# It's asked time and time again, but after 2 years I feel like I am spinning my wheels



## Neuronic (Dec 8, 2010)

I'm going to cut to the chase - I know this gets asked time and time again (I'm sorry) and yes I have used the search button and yes I have tried to implement what I have found for the past few years, however I seem to be spinning my wheels. Here's to a stop to it once and for all.

First, let me show you how I look right now. These pictures were taken just 5 minutes ago, I took quite a few so that you're able to get an accurate observation and for ease of viewing have collaged them onto one image.

My current state - Click for image

For the past few months I have been watching my carb intake, I eat no rubbish and stick to staple foods, I keep my protein high (20kg of fresh chicken breasts per month + protein shakes). I also go to the gym 5 nights a week and work a body part per session for around 45 minutes, this excludes any LISS cardio that I do afterwards for a further 20 minutes - I have made very little progress in terms of body recomposition or change!

What do I do? My body really lets me down, and actually holds me back in terms of confidence and when summer comes around, chilling out with my mates swimming etc.

I'm not expecting a whole load of responses to this thread, but could someone please just give me a bit of advice? I'm not entirely sure how the reputation system works on here as I am fairly new, but will rep helpful answers









Adam


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## freddee (Mar 2, 2009)

Could you give us a better break down of your diet and training, for instance give an average days eating, with macro breakdown and aprox calorie intake, and what you do in a normal gym session, also your stats, age weight, hight, also the length of time you have trained and you're long tems goals, this will help the mmbers on here to help you and hopfully put you in the right direction....


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## eglwys (Aug 28, 2011)

Welcome to MC mate your at the right place for advice. If you take the time now to post up your weekly routine as much detail as poss including your age height etc then people will have a better idea of how to help. My first comment would be your over training, 5 times a week is two much your not giving your body time to rest and grow, If you want to grow also you might be over doing the cardio front but others will be better placed to answer that for you. Well done for posting pic's some of us take a while before plucking up the courage to show all.


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## freddee (Mar 2, 2009)

its not plucking up the courage with me I'm 50 and havnt a clue how to get pictures up, i have some but last time culd only get a couple on??????????? lol


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## Neuronic (Dec 8, 2010)

Hey up guys - thanks for the responses! I have found in the past that many bodybuilding forums are full of people who don't want to help out and just care about showing off their stats, so I really appreciate it. I think I will stick around here lol.

Right so here we go..

I am 19 years old, about 5ft 8" and I weight approximately 180lb at the moment (mainly fat - I am unsure on my bodyfat percentage).

I don't eat the same thing every day at the moment, and I have tried many different types of diet over the past few years. At the moment I am focusing on eating staple foods, staying away from any rubbish (I don't drink - so this helps) and ensuring that I get a lot of protein in my diet (I purchase 20kg of fresh chicken breasts a month, each one around 227g from a local butcher) and also consume protein shakes. I try to keep my unsaturated fats up as I know these help to lose fat - and never eat simple carbs, only complex. Again, I try and eat all my carbs before 6-7pm in the evening, and have been on an ECA stack for the past month or so to try and lose some fat around the midsection/lower back.

Goal wise, it's very contradicting (as always with skinny fat people haha). In an ideal world, lose the gut/fat and build my chest and shoulders (mainly), oh and back. I know this is unrealistic and damn near impossible, so I'm going to have to stick to one!

Posting pictures - yeah, pretty embarrising, but that's what these forums are for hey.. I don't mind what people say about me/think about me and I'm willing to take all constructive criticism on board - hopefully I can help someone out someday using the information I receive myself 

As I have mentioned, I am unhappy with my body (aren't we all.. we're never happy 100% lol) and it does actually effect me in terms of pushing for relationships/having fun with friends - I am a perfectionist (albeit very irritating, I am very much determine to push through this) and as such I want to sort my body out so that I am happy with it first, before expecting anyone else to be also. This may seem very shallow, but when you spin your wheels for circa 2 years, this is what happens lol.

Any advice is good advice to me, and again thanks for taking the time to listen and help me out.


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## Neuronic (Dec 8, 2010)

Cheers fleg.

I don't have a diet - I just eat clean at the moment, I don't eat much right now as I am trying to cut. Really sorry I can't provide much more than this. Its usually oatmeal in the morning with a protein shake, a wholemeal sandwich with chicken in the afternoon, protein shake and creatine before gym, protein shake after gym with dextrose and then around an hour later a chicken stir fry. Also have ECA stack before gym.

Routine, I change up every time I go to the gym - I base it around compound excercises rather than isolations.

A typical routine would be:-

Monday - Chest + Triceps

3 x 8-12 - Smith Bench Press (Bench is very weak, so this way I can add weight - barbell isn't great)

3 x 8-12 - Incline dumbbell press

3 x 12 - Pec Dec

3 x 8-12 - Upward cable fly

3 x 8-12 Skullcrushers

3 x 8-12 Tricep Pulldown

3 x 8-12 Kickbacks

Tuesday - Legs

3 x 5 - Leg press

3 x 8-12 - Leg extensions

3 x 8-12 - Leg curls

3 x 8-12 - Calf raises

Thursday - Back + Biceps

3 x 5-8 Deadlifts

3 x 8-12 Lat pulldowns

3 x 8-12 Bent over rows

3 x 12-15 Hyperextensions

3 x failure - Pullups

3 x 8-12 Preacher curls

3 x 8-12 Incline dumbbell curls

3 x 8-12 Cable curls

Friday - Shoulders

3 x 8-12 Military press superset with arnold press

3 x 8-12 Seated lateral raise

3 x 8-12 Front raise

3 x 8-12 Shrugs

The above (I would assume) needs some serious improving - so hopefully you can give me some advice.


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## Cathy the Chef (Jan 30, 2011)

Nitrojan said:


> I don't have a diet - I just eat clean at the moment, I don't eat much right now as I am trying to cut.


Hey welcome to mc! 

Your training program actually looks pretty good. You've summarised your problem yourself in the quote above. Cutting is much more about your diet than exercise and, unless your name's Crazy Cal lol, you need to be organised about it. If you don't write it out you don't know if you're eating enough or too much and it's easy to slip up being caught out without a meal and ending up in mc donalds or whatever lol. To diet successfully you need to plan ahead.

To be honest it doesn't sound like you're eating nearly enough, esp considering your training. Based on what you've said, i'd suggest something more like:

Breakfast 80g oats and a scoop of protein

Snack 4x rice cakes and peanut butter

Lunch chicken salad sandwich on wholemeal bread.

Snack apple or banana and handful of almonds

Gym

Post workout a scoop of protein and glucose

Dinner chicken stir dry with veg and white rice

Bedtime 4 eggs but only 2 yolks and some veg

You need to make sure you eat enough! I've lost weight eating more than double the above and i'm a girl lol! Watch your protein intake - too much can make you ill  whole foods are always better than shakes except mbe post workout.

Hope that gives you a starting point - check out the diet threads and also have a look in the natural section - Mushy's just wrote a good post on why you should eat carbs. Keep asking and posting questions - you've come to the right place!


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## doggy (Mar 26, 2011)

Cathy why rice cakes? I've never ate them but I have read they're high in the GI. I try to avoid most things high on it.


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## Neuronic (Dec 8, 2010)

Cathy said:


> Hey welcome to mc!
> 
> Your training program actually looks pretty good. You've summarised your problem yourself in the quote above. Cutting is much more about your diet than exercise and, unless your name's Crazy Cal lol, you need to be organised about it. If you don't write it out you don't know if you're eating enough or too much and it's easy to slip up being caught out without a meal and ending up in mc donalds or whatever lol. To diet successfully you need to plan ahead.
> 
> ...


Woah, my first thought when reading that is - amazing help! Thanks for giving me a sample diet plan, that's a big step forward 

Do you think I should cut Cathy, or bulk? This is where my problem lies I think.


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## Cathy the Chef (Jan 30, 2011)

Soz i can't open your pic lol! Gaining muscle will help you loose fat by boosting your metabolism - the above should help you to do both.

Doggy the peanut butter will lower the gi - the diet's based on one that's worked for me and for a few people i know - it's not a cutting diet just a solid off season diet that i think is suitable for someone starting out - feel free to disagree with it though i'm deffo not an expert lol just trying to give a starting point!


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## allbro75 (Mar 15, 2007)

If i were you I'd aim to cut fat first, it would obviously give you confidence from what you've wrote so far. If I'm cutting fat I'd look to do cals 2x a week full body routine and lots of non gym cardio. I like fast walking, cycling, hillwalking and swimming, I hate gym cardio and it realy puts me off going to the gym. Keep your meals balanced with each one with similar protein / carb / fat content apart from your last one i'd lower the carbs.

Once you're happier with the way you look I'd think about lean bulking.


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## Neuronic (Dec 8, 2010)

Allenb said:


> If i were you I'd aim to cut fat first, it would obviously give you confidence from what you've wrote so far. If I'm cutting fat I'd look to do cals 2x a week full body routine and lots of non gym cardio. I like fast walking, cycling, hillwalking and swimming, I hate gym cardio and it realy puts me off going to the gym. Keep your meals balanced with each one with similar protein / carb / fat content apart from your last one i'd lower the carbs.
> 
> Once you're happier with the way you look I'd think about lean bulking.


Thanks for the input mate - what is the workout routine you are referring to?


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## allbro75 (Mar 15, 2007)

dam, can never find it, Cal help me out with a link mate.

Think its a sticky in the beginers section, its a great way to train until you move on the split you are doing now.


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## allbro75 (Mar 15, 2007)

http://www.musclechat.co.uk/beginners-area-ukbff-mr-britain-lewis-breed/29549-basic-full-body-workout.html

there yah go matey, enjoy.


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## Neuronic (Dec 8, 2010)

Allenb said:


> http://www.musclechat.co.uk/beginners-area-ukbff-mr-britain-lewis-breed/29549-basic-full-body-workout.html
> 
> there yah go matey, enjoy.


Ta for that buddy, will have a read up on it now.


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## crazycal1 (Sep 21, 2005)

overtraining equals catabolism...

by training less you can lift more, by resting more youre body grows...

dont get hooked up on diet, get it set and then forget about it and focus on increasing your poundages..

live to add another 1kg to your deadlift..

by getting stronger you lift more, as long as youre adequately fuelled you`ll grow..

dont get hooked on details, dont get fat, but let your appetite dictate and use common sense not pure science...

pay serious attention to your rest and recovery, as much as you do to food and training.

focus on solid long term results not the short term..

soz about the phrasing lol


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## allbro75 (Mar 15, 2007)

lol I think he means its very easy to over complicate things so listen to your body and keep it simple.


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## crazycal1 (Sep 21, 2005)

meet al, my interpretor , a tad simplistic dude, but pretty good lol..

anyone who knows me will realise i actually try really hard with my typing here, if i`m on chatting via IM i`m beyond dyslexic..


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## Neuronic (Dec 8, 2010)

TheCrazyCal said:


> meet al, my interpretor , a tad simplistic dude, but pretty good lol..
> 
> anyone who knows me will realise i actually try really hard with my typing here, if i`m on chatting via IM i`m beyond dyslexic..


A big thanks for that Cal, very helpful - Looks like I shall have to cut down to 3 times a week and kick my diet into shape! Bulk or cut?


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## EXTREME (Aug 5, 2005)

Why do either? Plan a diet that's high in protein moderate in carbs and low in fats but containing good fats, plan this diet with enough calories to allow you to make slow steady gains, which are the ones you keep, but not enough calories to make you gain any more fat.

Weight training adds muscle which increases metabolism, doing low intensity cardio along with your weight training and diet will mean it's almost impossible not to gain muscle and lose fat.


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