Hey all,
I was hoping maybe someone could give me a rough once-over on my current diet? I'm starting to plateau and I'm honestly not quite sure what I should do. I'm trying to cut down to 10% BF or maybe a little less.

Vital Stats:
Age: 22
Height: 6' 0''
Weight: 215 lbs
Waist: 40''
Hips: 37''
Forearm:12''
Wrist: 7''
BF: ~15-16%

Current Diet:
Meal 1: 8 AM: 3 eggs, 2 cups coffee-black, no sweetners, 1 banana
Meal 2: 11 AM: 1/2 Chicken Breast, 2 tbsp natural peanut butter, 1 apple
Meal 3: 4 PM: 1/2 chicken breast, 2 tbsp natural peanut butter
[Workout ~ 5PM]
Post Workout: 2 scoops Protein Powder, 1 banana [7 PM]
Meal 4: 8 PM: 1/4-1/3lb Red Meat, 2 cups baby spinach, 2 tbsp olive oil/broccoli

Supplements taken:
Multivitamin [meal 1]
Fish Oil, 6g [meal 1]
Thermocin [meal 1]
L-Carnitein, 2g [meal 1]

Workout Schedule: Upper/Lower Split MT,THF

Sample Uppers: 5x5

Assisted Chins
BB Bench
BB Row
BB Deadlift
Military Press

Sample Lower: 5x5

BB Squat
Romanian DL
Leg Press
Leg Curl

Cardio: 3X Week HIIT, 25 minutes, 1 on 2 off.

Any ideas?

Current Diet:
Meal 1: 8 AM: 3 eggs, 2 cups coffee-black, no sweetners, 1 banana
Meal 2: 11 AM: 1/2 Chicken Breast, 2 tbsp natural peanut butter, 1 apple
Meal 3: 4 PM: 1/2 chicken breast, 2 tbsp natural peanut butter
[Workout ~ 5PM]
Post Workout: 2 scoops Protein Powder, 1 banana [7 PM]
Meal 4: 8 PM: 1/4-1/3lb Red Meat, 2 cups baby spinach, 2 tbsp olive oil/broccoli

M1: I would drop the yolk down to 1, and have 6-8 egg whites, or some 4-6oz meat.
M2: I would drop the apple from here completely, or move it to M1.
M3: I would ditch the peanut butter and swap for some brown rice, for example.
PWO: Swap the banana for some ground oats.
M4: I would do something like chicken and brown rice here.
M5: Move your M4 a bit later in the day if this is possible.

As for your supplements, I would space your fish oil out throughout the day, but not PWO. What do your numbers come to PRO, CARB and FAT wise?

EDIT: I'd have some sort of veg with pro/fat meals and if you know you're gonna have to go a long while between meals.
EDIT2: I'd try and eat something between 11am and 4pm thats a long time without food.

That doesn't look like much food for someone your size. By my estimates it's only around 1800-2000 cals. I'm the same height as you, roughly the same age, about 60 pounds lighter and on my last cut was eating around 2300-2400 cals a day with about the same amount of activity.

Also, it looks like you aren't taking in any complex carbs (oats, sweet potatoes, brown rice).

As for the workouts:
Why deadlifts on upperbody day? It's a great lift but I don't know how well it would work 2x a week the day before you train legs.

I would add more veggies earlier in the day, swap out PB for some other fats in one of those meals, and swap the banana carbs to something starchy PWO (fructose restores liver glycogen, not muscle glycogen).

Double the protein in your first 3 meals. 1/2 chicken breast only comes to about 15 or so grams of protein. An egg white is good for about 5g protein.

As for your supplements, I would space your fish oil out throughout the day, but not PWO. What do your numbers come to PRO, CARB and FAT wise?


That doesn't look like much food for someone your size. By my estimates it's only around 1800-2000 cals. I'm the same height as you, roughly the same age, about 60 pounds lighter and on my last cut was eating around 2300-2400 cals a day with about the same amount of activity.

Also, it looks like you aren't taking in any complex carbs (oats, sweet potatoes, brown rice).

As for the workouts:
Why deadlifts on upperbody day? It's a great lift but I don't know how well it would work 2x a week the day before you train legs.

I would add more veggies earlier in the day, swap out PB for some other fats in one of those meals, and swap the banana carbs to something starchy PWO (fructose restores liver glycogen, not muscle glycogen).

Double the protein in your first 3 meals. 1/2 chicken breast only comes to about 15 or so grams of protein. An egg white is good for about 5g protein.

First, Thanks for all the responses guys; I appreciate it.
Current:
Cals: 1926, P: 195, C: 76, F: 89

Yeah, I think my body is slower metabolically than it should be. Eating at RMR-1000 yielded weight gain [No inch gain; LBM?].

George, I find that I can rep more weight if I do my squats and dead lift on different days.

So, based on the above suggestions:

Meal 1: 8 AM: 3 eggs, 1 apple, 1 scoop protein powder
Meal 2: 11 AM: 1/2 Chicken Breast, 2 tbsp natural peanut butter,
Meal 3: 12:50 AM: 1/2 Chicken breast, handful of almonds
Meal 4: 4 PM: 1/2 chicken breast, 1 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
[Workout ~ 5PM]
Post Workout: 2 scoops Protein Powder, 1/2 cup oats [7 PM]
Meal 5: 9 PM: 1/2lb Red Meat, 2 cups baby spinach, 2 tbsp olive oil/vinegar.

Comments: I upped the protein in the diet, added a meal, increased veggies, and switched out most of the fruits for complex carbs. I didn't use egg whites, because I have a terrible time eating egg whites without dumping some sort of condiment on them. I increased the red meat (for the calories) and I think thats about it. Oh, I'm splitting the fish oil out over all the meals.

I think that's pretty good?

First, Thanks for all the responses guys; I appreciate it.
Current:
Cals: 1926, P: 195, C: 76, F: 89

Yeah, I think my body is slower metabolically than it should be. Eating at RMR-1000 yielded weight gain [No inch gain; LBM?].

George, I find that I can rep more weight if I do my squats and dead lift on different days.

So, based on the above suggestions:

Meal 1: 8 AM: 3 eggs, 1 apple, 1 scoop protein powder
Meal 2: 11 AM: 1/2 Chicken Breast, 2 tbsp natural peanut butter,
Meal 3: 12:50 AM: 1/2 Chicken breast, handful of almonds
Meal 4: 4 PM: 1/2 chicken breast, 1 cup broccoli, 1/2 cup cooked brown rice
[Workout ~ 5PM]
Post Workout: 2 scoops Protein Powder, 1/2 cup oats [7 PM]
Meal 5: 9 PM: 1/2lb Red Meat, 2 cups baby spinach, 2 tbsp olive oil/vinegar.

Comments: I upped the protein in the diet, added a meal, increased veggies, and switched out most of the fruits for complex carbs. I didn't use egg whites, because I have a terrible time eating egg whites without dumping some sort of condiment on them. I increased the red meat (for the calories) and I think thats about it. Oh, I'm splitting the fish oil out over all the meals.

I think that's pretty good?
What does the revised diet come to?

What does the revised diet come to?

Revised comes up to be:

Cals: 2178
Protein: 241g
Carbs: 96g
Fats: 93g

George, I find that I can rep more weight if I do my squats and dead lift on different days. ?
I agree with you. :) The problem I was noting was that you're training looks like this:

Monday: Deads 5x5
Tuesday: Squats 5x5, RDLs 5x5

Thursday: Deads 5x5
Friday: Squats 5x5, RDLs 5x5

That's a lot of hammering on your lower back. Especially when you're at a caloric deficit. What is your recovery like?

I agree with you. :) The problem I was noting was that you're training looks like this:

Monday: Deads 5x5
Tuesday: Squats 5x5, RDLs 5x5

Thursday: Deads 5x5
Friday: Squats 5x5, RDLs 5x5

That's a lot of hammering on your lower back. Especially when you're at a caloric deficit. What is your recovery like?

Oh, my mistake :o.

It's pretty rough, I get pretty run down by the time the weekend rolls around. All kinds of minor muscle pulls and aches normally by Friday night. Most of the time they are gone by Monday morning though, so I haven't been sweating it. I definitely wouldn't do this if I was five years older. As it is, I'm probably pushing the limits of my recovery range.

looks like you are on the right track man, I know when I plateaued my trainer was like how many carbs are you getting and I wasn't getting very many at all. Now I have rice and veggies with my 2nd,3rd, and 4th meal as well as oatmeal at breakfast and cream of rice with my post workout meal and I have dropped another 30 pounds by doing so and avoided a lot of muscle loss by having enough fuel for my body when it needed it.

GOOD LUCK, your are definitely on the right track with your diet!:tucool:

Revised comes up to be:

Cals: 2178
Protein: 241g
Carbs: 96g
Fats: 93g

I would probably bump the protein up to about 300, carbs up to around 250 and keep fat to about 45-50g. That would give you 2605 - 2650 calories, which does sound a lot. However, we have similar stats (my starting vs your current) and that's what worked well for me.

This is one way of doing it, there are others however. :)