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Originally Posted by TALO

So what does your diet look like ?

Originally Posted by ebase131

3 eggs and two pieces of wheat toast for breakfast

turkey sandwich on wheat a few hours later before lifting

after lifting, two scoops of whey in skim milk, then fairly soon after that I'll eat a big meal, usually chicken breast, mashed potatoes, salad with ranch dressing, bowl of fruit.

for dinner, similar meal as after lifting.

3 hours later or so, have a turkey sandwich and one scoop of whey protein, some fruit.



Is that decent? Should I be eating more/less or differently?

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.

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?

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.

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

Originally Posted by mvp

Bulking 4 lbs. really isn't enough. During your average bulking phase you should bulk up 20 pounds, minimum. My first bulking phase lasted about 12 months, and I put on around 60 lbs.

If you haven't grew enough, you aren't eating enough. You have to stuff those calories down your throat before you can even think about growing. . .

As far as "cutting exercises" go, there's no such thing. Cutting is something done in the kitchen, and if you cut now you're most likely going to be smaller than you where before you even started bulking, as 4 lbs. will slice very quickly.

A lot of people add more isolation exercises into their routines though, during a cutting phase. They feel it increases the intensity of your workout. I personally feel that it's all done in the kitchen. Cardio is something out you need to be getting used to, running and jogging and such to help burn the fat that you added while bulking.

Eat around 5-6 times per day, but eat small meals. As far as as WHEY protein goes it won't hurt you to drink that. Since you won't be eating as much it's fine to get in a few extra grams of protein and such from WHEY.

Originally Posted by ebase131

Yeah man, but gaining 4 pounds of solid muscle while losing all that fat poundage is a LOT aint it? I wasn't a scrawny kid by any means when I started, so it's not like all I gained was 4 pounds, I lost a lot of fat pounds while putting on a lot of strength. I was asking my friend about that, if I should be putting on more weight, but he said I was getting a LOT stronger really fast so I was just losing fat weight.

So cutting sort of happens while lifting normally?

Originally Posted by Cradler

Cutting, as I understand it, is when your body is working on a slight caloric deficit - not starvation by any means, but you're asking it to use more calories than you're putting into it. Because of this it's important not to overdo it or else you can burn out, overtrain, etc. Basically just work out a diet that provides strong numbers in your macros and listen to what Eric said -

"What I would suggest is strength maintenance combined with a couple of moderate volume/intensity sets to stimulate EPOC and then finishing off with supersets, trisets, tabatas, that kind of thing to get heart rate up."

I'm no expert on cutting either - although I did have success with a cutting cycle last fall to drop fat for wrestling - but those two pieces together were what worked really well for me. I used some supplementation (caffeine) but it was by no means necessary, only helpful.

Good luck.