Nutritionist gave me a new meal plan.. Need motivation and s

i protein shakes for my caloric intake. BSN Syntha 6 is amazing.

avocados, nuts, olive oil are calorie dense... you can put avocado on burgers, salad, sammies, wraps... etc.

It's not a rip off. Don't knock it until you try it. Your nutritionist is right with the meal replacements or additions. Get it with bars and shakes. Good luck and let us know how you are progressing.

ok so I'm a 17 year old male 157.5 lbs, 5'8 1/2. I have a good body structure and I'm ready to turn my small bit of fat that I have into ripped abs and some muscle. I told my nutritionist that I get exercise every Tuesday from basketball practice, and from here on out most of my weekends will be filled with basketball tournaments. That's all the exercise I will be getting.

Noe my nutritionist put me on a plan where I consume 2100 calories worth of food, and 800 calories worth of supplements (bars and shakes). So a total of about 2900 calories/ day. The foods he gave me choices on are all healthy foods that are good for strengthening muscle I assume.

Ever since I started dieting (about the end of January), my testosterone has apparently stopped and I have stopped developing due to low intake of nutrients and calories.

I am so used to eating about 1400-1500 calories/day and so is my body. I am so scared that if I just start up out of no where eating 2900 calories in a day, hay my body won't react to it right and something will go wrong. I really need some motivation from everyone please!!! Thankss I start this journey tomorrow!!! Ahhh!!!

it's not your testosterone that has stopped developing. You aren't getting enough calories and your body is protecting that fat and eating into your muscle - they have stopped developing (and you have probably slowed your metabolism). I agree with bmontgomery87. 2900 is really high for someone that doesn't do much exercise. And you need to lift weights if you want to increase your muscle mass. You have ripped abs. You just have to burn off the layer of fat covering them. You can do that lifting heavy weights and getting plenty of protein.

Why don't you try running on the days you don't have basketball? You'll love the difference exercizing every day makes. AND your basketball game is bound to improve.

I'm confused are you more wanting to gain muscle than lose fat??? B/c at your size you shouldn't have a whole lot of excess fat. It you are wanting to be leaner you are going to be better off adding weight lifting to your basketball playing... Eating 2900 calories probably is right IF you are lifting b/c you need to feed those muscle to help them develop.

If you say you are in the "very active" range, your body burns total 3039 per day. So for a 500 calorie deficit, you're still at 2600 calories needed to lose weight.

I think you should listen to the nutritionist.


As for your MFP settings, try setting it to .5lb loss, your activity level to very active, and see if it comes close at all to what the nutritionist said.

I have about 7.8% body fat on my lol I forgot. So yeah I'm just trying to shape my body

If he told yo that. He obviously doesn't know what he's talking about.
Anything under 10 percent is ripped.
So you wouldn't be trying to shed fat.


Either you're trolling, or you're seriously clueless and you're getting ripped off bad.
Bottom line, if you're not eating right and lifting, you aren't gonna build muscle.


But "he obviously knows what he's talking about". So you have fun with that.

^ I don't think the nutritionist is trying to help him lose, I think he's trying to help him gain muscle... That's pretty obvious by the advice.

I see that. But the OP said he wanted to lose fat.
Either way, I seriously doubt that he's under 8 percent bodyfat. And refuse to believe it without seeing a pic.
And he isn't going to gain muscle without weight training. You don't get bigger from eating and running alone.

I don't think this guy is trolling, just a little confused. I also believe him when he says he is sub 8% BF (depending on the method used to calculate this which is obviously prone to a high margin of error.)

There's a large fallacy that many guys fall into which makes crappy trainers and crappy programmes a large amount of money. That is low bf% = ripped. You see it all the time - guys endlessly chasing leaness and not ending up looking the way they want. Are their calipers lying to them? No. "But I am sub 10%" they cry. "Why don't I have an impressive six pack? Why can't I see clear lats and delts? Why don't I look like a fitness model?"

Why do you think numbnuts? It's because you never had that much musculature TO BEGIN WITH. What's was the point of leaning out if in realtity under all that fat you had very little to show off in the first place? It's almost worse than those ladies who get their panties in a bunch because they think even looking at a free weight while somehow turn them into a muscle bound monster. "I tell you Shirley, it is the strangest thing. I lifted these 5lbs dumbells last night for 30 reps and I woke up this morning with simply huuuuuge biceps" Errrrr, no.

Turning to the OP it seems he his going on a clean(ish) bulk. The shakes and protein bars make sense in this regard. To switch over from a catabolic diet state to an anabolic growth state he needs to get a calorie surplus going on. There is a certain physical reality in the short term for him getting enough calories down his neck doing it all with whole foods. That is he will be need to be eating a hell of a lot more than he was before to meet his requirements. Unless he wants to be eating multipe servings of tuna and cottage cheese every hour he will need to supplement to some degree. Hopefully as he gets used to eating more that side of it will taper off and he will concentrate more on whole foods.

One concern I have is ramping up calories so significantly in literally a day. That is bound to case his body to partition calories more in favour of fat storage than muscle growth, especially given his exercise regime seems woefully inadequate for his goals. Admittedly that might not be an issue in the short term given his low BF% so he has some latitude to put on fat without to much detriment to his physique. However, he may end up feeling sick for eating so much in comparison to what he was before.

Finally, and this makes me deeply suspicious, where the hell is the resistance work in this physique building quest? Perhaps it's incorporated in the basketball training he does? Whilst cardio does have a potential for muscle growth given a calorie surplus that is usually with Type 1 slow twitch fibre activation rather than Type II. He won't end up looking the way he wants at this rate without some kind of heavy work.

^^agreed to an extent.

at 5 foot 8 with 160 pounds and 8 percent bodyfat, he'd have to have some muscle.

I'm about the same height and 150 pounds, with even more bodyfat, but i still have a little muscle showing. I'd say he's probably closer to 12-16 or somewhere in that range. Hard to tell without a picture, but for someone who just plays basketball I refuse to believe he's got that low of a bf percentage judging by his stats.

I do agree that he needs some resistance work. He can't just grow while playing bball and eating. You don't get a build body from playing a sport that requires virutally no strength.

True enough. Most people tend to rubbish at calculating their BF% and tend to believe they are much lower than they actually are but he seems to have had his independently assessed. However, it doesn't quite fit in with his height / weight as you say.

You're 150 lbs? It's amazing how leaness gives the illusion of size. You look like you weigh more that that.

It's a good angle and good lighting in all honesty.
Being lean does make you look a lot bigger, but I feel small as sh** right now.
Hoping to hit 170 in a few years at about the same bodyfat I'm at now.

Do you ever read Fit Jerk's blog? It's hilarious but he makes a good point in one of this articles. If you are walking down the beach with your shirt off and you are lean enough to make an impression then you win. Full stop. Nobody knows or really even cares what you weigh or if you have a 30" waist rather than a 32". I've never really worried about my size so I guess it's easy for me to say.

I get the impression you have what it takes to meet your goals. You certainly know I hell of a lot more than I did when I was your age. Depending on your personality type I would say set a big goal. 170 in 1 year. What's the worst that can happen? You don't do it and get to 165lbs instead. What a disaster....

Good luck mate.

and avoiding alcohol. That last one has been tough for me tho.

Don't believe the hype:

http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle.html

What's life without a little fun?

Don't believe the hype:

http://www.leangains.com/2010/07/truth-about-alcohol-fat-loss-and-muscle.html

What's life without a little fun?

I'm just going on the fact that it reduces test , and increases estrogen. Haha.
I did the drinking for a year while lifting, now I've quit drinking and been doing that for about 3 months, and the results really have been different. I feel a lot tighter.
My problem wasn't just the alcohol. I'd go overboard, which meant not training the next day, and also poor nutrition the next day. It's hard to eat 3k calories of good food while you're hungover.

So my one night out, turned into atleast 2 days of bad choices, which ended up affecting my gains.
but if people can use moderation, i'd say go for it.

EDIT: but i did just read that article, and I won't feel so bad the next time I want a drink. lol