Tear into my meal plan?

oq4v3ht0u76kf2

Alright guys, I've waffled on long enough and spent enough time working on training routines and eating whatever I wanted. It's time to face up to it, get a bit of discipline and really working on what I'm eating too.

I've made some good gains strength wise and lost 3 stone since July but I'm starting to plateau and I need to get my eating habits sorted because they really aren't great. I've attached a meal plan I drew up in Excel and I'd really appreciate if anyone could take a look at it and let me know where I've totally made a balls of it.

I currently weigh 115kg @ 5'11, I'm fairly broad so I get away with it a little more than most but I have a very definite gut which I'm looking to shift whilst also getting stronger. Not really interested in definition or whatever at the moment, more strength and shifting fat.

Also, I lift at about 8:30am in the morning and during that time on non-lifting days I swim. Lifting wise, I'm following a very slightly modified version of StrongLifts 5x5 on M, W, F and I fit one more weights session in where I play about or try new lifts and reps/sets combos. My core lifting training is 5x5 on M, W, F though.

I get some cardio in at about 9pm, usually 20 mins of medium intensity cross trainier or treadmill followed by 15 minutes of HIIT on the bike.

Couple of final notes, I'm not a machine and I'm very much in this for the long-term. I want to be disciplined about it but I've allowed myself eat whatever I want for lunch on my days off work (Fri, Sat) and I've left my Friday night Guinness and takeaway in there. This isn't something I'm trying to do by Christmas or by summer or anything - just instill a bit of discipline and healthy eating 90% of the time!

I don't have a goal weight or anything like that, I'll be working off photos and how my body looks and how my strength is rather than figures on a page.

corkcomp

you probably need to post up your FULL workout plan as it stands, but at first glance it looks ok ... how often do you do the 35 mins of cardio? The diet is ok, but i would cut out the toast and white baguettes ... you need your carbs to fuel training but you should reduce the crap carbs ... Also, the lunch fri / Sat along with the booze / take away Friday night is 3 cheats within a short time period .. nothing wrong with that as long as you are aware it will probably undo a certain ammount of your hard work .. I dont think you really need to be taking ANY supplements based on the info you have given us but other posters may have better advice re this

oq4v3ht0u76kf2

@corkcomp, Cheers for the feedback mate. I've edited my original post to include my lifting routines from now until Christmas. Tues and Thursday mornings are swimming, I generally take Saturday morning off and Sunday morning I try new lifts / whatever. Would I be better off swapping the baguette for a wrap or just changing it to a brown baguette? I probably won't do it every day but will definitely incorporate it.

My cheat lunches will probably still be fairly okay, I don't eat chocolate / ice cream or anything like that - I have no sweet tooth at all. I might consider only having a cheat lunch on Saturdays though.

As for the supps, you may well be right. I found my strength gains increased when I started taking them before but that was when I was eating utter ****e. It may be that this slightly cleaner meal plan removes the needs for supps - anyone got any input there?

Finally, the cardio gets done Monday to Saturday, I don't do it on Sunday.

oq4v3ht0u76kf2

Just a quick bump for the weekday crowd, see if any of the regulars had any more input. Cheers guys.

BossArky

Instead of the OJ try to have an orange/banana/apple with a glass of water. This way you get all the goodness and fibrey bits, with less of the junk in processed OJ.

You seem to be going in the right direction if you have lost 3 stone already. If things stall then you may want to think about reducing bread / Guinness / take-aways a bit more.

How many pull ups can you manage at 115 kg? Your plan shows you doing 3 sets to failure. Is that correct?

Throw in some barbell lunges after your squats if you really want to hit your legs hard and burn whatever cals are left over.

Is 1 set of 5 reps on deadlifts enough? Deadlifts use a lot of different muscles, so if you want to burn lots of cals then perhaps do at least 3 sets, maybe 5. It also may be hard to increase by 5kg each week.

oq4v3ht0u76kf2

@BossArky, I only drink 100% OJ - not from concentrate, but I'll definitely consider making my own as the stuff I drink is fierce expensive. I'd usually have maybe five or six pints on a Friday night and a take-away afterwards and it's an absolute tradition in my group of mates. I'd rather make it up in the gym than give it up!

The pull ups are assisted at the moment, I'm dropping about 5kg assistance every week (although that is slowing a bit) as my weight goes down and my strength goes up. Last week I was on 30kg assistance so I was only pulling 85kg. I'd usually manage 8 then 7/8 then 5/6.

Will try doing some BB lunges after squatting this week and see how it affects the rest of the workout alright, cheers for that! The 1x5 deadlifts issue... I definitely feel like I have more in the tank after this but I've been trying to stick to the programme religiously. I think I might start doing 3x5 though.

As for adding 5kg a week, it should be fairly easy. My 1RM's are below and all these training weights are far below them for the moment but I got a bit of "number madness" towards the end of my last programme and started sacrificing 5 or 10% form for an extra few kgs on the bar so I've gone right back to basics on this programme. Trying to iron out every niggle and kink in my form before starting to go for some serious numbers from January on.

My 1RMs are actually "higher" than these, but as I said, with less than acceptable form so these numbers are the ones I've done and been confident of my form on.

Squat: 125kg
Bench: 90kg
Deadlift: 110kg