I went back to cutting I know I was bulking for a little bit (2 weeks) but it really bothers me that I can't get that 10%bf (currently 11) and I still have trouble with stubborn fat around my lower abs and i have some questions,
1.) I calculated my maintenance level to be about 3100cal does that sound right? currently doing cardio 7 days a week but intense only 3/4, stair stepper 2 days, and walking incline 1 day, I also lift 4 days a week.
2.) with that maintenance I have dropped to 2500cal? will that allow me to keep at least most of the muscle I gained?
3.) heres my diet
breakfst: 2 servings oatmeal
lunch: whole wheat pasta/red sauce
snack: PB and pretzels, veggies
snack: 2 servings fruit
dinner: 3 scoops whey protein (60g protein), 4 egg omelettew/ lowfat cheese (30g protein) bean burrito/ yams (10-20g protein),
snack: few oatmeal cookies
total protein I go for is about 150g daily, (2500cals daily) but thats what my dietician told me that my body would be able to absorb
any advice is welcome thanks in advance!!!

I am always reading around here that protein should be divided up evenly throughout the day's meals where as your taking in almost all of yours at dinner. Maybe try moving your whey scoops to a different part of the day?

most of the time I'll have an omelette, pinto beans, yams for lunch so I do divide the protein up a little bit I just put that in there to illustrate the point I was getting about 150g protein a day but thanks.

I agree with pancake, you should try and split it up even more. Instead of having 3 scoops of protein have one meal, why dont you have each of those at a different meal that you aren't taking in any protein?

eat some eggs or something at breakfast... some kind of protein.

Put some chicken in your pasta (or if your cutting eat something besides pasta... IMO)

I don't like having 2 pieces of fruit as a snack alone, I would have something like 6 oz of fish and a piece of fruit instead as an example.


Your dinner has like all of your daily protein.... and it's a monsterous meal. Try to split your calories evenly throughout the day..

ditch the oatmeal cookies....


How did you calculate your maintance? You should find your maintance calories for a day that you do NOTHING (or a sedentary lifestyle) and then you can eat more when you exercise during the day. 3100 calorie maintance if you work out 4 days per week is an average, it could be more or less depending on if you actually work out on that day.

How tall are ya and what do you weigh BTW?

IMO there is not a lot of reason to cut at 11% bodyfat unless you have all the muscle you want to have, because once you bulk up you will gain all that fat back anyway, and going anywhere under 11% is much harder to do... you will probably spend a ton of time cutting down from 11% to 8% (specially with your high carb diet), then you will gain that fat back very quick when you bulk back up, and you'll prolly be pretty discouraged..

Speak for yourself on the oatmeal cookies------>Dont be knocking FlyinFree's Oatbars (which I have since changed the recipe on) called Chillen's. Oatmeal cookies can be made to fit a healthy diet, BABY!

Back off, now......slowly back away....., he, he

Real Work SUCKS on Oat bars, BABY! Let me give ya the ulimate recipe!, He, he. So you can carry out this function!

Chillen

i get what you mean about the cutting, but it just seems like my body is very adapt at gaining muscle and not gaining fat at the same time its just the way i am, its just really hard for me to cut but I think once I get their I could put on muscle and stay under 10%, when I was in high school my football coach made me bulk basically and I gained like 25-30lbs in about a season's time and only went from 13%to 14% body fat, its just always been my goal to get under that 10% and im so close now, that diet seems to be workin for now i replaced 1serving of oatmeal w/ whey protein and tryin to figure out how to add some protein in at lunch. Whats the best way to get protein w/o the cals? that dinner may sound big but actually only around 450 plus the protein shake (300) which is for postworkout. As for the maintenance, I looked at the Harris Benedict equation and found my BMR (1960) and multiplied that by like 1.6 but someone actually told me today if im doin cardio everyday then I should multiply that 1.75 or something so Im worried cuz i dont wanna slow my metabolism down and if I multiply that by 1.75=3400 which means imcutting at 27%(too low). I tend to underestimate my intensity for the cardio workouts cuz even 3/4 days 5/6min mile 7miles (1200 cals burned), and that stair stepper burns a ***** load a cals haha.

Bro, your eating way to much protein, settle down..

Try this calc ( see ident below ) - it breaks out separate input estimates for the time you spend doing any cardio and or weight training to come up with your overall estimate of ' maintenance calories ' - to which you can cut by 20% or so to shed fat........

A - Your weight in pounds

B - Take A X 11 = RMR calories

C - Take B X 1.6 for your daily activities calories

D - Number of minutes you weight lift per week X 5

E - Number of minutes you do aerobic cardio, sports etc. per week X 8

F - Add D & E....divide by 7

G - Add C & F to get an estimate of your daily maintenance calories

....see how it stacks up to your 3,100 estimate.

meh, I dunno about that equation. It says my maintance is only 2175 with weight training 5 times per week for 90 minutes per time. That's because weight training is the only activity that I do, but still that's quite low.

Unless we are suppose to take our BMR X 1.6 regardless of our activity???

i dont know about that equation that put me up to 3700 which definitely cant be right, I spend about 300min or 5hrs a week on something cardio probably even more than that now that its nice outside cuz ill go rollerblading on top of everything else, I spend about 180min (3hrs) a week lifting and that doesnt count my lower back, core or abs. I know that seems like a lot of time on cardio but I dont do cardio cuz I have to I do it cuz I like to. I could spend the whole day at the rec center and be plenty happy, same with lifting for that matter also. Im one of those people who doesnt get tired except after i lift and even that doesnt last long. Im still worried about the maintenance calories though at 2500cals, it seems to me like thats to low now for my activity level, any feedback on this matter is well appreciated!!! Oohh and chillen you should give me that recipe for those oatmeal bars or whatever hhahaha.

I posted it in the ChillOut log.

Best wishes to you and everyone!


Chillen

Fair enough.

What do you think your maintenance should be then - and how did you calculate it ?

Assuming 3,700 is your maintenance ( i.e not maintenance .....less 20% ) then why ?

Why is 3,700 wrong and 3,100 closer to being right ?

What do you base that on ?

So you would add about 470 calories a day in arriving at a maintenance estimate.

Not sure I follow, if 2,500 is too low, why is 3,700 ( less 20% ) too high ?

I had based it on the harris benedict equation because thats what a trainer at my rec center told me to do.
If you are moderatetely active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5 days/week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.55
If you are very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a week) : Calorie-Calculation = BMR x 1.725

had taken my bmr(1950) andmultiplied that by 1.55 just cuz I didnt know if my routine was hard excercise for 6/7days aweek, came out to being 3100, someone had mentioned that cuz I do some sort of cardio everyday plus lifting 4 days a week, I should use 1.725= about 3400 I had a deficit at 2500 but if the lader was true it would be 2700 not that big of a deal but with the other equation that was listed as a certain amt of min per excercise gave me about 3800 not close to the other 2 numbers, then i got worried cuz a deficit from that would mean I should be eating around 3000cal and at 2500 that would be 33%deficit a key way to set starvation mode in progress. ive been doing a zig zag diet for a little over a week now and Ive seen good resultsbut that worries me even more that im seeing these results that quick if i was at abig deficit of coarse i'd see results fast but it would hurt me in the long run and slow my bmr down, see my dillema? I guess im just frusturated cuz ive tried so many times to get past this plateau but have always failed, but the diet im on seems to work and if i could just calculate a proper maintenance i think i could finally get passed it, sorry this was so long. also still tryin to work more protein in, are protein bars bad?