Trying to choose a strength routine...need advice!!!

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  • Morninglory81
    Morninglory81 Posts: 1,190 Member
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    Wow, lots of great advice. Thanks y'all. I think I've decided to go with stronglifts 5x5. So, can anyone tell me if they do cardio while doing stronglifts? If so, how often? And right now I'm eating 1500-1700 calories. More? Less? Thanks!
    I don't do any regular cardio other than running after my two boys. I do the SL5x5 and eat about 1700 daily. My goals for now are keeping muscle and losing fat so I am still at a moderate deficit.
  • DixieDarlin1987
    DixieDarlin1987 Posts: 553 Member
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    Alright, now we're talkin'! This is the kind of stuff I need to know about, nutrition and muscle gaining/fat loss. This is the stuff I didn't do in highschool and college, just because my physique wasn't the focus of my workouts. I don't know this stuff. So, in order to build muscle, I at least need to eat maintenance, if not at a slight surplus? And doing this with "good for you food" will not cause me to gain fat, only lean muscle? And then after a period of muscle gain, you adjust your diet to cut fat, while preserving lean body mass, and then you do it all again to add more muscle? I know y'all mentioned in the beginning I would probably be able to cut body fat and still make gains...so I should "cut" first and then after a couple of months, I should "bulk"? Also, I've been researching protein powders and such and I ran across one called Athlete's Food. It's more like a meal replacement than just a protein powder...supposedly comparable to Shakeology. Anybody have any experience with this powder or any other one? Should I use one of the ones formulated for bulking, whenever I decide to do that? I want a good quality supplement, but it can't be through the rood expensive either. Thanks so much y'all!
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    unfortunately, whether you eat at a deficit, maintenance, or a surplus, you can't dictate if you'll lose/gain fat or muscle. most people that do this will bulk over the winter, and cut in the spring. they'll put on a few pounds (yes even of fat), and then when they cut back calories, and do more cardio and some lighter weights, they'll trim the fat, but also lose a little muscle.

    if i were you, i'd take the opportunity to learn and adjust what works for you over the next few months. experiment. tweak your routine and see what happens after 3-4 weeks. right now, for you to be thinking about cutting and bulking is putting the carriage in front of the horse, in my opinion. work out, and enjoy experimenting. pick up some books. you sound like you have a good base knowledge, so i'd jump right in with jim wendlers 5/3/1 and/or mark rippatoe's starting strength.

    others will chime in with their opinions on protein powders and BCAA, but i like my target brand PP.
  • texasfight78
    texasfight78 Posts: 12
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    Alright, now we're talkin'! This is the kind of stuff I need to know about, nutrition and muscle gaining/fat loss. This is the stuff I didn't do in highschool and college, just because my physique wasn't the focus of my workouts. I don't know this stuff. So, in order to build muscle, I at least need to eat maintenance, if not at a slight surplus? And doing this with "good for you food" will not cause me to gain fat, only lean muscle? And then after a period of muscle gain, you adjust your diet to cut fat, while preserving lean body mass, and then you do it all again to add more muscle? I know y'all mentioned in the beginning I would probably be able to cut body fat and still make gains...so I should "cut" first and then after a couple of months, I should "bulk"? Also, I've been researching protein powders and such and I ran across one called Athlete's Food. It's more like a meal replacement than just a protein powder...supposedly comparable to Shakeology. Anybody have any experience with this powder or any other one? Should I use one of the ones formulated for bulking, whenever I decide to do that? I want a good quality supplement, but it can't be through the rood expensive either. Thanks so much y'all!

    Eating too much of any food; "clean/dirty" "good/bad" whatever label people wish to put on it, will result in weight gain. I recommend eating at maintenance for a few weeks while getting started on your new strength program. After you get acclimated to the program & feel comfortable with it, I would go ahead and add say 10% to your daily calorie intake. This should keep your weight gain slow and minimize fat gain although some will likely be fat. If you start gaining at a rate that you aren't comfortable with you can always make adjustments and lower your surplus.

    My take on protein powders probably don't fit in with the norm. If you have a set daily protein goal of just say 1gram/lb of body weight & you can hit that number through your normal food intake, then I don't see the need for protein powders. That being said I do personally use whey daily, but I'm bulking right now and find it more of a convenience thing to help me hit my daily goal than a must.
  • holothuroidea
    holothuroidea Posts: 772 Member
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    You can get away with eating a small deficit for a little while and still have some small gains, but your initial phase of weightlifting will not be very heavy anyway. For the first few weeks you should focus on form, lifting PVC pipes and the bar and doing high reps and then ease progressively into lower rep sets with higher weights. This would be a good time to eat at a deficit and cut some more fat before you really start getting into the heavy lifting/muscle building phase. After a month or so you can start approaching your max and making significant gains, and that would be a good time to up your calories, maybe 150-250 cals/day over maintenance or so should do it.

    As far as macros, what I do is I get 1g protein per pound of LBM and 0.35g fat per pound. For me that works out to a ratio of 50/25/25.

    A woman can gain about a pound of muscle per month under optimal conditions. Anything else will be stored fat, but you can just cut it later. It doesn't matter whether your calories come from "clean" foods or not.
  • DixieDarlin1987
    DixieDarlin1987 Posts: 553 Member
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    Ok, so I've been doing a WHOLE LOT of reading the last few days on all kinds of stuff related to weight training. optimal diet, etc. There is just soooo much information and so many options....I'm so excited to get started! So, after all of that reading...the plan it still to begin with the 5x5 program (however I am going to order the starting strength book to read as well) and follow it until I plateau...from there I don't know yet, probably some kind of 3x5 program. Nutrition wise, I'm planning to eat maintenence on a 40/40/20 macro and just not eat my exercise calories back...let that be my deficit. As far as cardio....I'm going to cut my jogs back to once a week. I read alot about steady state cardio being counterproductive when trying to gain muscle. I want to maintain where I'm at on my runs (I started running with police academy in mind- currently going through the hiring process at my Sheriff's Office and figured when I go to the academy it would be best if I didn't feel like I was dying after running for 2 minutes. Now I can run for 30+ and actually enjoy it lol), but don't want to lose muscle. Going to start doing HIIT a couple of days a week I think. Can anyone tell me how long and often I should do hit to cut the rest of this fat for the summer? Is twice a week for 15-20 minutes and 1 longer run enough? Oh and also, I was going over all this stuff with my hubby, who used to be a powerlifter many years ago, and he mentioned "negatives" when you reach failure, rather than deloading after 3 consecutive failed attempts. Thoughts on this?

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