Im 5'11, 165 pounds, age 22.
I have never had a nice body, and I desperately want to do everything I possibly can to achieve that.

Right now my arms are tiny, as are my legs, and I have mini man-boobs and a slight tire around my waist.

Some people say Im underweight, some say Im overweight (family) because I have a gut :P

I dont know what exactly to do..
I think my basal metabolic rate equates to about 1800-2000 calories a day, so I want to eat about 1300 a day - 50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat.

I plan on going to the gym 3 times a week, MWF and doing a workout which includes all body parts (so like 12-14 different exercises, 3 sets, 10-12 reps, 1-2 exercises per body part).. this allows for a 72 hour recovery rate between Friday and the next Monday. Also, I do HIIT on those 3 days (2 min warmup, 1 min breaks, 30s full speed, 14 min total).

Heres a list of exercises and the amount of weight I do on them (all of these are 3 sets x 11-12 reps to failure or near failure). Chest press: 50lbs. Overhead press, 40lbs. Hamstrings 100lbs. Leg extensions: 70lbs. Back: 130lbs (push with your back against resistance). Leg curls: 50lbs. Barbell (biceps, stand starting with arms straight down, contract by bringing weight up) 40lbs. Ab crunches: 50lbs. Also, pushups & crunches (as many as I can do x3 sets), bridges (for inner abs, 1 minute x 3)

On the other 4 days I do cardio.. running at 6miles/hr for 20 minutes.

Im trying to eat 6 meals a day.. its a bit hard :), especially because for the summer I live with my parents and have to eat when they eat, the foods they eat, etc. My meals typically consist of things like lucky charms/milk in the morning, 2 small sammiches (butter and bread, occasionally cheddar cheese too), 2 bananas and some V8, a homemade 'pizza' made on a pita bread with lean ground beef, tomato sauce, a little cheese.. and a plate of rice for dinner with sauce (indian food) with apple juice. My fridge has very few choices.. milk, butter, cheese, bread, ground beef.

After each workout at the gym (MWF) I have a bottle of Boost (240 calories, 6g fat, 15g protein, 33g carbs).. a nd after my cardio I have either water, apple juice or a glass of V8.

What are the biggest things I can change with my plan to produce better results? Please critique my plan =)

I'd suggest going through the Sticky posts at the top of the Beginners forum to get a feel for some of the common advice passed around here, especially for the nutritional aspects of your plan. John's FAQ and Food Logs (ignore the supplements for now) should also be helpful. His most current diet is designed to support a rather intense fat cutting plan, so I'd focus more around his 2004-2005 diet to get some ideas. You can cross reference this to his Training Info page to see what kind of plan he was on at the time (maintenance, cutting, or bulking).

You mention you eat with your family, but that shouldn't mean you're tied to exactly what they're having for every meal of the day. You're going to need to have control in this area to put together a diet that allows for the results you're after. Whether that means you buy your own food or your parents buy it for you, you're going to need to be able to stock the fridge and pantry with your own choices.

At first glance you appear to be doing a lot of excercises during each session in the gym; especially for the amount of calories you listed. Are you doing 10-12 different exercises at 3 sets apiece, so 30-36 sets total in one session? This is totally unnecessary. Excercise selection needs some work too (more compound movements), but until you get the nutrional aspect in order, I wouldn't worry about what your strength training routine consists of.

Firstly I'll just agree with goonie. The sticky threads contain a wealth of information that will be on benfit to you.

There's nothing massively wrong with your training. It would seem you favour machines to free weights. Personally I opt for splitting my body parts across 3/4 workouts, but if you're happy doing what you do now, stick with it, It's more important to do SOMETHING. Two things I will suggest (in line with goonie's thoughts) is that you throw some squats, deadlifts and shrugs in there. Make you're you're keeping perfect form on every lift and work hard. Then you can your PWO drink.


IMO your nutrition isn't in line with your goals. But there's lots of info on that in the stickies.

If your main goal is to lose the "gut", you have to address your diet. You can workout till you're blue in the face and the gut will not leave until you clean up your diet. Read the stickies and do some searches and read about what good nutrition is. Once you create a well-balanced diet, then address your fitness. You'll be amazed what a healthy, targeted diet can do for your physique. It can make all the diffference in the world. Good luck to you!! :tu:

What are the biggest things I can change with my plan to produce better results? Please critique my plan =)

In my opinion, there is a lot you could do to produce better results. It depends how seriously you want to take this.

Do you have access to a full gym? Can you start doing other exercises like squats?

How hard is it for you to NOT always eat with your family? And if you must eat with them, can you eat other foods? With your nutrition the way it is, I wouldn't expect stellar results. It will play the biggest role in changing your body composition.

"50% carbs, 30% protein, 20% fat."


If you really want results, I would start by changing my diet around until it looked like this: 50% protein, 30% Carbs, 20% fat

basal metabolic rate doesn't include any activity other then sleep and breathing. Eating way below your basal is way too low.

Lucky charms? Butter and bread? :whistle:

You aren't eating enough from the sound of it. What you are eating isn't the best. Combine the two and it's :spank:

Nothing wrong with 50% carbs. Some of us do more then that most days. Depends on how your body handles carbs. I lost a fair bit more then you need to on an average of 50% or so carbs. But I also ate more then you most of the time.