Need some advices, critique as necesary!!

Hey Guys,
 
I’m New to this forum and to serious training, I have been reading a lot from your posts through this past few weeks (about 4), and I have learned a lot from it.
 
After a few weeks of reading and research I decided to start with HST , and try to get some results like MDClifter , but I’m realistic and I know that results may vary between different peoples, I have been fat almost my whole life, above 220 pounds so my expectations are not set to High J, I’ve been drinking, smoking and partying since I was very young and last year my Liver started to fail so I had a sudden change of life(went from 239 August 2007 to 178 today). Ok enough with the story; here are the Facts.
 
Age: 25.
Height: 5' 6" - 166 cm
Weight: 178 lb. – 80.7 kg 
body fat: 15.2%   I don’t know if this is accurate since I got a lot of extra skin.

My Diet Varies, but I’ve been using FitDay to control my Calories intake; i usually eat 4-5 times a day including The "Smoothie". Here’s how I set it up 1,800 calories - 45% carbs, 35% prots and 20% fats. I’m also taking a multivitamin, fish oil and Isopure.


My Routine its not new it’s actually something I took out from this Forum, im doing 2 sets of each compound exercise and 1 set for isolation, also I switch the exercise 1 day bench press/biceps/calf another day Dec bench/skullc/Shrugs. This is on M/W/F on T/T/S I do Cardio (Jog/Swimming/Bicycle) rest on Sundays.
 

Squats

Dead lifts

BB Rows

St. Mil Press

Bench Press
Dec Bench Press

Pull-Ups

St. Biceps Curls

Skull crushers

St. Calf Raises

Shrugs

 
The thing is that I’m not loosing weight I’ve being stuck in 178 pounds for 2 weeks now, I don’t know if I should change something also what to do with the extra skin. Can you Guys give me some ideas? I want to get a lower BF as possible.
 

[img=http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/9492/dsc01947gz1.th.jpg] [img=http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/2053/dsc01945th3.th.jpg] [img=http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/2595/dsc01944ke6.th.jpg] [img=http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4623/dsc01943er0.th.jpg]

I hate it with the whole liver thing and all but glad to see you are trying to live a healthier and more fullfilling life now.You look to me like you are off to a great start.178 is a good weight to be at.Just be patient and give your body time to adjust.Work hard and keep a strict diet and the rest will fall in place.Even the loose skin.Good luck

bro i like your workout plan, its good with the compound lifts. Look into HST workout for a routine more focused on compound lifts. i think you should figure out your maintence caloric intake and eat at that, you will gain muscle and lose fat simultaneously because you are still a beginner. lose skin sucks but over time it will tighten. thats the only thing you can do is lose the fat and replace it with muscle and give it time to work its elasticity. if you have a q about any thing eles just pm bro. good luck

It is not the years in your life, but the life in your years.

hey guy.  glad to see you are trying to improve your health/physique.

MDLifter is actually my workout partner... so i got to see the transformation before my very eyes.  it was awesome to see.

You definately have some stored energy (fat) to lose.  While i'm not expert at this, I do know what works for me.

I know that my workout partner trained 3 days a week with me, and the rest of the days he was on his own.  He focused alot on his diet.   And he did quite a bit of cardio as well.  I would definately steer towards a focused diet/cardiovascular activity.  It would be my main focus if i were in your situation.  While i'm not saying to avoid lifting, it's a smaller part of the equation IMO.

Gaining muscle (which weighs more than fat) and losing fat at the same time can be frustrating, and somewhat deceiving.  The person can look at the scale and think "hey.. why haven't I lost weight" when in reality, they have.. but have gained muscle at the same time.  So.. in essence their weight hasn't changed. 

One thing you need to do probably every 2 weeks is to get a camera and take some pictures with the same pose EVERY 2 weeks.   Put them side by side and compare them.   You will start to see a transformation... b/c this doesn't happen overnight.


so in conclusion
1.) focus on your diet.  Clean it up, and do what you need to for your body to lose weight
2.) cardiovascular activities will speed up the process of losing fat.  (ex - running, cycling...  but the best ways IMO to lose weight are HIIT and/or wind sprints)
3.) Your routine looks good, and i think you should try to start some HST while you shave off some fat.  This wil probably help you retain most of your good size while losing the bad.

PM me or MDLifter anytime if you have questions..

keep up the hardwork, nice job so far

My name is FOX.... and I approve this message.

hey Bro, keep it up! great job so far. Dont get frustrated if you are not getting what you are expecting, just keep working, you'll get it, just need some more time. BTW thanks a lot for helping/invite me to this amazing forum.

Alexander Paredes.

Keep on this path and you'll be where you want to be in no time.

Add me on facebook!

Hey Guys,

Thx alot for all of your replies and support, Silver man thx for your advices you are one of those i look up to here hehehhe.

ORIGINAL: TheSilverFox

so in conclusion
1.) focus on your diet.  Clean it up, and do what you need to for your body to lose weight
2.) cardiovascular activities will speed up the process of losing fat.  (ex - running, cycling...  but the best ways IMO to lose weight are HIIT and/or wind sprints)
3.) Your routine looks good, and i think you should try to start some HST while you shave off some fat.  This wil probably help you retain most of your good size while losing the bad.

Yes im taking care of my Diet as much as i can, trying to stay bellow 1,800 and getting all the correct meals(Eating Healthy), also i will definitively start on some heavy cardio on Tue/Thur/Sat, i was reading about Guerrilla Cardio and i think ill try that for a while.

About the HST, thats what im doing, sry if i was missunderstood, im on my first week with 10's now, i just needed to know if i was on the rigth track :) thx guys.

BTW i was thinking on start to drink BCAA + Creatine from ON, should i or should i focus more on the Cardio first?

with your diet right now, seems you should be lifting hard and heavy as you are doing, and then fill in the cracks with cardio.

i have bcaa powder and pills myself that i mix with whey/casein protein before i do HIIT or windsprints.    no creatine for me right now.. even though i'm doing a strength routine.   i'll probably get some when i decide to bulk again. 
right now i have to get my ripped abs back for mexico vacation in september.. which is no problem.  i just need to stop being lazy and do cardio like i know i should

My name is FOX.... and I approve this message.

Hey Guys just ot let you know!!

I'm Back on track, apparently those HIIT/Guerrilla Cardio did their Magic. Even tho i'm not able to complete the cycles i still lost some weight this week, 1.5 more down!!!, looking forward to make more improvements ill post some new progress pics after im done with my First HST Cycle to see if we can spot any differences.

Again Thx for the support!

Hey, like everyone else has said, congrats on the lifestyle choice. I'd say maybe cut, and with all due respect to Fox, IMO you should try doing lighter lifting with more reps in order to achieve definition rather than bulk with heavier lifting. Plus lighter lifting with more reps is better can sometimes even count as cardio and doing so, i've heard, is good for the heart. Give it a try for a week and see which works better for you, you might be surprised. 

ORIGINAL: Squirrel Pilot

Hey, like everyone else has said, congrats on the lifestyle choice. I'd say maybe cut, and with all due respect to Fox, IMO you should try doing lighter lifting with more reps in order to achieve definition rather than bulk with heavier lifting. Plus lighter lifting with more reps is better can sometimes even count as cardio and doing so, i've heard, is good for the heart. Give it a try for a week and see which works better for you, you might be surprised. 

i agree with what you said.

he mentioned he was only gettin 1800 calories a day right now, so i assumed he was already cutting. 

indeed, higher reps with lighter weights can help achieve/maintain hypertrophy (size).   doing more than 12 or so reps though IMO is more of an endurance type of training.

this is why i advised him to try HST.  you get the best of all 3, and the principles from HST work very well when cutting and trying to maintain the size of your muscles.

2 weeks of endurance training (15 reps)
2 weeks of hypertrophy training (10 reps)
2 weeks of strength training (5-6 reps)

My name is FOX.... and I approve this message.

i think you have it figured out eat below maintainance and healthy/cardio/hst.
 
F lifting light weights to burn calories.  Thats what cardio is for.  Lift heavy to gain muscle to burn calories!!
 
keep it up dude!

No the leg press is not the same as doing squats.