The new diet is based on making sure I get plenty of protein to spare muscle, low glycemic carbs (pretty much just black beans and lentils, those are my favs) and lots of veggies for fullness. So it'll look something like:

Morning: Protein shake + raw almonds
Mid-morning: Chicken/steak + veggies + black beans/lentils
Mid-Afternoon: Chicken/steak + veggies + beans/lentils
Evening: Chicken/steak + veggies + beans/lentils

Simple enough, eh? :D

One day a week will be a normal breakfast and then cheat day/carb up to keep my body from holding on to fat reserves.

I'll adjust depending on how fast I drop or don't.

yeah,..I prefer the KISS approach to things...;)

Proven method ..low carb,high protein...bada boom bang :)

just a small tip...prepare a protein shake before going to bed and everytime you wake up you get something of it...worked wonders for some ;)

fvck still can`t rep you,..

Yeah, I find the more choices you give yourself the messier and out of control things get.

On the protein shake do you mean waking up in the middle of the night and drinking some? I almost never wake up unless the baby starts crying. If I do and I'm super hungry I will throw some protein in the blender bottle, grab a spoonful of natual peanut butter and that's the midnight snack taken care of.

Wow...I honestly envy you for having such a good night sleep consistently..I always wake up :(

Your midnight snack sounds good..you might want to keep doing that,maybe it helps a little :)

the best thing for good gains when plateauing is dieting down a little and then going back to higher cals,carbs etc while still keeping on working out and NOT taking a break from all the dieting stress.
At this time you`ll make the best gains in the entire year!
The body literally soaks up all nutritients and is primed for growth and you can make incredible lean mass gains at that time!
of course it`s a bit of a forth-back thing since you lose muscle when dieting down just to put it back on later,but in a sum - when doing it right - you are more massive and leaner afterwards
but I don`t know how far you want to take it etc...I mean we`re not living from doing this sport but we do it for fun and challenge..so one has to know where it cuts too much into private life etc :)

have a good one big boi :D

We'll see. I'm surprised, I actually like being bigger, and even 180+ doesn't feel anything like huge. I think I still look fairly lean and know I will be back into the 170's. I wouldn't mind at all being a lean 180+

Have you checked your T levels?

My only input to you would be to check your T level, especially if you're regularly partaking in alcohol. A couple beers doesn't seem like much, and not everybody has an adverse effect, but a significant number of guys will see their T levels drop significantly if they're drinking 3+ drinks per day most days per week.

You definitely know the ins and outs of taking care of yourself as well as nutrition. Given how disciplined you are, it's cool to see you experimenting. I think you'll like the density of whatever you add better if you keep your increased CHO reasonably low-GI; I know a lot of the beefheads like insulin spikes but then you tend to build soft muscle, and besides, skeletal muscle doesn't need insulin to utilize glucose. I've used your trick of putting the day's food into a container as a means of portion control, and I have to say, it's a great idea and a great way to think up "one pot" meals to eat for the day.

On my end, still fat to lose, but my Biospace 520 puts my LBM at 157 pounds. Given my height of only 5'7", that puts my BMI at 24.6 (nearly overweight) even if I was 0% bodyfat. My goal is to get to 12-15% bodyfat, which would put me at 175-181 pounds.

Next time you hit Dallas, we'll check your body composition, resting metabolic rate, heart rate training zones and anaerobic threshhold if you haven't done it yourself recently.

I haven't checked T levels. I did the bloodwork through a free service through my job and it doesn't include T. After this fat cutting cycle (which of course is using low GI carbs) I probably should do another round including T.

I'd definitely like to do a full test like that if I'm back there at some point. I dont travel quite so much with the new gig but I have been to AK and detroit so I could pop up anywhere! ;)

I find that dirty bulking, although giving massive size gains, isn't worth the battle to "shred" the fat afterwards. I'll stick with my high protein - complex carb diet and slowly gain my lean muscle.

It's been working so far. I maintain 200lbs consistently while keeping body fat at 10 or just below. Then again, I'm maintaining more than trying to add massive size. I already have problems finding clothes that fit well at 6'2"!

Why don't you just take some good protein supplements for the bulking up and control your food intake ?