Starting 12 Week Cut - Nutrition Plan

[BritDownUnder]

Hi All,

Starting a 12 week cut this Sunday and wanted to post my nutrition plan so others can see my initial plan and adaptations I will make the whole way through it.

I have only cut properly once in my life and was pretty successful in doing so, however the focus back then was pure aesthetics so wasn't the healthiest way to do it. So I am hoping this time around to approach it in a lot healthier way and not let it affect my performance whilst improving my overall conditioning.

With this in mind I had bought the RP Strength Diet Book and will be using its principles to structure my calories and macros (which are a lot higher than the first time around I did this). Training-wise I take part in Crossfit which, before people knock it, I come from a bodybuilding and Olympic Weightlifting background so have compared quite a few methods and find that it caters to my body well and I have made the biggest progress in strength and overall size since doing it.

So the nutrition plan is broken up into three blocks (which are in greater detail below).

Intermediate Days:
This is for hard days in the gym, usually a combination of a lot of strength work and then an intense metabolic conditioning workout.

Targets
Protein: 180g
Carbs: 270g
Fats: 109g
Calories: 2785

Light Days:
Metabolic conditioning only or a home workout using body-weight (or a weight vest)

Targets:
Protein: 180g
Carbs: 180g
Fats: 68g
Calories: 2050

Non Training Days:
Rest day or very light activity (walking etc)

Targets:
Protein: 180g
Carbs: 90g
Fats: 108g
Calories: 2050

I will post the meal plan for each day shortly - just putting on the final touches to it :-)

Thanks,

BritDownUnder

[BritDownUnder]

So day zero of the transformation starts today, getting involved in the Bodybuilding.com transformation challenge which should be good fun and a bit of motivation.

Had a quick chat to a friend of mine who is more experienced in programming from the RP Strength Diet book and she has recommended that I use the light training calories/macros as listed above for most of my training and adjust if needed.

For those new to the log these macros are:

Targets:
Protein: 180g
Carbs: 180g
Fats: 68g
Calories: 2050

Nutrition starts in full swing tomorrow with meal prep completed today that looks like this:

Breakfast:
A coffee with 1/2 a cup of full Cream Milk and a Breakfast Smoothie/Shake consisting of:

50g of rolled oats
1 serve of vanilla protein
1 Medium Banana
1 Cup of Full Cream Milk
3 Eggs

Lunch:
150g Beef Mince with 100g of penne pasta and chunk of vegetables and a slice of wholemeal bread

Pre Workout:
Coffee with 1/2 Cup of Full Cream Milk

Postworkout:
Protein Shake

Dinner:
200g of chicken breast with 100g (uncooked weight) of basmati rice and vegetables and a slice of wholemeal bread

That's my plan as it stands for the gym days and will track weight and body measurements to ensure that I am losing in the right places and hopefully making gains in the right places to!

Thanks for reading!

Britdownunder

[BritDownUnder]

Sorry been crap at updating this log, I will be posting some of the posts from my blog this week to catch up. Can also track most of my progress on my instagram tr_personal_training if it interests you.

Day one is well and truly over! It has been a long time since I have properly created a meal plan and tracked calories/macros but forgot that when you are eating healthy foods you seem to be full all the time as you are literally eating so much. Usually those treats/desserts that I love are so good but also so full of calories and will never fill you up it’s not fair lol.

Today I started my at my new job and kicked off the nutrition plan and got back properly into training.

A few weeks back I woke up with some shoulder pain (not sure what from) and after seeing a physio was told it was likely that I have just aggravated the tendon in my rear shoulder muscle and that if I am sensible with training I should be all good in 3 or so weeks.

So today’s Crossfit gym session was really good, we built up to a heavy-set of 6 reps on the Back Squat and hit 110kg which I was quite happy with(gonna have sore legs tomorrow) before hitting some tasty AMRAPs (for any non-crossfitters this means as many reps as possible). The WOD was quite shoulder heavy so I adjusted weights and movements as needed to ensure I protected it.

So overall feeling good and glad to be back in the swing of things and looking forward to 2018 and achieving plenty and getting day one out of the way as everyone knows the hardest thing is often getting started!

Thanks for reading.

[BritDownUnder]

Hi all,

Sorry for the radio silence this last month, to be honest there are no excuses I just got lazy with writing them and needed to give myself a kick up the backside to get back on it!

So week one is over and done with and had some pretty good results. I tend to drop weight pretty quickly when I track my calories and clean up my nutrition. I found that after a week I had dropped around 8lbs, which I am putting a large chunk of that down to water weight (which I hold very easily) and lost a lot CM’s of my body measurements all over.

Week one was interesting I was worried about feeling hungry or not getting enough calories in, because when your sport is Crossfit anyone who has done it will know how hard you push your body in the workouts so quite frequently you find Crossfitters will eat a lot to aid with recovery and to support their training.

However I quickly realised this was not going to be a problem for me as I felt like I was eating a lot and especially in the evenings after workouts often struggling to get it all in.

So overall good start I have included my week one progress pictures below to keep myself accountable stay tuned for week two check in!

[BritDownUnder]

So two weeks down and its been easy to stick to the nutrition and training but had some issues as I got a stomach bug the day after week one check in. 

So my weight has stayed roughly the same but my measurements have changed and I have visually starting to look leaner which is great so I know the plan is working.

I have also found that I am recovering really well from training and have had plenty of energy during sessions, which I am putting down to the fact this is the highest amount of carbohydrates I have had whilst on a cut which has aided this increase in energy.

However its not been all good, I think I came down with a stomach bug and it made me a little uncomfortable this week as my body adapted to the nutrition. 

Luckily towards the end of the week I started to feel better so will stick with it and will see how week three goes! 

I have included week two check in pictures.

[BritDownUnder]

Three weeks in guys and it’s going well. I have recovered from my stomach bug and feeling much better.

My weight has stayed pretty much the same but I am still seeing some progress.

Most of my results have been on my back which is showing the most progress and my front progress is there but has slowed down quite a bit compared to the first two weeks. (Please see the picture below)

Overall the week has felt good, training has been good and I have been recovering nicely, though my clothes are starting to get loose which could start to become a problem lol

Excited for what week four has in store!

[BritDownUnder]

4 weeks down … 1 month complete another 8 weeks to make a change and a difference!

So I thought I would use this post to summarize the last month and discuss the last week.

So last week … I had a mix of highs and lows.

Week four I felt a little run down so I had two cheat meals adding around 500 calories each, which I needed to boost my metabolism back up and to aid recovery. I also managed to hurt my wrist I think is down to tendonitis so I have been avoiding movements that make it sore and painful and the good news is it is slowly starting to feel better.

Once again my weight stayed roughly about the same and my progress has slowed but is still there and was mostly showing on my back again.

Now onto month one summary…

Overall its been a good month I am around 8lbs lighter, recovering well most of the time and generally feeler better in myself and more confident.

I think you can see from the picture below there has been a good change for the first four weeks, I have lost bodyfat, gained muscle and strength which has been very positive and shows the plan is working.

Now I need to sit down and look at what has gone well and what hasn’t so I can ensure I maximise progress over the next four weeks.

Stayed tuned for the next update.

[BritDownUnder]

So with month one out the way I sat down and looked at what went well and what didn’t go so well or could be improved to keep consistently improving and get to my goal of optimal body fat levels.

The plan so far has been working and I have been leaning up slowly, recovering well and actually seeing some strength and muscle gains so all is good!

Then I realised my mistake I had f*cked up.

At the beginning of my program I listed the target calories and macros for my nutrition plan and thought I had been following these down the last calorie (except for a cheat meal or two).

That’s when I noticed after I had just done my shopping and was reviewing the nutrition plan and that there was a big difference in the macros per 100g on my spreadsheet to the numbers on the packet of pasta and the packet of rice.

Then I realised my mistake I had decided when creating my plan to have 50g weight (precooked weight) of pasta at lunch and 50g rice at dinner. Whilst I had changed the macros on the spreadsheet I hadn’t changed the portion size from 100g to 50g so have been accidentally having double my carb portions at lunch and dinner for the first four weeks.

Now this is good and bad … let me explain…

Its good as this means I have been leaning up on more calories and carbs than I had initially planned.

This also means that I have more wiggle room and I can make a small adjustment to bring the calories and carbs down closer to the ideal calorie levels as per the targets set at the beginning and hopefully this will make phase two more successful.

It’s bad as it means my progress month one was slower than it could have been and I wonder what my results would have looked like had I got the measurements right?

So for month two I have made a small adjustment I have simply dropped my rice portion at dinner from 100g to 50g (precooked weight) in line with the initial program and will monitor results over the next 4 weeks.

This drop will account for around a 200 calorie daily change which doesn’t sound like a lot but I have noticed.

So let’s see what the next four weeks holds!

Stay tuned and check back in soon!

[BritDownUnder]

Hey and welcome back to the blog and thanks for all the support and sticking with it so far! 5 weeks down 7 to go of the Becoming Better Project!

Week five was the start of phase two (the second 4 week block) of the program and I had made some adjustments. If you read my previous blogs you will read that I made a pretty bad f*ck up and had messed up my carbs measurements and I was eating double the amount I was supposed to! Stupid I know check out the blog to read how it happened.

So this week I knocked 200 calories off by halving my evening dinner portion of rice.

So I am still above what I was initially aiming for but I’m losing body fat and appear to be gaining some muscle / strength as can be seen in my pictures and strength increases.

The week felt pretty good, I didn’t notice the drop in calories or carbs too much and I enjoyed dinner much more as I wasn’t haven’t to force myself to finish my dinner which I had to do month one. I know weird to say that when I’m on a diet and felt full all the time!

So overall good week still feel like I’m leaning up slowly and healthily which was the plan so I am excited for the next 4 weeks results!