Hello Everyone,

I just recently came across this site, quite the place, John!

I'm a 20 year old college student, off and on for a couple years I have lifted weights and other things, but I've never had a dedicated program. I'm changing that on Monday.

Right now, I'm 5'9'' 164lbs and have 13.5% body fat (I suspect this percentage is incorrect). I measured body fat using healthcentral.com, but I know I did the measurements poorly (I only have a carpentry tape measure which was difficult to do myself), I suspect it to be a low reading. So I'm only using that as a ballpark until I pick up a better tester.

I'd like to share the first phase (cutting) of my workout schedule and take in any feedback you have. This is mainly modeled after John's plan, with a few modifications from what I have read (on this forum and elsewhere).

(Also, for the Non-HIIT running sessions, I'm in a condition class where we do intensive running, but not HIIT, so that's why I'm adding a small workout afterwards.)

Monday:
- Running, 20 Minutes Minimum (Non HIIT)
- Running, 12 minutes (HIIT)
- Abs (crunches/reverse crunches)
Tuesday
- Weight training: back & biceps
- Stationary bike or Stair climber, 12 minutes (HIIT)
Wednesday
- Running, 20 Minutes Minimum (Non HIIT)
- Running, 12 minutes (HIIT)
- Abs (crunches/reverse crunches)
Thursday
- Weight training: pecs, delts, triceps
Friday
- Running, 23 mins (HIIT)
- Abs (crunches/reverse crunches)
Saturday
- Weight training: quads, calves, hamstrings
Sunday
- Rest

I have a couple specific questions, as well:

1) Is it worthwhile to work abs three times a week? Or would I actually be better off to work them once a week like other muscle groups. I don't understand why abs are treated differently.

2) Would I benefit from additional cadio workout days? I would be happy to do more, but I get the impression that it isn't productive.

Thank you for any comments!

can you add your nutritional info?

Cals/fat/protein/carbs per day

I'm still working on the nutritional portion of the plan (Specifically, I don't have any idea what my goal fat and carbohydrate numbers should be, other than 20% of my calories should be from fat and 40% from carbohydrates).

Here is the calories and protein:

1500 calories (using 10 x 150 Lean Muscle)
15 or 16 grams of protein (1 gram per pound)

I guess it depends on how you work your abs. I see a lot of people do abs 3x a week, but some people work their abs differently. I mean, a lot of people will just crank out a few sets of 50 or so rather than weight their situps or something. The guy on fatlosstips.com says that he probably should have just done it once a week, but he did it 3x a week anyway. I guess 3x a week really can't hurt you, so it's up to you.

your abs recover quicker than other muscle groups....in a nutshell.
I'm concerned about your caloric intake, I'm not a fan of the 10xlean mass...try 10 x current weight.
you can use a 40/40/20 split for your breakdown as well
40% Carbs
40% protein
20% fat

I have a spread sheet that I use to track my intake, I can email it to you.
It is like what john used, but you can tailor it to your needs.
J

Thanks for the advice, guys. It is really cool to be able to confer about all this stuff.

Ranger17, I would like to see your spread sheet if it's not too much trouble. Send it on over to (wy @ wyquarterly.com), thanks.

For calories, I can easily up to 1600 or 1650 to match 10 x total body wieght. I guess that would be a wiser starting point to then move up and down as necessary to meet the target of 1 - 3 pounds of fat loss a week.

sent
:tucool:
J