Need some suggestions

[ExoduS]

I was doing 5x5 for some time now, and results are there. I am stronger, bigger, better at basketball hehe, and I feel great! But lately I was stalling so I decided to change things a little bit.

Anyway it is time to lose some fat and 15 lbs of weight, and I don't have a lot of fat to lose, but as the percentage of fat getting smaller, it is harder and harder to make progress. So I decided to modify my workout a little bit. Now I don't think that I know better, I was/am just experimenting.

Anyway these are the stats:
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 200 lbs
5x5 stats:
Bench press: 240 lbs
Squats: 275 lbs
Deadlifts: 315 lbs (1x5)
Overhead press: 145 lbs

So I am doing something like this:
Monday and Thursday: Chest, upper back, triceps, 8-10 minutes of abs + HIIT Cardio
Tuesday and Friday: Legs, lower back, shoulders and biceps, 8-10 minutes of abs + moderate intensity cardio

Specifics:
Chest: 5x5 bench press + 1 more 5x5 chest exercise. It really depends how I feel that day. Sometimes I do incline bench press, decline bench press, or close grip bench press, sometimes I use barbell, sometimes I use dumbbells + weighted dips or push-ups.

Upper back: 2 exercises usually, pull-ups are the every time, second one varies from workout to workout.

Triceps: Usually just 1 isolating exercise, depends which one from workout to workout.

Legs: 5x5 Squats, + 1 more (lunges or leg press), + calves.

Lower back: 1x5 Deadlifts

Shoulders: 5x5 Overhead press + 1 more exercise, again I change that second exercise every time.

Biceps: Weighted chin-ups + 1 more exercise.

Abs: Random stuff for abs.

Cardio: 25 of Hiit (first and last 5 minutes are moderate intensity)
30 minutes of moderate intensity.

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Now I understand all this looks very complicated, but for me is very simple, as you can see, I modeled that workout around 5x5, so I add that extra day during the week. When I started this, I was like, this has to give me some results, but results are not there. I am stalling. I am maintaining my strength, weight size, body fat. Nothing is going up or down. Actually the reason I decided to change old workout was because I was stalling. So last month or so everything is the same. Any suggestions?

I don't want to bore you with my diet, I am constantly working on it, so the theory I do know, there is nothing new I can learn there.

Anyway my goal is to lose 15 lbs, because I think 185 lbs will be really good weight to look/be strong and still be decent at basketball (quickness wise). I am trying to lose as much possible weight from fat, and least possible from muscle. I do understand that I will lose some muscle too, but I do not really care. If I lose 10 lbs of fat, and 5 lbs of muscle, I will be happy, and I do know that 5 lbs of muscle is a lot of muscle.

[atypical1]

Fat loss is diet. Stalling is diet. Post it up please.

How many calories are you getting in? How many grams of protein? Fat? Carbs?

james

[ExoduS]

Well, I eat 5-6 times a day.
8 am - yogurt + peanut butter on some high fiber bread, or nutella on high fiber bread and milk, or oat meal, or egg sandwich + yogurt. Never more than 1 slice of bread.

11 am - Salad. Tomato, baby spinach, some greens, carrots (not baby, sliced carrots put in water with no preservatives), + dressing (usually extreme in calories damn it), sometimes feta cheese, sometimes cottage cheese.

2 pm - Turkey or ham sandwich with 2 slices of bread.

5 pm - Pasta, rice, beans, tomatos, + some veggies, and meet. What can I say, mom cooks for me. I think that on average basis I take most calories with this meal.

Between 7 and 8 pm I am usually done with my lifting so before cardio I drink protein shake, or eat protein bar. EAS is the brand of both.

When I am back from gym I usually eat a bit more of something. Usually fruit.

I do eat 1 banana, 1 orange, and 1 apple during random times of the day.


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Honestly my diet is nowhere near like this on weekends.

[atypical1]

Is it worse?

If you're getting lower in BF it's going to be a lot tougher to lose it. Diet's the one way you can do it. You need to be a bit more specific with your diet and put down quantities and calories. If you don't know it then you're not that serious about losing that last bit of bodyfat.

james

[ExoduS]

I don't know. I really never cared, but hey, I am starting to care. I am guessing that I am eating around 2500-3000 calories a day, thinking I take on average of 500 calories with each meal. I am serious about losing BF, but I am also too lazy to do calories calculations.

Now weekends is something that I am working on, my diet during weekends is worse, cause I do go out on weekends, and drink and eat a little bit, sometimes more, sometimes less. I also don't workout on weekends. So yah, I wake up around noon on weekends, my first meal on weekends is around 1 pm, and my weekends are very chaotic, so I can't plan my meals. I mean of course I can if I put effort!!! Weekdays are easy, because I eat 3 times at work.

So you're saying that it really from now on, I have to put a lot of effort in my diet in order to lower BF?

[atypical1]

That's exactly what I'm saying. If it's getting tough for you to lose bodyfat then it's time to get a bit more serious. It's been my experience that fat loss is primarily diet driven. You don't have to count every single calorie but you should have a pretty decent idea of how many calories and what the break down of them is.

Start planning your meals. It's that effort that will give you success.

james

[ExoduS]

Yeah, I will start being more careful. I mean I been saying this for awhile, but yeah this time I believe I got what it takes (discipline), and motivation to succeed.
I did know that is impossible to outtrain bad nutrition, and that's exactly what was I trying to do. My nutrition is not bad, but there is a lot of room for improvement.
Appreciate your tips and making me see something I refused to see.

[Khoury]

Apparently doing bench press makes your chest bigger, and doing push ups flattens and tones ur chest, so for getting ripped, wouldnt u do more pushups than bench?

[ExoduS]

Push ups don't flatten and tone your chest. Push ups strengthen and build chest muscles (shoulders too). Fat loss flatten and tones muscles.

[gundlach]

Hey guys,

Reading your posts, and have a similar situation. Exodus, you might want to cut down on the carbs, and cheese, and.....damn it the dressing. As SL puts it, have carbs, post workout only, if at all. Use the cottage cheese as a "dressing", and add mixed nuts as a dietary item. Limit or eliminate any sugar too. Oranges?

Are you drinking green tea, and taking fish oil?

Just my thoughts from my experience.