Best diet and supplements to be on

Hi All,

I am new to the forum and would like peoples opinions on the best diet and protein supps to be on from the bulk nutrition website.

I am 183cm, 90kg and have improved fitness, strength and lost 12kg in the last 6 months. Now its time to set a new goal and just want to make sure I am on the right diet.

I am currently working with a PT and we both believe I have reached my goal weight. I still have a bit of fat around my stomach that I would like to loose and I would like to gain some more lean muscle.

I am training 5-6 days a week at the moment with a mixture or cardio, heavy weights, and weight circuits.

Up until now I have been on Maxs supershred. I have just purchased some WPI and Micellar Casein from Bulk Nutrients and was wondering if I should follow the cutting stack diet or lean muscle gain diet, and for both of those diets are all the supps needed?

I can post more info on current diet and training if required but didnt want to make my post to long winded.

All comments welcome

Kabooby

You have protein powder, possibly some creatine and a pre-workout fomula.
Bioflex - Biocharge is great value.

Current diet and training would help a lot mate.

Training changes but is basically
Monday: Cardiobox finished with 1/2 Hr weights
Tuesday: PT Mixture of Heavy weights, weight circuit, cardio
Wednesday:Cardiobox finished with 1/2 Hr weights
Thursday: PT Mixture of Heavy weights, weight circuit, cardio
Friday: Bodyburn weight circuit finished with 1/2 Hr weights
Saturday: Cardiobox

Diet varies but this is pretty close
Breakfast: 1/2 cup of oats or muesli with skim milk. 1 multivitamin with fish oil
Protein shake after training
Morning tea: Piece of fruit with 15 almonds
Lunch: Mountain bread wrap with ham or tuna low fat cheese and salad
Afternoon tea: Yoghurt and 15 almonds
Protein shake
Dinner: Lean meat and vegies or salad
Protein shake before bed

I enjoy a beer and wine but have been limiting this to two days a week and normally not more than 2 a day.

How are you lifting heavy and still managing to need a weight circuit after?

Only sups i take are WPC and fish oil/flax seed oil. The rest Comes from good food.

Thanks for your reply

I should clarify that the PT sessions are either Heavy weights, weight circuit or cardio, not all of them in the same session.

I just had PT again today and we have decided to run with heavy sessions on PT days for a while and monitor results.

Welcome to the forum

With your diet, do you exactly what your daily calorie intake and the breakdown of protein carbohydrate and fats? You potentially could be deficient in a couple of areas.

Also is there any reason you are eating 8 meals per day?

With your resistance training, I'd be focusing on doing pure strength and/or muscular hypertrophy type routines. You can still do cardio if you wish, it is unnecessary for fat loss and can cut into your 'recovery time' but will allow you to consume more calories to make up for that.

With your supplements a protein powder (1 type is all you need), fish oil, multi-vitamin and creatine are the most beneficial. If you need a 'stimulant' caffeine and/or L-Tyrosine can be added. If you have money to burn you could add some Beta Alanine in Anything else is just unnecessary unless you have a dietary deficiency that requires extra supplementation.

Thanks Max

I wasn't counting the shakes as meals and added them in to try and get me to 200g of protein a day. I try and keep calories, carbs and fat low to assist in loosing fat however I don't monitor them. I guess I would be getting most of my fat from the almonds.

I still enjoy my cardio. I have a family history of high blood pressure and high cholesterol. When I am fit I find I don't need my medication which is a good thing.

No problems Kabooby.

Not 'counting' the shakes as meals is fine, but if you are having them in an isolated fashion (like what is suggested in your outline) that could/can lead to an increase in hunger/appetite and make 'dieting' much harder just from that point of view. With out getting 'technical' Ghrelin will be released at 'feeding' times and over time that will continue to happen. If that suits you etc that is fine. I personally and my clients have found it much easier to diet (when consuming a lower than maintenance calorie intake) and adhere to with a low feeding frequency. As an alternative you could simply just consume your shakes WITH your solid food meals. FYI, a higher meal frequency does not have any metabolic advantages over a lower meal frequency, it is personal preference

Seeing you are not counting your calories and have only an idea of your protein intake, chances are you deficient in fats (which is an essential nutrient), micronutrients and your calories could be unnecessarily low. A number of hormonal functions (Thyroid, Testosterone, Protein Synthesis etc) could be headed for a downgrade at increased rates.

Sweet keep the cardio in

That makes total sense. I will look at incorporating the shakes in with meals.

I will go through my food diary and count up my fats, and calories.

What sort of levels should I be aiming at?

I will browse the food thread for what I can be adding in to supply me what I need

Thanks for your help

Go for 35 calories/kg of bodyweight. Example 35 calories X 80kgs = 2800 calories per day. Adjust up or down 10% it after a couple of weeks depending on your progress. Example - if you want weight loss and your weight has stayed stable at the 2800 calories, adjust it down by 10%.

Ensure your are at least meeting MINIMUM essential macronutreint requirements. Protein 2g per kg of bodyweight and fats 0.85g per kg of bodyweight. Example for 80kg requires a minimum 160g protein and 68g fats.

Fill the rest of your calorie requirements with any macronutrient you wish. Can be all carbs if you want. Example 80kg person consuming 160g Protein = 640 calories, 68g Fats = 612 calories equals a total of 1252 calories. 2800 calories MINUS 1252 calories leaves 1548 calories to be consumed.

FYI protein = 4 calories per gram, Fat = 9 calories per gram and carbohydrates = 4 calories per gram.

As much as it is not classed as an essential nutreint, I'd suggest consuming around 40-50g of Fibre.

I hope that helps

Definitely helps. I was just reading another post by yourself in another thread explaining the same thing.

Looking forward to the change in diet and training

Thanks heaps

Kabooby

Kabooby said:

Definitely helps. I was just reading another post by yourself in another thread explaining the same thing.

Looking forward to the change in diet and training

Thanks heaps

Kabooby

Click to expand...

No problems at all.

Have a read of this article also - The Dirt on Clean Eating | Wannabebig

It will help understanding food choices and make eating fun!

So it turns out I have been under eating.

On average I am having

Protein 150g
Fats 30g
Carbs 140
Calories 1500

Based on my weight of 90kg I should be on minimum

Protein 180g
Fats 76.5g
Carbs 368g
Calories 3150

Seems like a big increase in food when I want to lower my body fat%. I have been getting fatigued during high intensity weight sessions so this may be the cause, but then again thats the idea, to train until failure.

My local supp shop has a weight loss diet of
Protein 250g
Fats 69
Carbs 232
Calories 2500

I might try that for a while and monitor results

If you have been under eating (it does look that way on your current intake), you would be best served eating at 'maintenance' for at least a week.

Being in such a large calorie deficit and training the amounts you have been can/will result in some metabolic slow down. A downgrade in hormonal functions are a part of that (Leptin and Thyroid). Eating at maintenance will help somewhat with 'resetting' hormonal function/metabolic rate.

The 'supp shop' diet is average at best. Fats are too low and calories are on at a 20% calorie deficit (a 25% calorie deficit is typically the maximum to ensure exercise performance and metabolic function is not compromised to damaging levels) to what is estimated. It is an improvement to what you have been doing though

I'd suggest doing the 3100 calories for 7 days and then start off by lowering them by 10% and go from there. Your training performance will not be lacking, as what you explained is not what should be happening nor is that the point. Also with the amount of training you are doing I'd suggest consuming 2.5g protein/kg of bodyweight (I know I put down 2g/kg but that is the MINIMUM) to ensure maximal physical adaptions to training are achieved and training performance can continue to progress.

Have a read of these as well as some of the links within the articles themselves -

The Full Diet Break | BodyRecomposition - The Home of Lyle McDonald

Setting the Deficit - Small, Moderate or Large | BodyRecomposition - The Home of Lyle McDonald

Not Losing Fat at 20% Deficit, What Should I do? - Q&A | BodyRecomposition - The Home of Lyle McDonald

Good luck with it all

Thanks again. Lots of good info in those links.

I will give that a go.

So I increased my calories for a week to about 3000. Surprisingly this was harder than I thought it would be.

For the last 4 weeks I have averaged 2500 cals made up of 210 protein, 70 fat, and 250 carbs.

Got weighed today after training and my Body fat has dropped from 21.5% to 20% but I have put on 2kg. It could be water but I keep my water consumption pretty constant and it cant be muscle as I dont think you can add that much muscle that quick.

I have changed my training by adding more strength sessions concentrating on Squats, dead lifts, bench press, Bicep curls, Military press and chin ups.

So I have a few questions

-I still want to get my Body fat down further so should I just keep doing what I am doing or decrease calories more.
-As I have increased weight can I assume know that my maintenance calories are less than what I am eating?
-What sort of body fat% loss is safe per week?

I would also like to add that I have noticed a big difference in training strength, stamina and overall fitness over the last few weeks

Been reading and learning heaps on the forum and other links so thanks for opening my mind to training and nutrition.

Kabooby

Kabooby, great results so far!

Chances are, if your strength has gone up you most certainly would not have lost muscle!

Water counts as LBM But don't be concern if that, if you bodyfat% goes down but your body weight is remaining stable you know you are doing everything right.

Simply keep doing what your are doing, continue strength training (go heavy and hard, no toning shit) and if you want your bodyfat to decrease I'd just drop your calories by 10% TOPS. And remove the excess calories from your carbohydrate intake. Keep protein and fat intake as is.

FYI, dropping bodyfat and building is possible. Yes it is super hard to do but can be done - Effect of two different weight-... [Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2011] - PubMed - NCBI

As the study concluded, dropping 0.7% Body fat per week is safe for maintaining muscle if not possibly gaining muscle. IMO aim for 0.5% per week