Checkout
I'm 18 years old, 5' 7," and anywhere between 157 and 163 lbs depending on my carb and water intake on any given day. I'd estimate myself to be around 12% bodyfat, so I'm relatively lean, but I'd really like to drop that number down to about 8% and get down to about 150 or so pounds because 1.) I obviously share with most 18 year old guys a desire to be cut, and 2.) I've just started to box and feel that at my height, 147 would be a better weight for me than 156, and I'd like to be able to make that cut easily. My nutrition is ok right now, but certainly not great. I was a slightly chunky high school sophomore, and dropped about 35 pounds 2 and a half years ago with the help of a nutritionist, and then gained back about 8 or 10 pounds in muscle when I got into lifting, so I'm not new to the idea of nutritional self-discipline. I'm at college, but I can stand to go without alcohol for a few months if I need to. So now that I've given you way too much biographical information, here's my actual question: how fast can I safely expect to drop into single digits for BF%? I plan on lifting heavy twice a week (on lacrosse in-season maintenance plan, probably fridays and mondays) and doing at least some cardio every day (at least 30 minutes), plus sprint work on tuesday and wednesday. on lifting days, my macros should be around 26-2800 calories, about 40-40-20 carbs/protein/fat by percentage, and my non-lifting days should stay around 22-2400 calories, 30-50-20. I also plan on taking 2 cheat days per month, in which my food quality will stay relatively high, but I'm not going to bother with portions or salt intake and I'll probably have quite a bit of diet soda. anyone want to throw out an estimate or an average for how fast I can expect to lose the next 4-5%? also, anyone who has any contributions at all to my diet plan, please let me know. I'm basing this off only a small base of personal experience and there's a very good chance you know a lot more than I do about this.
Contact - (347) 674-6717
@Faber
Great question bud and one that I dealt with a lot in college. Every winter my goal was to put on a solid 20-25 pounds of solid weight and then drop 10 pounds of any extra weight I'd accumulated right before the season.
There are two different approaches that I tried. The first is a little extreme but it worked like a charm everytime (have probably done it 4 times to date). The basic idea is that you give yourself 2-3 week and try to burn as much fat as possible. In order to do that I'd drink 6 protein shakes a day (around 200 calories a piece, very low carb, except post lift which was around 400 cals and high carb) along with fish oil, vitamins, and some fiber supplements. I'd allow myself one solid meal a week and lift heavy, total body, 3 days a week. Very little cardio except for a metabolic circuit, like this one on the weekend:
http://www.oneresult.com/articles/training/1r-metabolic-circuit
Again you'll be able to lose 5-10 pounds using this strategy in 2-3 weeks but you won't be a happy man during that time period.
The other approach takes a bit longer (think about a month and a half) but is almost as effective. Again I'd lift heavy 3-4 days a week with HIIT 2 days a week and a possible steady state day depending on soreness. But instead of going with straight protein shakes I'd use a carb cycling approach... essentially I wouldn't eat any carbs aside from meals right before and right after lifts. This article gives a solid summary of carb cycling but I've found it to be very effective for what you're trying to do.
http://www.oneresult.com/articles/low-carb/making-low-carb-diet-work-ath...
Hope the two approaches help but if you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask bud.