Decided against the Palumbo diet.

[tiramisu]

To put on significant muscle carbs help as do a calorie excess. You could add more fat or protein into the diet for calories but you wouldn't get the same insulin response that you could from adding carbs into the mix.

... and carbs are nice for increasing training stamina although I tend to abuse coffee.

The other thing is that the micronutrients provided by a broader selection of vegetables and fruit is almost certainly a good thing on a maintenance or bulking diet.

[Praetorian]

Why come off it ? If your body works well with litle to no carbs then why bring them back?

I know it's not good to be in a calorie delfict for a long time , but you can stay on the diet and incrase your cals.

Losing fat is one thing building muscle is another. More carbs are required to build muscle as they are used as a fuel source to allow protein and fats to be used for building. Insulin is another part of the equation.
P

[chiplin]

so a quick recap...
5' 9" 190 pounds ~12-13% BF so say 15%
objective 8%.

Assuming you are about 30 and 1 hour per day of activity you need about 3000 calories per day to maintain your weight.

A healthy approach to weight loss is about a 500 per day deficit (1 pound per week) with total calories and/or cardio adjusted as weight loss drops. So your starting total should be somewhere around 2500.

MEAL 1
1 cup oatmeal 145 cal 2.4/25.4/6.1 fat/carb/protein grams
4 eggs - 286 19.9/1.5/25.2
1 banana - 105 .4/27/1.3

32.6 grams protein
536 calories

MEAL 2
8 OZ CHICKEN BREAST - 443 17.5/0/67
1 CUP br rice - 215 1.7/44.4/5
1 cup brocolli 103 5.1/13.2/4.4

761 calories
76.4 grams protein


MEAL 3
8 OZ Salmon - 315 9.8/0/52
1 CUP br rice - 215 1.7/44.4/5
1 cup salad greens 9 .1/1.8/.8
1 tbsp olive oil -119 13.5/0/0

658
57.8 grams protein

Meal 4
54 grams whey isolate ( big scoop and a half) - 202 1.3/2.7/47.3

202 calories
47.3 grams protein

Meal 5
54 grams whey isolate ( big scoop and a half) - 202 1.3/2.7/47.3

202 calories
47.3 grams protein

The total calories on your meal plan are 1943. Total calories are about what I would pick on a bodybuilding cut but you have stated you want a slow diet with high energy closer to 2500. Adding in another meal: A can of tuna and brocolli should get you there closer and you can add a bit of post or pre workout carbs. Drop the tuna/veg meal later in your diet as your calorie requirements decrease and you cardio isn't helping you lose the 1 pound per week

Protein - your diet plan has you at 210 (250 w the extra tuna) grams per day which should be fine. 1.5 grams per pound might be better and then again it might not. but then you'ld have have to lose the egg yolks and oil on your salad (yuck) and add in more protein.

Carbs - currently 115 grams per day (128 with the extra brocolli) - you should have no issues with energy.

Fat - 71 grams, if you eat the salmon and olive oil you should have a pretty decent mix of efa coverage.

Omega 3 eggs would be a minor improvement as already stated and your response is about right but remember you'll be eating 2 dozen eggs a week so it's not a bad idea to clean this up as best you can.

71.7 / 128 / 250
645.3/ 512 / 1000 = 2157

This assumes you around an hour of low intensity cardio a day.

So follow this but after let's say around 4-6 weeks in, drop the extra tuna meal to cap it off for the next 4-6 ? Do I need to continuously drop calories every few weeks to achieve my goals ? Or should the hour of low intensity cardio, heavy lifting program and diet cover and in time, help me lose the unwanted fat ?

Thanks a million for creating the plan dude, greatly appreciated.

[ubcpower]

For all of those throwing up pics of him....keep in mind this thread is talking about Palumbo's diet and dieting down. In the bodybuilding world dieting, being associated with how lean and conditioned you can get, I would say Dave succeeded quite well regardless of genetics, bone structure

[tiramisu]

Praetorian's advice for cardio on a diet is to start with ~45 minutes per day before breakfast and add 5 minutes every 2 weeks till you get to an hour then split it into 2 sessions and continue to add 5 minutes to both every week till you get to 2 hours of cardio a day.

I'd probably try to follow that advice before lowering calories if possible. The body is going to try to lower its calorie requirement on you as a reaction to the calorie deficit diet. It's a protection mechanism. Sustaining your activity and workouts will tell your body to try to hang onto muscle and maintain the metabolism. Even this will fail at some point of course. At 15% your body is likely quite happy with itself. Cutting down to 8% will likely take you 4-5 months on your plan and there's a pretty good chance your diet will stall before you get all the way there. (My diet stalled around 12% and getting to 10% was more effort than it was worth. I'm hoping to break 8% this year myself both by starting leaner, with a higher calorie requiement and improved diet practice.)

If it does stall. Don't panic, just take 3 or 4 months and focus on a maintenance diet at the new level of bodyfat and then begin again once your metabolism recovers.

As has been pointed out by more than a few people. Cutting diets are easier with the aid of drugs but they are not necessary and the natty bodybuilders get extremely well conditioned by getting themselves close to where they want to be and maintaining it. I chose the drug route primarily because I am in my early 40's as a novice. While I have most of the technical skill for lifting I have very few productive years to add mass. My objective is about 250 @ 8% but I'm not terribly optimistic right now. Adding another 50 pounds of lean muscle looks like it could take me a minimum of 5-7 years if it's even possible.

[tiramisu]

I think the thing to be wary about with DP is that his diet failures are never recognized. The volume of clients that he takes on pretty much ensures that he isn't giving everyone the level of attention that his high profile clients are getting.
He is clearly out to make money.

That said... He has documented and given his diet advice freely in his Q&A both on MD and now on RX. He does have extremely well conditioned clients with great placings. His baseline template works extremely well if you are a 200 pound man.

I think Pasquale, Wolf, Berardi have a lot to offer athletes in terms of diet for athletic performance and DP does not appear to be expert in the entire field of sports nutrition. He has however got a good, repeatable approach to contest diet and conditioning.

He also may have been the ugliest bodybuilder of all time but 285 pounds of ripped muscle when he started as skinny kid is an amazing achievement.

[Praetorian]

Praetorian's advice for cardio on a diet is to start with ~45 minutes per day before breakfast and add 5 minutes every 2 weeks till you get to an hour then split it into 2 sessions and continue to add 5 minutes to both every week till you get to 2 hours of cardio a day.

I'd probably try to follow that advice before lowering calories if possible. The body is going to try to lower its calorie requirement on you as a reaction to the calorie deficit diet. It's a protection mechanism. Sustaining your activity and workouts will tell your body to try to hang onto muscle and maintain the metabolism. Even this will fail at some point of course. At 15% your body is likely quite happy with itself. Cutting down to 8% will likely take you 4-5 months on your plan and there's a pretty good chance your diet will stall before you get all the way there. (My diet stalled around 12% and getting to 10% was more effort than it was worth. I'm hoping to break 8% this year myself both by starting leaner, with a higher calorie requiement and improved diet practice.)

If it does stall. Don't panic, just take 3 or 4 months and focus on a maintenance diet at the new level of bodyfat and then begin again once your metabolism recovers.

As has been pointed out by more than a few people. Cutting diets are easier with the aid of drugs but they are not necessary and the natty bodybuilders get extremely well conditioned by getting themselves close to where they want to be and maintaining it. I chose the drug route primarily because I am in my early 40's as a novice. While I have most of the technical skill for lifting I have very few productive years to add mass. My objective is about 250 @ 8% but I'm not terribly optimistic right now. Adding another 50 pounds of lean muscle looks like it could take me a minimum of 5-7 years if it's even possible.

The diet should be the last variable you make changes to.
P

[Praetorian]

I think the thing to be wary about with DP is that his diet failures are never recognized. The volume of clients that he takes on pretty much ensures that he isn't giving everyone the level of attention that his high profile clients are getting.
He is clearly out to make money.

That said... He has documented and given his diet advice freely in his Q&A both on MD and now on RX. He does have extremely well conditioned clients with great placings. His baseline template works extremely well if you are a 200 pound man.

I think Pasquale, Wolf, Berardi have a lot to offer athletes in terms of diet for athletic performance and DP does not appear to be expert in the entire field of sports nutrition. He has however got a good, repeatable approach to contest diet and conditioning.

He also may have been the ugliest bodybuilder of all time but 285 pounds of ripped muscle when he started as skinny kid is an amazing achievement.

99% of the time failure on the diet is attributable to the client. Too many people ask even pay for advice and yet do not follow it.
P

[Praetorian]

For all of those throwing up pics of him....keep in mind this thread is talking about Palumbo's diet and dieting down. In the bodybuilding world dieting, being associated with how lean and conditioned you can get, I would say Dave succeeded quite well regardless of genetics, bone structure

There is not much you can do with the genetic structure you were born with...however conditioning is completely under your control...show me anyone who has been leaner or harder....ive seen pics where you can see the glute insertions...sick.
P

[chiplin]

Praetorian's advice for cardio on a diet is to start with ~45 minutes per day before breakfast and add 5 minutes every 2 weeks till you get to an hour then split it into 2 sessions and continue to add 5 minutes to both every week till you get to 2 hours of cardio a day.

I'd probably try to follow that advice before lowering calories if possible. The body is going to try to lower its calorie requirement on you as a reaction to the calorie deficit diet. It's a protection mechanism. Sustaining your activity and workouts will tell your body to try to hang onto muscle and maintain the metabolism. Even this will fail at some point of course. At 15% your body is likely quite happy with itself. Cutting down to 8% will likely take you 4-5 months on your plan and there's a pretty good chance your diet will stall before you get all the way there. (My diet stalled around 12% and getting to 10% was more effort than it was worth. I'm hoping to break 8% this year myself both by starting leaner, with a higher calorie requiement and improved diet practice.)

If it does stall. Don't panic, just take 3 or 4 months and focus on a maintenance diet at the new level of bodyfat and then begin again once your metabolism recovers.

As has been pointed out by more than a few people. Cutting diets are easier with the aid of drugs but they are not necessary and the natty bodybuilders get extremely well conditioned by getting themselves close to where they want to be and maintaining it. I chose the drug route primarily because I am in my early 40's as a novice. While I have most of the technical skill for lifting I have very few productive years to add mass. My objective is about 250 @ 8% but I'm not terribly optimistic right now. Adding another 50 pounds of lean muscle looks like it could take me a minimum of 5-7 years if it's even possible.

OHHHHH, okay I understand now, thanks to the both of you, you've been a great assistance !