neognostic;534880 said:
Mike, what's your diet like for leaning down? I'm pretty lean but I've got a bit of stomach and fat pad that are very stubborn. Seriously, should I just hit cardio really hard for a couple of months and lift intermediate weights mixed with deadlifts and squats?
I leaned down just from diet. I was also sick for three weeks in December, so that helped. But mainly just diet. I've hardly exercised for the majority of the time since I've been getting lean.
When I was exercising, I was just doing regular lifting then I would do interval training. I'd jog for 2 min, then sprint for 1 min, repeat. I'd do that for 10-20 minutes. That helped a lot. Also I stopped all the protein shakes except for just one after workout.
I've heard the expression "abs are made in the kitchen" from a dude who is in his 40s or 50s and jacked. It's really quite true. Eating properly will get you looking fit, then adding the weight lifting, stomach work and cardio on top just cuts you up. I recently started going to the gym again and I am looking nice after a workout.
The key is really figuring out when to eat, how much to eat and when not to eat.
I got the info on what to eat from like 4 websites. I will give you the links tomorrow. I basically listened to what it said for all meals: no added sugars, preservatives etc. for ex, if you eat yogurt, add your own fruit and buy all natural 0% fat yogurt.
- Lean meats - chicken, turkey, beef, fish (i eat salmon and tuna)
- Raw fruits and vegetables
- Nuts
- Lots of water
- Fish oils with each meal
- If you're going to eat dairy, eat low fat dairy
- Eggs are great - the bullshit about the yolk being high in cholesterol is bullshit. It's good cholesterol. I eat two eggs every morning. I am lean as fuck. You can research for yourself but all the information I've found states that eating whole eggs is fine. No sense just eating the whites.
- Avoid processed foods, including lunch meats. Avoid things with added sugars, preservatives. Read the labels. The less ingredients, the better. Shit you can't pronounce as ingredients, avoid.
- Avoid bread and wheat. Oatmeal is cool though. Bigger oats = better.
When I was cycling 50 km 2-4 days a week I was looking cut as fuck. You can see how I looked in the picture from Dec. 2011. I have even more definition in my stomach now. Once I start doing ab exercises and lifting heavier, I suspect I will be cut up very nicely. My approach for lifting will be very different now. Before I would just gorge myself with food and lift each day but I wasn't able to keep up with all the calories I was taking it, yet I still would lose size rapidly if I missed a couple workouts.
The beauty with eating right is I've maybe worked out between 5-10 times since early December and the whole time I've looked like a jeans model (from the neck down).
To be fair, I am naturally lean (lean-kinda fat body type). I can easily lose weight. I have small bones and I am 6 feet tall, so I am not stocky and put on weight easily. But I've never really had abs like I do now.
I was 16.9% body fat, 181 lbs Oct 2012. On Jan 31, 2013 I was 14.3% body fat, 166 lbs. Of that 15 lbs lost, 7.2lbs was fat. Not too bad considering that was 80% due to diet alone.
I believe I'd need supplements (legal or otherwise) to get below 13-14% body fat.
I'll get you those links soon.
