Last January I weighed 232 lbs. I really cracked down with my diet and started lifting and running 5-6 days/week and got to about 178lbs by October. I kind of hit a standstill but became a little less strict with my diet. Then the holidays came and now I'm back up to about 185lbs. I feel better and look a lot better, going from XL shirts to medium and 38 pants to 34. The only thing I really need to do is get rid of the fat around my gut and love handles.

Last month I got my BF% checked and it was 17.6%, not as bad as I thought. I don't really have fat on my arms or legs, and its just isolated to my gut and sides. At the end of June I'm graduating college and my class is going on a trip to Mexico. All my life I've been a fatty and have never been comfortable with my shirt off, walking around on a beach, etc. In fact my torso has never even seen the sun or been tanned. Basically by the time I go on my trip I want to finally look good with my shirt off, get a tan, and feel proud to walk around on the beach. I realize that setting a goal of getting a six pack and getting ripped in 4 months isn't realistic, I just want to reduce my love handles and have a flat stomach.

Basically what I want to know is what the best way to do this is in terms of my diet, calorie intake, and lifting/running routine. I've definitely built some muscle, developed my chest (not exactly impressive right now, but a lot better than before), and look somewhat built, so I don't want to just get skinny. The dilemma I'm having is understanding the best calorie intake and ratio of protein/carbs/fats etc to burn the fat but maintain my muscle mass. I understand the basics of eating more protein and limiting carbs in the evening etc, and I haven't actually counted my calories since I started this whole thing, so I really don't know what I should be doing. I don't mind my size, and wouldn't mind staying at around 175-180 lbs (I'm 6'0"). I don't know if I should be eating less calories (calorie deficit for weight loss) or more calories for muscle building.

First my workout routine consists of lifting on Mon, Wed, and Friday, and running/abs on Tuesday, Thur, and sometimes Saturday. I split lifting up by doing chest/tris on one day, lats/bis the next, and legs on Friday. I try to do most of the core lifts including bench press, incline, decline, dips, pullups, squats, and deadlifts, and I really like my routine
and have seen much faster improvements since I included those lifts. For running I usually do 45 mins on the treadmill or outside if the weather is nice. For a while I was doing HIIT for 20-25 minutes but still don't know what really works best for me.

My diet includes egg whites, rolled oats, natural peanut butter, wheat bread, chicken, ground turkey, sandwiches, pretzels, cashews, fish, plain salad, sometimes a baked potato, brown rice, unsalted cashews, meal replacement bars, kashi cereal, lots of veggies, and whey protein after workouts. (Sorry, I listed those in random order as I thought of them.) Whenever I use condiments I always use low calorie, non-fat, sugar free etc.

Being really strict with my diet has been hard lately because I'm in Northern Virginia for 2 months for a school internship and everything is so new to me so I eat out more than I should and sometimes go out on the weekends. However finishing my transformation is much more important to me so I'm not worried about that.

Basically I just need some guidance on how to regulate my calorie intake and what foods I should eat and when (I will start counting calories), and advice to refine my lifting/running workouts.

Sorry for the long post but if anyone could help me I really really want to take this final step and actually look good for the summer, for the first time in my life. Ill upload pictures of what I look like now as soon as my cell phone picture mail stops screwing up. I don't currently have a before picture now but hopefully this will help.

Thanks so much for anyone who can give me some guidance. Thanks a million!

Welcome to the forums! Congrats on what you have done so far :) Lets step it up a gear :nod:

Go and read these sticky threads here (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=19229) and here (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showthread.php?t=1222).

They should answer most of your questions. Then formulate yourself a diet plan and a weightlifting plan. Post them up, have them looked at and get some advice.

Good luck :)

Congrats on your success so far. Post your diet and training after reading the stickies and we'll tweak it. BTW, although you probably won't get ripped (meaning like 6% body fat) in 4 months, you could definitely get around 10% body fat in that time frame and get a lean six pack body. Who knows, depending on your genetics and where you store fat, you might even look somewhat ripped at 10%.