Food intake timing?

First off I am training for a comp and on AAS with stims/thermos. I currently do cardio 4-6 days a week for 30-60 mins plus lifting. My diet is pretty good, about 2000-2200 cals a day, high on protiens while limiting carbs as day progresses. I have been sheding about 1lb a week, flattened out last 2 weeks and stuck at about 203lbs visable abs and vascularity at 5' 8". Thinking bout knocking cardio up a notch, 60-90 mins a day in the 70% HR range. Now my question is is eating a sandwich or something with decent carbs after workout(cardio) but before lifting a decent idea or will it curb fat loss, I will have much more energy to lift if I do this but will settle for less energy if it will negativly effect fat loss.

You are lifting multiples days a week, doing cardio multiple days a week, and only eating 2000-2200 calories per day? That seems hard and odd that you are only losing 1 pound per week at this rate. It sounds like you are doing enough training to be losing a decent amount of muscle too (this does depend on your workout some though). Can you give more details about your diet? Carbs/Protein/Fats. Cardio is not the most efficient way to burn fat. Have you heard of HIIT Cardio?

workhard1 said:

You are lifting multiples days a week, doing cardio multiple days a week, and only eating 2000-2200 calories per day? That seems hard and odd that you are only losing 1 pound per week at this rate. It sounds like you are doing enough training to be losing a decent amount of muscle too (this does depend on your workout some though). Can you give more details about your diet? Carbs/Protein/Fats. Cardio is not the most efficient way to burn fat. Have you heard of HIIT Cardio?

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I have heard about HIIT, never really looked much into it as i thought i would be far to weak during my lifts. I am not 100% sure on my macro breakdowns, all i can say is i have a ton of experience and normals eat 5-6 meals a day. this is what i would say my average day looks like, it differs but for the most part here it is.

1st
small bowl of ceral or oats, around 300 cals with milk
protien shake, 200 cals about 25 grams of protien

2nd
scrambled eggs- 5 whites one whole, 6 total

3rd
hamburg, about a first sized portion 90-95% lean

4th
protien shake and fruit

5th
tuna, whole can with miracle whip, sometimes i put tuna in a soup

6th
2 cups of catage cheese, sometimes 1 cup with 1 yogurt/fruit cup mixed in


That i would say is the average meal plan, i think i have only droped 1 lbs/week because i am on a significant dose of gear and probably gaining slight muscle mass, but not much

also i drink about 1- 1.5 gallons of h20, after workout i try to get some carbs in me with 40grams of protien and bcaas

any question or advise appreciated

If you were doing this naturally you would need to track your intake, the AAS could be acting as a bit of a band-aid for a poor diet.

Just looking at your diet I think your protein might be a little low, and your fats are definitely too low. And as stated above these are very low cals for someone who has about 185lbs of LBM, is lifting 4 days a week and doing cardio 4-6 days a week.

I do not know if you should train differently while on AAS as opposed to natural, but 60-90mins of cardio is a great way to chew through a ton of muscle, as well as making your body a very efficient fat burning machine (i.e. it learns how to burn less fat for the same amount of activity)

If I were you I would switch to HIIT cardio. You will be able to recover quicker on the AAS, so you could maybe get away with doing HIIT 3-4 times a week. It tough though, so just listen to your body and only do as much as you feel you can.

What sort of weight lifting program are you using?
How long have you got until the show? And how much more fat do you think you will need to lose to be at your desired bf%?

<watches with interest>

Great questions so far.

kicka19, have you competed before?

Built said:

<watches with interest>

Great questions so far.

kicka19, have you competed before?

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oh shit, pressures on.

I have not done a comp before. I roughly did the protien out in my head and it looks like about 160 grams, throw in a few shakes and im at 200 which is still probably a little low. I will look into the HIIT program. I normally have 1 or 2 cheat meals a week, ussually sushi or a burger. As for my workout split it is ussually 1 body part a day (tris, bis, abs, legs/deads, chest, back) in not that order, about 6-9 days before repeating bodypart. I do about 4-5 sets per bodypart 6-10 reps per set, about 75% of the sets are to failure. I keep a log of all my exercises and normally boost most lifts every couple of weeks then i switch up exercises or use a variation. I have done DC training before on a bulk and didnt think much of it. So so far you think lower cardio and up protien? any advice on the food during a workout?

Lower the cardio, up the protein, change back to DC. Low volume though. Basically, train like a powerlifter while you undereat - low volume, heavy workouts.

AAS will slow your thyroid down.

Add in some t-4 at 100 mcg's on empty stomach, or 25 mcg's t3.

BigDyl said:

AAS will slow your thyroid down.

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It does?

Maybe your fat loss has slowed down because of how much you are burning vs. the very low amount you are taking in.
I know you are prepping for a comp, so you gotta get real low.
But I am 20lbs lighter than you, not on AAS, and 2000-2200 cals for me would be quite a deficit.

Excuse me for asking this,

Built, which should be used when?

Heavy weights low volume
Light weights high volume

nkira said:

Excuse me for asking this,

Built, which should be used when?

1. Heavy weights low volume
2. Light weights high volume

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1. Heavy weights low volume: at least part of your basic cutting protocol; power/ME workouts; some of your maintenance or hypertrophy workouts.
2. Light weights high volume: depletion workouts; prehab/rehab under certain circumstances; RE; some of your maintenance or hypertrophy workouts.

Deffinatly lowering cardio, i love doing it but the weight seems to be coming off way to fast right now, as for the high weight low volume approach, i do not feel comfortable with it, when im in a heavy calorie deficet i feel much more prone to injury. Instead of knocking up the weight im going to do a shock week with different exercises then i am used to. Good news is I am by far the most cut I have ever been while still blocky

kicka19 said:

Deffinatly lowering cardio, i love doing it but the weight seems to be coming off way to fast right now, as for the high weight low volume approach, i do not feel comfortable with it, when im in a heavy calorie deficet i feel much more prone to injury. Instead of knocking up the weight im going to do a shock week with different exercises then i am used to. Good news is I am by far the most cut I have ever been while still blocky

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The reasoning behind heavy weights and low reps is that it forces your body to maintain LBM since you need to lift heavy shit. It's one of the essential things for maintaining as much LBM as possible on a cut, especially as you start getting very lean.