My experience

So, I hope to do something useful by giving some experience-based advice, since I often receive requests privately, of help with nutrition and training.

What I write is the result of years of "experiments" on my own skin.

Up to the age of 20 I was pretty chubby, and at 40 I weighed almost 100kg-220lbs (I'm 175cm tall-5’9”), with 30kg-65lbs of body fat.

Today at 53 years old, I weigh 80kg-176lbs, I have been practicing recreational bodybuilding for 10 years, for the last 6 I have been eating with (way too much) attention and I have less than 10% of body fat, my resting heart rate is under 60bmp, under intense effort about 160, I can do HIIT on the stair stepper for 40 minutes in a row and I feel as good as ever.

BUT

all this has come at a high price.

I'm borderline obsessed.
I carried everything to excess and it was, in hindsight, a serious mistake.

The diet and training program I illustrated below are instead available to all those who want to achieve excellent results without excesses and without particular risks.

If I had kept to it I might not have reached my excessive goals in the limited time I set for myself but I would have also lived much better.


Additionally my greatest advice to those trying to lose weight is to FORGET about trying to have six-pack.

You see, the most common question I get, in particular from overweight people, is "What do you eat? What is your diet?", hoping I might have some kind of magic nutrition plan, tasty and delicious, that can help them achieve the body they wish.
Even if it means sounding like a d**k, my response is: what is your goal and most of all how far are you willing to go to reach it?

Unless you are genetically gifted, and I assume you're not if you're asking me about losing weight, for me achieving a six-pack and, even more, maintaining it, was a trip to nutrition hell.

I put on fat very easily, and have a hard time losing.

In my case, getting to have visible abs, meant (means) constant hunger, it meant (still means) being mocked by my friends while they are going through a bucket of chicken wings and beer and I am having a grilled chicken salad, barely any condiment, with a unsweetened ice tea.
It means drinking as much water as I can to try not to feel hunger and going to the bathroom 10 times at night.
It means forgetting about that delicious multigrain bread, cheese, sugars, alcohol, treats. Agonizing over that slice of cheesecake, at most taking only one teaspoon to it for the flavor and pushing the plate with the rest away.
It's calorie counting all the time, looking at what you are about to eat and figuring out how much additional cardio you are going to have to do to burn that cocktail that you could have done without.
It's feeling guilty for every meal that does not fit within the macros that you have set for your goal. Scraping off the BBQ sauce from your steak, asking your wife for a huge salad before your meal to try to fill you up.

Once you finally start seeing them, if you are like me, rest assured your ARE going to lose them, if you are not absolutely STRICT with your nutrition, because you are NOT genetically gifted.
So now you have a food scale, you weigh everything you can.
You try to figure out what is your next meal, based on what you ate the rest of the day, to compensate.
Then you will start weighing yourself everyday, to make sure your caloric intake is correct and you are respecting your macros.
While running on the treadmill you will be calculating the additional minutes you need to keep your metabolic rate up and burn the excess calories.

"What is your nutrition?" It sucks, that is what it is.

It's not fun with friends, it's not tasty at restaurants, it's not pleasurable at clubs.

Are you ready to go through all this? I wish I never had gone to these extents.

So just try to set some realistic expectations, forget about the visible abs and simply work to reach a normal weight - or close enough - without going crazy, and still be able once in a while to enjoy a slice of pizza and a beer.
Which I haven't had in over a year....



So I thought it might be useful to see what a correct approach to nutrition and exercise should be, without risks and excesses.

Though many complain of not making progress
- their nutrition sucks
- their ignorance of their macronutrients sucks
- their workout routine sucks
they will NOT make any real gains this way


There is no magic pill unfortunately or special diet or training that can make it any easier.
It’s mostly knowing what your goal is, and working hard to achieve it through willpower, grit, dedication, commitment and passion.
But I’ve seen extraordinary transformations, some simply unbelievable.

There is no reason to go overboard, the risk is in creating eating disorders, ruin social relations and the pleasure of good eating. You can still enjoy certain foods as long as they fit into the macros you have predetermined necessary to reach your target. And if you fall once, pick yourself up and keep going. It’s worth it. At the end you will have reached two important objectives: the body you want and a different healthier way of eating by giving up - and no longer missing - certain cravings or at least being able to satisfy them with much smaller portions.


The first thing to do is understand how far you are willing to go to achieve your goal

You can take 12 months to become a ripped fitness god/goddess with complete total dedication and obsessive commitment. Or achieve a good balance in the same time without driving yourself and those around you crazy.
In my opinion a goal should be achievable but challenging

But how fast?
From 6-8 months to 24 months to never
It all depends on your level of dedication and commitment
Obsession and absolute adherence to the targets that you set, measuring every single piece of food, not skipping a single workout, not a cheat meal, just huge bowls of salads with soy sauce as condiment and tuna in water or grilled skinless chicken breast, tons of water, three regular meals and 8 hours of rest per night might get you there in 6-8 months. But I don’t suggest you take this route unless you are planning to compete or do a photo shoot (what fitness models go through in prep of a photo session is insanity)
On the opposite side of the scale is too little adherence to your goals, then you’ll never get there.
Have an honest conversation with yourself and how much you are willing to do to reach your preset goal, then give it at least 3 months to be able to start seeing changes. if you reach that point after 3 months I can tell you you’ll get to your goal within a year. If you stick to it.

Weight
Now there are many things that can affect your daily weight: water retention being the first, caused by salt and carbs, or your period. Being able to go to the bathroom regularly, how much you drank. So daily weighing yourself is not purposeful unless you use it as a trend. The best gauge of your progress is the mirror. Additionally, you may get a skin fold caliper and tape measure (less than $5 for both) and use those.

Nutrition
Nutrition plays a major role in reaching this goal. I purposely did not call it “diet” but “nutrition”. You will have to rethink the way and what you eat.
Still willing to move ahead?
Now let’s look at how to go about all this. There are a few strategies that can help. Some look silly but believe me when you are hungry any small help is welcome. I mainly use 3: I start every meal with a couple of glasses of water, I use smaller plates than usual to trick my brain into thinking I am eating larger portions and lastly, I start every meal with a large, huge bowl of mixed greens with barely any condiment. These help greatly into make me feel more full and therefore less tempted.

Calories are not all equal
As you can imagine 150cals in a Coca-Cola (sugar) are not seen and processed by your body the same way as 150cals of say almond nuts. “Empty” calories are a waste as not only will hinder your progress but won’t help make you feel less hungry.
This is mainly during the nutrition reconfiguration period until you reach your goals. After that you will go into maintenance mode which is less hard. Note that by then you would have gotten accustomed to giving up some types of food and it will feel less of a sacrifice
Once you have recalibrated your nutritional intake, you can start looking at your training

Workout and intensity
IMHO your workout regimen should have 5 main components to it: Active rest periods, light cardio, HIIT, strength and hypertrophy
Active Rest - exactly what it means. Rest but take any chance you can for at least a BRISK walk (possibly increase heart rate, some sweating), take steps and not the elevator, and in general do any activity (even house chores) at a higher that usual pace.
Cardio - Light cardio which is with an effort for at least 40minutes (more if you can) that will get you winded, heart pumping lightly and a sweaty. You should still be able to have a conversation during this activity although with effort
HIIT - High intensity interval training, there is nothing better to burn calories. It tough and if done properly will leave you wrecked! Use a low impact trainer like an elliptical, stair stepper, or stationary bike. I personally avoid treadmill as not only it bores me, but it is hard on my knees.
Strength - weight training with highest possible movable weight with absolutely correct form. No use in moving improperly and not full range a dumbbell because too heavy.
Hypertrophy - Well let’s get one thing out of the way. Putting on lean muscle is incredibly hard, when all conditions are perfect! And impossible if your nutrition is not geared towards that goal. But since your nutrition will be targeted towards fat loss, you will be at a caloric deficit, you will not be increasing your mass (yet) but you will get nicely toned, until you are ready.

Intensity
Ideally your rest periods should be as brief as possible and try to keep your heart rate elevated. An inexpensive heart rate monitor can do wonders to keep track of your heart pumping properly. I - for example - rarely let my heart go below 130bpm (beats per minute) between sets.
Indicatively when doing light cardio my heart is between 130 - 140 and HIIT around 160

Numbers, numbers
Caloric intake - to force your body into burning fat but not slowing down your metabolism (which happens when you reduce calories too much) you should seek to achieve a caloric deficit versus your maintenance calories (TDEE) of not more than 15-18% (-500cals a day max). What does this mean? It means that if, based on your height, weight, activity levels, you have a certain amount of calories that will keep you as you are (TDEE), you will need to lower that by 18% and this should be achieved through a combination of change in nutrition and exercise.
Now keep in mind that 3 teaspoons of sugar have almost 50 calories, a coke 150, a tbsp of olive oil 115. Think about it when you are pouring that ranch dressing over your salad (80 calories a tablespoon)
As you can see it is relatively easy to find those 500 calories. In my case, since I train 6 days a week 1-1/2 hrs at high intensity I’m constantly starving so I’d rather renounce to sugars (all forms, from refined to sweets, alcohol, fruits, etc) processed foods of any type and most carbs but eat more protein and greens. This way I go way beyond my 500cal deficit and I make up eating more lean foods, so instead of say 4oz grilled skinless chicken breast I can eat 8oz and feel more full

How many exercises and what weight?
No need to go crazy. Pick one or two per muscle group, varying every couple of months. Weight used for strength should be extremely challenging, leaving you heaving at the end of the last two of the last set barely able to complete it with PERFECT form. Lower the weight and forget about pride. Keep track of weight and try to always add even a little more weight or additional volume. Again, I stress form. Especially since it’s really easy when weights get significant to blow out a shoulder on a bench or throw out your back on a squat.

Machines vs free weights
We’re not looking to compete but to look the best we can, so honestly, in my opinion, it doesn’t really matter. Varying keeps you from getting bored. At least it works for me.

Stretching or not
I’ve never stretched but I’m blessed with great recovery periods. But I do start every session with at least a 20minute cardio warmup, usually on a stair stepper, to get my blood flowing.
If you have time and like to stretch, go ahead and do so.

Which exercises
Compound multi joint exercises are best especially for the strength phase.
Using basic, heavy exercises that enable you to lift the most weight means that you don't have to do more than one/two exercises at most per body part. For chest, do bench presses or inclined bench presses. For back choose bent over rows, or chin-ups. For legs and glutes nothing beats squats. Low, thighs below parallel squats (ATTG or *kitten* To The Grass)
Do not fall into the trap of sound isolation exercises that are useless unless you are competing (small muscle groups)

If you have decided to move ahead, you need to be a little more knowledgeable in nutrition

www.myfitnesspal.com is a great help. One of the best.

If you are just going to the gym for general health purposes then you can keep up what you are doing that is not giving you the “expected” results.

Now I am going to pretend that you know your goals and have the drive to work towards reaching them.

If you follow this advice, you WILL achieve results within a year or so. If you are STRICT maybe even less but out of experience not worth it...

But first: let’s say you need to lose weight.
Whatever gains you make will be hidden under fat.
Keep in mind that muscle can be added ONLY with a caloric surplus.
It is almost impossible to do both. So we will have to start with a nutrition plan with a reasonable caloric restriction.

Let’s assume you are 160cm tall, 70kg (5’4” and 155lbs) with 29% Body Fat
“If” in your goals there is to see your abs, you will need to get around 12% BF, lose around 20lbs to “start” seeing your abs. 155lbs actual weight -29% BF = 120lbs LBM + 10% BF = 133lbs goal weigh at 10% BF

Math is 3,500 cals for each pound of fat. 20x3,500 = 70,000 calories to burn.
Let’s look at your metabolic data:
- TDEE (maintenance) TODAY is about 2,160 cals/day
- BMR (Basic Metabolic Rate) 1,570 cals/day
- This Plan 1,760 cals/day (-18.5% caloric restriction -400 cals/day)

http://scoobysworkshop.com/
another awesome source of great information

As said above 400-500 cals a day is easily achievable by everyone.

Back to total fat loss: 70,000 / 400 = 175 caloric restricted days. So you are looking at about 6 months of caloric restriction.
Now keep in mind that as you lose weight you need to recalculate your macros. Your TDEE will go down, and so will your BMR so to keep the same weight loss speed, you will be eating even less…

Based on this nutrition plan, let’s look at the breakdown of macronutrients
Protein
- As a “recreational” bodybuilder, your ideal protein intake should be about 1g / lb of LBM. So 120lbs x 1gr = 120gr/day Protein.
- Each g of protein (just like each g of carbs) has about 4 calories. 120x4 = 480 calories of protein per day.
- 480 / 1760 = 27% of your daily calories should be protein
Fats
- We want to keep fats fairly high. This serves 2 purposes: is helps with satiety and does not force your body into storing additional fat to replace it, using it as fuel.
- 25% of your daily calories from HEALTHY fats. 1g of fat has 9 calories.
- 25% of 1,760 calories = 440 cals/day at 9 calories per gram = 49g fats/day
Carbs
- Carbs will be the balance. So 1,760 cals/day – 480 calories of protein – 440 calories of fats leave 840 calories a day.
- At 4 calories per gram of carbs = 840 / 4 = 210g / day of carbs

Again, these quantities (not the percentages) are to be recalculated as you lose weight
Totals
- Protein: 27% of target nutrition plan
- Fats: 25% of target nutrition plan
- Carbs 48% (balance) of target nutrition plan
As of today
- Protein 120g/day
- Fats 49g/day
- Carbs 210g/day

Once you reach a loss of 15-18 lbs, you can start recalculating caloric surplus for adding mass.

Now let’s move on to your workout schedule. Note when I will use the expression STRENUOUS I am considering these factors:
1) STRICT form! For example, if you curl 3x10 with a 30lbs dumbbell using half a movement, shoving it with your back or anything like it this is NOT strict form. You need to do the MOST weight you can under PERFECTLY CONTROLLED AND EXECUTED movements. Put you pride aside and reduce the weight.
2) Reduced rest times, no chatting and wasting time, trying to keep your heart rate up as much as possible. I always wear a HRM and rarely my HR goes below 130 during “rest” periods while I am around 145-150 during the reps.
3) If you are walking out of the gym, the intensity was insufficient. You should still be panting while showering and getting dressed trying to catch your breath and dragging yourself to the car.
4) I have exceptional recovery and do not suffer from DOMS, so I workout intensely full-body 6 days a week including a daily session of HIIT. You should try to do 4 or 5 and at least 2 sessions of HIIT. Rest day should be a “active” rest day, not just lounging. Go for a BRISK walk (your heart needs to be pumping, and you should be sweating a bit)
5) You need to keep track of the exercise schedule and weight used and plan to add even a tiny amount of weight each week or additional volume.

Workout Program
This program worked out well for me when I was starting without boring me too much

Break down the week into two parts: first part of week Strength, second Hypertrophy.
Use a push-pull routine
You can use these exercises or replace them with equivalents

Day 1- Leg Strength
Low Squats (*kitten* To The Grass)
Barbell Deadlift
Low Leg Press
Calf Raises on Leg Press
RDL
Machine Leg Extension
Smith Hip Thrust

Day 2- Push Strength
Bench Press
High Incline Bench Press
Smith Behind Neck Press
Machine Shoulder Press
Close Grip Bench Press Smith
Weighted Dips
Bench Skull Crusher

Day 3- Pull Strength
Inclined Smith Barbell Row
Weighted Pull Ups (palms away)
Weighted Chin Ups (palms facing)
Standing BB Curls
DB Shrug
Seated Inclined Hammer Curls
Triceps Cable Pull Down Rope
Standing Cable Flyes
Machine Reverse Pec-Dec
Seated Cable Wide Grip Lat Pulldown

Day 4- Leg Hypertrophy
Goblet Front Squat DB
Hack Squat
Hip Thrust
Machine Leg Extension
Machine Leg Curl
Hyperextension (back extensions)
Dumbbell Romanian Deadlift
Calves Seated Leg Press

Day 5- Push Hypertrophy
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
Pec Dec
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press
Tricep Dumbbell Kickback
Incline Bench Dumbbell Front Raise
Lateral Raise
Cable T-Bar Push Down
Barbell 1 Arm Push Up

Day 6- Pull Hypertrophy
Body weight Pull Ups (palms away)
Body Weight Chin Ups (palms facing)
Dumbbell Row
Kneeling High Pulley Rope Row
Standing EZ Bar Curl Full Range
Triceps Cable T-Bar Reverse (palms Up)
Seated Cable Flyes
Hammer Curl Rope
Wide Grip Lat Pull Down

Reps
You should use this progress
WEEK 1
- Days 1-2-3 Strength 2x3 (for calves 2x20)
- Days 4-5-6 Hypertrophy 4x8
- Day 7 Active rest

WEEK 2 - maintain weight but increase volume
- Days 8-9-10 Strength 4x3
- Days 4-5-6 Hypertrophy 4x10
- Day 7 Active rest

WEEK 3 - maintain weight but increase volume
- Days 8-9-10 Strength 4x5
- Days 4-5-6 Hypertrophy 4x12
- Day 7 Active rest

WEEK 4 - maintain weight but increase volume
- Days 8-9-10 Strength 5x4
- Days 4-5-6 Hypertrophy 5x10
- Day 7 Active rest

WEEK 5 - start over but increase weight
- Days 1-2-3 Strength 2x3 (for calves 2x20)
- Days 4-5-6 Hypertrophy 4x8
- Day 7 Active rest

Ideally you should add a 20’ HIIT session or even 2, NOT before leg sessions.
- 5 minutes warm up
- 10 sessions alternating 1 minute at maximum intensity, 1 minute almost complete rest
- 5 minutes cool down.
For a total of 30 minutes

Or alternatively 40-50 minutes of cardio.

Don’t waste $$ on pre-workouts. They are just junk. Might as well just drink coffee or grab 200mg caffeine caplets at a pharmacy and take ONE if you workout in the mornings, NONE if after 3pm

Eat clean, forget about full cheat days. You may occasionally concede yourself “a” cheat (like a piece of chocolate, ½ slice of pizza, “a” beer) but remember these are additions you will need to burn off or extend your fat loss expectations.

I hope it helps you.
With passion, will power, dedication and hard work, your goals will be reached.

The more you put into it the quicker you will reach them. Remember to set challenging but achievable goals and have realistic expectations.

Feel free to shoot me down or contact me for any help if you feel so. I'll be happy to help any way I can

Buona Fortuna

49DegreesNorth