Advice would be greatly appreciated

[ThePunisher Lightweight Member Find all posts View Profile Close ThePunisher]

Hello all. I don't post here much and honestly haven't been active for a long time. But I've come to a point in my life where I need to start getting things under control and start making the right moves towards my goals.

My name is Chris, I am 24 years old and live in southern Maryland. I'm a federal law enforcement officer in Washington, D.C., and have horrible hours. I work mon-fri from 1430 hrs to 2230 hrs, and lift 4 days a week after work at i get in the gym around 11 pm and after the lifting and cardio and shower and drive home is complete, im in bed asleep by 330 am and get up around 1130 am, not the best time wise but its all i can do with these mid day hours and sometimes 16 hr shifts. My lifting program is 531 and I've had great progess so far. I'm a natty and weigh 218 pounds. Some lifts recently include

310 bench for 4
450 dead for 7
340 squat for 10
85 dumbbell military for 9
245 close grip for 10
70lb dips for 10

Not the strongest guy but my current goals are to lose weight (body fat) and wt to a respectful level. (I want to be more vascular, more abs and seratus and visible tear drop) I have the top 4 abs outlined now but I'm sure it will take 190-193 zone for me to be happy. So this is where I really need advice, diet and maybe some cardio help. I would appreciate it more than anything. And honestly, once I lose more weight and get to be where I wanna be, I'm gonna hire big man skip and put quality muscle on the right way and have a fresh start from a respectable body fat level.

Alright enough about that, here is the diet and cardio I did for 6 weeks but was not sure if I was on the right track considering the scale. Here is a link but I will copy and paste it. It's one of Dave palumbos cutting diets. Basically a ketogenic diet.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...5899101&page=1

MEAL #1
5 whole eggs (make sure to buy OMEGA-3 EGGS from the supermarket. They contain virtually NO saturated fat and tons of good OMEGA-3 fats); add another 4 egg whites to this (they don?t need to be the Omega-3 ones; you can use liquid egg whites)

MEAL #2
SHAKE: 50g Whey Protein with 1 ? tablespoon of All Natural Peanut butter (no sugar)

MEAL #3
"Lean Protein Meal": 8oz chicken with 1/2-cup cashew nuts (almonds, or walnuts)

MEAL #4
SHAKE: 50g Whey Protein with 1 ? tablespoons of All Natural Peanut butter (no sugar added)

MEAL #5
"Fatty Protein Meal": 8oz Salmon, Swordfish, or RED MEAT with a green salad (no tomatoes, carrots, or red peppers) with 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil or Macadamia nut oil and vinegar. I chose the red meat it was actually 90 percent lean ground beef.

MEAL #6
SHAKE: 50g Whey with 1 ? tablespoon all natural peanut butter or 4 whole (Omega-3) eggs and 4 extra whites

So I started this diet at 227 and after 2 weeks I was 218...then 4 weeks later I was 218 still!!?!?!!?! I was pissed because nothing changed diet wise.

So I looked into it and started adding up calories and it was almost 2600 calories. And being an officer my job is pretty sedentary for the most part and I thought that's why I wasn't losing weight because the calories were too high!?! I don't really know. I'm afraid if I drop down to 2000 calories a day ill lose the weight but it will be a good amount of muscle as well. So I don't know what to do as any advice or input would be great. There's so much stuff out there...carb cycling, back loading, primal, Keto diet, times carb diets and I'm just a mess and lost. Was I on the right track? Eventho the scale stayed the same for 4 weeks and nothing changed in my diet? Does it hold true that to lose weight there must be a deficit of calories and because of my surplus (or at least maintenance amount of calories) I stopped losing weight?

Cardio consisted of 4 days a week 45 min sessions on a treadmill at 12-14 degree incline at 2.4-2.6 mph. Start sweating 8-10 mins in and had a continuous sweat.

Thank you in advance and am looking to get on the right track. The scale will certainly mess with your head.

[Ken "Skip" Hill Judge, Jury and Executioner Find all posts View Profile Close Ken "Skip" Hill]

Low or no carb diets will pull water weight quickly and then you will stall pretty quickly. I am not sure that I can get back in here to answer your questions but I will ask what everyone else will need to help you:

Are you having a high carb day or a Skipload, etc?? If it is a one meal cheat, that isn't usually doing much. That is why a lot of Palumbos guys end up coming to me.

Are you hungry all the time or are you satiated most of the time and never hungry?

Are you holding strength in the gym or are you losing it?

Are you using fat burners, at all, and if so what are they?

Despite not losing weight on the scale, are you getting leaner week by week?

Skip

[ThePunisher Lightweight Member Find all posts View Profile Close ThePunisher]

Mr. Hill thank you very much for posting, I appreciate it so much and am so damn lost. I spent a ton of my day searching your website about your skiploading and ideas and beliefs. You have this stuff down and I saw so many great reviews from people you made diets for. I wanted to say thank you for this wealth of free knowledge your giving out on here and taking the time to help me, and everything else you do. Thank you very much, hopefully by the new year ill be where I wanna be bf wise and then contacting you for personal diet help. Thanks again sir, appreciated beyond words. Ill put my answers below in red.

Low or no carb diets will pull water weight quickly and then you will stall pretty quickly. I am not sure that I can get back in here to answer your questions but I will ask what everyone else will need to help you:

Are you having a high carb day or a Skipload, etc?? If it is a one meal cheat, that isn't usually doing much. That is why a lot of Palumbos guys end up coming to me.

I would have a cheat meal on Saturdays AND on Sunday because honestly I would catch up on sleep from the lack of it during the week and I wouldn't eat my normal amount of food I was supposed to, that's how I justified eatin 2 cheat meals, low on calories/routine on the weekend but the weekdays were spot on 100 percent.

Are you hungry all the time or are you satiated most of the time and never hungry?
I was hungry the first week but after that I was used to it. I would be satisfied throughout the day and didn't have any hunger pains or the hungry stomach rumbles. I honestly didn't each much before I did this diet and think that's why I wasn't hungry during the day.
Are you holding strength in the gym or are you losing it?
Similar answer as above, once the first week went by my lifts were actually going up. On 531 I was supposed to do 450 for 1+ and hit it for 7 where as this week I cut calories down to 2000 a day and 415 this week felt like 600 pounds. All lifts this week have suffered greatly and like I said I cut calories and tweaked the diet. (Did not tweak the diet for 6 straight weeks this was the only time I did that, did it all week) but all lifts were garbage, no energy.
Are you using fat burners, at all, and if so what are they?
I am only consuming coffee/caffeine. I use Splenda and fat free half a half (just a little) don't know if that counts as a fat burner but I have a cup going into work.
Despite not losing weight on the scale, are you getting leaner week by week?
I definitely was getting leaner visibly, not nearly as much as I thought I would have from the lack of direct carbs an calories on the weekends and the cardio itself 4-5 days a week. Multiple officers at work noticed I looked leaner both in uniform and in the gym.
Skip

Thanks again skip. I can't wait to get on the right track.

[ThePunisher Lightweight Member Find all posts View Profile Close ThePunisher]

The last answer should read 'not as much as I though considering no direct source of carbs and fewer calories on the weekends and the cardio 4-5 times a week.' Sorry

[Ken "Skip" Hill Judge, Jury and Executioner Find all posts View Profile Close Ken "Skip" Hill]

Thank you for the kind words!

So, is it safe to say that if you put the scale weight to the side and ignore it, you are still getting leaner?

If so, screw the scale. I mean, if your lifts are going up and you are getting leaner but the scale is staying the same, that is about as good as it gets right there.

Skip

[ThePunisher Lightweight Member Find all posts View Profile Close ThePunisher]

Not a problem Mr. Hill. Will always be a huge fan of this site.

Hahaha yeah I guess that really is as good as it gets. I guess since I had a certain guess weight at what I would be fairly lean at I kept checking the scale to see if I was closer to that number. I thought it was too good to be true honestly, I thought I would see the scale go down weekly but in return would feel hungry a lot and my lifts would be garbage. (This is the first time I've ever dieted so I was going by stories I've heard before of guys on cutting diets with no energy.)

So I should stick with the diet for another 10-12 weeks and then start analyzing things? Another thing is skip (and I know this will sound bad) but I just expected more than what i got out of it for 6-7 weeks when in actuality I probably won't see major results 20+ weeks into the diet, you think? I'm not obese by any means but I'm not super lean at all, I gotta realize these things take time, more than 7 weeks time. Just not seeing the scale go down discouraged me and made me feel like I was doing something wrong or that the diet doesn't work.

[Doberman Advertising Manager / Intense Muscle Competitor Find all posts View Profile Close Doberman]

I definitely think you should consider a reload day, especially if you are keeping your carbs this low. I'll give you an example of how powerful this can be. I was getting ready for my last show. I was pretty lean, but was behind schedule. Unfortunately, I was stalled out. Ok, well what would you normally do? Add cardio or decrease calories, right? But, at this point I was already low on calories and any more cardio would just burn up muscle. So did I use these options? No, I did a Skip load or Refeed. Not only did this help mentally, but I fired my metabolism back up and immediately started losing fat again while feeling fantastic.

So you may want to take a day and just do a nice Skip load to give yourself a mental break and to see if that helps your metabolism.

I also am very against the ultra low or no carb diets, especially right from the get go. To me that's like starting a program at 2 hours of cardio a day.

My preference is to use carbs around my training. I think Skip does this as well, but I'm not going to speak for him. I like a Fat/Protein/Carb meal preworkout, for sustained energy and to keep you from going hypoglycemic. Then intraworkout I take a fast absorbing protein, high molecular weight carb, and L-Leucine. Post workout I will do carbs with protein. You could do something similar to help with recooperation from your workouts, and then do the rest of the diet as you have laid out. Then once a week do a Skip Load. You may want to start your weekly calories out at what they are now, or you could lower them a bit (500) calories and see what happens.

[Adam2433 IntenseMuscle Competitor Find all posts View Profile Close Adam2433]

Side note... I wouldn't call 2nd shift horrible hours. You're done at 1030 lol. Lift before work and you won't have such a screwed up sleep schedule.

[Doberman Advertising Manager / Intense Muscle Competitor Find all posts View Profile Close Doberman]

Side note... I wouldn't call 2nd shift horrible hours. You're done at 1030 lol. Lift before work and you won't have such a screwed up sleep schedule.

x2 or train in the morning. That's what I do and it works out fine.

[RageBlanket Raw SHW 1526 Total Find all posts View Profile Close RageBlanket]

X3 on the AM training. Every 3rd week I work 1400-2200, so I sleep in, eat, then hit the gym & shower on my way to work.

Those are my best training weeks, hands down.

[ThePunisher Lightweight Member Find all posts View Profile Close ThePunisher]

I definitely think you should consider a reload day, especially if you are keeping your carbs this low. I'll give you an example of how powerful this can be. I was getting ready for my last show. I was pretty lean, but was behind schedule. Unfortunately, I was stalled out. Ok, well what would you normally do? Add cardio or decrease calories, right? But, at this point I was already low on calories and any more cardio would just burn up muscle. So did I use these options? No, I did a Skip load or Refeed. Not only did this help mentally, but I fired my metabolism back up and immediately started losing fat again while feeling fantastic.

So you may want to take a day and just do a nice Skip load to give yourself a mental break and to see if that helps your metabolism.

I also am very against the ultra low or no carb diets, especially right from the get go. To me that's like starting a program at 2 hours of cardio a day.

My preference is to use carbs around my training. I think Skip does this as well, but I'm not going to speak for him. I like a Fat/Protein/Carb meal preworkout, for sustained energy and to keep you from going hypoglycemic. Then intraworkout I take a fast absorbing protein, high molecular weight carb, and L-Leucine. Post workout I will do carbs with protein. You could do something similar to help with recooperation from your workouts, and then do the rest of the diet as you have laid out. Then once a week do a Skip Load. You may want to start your weekly calories out at what they are now, or you could lower them a bit (500) calories and see what happens.

Thank you very much for the input Doberman. So I should do a refeed or skiploading once a week then? Like on Saturday or Sunday?

Now pardon my ignorance but I looked into skiploading and what it is and I gathered it was a refeed day, one day a week where you start with a certain block of hours in the day (say 6 hours) not sure when to start this as in at 10 am to 4 pm or from 4 pm to 10 pm. But you eat high carb foods/high on the glycemic index and low fat? Like low fat twinkies? Lol but do you still eat your healthy meals like you/I eat during the week? Like my protein shakes and natural peanut butter or my 8 oz chicken and 1/2 cup of nuts?

Hmmm I understand what your saying about jumping into a super low carb like being compared to a 2 hr cardio session from never doing it! I agree. Like I said I'm lost and need to get body fat down for sure. The only reason I even figured it would be okay for me to diet this extreme is because I wasn't following a great food plan before I was just winging it and maintaining my weight didn't count macros or calories or nothing.

Again thank you for your input sorry for all the questions. Excited to get back on track Monday and hit it hard for 5-6 months straight and report back.

[ThePunisher Lightweight Member Find all posts View Profile Close ThePunisher]

Rage, Adam and Doberman concerning the lifting in the am before work. I had actually done tha routine before however here is the slight issue.

On paper 230 to 1030 is a sweet but I have to wait to get relieved from the midnight roll call to break and then get to post and then I can go change in the locker and go get my car. So I can get in my at earliest 11-1110...them I have an hr drive home :/ and I can't go to sleep right when I get home that's like going to bed right when you get off for day work hours!! So then I will be asleep by 115-145 at the earliest considering ill get home past midnight. Then when I awaken I have to cook my egg breakfast go drive to the gym 15 mins there which isn't bad lift for an hr, cardio for 45 mins then 15 mins back home then cook all my chicken and ground beef as prepare my food to take into work then clean up them shower and then leave and head in at 1 since its every bit of an hr getting in and I have roll call and be in uniform by 230 on the dot. To get all that done I would have to get up around 730-8 am and going to sleep by 145 is still not enough sleep.

And to top it off, this week is a prime example, 2 of my 5 shifts turned into 16 hr shifts instead of my normal 8...so sleeping for 3 hrs and then heading back in is brutal. I could try but this just fits my schedule so much easier to lift and do cardio after work the gym is right there :/ lol

[breck Intense Muscle Competitive Powerlifter and Competitive Bodybuilder 1000lb Raw Club Find all posts View Profile Close breck]

I work 2:45-11 and i prefer getting up at 8am and getting in the gym. Training after work, i would be beat.

[Doberman Advertising Manager / Intense Muscle Competitor Find all posts View Profile Close Doberman]

Now pardon my ignorance but I looked into skiploading and what it is and I gathered it was a refeed day, one day a week where you start with a certain block of hours in the day (say 6 hours) not sure when to start this as in at 10 am to 4 pm or from 4 pm to 10 pm. But you eat high carb foods/high on the glycemic index and low fat? Like low fat twinkies? Lol but do you still eat your healthy meals like you/I eat during the week? Like my protein shakes and natural peanut butter or my 8 oz chicken and 1/2 cup of nuts?

Yes you basically have the idea of the Skip load down, but it is based on hunger not a specific time. So you will eat those type meals on a day when you have a day off preferably. Eat the foods you mentioned until you are full (not stuffed). Keep eating as hunger dictates. Starting out this may only be 4-6 hours, but the more depleted you are the longer the refeed will last. Also as I mentioned I would "bracket" carbs around your training.

The only reason I even figured it would be okay for me to diet this extreme is because I wasn't following a great food plan before I was just winging it and maintaining my weight didn't count macros or calories or nothing.

Perfect reasons to start slow. That way you don't have to take out the big guns right away.

I would suggest if it is in your budget to hire Skip. The transformations he has made with people is amazing. The benefit is that you will be able to take the stress off of yourself, and concentrate on pushing yourself. Also, if you hit a wall, as many of us do you won't just stall out and quit. A good coach will be able to get you over the hump and keep you progressing.

Good luck.

[ThePunisher Lightweight Member Find all posts View Profile Close ThePunisher]

Ok so say for instance Saturday and I'm of from lifting and stuff I still wake up and eat y 5 whole eggs and 4 egg whites and later do my shake and peanut butter but let's say I'm still hungry after the shake I could eat some high carb low fat stuff? And then go along with my next planned meal but add more high carb stuff at the end of it??

Gotcha that makes sense, more depleted more refeed, copy that.

And I will definitely add a little carbs around my workout both pre and post workout. Thanks so much man.

And for the record I do plan to get with skip, your rihhtnitnis quite remarkable to see some of the transformations that he has taken people thru. Can't put a price on something you can use forever and to help you figure out your body. I love the idea of the refeeds during a getting lean period instead of the typical low carb or healthy carb cycling a lot of people use. I remember reading something skip wrote and it was something to the affect of....'who in their right mind you prefer to eat potatoes and rice when you could eat kids cereal, etc'...and he's right I loovveeee eating and hate clean eating 24-7 so boring and tedious and hard to stick with. I want to hire him bad. I wonder how his offseason diets are and if these great tasting refeed days are in there too and if more often lol.

Hopefully in the coming year I will contact skip for it all. Thanks again and sorry for all the questions