Hi,
I have been working out regularly for a year now and have made some progress. I went from 214 to 182 lbs. I am 5' 10 with medium build.
I have set a goal for myself to see my abs by new years. So far, I have been doing my own thing and not really counting calories. I have summarized my normal diet below. Please note that I do cheat every couple of days by eating a sneakers bar during the day. My primary goal is to lose weight. I want to build muscle, but main focus is to lose fat/weight enough to be able to see my abs.

Following is my diet from Mon to Friday:
7 AM Coffee
10 AM 1 Grilled Chicken Subway Wrap (350 Cal: 30 grams carb) (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, green peppers, jalapone peppers, spinach and salt+pepper)
2 PM 1 EAS Protein Shake or Protein Bar: (200 Cal, 26-30 grams protein)
4 PM 1 Honey-Oat granola bar with green tea.
6-8 PM workout: 30 min cardio + 1 hr weights + 30 min cardio.
9 PM: Lean Cuisine TV dinner (400 calories) + 1 medium size apple
Note:
1. I drink 6-7 cups of coffee in the morning.
2. I drink 4-5 cups of green tea in the afternoon.
3. Cardio: I do the exercise bike at level 10 and get my heart rate around 150 all the time...sometimes around 170 bpm.
4. Weights: I chest, back on one day, then arms, shoulders on the 2nd day and legs on the 3rd. I do 2 execises per muscle group : 3 sets each.
5. I sometimes have a sneakers candy bar during the day.
On Sundays, I cheat on my diet. I eat ice cream, pizza, and other junk food. I am sure i consume 3-4K calories on sunday.
6. I workout 6 days a week most of the time. Sometimes if work schedule gets crazy, I work out 4 times a week. On days I dont workout, I tend to slack on my diet and probaby consume a few hundred extra calories.
Following are questions and items I would really appreciate help with:
1. I sometimes am full of energy during my workouts and feel good. Other times (50-60% of the time), I feel like I have low energy and have to use a lot of will power to go thru workouts. How do I consistently feel energetic during workouts?
2. What do I need to do to get to the point where I can see my abs? I am estimating that I need to be around 150 lbs to be able to have low enough body fat to see my abs.

If you need additional info before you can critic my plan, please let me know.
Thanks

Hi Carbon,

I'd firstly suggest you have a peak at a number of similar threads in this forum surrounding diet and exercise, not too mention the stickies. I think you'll find many tips on lifting/cardio etc, though from your post, it sounds like exercise won't be the big change that lets you reach your goals.

I'm no expert, but your diet is wretched ;-) Seems a big caloric deficit in general, and way low on good quality protein and fats. I assume you are drinking your tea/coffee black(green)? The cheat day every week is a bit extreme too. Whether you need to cheat or not and if so how much is something you'll need to determine, but how you cheat is also important. Total binging might undue all the good you've done in the previous 6 days. Cutting out a 1000 cals might be a good call ;-)

Now of course you've made some great progress, and are on a good track, but I think if you want to get to sub 10% body fat, you're going to need to get better calories, in decent proportions, and at better times of the day (you should really eat more in the morning, especially some good quality low GI carbs, and a good quality protien). Adding some quality fats to your diet through flax, udo's, olive oils, almonds etc would also help you tremendously from a nutrition standpoint.

Just my .02. Congrats on your progress so far, and good luck down the road!

Pete

Lots of room for improvement in your diet, both quantity and quality. I'm not surprised you feel low on energy when you combine your nutrition and a 2 hour workout. You appear to be taking in less than 1000 calories by the time you get to your workout at 6:00 PM. Read over the nutritional stickies to see where you're going wrong -- mainly the fact you're eating too little without enough calories from quality whole food sources.

You can probably come up with a more effective way to split your cardio and weight lifting. I wouldn't be putting your lifting between two 30 minute cardio sessions. If you're going to combine the two, start with lifting, finish with cardio.

To answer your questions:

1. Start eating better
2. Same answer

Congratulations on your progress thus far. Put a little more effort into your diet, and I'm sure your success will continue.