8.5 months in - need your advice!

[RowdyAntics]

Hey lads, (+ any ladies) I just wanted some feedback and advice on my working out and nutrition. If you'd be so kind as to leave some helpful criticism in a reply then I'd appreciate it and investigate the matter further.

Firstly im an 18 year old male and probably quite endomorphic. From Jan the 1st 2013 I've been working hard at building my body's muscle up, and more recently, stripping the fat down. From Jan to May I worked out 4 days a week, and occasionally some hard cardio on a 5th day. I made the mistake of being afraid of compound exercises such as the deadlift, squat and bench. I did alot of isolation exercises and didn't go nearly as far as I wanted to.

I managed to get down from a 95kg fat slob teen to around 80kg. I decided after getting an appraisal I'd take the gym trainer's advice and use their free programs that they make for members. Its worth noting that my nutrition at this time did not involve counting calories. I was a fat guy, so I knew how to eat like a boss (to gain muscle).
My nutrition changes in the first 5 months involved eating lots of carbs and protein. I avoided sugar. (Sadly I avoided fat because I was under the impression eating fat made you put on fat, ikr facepalm?) But physically I improved, I worked out until failure, im pretty determined so as bad as everything else was, my intensity in exercises was good.

If your still reading, awesome and cheers. This is the area the viewers come in with some advice.

The 6th month (june) or a bit before my 4 day split changed for the better and my nutrition evolved. I counted calories, at 80kg and 188cm or so I needed 3300 roughly a day. I started eating unprocessed foods, white rice and chicken mainly. I upped the protein somehow to 200+ g a day. (I still dont know how I got this measurement - I think its wrong! )
Currently im cutting and have pushed calories to 3k to 3.1k.

Anyway, my workout became a split between legs, shoulders, back, chest, abs and arms. Things picked up, I stayed at 80kg (around 160 pounds) but began to look better. I had squats and bench for compound exercises and i was feeling the burn a fair bit after workouts. So its difficult to list my workouts as it changes every 8 weeks but what I wanted some advice on was nutrition. Firstly heres an average day's meals for me since june 1st:

Brekkie (400) calories

Pure whey wpi (no additives) protein shake 1st thing. 30g serve
Oats porridge with 3/4 cup of skim milk + multi vitamin tablet + fish oil capsule + immune tablet + berocca tablet.

Morning tea (500) calories

2 cups of white steamed rice + 100g serving of kangaroo fillet (no fat) + coke zero 375ml (I have cravings when cutting, caffeine and sweeteners help) - hell I crave when bulking at 3400 or so lmao. +10 g of spray canola oil for cooking meat for the day.

Lunch (570) calories

2 cups of white steamed rice + 20 almonds and a fish oil 1000mg capsule + coke zero 375ml

Afternoon tea (500) calories

2 cups of steamed white rice + 100g of kangaroo fillet (no fat)

1 hour - 1.5 hours before workout (205) calories

1 cup of steamed white rice

15 mins before workout I sometimes take pre-workout. ( 5 weeks and this ceases as I finish my gap year job and am holidaying. I know, shoot him! He takes p.w. hah, definitely a change needed there, and will be) (80 calories for n.o. or 15 calories for 1mr.)

Post workout - wpi 30g protein whey shake

Dinner (575) calories

1 cup of steamed white rice + 100g of kangaroo fillet (no fat)

Before bed - wpc 30g protein shake

Weekends is similiar but with eggs and wholemeal bread, pasta etc. Same calories and macro nutrient amounts. Less costly, should I scrap it and follow week day foods?

Overall I take on currently:

Carbs/day: 450
Protein/day: 200
Fat/day: 30

Side notes:

- shakes are with water and are pure (no other crap)
- all meat carefully cut to ensure no fatty bits left on
- 10 g of canola spray for cooking a days worth of kangaroo in the pan. Lowest fat etc oil.
- all shakes are about 110-125 calories each and are included in brekkie and dinner above.
- I calculate everything exactly on an app on my phone. (Myfitnesspal)
- my sodium, potassium, mercury levels plus minerals and vitamins are in great shape. All are measured to daily and recorded.

Does anyone think my fat is to low? Trainers say its fine as long as I keep losing the flab. Ive moved from unfit rating wise to the 2nd highest rating. Its almost been 2 months and ill get another appraisal soon. Im aiming for below 13 percent body fat and im around 15 to 16 maybe now. I guess ill see then.

Im stripping fat and when below 13% I intend to bulk for muscle again at about 3400 calories.


So advice in any way that you would consider helpful would be appreciated. Im clearly not a complete beginner, ive been at bodybuilding full on for almost a year and ide love some fine tune tips to get me bigger, more cut and at a faster pace! Many thanks in advance,
-
R.A.

[RowdyAntics]

Bump

[GROSO]

Not sure what your question is but fats should ^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Fastsupra24]

If your trying to cut your taking in too many carbs and calories. You need to be in a caloric deficit

[RowdyAntics]

If your trying to cut your taking in too many carbs and calories. You need to be in a caloric deficit

Cheers guys, I had a feeling my lipids were too low, I moved them up to about 60g and cut down to a little under 2500 calories. Carbs are 260g, might see if I can switch some more with fats, probably go 200g carbs 220 protein and 70g fats. Im an endo so it will help.

Does anyone know a good way to get your protein intake accurately? I get so many different results on web calculators and formulas. Am I meant to reduce my protein much when cutting? Im at 190 to 200g now and am cutting.

Also what do you guys do for fats? Hard to up it with proper food without upping carbs. I use almonds and fish oil x3 a day.

Cheers for the answers

[RowdyAntics]

Bump

[AlacrityH]

You should be increasing your protein intake when cutting. The more protein in your amino acid pools the more muscle is spared when cutting. That being said, your carbs are way too high and your fats are way too low.

You should be eating about 80-90g of fat a day at your weight. Its not hard to get. 2 servings of almond/peanut butter is already 32g. Make rice with butter or olive oil. Your saturated fats are nonexistent. You NEED some. I've never had kangaroo but if it comes with skin, eat it.

[weiss1967]

try keto. Fat for your stats would be over 200gr a day and carbs at about 30gr a day. No kidding, you will love it. Your current 450 gr of carbs is insanity in its pure form.

Another word of advice - at your age you should capitalise on your test and growth hormones, and bulk until you are blue in the face. Do not chase those magic little squares in your mid-section, they will come later. Life is long

[RowdyAntics]

Cheers, Ive been very tempted to try keto, seeing results in yourself is one of the best forms of motivation imo. Why do you say I would love it, im curious?

Depending on if my changed split 100F/200C/220Protein gets me where I want, (under 10% b fat) I may still do keto at the end of this year. I understand its difficult, any tips? Does the difficulty include irratation?
Has anyone tried successfully studying with keto?

Getting some good advice, glad I asked about the fats. Cheers guys!

[weiss1967]

Rowdy, you can do very well on your "modified" split without going keto, lot of people do. Keto is very difficult for some people, it is a very restrictive to start with. But, since you asked - keto is very good for studying. This is actually one of unexpected benefits of keto for many folks, the unusual clarity of thinking and mental stamina. I myself am able to sit and read fully submerged in subject for hours, something I wasn't able to do before switching to keto. If you want to try keto as some point, I recommend eating green vegetables, drinking a lot of water with electrolites and supplementing your diet with multivitamines. Seems to me that those are key elemnts for relatively painless adaptation to keto. Anyways, hope this helps

[RowdyAntics]

Rowdy, you can do very well on your "modified" split without going keto, lot of people do. Keto is very difficult for some people, it is a very restrictive to start with. But, since you asked - keto is very good for studying. This is actually one of unexpected benefits of keto for many folks, the unusual clarity of thinking and mental stamina. I myself am able to sit and read fully submerged in subject for hours, something I wasn't able to do before switching to keto. If you want to try keto as some point, I recommend eating green vegetables, drinking a lot of water with electrolites and supplementing your diet with multivitamines. Seems to me that those are key elemnts for relatively painless adaptation to keto. Anyways, hope this helps

Im struggling with the calorie reduction I stated. Im going to try get some help re calculating what numbers I need for cutting, maintenance and bulking before planning a possible keto diet to start mid October.
What is classed as bulking for myself or others at 3.5k calories is easy eating for me with my 6 meals a day, and im very fit currently, I just want to get rid of the last flab around my mid section before bulking up. Summer is coming and it would be quite motivating to see myself over this plateau.

So at 2.5k calories a day I crash and burn after 5 days max of doing it, its a gradual hunger build up that gets worse as it goes on. Vegies, coke zero, caffeine and alot of water has not worked for my current attempt at cutting, I take berocca and centrum for vitamins to. Over this year ive never fallen off of my diet and eaten junk food except now, I dont even like junk food anymore..
Anyway, the keto diet looks promising because I prefer to go all in or not at all at anything, ive never half heartedly worked out, if im sick I dont workout because I will just go at it 100% anyway. Also the upped fats to about 200 may help cravings more than 100g a day. Any side effects when transferring from heavy carbs low low fat into keto?
High carbs got me where I am now so im not knocking the trainer's advice to keep going if it works, but im plateaued. Will re check statistics, measurements and the calipre test in a week with an appraisal, and re do my nutrition req as I said for 188cm, 79kg active male.

Thanks again for the help

[RowdyAntics]

Hey guys, I have a few more questions and details for the community. Once again I would appreciate any factual, helpful criticism on this post.

My estimated caloric intake for maintenance is about 2800 for a 188cm 79kg bloke.
I have a 4 day muscle building split which goes a little over an hour each 1 day session. I do a 5th cardio day for 45 minutes on Saturday. (Intense)
I also have two 15 minute hard cardio sessions straight after two of my workout days.

I have made up a new food plan for myself, switching from heavy carbs into heavy fats and low carbs as my goal is to go from 13% body fat into single digits. I would like advice on this food plan in terms of how to improve it and take out flaws. I am a big guy meso/endo and struggle with just lowering carbs so the fats should help here.

Each day macronutrient ratio:

Protein: 25% / 608 calories /
Fats: 70% / 1692 calories /
Carbs: 5% / 100 calories /

So I guess it is keto?

How should I be loading up on carbs on the weekends like in keto diets?

What ratios for macro nutrients then?

Is to much saturated fat bad, should I attempt to reduce in favour of unsaturated fats?
I get alot of saturated fat per day.

All my fat is from cooking my chicken and eggs in lots of peanut oil as well as a chunk of it in a cup of thickened cream at lunch.
All my protein comes from whey, casein and chicken.
Carbs are from broccolini. I need it to feel full.

Overall im getting 2400 calories and maintenance is about 2800 a day. Should I reduce further to cut fat faster/not lose muscle?

Overall whats your advice and opinions on this?

Thankyou,
R.A.

[RowdyAntics]

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