Hey all,

To start, I'm simply posting my fitness goals, daily & fitness routines, and diet plan for others to critique to make sure I'm on the right path. I'd like to thank all the readers who will read this and post any advice, critiques (both positive and negative), tips, tricks, suggestions, etc. -- you get my point.

Should it be necessary, I'm 21 years old, 5'6", 150 lbs., with good muscle tone and maybe 12% body fat (just an estimate, but I should probably get this professionally measured). My goal is not to lose a specific amount of weight, but rather to cut body fat to 3-5% while maintaining (if not gaining a bit) my current muscle mass.

The following is my daily routine Monday through Friday, including diet and workout plan for the next 7 weeks. I will try to be as thorough as possible without being too lengthy.

7:00am - Breakfast (1 serving of organic oatmeal, 1 cup of skim milk, 1 serving of mixed fruits - mostly pineapple)

7:50am - Bike to work (1/2 mile at most)

8:00am - Begin work at job #1 (Website editing - mostly sitting at a desk)

10:00am - Snack #1 (More fruit? Need some help/ideas here)

10:45am - Leave job #1 (Bike to job #2, 1/4 mile)

11:00am - Begin job #2 (Working in a machine shop making robotic devices)

1:00pm - Lunch (Large salad - romaine lettuce mix, cucumber, chicken, diced tomatoes, green pepper, lite Italian dressing)

2:45pm - Leave job #2 (Bike back to job #1, 1/4 mile)

3:00pm - Begin job #1 (Sitting at the desk again)

4:00pm - Snack #2 (2 servings of chunk light tuna in water)

5:00pm - Leave job #1 (Bike 1/2 mile home)

5:15pm - Mini-dinner (Baked chicken breast and side salad, 1/2 serving of Optimum 100% Whey Protein - 12g of protein here)

6:00pm - Begin workout***

7:00pm - End workout (1 serving of Optimum 100% Whey Protein - 24g of protein here)

8:00pm - Mini-dinner (Wheat tortilla wrap with baked chicken, tomatoes, sweet onions, romaine lettuce, and fat-free ranch. Side of brown rice and 1 cup of skim milk)

10:00pm - Snack #4 (More fruit and some peanuts)

11:00pm - Pre-bed meal (1 cup of skim milk, 1/2 serving of protein - 24g, and a few spoonfuls of fat-free cottage cheese)

11:15pm - Sleep

***Workout plan (All exercises performed at 3 sets of 10 reps)
Monday - Chest, HIIT
Incline dumbbell press
Incline fly w/dumbbells
Decline press (on machine)
HIIT on elliptical for 15-20 minutes (1 minute sprint, 1 minute walk, etc.)

Tuesday - Triceps, Biceps, light Cardio
Skull crusher/closed-grip bench press supersets
Pulley pulldowns w/reversed grip (to work the lower part of the triceps)
Dips
Barbell preacher curls
Inclined dumbbell curls
21s (7 reps of "upper" curls followed by 7 of "lower" curls followed by 7 full range-of-motion curls
20 minutes of biking at medium intensity

Wednesday - Back, Forearms, light Cardio
Iso-lateral high rows (machine)
Lat pulldowns
Deadlifts (can be substituted for lower back extensions)
Palms-up dumbbell curls
Palms-down dumbbell curls
20 minutes of running on treadmill at medium intensity

Thursday - Shoulders, Legs, HIIT
Overhead press (on machine
Lateral raises
Shrugs
Lunges w/dumbbells
Calf raises
HIIT on elliptical for 15-20 minutes (1 minute sprint, 1 minute walk, etc.)

Friday - Triceps (trying to get bigger triceps to "even out" my arms a bit
One-armed dumbbell extensions
Dumbbell kickbacks
Diamond pushups

Weekend - light Cardio
20 minutes of swimming laps at medium intensity

So there you have it. If you've made it this far, I'd really appreciate any and all feedback -- positive and negative. Again, any advice is great, especially regarding the diet aspect. I'm open to any suggestions and am always looking for new dishes and foods to try. Thanks for reading, and please post any questions you may have.

I don't see any squats and i'd ditch the milk before bed, other than that i don't see anything wrong with it.

Thanks Phate! I really appreciate the feedback. I'll add squats to my legs workout and try ditching the milk. Just curious - why not drink milk before bed?

The last several hours before bed is the time of the day you do not want to be taking in too many carbs, especially simple sugars from milk. You want to keep your insulin levels as stable as possible, otherwise it will inhibit fat loss.

Milk in the morning can be acceptable, but for fat-loss milk at night, especially right before bed is not recommended.

Instead, substitute the milk for some healthy fats. Evening is the best time to take in fats. Peanut butter, almonds, etc.

Thanks again, Phate; I appreciate the help!

If anyone else has any other comments for me, I'd really like to hear them. I'd hate to follow this plan for the next seven weeks and find out I was doing things incorrectly.

A body fat level of 3% - 5 % is more characteristic of something you'd see with a competitive bodybuilder close to contest time ....and at that, this body fat level usually isn't a sustainable level for them over the long term.

How long do you plan to stay at 3% - 5 % body fat ?

It seems to me you're doing a lot of isolation exercises and not enough compounds.

I respectfully disagree with the milk recommendation. I'm not a believer in the "no carbs before bed thing", plus milk has a pretty low glycemic index (in the 30s or below depending on fat content according to The Glycemic Index)

..but then Phate and I have found we tend to disagree on pretty much every issue regarding nutrition LOL. Just goes to show you there is no one "right" way. Stick around, absorb knowledge and you'll come up with your own ideas about what's right for you.

...and I agree with Wrangell, if fact I don't think pro bodybuilders even get down to 3%, maybe close to 5

The GI simply doesn't matter. Milk causes quite a high insulin release. If you are drinking milk, then you are on an all out bulking diet. Funny, people go to great lengths to eat "clean carbs," but then drink a bunch of a milk.

GI measures blood sugar response, not insulin response.

And your right we might disagree, but thats how the games works and thats how we learn off each other. We probably have different opinions because you can eat as much you can, while i cant and this gives us a different view of foods.
And yes, BB's do go down to 3% but its impossible to live off 3%bf. I think the op meant that he wanted to lose 3-5% not actually hit 3-5%

-Christian Thibaudeau

That's strange, I lost over 30 lbs while drinking 1/2 gallon a day. True, my metabolism isn't typical. I have trouble geting in even my cutting calories with clean food unless I include milk, ww breads, pasta etc.

It doesn't make sense to me though how something can have a minimal effect on glucose, but a large one on insulin since the insulin is a response to the glucose....but I found this that supports it:

SpringerLink - Journal Article

I guess my PWO milk is scientifically sound after all. LOL

Blood glucose levels were not significantly altered after either milk sample, but plasma insulin responses were significantly elevated after milk consumption."

How long do you plan on doing this routine?

There are a couple things that I would change... 1. cut the cardio down to no more than 20 mins. You are doing to much.

2. I agree you need to cut down on those isolation exercises. Also split routines are not what you should be doing. 3 days a week total body each day. Change it up every 4 weeks.

Are you trying to become bodybuilder like? or are you just wanting to be ripped and functional?

3. I also agree that you don't have to worry about eating before bed. I don't know much about the milk conversation but you could eat some scrambled egg whites and salsa before bed. Really high quality protein and really low in calories so you won't be too stuffed... when you sleep you build big time muscle and eggs will help!

Cottage cheese is great like you are doing. I really wish that I could learn to like it... but that is awesome.

How many calories are you taking in?

right, I was agreeing, it just seems strange to me

Seems strange to me too. But Christian Thib along with other credible people like Beradi say it, so i believe it.