BIG problem with diet and exercise. PLEASE HELP!!!!

ok, so i have cut about 60-70lbs over the coarse of 7-8 months. The problem i am having now is that i want to start lifting again, but i don't know how to balance that with my cardio. I know i need to do both, but i am having a really tough time kepping my caloric intake up as it is.

Here is what i eat: Breakfast- 3-5 large egg whites, 2 servings organic flak flakes with omegas, skim milk on the cereal, and one glass high pulp OJ
Mid meal- 2 pieces 12 grain bread, 5 deli cut slices of oven roasted turkey breast, 1 slice swiss cheese, 2-3 teaspoons ketchup, 1 cup low-fat raspberry yogurt.
Lunch- 1 can green beans low sodium, 1 can Black Beans rinsed, a little ketchup and hot sauce

Dinner- 1 6-7oz organic chicken breast boiled, 3 servings organic mushrooms or asparagus, 2-3 teaspoons ketchup

Night- 1 serving whey protein.
I know i need to eat more. PLEASE HELP. where do i need to eat more and how much? i take a multi vitamin, gurana, 1 glass green tea, CLA with tonalin, multi B, Vit C booster, potassium, and l-carnitine. I drink about 1 gallon of water a day.

I run for 1 hour when i wake up in the morning and i roll for 1-1 1/2 hours 4 days a week. 100-200 push ups a day. sundays off. ANY help would be huge. Thank you for reading and any responses.

I was about to say you need to eat more way more.. but you're already aware of that. Start carb cycling.. 2 high days.. a refeed every 2ish weeks. Diet is really something you'll have to play with to find what works for you. On glance.. you need more protein a lot more... fats looks pretty good.. depending on the approach you take carbs will differ one way or another. Definitely need to eat more. I'm sure someone else here will give you some breakdown of exactly what to eat but you'll still have to play with it.

As far as workout tone down the cardio.. you're already rolling 4 days a week.. add in some gpp and that should be perfect. You really need to get to some lifting though. Solid compound movements... squats to get hormones flowing. Too much cardio is going to be counter productive... Unless you really really want to burn through everything you have on your body.

Also throwing down tons of veggies isn't going to get you anywhere.. they're good for some micro nutrients and as filler... but thats about it.. some veggies every couple of days is all you need.

Another thing... no one can tell you how much to eat if they don't know your bw and your bf%.. you need your bf% so you can figure out your lean body mass and then eat the appropriate amount of calories

6%-12% 17 calories per pound of LBM (Lean Body Mass)
12%-15% 16 calories per pound of LBM
15.1%-19% 15 calories per pound of LBM
19.1%-22% 14 calories per pound of LBM
22.1% or above 13 calories per pound of LBM

Forgot to add this and can't edit yet.. (I'll become a pro member soon :P)

This is a good guideline to follow.. Keep it at maintenance caloric intake on workout days.. then drop it by 200-300 on non workout days.. key word guideline. You can go with this or carb cycling.

Carb cycling is more practical for the sport but you may want to worry about that once you reached your goal because it is a slower process.. I still recommend it though.. best way to keep what you have and lose what you don't want.

Are you looking to maintain your weight where your at? Add muscle? Which direction are you going?

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Originally Posted by P.S.

I was about to say you need to eat more way more.. but you're already aware of that. Start carb cycling.. 2 high days.. a refeed every 2ish weeks. Diet is really something you'll have to play with to find what works for you. On glance.. you need more protein a lot more... fats looks pretty good.. depending on the approach you take carbs will differ one way or another. Definitely need to eat more. I'm sure someone else here will give you some breakdown of exactly what to eat but you'll still have to play with it.

As far as workout tone down the cardio.. you're already rolling 4 days a week.. add in some gpp and that should be perfect. You really need to get to some lifting though. Solid compound movements... squats to get hormones flowing. Too much cardio is going to be counter productive... Unless you really really want to burn through everything you have on your body.

Also throwing down tons of veggies isn't going to get you anywhere.. they're good for some micro nutrients and as filler... but thats about it.. some veggies every couple of days is all you need.

Another thing... no one can tell you how much to eat if they don't know your bw and your bf%.. you need your bf% so you can figure out your lean body mass and then eat the appropriate amount of calories

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Interesting....where does meatball subs on the day of competition fall into this?

Its right after you finish your big mac,fries and soda.

lol @meatball subs. $5 at subway. I miss them. I am trying to cut fat. I am currently around 22-24% body fat. I am 6'0" tall and weigh 235lbs. I would like to start adding muscle, but I am more interested in losing weight and looking good.

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Originally Posted by Chris Herzog

Interesting....where does meatball subs on the day of competition fall into this?

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That falls into the carb loading category when I need energy before a comp, you didn't even let me finish and I was starving -.-... also we went to subway.. I never eat subway and when I do.. thats all I get.

As far as my own diet goes, for the past 2-2.5ish years.. its been far more lenient :P.. I just try and down as many calories as I can a day. 4500-5 depending on the day and how I'm feeling.. but thats not all clean.. usually use a large pizza as the filler.

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Originally Posted by P.S.

That falls into the carb loading category when I need energy before a comp, you didn't even let me finish and I was starving -.-... also we went to subway.. I never eat subway and when I do.. thats all I get.

As far as my own diet goes, for the past 2-2.5ish years.. its been far more lenient :P.. I just try and down as many calories as I can a day. 4500-5 depending on the day and how I'm feeling.. but thats not all clean.. usually use a large pizza as the filler.

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Which is scary that you are giving out dieting advise. There are too many wholes in what you just said to even address.

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Originally Posted by Matt_Logan

lol @meatball subs. $5 at subway. I miss them. I am trying to cut fat. I am currently around 22-24% body fat. I am 6'0" tall and weigh 235lbs. I would like to start adding muscle, but I am more interested in losing weight and looking good.

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Dang at 6' you don't need to be losing 70lbs... Just eat more... cycle some carbs and get to lifting. If you're new to lifting etc.. check out starting strength it will build you a good strength/muscle base until you can move to other things. You can also look into joe defranco.. hes a cool guy and has some good stuff. You can use his methods as a starting point as well.. its based off of westside which is just linear periodization but people will argue that its not. Man I ramble and get off topic... but I say you shoot for 195-200 I'm not so sure you'll be happy with 6' 175

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Originally Posted by Chris Herzog

Which is scary that you are giving out dieting advise. There are too many wholes in what you just said to even address.

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Like what?.. just cause I'm not dieting now doesn't mean I haven't done it in the past with proper coaching etc.. or that I have no experience with it. Me dieting right now would be counter productive to my goals etc.. I have a feeling we have completely different dieting ideologies sense you say there are holes but I'm always willing to learn especially from you coach :P

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Originally Posted by P.S.

Dang at 6' you don't need to be losing 70lbs... . Man I ramble and get off topic... but I say you shoot for 195-200 I'm not so sure you'll be happy with 6' 175

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um... he said he lost 70 lb, and is NOW 235, not that he is at 235 and wants to lose 70 lb more.

What is the most you have ever weighed P?

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Originally Posted by Sarkis Matossian

um... he said he lost 70 lb, and is NOW 235, not that he is at 235 and wants to lose 70 lb more.

What is the most you have ever weighed P?

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He said he wants to lose 60-70lbs unless I'm missing something.. Most I've ever weighed was 175-6.. seems like I'm getting on everyones bad side today O.o.. gonna take a beating at the gym.

Yeah I was reading it wrong.. took me 6-7 times to read through it properly.. my dyslexia must have been kicking in heavy.

Matt,

First, congratulations on losing the 60-70 lbs.

As far as ideas go:

Looking at your diet, you may want to increase your protein intake if you are going to start lifting. The general rule is 1 - 1.5 g of protein per lb of lean body mass (especially when cutting), which would put you in the 190 - 280 grams per day range. One "standard" food you may want to consider to help support lifting is cottage cheese. It provides a large amount of protein, not much carb, and not much fat (depending on the % you get). It is also a Casein based protein, so it will digest slowly. A lot of lifters eat it before bed for this reason.

When you start lifting, you may want to add a Whey shake (50 g of protein) immediately after lifting to help with recovery, and then add a small tub (4 servings) of cottage cheese before bed time. This would add about 500 calories and 100 grams of protein to your diet.

There are a lot of factors involved, but adding lifting to rolling 4 times per week, and cardio, may leave you over trained. You may need to cut out some of your cardio when you start lifting. The research I have read indicates that in may cases, lifting is actually a better choice for fat burning anyway.

A site I like for very scientifically based articles on training and diet is http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/. You may find some interesting information there.

Good luck.

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Originally Posted by P.S.

Yeah I was reading it wrong.. took me 6-7 times to read through it properly.. my dyslexia must have been kicking in heavy.

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Hence my comment, holes.............lots of them.

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Originally Posted by Chris Herzog

Hence my comment, holes.............lots of them.

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That only applied to the comment I made about being 175 at 6'... And my initial posts were guidelines to look into and do some research.. I still don't know whats wrong with them because they're tried and tested methods.. Like Carb cycling.. why are you calling me out on that? Best way to lose some fat maintain or gain a bit of strength.

Didn't know if linking other websites was allowed but sense it is.
http://www.johnberardi.com/ very respected gentleman right here.. high up on the food chain.
That chart I posted is from John Romaniello and is a guideline used by many, he writes tons of good stuff as well.. meant to site it but couldn't edit.
http://elitefts.com/ Dave Tate/Jim Weidner are beast.. read and absorb
http://www.t-nation.com/ tons of great stuff/articles(also some not so much).. combat forum is fairly active as well. A great community.. don't be stupid they'll call you out :P

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Originally Posted by P.S.

That only applied to the comment I made about being 175 at 6'... And my initial posts were guidelines to look into and do some research.. I still don't know whats wrong with them because they're tried and tested methods.. Like Carb cycling.. why are you calling me out on that? Best way to lose some fat maintain or gain a bit of strength.

Didn't know if linking other websites was allowed but sense it is.
http://www.johnberardi.com/ very respected gentleman right here.. high up on the food chain.
That chart I posted is from John Romaniello guideline used many, he writes tons of good stuff as well.. meant to site it but couldn't edit.
http://elitefts.com/ Dave Tate/Jim Weidner are beast.. read and absorb
http://www.t-nation.com/ tons of great stuff/articles(also some not so much).. combat forum is fairly active as well. A great community.. don't be stupid they'll call you out :P

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Some decent information, but just a warning, most of those guys are on steroids (many openly), or are advising based on assumed steroid use. If you are "Juicing", then it is okay at face value, but if you are natural, a lot the advice on t-nation and elitefts will severely over train you (I haven't read JohnBerardi.com, so I can't pass judgment).

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Originally Posted by Sarkis Matossian

Some decent information, but just a warning, most of those guys are on steroids (many openly), or are advising based on assumed steroid use. If you are "Juicing", then it is okay at face value, but if you are natural, a lot the advice on t-nation and elitefts will severely over train you (I haven't read JohnBerardi.com, so I can't pass judgment).

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I won't talk on behalf on the authors of t-nation.. but you are right several of the posters openly use steroids and they even have a steroid section.. However the majority of the posters do not(I would recommend reading more of the discussions through the threads more then the articles.. the articles are just good for change of pace when you're bored imo, although some are really good.)..

I view both those sites as a good place to get some information(elitefts for great equipment as well, but pricey) to apply to your own training.. where it fits with grappling sense technique is obviously most important.

But mixing in power lifting ideologies and Olympic lifting ideologies.. with some complexes on 3-5 week cycle and a week deload fits in pretty well with any sport... with some tweaks here and there at least imo. I also like joe defranco and zach evenesh(hes small time) a lot if you know who those guys are.

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WOW. Thank you all. I have a lot of stuff to read. The cottage cheese sounds like a great idea. I will be adding that in tonight. i cut my cardio to just 1-2miles road work. I will start using whey post work out too. I'm not new to lifting, I used to play semi-pro football, but i ballooned up after a shoulder injury and getting back into this has been a problem. Now trying to figure out how to best use my time without hurting myself and while maintaining a healthy fat-loss. Frankly I was completely lost. At least now I can start somewhere and monitor my results.

I think I am going Mondays upper body, Tuesdays lower body, Wednesdays core/abs with heavy cardio, Thursdays upper body, Fridays lower body, Saturdays core/abs with heavy cardio, and Sundays off.

Sense you already have a ton to read might as well give you another that just popped into my head. Check out Martin Rooneys stuff.. he works at the parisi speed school and is an amazing coach. His methods are unconventional and hes a bit goofy but he trains Olympic throwers as well as tons of world class grappler's and fighters. Does tons of collab stuff with big wrestling schools as well. I believe he was a greco wrestler but could be wrong.. don't remember for sure.

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Originally Posted by Matt_Logan

WOW. Thank you all. I have a lot of stuff to read. The cottage cheese sounds like a great idea. I will be adding that in tonight. i cut my cardio to just 1-2miles road work. I will start using whey post work out too. I'm not new to lifting, I used to play semi-pro football, but i ballooned up after a shoulder injury and getting back into this has been a problem. Now trying to figure out how to best use my time without hurting myself and while maintaining a healthy fat-loss. Frankly I was completely lost. At least now I can start somewhere and monitor my results.

I think I am going Mondays upper body, Tuesdays lower body, Wednesdays core/abs with heavy cardio, Thursdays upper body, Fridays lower body, Saturdays core/abs with heavy cardio, and Sundays off.

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Looks like a pretty good plan Matt. The one thing that I have noticed weight training while losing fat is how much the calorie deficit destroys my ability to recover. Give it a shot and see how it goes, but you probably want to be on the lookout for signs of over training while dieting.