How strict does my diet need to be for a cut?

shakenbake

I've decided to go on a mission to see my abs, I've never seen them before, so I'm pretty excited!

I'm doing 3-4 days of cardio with a 40min average for jogging and then weights on alternate days (sometimes same days), concentrating on all major upper body groups.

My diet looks something like this (I'm veggetarian). It could be better I know.

1. Muselie
2. Brown bread salad sandwhich & fruit
3. Large green salad and quron
-training-
4. potatoes, quorn, vegetables & protein shake

I've been loosing weight over the last six weeks say, but it appears to have stopped now and I'm left with the remenants of my belly There's not that much belly fat left to go!

I caught myself eating some potatoe salad and crokettes yesterday and I thought that can't be good!! I haven't got to the stage where i'm literally counting grams of fat and calories as I was hoping to get away with that but any advice that can help me get rid of that last layer of belly fat would be great!

Transform

to get to where you want to be your going to have to cut back on the carbs - yes.

Post up your current weights program including weights being lifted.

You a guy/girl.

your current height/weight.

current speed when jogging

where are you getting the good fats in your diet as you know how vital they are?

legend365

I'd say drop bread and potatoes.

Instead of sandwich have bowl of salad with a cracker or 3.

Maybe try sweet potatoes. Messy little things but nice when chopped up for wedges or even mashed.

shakenbake

Transform wrote: »

to get to where you want to be your going to have to cut back on the carbs - yes.

Post up your current weights program including weights being lifted.

You a guy/girl.

your current height/weight.

current speed when jogging

where are you getting the good fats in your diet as you know how vital they are?

I'm male, 5'6.5 and weight somewhere close to 11 stone, although I haven't weighed myself in a few weeks. I can probably jog 6k in that 40mins at a standard pace. I've started the odd short sprint somewhere along the way these days though as I'm feeling better about the distance I'm going. My weights program looks something like this

Shoulder press x 3 sets 12 then to failure
Lateral Raises x 3 sets 12 then to failure
Press ups x 2 sets of 20 then 1 set of 10 to failure
Bench Press x 3 sets of 15 to failure
Butterflies
Tricep Dips
Bicep Curls
Hammer Curls

I'm using either 10k or 12k weights for all exercises. I do these at home.

tlev

How long is a piece of string? :rolleyes::rolleyes:

shakenbake

About as long as your answer is useful

tlev

Well the stricter your diet the faster more effective the cut is

Procasinator

tlev wrote: »

How long is a piece of string? :rolleyes::rolleyes:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071030072914AAH55cv

bluefinger

Transform wrote: »

to get to where you want to be your going to have to cut back on the carbs - yes.

Is this true? I'm a newb to fitness have been back at it the past few weeks. Would love to see my abs also but in reality I have much lower expectations. Am trying to loose the moobs and beer belly first. I thought that once you stuck to a certain number of calories per day and avoid sat fat, eat sensible times etc, you would be on the right path. Don't you need carbs for the body to get the fuel it needs to workout? Please answer.

Magic Eight Ball

bluefinger wrote: »

Is this true? I'm a newb to fitness have been back at it the past few weeks. Would love to see my abs also but in reality I have much lower expectations. Am trying to loose the moobs and beer belly first. I thought that once you stuck to a certain number of calories per day and avoid sat fat, eat sensible times etc, you would be on the right path. Don't you need carbs for the body to get the fuel it needs to workout? Please answer.

Transform speaks the gospel.

celestial

bluefinger wrote: »

Is this true? I'm a newb to fitness have been back at it the past few weeks. Would love to see my abs also but in reality I have much lower expectations. Am trying to loose the moobs and beer belly first. I thought that once you stuck to a certain number of calories per day and avoid sat fat, eat sensible times etc, you would be on the right path. Don't you need carbs for the body to get the fuel it needs to workout? Please answer.

The term 'cut' is tremendously abused - if you have a beer belly then you aren't going on a cut - you just need to cut the junk food (this includes stuff like white pasta/white bread etc) and exercise!

rccaulfield

So are you training 6/7 days a week then-too much-your shocking your body-ease up and eat properly-you'll end up with a runners body-no one is impressed by little abs on a puny frame!

Transform

no leg work and those weights are ok at the moment but in would get a chin up bar and get good at pressups and then put those weights into your back pack and THEN do your chins and press ups - would be hell of a lot more useful than your current program

mloc

Seems like a lot of light weight isolation work there. That would be definately something to look at; try and get in heavier, compound movements (like Transform suggests) such as deadlifts, squats, barbell bench, chins, dips. Your legs are amongst the biggest and most metabolically significant muscles in your body and you really need to start hammering them.

As far as the diet is concerned, cut back big time on the carbs and maybe introduce more good fats and protein (tough considering your vegetarian status).

shakenbake

Thanks for the replies/advice folks.

Just on the weights, I have to be quite careful with my shoulder. I went bulking mad a few years ago and made some fantastic gains but in the process I also injured my shoulder and carry a life time nag with it now.

So I tend to be left with doing more reps with lighter weights as opposed to heavier/shorter sets. Bummer!

Remmy

shakenbake wrote: »

Thanks for the replies/advice folks.

Just on the weights, I have to be quite careful with my shoulder. I went bulking mad a few years ago and made some fantastic gains but in the process I also injured my shoulder and carry a life time nag with it now.

So I tend to be left with doing more reps with lighter weights as opposed to heavier/shorter sets. Bummer!

Do you know what exactly happened to the shoulder?

Stev_o

So wholemeal brown bread is a no no then when your targeting your abs? What meal could you replace it with?

shakenbake

Remmy wrote: »

Do you know what exactly happened to the shoulder?

It was a rotary cuff tear in two places and some damage to my AC joint. Took months of physio to get out of the horrors with it. It was right on the verge of doing surgery but I opted against it in the end. I mean it's alright now I just can't push it, particularly shoulder and bench press. Even jogging aggrivates it a bit.

Transform

shakenbake wrote: »

It was a rotary cuff tear in two places and some damage to my AC joint. Took months of physio to get out of the horrors with it. It was right on the verge of doing surgery but I opted against it in the end. I mean it's alright now I just can't push it, particularly shoulder and bench press. Even jogging aggrivates it a bit.

well i hope your doing plenty of scap press ups, band pulls, face pulls, rotator cuff work with bands and light dumbbells and rolling will help also.