First real diet of my life

[240 is Back]

I'm starting the first real diet of my life.  I've cut carbs, but I've never seriously done a real diet.  I'm 5 10, 200 at 12 to 15% BF.

Meal 1 - brown rice, hard boiled eggs
Meal 2 - brown rice, steak, veggies
Meal 3 - whey shake

Meal 4 - brown rice, hard boiled eggs
Meal 5 - brown rice, steak, veggies
Meal 6 - chicken, lettuce, fatfree dressing

Meal 7 - whey shake

i'm about to start ECA also.  Multi, C,E,B, and creatine too.  Will be getting some fish oil this week too.  I have been taking nothing, vitamin/supp wise.
I used to just eat anything... I mean, chex cereal and M&Ms all day long.
The last 4 weeks I have cleaned it up bigtime.  I got sick once but am strong again.  Going to really clean it up this week for the next 4 weeks.  Considering the gi stuff now...

CARDIO FIRST THING IN AM ON EMPTY STOMACH - 30 minute fast walking right after I wake up.

thoughts?  What am I missing?  thanks!

[alexxx]

Are you on steroids now?

[240 is Back]

Are you on steroids now?

ah, no.

[McFarland]

How many hard boiled eggs are you eating at a time?  How much rice at each meal?  Try maybe a cup of old-fashioned oats once per day in place of the rice...more variety.  Add chicken...it's protein quality is too high and it's too easy to prepare in bulk not to.  If I were you I'd just start my cardio at 20 minutes after each of your weight workouts in the week.  Don't throw in 2-a-days until about 1/2-3/4 of the way through the diet, and that's after you've worked up to between 40 and 45 minutes of post-weight training cardio one time a day.  When you add in a second morning session, you just go from say, 45 minutes a day to one 25 minute session in the morning and one 25 minute session in the evening.  The next week you'd move to 30 minutes in the morning and 20-25 minutes in the evening after your weights.  It has a tremendous effect on things that you don't want to use up in the very beginning.  You want to preserve as much of an ability as you can to keep things changing gradually throughout the diet.  Let's say you do 2 workouts a day from the very start of the diet.  Your body will quickly adapt to that up front, and you're not going to look much differently than you do now by doing it.  That means that you not only have to keep up going to the gym 2x a day through the whole diet, but it means that you can't start doing it 8 weeks into the diet for a remarkable step up in your conditioning as a result of the second sessions' being added.  Don't think in terms of calories in/calories out.  It really doesn't work that way.  Everything's relative.   

There's lots of stuff to talk about, but these are just a few of the most fundamental concerns I'd advise you consider first. 

 

[alexxx]

ah, no.

Then why all the carbs?

[McFarland]

Post your workout with sets and weights from today or yesterday or tomorrow, 240.  I'm not convinced that you do anything more than 6 sets of machine bicep work in any given workout anyway.  Which kinda makes everything I just posted a totally moot point.  

I mean, seriously.  Post what you do.  The names of the exercises, the weights used, the reps, and the sets.  We need to be convinced that you even break a sweat.  There's absolutely no evidence of that available anywhere up to this point.

First things first!

[pobrecito]

You need way more fat in your diet.

[240 is Back]

Today was a rest day.

Typically-

M- chest, abs -
4 sets flat bench, 135 x 10, 185 x 5, 205 x 5, 215 x 3
4 sets incline DB press - 50 x 10, 70 x 8, 90 x 5, 90 x 5
then 2-3 sets of dips

T - back, calves -
Deads - 225 x 8, 315 x 5, 335 x 3, 345 x 4
hyperextension machine - 1 set of like 50 reps
chins - 40, split into maybe 6 sets
lat pulldowns - 4 sets of 10-12, 120, 150, 160, 180

T- shoulders, traps
f- arms
s - legs

[240 is Back]

How many hard boiled eggs are you eating at a time?  How much rice at each meal?  Try maybe a cup of old-fashioned oats once per day in place of the rice...more variety.  Add chicken...it's protein quality is too high and it's too easy to prepare in bulk not to.  If I were you I'd just start my cardio at 20 minutes after each of your weight workouts in the week.  Don't throw in 2-a-days until about 1/2-3/4 of the way through the diet, and that's after you've worked up to between 40 and 45 minutes of post-weight training cardio one time a day.  When you add in a second morning session, you just go from say, 45 minutes a day to one 25 minute session in the morning and one 25 minute session in the evening.  The next week you'd move to 30 minutes in the morning and 20-25 minutes in the evening after your weights.  It has a tremendous effect on things that you don't want to use up in the very beginning.  You want to preserve as much of an ability as you can to keep things changing gradually throughout the diet.  Let's say you do 2 workouts a day from the very start of the diet.  Your body will quickly adapt to that up front, and you're not going to look much differently than you do now by doing it.  That means that you not only have to keep up going to the gym 2x a day through the whole diet, but it means that you can't start doing it 8 weeks into the diet for a remarkable step up in your conditioning as a result of the second sessions' being added.  Don't think in terms of calories in/calories out.  It really doesn't work that way.  Everything's relative.   

There's lots of stuff to talk about, but these are just a few of the most fundamental concerns I'd advise you consider first. 

 

very good stuff, thanks

[Bast000]

I agree with Mcfarland about using oatmeal.

CARBS:

Get old fashioned oats at the grocery store, usually there are generic brands of this.

Just have 1/2 cup (measure with a measuring cup), add a little water and microwave for 30 seconds.  You don't want to cook it.   Then add a pinch of raisins or a strawberries or splenda to sweeten it.

Have that in the morning, and lunch time.  So 2 times a day.   So that's 60-70 carbs.    (1 cup oatmeal plus a little bit of fruit) 

Postworkout have  1 cup of Fiber One cereal with 1/4 -1/2 cup skim milk (or hood carb countdown milk (has less lactose, milk sugar if you can find it at your grocery store).  That is only 22 carbs ,  the other carbs are Fiber and don't have calories.  + 7 or so from the milk.


So that is 80-100 carbs total.    Besides these carbs have as much vegetables as you want.   If you can't handle doing this every day, have a day or two a week where you eat a banana or apple or another 1/2 cup of oatmeal.    So have 150-200g carbs every now and then if you need to.

Good to include some green veggies too.

Protein
Something like this would be good:

 2 chicken breasts,  8oz of lean steak or 93%+ lean ground beef a day, and also 3 hardboiled eggs Then just have 4 scoops of whey.  That's around 230g protein. 

Fat
(you get 18g from the eggs and maybe 12g from the meat), just add a small handful of almonds.

[Bast000]

These are great if you don't want to cook meat:  (have an entire packet at a time, 35g protein)



The milk I use: http://www.hphood.com/products/prodDetail.aspx?id=578

[240 is Back]

I bought oatmeal and chicken for substitute, but I am very lazy.  Way easier to spend an hour tonight, hardboiling eggs, making 4 bags of rice, and 4 big steaks to ration out over the next few days. I know success begets success, so once i see an ab, I will likely get my shit a little straighter and add the oats.

[240 is Back]

thanks for the advice.  I'm studying the heck out of this thread. I'm gonna keep track of foods, take pics, all that good stuff.  Hopefully I'll have a cheekbone or two for the camera when I meet dave palumbo next weekend.

[benchthis]

thanks for the advice.  I'm studying the heck out of this thread. I'm gonna keep track of foods, take pics, all that good stuff.  Hopefully I'll have a cheekbone or two for the camera when I meet dave palumbo next weekend.

  just ask him for advice

[240 is Back]

7 am -  Inhaled a cup of rice and 1/2 c. of chicken I had left over. 
11 am - 1 c rice, 4 oz beef
2 pm - 1 c rice, 3 oz chicken
3:45 - 3/4 cup whey protein
6pm - large caesar sla with chicken breast, and a few tortilla chips with salsa (high GI, I know)

Chicken and beef are pretty interchangeable at this point for me, right? thanks!

[gibberj2]

240 you gonna be in mr getbig? if you are it's kinda late with the diet isn't it?

[Nordic Superman]

Don't do cardio on an empty stomach fool. You'll be killing you metabolism.

Do some interval sprint training for 20 mins 1+ hours after your first meal.

You sure your body fat is around 12%? I'm skeptical...

[corinth]

240, you've only got 7 weeks so you're really trying to get a lot accomplished in a short period of time if you're currently at 12%. The first thing you absolutely have to do is start measuring your carbs. The one thing every dieting bodybuilder can tell you is exactly how many carbs they ate yesterday, how many they are going to eat today and how many they are going to eat tomorrow. When you  say a cup of rice 4 times a day I'm assuming you mean 1 cup precooked which is about 75 grams of carbs right there. Multiply that by 4 and you've got 300 grams of carbs. I can almost guarantee that you won't get ripped on that amount of carbs. You'll probably have to go as low as 100-150 grams of carbs to see serious results. You can try the diet you wrote down, but if you're not seeing results within a couple weeks be sure to drop the carbs to 1/2 cup rice (measured in a measuring cup) with your 4 meals.  You also might want to give oatmeal a try with at least one of your meals. It's always made me feel more full than rice and the variety is nice when you're eating basically the same things week after week. Also be prepared, if this is your first time cutting carbs, it's going to suck. Your energy level will suffer until you get used to it and you're going to miss eating all those delicious carbs. You'll savor every bite of what little rice and oatmeal you eat. Hell, you'll have dreams about carbs by the time your diet is over.

[Bast000]

240, 1 cup  of rice is too much at a time.  Go to 1/2 cup.  and have that 3 times a day for your total carbs,  You have to go low carb if you want to see results quickly.

[Jr. Yates]

240, 1 cup  of rice is too much at a time.  Go to 1/2 cup.  and have that 3 times a day for your total carbs,  You have to go low carb if you want to see results quickly.

I agree. i was eating 1 cup 2 times a day and i bulked up nicely and after i cut my rice to half a cup, and eliminated one rice meal to a bake potatoe my body changed fast.

[jaejonna]

Weight Watchers Instant Oatmeal has 7 grams of protien per serving !!! mmmmm mmmm good

[240 is Back]

See, I read thru some of you guys' diets, and I seriously consume 3500 calories a day right now.  I think cutting to 1500 immediately might kill me.  

Here is what I'm at so far today.
7 am -  Inhaled a cup of rice and 1/2 c. chicken
11 am - 1 c rice, 4 oz beef
2 pm - 1 c rice, 3 oz chicken
3:45 - 3/4 cup whey protein

[corinth]

See, I read thru some of you guys' diets, and I seriously consume 3500 calories a day right now.  I think cutting to 1500 immediately might kill me.  

Here is what I'm at so far today.
7 am -  Inhaled a cup of rice and 1/2 c. chicken
11 am - 1 c rice, 4 oz beef
2 pm - 1 c rice, 3 oz chicken
3:45 - 3/4 cup whey protein

240, what you need to do immediately is drop the carbs down and up the protein. Raising the protein will help you hold onto the muscle and dropping the carbs will help to get ripped. Instead of 1 cup of rice with 4 oz of beef, eat 1/2 cup of rice with 8oz beef. Instead of 1 cup of rice with 3oz chicken eat 1/2 cup of rice with 6 oz chicken. You're probably going to have to drop your carbs to 150 grams a day or less to get lean in 7 weeks.

[Overload]

Some very good information getting passed around in this thread...alot of people interested in dieting should copy and paste some of these posts.

i also prefer to ramp my cardio up slowly as jeff suggested..try not to burn yourself or your knees out.

 

[Hedgehog]

Lets say he's on a hypo diet. And a deficit of cerca 500-600 cals each day...

If any of you experts could explain why he should be low in carbs, I'd be really interested.

YIP
Zack