Cutting advice needed

I’m a long time visitor to this site but this is my first time posting here. I’m a 25 year old male, ectomorph, 5’ 10”, currently at 190 pounds and aiming to get down to about 155 pounds. I’ve been doing my cutting program for 7 weeks now but haven’t really lost more than a couple of pounds so I’ve been wondering if perhaps I have my diet or work out regime all wrong and would appreciate a critique:

I’m currently consuming about 1400 calories per day consisting mainly of tuna, chicken, salads & vegetables. I eat 6 small meals a day at about 2.5 hour intervals comprised of a 20-30-50 ratio of Fats, Carbs and Protein respectively. I’ve cut out all sweets, chocolate, alcohol and sugary drinks completely and only drink water.

I work out 6 days a week in the evenings after work:

I do cardio training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays which consist of 50 minutes on the cross trainer.

I do weight training on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays working on my front, back and legs respectively. I lift only light weights but high reps – 3 sets of 18 reps for each exercise. Sunday is my rest day.

I drink 2 protein shakes a day, one first thing in the morning when I get up and one immediately after my work out at about 7 o’clock in the evening.

I realise I’ve only been cutting for 7 weeks but I really thought I would have lost more than just 3 pounds by now. Some days it’s very difficult to motivate myself to eat right and go to the gym especially when I consider I could be eating the junk foods I love and saving my money from the gym membership and still be more or less the same weight. So I have a couple of questions:

1. Should I lower my reps and increase the weight I’m lifting? I’ve read that building muscle increases the body’s metabolism and enables it to burn fat quicker. But I’ve also read that it is antithetical to try and build muscle and loose weight at the same time. What should I be concentrating on to achieve my cutting goals, weight training or cardio training?

2. Should I lower my intake of calories?

3. When is the best time to take my protein shakes?

4. When is the best time to take my Vitamin C, Glutamine, Glucosamine Chondroitin & MSM supplements?

Any advice or inspiration would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Rick

Rick,

First congratuations for sticking with your program for seven weeks while loosing only 3 lbs. :tu:

This is a tough one. Your plan seems like a good one. You should have shed 10-15 lbs (4-7 kg) by now. DON'T go any lower on the calories. If anything, I'd suggest that you bump that up by 200 or so. I'm about your height and size. I loose about 2 lbs (<1 kg) a week at 1500 cals a day while lifting (4-5 days/week) and doing 30 mins of cardio (six days). The timing of your eatings (questions you asked) are not the reason you haven't lost weight. Those things help your program be more efficient but they are not responsible for your stalled weight loss.

I'm at a loss for suggestions other than bumping up your calories a little. Keep up the motiviation. Working while achieving limited results is not easy. My hat's off to you.

.

See below...

Cutting advice needed

I’m a long time visitor to this site but this is my first time posting here. I’m a 25 year old male, ectomorph, 5’ 10”, currently at 190 pounds and aiming to get down to about 155 pounds. I’ve been doing my cutting program for 7 weeks now but haven’t really lost more than a couple of pounds so I’ve been wondering if perhaps I have my diet or work out regime all wrong and would appreciate a critique:


I doubt you are an ectomorph at 190lbs, and having some problems with cutting.


I’m currently consuming about 1400 calories per day consisting mainly of tuna, chicken, salads & vegetables. I eat 6 small meals a day at about 2.5 hour intervals comprised of a 20-30-50 ratio of Fats, Carbs and Protein respectively. I’ve cut out all sweets, chocolate, alcohol and sugary drinks completely and only drink water.

I work out 6 days a week in the evenings after work:

I do cardio training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays which consist of 50 minutes on the cross trainer.

I do weight training on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays working on my front, back and legs respectively. I lift only light weights but high reps – 3 sets of 18 reps for each exercise. Sunday is my rest day.

I drink 2 protein shakes a day, one first thing in the morning when I get up and one immediately after my work out at about 7 o’clock in the evening.


Nothing wrong with your food choices, but at 190lbs, 1400cals is pretty low with all the exercise you are doing.

If you are stalled out at 1400cals, you may want to consider a refeed (clean cheat) to reset your lepitin levels.

Protein shake placement looks fine. PWO you should add some dextrose. Do a search on PWO nutrition.


I realise I’ve only been cutting for 7 weeks but I really thought I would have lost more than just 3 pounds by now. Some days it’s very difficult to motivate myself to eat right and go to the gym especially when I consider I could be eating the junk foods I love and saving my money from the gym membership and still be more or less the same weight. So I have a couple of questions:

1. Should I lower my reps and increase the weight I’m lifting? I’ve read that building muscle increases the body’s metabolism and enables it to burn fat quicker. But I’ve also read that it is antithetical to try and build muscle and loose weight at the same time. What should I be concentrating on to achieve my cutting goals, weight training or cardio training?

Absolutely! Do a search on MAxOT, its a low rep program that will help gain or at least maintain your current lbm. When it comes to diet two things are critical: 1) Diet! and 2) Weight Training. Cardio is completely optional...it simply helps the process.


2. Should I lower my intake of calories?


Hell no! 1400 cals is too low imho. It should only be used at the end of a cut to strip the last bit of fat, and used for short periods of time.


3. When is the best time to take my protein shakes?


Shakes are fine, morning to break the fast, and PWO.


4. When is the best time to take my Vitamin C, Glutamine, Glucosamine Chondroitin & MSM supplements?

I find morning works best. Glutamine usually PWO, and pre-fasted cardio.

I have a few suggestions. The biggest one being, as others have said, a new weight routine. Do heavier weights lower reps. Rtestes has posted a good fullbody routine with 3 lifting days a week that might be good for you. Search the forum to find it. Second, up your calories to 1600. This is somewhat scary when you're already not losing weight, but it could likely do the trick and jumpstart your metabolism. Cardio seems fine-maybe 45 minutes better, but I don't think it'd make any real difference. You also might want to try intervals one of the days. This if a period of high intensity cardio (a few minutes) followed by low intensity. this sequence is repeated. Good luck. you probably mean you're an endomorph...

oh, i forgot to discuss protein and supplements. protein shake post-lifting definitely. take glucosamine condroiton 3 times daily 500 mg each time, preferably with meals. glutamine after workout, and I also take in when I wake up and before bed personally. vitamin c, I don't think matters when. with a meal, i guess

Cutting advice needed

I’m a long time visitor to this site but this is my first time posting here. I’m a 25 year old male, ectomorph, 5’ 10”, currently at 190 pounds and aiming to get down to about 155 pounds. I’ve been doing my cutting program for 7 weeks now but haven’t really lost more than a couple of pounds so I’ve been wondering if perhaps I have my diet or work out regime all wrong and would appreciate a critique:

I’m currently consuming about 1400 calories per day consisting mainly of tuna, chicken, salads & vegetables. I eat 6 small meals a day at about 2.5 hour intervals comprised of a 20-30-50 ratio of Fats, Carbs and Protein respectively. I’ve cut out all sweets, chocolate, alcohol and sugary drinks completely and only drink water.

I work out 6 days a week in the evenings after work:

I do cardio training on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays which consist of 50 minutes on the cross trainer.

I do weight training on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays working on my front, back and legs respectively. I lift only light weights but high reps – 3 sets of 18 reps for each exercise. Sunday is my rest day.

I drink 2 protein shakes a day, one first thing in the morning when I get up and one immediately after my work out at about 7 o’clock in the evening.

I realise I’ve only been cutting for 7 weeks but I really thought I would have lost more than just 3 pounds by now. Some days it’s very difficult to motivate myself to eat right and go to the gym especially when I consider I could be eating the junk foods I love and saving my money from the gym membership and still be more or less the same weight. So I have a couple of questions:

1. Should I lower my reps and increase the weight I’m lifting? I’ve read that building muscle increases the body’s metabolism and enables it to burn fat quicker. But I’ve also read that it is antithetical to try and build muscle and loose weight at the same time. What should I be concentrating on to achieve my cutting goals, weight training or cardio training?

2. Should I lower my intake of calories?

3. When is the best time to take my protein shakes?

4. When is the best time to take my Vitamin C, Glutamine, Glucosamine Chondroitin & MSM supplements?

Any advice or inspiration would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Rick