My first post here on this great board. Been lurking for the past week or so and decided I might as well reg. I really need a bit more direction in everything! Lifting, eating, and cardio (what else is there in life, right? :lol:).

Right now, I'm 15 and about 5'8, about 170lbs. Using my families tanita scale every day for a few days at different times, it seems to have averaged out my BF% at 21-23, so we'll say 25% to be safe. It's not ridiculously obese, but it could definitely be lower. Luckily, I tend to hold it in a way that it's not obvious with a shirt on.

Right now, I'd really prefer to focus on losing fat.

:jumping: Cardio is 3x a week on the treadmill for 45mins+.

I don't eat junk for the most part except for on Fridays and occasionally Saturdays when I go out with my friends, where we usually get a pizza or something similar. I can't really do much about this, as most of my friends go to a different school and this pretty much the only time we get to see each other.

No Alcohol, Cigarettes or Drugs.

What I eat: :eat:

Breakfast:
- 1cup All Bran flakes with 1cup skim milk
- 1 slice 100%ww toast with a sliced hardboiled egg and 1 slice of lowfat cheese

I don't have time to eat between classes

Lunch:
- A sandwich with 4oz of chicken or turkey, a slice of cheese
- Some carrots
- An apple

When I get home:
Either leftovers from last night's dinner or another sandwich like my lunch

Dinner: 6oz of some kind of low-fat meat (either chicken or turkey usually, twice a month it's beef) and a starch of some sort - usually a squash or yam plus some broccoli


I've been lifting for about a year, and this is what I've come up with.

5x5 means 2 warm up sets and 3 work, 3x8 means progressively heavier
Now for lifting: :bb:

Day 1 and 3:

2x5 Pullups (one set wide grip, one set closer)
2x5 Chinups
5x5 Bench Press
5x5 Shoulder Press
3x8-10 Curls
3x8-10 Tricep Extensions
5x5 Barbell Full Squat

Day 2:
Same as day one, DB Bent Over Rows instead of squat

And thus, I submit myself for review. Play nice.

Hmmm. If you're 15 it might just be so-called puppy fat.

I mean, if that really is what you eat every day then you shouldn't be fat. It's not much at all. However, add in the odd chocolate bar or packet of crisps and the calories would start to rise.

Your weights routine looks fine. Do you increase your weights regularly?

The cardio is neither here nor there for losing fat, although useful for cv fitness and sports.

I don't really have time to comment on the diet (but I will say that I think it needs work, e.g. more frequent meals, more protein and more healthy fats), but in regard to exercise I would definitely add in more leg stuff. You're only doing squats right now. Do some Romanian or straight-leg deadlifts, which will target your hamstrings. Add in some unilateral work, like lunges and Bulgarian split squats.

How long have you been following the program you layed out and tracking your progress? I'd say you're in pretty good shape to see results if you stick with it.

The fact that you're putting thought into your diet and being progressive with your training puts you way ahead of the game. If you're not seeing results quick enough, making adjustments won't be that hard.

Keep a mindset of conditioning your body so it becomes capable of doing something it wasn't capable of doing before, and you'll do just fine. Lift a little more weight, run a little faster, perform a conditioning circuit a little quicker -- doing things like this will help contribute to the physique changes you're looking for.

Get out there and be active with your friends.

However, add in the odd chocolate bar or packet of crisps and the calories would start to rise.
That basically is the case. I guess I need to work on that.
The cardio is neither here nor there for losing fat, although useful for cv fitness and sports. Yeah this is more based on CV fitness as there is a little history of heart disease in the fam.

I also notice that whenever things seem to be going smoothly there's always a little thing in between that screws it up. For example, sweets being everywhere around Halloween, both my parents birthdays being close together etc which leads to a lot of bad foods. If anything, I'd guess that's why I have more fat.

I've been following that program for just a couple weeks. Before, I didn't really have much direction.

I'd considered adding leg work, but my legs are already a bit big for my liking (23.5 inches not flexed). I guess there's no way around it though? Also, I'm kinda scared of SLDLs.

I've also been playing a ton of football and basketball with my group but now that it's getting colder (Canada :lol:) we tend to spend more time on videogames than sports.

And one more thing: Any ideas for a quick bite between classes?

Since you have little in the way of healthy fats, a good quick snack would be some Natural PB.

At your age and from what you have described, you should make some pretty quick progress so long as you have an appropriate caloric balance.

You've been lifting for a year, but have you been using more or less the same routine? If you have, and you're still progressing in terms of strength, then no worries. But more than likely you're sitting at the same weights, and you should definetely mix things up a bit by trying an upper/lower split or something similar.

But aside from that, take this as lightly as you can whilst still getting some result. Definetely don't deprive yourself of that pizza with friends or that occasional candy bar, because you only live once and you have all of your 20's to spend obsessing over your body.