Need some advice

ShaoqinFu

Hey everyone, I'm currently 175 pounds(changes all the time). This is a picture of how my body looks right now.

I'm 18 and have been training for 3 years. I just started to pay attention to my diet. I eat around 3250 calories with the macro ratio that gives me 366g carbs, 200g protein and 108g fat. Can you help me figure out is this really helping me losing fat and gaining muscle.
My daily food list is like this:
Morning: one cup dry Oatmeal and 6 egg whites.
Snack:oatmeal/protein bar
Lunch and dinner: beef/chicken/pork with rice.
Before bed: greek yogurt.
Thanks a lot for the help

ndj1979

is that picture flexed or unflexed...?

Is 3250 calories your maintenance level or is that a surplus?

you have two options.

1. you can recomp and try to add muscle and lose fat; however, this tends to be a slow process and can take over a year. As you are 18, you may be able to take advantage of the fact that you are younger and see some nice gains in a shorter period of time with a recomp..
2. run a few bulk/cut cycles where you eat in a calories surplus and add about 10 to 15 pounds, and then cut about ten pounds off and repeat a few times. Again, as you are young you should see some really nice gains.
3.

JoshLibby

ShaoqinFu wrote: »

Hey everyone, I'm currently 175 pounds(changes all the time). This is a picture of how my body looks right now.

I'm 18 and have been training for 3 years. I just started to pay attention to my diet. I eat around 3250 calories with the macro ratio that gives me 366g carbs, 200g protein and 108g fat. Can you help me figure out is this really helping me losing fat and gaining muscle.
My daily food list is like this:
Morning: one cup dry Oatmeal and 6 egg whites.
Snack:oatmeal/protein bar
Lunch and dinner: beef/chicken/pork with rice.
Before bed: greek yogurt.
Thanks a lot for the help

The truth? It takes many, many, many years of consistency to gain muscle like a real body builder being natty, with resistance training, a combination being well recovered and a good diet, so on so forth...

If that picture was taken with no pump, you're already doing what you need to do and doing it well, better than some people that give advice. From what I can see, you're not skinny fat, you're very lean with an average amount of muscle, a great foundation to make a choice.

So, what is your goal? The choice, do you want to fall into the bulk/cut process (which usually never works, and people yo-yo back and forth) or slight eat more while taking pictures/measurements to see actual progress. Although, a bulk and cut may work for you, but read into it more and decide if you're ok with gaining a substantial amount of fat. Mentally it destroys a lot of people.

There is only so much muscle that can be put on the body naturally and bulking sometimes only gives 5 extra pounds of mass or muscle than a slow bulk with not cut. Not to mention you look good all year round on a slower bulk, you won't have to worry about less food intake later, so not having to cut is a bonus. The mental stability of looking good makes it easier to sustain this lifestyle.

Cutting is the most difficult part, scientifically once you have fat stores you have them forever and it's easier to gain fat once you were already there. Gaining muscle on the other hand is extremely harder especially after a few years, strength gains will slow and plateaus will happen. There could be a problem if you're not good at cutting you could lose a majority of the hard earned muscle and strength. (It really depends on how long you're bulking and cutting though) but why bulk for a month or two anyways?

I recommend playing with your food intake (the calorie way) using a journal which will help a lot. Keep a journal also for weight lifting to see overall progress. If you start seeing some increase in fat in the stomach area on a bulk, then cut back on food. You will have to track progress regardless.

No one is going to tell you the exact thing to do, and just because it works for them doesn't mean it will work for you. Unfortunately, you will have to play around with macros, and as you get bigger or smaller you will have to keep adjusting, that is part of the process.

At 18 years old, you have a good 30+ years of prime weight lifting, rushing often causes injuries and inconsistency's in diet. Do not lift with an ego, do what you can do, and check the ego at the door. Just be consistent with good programming, diet and recovery and you will be set.

You got this!

rontafoya

No insult is intended here, but for someone 18 who has trained 3 years, I think you should be leaner. Based on what little bit of information you've supplied, I'd cut calories a bit. I think your fats and proteins look good, so I'd cut carbs. How much? I don't know--I'm not sure which direction the scale is moving. However, like I said, you are carrying more fat than you should for someone training this much and this hard. I would stick to compound, heavy weights like deadlifts, squats, OH press, etc. Hit the weights hard and heavy. At your age, even a slight cut in calories (maybe down to 2900-3000) plus the consistently heavy weight training will get your body fat percentage down quickly, while giving you some gains. Sorry if this sounds lame--but I'm 46 and about 10% bodyfat, and this is how I did it--I was pretty chubby at one time and lost 40 lbs. I can tell by the picture you are storing some of those carbs as fat. Once specific thing you could do is cut out (or cut down) the oatmeal and/or those protein bars. Protein bars are crap, you may as well have a candy bar. And/or cut out or cut down the rice at lunch. And lift progressively heavier. That aside, it sounds like you are doing great.

rontafoya

I should add--once you get a bit leaner (and stronger), you start to increase your carbs slowly, and do a "clean bulk' which means you are gaining muscle and fat simultaneously, but without gaining more fat than is absolutely necessary. It just appears to me that while you are certainly putting on muscle, you are gaining fat too. I've done a "dirty bulk" before--which is where you put on muscle but also a lot of fat, and it''s a bad idea. I recommend getting your body fat low, and keeping it low, even while you bulk. Go check out muscleforlife.com that guy knows his stuff.