There is alot wrong with this picture, and its no wonder you are where your at. I will address this as if you realize you need to gain muscle and strength first, the worry about cutting fat later.
thanks for the advice. specific diet
6am- 2 cups skim milk, i packet of whole foods oatmeal
9am- 1-2 cups cottage cheese, about a cup of pineapple
12pm- 1 cup of brn rice and 4 oz lean red meat
3pm 1 cup of yellow squash and 4 oz of lean chicken or beef
7pm post workout meal- 1 cup skim milk, 1.5 scoops of whey protein and about a cup of blueberries
10 pm- i always shoot for i cup of veggies and 4 oz of lean meat but always end up getting hungry and end up throwing in carbs like whole wheat bread or sweet potato.....
Your diet will not support muscle growth. You need to join this site fitday.com, its free to join. Go put in all the foods you described in your diet and post up the macro values. This will take an hour or so at fitday. You will be suprised at how little you are eating. You need to eat ALOT more
....I have probably followed a pretty lean diet like this for over 5-6 yrs and have never been able to lower my BF low enough to see my abs w/o flexing...
If you want to be 200 at 10% as you said then dont worry about lowering your body fat. Not that you will not see it decrease with a proper workout (more on that below) and diet.
....workout: i usually do weights 4 days a week. i try and do heavy weight 3-4 exerices per big muscle group and 1-2 for smaller muscles. 3 sets per exercise w/ 4-6 reps. I try and rest no more than 90 sec b/w reps.
I do:
mon- shoulder/biceps followed by 15 minutes of HIT cardio
tues- back w/ 20 minutes stair stepper
wed- run 4 miles
thurs- chest/triceps followed by 15 min HIT
fri- legs
sat-rest
sun-4-5 mile run
I dont like that split. And you need to greatly decrease, even eliminate, the cardio. Look into something like this:
day 1 chest/tri **
consisting of flat bench warm up, then BW dips 12, 10, 8 reps, 3 sets (if you can do more than 12 reps add the dip belt and a plate) then, decline bench under the smith machine 3 sets 12, 10, 8 reps. drop the bar right on your nipples each rep. then incline db's 12, 10, 8 reps. then back to flat 3 sets to fail, then cable flys (one set each decline, flat, incline) making sure you can get 12 reps each set and holding and pinching your chest at th top of each rep.
tri: close grip bench 3 sets 10 reps, V handle pulldows 3 sets 10 reps, dumbell kickbacks 3 sets 10 reps.
Also a FULL THREE MIN between sets, and make it active rest where your walking around the gym not sitting on your ass
day 2 OFF
day 3 Back/bi (insert same reps and set stuff here as you did on chest tri day, obviously with back/bi work)
day 4 OFF
day 5 shoulders/legs
day 6 OFF
REPEAT
....Im pretty weak when it comes to weights as 2-3 yrs ago I went through a big running phase and was running 25-30 miles a week and thus lost a lot of muscle..
shoulder press 155 x 3-4 reps max
bench 175 3 reps, maybe 4 on a day im really energized
squats 245 x 6 reps
deadlift 245 x 6 reps
Your weak because your body is not being fed for muscle growth, and you cardio is eating up any gains you may be able to make. Between your diet and workout with all that cardio its no wonder your benching 175
Ive tweaked my diet in the past and have never had much success. I dont weigh my food....
You need to do that. I got a digital scale for 30 bucks at Bed Breakfast and Beyond. Go get one
.......and Im sure I underestimate my calories given the amount of exercise I do/ week, I would expect to have a lower BF%.
Calories are what normal people who dont work out look at when trying to lose or gain weight. If your going to change your body and add muscle you need to know protein/fat/carb macro breakdown of what your eating. See fitday refernce above [/COLOR]
..... To be honest, i would say Im about 14-15 % bodyfat... i originally said 17% because i was just being modest.
Go get your bf measured at the gym. I think you will be suprised, and its higher than you think. It always is (trust me on this)
....Ive increased my calories in the past and i just seem to put on weight very easily.. especially w/ carbs. I've tried intermittent fasting in the past w/ some good success but that got tough not having calories throughout the day.
There is that word again. Calories. delet that word from your vocabulary. Its useless in the bodybuilding world
....don't know if this matters.. i work a high demanding job in terms of hours.. i'd say i average about 80-90 hr work weeks. so I try my best to get as much time in the gym as i can but usually have about an hour per day max. anyways, i appreciate all the advice on here.. i really mean that.
Yes it matters, alot.You need to be able to rest in order to grow, and without rest its like a strike agains you before you even begin. How many hours of sleep do you get a night?
Bottom line: if you want to be 200-210 at 10% you need to look at all three aspects of what your doing. Diet, workout, rest. The biggest of these is diet. You are 190 6ft 17% benching 175. Your diet is where the first work needs to be done. Then, your workout needs a complete revamp. And rest is critical.
At least your willing to listen. Others will chime in as well. Another great board is
www.alinboard.com, check it out. Hope this helped