Please critique my diet, ex fatties please chime in too

[e75id]

Hey there,

Age: 36
Weight: 192 lbs
BF%: 22.76 but I think I'm more personally
Height: 5'11
Waist: 37"
Wrist: 7"
Hips: 40"
Forearms: 11"

This is my diet starting between 8-9am depending on my schedule. I have no exact times for my meals but this is the order of what I eat. Please critique because I'm pretty new and I just want to know if I'm on the right track.
I've been eating this way for about a month and haven't seen much progress in my body or scale weight that I can report.

Gym
Protein shake- Oats or banana staggered after weight training
3/4 egg whites and meatless sausage patty (morningstar farms)
Salad: 6 oz of Tuna, 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/4 cup of chick peas or red kidney beans, 1 plum tomato, tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, cilantro and sometimes I cut up a few grapes.
1 cup of Kashi cereal with 1/2 cup of skim milk
10 almonds
Veggie burger (morningstar farms)
20 mini pretzels (Snyder's Of Hanover)
Atlantic Salmon steak w/ low fat sour cream 2-3 nights a week or 6oz Talapia with 1 cup or broccoli or 10 Shrimp with 1 cup of broccoli
Protein shake

If I add anymore food I literally would have to force myself to eat, which makes me sick.

I am full all day long, never hungry in the morning.

Daily Supplements:
Multivitamin
Vitamin C
Flaxseed oil

I drink nothing but water.

I hit the gym everyday
Monday: Upperbody
Tuesday: 45mins on the stationary bike @ 150bpm
Wednesday: Lowerbody
Thursday: 45mins on the stationary bike @150bpm
Friday: Upperbody
Saturday: 45mins bike @150bpm
Sunday: 45 mins bike @150bpm

Overall I feel great but my progress to this point really doesn't reflect it.

Critique away...thanks so much

~Joe

[CharlesDance]

What are your macros? No one will be able to tell you much without knowing them.

[e75id]

Gathering that info...I will post it soon

[e75id]

Macro count from a typical day:

Protein: 153.5
Carbs: 110.8
Fat: 57.5
Saturated Fat: 11
Sugar: 29.7
-------------------
Calories: 1,887

Note: Macros vary a bit if I decide to eat Salmon or Talapia for dinner. In my Macros, the stats reflect that if I ate Salmon that day.

[CharlesDance]

For a guy at 192 lbs, 1800~ calories actually may be a TAD bit low, for lifting days. As weird as that may sound..

I definitely think your protein should be higher, currently you're below 1 gram per lb of bodyweight, and usually when cutting you wanna try and hit at least 1 gram per lb, up to 1.5 per lb. I never go as high as 1.5, but I think you would benefit from at least about 200 grams a day, easy done from where you are with another protein shake somewhere in the day consisting of like 2 scoops @ 22~24 grams of protein.

Honestly You might benefit from a little more carbs, not a ton.

When I was 185, My Fat-loss diet, was around 2100-2200 cals on my weight training days, and around 1850-1900 on non-training days. I didnt even really do much cardio either, just really intense weight sessions.

What is your weight training like? YOu should be doing HEAVY, compound movements in your workouts, i.e. squats, deadlifts, leg press, bench press, etc. Try and do at least one large compound lift like that in each workout. Go for heavier weight, and lower reps, perhaps like in the 6-8 range.

This may sound weird, but you might actually try backing down some of your cardio, do like 3-30 minute sessions or maybe even less, like 25 minutes.

It's kind of hard to say, fat loss isn't always a sure-fire formula, and it's NEVER a quick process. You may be overtraining, I would seriously try 1-2 days of rest during the week to let your body recover. Overtraining can definitely halt all progress.

I don't see anything terribly bad in your diet, but even with that to say, hitting macros and total numbers by the end of the day will almost always take precedence over WHAT you're eating, by a pretty good bit. I know guys eating alot dirtier.

I would up the protein, maybe the carbs a bit, by like 20-30 grams, keep fat around the same, and make sure you're doing a Heavy compound lift in each weight workout. Lower body twice a week is probably too taxing on your body for only 1880 cals, Consider a split muscle routine. You can even do one for like 3 days, chest/tri/shoulders, back/bi, Legs . Or however you wanna do it. And back off that cardio some and see what happens.

I'm not a nutrition expert or anything, but It's possible you're over-doing it, and undereating for that amount of training. Rest is a critical component of any sort of body transformation.

Give that a try for a few weeks and let your body have a chance to adapt.

[e75id]

My weight training is 10 reps for whatever I'm doing for 3 sets. I normally try to lift to failure during my 3rd set of each exercise. I currently do squats, (hack squats, tried for the first time today), bench press, leg press, rows, hyper extensions, lat pull downs, shoulder dumbbell press to name a few. I haven't tried a dead lift yet but I'm going to try it soon. I do as much as I can handle because I'm pretty weak and I had inaugural hernia surgery on 1/24/12 but honestly that has no bearing on how much I'm lifting right now, I feel good. I am really going to my limits without any issues related due to my surgery, but like I said I'm pretty weak on my upper body compared to my lower body. By the time I'm finished with my workout I have a nice sweat going on and my workouts normally take 45-55 mins.

Well, I'm glad that I'm the neighborhood as far as my diet is concerned and it seems easy enough to tweak. I am going to take your advice and maybe just take the weekends off, shorten my cardio to see what happens and up the protein.

Thanks so much for taking the time to respond, hopefully I can see positive changes from the fruits of my labor.

~Joe

[CharlesDance]

yeah sometimes it sounds odd trying to reduce the amount of workload to get better results, but alot of times less can be more in these situations.

[e75id]

Originally Posted by CharlesDance

yeah sometimes it sounds odd trying to reduce the amount of workload to get better results, but alot of times less can be more in these situations.

I hope so because I'm getting pretty frustrated with not seeing any noticeable differences after doing this for a month with absolutely not one cheat meal.
I talk to some of the people at the gym and they tell me to just forget about the scale and just do what I'm doing and I will get there. It's great motivation but I just wish I can see the changes so that can fuel my fire even more.
It's annoying because last year I went on a very low calorie diet with zero exercise and lost 20lbs in a month. Not saying that that was smart but I saw results. This time I'm trying really hard to do things the right way and I'm getting nothing in return.

[wwwolf]

As a contrary opinion, If you have the time, instead of 150bpm for 45 min, try 90-120 min at 110-120 bpm. I.e. brisk walking or cruising around on a bike. I've had a lot of success with this. Moreso than HIIT. About 2.2 lbs per week, no strength loss.

[e75id]

I'm possibly thinking that I'm doing too much cardio right now. CharlesDance I believe was on the right track about doing less cardio so I will try and tone it down a bit to see what happens. I also Pm'd Mastover to see what advice he has as well. Just trying to figure this out.

[wwwolf]

I don't consider walking or light bicycling cardio, it's just calorie expenditure, without muscle catabolism.

The option that others suggest is HIIT. This seems to work for many, but I find if I am lifting with proper intensity, doing HIIT properly is close to impossible. Even doing it half-assed ends up making me feel fried.

You may just be impatient. It is difficult to see significant results in one month without having everything dialed in. When celebrities do it, they have someone cooking all their meals for them, and a trainer telling them exactly what to do. Even if you don't change anything in your current routine, I would be that in 3 months you will see decent results, and in 6 months, significant changes.

[CharlesDance]

Originally Posted by e75id

I'm possibly thinking that I'm doing too much cardio right now. CharlesDance I believe was on the right track about doing less cardio so I will try and tone it down a bit to see what happens. I also Pm'd Mastover to see what advice he has as well. Just trying to figure this out.

I did a few months of nutrition training, and about a month of Weight training with mastover, he's the one that prescribed that ~2200 cal diet I was on earlier. Everything that guy says is gold, I had great results. I'm actually starting back up on the diet he wrote me now, I plan to work with him again soon.

I won't speak for him, but in my experiences he will probably suggest you drop some of the cardio, he didn't want me doing hardly any cardio when I was working with him, and I still dropped waist size, and fat.

If you are still having trouble with results after a bit, I would strongly suggest purchasing a month or more of nutrition training with him, he'll get you on a plan that works.

[e75id]

Recommendation from Mastover:

Goal: Lean mass retention/fat loss

Lifting days: 1837 calories
Protein: 230 grams
Carbs: 92 grams
Fat: 61 grams
Non-lifting days: 1619 calories
Protein: 205 grams
Carbs: 67 grams
Fat: 59 grams

My Own that I posted earlier:

Protein: 153.5
Carbs: 110.8
Fat: 57.5
Saturated Fat: 11
Sugar: 29.7
-------------------
Calories: 1,887

Pretty comparable I must say aside from the protein. So...I wonder still, what was my problem?
He changed my Cardio slightly.

[CharlesDance]

Not sure, possibly some cardio overtraining. Mastover knows what
He's doing way more than I, so just follow his diet and see how that goes. 153 grams of protein was really low for your statistics, that could have been the problem right there.