What are the best exercises to get "cut"?

[Eric3237]

Thanks, Cradler

[Cradler]

Whoa, I made a post without screwing something up? I gotta quote those stickies verbatim more often

[fender4]

Originally Posted by ebase131

Hey, I'm sort of new to the whole lifting scene, but I have been pretty serious the past 4 or 5 months lifting with a friend in a stage he called the "bulking" stage. I haven't gained a lot of weight (started around 173, up to about 177.5 lbs in weight), but I think that is because I replaced the fat with muscle as I definitely have seen a big improvement in every muscle group of my body and have drastically increased the weight I could lift.

I feel pretty comfortable with how big I have gotten, but now I want to get cut and tone (most notably in the ab region) while keeping as much solid muscle as possible.

Obviously running/cardio helps that, but what kind of weight lifting program should I follow now that I want to get CUT instead of build lots of muscle? Should I do more ab related workouts if I really want to bring those out? I think having really nice abs shows how "cut" someone is, that is probably a stupid way to say it but in my eyes that's what I think of right away.

How should I eat, should I avoid taking whey protein now or avoid eating heavier foods even when I'm really hungry? I'm sure these questions sound stupid, but I'm trying my best and I (and my girl) would appreciate any help anyone can give!

Thanks,

Eric

i have read this and my advice is to keep with the whey and you should not go without eating just remember when you get hungry dont go for the big mac eat healthy and avoid eating fat foods as much as possible what i would do is eat healthy every day and designate one day a week to eat whatever you want and also try to avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup because once you put that in your body its almost impossible to get out anything else just ask Adam.

[TALO]

Originally Posted by ebase131

I'm looking at that site, but it doesn't have the exact things I eat. For example, the egg whites I eat have different protein levels than the generic ones on the site.

Is it just an estimate?

You can type in your own egg whites - protein , fat , carbs , calories per serving.

[Cradler]

Originally Posted by fender4

what i would do is eat healthy every day and designate one day a week to eat whatever you want

Cheating is obviously cool and you need a cheat meal every so often, but a whole cheat day seems like a lot. Someone on here once phrased it as 2/42 - two cheat meals or so a week is fine. But if you're eating six small meals, and suddenly you turn that into three or even four unhealthy meals, that could start to add up very quickly. Keep in mind that when it comes to fast food, it's pretty common to hit the 1500 calorie mark in a single meal. Cheat by all means but everything in moderation.

Originally Posted by TALO

You can type in your own egg whites - protein , fat , carbs , calories per serving.

Yup. I especially like this for putting in things like protein powders or or supplemental-type products that they're not gonna have.

[ebase131]

That Tabata is pretty crazy. Do you do that with just one exercise or would I do that for each part of my routine each day?

Seems pretty hardcore, I'd most likely be dead after the first 4 minutes!

[ebase131]

Originally Posted by TALO

Maybe use www.fitday.com and find out how many calories you are taking in. Then you will know if you should have more or less.

Now I see, that fitday is very very nice for tracking pretty much every single thing I eat. It's just hard to tell how much of the calories I eat I'm actually burning off when I work out for 45 minutes to an hour lifting hard. I suppose it depends on the day, but each day ends with me hitting the couch pretty hard as I have little strength left to do anything else haha.

[Cradler]

Originally Posted by ebase131

That Tabata is pretty crazy. Do you do that with just one exercise or would I do that for each part of my routine each day?

Seems pretty hardcore, I'd most likely be dead after the first 4 minutes!

Definitely not the second one. That's way too much. I wouldn't do them every day either, as, like any kind of high-intensity* cardio, they keep you pretty worn down. I did them around three times a week in the mornings and usually just did one or two (4-8min). If I was working hard enough I'd be ready to collapse after that.



*High-intensity in the case of cardio isn't how much weight you're lifting, but more like how close you are to your maximal heart rate type of thing; a walk is low-intensity, a sprint is high