I Need A Food Plan

Shane732

I'm hoping people on here might be able to point me in the right direction.

I'm 28, 5'8", 74KG and circa 25% - 28% bodyfat. I have a fairly sedentary lifestyle - office job, working say 10 hours a day 5 day a week. Have a poor diet - high sugar mainly.

I want to cut the bodyfat % and build muscle. My question is should I be trying to run a calorie deficit to cut the body fat percentage or taking in calories to build muscle?

Am I correct in saying that it's not really possible to cut bodyfat and build muscle at the same time.

What should my maintenance level of calorie intake be?

I'm not massively active in the gym at the moment - weekly average would be once a week. I'm hoping to build this up to 3 times a week.

Is there any good source that I could follow for a food plan? I tend to have a very plain palate so struggle with all the far out healthy food suggestions!

Any advice much appreciated

Cake Man

Given you're 25-28% BF, it wouldn't be wise to go on a calorie surplus as you'll gain more fat than lean muscle. Best to cut down to around 10-12% BF and then lean bulk from there back up to 15-16%, that's usually optimal.

Am I correct in saying that it's not really possible to cut bodyfat and build muscle at the same time.

Not generally but if you are brand new to weightlifting you can avail of this advantage for a few months I believe, where you can cut fat and build a bit of lean muscle at the same time.


Based on your stats above (and plugging them in here:http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) your maintenance calories are 2331. So you could start tracking calories and aim for no more than about 1900/2000 per day for 2-3 weeks, then re-calculate.


In terms of food, you obviously know what to start cutting out if you mentioned about having a high sugar intake. Cut back on that and start eating more unprocessed food - fruit, veg, good cuts of lean meat like chicken, turkey, beef, nuts, eggs, Greek yogurt, cheese, rice, potatoes etc. As long as you're in a calorie deficit, it doesn't really matter what you take in but you'll obviously feel a lot better and have more energy by consuming clean food. If you're lifting weights, it's usually good to aim for 1g of protein per 1lb of bodyweight so for you, that would be about 160g.

Mellor

Shane732 wrote: »

I want to cut the bodyfat % and build muscle. My question is should I be trying to run a calorie deficit to cut the body fat percentage or taking in calories to build muscle?

At 25+% BF you should run a deficit. Plenty of time for bulking later.

Am I correct in saying that it's not really possible to cut bodyfat and build muscle at the same time.

It may be possible in some situations, but its not worth worrying about. Aiming to do both at once will probably see you fail to succeed at either.

What should my maintenance level of calorie intake be?

2100 calories

A deficit to aim for (at current activity) would then be 1600-1750.

Is there any good source that I could follow for a food plan? I tend to have a very plain palate so struggle with all the far out healthy food suggestions!

Work out you number of meals per day you want, plus snacks.
Aim for 160g if Protein

Cake Man wrote: »

Based on your stats above (and plugging them in here:http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/) your maintenance calories are 2331. So you could start tracking calories and aim for no more than about 1900/2000 per day for 2-3 weeks, then re-calculate.

I think you may have used the bulk calories there, not maintenance.

Shane732

Any recommendation where I might get reasonably plain meal plans?

Also should I be focusing on cardio fitness to try and cut?