaches and what adjos discussed about the timing of carbs is imperative as well.

CLICK ON:

Bodybuilding Diet for Male Pre-Contest

also nother extreme example (for one of your weight)
The Diet:
High Carb day: 180gP/300gC/70gF
Low Carb day: 180gP/200gC/70gF
No Carb Day: 180gP/000gC/70gF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
High Carb day:
Meal 1: 100gC/30gP/20gF(includes small fruit)
Meal 2: 000gC/30gP/10gF
Meal 3: 075gC/30gP/10gF(includes small fruit)
Meal 4: 075gC/30gP/10gF(includes small fruit)
Meal 5: 050gC/30gp/10gF(includes small fruit)
Meal 6: 000gC/30gP/10gF

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Low Carb day:

Meal 1: 100gC/30gP/20gF(includes small fruit)
Meal 2: 000gC/30gP/10gF
Meal 3: 050gC/30gP/10gF(includes small fruit)
Meal 4: 050gC/30gP/10gF(includes small fruit)
Meal 5: 050gC/30gp/10gF
Meal 6: 000gC/30gP/10gF

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
No Carb day:

Meal 1: 000gC/30gP/20gF
Meal 2: 000gC/30gP/10gF
Meal 3: 000gC/30gP/10gF
Meal 4: 000gC/30gP/10gF
Meal 5: 000gC/30gp/10gF
Meal 6: 000gC/30gP/10gF

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I will not count green veggies as carbs, hence they will be consumed with meal on any one of the three days.

[kennygg]

Thanks guys,
Ajdos, i will adjust the meal plan based on your suggestions.
Ketsugo thanks for the link, i look forward to seeing the progress in the next while and will keep u posted.
Thanks v much

[pux888]

Fasted carido is the only way to go IMO, anytime I start a cut thats the first thing I change about my routine. I always see positive results within a few days.

[Aaronl]

I agree, fasted cardio, after all the corners are cut in the diet, really helps me out. I'll take bcaa's and a thermogenic in the morning before cardio (OEP really helps wake me up, on top of helping me get rid of the last little bit of bodyfat) and keep the intensity medium-low (so cortisol levels don't go out of control)

[JTruthNutrition]

Hi, I felt i had to get involved in this post as this is what i do for a living... rather than create diet plans for beginners i try to find alternatives using low GI and more nutritionally dense foods. As another guy said in this thread, the cardio is not needed, just alter the way you train to a more HIT style of training. I am living proof that you can reach 6% BF with ZERO cardio and no thermogenics... and yes, genetics do play a part in this but i have helped other achieve this time and time again.

Breakfast - Water - Oatmeal (low fat milk), 2 x wholemeal toast- coffee
Breakfast - Water - Spelt puffs/Quinoa puffs (low Gi and GL), 2 X Spelt & Rye Bread - coffee

Mid Morning - 4 scrambled egg whites, fat free cottage cheese, or bagel and peanut butter
Forget the bagel, maybe use spelt & rye bread instead of the bagel and keep the peanut butter as a thin spread, try using a natural peanut butter.

Lunch - Wholemeal pasta, chicken and salad and protein shake
Lunch - Dreamfields Pasta (low gi, 5g net carbs per serving) and the rest is cool assuming your protein shake isn't full or sugar and you are using water or light soy.

Mid afternoon - almonds and mixed nuts
Mid afternoon - 3 beans salad with Bulgar wheat (low GI and high protein)

Main evening meal - it varies from pasta/potatoes/rice - chicken/beef/fish - green veg
Spelt Pasta/Dreamfields Pasta/Carrot & sweet potato mash (low GI) and the meats and veg are cool

Evening snack - Oatmeal or wholemeal cereal or wholemeal toast with cottage cheese or penut butter.
Evening snack - Low fat fromage Frais (3g carbs per 100g & low GI) with sugar free jelly and a scoop of protein powder (nice dessert to hit your sweet tooth with next to no sugar)

[domorefitness]

If you feel your diet is playing a part then change that up im not gonna say your diet is bad or good but I don't see anything wrong with your diet and judging by the fact it got you that fat, your diet should be fine. My only recommendation would be more water and more dietary fats most of your foods are fat free(modified to be that way) and good fats get removed. The only other source of fat I see if the nuts you eat and your evening meal meaning your likely lacking in fats that could be helping you lose weight. But those are small things, I would say not to focus on the diet, focus on what you do in the gym. In the gym do high intensity work, whether its cardio or weights it needs to be high intensity with little to no rest. High intensity because that will give you a varying intensity and make sure things arn't consistent to prevent your body from adapting to it. You DO not need cardio, however it does help. I don't care how many people told you that you don't need it or that there is living proof, the truth is you DO NOT need the cardio but it helps. Which is like me saying you don't need steroids... but it helps, you get what I mean as much as you do not 100% need it to make things happen it's undeniable that it will help you out a lot. You only speed things up with cardio. At this point in the game all and any cardio you do should not exceed 30 minuites, if it does your wasting your time for a number of reasons. It means it is not intense enough and your being too consistent. On top of this after about 30 minuites your body starts to get stressed because it had no break and begins to be catabolic and counter productive releasing horrible hormones that are only going to hold you back... ONLY SHORT INTENSE from now on. Now I said you can use weights, what does this mean, high intensity with weights. Which means cut the rest times as much as you can, things like drop sets and supersets can help with this. MRT is short for metabolic resistence training read that it is basically the idea behind what im trying to explain with the high intensity incorporation with weights. Generally in order to cut the rest times and basically turn your weight training to be very metabolic and fat burning you would usually drop the weight. Which means you take less focus on the strength training part of lifting.... wait a minuite is that not what cardio is? Whether you call it cardio or not the concept of cardio is what is making us lose this weight that is all im getting at and the level your at right now you need to be doing some specific things. There is a benefit from using weights you cannot get from cardio, largely because of the RESITENCE aspect producing hormones that cardio will never get you because of what the body is doing. My conclusion please do yourself a favor and do both... if you ABSOLUTELY hate cardio again I said it was going to be high intensity but if you stil hate it then get rid of it, understand it will help you.