New to the boards - question about training/goals

[freddytt]

Hi,

Im new to the boards and was hoping to get some feedback from those who are ahead of me in the fitness line. Im 6'1" tall and an ectomorph. I packed on a lot of weight after 30. In the past two years, I lost about 60 pounds. I went from 245 at heaviest, to current weight of 185. It was a long hard road, but I did it. I lost the last 35 pounds using a ketosis diet [Medifast]. I look a ton better than I did, but I wanted to keep going with transformation with a healthy diet and exercise. Now that I have transitioned off that low calorie diet, I am eating clean... about 6-7 small meals a day. Im trying to keep protein intake over 120 grams a day with lean meats and protein shakes, [it's been a challenge to get upwards of 190 grams of protein] and trying to reach 20-30 grams of fiber a day, with high fiber foods like Trader Joes bran cereal, fruits, veggies and Kashi bars. Im eating well and I have held new weight for 90 days after transitioning off that ketosis diet. Currently Im drinking 64oz - 1 gallon of water a day.

question is one out of ignorance. I have got myself down to 17-18% body fat from 30%, but I still dont have a body I would like to sport at the lake, or pool parties. Now that diet is better than ever and Im getting used to frequent meals, clean eating and lots of water intake, I thought I would start circuit training to shed some more body fat, getting down to about 13%-15%. Im 41 years old going on 42, so Im not looking for 8% body fat, but dilema is about building some muscle and losing some fat. I see men and women shredded doing things like p90x...sure they are not 'big', but they look ripped and fit. Id be happy with some muscle definition in the legs, chest, arms and shoulders, with a flat stomach when wearing swim trunks and filling out a shirt nicely when I go out. Im so confused about trimming down and building muscle, as opposed bulking up. Can I get a physique doing what Im doing? I want to build up a little bit to show definition and fill out a shirt, but Im not looking to build mass. Im just confused about reaching goal. Is it even possible doing what Im doing? Do I have to gain weight again to build up some muscle definition? Will it take 6 months? A Year?

When I do circuit training, I warm up with 15 minutes on a treadmill, then I hit the weights hard. Any muscle group I cant give 110% on in one work out, ill do another day, but in a weeks time, Im making sure every muscle group is sore after the work out and allowing plenty of time for rest and stretching in between. Its been 2 weeks since I started. IM trying to do 30 minutes of interval training 2-3 days a week and 15 minutes of warm up cardio before I lift, two days a week. So far, Ive split stomach, lower back and legs on one day and the rest of muscle groups on another day.

Thank you in advance for your feedback

[Boss Man]

Can you describe your typical workout schedule per week in a bit more depth, as i'm not able to understand how the training splits and cardio fit into place.

Also what foods do you eat and what times do you eat?

Thanks.

[freddytt]

Currently, I am trying to eat every 2-3 hours, about 6-7 times in a day depending on how long I am awake, or how hard I work at job, or workout in the gym. After getting off the ketosis diet, where I lost in excess of 40 pounds, it took a while to transition and gradually get back to eating food again. Its been hard to change bad habits, so the process has been slow. Im trying to stick to A. Scott Connelly's book Body Rx. His philosophy is to eat about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight and get in 30 grams of fiber with out going over 360 carbs a day to get that 30 grams of fiber. Since I have a goal of losing body fat, I am not really eating a lot of carbs, but high fiber foods, fruit and veggies with meals through out the day I have been eating. I work in a truck, running business and am very limited to what I can eat on the truck. I am in and out of the truck 12-16 times a day.

I drink 16 oz of water with each meal through out the day. I believe Im taking in appx 112 oz of water daily. A typical day of meals looks like this:

Pre breakfast - 8oz skim milk and 1 scoop of MET-Rx Ultramyosyn Whey + a one a day vitiman
Breakfast is 16oz of water and a Kashi bar or a bowl of Trader Joes Raisin bran cereal with some skim milk

Meals on the truck - 1 cup of Grapes, 1/2 cup vegetarian mexican beans with a little white cheese and 2 high fiber whole grain tortillas, various Kashi bars, or eating right bars, a can of tuna fish in water, strained mixed with yellow mustard and cracked pepper. Maybe some left over grilled steak or chicken, some cooked ham roast etc. Ill eat those things like meat cookies while I drive.

Dinner is a grilled steak with a small portion of mashed potatoes and a salad, or a salad and grilled chicken, or pork loin with roasted bell pepper and cherry tomatoes. Maybe eggs and sprouted grain toast with a little smart balance spread and a tiny amount of honey drizzled on top.

At night I have another why protein shot

I believe im getting about 2000 calories a day, but I have only been working out for a week now and this food thing is going to evolve, but I am just starting slow and working way into it based upon how I feel. I am never hungry and am focusing on high nutrient foods and water.

Work out schedule is:

30 minutes of interval training on a treadmill. I can only handle inclines and fast walking with some short running sprints of 1-2 minutes right now. That seems to get heart rate up quite well and a sweat. From there I am doing biceps, triceps, chest, shoulders and back. Other days, I do the cardio and then do stomach, lower back extensions and legs.

I am doing cardio 7 days a week and on days I work out it is more of a warm up to get the blood flowing. I dont push myself as hard on the treadmill the days I am working muscle groups. Its all so confusing to me right now, but I feel the best thing to do is something. I hope to create the habit and work into a routine I can manage forever, but at the moment I need to see results, so the first 90 days is critical to confidence in what Im doing etc. I hope to get noticable fit in 3-6 months and look real good in a year...but obviously I want it to start taking shape as soon as possible. I just have no idea what Im doing or what to expect.

Thanks

[freddytt]

I am trying different machines for muscle groups. I am at golds gym. I don't have a lot of knowledge of different machines or how much weight that I need to use for each muscle group on a machine, but goal is to work to failure and use a weight heavy enough to get about 10 to 12 reps.

Sometimes I will squeeze muscle before releasing if it's last set. For some reason I can't push legs to failure like other muscle groups, so on stomach and legs I seem to work on them up to 4- 5 sets. goal there is to try to get as good of a workout as possible.

Then I focused on rest and nutrition. I think I may not be eating enough calories but I'm hoping that I can correct that as time goes on, however I seem to get fat these days pretty easy so eating a lot is not something I want to just jump back into.

[Boss Man]

Pre breakfast - 8oz skim milk and 1 scoop of MET-Rx Ultramyosyn Whey + a one a day vitiman
Breakfast is 16oz of water and a Kashi bar or a bowl of Trader Joes Raisin bran cereal with some skim milk

(I'd keep the cereal instead of the bar as the cereal has more calories and protein.)

Meals on the truck - 1 cup of Grapes, 1/2 cup vegetarian mexican beans with a little white cheese and 2 high fiber whole grain tortillas, various Kashi bars, or eating right bars, a can of tuna fish in water, strained mixed with yellow mustard and cracked pepper. Maybe some left over grilled steak or chicken, some cooked ham roast etc. Ill eat those things like meat cookies while I drive.

(Be careful to limit tuna to 3 times a week as per current reccomendations, as it is a high metal fish source.)

Dinner is a grilled steak with a small portion of mashed potatoes and a salad, or a salad and grilled chicken, or pork loin with roasted bell pepper and cherry tomatoes. Maybe eggs and sprouted grain toast with a little smart balance spread and a tiny amount of honey drizzled on top.

(That seems fine)

At night I have another why protein shot

(Fine)


30 minutes of interval training on a treadmill. I can only handle inclines and fast walking with some short running sprints of 1-2 minutes right now. That seems to get heart rate up quite well and a sweat. From there I am doing biceps, triceps, chest, shoulders and back. Other days, I do the cardio and then do stomach, lower back extensions and legs.

(Try it in this order. Chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps. This means not using stabilisers or synergists before you work chest and then not doing any small muscles that might synergise or stabilise the back movements.

With the other split, try doing legs, lower back, stomach)

I am doing cardio 7 days a week and on days I work out it is more of a warm up to get the blood flowing. I dont push myself as hard on the treadmill the days I am working muscle groups.

(I'd cut the cardio to 5 days a week and make sure the off days are split, I.E. 3 days on, 1 off, 2 days on, 1 off, so you're not overdoing things.