Eat Train Sleep

Report – Training and diet plan for cutting

• Introduction
• Resistance Exercise
• Cardio Workout
• Diet
• Monitoring Progress
• Lifestyle
• Summary

Introduction

At the start of 2008, I’d just come off a December binge and was sitting at about 20% body fat. Not liking what I seen in the mirror, I decided to start a plan to drop my body fat as low as possible - aiming to be below 10% in 3 months.

Fast forward 6 months and I’ve finally come to the end of my (extended) cutting regime. I am now over 2 stone lighter and am sitting at 6% body fat while still maintaining the strength and muscle I had at the start of the year.

This report documents my exercise regime, diet and general lifestyle decisions over these 6 months to give you an idea what worked for me.

Resistance Exercise

My exercise regime over the 6 months did not differ much from a typical mass building regime and stayed pretty much constant over the entire duration. I concentrated on compound movements and generally stayed within a moderate repetition range of 8-10. On my main 1 or 2 exercises, I increased the weight with each set while decreasing repetitions, going to failure on my 2nd last set and past failure on my last set through the use of forced repetitions or drop sets. For all other exercises I generally stayed around ten repetitions. On alternate weeks, I changed the order of the first two exercises in a muscle group. For example, if I performed flat presses first and incline presses second on one week, I would perform incline first and flat second the next.

I went with a 4 day split executed over 6 days. Ie. I did 2 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on 1 day off and then started the cycle again on the 7th day. This ensured I was training the same muscle group once every 6 days. It also meant that the day of the week that I worked out a particular muscle group changed by one day every week. For me, this kept it a bit more interesting as I wasn’t always doing chest on a Monday for example. However, this regime might not work well for people who aren’t flexible on what days they can go to the gym.

Abdominals were worked on my off days from the gym in a 25 minute workout in the house. I purchased an incline bench and a vertical knee raise bench specifically for this at the start of the year.

Training was performed after work at about 5.30 and sessions lasted anything up to 1 hour 30 minutes.

The table below outlines my workout. Rep ranges are approximate. “f” indicates the use of forced reps (or drop sets). Exercises that are indented and italic are indicate a superset with the previous exercise.

Legs     Lower Back Calves	Squats Leg Press Leg extension Lying Leg Curl Standing Leg Curl Good Mornings Back Extensions Seated Calf Raise Standing Calf Raise	10,8,6,4f 10,8,6f 10,10,8 10,10,8,6 10,10,8 10,10,8 10,10,8,8 15,12,10,8 10,10,8
Chest     Biceps   Forearms	Flat Bench Incline Bench Weighted Dips Cable Crossover Pec Dec Fly Olympic Bar Curl Scott Dumbell Curl Hammer Curl Incline Curl Forearm Curl Reverse Forearm Curl	10,8,6,4f 10,10,8 10,8,6 10,8,8 10,8 10,8,6,4f 10,8,8 10,8,8 10,8 15,12,10,8 15,12,10,8
Back     Rear Delts Lower Back Traps	Weighted Chin Ups Barbell Row Deadlift Close Grip Pulldown Close Grip Row Reverse Fly Back Extensions Shrug Upright Row Incline Shrug	10,8,6,4f 10,10,8,6 8,6,5 10,10,8 10,10,8 12,10,10,8 10,10,8,8 10,10,10,10 10,8,8,6 10,10,10
Shoulders   Triceps	Behind Neck Barbell Press Dumbell Press Lateral DB Raise Front DB Raise Weighted Dips Skull Crushers Overheard DB Press DB Kickbacks Forearm Curl	10,8,6,4f 10,8,8f 10,10,10 10,10,10 12,10,8,6 10,8,6 10,8,8 10,10 15,12,10,8
Abs	Weighted Knee Raise Side Dumbell Crunch Incline Weighted Crunch Side Knee Raise	10,10,10,10 12,12,12,12 12,12,10,8 8,8,8,8

Volumes appear quite high, however most of the intensity was put into the first two exercises. I found the routine worked well for me and I maintained my strength in all the exercises throughout the 6 months. I think switching the order of the first two exercises on alternate week helped keep the body guessing and also kept it more interesting for me, as did the 6 day cycle (as opposed to a normal 7 day cycle).

Cardio Workout

My cardio work was performed immediately on waking in the form of an outdoor jog. This was more difficult at the start of the year when it was cold, wet and dark, but this made it easier when the weather and daylight improved through the year.

The routine started off being performed 4 days a week over a distance of 3 miles, taking approximately 45 minutes. 6 months later, it ended up as 5 miles performed 7 days a week, but still taking 45 minutes. This shows a clear increase in fitness.

The 45 session was split into four sections. I would jog a section and then walk for 30 seconds before starting the next section. This had the advantages of bringing the heart rate down between sections to keep it at a moderate level (important for maintaining the muscle) as well as giving me shorter stages to focus on throughout the session, which made it easier to make it through the entire routine.

The pace I ran it was slow to moderate. I ensured that I was never out of breath and used that as a warning sign that I was performing at too high a level. Some people talk about the talk test, with an adequate pace being one which you can still hold a conversation at. To be honest, I don’t know if I could hold a normal conversation at the pace I was jogging at but I understand the point – I could still talk relatively normally. Another option would be to use a heart rate monitor.

For anyone who performs their cardio on a machine in the gym and finds it boring and de-motivating, I highly recommend hitting the streets outdoors. You get the fresh air, you get some visual stimulus to indicate progress (as opposed to looking at a clock to see how you are progressing) and you see some scenery. Even though I’m off my diet now, cardio is still a large part of my regime as I enjoy it and see the benefits from an increase in general fitness.

Diet

As everybody knows, no matter what you put into the exercise regime, the diet is still the most important part of the plan. The diet has to provide enough energy to allow you to perform in the gym, yet still keep you in a calorie deficit to facilitate fat loss.

I didn’t do any calorie counting to put together my diet, I simply based it on previous diets I had used to good effect, adjusting the quantities appropriately to what I thought would put me in a calorie deficit. I then monitored my progress and adjusted accordingly.

When putting together the diet, I followed a few basic principles:

1. Protein in every meal.
2. Don’t mix carbs and fats. Meal either protein + carbs or protein + fats.
3. Eat plenty of healthy fats and green vegetables.
4. Moderate carbs on weight training days, low carb on non-training days. This facilitates carb cycling.
5. Concentrate carbs at breakfast, pre workout, post workout and post-post workout.
6. Fast digesting carbs in post workout shake, slow digesting carbs at all other times.
7. Cut fruit, dairy and bread.

Having identified these principals, I selected foods that I could eat, were easily accessible to me, easy to prepare and easy to package and carry. The table below shows the foods I selected and how I categorised them. (The free food category is food which can be eaten in large quantities without effecting overall calories.)

Protein	Carbs	Fats	“Free Food”
Chicken Turkey Egg Whites Tuna Salmon/Trout Cottage Cheese Casein Protein Whey Protein	Sweet Potato Wholewheat Pasta Brown Rice Oats Oat Cakes	Nuts Peanut Butter Olives Avocados Salmon/Trout Flaxseed Oil	Broccoli Green Beans Asparagus Leaf Salads

In addition to these foods, I chose the following supplements:

1. Creatine (CEE) pre and post workout.
2. Arginine + Taurine pre workout.
3. Caffeine pre cardio and pre workout

From this, I put together 2 diet plans. One plan for training days, another for non-training days. The plans below describe what I was eating at the end of the 6 months. The quantities I was eating at the start of the plan would have been greater although the types of food roughly the same.

Weight Training Day

Time	Description
6.00am (pre cardio)	½ 100% Whey 1 caffeine tablet
6.15am	CARDIO
7.30am	½ 100% Whey ½ medium sized banana
8.00am	5 egg whites + 2 egg yolks 50g oats in water Multi vitamin + fish oil capsules
11.00am	130g grilled chicken Mixed green veg ½ large avocado
1.00pm	50 WALK
2.00pm	130g grilled chicken Mixed green veg 2 oat cakes
4.00pm	Taurine/Arginine/Caffeine/Creatine mix
4.30pm	275g Sweet potato 1 tin tuna mixed with cottage cheese
5.15pm	WORKOUT
6.45pm	1 ½ Whey 40g dextrose Glutamine+creatine
7.30pm	130g grilled chicken 55g wholewheat pasta Mixed veg
10.15pm	1 ½ casein Flaxseed oil 25g Mixed nuts

Non weight training day simply dropped the post workout shake and changed carbohydrate intake for fats in two of the meals.

Time	Description
6.00am (pre cardio)	½ 100% Whey 1 caffeine tablet
6.15am	CARDIO
7.30am	½ 100% Whey ½ medium sized banana
8.00am	5 egg whites + 2 egg yolks 50g oats in water Multi vitamin + fish oil capsules
11.00am	130g grilled chicken Mixed green veg ½ large avocado
1.00pm	50 WALK
2.00pm	130g grilled chicken Mixed green veg 2 oat cakes
4.30pm	150g salmon Mixed green veg
7.30pm	130g grilled chicken Mixed green veg ½ large avocado
10.15pm	1 ½ casein Flaxseed oil 25g Mixed nuts

Following the plan above, I felt I had enough energy for workouts as well as throughout the day in general. At times, I did feel extremely low on energy, at which point I simply took in some extra carbs to help me recharge. The one point I would make is that I don’t believe most of the supplements made any difference to me, with exception of caffeine. I noticed a slight increase in energy taking caffeine tablets. However, as a warning I would suggest against taking higher dosages (over 200mg) as this gives you a massive come down. Any time I was feeling like crap, I put down to the caffeine, rather than the low calorie diet.

On reflection, I’d say the diet plan worked out perfectly for me. By keeping carbs at a moderate level on training days, I ensured I had enough energy to fuel my workouts, while dropping carbs on non-training days facilitated carb cycling to keep my body burning the fat.

Additionally, taking in adequate nutrition before and after cardio stopped me going catabolic, even when I upped the cardio to 7 days a week. Many people advocate cardio on an empty stomach and no post cardio nutrition to maintain the fat burning, however, from my experience, I dont believe this is necessary and would more likely lead to muscle loss.
I’m not a big advocate of set cheat meals. I believe the stricter you can be, the more benefit you will see in your diet. I preferred to find a healthy place to eat out which I looked forward to. This formed my “cheat meal” without detracting from my diet.

Overall, regarding diet, I would advise to keep carb intake moderate and definitely advise against going to low in calorie and carb intake. Keep your diet on an appropriate level to fuel your training and use cardio to push your body into the fat burning zone.

Monitoring Progress

Keeping track of progress is important whenever implementing any type of training plan, be it mass building or fat loss. Over the 6 months, I kept track of my progress by taking the following measurements on a weekly basis:

1. Body weight
2. Body fat
3. Strength on lifts
4. Photographs

Not having any specific equipment for measuring body fat, I used the bio electric machines in my local Boots. These are notoriously inaccurate and results can vary due to many factors included what you had eaten within the previous hours. However, I merely required a value I could use for comparison week on week. By taking the measurement at the same time of day after the same number of meals each week, I assumed that I was getting values that were comparable.

In order to monitor my progress, I simply checked that my body weight and body fat was dropping every week (if even slightly), while my strength at least remained the same. I assumed that if I could push the same weights for the same number of reps each week, I must still be holding the same amount of muscle.

Whenever I noticed that my body weight was the same two weeks in a row, I either lowered my calories or increased my cardio (as I got fitter, I found the time for my cardio sessions was decreasing at which stage I would look to increase cardio).

The photos were used to check for visible improvements. However, these improvements become apparent from the mirror as the other measurements start to show you progress. Once thing that will really make you notice the difference before anything else is the increase in vascularity.

Lifestyle

In order to meet my goals over the 6 months I was on my cutting regime, I had to stay consistent for the entire duration of time. And in order to stay consistent, I made a number of changes in my lifestyle which I have listed below.

1. Consistently be in bed by 10pm
   By consistently being in bed by 10pm, I ensured I got adequate sleep and could wake up at 6am to do my morning cardio.
2. Prepare my food the day before.
   By spending 20 minutes every night, I ensured I stick to my diet the following day. Its very difficult finding a place to buy food that is healthy and fits your diet if you dont have it prepared beforehand.
3. Ensure I had a social life that fit my training goals.
   I stayed away from bars and became a resident of the local coffee shops and cinemas. This kept me off the alcohol, but still allowed a social drink as well as giving me something to look forward to at the end of a hard week at work and in the gym.
4. Found a healthy place to eat out as a “cheat meal”.
   By finding a place that I enjoy eating out, but is also relatively healthy, I could look forward to a “cheat meal” which doesn’t actually detract from my diet. Nandos worked perfectly for me, choosing a Mediterranean salad (full of healthy fats in the form of olives) with a double chicken breast . My local Nandos is right next to a cinema so gave me a decent evening out every week to look forward to.
5. Took a box of protein bars on holiday.
   I went on holiday twice while on my diet, each time taking a box of protein bars with me. On holiday it wasn’t possible to eat regularly but by carrying two or three with me each day, I could keep my protein intake up by eating one between meals.

Summary

The training and diet plan I have outlined above are what I followed in order to drop from 20% body fat to 6%. I found that the diet provided me enough energy to maintain my strength when pushing weights in the gym, but, in conjunction with the cardio, was low enough in calories to keep the weight gradually dropping off.

However, although this plan worked well for me, it may not be suitable for everybody. The key point is to learn your body while following some of the guidelines mentioned here. By doing this you should be able to find the correct plan which works for you.