Sport Advice?

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underPAR

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Hi, this is my first post. A little background... I am a 19 year-old college freshman. When I started school in August of '05, I weighed 190 pounds (I'm 5'11"). I had always been overweight (but not obese) and had always struggled with my self image. In November, I committed to changing my lifestyle. I started running 3 miles a day, 7 days/week, and started to "watch what I ate." By December, I was down to 170 pounds. After a brief lapse in motivation, I started back up with my committment in January of this year. I upped my running to 5 miles a day, 7 days/week, stuck to a strict diet, and by April I weighed in at 159 pounds. Now that I had lost most of the unwanted fat, I decided to start lifting weights to build muscle. I currently lift weights 6 days/week, hitting all the main muscle groups. The problem is, I now weigh 151 pounds! I'm still losing "weight," but I'm not getting "cut."

I'm trying to find the best way to get "cut." I just can't seem to find the right mix of cardio, weights, and eating to achieve this. I run for 35 minutes, 6 days/week (averaging 7:45 miles). My daily calorie intake is about 1,800 calories, and I get between 80-100 grams of protein daily. I only weigh 151 pounds, which is a lot less than I would like, but I still have that last little bit of body fat that I want to get rid of. And I'm under the impression that the only way to do that is to eat few calories and do extensive cardio.

Do you have any suggestions for getting rid of that last little bit of body fat and still building enough muscle to get cut? Thanks for reading all of that. Any help would be much appreciated!
 
First of all .. welcome. Here is what I think your issues are. 1) you need more calories ... 2) you need more protein 3) You need more rest. Running and lifting 6 days a week seems a bit much. We can give you more detail if you supply more info i.e. daily diet, workout schedule.
 
Yeah we need more info. In order to build any type of muscle you need to eat way more than that. 1800 is way below what you need, to build any form of muscle you should probably be around double that...but not right away..ease into it. Your protein, should be above 200 grams too, more like 250 would be better.

It's also important to understand with all of that cardio, being that it's long(er) distance(s) and more endurance, it's gonna be even harder to put on muscle.

If cut down on the cardio, eat well and eat more, AND develop a nice lifting routine, you should see some results. If you need help with your routine too, theres useful info/people around here, throw it up in the weight training forum and we'll tear it apart. 6 days does sound like too much as well.
 
Thanks for the response! Here is my regiment in more detail.

Cardio - I run 30-35 minutes (averaging 7:45 miles) 6 days a week, no exceptions.

Weights - I'm new to lifting, so keep in mind this is probably not an ideal workout. I have a rotation of three different days. On Monday I lift biceps, triceps, and shoulders (two different lifts per muscle group). On Tuesday, I lift quads, hamstrings, and calves (two different lifts per muscle group). On Wednesday, I lift chest, lats, and back (two different lifts per muscle group). Then I repeat this for W, Th, and F. I do moderate-heavy weight, 6-8 reps, 3-4 sets. I also do a tough abs circuit on M, W, and F.

Eating - I live in the dorms on my college campus, so I can't even explain to you how hard it is to eat healthy with only a microwave and small fridge (our cafeteria is fat heaven :eek:). But I'll be returning home next week, so that should make things easier. I'll finally be able to make protein shakes! Currently, I eat six meals a day (breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner, snack). Breakfast usually consists of oatmeal or a high-fiber cereal w/ almond milk (I'm lactose intolerant :(), fruit, and sometimes eggs if I go to the cafeteria. Lunch is usually something like white-meat chicken or tuna on a whole-wheat tortilla with fruits and veggies. Dinner is usually the same thing or maybe a Lean Cuisine if I have one handy. For snacks, I like to eat those Detour bars (the small ones), which give you 15 g of protein and only 150 calories. Other snacks might be apple slices w/ a tablespoon of peanut butter, small bowl of the aforementioned cereal, etc. I also eats lots of fruit, and drink 6-8 bottles of water daily. It ends up being somewhere between 1400 and 1800 calories daily.

I think that's about it. Based on things I've read, a 5'11" 151 lb. male supposedly needs about 2,750 daily calories to "maintain" his body weight. But for some reason I'm scared to eat that many calories - I've worked so hard and my subconcious tells me that I will gain all the weight back if I eat that many calories. But perhaps this is just an illusion. It just seems to me like eating 1800 calories HAS to be better for getting cut than eating 2800 calories.

Any further help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Dude, please don't east less than 2,000 a day. 3,000 is what you need. If you want to get cut just do more cardio. Or reaccess your weight training. If you do it correctly you'll burn as many calories as you can dream of.
 
underPAR said:
I think that's about it. Based on things I've read, a 5'11" 151 lb. male supposedly needs about 2,750 daily calories to "maintain" his body weight. But for some reason I'm scared to eat that many calories - I've worked so hard and my subconcious tells me that I will gain all the weight back if I eat that many calories. But perhaps this is just an illusion. It just seems to me like eating 1800 calories HAS to be better for getting cut than eating 2800 calories.

Any further help would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...

Yup, it's just an illusion. If you are eating well and eating enough - and - lifting with a solid routine, you will put on muscle. You must understand that in order to build any type of muscle, your body needs something to build with. If your body and metabolism don't have enough calories feeding it, your body won't be able to build muscle.

Keep in mind that the 2750 is typical to "maintain" like you said. That would be for a "normal" person, however you are doing cardio 6 times a week, which is far above a normal person and lifting 6 times as well, which also is above normal. So you should easily see why you have lost so much weight, your calories are really low and you exercise a ton. I think you should try increasing your caloric intake by 500 calories, or try eating 5-6 times a day (like you do) AND try to get 400-500 calories in each snack/meal. From there, gradually increase.

You should also develop a better routine, I think you may have the general idea, but it's hard to know without knowing exercises, sets, reps, etc...
 
Read this article, this article is one of the best i have ever read online based on conditioning ur body
 
OK, thanks for all the advice so far. Here is my main observation: I am eating WAY too few calories. My BMR is 3100 calories (after factoring in exercise). That means I need a MININUM of 2600 calories daily, and I'm only eating 1500! I think what has happened is that my body has gone into "starvation mode" and my metabolism has slowed down. So, it's obvious that I need to increase my calories. But, if I just start eating 2600 calories tomorrow, will my body store more fat because it's not used to that much food? Should I ease my way into this, by eating perhaps 2100 calories for a few weeks? Thanks again.
 
underPAR said:
OK, thanks for all the advice so far. Here is my main observation: I am eating WAY too few calories. My BMR is 3100 calories (after factoring in exercise). That means I need a MININUM of 2600 calories daily, and I'm only eating 1500! I think what has happened is that my body has gone into "starvation mode" and my metabolism has slowed down. So, it's obvious that I need to increase my calories. But, if I just start eating 2600 calories tomorrow, will my body store more fat because it's not used to that much food? Should I ease my way into this, by eating perhaps 2100 calories for a few weeks? Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Yes that's why I said, read my post
 
Personally, I would add 500 every week until I started seeing minimal to moderate fat gain then drop back.
 
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