My Last Cut and Progress Photos After

[Bigherm21]

Damn bro good work. Keep it up

 

[Turbolag]

Thanks Big !

 

[BrotherIron]

I'd say throw in some sled pulls 2x week. That can be your active recovery and also it'll help drop the bf%. I'll be doing that in the coming weeks.

 

[shortz]

Good progress, but I have to admit, I cringed a bit at your updated bulk pics. You're well in to the 30% range. This will probably be a hard lesson learned, but keep in mind, you arent going to make much more progress getting up over 15% as you would just sticking to 15%. Anything over that and you're just making it harder and harder on yourself to get out of the habit of over eating, causing metabolic damage to yourself, and then re-learning how to eat correctly.

I apologize if my brutal honesty doesn't sit well with you or anyone. I just hate to see people set themselves up for a real hard road ahead. usually what I do is, if I lose all of my abs, I am now over where I need to be for optimal gains. As long as I can still see my top two abs, I am still in a good gaining range without getting out of control. This wont be the exact case for everyone, just my own, but you should learn where that threshold is for you.

Do you know about where your calories are currently? How about macros?

 

[Turbolag]

I'd say throw in some sled pulls 2x week. That can be your active recovery and also it'll help drop the bf%. I'll be doing that in the coming weeks.

Thanks BI. I'm hoping I can find a sled. What do you suggest if I can't get ahold of a sled?

Good progress, but I have to admit, I cringed a bit at your updated bulk pics. You're well in to the 30% range. This will probably be a hard lesson learned, but keep in mind, you arent going to make much more progress getting up over 15% as you would just sticking to 15%. Anything over that and you're just making it harder and harder on yourself to get out of the habit of over eating, causing metabolic damage to yourself, and then re-learning how to eat correctly.

I apologize if my brutal honesty doesn't sit well with you or anyone. I just hate to see people set themselves up for a real hard road ahead. usually what I do is, if I lose all of my abs, I am now over where I need to be for optimal gains. As long as I can still see my top two abs, I am still in a good gaining range without getting out of control. This wont be the exact case for everyone, just my own, but you should learn where that threshold is for you.

Do you know about where your calories are currently? How about macros?

Nah your fine man. I appreciate your honesty. I'm totally aware I'm carrying a lot of bodyfat in those two. No denying that.

I didn't really mean to gain the extra weight that way. But I had a couple setbacks. Both in the personal life and some injuries. So I just didnt monitor my food intake because I was stressed out and just wasn't in the mind set to eat right.

Right now I'm waiting for an upcoming event, (ill post the day of) so I'm just eating whatever.
Once I find the date of the event ill start cleaning my eating habits up. And I'm gonna post my diet.

Any suggestions?

 

[shortz]

Thanks BI. I'm hoping I can find a sled. What do you suggest if I can't get ahold of a sled?


Nah your fine man. I appreciate your honesty. I'm totally aware I'm carrying a lot of bodyfat in those two. No denying that.

I didn't really mean to gain the extra weight that way. But I had a couple setbacks. Both in the personal life and some injuries. So I just didnt monitor my food intake because I was stressed out and just wasn't in the mind set to eat right.

Right now I'm waiting for an upcoming event, (ill post the day of) so I'm just eating whatever.
Once I find the date of the event ill start cleaning my eating habits up. And I'm gonna post my diet.

Any suggestions?

If you want me to continue being honest...

Don't wait for this event. It's just an excuse to procrastinate. I would say start monday. Hit the store this weekend and get what you need. If this event is only a day, or even if it's 5 days, you need to figure all this stuff out sooner or later anyway. It's a learning experience dieting down, and you might as well do it now. An event like the one you're referring to might be a good way to learn and prepare for future events, like weddings, anniversaries, birthday parties, vacations etc.

I am running out of time atm, but what is it you would like to know? I have dieted down to 9%, and back up to 13% a few times, (lower than 9% and I find my diet needs to be too strict and it's no longer "fun").

First and foremost, you need to learn to count calories and macros. If you want to get a 6 pack at any point in your life, you will need to do this. The few people who can do it without counting cals are either genetic freaks or they are probably not under optimal conditions.

 

[Turbolag]

Thanks Shortz. Ill for sure consider starting sooner.

Regarding counting macros. I've only done it once. Last year when I did CBL. I didn't like counting too much.

I've always measured stuff out.

I'd kinda like to try counting my macros this time and see how I do.

My goals are powerlifting, Regarding abs, I'm not too interested in them. I'm thinking a nice bf% goal is 18%.

My #1 goal is strength, so I'm scared loosing too much will hurt my strength.

I would really like a nice offseason body builder look.

 

[IronInsanity]

You've added a lot of muscle since that first pic. At this point, it's all about your goals. But even as a powerlifter, keeping your fat % in the upper teens is doable and shouldn't hurt your strength.

Good luck with upcoming meets.

 

[shortz]

Thanks Shortz. Ill for sure consider starting sooner.

Regarding counting macros. I've only done it once. Last year when I did CBL. I didn't like counting too much.

I've always measured stuff out.

I'd kinda like to try counting my macros this time and see how I do.

My goals are powerlifting, Regarding abs, I'm not too interested in them. I'm thinking a nice bf% goal is 18%.

My #1 goal is strength, so I'm scared loosing too much will hurt my strength.

I would really like a nice offseason body builder look.

If you're purely strength, then 16-18% is decent.

What I find interesting about counting macros is, that we tend to get too much of one thing and not enough of another if we aren't taking them in to consideration. For instance, almost everyone knows how many grams of protein they get per day, but knowing how great fats are at preserving muscle and general health, do you know how many grams of fat, and I mean, the good stuff (unsaturated), you're getting? This is even more important when dieting. Fat is absolutely invaluable. Then, of course, I am a firm believer that you don't need to cut carbs out every single day when dieting either. Just stay in your goal calorie range, and you can have your carbs without much blow back.

Now, before I tell you the macro break down, just remember, you don't have to hit this perfectly every day. It's more of a guide than it is an absolute protocol. So I generally go for a 40/40/20 (p/c/f) breakdown. From there, if you want to back down on carbs on non-training days and bump fats, you can. So a 2400 calorie diet would look like....

240g Protein
240g Carbs
53g Fats

 

[Turbolag]

You've added a lot of muscle since that first pic. At this point, it's all about your goals. But even as a powerlifter, keeping your fat % in the upper teens is doable and shouldn't hurt your strength.

Good luck with upcoming meets.

Thanks Iron! Sounds like the high teens will be my goal.

If you're purely strength, then 16-18% is decent.

What I find interesting about counting macros is, that we tend to get too much of one thing and not enough of another if we aren't taking them in to consideration. For instance, almost everyone knows how many grams of protein they get per day, but knowing how great fats are at preserving muscle and general health, do you know how many grams of fat, and I mean, the good stuff (unsaturated), you're getting? This is even more important when dieting. Fat is absolutely invaluable. Then, of course, I am a firm believer that you don't need to cut carbs out every single day when dieting either. Just stay in your goal calorie range, and you can have your carbs without much blow back.

Now, before I tell you the macro break down, just remember, you don't have to hit this perfectly every day. It's more of a guide than it is an absolute protocol. So I generally go for a 40/40/20 (p/c/f) breakdown. From there, if you want to back down on carbs on non-training days and bump fats, you can. So a 2400 calorie diet would look like....

240g Protein
240g Carbs
53g Fats

Thanks Shortz for the break down. I totally agree with you about fats man. If I keep them too low I get really bad headaches.

And also, agreed on the carbohydrates. I respond well to higher carbohydrates. At no- low carbohydrates man I don't feel well at all. And my lifts decrease drastically.

I like your % on the break down!

I was thinking for my macros something like this:

1.5g protein per pound = 398g protein

1.5-2.0g carbohydrate per pound= (1.5g) 398 carbohydrate

.25g fat per pound = 67g

This was a rough idea starting point, and I was thinking it would need adjusting.

I think the carbohydrates will need to be lowered. I think that might be too much.
But I like your ratios also.

 

[Turbolag]

Alright, so after seeing 1.5 grams of carbohydrates written down, I think its too much. I am thinking 1-1.2 grams per pound will be better.

I just don't want to lose my ability to drive the weight up. So I think I would rather start with my intake a little high, and just make alterations.

So recalculating the carbohydrates: (1g) will be 265g per day. I think this is more appropriate.


I want to eat 6 meals a day. I seem to do best eating every 2-3 hours.

Each meal breaks down to:

65g protein ..........44g carbohydrate...........11g fat


I think I'll adjust the carbohydrates so that my morning meal, and my post workout meal are my larger carbohydrate portions of the day. That's when I am the hungriest.

My second to last meal, I think I'll have a small portion of carbohydrates. That will be the last meal with carbohydrates. The meal before bed will be protein and fats.

I think it will just be trial and error. I'm gonna keep playing around with the numbers.

Shortz I think I'm gonna plug in the numbers to your ratio also. I really like how you have it set up.

Thanks man for your input !