fat not "weight"

[korleone1911]

ok... this is the thing. I'm about 6'5" ~ 6'6" (for some reason I get different measurements pending on the physical) and currently walking around at about 225. I fight/compete around 220 and am looking to drop down to fighting at 205 in the future (with a year or so, so this isn't an issue right now).

My issue is this... I feel as though I cannot get lean. I train (this is an average) about 4 ~ 5 times a week consisting of about 5 rounds of sparring, 10 rounds of drilling, and a stomach work out comparable to the "P90x" routine... with one of those days being a combat conditioning day similar to "cross-fit".

My week diet example consists of: 1- 4 boiled eggs, 2- steel oat bar, 3- package of tuna, 4- chicken, brown rice, cabbage, 5- chicken breast, 6- a bar consisting of carbs and protein ("energy bar"), 7- protein shake (25 g), 8- ribeye, broccoli, carrots, cauliflour

week end (Sat, Sun, and sometimes Fri) I kind of lay off yesterday for example: 1- steel oat bar, 2- protein shake, 3- snack bar (cranberry granola w/ yogurt coating), 4- baked chicken, mexican rice, corn n zuccini mix, slice of cheese quesedilla, 5- corn chips and queso (whole bowl), 6- beef roast, potatoes, carrots, cabbage, corn bread, peach cobbler, ice cream, and a jack daniels and coke

now... this issue I have is this... I can cut weight when need be (last Jiu jitsu tournament, I cut about 8 pounds in a day), but that's not the issue. I want to take my body fat percentage down to at MOST 10%. I haven't measured mine yet (will be doing that tomorrow), but if I had to guess, I'd say I'm somewhere between 16 ~ 20% right now.

Am I not eating well enough? Are my cheat days killing me? Am I not getting enough activity? I just need some of you guys' expertise. And my trainer doesn't seem a bit worried about it, but I just don't like where my body is right now.

 

[pliftkl]

Am I not eating well enough? Are my cheat days killing me? Am I not getting enough activity?

It's some permutation of these, but almost certainly related to the total caloric intake that you have. Some people who are in similar situations to yours have had good results from switching to much lower carb diets, or by removing grains completely. There's nothing magical to either of these approaches, but both will trick you into eating less than you do now.

Dieting down from 20% to 10% shouldn't be hard. If it is, you are doing something wrong.

 

[korleone1911]

It's some permutation of these, but almost certainly related to the total caloric intake that you have. Some people who are in similar situations to yours have had good results from switching to much lower carb diets, or by removing grains completely. There's nothing magical to either of these approaches, but both will trick you into eating less than you do now.

Dieting down from 20% to 10% shouldn't be hard. If it is, you are doing something wrong.

Thanks. I would think the same thing about this ^... I'm gonna go harder and focus more on it and see if I can't come up with some results.

 

[cooks1]

Well, the advice thus far has been OK, but I am going to have to call Bullshit on you for SOMETHING anyway.

Based on the diet you described, the activity level you described (90 minutes of VERY hard activity 4-5 times a week), and your diet on the off days, I am going to have to say that you are not being completely honest about something here.

I would think if most people were HONESTLY doing what you are describing, they would be shredded.

I am not calling you a liar, but people have a way of rose-tinting reality at times. ESPECIALLY on forums. ESPECIALLY, ESPECIALLY on this one. Read what you wrote again. find out wich descreiption is THE MOST TRUE. The other one is proably where you are off.

My other observation is that don't really describe any muscle building/development activities in your workouts.

 

[korleone1911]

Well, the advice thus far has been OK, but I am going to have to call Bullshit on you for SOMETHING anyway.

Based on the diet you described, the activity level you described (90 minutes of VERY hard activity 4-5 times a week), and your diet on the off days, I am going to have to say that you are not being completely honest about something here.

I would think if most people were HONESTLY doing what you are describing, they would be shredded.

I am not calling you a liar, but people have a way of rose-tinting reality at times. ESPECIALLY on forums. ESPECIALLY, ESPECIALLY on this one. Read what you wrote again. find out wich descreiption is THE MOST TRUE. The other one is proably where you are off.

My other observation is that don't really describe any muscle building/development activities in your workouts.

ok... I can accept that. Thanks for your input. What I'm doing now is charting EVERY thing i eat since this past Saturday. And I know exactly what you're saying about rose tinting and I, more than anything, wanna get real with MYSELF.

As far as my workouts are concerned... this is, actually an understatement, only deviation is that on fight/competition weeks, I train only like 2 - 3 times during that week.

and yeah... i'm not really doing any weight training at the moment, and haven't for months. I have toyed with the idea of adding that back to my regiment. I'm thinking maybe adding this at lunch time.

other than that... diet is right on (I believe... we'll see when this charting experiment is over), activity is right on... I don't know

 

[cooks1]

ok... I can accept that. Thanks for your input. What I'm doing now is charting EVERY thing i eat since this past Saturday. And I know exactly what you're saying about rose tinting and I, more than anything, wanna get real with MYSELF.

As far as my workouts are concerned... this is, actually an understatement, only deviation is that on fight/competition weeks, I train only like 2 - 3 times during that week.

and yeah... i'm not really doing any weight training at the moment, and haven't for months. I have toyed with the idea of adding that back to my regiment. I'm thinking maybe adding this at lunch time.

other than that... diet is right on (I believe... we'll see when this charting experiment is over), activity is right on... I don't know

I definately think some kind of resistance training would help you.

I would also suggest keeping a critical eye on excatly how stressing your workouts are. There is a big differecne between a 90 minute workout and 90 minutes of intense activity.

I do MMA training twice a week, and the sessions are 90 minutes. But they are FAR from a really hard workout. We have a 5 minute warm-up, then 10 minutes of stretching, then we do 15 minutes of excercise drilling such as pummelling, shrimping, wheelbarrowing, wall walking etc... Then we will do 20 minutes of technical drills, doing certain sumbission moves or transitions over and over. We then do 10-15 minutes of sparring where we are only working the moves we have just been drilling. Then at the end we do 30 minutes of actual sparring. And even then you are not necessarily in there 100% of the time, you basically go in as much or as little as you want.

Is that 90 minutes? Yes. Is is a good workout? Yes. Is it 90 minutes of high intensity activity? Obviously not.

 

[korleone1911]

I definately think some kind of resistance training would help you.

I would also suggest keeping a critical eye on excatly how stressing your workouts are. There is a big differecne between a 90 minute workout and 90 minutes of intense activity.

I do MMA training twice a week, and the sessions are 90 minutes. But they are FAR from a really hard workout. We have a 5 minute warm-up, then 10 minutes of stretching, then we do 15 minutes of excercise drilling such as pummelling, shrimping, wheelbarrowing, wall walking etc... Then we will do 20 minutes of technical drills, doing certain sumbission moves or transitions over and over. We then do 10-15 minutes of sparring where we are only working the moves we have just been drilling. Then at the end we do 30 minutes of actual sparring. And even then you are not necessarily in there 100% of the time, you basically go in as much or as little as you want.

Is that 90 minutes? Yes. Is is a good workout? Yes. Is it 90 minutes of high intensity activity? Obviously not.

hmmm... this is kind of similar to my training, but I'm training 2 times (Muy Thai & Jiu Jitsu) so maybe it would be like twice that. So you're thinking another conditioning workout to add to what I'm doing.

 

[cooks1]

hmmm... this is kind of similar to my training, but I'm training 2 times (Muy Thai & Jiu Jitsu) so maybe it would be like twice that. So you're thinking another conditioning workout to add to what I'm doing.

Actually, No. You will most likely be getting decent conditioning from all this activity.

If you were going to add anything, it would need to be some resistance training or weight lifting. Which believe it or not, under the right circumstances, can be conditioning in it's own right. As for what type, I don't have enough knowledge or info to advise you on that.