The Final Push - Diet Evaluation.

[BennyC]

Right my last 3(almost) weeks of my cut and it's time for an all out effort to really melt as much fat off me as possible. I've been going since January for those that haven't been following when I finished my bulk at 90KGs/198lbs.

I've got a bodyfat reading of 15.9% @ 84KGs/185.2 lbs today. This gives me a LBM of 70.6KG/155.8lbs which makes my MBR = 1895 calories per day.

(370 + (21.6 x LBM in KG) = MBR.)

Every other day is now:

20 Minutes HIIT on the rower + 2 7 phase barbell complexes + 6-8 minutes of circuits ( 30 seconds skipping, 30 seconds mountain climbers, 30 seconds high knees on the spot jogging, 30 seconds alternate toe touchers/jumping jacks, 30 seconds rest x 4.)

I'm going to add in 20-30 minutes extra cardio on the cross trainer on my Resistance days which is currently a rolling full body push/pull. So 10-15 minutes before and after as a warm up/cool down but also to see 250-300 calories extra gone.

The most important part 'The Diet':

Breakfast:

3 x Large Free Range Eggs - 300
100mls SS milk - 50
salt, pepper, ketchup - 40?
2 x tsp Olive Oil - 80
1 x tsp butter - 40
1 x Apple - 100

Approx 610 cals

The apple may well be shifted to between lunch to have as a snack.

Lunch:

The following is divided into 7 Portions to last the week:

2 Whole Cooked Chickens
3 Cans of Tuna
400grams of Turkey Breast
1 x Can of Salmon
2 x 'Curly' Lettuce
200 - 300 Grams of Spinach Leaves
1 x Bunch of Celery
3-4 x Grated Carrots
1 X Whole Cucumber
1 x Red Pepper
1 X Yellow Pepper
1 X Green Pepper
2 x Avocado's
+ 2 Tomatos each portion

It works out at around 500 grams per portion possibly a little less.

This portion will now likely be consumed in two stages due to lack of food volume! So half and then 90-120 minutes later the other half

Dinner

Always 250 grams of mixed veg - 250
Ketchup - 50

With:
2 Chicken Breasts - 300
100 grams Mackerel - 250
100 grams Salmon - 160
250 grams Mined Beef - 440
250 grams Minced Turkey - 250

Meal varying between 450-750 calories

Post WO & Pre Bed Shakes
Post WO:
25 grams whey + tsp cinamon + 20 grams oats- 200
Pre Bed:
25 grams Pharma Blend 6-8Hr - 100

300 calories total.

Depending on my evening meal for the day I could add in 25 grams of whey as a pre workout or a snack.

Snacks
Humous & Celery/ Carrot sticks - ?
Mixed Nuts - Not if I can help it! **** loads of calories!
Canned Mackerel fillets - 250
Tangerines/Satsuma's - ?

Total: 1860-2160 per day dependant upon evening meal, without snacks. Most days I am now in the workshops on my feet all day. Including a 15 minute walk there, mostly uphill.

I intend to fill up on Tea too. As I find warm drinks tend to make me feel quite full. Usually 1 heaped teaspone of sugar which is something like 15 calories.

Thoughts, comments, suggestion & calorie corrections welcome!

 

[Freefaller]

I'll do a serious reply later, but my breakfast is currently close to 1k cals!

 

[BennyC]

I'll do a serious reply later, but my breakfast is currently close to 1k cals!

Grrrr I could happily eat 5k cals a day!

 

[Freefaller]

You'll be there soon! I need it, AGVT is a killer!!!

 

[Teknobry]

Personally I'd ditch the oats in the pre-bed shake. Carbs aren't needed before sleep surely.

I'd ditch the apple as well, no value in it. (fruit sugar...carb)

 

[Nix]

Not very helpful, but something you might want to consider: supermarkets do bags of cheap pollock/fish for about £3. If you're eating little and often, it might come in handy as an extra especially considering that you're a student.

I know some bodybuilder ate a lot of this cheap fish and rice-cakes prior to competition to cut down on his bodyfat.

 

[BennyC]

Personally I'd ditch the oats in the pre-bed shake. Carbs aren't needed before sleep surely.

I'd ditch the apple as well, no value in it. (fruit sugar...carb)

There aren't any oats in my pre-bed shake

Care to recommend something suitable as a replacement for the apple? I don't really want to be going 4 hours or so without eating, I want to keep my metabolism nice and high.

Not very helpful, but something you might want to consider: supermarkets do bags of cheap pollock/fish for about £3. If you're eating little and often, it might come in handy as an extra especially considering that you're a student.

I know some bodybuilder ate a lot of this cheap fish and rice-cakes prior to competition to cut down on his bodyfat.

Thanks for that, I'll see what I can find next week

Unable to train this and next weekend as its my Advanced Instructors course however I may well be used as a model for certain CV & Resistance methods. Might be able to sneak in some cardio at the end of the day if I have time.

Edit: At the weekends I can snack on mixed veg that's not a problem as I can get a reasonable volume yet be sub 200 calories. When I'm in the workshops I don't have much choice really. All we have up there is a kettle & a microwave.

Actually just thought, don't know why I forgot about that, I can take some soup with me and nuke it.

 

[Freefaller]

Protein is ideal before bed, especially slow digesting version (e.g. casein) as it'll capitalise on the GH releases at night when you fall asleep, carbs will just labour it. You could take a shake with milk although milk is quite carb heavy.



Good idea about the soup, if you make pea or lentil soup as well you're going to get a good hit of protein as well.

Plus I don't think an apple is 100cals!!!

 

[Teknobry]

There aren't any oats in my pre-bed shake

Care to recommend something suitable as a replacement for the apple? I don't really want to be going 4 hours or so without eating, I want to keep my metabolism nice and high.

My bad, misread what you'd written!

I used to take a couple of tins of tuna and a can opener with me to work Made quite a good snack! Get them with springwater though instead of brine. Don't drain it to much and eat it along with a pint of water, kept the hunger off for quite a while

For lunch now and again I'd have 2 or 3 tins of tuna, mixed with a load of chopped cucumber, onions, some feta or cottage cheese and a splash of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Mix it all together - well tasty! Only takes a few mins to make before work and just bang it in a tupperware box.

 

[ergonomics]

get rid of the ketchup. its taking up about 90kcals you could be using elsewhere. try and use a different/healthier sauce if you need it - scout your supermarket sauce isle

good job on the tinned/canned mackerel. great little snack in the day. dont frown upon nuts aswell. you go mental on meat but mixed nuts/seeds are great protein/good fat holders with lots of fibre for your digestive health - especially flax seeds.

 

[Freefaller]

Nah don't eat that much tuna. Stick to the mackrel and sardines. Nuts are great too surprised you ain't got any! Just make some mince the night before or premake it over a weekend and freeze it and bring it in and uwave it! Good to see some good fats and fruit and veg there. But you're pretty savvy about that anyway.

 

[Buffman]

For a lower calorie sauce- Jack daniels bbq sauce Great tasting stuff and ~100cal/100g

 

[BennyC]

Thanks for the replies chaps.

I do have some nuts but they're just really high in calories and when I'm trying to stay within a set amount they'll bump me right over!
The pre bed Phd Pharma Blend is an awesome mix of slow digesting stuffs.

Today's been pritty good. I've been Level 3 training all day today and haven't had any uncontrolable hunger or even felt that hungry really!

Now I'm busy it's not a problem. Boredom & hunger go hand in hand however!

Thanks for the tips on the sauce. I think ketchup is similar and I've got a massive bottle of it. I'll just try to use as little as possible/bare minimum. My estimates are just guess work for calories for ketchup.

Certain numbers are probaly/over under so I have a bit of tolerance to play with.

 

[BennyC]

Been having a re-think for my diet. Whilst I'm happy with the initial structure my lunch meal seems to be a bit calorie heavy I've found.

I have an issue where I need to feel like I've eaten lots in order to feel full. My answer for this is...

To go crazy on spinach leaves. A £1 300 gram bag which is pritty big, provides 25 calories per 100grams. So there's plenty of volume and hardly any calories. I'm thinking half a bag per day gives me, call it, 40 calories. If I say I want to take in 400 calories at lunch this leaves me room for either some canned makerel fillets/ 1 or 2 cans of tuna/ handfull of cooked chicken/turkey and then a small portion of pepper/celery/carrots/cress etc.

I just think that my lunch meal is probaly a bit big and might be able to cut some calories out. Alternatively I could just tripple scoop some whey with SS milk

Ketchup will be dropped appart from with breakfast. The olive oil & butter will also go too.

Don't get me wrong what I've posted up is a good clean diet a template I'll deffinatley use for when I begin my bulk but I want to try and cut out as many unnecesary calories as possible. Olive oil & butter don't really make much difference in regards to filling me up (they do for balancing fat macro's) but its roughly 100 extra calories I could drop.

 

[PAz]

Diet is good imo. Just get the green tea down you

You staying off the booze completely for this final push?

 

[BennyC]

Diet is good imo. Just get the green tea down you

You staying off the booze completely for this final push?

I've been off the booze since January Only been out once this semester!

Not because of being 'hardcore & devoted' to this, which I am, but because I've not really felt like going out and socialising. If I'm honnest I've enjoyed Uni but am quite looking foward to going home and starting my life. The fact I spend a lot of money on food doesn't help

 

[BennyC]

Just drew this up now. This is a 'theoretical' plan. Something I may or may not do but obviously would like opinions.

I lost 2.5lbs last week so something is working so my diet may not need changing. So we'll see how the next week goes. The last 5-6 days before heading home I might do this as a final charge.

I'm not sure on the macro's, obviously low carb, but could probaly do with some more fats. I could loose 100calories if I halved the pre-bed shake and replace these with some from milk. I could also drop some olive oil & butter into the scrambled eggs.

I just wanted to see what would need to be done if I wanted to get calories even lower.

Obviously no snacks on this plan, if I did it'd probaly be more spinach leaves carrot/celery sticks, apple, tomato etc

Apples & Tomato's would probaly find their way in anyhow.

 

[Freefaller]

Are you sure you need to cut your calories down so much? Did you calculate your RMR (no activity) vs your BMR (including activity)? Just be careful you don't get to a stage where you're starving your body.

 

[BennyC]

Are you sure you need to cut your calories down so much? Did you calculate your RMR (no activity) vs your BMR (including activity)? Just be careful you don't get to a stage where you're starving your body.

Yeah this is what I want to be careful of going 'too' low and being counter productive.

The revised plan would allow me room for a few snacks through out the day but yet still maintain 1900cals or under (which is what my BMR came out as).

Though just now I've weighed in at 83.1KG from Saturday @ 84.5KG. I don't want to loose it too quickley.

I'm aiming for 82KG with 15% or less BF, currently 13.08 stone with a target weight of 12.9. Stone we shall see!

 

[PAz]

Gonna be getting into proper pre contest style cutting soon mate with such low cals