need to expand into bigger split with supersets to raise intensity and lose weight

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need to expand into bigger split with supersets to raise intensity and lose weight

Alright, so I'm 26 yrs old, 5'9", 230 lb, and approx 44% BF (taken on a bodpod 5-6 years ago but am going for another bodpod appointment this weekend possibly). I want to lose weight big time, and based on the Katch-McArdle formula, I am 128 lb of LBM. I'll update with better numbers once I do the bodpod soon.

Anyways, In the gym I've been doing 2 workouts alternating week to week, 3x/week, so ABA for one week, then BAB the next
A: Squats, Seated OH press, and Bent over rows

B: Squats, Bench Press, and Deadlifts

My diet is all over the place and doesn't help that I live at home with my parents and uncle so it makes shit real hard. Based on the KA formula, I would need about 1460 cal/day to be at a 500 cal/day deficit. I haven't figured out the macros but I will probably be doing it from a carb cycle approach.

I want to expand my split into chest, legs, arms, shoulder, back and raise the intensity by doing supersets. Correct me if I'm wrong but shouldn't a certain body group be worked 2x a week as opposed to 1x a week? I am not sure how gains are made by working the group 1x/week, I would just like an explanation so I can better understand.

Anyways, I was hoping to get some help on creating an intense superset split workout to really help facilitate loss of body fat. If I were to do cardio it would probably be HIIT but I am not sure whether it is appropriate for me at this time.

Any suggestions?
 

Beefcake

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At 44% bodyfat I would definitely go with HIIT and a proper diet before focusing on what body groups to train 2X a week. I do most body part once a week with exception of those that I am focusing on. I do my bicepts twice a week b/c I get the best pump from them and I love sore bicepts. I may do my chest routine twice a week and everything else once a week. It all depends on what day it is. If I workout 5 times a week then Mon-chest, Tues-back, Wed-legs, Thur-shoulders, abs, etc.misc, Fri-chest. I'm dieting now and it sucks but it's not that bad. Try using an online ap like my fitness pal, to track your meals, cals, protein, etc. Good luck.
 
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If you want to lose weight "big time", imo you should be focusing on your tweaking your diet, not your workouts. You can lift all the weight in the world but if you have a big layer of fat covering the muscle, you wont see shit but a bulge.
 
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Haha I know that diet is a big key in all this, getting my shit together on that and timing it with my workouts in terms of carb cycling is something I'd like to master. I'm guessing that a majority of my carbs of the day should be taken post workout, say if I lifted in the am, get like 75% of my days carbs in then, then do 25% for lunch, and keep dinner no carb, and if I'm on rest day, no carbs or very low at all, how about that?
 

curtisvill

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Diet and cardio will help the most with weight loss.
 

grizzldsealpoacher

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you got the right idea I would say stick to your work outs I would do 30 min of liss cardio b4 every work out and maybe even try and get one more day of cardio some time on a rest day hiit never worked for me I cut some serious weight just running say 6mph on the treadmill as long as I could take it 3min say then walking until I caught my breath then back to the jog . I built that up to 10min mile then miles etc it cut the weight nice and steady with proper diet . This is me personally I am not saying you do this but I used stims such as fat burners preworkout I could take it though so if you can maybe add them , assess yourself though please dont hurt yourself using them it can be an issue for bigger guys .
 

PillarofBalance

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IMO you are on the right track with your training. Doing heavy compound lifts will burn a shitload of calories and wipe out your glycogen stores.

The guys are steering this discussion towards nutrition for good reason so go with the flow here. Let's talk about what you are eating. Give us a run down of a typical day, not what you want to do. It's easier to make tweaks sometimes rather than write up a whole diet plan.

And my suggestion is forget about carb cycling. Let's make sure you have a solid understanding of nutrition before you jump into a more complicated version of eating. For starters, you don't want to try and eat 75% of your carbs post workout. Your body uses it's glycogen for a lot more than lifting weights. Until you are at a point where you are damn near ready to get on a bodybuilding stage you don't need to worry too much about fancy diet technique. For now you just need to get consistent with what you are eating.

A 1500 calorie diet is a snap to put together. Breakfast eat some eggs and have a little fruit. Lunch eat a portion of lean protein like chicken, fish, pork tenderloin etc... have some rice or potatoes with that along with as much veg as you want. Dinner basically just repeat lunch.

You don't HAVE to eat 6 meals a day. You don't HAVE to avoid carbs to lose weight. You just need to maintain calories below maintenance levels for a while. That part I think you get :)

So tell us what your usual meals look like.
 

PillarofBalance

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Oh and be a real man and do your OHP standing!!! Makes a big difference!
 
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"Oh and be a real man and do your OHP standing!!! Makes a big difference!"

I did yet I started to feel back pain in my thoracic spine so I decided to do it sitting, I figured I would get my back work in via deadlifts and rows and just focus on the isolation aspect of the OH press while seated
 
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IMO you are on the right track with your training. Doing heavy compound lifts will burn a shitload of calories and wipe out your glycogen stores.

The guys are steering this discussion towards nutrition for good reason so go with the flow here. Let's talk about what you are eating. Give us a run down of a typical day, not what you want to do. It's easier to make tweaks sometimes rather than write up a whole diet plan.

And my suggestion is forget about carb cycling. Let's make sure you have a solid understanding of nutrition before you jump into a more complicated version of eating. For starters, you don't want to try and eat 75% of your carbs post workout. Your body uses it's glycogen for a lot more than lifting weights. Until you are at a point where you are damn near ready to get on a bodybuilding stage you don't need to worry too much about fancy diet technique. For now you just need to get consistent with what you are eating.

A 1500 calorie diet is a snap to put together. Breakfast eat some eggs and have a little fruit. Lunch eat a portion of lean protein like chicken, fish, pork tenderloin etc... have some rice or potatoes with that along with as much veg as you want. Dinner basically just repeat lunch.

You don't HAVE to eat 6 meals a day. You don't HAVE to avoid carbs to lose weight. You just need to maintain calories below maintenance levels for a while. That part I think you get :)

So tell us what your usual meals look like.

So I lift 3x a week, I usually have a 16 oz coffee with some 2% milk, about an inches worth in the coffee cup. On days I lift, I eat a 5-6 oz grilled chicken breast with an apple. On days that I don't, I eat a salad, yet I found that to be extremely difficult because I feel as if I am putting nothing in me so I will usually have 2 oz of hummus as well along with it. The salad has no dressing and I do put 1 hard boiled egg in it too. For dinner, its usually what my mom makes. I'm 26 and still live at home but I just graduated professional school and am in some weird relationship limbo with my GF currently so if we break up, all the money I saved for her ring is going to my loans (which I am up shits creek in). Once I get a certain amount taken care of, I will move out, but I digress. For dinner, I basically eat what my mom makes and she makes some real good food, either and I am usually too tired to give a ****, so I consume too much.

Once I take this bodpod assessment, Ill look at my LBM, which I think will still be around 44% or less (hopefully), and do a -500 cal deficit and switch from lifting to HIIT/cardio until I can get my BF down to a more acceptable level.

At what BF would lifting tend to be more indicated? I have a body type where if you look at me, it looks quite normal, side from side MOOBS and love handles, but I get the feeling that I am super skinny underneath all of it, in terms of muscle mass.

I am split between HIIT/cardio/and lifting and am not sure how exactly to go about it either, in terms of max weight loss.
 

PillarofBalance

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So I lift 3x a week, I usually have a 16 oz coffee with some 2% milk, about an inches worth in the coffee cup. On days I lift, I eat a 5-6 oz grilled chicken breast with an apple. On days that I don't, I eat a salad, yet I found that to be extremely difficult because I feel as if I am putting nothing in me so I will usually have 2 oz of hummus as well along with it. The salad has no dressing and I do put 1 hard boiled egg in it too. For dinner, its usually what my mom makes. I'm 26 and still live at home but I just graduated professional school and am in some weird relationship limbo with my GF currently so if we break up, all the money I saved for her ring is going to my loans (which I am up shits creek in). Once I get a certain amount taken care of, I will move out, but I digress. For dinner, I basically eat what my mom makes and she makes some real good food, either and I am usually too tired to give a ****, so I consume too much.

Once I take this bodpod assessment, Ill look at my LBM, which I think will still be around 44% or less (hopefully), and do a -500 cal deficit and switch from lifting to HIIT/cardio until I can get my BF down to a more acceptable level.

At what BF would lifting tend to be more indicated? I have a body type where if you look at me, it looks quite normal, side from side MOOBS and love handles, but I get the feeling that I am super skinny underneath all of it, in terms of muscle mass.

I am split between HIIT/cardio/and lifting and am not sure how exactly to go about it either, in terms of max weight loss.
I will let the diet experts chime in. You need a lot of work there. About 2oz milk and a hard boiled egg and 5 Oz chicken is like maybe 60 grams of protein m. Probably less.

Anyway as far as what to do with training are you asking if you should be lifting or doing cardio? You should be doing both. Each has a benefit.
 

AlphaD

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Anyway as far as what to do with training are you asking if you should be lifting or doing cardio? You should be doing both. Each has a benefit.

Ooooh Shit. Hell just actually froze over. Never thought it would come to the day Pillar said cardio and benefit in same paragraph.
 

PillarofBalance

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Ooooh Shit. Hell just actually froze over. Never thought it would come to the day Pillar said cardio and benefit in same paragraph.
Yeah this stupid kinesiology degree is turning me into a pussy :(
 

MrRippedZilla

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You need to keep lifting 3x week, add some LISS cardio to your off days and create the majority of your deficit through your diet.
Expecting to burn a bunch of calories through activity alone is simply not realistic at your bf% - your diet is going to get the results here. Calculate your TDEE and then create as large a deficit as you feel you can handle with good protein intake (1g/bw) being the focal point - at your bf%, losing muscle is simply not going to be an issue.

As a side note, the people in this thread who have recommended HIIT to you are complete idiots.
The OP is 44%bf and has no experience of HIIT as a form of cardio - how many obese people do you guys actually know that are awesome at HIIT???
Because I've trained a fair few, and know none.
All that ends up happening is the person gets completely demotivated from their lack of performance, don't burn more vs LISS and end up going backwards on their diets - LISS is definitely the way to go here.
 

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