Sport multiple diet questions

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jimmyk

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I know there are other similiar threads but I have a few questions specific to my situation. I'll quick give a rundown with some relevant facts.
I'm 6'5, 200..an athletic person who played sports in college but has gotten lazy about my diet and exercise the last few years and want to get serious about changing it. I plan on lifting 3 days a week, and 2-3 days a week of light cardio or HIIT. I'm in decent shape but really want to kill the layer of fat over my stomach and gain some muscle as well as improve my overall health. First question is- would it be optimal for me to take a cutting route to shed the fat first? I'm not overweight and don't need to lose weight, just take some off the stomach, but I'm thin and still want to add muscle.

My main questions relate to my diet, I'm on the right path as far as what foods to eat, I just need to piece it all together. I'm mainly concerned with about how many calories and grams of fat/carb/pro I should be aiming for. Also, should these numbers change on days I'm only doing light cardio as opposed to lifting or intense cardio?
For reference sake. Today I took in:
2599 cal
123 fat
236 carb
170 pro

I believe I should be closer to my body weight in protein everyday. Not as sure on the fat and carbs and if the numbers are the same on lighter workout days..I have more questions but this is already getting long so I'll save those for another time. Any feedback is appreciated. Thanks
 
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welcome to the site!

your calories and macros don't look bad to me. I am a proponent of increased protein and dropping carbs when you want to shed fat. Particularly I like to carb cycle between low carbs on cardio days and moderate carbs on weight training days.

My advice is to get started, and track your progress. If you aren't losing at least 1 pound a week, I'd lower your carbs just a bit, say 25grams (100 calories worth) and see what happens.
Don't try to lose more than 2lbs a week after the first week (due to beginner's luck shocking the body week one is often 3-4 pounds, half of which is water and body waste).

if you do cardio on an empty stomach, go longer, but slower (steady state cardio). if you're doing late day cardio, make it more intense, 20-30 minutes.

definitely lift weights, and keep it on the heavier side, lower reps (but again, start off easy the first few weeks so you don't pull a muscle, tendon, etc). you can't really add much muscle when getting lean, but you CAN increase strength since strength has a LOT to do with the brain's ability to optimally fire as many muscle fibers (to contract) as possible.
 
Appreciate the response and thanks for the advice..

I did some more research and I found out some obvious things which I should have done before I posed my question(s).

I found with my height, weight, age, and activity level I should be at ~2700 calories to maintain. I've decided to put off adding any muscle for now in favor of shedding the little fat I have, so I'm going to go 500-1000 calories below my 2700. Being this is my first week of eating good, I'm surprised that I've been able to do that with relative ease and still have energy. I think tracking what you eat is a great way to see exactly what is going into your diet.

I still have one lingering question relative to my goals. Does anyone have a recommended % of macro breakdown or should I not sweat it and worry more about calories in/calories out? What malkore says about lowering carbs on a cut makes sense, but I'm curious if anyone believes in a specific macro breakdown that is optimal for my situation or for cutting in general. Thanks!
 
One more question...

Is it still a good idea to add dextrose to my PWO shake at a 2:1 ratio to protein? That seems like a lot of sugar on a cut..
 
post workout sugar is ok...but if it bothers you or if its jsut too damned sweet, you can cut the ratio back.

also, do NOT cut 1000 calories off your maintenance needs! that's BAD. remember, the exercise you're going to be doing is also going to eat into your caloric needs. cutting is reducing maintenance by 10-20%

20% of 2700 is only 540 calories. 540 x 7 days a week is your 3,500 calorie deficit...or a pure pound of fat.

add some cardio and its not hard to get 1.5lbs of fat loss.

cutting to 1,700 calories a day will just make you tired, pissy, and you'll lose muscle mass.
 
jimmyk said:
Appreciate the response and thanks for the advice..

I did some more research and I found out some obvious things which I should have done before I posed my question(s).

I found with my height, weight, age, and activity level I should be at ~2700 calories to maintain. I've decided to put off adding any muscle for now in favor of shedding the little fat I have, so I'm going to go 500-1000 calories below my 2700. Being this is my first week of eating good, I'm surprised that I've been able to do that with relative ease and still have energy. I think tracking what you eat is a great way to see exactly what is going into your diet.

I still have one lingering question relative to my goals. Does anyone have a recommended % of macro breakdown or should I not sweat it and worry more about calories in/calories out? What malkore says about lowering carbs on a cut makes sense, but I'm curious if anyone believes in a specific macro breakdown that is optimal for my situation or for cutting in general. Thanks!
Click to expand...

taking a look at the example diet you posted originally it seems like your fat intake was a tad high and your protein intake was a little low. i would down the fat intake from like 130 to 70 / 80 and the protein from 170 to like 215 / 230, and the carbs could be lowered a tad too from like 230 to something like 190.

but if you want an actual macro % breakdown, this is what i've been doing cause i'm on a cutting diet too. i carb cycle between high and low carb days and on high carb days i do a 40/40/20 split, so i eat the same amount of protein and carbs in a day and keep fats pretty low for the most part and on low carb days i do a 55/20/25 split, so i eat a ton of protein and cut out starches for the day. hope this helps and good luck!
 
Appreciate the responses, both were helpful

One thing I forgot to add, that number for carbs includes veggies, not just starches. Do I include veggies in my carbs numbers or no?
 
Another random question. Is there anything wrong with sauces to go with meat? Assuming I still stay within my calorie needs is there anything wrong with this or is it a bad idea?
 
depends on the sauce. some is loaded with salt, sugar, or bad fat. others aren't bad.

my wife uses a little wine, and after skillet cooking steaks she makes a wine sauce from it with the drippings, wine, a little cornstarch and mushrooms.
 
Okay, I feel like I'm on track but I need some reassurance. I'm putting a lot of time into this from tracking calories, preparing meals for work, etc. and I want to make sure I'm on the right track. It seems like the more I learn the more confused I get..

I'm finding formulas with ideal calories ranging from 2200-2800 for me to lose fat. Using the formula Hoss posted, this is what I get:

Men: BMR = 66 + ( 6.23 x 201) + ( 12.7 x 77) - ( 6.8 x 24)

=2132 x 1.6 = 3411 = maintenance

3411 x 0.2 = 682
3411-682 = 2729

I've been shooting for as close to 2730 as I can get, but it feels like I'm eating a lot, but eating healthy(veggies, chicken breast, salmon, tuna, cottage cheese, ww bread, eggs).

How close should I be trying to get to 2730? And is that everyday? Whether I lift intensely or do light cardio or take a rest day? The last thing I want to do is undereat and cut into my muscle, but I also want to make sure I'm in enough of a deficit to kill this last bit of stubborn stomach fat.

By the way, my overall plan is a 3 month cut, to kill the remaining fat, then go on a bulk to add muscle as I'm pretty thin other than the gut...

Any feedback is appreciated!
 
why should his fat intake be lowered? There's no link between high fat intake and anything bad, it's the composition of the fat intake that matters (IE, the proportion of different fatty acids in relation to each other).

I agree with the others on getting more protein, it will help you keep your muscle mass.
 
I tried to ask this question on another thread here and got no response, so I'll try here..I'm starting to wonder if my best gamplan would be to cut or just bulk and then try and shed some fat once I have more muscle to aid in that. I'm not concerned with losing weight at all, I'm overall lean, it's just the stomach fat I want flattened a bit. I'm 6'5, 198, 17% bf.

Bulk first, or cut first? I want to eventually add strength and mass, and shed fat, I'm just confused which way I should approach it first. My only fear with bulking is some of those extra cals going to my stomach, but then again won't the extra muscle help shed the fat in the long run? What to do?
 
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