Diet/routine advice needed please

[bshuker]

Hey guys,

First post, sorry if you get stuff like this all the time!

I'll try keep it as brief as possible: I'm 21, currently 23st, 6'2", pretty high BF% probably 30-40% at least.

However I'm no weak guy, I played rugby all through school and college, and have been in and out of the gym since I was about 16, though never as fully dedicated as I have been the last 6 months. Unfortunately I damaged my knee really badly in my last year of college, when I was about 18st (poor diet, but fit enough for rugby 5-6 times a week, pretty strong etc). Anyway, then I took a gap year before uni, and first year, ended up at like 24st6, which was ridiculous. Last summer dropped to 23st4 in about a month just by getting back in the gym and eating pretty clean, not much cardio.

Last semester, carried on in the gym, not very great diet though. Maintained approx 23st7 ish, but put on a bit more muscle.

This semester I thought i've had enough of this, and I've been sticking to a fairly OK diet (too much alcohol), and a good gym routine (couple of months of starting strength 5x5 kinda thing 5 days a week, then a 4 day a week but more intense kinda routine). Played squash at least once or twice a week, came down to 23st, but put on a LOT of muscle, visibly lower BF%

Now I'm back home for the summer, got a great gym here, though can't play as much squash as its really expensive (about £12 for 40mins vs £1.90 for 40mins at uni). Felt like I'd been plateauing a bit with my previous routine, general kind of stats: Bench 45kg, Military press 30kg, Row 50kg, Squat and dead about 120kg (each plus bar).

So I'm going to do this routine for a while, just at the end of my first week, really love it, feels great. EDIT: can't post a URL yet, but it's a routine on Bodybuilding.com by animalpak (the Schak 5-part one if you're interested), its just a 5 day routine, 2 rest days, different body area each day. Fairly intense routine.

Not really doing any cardio other than cycling to the gym (about 2.5miles, fairly easy ride) and back.

Trying to keep my diet consistent (inconsistency ruins me), a good day looks like this:

Breakfast: 2 slices wholemeal toast with either 3 eggs and 1 scoop MP Whey Protein, or no eggs (so i can have marmite on toast) and 2 scoop MP Whey protein. Also take MP Alpha and some generic ASDA high strength (1000mg) fish oil.

Mid morning protein shake

Lunch: birds eye chicken chargrill (1 box (2 pieces), or chicken breast or lean steak

Pre workout: MP Creapump
Post workout: MP Recovery XS, and if hungry some more chicken

Dinner: same as lunch

Before bed: MP Alpha, MP Bedtime Extreme


What I'm not sure on is whether this is the best way to continue, slowly losing BF% and gaining kinda adequately. Or whether I ought to try and bulk or cut for a few months. Problem is I'm not satisfied with what I'm lifting yet, I want to get bigger and lift heavier. But at the same time I really could do with losing a lot of my BF% as it would probably improve my quality of life a bit (not to do with fitness or anything like that I'm quite happy , more ego boost). But i don't want to sacrifice gains for aesthetics, I mean I'm not trying to be a powerlifter or anything, but I know that I definitely want to be bigger in the long run. Also a concern would be dropping too much BF% and having a problem with skin or something like that.


Any help would be great!

Thanks,

Ben

[Tauren]

Hi, welcome to the forum!

You will probably ignore what I am about to say, but really try not to, its important.

You need a goal.

I would suggest that you might want to work on losing a good bit of bodyfat, for health reasons if nothing else, but I'm not one to judge so if you want to bulk, fine. The thing is you can't do both, not effectively, so you need to choose.

On the positive side, if you did choose to lose fat, someone of your size is in the best position to gain a small amount of muscle while they lose fat, and separate to that its still possible to gain strength. So don't feel a diet would be the end of your progress in the gym.

Any idea how much protein you are getting a day through your diet? Also one word - veggies! Need to get some fruit and veg going on there.

Good luck, whatever you decide.

[bshuker]

Hey thanks for the reply!

Well ok for a goal I was thinking I've got about 3.5 months until I go back to Uni, I don't think it would be unreasonable to lose 3.5 stone in that time. Hopefully that would be all bodyfat, which would definitely improve things.

I didn't know I would be able to still progress a little bit whilst cutting, not being able to make any gains at all had put my off just trying to cut down. It's definitely encouraging! Now the thing is, what would you suggest to get this down? Different routine or diet or more cardio? Not really sure what to do!

Protein intake on the sample day is about 170g. Fair enough on veggies, I had just figured they'd be unnecessary excess?

Thanks, Ben

[Tauren]

Fruit and especially veg are low in calories and give a lot of nutrients. You may want to be selective about which fruits you eat, but even on the most severe diet possible there is no reason not to go mad on veggies.

Basically for diets its a trade off. Generally something around 1 - 1.5 lbs a week is considered very good, and would also allow you (if set up properly) to get somewhere in the gym. Someone of your weight (and no offence intended by the way, I've been over 20 stone myself) could maybe lose closer to 2 lbs a week for a little while at least on this sort of moderate approach.

If you want to lose 3 1/2 stone in 3 1/2 months then thats a bit different. We are into crash diet territory, and given your level of lifting, you probably won't see any gains in the gym at all - the calorie deficit would be too great. If you want to get that sort of weight off that quickly, accept that you are just going to stand still in the gym for a while, but you would still be making massive progress to your overall goals.

This is probably the time to mention the forum's favourite diet of the moment - the Rapid Fat Loss (RFL) plan - The Rapid Fat Loss Handbook by Lyle McDonald | BodyRecomposition - The Home of Lyle McDonald. If you can stick to it then there is literally no quicker way to strip fat off, and you won't lose any muscle in the process.

[bshuker]

I will look at the RFL Plan and I will definitely heed your advice. I'll go and think about whether 2lbs a week vs making some good headway would be better to me right now!

Don't worry about the comments re 'my size' haha, no offence taken at all!

Thanks again for all your advice you've been extremely helpful.

Ben