Need Opinions

[Sgermain1126]

He guys. First of all I am new to the forums so nice to meet you all! Second all I really need some advice from the pros on this one... I'll describe my lifestyle ( such as nutrition , daily regime , and my workout routine) and I would love to have your guys opinions on it so I can reach my goal. I weigh 152ish right now. I've been an avid runner since 5 years ago and I've always been exercising and watching my diet. Never eat Fast foods or high sugar/carb foods. My goal is to get a slimmer waist and a more defined six pack. I'm a 32in waist in pant size right now. Also of importance I'm 20 years old.
Nutrition: I eat 3-4 small meals a day. Never high in carbs or sugar. My one cheat food is like vegetable pizza and that's at most once every week or two. I do not consume many calories because I want to keep my weight down . My diet is high in fruits. Bread is always wheaT and I always buy low fat in everything. (skim milk, low fat butter , and minimum cheese.) Also I drink lots of water and green tea religiously.
Workout: I get to the gym every other day Monday through Monday . I'm there for about an hour to possibly an hour and a half. I run on the treadmill with increments of sprinting throughout for 3-4 miles . (sprint about 9.0) the rest of the workout I will work on cable lift weights for my lats and biceps /triceps/forearms. My arms are my best physical feature. Then the last quarter of the workout I'll work on core exercises. (leg lifts, crunches, and sit-ups with a 12lb medicine ball). On the days I do NOT go to gym I do an exercise from the insanity DVD workout. On top of all this I take daily , vitamin C. In the past month I've also started taking xenadrine ripped . (a capsule before each meal, 3 capsules at most a day) this stuff really gives me energy and I've noticed weight loss more so in my core.

Now, I would love to hear your guys opiTnions on my lifestyle . What am I doing right or what am I doing wrong. Really appreciate the tips guys, thanks!
Steven

[Boss Man]

Hi there, good to meet you .

Firstly, stuff like Xenadrine ripped is absolute cack. Those products might sometimes appear to work, but unless someone is prepared to sit on their butt shovelling crap in their mouth all day, then take the Xenadrine ripped and still sit on their butt shovelling crap, effectively "isolating the effects", they will almost certainly never know the truth, which is more than likely, that the product is doing nothing that makes the expenditure even vaguely worthwhile.

Your diet is not solid enough meal wise. I'd increase meals to 6 a day, eating every 2.5-3 hours.

You could aim for around 2,500 calories a day, because you're exercising, so you'll need more than the standard 2,000 sedentary male average. At least another 200 above that would be preferable.

The added calories will help you, because if you exercise like you're doing, with potentially inadequate nutrition, you might burn muscle, depnding on your Protein intake of course and 1lb of muscle can burn an extra 45-50 calories per day, whereas losing it will obviously have the opposite effect.

Having some extra Carbs won't matter as long as you're not going overboard. You could aim for around 30g a meal, as you're using energy when you train anyway, but if your body is in an energy deficeit, e.g usable energy does not exceed expenditure, then the body could use Fat for energy anyway.

As for the workouts, I'd do the Cardio last, just incase the energy expenditure affects the lifting. Make sure you're doing the large muscles first as well when you train, so all the stabilising and synergist muscles, are not fatigued when you hit the big stuff, incase that holds you back a bit.

You'll save money and help yourself though, by pitching the Xenadrine Ripped rubbish, and like some have said on here before, don't say you'll finish it then buy no more, pitch what's left, because you're worth more to yourself, than continuing to consume that crap would imply.

Good luck and let us know if there's anything else we can help you with or would like to ask .

[Sgermain1126]

Thanks boss man! I'm really gonna follow your words to a T. Now I've heard that eating only two to three times a day with cardio ( about 2-3 mile run) and no weight training will significantly shrink your fat level down. Is this true?

[Boss Man]

Sounds like hokey.

Let's face it, eating like an Anorexic could shrink your Fat down, but it's not reccomendable in any circumstances.

If you ate 2-3 times a day, unless your portion sizes were fairly hefty, not 400 or less per meal, you'd be struggling to get adequate micronutrient intake and if you failed to get enough of things like Magnesium, Calcium, Vit D, Vit K2, Phosphorous etc, you'd potentially thin your bones to the point where running imapct could trigger a fracture of some kind, when the impact was no longer tolerable by the affected bone structure(s).

Weight training is good for fat loss. 1lb of muscle burns an added 45-50 calories, but losing muscle can solicit the opposite effect.

Eating 2x a day would require 1,000 calories meal just to satisfy the sedentary male average and as I suggest around 2,500 a day with exercise in the mix, you'd be eating around 1,250 a meal, or around 833 as an average for 3 meals.

In context that's like eating 2 Chicken Breasts (240 calories), 3 large Baked Potatos, (360 calories) and 26g of Olive Oil fat, (234 calories), 3 times a day.

Obviously, that is just a basic expression of what 833 calories per meal looks like and is not the only way to consume such calories, as you could include a much more varied range of foods, to make up the calories, but I'd ignore the context you're asking about and proceed as you planned.

You don't need to start adopting potentially unhealthy weight loss methods .

[Athene]

Yeah, no need to burn up your muscle and your fat by doing too much cardio and not eating enough.

The best way to save your muscle and burn away fat is to feed your muscle more than your fat - that means focus on protein and fat in your meals, not carbs - and do a mix of cardio and weight training.