Hey whats up everyone I've never posted on here before, but I've been reading the posts on here off and on for a few years now. I'm in the process of trying to lose bodyfat and any feedback I can get from the members here would be greatly appreciated.

Here is a little background info:
I'm 23 years old 6'1 and right now I weigh about 215. I don't know my exact bf%, but I would guess I'm around 15-16% and I want to be at about 10% this summer. I've been cutting down since about January and I've just started getting really serious about it two weeks ago. I was around 248 pounds at Christmas time. Anyways my girlfriend of 3 years broke up with me 2 weeks ago and now I'm on a mission to get back into shape, so this is just a personal goal, I'm not training for a contest or anything.

The main problem I have right now is that I"m absolutely broke. I'm a college student and buying food is going to be tough but I'm gonna do whatever I can. This is my plan which I started two weeks ago, tell me what you guys think. The main problem I see with it is that I'm not getting as many cals as I would like to.

Meal 1:
6-7 eggwhites + 1 yolk and 1/2 cup of dry oats

Meal 2:
1/4 cup brown rice + 1.5 cups 2% cottage cheese

Meal 3:
6-7 oz. chicken breast + medium sweet potatoe

Meal 4:
1 can of Salmon (14g of fat) + salad

Meal 5:
Bison patty (very lean) + salad

and then I'll sometimes have about 5-6 walnuts later at night for some added fat and cals if I"m real hungry.

I just ordered a bottle of lean out from the website here, and I was wondering when you guys reccomend taking it? This is the only supplement I'm gonna take for at least the next few weeks until I start my new job.

Also I plan to add another meal for more protein and eventually get some muscle provider which will probably be the added meal with a 1 TBL spoon of flax oil with it.

My workouts are: weights 4 days on 1 off keeping the reps around 6-10 for every lift, and I"ve been doing quite a bit of cardio 5-6 days per week occasionally doing it twice per day, but thats only been the past two weeks. My cardio has mainly been 3 days of HIIT and then 3 days of a more moderate intensity and 30 minutes total.

The past three years I've really gotten out of shape, and I've lost a lot of the muscle that I put on when I was 17-20 yrs old.

Finally my plan right now is to stay on this diet for another week or two and then start cycling the carbs every 3 days so Day 1: 150g Day 2: 100g and Day 3: 50g, and I"ll add more protein and fat on the days with lower carbs.

SO thats my plan right now if you guys can give me some pointers that would be great.

thanks.

now that you are getting serious, I have two suggestions.

1. Look at nutritiondata.com and tally up all your calories figuring out how much is coming from protein, fats, and carbs.

This is going to help you know if you are in a caloric deficit or not...because whether you like it or not, you will not lose weight without caloric deficit.

This is also going to help you know if you are getting enough protein to sustain the muscle tissue you have on your body while you put yourself through this deficit...as a general rule as your carbs go down...protein must go up. That will help you to get a favorable body composition.

2. You need to post your workout and make an honest assessment of your effort in the gym. I'm assuming you are going pretty hard...but you have to remember to go hard but keep it heavy. Heavy weight is what is going to keep you strong and keep your muscle on your body while you diet that fat off...but try not to overtrain. You can lose muscle that way.

Okay I have more suggestions....

3. Talk with a beverly advisor by doing the online client profile.
4. Consider investing in a quality protein powder that Beverly makes (Ultra Size, Ultimate Muscle Protein, Muscle Provider). These protein supplements may make the difference in whether you can meet a stringent eating schedule, caloric deficit, and high protein protocol.
5. keep coming back to these boards with questions. There are folks here that have done this time and time and time again. Other people's experiences may give you insight to what you can do for yourself.

BTW, what is your body type? age? year lifting/bodybuilding/etc.? (don't need to answer that...but it would be good to tell a Beverly coach those details as it will help in designing your program).

Sounds like you have a good program in the works. In getting started, I like to see people start off on whole foods for several weeks before starting supplements. I also like to see people wean off carbs, sometimes up to six weeks. So, add some more fruit to the diet in the whole food side, such as throwing in some apple and a mix fruit in the cottage cheese.

On a tight budget, tuna, eggs, oats, rice and chicken can be cheap and your best form of whole foods. Fruits can be cheap, too. Apples, grapefruits and in some places, banana and strawberries are not too expensive.

Hold off on the Lean Out for a couple of weeks.

Hang in there!
Frank

Great advice you guys I really appreciate it.

I believe that my body type is endomorph, but if it's possible I would think its a combination of mesomorph and endomorph. I'm the type of person who can put on weight easily whether it's muscle or fat. I have a harder time losing fat. From the ages 16-20 I was an avid weight lifter. I weighed about 240 in high school and I had a lot of muscle and was very strong. Now however I've been away from working out regularly and eating right for about three years. I'm still fairly strong but my endurance sucks.

I'll take you advice Frank and I'll wait a couple weeks until starting the lean out. MY plan with that was to go 3 weeks on and 2 weeks off until I reach my goals.

As soon as I can afford it I will buy some muscle provider like I mentioned and use that with some flax as a meal replacement. I'm thinking now that I should have purchased this before the lean out.

I believe as far as the cals go I'm around 1700 which is probably too low. I was hoping that adding the lean out would help balance this out so that eventhough my cals are real low I won't be losing my muscle. Do u guys think this will work?

I think 1700 is WAY too low. Using the whole food approach, I really think to kick start some metabolic attitude, you need to start off with about 2,500 calories first week, 2,750, second and then a couple of off/on days of 3,000. Week 4, start tapering off calories as you add in Muscle Provider. As you shed some fat, you may not lose 1 pound on the scale. So, be watchful about "weight loss".

Adjust your diet weekly doing a gain/hardening phase.

Frank

Thanks Frank I'll up the cals to start. Thats an additional 800 cals, so should I get these extra cals from just protein or from protein, carbs and fat?

For my first meal if I added a grapefruit would do u think that would be too many carbs for meal 1. 1/2 cup oatmeal and 1 large grapefruit would equal a little over 50 g of carbs for meal 1. This okay?

Ok with these adjustments I'm up to 2100 cals, but I'm not sure what else to add.

Meal 1:
7 whites+1 yolk
1 Grapefruit
½ cup oatmeal

Meal 2:
1.25 cups cottage cheese
¼ cup brown rice
1 teaspoon flax oil

Meal 3:
6-7 oz. Chicken breast
1 medium sweet potatoe
1 tsp of flax oil

Meal 4:
Protein Shake + 3 teaspoons of flax oil

Meal 5:
1 can of salmon
salad

Meal 6:
1 bison patty
2 cups romaine lettuce or kale
a few walnuts

Cals=2100
Protein=216
Carbs=156
Fat=67

I'm not sure of what meats you would be using, but:

Meal 1 add a .25 lb of meat and use either/or for grapefruit/oatmeal.

Meal 2 add some fruit

Meal 3 add a cup of veggies

Meal 4 add fruit

Meal 5 small salad with 1/2 cup rice

Meal 6 4 oz sweet potato

See where this will take you. I'm not sure what your workout will be, the type of work you do and what your calorie output demands and your present/previous eating habits. All this food, you may not be able to down it the first week. Don't worry. By the end of week 2, you'll be starving.

Frank

Alright Frank I'll try that. It's definitely going to be hard to eat all that food. This past week I wasn't hungry at all and was only eating the 1700 cals, but I know that will change as more time passes.