Hi All. Just need some advice and direction on the supplements I should be using. I have been hitting the gym 4 days a week now for 2 months. I'm much stronger and I've lost a percent or 2 of body fat( still at 22%)

Is there anyone who could recommend the right supplements for me to take. I am looking to drop my bodyfat down to 12% at least and build solid muscle.

Thanks in advance

At 22% and with little experience the only supplements I would recommend are a quality multivitamin and possibly a protein powder.

Diet is key my friend. My suggestion is for you to post your diet and training split/routine to this thread and allow us to help you tweak it for maximum results.

:tucool:

At 22% and with little experience the only supplements I would recommend are a quality multivitamin and possibly a protein powder.

Diet is key my friend. My suggestion is for you to post your diet and training split/routine to this thread and allow us to help you tweak it for maximum results.

:tucool:

Thanks 1Fast GTX. I have never come across a site like this before where everyone is in it together, no matter what level they are at. It seems there is one common goal.

Here goes:

I'm doing an hour weights and 20 mins cardio 4 days a week with waist exercises every morning

I've currently split it as follows

Monday, Thursday
5 min warm up
Barbell Curls 3x10
Tricep Pushdowns 3 x10
Crunches 30
Machine Chest Press 3 x 8
Machine Curls 3 x 10
Machine Dips 3 x 10
Incline Flyes 3 x 10
Cable Curls 3 x 10
Rope Pushdowns 3 x 10
Machine Incline Press 3 x 10
Crunches 30
20 mins treadmill ( fast walking) or 20 mins x-trainer

Tuesday, Friday
5 min warm up
Assisted Chin Ups 3 x 10
Leg Press 3 x 10
Upright Rows 3 x 10
Crunches 30
Lat Pulldowns 3 x 10
Calf Raises 3 x 12
Machine Lat Raises 3 x 10
Back Rows 3 x 10
Leg Curls 3 x 10
Leg Extensions 3 x 10
Machine Shoulder Press 3 x 10
Crunches 30
20 mins treadmill ( fast walking) or 20 mins x-trainer

Diet
Typical Day

Breakfast- Fruit and Fibre Cereal
10.30 - 1 stoneground roll with low fat spread
12.00 - 1 stoneground roll with low fat spread, banana, pear
2.30 - apple
5.30 - some form of chicken dinner with salad or boiled rice( no potato)
10pm - after gym some nuts and berries

I guess you are going to find plenty of fault with what I'm doing at the moment but I do feel I have made a pretty big step. You are talking to a man who has had a love for the last 15 years of Indian Food, Pizza, Bread and worst of all a huge appetite for chocolate.

I made this decision 3 months ago to change my lifestyle. I did great the first 2 weeks and then fell of the wagon. 2 weeks later I was back into it and so far I haven't stopped. I'm smoking half I was a month back( was smoking anything up to 40 a day) and have a doctors appointment booked to see if I can quit for good.

What are your thoughts on my workout? I find my muscles tiring far too quickly if I try and do all exercises at once. I find I retain just enough strength to complete the workout doing it the way I am . I am going as heavy as I can with the weights the last couple of weeks and I am starting to feel alot tighter and stronger.

You might want to reorganize your split so that there's less muscle overlap. Shoulders is an example. You are working those four times a week, which will probably lead to overtraining.

You don't need any supplements.

Are you counting your calories? That doesn't sound like enough food to feed anyone who's any more than 100 pounds.

You should try and get some protein in earlier in the day (ie. eggs instead of cereal). Have some salmon or tuna on the first roll, with a piece of fruit or vegetable, and instead of the second roll, eat a big salad or bowl of soup, or a stir fry or something. Add in some vegetables with dinner, especially broccoli and spinach. Sweet potato would be better than rice, but if you want to eat rice, it should be the brown kind.

Welcome aboard. You are right everybody is great and more than willing to help us newbies out.

That doesn't sound like enough food to feed anyone who's any more than 100 pounds

I agree. I think you need to eat some more:


You need to add some protein to you meals. There is some good stuff on the stickes you might want to read. If you eat this little your body will hold on to that fat. You are eating at various times during the day and thats good. 1FastGTX helped me a while back in getting some ideas for eating. Also Mastover, among other JSFists, provided some good ideas. I'll leave them to give you more advice as I trust their judgement more than mine.

Thanks 1Fast GTX. I have never come across a site like this before where everyone is in it together, no matter what level they are at. It seems there is one common goal.
Agreed, this is a good community and we're certainly glad to have you aboard!

Monday, Thursday
5 min warm up
Barbell Curls 3x10
Tricep Pushdowns 3 x10
Crunches 30
Machine Chest Press 3 x 8
Machine Curls 3 x 10
Machine Dips 3 x 10
Incline Flyes 3 x 10
Cable Curls 3 x 10
Rope Pushdowns 3 x 10
Machine Incline Press 3 x 10
Crunches 30
20 mins treadmill ( fast walking) or 20 mins x-trainer

Tuesday, Friday
5 min warm up
Assisted Chin Ups 3 x 10
Leg Press 3 x 10
Upright Rows 3 x 10
Crunches 30
Lat Pulldowns 3 x 10
Calf Raises 3 x 12
Machine Lat Raises 3 x 10
Back Rows 3 x 10
Leg Curls 3 x 10
Leg Extensions 3 x 10
Machine Shoulder Press 3 x 10
Crunches 30
20 mins treadmill ( fast walking) or 20 mins x-trainer
Okay, so Mon/Thu is chest, triceps, biceps and abs. Tue/Fri is back, quads, hams, calves, delts, and abs. Correct? I think I would change this personally, but mostly for reasons of just my personal preference I think (so, I'm not saying that split will not give you results, but I just don't like it much I guess).

It seems like your Tue/Fri days are too much "harder" than your Mon/Thu days. I say this because you're hitting a lot of big bodyparts on Tue/Fri while Mon/Thu only has one pretty big bodypart, the chest, and even it is not nearly as big as the upper legs or back. So I think I would probably propose, at this point, something along the lines of this:

Mon/Thu: Lower Body (quads, hamstrings, calves, lower back, abs)

Tue/Fri: Upper Body (chest, delts, upper back, triceps, biceps)

I would also like to see your volume (amount of sets and exercises) lowered I think. And, of course, I'd like to see some squats in your routine. :)

Diet
Typical Day

Breakfast- Fruit and Fibre Cereal
10.30 - 1 stoneground roll with low fat spread
12.00 - 1 stoneground roll with low fat spread, banana, pear
2.30 - apple
5.30 - some form of chicken dinner with salad or boiled rice( no potato)
10pm - after gym some nuts and berries
We can certainly work on this diet I think. Of course start reading the sticky threads on this website to get more familiar with things. But, for some general thoughts...

Breakfast: Add some more protein, like some egg whites perhaps.

10:30: Add more protein, such as a can of tuna on the roll.

12:00: I would probably drop the roll here since you already had one earlier, and again add more protein. I think I'd also drop one of those fruits myself (if not both). Add some healthy fats to this meal too (natural peanut butter for example). I'd add veggies too probably.

2:30: I don't think this is a good meal, way too small. I'd completely change it. Again, protein and fat in my opinion. And veggies.

5:30: This isn't too bad. I'd make that brown rice, but a potato might be even better IMO.

10:00: More protein. I might drop the berries since you're having a lot of fruit elsewhere (depends on how much you're eating I guess). The nuts are okay (depending on what kind though maybe). Just add something like a fairly decent sized portion of cottage cheese.

Overall, I think you need to eat a lot more.

I guess you are going to find plenty of fault with what I'm doing at the moment but I do feel I have made a pretty big step. You are talking to a man who has had a love for the last 15 years of Indian Food, Pizza, Bread and worst of all a huge appetite for chocolate.
Plenty of fault for a competitive bodybuilder or athlete, but not for the average person. It sounds like you've come a long way, and that is great. You know, you don't have to be super-strict anyhow. Yeah, some of us here are pretty specific and we count calories and grams, but it's not a requirement for most who just want to drop some fat and feel confident with their shirt off. Just make smart decisions, cut out sugar as much as you can, eat a decent amount of protein, eat your veggies, drink your water, train hard, etc.

I made this decision 3 months ago to change my lifestyle. I did great the first 2 weeks and then fell of the wagon. 2 weeks later I was back into it and so far I haven't stopped. I'm smoking half I was a month back( was smoking anything up to 40 a day) and have a doctors appointment booked to see if I can quit for good.
That's great! Nice job on cutting back, and good luck quitting completely. I think you'll find that you like being healthy much more than smoking. :)

What are your thoughts on my workout? I find my muscles tiring far too quickly if I try and do all exercises at once. I find I retain just enough strength to complete the workout doing it the way I am . I am going as heavy as I can with the weights the last couple of weeks and I am starting to feel alot tighter and stronger.
Your muscles may tire so quickly because, as mentioned, I would prefer less amount of sets/exercises. I know it's hard to understand this but my believe that more is NOT always better. What I like to do is just use a handful of exercises in one workout, get in there and really bust my butt and work hard, and get out quickly.

You know, you don't have to be super-strict anyhow. Yeah, some of us here are pretty specific and we count calories and grams, but it's not a requirement for most who just want to drop some fat and feel confident with their shirt off.

I totally agree! :nod:

In the last year, I have dropped from 209 lbs (~23% bf) to 188 lbs (~15% bf). I never directly work any bodypart more than once a week, utilizing a 5 day split with 2 days off. Each workout is about 45 minutes long, although leg day is a little longer. I work hard when I am in there but I don't overtrain.

I do 15 minutes HIIT for cardio 4x/week (never on leg day), using a Nordic Track ski machine. I am pretty much following what is known as the Tabata Protocol. I do a 5 min warmup, followed by 5 min of intervals (20 sec fast, 10 sec slow) and capped by a 5 min cooldown. It is challenging, to be sure, but it is also time efficient. Nothing extreme there, at all.

My diet is reasonably clean during the week. I shoot for 40/40/20 (P/C/F) on the macro-nutrients and I always eat enough so that I am never really hungry. The only supplements I use are protein powder, Udo's Oil Blend, creatine monohydrate and multi-vitamins. The rest is good, old-fashioned food and I am pretty relaxed about diet on the weekends. :eat:

I might add that I also enjoy a couple of adult beverages most nights (after my workout is complete), sometimes more than a couple on Friday/Saturday nights. :D Empty calories, I know, but I like my beer and my progress has still continued at a pace that is acceptable to me. I may never get to 8% bf and be "ripped" but I am OK with that.

Finally, due to my family and employment obligations, I almost never get more than 6 hours of sleep on weeknights.

As you can see, none of my "stuff" fits in the strict category and yet I have made good progress despite that fact. IOW, as 1FastGTX said, you don't necessarily need to be "by the book" to get good results. Learn the ropes (i.e., read the stickies), find your own comfort zone and enjoy the ride! :tucool:

thanks for the help guys.:tu:

Sounds stupid but I'm wary of actually starting to eat loads again. I constantly snacked for years and eating a load more food fills me with dread to be honest. I will take your protein advice on board but probably go with it in shake form and have some tuna so as not to feel like I'm getting back into my old habits. Any advice as to how many shakes a day I should be taking and specifically which times are best, bearing in mind my workouts at night?

Regarding the weights i'm wary of using my triceps too much in one workout. Shoulders,chest and triceps together will kill me and I won't be able to give all those bodyparts absolutely everything towards the end as my arms are quite weak.

However I will give your idea a go 1FastGTX at the beginning of the month as thats when I have changed my workouts so far. I don't want to get my body into a set routine for months on end. I'm also going to start taking photos of myself however gruesome they might be so I have a permanent record of my progress

I'm also going to get a session with the personal trainer at the gym . I want to hit the free weights rather than rely mostly on machines so I reckon if he can show me how to do all the free weight exercises and also give me a starting weight to go from on each exercise I can build from there.

Latestart, thanks for the advice. I guess I don't want to go too fast and have too high expectations . I have my goals but I will temper them with a bit of realism . I just want to make the absolute most of what I was given genetically.