Diet Advise - Reducing body fat/maintaining muscle

Ant11

Hi all, I would greatly appreciate your advice here. As the title says I'm looking for advise with my diet to reduce my body fat but maintain the muscle that I have. I've never focused on doing this before so I'm not too sure what I should be doing. Should I meet my daily Calorie Intake or reduce it to lose the body fat? I'm a bit lost here. I know to loose weight a person should reduce calories but would this cause me to loose muscle? I don't want to loose any of my muscle and I am happy with my weight so I have aimed to reduce my carb intake. This is the part where I get lost

From my diet below I have aimed to keep my Protein intake high while reducing my carbs and but I am worried I have cut too much. Would this cause me to burn out as my carbs are so low? My Protein intake is approx 220 grams (about 880 calories). My carb intake is only about 170 or 180 grams which is around 700 - 750 calories. My fat is about 35 - 40 grams which is around 320 - 360 calories. So my calorie daily intake is a little under 2000 calories.

To meet my daily intake my carbs should be around the 380 - 400 gram mark and fat should be 66 - 80 grams but I don't know if I should increase these if my aim is to loose body fat??


My info.
Height 5'11, Age 28, Weight 82kg. My body fat is 18%. My daily calorie intake is approx 3000 so I think I am not taking in enough calories if i follow the diet below.

Goal: Reduce body fat to 12 - 13%.

I weight train Monday, Wednesday, Friday and do 1 hour Cardio Tuesday and Thursday( I do HIIT as it keeps me from getting bored).

Diet
Breakfast – Porridge with low fat milk and 1 scoop Protein shake.

SNACK – Tuna Steak in Brine (150g drained from Lidl)

Lunch – 2 full eggs and 4 egg whites

Pre gym – Protein shake 1 scoop and banana

GYM

PWO – 2 scoop Protein shake + Instant Oats 110g scoop (TOTAL Calories= 584. Protein 49.5grams. Carbs 70.7grams, Fat 7.9grams)

DINNER – example would be, 200g of chicken, turkey or steak with loads of veg(brocolli, chic peas, asparagus etc) and a bit of seasoning.

Water - approx 6 pints a day.

Mike87

Do a quick youtube search for "intermittant fasting" and do exactly what it tells you.

Chancer3001

im doing this now, same goals.

train 4 times a week. lift heavy monday, circuits tuesday off weds, heavy thurs, circuits fri.

the 2 heavy sessions force your body to keep the muscle.

circuits are great for burning calories.

eat less than you take in. eat protein after the heavy sessions.

Gi joe!

I also highly recommend having a look at intermittent fasting, check out leangains.com if you have the time. Been doing it along with fasted training last two weeks and its made eating less so much easier with little to no strength loss.

Your diet isn't bad but I would suggest not dropping calories too much initially.
You'll run the risk of burning yourself out and losing muscle in the process. Maybe start at 2500 calories per day and if you aren't dropping enough fat, then cut down again.

However you definitely won't need 380 to 400grams carbs a day. I'd suggest keeping the carbs higher on days you do weights and dropping them or keeping them only in the form of veggies/fruits when you don't. Instead bump up your fats on those days as a good source of energy. You'll improve your insulin sensitivity as a result, helping you loss fat while retaining the maximum amount of muscle.

In the end though its all about consistency and incremental progress. If you can follow a decent diet while training intensely for a long enough period of time(8 weeks minimum) you'll get lean. I'm hoping to do the same myself. Good luck!

Chancer3001

IF on leangains is 16/8....Would most people not eat in an 8 hour window anyways. Say 11-7pm...

A lot of days I would do that...

Its not consciously choosing , just the way I eat. Im definitely giving it a go. Some of the videos on youtube are great. The Hodge Twins have a couple of good/funny ones on IF.

Ant11

Cheers for the advice guys.

That 16/8 is a bit weird. I get up around 7, theres no way I could prolong having something to eat until later in the day.

Brian?

I wouldn't over complicate it. Eat 500 Kcals below maintenance while insuring you get in 1.5grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.

Chancer3001

but ant you can choose the 8 whenever.

so eat your foor from 7-3

Ant11

briankeating wrote: »

I wouldn't over complicate it. Eat 500 Kcals below maintenance while insuring you get in 1.5grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.

Do you reckon I should increase my protein intake? I'd weigh 180pounds which is 270grams of protein. I currently take about 220 grams.

Gi joe!

Alot of people may unintentionally fast for 16 hours and eat in an 8 hour window.
However these same people are usually sedentary, eat high fat sugary foods along with copious alcohol at the weekend and end up overweight!

And there may be some initial discomfort towards the end of the fast, but once your body adapts to it really is a great 'diet' to follow in terms of convenience and results.(hate the use of the term diet)

Chancer3001

are you lifting weights?

Ant11

Chancer3001 wrote: »

but ant you can choose the 8 whenever.

so eat your foor from 7-3

Thats true. I normally don't go the gym until 4:30/5 so my last meal is about 6:30/7pm so at the moment I'm kinda 12/12. I suppose I'll just have to stay in bed in the mornings:rolleyes:

Brian?

Ant11 wrote: »

Do you reckon I should increase my protein intake? I'd weigh 180pounds which is 270grams of protein. I currently take about 220 grams.

Absolutly, take some of those calories you're eating in carbs and replace them with protein.

Ant11

Since were on the topic I have another question. Should overweight men who are on a low carb diet and trying to loose weigh take protein supplements?


About 10weeks ago I got a mate of mine to join the gym. He was your regular couch potato. Since I've introduced him to circuits, weight training and HIIT he loves it and is a totally different person. He lost a few kgs at the start but plateaued about 2 weeks ago. I looked at his diet and explained that he need to cut his carb intake. In the last 2 weeks he lowered his carbs considerably and lost 7pounds. Now he's hooked and is determined to continue. He asked me should he take protein shakes, to increase his protein and try reduce his calories further in other areas. This is something I have no idea about as I've never been over weight. He is currently 110kg, so my question is should he take protein shakes to increase his protein intake and reduce his calories by further reducing his carbs??

Chancer3001

no, just keep cutting calories.

Burkatron

Ant11 wrote: »

Since were on the topic I have another question. Should overweight men who are on a low carb diet and trying to loose weigh take protein supplements?


About 10weeks ago I got a mate of mine to join the gym. He was your regular couch potato. Since I've introduced him to circuits, weight training and HIIT he loves it and is a totally different person. He lost a few kgs at the start but plateaued about 2 weeks ago. I looked at his diet and explained that he need to cut his carb intake. In the last 2 weeks he lowered his carbs considerably and lost 7pounds. Now he's hooked and is determined to continue. He asked me should he take protein shakes, to increase his protein and try reduce his calories further in other areas. This is something I have no idea about as I've never been over weight. He is currently 110kg, so my question is should he take protein shakes to increase his protein intake and reduce his calories by further reducing his carbs??

It depends on his diet! Protein shakes are a supplement, if his diet is still not clean then no he'd be better off working on cleaning up his diet. (going by the amount of time he's been going to the gym I'd say this is the more likely scenario)

If his diet is clean & he's finding it difficult to get his protein intake spot on then he could consider it! He could also just up hiss meat intake! He should stick to a diet that allows him to lose 1-2lbs a week/-500 to 1000 cals a day (after the initial water weight he lost due to cutting carbs ofcourse)

Mellor

Your intake looks fine. Aim for 270g protein is good, but if you regularly only hit 220g you'll be fine. There's nothing wrong with 4 shakes a day, but personally I'd rather a little more actual food.

After that jsut keep hitting the gym, and give it time.