# Da Digital Journal



## DiGiTaL (Oct 27, 2008)

Hi all,

I have a blog where I keep track of my daily activities/foods but I thought creating a journal is also of great way to learn. Rather then posting many new threads, I will search for answers and post them here or ask here and wait for a response .

This journal is mainly for my diet but I will also include about my workout/stats/goals etc... Dieting is not an easy task and to learn to diet for all three; Cutting, Maintaining and Bulking is a little difficult, especially when your new to it all lol. There will be a lot of trial and errors on these so I would like to learn as much as I can because I am pretty serious about my health and fitness and would like dedicate however long it takes to achieve my goals.

Anywho, I'll make a little post in Diet & Nutrition section to inform people about my diet that I'll post here and hopefully get some feedback .

Meal 1: Breakfast
 Protein Shake = 1.3cup of 1% milk + Whey ON powder
 2 Egg Whites - boiled
 2 Whole egg - boiled

Meal 2: 
 Banana - Medium size/large
 Whole Wheat Bread - one regular slice
 A tuna salad - Lots of veggies I'll ad
 Strawberries - 2 average size strawberries

Meal 3: Lunch & Pre-work out
  Brown Rice cooked - 2 cups 
  More vegetables 
  Chicken Breast - Medium slice 
  Whole wheat bread - 1 regular slice

Meal 4: Post Work out
  Protein shake = Water + Whey Protein mix
  Apple = 1 medium 
  Roast beef sandwich = I guess this comes with 2 slices of wheat bread and some vegetables, some ketchup.

Meal 5: Dinner / last meal
  Cottage Cheese..How should I eat this? I dont want to put more bread in this diet.


Overall Water: about 4-6 liters a day. Below is the macro of the foods.
I also take some MultiVitamins with my first or second meal.











*My goals:*
I am trying to do a Lean Cut as much as possible. Some days I eat about 2200 calories, some days I eat 2500, some days I eat about 2800 so I took an average of 2400ish for maintaining level and made a deficit of about 8-10%.

I know its not the best diet, I've read the stickies and a lot of info on other sites, but I ran out of food to add in the list lol. So go ahead, flame me  tell me what I did wrong, Ill change anything. 


- Thanks for any help


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## Built (Oct 27, 2008)

WOW, that would be one uncomfortable cut for me, but you may do better on low fat and higher carbs than I do.

What do you weigh? What's your lean mass?


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## DiGiTaL (Oct 27, 2008)

Im not doing too bad. I weight 191lbs and Im not sure about my lean mass, how can I figure that out?

Also, I will post some pictures tonight so everyone can see whats right or wrong in this diet. Right now its gym time, I'll be back in an hour with pictures (So sorry)


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## Built (Oct 27, 2008)

Well, what weight to you expect you'll need to hit in order to see abs?

Take this number and multiply it by 90%. Use that as an estimate of lean mass and be done with it.


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## DiGiTaL (Oct 27, 2008)

I want to be around 180-185 and hopefully be under 10% bf.

So my LBM is:
90% of 185 = 166.5 So Im guessing this is my Lean Mass?

You think I should add more fat to this diet? I tried to follow the method of having like atleast 15g of fat, and good protein with every meal. I saw how I was so high on protein but low on fat. Not sure if it'd be good or bad.

Also, I just did a bf% check and this was the result:


> Estimate #2 based on waist size and weight Estimated body fat of *18.5%* (35.3 pounds of fat)


My waist is 36inches at the moment, but usually in the mornings its around 33 or 34.


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## Built (Oct 27, 2008)

Okay, so my way estimates you at 13%, their way estimates you at 18%, split the difference, call it 15% and use that. 

So you have about 160 lbs lean mass, give or take a few. I like to use half a gram of fat per pound LBM as a daily baseline. I personally go higher than this, but I'd suggest at the very least don't go lower. 

Protein minimum is usually stated as a gram per pound LBM. Again, I like mine higher, but it's just for comfort, and to be on the safe side while cutting. 

No need to eat fat with every meal. Just get your total calories in, get in your fat and protein minimums, fill up the rest of your calories however you like and stay comfortable. 

So, for you, if you want to run the calories you posted, I'd consider bringing the fats up to at least 80g per day. You can drop the carbs down to "pay" for this. 

Feel free to increase the protein, too if you like. I like my protein at around 200-220g per day, fats at 80g-120g depending on my calorie limit. 

This was today, for me, for example:

 Grams Calories %-Cals  
Calories  2,199   
Fat 103.3 921 43 % 
Saturated 40.8 365 17 % 
Polyunsaturated 15.6 136 6 % 
Monounsaturated 26.5 237 11 % 
Carbohydrate 119.9 417 19 % 
Dietary Fiber 31.7    
Protein 207.2 817 38 % 
Alcohol 0.0 0 0 %


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## Built (Oct 27, 2008)

Wheat in particular can be a real problem with regard to hunger. 

I avoid grain in general, and eschew carbs for all but the workout window. In fact, I carb cycle so I have carb for my training days, but give myself extra calories to allow for the additional hunger. I go lower carb on my rest days so I can eat lower calories and not mind. 

But that's me. Some folks feel great on low fat, high carbs.

You ever run a carb cycle before? For that matter, you ever eaten a lower carb diet?


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## DiGiTaL (Oct 27, 2008)

Thanks for the info Built.

So I definitely need fat, I dont want to start feeling tired or hungry either. You've said to have half a gram of fat per pound LBM which in this case falls right under the 80g to 120g spectrum. I am considering to go with 100g to see where it takes me, then I can reduce/increase it if necessary.

I also forgot to add in the diet Fish Oil, that usually has a lot of good fats but I couldnt decide which one it was on fitday so I excluded it there.

I changed the 2 cup of brown rice to 1 cup to reduce the carbs and add more fat to it. Also added some Almonds to 2nd Meal to add more fats. Im not sure what else to add/modify. 

Seeing your stats there, maybe a drastic change in the carbs isnt a bad idea. After changing everything right now, here is the new macros for this:

Calories: 2,382
fat: 85g
Carbs: 219g
Protein: 189g

The amount I previously had set for my Protein powder was 1 Shaklee packet, I dont even know what that is lol. I changed it to about 2 tablespoons for each shake and the calories went down as well protein + carbs.


Also, according to fitday I am consuming 23g of fiber daily, but I know I get more because of all the vegetables I eat and the multivitamins. Is this good enough?


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## DiGiTaL (Oct 27, 2008)

Built said:


> Wheat in particular can be a real problem with regard to hunger.
> 
> I avoid grain in general, and eschew carbs for all but the workout window. In fact, I carb cycle so I have carb for my training days, but give myself extra calories to allow for the additional hunger. I go lower carb on my rest days so I can eat lower calories and not mind.
> 
> ...



I am actually thinking of doing a carb cycle, I have never done it but I think it might be necessary. Maybe do a high carb on lifting days and low carb on rest days like you've said. Which would mean: mon -> sun: high, high, low, high, high, low, low carbs. Im thinking of make wednesdays and saturdays my refeed day. 

Im sure I've done a few days of low carbs before but never did a diet with it like that intentionally. I've been stupid for a long time to care about it lol.


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## Built (Oct 27, 2008)

Okay, let's keep our terms straight here. Refeeds are big carb-o-rama benders. That's not what we're talking about here.

I just go higher and lower than average, depending it's a training days or not. 

For example, how many lifting days you plan to use - four a week? Okay, what calories to cut for you... <scrolls up> okay, 2450 on average, and about 160 lbs lean mass.

Four days a week, you could do something like this (and feel free to tweak this however you like, it's just a suggestion):

LBM = 160 lbs. 
4 lifting/HIIT days per week.

*Average daily macros: *
233g of protein, 
94g of fat, and 
169g of carbohydrate, 
2,450 calories in total.

*(4) Lifting/HIIT days: *
233g of protein, 
80g of fat, and 
233g of carbohydrate, 
2,581 calories in total.

*(3) Rest/SS Cardio days:* 
233g of protein, 
112g of fat, and 
84g of carbohydrate, 
2,275 calories in total.


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## DiGiTaL (Oct 27, 2008)

Thats right, 4 lifting days a week. 

That actually looks like a really good setup, I will definitely give this a try! I just need to figure out what to add and fix to match those numbers lol.

I tend to do my HIIT and Cardio on the same days, essentially I do them both at once. Like 15mins of HIIT and 15mins of cardio. I used to do just HIIT for 30mins but I wasnt pushing myself hard enough then. Is that a bad thing with what Im doing?


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## Built (Oct 28, 2008)

No, that's good. Perfect, really - and you must be in PHENOMENAL shape - I can only manage about 6-8 minutes of intervals when I'm in peak condition! (and that's not now, I'm bulking slightly right now, trying to bring up my bench a bit)

You doing HIIT on the off-days? I'd do it on lifting days, either in a separate session about 8 hours away from your lifting, or right after you lift. I do mine right after I lift, for about 6-8 minutes of intervals and finish up the remainder of my 20-30 minutes total with steady-state.


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## DiGiTaL (Oct 28, 2008)

Haha, thanks but I haven't been in such great shape over the past few months. When I first started HIIT, I was doing them right before my workout for about 10mins to get the heart rate going along with a good HIIT training, but I found out that would make me weaker for when I lift. 

Now adays, I do my workout around 6pm-7:30pm and do HIIT with Cardio around 9:30pm-10pm.  Say if I did it right after lifting, should I have a meal then do HIIT or dont drink/eat nothing and go straight to HIIT working out.

I do cardio 4 times a week and HIIT 3 times. 
I do HIIT on Monday, Tuesday, and Fridays
I do Cardio on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
That gives me sometime to recover. I did HIIT+Cardio 3 days in a row once and boy was I done for.


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## Built (Oct 28, 2008)

Too much cardio, especially for the beginning of a cut. 

Your workout shouldn't take you more than about 45 minutes, right? So finish training, start sipping your shake if you like, start your interval work (6-10 minutes is PLENTY if you're going balls to the wall), then finish up with steady-state while finishing your shake and sipping water. Go home and eat.

HIIT - twice a week is quite enough. Do a little steady-state after your other workouts and on the off days if you wish.


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## DiGiTaL (Oct 28, 2008)

Oh I see. Alright, I'll reduce my cardio to 3 times a week and HIIT twice. 

I suppose I'll start taking my protein shake while in the gym so I can run right after. This gotta be fun, I'll try it out today.

Sometimes on Tuesdays I get caught with a bunch of friends playing basketball - we play for about an hour but we play really intensely, we come out barely breathing. I sometimes use this for a type of HIIT 

Im going to re-adjust the diet today, so I can start on it slowly starting tomorrow.


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## DiGiTaL (Nov 20, 2008)

Been awhile since I wrote anything here.

Anyways, diet + workout looking good  no complaints yet. Today's an upper body day on a power week.

Got my 'Encyclopedia to Modern BodyBuilding' by Arnold today. This book is thick . Going to start reading from that 

I've been having some issues while Benchpressing; I can do 170-175 pounds bench press with the dumbells but in the bench press itself I can only do about 120 pounds. My right arm just about gives up on me when im lifting the bar. Anyone know what would be the reason to this?


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## Built (Nov 20, 2008)

That Encyclopedia is awesome - for the history and the pix. Don't train that way. 

Re barbell bench - NO CLUE. Try low incline barbell and see how that feels. Remember to retract your scapulae before you press.


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## nkira (Apr 8, 2009)

DiGiTaL said:


> Been awhile since I wrote anything here.
> 
> Anyways, diet + workout looking good  no complaints yet. Today's an upper body day on a power week.
> 
> ...



I have the same issue with my left arm, it just gives up.


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## DiGiTaL (Aug 31, 2009)

I learned that if you jerk off with a different hand each time. Not only it feels good, but also helps your arms!


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