Diet, Nutrition and SupplementationPost here for supplement reviews or nutritional advice. If you're trying to get "ripped abz" THIS is where you should be.
At 5'9, 15% bodyfat, and 155lbs, how low should I drop my calories? And specifically, how about the carbs?
Q#1) How low should I drop my calories?
Q#2) How low should I drop my carbs? Is the 40/30/30 p/c/f a good split... or...?
I'm not low carbing, not now or ever. Right now my carbs are lowER, because I'm not training yet (except HIIT and a bit of cardio).
I calculated my calorie needs with the Harris-Benedict formula and figure I need between *2100 and 2500 calories* to maintain my current weight. The 2100 calorie number comes from a 'sedentary' lifestyle, the 2500 comes from 'moderately active'.
Q#3) What the heck am I? Sedentary or moderate?
The only exercise I get is lifting and HIIT, and I sit around all day at school, at home doing homework, etc... so am I sedentary (my typical life) or moderate (b/c I lift and do HIIT). I haven't started wrestling practice, so I don't get that exercise either. I'm just a lazy bum!
I've heard never to go below 2,000/day... yet at my weight, eating 2,000kcals/day would hardly elecit a loss of 1lb/week. I'm not on any androgens or anything like that, just plain dieting with HIIT.
Q#4) Do you use Massive Eating guidelines (PC and PF) for dieting was well as bulking, or just bulking? I've seen conflicting views on this. I think I'm going to use Berardi meal combining, for all my meals except dinner (which my mom makes, and I have to eat to make her happy, and not tear apart the family)
I will be consuming for my daily meal plan:
7:00 - P + C - Oatmeal + whey
9:30 - P + F - ??????
11:30- P + F - ??????????
2:00 - P + F ?????????????
4:00 - PWO - Dextrose + whey (small shake, 30g carbs/23g protein)
6:00 - P + C - Oatmeal + lean meat (chicken, turkey, eggs, or tuna)
8:30 - P + C (+ a little F) - Dinner, whatever my mom makes, I'll try to go as low as I can on the fat
10:30 - P + F - Cottage cheese, and either natty PB, almonds, or ...? some sort of oil...?
Totals: I don't know! See questions # 1 and 2... lol
Q#5) Does this look like a decent meal plan?
The problem with low-carbing (or even carbing at around 30%):
One huge problem I have is eating enough sans carbs. My mom won't buy me flaxseed oil, or anything 'crazy' like that (in her words). So I used to just eat lots of oatmeal (she'd buy plenty of that).
Now I can't eat as much (I eat 1cup/day for breakfast, probably gonna make it 2/3cup soon). Even almonds have carbs! Agh!
Q#6) Maybe I should buy some flaxseed oil? Fish oil? What would you suggest purchasing MYSELF that is ESSENTIAL?
PS - Bringing food to school and eating it that is P+F is pretty difficult, as beef jerky is expensive and my mom won't buy me any... I don't want to eat lunchmeat straight up and be a social pariah either.
Q#7) Suggestions? If I just ate almonds, there's no protein, and if I ate almonds and whey protein, the whey would be absorbed ridiculously fast, which makes it worthless! What's good to bring to school...cheap and economical... that I can afford on a high schooler salary (I guess I could pay about $20 a week for food at school, maybe $25)
And the LAAAAST question:
Q#8) What should I DEFINITELY purchase as far as fats go? What would give me better bang-for-the-buck, flaxseed oil or fish oil? We have extra virgin olive oil at home, too, should I be taking in some of this as well? I'm really not well-educated on the different types of healthy fats, sine I've been bulking all I was doing was eating almonds and natty pb, but it seems like the oils might be a better option to maintain LBM.
I know this post is really long, I wanted to covery any questions ANYONE might have. If I missed anything, ask away, and I'd be glad to clarify. I numbered my questions, to keep it simple.
I hesitate to give you any recommendations whatsoever to lose weight.
Do you have a legit shot at winning a state title at a lower weight class that could earn you a shot a full ride in college? If you realistically do (meaning your coach has told you so and is ready to start selling you to the colleges), then you may consider a sensible plan to drop a little weight.
I have told this to countless wrestlers. It's not your weight, it's your wrestling skills and conditioning that will win matches.
High School wrestling: 2 underfed guys who haven't had anything to drink for a day and a half (to include spitting in a cup all day and perhaps some chocolate flavored Ex-Lax)before weigh-ins get on a mat and roll around in exhaustion because they also ran around the school for an hour in a plastic suit to drop 2 pounds of water weight. The result...decreased strength, decreased endurance, decreased reaction time...therefore, lousy performance and boring matches (seen it, trained 'em, etc.).
If I were you, get on Berardi's Massive Eating guidelines and use your training (why the heck are you laying around all day??) as the caloric deficit. Don't worry about what source of fats other than making good food choices.
Work on your wrestling skills and conditioning NOW so you're ahead of the game and wrestle at whatever weight you are when it comes time for weigh-ins.
Work on a good relative strength program with some athletic lifts thrown in. You'll be pleased with your performance.
"...chocolate flavored Ex-Lax... ran around the school for an hour in a plastic suit..."
Both of these are illegal according to MIAA rules and regulations (in MA). If you take exlax, or wear a rubber suit, exercise in a sauna, etc, you can't wrestle.
I want to make varsity. I won't wrestle in college, but varsity wrestling is fun. My friends are on it. I was on it.
And if I diet down sensibly, I can eat around 2,000-2,500cals/day IN SEASON (because of all the intense wrestling I'm doing) and MAINTAIN WEIGHT! That isn't starving myself...
Sorry, I respect you a lot as a coach, but I'm going 145. So, if your advice is not to lose weight, I can't follow your advice. I have to lose weight, I have AMPLE time to do it, and want to do it the right way without compromising any of my (small amount of) muscle mass.
2000 to 25000 and maintain!!! Where are you getting these numbers?
Were teens, our metabolism is sky high, you need about 3000 to maintain man. Serously, don't worry about making a certain weight or that, just go and wrestle! Instead of worrying about your weight, worry about how you can get better techinique and win matchs with skill, not size.
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This is your life, and it\'s ending one minute at a time.
Do you wrestle Mark? If you do, do you have 2 allstate wrestlers on your high school team that are in the two weight classes above you, that have been wrestling for over twice as long as you have?
Okay, thanks, just checking.
PS - How did I get those numbers? From personal experience, I know my maintenance is around 2,400ish (even when exercising). Although workouts are intense with wrestling, it doesn't burn as many calories as steadystate cardio (like running XC), and if you had to make weight twice a week, you wouldn't want to risk going over.
I have wrestled some what, wasn't my thing. And actually, we have some all-Provincal wrestlers at my school. A lot actually. And quite frankly, what does that have to do with anything?
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This is your life, and it\'s ending one minute at a time.
Yes, westling is fun. But, dieting isn't and you are not going to preform at the same level when and if diet. So, why bother dieting down to 145? If its too be in with the in crowd. Oh please. I say get up to 170 train your ass off and beat the guys for the varsity spot. You should have been working -out way before wrestling and preparing yourself to show the coach what you are made of.
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In Health,
Silas S Chen Exercise Specialist @ MorganStanely Fitness Center Mid-town NYC
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