hey raynor,
ive been on your 5x5 plan for about 9 months and 3 months before that of just getting the hang of the gym (mostly arm days )

currently sitting at 6'0 165 from 6'0 145
problem i have is that i didnt really pay attention to what i ate and gained some fat along with muscle (dirty bulk basically)
wondering what you think i should do next whether to keep bulking or start a cut (never done before)

been sitting at maintenence for a few weeks and want to set a real goal again, thanks

current lifts:
Bench:185x1
Squat: 225x1 but improving very fast since doing legs 2x week
DL: haven't in awhile

This post was edited by Clicquot on May 27 2014 05:57pm

Before we make a decision, what is your current body fat %? Could you take it or at least estimate it? Alternatively you could send me a picture, and we will go from there. If the body fat level isn't too high, you can switch to a lean bulk and continue going.

for around 4 weeks, i had a consistent dry cough, no other symptoms. some days were worse than others. then about 1 weeks ago i got a runny nose and congestion and i sometimes have a wet cough and sneezing. mucinexdm does not have any effect on my dry cough, but cough drops do help. nobody at work had a dry cough (before my symptoms or after), but a few do have the runny nose / congestion / wet cough.

i went to the doctor today. he listened to my breathing and looked at an xray of my chest. he said the xray was normal. his conclusion is i have two different problems. my more recent symptoms are just a cold, and he's not sure what's causing the dry cough. his thought was that i have a "tendency toward asthma" since my brother had asthma (but i never did), and something triggered it a month ago which caused the cough.

i also thought my more recent symptoms are a cold, and i'm not that concerned about it. i'm more concerned about the dry cough. doc said it can be troublesome/time consuming to have me go to a hospital to confirm his diagnosis prior to treatment, so he suggested just assuming that's the problem and treating it immediately and seeing if i'm improving. he prescribed budesonide-formoterol (SYMBICORT) 160-4.5 mcg/actuation inhaler. 2 puffs a day, twice a day, and if the dry cough isn't improving in 1-2 weeks i should make another appointment. i'm taking generic brand claratin for my cold. is there anything non-prescription you can suggest to stop the dry cough, even just temporarily? cough drops are somewhat effective, but they don't last very long.

inbox is full

hello

I've been trying to restrict my calorie intake in order to cut down a few for summer after a 6 months+ of bulking. At the end of the day when I get in bed I sometimes find myself starving so I get back up to go eat... so yeah I'll take this a little more seriously and will start tracking macros. I already lost 5-6 lbs in only 2 weeks (probably water weight or idk, you know better) so I'm obviously doing this wrong lol. I don't want to cut too fast and lose all my gainz. Obviously my goal is to keep as much muscle as possible.

All that being said, how much cals should I start at and what should my macros look like? Currently 6'0-6'1 192-193 lbs, probably 12-14%. Not sure if you need to know but I was aiming for 3.5k-4k cals a day during my bulk

It sounds to me that your doctor is not very well educated, unfortunately. There are many doctors today who only look to treat symptoms and don't even care about the cause of a particular medical issue. This is an absolute recipe for disaster.

First of all, we have to figure out the source of the cough. Let's begin with the following:


1. Have you ever been allergy tested at an actual Allergist? If so, what were the results?
2. Did you change anything in your life recently around the time the cough began? New food/drink? New supplements? New sheets/clothing? New detergent? New cologne? anything new that you previous did not expose yourself to?
3. Have you ever had the problem before?
4. Does anything make it better/worse? Does it get better/worse depending on environment or time of day?
5. Do you feel like you have an actual cold? Or do you feel like the possible bronchitis is stand-alone?
6. Do you have any previously diagnosed medical conditions?


Let's begin there and see what we can do for you.

Assuming you are going to try to cut down to 17x area, you should be taking in around 2,500 cals on workout days and 2,000 cals on non-workout days.

Here's the sample plan:

2,500 cals (approx)

Meal 1 - 3 whole eggs + 5 egg whites + green peppers and onions + 3/4 cup oatmeal (uncooked volume) + handful of mixed berries (any)
Meal 2 - 6 oz grilled chicken + 1 cup cooked brown rice + 1 large salad + 1 tbsp olive oil + vinegar
Meal 3 - 2 slices whole grain bread + 1 can of tuna + 1 oz of 2% cheese + 1tbsp mayo + veggies (tuna sandwich) =
Meal 4 - 6 oz grilled sirloin steak 90/10 or leaner (trim off the fat) + 1/2 cup black beans + 1/2 cup brown rice + veggies + 1 tbsp olive oil
Meal 5 - 40g protein shake + handful mixed berries + 1 slice whole grain bread w/ 1 tbsp peanut butter and 1 tsp jelly =
Meal 6 - 3/4 cup of 2% cottage cheese + 1tsp heavy cream + handful mixed berries + 10 almonds + cinnamon to taste =



Non-Workout Days:

2,000 cals (approx)

Meal 1 - 2 slices whole grain toast + 2 tbsp peanut butter + 1 tsp jelly + 20g protein shake (half a shake basically)
Meal 2 - 4 oz LEAN ground beef or steak + 1 cup broccoli + 1 cup black beans
Meal 3 - 1 large apple, 1 large banana, 20g protein shake
Meal 4 - 6 oz chicken breast + large green salad + olive oil and vinegar
Meal 5 - 6 oz salmon or other fish + green beans + carrots
Meal 6 - 1/2 cup greek yogurt + handful of mixed nuts

It's open now.

Hey SKCRaynor,

I am starting to grow a bit of "flub" around my outside ab area. (Specifically above the hips on each side) I just recentally noticed this because I have been inactive (in college, and quit going to gym bcz of lack of motivation / etc).

My question, I love to go to the track and just do sprints / run a couple miles. Would that better than just doing an ab exercise plan? (I know both are good, but which one will burn that stupid ab fat the fastest and most intuitively?

Thank you

Hey Ray I had a bad week last week on my diet so I want to make my diet almost the same every day, so let me know what you think about this diet.

current macros (got these from putting my into into myfitnesspal): 64g fat/ 261g carbs/ 174g protein (I dropped my fat a little cuz I usually dont hit it, altho can hit it with PB ez, raised the carbs but was not by much)

everything I ate today:
breakfast - 5am - plain oatmeal + chocolate rice cake (just to give my oatmeal some flavor) + vitamins
7am - 3/4 cup fiber one cereal (snack)
breakfast - 9am - greek yogurt + orange
lunch - 11:30am - 1/2 cup brown rice + 4oz 93/7 ground turkey + 3/4 cup mixed veggies
1pm - power crunch bar (I go gym around 3, this would be my pre snack)
post workout - 6pm - 1.5 cups of skim milk + 1.25 scoop ON natural pro complex + apple
small meal - 7:30pm - 4 egg whites with cheese or 1 can of tuna with 1/2 tbsp of light mayo (did eggs with cheese today)
dinner - 9:30pm - 4oz chicken + salad + cheese + 2 tbsp boltfarm yogurt ranch

I have carbs left so this is where I do IIFYM with snacks (If I don't do small snacks and use up all carbs with 1 cup of rice I will prob get hungry and eat cookies and worse junk, happened last week QQ)

plain rice cake + 1tbsp PB
15g quaker mini snacks
15g pretzels
3/4 cup low fat ice cream
frozen greek yogurt

macros for 5/28/14
total cals : 2240/2320

fat: 57/64
cholesterol: 204/300
Sodium: 2360/2300 (I hear its ok to go over a bit on this as long as you drink plenty of water and sweat a lot)
potassium: 3216/3500
carbs: 258/261
dietary fiber: 36g/38g
sugars: 90/97
protein: 185/174
vitamin A: 262%/100%
vitamin C: 1066%/100%
calcium: 195%/100%
iron: 100%/100%

This post was edited by Hboy on May 28 2014 06:51pm