+2 Months to get in Shape!+ Cut now or keep bulking? BF% Estimate?

[hiddindragon08]

Hey guys,

TLDR @ Bottom:

Long time lurker but I hardly ever post. Well not that long, few months. Anyways, I'm preparing for my fiance to arrive from Japan and so I want to reduce my BF % and gain some muscle. I just got back in USA after 8 months in China where I wasn't going to the gym and just doing some pushups and lots of walking to work. I've been back in the gym for about 2 weeks and indulged my sweet side with lots of Jimmy Jons and random horrible for you type foods.. Anyways, my protein is on it's way and will arrive Monday and with that arrival it is the end of my pleasure eating as I call it haha.

I've never really taken a scientific approach to lifting, just kinda went to the gym and lifted and ate what I ate.. I'm 24, I've been skinny majority of my life at around 140lbs, shot up to 214lbs (FATTY) at the end of highschool, after studying Koei-Kan and throwing around weights I managed to lose the fat and keep some muscle at 165lbs at around what I believe to be 14% BF+-. In China I really took interest in the bodybuilding lifestyle and really want to just see how much I can change my body.. The concept that if I control what I eat, give 110% in the gym lifting and get plenty of sleep my body will build itself to something really amazing.

I want to focus on my arms, chest and lats pretty much. Legs are in nice shape from years of Track in highschool and background in TKD and Koei-Kan. I'm thinking my workout routine will look like this.. and I apologize if my BB lingo isn't spot on haha

Each is usually 3-4 sets of 7-8reps. My cardio is important for a few reasons other than fat burning, I've gotten my breathing technique down pretty well so I can breath in through my nose and exhale through the mouth and it's improved my stamina in the Dojo a lot.

Monday: Chest/Triceps [Bench, Tricep pressdowns, Inc dumbell flys, Assisted Dips]
Cardio: 45min walking at 130bpm.

Tuesday: Abs/Legs [3 different ab machines (20reps each), Squats, calf machine, leg extension]
No Cardio

Wednesday: Bicep/Back and Lats/Traps [Lat pulldowns, dips, Chin ups, Rows, Standing cable machine, Bicep curls with dumbells/barbell, verticle barbell rows, deadlifts]
Cardio: 20min walking at 130bpm

Thursday: Cardio 1h 15min / Sauna / Hot Tub

Friday: Quick Full upper body with squats and deadlifts
Cardio: 35min walking 130bpm

Saturday: OFF

Sunday: OFF

I'll be eating around 2400 calories a day, 160g Protein (100% Whey ON Double Chocolate), 10% fat, 20% carbs.

My mealplan is looking like this..

Breakfast: Homemade protein shake. 23g scoop of ON Whey DBLChoc, Banana and skim milk.

Snack: 1cup veggies and an apple

Lunch: 1 Chicken breast, Veggies, Brown Rice or a piece of whole wheat toast.

Pre-Workout shake: 23g scoop of protein, tablespoon of peanut butter & crushed ice in blender.

Post Workout shake: 35g protein (scoop and half roughly)

Dinner: chicken again or beef, veggies.

Evening Snack: Grapes and tunafish

Before bed: 23g Scoop protein shake.

So this is what I'm looking at for a diet, what do you think?

TLDR: My fiance is coming from Japan August 22nd and I want to improve my body as fast as possible in that time. Now what I'm thinking is i'll just cut down slowly for the next couple months and then that should net me where I want to be BF % wise. Do you think It's possible to get abs in 2 months from where I am?
And what do you say my BF % is?


Thanks,

Ryan

[kcmoto]

Hey guys,

TLDR @ Bottom:

Long time lurker but I hardly ever post. Well not that long, few months. Anyways, I'm preparing for my fiance to arrive from Japan and so I want to reduce my BF % and gain some muscle. I just got back in USA after 8 months in China where I wasn't going to the gym and just doing some pushups and lots of walking to work. I've been back in the gym for about 2 weeks and indulged my sweet side with lots of Jimmy Jons and random horrible for you type foods.. Anyways, my protein is on it's way and will arrive Monday and with that arrival it is the end of my pleasure eating as I call it haha.

I've never really taken a scientific approach to lifting, just kinda went to the gym and lifted and ate what I ate.. I'm 24, I've been skinny majority of my life at around 140lbs, shot up to 214lbs (FATTY) at the end of highschool, after studying Koei-Kan and throwing around weights I managed to lose the fat and keep some muscle at 165lbs at around what I believe to be 14% BF+-. In China I really took interest in the bodybuilding lifestyle and really want to just see how much I can change my body.. The concept that if I control what I eat, give 110% in the gym lifting and get plenty of sleep my body will build itself to something really amazing.

I want to focus on my arms, chest and lats pretty much. Legs are in nice shape from years of Track in highschool and background in TKD and Koei-Kan. I'm thinking my workout routine will look like this.. and I apologize if my BB lingo isn't spot on haha

Each is usually 3-4 sets of 7-8reps. My cardio is important for a few reasons other than fat burning, I've gotten my breathing technique down pretty well so I can breath in through my nose and exhale through the mouth and it's improved my stamina in the Dojo a lot.

I'll be eating around 2400 calories a day, 160g Protein (100% Whey ON Double Chocolate), 10% fat, 20% carbs.

My mealplan is looking like this..

So this is what I'm looking at for a diet, what do you think?

TLDR: My fiance is coming from Japan August 22nd and I want to improve my body as fast as possible in that time. Now what I'm thinking is i'll just cut down slowly for the next couple months and then that should net me where I want to be BF % wise. Do you think It's possible to get abs in 2 months from where I am?
And what do you say my BF % is?


Thanks,

Ryan

Hey Ryan..Looking at your diet plan, I cant see how that is going to be 2400 cals. Bump up your protien to 180g. I think you should be eating quite a bit more. At least 3000 cals., lift big and you should see some good results.

[bwheeler]

Hey man if i was you i would bulk. you are pretty skinny and need to add some muscle for definition for when you cut. if you cut now i think you will have barley any definition.

Good luck

[FitnessScotland]

Hey man if i was you i would bulk. you are pretty skinny and need to add some muscle for definition for when you cut. if you cut now i think you will have barley any definition.

Good luck

Agreed, 2400 calories a day isn't enough for you to notice a big difference.

You have around 11-12 weeks to meet your target, bulk for 4-6 weeks, lifting heavy and taking in 2750 - 3000 calories per day, then re-assess.

At your age, weight and height, you should be able to bulk and cut in that timeframe and notice some pretty good results. Maybe even bulk for the first few weeks then try something like the p90x ? Results seem very impressive on it, many on here swear by it. I bought the DVDs the other day and am planning to use it in a few months time for cutting.

[rcramer7]

Which ever route you take you can only do one of two things in two months. That is get fat or get more lean. If you could put on enough muscle in 2mos. to make a huge diff you would also increase your BF%.

If I had to make a choice I would I would focus on your form and learning what exercises you should do. When your fiance gets there you can involve her with your workout, cardio and diet. That will impress her more than anything. And, open the two of you up to a strong relationship.

IMO, I would do an upper lower split w/cardio on your off days. It's fast and I get great results. I'm not a BB and don't try and act like one. I bust my a$$ when I lift for an hour and play tennis w/my wife for cardio almost nightly and sweat my a$$ off. It's fun.
We don't "PLAY" tennis...we hit the ball with no regards to rules. It's more like tennisvolleyracketballgolf.

And, WOW that's a lot of protein shakes!! 105grams from shakes, another 75-90 from meat/pb, and another 30+/-from combined "other" food you eat (usually some protein in everything). That's 210-225. I think I read somewhere that protien has 4cals. per gram I'll post this, go check and edit after I find out.



Yeah, it's 4 cals. per gram of protein. So, 200grams is 800 cals. That's just protein. I have like one post workout shake 50-55grams pro.

Anyway, my main point is, and I remind myself all the tme, If you aren't a BB don't act like one. What a BB does to maintain and grow is completely different from our goals or stages of training. Our routines won't be anywhere close, our splits won't be close, our diets won't be that close. A BB is a pro. athlete with many years of training! There body has been progressively changed over years of training and diet.

It cracks me up when I see someone trying to do a 3-4-5-6 day split. Arms one day sholders another....If you could lift arms for an hour honestly with good form and little rest between sets you wouldn't be deconditioned. Or "I'm gonna eat 5-6k cals a day and bulk for months" (get fat is all), and then eat 2k cals for 6mos and cut back down to 2lbs higher than what I started with. Come on! Maybe if your a BB and are trying to maintain and squeeze out/gain every last pound. But all of us NON-BB eat clean, workout, sleep, wait, repeat. It's that simple.

A simple upper lower split, or even a full-body is more than enough. Lift accordingly to your goals light w/high rep for strength and heavy low rep for size. I like upper/lower because legs are a bitch for me and seem too overload me.
I do;
mon.upper
tues.lower/abs
wed off
thurs. upper
fri.lower/abs
sat. off
sun upper
mon. lower/abs...or whatever happens and usually cardio (tennis w/ wife and friends) at night.

[Blam684]

I am by no means an expert, but the peanut gallery will speak.

As someone who went from collegiate football at 180 and very very low bf% to 210 with a beer gut, and now back down to 184 and about 17% bf (still busting my ass to get down), I think I may be able to help you out.

First off, I am sure I am going to get ripped a new one by some of the hardcore guys, but here it is anyways:

Your diet looks good. You are eating clean and seem to know what you are doing there, so stick with that and keep cognizant of how your body feels. Adjust your diet accordingly.

As for working out, you can cut and bulk at the same time. You aren't going to bulk like a bodybuilder, but since you haven't seriously been lifting you will get the benefits of higher lean muscle mass and lower bf%. If you want to show your abs then you want to burn the maximum amount of fat which will happen by increasing your lean muscle mass to the maximum.

The best way to do this is to do a complete upper body one day of the week, a complete lower body one day of the week, and you can either continue to do complete upper and lower, or concentrate on body groups for the rest of the week.

For rest days, I wouldn't go two consecutive days off. One day off in the middle and one day off in the beginning/end of the week will net you better results because your body will be in a state of repair for more time.

I didn't give any specifics because there are people that know much better than me, but for getting back into lifting I have noticed the best results with this plan. Further down the road (when I'm back into my collegiate football shape) a more bodybuilding like approach will work better, but for now stimulating all the muscles and keeping them in a state of repair seems to be the best.

If I am wrong, I apologize and I welcome input on this both for the original poster and for my own knowledge.

Edit: Also, you will probably end up needing to add more calories to your diet, but start with what you have planned and adjust according to your body.