I'm in the midst of cutting for summer and damn is it hard or what. I wake up in the middle of the night hungry and go eat or even worse yet I can't fall asleep cuz my body is screaming for more food. And watching everybody eat what they want around me doesn't help either! opcorn:
Sounds like you're eating WAY too little, you shouldn't even be feeling hungry at 12% body fat never mind not being able to sleep from hunger! You're gonna be catabolising like crazy and buggering up your metabolism. Go eat, quick! :)
If you're physically capable, may I suggest sprint training on intervals. The big prize is on the line if you can make the most of this type of exercise. Ripped, ripped, ripped. As far as eating goes, I've always gone for the following routine with dropping weight. Meals four hours apart, consisting of about 150-250 calories at a serve. 9am, 1pm, 5pm, 9pm, 12 or 1am, & bed. For the most part, that included low-calorie yoghurt (two tubs worth about 140-150 cals combined) & a protein shake, worth about 110-120 cals. Breakfast was the only break, where I'd substitute the yoghurt for an apple & pear, in anticipation of needing the carbs pre-workout. This satisfied my sweet tooth, kept my metabolic rate ticking over with regularity, & held me within the 1,000-1,300 cal. range. With hard exercise (sprinting, my choice), this makes for rapid loss & improved definition at short notice.
not always!!! there is a point where going low is not good your body needs a certain amount of calories to function, if you lift, do cardio etc... you need more i work with a dietitian and they work with a lot of pro athletes, what happens if you drop too low.. your body "holds" onto your body fat, it goes into starvation mode.. you need to go lower than your maintenance cals but not too low to go into starvation
As much as I love Ramonza's posting.....Pretty much every professional who makes a business getting guys lean would think that was pretty horrible advice. It'll work for a little while but as LOK says, after not much time your metabolic rate will plummet and your calorie partitioning will go to shit: in basic terms you'll start losing shit loads of muscle and fat loss will slow way down. And thats not even taking into account the idea of having yogurt and fruit as meals without protein. OTOH - the advice to eat frequent well spaced meals is spot on.
If you notice, I include a protein shake with all meals. This is always necessary with carbs. I never miss that particular beat. As for muscle, well, let me be fair & clear --- building muscle was never my goal. I was only ever interested in being extremely ripped & in tip-top cardio conditioning. For anyone involved in weights, this probably isn't a good routine --- maybe short-term, but not long-term. I was always willing to sacrifice muscle for lean definition & superior conditioning, but that was my choice. If anyone wants to cut without risking muscle, I still think this is a good system, but calories should be higher than what I've outlined.
That is indeed true. We off-set this with very hard sprint training. Really, as you probably know, any kind of hard interval training will do here, so the person can choose their preference. It's an effective deterrent to your body's instinct to lower your metabolic rate, because very hard sprint training will elevate your metabolism for literally hours after your work-out is over. I was lucky --- sprinting is my preferred option, & it's also the best for quick results, in a lot of studies. I can only say I used what I outlined, in both diet & training, many times to excellent effect. 1,000 calories is pretty low, but it's a daily banquet compared to what boxers go through. My philosophy was always, "If I eat this much & do nothing, I will still lose weight." That's what I try to aim for. That way, I know all of my hard work on the track & sandhills will be, "bonus material," & plenty of it. It never failed me for quick &, more significantly, real results. A man becomes quicker & fitter within weeks, not months. However, as I outlined above, muscle-preservation was not an interest of mine. I had all muscle definiton purely from being lean. Someone who lifts with a goal in mind should obviously make at least a few adjustments --- but the sprinting & small, frequent meals would apply to all.
i dropped 20 lbs in a few weeks and it wasn't that hard. I trained (muay thai, boxing) about 10-15 hours a week and stopped drinking soda and eating sweets, and ate just home cooked food. I'm at +-165 lbs right now. I used to be 208 a while back.
Can't say I was. Just too good-looking in the end to take the chance. You know how it is:: Fitness, though, was something I was fortunate to have instilled in me from a young age. Everyone should be priviledged enough to have an early start with conditioning. I truly believe that all these kids who can barely walk & are snacking routinely on McDonald's are building up a lifelong weakness, which will make conditioning that much harder in the end. Some people see it & are outraged, but I only see their misfortune, myself. The longer someone lives a decadent lifestyle at any time in their lives (but especially while young), the steeper the mountain is toward being the best you can.
Sorry Ramonza, I misread you on the protein thing! Your approach would definitely be an appropriate way to get from lean to SUPER lean in a short amount of time. Say from 10% to 7% over 3 weeks or something. Maybe not so much a good way to get from say 15% to 10% over a couple of months though, unless like you say you up the calories quite a bit.
Oh ya it's pretty hard but am down to 172 pounds now...Had a slip up and had some drinks last weekend but I'm back on track.Basically lost 8 pounds in the last 2 months..body fat i'm guessing is at 11% now..Lifting heavy to maintain muscle. So it's all good...Almost there. Thanks!
Good man. You have a harder job than I ever did...I've always had the luxury of throwing caution to the wind for lean-definition muscle, without strength, because I never got into lifting. You are shackled by having to preserve your muscle gains, but at some level, we all have a cross to bear with our fitness. It's how we react to that which separates winners from losers. I've always been told I have a great lifter's build (I'm fairly short, with wide shoulders & heavy-set legs), which meant my goals of being lean & ripped without muscle mass require plenty of commitment. Everyone has a cross, as they say. I always made a manifestation of the voice of temptation. "The Demon" (in my case, I've always battled a sweet tooth, whereas others may be susceptible to savoury, alcohol, or drugs). When you go to train, get out there & kick his fucking ass! :fightme:
I eat McDonalds daily. Big Macs, Large Coke, Super Sized Fries and sh*t! F*ck fitness! When you're dead, sh*t won't matter in the least. And we're all gonna die anyway. So what f*ckin' difference does this healthy eating and fitness sh*t make in the end? All you gotta do is just make sure you get around 2500 calories per day, don't overeat, take a walk in the park maybe a couple times a week and enjoy your sh*tty life before it's over! Unless you're trying to impress your bitch or getting married or making your living as an athlete in a sport where training is required, this fitness stuff means squat. Especially when most of your life is spent working in a cubicle or a factory or something. Who the f*ck will even care if you're all lean or not? Just enjoy your life and do what the f*ck you want before you end up in the grave where all of us are headed.
For some of us, though, it isn't a chore. It is enjoyment. I am enthralled by the challenges of the long sprint, the hard distance run, & the jump-rope marathon. I do these things (among other reasons) because they bring me joy, not just pain, which they admittedly do to us all at some stage. At the same time, I could not live without unhealthy sweetness, & I could never give that up. I couldn't, in truth, ever give up the thrill of my fitness either. It's not about what other people think of me (though that is of course at least a partial factor), but also what I think of myself. I see my conditioning as a yardstick for my strength & character as a man. This is a virtue instilled in me by my father from a very young age, & it holds dear to me now. The point I mean to make is that conditioning isn't all about pain & torment, of both body & mind. Euphoria is there to be had, but only for the brave.
