Been training for years and have always got the same results ! Need your expertise !

[IVS2014]

Guys,

I've been training on and off for about 5-6 years. Most of it has either been try and error or little a bit of progress combined with aggravating an old injury (trapped nerve).

About 4 weeks ago I kicked off a new training routine followed by a new diet aiming for gaining a little bit of muscle first then brining down my body fat in 12 weeks. This 12 weeks are suppose to be the first of three sets, with the aim of pushing my weight up from 67kg to 75kg over 39 weeks (1 rest week between each set) and reducing my body fat from 13-14% to 7-8%.

I've tried this sort of thing a few times and every time I gain muscle, I gain a lot of fat with it and every time I try to loose fat, I end up loosing too much muscle !

What I'm after is a pair of expert eyes trying to guide me throughout my program e.g. to tell me off if I'm eating too much carbs, to help re-design my diet when I decide to cut, etc...

I appreciate any advise you can give me and if this section is not the most appropriate place for this thread, please feel free to move it to the right place.

English is not my first language so hopefully you can make sense what I've tried to explain.

Note: I have always struggled with gaining muscle mass in my chest and I haven't seen my 6 pack since I was 17 years old doing kung fu 3-4 times a week. There are pictures in my profile, taken before I started. I'll put new pictures up soon to make it easier to understand where I am right now.

Profile:

Age: 27
Height: 175cm.
Weight: 69.3kg (four weeks into training).
Body type: Genetically an ectomorph but not sure what I am now ! Very small bone structure.

Cardio:

Mondays: 1 hour 7 a side football (soccer).
Wednesdays: 1 hour 5 a side football (soccer).

Weight Training:

Mondays: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Wednesdays: Back/Biceps
Thursdays: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Fridays: Legs/Abs

Diet:

Protein: 304.65 grams
Carbs: 247.1 grams
Fat: 89.95 grams
Calorie: 3021.6 Kcal

Item Protein Carbs Fat Calorie Unit
Whey impact 20.5 1.5 1.7 98.3 7
Date (1 - 7 grams) 0.2 5 0 20 4
Quinoa (100gram cooked) 4.4 21 1.9 120 2
Rice (100 gram cooked) 3 28 0 130 2
Lentils 100 gram 9 20 0 116 2
Egg (Medium) 6 0 4 63 2
Beef (100 grams) 26 0 15 250 2
Instant OAT (1 unit) 8.5 70.7 7.9 388 1
Chicken Breast (227 gm) 46 0 2 220 1
Vegtable oil (1 tbsp) 0 0 14 116 1
Fat free Yogurt (100 gram) 7.6 4.8 0.2 55 0.5
Almonds (100 gram) 21 22 49 576 0.25

Meal 1 (7am): Protein Shake with instant oats.

Meal 2 (10am): 25grams almonds.

Meal 3 (11:30am): Tuna/Chicken with Quinoa

Meal 4 (1:30pm): Protein Shake

Meal 5 (2:30pm): Protein Shake with instant oats and 5 dates (post work out)

Meal 6 (4:30pm): Cooked Lentils

Meal 7 (7pm): Beef with white rice and 100grams of fat free yogurt

Measurements:

Date Stomach(2inch below navel) Waist BicepsFlex BicepsRelaxed Shoulders Chest Tights Hip Weight
15/07/2014 32.5 32.8 14.2 12.7 N/A 37.6 22.5 36 67.2
22/07/2014 32.5 33 14.4 12.7 18.5 37.8 22.5 36.5 69.5

[davidolson22]

Weight Training:

Mondays: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Wednesdays: Back/Biceps
Thursdays: Chest/Shoulders/Triceps
Fridays: Legs/Abs

Diet:

Protein: 304.65 grams
Carbs: 247.1 grams
Fat: 89.95 grams
Calorie: 3021.6 Kcal

Your macros/calories look okay for what I assume is the bulking part of your program.

Your weight training program does not look good. If you workout your chest more than your back, it's going to give you shoulder imbalances and cause long term problems. You want to either work them out equally or workout your back more than your chest. NEVER workout your chest twice as much as your back. I know you are going to say that your chest is lagging, but it doesn't matter.

BTW, there's no real need for 7 meals a day. If you read the sticky on meal timing and the Emma-Leigh stickies, it'll give you a lot of solid advice on when to eat and how often.

[AlwaysTryin]

^^ and train your legs more. They are 1/2 of your body!

[cumminslifter]

any reason for 7 meals a day? whats your tdee?
switch to an upper/ lower split

[IVS2014]

Thanks for the advise guys,

@Cumminslifter I think my tdee is about 2700kcal now.

I'm eating 7 meals a day, because it makes it easier for me to consume the amount of food I need also it'll help getting my body getting used to the fact that it gets enough calories through out the day so it doesn't need to store it as fat as much.

I'm planning to review my training routine over the weekend. I like the idea of splitting it to upper and lower body but the only problem I got is I normally hit the gym around 2-3pm (Luckily enough we have a gym in the office) and I normally try to keep my sessions around 45 minutes so end to end I can be back at my desk under 1.5 hour. So I need to do a little bit of thinking before changing it probably...

One thing that I forgot to mention, I've got a holiday booked on 14th of Sept (About 8 weeks from now) so I'm using that to motivate myself to stick to my training and diet.

I'm thinking of trying to put another 2kg of mass (hopefully mostly muscle) in the next 4 weeks then change my diet and go on a 500 calorie deficit to cut. I'd ideally want to hit under 9% BF (to see muscle definition).

In my current condition, what would you suggest is the best way to gain size and loose fat in 8 weeks ?

[Obscene]

Protein: 304.65 grams
Carbs: 247.1 grams
Fat: 89.95 grams
Calorie: 3021.6 Kcal

Way too much protein. Drop it to the 200 tops and up the carbs.

[TailEnd]

Way too much protein. Drop it to the 200 tops and up the carbs.

For most people it is. But what if he likes eating high protein foods?

He's reached his minimum fat and protein goals so it's up to him what he consumes for the rest of his calories.

[WonderPug]

As long as you're consuming at least 120 grams of protein and 70 grams of dietary fat per day, the macronutrient composition of your remaining calories is simply a function of personal preference.

Eating 7 meals per day is suboptimal in many ways, but if you have a significant and personal preference for doing so, then it's fine as it will not directly impair your progress in meaningful ways. That said, you might be better off consuming more calorie dense foods with much lower total protein intake and higher dietary fat intake, as that might solve the satiety issues that are pushing you towards such extreme meal frequency.

Your workout routine is clearly very poor, so you might want to consider using a proper, proven 5x5 style program.

[IVS2014]

Thanks for the feedback.

I'll review my training routine and diet over the weekend and will take a new set of photos so I can have a better baseline for my progress.

Going back to my other question, In my current condition, what would you recommend is the best way to gain size and loose fat in 8 weeks ? i.e. If I try to gain for another 4 weeks then try to cut is it doable to get to 9% BF without loosing my muscle mass or do I need to do it over a longer period, 2 weeks gain 6 weeks cut ?

[Gxp23]

Thanks for the feedback.

I'll review my training routine and diet over the weekend and will take a new set of photos so I can have a better baseline for my progress.

Going back to my other question, In my current condition, what would you recommend is the best way to gain size and loose fat in 8 weeks ? i.e. If I try to gain for another 4 weeks then try to cut is it doable to get to 9% BF without loosing my muscle mass or do I need to do it over a longer period, 2 weeks gain 6 weeks cut ?

You havent really left yourself enough time to do both to be honest, I cant imagine you have a lot of lean mass to cut down to, and I cant imagine you will have the time to build a significant amount while leaving yourself enough time to cut down to reveal it.

[IVS2014]

You havent really left yourself enough time to do both to be honest, I cant imagine you have a lot of lean mass to cut down to, and I cant imagine you will have the time to build a significant amount while leaving yourself enough time to cut down to reveal it.

hmmm yeah I agree but my plan is to try to use this 8 weeks to get into a better shape hopefully limiting the potential of any mistakes and improving the chance of getting result using more experienced people's asvise i.e. a littler bigger a little cutter then after I come back from my holiday I can plan phase 2 and phase 3 of my training.

[IVS2014]

I've finished off another week and so far it looks like I've put on a bit of mass without gaining much fat but I've still got a long way to go (uploaded a few photos).

I'm thinking of keeping the same diet for another week (2649.80 Kcal to maintain + 350 Kcal) then go down to 2150 Kcal by reducing my carb and fat intake to try to loose 5-8 lbs fat in 5 weeks.

Please let me know your thoughts.

[TailEnd]

I've finished off another week and so far it looks like I've put on a bit of mass without gaining much fat but I've still got a long way to go (uploaded a few photos).

I'm thinking of keeping the same diet for another week (2649.80 Kcal to maintain + 350 Kcal) then go down to 2150 Kcal by reducing my carb and fat intake to try to loose 5-8 lbs fat in 5 weeks.

Please let me know your thoughts.

How can you possibly justify cutting after just a few weeks of eating at a caloric surplus?

Decide what you want to do and stick with it for at least a few months, ideally much longer.