Rate my diet plan

Davidjohnson9333

45 year old, 200lbs, with 20% body fat %. Looking to recomp off 20lbs of fat with the below eating plan. Planning to lift weights 3x a week and cardio 2x a week; taking weekends off to rest. Cardio would be an hour of biking or 40 mins of jogging. Would you change the below eating plan?

Thanks!

Lifting days

830am: 45g protein with some carbs; egg whites, milk, fiber cereal

11:00am: banana and 13g protein power

11:30am: 60 minutes of lifting

1:00pm: 25g protein powder, 25g chicken and mixed veggies

6:00pm: dinner, steak or something with 50g protein and veggies

9:00pm: 25g protein powder

Cardio days

830am: 45g protein with some carbs; egg whites, milk, fiber cereal

11:00am: banana and 13g protein power

11:30am: 60 minutes of cardio

1:30pm: 40g chicken and mixed veggies

6:00pm: dinner, steak or something with 50g protein and veggies

9:00pm: 25g protein powder

Redordeadhead

How many calories is it?

ccrdragon

https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10848717/rate-my-diet-plan

Are you sure about the weights on the chicken? 25g of chicken is less than 1 oz of chicken, 40g of chicken is barely more than 1 oz of chicken... I personally would eat more real food and ditch some of the protein powder.

Davidjohnson9333

Eating the calories I burn each day. So 2400 plus whatever my polar calculates from exercise.

Sorry, meant 25g of protein from chicken, not 25g of chicken.

Where would you cap the powder? Maybe replace some of the protein powder with milk? Is there something substantial better than milk or something just as easy?

Thanks!

Lietchi

Skyr yogurt or 0%fat Greek yogurt are easy sources of protein, which you can still combine with some protein powder if you want a big hit of protein (and if you don't like unflavored yogurt like me).

Davidjohnson9333

Thanks! I’ll try that.

How does the timing of the meals look? Am I overthinking it? Some of the bodybuilding books I’ve read stress the importance of timing, but maybe that is just for hardcore bodybuilders…

Lietchi

Timing, IMHO, is majoring in the minors 🙂

Davidjohnson9333

Thanks!

Davidjohnson9333

Any advice on the amount and timing of the cardio? My old trainer once told me that doing cardio the same day as lifting would greatly affect my strength gains. Also heard most bodybuilders avoid cardio as much as they can. Am I doing too much here? Can I do more?

sijomial

Davidjohnson9333 wrote: »

Any advice on the amount and timing of the cardio? My old trainer once told me that doing cardio the same day as lifting would greatly affect my strength gains. Also heard most bodybuilders avoid cardio as much as they can. Am I doing too much here? Can I do more?

Cardio means what precisely in that context? Unless your old trainer qualified his statement it's just a sound bite and bro-science wrapped up in one sentence!
A bit of a walk or eight hours cycling or gut busting sprint intervals that leave you wiped out for days are all cardio and would have very different impacts on your strength training all the way from being a complete irrelevance to totally ruining your training.

Does your hour of cycling, at whatever intensity you are riding at, or your 40 min jog leave you fatigued? Only you know your total exercise volume and training load that you thrive on as that will be highly varied and very personal and also hopefully geared towards your goals.

You aren't a competitive bodybuilder so don't compare yourself to what they do. Just like someone who runs the odd 5k doesn't have to copy the training plan and lifestyle of an Olympic marathon runner.
There's plenty of people who manage both high cardio and high strength training goals but they aren't working towards every last fraction of a percentage point as regards showing off their physique on stage.

Can you do more?
Probably. Do you want to and why?

Davidjohnson9333

For my runs, I try to keep my heart rate at 165 for most of the 40 mins; upper limit of zone 4. Cycling about the same, but can bounce around depending on the terrain. I don’t really feel anything the next day. Not sore or fatigued. I could easily do more cardio. I’ve been doing cardio all my life but just started weight training. Would like to find the balance where the cardio keeps the weight off and provides health benefits while not melting my muscule away and having the upper body muscle mass of a long distance runner…

sijomial

Cardio works your muscles - it doesn't melt your muscles as it's simply not the fuel of choice for exercise. It's a fuel of last resort if someone is seriously undereating but then that's the fault of the diet and not the training,

Cyclists and runners that have little upper body muscle mass haven't burned away what they had, they simply haven't built or maintained their upper body musculature.
For example Bradley Wiggins when competing as a track cyclist was both heavier and had more upper body muscle than when he solely focussed on road riding to win his Tour de France. He stopped track cycling to deliberately let those muscles atrophy while dieting down to a very low weight. That's not burning muscle it's removing stimulus (primarily bracing to accelerate a very high gear ratio).

I'm a long distance cyclist (approaching 6,000 miles this year) and have no problem at all maintaining upper body strength and mass as long as I train appropriately. During lockdown when the gyms were shut I did lose upper body muscle but that's not my cycling burning it - it's simply the normal atrophy of muscles that weren't getting sufficient stimulus. When I could resume training I regained that lost muscle while still doing long duration rides and high mileage.

With your detail of your cardio that could be an antagonist to strength/hypertrophy goals to someone less CV fit than you but it doesn't appear to be causing YOU a problem. My suggestion would be do both but eat at a level that supports your exercise. What you do need to take account of is your overall training load and fatigue/recovery levels.

Davidjohnson9333

Thanks!

MikePfirrman

Or row. I picked up a lot of muscle rowing. Brad Wiggins thought he could be an Olympic rower but it was too tough for him. But you can see how he even bulked up more. He ended up getting some respectable Erg times but never really broke through to be strong enough. Perhaps if he started early.

I'm about 10 lbs too heavy right now but my adult son, who is a powerlifter, saw me without a shirt and said, "your abs are on point...". Rowing will develop your abs, lats, back and legs especially. But doesn't do anything for your chest.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/team-gb-rowing-chiefs-urged-11652084

AnnPT77

Davidjohnson9333 wrote: »

Eating the calories I burn each day. So 2400 plus whatever my polar calculates from exercise.
Sorry, meant 25g of protein from chicken, not 25g of chicken.
Where would you cap the powder? Maybe replace some of the protein powder with milk? Is there something substantial better than milk or something just as easy?
Thanks!

I'm another one of those tedious "food is preferable to supplements, for nutrient sourcing" people. Consider this as a resource:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10247171/carbs-and-fats-are-cheap-heres-a-guide-to-getting-your-proteins-worth-fiber-also

Also, while protein is important, if you want to *optimize* nutrition (admittedly optional) you might want to prioritize in some MUFAs/PUFAs (what I'm seeing is mostly sat fats?), and I'm not sure what your veggies/fruits amount to. For micros and fiber, 5+ servings daily would be good, 10+ would be better - varied, colorful, ideally.

Davidjohnson9333 wrote: »

For my runs, I try to keep my heart rate at 165 for most of the 40 mins; upper limit of zone 4. Cycling about the same, but can bounce around depending on the terrain. I don’t really feel anything the next day. Not sore or fatigued. I could easily do more cardio. I’ve been doing cardio all my life but just started weight training. Would like to find the balance where the cardio keeps the weight off and provides health benefits while not melting my muscule away and having the upper body muscle mass of a long distance runner…

I don't know what 165 is for you: Is that top of Z4? And, if so, is that based on a genuine sports HRmax test (maximal or submaximal), not an age estimate? (Age estimates are often inaccurate; if I used my 220-age as a guide, I'd be severely undertraining. 220-age for me is 154. I don't know for sure that my max is still 180-ish, but it's definitely way higher than 154, which I can exceed pretty easily. This is not self-congratulatory, BTW: It's mostly about genetics, IMU.)

How much time are you spending pushing Z4, vs. at lower intensities, generally?

I would say that IMO most of us who focus on (prioritize) cardio would be working mostly (duration wise) at lower intensities, treating higher intensities as a side dish/condiment, though the dosage varies across the calendar when running a periodized plan.

However, in general I agree with sijomial (usually do 😉): If you're recovering OK, you're probably fine.

Speaking as a rower, I do mildly disagree with Mike. I agree that rowing is pretty strength-y cardio, can gradually build some muscle, and is more progressive (properly done) than non-rowers might imagine. It can be very useful for someone who likes rowing, hates lifting (like me). However, it looks like you're putting a priority on lifting, and I hope enjoying it. A good progressive lifting routine is a more direct, efficient route to muscle mass (or strength) gain than rowing. Most serious rowers lift, too.

I'm not that serious, don't lift as much as would be best for me, for either health or rowing outcomes. I do lift some. Based on that experience, I think that introducing strength-y cardio like rowing into a lifting-focused life is just going to risk creating complexity in managing recovery. Rowing uses a lot of muscle groups (though only upper-pull, lower-push, loosely). If one rows on alternate days to lifting, what's the lifting schedule, and can good recovery (repair, where the gains happen) occur? Maybe. But it's a complication. Just my opinion, obviously.

If strength or mass were my main priority, I wouldn't do strength-y cardio, I think. Cardio (generically) won't burn up muscle: I think that's a myth promulgated by lifters who don't find cardio fun 😆. But for someone focused on muscle/strength gains, IMO strength-y cardio just complicates overall programming. (Seems like I've seen @sijomial say some nuanced things in other threads about timing lower body lifting, or particular types of lifting, around the high-volume cycling parts of the calendar, given the lower-body demands of cycling, though I may be recalling incorrectly - I can't speak for him. Rowing just makes that more complicated, because there's upper body in there as well as lower.)