trouble with dieting

[vostua]

I've been dieting down since Jan. 2nd, and things havent been going so bad until recently and maybe its all just in my head, but i thought i'd go ahead and get some outside input anyhow. I'm dieting down now for a modeling photo shoot and i'm sooooo close to looking how i need to but i cant seem to dial it in. Everytime i wake up in the morning and look at my abs i'm happy on some days, then on others i swear for at least ten minutes over how i look and read through my journal again to see where i fucked up. I'm currently training and getting advice from a fellow bodybuilder who is much older and more experienced than me (but he's up to date on diet and such) only i'd still like more input. Diet is as follows:

7:30 Lipo 6x
8:00 Cardio (3 days out of the week in general. every so often i switch it up and get up at 3-4am and do cardio then drink a 50gram protein shake and go back to bed. then get up and eat breakfast at the regular time)
if i dont do cardio, i eat at 8am. 1 bottle eggbeaters (48g protein, 8 sugars) 198mg potassium, 1000mg arginine
10:15 2 cans tuna (drained, then rinsed to remove as much broth and sodium as i can) 1/2-1cup broccoli 24 ounces of water (or thereabouts with all my meals. if its not 24 ounces, its more than 24 ounces)
12:30 same meal as above, only exchange broccoli for 1/2 cup of green beans
2:30 repeat previous meal (i'm poor at the moment) Animal Pak
4:45 yet another tuna meal, 1 cup of green beans
6:15 lipo 6x
6:45 workout
7:15 isopure RTD (40g protein)
8:15 tuna, 1 cup broccoli. 198mg potassium, 1000mg arginine
10:15 either tuna (surprise) or isopure powder (50g protein and if i have powder)

All my tuna meals involve 2 cans (roughly 58g protein) and as i'm sure you'll notice, i'm very low carb at the moment. the guy i'm training with (who is very experienced, only i'm still iffy with the low carb diet. i think i'd do better with 25-30 carbs for the first 4 meals, then stick with veggies after the workout) I'm getting tired with looking awesome, then something just clicks inside and it seems like i start to look "flat and fat" (and yes i understand i will look flat without carbs, but after a while it begins to scare me). when i see this happen i switch it up and take in carbs for 1-2 days to fill back out and hopefully speed up my metabolism again, only i'm not sure if i'm just fueling my fat storing, or actually firing it up again. i generally have a very fast metabolism, but the good news is i havent lost much weight in the 2 months since the beginning of january to make me think i've lost too much muscle. to see info on my body and how my weight has changed, pics, etc. check here http://bodyspace.bodybuilding.com/H50J/ my current default pic on this site is how i looked the 29th of february, and this pic i'm putting on the post is how i looked this morning just after waking up.

 

[Quad-smack]

Trying too hard...

PM Phil Hernon and hire him to set up a training & nutrition program. It will be the best money you ever spent...

 

[vostua]

ya i could be trying too hard, but being on a diet doesnt bother me as long as i get results, i could eat dirt if it made me look awesome i'll pm him and get some info on his prices and such, but at the moment i dont have any money to spend on a trainer/nutritionalist

 

[Quad-smack]

Awesome!

What are your stats?
Age?
Height & weight?
% Bodyfat?
Years training?
Goals?
Supplements?

 

[vostua]

current stats are

stats: shoulders 51 inches, chest 42 inches, waist 31 inches, arms 16 inches, calves 17 inches, thighs 25 inches (i'm measuring as i type this)
age: 21
height: 5'8"
bodyweight: 188lbs
bodyfat %: around 10-11 depending on how accurate "Accu-Measure" calipers are (which means they arent that accurate)
years training: (i'm sure people say this all the time) but i've been working out since i was 15, and can honestly say since then i've never missed more than a week or two of working out. i've come up from 125lbs in 2005, to 206 beginning of january, now i've dieted down to 188 (185 when i wake up).
goals: to be f'ing huge (definitely long-term goal) my immediate goal is to just get ab definition (doesnt have to be contest condition thank god!) so i can get some modeling going, more money flow, then start this off season with the biggest bang ever thanks to more funding.
supplements: right now its 500mg potassium (split up to 3 doses daily, thats including the 100mg in an animal pak) 1g arginine in the morning, 1g with my 3rd dose of potassium. i also take animal pak's regularly, and 3 servings (rather than the "recommended" 2) of lipo 6x, daily. next week i'm getting lipodrene in the mail and i'll sub that in over the lipo 6x and see how it works for a week. i'll only be taking one in the morning, and one before my workout late'ish in the evening.

 

[MilitaryMuscle]

with that diet i can see you just being a smaller version of yourself. Meaning to much muscle loss verse fat loss.

If your going to go low carb then you need to add more fats in your diet.

Or you can do like what your saying and add carbs in there and keep the fat lower.

How much longer do you have till your photo shoot?

 

[MilitaryMuscle]

:

7:30 Lipo 6x
8:00 Cardio (3 days out of the week in general. every so often i switch it up and get up at 3-4am and do cardio then drink a 50gram protein shake and go back to bed. then get up and eat breakfast at the regular time)
if i dont do cardio, i eat at 8am. 1 bottle eggbeaters (48g protein, 8 sugars) 198mg potassium, 1000mg arginine I would add 75c here
10:15 2 cans tuna (drained, then rinsed to remove as much broth and sodium as i can) 1/2-1cup broccoli 24 ounces of water (or thereabouts with all my meals. if its not 24 ounces, its more than 24 ounces)
12:30 same meal as above, only exchange broccoli for 1/2 cup of green beans
2:30 repeat previous meal (i'm poor at the moment) Animal Pak
4:45 yet another tuna meal, 1 cup of green beans
6:15 lipo 6x
6:45 workout
7:15 isopure RTD (40g protein)add 100 carbs here, preferrbly a fast acting liquid carb.... personally i like WMS
8:15 tuna, 1 cup broccoli. i would add about 50 carbs here198mg potassium, 1000mg arginine
10:15 either tuna (surprise) or isopure powder (50g protein and if i have powder)

those are just adjustments i would make right off the bat.

 

[vostua]

the photo shoot is waiting on me, the sooner i dial the abs in the better. and yes i like those carb add ins, would help a lot with filling me out too. with the 75, and 50 carb add-ons, what would you suggest those come from? for me, its usually oatmeal, but thats kinda high on the fat side when you need to take in that many carbs at once. maybe whole wheat pasta/brown rice??

 

[MilitaryMuscle]

the photo shoot is waiting on me, the sooner i dial the abs in the better. and yes i like those carb add ins, would help a lot with filling me out too. with the 75, and 50 carb add-ons, what would you suggest those come from? for me, its usually oatmeal, but thats kinda high on the fat side when you need to take in that many carbs at once. maybe whole wheat pasta/brown rice??

i would go with oatmeal. Its not to high in fat only 2.5 per serving yeilding about 25 carbs. But if you want with brown rice if you would like. it wont really matter that much. Especially since you have been under eating yourself the way you have. You got the time, you dont have a deadline. So do it right and youll look much better.

I would personally do a lot of revamping like adding some healthy fat sources to all your other meals as well, but i dont know your metabolism.

But start with those suggestions and can always move on there from there.

One thing i would probably do is hit a high carb day. If youve been eating like that for a while your metabolism is getting shot so you could use a boost(dont worry its auctually helping you, cant be scared of food) as well as filling out your glycogen levels.

 

[vostua]

realization

thats what i noticed just a while ago when i actually went to look at the label and see how much was in it, i remember it being higher anywho, that does sound a lot better. i've hit a few high carb days during this diet also (the previous one i had was last tuesday), i just think this extremely low carb diet is more for him, not me. i do have a high metabolism, and i dont think just adding a small amount of 1tbsp. of peanut butter into one or 2 of those meals would hurt at all.

 

[MilitaryMuscle]

yeah i would add them into all your other meals.

When doing a low carb diet like you were with no fat is suicide for a BB'er. You have no energy coming in except for the pro and that has to be converted by GlucG and then whats next.... your muscles. Basically turn yourself into a protein burning machine, which is not what you want.

You could do a low carb diet like the palumbo diet or Anabolic Diet and work with it but that diet you listed is asking for muscle loss.

But i think youll do much better with the added cals coming in.

You didnt say how much cardio you were doing?

 

[vostua]

it was way up at the top somewhere in those two paragraphs, but basically its either A. i do cardio right when i wake up after i take my fat burner (i switch it up often, usually 15 minutes on stair stepper, 5 on high incline treadmill, then 10 more minutes on stair stepper. i vary the times between the two machines) , then protein shake right afterwards, breakfast 1hr 30mins after that. and on days that i work, i dont do cardio in the mornings, i may warm up with some "cardio" before my workout (the word "cardio" used rather loosely because its pretty slow pace), then 10 minutes of decent cardio after my workout. so it basically comes down to around 1hr and a half per week when all added up. but its all pretty slow paced and not letting my heart rate get above 130 at any time and i'm heavily clothed. and my workouts are anywhere from 30-40mins long. its quick and short breaked with super-sets. usually 3 set of 2 different excercises that are back to back. so its like: 1 set of machine crossover press, then straight over to seated cable press, 50-60 sec break, repeat for 3 sets then move on

 

[youngmuscle]

it was way up at the top somewhere in those two paragraphs, but basically its either A. i do cardio right when i wake up after i take my fat burner (i switch it up often, usually 15 minutes on stair stepper, 5 on high incline treadmill, then 10 more minutes on stair stepper. i vary the times between the two machines) , then protein shake right afterwards, breakfast 1hr 30mins after that. and on days that i work, i dont do cardio in the mornings, i may warm up with some "cardio" before my workout (the word "cardio" used rather loosely because its pretty slow pace), then 10 minutes of decent cardio after my workout. so it basically comes down to around 1hr and a half per week when all added up. but its all pretty slow paced and not letting my heart rate get above 130 at any time and i'm heavily clothed. and my workouts are anywhere from 30-40mins long. its quick and short breaked with super-sets. usually 3 set of 2 different excercises that are back to back. so its like: 1 set of machine crossover press, then straight over to seated cable press, 50-60 sec break, repeat for 3 sets then move on

you might try increasing your carb intake slightly, incorporating some healthy fats(udo's oil would be a really good addition), and increasing your cardio to 5 days a week 45 mins first thing in the morning.

just my opinion..but i think you would look alot better.

 

[MilitaryMuscle]

id increase the cardio as well.

Id go 30 min everyday but legs. Then increase it as needed. Every week 5 min is a good way to do it.

 

[vostua]

awesome, theres 2 votes already for me to add more in. i knew my "gut" feeling was right on this one. this is the first time for me personally dieting down, but i knew i should be doing more cardio, and not following this eating schedule. that guy is a great workout partner, but he just doesnt know my body well enough yet. i'm definitely going to add in some peanut butter to the carbless meals, and add in more carbs to those others. i've done that the past 3 meals today and i know it sped up my metabolism already, i've been hungry within an hour-2 hours after eating. anything else you think i should change or add in? at the moment i'm on a 5 day workout, 2 day off routine. monday-chest, tuesday-back, wednesday-shoulders, thursday-legs, friday-arms, weekend-rest.

 

[oldfella]

There is a distinct lack of fat in your diet. if you intend to lose fat you need to eat some fat. By this I mean good fats not saturated. try some flax oil and fish oil with your meals, the P/butter will help but in the absence of carbs you need fat. This is where you are making a mistake. Fat is not our enemy, too much fat is, but then too much of anything is. From your pic you look like you are holding not only a layer of fat but water as well. Start drinking about 6-8 litres of water every day, this will help with both fat and water retention.

 

[vostua]

if i were to get fish oils (pill form) how many grams a day would you suggest a day to split up with my meals?

 

[oldfella]

if i were to get fish oils (pill form) how many grams a day would you suggest a day to split up with my meals?

Of that you really only want a few gms. You need to include some good fats into your diet like the P/butter and some almonds. A little avocado would not hurt. SOme flax seed oil about a tblspn a day. Extra virgin olive oil. It needs to be included in your diet in somewhat whole food form. You will then start to see a difference in your look. About 60-80gms a day should do. you can always adjust high or low if need be.

 

[vostua]

i got lucky today and we got some organic peanut butter in our shipment at gnc and it was leaking, so i brought some home. its 2.5g of omega 3's per tbsp, 4.75g saturated fat, and .5g of unsaturated. i could add in 1 tbsp to my carbless meals. so i'd be like:

7:00 Lipo 6x
7:15 Cardio (every morning on week days)
7:50 Mega Whey P Shake
9:15 1 pint of eggbeaters, 1 cup oatmeal, 198mg potassium, 2g arginine (i'm upping my dosage in the morning and evenings of arginine)
11:30 2 cans tuna, 1 cup broccoli, 1 tbsp peanut butter
1:45 2 cans tuna, 1 cup broccoli, 1 tbsp peanut butter
4:00 2 cans tuna, 1 cup green beans, 1tbsp peanut butter, animal pak
6:15 lipo 6x
6:45 workout
7:15 GNC's Mega Whey (210 cals, 4g unsaturated, 2 g saturated, 4g carbs, 3 sugars, 40g protein), and an ABB Carbo Force (100g carbs, 15g sugars)
8:30 2 cans tuna, 3/4 cup organic whole wheat pasta 198mg potassium, 2g arginine
10:45 GNC's Mega MRP (260 cals, 2g unsaturated, 1g saturated, 20g carbs, 2g sugars, 40g of protein, decent list of vitamins and minerals)

i didnt purchase those two GNC items, they were given to me by a customer who didnt like them and i thought i'd put them to use even tho the MRP taste like liquid cement, and the Mega Whey taste like grainy strawberry imitations. look to be pretty good dieting down material? (and i weighed only 183 at 7 pm today i knew i shouldnt have done that 10carb a day diet BS)

 

[Nikopapp]

8 cans of tuna a day, do you want to die from mercury poisoning?
I know tuna is easy, but cut out at least 2 of those meals and replace with something else, maybe 4% ground beef.
I think you are overdoing the protein a little, I would swap out some protein for some healthy fats.