Hi guys. I'm a newb here. First of all I want to express my gratitude for John for creating such site, as it really motivated me.

2 years ago I was rather slim, very slim, to be precise. If I took a deep breath, I could almost grap around my stomach with my fingers. Then I had some troubles, stresses, started drinking huge amounts of beer, started living without my parents and got fat.

Now I'm 19 years old, approx. 174 cm high and weigh 78 kg. I've been trying to reduce fat earlier, started at 80 kg, got to 75, then stopped, got back to 81, and continued ever since. I have completely revised my diet and my weght lifting. Previously I did mostly train chest and hands. It was like, when I felt the muscles, and I sure did, when there's glycogen after the workout, I was just repeating the workout the next day and so on, until I could perform them no more due to muscle exhaustion. After that followed 3-5 days of doing nothing and finally I returned to the gym.

Now I feel like I live there. I go there every day. Almost every day to be precise. Probably every 4 or 5 days and then there's one day off, due to some reasons. I'm training according to the Max-OT system, and I feel stronger with every passing day. Every time I train the same muscles I try to add more weight and it goes perfectly. I do Max-OT cardio as well, at least every second workout and I'm getting higher results (watts, calories burned, etc) with every cardio I do.

In addition to that I'm staying rather low on my calories - 1500. I eat 6 times a day, trying to keep the percentage of protein/carbs/fat at 53/37/10, as suggested by Max-OT. Now there's the question. If, according to science, my body changes to its emergency phase and starts burning muscles, then why I'm not becoming weaker? And since I'm still losing weight, where does it come from? By the way, I believe I have a rather slow metabolism. With these 1500 calories I almost never feel hungry, only sometimes before sleep. If you believe you need to see my daily meal, I will gladly provide it to you in a new post (not willing to make this post even longer).

Thank you all very much.

PS: I'm European, and I'm not accustomed to the imperial system, so if you're going to write some values, please be so kind to use the metric system.

1500 calories is very low and 10% fat is too low. A calorie deficit is of course needed for fat loss but going more than 1000kcal a day will result in much muscle lost. Nevertheless, I don't think you should change your calorie intake if you feel comfortable with it. However, do try and get a lot of protein, about 160g per day for your weight. Also, don't stick with 1500 everyday. Vary a little bit, say in the range of 1500-1800kcal. This'll help keep your body guessing and not getting used to a certain amount of calories resulting in reduced fat loss. I have read the Max-OT style and it is very good but seriously, 10% fat is very low and 4-6 reps for muscle size is a bit strange. Muscle needs protein AND fat to grow. In fact, I suggest at least 20% but no more than 30%, even when you are cutting. The most effective protein/carbs/fat ratios I have tried are 40/40/20 and 50/20/30. Many books that I have read pretty much agree on 4-6reps for strength, 8-12reps for muscle size. Personally,I stay in the 6-8 rep area. An important thing you should note its that it has been scientifically proven that you should take between 30-60secs for each set for optimum muscle growth. So, 4 reps at a count of 8 seconds per rep is VERY SLOW! As for your weight loss, I don't know where its coming from for sure. Muscle size and muscle strength are not the same thing, meaning you could actually be losing muscle mass but your muscle fibres are getting stronger.

Thanks very much for the insight, although I would definitely like to hear what the others could say on this matter. By the way, I always thought that muscle strength is straight proportionate to muscle size, that is muscle fibres grow to adapt to the new training conditions, and as they grow, they increase in diameter, which lead to both size and strengh.

With my 1500 cal. diet, i get somewhere around 200 grams of protein each day. And about weight lifting, I try to find some weight, so that I could lift it 6 times, or even more times to positive failure on the first set. And the next sets are all with lower repetitions due to increased tiredness. So it usually looks like this: 7-8/5-6/4-5, or, if I put a bit too much, then: 6/5/4. That depends on the weight, we don't have very much light weights in our gym, so increasing a bit is usually increasing by 5 kgs.

And here's another question. Do you think there's any difference between still water and carbonated. During training I always drink still water, but throughout the day - carbonated. All in all I drink somewhere around 3-4 litres. Half of it is carbonated. Is it OK?

There have been studies that link all carbonated drinks in general with calcium loss. Then again there have been studies linking good fitness with a weaker immune system. If you prefer to drink carbonated water, then drink it. Your reps sound good to me. I do insist on at least 30 secs per set though. Made a big difference for me. Muscular strength and size are related but not diretly correlated. Neuromuscular adaptations play a big part as well. When you start off, your nervous system adapts to a progressive overload by improving its ability to recruit additional muscle fibres and generate more force. This not only results in greater force but also greater muscle control. Neuromuscular adaptations keep improving but the biggest growth in that area is at the beginning of weight training. You might see people at the gym have biceps twice your size and yet do the same weights and reps as you. Genetics! You will gain size as you gain in strength and vice versa but unfortunately, it really depends on your genes how big you are going to get.

1. Agree with demon - get your calories up at least to 2000 with all that lifting - don't want to rush your weight loss or you'll lose muscle.

Even when your careful and slowly cut, you may lose muscle.

You are definatly losing some.

2. Try cutting down your lifting to 3 days a week (or 4). 5 is a lot. Why not do a bit of cardio the other days?

3. How many weeks in a row have you been lifting? Take a rest week once every six weeks from lifting.

4. 10% fat is too low. 20% fat is what a lot of people on here recommend, -- I've even read some bodybuilding books where they've even said 30% is ok. I try to keep mine between 20-25%.

Seltzer/mineral water shouldn't cause a calcium loss problem. The source of carbonation is dissolved CO2/carbonic acid. You will burp it up (or fart it out) before it actually takes calcium out through your kidneys.

The problem is with sodas, which contain phosphoric acid. That binds to calcium ions in your blood to form calcium phosphate, which is excreted out through your kidneys. Stay away from that stuff.

There is no phosphoric acid in regular mineral water, but stay away from those new "flavored", sweetened mineral waters, which are basically sodas without the coloring!

I do cardio every day, that is every time I go to the gym. It's not always Max-OT cardio, but it's cardio nevertheless. When I'm not doing Max-OT cardio, at least I do some 10 minutes runing at 14 kph. I kinda believed what Max-OT said, cardio should be intense and quick. Not sure if that's true, of course.

About calories, I feel that every time I eat a bit more, say some 2000 cals, the next day when I go to the gym,I i don't see any progress in loosing weight. Currently I'm loosing 0,2-0,4 kg per day. And I want to lose my fat quickly, I already feel the glances of the girls when I'm standing on the beach, showing to everybody my 6-pack and for that I'm willing to take sacrifices. And there are 3 things that make me think so:

I saw John's dieting with only 1200 calories per day, and he lost all his fat rather quickly, and I feel I'm somewhere about half that fat, as he was at the beginning of his cut (no offence meant, John).

I read some guy's on this forums story (sorry, do not remember his name or thread's name) about his calorie intake somewhere around 1500 and that he lost most of his fat, together with muscles, although, but still.

And I talked to the coach in my gym, who said that it's impossible to burn fat and gain muscles at the same time. It's that you either lose everything and start from zero, or keep a very careful diet, hoping that in some years you will lose fat.

And you know the problems with us, young people, we want the results quicker, so every time I see that I lost some weight it's like a blessing to me, and everyday I do not do that, my motivation immediately falls down and I eat even less the next day. I'm even thinking about trying this caffeine/ephedrine/aspirin formula, to speed up loosing fat. What am I thinking?!...

And I feel I'm becoming smaller. Not sure about where, and the number one place to become smaller would be, of course, around the waist, but now when I look in the mirror, I can see my calves, or quads looking really nice from under the skin, and previously they were not there.

By the way, here's my usual daiy diet, please say something about it:

11:00 AM Breakfast: Whey Protein Shake with water (2 scoops)

1:00 PM Lunch: Cereals (50g)
Skim Milk (350ml)

3:30 PM Dinner: Buckwheat (100g)
Grilled Chiken Breast (130g)
Cucumber, raw (approx. 300g)
Skim Kefir (250ml)

6:00 PM Supper: Tuna (130g)

8:45 PM Pre-Workout: Skim Kefir (250ml)

11:10 PM Post-Workout: Whey Protein Shake with water (2 scoops)

You should really get most of your protein from natural sources. 4 Scoops of protein is about 80g....Are you sure you are getting 200g protein a day? They should be mostly protein from meat sources. 2 weeks is too early to see any results. Your gains have mostly been in neuromuscular connections and control rather than size so give it time. If you eat right and train right, you will grow!

Yes, I'm sure, buckwheat contains prety much protein: about 13g, and tuna with chicken stand for another about 65g, then kefir is dairy product, so it also contains enough protein: 15g in 500ml.

And about grows, that's fine, but I'm trying to lose fat, not grow muscles.

It's called the Imperial system? that's what the world knows the "american system" by?


damn american schools not teaching me metric!!!

Just something I thought I would add on the Max O/T system.

I started lifting with Max o/t in mid march and have gained 1 inch on my biceps doing 4-6 reps as instructed.. im also on a 1,000kcal deficit and cutting at the same time, my weights have increased every single time, I have lost fat on my chest, yet gained 1 1/2'' LM.

Mabey im the exception, but doing max o/t with the rep/set as they instructed, is working tremendous for me.

When I start bulking this fall/winter I will have to try a higher rep workout for a time to see if I have better results, but im quite happy as it is.

Its impossible not to lose alittle muscle, as long as you can at least maintain the amount of weight you are lifting from week to week, you are doing fine.. but, in fact, it IS possible to have a net gain in muscle and lose fat regardless of what "trainers" say, im proof of that. I agree that according to the scale, im not seeing huge weight reductions, but my clothes fit 1,000X better, im more defined and my measurements are consistantly getting smaller and smaller, even if that scale doesnt move.

Personally, I would rather have a slow cut while maintaining/gaining muscle, then lose everything and have to start over, plus muscle burns fat.