Hi everyone.
I'm new here, nice to meet you all, and I hope I can benefit from this forum.

I'm a 20 year old male, and I'm exactly 6'0 and weighs 200lb. I have high Body Fat % (Between 20 and 24%), and is looking into getting my fat % down to below 10% (weight is really not the primary concern but it'll be nice if I get it to around 180).

I've been going to gym on and off for 4 years now, but I wasn't really serious, but I now became really serious and motivated about building my body since week ago, so I've started researching and going to gym since a week ago.

Here's the basic plan I have planned out:

Cardio: (~2 hours/week)

• HIIT 3 times a week, every morning for 20 minutes.

• On non-HIIT days, do circuit training as cardio (jump rope, jumping jack, sit-ups, push-ups, light lifting, squats, etc.) for 20 minutes without resting.

Weights: (~3 hours/week)

• Biceps/Triceps/Chest/Back on Day 1 (45 Minutes)
  
• Abs/Lower Body on Day 2 (30 Minutes)
  
• Rest on Day 3 & 4
  
• Biceps/Triceps/Chest/Back Day 5 (45 minutes)
  
• Abs/Lower Body on Day 6 (30 Minutes)
  
• Rest on Day 7
• Repeat

Diet: (1800-2100 Calories a day)

Additional Note:

• I hit the gym twice a day, morning and night.
• In the morning, I only do 20 minutes of my cardio session
• At night, I mainly focus on Weightlifting and 10 minutes of Cardio afterward
  

The main problem I'm having right now is that it feels like I'm working out too many parts of muscle on Day 1 and Day 5, but I can't really seem to divide amongst those four parts since they all seem interconnected (working on bicep will naturally work out triceps, which will naturally work out chest). Also, is it better to work on Abs every day rather than concentrating on it in two days/week?

What other things should I try to change/add to maximize the result?

Thanks!

first thing you want to do is only walk on a treadmil, or do cardio where your heart rate doesn't get too high, or else it'll start burning muscle.
 
If you want to burn alot of fat, you want to do atleast an hour to an hour and a half of cardio A DAY. I'm cutting for a comp this summer and i'm doing 2 hours on a treadmill a day.
 
Third thing, working out is only 10 % of it, 90 % of it is diet.  if you don't eat the right foods, nothing will happen.  if you're trying to cut pounds, cut the carbs and calories. drink plenty and plenty of water.
 
^^^^^ that's probably the most important part

It sounds like your goal is to cut..?

I have high Body Fat % (Between 20 and 24%), and is looking into getting my fat % down to below 10% (weight is really not the primary concern but it'll be nice if I get it to around 180).

Thats going to be primarily your diet.

Your cardio looks fine to me since your trying to cut fat, ive heard good things about HIIT. Your doing squats in a circuit?

Also I dont know what exercises you are doing but make sure you stick with big compound exercises to help burn that fat. Squats, deadlifts, cleans, pull ups, bench, rows, OH press etc...

You might find this interesting, Smoundzou wrote it up...

http://www.discussbodybuilding.com/HST_Type_Routine/m_369597/tm.htm


Give it time, and be patient! Good luck

ORIGINAL: boomersooner1331

first thing you want to do is only walk on a treadmil, or do cardio where your heart rate doesn't get too high, or else it'll start burning muscle.

If you want to burn alot of fat, you want to do atleast an hour to an hour and a half of cardio A DAY. I'm cutting for a comp this summer and i'm doing 2 hours on a treadmill a day.

what u said about diet is right but that part there is wrong. Just because ur doing a higher intensity doesnt mean you'll start burning muscle right away. even if u walk 2 hours ur not gonna be getting all that many calories burned in the end and ur metabolism after the run wont be affected. he'd be better off with the HIIT and progressing from there

You people and your muscle catabolism. Your body does not burn muscle unless it is entirely neccessary, that is the last thing it wants to use as fuel. If you eat every 3-4 hours your are more then fine. I finally learned how stupid it was to be paranoid about this when I got sick. I ate about 2 cans of soup in 3 days. I lost 7 pounds of water weight and lost no muscle. My lifts were nearly the same the next time I lifted and back to normal after a cycle of each body part. Your not going to shrink by doing cardio, your not fu*king Jay Cutler. When your that huge then worry about that, for now just eat a lot and clean, lift heavy and do cardio to stay lean.

ORIGINAL: RedJeep

You people and your muscle catabolism. Your body does not burn muscle unless it is entirely neccessary, that is the last thing it wants to use as fuel. If you eat every 3-4 hours your are more then fine. I finally learned how stupid it was to be paranoid about this when I got sick. I ate about 2 cans of soup in 3 days. I lost 7 pounds of water weight and lost no muscle. My lifts were nearly the same the next time I lifted and back to normal after a cycle of each body part. Your not going to shrink by doing cardio, your not fu*king Jay Cutler. When your that huge then worry about that, for now just eat a lot and clean, lift heavy and do cardio to stay lean.

actually ur muscle isnt always the last thing ur body wants to use but i noticed what u said about jay cutler and basically yea it has to do with if u have a lot more muscle than necessary. and ur right cardio doesnt make u lose that much muscle IF intensity and duration is balanced.
shorter duration and high intensity results in greater EPOC and is a hell of a lot more tolerable in my opinion anyway.
just gotta make sure you have the right nutrients as well

lol redjeep i agree with you, im cutitng past few weeks and havent lost any msucle mass, or so it seems, im thinking why does everyone make a big deal bout that :P

ORIGINAL: Forsaken3400

lol redjeep i agree with you, im cutitng past few weeks and havent lost any msucle mass, or so it seems, im thinking why does everyone make a big deal bout that :P

it really depends on how u approach the cut and how much muscle u have already. a skinny kid isnt going to lose much but some bodybuilders go through stupid amounts of calorie deprivation and cardio to the point where they can lose 10-20lb of LBM before a show.

do u know u havent lost muscle or are u just guessing from the mirror?

I was just going on a rant because I hate worrying about eating all the time, and I was truly suprised that I didnt loose much size. If your eating right then I wouldnt worry about it, or at least I dont worry myself. The only thing that I know for sure is that you wont ever get the size you want unless you eat a lot, that is true for sure. My view on cardio is that if you can get yourself to actually do cardio at the gym then stick with it, cause your doing something right. Most of the time I give cardio the big F U.

ORIGINAL: RedJeep

I was just going on a rant because I hate worrying about eating all the time, and I was truly suprised that I didnt loose much size. If your eating right then I wouldnt worry about it, or at least I dont worry myself. The only thing that I know for sure is that you wont ever get the size you want unless you eat a lot, that is true for sure. My view on cardio is that if you can get yourself to actually do cardio at the gym then stick with it, cause your doing something right. Most of the time I give cardio the big F U.

lol i'm with you.

giving cardio the big "F U" is stupid.
 
you must be one of those guys that goes to the gym that isn't serious about muscle gains, a "casual workout" person.
 
ask any bodybuilder how important cardio is, and they'll tell you it's as important as weight lifting and eating

ORIGINAL: boomersooner1331

giving cardio the big "F U" is stupid.

you must be one of those guys that goes to the gym that isn't serious about muscle gains, a "casual workout" person.

ask any bodybuilder how important cardio is, and they'll tell you it's as important as weight lifting and eating

ok then

ORIGINAL: boomersooner1331

giving cardio the big "F U" is stupid.

you must be one of those guys that goes to the gym that isn't serious about muscle gains, a "casual workout" person.

ask any bodybuilder how important cardio is, and they'll tell you it's as important as weight lifting and eating

Yes, bodybuilders are very intelligent. Not like some "casual workout" person.

ORIGINAL: boomersooner1331

giving cardio the big "F U" is stupid.

you must be one of those guys that goes to the gym that isn't serious about muscle gains, a "casual workout" person.

ask any bodybuilder how important cardio is, and they'll tell you it's as important as weight lifting and eating

there are plenty of BBers who get ready for a show without even doing cardio or doing minimal amounts

ORIGINAL: RedJeep

You people and your muscle catabolism. Your body does not burn muscle unless it is entirely neccessary, that is the last thing it wants to use as fuel. If you eat every 3-4 hours your are more then fine. I finally learned how stupid it was to be paranoid about this when I got sick. I ate about 2 cans of soup in 3 days. I lost 7 pounds of water weight and lost no muscle. My lifts were nearly the same the next time I lifted and back to normal after a cycle of each body part. Your not going to shrink by doing cardio, your not fu*king Jay Cutler. When your that huge then worry about that, for now just eat a lot and clean, lift heavy and do cardio to stay lean.

 
Lost count how many times ive tried to tell people this lol, but yes, youre 100% correct, the body doesnt burn off muscle for a long time, and loss of size in not working out or becoming ill is pretty much water, its amazing the fact that loss of water can make your arms shrink 1", done that to me before, couple days after being ill, arms back to usual size from rehydration (cold, not pumped).
 
Also, i might as well mention again, i know im an ectomorph, but my last 16-18lbs of muscle gain has also been in the same time frame that ive lost 4-5lbs of fat.
 
pre workout meal
Lift weights
burns off all and more of the pre workout meal
depending on mood 1-5 miles of cardio-the body is going to burn fat off like mad.
 
 
I have noticed in the past year (mainly 2007+) that this forum among others have just made too many over observations of bulking and cutting, you wanna gain, eat enough to grow the muscle, you wanna lose, eat enough to burn fat.
 
Wanna do both, then purposefully cardio on energy from fat storage and not dietary calories.
 
Its not some secret, if you run for ages with fat reserves the fat will lessen, energy doesnt come from nowhere, and nobody say "yes but starvation mode"
 
Again, for some strange reason anything negative can activate from just one workout as if starvation mode will be in full effect from running on an empty tank after workout, yet building muscle takes years.
 
Why are the negative points always occuring thousand times faster and worse than the positive points?
 
If your body reacts that violently to its calories vs exercise then why does it react least violently in the building part?
 
Sorry but its just extreme over exxageration of moot points.
 
Thats one reason why i love marc david and his general view of things, he keeps it simple and doesnt bother with moot points, and look at the size of him, and hes natural.
 
I notice the ones who have the most successful C my P pictures are the ones who ARENT anally retentive, the most successful people do put in hard work but they keep things SIMPLE.
 
Seriously no ones body is against them so much they need to corner the body with loads of tiny technical points.
 
you wanna gain muscle and lose weight at the same time original poster? Go for it, PM me and il give you a training regime, i would do it publically, but no matter what anyone posts publically here it gets shredded to death with moot points, as this thread has done, like all others.
 
everyone needs to stop being too over analytical, its just not healthy.
 
I had severe trouble breaking the 150lbs marker in weight, and its because i kept reading things up and getting all moot points fixed, without fixing all the basic principles.
 
In the end i just ****ing ate a ton of food and lifted like crazy and i still work by that method and i managed 45+lbs of muscle in the past 1 1/2 years, overall ending up at the same bodyfat i started that methodology on (9% region)